compatriots with the honour they deserved, and was unable even to furnish them provisions. As a token of submission and friendship he willingly sent several golden vases, and asked pardon. It was thought this unfortunate cacique wished it to be understood that he had been robbed and cruelly treated by some neighbouring enemy, so the Spaniards left his territory, with mouths gaping from hunger, and thinner than when they entered it. During the march, some naked people appeared on the flank of the column. They made signs from a hilltop and Vasco ordered a halt to wait for them. Interpreters who accompanied the Spaniards asked them what they wanted, to which they replied "Our cacique, Chiorisos, salutes you. He knows you are brave men who redress wrongs and punish the wicked, and though he only knows you by reputation he respects and honours you. Nothing would have pleased him better than to have you as his guests at his residence. He would have been proud to receive such guests, but since he has not yet had this good fortune and you have passed him by, he sends you as a pledge of affection these small pieces of gold." With courteous smiles they presented to Vasco thirty _patenas_ of pure gold, saying they would give him still more if he would come to visit them. The Spaniards give the name _patena_ to those balls of metal worn on the neck, and also to the sacred utensil with which the chalice is covered when carried to the altar. Whether in this instance plates for the table or balls are meant, I am absolutely ignorant; I suppose, however, that they are plates, since they weighed fourteen pounds, at eight ounces to the pound.