Vasco left some of his men with Chiapes, that he might be freer to explore the country.  He borrowed from the cacique nine of those barques dug out of single tree trunks, which the natives call culches; and accompanied by eighty of his own men and guided by Chiapes, he sailed on a large river which led him to the territory of another cacique called Coquera.  This chief, like the others, wished at first to resist and drive out the Spaniards.  His attempt was vain, and he was conquered and put to flight.  Acting upon the counsel of Chiapes, Coquera returned, for the envoys sent by the latter spoke to him thus:  “These strangers are invincible.  If you treat them kindly, they are amiable, but if you resist them, they turn hard and cruel.  If you become their friend, they promise assistance, protection, and peace, as you may see from our own case and that of the neighbouring caciques; but if you refuse their friendship, then prepare for ruin and death.”

Convinced by these representations, Coquera gave the Spaniards six hundred and fifty pesos of wrought gold, receiving the usual presents in exchange.  It was the same treatment that had been extended to Poncha.

After concluding peace with Coquera, Vasco returned to the country of Chiapes.  He reviewed his soldiers, took some rest, and then resolved to visit a large gulf in the neighbourhood.  According to the report of the natives, the length of this gulf, from the place where it penetrates into the country to its most distant shores, is sixty miles.  It is dotted with islands and reefs, and Vasco named it San Miguel.  Taking the nine barques he had borrowed from Chiapes, in which he had already crossed the river, he embarked with eighty of his companions, all at that time in good health.  Chiapes did his best to discourage this enterprise, counselling Vasco on no account to risk himself in the gulf at that period of the year, as during three months it is so tempestuous that navigation becomes impossible.  He himself had seen many culches swept away by the raging waves.  Vasco Nunez, unwilling to incur delay, affirmed that God and all the heavenly host favoured his enterprise, and that he was labouring for God, and to propagate the Christian religion, and to discover treasures to serve as the sinews of war against the enemies of the Faith.  After pronouncing a brilliant discourse, he persuaded his companions to embark in the canoes of Chiapes.  The latter, wishing to remove the last doubt from the mind of Vasco Nunez, declared he was ready to accompany him anywhere, and that he would act as his guide, for he would not permit the Spaniards to leave his territory under other escort than his own.