When they proposed returning to the ships, many of the Indians wanted to accompany them, but they would only accept of the king, his son, and one servant, whom the admiral received with every demonstration of honour and respect. The Spaniards farther reported that they had fallen in with several other towns, both in their going out and returning, in all of which they had been entertained with the same courtesy; but that none of these other towns contained above five houses. That they met many people by the way, all of whom carried a lighted fire-brand, to light fires, by means of which they perfumed themselves with certain odoriferous herbs, or roasted some of the roots mentioned before, which seemed to be their principal food. They saw during their journey many kinds of trees and plants different from those which grew on the coast, and great variety of birds altogether different from those of Europe; but among the rest were partridges and nightingales; and they had seen no species of quadruped in the country, except the dumb dogs formerly mentioned. They found a good deal of cultivated land, some of which was planted with the roots before mentioned, some with a species of bean, and some sown with a sort of grain called maiz, which was very well tasted either baked or dried, and ground to flour. They saw vast quantities of well spun cotton yarn, made up into balls or clews; insomuch, that in one house only they had seen 12,500 pounds of that commodity[4]. The plants from which the cotton is procured grow naturally about the fields, like rose bushes, and are not cultivated or planted by the natives. When ripe, the pods open of themselves, but not all at one time; for upon the same plant young buds, others beginning to open, and others almost entirely ripe are seen at the same time. Of these pods the Indians afterwards carried large quantities on board the ships, and gave a whole basket-full for a thong of leather: Yet none of them used this substance to clothe themselves with, but only to make nets to serve them for beds, which they call hamacas, and in weaving aprons for the women, all the men going entirely naked. On being asked whether they possessed any gold, or pearls, or spice, they made answer by signs that there was great plenty towards the east, in a country which they named Bohio, which was afterwards supposed to be the island of Hispaniola, but it has never been certainly ascertained what place they meant to indicate.
[4] This would seem to be a great exaggeration, perhaps an error of the press; but now impossible to be rectified.--E.
After receiving this account, the admiral resolved to remain no longer in the Rio de Mares, and ordered some of the natives of Cuba to be seized, as he intended to carry some from all parts of his discoveries into Spain. Accordingly twelve were seized, men women and children; and this was done with so little disturbance, and occasioned so little terror, that when the ships were about to sail, the husband of one of the women and father of two children, who had been carried on board, came off in a canoe, requesting to go along with his wife and children. This circumstance gave great satisfaction to the admiral, who ordered him to be taken on board, and they were all treated with great kindness.
On the 13th of November the squadron weighed from the Rio de Mares and stood to the eastwards, intending to proceed in search of the island called Bohio by the Indians; but the wind blowing hard from the north, they were constrained to come to an anchor among some high islands on the coast of Cuba, near a large port which the admiral named Puerta del Principe, or the Princes Port, and he called the sea among these islands the Sea of our Lady. These islands lay so thick and close together, that most of them were only a musket-shot asunder, and the farthest not more than the quarter of a league. The channels between these islands were so deep, and the shores so beautifully adorned with trees and plants of infinite varieties, that it was quite delightful to sail among them. Among the multitude of other trees, there were great numbers of mastic, aloes, and palms, with long smooth green trunks, and other plants innumerable. Though these islands were not inhabited, there were seen the remains of many fires which had been made by the fishermen; for it appeared afterwards, that the people of Cuba were in use to go over in great numbers in their canoes to these islands, and to a great number of other uninhabited islets in these seas, to live upon fish, which they catch in great abundance, and upon birds, crabs, and other things which they find on the land. The Indians are by no means nice in their choice of food, but eat many things which are abhorred by us Europeans, such as large spiders, the worms that breed in rotten wood and other corrupt places, and devour their fish almost raw; for before roasting a fish, they scoop out the eyes and eat them. The Indians follow this employment of fishing and bird-catching according to the seasons, sometimes in one island, sometimes in another, as a person changes his diet when weary of living on one kind of food.
In one of the islands in the Sea of our Lady, the Spaniards killed a quadruped resembling a badger, and in the sea they found considerable quantities of mother-of-pearl. Among other fish which they caught in their nets, was one resembling a swine, which was covered all over with a very hard skin except the tail, which was quite soft. In this sea among the islands, the tide was observed to rise and fall much more than in the other places where they had been hitherto; and was quite contrary to ours in Spain, as it was low water when the moon was S.W. and by S.
On Monday the 19th November, the admiral departed from the Princes Port in Cuba and the Sea of our Lady, and steered eastwards in search of Bohio; but owing to contrary winds, he was forced to ply two or three days between the island of Isabella, called Saomotto by the Indians, and the Puerta del Principe, which lie almost due north and south, at about twenty-five leagues distance. In this sea he still found traces of those weeds which he had seen in the ocean, and perceived that they always swam with the current and never athwart.
