was uninhabited; we
remained only two hours, for it was very late when we landed, and on the
following morning we left for another very large island,[286-2] situated
below this at the distance of seven or eight leagues. We approached it
under the side of a great mountain, that seemed almost to reach the
skies, in the middle of which rose a peak, higher than all the rest of
the mountain, whence many streams diverged into different channels,
especially towards the part at which we arrived. At three leagues
distance, we could see a fall of water as broad as an ox, which
discharged itself from such a height that it appeared to fall from the
sky; it was seen from so great a distance that it occasioned many wagers
to be laid on board the ships, some maintaining that it was but a series
of white rocks, and others that it was water. When we came nearer to it,
it showed itself distinctly, and it was the most beautiful thing in the
world to see from how great a height and from what a small space so large
a fall of water was discharged. As soon as we neared the island the
Admiral ordered a light caravel to run along the coast to search for a
harbor; the captain put into land in a boat, and seeing some houses,
leapt on shore and went up to them, the inhabitants fleeing at sight of
our men; he then went into the houses and there found various household
articles that had been left unremoved, from which he took two parrots,
very large and quite different from any we had before seen; he found a
great quantity of cotton, both spun and prepared for spinning, and
articles of food, of all of which he brought away a portion; besides
these, he also brought away four or five bones of human arms and legs. On
seeing these we suspected that we were amongst the Caribbee islands,
whose inhabitants eat human flesh; for the Admiral, guided by the
information respecting their situation which he had received from the
Indians of the islands discovered in his former voyage, had directed his
course with a view to their discovery, both because they were the nearest
to Spain, and because this was the direct track for the island of
Espanola, where he had left some of his people. Thither, by the goodness
of God and the wise management of the Admiral, we came in as straight a
track as if we had sailed by a well known and frequented route. This
island is very large, and on the side where we arrived it seemed to us to
be twenty-five leagues in length. We sailed