On Wednesday, the twelfth of December, “a large cross was set up at the entrance of the harbor upon a beautiful spot upon the western side, ‘as an indication,’ in the words of the admiral, ‘that your highnesses possess the country, and particularly for a memorial of Jesus Christ, our Lord, and the mark of Christianity.’ ... The admiral here ascertained the length of the day and night, and found that from sunrise to sunset there passed twenty glasses of half an hour each, although he says there may be some error in the calculation, as the glass may not have been turned quickly enough, or the contrary. He states further, that he took an observation with the astrolabe and found the latitude to be seventeen degrees.... “The people here were all naked, king as well as subjects, the females showing no evidences of bashfulness. Both sexes were more handsome than those they had hitherto seen. Their color was light, and if they were clothed and protected from the sun and air they would almost be as fair as the inhabitants of Spain. The temperature of the air was cool and exceedingly pleasant. The land is high, covered with plains and valleys, and the highest mountains are arable. No part of Castile could produce a territory comparable to this in beauty and fertility. The whole island and that of Tortuga are covered with cultivated fields, like the plain of Cordova. In these they raise _ajes_, which are slips set in the ground, at the end of which roots grow like carrots. They grate these to powder, knead it, and make it into bread of a very pleasant taste, like that of chestnuts. The stalk is set out anew and produces another root, and this is repeated four or five times. The largest and most excellent that had been met with anywhere (the admiral says they are also found in Guinea) were those of this island, being of the size of a man’s leg. The natives here, according to the statement of the admiral, were stoutly built and courageous, very different from the timid islanders of the other parts; agreeable in their intercourse and without any religion.... They saw a native whom the admiral took to be the governor of the district, and whom the Indians called the cacique. He had a plate of gold as large as one’s hand, with which he seemed desirous of bartering. He carried it to his house and had it cut into pieces, which he traded away one by one.” One of the caciques of the island sent a messenger to Columbus bearing as a present to him “a girdle, to which was attached, instead of a pouch, a mask having the nose, tongue, and ears of beaten gold.”