Spaniards made much inquiry among the natives on board, for gold, and were told it camp from _Cubanocan_; which some thought meant the country of the Chan of Cathay, and that it was not far off, as their signs indicated four days journey. Martin Alonzo Pinzon, thought Cubanocan must be some great city, only distant four days journey; but it was afterwards found to be a province in the middle of Cuba, _nocan_ signifying the middle, in which there are gold mines. The admiral was not inclined to lose time in this uncertain inquiry, but ordered some Indians of several different parts to be seized, to carry them into Spain, that they might each give an account of their country, and serve as witnesses of his discovery. Twelve persons, men, women, and children, were secured; and when about to sail, the husband of one of the women, who had two children, came and solicited to go along with his wife and children; and the admiral ordered him to be received and treated kindly. The wind changing northerly, they were constrained to put into a port called _Del Principe_, which he only viewed from without, in a road-stead protected by a great number of islands, about a musket-shot asunder, and he called this place _Mar de Nuestra Sennora_, or Our Lady's Sea. The channels between the islands were deep, and the shores beautifully adorned with trees and green herbage. Some of the trees resembled mastic, and others lignum aloes, some like palms with smooth green stems, and many other kinds. Landing on these islands, they found no inhabitants, but there were the appearances of many fires having been made in them, by fishers; as the inhabitants of Cuba go there for fish and fowl, which are got in profusion. The Indians eat several filthy things; as great spiders, worms bred in rotten wood, fish half raw, from which they scoop out the eyes as soon as taken, and devour them; besides many other things quite disgusting to the Spaniards. In this employment of fishing, the Indians occupy themselves during several seasons of the year; going sometimes to one island and sometimes to another, as people who tire of one diet change to another. In one of these islands the Spaniards killed an animal resembling a wild boar, and among many kinds of fish which they drew up in their nets, one was like a swine, with a very hard skin, the tail being the only soft part. They found likewise some mother-of-pearl. The sea was observed to ebb and flow much more here than in any other part, which the admiral attributed to the numbers of islands; and low water was noticed to be when the moon was S.S.W, contrary to what it is in Spain.