is near to the shore, it extends beyond the mouth
of the gulf, out into the open sea. Vasco was
glad to hear these particulars, and perceived the
profit he might derive. In order to attach the
two caciques more closely to his interest and to convert
them into allies, he denounced the chieftain of the
island, with direful threats. He pledged himself
to land there and to conquer, exterminate, and massacre
the cacique. To give effect to his words, he
ordered the canoes to be prepared, but both Chiapes
and Tumaco amicably urged him to postpone this enterprise
until the return of fair weather, as no canoe could
ride the sea at that season of the year.
This was in November when storms and hurricanes prevail.
The coasts of the island are inhospitable, and among
the channels separating different islands is heard
the horrible roaring of the waves battling with one
another. The rivers overflow their beds, and,
rushing down the mountain slopes, tear up the rocks
and huge trees, and pour into the sea with unparallelled
uproar. Raging winds from the south and southwest
prevailing at that season, accompanied by perpetual
thunder and lightning, sweep over and destroy the
houses. Whenever the weather was clear, the nights
were cold, but during the day the heat was insufferable.
Nor is this astonishing, for this region is near the
equator, and the pole star is no longer visible.
In that country the icy temperature during the night
is due to the moon and other planets, while the sun
and its satellites cause the heat during the day.
Such were not the opinions of the ancients, who imagined
that the equinoctial circle was devoid of inhabitants
because of the perpendicular rays of the sun.
Some few authors, whose theories the Portuguese have
shown by experience to be correct, dissented from this
view. Each year the Portuguese arrive at the antartic
antipodes, and carry on commerce with those people.
I say the antipodes; yet I am not ignorant that there
are learned men, most illustrious for their genius
and their science, amongst whom there are some saints
who deny the existence of the antipodes. No one
man can know everything. The Portuguese have
gone beyond the fifty-fifth degree of the other Pole,
where, in sailing about the point, they could see throughout
the heavenly vault certain nebulae, similar to the
Milky Way, in which rays of light shone. They
say there is no notable fixed star near that Pole,
similar to the one in our hemisphere, vulgarly believed
to be the Pole, and which is called in Italy tramontane,
in Spain the North Star. From the world’s
axis in the centre of the sign of the Scales, the
sun, when it sets for us rises for them, and when it
is springtime there, it is autumn with us, and summer
there when we have winter. But enough of this
digression, and let us resume our subject.
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