--THE CIGAR AND TOBACCO--CIPANGO AND THE GREAT KHAN--FROM CUBA TO
HAYTI--ITS SHORES AND HARBORS.

When Columbus landed, at some distance farther along the coast, he found
the best houses he had yet seen, very large, like pavilions, and very
neat within; not in streets but set about here and there. They were all
built of palm branches. Here were dogs which never barked (supposed
to be the almiqui), wild birds tamed in the houses and "wonderful
arrangements of nets,(*) and fish-hooks and fishing apparatus. There
were also carved masks and other images. Not a thing was touched." The
inhabitants had fled.

(*) These were probably hammocks.

He went on to the northwest, and saw a cape which he named Cabo de
Palmas. The Indians on board the Pinta said that beyond this cape was
a river and that at four days' journey from this was what they called
"Cuba." Now they had been coasting along the Island of Cuba for two or
three days. But Martin Pinzon, the captain of the Pinta, understood this
Cuba to be a city, and that this land was the mainland, running far to
the north. Columbus until he died believed that it was the mainland.

Martin Pinzon also understood that the king of that land was at war with
the Grand Khan, whom they called Cami. The Admiral determined to go to
the river the Indians mentioned, and to send to the king the letter
of the sovereigns. He meant to send with it a sailor who had been to
Guinea, and some of the Guanahani Indians. He was encouraged, probably,
by the name of Carni, in thinking that he was really near the Grand
Khan.