point forward the country was populous, though the chiefs were of small account, being from a league to two leagues apart from each other. In this country there is a province called Peruqueta, extending from one sea to the other, and including the Pearl Islands and the gulf of San Miguel. And another province, which was called the land of confusion, because there was no chief in it, is also called Cueva. The people are all one, speaking one language, and are dressed like those of Acla. From this province of Peruqueta to Adechame, a distance of forty leagues still in a westerly direction, the country is called Coiba, and the language is the same as that of Cueva, only more polished, and the people have more self-assertion. They differ also in the men not wearing the shells, like those of Cueva; for they go quite naked, without any covering. The women are
Indian workman of that district, who has collected it many times. I, Sire, have myself been very near these mountains, within a day's journey, but I did not reach them because I was unable, for a man gets as far as he can, not as far as he wishes. Beyond these mountains the country is very flat towards the south, and the Indians say that the other sea is at a distance of three days' journey. All the caciques and Indians of the country of Comogre tell me that there is such great store of gold collected in lumps, in the houses of the caciques of the other sea, that we should be astonished. They declare that the Indians of the other sea come to the residence of this cacique Comogre by a river, and bring gold to be melted. In exchange for the gold they get cotton cloth, and good looking Indian men and women. They do not eat these men and women, like the people towards the great river" (Atrato). "The river which flows from the territory of the cacique Comogre to the other sea forms itself into three branches, each of which enters the other sea by itself. Pearls are brought to the cacique Comogre to be exchanged, by the western branch; and the canoes with gold enter by the eastern branch." Letter of Vasco Nuñez to the King. I presume this must be the river Chucunaque of the Spanish maps.
Vasco Nuñez had formed a friendship with the cacique of Comogre, before the arrival of Pedrarias, and had visited his house, which was, according to Las Casas, 150 feet long, 80 broad, and 80 in height. Comogre gave the Spaniards some gold, over the division of which they quarrelled, and then it was that his son told them of a country abounding in gold, far to the south. It has been supposed that the young man
