Continuing This Course, We Passed The Port
Formerly Called The Retrete, And A Country Near Which There Were Many
Small Islands, Which The Admiral Called Las Barbas, But Which The
Indians And Pilots Named The Territory Of The Cacique Pocorosa.
From thence we held on ten leagues farther to the east to the last land
which we saw on
The continent, called Marmora[16]; and on Monday the 1st
of May 1503, we stood to the northwards, having the wind and current from
the east, which made us lay our course as near the wind as possible.
Though all the pilots said we should be to the east of the Caribbee
islands, yet the admiral feared we should not be able to make Hispaniola,
as it afterwards proved. Upon Wednesday the 10th of May we were in sight
of two very small low islands called Tortugas or the Tortoises, on account
of the prodigious multitudes of these animals which so swarmed about these
islands, and in the sea about them that they resembled rocks. On the
Friday following, we came in sight about evening of that great cluster of
islands on the coast of Cuba, called Jardin de la Reinas or the Queens
Garden, about thirty leagues from the Tortugas. We came here to anchor
about ten leagues from the coast of Cuba, full of trouble and perplexity;
our men had now nothing to eat but biscuit, with some little oil and
vinegar, and our ships were so worm-eaten and leaky, as to keep the people
labouring at the pumps day and night.
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