The life and voyages of Christopher Columbus; to which are added those of his companions

Front matter

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Contents

ALONZO DE OJEDA.

HIS FIRST VOYAGE, IN WHICH HE WAS ACCOMPANIED BY AMERIGO VESPUCCI.

Page

Chap. V. — Prosecution of the Voyage — Return to Spain ... 32

PEDRO A. NINO AND CHRIS. GUERRA.

A. D. 1499 • . . 34

VICENTE YANEZ PINZON.

A. D. 1499 39

DIEGO DE LEPE AND R. DE BASTIDES.

A. D. 1500 47

ALONZO DE OJEDA.

SECOND VOYAGE.

CONTENTS.

ALONZO DE OJEDA.

THIRD VOYAGE. Page

Chap. I. — Ojeda applies for a Command — Has a rival candidate in Diego

de Nicuesa — His success (1509) .59

Chap. II. — Feud between the Rival Governors Ojeda and Nicuesa— A Challenge 63

Chap. HI. — E.xploits and Disasters of Ojeda on the Coast of Carthagena

— Fate of the veteran Juan de la Cosa 69

Chap. IV. — Arrival of Nicuesa — Vengeance taken on the Indians . . 75 Chap. V. — Ojeda founds the Colony of San Sebastian — Beleaguered by

Chap. VI. — Alonzo de Ojeda supposed by the Savages to have a charmed

life — Their experiment to try the fact . 82

Chap. VII. — Arrival of a strange Ship at San Sebastian ... 84 Chap. VIII. — Factions in the Colony — A Convention made . . .87 Chap. IX. — Disastrous Voyage of Ojeda in the Pirate Ship ... 88 Chap. X. — Toilsome March of Ojeda and his Companions through the

morasses of Cuba .......... 90

Chap. XI. — Ojeda performs his Vow to the Virgin .... 94

Chap. XII. — Arrival of Ojeda at Jamaica — His Reception by Juan de

Esquibel 96

Chap. XIII. — Arrival of Alonzo de Ojeda at San Domingo — Conclusion

of his Story 98

DIEGO DE NICUESA.

Chap. I. — Nicuesa sails to the Westward — His Shipwreck and Subsequent Disasters 102

Chap. II. — Nicuesa and his men on a desolate Island . . . 105 Chap. III. — Arrival of a Boat — Conduct of Lope de Olano . . . 107 Chap. IV. — Nicuesa rejoins his Crews .... . 109 Chap. V. — Sufferings of Nicuesa and his men on the Coast of the Isthmus 111 Chap. VI. — Expedition of the Bachelor Enciso in search of the Seat of Government of Ojeda 115

Chap. VII. — The Bachelor hears unwelcome tidings of his destined Jurisdiction 119

CONTENTS. vii

Page Chap. VIII. — Crusade of the Bachelor Enciso against the Sepulchres of

Zenu 121

Chap. IX. — The Bachelor arrives at San Sebastian — His disasters there,

and subsequent Exploits at Darien ...... 124

Chap. X. — The Bachelor Enciso undertakes the Command — His downfall 127 Chap. XI. — Perplexities at the Colony — Arrival of Colmenares . . 128 Chap. XII. — Colmenares goes in quest of Nicuesa .... 130

Chap. XIII. — Catastrophe of the tmfortunate Nicuesa . . . , 133

VASCO NUNEZ DE BALBOA,

DISCOVERER OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN.

