Everything being ready, the fleet set sail from Cadiz September 25, 1493. Columbus at first directed his course toward the Canary Islands and arrived there October 5. There he took aboard fresh water, wood, and cattle, besides some swine, and set sail again from Ferro, October 13. In twenty days, aided by favoring winds, the fleet had covered a distance of eight hundred miles. On the second of November, thirty-six days after their departure from Spain, the fleet came to anchor off an island which Columbus named Dominica, because he discovered it on the Sunday which in the later Latin was called “Dies Dominica,” or the “Day of the Lord.” Dominica is one of the Lesser Antilles or Caribbean Islands. As he could not find good anchorage there he sailed farther on and shortly discovered several other islands, some of them of considerable size, such as Marie Galante, Guadeloupe, Antigua, Porto Rico, and St. Martin. Upon Guadeloupe they observed a magnificent waterfall plunging over a lofty and jagged cliff with a roar that could be heard three miles away. At first no natives were visible, as they had deserted their huts and fled to the mountains. At last some of the Spaniards who had been sent out brought in two boys who asserted they were not born on the island but had been forcibly carried away, by these natives, from a neighboring island. Soon six women were found who piteously implored help, saying that they had been seized and condemned to slavery. The dreadful news was learned from them that the natives of this island were in the habit of roasting and eating male prisoners taken in their battles, and that the women were carried off by them notwithstanding their piteous appeals. Columbus found that what these women and the cacique, Guakanahari, had told him previously of the barbarous practices of these islanders, was true. Almost everywhere that he landed he met with a hostile reception and everywhere he found traces of the inhuman practice of cannibalism. With horror they saw the bones and skulls of slaughtered human beings lying around almost every dwelling. This and his desire as soon as possible to gladden the Spaniards who had been left at Hispaniola, induced Columbus not to remain longer at these newly discovered islands, especially as it was useless to try to communicate with the natives. He resumed his voyage therefore and, on the twenty-first of the same month, safely arrived at a spot which was only a day’s journey from Fort Navidad.