receive from the ships' company, no matter how many bishops and holy men
might be on board.

All that day there was exploring by small companies, and on the next the
archbishop landed in solemn procession. The boats from the ships all met
at early morning, near the shore, the sight bringing together a crowd of
islanders on the banks; men, women, and children, who, with an instinct
that something of importance was to happen, decked themselves with
flowers, wreaths, and plumes, the number increasing constantly and the
crowd growing more and more picturesque. Forming from the boats, a
procession marched slowly up the beach, beginning with a few lay brethren,
carrying tools for digging; then acolytes bearing tall crosses; and then
white-robed priests; the seven bishops being carried on litters, the
archbishop most conspicuously of all. Solemn chants were sung as the
procession moved through the calm water towards the placid shore, and the
gentle savages joined in kneeling while a solemn mass was said, and the
crosses were uplifted which took possession of the new-found land in the
name of the Church.

These solemn services occupied much of the day; later they carried tents
on shore, and some of them occupied large storehouses which the natives
had built for drying their figs; and to the women, under direction of
Juanita, was allotted a great airy cave, with smaller caves branching from
it, where the natives had made palm baskets. Day after day they labored,
transferring all their goods and provisions to the land,--tools, and
horses, and mules, clothing, and simple furniture. Most of them joined
with pleasure in this toil, but others grew restless as they transferred
all their possessions to land, and sometimes the women especially would
climb to high places and gaze longingly towards Spain.