we only know from the descriptions given by the islanders.  The first island they discovered was so thickly wooded that there was not an inch of bare or stony land.  As the discovery took place on a Sunday, the Admiral wished to call the island Domingo.[2] It was supposed to be deserted, and he did not stop there.  He calculated that they had covered 820 leagues in these twenty-one days.  The ships had always been driven forward by the south-west wind.  At some little distance from Domingo other islands were perceived, covered with trees, of which the trunks, roots, and leaves exhaled sweet odours.  Those who landed to visit the island found neither men nor animals, except lizards of extraordinarily great size.  This island they called Galana.  From the summit of a promontory, a mountain was visible on the horizon and thirty miles distant from that mountain a river of important breadth descended into the plain.  This was the first inhabited land[3] found since leaving the Canaries, but it was inhabited by those odious cannibals, of whom they had only heard by report, but have now learned to know, thanks to those interpreters whom the Admiral had taken to Spain on his first voyage.

[Note 1:  The chronology throughout is erroneous.  Columbus had sailed from Cadiz on September 25th, arriving at Gomera on October 5th.]

[Note 2:  The first island was discovered on November 3d, and was named La Deseada, or The Desired; five others, including Domingo and Maria Galante were discovered on the same date.]

[Note 3:  The island of Guadeloupe, called by the natives Caracueira.]

While exploring the island, numerous villages, composed of twenty or thirty houses each, were discovered; in the centre is a public square, round which the houses are placed in a circle.  And since I am speaking about these houses, it seems proper that I should describe them to you.  It seems they are built entirely of wood in a circular form.  The construction of the building is begun by planting in the earth very tall trunks of trees; by means of them, shorter beams are placed in the interior and support the outer posts.  The extremities of the higher ones are brought together in a point, after the fashion of a military tent.  These frames they then cover with palm and other leaves, ingeniously interlaced, as a protection against rain.  From the shorter beams in the interior they suspend knotted cords made of cotton or of certain roots similar to rushes, and on these they lay coverings.[4]

[Note 4:  Hamacs, which are still commonly used in tierra caliente of the West Indies, Mexico, and Central America.]

The island produces cotton such as the Spaniards call algodon and the Italians bombasio.  The people sleep on these suspended beds or on straw spread upon the floor.  There is a sort of court surrounded by houses where they assemble for games.  They call their houses boios.  The Spaniards noticed two wooden statues, almost shapeless, standing upon two interlaced serpents, which at first they took to be the gods of the islanders; but which they later learned were placed there merely for ornament.  We have already remarked above that it is believed they adore the heavens; nevertheless, they make out of cotton-fabric certain masks, which resemble imaginary goblins they think they have seen in the night.