Next Day He Sent Eleven Men On Shore Well Armed, With
Directions To Explore The Country.
After travelling about four leagues
they found a sort of town or village, consisting of about a thousand
houses, scattered about a large valley.
The inhabitants all fled on seeing
the Spaniards; but one of the Indians brought from St Salvador went after
them, and persuaded them to return, by assuring them that the Spaniards
were people who had come down from Heaven. Having laid aside their fears
they were full of admiration at the appearance of the strangers, and would
lay their hands on their heads to do them honour; they brought food to our
people and gave them every thing they asked, requiring nothing in return,
and entreated them to remain all night in their village. The Spaniards
would not accept the invitation, but returned to the ships with the news
that the country was very pleasant and abounded in provisions; that the
people were whiter and handsomer than any they had seen in the other
islands, and were very courteous and tractable. To the constant question
respecting gold, they answered, like all the rest, that the country where
it was found lay farther to the eastwards.
On receiving this intelligence, although the wind was adverse, the admiral
set sail immediately; and on the following Sunday the sixteenth of
December, while plying between Tortuga and Hispaniola, he found one man
alone in a small canoe, which they all wondered was not swallowed up by
the waves, as the wind and sea were then very tempestuous.
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