Chap. I. — Factions at Darien — Vasco Nuiiez elevated to the Command 138 Chap. II. — Expedition to Coyba — Vasco Nuiiez receives the daughter of a Cacique as hostage .......... 141

Chap. IV. — Expedition of Vasco Nuiiez in quest of the Golden Temple of Dobayba 149

Chap. V. — Disaster on the Black River — Indian plot against Darien . 155 Chap. VI. — Further Factions in the Colony — Arrogance of Alonzo Perez

and the Bachelor Corral 158

Chap. VII. — Vasco Nuiiez determines to seek the Sea beyond the Mountains 163

Chap. VIII. — Expedition in quest of the Southern Sea . . . 165 Chap. IX. — Discovery of the Pacific Ocean ...... 169

Chap. X. — Vasco Nunez marches to the shores of the South Sea . 172 Chap. XI. — Adventures of Vasco Nunez on the Pacific Ocean . .177 Chap. XII. — Further Adventures and Exploits of Vasco Nunez . . 182 Chap. XIII. — Vasco Nuiiez sets out on his return across the Mountains —

His contests with the Savages . 185

Chap. XIV. — Enterprise against Tubanama, the warlike Cacique of the Mountains — Return to Darien ....... 188

Chap. XV. — Transactions in Spain — Pedrarias Davila appointed to the command of Darien — Tidings received in Spain of the Discovery of the Pacific Ocean ........... 193

Chap. XVI. — Arrival and grand Entry of Don Pedrarias Davila into Darien 200 viii CONTENTS.

Page Chap. XVII. — Perfidious Conduct of Don Pedrarias towards Vasco Nuiiez 203 Chap. XVIII. — Calamities of the Spanish Cavaliers at Darien . . 207

Chap. XIX. — Fruitless Expedition of Pedrarias 209

Chap. XX. — Second Expedition of Vasco Nunez in quest of the Golden

Temple of Dobayba 211

Chap. XXI. — Letters from the King in favor of Vasco Nunez — Arrival of

Garabito — Arrest of Vasco Nuifiez . ...... 214

Chap. XXII. — Expedition of Morales and Pizarro to the shores of the

Pacific Ocean — Their Visit to the Pearl Islands — Their disastrous

Return across the Mountains 218

Chap. XXIII. — Unfortunate Enterprises of the Officers of Pedrarias —

Matrimonial Compact between the Governor and Vasco Nunez . 226 Chap. XXIV. — Vasco Nunez transports ships across the Mountains to the

Pacific Ocean 229

Chap. XXV. — Cruise of Vasco Nunez in the Southern Sea — Rumors

from Ada 233

Chap. XXVI. — Reconnoitering Expedition of Garabito — Stratagem of

Pedrarias to entrap Vasco Nunez ...... 235

Chap. XXVII. — Vasco Nunez and the Astrologer — His return to Ada . 238

Chap. XXVIII.— Trial of Vasco Nunez 240

Chap. XXIX. — Execution of Vasco Nunez 244

Valdivia and his companions 247

MicER CoDRO, the Astrologer 260

JUAN PONCE DE LEON,

CONQUEROR OF POKTO RICO, AND DISCOVERER OF FLORIDA.

Chap. I. — Reconnoitering Expedition of Juan Ponce de Leon to the Island

ofBoriquen 262

Chap. II. — Juan Ponce aspires to the government of Porto Rico . . 265 Chap. III. — Juan Ponce rules with a strong hand — Exasperation of the

Indians — Their experiment to prove whether the Spaniards were mortal 267 Chap. IV. — Conspiracy of the Caciques — Fate of Sotomayor . . 270 Chap. V. — War of Juan Ponce with the Cacique Aguaybana . . 274

CONTENTS. it

C/HAP. VI. — Juan Ponce de Leon hears of a wonderful country and miraculous fountain .......... 278

