Before reaching the summit of the mountain-chain, the Spaniards traversed the province of Quarequa, of which the ruler, who bears the same name, came to meet them; as is customary in that country, he was armed with bows and arrows, and heavy, two-handed swords of wood.  They also carry sticks with burnt points, which they throw with great skill.  Quarequa’s reception was haughty and hostile, his disposition being to oppose the advance of such a numerous army.  He asked where the Spaniards were going and what they wanted, and in reply to the interpreter’s answer, he responded:  “Let them retrace their steps, if they do not wish to be killed to the last man.”  He stepped out in front of his men, dressed, as were all his chiefs, while the rest of his people were naked.  He attacked the Spaniards who did not yield; nor was the battle prolonged, for their musket-fire convinced the natives that they commanded the thunder and lightning.  Unable to face the arrows of our archers, they turned and fled, and the Spaniards cut off the arm of one, the leg or hip of another, and from some their heads at one stroke, like butchers cutting up beef and mutton for market.  Six hundred, including the cacique, were thus slain like brute beasts.

Vasco discovered that the village of Quarequa was stained by the foulest vice.  The king’s brother and a number of other courtiers were dressed as women, and according to the accounts of the neighbours shared the same passion.  Vasco ordered forty of them to be torn to pieces by dogs.  The Spaniards commonly used their dogs in fighting against these naked people, and the dogs threw themselves upon them as though they were wild boars or timid deer.  The Spaniards found these animals as ready to share their dangers as did the people of Colophon or Castabara, who trained cohorts of dogs for war; for the dogs were always in the lead and never shirked a fight.

When the natives learned how severely Vasco had treated those shameless men, they pressed about him as though he were Hercules, and spitting upon those whom they suspected to be guilty of this vice, they begged him to exterminate them, for the contagion was confined to the courtiers and had not yet spread to the people.  Raising their eyes and their hands to heaven, they gave it to be understood that God held this sin in horror, punishing it by sending lightning and thunder, and frequent inundations which destroyed the crops.  It was like wise the cause of famine and sickness.

The natives worship no other god than the sun, who is the master and alone worthy of honour.  Nevertheless, they accepted instruction and they will rapidly adopt our religion when zealous teachers come to instruct them.  Their language contains nothing rough or difficult to understand, and all the words of their vocabulary may be translated and written in Latin letters, as we have already said was the case in Hispaniola.  They are a warlike race, and have always been troublesome