Concerning the river of Santa Martha,[253] and of the things which are met with on its banks.

NOW that I have reached the city of Popayan, and described its site, neighbourhood, founding, and people, it seems well that I should give an account of the river which flows near it, and which is one of the two branches which form the great river of Santa Martha. Before treating of this river, however, I will relate what I find in the Scriptures concerning the four principal rivers mentioned there, which are, first, the Ganges, flowing through the East Indies; second, the Nile, separating Asia from Africa, and watering the land of Egypt; third and fourth, the Tigris and Euphrates, which encircle the two regions of Mesopotamia and Cappadocia. These are the four which are said, in the Holy Scriptures, to issue out of the earthly paradise. I also find that mention is made of three others, which are the river Indus, whence India takes its name; the river Danube, being the principal in Europe; and the river Tanais, dividing Europe from Asia. Of all these, the greatest is the Ganges, concerning which Ptolemy says, in his book of geography, that the narrowest part is eight thousand paces, and the broadest twenty thousand paces across. According to this, the broadest part of the Ganges is seven leagues across. This is the extreme breadth of the largest river in the world, that was known before the discovery of these Indies. But now they have found rivers of such strange bigness, that they appear more like gulfs of the sea, than rivers which flow through the land. This appears from what is stated by many of the Spaniards who went with the Adelantado Orellana. They declare that the river which flows from Peru into the North Sea (commonly called the Amazons or MaraÑon) is more than a thousand leagues long, and in some parts twenty-five broad; and the Rio de la Plata is said by many who have been there to be so broad that, in many places, the banks on either side are not visible from the centre of the stream, being more than eight leagues across. The river of Darien, too, is great, and that of Urapa is no smaller, and there are many others of great size in these Indies, amongst which is this river of Santa Martha.

The river of Santa Martha is formed by two branches. One of these, which flows by the city of Popayan, rises in the great Cordillera of the Andes, in some valleys formed by the mountains five or six leagues from the city. These valleys were well peopled in former times, and are so to this day, though not so thickly, by certain Indians whom they call Coconucos, and among these, near a village called Cotara, this river has its source, which, as I have before said, is one of the branches of the great and rich river of Santa Martha.

The sources of the two branches are forty leagues from each other, and the river is so large at the place where they unite, that it has a breadth of one league, while, where it enters into the North Sea, near the city of Santa Martha, it is seven leagues broad, and its force is so great that its waters enter into the waves at last to be converted into a part of the sea. Many ships have taken in good fresh water from it out at sea, for its force is so mighty that it passes for more than four leagues into the sea before it mingles with the salt water. It enters the sea by many mouths and openings. In the mountain of the Coconucos (which I have already said is the birth-place of one of the branches) it is like a little brook, but it flows on to the broad valley of Cali, receiving streams from mountains on both sides, so that, when it reaches the city of Cali, it is so great and powerful that to me it seemed to have as much water as the Guadalquivir at Seville. Lower down, when it reaches Buritica, near the city of Antiochia, having received many more streams, it is still larger. There are provinces and villages of Indians from the source of this river to the point where it enters the ocean, and such wealth of gold, both in mines and in the possession of the Indians, that it cannot be exaggerated, it being so great. The natives of these regions are not very intelligent, and they have so many languages that, in going amongst them, it was necessary to take many interpreters.

All the wealth of the province of Santa Martha, most of that of Carthagena, of Nueva Granada, and of the province of Popayan, is near this river; and, besides the country which has been discovered near its banks, there are rumours of populous districts between the two branches, which have yet to be explored. The Indians say that in these districts there is great store of riches, and that the Indians who are natives possess the mortal herb of Uraba. The Adelantado Don Pedro de Heredia passed by the bridge of Brenuco, where, the river flowing in great strength, the Indians had made a bridge with trees and strong creepers, after the fashion of the bridges I have described already. He went some days march by land, but returned, having few horses and Spaniards with him. The Adelantado Don Sebastian de Belalcazar also wished to send another captain by a route more to the eastward, which is less dangerous, called the valley of Aburra, to explore the country thoroughly between the two branches of this great river. But when he was on the road the enterprise was abandoned, in order to send the troops to the viceroy Blasco NuÑez Vela, at the time when he was at war with Gonzalo Pizarro and his followers.

Returning to the subject of this river of Santa Martha, I would observe that, where the two branches unite, a number of islands are formed, some of which are inhabited. Near the sea there are many very fierce alligators and other great fish, called manatee,[254] which are as large as a calf, and are born on the beaches and islands. They come out to browse when they can do so without danger, and presently return to their haunts. About one hundred and twenty leagues below the city of Antiochia, that of Mompox has been founded, within the jurisdiction of Carthagena, and here they call this river the Cauca. The length of the river from its source to the sea is more than four hundred leagues.