lived with its family. The
female was absent; but two little ones, still unweaned, were lying
there, and these the Spaniards carried away; but changing their minds
afterwards and wishing to carry them to Spain when they were a little
larger, they put carefully riveted chains round their necks and took
them back to the cave, in order that their mother might nurse them.
Some days later they went back and found the chains still there, but
the cave was empty. It is thought the mother, in a fury, tore the
little ones to pieces, and took them away, in order that nobody should
have them; for they could not possibly have got loose from their
chains alive. The dead tiger's skin was stuffed with dried herbs and
straw, and sent to Hispaniola to be presented to the Admiral and other
officials, from whom the colonists of those two new countries obtain
laws and assistance.

This story was told me by those who had suffered from the ravages of
that tiger,[3] and had touched its skin; let us accept what they give
us.

[Note 3: As has been observed, there were no tigers in America.
The animal described may have been a jaguar.]

Let us now return to Pacra, from whom we have somewhat wandered. After
having entered the boios (that is to say, the house) abandoned by the
cacique, Vasco sought to induce him to return by means of envoys who
made known the conditions already proposed to other caciques; but for
a long time Pacra refused. Vasco then tried threats, and the cacique
finally decided to come in, accompanied by three others. Vasco writes
that he was deformed, and so dirty and hideous that nothing more
abominable could be imagined. Nature confined herself to giving him a
human form, but he is a brute beast, savage and monstrous. His morals
were on a par with his bearing and physiognomy. He had carried off
the daughters of four neighbouring caciques to satisfy his brutal
passions. The neighbouring chiefs, regarding Vasco as a supreme judge
or a Hercules, a redresser of injuries, complained of the debaucheries
and the crimes of Pacra, begging that he should be punished by death.
Vasco had this filthy beast and the other three caciques, who obeyed
him and shared his passions, torn to pieces by dogs of war, and the
fragments of their bodies were afterwards burnt. Astonishing things
are said about these dogs the Spaniards take into battle. These
animals throw themselves with fury on the armed natives pointed out to
them, as if they were t