n killed by the Spaniards was found on the plain, and
although it was already putrefying, they secretly cut it into bits
which they afterwards boiled or roasted, assuaging their hunger with
that meat as though it were peacock. During several days a Spaniard,
who had left camp at night and lost his way amongst the swamps, ate
such vegetation as is found in marshes. He finally succeeded in
rejoining his companions, crawling along the ground and half dead.
Such are the sufferings which these wretched colonists of Veragua
endured.

At the beginning there were over seven hundred, and when they joined
the colonists at Darien hardly more than forty remained. Few had
perished in fighting with the Indians; it was hunger that had
exhausted and killed them. With their blood they paved the way for
those who follow, and settle in those new countries. Compared with
these people, the Spaniards under Nicuesa's leadership would seem to
be bidden to nuptial festivities, for they set out by roads, which are
both new and secure, towards unexplored countries where they will find
inhabitants and harvests awaiting them. We are still ignorant where
the captain Pedro Arias, commanding the royal fleet,[4] has landed; if
I learn that it will afford Your Holiness pleasure, I shall faithfully
report the continuation of events.

[Note 4: This Decade was written towards the end of the year 1514,
but although Pedro Arias had landed on June 29th, no news of his
movements had yet reached Spain. The slowness and uncertainty of
communication must be constantly borne in mind by readers.]

From the Court of the Catholic King, the eve of the nones of December,
1514, Anno Domini.

The Third Decade

BOOK I

PETER MARTYR, OF MILAN, APOSTOLIC PRONOTARY AND ROYAL COUNSELLOR TO
THE SOVEREIGN PONTIFF LEO X

I had closed the doors of the New World, Most Holy Father, for it
seemed to me I had wandered enough in those regions, when I received
fresh letters which constrained me to reopen those doors and resume my
pen. I have already related that after expelling the Captain Nicuesa
and the judge Enciso from the colony of Darien, Vasco Nunez, with the
connivance of his companions, usurped the government. We have received
letters[1] both from him and from several of his companions,
written in military style, and informing us that he had crossed the
mountain-chain dividing our ocean from the hitherto unknown south sea.
No letter from Capri concerning