t seems to me
that in all those islands, the men are all content with a single wife;
and to their chief or king they give as many as twenty. The women, it
appears to me, do more work than the men. Nor have I been able to learn
whether they held personal property, for it seemed to me that whatever
one had, they all took share of, especially of eatable things. Down to
the present, I have not found in those islands any monstrous men, as
many expected,[269-1] but on the contrary all the people are very
comely; nor are they black like those in Guinea, but have flowing hair;
and they are not begotten where there is an excessive violence of the
rays of the sun. It is true that the sun is there very strong, although
it is twenty-six degrees distant from the equinoctial line.[269-2] In
those islands, where there are lofty mountains, the cold was very keen
there, this winter; but they endure it by being accustomed thereto, and
by the help of the meats which they eat with many and inordinately hot
spices. Thus I have not found, nor had any information of monsters,
except of an island which is here the second in the approach to the
Indies, which is inhabited by a people whom, in all the islands, they
regard as very ferocious, who eat human flesh. These have many canoes
with which they run through all the islands of India, and plunder and
take as much as they can. They are no more ill-shapen than the others,
but have the custom of wearing their hair long, like women; and they use
bows and arrows of the same reed stems, with a point of wood at the top,
for lack of iron which they have not. Amongst those other tribes who are
excessively cowardly, these are ferocious; but I hold them as nothing
more than the others. These are they who have to do with the women of
Matinino[270-1]--which is the first island that is encountered in the
passage from Spain to the Indies--in which there are no men. Those women
practise no female usages, but have bows and arrows of reed such as
above mentioned; and they arm and cover themselves with plates of copper
of which they have much. In another island, which they assure me is
larger than Espanola, the people have no hair. In this there is
incalculable gold; and concerning these and the rest I bring Indians
with me as witnesses. And in conclusion, to speak only of what has been
done in this voyage, which has been so hastily performed, their
Highnesses may see that I shall give them as much gold as they may