touch the naked skin, and unless sea-water or the saliva of a man who is fasting be not at once applied, these blisters produce painful death.  This tree also grows in Hispaniola.  It is claimed that to smell its wood is fatal, and it cannot be transported anywhere without risk of death.  When the islanders of Hispaniola sought in vain to shake off the yoke of servitude, either by open resistance or secret plots, they tried to smother the Spaniards in their sleep by the smoke of this wood.  Astonished at seeing the wood scattered about them, the Spaniards forced the wretched natives to confess their plot and punished the authors of it.  The natives likewise are acquainted with a plant whose smell fortifies them, and serves as remedy against the odour of this tree, making it possible for them to handle the wood.  These particulars are futile; and this enough on this subject.

The Spaniards hoped to find still greater riches in the islands of the South Sea.  When the courier who brought this news started, Pedro Arias was preparing an expedition[5] to an island lying in the midst of the gulf the Spaniards have named San Miguel, and which Vasco did not touch, owing to a rough sea.  I have already spoken at length of it in describing the expedition of Vasco to the South Sea.  We daily expect to hear of fresh exploits excelling the former ones, for a number of other provinces have been conquered, and we sincerely hope that they will not prove useless nor devoid of claims to our admiration.

[Note 5:  This expedition under the command of Gaspar Morales was unsuccessful.]

Juan Diaz Solis de Nebrissa, whom we have already mentioned, has been sent to double Cape San Augustin, which belongs to the Portuguese, and lies seven degrees below the equinoctial line.  He should go towards the south, below Paria, Cumana, Coquibacoa, and the harbours of Carthagena, and Santa Marta, in order that our knowledge of the continent may be more precise and extensive.  Another commander, Juan Pons, has been sent with three ships to ravage the islands of the Caribs and reduce to slavery these filthy islanders, who feed on men.  The other islands in the neighbourhood, which are inhabited by mild-mannered people, will thus be delivered from this pest and may be explored, and the character of their products discovered.

Other explorers have been sent out in different directions:  Gaspar de Badajoz, towards the west; Francisco Bezarra and Vallejo, the first by the extremity of the gulf and the other along the western shore of its entrance, will seek to lay bare the secrets of that country where formerly Hojeda sought, under such unhappy circumstances, to settle.  They will build there a fort and a town.  Gaspar de Badajoz, with eighty well-armed men, was the first to leave Darien; Ludovico Mercado followed him with fifty others; Bezarra had eighty men under his orders, and Vallejo seventy.  Whether they will succeed or will fall into dangerous places, only the providence of the Great Architect knows.  We men are forced to await the occurrence of events before we can know them.  Let us go on to another subject.