lumbus measured one, which was ninety-six feet long and eight broad,* hollowed out of those magnificent trees which rise like verdant towers amid the rich forests of the tropics. Every cacique prided himself on possessing a large canoe of the kind, which he seemed to regard as his ship of state. It is curious to remark the apparently innate difference between these island tribes. The natives of Porto Rico, though surrounded by adjacent islands and subject to frequent incursions of the Caribs, were of a pacific character, and possessed very few canoes; while Jamaica, separated by distance from intercourse with other islands, protected in the same way from the dangers of invasion, and embosomed as it were in a peaceful, mediterranean sea, was inhabited by a warlike race, and surpassed all the other islands in its maritime armaments.

His ship being repaired and a supply of water taken in, Columbus made sail, and continued along the coast to the westward, so close to the shore that the little squadron was continually surrounded by the canoes of the natives, who came off from every bay, and river, and headland, no longer manifesting hostility, but anxious to exchange anything they possessed for European trifles. After * Cura de los Palacios, cap. 124.