nfidently look to him for friendship and protection. He also had his
interpreter tell the people of the greatness, riches and splendor of
Spain; to which they listened in credulous bewilderment. Then, on July
16, he sailed away from Cuba again, amid expressions of regret by the
chief and his comrades; taking with him one of the young men whom he
afterward sent to the Spanish court. But a storm struck his feeble
vessels and nearly wrecked them. On July 18 they anchored near Cape Cruz
for repairs, and were most hospitably received by the natives. At last,
on July 22, they departed for Jamaica, whence they returned to Isabella.
Never again did Columbus visit Cuba, though he approached its southern
shore on his fourth voyage, on his way to the coast of Central America.
To the end of his life, presumably, he believed Cuba to be a part of the
Asian continent, continuous with Honduras and Veragua.

CHAPTER III

We have already quoted the enthusiastic encomium of Columbus upon Cuba
at his first sight of and landing upon its shore. His diary and his
narrative to the sovereigns of Leon and Castile on his return to Spain
abound with similar expressions, as well as with informing bits of
description of Cuba as they then found it. In the very first days of his
first visit he found villages of houses "made like booths, very large,
and looking like tents in a camp without regular streets but one here
and another there. Within they were clean and well swept, with furniture
well made. All were of palm branches, beautifully constructed. They
found many images in the shape of women, and many heads like masks, very
well carved. It was not known whether these were used as ornaments, or
were to be worshipped."

The waters abounded in fish, and the people of the coast regions were
apparently nearly all fishermen. The only domestic animals were the
"dogs which never barked," and birds in cages. There were seen, however,
skulls like those of cows, on which account Columbus assumed that inland
there were herds of cattle. All night the air was vocal with the songs
of birds and the chirping of crickets and other insects, which lulled
the voyagers to rest. Along the shore and in the mouths of rivers were
found large shells, unlike any that he had known in Spain, but no pearls
were in them. The air was soft and salubrious, and the nights were
neither hot nor cold. On the other islands which he had visited the heat
was oppressive, a circums