where the town was founded which is now called Nata.[1] At first it received the name of Santiago, and it is 30 leagues from Panama. This was a very populous province, inhabited by a very good, hard working people. The chief of this land continually led his men of war against his neighbours. His chief enemy was a lord named Escoria, who had his villages on the banks of a great river, eight leagues from Meta. Here he had very large deposits of salt, which are made naturally by the water which flows into the sea, in certain lakes formed by the increase of fresh water, where it crystallises in the summer. Eight leagues further on, in the direction of Panama, there was another chief called Chiru, whose people have a different language, although their appearance, dress, and way of living is the same as that of their neighbours. Seven leagues from Chiru, towards Panama, is the province of Chame, which is the point to which the language of Coiba extends.
In the year 1516, a captain named Gonzalo de Badajos set out with a small force which was placed under his command by Pedrarias, and, going by sea, disembarked at Nombre de Dios.[2] Thence he went along the skirts of the mountains, through the territory of certain chiefs, until he came out at Chiru, which we shall describe further on. From Chiru he went to the province of Nata. The Indians had
- ↑ William Funnel thus describes Nata in 1703. "The town of Nata is a large and well compacted town, situated upon the banks of a river of the same name. It has great trade with Panama, selling them provisions, as cows, hogs, fowls, and maize. From Nata the coast stretches in mountains and hills, and the water is so shoal that there is scarcely any coming in for a ship; but if there were, here is never a port. Along this coast ships ought to keep two or three leagues off shore, or else they will meet with broken ground and sunk rocks; but the coast has many fresh water rivers, full of several sorts of very good fish." Collection of Voyages (London, 1729), iv, p. 95.
- ↑ Herrera says he had a force of 130 men, and that his orders were to conquer all the country between Nombre de Dios and the South Sea. This expedition took place during the lifetime of Vasco Nuñez.
