The swamps of Darien and the lands which are covered with water after the inundations, are full of pheasants, peacocks of sober colours, and many other birds different from ours.  They are good to eat, and delight the ear of the listener with various songs; but the Spaniards are indifferent bird-hunters, and are neglectful in catching them.  Innumerable varieties of parrots, all belonging to the same species, chatter in this forest; some of them are as large as capons, while others are no bigger than a sparrow.  I have already enlarged sufficiently on the subject of parrots in my First Decade.  When Columbus first explored these immense countries he brought back a large number of every kind, and everybody was able to inspect them.  Others are still daily brought here.

There is still, Most Holy Father, a subject which is quite worthy to figure in history, but I would prefer to see it handled by a Cicero or a Livy than by myself.  It affords me such astonishment that I feel more embarrassed in my description than a young chicken wrapped in tow.  We have said that, according to the Indians, the land separating the north from the south sea can be traversed in six days.  I am not a little puzzled both by the number and size of the rivers described, and by the small breadth of that stretch of land; nor do I understand how such large rivers can possibly flow down from these mountains, only three days’ march from the sea, and empty into the north ocean.  I cannot understand it, for I presume that equally large rivers empty into the south sea.  Doubtless the rivers of Uraba are not so important when compared with others, but the Spaniards declare that during the lifetime of Columbus they discovered and have since sailed upon a river the breadth of whose mouth, where it empties into the sea, is not less than one hundred miles.  This river is on the borders of Paria, and descends with such force from the high mountains that it overwhelms the sea even at high tide or when it is swept by violent winds, driving back the waves before the fury and weight of its current.  The waters of the sea for a large area round about are no longer salt but fresh, and pleasant to the taste.  The Indians call this river Maragnon.[6] Other tribes give it the names Mariatambal, Camamoros, or Paricora.  In addition to the rivers I have before mentioned, the Darien, Rio Grande, Dobaiba, San Matteo, Veragua, Boiogatti, Lagartos, and Gaira, there are also others which water the country.  I wonder, Most Holy Father, what must be the size of these mountain caverns so near the seacoast, and, according to the Indians, so narrow, and what sources they have to enable them to send forth such torrents of water?  Several explanations suggest themselves to my mind.

[Note 6:  Just which river is meant is not clear.  The description would seem to fit the Orinoco, but Maragnon is the native name for the Amazon.  This last name is given exclusively to the upper part of the river in the Peruvian territory.]