Il8 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I02 



these goats are too numerous to count ; they have battues and get 

 excellent cordovan leather from them. Likewise there are on the 

 mountains countless herds of swine ; the land is so prolific of every- 

 thing, and the climate so mild, that they have multiplied to such an 

 extent that they are fair game to anyone who wants to kill them. 

 With the abundance of wild fruit growing all over these mountains, 

 they get fat between July and November, at which time they hold 

 great battues, so that with the lard they get from them, they load 

 ships with casks of lard for the Spanish Main and other sections. 

 In these 5 months they get every year on the average over 10,000 

 arrobas of excellent lard and many poor people benefit from it. 



333. There is much feathered game on this island, like guinea 

 fowl, and many sorts of pigeons and turtledoves in such numbers 

 that on one key which lies 2 leagues out to sea from the harbor, i.e., 

 an island to leeward of it, which is named Cayo de Palominos (Dove 

 Key) and which is usually covered with doves, so many are raised 

 that on St. John's Day they go out from the island to celebrate on 

 this key, for there are so many fledgeling doves that they can load 

 ships with them ; and so those who go out to the celebration, after 

 having gorged on them all the days of their stay, come back with 

 their boats loaded with them, for the multitude of them covers the 

 ground and the trees. 



334. On this island there are very rich mines of gold and silver, 

 blue pyrites (cobalt? azul), copper and other metals, particularly in 

 some ranges in the eastern part of the island, called the Bastida, 

 which are paved with these metals ; in the early days of exploration 

 great wealth was taken out of them. Most of the rivers carry min- 

 eral, but no advantage comes of it because of the lack of labor ; there 

 were many Indians at the time of the conquest, but when they died out, 

 profitable working of the mines ceased. This whole island has many 

 mountain ranges, particularly on the N., S., and E., with many valleys 

 and much meadow land between them ; to the W. it is level country. 



335. There is on this island excellent hard and valuable timber 

 for shipbuilding, such as mahogany, cedar, and oak, out of which 

 they have built many boats a league or two up the rivers inland, and 

 then floated them downstream to the sea ; there is likewise abundance 

 of red ebony; brazilwood (of which much is exported) ; palo santo 

 (lignum vitae), also called guayacan (guaiacum) which is indestruc- 

 tible and has a very medicinal bark; and the ceiba (silk cotton) tree, 

 from which they make strong large dugouts, in which they float all 

 the products of the soil to the chief port ; this ceiba tree produces 

 large tufts of very soft fine cotton. 



