How the city of San Sebastian was founded in the bay of Uraba;[190] and of the native Indians in that neighbourhood.
IN the year 1509, when Alonzo de Ojeda and Nicuesa were governors of Tierra Firme, a town was founded in the province of Darien, and was named Nuestra Señora del Antigua. Some of the Spaniards, who were among the early discoverers, declare that they found the flower of the chiefs of the Indians in these parts. At that time, although the province of Carthagena was discovered, it was not settled, nor had the Christians done more than trade with the Indians, obtaining a quantity of fine gold by exchanges. The Governor Ojeda marched to the great town of Turbaco, four leagues from Carthagena (which was formerly called Calamar), where he fought a great battle with the Indians. Many Christians were killed, and among them the captain Juan de la Cosa, a valiant and resolute man. In order that his body might not fall into the hands of the Indians, the Spaniards retreated to their ships. After this event the Governor Ojeda founded a town of Christians in the country called Uraba, and appointed as his captain and lieutenant there, Francisco Pizarro, who was afterwards governor and marquis. In this city or town of Uraba, this captain Francisco Pizarro, suffered from hunger and sickness, and from the attacks of the Indians of Uraba. These Indians (as it is said) were not natives of this province, their ancient home having been in the country which borders on the great river of Darien.[191] Desiring to escape from subjection to the yoke of the Spaniards who treated them so ill, they left their homes with their arms, taking their women and children with them. Having arrived at Uraba, they attacked the natives with great cruelty, killed them all, and made themselves masters of their land.
When the governor Ojeda heard of this he entertained hopes of finding great riches in that country, and sent his lieutenant Francisco Pizarro to form a settlement there, who was the first Christian to enter this land. Afterwards these governors Ojeda and Nicuesa came to a disastrous end, as is well known among those of that time who still survive, and Pedrarias came as governor of Tierra Firme, but though there were 200 Spaniards in the city of Antigua, none of them settled in Uraba.[192] Time passed on, the governor Pedrarias cut off the head of his son-in-law Yasco Nuñez de Balboa,[193] and of Captain Francisco Hernandez in Nicaragua, and the Indians of the river Cenu killed the captain Bezerra and the Christians who were with him. At last, Don Pedro de Heredia came out as governor of Carthagena, and sent his brother the captain Alonzo de Heredia with a party of Spaniards to settle in Uraba for a second time, calling the city San Sebastian de Buena Vista.[194] This city is situated on some small hills clear of trees, and there is no thicket near them, except in the marshy ground and on the banks of the rivers. But the province is covered with dense forest in many parts, and the plains are full of very large palm trees with thick bark, and bearing large palmitos, which are white and very sweet. When the Spaniards explored this country, in the time when Alonzo Lopez de Ayala was lieutenant to the governor of this city, they ate nothing for many days except these palmitos. The wood is so hard and difficult to cut, that it took a man half a day before he could cut a tree down and get the palmitos, which they ate without bread, and drank much water, so that many Spaniards died. Near the town, and on the banks of the river, there are many gardens of orange-trees, plaintains, and guavas. There are many rivers in the province, which rise in the mountains. In the interior there are some Indians and caciques, who used to be very rich by reason of their trade with those who lived in the plains beyond the mountains, and in the country of Dobaybe. These Indians, who were masters of this region, originally came, as I have before said, from the other side of the great river of Darien. The lords or caciques are obeyed and feared by the Indians, and their women are the prettiest and most loveable of any that I have seen in the Indies. They are clean in their eating, and have none of the dirty habits of other nations. These Indians have small villages, and their houses are like long sheds. They sleep in hammocks and use no other sort of bed. Their land is fertile and abundantly supplied with provisions, such as well tasted roots. There are also herds of small pigs which are good eating, and many great tapirs, said by some to be of the shape and form of zebras; abundance of turkeys and other birds, plenty of fish in the rivers, and tigers, which kill the Indians and commit havoc amongst their beasts. There are also very large serpents and other creatures in the dense forests, the names of which we know not. Among them are the creatures which we call Pericos ligeros,[195] and it is a marvel to see their fierce looks, and the torpid lazy way in which they move along.
