o
protect it. When they reached the shore, a great number of Indians came
out to the boat, some of them wearing necklaces and ear-rings of gold,
and expressed a wish to accompany the Spaniards to the ships; but our men
refused to take them, because they had not received permission from the
Admiral. When the Indians found that they would not take them, two of
them got into a small canoe, and went up to one of the caravels that had
put in to shore; they were received on board with great kindness, and
taken to the Admiral's ship, where, through the medium of an interpreter,
they related that a certain king had sent them to ascertain who we were,
and to invite us to land, adding that they had plenty of gold, and also
of provisions, to which we should be welcome. The Admiral desired that
shirts, and caps, and other trifles, should be given to each of them, and
said that as he was going to the place where Guacamari dwelt, he would
not stop then, but that another time there would be an opportunity of
seeing him, and with that they departed. We continued our route till we
came to an harbor called Monte Cristi, where we remained two days, in
order to observe the character of the land; for the Admiral had an
objection to the spot where his men had been left with the view of making
a settlement. We went on shore therefore to see the character of the
land: there was a large river of excellent water close by;[298-1] but the
ground was inundated, and very ill-calculated for habitation. As we went
on making our observations on the river and the land, some of our men
found two dead bodies by the river's side, one with a rope round his
neck, and the other with one round his foot; this was on the first day of
our landing. On the following day they found two other corpses farther
on, and one of these was observed to have a great quantity of beard; this
was regarded as a very suspicious circumstance by many of our people,
because, as I have already said, all the Indians are beardless. This
harbor is twelve leagues[298-2] from the place where the Spaniards had
been left under the protection of Guacamari,[298-3] the king of that
province, whom I suppose to be one of the chief men of the island. After
two days we set sail for that spot, but as it was late when we arrived
there,[298-4] and there were some shoals, where the Admiral's ship had
been lost, we did not venture to put in close to the shore, but remained
that night at a little less than