From
The Log of Christopher Columbus:
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 24.
"This night at midnight I weighed the anchors from the Cabo del Isleo on the island of Isabella, which is on the northern part and
is where I bad stopped, in order to go to the island of Cuba which I
heard from these people was very large and would yield much trade,
and that there was upon it gold and spices and large vessels and
merchants: and they showed me that a course west-south-west would
lead to it and I think it is so. Because I believe that if what
these Indians from these islands and those I am taking on the ships
have indicated to me by signs (as I do not understand the language)
is true, it is the island of Cipango in regard to which they are
telling wonderful things: and according to the spheres which I saw
and the drawings of mappemondes it is in this region: Thus I sailed
to the west-south-west until day, and at day-break the wind calmed
and it rained, and it was so almost all the night. And I remained
in this condition with a slight wind until past mid-day and then it
commenced to blow again very pleasingly, and I spread all my sails
on the ship, the main-sail, and two bonnets, the fore-sail, the
sprit-sail, the mizzen-sail the main-top-sail and the small sail in
the stern. So I went on my course until nightfall and then Cabo Verde on the island of Fernandina which the southern point of the
western part of the island was north-west of me, and it was at a
distance from me of seven leagues. And as it was still blowing
strongly and I did not know how far it might be to the said island
of Cuba, and in order not to go in search of it at night because the
water around all these islands is very deep so that there is no
anchorage save at a distance of two lombard shots, and the bottom is
all either rocky or sandy so that one cannot anchor safely without
seeing,--for these reasons I decided to lower all the sails except
the fore-sail and navigate with that: and after a short time the
wind increased very much and I went quite a distance without being
sure of my course, and it was very dark and cloudy and it rained. I
ordered the fore-sail lowered and we did not go two leagues this
night, etc."
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 25.
After sunrise he sailed to the west-south-west until 9 o'clock and
they went about five leagues. Afterwards he changed the course to
the west. They went eight miles an hour until one hour after
mid-day and from then until three o'clock, and they went about 44
miles. Then they saw land and there were seven or eight islands
all dong from north to south. They were five leagues distant from
them, etc.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 26.
He was south of the said islands. It was all shallow water for five
or six leagues and he anchored there. The Indians he was carrying
with him said that it was a day and a half's journey from these
islands to Cuba with their canoes, which are small wooden vessels
which do not carry sail. These are the canoes. He started from
there for Cuba, because from the descriptions which the Indians gave
him of the size of the island and of the gold and pearls on it, he
thought that it was the one,--that is to say Cipango.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 27.
After sunrise he weighed the anchors from those islands which he
called Las Islas de Arena, on account of the shallow water which
extends six leagues to the south of them. He went eight miles an
hour to the south-south-west until one o'clock and they might have
gone 40 miles, and until night they went about 28 miles on the same
course, and before night they saw land. They remained quiet that
night, making observations during which time it rained very hard.
Saturday they went until sunset 17 leagues to the south-south-west.
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 28.
He went from there in search of the island of Cuba to the
south-south-west, to the nearest part of the island, and entered a
very beautiful river which was very free from dangerous shoals and
other inconveniences. And the water all along the coast there was
very deep and very clear as far as the shore. The mouth of the
river was 12 fathoms deep and it is quite wide enough to beat about.
He anchored inside, he says, at a distance of a lombard shot. The
Admiral says that he never saw anything so beautiful, the country
around the river being full of trees, beautiful and green and
different from ours, with flowers and each with its own kind of
fruit. There were many large and small birds which sang very
sweetly, and there was a great quantity of palms differing from
those in Guinea and from ours. They were of medium height without
any bark at the foot and the leaves are very large, with which the
Indians cover the houses. The country is very level. The Admiral
jumped into the boat and went to land, and approached two houses
which he believed to be those of fishermen who fled in fear. In one
of the houses they found a dog which never barked and in both houses
they found nets made of palm-threads and cords and fish-hooks of
horn and harpoons of bone and other fishing materials and many fires
(huegos) within and he believed that many persons lived together in
each house. He ordered that not one thing should he touched, and
thus it was done. The grass was as tall as in Andalusia in the
months of April and May. He found much purslain and wild amaranth.
He returned to the boat and went up the river a good distance and he
says it was such a great pleasure to see that verdure and those
groves and the birds that he could not leave them to return. He
says that this island is the most beautiful one that eyes have seen,
full of very good harbours and deep rivers and it appeared that the
sea never rose because the grass on the beach reached almost to the
water, which does not usually happen when the sea is rough. Until
then he had never found in all those islands that the sea was rough.
