376 



humboldt's cuba. 



voyage, beheld with admiration "that mysterious 

 king who communicated with his subjects by signs 

 only, and that group of men wearing long white 

 gowns, like begging friars, while all the rest of the 

 people were naked." 



On his fourth voyage he met at the Jardinillos, 

 the pirogues of the Mexican Indians, laden with 

 the rich products and merchandise of Yucatan. 

 Deceived by his ardent imagination, he seemed to 

 hear from the lips of these navigators, "that they 

 had come from a land where men rode upon horses, 

 and wore crowns of gold upon their heads." 

 " Already Cathay, the empire of the Gran Khan, and 

 the mouths of the Ganges," seemed to be near to 

 him, and he hoped soon to avail himself of the two 

 Arabian interpreters, which he had taken on board 

 at Cadiz when departing for America. 1 



1 Compare Lettera rarisissima di Christoforo Colombo di 7 di 

 Julio, 1503, p. 2, with Herrera, Dec. 1, pp. 125-131. Nothing carl 

 be more tender or more pathetic, than the sorrowful tone that per- 

 vades this letter of Columbus, written at Jamaica, to the Catholic 

 monarchs Ferdinand and Isabel. I particularly recommend to all 

 who wish to study the character of that extraordinary man, his nar- 

 rative of the nocturnal vision, when, in the midst of the tempest, a 

 celestial voice soothed and cheered him with these words : " God 

 made thy name to resound marvellously throughout the earth. The 

 Indies, which is the richest portion of the earth, He has given thee 

 for thine ; thou hast divided it as thou wouldst, and He gave thee 



