The Worst Of All Was, That All Over This Sea, Both Northwards, And To The North-East, The Farther They

Went the greater number of low little islands they met with, in some of which there were trees, but others

Were sandy and scarcely appeared above the surface of the water; some of these were a league in compass, some more and some less. The nearer they kept to the coast of Cuba the higher and pleasanter these small islands appeared; and it being difficult and useless to give names to every one, the admiral called them all in general Jardin de la Reyna, or the Queens Garden. They saw many more islands next day to the north-east, north-west, and south-west, insomuch that they counted 160 islands that day, all parted by deep channels, many of which the ships sailed through. In some of these islands they saw many cranes resembling those of Spain in shape and size, but of a scarlet colour[12]. In others they found great numbers of turtles, or sea tortoises, and immense quantities of their eggs, which are not unlike those of a hen but with much harder shells. The female turtle deposits her eggs in holes on the sand, and covering them up leaves them to be hatched by the heat of the sun, which brings forth the little turtles, which grow in time to be as large as a buckler or great target. In these islands they also saw crows and cranes like those of Spain, and sea crows, and infinite numbers of small birds which sung delightfully, and the very air was sweet, as if they had been among roses and the finest perfumes; yet the danger was very great on account of the innumerable channels among the islands, by which much time was spent in finding the way through.

In one of these channels they observed a canoe with Indian fishermen, who very quietly awaited our boat coming towards them, and made signs not to approach near till they had done fishing. Their manner of fishing was so strange and new to our people that they willingly complied, and looked on with astonishment. They had tied certain small fishes which they call reves by the tail with a long line and let them into the water, where these reves attached themselves to other fishes, by means of a certain roughness which they have from the head to the middle of the back, and stick so fast that the Indians drew both up together. It was a turtle our men saw taken in this manner, and the reve clung close to its neck, which place they usually fasten upon because safe from being bitten by the other fish, and they sometimes fasten upon vast sharks. When the Indians in the canoe had thus taken the turtle, having already two others, they came in a very friendly manner to know what our men would have, and went by their direction on board the admiral who treated them courteously, and to whom they would have freely given all they had; but he would only allow their fish to be taken, and refused their nets, hooks, and calabashes full of water which they had on board to drink, for which he gave them some trifles with which they went away very well contented.

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