He was soon tempted from his western course that he might examine Jamaica, of which he saw the distant lines on the south.  “This island,” says the account of the time, “is larger than Sicily.  It has only one mountain, which rises from the coast on every side, little by little, until you come to the middle of the island and the ascent is so gradual that, whether you rise or descend, you hardly know whether you are rising or descending.”  Columbus found the island well peopled, and from what he saw of the natives, thought them more ingenious, and better artificers, than any Indians he had seen before.  But when he proposed to land, they generally showed themselves prepared to resist him.  He therefore deferred a full examination of the island to his return, and, with the first favorable wind, pressed on toward the southern coast of Cuba.  He insisted on calling this the “Golden Chersonesus” of the East.  This name had been given by the old geographers to the peninsula now known as Malacca.

Crossing the narrow channel between Jamaica and Cuba, he began coasting that island westward.  If the reader will examine the map, he will find many small keys and islands south of Cuba, which, before any survey had been made, seriously retarded his westward course.  In every case he was obliged to make a separate examination to be sure where the real coast of the island was, all the time believing it was the continent of Asia.  One of the narratives says, with a pardonable exaggeration, that in all this voyage he thus discovered seven hundred islands.  His own estimate was that he sailed two hundred and twenty-two leagues westward in the exploration which now engaged him.

The month of May and the beginning of June were occupied with such explorations.  The natives proved friendly, as the natives of the northern side of Cuba had proved two years before.  They had, in general, heard of the visit of the Spaniards; but their wonder and admiration seem to have been none the less now that they saw the reality.

On one occasion the hopes of all the party, that they should find themselves at the court of the Grand Khan, were greatly quickened.  A Spaniard had gone into a forest alone, hunting.  Suddenly he saw a man clothed in white, or thought he did, whom he supposed to be a friar of the order of Saint Mary de Mercedes, who was with the expedition.  But, almost immediately, ten other friars dressed in the same costume, appeared, and then as many as thirty.  The Spaniard was frightened at the multiplication of their number, it hardly appears why, as they were all men of peace, or should have been, whatever their number.  He called out to his companions, and bade them escape.  But the men in white called out to him, and waved their hands, as if to assure him that there was no danger.  He did not trust them, however, but rushed back to the shore and the ship, as fast as he could, to report what he had seen to the Admiral.