Baiae or the dolphins of Arion is not to be compared with the stories of this fish.  They gave it the name of Matu, meaning generous or noble, and whenever one of the king’s attendants, specially known by him, called from the bank Matu, Matu, the fish, remembering favours received, raised its head and came towards the shore to eat from the man’s hand.  Anyone who wished to cross the lake merely made a sign and the fish advanced to receive him on its back.  One day it carried ten men altogether on its back, transporting them safely, while they sang and played musical instruments.  If it perceived a Christian when it raised its head it dived under water and refused to obey.  This was because it had once been beaten by a peevish young Christian, who threw a sharp dart at this amiable and domesticated fish.  The dart did it no harm because of the thickness of its skin, which is all rough and covered with points, but the fish never forgot the attack, and from that day forth every time it heard its name called, it first looked carefully about to see if it beheld anybody dressed like the Christians.  It loved to play upon the bank with the servants of the cacique, and especially with the young son who was in the habit of feeding it.  It was more amusing than a monkey.  This manati was for long a joy to the whole island, and many natives and Christians daily visited this animal.

It is said that the flesh of manatis is of good flavour, and they are found in great numbers in the waters of the island.  The manati Matu finally disappeared.  It was carried out to sea by the Attibunico, one of the four rivers which divide the island into equal parts, during an inundation accompanied by horrible typhoons which the islanders call hurricanes.  The Attibunico overflowed its banks and inundated the entire valley, mingling its waters with those of all the lakes.  The good, clever, sociable Matu, following the tide of the torrent, rejoined its former mother and the waters of its birth; it has never since been seen.  But enough of this digression.

Let us now describe this valley.  The valley of Atici is bordered by the Cibao and Cayguana Mountains, which enclose it in a southerly direction to the sea.  Beyond the mountains of Cibao towards the north there opens another valley called the Guarionexius, because it has always belonged, from father to son and by hereditary right, to the caciques called Guarionexius.  I have already spoken at length about this cacique in my first writings on Hispaniola and in my First Decade.  This valley is one hundred and ninety miles long from east to west, and between thirty and fifty miles broad at its widest part.  It begins at the district of Canabocoa, crosses the provinces of Huhabo and Cahibo, and ends in the province of Bainoa and in the district of Mariena.  Along its borders extend the mountains of Cibao, Cahanao, Cazacubana.  There is not a province or a district in it which is not noteworthy for the majesty of its