[Note 2:  Porto Rico.]

Jamaica lies still farther to the south and is a prosperous, fertile island, of exceptional fecundity, in which, however, there does not exist a single mountain.  It is adapted to every kind of cultivation.  Its inhabitants are formidable because of their warlike temperament.  It is impossible to establish authority within the brief period since its occupation.  Columbus, the first discoverer, formerly compared Jamaica to Sicily in point of size, but as a matter of fact it is somewhat smaller, though not much.  This is the opinion of those who have carefully explored it.  All these people agree as to its inviting character.  It is believed that neither gold nor precious stones will be found there; but in the beginning the same opinion was held of Cuba.

The island of Guadaloupe, formerly called by the natives Caraqueira, lies south of Hispaniola, four degrees nearer to the equator.  It is thirty-five miles in circumference and its coast line is broken by two gulfs, which almost divide it into two different islands, as is the case with Great Britain and Caledonia, now called Scotland.  It has numerous ports.  A kind of gum called by the apothecaries animen album, whose fumes cure headaches, is gathered there.  The fruit of this tree is one palm long and looks like a carrot.  When opened it is found to contain a sweetish flour, and the islanders preserve these fruits just as our peasants lay by a store of chestnuts and other similar things for the winter.  The tree itself might be a fig-tree.  The edible pineapple and other foods which I have carefully studied above also grow in Guadaloupe, and it is even supposed that it was the inhabitants of this island who originally carried the seeds of all these delicious fruits to the other islands.

In conducting their man-hunts, the Caribs have scoured all the neighbouring countries; and whatever they found that was likely to be useful to them, they brought back for cultivation.  These islanders are inhospitable and suspicious, and their conquest can only be accomplished by using force.  Both sexes use poisoned arrows and are very good shots; so that, whenever the men leave the island on an expedition, the women defend themselves with masculine courage against any assailants.  It is no doubt this fact that has given rise to the exploded belief that there are islands in this ocean peopled entirely by women.  The Admiral Columbus induced me to believe this tale and I repeated it in my First Decade.

In the island of Guadaloupe there are mountains and fertile plains; it is watered by beautiful streams.  Honey is found in the trees and crevices of the rocks, and, as is the case at Palma, one of the Fortunate Isles, honey is gathered amongst briar and bramble bushes.

The island recently named La Deseada lies eighteen miles distant from the former island, and is twenty miles in circumference.

There is another charming island lying ten miles to the south of Guadaloupe, which is called Galante; its surface is level and it is thirty miles in circumference.  Its name was suggested by its beauty, for, in the Spanish, dandies are called galanes.[3]