six leagues westward he
found a cape or point of land extending toward the northwest; ten
leagues further another point, extending toward the east; one league
further a small river, which he called the Rio de la Luna; and beyond it
another much larger river, which he called the Rio de Mares. This latter
river had for its estuary a broad basin resembling a lake, and its
entrance was marked by two round mountains on the one side and a lofty
promontory on the other.

Now, making reasonable allowance for lack of accuracy in measurements
and for discrepancies in descriptions, this account may readily be
applied to the coast westward from Port Naranjo to Nuevitas, while it is
altogether inapplicable to the coast westward from Nuevitas. For a
score of leagues westward from Naranjo there are capes and mountains and
rivers, and there is more than one river with precisely such a
lagoon-like estuary as that which Columbus found at his Rio de Mares.
Indeed, Port Padre, with its extensive lagoon into which several rivers
flow, or Port Manati, with the Cramal and Yarigua rivers, might either
of them be identified, in approximate distance and in topography, with
the Rio de Mares. On the other hand, if we were to assume Nuevitas to
have been the starting point, what should we find? Either he must have
been skirting the outer side of the Sabinal and Romano keys, and Guajaba
Island, which do not at all coincide with the description given, or he
must have been navigating the great littoral lagoon between those keys
and the mainland of Cuba; in which latter case it is to be observed that
that part of the Cuban coast does not correspond with his description,
and that it is certainly extraordinary that he made no mention of his
voyage having been in what is practically an inland sea. That he could
have passed in through the Nuevitas Channel, or the Carebelas Channel,
or the Guajaba Channel, without observing and remarking upon Sabinal
Key, Guajaba Island, or Romano Key, is simply not supposable. Such a
feature of "Cipango" could not have escaped notice on his first arrival
there, though it might easily have been ignored or passed over as of no
special significance in subsequent explorations.

On Tuesday of that memorable week, October 30, Columbus left the Rio de
Mares and sailed to the northwest for fifteen leagues, and there
discovered a point which he named the Cape of Palms. Beyond it was a
river, the entrance of which was said to be fo