There Are Other Small Islands On The North Side,
Though Not So Numerous, Which Velasquez Named The Kings Garden.
About
the middle of the south side, a considerable river, named Cauto by the
natives, runs into the sea, containing vast numbers of alligators, the
banks of which river are very agreeable.
The island is wonderfully well
wooded, insomuch that people may travel almost 230 leagues, or from one
end of the island to the other, always under their shelter. Among these
are sweet-scented red cedars of such astonishing size, that the natives
used to make canoes of one stick hollowed out, large enough to contain
fifty or sixty persons, and such were once very common in Cuba. There are
such numbers of storax trees, that if any one goes up to a height in the
morning, the vapours arising from the earth smell strongly of storax,
coming from the fires made by the natives in the evening, which are now
drawn up from the earth by the rising sun. Another kind of tree produces a
fruit called xaquas, which being laid by four or five days, though
gathered unripe, become full of a liquor like honey, and richer than the
finest pears. There are great quantities of wild vines, which climb very
high on the trees; these bear grapes, from which wine has been made, which
is somewhat sharp. Such is their universal abundance all over the island,
that the Spaniards used to say there was a vineyard in Cuba 230 leagues in
length. Some of the trunks of these vines are as thick as a mans body. The
whole island is very pleasant, more temperate and healthy than Hispaniola,
and has safer harbours for ships, made by nature, than any that have been
constructed by art in other countries. On the southern coast is that of
St Jago, which is in form of a cross, and Xaquas, which is hardly to
be matched in all the world. Its entry is not above a cross-bow shot in
breadth, and the interior part is 10 leagues in circumference, having
three little islands to which ships may be fastened by means of stakes,
where they are safe from every wind that blows, being everywhere shut in
by high mountains as in a house. In this harbour the Indians had pens in
which they shut up the fish. On the north side there are likewise good
harbours, the best of which was formerly called Carenas, but now Havanna,
which is so large and safe that few can be compared to it. Twenty leagues
east is the harbour of Matanaos, which is not quite safe. About the middle
of the island there is another good port, called del Principe; and
almost at the end is the port of Baraca, where good ebony is cut. All
along this coast there are good anchorages, though none so large and
commodious as those already mentioned.
Cuba produces great numbers of birds, as pigeons, turtle-doves, partridges
like those of Spain but smaller, and cranes.
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