very near the place where it has its home, and that there is a great
deal of it. I saw that a drapery that I had upon my bed pleased
him. I gave it to him, and some very good amber beads which I wore
around my neck and some red shoes and a flask of orange-flower
water, with which he was so pleased it was wonderful; and he and his
governor and counsellors were very sorry that they did not
understand me, nor I them. Nevertheless I understood that he told
me that if anything from here would satisfy me that all the island
was at my command. I sent for some beads of mine, where as a sign I
have a 'excelente' of gold upon which the images of your Highnesses
are engraved, and showed it to him, and again told him the same as
yesterday, that your Highnesses command and rule over all the best
part of the world, and that there are no other such great Princes:
and I showed him the royal banners and the others with the cross,
which he held in great estimation: and he said to his counsellors
that your Highnesses must be great Lords, since you had sent me here
from so far without fear: and many other things happened which I did
not understand, except that I very well saw he considered everything
as very wonderful."

Later in the day Columbus got into talk with an old man who told him that
there was a great quantity of gold to be found on some island about a
hundred leagues away; that there was one island that was all gold; and
that in the others there was such a quantity that they natives gathered
it and sifted it with sieves and made it into bars. The old man pointed
out vaguely the direction in which this wonderful country lay; and if he
had not been one of the principal persons belonging to the King Columbus
would have detained him and taken him with him; but he decided that he
had paid the cacique too much respect to make it right that he should
kidnap one of his retinue. He determined, however, to go and look for
the gold. Before he left he had a great cross erected in the middle of
the Indian village; and as he made sail out of the harbour that evening
he could see the Indians kneeling round the cross and adoring it. He
sailed eastward, anchoring for a day in the Bay of Acul, which he called
Cabo de Caribata, receiving something like an ovation from the natives,
and making them presents and behaving very graciously and kindly to t