CHAP. I.]
CHRISTOPHER
COLUMBUS.
7!)
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, there fore, all the prisoners, with many presents, to compensate for the spoil and injury which had been done. The female cacique, how ever, declined going on shore, preferring to remain and accom pany 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 In dians, 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 un certainty which prevailed on board the vessels as to their situation. There were several pilots in the caravels ; but being chiefly ac customed to the navigation of the Mediterranean, or the Atlantic coasts, they were utterly confounded, and lost all reckoning when * Hist. del Almirante, cap. 63.