I 
Chap. III. Christopher 
“ fliall never again, for my ov/n Benefit, expofe myfdf 
‘‘ to fuch Sufferings and Dangers; never a Day paffing 
but I fee we are ail upon the Brink of Death. 
In this Danger and Diftrefs he arrived at Cape Cruz 
on the 1 8th, v/here he was enter ned by the Indians. 
They brought him abundance of Cazibi, fo they call 
their Bread made of Roots grated, a vaft deal of Fihi, 
ftore of Fruit, and other things fuch as they eat. The 
Wind being contrary, fo that he could not fail for Hifpani- 
ola^ to Jamaica^ and failed along Weft w’ard, 
clofe under the Shore •, the Country all along moft de- 
lightful and fruitful, v/ith excellent Harbours at even/ 
League Diftance, and all the Coaft full of Tovms, the 
People whereof followed their Ships in their Canoes, 
bringing Provifions, which were better liked by the- 
Chriftians than what they found m the other Iflands ; 
the Climate, Air, and Weather, were the fame as the 
reft *5 for in this weftern Part of Jamaica.^ there gathered 
every Evening a Storm of Rain, which lafted about an 
Hour, more or lefs, which the Admiral faid he attri- 
buted to the great Woods in thofe Countries, for that 
he knew this was ufual, at firft, in the Canary Elands, 
Madera., and the Azores., whereas now the Woods are 
cut down that fliaded them, there are not fo great 
and frequent Storms of Rain as there were formerly. 
Thus the Admiral failed on, though with contrary 
Winds, which obliged him every Night to feek the 
Shelter of the Land, which appeared green, pleafant, 
fruitful, abounding in Provifions, and fo populous, that 
he thought none excelled it •, efpecially near a Bay, which 
he called de las Vacas., becaufe there are nine Hands clofe 
to the Land, which he faid was as high as any he had 
feen*, and yet it was peopled, and very fruitful and plea- 
fant. This Hand he judged to be 800 Miles in compafs, 
and, when fully difeovered, computed fifty Leagues in 
Length, and twenty in Breadth. Being much taken with 
its Beauty, he had a great mind to ftay there, to be fully 
informed of the Nature of it; but the Want of Provifi- 
ons, and theLeakinefs of the Veffels, would not permit: 
Therefore, as foon as the Weather was a little fair, he 
failed away Eaftward ; fo that on the 9th of Augufi he 
loft fight of that Eland, ftanding over diredlly for Hifpa- 
niola.) and called the moft Eaftward Cape of Jamaica on 
the South Coaft Calo del Farol. 
8. The two Ships that had been miffing, came in 
about fix Days after, and the Admiral proceeded on his 
Voyage, and arriving on the Coaft of Hifpaniola., the 
Indians came in their Canoes, and faid, that two had 
been there from Ifahella., and that, at the Colony, they 
were all well. He held on his Courfe to the Eaftward, 
where he difeovered a great Town, and fent the Boats 
thither for Water. The Indians came out armed with 
poifoned Arrows ; they threatened to bind the Spaniards 
with Cords they brought ; and this was the Province of 
Niguey., the Inhabitants whereof were the moft warlike 
People of the Ifland of Hifpaniola., and poifoned their 
Weapons; but when the Boats came aftiore, t\io Inddans 
laid down their Arms, and aflced for the Admiral, and 
carried Provifions. ‘ Fie held on his Courfe, and they 
faw a great Fifh, like a irnddling Whale, and' it had on 
the Neck a large Shell, like that of a Tortoife, little 
lefs then a Target; the Flead it held above Water 
was like a Pipe or But, the Tail like that of a Tunny- 
Fifh, very large, and two vaft Fins on the Side ; by this 
Fifh and other Obfervations in the Sky, the Admiral 
perceived there was like to be a Change of Weather, and 
endeavoured to get under a little Eland, which the In- 
dians called Adamanoy, and the Spaniards Saona^ which 
makes a Streight a little above a League over, with the 
Ifland Hifpaniola., and is about two Leagues in length. 
There he came to an Anchor, and the two other Ships, 
not being able to get in, ran the greateft Hazard. That 
Night the Admiral obferved the Eciipfe of the Moon, 
and affirmed the Difference of Longitude, between that 
Place and Cadiz, was five Hours and twenty-three Mi- 
nutes ; he continued there on Account of the Storm 
eight Days ; and the other Ships being come, he fail- 
ed thence on the 24th of September, and came to Cape 
Enganoj in Hifpaniola, which the Admiral named 6Y. 
