alth
than I am able to express; and although I hold them all for their
Highnesses, so that they can dispose of them quite as absolutely as they
can of the kingdoms of Castille, yet there was one large town in
Espanola of which especially I took possession, situated in a locality
well adapted for the working of the gold mines, and for all kinds of
commerce, either with the mainland on this side or with that beyond,
which is the land of the Great Khan, with which there will be vast
commerce and great profit. To that city I gave the name of Villa de
Navidad, and fortified it with a fortress, which by this time will be
quite completed, and I have left in it a sufficient number of men with
arms,[21] artillery, and provisions for more than a year, a barge, and a
sailing master skillful in the arts necessary for building others. I
have also established the greatest friendship with the King of that
country, so much so that he took pride in calling me his brother, and
treating me as such. Even should these people change their intentions
toward us and become hostile, they do not know what arms are, but, as I
have said, go naked, and are the most timid people in the world; so that
the men I have left could, alone, destroy the whole country, and this
island has no danger for them, if they only know how to conduct
themselves. In all those islands it seems to me that the men are content
with one wife, except their chief or king, to whom they give twenty. The
women seem to me to work more than the men. I have not been able to
learn whether they have any property of their own. It seems to me that
what one possessed belonged to all, especially in the matter of
eatables. I have not found in those islands any monsters, as many
imagined; but, on the contrary, the whole race is well formed, nor are
they black as in Guinea, but their hair is flowing, for they do not
dwell in that part where the force of the sun's rays is too powerful. It
is true that the sun has very great power there, for the country is
distant only twenty-six degrees from the equinoctial line. In the
islands where there are high mountains, the cold this winter was very
great, but they endure it, not only from being habituated to it, but by
eating meat with a variety of excessively hot spices. As to savages, I
did not even hear of any, except at an island which lies the second in
one's way coming to the Indies._[22] _It is inhabited by a race which is
regarded throughout the