WHOLE VOL. THE WEST INDIES — VAZQUEZ DE ESPINOSA 667 



upland country, for that is the principal commerce of that region, 

 and many have grown rich in it. 



1753. All the Indians on this coast, besides their food of shellfish 

 already referred to, have as their chief food and drink, whale oil, 

 and they kill many whales, which are abundant on that coast, to get it. 

 The way they fish or hunt for them is curious and shrewd. There 

 is abundance of copper in that province, and with it they make 

 prongs or spears shorter than bullfight spears and fasten them to 

 short shafts secured by tying them to their wrists with sea-lion 

 leather thongs ; then they go out hunting whales. These generally 

 sleep off that coast from midday on for 2 or 3 hours, in the most 

 peaceful and profound slumber on top of the water, and covering 

 the head from the sun for their sleep with a short fin they have 

 over the heart. Then when the Indian has spied one asleep, at which 

 they are very expert, he goes out to it on his sea-lion skin raft, 

 which he can utilize without the possibility of losing it, and reaches 

 the sleeping whale ; he gives it a harpoon thrust under the fin, where 

 its heart is, and immediately drops into the water to escape the 

 whale's reaction ; for when it feels the wound it is furious and bellows 

 loudly and dashes the water high in the air in the wild and angry 

 struggles which the pain causes ; then it starts ofif bellowing toward 

 deep water, until it yields to mortal fatigue. Meanwhile the Indian 

 has recovered his raft and returned to shore to watch and locate the 

 point off the coast where it is dying, and they remain on guard till 

 they see it stop. Then all that clan and group of relatives who have 

 been carefully watching, go there at once together with all their 

 friends and neighbors for the feast ; they open it up on one side, 

 and some stay inside gorging and others outside for 6 or 8 days 

 until they cannot stand it any longer for the stench. Meanwhile they 

 fill all their containers (which are mostly made of sea lions' intestines) 

 with slices of the whale's blubber, which the sun's heat melts and 

 turns into oil ; that oil is their usual beverage. These sea-lion bags 

 or containers are sometimes so large that each one will easily hold 

 an arroba of oil. And as the Indians usually go inside the whale for 

 their feasting on it and anoint themselves with its fat, their hair 

 comes out red as gold or a burning candle ; and as they are tanned by 

 the intensity of the sun in that hot country, it is a strange thing to see 

 their black figures and appearance (acataduras) and their hair red. 



1754. On all this desert and inhospitable coast there is no tree 

 or headland in whose shade one might take refuge from the blaze 

 of the sun. There are great numbers of wild and stray dogs there, 

 which live on the shellfish ; and as they have no shelter or refuge 



