nd. Jamaica gave us almost
Carib welcome. Its folk had the largest canoes, the sharpest, toughest
lances. Perhaps they had heard from some bold sea rover that we had
come, but that we were not wholly gods!

Our crossbow men shot amongst them. The arrows failed to halt them,
but when we sent a bloodhound the dog did our work. It was to them what
griffon or fire-breathing dragon might be to a Seville throng. When the
creature sprang among them they uttered a great cry and fled. Jamaica is
most beautiful.

For not a few days we visited, sailing and anchoring, lifting again
and stopping again. Once the people were pacified, they gave us kindly
enough welcome, trading and wondering. We slipped by bold coasts and
headlands which we must double, mountains above us. They ran by inland
paths, saving distance, telling village after village. When we made
harbor, here was the thronged beach. Some of these people wore a slight
dress of woven grass and palm leaves, and they used crowns of bright
feathers. We got from them in some quantity golden ornaments. But south
for gold, south--south, they always pointed south!

The _Cordera_, the _Santa Clara_ and the _San Juan_ set sail out of the
Harbor of Good Weather, in Santiago or Jamaica. A day and a night of
pleasant sailing, then we saw the great Cuba coast rise blue in the
distance. The weather wheeled.

There was first a marvelous green hush, while clouds formed out of
nothing. We heard a moaning sound and we did not know its quarter. The
sea turned dead man's color. Then burst the wind. It was more than
wind; it seemed the movement of a world upon us. Bare of all sails,
we labored. We were driven, one from the other. The mariners fell to
praying.

A strange light was around us, as though the tempest itself made a
light. By it I marked the Admiral, upright where he could best command
the whole. He had lashed himself there, for the ship tossed excessively.
His great figure stood; his white, blowing hair, in that strange light,
made for him a nimbus. It was strange, how the light seemed to seize
that and his brow and his gray-blue eyes. Below the eyes his lips moved.
He was shouting encouragement, but only the intention could be heard.
The intention was heard. He looked what he was, something more than a
bold man and a brave sea captain, and there streamed from him comfort.
It touched his mariners; it came among them like tongues of flame.

Darkness increased. We were now among