s said, 'I said so some time
ago, and that I saw that fire on the land.'" And so indeed it happened
that Thursday, at two hours after midnight, the Admiral called a
gentleman named Escobedos, officer of the wardrobe of the king, and told
him that he saw fire. And at the break of day, at the time Columbus
had predicted the day before, they saw from the largest ship the island
which the Indians call Guanahani to the north of them.

"And the first man to see the land, when day came, was Rodrigo of
Triana, on the eleventh day of October, 1492." Nothing is more certain
than that this was really on the twelfth.

The reward for first seeing land was eventually awarded to Columbus, and
it was regularly paid him through his life. It was the annual payment
of 10,000 maravedis. A maravedi was then a little less than six cents
of our currency. The annuity was, therefore, about six hundred dollars a
year.

The worth of a maravedi varied, from time to time, so that the
calculations of the value of any number of maravedis are very confusing.
Before the coin went out of use it was worth only half a cent.

CHAPTER IV. -- THE LANDING ON THE TWELFTH OF OCTOBER

--THE NATIVES AND THEIR NEIGHBORS--SEARCH FOR GOLD--CUBA
DISCOVERED--COLUMBUS COASTS ALONG ITS SHORES.

It was on Friday, the twelfth of October, that they saw this island,
which was an island of the Lucayos group, called, says Las Casas, "in
the tongue of the Indians, Guanahani." Soon they saw people naked, and
the Admiral went ashore in the armed boat, with Martin Alonzo Pinzon
and, Vicente Yanez, his brother, who was captain of the Nina. The
Admiral unfurled the Royal Standard, and the captain's two standards of
the Greek Cross, which the Admiral raised on all the ships as a sign,
with an F. and a Y.; over each letter a crown; one on one side of the
{"iron cross symbol"} and the other on the other. When they were ashore
they saw very green trees and much water, and fruits of different kinds.

"The Admiral called the two captains and the others who went ashore,
and Rodrigo Descovedo, Notary of the whole fleet, and Rodrigo Sanchez of
Segovia, and he said that they must give him their faith and witness how
he took possession before all others, as in fact he did take possession
of the said island for the king and the queen, his lord and lady. . . .
Soon many people of the island assembled. These which follow are
the very words of the Admiral, in his book of his first navi