time to anchor safely before dark. He therefore waited till morning, and
anchored near a town. Here the man had gone, who had been picked up the
day before, and he had given such good accounts that all night long the
ship had been boarded by almadias, bringing supplies. Columbus directed
some trifle to be given to each of the islanders, and that they should
be given "honey of sugar" to eat. He sent the ship's boat ashore for
water and the inhabitants not only pointed it out but helped to put the
water-casks on board.

"This people," he says, "is like those of the aforesaid islands, and
has the same speech and the same customs, except that these seem to me a
somewhat more domestic race, and more intelligent. * * * And I saw also
in this island cotton cloths made like mantles. * * *

"It is a very green island and flat and very fertile, and I have no
doubt that all the year through they sow panizo (panic-grass) and
harvest it, and so with everything else. And I saw many trees, of very
different form from ours, and many of them which had branches of many
sorts, and all on one trunk. And one branch is of one sort and one of
another, and so different that it is the greatest wonder in the world. *
* * One branch has its leaves like canes, and another like the lentisk;
and so on one tree five or six of these kinds; and all so different. Nor
are they grafted, for it might be said that grafting does it, but they
grow on the mountains, nor do these people care for them. * * *

"Here the fishes are so different from ours that it is wonderful. There
are some like cocks of the finest colors in the world, blue, yellow, red
and of all colors, and others painted in a thousand ways. And the colors
are so fine that there is no man who does not wonder at them and take
great pleasure in seeing them. Also, there are whales. As for wild