Another account of this fight says that the canoe was commanded by one of the women, who seemed to be a queen, who had a son “of cruel look, robust, with a lion’s face, who followed her.”  This account represents the queen’s son to have been wounded, as well as the man who died.  “The Caribs differed from the other Indians in having long hair; the others wore theirs braided and a hundred thousand differences made in their heads, with crosses and other paintings of different sorts, each one as he desires, which they do with sharp canes.”  The Indians, both the Caribs and the others, were beardless, unless by a great exception.  The Caribs, who had been taken prisoners here, had their eyes and eyebrows blackened, “which, it seems to me, they do as an ornament, and with that they appear more frightful.”  They heard from these prisoners of much gold at an island called Cayre.

They left San Martin on the same day, and passed the island of Santa Cruz, and the next day (November 15) they saw a great number of islands, which the Admiral named Santa Ursula and the Eleven Thousand Virgins.  This seemed “a country fit for metals,” but the fleet made no stay there.  They did stop for two days at an island called Burenquen.  The Admiral named it San Juan Bautista (Saint John Baptist).  It is what we now call Porto Rico.  He was not able to communicate with any of the inhabitants, as they lived in such fear of the Caribs that they all fled.  All these islands were new to the Admiral and all “very beautiful and of very good land, but this one seemed better than all of them.”

On Friday, the twenty-second of November, they landed at the island of Hispaniola or Hayti which they so much desired.  None of the party who had made the first voyage were acquainted with this part of the island; but they conjectured what it was, from what the Indian captive women told them.

The part of the island where they arrived was called Hayti, another part Xamana, and the third Bohio.  “It is a very singular country,” says Dr. Chanca, “where there are numberless great rivers and great mountain ridges and great level valleys.  I think the grass never dries in the whole year.  I do not think that there is any winter in this (island) nor in the others, for at Christmas are found many birds’ nests, some with birds, and some with eggs.”  The only four-footed animals found in these islands were what Dr. Chanca calls dogs of various colors, and one animal like a young rabbit, which climbed trees.  Many persons ate these last and said they were very good.  There were many small snakes, and few lizards, because the Indians were so fond of eating them.  “They made as much of a feast of them as we would do of pheasants.”

“There are in this island and the others numberless birds, of those of our country, and many others which never were seen there.  Of our domestic birds, none have ever been seen here, except that in Zuruquia there were some ducks in the houses, most of them white as snow, and others black.”