On Sunday, the twenty-eighth of October, Columbus’s ships arrived off the coast of Cuba and “entered an attractive river, free from shallows and all other obstructions.... The mouth of the river had a depth of twelve fathoms of water, and a breadth sufficient for ships to beat in. They anchored within the river, and the admiral remarks that the scenery here exceeded in beauty any thing he had ever seen, the river being bordered with trees of the most beautiful and luxuriant foliage of a peculiar appearance, and its banks covered with flowers and fruits of different kinds. Birds were here in great number singing most charmingly. Numerous palm trees were seen, different from those of Guinea and Spain, not having the same kind of bark. They were of a moderate height and bore very large leaves, which the natives used to cover their houses. The land appeared quite level. The admiral went ashore in a boat, and found two dwellings, which he supposed to be those of fishermen, and that the owners had fled. He found in one of them a dog unable to bark. Both houses contained nets of palm, lines, horn fish-hooks, harpoons of bone, and other implements for fishing, as also many fire-places, and each house seemed sufficiently large to shelter a great number of people. The admiral gave orders that nothing should be touched.... They returned on board the boat and ascended the river some distance.... The admiral declares this to be the most beautiful island ever seen, abounding in good harbors and deep rivers, with a shore upon which it appears the sea never breaks high, as the grass grows down to the water’s edge, a thing that never happens where the sea is rough. Indeed, a high sea they had not yet had among these islands. This island, he says, is full of attractive mountains, which are lofty, although not of great range. The rest of the country is high, similar to Sicily, abounding in streams, as they understood from the Indians of Guanahani that were on board the ships, who informed them by signs that it contained ten large rivers, and that the island was so large that with their canoes they could not sail round it in twenty days.... The Indians told them there were mines of gold here and pearls.... They further informed him that large vessels came there from the Grand Khan, and that the main-land was distant a voyage of ten days. The admiral named the river and port San Salvador.” Farther westward, along the northern side of the island, Columbus discovered the rivers which he called Rio de la Luna (River of the Moon), and the Rio de Mares (River of Seas). The houses which were built on the shores of the latter river, he says, were “the finest he had yet seen, and thinks, the nearer he approaches the continent, they will continue to improve. They were of a large size, built in the shape of a tent, and each collection of them appeared like a camp, without any order of streets, the houses scattered here and there. Their interiors were found