The
Caribbees Took All From Them; And When The Boats Went Again On Shore,
These Women, With A Youth And Two Boys, Solicited To Be Taken On Board The
Ships.
From these people it was learnt that there was a continent not far
distant, and many islands to which they gave names.
On being asked for the
island of Ayti, which is the Indian name of Hispaniola, they pointed in
the direction where it lay.
The admiral proposed to continue the voyage, but was told that the
inspector James Marque had gone on shore with eight soldiers, at which
conduct he was much offended. Parties of men were sent out in different
directions, but could not find him, on account of the thickness of the
woods. Other parties were again sent on shore, who fired muskets and
sounded trumpets, yet all to no purpose, and Columbus was inclined to
leave Marque to his fate, being much concerned at the delay. Yet lest
these men might perish, he ordered the ships to take in wood and water,
and sent Alonso de Ojeda, who commanded one of the caravels, with forty
men, to view the country, and to search for Marque and his party. Ojeda
returned without any tidings of the stragglers, and reported that in
travelling six leagues he had waded through twenty-six rivers, many of
which took his men to the middle. In this excursion much cotton was seen,
and a vast variety of birds in the woods. At length, on Friday the 8th
November, the inspector and his men returned, excusing himself that he had
lost his way in the prodigiously thick woods, and was unable to get back
sooner:
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