332 ULLOA's voyage to south AMERICA. 



difcover in the water, and fometimes even venture to attack them in their boats. It is 

 a common diverfion for the crews of thofe fhips who flay any time in the bay, to fifh for 

 thefe rapacious monfters, with large hooks faftened to a chain ; though, when they 

 have caught one, there is no eating it, the flefh being as it were a kind of Hquid fat. 

 Some of them have been feen with four rows of teeth ; the younger have generally but 

 two. The voracity of this fifli is fo prodigious, that it fwallows all the filth either 

 thrown out of fhips, or caft up by the fea. I myfelf faw in the'flomach of one the en- 

 tire body of a dog, the fofter parts only having been digefled. The natives affirm that 

 they have alfo feen alligators ; but this being a frefh-water animal, if any were ever [een 

 in the fea, it mufl be fomething very extraordinary. 



In the bay the galleons from Spain wait the arrival of the Peru fleet at Panama, and 

 on the firll advice of this, fail away for Porto Bello ; at the end of the fair held at that 

 town, they return into this bay, and, after taking on board every necelTary for their voy- 

 age, put to fea again as foon as pofTible. During their abfence the bay is little fre- 

 quented ; the country vefTels, which are only a few bilanders and feluccas, flay no lon- 

 ger than is neceffary to careen and fit out for profecuting their voyage. 



CHAP. IV. — Of ibe Inhabitants of Carthagena, 



THE inhabitants may be divided into different cafls or tribes, who derive their 

 origin from a coalition of Whites, Negroes, and Indians. Of each of thefe we fhall 

 treat particularly. 



The Whites may be divided into two clafTes, the Europeans, ajaii Creoles, or Whites 

 born in the country. The former are commonly called Chapetohes, but are not nu- 

 merous ; mofl of them either return into Spain after acquiring a competent fortune, or 

 remove up into inland provinces in order to increafe it. Thofe who are fettled at Car- 

 thagena carry on the whole trade of that place, and live in opulence ; whilfl the other 

 inhabitants are indigent, and reduced to have recourfe to mean and hard labour for fub- 

 fiflence. The families of the White Creoles compofe the landed interefl ; fome of them 

 have large eflates, and are highly refpeded, becaufe their anceflors came into the coun- 

 try invefled with honourable pofls, bringing their families with them when they fettled 

 here. Some of thefe families, in order to keep up their original dignity, have either 

 married their children to their equals in the country, or fent them as officers on board 

 the galleons ; but others have greatly declined. Befides thefe, there are other Whites, 

 in mean circumflances, who either owe their origin to Indian families, or at leafl to an 

 intermarriage with them, fo that there is fome mixture in their blood ; but when this is 

 not difcoverable by their colour, the conceit of being Whites alleviates the prefTure of 

 every other calamity. 



Among the other tribes which are derived from an intermarriage of the Whites with 

 the Negroes, the firfl are the Mulattos. Next to thefe the Tercerones, produced from 

 a White and a Mulatto, with fome approximation to the former, but not fo near as to 

 obliterate their origin. After thefe follow the Quarterones, proceeding from a White 

 and a Terceron. The lafl are the Quinterones, who owe their origin to a White and 

 Quarteron. This is the lafl gradation, there being no vifible difference between them 

 and the Whites, either in colour or features ; nay, they are often fairer than the Spa- 

 niards. The children of a White and Quinteron are alfo called Spaniards, and confi- 

 der themfelves as free from all taint of the Negro race. Every perfon is fo jealous of 

 the order of their tribe or caft, that if, through inadvertence, you call them by a 



ti2 degree 



