These Animals,
Are Ordinarily From Twenty To Twenty-Five Feet Long, And Kill Either Men
Or Beasts When In The Water.
They come out of the water to lay their eggs,
which they bury in great numbers in the sand, leaving them to be hatched
by the heat of the sun.
These caymans have a strong resemblance to the
crocodiles of the river Nile. The Spaniards suffered much from hunger in
this voyage, as they could find nothing fit to eat along this coast except
the fruit of a tree called mangles, which grew in great abundance
everywhere along the shore. These trees are tall and straight, and have a
very hard wood; but as they grow on the shore, their roots being drenched
in sea water, their fruit is salt and bitter; yet necessity obliged the
Spaniards to subsist on them, along with such fish as they could find,
particularly crabs; as on the whole of that coast no maize was grown by
the natives. From the currents along this coast, which always set strongly
to the north, they were obliged to make their way by dint of constant
rowing; always harassed by the Indians, who assailed them with loud cries,
calling them banished men, and _hairy faces_, who were formed from the
spray of the sea, and wandered about without cultivating the earth, like
outcasts and vagabonds.
Having lost several of his men through famine and by the incessant attacks
of the Indians, it was agreed that Almagro should return to Panama for
recruits and provisions.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 524 of 796
Words from 145103 to 145360
of 221091
