[Note 7:  The text continues somewhat irrelevantly:  dico centum pedites, etsi me non lateat constare centuriam ex centum viginti octo militibus, ut decuriam ex quindecim.  Licet tamen de gente nuda scribenti, nudis uti verbis interdum.]

Their exploration of the country convinced the Spaniards that the eastern part of Uraba was richer and more fertile than the western.  They therefore divided their forces and, with the assistance of a brigantine, transported one half of their people thither, the other half remaining on the eastern coast.  The gulf is twenty-four miles long, growing narrower as it penetrates inland.  Many rivers flow into the Gulf of Uraba, one of which, called the Darien,[8] they say, is more fortunate than the Nile.

[Note 8:  The name Darien applies to the eastern part of the isthmus of Panama, extending from the Gulf of San Miguel to that of Uraba.  The river bearing the same name forms a large estuary in the Gulf of San Miguel.]

The Spaniards decided to settle upon its green banks where fruit trees grow.  The river bed is narrow and its current sluggish.  The people along the banks were much amazed to see the brigantine, so much larger than their own barques, under full sail.  Getting rid of their women and non-fighting men, and donning their fighting equipment, about five hundred of them advanced against the Spaniards, taking up a position upon a lofty hillock.  The Spaniards, commanded by Enciso, who was judge in the name of Hojeda, prepared for the conflict.  First kneeling, general and soldiers together prayed God to give them the victory.  They bound themselves by a vow to make votive offerings of gold and silver to the statue of the Blessed Virgin, known in Seville by the name of Santa Maria della Antigua, vowing to make a pilgrimage to her sanctuary, to name in her honour the village they might found, and to build a church sacred to her or to transform the house of the cacique into a church.  They also took a vow not to retreat before the enemy.

At a given signal they cheerfully armed themselves; carrying their shields on their left arms, brandishing their halberds, they charged upon the enemy who, being naked, could not resist the attack for long, and consequently fled, their cacique, Zemaco, at their head.  Promptly taking possession of the village, our men found an abundance of native food and assuaged their immediate hunger.  There was bread made of roots and bread made of grain, such as we have described in our first book; also fruits bearing no resemblance to any of ours and which they preserve, much as we do chestnuts and similar fruits.

The men of this country go naked, the women cover the middle of their body with cotton draperies from the navel downwards.  Winter’s rigours are unknown.  The mouth of the Darien is only eight degrees distant from the equator, thus the difference in length between night and day is hardly noticeable.  Although the natives are ignorant of astronomy they had remarked this fact.  Moreover, it is of small importance whether these measures are or are not different from those they give, for in any case the differences are insignificant.