NARRATIVE OF PASCUAL DE ANDAGOYA

Summary

In the year 1514 Pedrarias de Avila, who had been appointed governor of the mainland called Castilla del Oro, by the Catholic king of glorious memory, embarked at Seville, with nineteen ships and fifteen hundred men—the most distinguished company that had yet set out from Spain. The first land of the Indies at which he arrived was the island of Dominica. This island has a very large and beautiful harbour. The land is for the most part hilly and wooded. Here he disembarked with his troops, and desired to find out whether there were any inhabitants. Some of the Spaniards, entering the woods, met with Indians armed with poisoned arrows, who were wandering about in the forests which surrounded the camp, watching for an opportunity to kill a stray Spaniard. These Indians are a warlike people. They eat human flesh, and both men and women go about stark naked. This island has not been occupied, because the conquest would be very dangerous, and of little value.

Thence, continuing his way to the mainland, Pedrarias arrived at the province of Santa Martha, where he landed all his men. He wished to learn the secrets of the land, and a company of his troops came to a village deserted by its inhabitants, where they captured some spoil, and found a certain quantity of gold in a tomb. The people of this land are almost the same as those of Dominica, they are armed with arrows, and the arrows are poisoned.