Ciiap. XV.—B. P.] EATING MONKEY NOT CANNIBALISM. 251 
the solids, I am not ashamed to say was eaten by me 
with very considerable relish. 
Touching the account of the monks, it is scarcely 
worth analysing; the tone of spite throughout it 
would prevent most people from placing any faith in 
such a description. The tirade of abuse commences 
with calling the Indians idolaters; I am sure they 
might have returned the compliment with far greater 
justice. Then they are called ‘ pathicswhatever that 
may mean I confess I do not know, but the word may 
have been used as a clincher, just as O’Connell demo¬ 
lished the fair lady of Billingsgate by calling her a 
theodolite. At all events, if this description were ap¬ 
plicable to the natives of that day (and there is no 
tradition to show that it ever was), it would certainly 
he far wide of the mark now. 
Columbus tried hard to establish a settlement on 
this coast, hut met with nothing hut disaster, and was 
ultimately obliged to abandon his design in despair. 
After his death, others attempted to follow his ex¬ 
ample,—the most noteworthy of whom was Don Diego 
de Nicuesa, who received from the King of Spain a 
patent as Governor of the country from the Gulf of 
Uraba, or Darien, to Cape Gracias a Dios. 
In November, 1509, Don Diego started from His¬ 
paniola, and steered direct for the Spanish Main, in¬ 
tending afterwards to pursue his course to the west¬ 
ward ; hut he had to encounter misfortune after mis¬ 
fortune, and very soon, from hardships and the arrows 
of the natives, found his force reduced from 780 to 17 
men, with whom he set sail from Darien on the 1st of 
