received from them hawks' bells, glass beads, or other baubles, in return for which they gave such provisions as they had, and some cotton yarn, the only commodity of value that they could produce. Towards evening Columbus returned to his ship, accompanied by many of the islanders in their boats, which they called canoes; and though rudely formed out of the trunk of a tree, they rowed them with surprising dexterity. Thus, in the first interview between the inhabitants of the old and new worlds, everything was conducted amicably, and to their mutual satisfaction. The former, enlightened and ambitious, formed already vast ideas with respect to the advantages which they might derive from the regions that began to open to their view. The latter, simple and undiscerning, had no foresight to the calamities and desolation which were approaching their country.
'Columbus, who now assumed the title and authority of admiral and viceroy, called the island which he had discovered San Salvador. It is better known by the name of Guanahani, which the natives gave to it, and is one of that large cluster of islands called the Lucaya or Bahama Isles. It is situated above three thousand miles to the west of Gomera, from which the squadron took its departure, and only four degrees to the south of it; so little had Columbus deviated from the westerly course which he had chosen as the most proper.'
Cruise in the West India Archipelago—Various Discoveries.—Columbus
imagined that the island he had thus discovered, and others
which could be seen from it, belonged to the Archipelago, which, according
to Marco Polo, lay east of the Asiatic continent. He resolved, therefore,
to remain no longer at San Salvador, but to sail in the direction in which
he conceived the mainland to lie. When he asked the natives, by signs,
where they obtained the gold, of which most of them wore thin plates
attached to their nostrils by way of ornament, they invariably pointed to
the south. To the south, therefore, he determined to prosecute his voyage,
not doubting but that the region which the natives pointed to must be
Cathay or Cipango. Accordingly, after spending one day at San Salvador,
he directed his course through the midst of that multitudinous cluster
of islands now called the Bahamas, convinced as he gazed at their green
and luxuriant foliage, that these must be the 'seven thousand four hundred
and fifty-eight islands abounding with spices and odoriferous trees,' which
Marco Polo described as filling the Chinese sea. He landed at three of
the largest, and gave them names. Here the appearance of the ships and
the Spaniards produced the same astonishment among the natives as at
San Salvador. Receiving to his inquiries after gold the same invariable
answer, that it lay to the south, he pushed on through group after group
of islands, and at last, on the 28th of October, came in sight of Cuba.
The appearance of this noble island as he approached it, its high mountains,
its spreading forests, its broad rivers, made him uncertain whether it
might not be part of the great continent he was in search of. 'He entered
the mouth of a large river with his squadron, and all the inhabitants fled to
the mountains as he approached the shore. But as he resolved to careen
his ships in that place, he sent some Spaniards, together with one of the
people of San Salvador, to view the interior part of the country. They
having advanced above sixty miles from the shore, reported, upon their
