_Sir: Believing that you will take pleasure in hearing of the great success which our Lord has granted me in my voyage, I write you this letter, whereby you will learn how in thirty-three[15] days' time I reached the Indies with the fleet which the most illustrious King and Queen, our Sovereigns, gave to me, where I found very many islands thickly peopled, of all which I took possession, without resistance, for their Highnesses, by proclamation made and with the royal standard unfurled. To the first island that I found I gave the name of San Salvador,[16] in remembrance of His High Majesty, who hath marvelously brought all these things to pass; the Indians call it Guanahani. To the second island I gave the name of Santa Maria de Conception; the third I called Fernandina; the fourth, Isabella; the fifth, Juana; and so to each one I gave a new name._ _When I reached Juana, I followed its coast to the westward, and found it so large that I thought it must be the mainland,--the province of Cathay; and as I found neither towns nor villages on the sea-coast, but only a few hamlets, with the inhabitants of which I could not hold conversation because they all immediately fled, I kept on the same route, thinking that I could not fail to light upon some large cities and towns._ _At length, after proceeding of many leagues and finding that nothing new presented itself, and that the coast was leading me northward (which I wished to avoid, because winter had already set in, and it was my intention to move southward; and because, moreover, the winds were contrary), I resolved not to wait for a change in the weather, but returned to a certain harbor which I had remarked, and from which I sent two men ashore to ascertain whether there was any king or large cities in that part. They journeyed for three days and found countless small hamlets with numberless inhabitants, but with nothing like order; they therefore returned. In the meantime I had learned from some other Indians whom I had seized that this land was certainly an island; accordingly, I followed the coast eastward for a distance of 107 leagues, where it ended in a cape. From this cape I saw another island to the eastward, at a distance of eighteen leagues from the former, to which I gave the name of "La Espanola." Thither I went, and followed its northern coast to the eastward (just as I had done with the coast of Juana) 178 full leagues due east. This island like all the others is extraordinarily large, and this one extremely so. In it are many seaports, with which none that I know in Christendom can bear comparison, so good and capacious that it is wonder to see. The lands are high, and there are many very lofty mountains with which the island of Cetefrey can not be compared. They are all most beautiful, of a thousand different shapes, accessible, and covered with trees of a thousand kinds, of such great height that they seemed to reach the skies.