ed in the waters of baptism.

All the islanders attach great importance to know the frontiers and
limits of the different tribes. It is generally the _mitaines_, that
is to say nobles, as they are called, who attend to this duty, and
they are very skilful in measuring their properties and estates. The
people have no other occupation than sowing and harvesting. They are
skillful fishermen, and every day during the whole year they dive into
the streams, passing as much time in the water as on land. They are
not neglectful, however, of hunting, they have, as we have already
said, utias, which resemble small rabbits, and iguana serpents, which
I described in my First Decade. These latter resemble crocodiles
and are eight feet long, living on land and having a good flavour.
Innumerable birds are found in all the islands: pigeons, ducks, geese,
and herons. The parrots are as plentiful here as sparrows amongst us.
Each cacique assigns different occupations to his different subjects,
some being sent hunting, others to fish, others to cultivate the
fields. But let us return to the names.

We have already said that Quizqueia and Haiti are the ancient names of
the island. Some natives also call the island Cipangu, from the name
of a mountain range rich in gold. In like manner our poets have called
Italy _Latium_, after one of its provinces, and our ancestors also
called Italy _Ausonia_ and _Hesperia_, just as these islanders have
given the names Quizqueia, Haiti, and Cipangu to their country. In the
beginning the Spaniards called the island Isabella after the Queen
Isabella, taking this name from the first colony they founded there.
I have already spoken sufficiently of this in my First Decade. They
afterwards called it Hispaniola, a diminutive of Hispania. This is
enough concerning names; let us now pass to the conformation of the
island.

The first explorers of the island have described it to me as
resembling in form a chestnut leaf, split by a gulf on the western
side opposite the island of Cuba; but the captain, Andreas Morales,
now gives me another and somewhat different description. He represents
the island as being cut into, at the eastern and western extremities,
by large gulfs,[2] having far extending points of land. He indicates
large and secure harbours in the gulf facing eastwards. I will see
to it that some day a copy of this map of Hispaniola be sent to Your
Holiness, for Morales has drawn it in the same form as t