On the fifth of November, the party sent to the Grand Khan returned, and gave these particulars of their journey: “After having travelled a dozen leagues they came to a town containing about fifty houses, where there were probably a thousand inhabitants; each house containing a large number of people. The houses were built after the manner of large tents. The inhabitants received them, after their fashion, with great ceremony. The men and women flocked to behold them, and they were lodged in their best houses. They showed their admiration and reverence by touching the strangers, kissing their hands and feet, and manifesting astonishment. They imagined them to be from heaven, and signified as much to them. They were feasted with such food as the natives had to offer. Upon their arrival at the town the chief men of the place led them by the arms to the principal building; here they gave them seats, and the Indians sat upon the ground in a circle round them. The Indians who had accompanied the Spaniards explained to the natives the manner in which their strange guests lived, and gave a favorable account of their character. The men then left the building, and the women entered, and sat around the Spaniards as the men had done. They kissed their hands and feet and examined them to see whether they were flesh and bone like their own.... No village was seen upon the road of a larger size than five houses.... Great numbers of birds were observed, all different from those of Spain except the nightingales, which delighted them with their songs. Partridges and geese were also found in great number. Of quadrupeds they saw none except dogs that could not bark. The soil appeared fertile and under good cultivation, producing the _mames_ already mentioned and beans very dissimilar to ours, as well as the grain called _panic_. They saw large quantities of cotton, spun and manufactured. A single house contained more than five hundred _arrobas_[155] of it. Four thousand quintals might be collected here yearly.... These people are inoffensive and peaceable. They are unclothed, but the women wear a slight covering about their loins. Their manners are very decent, and their complexion not very dark, but lighter than the inhabitants of the Canary Islands. ‘I have no doubt, most serene sovereigns,’ says the admiral, ‘that were some proper, devout, and religious persons to come among them and learn their language, it would be an easy matter to convert them all to Christianity, and I hope in our Lord that your highnesses will devote yourselves with much diligence to this object, and bring as great a multitude into the church, inasmuch as you have exterminated those who refused to confess the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.’