We have elsewhere related that the natives cultivate a tree in their gardens, whose fruit resembles a large gourd.  The natives throw a large quantity of these gourds into the ponds, after having carefully stopped up the holes by which water is introduced into them, to prevent their sinking.  These gourds, floating about on the water, inspire the birds with confidence; the hunter then covers his head with a sort of cask made of a gourd, one in which there are little holes for his eyes, like in a mask.  He wades into the water up to his chin, for from their infancy they are all accustomed to swim, and do not fear to remain a long time in the water.  As the birds find the gourd which conceals the hunter similar to all the others floating about, the man is able to approach the flock.  Imitating with his head the movements of the floating gourd, he follows the little waves produced by the wind, and gradually approaches the birds.  Stretching out his right hand he seizes a bird by the foot, and without being seen, quickly jerks it under the water and thrusts it into a bag he carries.  The other birds imagining their companion has dived in search of food, as they all do, fearlessly continue their movements, and in their turns become victims of the hunter.

I interrupted my narrative with this description of bird-hunting and other sport, in order that these harmless tales might divert you from the horror you must have felt in reading the story of so many crimes.  I should still like to speak to you concerning a new theory of the current which drives the waters of the gulf of Paria towards the west; and also of the system of gold-mining in Darien.  These are particulars which have just recently been furnished me.  After this dual report, which will be in no sense tragic, I shall take leave of Your Holiness.

The Captain Andreas Morales and Oviedo, whom I have above mentioned, came to visit me at Madrid, or to be more accurate, at Mantua Carpetana; and in my presence they had a discussion on the subject of this current.  They agree that the Spanish possessions extend without interruption towards the northern lands behind Cuba and the other islands, and to the north-west of Hispaniola and Cuba; but they do not hold the same opinion concerning the current.  Andreas claims that the force of these waters is broken by the great body of land believed to be a continent, and which, as we have said, bends towards the north, in such wise that, breaking against these obstacles, the waters turn in a circle and are driven towards the northern coasts of Cuba and the other lands lying outside the Tropic of Cancer.  Thus, these waters, which flow from narrow straits are absorbed, as it were, in the immensity of the ocean, and their force is diminished as they spread through immense spaces where they ultimately disappear.  I might compare this current to the eddies of water in a mill-race.  Water flowing, no matter how rapidly, through a narrow canal, and afterwards falling