conviction that he must eventually arrive at Cathay. Though charmed beyond measure with everything he saw, nothing indicated the lands Marco Polo had described. A verdant soil, and coasts adorned by stately trees, watered by navigable rivers, and indented by commodious harbours, spoke of riches to come; while a fertile and populous country lay before him, with peaceful and industrious inhabitants, who brought him food, and fruits, and fish, in great abundance. There were however no mines of gold, or palaces covered with that precious metal; but there was everything that might encourage habits of industry, with little or nothing to satisfy the cupidity of the settlers, or to lead them to suppose they had discovered a land where man could live otherwise than by the sweat of his brow.
Discovery of the island of Jamaica.
Surveys Cuba, and returns to Isabella.
At Santiago de Cuba Columbus was overwhelmed
by the simple hospitality of the natives; but as he
approached the island of Jamaica he was met by
seventy or eighty canoes, filled with savages, gaily
painted, and decorated with feathers, advancing in
warlike array, uttering loud yells, and brandishing
lances of pointed wood. An explanation, however,
from the interpreter, and a few presents to the crew
of one of the canoes who had ventured nearer than
the rest, soothed the caciques of the other canoes,
some of which measured upwards of ninety feet in
length, and eight feet in breadth, and were hollowed
out of one magnificent tree. From Jamaica, Columbus
proceeded to Cuba, and having devoted many
months to the survey of the whole of that portion
of its coast which he could reach, he set sail for
Isabella, where he arrived suffering in health, and
