are beardless, so that it is a rare thing to find a man with
a beard: the Caribbees whom we took had their eyes and eyebrows stained,
which I imagine they do from ostentation and to give them a more
frightful appearance. One of these captives said, that in an island
belonging to them called Cayre[293-1] (which is the first we saw, though
we did not go to it), there is a great quantity of gold; and that if we
were to take them nails and tools with which to make their canoes, we
might bring away as much gold as we liked. On the same day we left that
island, having been there no more than six or seven hours; and steering
for another point of land[293-2] which appeared to lie in our intended
course, we reached it by night. On the morning of the following day we
coasted along it, and found it to be a large extent of country, but not
continuous for it was divided into more than forty islets.[294-1] The
land was very high and most of it barren, an appearance which we have
never observed in any of the islands visited by us before or since: the
surface of the ground seemed to suggest the probability of its containing
metals. None of us went on shore here, but a small latteen caravel went
up to one of the islets and found in it some fishermen's huts; the Indian
women whom we brought with us said they were not inhabited. We proceeded
along the coast the greater part of that day, and on the evening of the
next we discovered another island called Burenquen,[294-2] which we
judged to be thirty leagues in length, for we were coasting along it the
whole of one day. This island is very beautiful and apparently fertile;
hither the Caribbees come with the view of subduing the inhabitants, and
often carry away many of the people. These islanders have no boats nor
any knowledge of navigation; but, as our captives inform us, they use
bows as well as the Caribbees, and if by chance when they are attacked
they succeed in taking any of their invaders, they will eat them in like
manner as the Caribbees themselves in the contrary event would devour
them. We remained two days in this island, and a great number of our men
went on shore, but could never get speech of the natives, who had all
fled, from fear of the Caribbees. All the above-mentioned islands were
discovered in this voyage, the Admiral having seen nothing of them in his
former voyage; they are all very beautiful and possess a most luxuriant
soil, but this last island appeared to exceed a