r shoulders in triumph to whom the admiral had given a shirt,
and her husband came among them, on purpose to return thanks for the
honourable gift. The Spaniards now returned to the ships, reporting that
the country abounded in provisions, that the natives were whiter and
better-looking than those of the other islands; but that the gold country
lay still more to the eastwards. By their description the men were not of
large size, yet brawny and well set, without beards, having wide nostrils
and broad smooth ungraceful foreheads, which were so shaped at their birth
as a beauty, for which reason, and because they always went bareheaded,
their skulls were hard enough to break a Spanish sword. Here the admiral
observed the length of the day and night, and found that twenty half-hour
glasses run out between sun-rise and sun-set, making the day consequently
ten hours long; but he believed the seamen had been negligent and had made
a mistake, and that the day was somewhat more than eleven hours. Though
the wind was contrary, he resolved to leave this place, and continue his
course to the eastwards through the channel between Tortuga and Hispaniola,
where he found an Indian fishing in a canoe, and wondered his small vessel
was not swallowed up, as the waves rose very high; he accordingly took
both Indian and canoe into the ship, where he treated him well, and sent
him on shore afterwards with some toys. This man commended the Spaniards
so much that many of the natives resorted to the ships; but they had only
some small grains of gold hanging at their noses, which they freely parted
with. Being asked whence that gold came, they made signs that there was
plenty of it farther on. On the admiral inquiring for _Cipango_, which he
still expected to find in these seas, they thought he had meant _Cibao_,
and pointed to the eastwards, as the place in the island which produced
most gold.

The admiral was now informed that the _cacique_, or lord of that part of
the country was coming to visit him, attended by 200 men. Though young, he
was carried in a kind of chair on mens shoulders, attended by a governor
and counsellors; and it was observed that his subjects paid him wonderful
attention, and that his deportment was exceedingly grave. An Indian, from
the island of Isabella, went ashore and spoke to the chief, telling him
the Spaniards were men who had come from heaven, and saying much in their
praise. The cacique now went on board, and, whe