objects which they beheld, and the baubles which Columbus bestowed upon them, amply gratified their curiosity and their wishes. They nearly resembled the people of Guanahani and Cuba. Like them, they were naked, ignorant, and simple; and seemed to be equally unacquainted with all the arts which appear most necessary in polished societies; but they were gentle, credulous, and timid, to a degree which rendered it easy to acquire the ascendency over them, especially as their excessive admiration led them into the same error with the people of the other islands, in believing the Spaniards to be more than mortals, and descended immediately from heaven. They possessed gold in greater abundance than their neighbors, which they readily exchanged for bells, beads, or pins; and in this unequal traffic both parties were highly pleased, each considering themselves as gainers by the transaction.'
The Spaniards remained at Hispaniola for the space of a month, during which time they explored a great part of the coast, and became familiar with the natives. Columbus had a keen sense of the beautiful in scenery, and his journal is full of enthusiastic description of Hispaniola, its deep groves, its clear skies, its tranquil bays, its soft and balmy atmosphere, its birds with their splendid plumage. 'Tongue,' he says, 'cannot express the whole truth, nor pen describe it; and I have been so overwhelmed at the sight of so much beauty, that I have not known how to relate it. The people also seem to have made a deep impression on him by their gentle and confiding manners. 'So loving, so tractable, so peaceable,' he says, 'are these people, that I swear to your majesties there is not in the world a better nation nor a better land. They love their neighbors as themselves; and their discourse is ever sweet and gentle, and accompanied with a smile; and though it is true that they are naked, yet their manners are decorous and praiseworthy.' Such are the descriptions given of the island of Hayti by its discoverer—the first island doomed to experience the miseries produced by the cruelty and avarice of the invaders.
The part of Hayti which the fleet first touched at was its western extremity. As usual, one of the earliest inquiries made of the natives was where they obtained gold. The natives, in reply, pointed to a mountainous district to the eastward, which they named Cibao—a sound in which Columbus, still clinging to his original delusion, traced a resemblance to the Cipango of Marco Polo. Proceeding eastward, therefore, Columbus anchored his two vessels in a habor , to which he gave the name of St. Thomas.
While here he received a message from a chieftain called Guacanagari, one of the five caçiques or kings amongst whom the whole island was divided, requesting that he would come and visit him. Columbus resolved to do so. 'He sailed for this purpose from St. Thomas on the 24th of December, with a fair wind, and the sea perfectly calm; and as, amongst the multiplicity of his occupations, he had not shut his eyes for two days, he retired at midnight in order to take some repose, having committed the helm to the pilot, with strict injunctions not to quit it for a moment. The pilot, dreading no danger, carelessly left the helm to an inexperienced cabin-boy, and the ship, carried away by the current, was dashed against a rock. The violence of the shock awakened Columbus. He ran up to the deck. There all was confusion and despair. He alone retained presence of mind. He ordered some of the sailors to take a boat, and carry
