were supplied with plenty of provisions.  Soon after came the cacique of Dururi, a neighbouring town, with a great many Indians, who brought some gold plates to exchange.  All these Indians said that there were caciques farther up the country who had abundance of gold, and great numbers of men armed as ours were.  Next day the lieutenant ordered part of his men to return to the ships, and with 30 whom he retained, beheld on his journey to Zobraba, where the fields for six leagues were all full of maize like corn fields.  Thence he went to Cateba another town, and was well entertained at both places with abundance of provisions, and some gold plates were bartered.  These are like, the pattern of a chalice, some bigger and some less, and weighed about twelve ducats more or less, and the Indians wear them hanging from their necks by a string as we do relics.  Being now very far from the ships, without having found any port along the coast, or any river larger than that of Belem on which to settle his colony, the lieutenant came back on the 24th of February, bringing with him a considerable value in gold which he had acquired by barter during his journey.

Immediately on his return preparations were made for his stay, and eighty men were appointed to remain with him.  These were divided into gangs of ten men each, and began to build houses on the bank of the Belem river on the right hand going up, about a cannon-shot from its mouth, and the infant colony was protected by surrounding it with a trench.  The mouth of this river is marked by a small hill.  The houses were all built of timber and covered with palm leaves, which grew abundantly along the banks of the river; and besides the ordinary houses for the colony, a large house was built to serve as a magazine and store-house, into which several pieces of cannon, powder, provisions, and other necessaries for the use and support of the planters were put.  But the wine, biscuit, oil, vinegar, cheese, and a considerable supply of grain were left in the ship Gallega as the safest place; which was to be left with the lieutenant for the service of the colony, with all its cordage, nets, hooks and other tackle; for, as has been already said, there is vast abundance of fish in every river of that coast, several sorts at certain seasons running along the coast in shoals, on which the people of the country live more than upon flesh, for though there are some beasts of different sorts, there are by no means enough to maintain the inhabitants.

The customs of these Indians are for the most part much the same as those of Hispaniola and the neighbouring islands; but those people of Veragua and the country about it, when they talk to one another are constantly turning their backs and always chewing an herb, which we believed to be the reson that their teeth were rotten and decayed.  Their food is mostly fish, which they take with nets, and with hooks made of tortoiseshell,