ke no mention of some of the trials and fatigues they
endured, but I judge that I should not omit to report what took place
between them and the caciques whom they encountered on their march.

Before reaching the summit of the mountain-chain, the Spaniards
traversed the province of Quarequa, of which the ruler, who bears the
same name, came to meet them; as is customary in that country, he was
armed with bows and arrows, and heavy, two-handed swords of wood.
They also carry sticks with burnt points, which they throw with great
skill. Quarequa's reception was haughty and hostile, his disposition
being to oppose the advance of such a numerous army. He asked where
the Spaniards were going and what they wanted, and in reply to the
interpreter's answer, he responded: "Let them retrace their steps,
if they do not wish to be killed to the last man." He stepped out in
front of his men, dressed, as were all his chiefs, while the rest of
his people were naked. He attacked the Spaniards who did not yield;
nor was the battle prolonged, for their musket-fire convinced the
natives that they commanded the thunder and lightning. Unable to face
the arrows of our archers, they turned and fled, and the Spaniards cut
off the arm of one, the leg or hip of another, and from some their
heads at one stroke, like butchers cutting up beef and mutton for
market. Six hundred, including the cacique, were thus slain like brute
beasts.

Vasco discovered that the village of Quarequa was stained by the
foulest vice. The king's brother and a number of other courtiers were
dressed as women, and according to the accounts of the neighbours
shared the same passion. Vasco ordered forty of them to be torn to
pieces by dogs. The Spaniards commonly used their dogs in fighting
against these naked people, and the dogs threw themselves upon them as
though they were wild boars or timid deer. The Spaniards found these
animals as ready to share their dangers as did the people of Colophon
or Castabara, who trained cohorts of dogs for war; for the dogs were
always in the lead and never shirked a fight.

When the natives learned how severely Vasco had treated those
shameless men, they pressed about him as though he were Hercules, and
spitting upon those whom they suspected to be guilty of this vice,
they begged him to exterminate them, for the contagion was confined to
the courtiers and had not yet spread to the people. Raising their eyes
and their hands to heaven, t