ABSTRACT
Two days journey from Quarequa, they came to a tribe of blacks, who waged continual war against the Quarequatons: these blacks were supposed to have been shipwrecked upon the coast. In Quarequa, Vasco Nunez left several of his men sick, and after a march of twenty-five days, " He beheld with wondering eyes the tops of the high mountains, shewed unto him by the guides of Quarequa, from the which he might see the other sea, so long looked for, and never seen before, of any man coming out of our world. Approaching, therefore, to the tops of the mountains, he commanded his army to stay, and went himself alone to the top, as it were to take the first possession thereof; where, falling prostrate upon the ground, and raising himself again upon his knees, as the manner of the Christians is to pray, lifting up his eyes and hands toward heaven, and directing his face toward the new-found South Sea, he poured forth his humble and devout prayers before Almighty God." He then called his companions, shewed them the sea, and all of them " praised God, with loud voices, for joy." He raised several heaps of stones, instead of altars, for a token of possession, and carved the King's name on the trees on both sides of his road, until he came to the territories of King Chiapes, who attempted to oppose his passage. The conflict was short, and Vasco entered his palace victorious; here he released the prisoners, and by means of the Quarequans, made a perpetual league of friendship with Chiapes, who gave the Spaniards 400 pounds weight of wrought gold, of those pounds which they call pesos. When the soldiers who were left behind in Quarequa had joined Vasco, he departed from the top of the mountains, accompanied by Chiapes himself, and in four days arrived at the South Sea.
