to the fleet. She wore a large ring of
gold in her nose. She was able to understand the other Indians whom
they had on board. Columbus dressed her, gave her some imitation pearls,
rings and other finery, and then put her on shore with three Indians and
three of his own men.

The men returned the next day without going to the Indian village.
Columbus then sent out nine men, with an Indian, who found a town of a
thousand huts about four and a half leagues from the ship. They thought
the population was three thousand. The village in Cuba is spoken of as
having twenty people to a house. Here the houses were smaller or the
count of the numbers extravagant. The people approached the explorers
carefully, and with tokens of respect. Soon they gained confidence
and brought out food for them: fish, and bread made from roots, "which
tasted exactly as if it were made of chestnuts."

In the midst of this festival, the woman, who had been sent back from
the ship so graciously, appeared borne on the shoulders of men who were
led by her husband.

The Spaniards thought these natives of St. Domingo much whiter than
those of the other islands. Columbus says that two of the women, if
dressed in Castilian costume, would be counted to be Spaniards. He says
that the heat of the country is intense, and that if these people lived
in a cooler region they would be of lighter color.

On the fourteenth of December he continued his voyage eastward, and
on the fifteenth landed on the little island north of Hayti, which
he called Tortuga, or Turtle island. At midnight on the sixteenth he
sailed, and landed on Hispaniola again. Five hundred Indians met him,
accompanied by their king, a fine young man of about twenty years of
age. He had around him several counselors, one of whom appeared to be
his tutor. To the steady questions where gold could be found, the reply
as steady was made that it was in "the Island of Babeque." This island,
they said, was only two days off, and they pointed out the route. The
interview ended in an offer by the king to the Admiral of all that
he had. The explorers never found this mysterious Babeque, unless, as
Bishop Las Casas guessed, Babeque and Jamaica be the same.

The king visited Columbus on his ship in the evening, and Columbus
entertained him with European food. With so cordial a beginning of
intimacy, it was natural that the visitors should spend two or three
days with these people. The king would not believe