for this reason the
people ceased to go and come. Some women came who wore on the arms
strings of beads, and mingled with them were pearls or _aljofars_,[346-1]
very fine, not like the colored ones which were found on the islands of
Babueca; they traded for some of them, and he says that he would send
them to their Highnesses.

I never knew of these pearls that were found in the islands of Babueca,
which are near Puerto de Plata, in this Espanola; and these besides are
low under the water and not islands, and they are very dangerous to ships
that pass that way if they are not aware of them; and so they have the
name Abre el Ojo.[346-2]

The Admiral asked the Indians where they found them or fished them, and
they showed him some mother-of-pearl where they are formed; and they
replied to him by very clear signs, that they grow and are gathered
towards the west, behind that island, which was the Cape of Lapa, the
Point of Paria and mainland, which he believed to be an island, but it
was the mainland. He sent the boats to land to know if there was any new
thing which he had not seen, and they found the people so tractable, says
the Admiral, that, "although the sailors did not go intending to land,
there came two principal persons with all the village, who induced them
to descend and who took them to a large house, built near two streams
and not round, like a camp-tent, in the manner of the houses of the
islands, where they received them very well and made them a feast and
gave them a collation, bread and fruit of many kinds; and the drink was a
white beverage which had a great value, which every one brought there, at
this time, and some of it is tinted and better than the other, as the
wine with us. The men were all together at one end of the house and the
women at the other. Having taken the collation at the house of the older
man, the younger conducted them to the other house, where they went
through the same function. It appeared that one must be the cacique and
lord, and the other must be his son. Afterwards the sailors returned to
the boats and with them went back to the ships, very pleased with this
people." These are all the words of the Admiral. He says further: "They
are of very handsome stature, and all uniformly large," and whiter than
any other he had seen in these Indies, and that yesterday he saw many as
white as we are, and with better hair and well cut, and of very good
speech. "No lands in the world can be