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.
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