About the scorpions that are found on this Island of Hispaniola and other islands of these Indies.

Translated by Paola Castañeda ’22

There are scorpions on these islands, Indies and Mainland that are the same as what we in Castile call alacranes, and there are many in some of these parts. Pliny[1] says that this animal kills after it stings, in the space of three days, and that the wound is always mortal for virgins and almost all females. He mentions other particularities, of which most do not apply to the scorpions of these parts, because here their sting is not mortal, since it only hurts a lot for a quarter of an hour and sometimes longer. Many of these scorpions have stung me in these parts, and I myself have experienced that some cause more pain than others. This must also have something to do with whether the man is fasting or full, or whether the scorpion is; whatever the case may be, no man is in danger here, nor woman for that matter. And I claim the sting of a wasp is as painful as the sting of a scorpion in these Indies, and that the sting of some wasps is even worse. Although it seems to me, having experienced both, that the pain from a scorpion sting lasts longer.

[1] Pliny, Book XI, Chapter 25. [GFO]