360
LIFE
duced by the white men.
AND VOYAGES
OF
[BOOK V I .
The untutored savage, in almost every
part of the world, scorns to make a traffic of hospitality. After a march of five leagues across the plain, they arrived at the banks of a large and beautiful stream, called by the natives Yagui, but to which the admiral gave the name of the River of Reeds.
He was not aware that it was the same stream, which,
after winding through the Vega, falls into the sea near Monte Christi, and which, in his first voyage, he had named the River of Gold.
On its green banks the army encamped for the night,
animated and delighted with the beautiful scenes through which they had passed.
They bathed and sported in the waters of the
Yagui, enjoying the amenity of the surrounding landscape, and the delightful breezes which prevail in that genial season. “ For though there is but little difference," observes Las Casas, “ from one month to another in all the year in this island, and in most parts of these Indias, yet in the period from September to May, it is like living in paradise.”* On the following morning they crossed this stream by the aid of canoes and rafts, swimming the horses over.
For two days
they continued their march through the same kind of rich level country, diversified by noble forests, and watered by abundant streams, several of which descended from the mountains of Cibao, and were said to bring down gold dust mingled with their sands. To one of these, the limpid waters of which ran over a bed of smooth round pebbles, Columbus gave the name of Rio Verde, or Green River, from the verdure and freshness of its banks.
Its
Indian name was Nicayagua, which it still retains.† In the * Las Casas, Hist. Ind., lib. i. cap. 90, M S . † The name of Rio Verde was afterwards given to a small stream which crosses the road from Santiago to La Vega, a branch of the river Yuna.