From
The Log of Christopher Columbus.
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 13.
The three men whom the Admiral had sent with the woman returned at
three o'clock in the night, and they did not go with her as far as
the village because it appeared a long way off, or because they were
afraid. They said that the next day many people would come to the
ships because they must already be re-assured by the news the woman
would give them. The Admiral being desirous to learn whether there
was anything valuable in that country and in order to have some
conversation with the people as their land was so beautiful and
fertile, and that they might be disposed to serve the Sovereigns,
decided to send again to the village, confiding in the news given by
the Indian woman that the Christians were good people. For this
purpose he selected nine men well prepared with arms and adapted for
such an affair, with whom an Indian from among those he had with him
went also. They went to the village which was four leagues and a
hall to the south-east and which they found in a very large valley
and unoccupied; because when the Indians heard the Christians
coming, they all fled inland leaving whatever they had behind them.
The village consisted of more than three thousand men and had a
thousand houses. The Indian the Christians had with them, ran after
the others calling to them, saying that they must not be afraid as
the Christians were not from Cariba, but instead they were from
heaven and that they gave many beautiful things to every one they
found. They were so much impressed with what he said, that they
were re-assured and more than two thousand came together, and all
came to the Christians and placed their hands upon their heads,
which was a sign of great reverence and friendship, and they were
all trembling until they were greatly re-assured. The Christians
said that after they were entirely freed from fear they all went to
their houses, and each one brought them some of whatever they had to
eat, which was bread of "niames" I which are roots like large
radishes, which they sow and which grow and are planted in all their
lands, and upon which they live: and they make bread of them and
boil and roast them and they taste like chestnuts, and there is no
one who does not believe, in eating them, that they are chestnuts.
They gave the Christians bread and fish and whatever they had. And
as the Indians he had in the ship had understood that the Admiral
desired to have a parrot, it appears that the Indian who was with
the Christians told the other Indians something of this, and so they
brought the Christians parrots and gave them as many as they wished
without requiring anything for them. They begged them not to come
away that night and said they would give them many other things they
had in the mountains. At the time when all those people were
together with the Christians they saw a great multitude of people
coming with the husband of the woman whom the Admiral had honoured
and sent back. They were carrying this woman upon their shoulders
and they came to thank the Admiral for the honour he had done her
and the presents he had given her. The Christians told the Admiral
that they were all a handsomer people and of better disposition than
any others they had found until that time: but the Admiral says that
he does not know how they can be of better disposition than the
others, causing it to be understood that all those who had been
found in the other islands were very well disposed. As to their
beauty the Christians say that there is no comparison as well in the
women as the men and that they are whiter than the others and that
among the rest they saw two young girls as white as any could be in
Spain. They said also in regard to the beauty of the lands that the
best in Castile in beauty and goodness had no comparison with them,
and the Admiral also saw it from those he had seen and from those
he had before him, and they told him that those which he saw were
not to be compared with the lands in that valley and that they were
as much different from the field of Cordova as day is from night.
They said that all those lands were cultivated and that a river
flowed through the middle of that valley very large and wide, and
which could irrigate all the lands. All the trees were green and
full of fruit, and the grasses were all in flower and very high: the
roads were very wide and good, the breezes were like those in
Castile in the month of April, the nightingale and other small birds
were singing as they do in Spain in the same month, so that they say
it was the sweetest thing in the world. Small birds sang sweetly
during the nights: many crickets and frogs were heard: there were
fish the same as in Spain. They saw many mastic trees and aloes and
cotton plantations: they found no gold and it is not wonderful that
in such a short time they did not find any. The Admiral here
ascertained the number of hours in the day and the night and from
sun to sun; he found that twenty ampolletas glasses of half an hour
each passed, although he says there might have been some error
either because they were not turned quickly enough, or because some
of the sand did not run through. He says also that he found by the
quadrant that he was thirty-four degrees distant from the
equinoctial line.
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14.
He started from that Puerto de la Concepcion with a land breeze, and
then after a little it calmed, and thus he experienced it each day
of those he remained there. Afterward the wind became east. He
navigated in this wind to the north-north-east and reached the Isla
de la Tortuga and saw a point on this island which he called the
Punta Pierna which was to the east-north-east of the head of the
island, and might be at a distance of twelve miles, and from there
he discovered another point which he called the Punta Lanzada in the
same route to the north-east, which was about sixteen miles distant.
