e or descend, you hardly know whether you are
rising or descending." Columbus found the island well peopled, and from
what he saw of the natives, thought them more ingenious, and better
artificers, than any Indians he had seen before. But when he proposed
to land, they generally showed themselves prepared to resist him. He
therefore deferred a full examination of the island to his return, and,
with the first favorable wind, pressed on toward the southern coast of
Cuba. He insisted on calling this the "Golden Chersonesus" of the East.
This name had been given by the old geographers to the peninsula now
known as Malacca.

Crossing the narrow channel between Jamaica and Cuba, he began coasting
that island westward. If the reader will examine the map, he will find
many small keys and islands south of Cuba, which, before any survey had
been made, seriously retarded his westward course. In every case he was
obliged to make a separate examination to be sure where the real coast
of the island was, all the time believing it was the continent of Asia.
One of the narratives says, with a pardonable exaggeration, that in all
this voyage he thus discovered seven hundred islands. His own estimate
was that he sailed two hundred and twenty-two leagues westward in the
exploration which now engaged him.

The month of May and the beginning of June were occupied with such
explorations. The natives proved friendly, as the natives of the
northern side of Cuba had proved two years before. They had, in general,
heard of the visit of the Spaniards; but their wonder and admiration
seem to have been none the less now that they saw the reality.

On one occasion the hopes of all the party, that they should find
themselves at the court of the Grand Khan, were greatly quickened. A
Spaniard had gone into a forest alone, hunting. Suddenly he saw a man
clothed in white, or thought he did, whom he supposed to be a friar of
the order of Saint Mary de Mercedes, who was with the expedition.
But, almost immediately, ten other friars dressed in the same costume,
appeared, and then as many as thirty. The Spaniard was frightened at the
multiplication of their number, it hardly appears why, as they were all
men of peace, or should have been, whatever their number. He called out
to his companions, and bade them escape. But the men in white called
out to him, and waved their hands, as if to assure him that there was no
danger. He did not trust them, however, but