At this time Martin Alonzo Pinzon, being informed by certain Indians whom he had concealed in his caravel, that abundance of gold was to be had in the island of Bohio, and blinded by covetousness, he deserted the admiral on Wednesday the 21st of November, without being constrained by any stress of weather, or other necessity whatever, as he could easily have come up with him before the wind. Taking advantage of the superior sailing of his vessel the Pinta, he made all sail during the next day, and when night came on of the 22d, he was entirely out of sight. Thus left with only two ships, and the weather being unfavourable for proceeding on his way in search of Bohio, the admiral was obliged to return to Cuba, where he came to anchor in a harbour which he called St Catherines, not far from the Princes Port, and there took in wood and water. In this port he accidentally saw signs of gold on some stones in the river where they were taking in water. The mountains in the interior were full of such tall pine trees as were fit to make masts for the largest ships; neither was there any scarcity of wood for plank to build as many ships as might be wished, and among these were oaks and other trees resembling those in Castile. But perceiving that all the Indians still directed him to Bohio and the eastwards as the country of gold, he ran ten or twelve leagues farther to the east along the coast of Cuba, meeting all the way with excellent harbours and many large rivers. In one of his letters to their Catholic majesties, he says so much of the delightfulness and beauty of the country, that I have thought fit to give an extract in his own words. Writing concerning the mouth of a river which forms a harbour which he named Puerto Santo, or the Holy Harbour, he says thus:
"When I went with the boats before me to the mouth of the harbour towards the south, I found a river up the mouth of which a galley could row easily; and it was so land-locked that its entrance could not be discovered unless when close at hand. The beauty of this river induced me to go up a short distance, where I found from five to eight fathoms water. Coming to anchor, I proceeded a considerable way up the river with the boats; and such was the delightfulness of the place that I could have been tempted to remain there for ever. The water was so clear that we could see the sand at the bottom. The finest and tallest palm trees I had ever seen were in great abundance on either shore, with an infinite number of large verdant trees of other kinds. The soil seemed exceedingly fertile, being every where covered by the most luxuriant verdure, and the woods abounded in vast varieties of birds of rich and variegated plumage. This country, most serene princes, is so wonderfully fine, and so far excels all others in beauty and delightfulness as the day exceeds the night; wherefore I have often told my companions that though I should exert my utmost endeavours to give your highness a perfect account of it, my tongue and pen must ever fall short of the truth. I was astonished at the sight of so much beauty, and know not how to describe it. I have formerly written of other countries, describing their trees, and fruits, and plants, and harbours, and all belonging to them as largely as I could, yet not so as I ought, as all our people affirmed that no others could possibly be more delightful. But this so far excels every other which I have seen, that I am constrained to be silent; wishing that others may see it and give its description, that they may prove how little credit is to be got, more than I have done, in writing and speaking on this subject so far inferior to what it deserves."
While going up this river in the boat, the admiral saw a canoe hauled on shore among the trees and under cover of a bower or roof, which was as large as a twelve-oared barge, and yet hollowed out of the trunk of one tree. In a house hard by they found a ball of wax and a mans skull, each, in a basket, hanging to a post, and the same was afterwards found in another house; and our people surmized that these might be the skulls of the founders of these two houses. No people could be found in this place to give any information, as all the inhabitants fled from their houses on the appearance of the Spaniards. They afterwards found another canoe all of one piece, about seventy feet long, which would have carried fifty persons.
Having sailed 106 leagues eastwards along the coast of Cuba, the admiral at length reached the eastmost point of that island, to which he gave the name of Cape Alpha; and on Wednesday the fifth December he struck across the channel between Cuba and Hispaniola, which islands are sixteen leagues asunder; but owing to contrary currents, was unable to reach the coast of Hispaniola until the next day, when he entered a harbour which he named Port St Nicholas, in honour of the saint on whose festival he made the discovery. This port is large, deep, safe, and encompassed with many tall trees; but the country is more rocky and the trees less than in Cuba, and more like those in Castile: among the trees were many small oaks, with myrtles and other shrubs, and a pleasant river ran along a plain towards the port, all round which were seen large canoes as big as those they had found in Puerto Santo. Not being able to meet with any of the inhabitants, the admiral quitted St Nicholas and stretched along the coast to the northwards, till he came to another port which he named the Conception, which lies almost due south from a small island about the size of the Gran Canaria, and which was afterwards named Tortuga. Perceiving that this island, which they believed to be Bohio, was very large, that the land and trees resembled Spain, and that in fishing they caught several fishes much like those in Spain, as soles, salmon, pilchards, crabs and the like, on Sunday the ninth of December the admiral gave it the name of Espannola, or little Spain, or as it is called in English Hispaniola.