Being as yet but little experienced in the navigation of these seas, Columbus, instead of working up to the northward, so as to fall in with the track of westerly winds, took an easterly course on leaving the island. The consequence was that almost the whole of his voyage was a toilsome and tedious struggle against the trade-winds and calms which prevail between the tropics. On the 6th of April he found himself still in the vicinity of the Caribbee Islands, with his crews fatigued and sickly and his provisions rapidly diminishing. He bore away to the southward, therefore, to touch at the most important of those islands, in search of supplies.

On Saturday, the 9th, he anchored at Marigalante, whence on the following day he made sail for Guadaloupe. It was contrary to the custom of Columbus to weigh anchor on Sunday when in port, but the people murmured, and observed that when in quest of food it was no time to stand on scruples as to holy days.*

Anchoring off the island of Guadaloupe, the boat was sent on shore well armed. Before it could reach the land a large number of females issued from the woods, armed with bows and arrows and decorated with tufts of feathers, preparing to oppose any descent upon their * Hist. del Almirante, cap. 62.

shores. As the sea was somewhat rough and a surf broke upon the beach the boats remained at a distance, and two of the Indians from Hispaniola swam to shore. Having explained to these Amazons that the Spaniards only sought provisions, in exchange for which they would give articles of great value, the women referred them to their husbands, who were at the northern end of the island. As the boats proceeded thither numbers of the natives were seen on the beach, who manifested great ferocity, shouting and yelling and discharging flights of arrows, which however fell far short in the water. Seeing the boats approach the land, they hid themselves in the adjacent forest and rushed forth with hideous cries as the Spaniards were landing. A discharge of firearms drove them to the woods and mountains, and the boats met with no further opposition. Entering the deserted habitations the Spaniards began to plunder and destroy, contrary to the invariable injunctions of the Admiral. Among other articles found in these houses were honey and wax, which Herrera supposes had been brought from terra firma as these roving people collected the productions of distant regions in the course of their expeditions. Fernando Columbus mentions likewise that there were hatchets of iron in their houses;

these however must have been made of a species of hard and heavy stone, already mentioned, which resembled iron; or they must have been procured from places which the Spaniards had previously visited, as it is fully admitted that no iron was in use among the natives prior to the discovery. The sailors also reported that in one of the houses they found the arm of a man roasting on a spit before the fire; but these facts, so repugnant to humanity, require more solid authority to be credited; the sailors had committed wanton devastations in these dwellings, and may have sought a pretext with which to justify their maraudings to the Admiral.

While some of the people were getting wood and water and making cassava bread, Columbus despatched forty men, well armed, to explore the interior of the island. They returned on the following day with ten women and three boys. The women were of large and powerful form, yet of great agility. They were naked and wore their long hair flowing loose upon their shoulders; some decorated their heads with plumes of various colors. Among them was the wife of a cacique, a woman of great strength and proud spirit. On the approach of the Spaniards she had fled with an agility which soon left all her pursuers far

behind excepting a native of the Canary Islands remarkable for swiftness of foot. She would have escaped even from him, but perceiving that he was alone and far from his companions, she turned suddenly upon him, seized him with astonishing force, and would have strangled him had not the Spaniards arrived and taken her entangled like a hawk with her prey. The warlike spirit of these Carib women and the circumstance of finding them in armed bands, defending their shores during the absence of their husbands, led Columbus repeatedly into the erroneous idea that certain of these islands were inhabited entirely by women; for which error, as has already been observed, he was prepared by the stories of Marco Polo concerning an island of Amazons near the coast of Asia.

Having remained several days at the island and prepared three weeks' supply of bread, Columbus prepared to make sail. As Guadaloupe was the most important of the Caribbee Islands, and in a manner the portal or entrance to all the rest, he wished to secure the friendship of the inhabitants. He dismissed therefore all the prisoners, with many presents, to compensate for the spoil and injury which had been done. The female cacique however declined going on shore, preferring to remain

and accompany the natives of Hispaniola who were on board, keeping with her also a young daughter. She had conceived a passion for Caonabo, having found out that he was a native of the Caribbee Islands. His character and story, gathered from the other Indians, had won the sympathy and admiration of this intrepid woman.*

Leaving Guadaloupe on the 20th of April, and keeping in about the twenty-second degree of latitude, the caravels again worked their way against the whole current of the trade-winds, insomuch, that, on the 20th of May, after a month of great fatigue and toil, they had yet a great part of their voyage to make. The provisions were already so reduced, that Columbus had to put every one on a daily allowance of six ounces of bread and a pint and a half of water: as they advanced, the scarcity grew more and more severe, and was rendered more appalling from the uncertainty which prevailed on board the vessels as to their situation. There were several pilots in the caravels; but being chiefly accustomed to the navigation of the Mediterranean or Atlantic coasts, they were utterly confounded, and lost all reckoning when traversing the broad ocean. Every one had a separate opinion, and none * Hist. del Almirante, cap. 63.