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 those of Spain and Italy, which Your Holiness has often examined, showing their mountains, valleys, rivers, towns, and colonies.  Let us boldly compare Hispaniola to Italy, formerly the mistress of the universe.  In point of size Hispaniola is a trifle smaller than Italy.  According to the statements of recent explorers, it extends five hundred and forty miles from east to west.  As we have already noticed in our First Decade, the Admiral had exaggerated its length.  In certain places the width of Hispaniola extends to three hundred miles.  It is narrower at the point where the land is prolonged in promontories, but it is much more favoured than Italy for, throughout the greatest part of its extent, it enjoys such an agreeable climate that neither the rigours of cold nor excessive heats are known.[3] The two solstices are about equal to the equinoxes.  There is only one hour of difference between day and night, according as one lives on the southern or the northern coast of the island.

[Note 2:  On the east is the gulf or bay of Samana, on the west that of Gonaires.]

[Note 3:  The superficial area of Haiti is 77,255 square kilometres.  The climatic conditions no longer correspond to Peter Martyr’s descriptions, as there are four seasons, recognised, two rainy and two dry.  In the upland, the temperature is invigorating and wholesome.]