On April 24 he had left his new-founded city of Isabella in Hispaniola,
and started on a further voyage of discovery. He sailed westward along
the north coast of Hispaniola, and, leaving the point we now call Cape
St. Nicholas, stood across to Cuba, and anchored in a harbour
(Guantanamo), to which he gave the name of Puerto Grande. Leaving on May
1, he coasted along the southern shores, admiring the beauty of the
landscape, noting the rivers, and receiving visits from numerous Indians
in their canoes, with whom he exchanged beads and hawks’ bells for
cassava bread, fish and fresh water. But soon, on the advice of his
Guanahani guide (whom he had taken to Spain on returning from his first
voyage) he stood due south in order to visit a large island of which the
natives spoke. As he neared the island a number of carved and painted
canoes, one nearly ninety feet in length, crowded with Indians, came out
to meet him a league’s length from the shore. After giving them
presents, Columbus sailed on and dropped anchor in a place which he
named Santa Gloria, on account of its extreme beauty. Passing the night
there he sailed westward to find a closed port in which he might careen
and caulk up his vessels. About four leagues further on he found a very
singular port, to use the words of Bernaldez, or, as Fernando Colombo
describes it, resembling a horseshoe in shape, which he named Puerto
Bueno. Here two canoes full of Indians met him, but after six or seven
of the natives had been wounded by bolts from the Spaniards’ crossbows
they retreated.
On anchoring Columbus saw “so many Indians that the earth was covered
with them,” all painted, chiefly in black, wearing nothing but plumes on
their heads and aprons of leaves round their waists. Wishing to assert
his authority and instil a fear for the arms of Castile into the hearts
of the natives, Columbus, as the caravels could not reach the shore
owing to the shallowness of the water, sent three boatloads of men, who,
aided by the pioneer of those hounds which afterwards did fearful
execution amongst the poor Indians, drove them off so that there was not
a man or woman left in the neighbourhood. On the following day six
Indians came as ambassadors from the caciques or chiefs, begging
Columbus not to go away; and later on the caciques themselves and many
followers came and brought provisions, which probably consisted of
cassava, arrowroot, guavas, naseberries, cocoa-plums and star-apples.
During the time they were there the Spaniards had everything in
abundance, and the Indians were very pleased with the objects (hawks’
bells, beads and the like) which the admiral gave them. When the vessels
had been repaired and the crews were rested, Columbus left Puerto Bueno
after a three days’ stay, and skirted the northern shore, being visited
from each village by canoes full of Indians, who exchanged native
products for hawks’ bells and beads, till he came to Point Negril, which
he named “Cabo del Buen Tiempo.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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