Desiring to see the men of his crew whom he had left the preceding year at Hispaniola to explore that country, Columbus passed daily by other islands which he discovered to the right and left.  Straight ahead to the north appeared a large island.  Those natives who had been brought to Spain on his first voyage, and those who had been delivered from captivity, declared that it was called Madanina, and that it was inhabited exclusively by women.[6] The Spaniards had, in fact, heard this island spoken of during their first voyage.  It appeared that the cannibals went at certain epochs of the year to visit these women, as in ancient history the Thracians crossed to the island of Lesbos inhabited by the Amazons.  When their children were weaned, they sent the boys to their fathers, but kept the girls, precisely as did the Amazons.  It is claimed that these women know of vast caverns where they conceal themselves if any man tries to visit them at another than the established time.  Should any one attempt to force his way into these caverns by violence or by trickery, they defend themselves with arrows, which they shoot with great precision.  At least, this is the story as it is told, and I repeat it to you.  The north wind renders this island unapproachable, and it can only be reached when the wind is in the south-west.

[Note 6:  This is the island of Martinique; the legend of its Amazons is purely fantastic.]

While still in view of Madanina at a distance of about forty miles, the Spaniards passed another island, which, according to the accounts of the natives, was very populous and rich in foodstuffs of all kinds.  As this island was very mountainous they named it Montserrat.  Amongst other details given by the islanders on board, and as far as could be ascertained from their signs and their gestures, the cannibals of Montserrat frequently set out on hunts to take captives for food, and in so doing go a distance of more than a thousand miles from their coasts.  The next day the Spaniards discovered another island, and as it was of spherical form, Columbus named it Santa Maria Rotunda.  In less time he passed by another island discovered next day, and which, without stopping, he dedicated to St. Martin, and the following day still a third island came into view.  The Spaniards estimated its width from east to west at fifty miles.

It afterwards became known that these islands were of the most extraordinary beauty and fertility, and to this last one the name of the Blessed Virgin of Antigua was given.  Sailing on past numerous islands which followed Antigua, Columbus arrived, forty miles farther on, at an island which surpassed all the others in size, and which the natives called Agay.  The Admiral gave it the name of Santa Cruz.  Here he ordered the anchor to be lowered, in order that he might replenish his supply of water, and he sent thirty men from his vessel to land and explore.  These men found four dogs on the shore, and the same number of youths and women approached with hands extended, like supplicants.  It was supposed they were begging for assistance or to be rescued from the hands of those abominable people.  Whatever decision the Spaniards might take in regard to them, seemed better to them than their actual condition.  The cannibals fled as they had done at Guadaloupe, and disappeared into the forests.