(*) Was this perhaps tobacco?

“And thus I will take him over to Fernandina, and I will give him all his property so that he may give good accounts of us, so that, if it please our Lord, when your Highnesses send there, those who come may receive honor, and they may give us of all they have.”

Columbus continued sailing for the island he named Fernandina, now called Inagua Chica.  There was a calm all day and he did not arrive in time to anchor safely before dark.  He therefore waited till morning, and anchored near a town.  Here the man had gone, who had been picked up the day before, and he had given such good accounts that all night long the ship had been boarded by almadias, bringing supplies.  Columbus directed some trifle to be given to each of the islanders, and that they should be given “honey of sugar” to eat.  He sent the ship’s boat ashore for water and the inhabitants not only pointed it out but helped to put the water-casks on board.

“This people,” he says, “is like those of the aforesaid islands, and has the same speech and the same customs, except that these seem to me a somewhat more domestic race, and more intelligent. * * * And I saw also in this island cotton cloths made like mantles. * * *

“It is a very green island and flat and very fertile, and I have no doubt that all the year through they sow panizo (panic-grass) and harvest it, and so with everything else.  And I saw many trees, of very different form from ours, and many of them which had branches of many sorts, and all on one trunk.  And one branch is of one sort and one of another, and so different that it is the greatest wonder in the world. * * * One branch has its leaves like canes, and another like the lentisk; and so on one tree five or six of these kinds; and all so different.  Nor are they grafted, for it might be said that grafting does it, but they grow on the mountains, nor do these people care for them. * * *

“Here the fishes are so different from ours that it is wonderful.  There are some like cocks of the finest colors in the world, blue, yellow, red and of all colors, and others painted in a thousand ways.  And the colors are so fine that there is no man who does not wonder at them and take great pleasure in seeing them.  Also, there are whales.  As for wild creatures on shore, I saw none of any sort, except parrots and lizards; a boy told me that he saw a great snake.  Neither sheep nor goats nor any other animal did I see; although I have been here a very short time, that is, half a day, but if there had been any I could not have failed to see some of them.” * * *