ag,
were taller, handsomer, we thought, than the Cubans, and more advanced
in the arts. Their houses were neat and good, and their gardens weeded
and well-stocked. The men wore loin cloths, the women a wide cotton
girdle or little skirt. We found three or four copper knives, but again
they said that they came from the south. As in Spain "west--west" had
been his word, so now the Admiral brooded upon south.

These folk had a very little gold, but they seemed to say that theirs
was a simple and poor village, and that we should find more of all
things farther on. So we left Concepcion, the cross upon the rock
showing a long way through the pure air.

For two days we coasted, and at the end of this time we came to a harbor
of great beauty and back from it ran a vale like Paradise, so richly
sweet it was! Christopherus Columbus was quick to find beauty and loved
it when found. Often and often have I seen his face turn that of a child
or a youth, filled with wonder. I have seen him kiss a flower, lay a
caress upon stem of tree, yearn toward palm tops against the blue. He
was well read in the old poets, and he himself was a poet though he
wrote no line of verse.

We entered here and came to anchor and the sails rattled down.
"Hispaniola--Hispaniola, and we will call this harbor St. Thomas! He
was the Apostle to India. And now we are his younger brothers come after
long folding away. Were we more--did we have a fleet--we might set a
city here and, it being Christmas, call it La Navidad!" Out came the
canoes to us, out the swimmers, dark and graceful figures cleaving the
utter blue. Some one passing that way overland, hurrying with news, had
told these villages how peaceful, noble, benevolent, beneficent we were.

The canoes were heaped with fruit and cassava bread, and they had
cotton, not in balls, but woven in pieces. And these Indians had about
neck or in ear some bits of gold. These they changed cheerfully, taking
and valuing what trifle was given. "Gold. Where do you get your gold? Do
you know of Cipango or Cathay or India? Have ever you heard of Zaiton,
or of Quinsai and Cublai Khan?" They gave us answers which we could not
fully understand, and gestured inland and a little to the east. "Cibao!
Cibao!" They seemed to say that there was all the gold there that a
reasonable mortal might desire. "Cibao?--Cipango?" said the Admiral.
"They might be the same."

"Like Cuba and Cublai Khan," thought Juan Lepe.

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