Among These He Said That He Saw One Person
Clad In A White Coat Or Vest Down To His Knees,
Carried by two others who
had white vestments down to their feet, all three of them as white as
Spaniards;
But that he had no intercourse with them, because being afraid
of such a number he called out to his comrades, and the Indians ran away
without looking back[13].
Next day, the admiral sent some people on shore to look after these
natives, but they could not travel above half a league from the shore on
account of the thickness of the trees and bushes, and because all that
coast for two leagues up the country, where the hills and mountains begin,
is boggy and marshy, so that they only saw a few footsteps of fishermen on
the shore, and abundance of cranes like those of Spain but larger. Having
sailed about ten leagues farther westwards, they saw some houses on the
shore, whence some canoes came off with water, and such food as the
Indians use, and for which they were well paid. The admiral caused one of
those Indians to be detained, telling him and the rest, by means of an
interpreter, that he would freely permit him to go home as soon as he had
given him an account of the country and some directions for the voyage.
This Indian assured the admiral that Cuba was an island, and that the king
or cacique of the western part of it never spoke to any of his subjects
but by signs, yet that all his orders were immediately obeyed; that all
this coast was very low and full of small islands. This latter information
was found to be too true; as next day, the 11th of June, the admiral was
forced to have the ships towed over a flat where there was not a foot of
water, and its whole breadth did not exceed two ships length[14]. Bearing
up closer to Cuba, they saw turtles of vast bigness, and in such numbers
that they covered the sea. At break of day, they saw such an enormous
flock of sea crows as even darkened the sun, these were going from sea
towards to the island, where they all alighted; besides these abundance of
pigeons and other birds were seen; and the next day such immense swarms of
butterflies, as even to darken the air, which lasted till night, when a
heavy rain carried them all away.
Perceiving that the coast of Cuba ran far west, and that it was extremely,
difficult to sail in that direction, on account of the infinite multitude
of islands and shoals, and because provisions were very scanty, the
admiral resolved on the 13th of June to return to Isabella. He anchored
therefore at an island which he named Evangelista which is thirty
leagues in circuit, and lies 700 leagues west from Dominica, to take in
wood and water; and thence directed his course southwards, hoping to get
better out in that direction from among the labyrinth of islands in which
he had been so long bewildered.
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