In this province of Zumaco the trees are found which afford cinnamon.  These trees are very large and have leaves resembling the laurel.  Their fruit grows in clusters, consisting of a nut resembling the acorn of the cork tree, but larger, and containing a number of small seeds.  The fruit, leaves, bark, and roots have all the taste and flavour of cinnamon; but the best consists of the shell or nut which contains the seeds.  In the whole of that country vast numbers of these trees are found wild in the woods, growing and producing fruit without care; but the Indians cultivate them with much attention in their plantations; and these cultivated trees produce a much better cinnamon than those trees which grow wild.  This cinnamon is in great request among the natives, and is exchanged by the inhabitants of Zumaco with the neighbouring tribes, receiving in return provisions and other things of which they are in want.

Leaving the greater part of his people in the country of Zumaco, as has been already said, Gonzalo penetrated into the country with much difficulty, accompanied by the most vigorous of his men, and guided by the Indians, who frequently gave him false accounts of the country in advance, on purpose to get him away from their own district.  Thus the people of Zumaco informed him that the country beyond theirs was well peopled and had abundance of provisions; but he found it extremely barren and very thinly inhabited.  Having penetrated to the province of Coca upon a large river of that name, he remained there about six weeks, waiting the arrival of the rest of his people from Zumaco, all the while treated in a friendly manner by the cacique of the district.

After his troops were all assembled at Coca, Gonzalo marched along the course of the river, till at last he arrived at a place where it fell over a cataract of above 200 fathoms making a noise that could be easily heard at six leagues distance.  A few days march below that place, the whole waters of the river became confined in a rocky channel not exceeding twenty feet wide, while the rocks were at least 200 fathoms in height above the water, and perfectly perpendicular.  After a march of fifty leagues along the banks of this river, the Spaniards could find no place where they might possibly cross over, except at that narrow rocky channel, where a considerable number of Indians opposed their passage.  Having driven away these Indians by means of their firearms, the Spaniards constructed a wooden bridge across between the steep rocks, over which they all passed in safety.

After crossing the river, the Spaniards penetrated through the woods to a country named Guema, which was extremely flat and intersected with rivers and marshes, and in which they could get no provisions except wild fruits; but after this they came to a country tolerably peopled, in which there were some provisions.  In this place the natives wore cotton vestments, but in the whole country through which