e latter, fish of delicious
flavour; only one is to be excepted, which from its source in the
mountains to the sea is perpetually salt. This river is called Bahaun,
and flows through Maguana, a district of the province of Bainoa. It
is thought that this river passes through chalk and saline strata, of
which there are many in the island, and of which I shall later speak
more fully.

We have noted that Hispaniola may be divided into four or five parts,
by rivers or by provinces. Still another division may be made; the
entire island might be divided by the four mountain chains which cut
it in two from east to west. Everywhere there is wealth, and gold is
everywhere found. From the caverns and gorges of these mountains pour
forth all the streams which traverse the island. There are frightful
caves, dark valleys, and arid rocks, but no dangerous animal has ever
been found; neither lion, nor bear, nor fierce tiger, nor crafty fox,
nor savage wolf. Everything thereabouts speaks of happiness and will
do so still more, Most Holy Father, when all these thousands of people
shall be gathered among the sheep of your flock, and those devil
images, the zemes, shall have been banished.

You must not be vexed, Most Holy Father, if from time to time in the
course of my narrative I repeat certain particulars, or allow myself
some digressions. I feel myself carried away by a sort of joyous
mental excitement, a kind of Delphic or Sibylline breath, when I read
of these things; and I am, as it were, forced to repeat the same fact,
especially when I realise to what an extent the propagation of our
religion is involved. Yet amidst all these marvels and fertility,
there is one point which causes me small satisfaction; these simple,
naked natives were little accustomed to labour, and the immense
fatigues they now suffer, labouring in the mines, is killing them in
great numbers and reducing the others to such a state of despair that
many kill themselves, or refuse to procreate their kind. It is alleged
that the pregnant women take drugs to produce abortion, knowing that
the children they bear will become the slaves of the Christians.
Although a royal decree has declared all the islanders to be free,
they are forced to work more than is fit for free men. The number of
these unfortunate people diminishes in an extraordinary fashion. Many
people claim that they formerly numbered more than twelve millions;
how many there are to-day I will not ventur