Chap. VII. — Cruise of Juan Ponce de Leon in search of the Fountain of Youth 281

Chap. VIII. — Expedition of Juan Ponce against the Caribs — His Death 284

Appendix

No. I. — Transportation of the Remains of Columbus from St. Domingo

to the Havana 291

No. II. — Notice of the Descendants of Columbus .... 295

No. III.— Fernando Columbus 310

No. IV.— Age of Columbus 312

No. V. — Lineage of Columbus 314

No. VI.— Birthplace of Columbus 316

No. VII.— The Colombos 323

No. VIII. — Expedition of John of Anjou 325

No. IX. — Capture of the Venetian Galleys by Colombo the Younger . 327

No. X. — Amerigo Vespucci ........ 330

No. XI. — Martin Alonzo Pinzon 345

No. XII. — Rumor of the Pilot said to have died in the House of Columbus 348

No. XIII.— Martin Behem 352

No. XIV. — Voyages of the Scandinavians . . . , . 356

No. XV. — Circumnavigation of Africa by the Ancients . . . 361

No. XVI.— Of the ships of Columbus 364

No. XVII.— Route of Columbus in his first Voyage . . . 366 No. XVIII. — Principles upon which the Sums mentioned in this Work

have been reduced into modern Currency 366

No. XIX. — Prester John 382

No. XX.— Marco Polo 384

No! XXI —The Work of Marco Polo 393

No. XXII.— Sir John Mandeville 398

No. XXIII.— The Zones 400

No. XXIV.— Of the Atalantis of Plato 401

No. XXV. — The imaginary Island of St. Brandan .... 403 VOL. nr. 1*

X CONTENTS.

Page

No. XXVI.— The Island of the Seven Cities 410

No. XXVII. — Discovery of the Island of Madeira . . . . 411

No. XXVIII.— Las Casas 415

No. XXIX.— Peter Martyr 423

No. XXX.— Oviedo 428

No. XXXI.— Cura de Los Palacios 429

No. XXXII. — " Navigatione del Re de Castiglia delle Isole e Paese

Nuovamente Ritrovate." — ^" Navigatio Christophori Colombi." . . 431

No. XXXIII.— Antonio de Herrera 432

No. XXXIV.— Bishop Fonseca 434

No. XXXV. — On the Situation of the Terrestrial Paradise . . 438

No. XXXVL— Will of Columbus 444

No. XXXVIL— Signature of Columbus 452

No. XXXVIII.— A Visit to Palos 454

No. XXXIX.— Manifesto of Alonzo de Ojeda .... 468

Index 471

Introduction

The first discovery of the Western Hemisphere has already been related by the Author in his History of Columbus. It is proposed by him, in the present work, to narrate the enterprises of certain of the companions and disciples of the admiral, who, enkindled by his zeal, and instructed by his example, sallied forth separately in the vast region of adventure to which he had led the way. Many of them sought merely to skirt the continent which he had partially visited ; to secure the first-fruits of the pearl fisheries of Paria and Cubaga ; or to explore the coast of Veragua, which he had represented as the Aurea Chersonesus of the ancients. Others aspired to accomplish a grand discovery which he had meditated toward the close of his career. In the course of his expeditions along the coast of Terra Firma, Columbus had repeatedly received irfformation of the existence of a vast sea to the south. He supposed it to be the great Indian Ocean, the region of the oriental spice islands, and that it must communicate by a strait with the Caribbean sea. His last and most disastrous voyage was made for the express purpose of disjdi INTRODUCTION.

covering that imaginary strait, and making his way into this Southern Ocean. The illustrious navigator, hovi^ever, was doomed to die, as it were, upon the threshold of his discoveries. It was reserved for one of his followers, Vasco Nunez de Balboa, to obtain the first view of the promised ocean, from the lofty mountains of Darien, some years after the eyes of the venerable Admiral had been closed in death. The expeditions here narrated, therefore, may be considered as springing immediately out of the voyages of Columbus, and fulfilling some of his grand designs. They may be compared to the attempts of adventurous knights-errant to achieve the enterprise left unfinished by some illustrious predecessor. Neither is this comparison entirely fanciful ; on the contrary, it is a curious fact, well worthy of notice, that the spirit of chivalry entered largely into the early expeditions of the Spanish discoverers, giving them a character wholly distinct from similar enterprises, undertaken by other nations. It will not, perhaps, be considered far-sought, if we trace the cause of this peculiarity to the domestic history of the Spaniards during the middle ages.

