group, they
fled swiftly, like a flock of birds, into the shady valleys.

Having called together his men who had passed some days exploring the
interior of the island, Columbus gave the signal for departure. He
took no cannibal with him, but he ordered their boats, dug out of
single tree-trunks, to be destroyed, and on the eve of the ides of
November he weighed anchor and left Guadaloupe.

Desiring to see the men of his crew whom he had left the preceding
year at Hispaniola to explore that country, Columbus passed daily by
other islands which he discovered to the right and left. Straight
ahead to the north appeared a large island. Those natives who had been
brought to Spain on his first voyage, and those who had been delivered
from captivity, declared that it was called Madanina, and that it was
inhabited exclusively by women.[6] The Spaniards had, in fact, heard
this island spoken of during their first voyage. It appeared that the
cannibals went at certain epochs of the year to visit these women,
as in ancient history the Thracians crossed to the island of Lesbos
inhabited by the Amazons. When their children were weaned, they sent
the boys to their fathers, but kept the girls, precisely as did the
Amazons. It is claimed that these women know of vast caverns where
they conceal themselves if any man tries to visit them at another than
the established time. Should any one attempt to force his way into
these caverns by violence or by trickery, they defend themselves with
arrows, which they shoot with great precision. At least, this is the
story as it is told, and I repeat it to you. The north wind renders
this island unapproachable, and it can only be reached when the wind
is in the south-west.

[Note 6: This is the island of Martinique; the legend of its Amazons
is purely fantastic.]

While still in view of Madanina at a distance of about forty miles,
the Spaniards passed another island, which, according to the accounts
of the natives, was very populous and rich in foodstuffs of all kinds.
As this island was very mountainous they named it Montserrat. Amongst
other details given by the islanders on board, and as far as could
be ascertained from their signs and their gestures, the cannibals of
Montserrat frequently set out on hunts to take captives for food, and
in so doing go a distance of more than a thousand miles from their
coasts. The next day the Spaniards discovered another island, and as
it was of spherical fo