They Found No People In This Place, As They Had All
Fled, But They Saw Another Canoe Ninety-Five Spans Long, Capable Of
Holding Fifty Persons, Made All Of One Piece Of Wood Like The Rest, And
Hollowed Out With Tools Of Flint.
After sailing 107 leagues eastwards along the coast of Cuba, the admiral
arrived at its eastern end, and departed thence on the 5th December for
Hispaniola, which is only 18 leagues distant; yet he could not reach it
till next day, on account of the currents.
On the 6th he came to a harbour
which he called St Nicholas, at the western extremity of Hispaniola,
having discovered it on the day of that Saint. This port is safe, spacious,
and deep, surrounded by thick groves and a mountainous land; the trees,
however, were not large, and resembled those of Spain; among others, there
were found pine and myrtle. A pleasant river discharged itself into this
harbour, and on its banks were many canoes, as large as brigantines, of 25
benches. Finding no people, he went on to the north-east, to a harbour
which he named Conception, south from a small island called Tortuga, 10
leagues north of Hispaniola. Observing this island of Bohio to be very
large, that its land and trees resembled Spain, that his people caught,
among other fish, many skates, soles, and other fishes like those in Spain,
and that nightingales and other European birds were heard to sing in the
month of December, at which they much admired; the admiral named this land
La Espannola, which we now corruptly write Hispaniola.
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