lvador,[16] in remembrance of His High Majesty, who hath marvelously
brought all these things to pass; the Indians call it Guanahani. To the
second island I gave the name of Santa Maria de Conception; the third I
called Fernandina; the fourth, Isabella; the fifth, Juana; and so to
each one I gave a new name._

_When I reached Juana, I followed its coast to the westward, and found
it so large that I thought it must be the mainland,--the province of
Cathay; and as I found neither towns nor villages on the sea-coast, but
only a few hamlets, with the inhabitants of which I could not hold
conversation because they all immediately fled, I kept on the same
route, thinking that I could not fail to light upon some large cities
and towns._

_At length, after proceeding of many leagues and finding that nothing
new presented itself, and that the coast was leading me northward (which
I wished to avoid, because winter had already set in, and it was my
intention to move southward; and because, moreover, the winds were
contrary), I resolved not to wait for a change in the weather, but
returned to a certain harbor which I had remarked, and from which I sent
two men ashore to ascertain whether there was any king or large cities
in that part. They journeyed for three days and found countless small
hamlets with numberless inhabitants, but with nothing like order; they
therefore returned. In the meantime I had learned from some other
Indians whom I had seized that this land was certainly an island;
accordingly, I followed the coast eastward for a distance of 107
leagues, where it ended in a cape. From this cape I saw another island
to the eastward, at a distance of eighteen leagues from the former, to
which I gave the name of "La Espanola." Thither I went, and followed its
northern coast to the eastward (just as I had done with the coast of
Juana) 178 full leagues due east. This island like all the others is
extraordinarily large, and this one extremely so. In it are many
seaports, with which none that I know in Christendom can bear
comparison, so good and capacious that it is wonder to see. The lands
are high, and there are many very lofty mountains with which the island
of Cetefrey can not be compared. They are all most beautiful, of a
thousand different shapes, accessible, and covered with trees of a
thousand kinds, of such great height that they seemed to reach the
skies. I am told that the trees never lose their foliage, and I can wel