and there
are many of them and very great and they have the leaf like a lentisk,
and their fruit, except that the trees and the fruit are larger, is
such as Pliny describes, and I have seen in the Island of Chios in the
Archipelago.

"And I had many of these trees tapped to see if they would send out
resin, so as to draw it out. And as it rained all the time I was at the
said river, I could not get any of it, except a very little which I am
bringing to your Highnesses. And besides, it may be that it is not the
time to tap them, for I believe that this should be done at the time
when the trees begin to leave out from the winter and seek to send out
their flowers, and now they have the fruit nearly ripe.

"And also here there might be had a great store of cotton, and I believe
that it might be sold very well here without taking it to Spain, in the
great cities of the Great Khan, which will doubtless be discovered, and
many others of other lords, who will then have to serve your Highnesses.
And here will be given them other things from Spain, from the lands of
the East, since these are ours in the West.

"And here there is also aloes everywhere, although this is not a thing
to make great account of, but the mastic should be well considered,
because it is not found except in the said island of Chios, and I
believe that they get from it quite 50,000 ducats if I remember aright.
And this is the best harbor which I have seen thus far--deep and easy of
access, so that this would be a good place for a large town."

The notes in Columbus's journals are of the more interest and value,
because they show his impressions at the moment when he wrote. However
mistaken those impressions, he never corrects them afterwards. Although,
while he was in Cuba, he never found the Grand Khan, he never recalls
the hopes which he has expressed.

He had discovered the island on its northern side by sailing southwest
from the Lucayos or Bahamas. From the eleventh of November until the
sixth of December he was occupied in coasting along the northern shore,
eventually returning eastward, when he crossed the channel which parts
Cuba from Hayti.

The first course was east, a quarter southeast, and on the sixteenth,
they entered Port-au-Prince, and took possession, raising a cross there.
At Port-au-Prince, to his surprise, he found on a point of rock two
large logs, mortised into each other in the shape of a cross, so
"that you would have said a