WHOLE VOL. THE WEST INDIES VAZQUEZ DE ESPINOSA 343 



priests sent them for the consolation of their people and the admin- 

 istration of the Holy Sacraments. There being a vacancy, the Chapter 

 of the Holy Church, considering the great difficulties in the way, 

 this being new country and so rough and uninhabited, and that no 

 priest would venture to go there, nevertheless tried to send some, 

 but they all made excuses. So they finally sent one priest and com- 

 mitted to him the spiritual consolation of the new settlers and the 

 administration of the Holy Sacraments for a territory of over i,ooo 

 souls, for they had flocked in from several quarters at the news of 

 the wealth there, with a large number of freshly imported Negroes 

 without the knowledge or the light of our Holy Faith. So being 

 appointed by the vacant seat as Curate and Vicar of that city and 

 province, he set out for it with zeal in the service of God and His 

 Majesty and for the good of their souls. 



Chapter XXHI 



Continuing the Description of the New Mines of Guamaco ; and 

 of Other Matters. 



1033. Having been appointed Curate and Vicar of the Province 

 of Guamaco and the new settlement, he made a journey from Carta- 

 gena of Over 200 leagues. From Cartagena he went up the Rio 

 Grande de La Magdalena, a very unpleasant and uncomfortable trip, 

 as is well known, against the strong current of the river, with its 

 great heat and the annoyance of various sorts of mosquitoes, and 

 the risk and danger of alligators and other trials of the river journey. 

 Finally they arrived at a port on the Rio de Cemiti (Gemiti?), where 

 the encomendero of the Indians is Capt. Pablo Duran de Cogollos, 

 a resident of the town of Mompos in the State of Cartagena. 



1034. At that moment Capt. Alexandrino Ramirez was at the port, 

 with the intention of going on and blazing a trail through there 

 suitable for transporting provisions, having learned that the people 

 there would die of hunger and perish ; and the wealth of the country 

 roused his ambition not to let it be abandoned. So this Capt. 

 Alexandrino Ramirez and the priest took up their journey, and in 

 15 days' time they opened up a suitable trail for a distance of 20 

 leagues, though with great difficulty ; and God was pleased to bring 

 them in this fashion to the new city and many supplies are sent in. 



1035. The new mines have turned out to be very rich, and His 

 Majesty's 20 percent keeps growing, for with the settlement's pros- 

 perity and wealth, many Spanish settlers have come in, bosses of 

 gangs of 30 slaves, and up to 80 and 100. This locality has a very 