Eight centuries of incessant warfare with the Moorish usurpers of the Peninsula, produced a deep and lasting effect upon Spanish character and manners. The war being ever close at home, mingled itself with the domestic habits and concerns of the Spaniard. He was born a soldier. The wild and predatory nature of the war also made him a kind of chivalrous marauder. His horse anc

INTRODUCTION. xiii

weapon were always ready for the field. His delight was in roving incursions and extravagant exploits ; and no gain was so glorious in his eyes as the cavalgada of spoils and captives driven home in triumph from a plundered province. Religion, which has ever held great empire over the Spanish mind, lent its aid to sanctify these roving and ravaging propensities, and the Castilian cavalier, as he sacked the towns, and laid waste the fields of his Moslem neighbor, piously believed he was doing God service.

The conquest of Granada put an end to the peninsular wars between Christian and Infidel : the spirit of Spanish chivalry was thus suddenly deprived of its wonted sphere of action ; but it had been too long fostered and excited, to be as suddenly appeased. The youth of the nation, bred up to daring adventure and heroic achievement, could not brook the tranquil and regular pursuits of common life, but panted for some new field of romantic enterprise.

It was at this juncture that the grand project of Columbus was carried into effect. His treaty with the sovereigns was, in a manner, signed with the same pen that had subscribed the capitulation of the Moorish capital ; and his first expedition may almost be said to have departed from beneath the walls of Granada. Many of the youthful cavaliers, who had fleshed their swords in that memorable war, crowded the ships of the discoverers, thinking a new career of arms was to be opened to them — a kind of crusade into splendid and unknown regions of infidels. The very weapons and armor that had been used against the

^ INTRODUCTION.

Moors, were drawn from the arsenal to equip the heroes of these remoter adventures ; and some of the most noted commanders in the New World, will be found to have made their first essay in arms, under the banner of Ferdinand and Isabella, in their romantic campaigns among the mountains of Andalusia.

To these circumstances may, in a great measure, be ascribed that swelling chivalrous spirit which will be found continually mingling, or rather warring, with the technical habits of the seaman and the sordid schemes of the mercenary adventurer, in these early Spanish discoveries. Chivalry had left the land and launched upon the deep. The Spanish cavalier had embarked in the caravel of the discoverer. He carried among the trackless wildernesses of the New World the same contempt of danger and fortitude under suffering ; the same restless, roaming spirit ; the same passion for inroad and ravage and vainglorious exploit; and the same fervent, and often bigoted, zeal for the propagation of his faith, that had distinguished him during his warfare with the Moors. Instances in point Vill be found in the extravagant career of the daring Ojeda, particularly in his adventures along the coast of Terra Firma and the wild shores of Cuba ; — in the sad story of the " unfortunate Nicuesa," graced as it is with occasional touches of high-bred courtesy ; — in the singular cruise of that brave but credulous old cavalier, Juan Ponce de Leon, who fell upon the flowery coast of Florida in his search after an imaginary fountain of youth ; — and above all, in the

INTRODUCTION. x»

checkered fort anes of Vasco Nunez de Balboa, whose discovery of the Pacific Ocean forms one of the most beautiful and striking incidents in the history of the New World, and whose fate might furnish a theme of wonderful interest for a poem or a drama.

The extraordinary actions and adventures of these men, while they rival the exploits recorded in chivalric romance, have the additional interest of verity. They leave us in admiration of the bold and heroic qualities inherent in the Spanish character, which led that nation to so high a pitch of power and glory ; and which are still discernible in the great mass of that gallant people, by those who have an opportunity of judging of them rightly.

Before concluding these prefatory remarks, the Author would acknowledge how much he has been indebted to the third volume of the invaluable Historical Collection of Don Martin Fernandez de Navarrete, wherein that author has exhibited his usual industry, accuracy, and critical acumen. He has likewise profited greatly by the second volume of Oviedo's General History, which only exists in manuscript, and a copy of which he found in the Columbian Library of the Cathedral of Seville.

