which luxury-loving people stupidly prefer to the eggs of chickens or
ducks. Let us add some further details outside our subject.

We have above described the entrance to the Gulf of Uraba, and said
the different countries washed by its waters were strangely different
from one another. I have nothing new to relate of the western shore,
where the Spaniards established their colony on the banks of the
Darien River.

What I have recently learnt about the eastern shore is as follows:
the entire country lying to the east between the promontory and shore
which extend into the sea and receive the force of the waves, as far
as Boca de la Sierpe and Paria, is called by the general name of
Caribana. Caribs are found everywhere, and are called from the name of
their country,[3] but it is well to indicate from whence the Caribs
take their origin, and how, after leaving their country, they have
spread everywhere like a deadly contagion. Nine miles from the first
coast encountered coming from seawards where, as we have said, Hojeda
settled, stands in the province of Caribana a village called Futeraca;
three miles farther on is the village of Uraba, which gives its name
to the gulf and was formerly the capital of the kingdom. Six miles
farther on is the village of Feti, and at the ninth and twelfth miles
respectively stand the villages of Zeremoe and Sorachi, all thickly
populated. All the natives in these parts indulged in man-hunts, and
when there are no enemies to fight they practise their cruelties
on one another. From this place the infection has spread to the
unfortunate inhabitants of the islands and continent.

[Note 3: There are more theories than one concerning the origin of
the Caribs and their name. Among other writers who have treated this
subject may be cited Reville, in an article published in the _Nouvelle
Revue_, 1884, and Rochefort in his _Histoire naturelle et morale des
isles Antilles_.]

There is another fact I think I should not omit. A learned lawyer
called Corales, who is a judge at Darien, reported that he encountered
a fugitive from the interior provinces of the west, who sought refuge
with the cacique. This man, seeing the judge reading, started with
surprise, and asked through interpreters who knew the cacique's
language, "You also have books? You also understand the signs by which
you communicate with the absent?" He asked at the same time to look
at the open book, hoping to see the same characters us