CHAP.
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.
II.]
401
employed with such cruel effect by the Spaniards in their Indian wars.
Columbus now landed and took formal possession of the
island, to which he gave the name of Santiago; but it has re tained its original Indian name of Jamaica.
The harbor, from
its commodiousness, he called Puerto Bueno: it was in the form of a horse-shoe, and a river entered the sea in its vicinity.* During the rest of the day, the neighborhood remained silent and deserted.
On the following morning, however, before sun
rise, six Indians were seen on the shore, making signs of amity. They proved to be envoys sent by the caciques with proffers of peace and friendship.
These were cordially returned by the
admiral; presents of trinkets were sent to the chieftains; and in a little while the harbor again swarmed with the naked and painted multitude, bringing abundance of provisions, similar in kind, but superior in quality, to those of the other islands. During three days that the ships remained in this harbor, the most amicable intercourse was kept up with the natives.
They
appeared to be more ingenious, as well as more warlike, than their neighbors of Cuba and Hayti.
Their canoes were better
constructed, being ornamented with carving and painting at the bow and stern.
Many were of great size, though formed of the
trunks of single trees, often from a species of the mahogany. Columbus measured one, which was ninety-six feet long, and eight broad,t hollowed out of one of those magnificent trees which rise like verdant towers amidst 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 sur-
* Hist. del Almirante, ubi sup.
VOL.
I.
†Cura de los Palacios, cap. 124.
c c