When we go from some villages to others, we cross many deep rivers, which are all generally full of caymans or crocodiles.  These [reptiles] swallow a bull, a cow, or a deer even to their horns, thus causing great loss.  They also catch and eat the Indians daily.

There is a most abundant quantity of snakes, almost all of which cause death when they sting.  There is but one remedy for the wounds, namely, if they happen to have a little of the earth from San Pablo.  By having it blessed, they are infallibly cured; and he who is treated with this remedy does not die.  There are other snakes which are not poisonous.  They are so large that they can swallow a large wild boar, or a large deer, horns and all.  A father and some Indians killed one which was eating a hog; they ran up on hearing the grunts of the hog, and speared and killed the snake.

There is great abundance of material products, and the country is very fertile.  The grain of these regions is rice, and as a rule each fanega of grain sowed yields one hundred fanegas, and many yield two hundred fanegas, especially if it is irrigated and transplanted.  There are oranges of many varieties, some of them resembling large melons.  Honey and wax is found in the trees, where the bees make it.  The wax is worth sixteen or twenty reals an arroba, and a jar of honey one real.  I saw a tree which had many honeycombs hanging on the branches.  The mountains are fuller of wild boars than are the commons of Espana of swine and cattle in acorn time.  One of those swine, if it is fat, is worth two reals, but only one if not fat; and a deer is worth the same sum.  There are almost no fruits of Espana.  There are melons, cucumbers, pumpkins, and radishes of the country, and quantities of cabbages and lettuce.  There are many native fruits, some of which are excellent, but they are not so many or so good as those of Espana, while the food does not have the same nourishment as in Espana.  The swine here are excellent, and better and more healthful than those of Espana; for they are eaten like mutton, and are given to the sick as mutton is in Espana.

God is ever our physician and apothecary in sickness, and but few times does one fall grievously sick when our Lord does not supply the lack of medicines, without which [MS. holed:  we?] get along very well, and God helps [us].  Panbohen, July 6, 1629.

Pedro de Prado

We received a letter from Eastern India which gives very good news of its condition; for the Dutch are now in small numbers and are very much disaccredited, with both the Moros and the heathen, and these have revolted against the Dutch and driven them from their lands and from the houses of trade that they owned, because they have found them false in their commerce and deceitful in their trading.  Our men went to help drive out the Dutch.

Good news comes from Zeilan and Tebet of the great conversion to Christianity that is being effected there and in other regions, and that the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ continues to increase.