He has had some assistance also from the documents of the law case between Don Diego Columbus and the crown, which exist in the Archives of the Indies, and for an inspection of which he is much indebted to the permission of the government and the kind attentions of Don Jozef de la Higuera y Lara, the intelligent keeper of the rvl INTRODUCTION.

Archives. These, with the historical works of Herrera, Las Casas, Gomara, and Peter Martyr, have been his authorities for the facts contained in the following work, though he has not thought proper to refer to them continually at the bottom of his page.

While his work was going through the press, he received a volume of Spanish Biography, written with great elegance and accuracy, by Don Manuel Josef Quintana, and containing a life of Vasco Nunez de Balboa. He was gratified to find that his own arrangement of facts was generally corroborated by this work ; though he was enabled to correct his dates in several instances, and to make a few other emendations from the volume of Senor Quintana, whose position in Spain gave him the means of attaining superior exactness on these points.

VOYAGES AND DISCOVERIES

OF THE

COMPANIONS OF COLUMBUS.

ALONZO DE OJEDA,*

HIS FIRST VOYAGE, IN WHICH HE WAS ACCOMPANIED BY AMERIGO VESPUCCI.t

Chapter I

SOME ACCOUNT OP OJEDA. — OF JUAN DE LA COSA. — OF AMER- IGO VESPUCCI. PREPARATIONS FOR THE VOYAGE.

Those who have read the History of Columbus will, doubtless, remember the character and exploits of Alonzo de Ojeda ; as some of the readers of the following pages, however, may not have perused that work, and as it is proposed at present to trace the subsequent fortunes of this youthful adventurer, a brief sketch of him may not be deemed superfluous.

* Ojeda is pronounced in Spanish Oheda, with a strong aspiration of the h. t Vespucci, pronounced Vespuchy.

Alonzo de Ojeda was a native of Cuenca, in New Castile, and of a respectable family. He was brought up as a page or esquire, in the service of Don Luis de Cerda, Duke of Medina Celi, one of the most powerful nobles of Spain ; the same who for some time patronized Columbus during his application to the Spanish court.*

In those warlike days, when the peninsula was distracted by contests between the Christian kingdoms, by feuds between the nobles and the crown, and by incessant and marauding warfare with the Moors, the houseliold of a Spanish nobleman was a complete school of arras, where the youth of the country were sent to be trained up in all kinds of hardy exercises, and to be led to battle under an illustrious banner. Such was especially the case with the service of the Duke of Medina Celi, who possessed princely domains, whose household was a petty court, who led legions of armed retainers to the field, and who appeared in splendid state and with an immense retinue, more as an ally of Ferdinand and Isabella, than as a subject. He engaged in many of the roughest expeditions of the memorable war of Granada, always insisting on leading his own troops in person, when the service was of peculiar difficulty and danger. Alonzo de Ojeda was formed to signalize himself in such a school. Though small of stature, he was well made, and of wonderful force and activity, with a towering spirit that seemed to make up for deficiency of height. He was a bold and graceful horseman, an excellent foot soldier, dextrous with every weapon, and noted for his extraordinary skill and adroitness in all feats of strength and agility.

* Varones Ilustres, por F. Pizarro y Orellana, p. 41. Las Caeas, Hist. Ind., lib. i. cap. 82.

