est,
might well have given him the impression of a company of white-robed
men. Of course, no men of that description were ever found in Cuba, nor
were there traces of any.

It did not take Columbus long to explore Broa Bay sufficiently to
ascertain that it was not an arm of the sea, but a mere coastal
indentation; whereupon he resumed his westward cruising. A little
further on, probably in the neighborhood of Batabano, he found the shore
inhabited, and though neither he nor his interpreters could understand
the language of the natives, they contrived to hold some communication
with them by means of signs. He gleaned from them in this manner the
information that far to westward, among the mountains, there was a great
king, ruling in magnificence over many provinces; that he wore long
white robes and was considered a semi-divine personage, and that he
never spoke but conveyed his decrees in signs, which nobody dared to
disobey. To what extent this was really intended by the natives, and to
what extent was the mere figment of the Admiral's lively imagination, it
is impossible to say. It is entirely conceivable, however, that the
Cubans had some knowledge of the Aztecs and Toltecs of Mexico, and the
Mayas of Yucatan, and were referring to them. Certainly they could not
have referred to anybody in Cuba. But Columbus, as ever fondly believing
whatever he wished to be true, confidently assumed that they were
telling him of the mythical Prester John, and that he was on the shores
of that potentate's domain. The mountains of which the natives spoke, he
supposed, were those of Pinar del Rio, which were already in sight on
the northwestern horizon.

Concerning the extent of Cuba, and of the coast along which he was
sailing, Columbus could get little information. He was told that the
coast extended westward for at least twenty days' journey, but whether
it then ended, and how it ended, he could not learn. He therefore took
one of the natives with him as a guide, and resumed his voyage. Almost
immediately, however, he plunged into another archipelago, almost as
dense and troublesome as that through which he had passed a few days
before. Making his way through it with great difficulty, he reached the
coast of Pinar del Rio, and effected a landing amid swamps and forests,
only to find the region uninhabited, though frequent columns of smoke
rising inland indicated to him the presence of a considerable
population. For some time he ma