[Note 4:  De Legatione Babylonica.]

It was in that same year, 1502, that the Venetians again permitted this district to be cultivated, but by labourers incapable of using arms.

There is a district in Hispaniola called Cotoy, lying between the provinces of Huhabo and Cahibo.  It is a sterile country having mountains, valleys, and plains, and is sparsely inhabited.  Gold is found there in quantities, but instead of being in the form of ingots or grains, it is in solid masses of pure metal, deposited in beds of soft stone in the crevices of the rocks.  The veins are discovered by breaking the rocks, and one such may be compared to a living tree, as from its root or starting-point it sends forth branches through the soft pores and open passages, right up to the summit of the mountains, never stopping till it reaches the surface of the earth.  Bathed in the splendour of the atmosphere it brings forth its fruit, consisting of grains and nuggets.  These grains and nuggets are afterwards washed away by the heavy rains and swept down the mountain, like all heavy bodies, to be disseminated throughout the entire island.  It is thought the metal is not produced at the place where it is found, especially if that be in the open or in the river beds.  The root of the golden tree seems always to reach down towards the centre of the earth, growing always larger; for the deeper one digs in the bowels of the mountain the larger are the grains of gold unearthed.  The branches of the golden tree are in some places as slender as a thread, while others are as thick as a finger, according to the dimensions of the crevices.  It sometimes happens that pockets full of gold are found; these being the crevices through which the branches of the golden tree pass.  When these pockets are filled with the output from the trunk, the branch pushes on in search of another outlet towards the earth’s surface.  It is often stopped by the solid rock, but in other fissures it seems, in a manner, to be fed from the vitality of the roots.

You will ask me, Most Holy Father, what quantity of gold is produced in this island.  Each year Hispaniola alone sends between four and five hundred thousand gold ducats to Spain.  This is known from the fact that the royal fifth produces eighty, ninety, or a hundred thousand castellanos of gold, and sometimes even more.  I shall explain later on what may be expected from Cuba and the island of San Juan, which are equally rich in gold.  But we have spoken enough about gold; let us now pass on to salt, with which whatever we buy with gold is seasoned.