id to be entirely peopled by women,
without men.[226-4] He would thus see both islands, and might take some
of the natives. The Admiral sent the boat on shore, but the king of that
district had not come, for his village was distant. He, however, sent his
crown of gold, as he had promised; and many other natives came with
cotton, and bread made from yams, all with their bows and arrows. After
the bartering was finished, four youths came to the caravel. They
appeared to the Admiral to give such a clear account of the islands to
the eastward, on the same route as the Admiral would have to take, that
he determined to take them to Castile with him. He says that they had no
iron nor other metals; at least none was seen, but it was impossible to
know much of the land in so short a time, owing to the difficulty with
the language, which the Admiral could not understand except by guessing,
nor could they know what was said to them, in such a few days. The bows
of these people are as large as those of France or England. The arrows
are similar to the darts of the natives who have been met with
previously, which are made of young canes, which grow very straight, and
a yard and a half or two yards in length. They point them with a piece of
sharp wood, a span and a half long, and at the end some of them fix a
fish's tooth, but most of them anoint it with an herb.[227-1] They do not
shoot as in other parts, but in a certain way which cannot do much harm.
Here they have a great deal of fine and long cotton, and plenty of
mastic. The bows appeared to be of yew, and there is gold and copper.
There is also plenty of _aji_,[227-2] which is their pepper, which is
more valuable than pepper, and all the people eat nothing else, it being
very wholesome. Fifty caravels might be annually loaded with it from
Espanola. The Admiral says that he found a great deal of weed in this
bay, the same as was met with at sea when he came on this discovery. He
therefore supposed that there were islands to the eastward, in the
direction of the position where he began to meet with it; for he
considers it certain that this weed has its origin in shallow water near
the land, and, if this is the case, these Indies must be very near the
Canary Islands. For this reason he thought the distance must be less than
400 leagues.

_Wednesday, 16th of January_

They got under way three hours before daylight, and left the gulf,
which was named Golfo de las Flechas,[228-1]