And thus from the head of the Tortuga as far as the Punta Aguda it
would be about forty-four miles, which are seven leagues, to the
east-north-east. On that course there were some long strips of
beaches. This island of Tortuga is a very high country but not
mountainous, and is very beautiful and well populated the same as
the island of Espanola and the land is all so cultivated that one
appears to see the field of Cordova. Having seen that the wind was
contrary and that he could not go to the island of Babeque, he
decided to return to the Puerto de la Concepcion, from whence he had
started, and he was not able to reach a river which is two leagues
from the said harbour in the direction of the east.
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 15.
He started from the Puerto de la Concepcion again on his course, but
on going out of the harbour the wind blew strongly from the east
which was contrary for him, and he turned and went to the Tortuga
and from there he made an excursion to see that river which he had
wished to see and reach yesterday and was not able to do so, and
this time he could not make it either, although he anchored half a
league to the leeward on a beach,--a good and clear harbour. Having
anchored his vessels he went with the boats to see the river and
entered an arm of the sea which is a half league nearer and it was
not the mouth. He returned and found the mouth which was not even a
fathom in depth and which had a very strong current: he entered it
with the boats in order to reach the villages which the people he
had sent the day before yesterday had seen and he threw the line on
land and by means of the sailors pulling on it the boats ascended a
distance of two lombard shots and he was not able to go farther on
account of the strong current in the river. He saw some houses and
the large valley where the villages are, and he said that he had
never seen a more beautiful thing; and that river flowed through the
middle of the valley. He also saw people at the entrance to the
river, but all started to flee. He says further that those people
must be very much hunted since they live in so much fear, because on
reaching any place they make smoke signals by means of towers
throughout all the land, and they do this more in this island of
Espanola and in Tortuga, which also is a large island, than in the
others he had left behind. He named the valley Valle del Paraiso
and the river Guadalquivir, because he says that it flows thus as
large as the Guadalquivir by Cordova, and it shows very beautiful
stones on its banks or edges and it is all navigable.
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 16.
At midnight in a very light land breeze be made sail to get out of
that gulf, and in coming from the coast of the Isla Espanola he
sailed close to the wind because afterward at the hour of tercia the
wind blew from the east. In the middle of the gulf he found a canoe
with an Indian alone in it, upon which the Admiral wondered how he
was able to keep himself upon the water when there was such a high
wind. He caused him and his canoe to be placed in the ship, and to
flatter him, gave him glass beads, hawks' bells and brass rings and
took him in his ship to land at a village which was sixteen miles
from there beside the sea, where the Admiral anchored and found a
good anchorage on the beach next to the village, which appeared to
be newly built because all the houses were new. The Indian then
went away with his canoe to land and gave news of the Admiral and of
the Christians as being good people although they already considered
them so through information from the others where the six Christians
had gone, and then more than five hundred men came and after a
little their King came, and they all gathered on the beach near the
ships for they were anchored very near the land. And then one by
one and in crowds they came to the ship without bringing anything
with them, although some of them wore grains of very fine gold in
their ears and noses, which they then gave away willingly. The
Admiral ordered that all should be treated honorably, "and (says he)
because they are the best and mildest people in the world: and above
all because I have great hope in our Lord that your Highnesses will
make them all Christians and they will all belong to you, for I
regard them as yours." He saw also that the said King was on the
beach as they all showed him respect. The Admiral sent him a
present which he says he received with great state, and that he must
have been a young man of about twenty-one years of age, and that he
had an old governor or tutor and other counsellors who counseled him
and replied to him and that he spoke very few words. One of the
Indians the Admiral had with him spoke with the King and told him
how the Christians came from heaven and that they were going in
search of gold, and wished to go to the Isla de Beneque: and he
replied that it was well and that in the said island there was a
great deal of gold; he showed the Admiral's Alguacil who took him
the present, the course that must be taken to go there and said that
in two days one could go from that place to the island, and that if
the Spaniards needed anything in his country, he would give it to
them very willingly. This King and all the others went about naked
as their mothers gave them birth, and the women also, without any
timidity and they are the handsomest men and women who had been
found up to that time: exceedingly white so that if they wore
clothing and were protected from the sun and the air they would be
almost as white as the people in Spain, for this country is very
cool and the best that language can describe: it is very high and
upon the highest mountain ploughing could be done with oxen and
everything could be transformed into arable lands and fields. In
all Castile there is no land which can be compared to this in beauty
and goodness. All this island and the island of Tortuga are
entirely cultivated like the field of Cordova. They have the fields