The island, he says, is filled with very beautiful mountains,
although they are not very long but high and all the other land is
high like Sicily. It is full of many waters, according to what he
was able to understand from the Indians he was taking with him, whom
he took in the island of Guanahani, who told him by signs that there
are ten large rivers and that with their canoes they cannot go
around it in twenty days. When he was going to land with the ships,
two rafts or canoes came out and as they saw that the sailors
entered the boat and were rowing in order to go and find out the
depth of the river so as to know where they could anchor, the canoes
fled. The Indians said that in that island there were mines of gold
and pearls, and the Admiral saw a good place for them and for
mussels which is an indication of them, and the Admiral understood
that large ships belonging to the Great Khan came there, and that
from there to the mainland it was a ten days' journey. The Admiral
named that river and harbour San Salvador.
MONDAY, OCTOBER 29.
He weighed the anchors from that harbour and navigated to the west
he says, in order to go to the city where it appeared to him from
what the Indians said that the King dwelt. One point of the island
projected to the north-west six leagues from there, another point
projected to the east ten leagues: having gone another league he saw
a river not with as wide an entrance as the other which he named the
Rio de la Luna. He sailed until the hour of vespers. He saw
another river very much larger than the others, and the Indians told
him so by signs, and near this river he saw good villages of houses.
He named the river the Rio de Mares. He sent the boats to a village
to have speech with the Indians, and in one of the boats he sent an
Indian from among those he was taking with him, because the Indians
already understood them somewhat and showed that they were pleased
with the Christians. All the men and women and children fled from
these people abandoning the houses with all they had, and the
Admiral ordered that nothing would be touched. He says that the
houses were more beautiful than those he had seen and he believed
that the nearer they approached the mainland the better they were.
They were constructed like pavilions, very large, and appeared like
royal tents without uniformity of streets, but one here and another
there, and within they were very well swept and dean, and their
furnishings were arranged in good order. All are built of very
beautiful palm branches. They found many statues of women's forms
and many heads like masks, very well made. it is not known whether
they have them because of their beauty or whether they adore them.
There were dogs which never barked. There were small wild birds
tamed in their houses. There were wonderful outfits of nets and
hooks and fishing implements. They did not touch one thing among
them. The Admiral believed that all the Indians on the coast must
be fishermen who carry the fish inland, because that island is very
large and so beautiful that he could not say too much good of it.
He says that he found trees and fruits of a very wonderful taste.
And he says that there must be cows and other herds of cattle on
this island, because he saw skulls which appeared to him to be
skulls of cows. There were large and small birds and the crickets
sang all the night, which pleased every one. The breezes were soft
and pleasant during all the night, neither cold nor warm. But in
regard to the other islands he says that it is very warm upon them
and here it is not, but temperate as in May. He attributes the heat
of the other islands to their being very level, and to the fact that
the wind which blows there is from the south and on that account
very warm. The water in those rivers was salt at the mouth. They
did not know the sources whence the Indians drank although they had
fresh water in their houses. The ships were able to turn around in
the river to enter and to go out and they have very good signs or
marks. They are seven or eight fathoms deep at the mouth and five
within. He says that it appears to him that all that sea must
always be as calm as the river of Seville, and the water suitable
for the growth of pearls. He found large snails without taste, not
like those in Spain. He described the disposition of the river and
the harbour which he says above that he named San Salvador, by
saying that its mountains are beautiful and high, like the Rock of the Lovers (pena de lo senamorados) and one of them has at the
summit another little mount like a beautiful mosque. This river and
harbour in which he was at this time, has to the south-east two
quite round mountains and to the west-north-west a beautiful level
cape which projects outward.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 30.
He went out of the Rio de Mares to the north-west and after having
gone fifteen leagues he saw a cape covered with palms and named it
Cabo de Palmas. The Indians who were in the caravel Pinta said that
behind that cape there was a river and from the river to Greta it
was four days' journey and the captain of the Pinta said that he
understood that this Cuba was a city, and that that country was the
mainland, very large, which extends very far to the north; and that
the King of that country was at war with the Great Khan, whom they
called Cami, and his country or city they called Fava and many other
names. The Admiral determined to approach that river and send a
present to the King of the Country and send him the letter from the
Sovereigns, and for this purpose he had a sailor who had been in
Guinea in like manner and certain Indians from Guanahani who wished
to go with him, so that afterwards they might return to their
country. In the Admiral's opinion he was 42 degrees distant from
the equinoctial line toward the north, but the text from which this
is copied is defaced; and he says that he must strive to go to the
Great Khan as he thought he was in that vicinity or at the city of
Cathay which is the city of the Great Khan. He says that this city
is very great, according to what was said to him before he left
Spain. He says all this country is low and beautiful and the sea is
deep.
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 31.
All Tuesday night he went beating about and saw a river which he
could not enter as the mouth was shallow: and the Indians thought
that the ships could enter as their canoes entered, and sailing
onward he found a cape which projected very far out and was
surrounded by shoals and he saw an inlet or bay where small ship
could remain, and he could not reach it, because the wind had
shifted entirely to the north and all the coast extended to the
north-north-west and south-east and another cape which he saw ahead
of him projected farther out. For this reason and because the sky
indicated a strong wind he had to return to the Rio de Mares.