rters;[363-3] and this happened suddenly last night. And he says each
night he was marvelling at such a change in the heavens, and of the
temperature there, so near the equinoctial line, which he experienced in
all this voyage, after having found land; especially the sun being in
Leo, where, as has been told, in the mornings a loose gown was worn, and
where the people of that place--Gracia--were actually whiter than the
people who have been seen in the Indies. He also found in the place where
he now came, that the North Star was in 14 degrees when the
Guardians[363-4] had passed from the head after two hours and a half.
Here he again exhorted the Sovereigns to esteem this affair highly, since
he had shown them that there was in this land gold, and he had seen in it
minerals without number, which will have to be extracted with
intelligence, industry and labor, since even the iron, as much as there
is, cannot be taken out without these sacrifices; and he has taken them a
nugget of 20 ounces and many others, and where this is, it must be
believed there is plenty, and he took their Highnesses a lump of copper
originally of six _arrobas_,[364-1] lapis-lazuli, gum-lac, amber, cotton,
pepper, cinnamon, a great quantity of Brazil-wood, aromatic gum,[364-2]
white and yellow sandalwood, flax, aloes, ginger, incense, myrobolans of
all kinds, very fine pearls and pearls of a reddish color, which Marco
Polo says are worth more than the white ones,[364-3] and that may well be
so in some parts just as it is the case with the shells that are gathered
in Canaria and are sold for so great a price in the Mine of Portugal.
"There are infinite kinds of spices which have been seen of which I do
not care to speak for fear of prolixity." All these are his words.

As to what he says of cinnamon, and aloes and ginger, incense,
myrobolans, sandal woods, I never saw them in this island, at least I did
not recognize them; what he says of flax must mean _cabuya_[364-4] which
are leaves like the _cavila_ from which thread is made and cloth or linen
can be made from it, but it is more like hemp cloth than linen. There are
two sorts of it, _cabuya_ and _nequen_; _cabuya_ is coarse and rough and
_nequen_ is soft and delicate. Both are words of this island Espanola.
Storax gum I never smelled except in the island of Cuba, but I did not
see it, and this is certain that in Cuba there must be trees of it, or of
a gum that smells like it, because we never smel