ging and delight he felt to gaze upon the beauty and
freshness of those lands, and on the other by a desire to complete the
work he had undertaken. For these reasons he remained close hauled, and
stood off and on during the night. But, as the currents had set him more
than 5 or 6 leagues to the S.E. beyond where he had been at nightfall,
passing the land of Campana, he came in sight of a great opening beyond
that cape, which seemed to divide one land from another, leaving an
island between them. He decided to go back, with the wind S.E., steering
to the point where the opening had appeared, where he found that it was
only a large bay,[157-2] and at the end of it, on the S.E. side, there
was a point of land on which was a high and square-cut hill,[157-3] which
had looked like an island. A breeze sprang up from the north, and the
Admiral continued on a S.E. course, to explore the coast and discover all
that was there. Presently he saw, at the foot of the Cabo de Campana, a
wonderfully good port[158-1], and a large river, and, a quarter of a
league on, another river, and a third, and a fourth to a seventh at
similar distances, from the furthest one to Cabo de Campana being 20
miles S.E. Most of these rivers have wide and deep mouths, with excellent
havens for large ships, without sandbanks or sunken rocks. Proceeding
onwards from the last of these rivers, on a S.E. course, they came to the
largest inhabited place they had yet seen, and a vast concourse of people
came down to the beach with loud shouts, all naked, with their darts in
their hands. The Admiral desired to have speech with them, so he furled
sails and anchored. The boats of the ship and the caravel were sent on
shore, with orders to do no harm whatever to the Indians, but to give
them presents. The Indians made as if they would resist the landing, but,
seeing that the boats of the Spaniards continued to advance without fear,
they retired from the beach. Thinking that they would not be terrified if
only two or three landed, three Christians were put on shore, who told
them not to be afraid, in their own language, for they had been able to
learn a little from the natives who were on board. But all ran away,
neither great nor small remaining. The Christians went to the houses,
which were of straw, and built like the others they had seen, but found
no one in any of them. They returned to the ships, and made sail at noon
in the direction of a fine cape[158-2] to the ea