ur days' journey from what
the natives called Cubanacan, meaning the heart of the island, the
centre of Cuba. With his characteristic habit of interpreting native
names and statements in accordance with his own desires, Columbus at
once assumed this to mean Kublai Khan, or the City of the Khan, of which
he was in quest; and accordingly he bent all his energies and gave all
his attention to getting thither, disregarding the things which he
passed by on the way. It was probably at this time, therefore, that he
sailed through one of the channels among the keys, and entered the great
coastal sound which stretches from Nuevitas to Caibarien, if not indeed
to Cardenas. He reached the river on Wednesday, but found it too shallow
for his ships, and therefore, after some fruitless cruisings, returned
to the Rio de Mares.

It was on November 12 that he again sailed from the Rio de Mares, and on
the next day that he sailed south-westward into a great gulf, which he
supposed to divide Cuba from another island called by the natives
"Bohio"--the word really meaning not an island at all but "home."
Thereafter for some time he was obviously cruising around Guajaba Island
and Romano Key, which, with Sabinal Key, he supposed to be the mythical
"Bohio." Some port, possibly Boca de la Yana, he called Puerto Principe,
and the water, presumably between Thiguano Island and Cocos Key, he
called the Mar de la Nuestra Senora. Rounding Guillermo Key, as we may
suppose, he swung into the Old Bahama Channel, and by wind and tide was
carried backward to Guajaba Island and perhaps to Nuevitas. Thence he
made his way westward and southward, rounding Point Sama and Point
Lucrecia, and reaching Port Nipe and Port Banes on the morning of
November 27. Those two capacious bays he did not attempt to enter. He
regarded them indeed not as bays but as straits, or arms of the sea, and
the promontory between them he supposed to be an island. At Taco he
landed for a few moments, and then pursued his way, and at nightfall
dropped anchors at what he called Puerto Santo, which we may probably
identify with the modern Baracoa. There he remained until December 4,
when he sailed to the southeast, and the following day passed out of
sight of Cape Maysi and left Cuba behind him; crossing the Windward
Passage to reach "Bohio" or "Babeque," where there were said to be
pearls and gold, and reaching Hayti, or Santo Domingo, which he called
Espagnola. He did not revisit Cuba