d
Margarita,(72) wherein is greate store of perle; a riche ilande full of
maiz (which is their corne), oxen, shepe, goates, fowle and fishe, greate
store of frutes, grasse and woods.

Ouer againste the said islande, northewarde, there is one other iland
named St. John de Porto Ricco, which hath store of all manner of victualls
and suger.

The nexte is a faire iland called Hispaniola, in some parte well
inhabited; havinge one citie called Sancto Domingo, which hath a faire
hauen(73) whereunto many of the shippes of the kinges fleete come, and
there devide themselves. Some goe to St. John de Leu, and some to Nombro
di Dios and other partes of the mayne lande. This is a frutefull iland for
all manner of victuall, hides and suger.

The nexte ilande is called Jamaica, and hath in it great store of
victualls.

The nexte is a faire, greate, and longe iland, called Cuba. This iland
hath a forte and haven in it called the Havana, which is the key of all
India. It is called the key of India, for that the Spaniardes cannot well
returne into Spaine but that they muste touche there for victualls, water,
woodde, and other necessaries. It lieth at the mouthe and entraunce into
the Gulfe of Bahama. This ilande hath great plentie of victualls, but it
is not greately inhabited.

There be divers other ilandes, riche for victualls, as Aeriaba, Corsal,
Marigalante,(74) &c., havinge not in them some xx. some x. Spaniardes a
pece.

Thus you see that in all those infinite ilandes in the Gulfe of Mexico,
whereof Cuba and Hispaniola are thoughte to be very nere as bigge as
England and Ireland, wee reade not of past twoo or three places well
fortified, as Sancto Domingo in Hispaniola, and Havana in Cuba. I may
therefore conclude this matter with comparinge the Spaniardes unto a
drone, or an emptie vessell, which when it is smitten upon yeldeth a
greate and terrible sound, and that afarr of; but come nere and looke into
them, there ys nothinge in them; or rather like unto the asse which wrapte
himselfe in a lyons skynne, and marched farr of to strike terror in the
hartes of the other beastes, but when the foxe drewe nere he perceaved his
longe eares, and made him a jeste unto all the beastes of the forrest. In
like manner wee (upon perill of my life) shall make the Spaniarde
ridiculous to all Europe, if with pierceinge eyes wee see into his
contemptible weakenes in the West Indies, and with true stile painte hym
oute _ad vivum_ unto the wo