of turkeys,[1] pheasants,[2] doves, and many other sorts. There are lions and tigers[3] which do harm to the people, so that, on their account, the houses were built very close to each other, and were secured at night. There is plenty of good fish in the rivers. The trees are green all the year round, but very few of them bear fruit, yet on what fruit there is, the people subsist. There are three or four kinds of cats. There are also certain vermin, smaller than foxes, which get into the houses and eat the fowls. On one side of their bodies they carry a bag into which they put their young, and take them about in this way constantly while they are small. Even when these creatures run or jump the young cannot fall out, nor are they visible until the mothers are killed, and the bag is opened.[4]
Vasco Nuñez, being in Darien after he had undergone his residencia, sent one Francisco Garavita to the island of Cuba, without the knowledge of Pedrarias. Garavita returned with a ship and some men to the port of Darien, which is a league and a half from the town. Without disembarking his men, he made known to Vasco Nuñez that he had arrived. This came to the knowledge of Pedrarias, and he discovered that the vessel came to take Vasco Nuñez to the South Sea, where he intended to form a settlement. So Pedrarias seized Vasco Nuñez, and made a cage in his own house, into which he put him, and being there, he made an agreement with him, and gave him his daughter in marriage, who was then in Spain.[5] Having thus received Vasco Nuñez as his son-in-law, Pedrarias sent him to the province of Acla to form a settlement, being that which is now called
- ↑ Turkeys are natives of Mexico, and do not come further south than Guatemala. The bird alluded to by Andagoya is probably a curassow.
- ↑ There are no pheasants in America. Andagoya no doubt alludes to the crax, or penelope of the South American forests.
- ↑ Pumas and jaguars.
- ↑ Opossums.
- ↑ This was arranged through the intervention of Juan de Quevedo,
