We Compelled Them, However, To Fall To, And By The Blessing Of GOD We Got Safe To The Harbour Then Called Puerto De Carenas, Where The City Of Havanna Has Been Since Built.

Our captain went immediately to his estate near Spiritu Santo, where he died in ten days, and three soldiers died of their wounds at the Havanna, and the rest dispersed to their different homes or avocations.

Immediately after our arrival, an express was sent to Velasquez the governor of Cuba, informing him that we had discovered a country having houses of stone and lime, where the inhabitants were decently clothed, cultivating maize, and possessing gold; and the fame of our discovery was soon spread through the island, by the soldiers and mariners who had returned from the expedition. On producing the figures and idols which we had brought over, it was believed that they had been brought to that country by a Jewish colony, flying after the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus and Vespasian[2]. The name of Yucutan, which that country we discovered acquired at this time, was occasioned by the following mistake. Yuca in the language of the country is the name of the plant used in the islands for bread, there named cazabi, and tale in the same language signifies the heap of earth on which it is planted. When the two prisoners whom we brought from thence were shewn this plant in Cuba, they immediately recognized it, saying Yucu-tal, which was supposed to signify their country, and has ever since been applied by the Spaniards to that part of America, but pronounced Yucutan.

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