Raphael ; they next touched at the Hand Mona, which 
Columbus. 2,3 
is ten Leagues from Hifpaniola, and eight fi'om the 
Hand of Porto Rico, or St. John% being fix Leagues in 
Compafs, and on it grow moft delicious Melons, as 
big as a Jar of Oil that will hold fix Qiiarts ; being gone 
from Mona, and near St. John, the Admiral was feized 
with fuch a Fit of the Lethargy, that he loft all his Senfes, 
fo that it was thought he could not live ; for which 
Reafon the Seamen ufed the utmoft Diligence, and ar- 
rived v/ith all the Ships at Ifahella, on the 29th of, Sep- 
tember, without any farther Certainty of Cuba being an. 
Eland, than what the Indians had told them. 
As, foon as they arrived, the Admiral underftood that 
his Brother Don ^Bartholomew Columbus was , there, and 
that the Natives of the Ifland were in Arms againft the. 
Spaniards. It is impoffible to exprels how much the 
Admiral was pleafed to fee his Brother, and it will not 
be amifs, before we proceed, to give an Account of what 
befel him, from the time his Brother fent him to pro- 
pofe the undertaking of thofe Difeoveries to the King of 
England. He was along time before he reached that 
Kingdom, and then learning the Language, the Methods 
of Court, and gaining Accefs to the Minifters, occafion- 
ed another Delay ; fo that after feven Years, when he had 
articled and agreed with King Henry VII. of England, 
he returned into Spain to look for his Brother, who 
having heard nothing from him during that^ time, con- 
cluded he was dead : At Paris he heard of his having 
made the Difeovery, and that he was declared Admiral ; 
being told it by King Charles, who gave him 100 
Crowns towards his Journey, and though he made all 
the hafte he could, his Brother was gone on his lecond 
Voyage, with the feventeen Ships ; but he had an In- 
ftruction, which was left by the Admiral, delivered to 
him. He went to kifs their Majefties Hands, and vifit 
his Nephews, Don James and Don Ferdinand, at V a~ 
ladolid, where the Court was ; being then Pages to 
Prince John. Their Catholic Majefties did him much 
Honour, and ordered him to go away to the Indies, 
with three Ships that were to carry Provifions to the 
Admiral. 
He arrived there in April 1494, and found he was gone 
upon the Difeovery of Cuba. The Admiral thought he 
had fome Comfort in his Brother, and gave him the Title 
of Adelantado, or Lord Lieutenant; which their Catholic 
Majefties very much refented, faying, that it was not in 
the Admiral’s Power fo to do, but that it belonged to them 
to give that Title : Yet fome Years after they confirmed 
it. Don Bartholomew v/as a very wife Man, and as ex- 
pert in Sea Affairs as his Brother ; fomev/hat harfli in 
his Temper, but very brave and free fpoken, for which 
fome hated him. The Admiral having eftablifned a 
Council for the Government of the Eland, Don Pedro 
Margarite, Commander of the four hundred Men, went 
with them to Vega Real, or Vale Royal, ten Leagues 
from Ifahella, and quartered them in the Towns there, 
where they lived without any Order or Difeipline, ruin- 
ing the Indians-, for a Spaniard will eat more in a Day, 
than one of them in a Month. The Council reproving 
Don Pedro, becaufe he did not check the Licentiouf- 
nefs of the Soldiers, he thereupon began to cavil, refufing 
to obey them, either in this Particular, or in marching 
through the Eland, as the Admiral had ordered him ; 
and fearing to be punifhedfor thofe Dilorders, he thought 
fit to embark aboard the three Ships that brought over 
Don Bartholomew Columbus, and return to Cafiile, and 
Father Boyl with him, befides fome more of his Party. 
Being come to the Court, they gave an Account that 
there was no Gold in the Indies, and that all the Ad- 
miral faid was mere Invention. The Soldiers being left 
without their Commander, difperfed themfelves about 
the Country, living like Men without a Chief. Where- 
upon a Cazique, whole Name was Guatiguanti, who 
had a large Town upon the Bank of the great River, 
killed ten Chriftians, and privately fent to let fire to a 
Houfe where fome fick Men lay; and the Indians, in 
feveral Parts of the Ifland, killed fix more ; and Calum- 
nies of the Spaniards being fpread abroad every where, 
in fuch Sort, that all the People hated them, even them 
who had not feen them, and particularly the four prin- 
cipal Kings, Guarinoex, Caunabo, Behechico, and Higua- 
nama. 
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