e it is surrounded by islands and there are no waves. He
called the parts of the mainland which disclosed themselves to him
"islands," but there are only the island of Trinidad and the mainland,
which inclose the gulf which he now calls the sea. He sent the boats to
land and found fish and fire, and traces of people, and a great house
visible to the view. From there he went eight leagues where he found good
harbors. This part of this island of Gracia he says is very high land,
and there are many valleys, and "all must be populated," says he, because
he saw it all cultivated. There are many rivers because each valley has
its own from league to league; they found many fruits, and grapes like
[our] grapes and of good taste, and myrobolans[341-2] very good, and
others like apples, and others, he says, like oranges, and the inside is
like figs. They found numberless monkeys.[341-3] The waters, he says, are
the best that they saw. "This island," he says, "is all full of harbors,
this sea is fresh, although not wholly so, but brackish like that of
Carthagena"; farther down he says that it is fresh like the river of
Seville, and this was caused when it encountered some current of water
from the sea, which made that of the river salty.

He sailed to a small port Monday, August 6, five leagues from whence he
went out and saw people, and then a canoe with four men came to the
caravel which was nearest the land and the pilot called the Indians as if
he wished to go to land with them, and in drawing near and entering he
submerged the canoe, and they commenced swimming; he caught them and
brought them to the Admiral. He says that they are of the color of all
the others of the Indies. They wear the hair (some of them) very long,
others as with us; none of them have the hair cut as in Espanola and in
the other lands. They are of very fine stature and all well grown; they
have the genital member tied and covered, and the women all go naked as
their mothers gave them birth. This is what the Admiral says, but I have
been, as I said above, within 30 leagues of this land yet I never saw
women that did not have their private parts, at least, covered.[342-1]
The Admiral must have meant that they went as their mothers bore them as
to the rest of the body.

"To these Indians," says the Admiral, "as soon as they were here, I gave
hawks' bells and beads and sugar, and sent them to land, where there was
a great battle among them, and after they kn