“The admiral, having determined to go to discover the continent, appointed a council to govern the island in his absence. The persons composing it were Don Diego Colon, the admiral’s brother, with the title of president; F. Boyl [Friar Buil] and Pedro Fernandez Coronel, regents; Alonzo Sanchez de Carvajal, rector of Bacca, and Juan de Luxan, gentlemen of their catholic majesties.... On Tuesday, the twenty-ninth of April, the wind being favorable, Columbus arrived at Cabo de San Nicolas, and thence crossed over to the island of Cuba, running along the south coast of it, and having sailed a league beyond Cabo Fuerte, he put into a large bay which he called Puerto Grande....
“On Saturday, the third of May, the admiral resolved to sail from Cuba over to Jamaica, that he might not leave it behind without knowing whether the report of the abundance of gold there were true. The wind being favorable, he discovered it on Sunday, when he was less than half the distance to it. On Monday he came to anchor, and thought it was the most attractive of all the islands which he had seen in the Indies. So many people, in large and small canoes, came aboard his vessels that it was quite astonishing. The next day he ran along the coast to search for harbors. When the boats went to examine the havens, there came out so many canoes and armed men to defend the country, that the men in the boats were forced to return to the ships, not through fear, but to avoid making enemies of them.... On Tuesday, the thirteenth of May, Columbus determined to stand over again for Cuba to coast along it, intending not to return until he had sailed five or six hundred leagues, and was satisfied whether it were a continent or an island.... On Friday, the thirteenth of June, the admiral perceiving that the coast of Cuba ran far to the west, and that it was a matter of the greatest difficulty to sail that way on account of the infinite number of islands and sand-bars that were on all sides of them, and he also beginning to be in want of provisions, for which reason he could not continue his voyage as he had intended, he determined to return to the town he had begun to build in Española. To supply himself with wood and water, he anchored at the island Evangelista, which is thirty leagues in circuit, and seven hundred from Dominica.”[179]
While Columbus was exploring the coast of Cuba, near the island of Evangelista, on the twelfth of June, it is said that he, for the purpose of furnishing indisputable evidence that he had reached the dominions of the Grand Khan, sent Fernando Perez de Luna, his notary, with four attesting witnesses, to the vessels, and had each person on board to make a declaration under oath that he was convinced that the land he saw was a part of the continent of Asia, and that he believed any one could go from it by land to Spain.[180] The notary, when taking the depositions, it is said, informed each person giving this testimony, that should he for any malicious purpose afterward assert a different opinion, he would, if an officer, be made to pay a penalty of ten thousand maravedis for such an offence, and if a person of lower rank, he would receive a hundred lashes and have his tongue cut out.[181] Strange as it seems, it was Columbus’s belief that this watery expanse was really the gulf of the Ganges.[182]
Departing from the island of Evangelista, Columbus returned along the coast of Cuba to Cabo de Santa Cruz, from which he steered to the island of Jamaica. After leaving it, he discovered the two islands lying off the east coast of Española, called respectively by the Indians Adamanai and Mona. On the twenty-ninth of September, 1494, he returned to Isabela.
