He Went Also To Sumatra; To The
Cities Of Pedir And Pacem; And All Along That Coast To The Island Of
Puloreira, And The Fiats Of Capacia; Thence He Stood Over To The City Of
Malacca, In Lat.
2 deg.
N. where the people took and slew some of his men.
After this he returned to Cochin, having discovered five hundred leagues
in this voyage. The island of Sumatra is the first land in which we knew
of mens flesh being eaten, by certain people in the mountains called
Bacas, who gild their teeth. In their opinion the flesh of the blacks is
sweeter than that of the whites. The flesh of the oxen, kine, and hens in
that country is as black as ink. A people is said to dwell in that
country, called _Daraqui-Dara_, having tails like sheep[20]. There are
likewise springs of rock oil or bitumen. In the kingdom of Pedir,
likewise, there is said to be a river of oil; which is not to be wondered
at, as we are assured there is also a well of oil in Bactria. It is
further said that there is a tree in that country, the juice of which is
a strong poison if it touch a mans blood; but if drank, it is a sovereign
antidote against poison. They have here also certain gold coins, called
drachms, brought, as they say, into their country by the Romans[21],
which seems to have some resemblance to truth, because beyond that
country there are no gold coins.
In 1508, Alphonso de Hojeda went with the license of King Ferdinand, but
at his own charges, to conquer the province of Darien, in the Terra Firma
of the new world. Landing in the country of Uraba, he called it Castilia
del Oro, or Golden Castile, because of the gold found in the sand along
its coast. He went first from the city of San Domingo, in Hispaniola,
with four ships and three hundred soldiers, leaving behind him the
bachelor Anciso, who afterwards compiled a book of these discoveries. He
was followed by a fourth ship with provisions and ammunition, and a
reinforcement of 150 Spaniards. Hojeda landed at Carthagena, where the
natives took, slew, and devoured seventy of his men, by which his force
was much weakened. Some time after but in the same year, Diego de Niquesa
fitted out seven ships in the port of Beata, intending to go to Veragua
with 800 men; but coming to Carthegana, where he found Hojeda much
weakened by his losses, they joined their forces, and avenged themselves
of the natives. In this voyage Niquesa discovered the coast called Nombre
de Dios, and went into the sound of Darien, on the river Pito, which he
named Puerto de Misas. Coming to Veragua, Hojeda went on shore with his
soldiers, and built there the town of Caribana, as a defence against the
Caribbees; being the first town built by the Spaniards on the continent
of the new world.
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