ruin the voyage, as most of the crew were Martins countrymen, and several of them his relations.  The truth is, that when Martin Alonzo forsook the admiral at Cuba, he went purposely away with the design of sailing to Bohio, where he learned from the Indians on board his caravel that plenty of gold was to be found.  But not finding the object of his search, he had returned to Hispaniola where other Indians informed him there was much gold, and had spent twenty days in sailing not above fifteen leagues east of the Nativity, where he had lain sixteen days in a river, which the admiral called the river of Grace, and had there procured a considerable quantity of gold for things of small value, as the admiral had done at the Nativity.  He distributed half of this gold among his crew, that he might gain them to his purposes, and concealed the rest for his own emolument, pretending to the admiral that he had not got any.  Finding the wind still contrary, the admiral came to an anchor under Monte Christo, and went in his boat up a river to the south-west of that mountain, where he discovered signs of gold in the sand, on which account he called it the river of gold.  This river is seventeen leagues east of the Nativity, and is not much less than the Guadalquivir which runs past Cordova.

Proceeding afterwards on the voyage, and being off Cape Enamorado, or the Lovers Cape, on Sunday the 13th of January, the admiral sent the boat on shore to examine the nature of the country.  Our people there found a considerable number of fierce looking Indians, armed with bows and arrows, who seemed disposed to enter into hostilities, yet considerably alarmed at the appearance of the Spaniards.  After some conference, our people bought two of their bows and some arrows, and with much difficulty prevailed on one of them to go on board the admiral.  These people appeared much fiercer than any of the natives who had been hitherto seen; and their faces were all daubed over with charcoal; their hair was very long, and hung in a bag made of parrots feathers.  Their mode of speech resembled the fierceness of their aspect and demeanour, and one of them, standing completely naked before the admiral, said in a lofty tone that all in these parts went in the same manner.  Thinking this Indian was one of those called Caribs, and that the bay they were now in divided that race from the other inhabitants of Hispaniola, the admiral asked him where the Caribs dwelt.  Pointing with his finger, the Indian expressed by signs that they inhabited another island to the eastwards, in which there were pieces of guanin[8] as large as half the stern of the caravel.  He said moreover, that the island of Matinino was entirely inhabited by women, with whom the Caribs cohabited at a certain season; and that such sons as they brought forth were afterwards carried away by the fathers, while the daughters remained with their mothers[9].  Having answered all the questions, partly by signs, and partly by means of what little of their language the Indians from St Salvador could understand, the admiral gave this person to eat, and presented him with some baubles, such as glass beads and slips of green and red cloth, and sent him on shore, desiring that his companions would bring gold to barter as had been done by the other Indians.