sown with "ajes" which are little branches which they plant, and at
the foot of them small roots grow like carrots which serve as bread,
and they grate them and knead them and make bread of them and
afterward they plant the same little branch again in another place
and it again produces four or five of those roots which are very
palatable, and taste exactly like chestnuts. These which grow here
are the largest and best he had seen anywhere, as he also says that
he had them in Guinea. Those which grew in this place he says were
as thick as the leg, and he says that all of the people there were
strong and courageous and not feeble like the others he had found
before, and they conversed very pleasantly and had no sect. And the
trees there he says were so luxuriant that the leaves were not green
but blackish in colour. It was a wonderful thing to see those
valleys and the rivers and good waters and the lands suitable for
bread-foods and for flocks of all kinds of which they had none, and
suitable for orchards and for all the things in the world that a man
may ask. Afterward in the afternoon the King came to the ship: the
Admiral paid him the honour which was due him, and caused it to be
said to him that he came from the Sovereigns of Castile who were the
greatest Sovereigns in the world. But neither the Indians who were
with the Admiral, who were the interpreters, believed anything of
this, or the King either, but they believed the Christians came from
heaven and that the realms of the Sovereigns of Castile were in the
heavens and not in this world. The Christians gave the King some of
the things of Castile to eat and he ate a mouthful and afterward
gave all to his counsellors and to the Governor and to the others
who were with him. "Your Highnesses may believe that these lands
are so numerous and good and fertile and especially these of this
Isla Espanola that there is no one who can describe it, and no one
can believe it if he does not see it. And they may believe that
this island and all the others are as much theirs as Castile as all
that is necessary here is to build a town and order them to do what
is desired. For I, with the people I have with me, who are not many
in number, could go through these islands without any affront; as I
have already seen three of these sailors go on land where there was
a multitude of the Indians and they all fled without any one's
wishing to do them harm. They have no arms and are all naked and
have no knowledge of arms and are very cowardly, for a thousand of
them would not face three Christians: and so they are suitable to be
governed and made to work and sow and do everything else that shall
be necessary, and to build villages and be taught to wear clothing
and observe our customs."
MONDAY, DECEMBER 17.
It blew that night strongly, the wind being east-north-east but the
sea did not change much, because the Isla de la Tortuga which is in
front of it and makes a shelter for it, protected and guarded it.
So he remained there during that day. He sent some of the sailors
to fish with nets. The Indians associated with the Christians a
great deal and they brought them certain arrows belonging to the
people of Caniba or the Canibales, and these arrows are made of
spikes of canes and they use some little sharp hardened sticks for
them and they are very large. They showed the Christians two men
who had lost some pieces of flesh from their bodies, and made them
understand that the Cannibals had eaten them by piece-meals. The
Admiral did not believe it. He again sent certain Christians to the
village, and by trading some worthless little glass beads they
obtained some pieces of gold beaten into the form of a thin leaf.
One Indian whom the Admiral took for the Governor of that Province
and who was called Cacique, they observed to have a piece of that
gold leaf as large as the hand and it appeared that he wished to
trade it. He went away to his house and the others remained in the
plaza and he caused that piece of gold to be broken into very small
pieces, and bringing a piece at a time, he traded for it. After
there was no more remaining, he said by signs that he had sent for
more and the next day they would bring it to him. All these things,
and their manner, and their customs, and meekness and counsel show
them to be a more alert and intelligent people than the others he
had found up to that time, says the Admiral. In the afternoon a
canoe came there from the Isla de la Tortuga with all of forty men
and on reaching the beach all the people of the village who were
together seated themselves as a sign of peace, and some from the
canoe, and then almost all came on land. "The Cacique arose alone
and with words which appeared to be threatening made them return to
the canoe and threw them water and took stones from the beach and
threw them in the water: and after all had very obediently placed
themselves in the canoe and embarked, he took a stone and placed it
in the hand of my Alguacil whom I had sent on land with the
Escribano and others to see if they could bring back anything
valuable,--that he might throw it, and the Alguacil would not do
so." That Cacique there showed very plainly that be favoured the
Admiral. The canoe then went away and they said to the Admiral after
its departure that in Tortuga there was more gold than in the island
of Espanola because it is nearer Baneque. The Admiral said that he
believed there were no mines of gold either in the Isla Espanola or
Tortuga, but that they brought it from Baneque and that they bring a
small quantity because they have nothing to give for it, and that
country is so rich that it is not necessary for them to work much to
sustain themselves or clothe themselves as they go naked. And the
Admiral believed that this was very near the fountain head and that
our Lord was about to show him where the gold originates. He was
informed that from there to Baneque it was four days' journey which
must have been thirty or forty leagues, which he could make in one
day of good wind.
