there. Some negroes, who had fled from the Christians, formed a village near Mompox, and served the Indians, and these negroes are now more feared in that land than the Indians.
In this land there is a province called Zenu, where, in ancient times, the Indians had their tombs, and above them great heaps of earth. All the Indians were buried with all the gold they possessed, of which much has been procured.[1] They have no rites nor ceremonies in this land.
The licentiate Badillo, a judge of Santo Domingo, came to take a residencia of Pedro de Heredia in the year 1536, and he kept Heredia a prisoner for a long time, until, at the request of Heredia, the licentiate Santa Cruz was sent out as Juez de residencia in the year 1537. When Santa Cruz arrived at Carthagena, he found that the licentiate Badillo had gone in search of Pirú, with all the men he could collect together, in a southerly direction. He passed by the province of Birú, which has already been described, and came to that of Lili, where he found the captain Lorenzo de Aldana, and here Badillo was dismissed, for most of his followers remained at Lili, while the rest went on to Quito. As soon as Santa Cruz arrived at Carthagena, he sent a captain after Badillo, with certain troops, who followed him as far as Lili, where the captain remained, and the troops went where they pleased.
Pedro de Heredia went to Spain with his residencia in the year 1539, and returned to the government of the province of Santa Martha. The first governor of Santa Martha was Bastidas, but one Villafuerte and another killed him by stabbing him in his tent, and he died before he could do anything permanent in that land. One Palomino then remained captain of the colony, who began to conquer the
- ↑ Becerra was sent by Pedrarias to discover this rich land of Zenu, where he lost his life. See page 27. In January 1534 Heredia, the governor of Carthagena, set out with a body of two hundred infantry
