t speaking a word. He ordered them to be
presented with horse-bells, beads, and other trinkets, and endeavoured to
make inquiry concerning the country by means of Giumbe; but he having been
only a short time with us, did not understand our language, and by reason
of his distance from Hispaniola, could not comprehend those of our people
who had learnt the language of that island; neither did he understand
those Indians. But they, being much pleased with what had been given them,
above 200 of them came next day to the shore, loaded with various sorts of
provisions; such as poultry much better than ours, geese, roasted fish,
red and white beans like kidney beans, and other things like the
productions of Hispaniola. This country, though low, was verdant and very
beautiful, producing abundance of pines and oaks, palm trees of seven
different kinds, mirabolans, of the kind called hobi in Hispaniola, and
almost all the kinds of provisions produced in that island were found here.
There were likewise abundance of deer, leopards, and other quadrupeds, and
all sorts of fish that are found either at the islands or in Spain.

The people of this country are much like those of the islands, but their
foreheads are not so high, neither did they appear to have any religion.
There are several languages or dialects among them, and for the most part
they go naked, except the clout before mentioned, though some of them wore
a kind of short jerkin without sleeves, reaching to the navel. Their arms
and bodies have figures wrought upon them with fire, which gave them an
odd appearance; some having lions or deer, and others castles, with towers
or other strange figures painted on their bodies. Instead of caps, the
better sort wore red and white cotton cloths on their heads, and some had
locks of hair hanging from their foreheads. When they mean to be very fine
upon a day of festival, they colour their faces, some black and some red,
and others draw streaks of several colours; some paint their noses, others
black their eyes, and thus adorning, themselves as they think to look
beautiful, they look in truth like devils.

The admiral sailed along the coast de las Orejas, or the Mosquito shore,
eastwards to Cape Garcias a Dios, or Thanks be to GOD, so called on
account of the difficulty of getting there, having laboured seventy days
to get only sixty leagues to the eastwards of Cape Casinas or Honduras.
This was occasioned by opposing currents and con