Il6 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 102 



country with many trees. The river running through the town is 

 very salutary, with fresh and crystal-clear water, and abundance of 

 fish ; when it reaches the town it is a mighty stream, its source being 

 over 30 leagues away. 



326. The town is very healthful, with agreeable and bracing 

 breezes, aided in this by the river ; since it runs through a region full 

 of ceterach and sarsaparilla, it is of great benefit to the inhabitants 

 of the town ; thanks to its numerous virtues, persons suffering from 

 the French pox and other open sores and illnesses, have only to take 

 some exercise and get into a perspiration and then bathe in it under 

 the blazing rays of the sun and they recover their health, merely by 

 bathing and rubbing themselves with certain large leaves which grow 

 on the banks of this river entwined in the trees and called jibana ; 

 the same result is obtained by persons suffering from hives (ronchas) 

 or pustules ; by bathing mornings in the river, they avoid blood- 

 letting and come out cured and healthy. 



327. This mighty river is fed by over 20 small streams, and so 

 when it rains the river comes down in flood, carrying many trees 

 and timbers to the sea at the main port of the town, which is good 

 and ample. It has two channels for ships to enter by ; there is an 

 island in between near the harbor, and then the two channels unite 

 and form one. Small boats stay in the neighborhood of the port ; 

 large ships, after discharging cargo, pass into an inlet for fear of 

 enemies, so to be out of sight. 



328. This harbor is visited by many Negro slave ships brought by 

 the Portuguese from Cape Verde and the (African) rivers, to re- 

 fresh them after the voyage they have made, since the country is 

 very fertile and overflowing with cheap food supplies ; and those 

 who are sick, what with the agreeable climate and bathing in the 

 health-giving waters of the river and plenty of meat and other food, 

 are cured and recover their health, to pass on to New Spain, Car- 

 tagena, and other points. 



329. At the harbor of this town its inhabitants have built a sort 

 of fortified embankments up by the entrance, for defense against 

 enemies, with some pieces of artillery in them. A remarkable event 

 took place in this harbor, while Don Ferdinando Melgarejo was 

 Governor of the island for His Majesty ; on the eve of the festival 

 of San Diego a corsair arrived with a fleet of 16 ships, intending to 

 take the island and sack the town. Their General disembarked some 

 600 men from them; the residents were called out for defense 

 against the enemy and God gave them such good fortune that they 

 killed over 100 of them, including the General, without our losing 



