COMPENDIUM AND DESCRIPTION OF THE 

 WEST INDIES 



Part I 



Book I 



Of the Origin and Lineage of the Indians ; from What Ancestry 

 They Are Descended ; When and by What Route They Came To 

 Inhabit the Indies ; Much about Their Rites and Customs, with 

 Other Characteristics Worthy of Note ; the Course Navigated by 

 the Galleons and Fleets to the Indies, and the Return Voyage to 

 Spain. 



Chapter I 



Of the Course Laid to the Indies, and the Return to Spain. 



1. The galleons, fleets, and other ships which sail to the Indies of 

 New Spain, the Spanish Main and other parts thereof, leave Sanlucar 

 de Barrameda or Cadiz, which are at 37° N. ; sailing from there, they 

 round the island of Salmedina, which is half a league SE. of Sanlucar ; 

 in summer they steer SW. and in winter SW.|S. to Cape Cantin, at 

 32°, because of the breezes blowing from the Barbary coast; from 

 there they steer SW.^W., to Point Anaga on the island of Teneriffe 

 in the Canaries, which is at 28° and 250 leagues, sailors' reckoning, 

 from Spain, and they usually pass within sight of those islands. 

 Thence they sail through the Great Gulf WSW. to 20°, and from 

 that latitude they steer W.^SW. to i5°3o', from which point sailing 

 W. they make the island of Deseada, and if they sail along 15°, the 

 island of Marigalante, which will be over 750 leagues from the 

 Canaries, and 1,000 from Spain ; the galleons and fleets take on water 

 at these Guadeloupe islands, and some fresh provisions of poultry, 

 fish, and native fruit, which the heathen Indians of those islands bring 

 them in exchange for axes, knives, and other articles. 



2. There will be on those islands, and on that of Granada, over 

 18,000 Indians, who go naked, belong to the Carib tribe, and call 

 themselves Camajuyas, which means thunderbolt, since they are brave 

 and warlike. The islands have a warm, moist climate, with great 

 forests and groves, which seem a bit of Paradise. From there the 



Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. 102 (Whole Volume) 

 2 I 



