YBARRA | LETTER OF DR. DIEGO ALVAREZ CHANCA 435 
such a height that it looked as if it were falling from the sky. It 
could be seen from that great distance, and it occasioned many 
wagers to be laid on board the ships, some people saying that it 
was nothing else but a series of white rocks, while others maintained 
that it was a great volume of falling water. When we came nearer, 
it showed itself distinctly: it was the most beautiful thing in the 
world to see how from so great a height, and from so small a 
space, such a large fall of water was being discharged.! 
“As soon as we approached the island, the admiral ordered a 
light caravel*? to run along the coast to search for a harbor. The 
captain of this small vessel put into land in a boat, and seeing some 
houses leapt on shore and went up to them, the inhabitants fleeing 
at sight of our men. He then entered the houses and found therein 
various household articles that had been left unremoved,* from 
among which he took two ‘parrots,’ very large and quite different 
from the parrots we had before seen.*’ He found also a great quan- 
*Unquestionably, it was water that this culminating peak was throwing 
out. Neither Dr. Chanca, Columbus, nor any of their companions on this 
voyage speak of having seen a volcano on the island of Guadeloupe, and 
for this reason I am inclined to the opinion that the volcano La Souffriére 
of this island (for there is another with the same name on the island of 
St. Vincent) did not exist at the time of the discovery, but that some seismic 
convulsion occurred afterward that transformed that “great mountain that 
seemed almost to reach the skies” into a regular volcano. The fact that 
there are now three extinct volcanoes on that island seems to lend force 
to my way of thinking in regard to the subject. In Central America there 
is a volcano that pours forth water instead of lava or ashes. 
2 The fleet of Columbus, on this his second voyage of discovery, consisted 
of three galleons or carracks and fourteen caravels of different sizes, car- 
rying a total of 1,500 persons, among whom were several distinguished per- 
sonages and a large number of aristocratic young fellows anxious for ad- 
venture after their exploits in the war against the Moors had ended. On 
the first voyage only 120 persons accompanied Columbus, 38 of whom re- 
mained at the port of La Navidad in the island of Hispaniola or Santo Do- 
mingo when Columbus returned to Spain, arriving at the same little port of 
Palos from where he had started 225 days before. A wonderful achieve- 
ment! 
3 Among these household articles were netted hammocks, utensils of earthen 
pottery, what seemed to be an iron pot, and the stern post of a European ship. 
Several receptacles of different sizes and shapes, for various uses, called by 
the Indians jicaras, were also found. They were made from a melon-like 
fruit called Giira, in Spanish, and in English, Calabash-tree, of which there 
are two species, the Crescentia cujete and the Crescentia cucurbitina; cups, 
hollow dishes, bottles, etc., were then, and are still, made of this fruit, which 
is never eaten, but with the soft pulp of its inner part there is prepared a 
pectoral syrup which is a common household remedy in all the Spanish An- 
tilles. 
‘These were not real parrots, but as the author himself says in his letter, 
Ppapagayos, that is, macaws with a short tail, or popinjays. 
