During the thirty days he stopped in Pacra’s village, Vasco strove to conciliate the natives and to provide for the wants of his companions.  From there, guided by subjects of Taocha, he marched along the banks of the Comogra River, which gives its name both to the country and to the cacique.  The mountains thereabouts are so steep and rocky, that nothing suitable for human food grows, save a few wild plants and roots and fruits of trees, fit to nourish animals.  Two friendly and allied caciques inhabit this unfortunate region.  Vasco hastened to leave behind a country so little favoured by man and by Nature, and, pressed by hunger, he first dismissed the people of Taocha, and took as guides the two impoverished caciques, one of whom was named Cotochus and the other Ciuriza.  He marched three days among wild forests, over unsealed mountains and through swamps, where muddy pitfalls gave way beneath the feet and swallowed the incautious traveller.  He passed by places which beneficent Nature might have created for man’s wants, but there were no roads made; for communication amongst natives is rare, their only object being to murder or to enslave one another in their warlike incursions.  Otherwise each tribe keeps within its own boundaries.  Upon arriving at the territory of a chief called Buchebuea, they found the place empty and silent, as the chief and all his people had fled into the woods.  Vasco sent messengers to call him back, notifying them not to use threats, but, on the contrary, to promise protection.  Buchebuea replied that he had not fled because he feared harsh treatment, but rather because he was ashamed and sorry he could not receive our compatriots with the honour they deserved, and was unable even to furnish them provisions.  As a token of submission and friendship he willingly sent several golden vases, and asked pardon.  It was thought this unfortunate cacique wished it to be understood that he had been robbed and cruelly treated by some neighbouring enemy, so the Spaniards left his territory, with mouths gaping from hunger, and thinner than when they entered it.

During the march, some naked people appeared on the flank of the column.  They made signs from a hilltop and Vasco ordered a halt to wait for them.  Interpreters who accompanied the Spaniards asked them what they wanted, to which they replied “Our cacique, Chiorisos, salutes you.  He knows you are brave men who redress wrongs and punish the wicked, and though he only knows you by reputation he respects and honours you.  Nothing would have pleased him better than to have you as his guests at his residence.  He would have been proud to receive such guests, but since he has not yet had this good fortune and you have passed him by, he sends you as a pledge of affection these small pieces of gold.”  With courteous smiles they presented to Vasco thirty patenas of pure gold, saying they would give him still more if he would come to visit them.  The Spaniards give the name patena to those balls of metal worn on the neck, and also to the sacred utensil with which the chalice is covered when carried to the altar.  Whether in this instance plates for the table or balls are meant, I am absolutely ignorant; I suppose, however, that they are plates, since they weighed fourteen pounds, at eight ounces to the pound.