On the next day Columbus’ brother went ashore and saw all the presents which had been given to the natives lying in a heap, probably because it was not their custom to accept gifts without making gifts in return. As he landed, two of the foremost natives took him by the arms and requested him to sit between them on the grass. He did as they wished, asked them various questions with the help of an interpreter, and ordered his secretary to take down their answers in writing. Hardly had the savages noticed pen, paper, and ink before they sprang up excitedly and ran up to their fellows who were looking on near by. The poor superstitious people fancied that the secretary was a magician, that the writing materials were the instruments of his magic, and that he would do them harm. Every effort was made to convince them of their folly but they would not venture to come near the Spaniards until they had averted the danger in their peculiar way, which was as follows: They threw a kind of powder at them which gave out a smoke, and this smoke, which they probably believed had the power of averting magic, they managed so that it should touch the one whom they regarded as the master magician. Immediately after this Bartolomeo went with them to their village. The most remarkable thing he saw was a large wooden structure which served as a burial-place. He found several corpses in it wrapped in woollen cloths, one of which was embalmed. Upon each one of the graves there was a board upon which were figures of animals. Upon some there were likenesses of the deceased, ornamented in various ways. On the next day the Admiral detained several natives on board in order to obtain further information from them, which led the others to believe that he intended to keep them until they were ransomed. Accordingly they sent messengers to him with two young wild hogs as a ransom for the prisoners. The Admiral sought to make them understand their comrades were not prisoners and that a ransom was not necessary. He bought the hogs from them, whereupon they returned contented. After another cruise of several days the Admiral reached the mouth of a stream, came to anchor, and sent a boat’s crew ashore, but a multitude of armed natives resisted their landing. Over a hundred sprang waist deep into the water, threateningly brandished their lances, blew horns, beat a kind of drum, dashed water at the Spaniards, and spit at them as a sign of their contempt and aversion. The Spaniards had orders to maintain a friendly attitude toward them. They made no reply to the hostile actions of the natives but contented themselves with watching the spectacle at a safe distance until the leaders were weary of their useless operations, when, in place of a battle, communication was opened up with them, and an exchange of several little trifles was made for sixteen plates of gold, valued at one hundred and fifty ducats.