gourd, he follows the little waves
produced by the wind, and gradually approaches the birds. Stretching
out his right hand he seizes a bird by the foot, and without being
seen, quickly jerks it under the water and thrusts it into a bag he
carries. The other birds imagining their companion has dived in search
of food, as they all do, fearlessly continue their movements, and in
their turns become victims of the hunter.

I interrupted my narrative with this description of bird-hunting and
other sport, in order that these harmless tales might divert you from
the horror you must have felt in reading the story of so many crimes.
I should still like to speak to you concerning a new theory of the
current which drives the waters of the gulf of Paria towards the west;
and also of the system of gold-mining in Darien. These are particulars
which have just recently been furnished me. After this dual report,
which will be in no sense tragic, I shall take leave of Your Holiness.

The Captain Andreas Morales and Oviedo, whom I have above mentioned,
came to visit me at Madrid, or to be more accurate, at Mantua
Carpetana; and in my presence they had a discussion on the subject of
this current. They agree that the Spanish possessions extend without
interruption towards the northern lands behind Cuba and the other
islands, and to the north-west of Hispaniola and Cuba; but they do not
hold the same opinion concerning the current. Andreas claims that the
force of these waters is broken by the great body of land believed to
be a continent, and which, as we have said, bends towards the north,
in such wise that, breaking against these obstacles, the waters turn
in a circle and are driven towards the northern coasts of Cuba and the
other lands lying outside the Tropic of Cancer. Thus, these waters,
which flow from narrow straits are absorbed, as it were, in the
immensity of the ocean, and their force is diminished as they spread
through immense spaces where they ultimately disappear. I might
compare this current to the eddies of water in a mill-race. Water
flowing, no matter how rapidly, through a narrow canal, and afterwards
falling into a lake, at once spreads out; the volume is broken, and
although an instant before it flowed riotously, and seemed capable of
sweeping away every obstacle, it is calmed. Even the direction of the
current is no longer perceptible. I once questioned Admiral Diego
Columbus, son and heir of the discoverer, who had