r to be eaten, took
refuge with the Spaniards. In the houses were found pots of all kinds,
jars and large earthen vessels, boxes and tools resembling ours. Birds
were boiling in their pots, also geese mixed with bits of human flesh,
while other parts of human bodies were fixed on spits, ready for
roasting. Upon searching another house the Spaniards found arm and
leg bones, which the cannibals carefully preserve for pointing their
arrows; for they have no iron. All other bones, after the flesh
is eaten, they throw aside. The Spaniards discovered the recently
decapitated head of a young man still wet with blood. Exploring the
interior of the island they discovered seven rivers,[5] without
mentioning a much larger watercourse similar to the Guadalquivir
at Cordoba and larger than our Ticino, of which the banks were
deliciously umbrageous. They gave the name of Guadaloupe to this
island because of the resemblance one of its mountains bore to the
Mount Guadaloupe, celebrated for its miraculous statue of the Virgin
Immaculate. The natives call their island Caracueira, and it is
the principal one inhabited by the Caribs. The Spaniards took from
Guadaloupe seven parrots larger than pheasants, and totally unlike any
other parrots in colour. Their entire breast and back are covered with
purple plumes, and from their shoulders fall long feathers of the same
colour, as I have often remarked in Europe is the case with the capons
peasants raise. The other feathers are of various colours,--green,
bluish, purple, or yellow. Parrots are as numerous in all these
islands as sparrows or other small birds are with us; and just as we
keep magpies, thrushes, and similar birds to fatten them, so do these
islanders also keep birds to eat, though their forests are full of
parrots.

[Note 5: In reality, these so-called rivers were unimportant mountain
torrents.]

The female captives who had taken refuge with our people received by
the Admiral's order some trifling presents, and were begged by signs
to go and hunt for the cannibals, for they knew their place of
concealment. In fact they went back to the men during the night,
and the following morning returned with several cannibals who were
attracted by the hope of receiving presents; but when they saw our
men, these savages, whether because they were afraid or because they
were conscious of their crimes, looked at one another, making a low
murmur, and then, suddenly forming into a wedge-shaped