were wooden swords, they strove to repel our men from the coast.  They were painted in different fashions; some of them painted the whole body except the face, others only a part.  They gave it to be understood that they wished neither peace nor trading relations with the Spaniards.  The Admiral ordered several cannon-shots to be fired, but so as to kill nobody, for he always showed himself disposed to use peaceable measures with these new people.  Frightened by the noise, the natives fell on the ground imploring peace, and in this wise trading relations were established.  In exchange for their gold and guanines they received glass beads and other similar trifles.  These natives have drums and sea-shell trumpets, which they use to excite their courage when going into battle.

The following rivers are found along this part of the coast:  the Acateba, the Quareba, the Zobroba, the Aiaguitin, the Wrida, the Duribba, and the Veragua.  Gold is found everywhere.  Instead of cloaks, the natives wear large leaves on their heads as a protection against the heat or the rain.

The Admiral afterwards coasted along the shores of Ebetere and Embigar.  Two rivers, Zahoran and Cubigar, remarkable for their volume and the quantity of fish they contain, water these coasts.

Beyond a distance of fifty leagues, gold is no longer found.  Only three leagues away stands a rock which, as we have already stated in our description of Nicuesa’s unfortunate voyage, the Spaniards called Penon and which the natives call Vibba.

In the same neighbourhood and about two leagues distant is the bay Columbus discovered and named Porto Bello.  The country, which has gold and is called by the natives Xaguaguara is very populous but the inhabitants are naked.  The cacique of Xaguaguara paints himself black, and his subjects are painted red.  The cacique and seven of his principal followers wore leaves of gold in their noses, hanging down to their lips, and in their opinion no more beautiful ornament exists.  The men cover their sexual organs with a sea-shell, and the women wear a band of cotton stuff.

There is a fruit growing in their gardens which resembles a pine-nut;[9]we have elsewhere said that it grows upon a plant, resembling an artichoke, and that the fruit, which is not unworthy of a king’s table, is perishable; I have spoken elsewhere at length concerning these.  The natives call the plant bearing this fruit hibuero.  From time to time crocodiles are found which, when they dive or scramble away, leave behind them an odour more delicate than musk or castor.  The natives who live along the banks of the Nile relate the same fact concerning the female of the crocodile, whose belly exhales the perfumes of Araby.

[Note 9:  The pineapple.]