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 18.
He remained anchored by this beach during this day as there was no
wind and also because the Cacique had said that gold would be
brought not because he considered says the Admiral that much gold
could be brought as there were no mines there, but in order to know
better from whence it was brought. Then at dawn he ordered the ship
and caravels decorated with arms and banners for the festival, as
this was the day of Sancta Maria de la O, or the commemoration of
the Annunciation. They fired many lombard shots: and the King of
that Isla Espanola says the Admiral had arisen early from his
house which must have been at a distance of five leagues from there,
as well as he could judge, and he reached that village at the hour
of tercia, where there were already some of the people from the ship
whom the Admiral had sent to see if any gold was brought: these
Christians said that more than two hundred men came with the King
and that four men brought him in a litter and that he was a young
man as told above. To-day as the Admiral was eating below the
forecastle the King arrived at the ship with all his people. And
the Admiral says to the Sovereigns: "With out doubt his state and
the respect which they all show him would appear well to your
Highnesses, although they are all without clothing. And as be
entered the ship he found that I was eating at the table below the
stern forecastle, and he came quickly to seat himself beside me and
would not allow me to go to meet him or get up from the table but
only that I should eat. I thought that he would like to eat some of
our viands: and I then ordered that things should be brought him to
eat. And when he entered under the forecastle, he signed with his
band that all his people should remain without and they did so with
the greatest haste and respect in the world and all seated
themselves on the deck, except two men of mature age whom I took to
be his counsellors and governors and who came and seated themselves
at his feet: and of the viands which I placed before him he took of
each one as much as may be taken for a salutation and then he sent
the rest to his people and they all ate some of it and he did the
same with the drink which he only touched to his mouth and then gave
it to the others in the same way and it was all done in wonderful
state and with very few words and whatever he said, according to
what I was able to understand, was very formal and prudent and those
two looked in his face and spoke for him and with him and with great
respect. After eating, a page brought a belt which is like those of
Castile in shape, but of a different make, which he took and gave to
me and also two wrought pieces of gold which were very thin, as I
believe they obtain very little of it here, although I consider they
are very near the place where it has its home and that there is a
great deal of it. I saw that a drapery that I had upon my bed
pleased him. I gave it to him and some very good amber beads which
I wore around my neck and some red shoes and a flask of orange
flower water, with which he was so pleased it was wonderful; and he
and his governor and counsellors were very sorry that they did not
understand me, nor I, them. Nevertheless I understood that he told
me that if anything from here would satisfy me that all the island
was at my command. I sent for some beads of mine where as a sign I
have an 'excelente' of gold upon which the images of your Highnesses
are engraved and showed it to him, and again told him the same as
yesterday that your Highnesses command and rule over all the best
part of the world and that there are no other such great Princes:
and I showed him the royal banners and the others with the cross,
which he held in great estimation: and he said to his counsellors
that your Highnesses must be great Lords, since you had sent me here
from so far without fear: and many other things happened which I did
not understand, except that I very well saw he considered everything
as very wonderful." Then as it was already late and he wished to go
away, the Admiral sent him in the boat with great honours and caused
many lombards to be fired; and having reached land he got into his
litter and went away with his two hundred men and more, and his son
was carried behind him on the shoulders of an Indian, a very
honourable man. Wherever he encountered the sailors and people from
the ships, he ordered that something to eat should be given them and
they should be paid a great deal of honour. A sailor said that he
had met him on the way and had seen that all the things which the
Admiral had given him were each one carried before the King by a
man, who appeared to be one of the most important men. His son was
following behind the King at some distance with as large a number of
people as he had, and likewise a brother of the King, except that
the brother was on foot and two of the principal men were leading
him by the arms. This brother came to the ship, after the King
came, and the Admiral gave him some things from the said articles of
barter and then the Admiral learned that the King was called in his
