in
and death."

Convinced by these representations, Coquera gave the Spaniards six
hundred and fifty pesos of wrought gold, receiving the usual presents
in exchange. It was the same treatment that had been extended to
Poncha.

After concluding peace with Coquera, Vasco returned to the country of
Chiapes. He reviewed his soldiers, took some rest, and then resolved
to visit a large gulf in the neighbourhood. According to the report
of the natives, the length of this gulf, from the place where it
penetrates into the country to its most distant shores, is sixty
miles. It is dotted with islands and reefs, and Vasco named it San
Miguel. Taking the nine barques he had borrowed from Chiapes, in which
he had already crossed the river, he embarked with eighty of his
companions, all at that time in good health. Chiapes did his best to
discourage this enterprise, counselling Vasco on no account to risk
himself in the gulf at that period of the year, as during three months
it is so tempestuous that navigation becomes impossible. He himself
had seen many culches swept away by the raging waves. Vasco Nunez,
unwilling to incur delay, affirmed that God and all the heavenly host
favoured his enterprise, and that he was labouring for God, and to
propagate the Christian religion, and to discover treasures to
serve as the sinews of war against the enemies of the Faith. After
pronouncing a brilliant discourse, he persuaded his companions to
embark in the canoes of Chiapes. The latter, wishing to remove the
last doubt from the mind of Vasco Nunez, declared he was ready to
accompany him anywhere, and that he would act as his guide, for he
would not permit the Spaniards to leave his territory under other
escort than his own.

Hardly had the Spaniards reached the open sea in their canoes than
they were overtaken by such a violent tempest that they knew not
whither to steer, nor where to find refuge. Trembling and frightened,
they looked at one another, while Chiapes and the Indians were even
more alarmed, for they knew the dangers of such navigation and had
often witnessed wrecks. They survived the peril and, after fastening
their canoes to rocks along the shore, they took refuge on a
neighbouring island. But during the night, the tide rose and covered
nearly the whole of it. At high tide the south sea rises to such an
extent that many immense rocks which rise above low water are then
covered by the waves. In the north sea, however, accordi