d so
different from ours. And I believe that there are in them many herbs and
many trees, which are of great value in Spain for dyes (or tinctures)
and for medicines of spicery. But I do not know them, which I greatly
regret. And as I came here to this cape there came such a good and sweet
odor of flowers or trees from the land that it was the sweetest thing in
the world."

He heard that there was a king in the interior who wore clothes and
much gold, and though, as he says, the Indians had so little gold that
whatever small quantity of it the king wore it would appear large to
them, he decided to visit him the next day. He did not do so, however,
as he found the water too shallow in his immediate neighborhood, and
then had not enough wind to go on, except at night.

Sunday morning, October 21, he anchored, apparently more to the west,
and after having dined, landed. He found but one house, from which
the inhabitants were absent; he directed that nothing in it should be
touched. He speaks again of the great beauty of the island, even greater
than that of the others he had seen. "The singing of the birds," he
says, "seems as if a man would never seek to leave this place, and the
flocks of parrots which darken the sun, and fowls and birds of so many
kinds and so different from ours that it is wonderful. And then there
are trees of a thousand sorts, and all with fruit of their kinds.
And all have such an odor that it is wonderful, so that I am the most
afflicted man in the world not to know them."

They killed a serpent in one of the lakes upon this island, which Las
Casas says is the Guana, or what we call the Iguana.

In seeking for good water, the Spaniards found a town, from which the
inhabitants were going to fly. But some of them rallied, and one of them
approached the visitors. Columbus gave him some little bells and glass
beads, with which he was much pleased. The Admiral asked him for water,
and they brought it gladly to the shore in calabashes.

He still wished to see the king of whom the Indians had spoken, but
meant afterward to go to "another very great island, which I believe
must be Cipango, which they call Colba." This is probably a mistake in
the manuscript for Cuba, which is what is meant. It continues, "and
to that other island which they call Bosio" (probably Bohio) "and the
others which are on the way, I will see these in passing. * * * But
still, I am determined to go to the mainland and to the c