LIFE OF COLON, BY HIS SON.
39
CHAP. XXIX. —How the Admiral dejijled from following the wejlern Coajl of Cuba ,
and turned eajlward towards Hifpaniola.
THE admiral having this account, and refolving to (lay no longer in that river,ordered fome natives of that ifland to be taken, defigning to carry fome from all partsinto Spain to give an account of his country $ and accordingly twelve were feized, men,women and children, and this fo peaceably, and without any difturbance, that whenthey were ready to fail with them, the hufband of one of the women, and father oftwo children that had been carried aboard, came to the (hips in a canoe defiring hemight be taken along with them, and not parted from his wife and children, whichextremely pleafed the admiral, who ordered he Ihould be received, and they all wellufed and made much of. That fame day, being the 13th of November, he came aboutto the eaftward, defigning for the ifland they called Bohio. The wind blowing hardat north, he was forced to come to an anchor again in the fame ifland of Cuba , amongfome high iflands lying near a large port, which he called del Principe, or the Prince’sport, and the fea Our Lady’s. Thefe iflands lay fo thick and clofe, there was notabove a quarter of a league diftance between them at fartheft, and but a mulket-lhotfor the moll part. The channels were fo deep, and fo well adorned with trees andgreens, that it was very delightful going among them ; and among the multitude ofother trees there were abundance .of maftic, aloes and palm, the trunk green and fmooth,and other plants of fundry forts. And though thefe iflands were not inhabited, yetthere appeared the tokens of many fires made by filhermen ; for as it afterwardsappeared, the people of Cuba went together in great number in their canoes over tothefe iflands, and abundance more that lie hereabouts uninhabited, and live upon thefilh they catch, upon birds, crabs, and other things they find on the earth ; forafmuchas generally the Indians eat abundance of filthy things, fuch as great fpiders, wormsthat breed in rotten wood and other corrupt places, and abundance of fifli almoft raw ;for as foon as taken, before they roaft it, they dig out the eyes to eat, and many otherfuch things they feed on, which befides that they are naufeous, would kill any of usfhould we eat them. They follow this filhing and birding according to the feafon,fometimes in one ifland, fometimes in another, as one that changes his diet, being wearyof the laft. But to return to the iflands of Our Lady’s Sea : in one of them the Chrif-tians, with their fwords, killed a beaft like a badger, and in the fea found much motherof pearl; and calling their nets, among many other forts of fifli they caught, one waslike a fwine, all covered with a very hard lkin, no part whereof was foft but the tail.They alfo obferved that in this fea and the iflands the tide fwelled and fell much lowerthan in other places where they had been till then, and their tides were quite contraryto ours, for it was low water when the moon was fouth-weft and by fouth.
CHAP. XXX. — How the Admiral fet fail again eajlward for Hifpaniola , and one of
ON Monday the 19th of November the admiral departed from the Prince’s port inCuba , and the fea of Our Lady, fleering eaftward for the ifland of Bohio and Hif-paniola, but the wind being contrary, he was forced to ply two or three days betweenthe ifland Ifabella, which the Indians call Somoto: and the faid Prince’s port, whichlie almofl north and fouth, about twenty-five leagues diflant, in which fea he ftill found
long traces of thefe weeds he had feen in the ocean, and he perceived they fwam along
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