, only that they wear long hair like the women.
They use bows and darts made of reeds, with sharpened shafts fastened to
the larger end, as we have described. On this account they are considered
warlike, wherefore the other Indians are afflicted with continual fear,
but I regard them as of no more account than the others. These are
the people who visit certain women, who alone inhabit the island
Mateunin[15], which is the first in passing from Hispana to India. These
women, moreover, perform no kind of work of their sex, for they use bows
and darts, like those I have described of their husbands; they protect
themselves with sheets of copper, of which there is great abundance among
them.

They tell me of another island, greater than the aforesaid Hispana, whose
inhabitants are without hair, and which abounds in gold above all the
others. I am bringing with me men of this island and of the others that I
have seen, who give proof of the things that I have described.

Finally, that I may compress in few words the brief account of our
departure and quick return, and the gain, I promise this, that if I am
supported by our most invincible sovereigns with a little of their help,
as much gold can be supplied as they will need, indeed as much of spices,
of cotton, of chewing-gum (which is only found in Chios), also as much of
aloes-wood, and as many slaves for the navy, as their majesties will wish
to demand. Likewise rhubarb and other kinds of spices, which I suppose
these men whom I left in the said fort have already found, and will
continue to find; since I remained in no place longer than the winds
forced me, except in the town of the Nativity, while I provided for the
building of the fort and for the safety of all. Which things, although
they are very great and remarkable, yet they would have been much greater
if I had been aided by as many ships as the occasion required.

Truly great and wonderful is this, and not corresponding to our merits,
but to the holy Christian religion, and to the piety and religion of our
sovereigns, because what the human understanding could not attain, that
the divine will has granted to human efforts. For God is wont to listen
to his servants who love his precepts, even in impossibilities, as has
happened to us on the present occasion, who have attained that which
hitherto mortal men have never reached. For if anyone has written or
said anything about these islands, it was all with obscurities