during the remainder of his first
American voyage.

Espagnola, Latinized by us into Hispaniola, became thereafter the chief
care of the Admiral. It was there that he planted, on his second voyage,
the first European colony in the western hemisphere. But after various
operations in Hayti, marked with both trials and triumphs, during his
second American expedition he returned to the Cuban coast for further
explorations of what he still thought to be Cipango. It was at the end
of April, 1494, that he sailed from Mole St. Nicholas, Hayti, across the
Windward Passage toward Cape Maysi, which he himself had called Cape
Alpha and Omega. Instead, however, of retracing his way to Baracoa and
along the north coast, he went to the left of Cape Maysi and began
skirting the southern coast of Cuba. This route would, according to
Toscanelli's map, take him to the southward of Mangi and Cathay, but it
would lead him to the Golden Chersonesus, around the southern shore of
Asia, and so home to Europe by circumnavigating the globe.

The points visited by him on this excursion are more easily and surely
to be identified than those of his first voyage. His first landing was
at Guantanamo, which he called Puerto Grande. He found an entrance
passage, winding but deep, leading in to a spacious land-locked lagoon,
surrounded by hills covered with verdure. Here he established friendly
relations with the natives, and remained for two or three days. Thence
he sailed westward, as close to the shore as safety would permit, and
frequently entered into friendly intercourse with the natives who
thronged the strand to gaze in wonderment at his strange ships. At
Santiago de Cuba he spent a night, and during his stay he diligently
inquired of the natives for the land in which gold was to be found. They
indicated it to lie farther to the south and west, doubtless meaning
South America. Columbus thereupon set sail in that direction, partly
because gold was most desirable to obtain, and partly because he
assumed the land of gold to be the land of the Great Khan, which he was
still intent upon reaching. The result was his discovery of Jamaica. A
fortnight later, however, on May 18, he returned to Cuba, reaching it at
Cabo de la Cruz, or Cape Cruz. Here he found a large village, whose
chief and indeed all whose inhabitants had heard of him as one descended
from heaven. He was hospitably received, and was able to make many
inquiries about the country. He was t