"They brought skeins of spun cotton, and parrots, and javelins, and
other little things which it would be wearisome to write down, and they
gave everything for whatever was given to them.

"And I strove attentively to learn whether there were gold. And I saw
that some of them had a little piece of gold hung in a hole which they
have in their noses. And by signs I was able to understand that going to
the south, or going round the island to the southward, there was a king
there who had great vessels of it, and had very much of it. I tried
to persuade them to go there; and afterward I saw that they did not
understand about going.(*)

(*) To this first found land, called by the natives
Guanahani, Columbus gave the name of San Salvador. There is,
however, great doubt whether this is the island known by
that name on the maps. Of late years the impression has
generally been that the island thus discovered is that now
known as Watling's island. In 1860 Admiral Fox, of the
United States navy, visited all these islands, and studied
the whole question anew, visiting the islands himself and
working backwards to the account of Columbus's subsequent
voyage, so as to fix the spot from which that voyage began.
Admiral Fox decides that the island of discovery was neither
San Salvador nor Watling's island, but the Samana island of
the same group. The subject is so curious that we copy his
results at more length in the appendix.

"I determined to wait till the next afternoon, and then to start for the
southwest, for many of them told me that there was land to the south and