found whole trees of it.  “The Admiral then went there and found that it was not cinnamon.”  The Admiral was omnipotent; if he had said that it was manna they would have had to make it so, and as he chose to say that it was not cinnamon, we must take his word for it, as Martin Alonso certainly had to do; so that it was the Admiral who scored this time.  Columbus, however, now on the track of spices, showed some cinnamon and pepper to the natives; and the obliging creatures “said by signs that there was a great deal of it towards the south-east.”  Columbus then showed them some gold and pearls; and “certain old men” replied that in a place they called Bo-No there was any amount of gold; the people wore it in their ears and on their arms and legs, and there were pearls also, and large ships and merchandise—­all to the south-east.  Finding this information, which was probably entirely untrue and merely a polite effort to do what was expected of them, well received, the natives added that “a long distance from there, there were men with one eye, and other men with dogs’ snouts who ate men, and that when they caught a man they beheaded him and drank his blood” . . .  Soon after this the Admiral went on board again and began to write up his Journal, solemnly entering all these facts in it.  It is the most childish nonsense; but after all, how interesting and credible it must have been!  To live thus smelling the most heavenly perfumes, breathing the most balmy air, viewing the most lovely scenes, and to be always hot upon the track of gold and pearls and spices and wealth and dog-nosed, blood-drinking monstrosities—­what an adventure, what a vivid piece of living!

After a few days—­on Tuesday, November 6th—­the two men who had been sent inland to the great and rich city came back again with their report.  Alas for visions of the Great Khan!  The city turned out to be a village of fifty houses with twenty people in each house.  The envoys had been received with great solemnity; and all the men “as well as the women” came to see them, and lodged them in a fine house.  The chief people in the village came and kissed their hands and feet, hailing them as visitors from the skies, and seating them in two chairs, while they sat round on the floor.  The native interpreter, doubtless according to instructions, then told them “how the Christians lived and how they were good people”; and I would give a great deal to have heard that brief address.  Afterwards the men went out and the women came in, also kissing the hands and feet of the visitors, and “trying them to see if they were of flesh and of bone like themselves.”  The results were evidently so satisfactory that the strangers were implored to remain at least five days.  The real business of the expedition was then broached.  Had they any gold or pearls?  Had they any cinnamon or spices?  Answer, as usual:  “No, but they thought there was a great deal of it to the south-east.”  The interest of the visitors then evaporated, and they set out for the coast again; but they found that at least five hundred men and women wanted to come with them, since they believed that they were returning to heaven.  On their journey back the two Spaniards noticed many people smoking, as the Admiral himself had done a few days before; and this is the first known discovery of tobacco by Europeans.