language Cacique. On this day he says he traded for only a small quantity of gold: but the Admiral learned from an old man that there
were many islands in that vicinity at a distance of a hundred
leagues and more, according to what he could understand, in which a
great quantity of gold is found and in the others there is so much
that he told him there was an island which was all gold, and there
is such a quantity in the others that they gather it and sift it as
with sieves and melt it and make "bars" and work it in a thousand
ways: they show the manner in which this is done, by signs. This
old man indicated to the Admiral the course to these islands and the
place where they lay: the Admiral determined to go there and said
that if the said old man had not been one of the principal persons
belonging to the King that he would have detained him and taken him
with him, or if he had known the language that he would have begged
him to accompany him and be believed as he was on such good terms
with him and with the Christians, that he would have gone with him
of his own will. But as he already considered those people as
belonging to the Sovereigns of Castile and it was not right to
offend them, he decided to leave him. He placed a very large cross
in the centre of the plaza of that village in which the Indians
assisted greatly: and they said prayers, he said, and adored it, and
from their actions the Admiral hopes in the Lord that all those
islands are to be Christianised.
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 19.
This night he made sail to get out of that gulf which the isla
Espanola and Tortigo make there, and when day arrived the wind
changed to the east, on which account during all that day he could
not get out from between those two islands, and at night he was not
able to reach a harbour I which appeared there. He saw four points
of land near there and a large bay and river and from that place he
saw a very large promontory, and there was a village and back of it
a valley between many very high mountains, covered with trees which
he judged to be pines; and upon the Dos Hermanos there is a very
high and large mountain which extends from north-east to south-west
and to the east-south-east of the Cabo de Torres there is a small
island which he named Santo Tomas as the next day was his vigil.
All around that island there are capes and wonderful harbours,
according to what he could judge from the sea. In the forepart of
the island on the western part there is a cape partly high and
partly low which projects far out into the sea and on that account
he named it Cabo Alto y Bajo. At a distance from Torres of sixty
miles in the direction of the east, quarter south-east, there is a
higher mountain than the other which projects into the sea and
appears at a distance to be an island by itself on account of a cut
which it has on the land side. He named it Monte Caribata because
that province is called Caribata. It is very beautiful and covered
with trees of a bright green without snow and without mists and the
weather there in respect to the breezes and temperateness was the
same as it is in Castile in the month of March and in respect to the
trees and grasses it was like the month of May in Castile. The
nights, he says, were of fourteen hours duration.
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 20.
To-day at sunset he entered a harbour which was between the island
of Santo Tomas and the Cabo de Caribata, and anchored. This harbour
is very beautiful and all the ships there are in Christendom could
be contained therein. Its entrance appears impossible from the sea
to those who have not entered it, on account of some obstructing
rocks which extend from the mountain almost as far as the island and
which are not placed in order, but there is one here and another
there, some in the sea and some by the land. On this account it is
necessary to be watchful, in order to enter it by some entrances it
has which are very wide and suitable to enter without fear, and the
water is all seven fathoms deep and having passed the rocks it is
twelve fathoms deep inside. The ship can be fastened with any cord
whatever against any winds there may be. At the entrance of this
harbour he says there is a channel {canal} which lies to the west of
a small sandy island and there are many trees upon this island, and
up to the foot of it there are seven fathoms of water: but there are
many shoals in this vicinity and it is necessary to keep the eyes
open until the harbour is entered: then there is no fear of all the
tempests in the world. From that harbour a very large valley
appeared, all cultivated, which descends to the harbour from the
south-east: it is all surrounded with very high mountains which
appear to reach heaven and are very beautiful and covered with green
trees; and without doubt there are mountains there which are higher
than the island of Tenerife in Canaria, which is held to be the
highest that can be found. A league from this part of the Isla de
Santo Tomas there is another small island and nearer than that,
another; and in all there are wonderful harbours but it is necessary
to look out for the shoals. The Admiral saw villages and the smoke
which they made.
Columbus's Log: December, 1492 - continued - 2