The Spaniards Attempted To Board, And The Canoe Was
Overset, So That All The Indians Were Taken Swimming In The Water; And One
Of Them Shot Several Arrows While Swimming, As Dexterously As If He Had
Been On Dry Land.
These people were found to be castrated; for they had been made prisoners
by the Caribs in some other islands, who had so used them as we do capons,
that they might become fatter and better food.
Departing from thence, the
admiral continued his voyage W.N.W. where he fell in with a cluster of
above fifty islands, which he left to the northward of his course. The
largest of these he named the island of St. Ursula, and the others he
called the Eleven Thousand Virgins. He next came to the island called
Borriquen by the Indians, but which he named St John the Baptist, in a
bay on the west side of which the fleet came to anchor, where they caught
several sorts of fish, as skate, olaves, pilchards, and shads. On the land
they saw falcons, and bushes resembling wild vines. More to the eastwards
some Spaniards went to certain houses well built after the Indian fashion,
having a square before them and a broad road down to the sea, with bowers
on each side made of canes, and curiously interwoven with evergreens, such
as are seen in the gardens of Valencia. At the end of the road next the
sea there was a raised stage or balcony, lofty and well built, capable of
containing ten or twelve men.
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