now as they had done with Arana and the thirty-eight Christians who had been left with him at the Nativity, he carried all the men that he could along with him, that the natives might see and be sensible of the power of the Christians, and that if any injury should be offered even to a single individual of our people, there was a sufficient force to ensure due and severe chastisement.  To appear the more formidable to the natives, when he set out from Isabella, and whenever he passed any of the Indian towns, he caused his men to march with their arms in rank and file as is usual in time of war, with trumpets sounding and colours flying.  In this way he marched along the river, which lay about a musket-shot from Isabella; he crossed a smaller river about a league beyond, and halted for the night in a plain divided into pleasant fields about three leagues from Isabella, which reached to a craggy hill about two bow-shots high.  To this place he gave the name of Puerta de los Hidalgos, or the Gentlemens Pass, because some gentlemen had been sent on before to order a road to be opened, which was the first road ever made in the Indies.  The paths made by the Indians are only broad enough for one person to pass at a time.

Beyond this pass he entered upon a large plain over which he marched five leagues the next day, and halted on the banks of a large river called the River of Canes, which falls into the sea at Monte Christo, and over which the people crossed on rafts and in canoes.  In the course of the journey they passed many Indian towns, consisting of round thatched houses, with such small doors that it requires a person entering to stoop very low.  As soon as the Indians from Isabella who accompanied the march entered any of those houses they took what they liked best, and yet the owners seemed not to be at all displeased, as if all things were in common among them.  In like manner the people of the country were disposed to take from the Christians whatever they thought fit, thinking our things had been in common like theirs; but they were soon undeceived.  In the course of this journey they passed over mountains most delightfully wooded, where there were wild vines, aloes, and cinnamon trees[8]; and another sort that produces a fruit resembling a fig, which were vastly thick at the foot, but had leaves like those of our apple trees.

The admiral continued his march from the River of Canes on Friday the 14th March, and a league and a half beyond it he came to another which he called the River of Gold, because some grains of gold were gathered in passing.  Having crossed this river with some difficulty, the admiral proceeded to a large town, whence many of the inhabitants fled to the mountains; but most of them fortified their houses by barring the doorways with large canes, as if that had been a sufficient defence to hinder any body from coming in; for according to their customs, no one dares to break in at a door that is barred up in this manner,