e passed coiled around a tree a great
serpent. It looked at us with beady eyes, but the Indians said it would
not harm a man. A thousand, thousand butterflies spread their painted
fans.

The trees! so huge of girth and height and wherever was room so
spreading, so rich of grain, so full, I knew, of strange virtues! We
found one that I thought was cinnamon, and broke twigs and bark and put
in our great pouch for the Admiral. Only time might tell the wealth of
this green multitude. I thought, "Here is gold, if we would wait for
it!" Fruit trees sprang by our path. We had with us some provision of
biscuit and dried meat, and we never lacked golden or purple delectable
orbs. We found the palm that bears the great nut, giving alike meat and
milk.

By now Luis Torres and I had no little of Diego Colon's tongue and he
had Spanish enough to understand the simplest statements and orders.
Ferdandina tongue was not quite Cuba tongue, but it was like enough to
furnish sea room. We asked this, we asked that. No! No one had ever come
to the end of their country. When one town was left behind, at last you
came to another town. One by one, were they bigger, better towns? They
seemed to say that they were, but here was always, I thought, doubtful
understanding. But no one had ever walked around their country--they
seemed to laugh at the notion--land that way, always land! On the other
hand, there was sea yonder--like sea here. They pointed south. Not so
far there! "It must be," said Luis, "that Cuba is narrow, though without
end westwardly. A great point or tongue of Asia?"

The Cubans were strong young men and not unintelligent. "Chiefs?"
Yes, they had chiefs, they called them _caciques_. Some of them were
fighters, they and their people. Not fighters like Caribs! Whereupon the
speaker rose--we were resting under a tree--and facing south, used for
gesture a strong shudder and a movement as if to flee.

South--south--always they pointed south! We were going south--inland.
Would we come to Caribs? But no. Caribs seemed not to be in Cuba, but
beyond sea, in islands.

Luis and I made progress in language and knowledge. Roderigo Jerez,
a simple man, slept or tried the many kinds of fruit, or teased the
slender, green-flame lizards.

We slept this night high on the mountainside, on soft grass near a fall
of water. The Indians showed no fear of attack from man or beast. They
could make fire in a most ingenious fashion, setting stick ag