Sect. VI.
Veragua.
Bounds and Nature of the Country.
Veragua is bounded on the West with Costarica; on the East it hath the District, or Countrey of Panama, being otherwise wash’d on all sides by the Sea. It hath its Name from a River of great note in this Tract, by which it was first discover’d. The Countrey is for the most part mountainous, and the Soil outwardly barren, but recompencing all defects with the abundance of its more inward Wealth, that is to say, in the richness of its Mynes, of which it is said to afford many, and so inexhaustibly rich and good, that the Spaniards here know no end of their Wealth; although by the stoutness and untameableness of the Natives, it was a long time, and they met with many difficulties, before they could make themselves Masters of the Treasure.
Its chief Towns.
The chief Towns they have here are 1. La Conception, lying at the Mouth of a River so nam’d, and the Seat of the Governor.
2. La Trinidad, upon the Banks of the same River likewise, but down towards Port Beleno, and about six Leagues Eastward of Conception.
3. St. Foy, twelve Leagues more to the South, where the Spaniards melt their Gold, and cast it into Bars or Ingots.
4. Carlos, a Town they have upon the Coast of Mare del Zur.
5. Philippina, another on the West of Carlos; both of these seated upon a large capacious Bay; before which there lie certain little Islands, to the number of thirty or more, which the Spaniards are said to have wholly dispeopled long since, by forcing the Natives over into the Continent to work in the Mynes, as usually they did before the Emperor’s Prohibition: but now they use Slaves or Negro’s, which they buy for that purpose from Guinee and other Parts.