He must have been quite young when he followed the Duke of Medina Celi, as page, to the Mooi'ish wars ; for he was but about twenty-one years of age when he accompanied Columbus in his second voyage ; he had already, however, distinguished himself by his enterprising spirit and headlong valor ; and his exploits during that voyage contributed to enhance his reputation. He returned to Spain with Columbus, but did not accompany him in his third voyage, in the spring of 1498. He was probably impatient of subordination, and ambitious of a separate employment or command, which the influence of his connections gave him a great chance of obtaining. He had a cousin german of his own name, the reverend Padre Alonzo de Ojeda, a Dominican friar, one of the first inquisitors of Spain, and a great favorite with the Catholic sovereigns.* This father inquisitor was, moreover, an intimate friend of the bishop Don Juan Rodriguez Fonseca, who had the chief management of the affairs of the Indies, under which general name were comprehended all the countries discovered in the New Woi'ld. Through the good offices of his cousin inquisitor, therefore, Ojeda had been introduced to the notice of the bishop, who took him into his especial favor and patronage. Mention has already been made, in the History of Columbus, of a present made by the bishop to Ojeda of a small Flemish painting of the Holy Virgin. This the young adventurer carried about with him as a protecting relic, invoking it at all times of peril, whether by sea or land ; and to the especial care of the Virgin he attributed the remarkable circumstance that he had never been wounded in any of the innumerable braAvls and battles into which he was continually betrayed by his rash and fiery temperament.

* Pizarro. Varones Ilustres.

While Ojeda was lingering about the court, letters were re ceived from Columbus, giving an account of the events of his third voyage, especially of his discovery of the coast of Paria, which he described as abounding in drugs and spices, in gold and silver, and precious stones, and, above all, in oriental pearls, and which he supposed to be the borders of that vast and unknown region of the East, wherein, according to certain learned theorists, was situated the teiTestrial paradise. Specimens of the pearls, procured in considerable quantities from the natives, accompanied his epistle, together with charts descriptive of bis route. These tidings caused a great sensation among the maritime adventurers of Spain ; but no one was more excited by them than Alonzo de Ojeda, who, from his intimacy with the bishop, had fuU access to the charts and correspondence of Columbus. He immediately conceived the project of making a voyage in the route thus marked out by the admiral, and of seizing upon the first fruits of discovery which he had left ungathered. His scheme met with ready encouragement from Fonseca, who, as has heretofore been shown, was an implacable enemy to Columbus, and willing to promote any measure that might injure or molest him. The bishop accordingly granted a commission to Ojeda, authorizing him to fit out an armament and proceed on a voyage of discovery with the proviso merely that he should not visit any territories appertaining to Portugal, nor any of the lands discovered in the name of Spain previous to the year 1495. The latter part of this provision appears to have been craftily worded by the bishop, so as to leave the coast of Paria and its pearl fisheries open to Ojeda, they having been recently discovered by Columbus in 1498.

The commission was signed by Fonseca alone, in virtue of general powers vested in him for such purposes, but the signature of the sovereigns did not appear on the instrument, and it is doubtful whether their sanction was sought on the occasion. He knew that Columbus had recently remonstrated against a royal mandate issued in 1495, permitting voyages of discovery by private adventurers, and that the sovereigns had in consequence revoked their mandate wherever it might be deemed prejudicial to the stipulated privileges of the admiral.* It is probable, therefore, that the bishop avoided raising any question that might impede the enterprise ; being confident of the ultimate approbation of Ferdinand, who would be well pleased to have his dominions in the new world extended by the discoveries of private adventurers, undertaken at their own expense. It was stipulated in this, as well as in subsequent licenses for private expeditions, that a certain proportion of the profits, generally a fourth or fifth, should be reserved for the crown.

Having thus obtained permission to make the voyage, the next consideration with Ojeda was to find the means. He was a young adventurer, a mere soldier of fortune, and destitute of wealth ; but he had a high reputation for courage and enterprise, and with these, it was thought, would soon make his way to the richest parts of the newly discovered lands, and have the wealth of the Indies at his disposal. He had no difficulty, therefore, in finding moneyed associates among the rich merchants of Seville, who, in that age of discovery, were ever ready to stake their property upon the schemes of roving navigators. With such assistance he soon equipped a squadron of four vessels at Port St. Mary, opposite Cadiz. Among the seamen who engaged with him were several just returned from accompanying Columbus in

• Navarrete, torn. ii. Document cxiii.

