Page:Narrative of the Proceedings of Pedrarias Davila (Haklyut, 34).djvu/72

 he turned to come back by land, sending a ship to explore a gulf which they called San Lucar, in Nicaragua. The ship brought back news respecting that land; and the Licentiate, returning by land to Panama from the province of Burica, came, with as many men as he could spare, to the province of Huista. Here he remained for some time, loading the ships with maize, and sending it to Panama, because there was great scarcity and little land that was inhabited.

The people of this province and of that of Burica, were almost exactly the same in the fashion of their clothes, and in their customs. The women wore a truss round their loins, as their clothing; and the men were naked. The country is fertile, with plentiful supplies of fish, and a great quantity of swine, which were caught with large nets of stuff like hemp, called by the Indians nequen, the meshes being a finger in breadth. These nets were fastened at the entrance of a wood where there was a herd of swine, who came against the nets and were unable to get through the meshes. Then the people called out, the nets fell over the swine, and they were killed with lances, so that none escaped, of those that fell into the nets.

Leaving this province on our way to Panama by land, we arrived at a mountainous district, with a cold climate, where we found some forests of very beautiful oaks covered with acorns. There were three or four chiefs in this province, and their villages were well fortified with pallisades made of very strong thorny plants, intertwined, and forming a thick wall. Throughout these districts the Indians were seized and bound. From Burica to this province, which is called Tobreytrota, nearly every chief has a different language from the others. From this hilly country we turned to descend towards the sea, and came to the province of Nata,