In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

j 125 C H A P T E R F I F T Y- N I N E The Governor Sends Word to the Xarayes Antón Correa and Héctor de Acuña left for the towns and the territory of the Xaray Indians, along with several Indians as guides, to speak with those people on behalf of the Governor. Eight days later they came back to the port to let the Governor know what they had done and what they knew of that country, its people, and its chief—what they had seen with their own eyes. They brought with them an Indian who had been sent by the chief of the Xarayes to act as a guide for the exploration of the back country. Antón Correa and Héctor de Acuña also said that on the day after they left Puerto Reyes with the guides for their journey, some Indians they called the Artaneses had arrived in the native towns. These are a people large in body who go about totally naked. They’re farmers, but they plant very little because they have only a small bit of good land to cultivate. The greater part of their lands is often subject to flooding and full of very dry sands. They are quite poor, maintaining themselves for most of the year by fishing in the lakes that lie next to their towns. The women among these Indians have very ugly faces, because they carve them up with a lot of lines, using the stingers of the rays found in the waters there. They do, however, cover up their private parts. The faces of the men of this tribe are also appallingly ugly because they perforate the lower lip, inserting in it the husk of the fruit of some trees. 1 This fruit is round like the large knob of a spindle, and the size of one as well. It overloads the lip and enlarges it to such an extent that it is horrible to behold. The Artaneses received our envoys very graciously in their houses, however, and gave them food to eat out of what they had. 126 j C H A P T E R F I F T Y - N I N E Later, our men had continued on their way with a man of that tribe to guide them. They took drinking water along in calabashes and with an enormous effort traveled all day through the swamps. They had to put one foot in front of the other while sinking up to the knee with each single step, pulling their legs out only with a great struggle. And all that slime was so hot, and the sun so boiling, that their legs were affected by the temperature and erupted in ulcers, which caused the men untold pain. As if this weren’t enough, they were about to die for certain that same day of thirst, because the water the Indians carried in the calabashes didn’t last even half a day’s journey. They slept that night on the ground between those swamps only after much hardship—hungry, worn-out, and thirsty. On the following day, at eight in the morning, they came to a little pool of water, which they drank although it was very dirty. They filled up the calabashes the Indians carried and traveled all day through flooded spots, just as they had the day before, except that they found pond water in some places, which refreshed them. They came across a tree that gave them a bit of shade, where they dozed and ate their provisions. But they saved nothing for the road ahead. The guides said that a considerable journey still remained before they came to the settlements of the Xaray Indians. As night had come, they slept until daybreak. Then they started out again, heading into swamps from which they never expected to emerge, considering the harshness and difficulties they found in them. Their legs not only ulcerated again with the heat, they sank into the morass up to their belts, and they couldn’t turn their feet around to extract themselves. These swamps lasted more than a league, and then they found a better path, well situated. By an hour past noon that same day, our party had eaten nothing, nor did they have anything left to eat. They suddenly saw coming along the path toward them some twenty Indians, who approached expressing great pleasure and...

Share