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They sent two young girls, virgins of remarkable beauty, to our men, and gave it to be understood that they might take them away. These young girls, like all the other women, wore waist-cloths made of bandelets of cotton, which is the costume of the women of Cariai. The men on the contrary go naked.
Without repeating what I have said concerning Cariai and the neighbourhood of Santa Marta, here is another proof. A certain Andreas Morales, a pilot of these seas, who was a friend and companion of Juan de la Cosa during his lifetime, possessed a diamond which a young native of Paria in Cumana had discovered.
These collars are delicately wrought in the form of eagles, lions, or other similar animals, but it was observed that the metal was not very pure. The two natives, brought from Cariai, explained that both the regions of Cerabaroa and Aburema were rich in gold, and that all the gold their countrymen required for ornaments was obtained from thence by trading.
The Admiral called it Mirobolan because trees of that name grew there spontaneously. At the port of Cariai about two hundred natives appeared, each armed with three or four spears; but mild-mannered and hospitable. As they did not know to what strange race the Spaniards belonged, they prepared to receive them and asked for a parley.
The natives of Cariai preserve the bodies of their chiefs and their relatives, drying them upon hurdles and then packing them in leaves; but the common people bury their dead in the forest. Leaving Cariai and sailing a distance of twenty leagues the Spaniards discovered a gulf of such size that they thought that it must have a circumference of twelve leagues.
They suspected the Spaniards of setting a trap for them in offering these presents, and refused to accept their gifts. They left everything that was given them on the shore. Such are the courtesy and generosity of these people of Cariai, that they would rather give than receive.
Continuing his course against the ocean current, the Admiral discovered a number of mountains, valleys, rivers, and harbours; the atmosphere was laden with balmy odours. Columbus writes that not one of his men fell ill till he reached a place the natives call Quicuri, which is a point or cape where the port of Cariai lies.
The natives of Caramaira, Cariai, and Saturma are all skilful fishermen, and it is by selling their fish to the inland tribes that they procure the products they need and desire. When the barbarians withdrew from the coast, the Spaniards entered their boios, that is to say their houses. The natives frequently attacked our men with fury, seeking to kill them all with flights of poisoned arrows.
Sprouts, like graftings of vines, take root and planted in the earth they, in their turn, become trees of the same evergreen species. Pliny has spoken of such trees in the second book of his natural history, but those he mentions grew in an arid soil and not in the sea. The same animals we have above described exist in Cariai.
This must certainly be admitted. We have already related what the companions of Pedro Arias and some officials discovered at the port of Santa Marta in the Cariai region when they penetrated there with the whole fleet. Every day the harvest increases, and overtops that of the last. The exploits of Saturn and Hercules and other heroes, glorified by antiquity, are reduced to nothing.
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