The people of the island of Española having acquired some knowledge of the Spanish language, were able at this time to give Columbus considerable information respecting their religion. From his conversations with them he was enabled to write the following account of their peculiar image-worship: “I could discover neither idolatry nor any sect among them, though each one of their kings, who are very many, as well in Española as on all the other islands and continent, has a house apart from the town, in which there is nothing but some carved, wooden images that are called cemies. There is nothing done in these houses but what is for the service of the cemies, to which they repair to perform certain ceremonies, and pray there, as we do in our churches. In these houses they have a handsome, round table, made like a dish, on which is some powder, which they lay on the heads of the cemies with a certain ceremony. Then through a cane, that has two branches, held to their own nostrils they snuff up this powder. The words they use none of our people understand. The powder intoxicates them, and they act as if they were drunk. They also give the image a name, and I believe it is that of their father or grandfather, or both; for they have more than one, and some more than ten, all in memory of their forefathers, as I have already said. I have heard them praise one more than another, and have observed them to have more devotion, and show more respect to one than another, as we do in processions in time of want; and the people and the caciques boast among themselves of having the best cemies. When they go to these cemies they shun the Christians, and will not permit them to enter these houses. If they suspect that they will come, they take their cemies and hide them in the woods for fear that they should be deprived of them. What is most ridiculous, they have the habit of stealing one another’s cemies. It happened once that the Christians suddenly rushed into a house with them, and the cemi cried out, speaking in their language, which showed that it was artificially made. The cemi being hollow, they had attached a tube to it, which tube extended to a dark corner of the house, where a man was concealed with boughs and leaves who had spoken through the tube the words which the cacique had commanded him. The Spaniards, suspecting something of the kind, kicked down the cemi, and discovered that which has been related. The cacique seeing that his deception was known to the Spaniards, earnestly begged them not to speak of it to his subjects or to the other Indians, because he made them obedient by this artifice.... Three large stones are also in the possession of almost all the caciques, which are highly venerated by them and their people. The one they say makes the corn and the grain to grow, the second helps women in travail, and the third procures rain or fair weather, whenever they desire to be benefited in any one of these ways. I sent your highnesses three of these stones by Antonio de Torres, and have three more to bring with me.
“When these Indians die, they have several ways of performing their obsequies. The manner in which they bury their caciques is as follows: They open his body and dry it at a fire in order to preserve it. Of other persons they only take the head. They bury some in caves or caverns, and place gourds of water and bread at their heads. Others they burn in the house where they die, and they do not permit them to die naturally, but strangle them at their last gasp. This is done to the caciques. Others are turned out of the house, and are put in a hamac, which is their bed, with bread and water at their heads, and they are never visited again. Some who become dangerously ill are carried to the cacique, who tells whether they are to be strangled or not, and what he commands is done. I have taken pains to learn what they believe, and whether they know what becomes of them after they are dead. This I inquired of Caunaboa, who was the principal king of Española, an aged man, intelligent and of much discernment. He and the rest answered that they go to a certain valley, which every great cacique supposes to be his country, where, they affirm, they find their parents and all their ancestors; that they eat, have women, and enjoy themselves in pleasures and pastimes.
“The admiral, having brought the island into a peaceable condition, and built the town of Isabela, besides three forts in different parts of the country, determined to return to Spain.... He went on board, on Thursday, the tenth of March, 1496, with two hundred and twenty-five Spaniards and thirty Indians, and sailed from Isabela, at daybreak, and steered along the coast with two caravels, one called Santa Cruz, the other La Nina, the same in which he went to discover the island of Cuba.... Having supplied himself with bread, wood, and water, he set sail on Wednesday, the twentieth of April, from the island of Guadalupe, with the wind very scant, keeping near the latitude of twenty-two degrees, for at that time they had not found out the way of running away north to catch the southwest winds.”[183]
After sailing a month in the direction of Spain, “although there were eight or nine pilots on board the two vessels, yet none of them knew where they were; but the admiral was confident that they were only a little west of the Azores.”
Columbus, speaking of the movements of his compasses at this time, observes: “This morning the Dutch compasses varied, as they formerly did, a point; and those of Geneva, which previously agreed with them, varied only a little, but after sailing east varied more, which is a sign that we are one hundred leagues or more west of the Azores, for when we were just one hundred there were only a few weeds scattered in the sea, and the Dutch needles varied a point, those of Geneva cutting the north point, and when we are a little farther east-northeast they will alter again.”[184] These noticeable differences in the variations of the needles, Ferdinand Columbus says, the admiral assigned to “the different kinds of loadstones used in making them.” ... “In this way,” he remarks, “they continued their voyage, though all the pilots went like blind men.” Columbus, when near Spain, confidently asserted that they would be in sight of the coast on the following morning, which proved to be true, “for which reason he was looked upon by the seamen as very expert and almost prophetic in sea affairs.”[185] On Saturday, the eleventh of June, 1496, the caravels arrived in the port of Cadiz.
“The admiral,” as soon as he had landed, “began to prepare for his journey to Burgos, where he was favorably received by their catholic majesties, who were there celebrating the nuptials of Prince Juan, their son, who married Margarita of Austria.”