When the Spaniards occupied the villages of these Indians, they found a great quantity of gold in some small baskets, in the form of rich ornaments. There were also many other ornaments and chains of fine gold, and much cotton cloth. The women wore mantles, which covered them from the waist to the feet, and other mantles over their bosoms. They are very pretty, and always go about decently dressed and combed. The men go naked and barefooted, without other covering than what nature has given them; but they have shells or other ornaments, either of bone or of very fine gold, suspended by a thread in front of their privates. Some of these that I saw, weighed forty to fifty pesos each, some more and some less. These Indians are engaged in trade, and take pigs, which are native, and different from those in Spain, to sell to other tribes more inland.[196] These pigs are smaller than Spanish pigs, and they have a navel on their backs,[197] which must be something which has grown there. The Indians also trade with salt and fish, getting in exchange their gold, cloth and other articles. Their arms are bows, made of the wood of a black palm, a braza long, with very long and sharp arrows, anointed with a juice which is so evil and pestilential, that no man who is wounded with it so as to draw blood, can live, although it should not be as much as would flow from the prick of a pin. Thus few if any who have been wounded with this juice, fail to die.
CHAPTER VII.
How the herb is made so poisonous, with which the Indians of Carthagena and Santa Martha have killed so many Spaniards.
AS this poisonous juice of the Indians of Carthagena and Santa Martha is so famous, it seems well to give an account here of the way it is made, which is as follows. This juice is composed of many things. I investigated and became acquainted with the principal ingredients in the province of Carthagena, in a village called Bahayre, from a cacique or lord, whose name was Macavin. He showed me some short roots, of a yellow colour and disagreeable smell, and told me that they were dug up on the sea shore, near the trees which we call mansanillos,[198] and pieces were cut from the roots of that pestiferous tree. They then burnt these pieces in earthen pots, and made them into a paste. After this was done, they sought for certain ants, as big as the beetles of Spain, which are very black and evil, and which, by merely biting a man, cause terrible pain. This happened when we were journeying on the expedition with the licentiate Juan de Vadillo; for one of the soldiers was bitten by an ant, and suffered so much pain that at last he lost all feeling, and even had three or four bad attacks of fever, until the poison had run its course. They also seek for certain very large spiders, and for certain hairy worms, creatures which I shall not soon forget; for one day, when I was guarding a river in the forests called Abibe, under the branch of a tree, one of these worms bit me in the neck, and I passed the most painful and wearisome night I have ever experienced in my life. They also make the poison of the wings of a bat, and the head and tail of a fish which is very poisonous, adding toads and the tails of serpents, together with certain small apples, which appear in colour and smell to be the same as those of Spain. Some of those recently arrived in these parts, on landing, eat these apples without knowing that they are poisonous. I knew one Juan Agraz (whom I have lately seen in the city of San Francisco de Quito), who, when he came from Spain, and landed on the coast of Santa Martha, ate ten or a dozen of these apples, and I heard him swear that in colour and smell they could not be better, except that they have a milk which becomes poison. Other roots and herbs form ingredients of this juice, and when they want to make it, they prepare a great fire in a place far from their houses, and take some slave girl whom they do not value, and make her watch the pots, and attend to the brewing of the poison; but the smell kills the person who thus makes the juice, at least so I have heard.
CHAPTER VIII.
In which other customs of the Indians subject to the city of Uraba are described.
WITH this evil juice the Indians anoint the points of their arrows, and they are so dexterous in the use of these arrows, and draw their bows with such force, that it has often happened that they have transfixed a horse, or the knight who is riding, the arrow entering on one side and coming out on the other. They wear cotton for defensive armour, the moisture of that country not being suitable for cuirasses. However, with all these difficulties, and in spite of the country being so forbidding, foot soldiers have overrun it with nothing but swords and shields, and ten or twelve Spaniards are as good as 100 or 200 Indians. These Indians have no temples nor any form of worship, and nothing has been discovered concerning their religion as yet, except that they certainly talk with the devil, and do him all the honour they can, for they hold him in great veneration. He appears to them (as I have been told by one of themselves) in frightful and terrible visions, which cause them much alarm. The sons inherit their fathers’ property, if they are born of the principal wife, and they marry the daughters of their sisters. Their chiefs have many wives. When a chief dies, all his servants and friends assemble in his house in the night, without any light; but they have a great quantity of their wine made from maize, which they continue drinking while they mourn for the dead. After they have completed their ceremonies and sorceries, they inter the body with its arms and treasures, plenty of food, and jugs of chicha, together with a few live women. The devil gives them to understand that, in the place to which they go, they will come to life in another kingdom which he has prepared for them, and that it is necessary to take food with them for the journey. As if hell was so very far off!