s they still further
improve. But this is enough about cooking recipes. Let us pass on to
other subjects.

[Note 6: Iguanas are found in all the _tierras calientes_ of the
continent.]

The tribute of cotton sent by the caciques filled the Adelantado's
hut, and, in addition, he accepted their promise to furnish him all
the bread he needed. While waiting for the bread to be made in the
different districts, and brought to the house of Beuchios Anacauchoa,
King of Xaragua, he sent to Isabella directing that one of the
caravels he had ordered to be built be brought to him, promising the
colonists that he would send it back to them loaded with bread. The
delighted sailors made the tour of the island with alacrity, and
landed on the coast of Xaragua. As soon as that brilliant, prudent,
and sensible woman called Anacaona, sister of Beuchios Anacauchoa,
heard that our ship had reached the coast of her country, she
persuaded her brother to accompany her to visit it. The distance from
the royal residence to the coast was only six miles. They halted
for the night at a village about halfway, where the queen kept her
treasure; this treasure did not consist of gold, silver, or pearls,
but of utensils necessary to the different requirements of life, such
as seats, platters, basins, cauldrons, and plates made of black wood,
brilliantly polished; they display great art in the manufacture of
all these articles. That distinguished savant, your doctor, Joannes
Baptista Elysius, thinks that this black wood is ebony. It is to the
manufacture of these articles that the islanders devote the best of
their native ingenuity. In the island of Ganabara which, if you have
a map, you will see lies at the western extermity of Hispaniola and
which is subject to Anacauchoa, it is the women who are thus employed;
the various pieces are decorated with representations of phantoms
which they pretend to see in the nighttime, and serpents and men and
everything that they see about them. What would they not be able to
manufacture, Most Illustrious Prince, if they knew the use of iron and
steel? They begin by softening the inner part of pieces of wood in the
fire, after which they dig them out and work them with shells from the
rivers.

Anacaona presented to the Adelantado fourteen seats and sixty earthen
vessels for the kitchen, besides four rolls of woven cotton of immense
weight. When they all reached the shore where the other royal town is
situated, the