I continued to ramble about among the ruins, which seemed to have no end. The almond trees were in full bloom, and the orange trees were bowing down under loads of ripe fruit. Flocks of magpies were flitting about, but everything was silent and deserted. Now and then I met a countryman jogging lazily along upon a donkey, or an old woman driving her beast with a load of vine-stalks, which are used in the city to heat ovens. I could not help wondering to see so fine a territory lie utterly neglected; but the indolence of the inhabitants is the cause of all. A very little labor will earn a loaf of bread, and most of them are satisfied with this. The climate is so mild, that ragged clothes occasion no discomfort, and hardly anybody minds going in rags. The soil is so rich as scarcely to require art or industry in the cultivation. The oranges and the grapes grow with hardly any care, and the husbandman lives a lazy life, with but little to do except to pick the fruit and make the wine. Sketches of the Manners, Customs, and History of the Indians of America. (_Continued from page 119._) CHAPTER II. _The West Indies continued.--Discovery of Hayti.--Generosity of the Cacique.--Testimony of Columbus in favor with the Indians.--Character of the natives.--Columbus erects a cross.--Indian belief.--Effect of the Spanish invasion.--The Cacique._ Columbus entered a harbor at the western end of the island of Hayti, on the evening of the 6th of December. He gave to the harbor the name of St. Nicholas, which it bears to this day. The inhabitants were frightened at the approach of the ships, and they all fled to the mountains. It was some time before any of the natives could be found. At last three sailors succeeded in overtaking a young and beautiful female, whom they carried to the ships. She was treated with the greatest kindness, and dismissed finely clothed, and loaded with presents of beads, hawk’s bells, and other pretty baubles. Columbus hoped by this conduct to conciliate the Indians; and he succeeded. The next day, when the Spaniards landed, the natives permitted them to enter their houses, and set before them bread, fish, roots and fruits of various kinds, in the most kind and hospitable manner. Columbus sailed along the coast, continuing his intercourse with the natives, some of whom had ornaments of gold, which they readily exchanged for the merest trifle of European manufacture. These poor, simple people little thought that to obtain gold these _Christians_ would destroy all the Indians in the islands. No--they believed the Spaniards were more than mortal, and the country from which they came must exist somewhere in the skies.