the deer,
savage quadrupeds, and the different varieties of fish and birds, are
in accordance with my previous descriptions.

[Note 4: Referring doubtless to Juan de Fonseca bishop of Burgos.]

The cacique Careta, ruler of Coiba, was the Spaniards' guest for three
days. He admired the musical instruments, the trappings of the horses,
and all the things he had never known. He was dismissed with handsome
presents. Careta informed the Spaniards that there grew in his
province a tree, of which the wood was suitable for the construction
of ships, since it was never attacked by marine worms. It is known
that the ships suffered greatly from these pests in the ports of the
New World. This particular wood is so bitter that the worms do not
even attempt to gnaw into it. There is another tree peculiar to this
country whose leaves produce swellings if they touch the naked skin,
and unless sea-water or the saliva of a man who is fasting be not at
once applied, these blisters produce painful death. This tree also
grows in Hispaniola. It is claimed that to smell its wood is fatal,
and it cannot be transported anywhere without risk of death. When
the islanders of Hispaniola sought in vain to shake off the yoke of
servitude, either by open resistance or secret plots, they tried
to smother the Spaniards in their sleep by the smoke of this wood.
Astonished at seeing the wood scattered about them, the Spaniards
forced the wretched natives to confess their plot and punished the
authors of it. The natives likewise are acquainted with a plant whose
smell fortifies them, and serves as remedy against the odour of
this tree, making it possible for them to handle the wood. These
particulars are futile; and this enough on this subject.

The Spaniards hoped to find still greater riches in the islands of the
South Sea. When the courier who brought this news started, Pedro Arias
was preparing an expedition[5] to an island lying in the midst of the
gulf the Spaniards have named San Miguel, and which Vasco did not
touch, owing to a rough sea. I have already spoken at length of it in
describing the expedition of Vasco to the South Sea. We daily expect
to hear of fresh exploits excelling the former ones, for a number of
other provinces have been conquered, and we sincerely hope that they
will not prove useless nor devoid of claims to our admiration.

[Note 5: This expedition under the command of Gaspar Morales was
unsuccessful.]

Juan Diaz Solis de