t
advantages from the manner in which the city is constructed, since by
removing the bridges at the entrances and abandoning the place, they
could leave us to perish by famine without our being able to reach the
mainland--as soon as I had entered it, I made great haste to build four
brigantines, which were soon finished, and were large enough to take
ashore three hundred men and the horses, whenever it became necessary.

This city has many public squares, in which are situated the markets
and other places for buying and selling. There is one square twice as
large as that of the city of Salamanca, surrounded by porticoes, where
are daily assembled more than sixty thousand souls, engaged in buying
and selling; and where are found all kinds of merchandise that the
world affords, embracing the necessities of life, as, for instance,
articles of food, as well as jewels of gold, silver, lead, brass,
copper, tin, precious stones, bones, shells, snails and feathers.
There were also exposed for sale wrought and unwrought {150} stone,
bricks burnt and unburnt, timber hewn and unhewn of different sorts.
There is a street for game, where every variety of birds found in the
country is sold, as fowls, partridges, quails, wild ducks,
fly-catchers, widgeons, turtle-doves, pigeons, reedbirds, parrots,
sparrows, eagles, hawks, owls, and kestrels; they sell, likewise, the
skins of some birds of prey, with their feathers, head and beak and
claws. There they also sold rabbits, hares, deer, and little dogs
which are raised for eating and castrated. There is also an herb
street, where may be obtained all sorts of roots and medicinal herbs
that the country affords. There are apothecaries' shops, where
prepared medicines, liquids, ointments, and plasters are sold; barber
shops where they wash and shave the head; and restauranteurs that
furnish food and drink at a certain price. There is also a class of
men like those called in Castile porters, for carrying burdens. Wood
and coal are seen in abundance, and brasiers of earthenware for burning
coals; mats of various kinds for beds, others of a lighter sort for
seats, and for halls and bedrooms. There are all kinds of green
vegetables, especially onions, leeks, garlic, watercresses, nasturtium,
borage, sorel, artichokes, and golden thistle-fruits also of numerous
descriptions, amongst which are cherries and plums, similar to those in
Spain; honey and wax from bees, and from the stalks of maiz