WHOLE VOL. THE WEST INDIES — ^VAZQUEZ DE ESriNOSA 327 



Trinidad). They had some encounters with the heathen, from which 

 the Spaniards always came off victorious ; but the General was 

 wounded with an arrow dipped in vegetable poison, so that they 

 realized he must die. At this moment Capt. Juan de Ribera arrived 

 with reinforcements, including some dogs as auxiliaries ; they fought 

 better than the Spaniards against the savages, and the latter were 

 afraid of them, for they dashed in among the savages and tore them 

 to pieces. So they subdued the greater part of these provinces and 

 brought that warlike tribe into subjection, and although it was so 

 fierce and so averse to subjection, it remained a subject tribe. They 

 were brave, well-built, and robust ; they fought with deadly poisoned 

 arrows, with war clubs and with lances 25 palms long, made of a 

 tough and poisonous palm. They attacked with loud war whoops, 

 shouts, and the blowing of horns and conchs. At the time of the 

 harvests they used to ask for a truce with the Spaniards, to gather 

 the crops, which they shared with them in return for letting them 

 harvest them, and then they would go to war again. When they had 

 realized the courage of the Spaniards and the ferocity of their dogs, 

 which they dreaded more than the harquebusses, they submitted and 

 made peace. Thereupon search was made for a suitable location and 

 site, and they found the one known as La Caldera, which is abun- 

 dantly supplied with provisions, wood, and water, but has a hot, damp 

 climate, being at 6° N. It is healthy and has salubrious breezes. 

 They have two summers and two winters; one from the beginning 

 of December lasting till the end of February ; then it is winter till 

 the beginning of June, when another summer starts, lasting all through 

 September. It is not that it gets colder or hotter, for the climate is 

 always uniform and the days and nights the same length; it is a 

 question of water, for in these two winter seasons, it rains, and 

 generally it falls at night, and there is no rain in the daytime. Every 

 4 months they get a crop, and it is abundant. 



Chapter XII 



Of the City of Trinidad de Los Muzos ; and of the Rich Emerald 

 Mines in Its District, and the Way They Handle Them. 



976. The city of Trinidad de Los Muzos was founded in the year 

 1547 by Gen. Luis Lanchero on the site known as La Caldera, in 

 a level spot on the slopes of a mountain, with a climate as described. 

 It lies in 6° N., 6 leagues from the great Cordillera, which runs 

 N. and S. more than 1,500 leagues, from near Santa Marta to the 

 Straits of Magellan ; it is E. of the city. In the jurisdiction of this 



