ever displaced its native name of Jamaica. The dim
blue mountains and clumps of lofty trees about the bay were wonderful
even to Columbus, whose eyes must by this time have been growing
accustomed to the beauty of the West Indies, and he lost his heart to
Jamaica from the first moment that his eyes rested on its green and
golden shores. Perhaps he was by this time a little out of conceit with
Hayti; but be that as it may he retracted all the superlatives he had
ever used for the other lands of his discovery, and bestowed them in his
heart upon Jamaica.

He was not humanly so well received as he had been on the other islands,
for when he cast anchor the natives came out in canoes threatening
hostilities and had to be appeased with red caps and hawks' bells. Next
day, however, Columbus wished to careen his ships, and sailed a little to
the west until he found a suitable beach at Puerto Bueno; and as he
approached the shore some large canoes filled with painted and feathered
warriors came out and attacked his ships, showering arrows and javelins,
and whooping and screaming at the Spaniards. The guns were discharged,
and an armed party sent ashore in a boat, and the natives were soon put
to flight. There was no renewal of hostilities; the next day the local
cacique came down offering provisions and help; presents were exchanged,
and cordial relations established. Columbus noticed that the Jamaicans
seemed to be a much more virile community than either the Cubans or the
people of Espanola. They had enormous canoes hollowed out of single
mahogany trees, some of them 96 feet long and 8 feet broad, which they
handled with the greatest ease and dexterity; they had a merry way with
them too, were quick of apprehension and clever at expressing their
meaning, and in their domestic utensils and implements they showed an
advance in civilisation on the other islanders of the group. Columbus
did some trade with the islanders as he sailed along the coast, but he
does not seem to have believed much in the gold story, for after sailing
to the western point of the island he bore away to the north again and
sighted the coast of Cuba on the 18th of May.

The reason why Columbus kept returning to the coast of Cuba was that he
believed it to be the mainland of Asia. The unlettered natives, who had
never read Marco Polo, told him that it was an island, although no man
had ever seen the end of it; but Columbus did not believe them, an