It was far, far, from Hispaniola, far,
far, from Jamaica, over a wide and stormy sea, reached
after many days of horrible weather. Guanaja, small, lofty,
covered with rich trees among which stood in numbers the
pines we loved because they talked of home. To the south,
far off, across leagues of water, we made out land. Mainland
it seemed to us, stretching across the south, losing itself
in the eastern haze. The weather suddenly became blissful.
We had sweet rest in Guanaja.
A few Indians lived upon this small island, like, yet in
some ways unlike all those we knew. But they were rude
and simple and they talked always of gods _to the west_. We
had rested a week when there came a true wonder to us
_from the west_.
That was a canoe, of the mightiest length we had yet
seen, long as a tall tree, eight feet wide, no less, with twenty-
five rowing Indians--tall, light bronze men--with cotton
cloth about their loins. Middle of this giant canoe was
built a hut or arbor, thatched with palm. Under this sat a
splendid barbarian, tall and strong, with a crown of feathers
and a short skirt and mantle of cotton. Beside him sat two
women wrapped in cotton mantles, and at their feet two
boys and a young maid. All these people wore golden ornaments
about their necks.
It was in a kind of amaze that we watched this dragon
among canoes draw near to and pass the ships and to the
shore where we had built a hut for the Admiral and the
Adelantado and the youth Fernando, and to shelter the rest
of us a manner of long booth.
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