very troublesome. To protect ourselves from them, we would build many fires around the people, using rotten, damp firewood so that it would not burn well but produce a lot of smoke. But this protection caused another affliction, because all night long our eyes watered from the smoke in them. On top of this we had to withstand the great heat from the fires. We would go out to sleep on the coast, but if we could ever get to sleep, the Indians would awaken us with a beating to go and rekindle the fires. The Indians of the interior protect themselves in another way that is even less bearable: they walk around with firebrands in their hands, burning the fields and the woods around them to drive off the mosquitoes and to drive out from under the ground lizards and other things they eat. They also kill deer by encircling them with fire. They also do this to destroy the animals' grazing areas, so that they will be forced to go where they want them, since the Indians never make camp except in places having water and firewood. Sometimes they carry all these things and go look for deer, which ordinarily are found where there is no water or firewood. On the day they arrive, they kill deer and other things and use up all the water and firewood for cooking and for building fires to protect themselves from mosquitoes. They wait until the following day to gather things for their return. When they depart, they are so bitten by mosquitoes that they appear to have St. Lazarus' disease. In this manner they satisfy their hunger two or three times a year, at such a great cost, as I have said. Having endured this, I can affirm that no other affliction suffered in the world can equal this. In this country there are many deer and other animals and birds of the kind I have already mentioned. Cows come here; I have seen them three or four times and eaten them. It seems to me they are about the size of the ones in Spain. They have two small horns, like Moorish cattle, and very long hair, like a fine blanket made from the wool of merino sheep. Some are brownish and others black. It seems to me