eep quiet unless they wished to provoke a disaster. Fearing
the poisoned arrows and being likewise unprepared for fighting, our
men made amicable signs. When they asked the Caribs why they had
destroyed the village and murdered the cacique and his family, the
latter replied that they had done so to avenge the murder of several
workmen. They had collected the bones of the victims with the
intention of carrying them to the widows and children of the workmen,
so that the latter might understand that the murder of their husbands
and fathers had not been left unavenged. They exhibited a pile of
bones to the Spaniards who, shocked by this crime but forced to
conceal their real sentiments, remained silent, not daring to reprove
the Caribs, Similar stories which I suppress rather than offend
the ears of Your Holiness by such abominable narratives, are daily
repeated.

But we have strayed, O Most Holy Father, rather far from the regions
of Veragua and Uraba, which are the chief themes of our discourse.
Shall we not first treat of the immensity and the depth of the rivers
of Uraba, and of the products of the countries washed by their waters?
Shall I say nothing about the extent of the continent from east to
west, or of its breadth from north to south, nor of anything that
is reported concerning those regions as yet unknown? Let us return,
therefore, Most Holy Father, to Uraba, and begin by stating the new
names which have been given to those provinces, since they have come
under the authority of Christians.

BOOK IX

The Spaniards decided to name Veragua, _Castilla del Oro_, and Uraba,
_Nueva Andalusia_. As Hispaniola had been chosen to be the capital of
all the colonies of the islands, so likewise were the vast regions of
Paria divided into two parts, Uraba and Veragua, where two colonies
were established to serve as refuges and places of rest and
reprovisionment for all those who traversed those countries.

Everything the Spaniards sowed or planted in Uraba grew marvellously
well. Is this not worthy, Most Holy Father, of the highest admiration?
Every kind of seed, graftings, sugar-canes, and slips of trees and
plants, without speaking of the chickens and quadrupeds I have
mentioned, were brought from Europe. O admirable fertility! The
cucumbers and other similar vegetables sown were ready for picking in
less than twenty days. Cabbages, beets, lettuces, salads, and other
garden stuff were ripe within ten days; pumpkin