Touching at the Mucaras group, Columbus arrived at Zipangu, which was none other than the island of Cuba, on the 28th of October, and gave to the island, in place of its barbarous appellation, the more Christian name of Juana. Cruising along the northern shore of Cuba, in frequent converse with the natives, he soon learned that this was not Zipangu, was not even an island, but was the veritable Asiatic continent itself, for so his fervid mind interpreted the strange language of this people. Unfortunately he could not find the Khan; after diligent search he could find no great city, nor any imperial court, nor other display of oriental opulence such as were described by Marco Polo and Sir John Mandeville—only naked barbarians and thatched huts; so after advancing west beyond Savana la Mar, the discoverers returned to the eastern end of Cuba, visiting on the way the group El Jardin del Rey. Postponing the exploration of the coast toward the south-west, Columbus returned eastward and followed the northern coast of Española, turning off on his way to discover the Tortugas, and arriving at La Navidad, where he built a fort and left a colony of thirty-nine men. Now, Española, and not Cuba as he had at first supposed, was the true Zipangu; for the main-land of China could not by any possibility be the island of Japan; and in this belief Columbus sailed for Spain on the 16th of January, reaching the Azores on the 18th of February, and arriving at Palos the 15th of March, 1493. _Primer viage de Colon_, in _Navarrete_, tom. i. pp. 1-197; _Purchas_, _His Pilgrimes_, vol. i. booke ii. pp. 10-13; _Sammlung aller Reisebeschreibungen_, tom. xiii. p. 10; _Napione_ and _De Conti_, _Biografia Colombo_, pp. 305-36; _Peter Martyr_, dec. i. cap. i.; _Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i. pp. 21-31, 46-55; _Colon_, _Hist. del Almirante_, in _Barcia_, tom. i. pp. 13-38; _Irving's Columbus_, vol. i. pp. 124-289; vol. iii. pp. 447-68; _Major's Prince Henry_, pp. 356-7; _West-Indische Spieghel_, p. 10; _Cancellieri_, _Notizie di Colombo_, pp. 66-76.