e islands, and to a great number of other
uninhabited islets in these seas, to live upon fish, which they catch in
great abundance, and upon birds, crabs, and other things which they find
on the land. The Indians are by no means nice in their choice of food, but
eat many things which are abhorred by us Europeans, such as large spiders,
the worms that breed in rotten wood and other corrupt places, and devour
their fish almost raw; for before roasting a fish, they scoop out the eyes
and eat them. The Indians follow this employment of fishing and
bird-catching according to the seasons, sometimes in one island, sometimes
in another, as a person changes his diet when weary of living on one kind
of food.

In one of the islands in the Sea of our Lady, the Spaniards killed a
quadruped resembling a badger, and in the sea they found considerable
quantities of mother-of-pearl. Among other fish which they caught in their
nets, was one resembling a swine, which was covered all over with a very
hard skin except the tail, which was quite soft. In this sea among the
islands, the tide was observed to rise and fall much more than in the
other places where they had been hitherto; and was quite contrary to ours
in Spain, as it was low water when the moon was S.W. and by S.

On Monday the 19th November, the admiral departed from the Princes Port in
Cuba and the Sea of our Lady, and steered eastwards in search of Bohio;
but owing to contrary winds, he was forced to ply two or three days
between the island of Isabella, called Saomotto by the Indians, and the
Puerta del Principe, which lie almost due north and south, at about
twenty-five leagues distance. In this sea he still found traces of those
weeds which he had seen in the ocean, and perceived that they always swam
with the current and never athwart.

At this time Martin Alonzo Pinzon, being informed by certain Indians whom
he had concealed in his caravel, that abundance of gold was to be had in
the island of Bohio, and blinded by covetousness, he deserted the admiral
on Wednesday the 21st of November, without being constrained by any stress
of weather, or other necessity whatever, as he could easily have come up
with him before the wind. Taking advantage of the superior sailing of his
vessel the Pinta, he made all sail during the next day, and when night
came on of the 22d, he was entirely out of sight. Thus left with only two
ships, and the weather being unfavourable for proceeding on