an isle
which the Spaniards, ignoring its former name, call Dos Arboles [Two
Trees], because only two trees grow there. It is near them that a
spring, whose waters flow by secret channels under the sea from
Hispaniola, gushes forth, just as Alpheus left Eridus to reappear in
Sicily at the fountain of Arethusa. This fact is established by the
finding of leaves of the _hobis_, mirobolane, and many other trees
growing in Hispaniola, which are carried thither by the stream of this
fountain, for no such trees are found on the smaller island. This
fountain takes its rise in the Yiamiroa River, which flows from the
Guaccaiarima district near the Savana country. The isle is not more
than one mile in circumference, and is used as a fish market.

Towards the east, our Tethys is protected in a manner by the island of
San Juan,[2] which I have elsewhere described. San Juan has rich gold
deposits, and its soil is almost as fertile as that of its mother,
Hispaniola. Colonists have already been taken there, and are engaged
in gold-seeking. On the north-west Tethys is shielded by the great
island of Cuba, which for a long time was regarded as a continent
because of its length. It is much longer than Hispaniola, and is
divided in the middle from east to west by the Tropic of Cancer.
Hispaniola and the other islands lying to the south of Cuba occupy
almost the whole intervening space between the Tropic of Cancer and
the equator. This is the zone which many of the ancients believed to
be depopulated because of the fierce heat of the sun: in which opinion
they were mistaken. It is claimed that mines, richer than those of
Hispaniola, have been found in Cuba and at the present writing it is
asserted that gold to the value of one hundred and eighty thousand
castellanos has been obtained there and converted into ingots;
certainly a positive proof of opulence.

[Note 2: Porto Rico.]

Jamaica lies still farther to the south and is a prosperous, fertile
island, of exceptional fecundity, in which, however, there does not
exist a single mountain. It is adapted to every kind of cultivation.
Its inhabitants are formidable because of their warlike temperament.
It is impossible to establish authority within the brief period since
its occupation. Columbus, the first discoverer, formerly compared
Jamaica to Sicily in point of size, but as a matter of fact it is
somewhat smaller, though not much. This is the opinion of those who
have carefully explor