his voyage to this very coast of Paria. The principal associate of Ojeda, and one on whom he placed great reliance, was Juan de la Cosa ; who accompanied him as first mate, or, as it was termed, chief pilot. This was a bold Biscayan, who may be regarded as a disciple of Columbus, with whom he had sailed in his second voyage, when he coasted Cuba and Jamaica, and he had since accompanied Rodrigo de Bastides, in an expedition along the coast of Terra Firma. The hardy veteran was looked up to by his contemporaries as an oracle of the seas, and was pronounced one of the most able mariners of the day ; he may be excused, therefore, if, in his harmless vanity, he considered himself on a par even with Columbus.*

Another conspicuous associate of Ojeda, in this voyage, was Amerigo Vespucci, a Florentine merchant, induced by broken fortunes and a rambling disposition to seek adventures in the new world. Whether he had any pecuniary interest in the expedition, and in what capacity he sailed, does not appear. His importance has entirely arisen from subsequent circumstances ; from his having written and published a narrative of his voyages, and from his name having eventually been given to the New World.

CHAPTER 11.

DEPARTTTKE FROM SPAIN. ARRIVAL ON THE COAST OF

PARIA. CUSTOMS OF THE NATIVES.

Ojeda sailed from Port St. Mary on the 20th of May, 1499, and, having touched for supplies at the Canaries, took a departure

* Navarrete, Colec. Viag., torn. iii. p. 4.

from Gomara, pursuing the route of Columbus in his third voyage being guided by the chart he had sent home, as well as by the mariners who had accompanied him on that occasion. At the end of twenty-four days he reached the continent of the New World, about two hundred leagues farther south than the part discovered by Columbus, being, as it is supposed, the coast of Surinam.*

Hence he ran along the coast of the Gulf of Paria, passing the mouths of many rivers, but especially those of the Esquivo and the Oronoko. These, to the astonishment of the Spaniards, unaccustomed as yet to the mighty rivers of the New World, poured forth such a prodigious volume of water, as to freshen the sea for a great extent. They beheld none of the natives until they arrived at Trinidad, on which island they met with traces of the recent visit of Columbus.

Vespucci, in his letters, gives a long description of the people of this island and of the coast of Paria, who were of the Carib race, tall, well made, and vigorous, and expert with the bow, the lance, and the buckler. His description, in general, resembles those which have frequently been given of the aboriginals of the new world ; there are two or three particulars, however, worthy of citation.

They appeared, he said, to believe in no religious creed, to have no place of worship, and to make no prayers nor sacrifices ; but, he adds, from the voluptuousness of their lives, they might be considered epicureans.f Their habitations were built in the shape of bells ; of the trunks of trees, thatched with palm-leaves, aud were proof against wind and weather. They appeared to be

* Navarrete, torn. iii. p. 5. t Viages de Vespucci. Navarrete, torn. iii. p. 211.

in common, and some of them were of such magnitude as to con tain six hundred persons : in one place there were eight principal houses capable of sheltering nearly ten thousand inhabitants. Every seven or eight years the natives were obliged to change their residence, from the maladies engendered by the heat of the climate in their crowded habitations.

Their riches consisted in beads and ornaments made from the bones of fishes ; in small white and green stones strung like rosaries, with which they adorned their persons, and in the beautiful plumes of various colors for which the tropical birds are noted.

The Spaniards smiled at their simplicity in attaching an extraordinary value to such worthless trifles ; while the savages, in all probability, were equally surprised at beholding the strangers so eager after gold, and pearls, and precious stones, which to themselves were objects of indifference.

Their manner of treating the dead was similar to that observed among the natives of some of the islands. Having deposited the corpse in a cavei-n or sepulchre, they placed a jar of water and a few eatables at its head, and then abandoned it without moan or lamentation. In some parts of the coast, when a person was considered near his end his nearest relatives bore him to the woods, and laid him in a hammock suspended to the trees. They then danced round him until evening, when, having left within his reach sufficient meat and drink to sustain him for four days, they repaired to their habitations. If he recovered and returned home, he was received with much ceremony and rejoicing ; if he died of his malady or of famine, nothing more was thought of him.