were so reduced by famine that they did not even think of moving it.  Nevertheless they are tormented in this unfortunate place by the rays of the sun; the waters are impure and are pestiferous, the vapours malarious, and consequently everybody is ill.  There is not even the advantage of a good harbour to offset these inconveniences, for the distance from the village to the entrance of the gulf is three leagues, and the road leading thither is difficult and even painful when it is a question of bringing provisions from the sea.

But let us pass to other details.  Hardly had the Spaniards landed when divers adventures overtook them.  An excellent doctor of Seville, whom the authority of the bishop[4] and likewise his desire to obtain gold prevented from peacefully ending his days in his native country, was surprised by a thunderbolt when sleeping quietly with his wife.  The house with all its furniture was burnt and the bewildered doctor and his wife barely escaped, almost naked and half roasted.  Once when a dog eight months old was wandering on the shore, a big crocodile snapped him up, like a hawk seizing a chicken as its prey; he swallowed this miserable dog under the very eyes of all the Spaniards, while the unfortunate animal yelped to his master for help.  During the night the men were tortured by bats, which bit them; and if one of these animals bit a man while he was asleep, he lost his blood, and was in danger of losing his life.  It is even claimed that some people did die on account of these wounds.  If these bats find a cock or a hen at night in the open air, they strike them on their combs and kill them.  The country is infested by crocodiles, lions, and tigers, but measures have already been taken to kill a large number of them.  It is reported that the skins of lions and tigers killed by the natives are found in their cabins.  Horses, pigs, and oxen grow rapidly, and become larger than their sires.  This development is due to the fertility of the soil.  The reports concerning the size of trees, different products of the earth, vegetables, and plants we have acclimatised, the deer, savage quadrupeds, and the different varieties of fish and birds, are in accordance with my previous descriptions.

[Note 4:  Referring doubtless to Juan de Fonseca bishop of Burgos.]

The cacique Careta, ruler of Coiba, was the Spaniards’ guest for three days.  He admired the musical instruments, the trappings of the horses, and all the things he had never known.  He was dismissed with handsome presents.  Careta informed the Spaniards that there grew in his province a tree, of which the wood was suitable for the construction of ships, since it was never attacked by marine worms.  It is known that the ships suffered greatly from these pests in the ports of the New World.  This particular wood is so bitter that the worms do not even attempt to gnaw into it.  There is another tree peculiar to this country whose leaves produce swellings if they