ple that they willingly complied, and looked on
with astonishment. They had tied certain small fishes which they call
_reves_ by the tail with a long line and let them into the water, where
these _reves_ attached themselves to other fishes, by means of a certain
roughness which they have from the head to the middle of the back, and
stick so fast that the Indians drew both up together. It was a turtle our
men saw taken in this manner, and the _reve_ clung close to its neck,
which place they usually fasten upon because safe from being bitten by the
other fish, and they sometimes fasten upon vast sharks. When the Indians
in the canoe had thus taken the turtle, having already two others, they
came in a very friendly manner to know what our men would have, and went
by their direction on board the admiral who treated them courteously, and
to whom they would have freely given all they had; but he would only allow
their fish to be taken, and refused their nets, hooks, and calabashes
full of water which they had on board to drink, for which he gave them
some trifles with which they went away very well contented. From these
Indians he learnt that there were an infinite multitude of islands in that
sea, and he held on his course. But beginning to want provisions he could
not continue much longer, otherwise he meant to have gone west about
before returning to Hispaniola, although much spent, having never had it
in his power to go to bed, except eight nights, from the time he left
Hispaniola on the 24th of April till now, which was the 19th of May. He
always had much care and anxiety in his voyages, but infinitely greater
this time by reason of the innumerable islands among which he was sailing,
insomuch that on the 20th of May they counted seventy-one, besides a great
many more that were seen about sun-set. These islands are not only
dangerous on account of their numbers, but there rises from them every
night a heavy fog to the eastwards, so dismal to behold as if some great
shower of hail would fall, and it is generally accompanied by violent
thunder and lightning; but when the moon rises it all vanishes, partly
turning to rain and wind. These phenomena are so natural and usual in
these seas that they not only took place all those nights on which the
admiral was there, but I saw the same among those islands in the year 1503
on my return from the discovery of Veragua; and generally, the wind here
is every night from the north, coming