Before proceeding with the transactions of Velasquez, it may be proper to give some description of the island of Cuba, from the Spanish writers. Cuba is within the tropic of Cancer, from 20° to 21° of N. latitude. It is 230 leagues in length, from Cape St Antonio to Cape Mayci. Its breadth between Cape Cruze and port Manati is forty-five leagues, whence it narrows to about twelve leagues between Matamano and the Havanna. Most of the island is flat, and full of woods and forests; but from the eastern point of Mayci, there are exceedingly high mountains for thirty leagues. Beyond these to the westwards, and in the middle of the island, there are many hills, but not very high. Many fine rivers run down the sides of these hills, both to the north and south, which are full of fish, especially skates and olaves, which ascend the streams a great way from the sea. On the south of Cuba there are a prodigious number of small islands, which were named the Queens Garden, by the admiral Don Christopher Columbus. There are other small islands on the north side, though not so numerous, which Velasquez named the Kings Garden. About the middle of the south side, a considerable river, named Cauto by the natives, runs into the sea, containing vast numbers of alligators, the banks of which river are very agreeable. The island is wonderfully well wooded, insomuch that people may travel almost 230 leagues, or from one end of the island to the other, always under their shelter. Among these are sweet-scented red cedars of such astonishing size, that the natives used to make canoes of one stick hollowed out, large enough to contain fifty or sixty persons, and such were once very common in Cuba. There are such numbers of storax trees, that if any one goes up to a height in the morning, the vapours arising from the earth smell strongly of storax, coming from the fires made by the natives in the evening, which are now drawn up from the earth by the rising sun. Another kind of tree produces a fruit called xaquas, which being laid by four or five days, though gathered unripe, become full of a liquor like honey, and richer than the finest pears. There are great quantities of wild vines, which climb very high on the trees; these bear grapes, from which wine has been made, which is somewhat sharp. Such is their universal abundance all over the island, that the Spaniards used to say there was a vineyard in Cuba 230 leagues in length. Some of the trunks of these vines are as thick as a mans body. The whole island is very pleasant, more temperate and healthy than Hispaniola, and has safer harbours for ships, made by nature, than any that have been constructed by art in other countries. On the southern coast is that of St Jago, which is in form of a cross, and Xaquas, which is hardly to be matched in all the world. Its entry is not above a cross-bow shot in breadth, and the interior part is 10 leagues in circumference, having three little islands to which ships may be fastened by means of stakes, where they are safe from every wind that blows, being everywhere shut in by high mountains as in a house. In this harbour the Indians had pens in which they shut up the fish. On the north side there are likewise good harbours, the best of which was formerly called Carenas, but now Havanna, which is so large and safe that few can be compared to it. Twenty leagues east is the harbour of Matanaos, which is not quite safe. About the middle of the island there is another good port, called del Principe; and almost at the end is the port of Baraca, where good ebony is cut. All along this coast there are good anchorages, though none so large and commodious as those already mentioned.

Cuba produces great numbers of birds, as pigeons, turtle-doves, partridges like those of Spain but smaller, and cranes. There are none of these two latter on the other islands, but there are cranes on the continent. There is another bird, not found on the continent, as large as cranes, which are white when young, but grow red at their full growth, which are called flamences or flamingos. These would have been much valued in New Spain, for the curious feather-works which are made by the natives. These flamingos are found in vast flocks of 500 to 1000 together. They seldom fly, but stand much in the water. When the Indians kept any of these birds about their houses, they had to put salt into the water they gave them to drink. There are infinite numbers of parrots, which are very good eating when young, about the month of May. They have few land animals, except a kind of rabbits like those of Hispaniola; but to make amends for this want, they have vast quantities of fish both in the sea and the rivers: among these the chiefest is tortoises or turtles, in vast abundance, excellent of their kind, and very wholesome, which cure the leprosy and the itch, in such as are content to make them their constant food. It produces maize or Indian corn in great abundance; and every thing considered, it may be pronounced the finest and best provided country in that part of the world. The natives of Cuba were of the same nation with those of the Lucayos islands, a good sort of people, and very well tempered. They were governed by caciques, having towns of 200 or 300 houses, in each of which several families resided, as in Hispaniola.

They had no religion, having no temples, idols, or sacrifices; but they had a kind of conjuring priests or jugglers, like those in Hispaniola, who pretended to have communication with the devil, and to obtain answers from him to their questions. To obtain this favour, they fasted three or four months, using only the juice of herbs; and when reduced to extreme weakness, they were worthy of inspiration, and to be informed whether the seasons of the year would be favourable or otherwise; what children were to be born, and whether those born were to live, and such like questions. These conjurors, who were called behiques, were the oracles of the natives, whom they led into many superstitions and absurdities; pretending to cure the sick by blowing on them, and other mummeries, muttering some unintelligible words between their teeth. The natives of Cuba acknowledged that the heavens and earth, and all things contained in these, had been created. They are even said to have had traditions concerning the flood, and the destruction of the world by water, occasioned by three persons who came three several ways. The old men reported, that a sage who knew the approaching deluge, built a great ship, into which he went with his family, and many animals. That he sent out a crow, which remained a long while out, feeding on the dead bodies, and afterwards returned with a green branch. They added many other particulars respecting the deluge, even to two of Noah's sons covering him when drunk, while the third scoffed him; adding that the Indians were descended from the latter, and therefore had no clothes, whereas the Spaniards descended from the other sons, and had therefore clothes and horses. As they lived in towns under the authority of caciques, it is probable that the will of these chiefs served as law.

Some time before the expedition of Velasquez to Cuba, a cacique of the province of Guatiba, in Hispaniola, named Hatuey, to escape from the tyranny of the Spaniards, went over to the eastern end of Cuba with as many of his people as he could induce to accompany him; the distance between the two islands being only eighteen leagues. He settled with his followers in the nearest district of Cuba, called Mayci, reducing the inhabitants of that place to subjection, but not to slavery. In fact slavery does not appear to have been practised in any part of the West Indies, no difference being made even by the caciques between their people and their children; except in New Spain and other provinces of the continent, where they used to sacrifice prisoners of war to their idols. This cacique Hatuey, always had spies in Hispaniola, to inform him what was going on there, as he feared the Spaniards would pass over into Cuba. Having information of the admiral's design, and the intended expedition of Velasquez, he assembled all the warriors of his tribe, and putting them in mind of the many sufferings they had endured under the Spaniards, he informed them of their new intentions. Then taking some gold from a basket of palm leaves, he addressed them as follows: "The Spaniards have done all these things which I have told you of for the sake of this, which is the god whom they serve, and their only object in coming over to this island is in search of this their lord. Let us therefore make a festival, and dance to this lord of the Spaniards, that when they come hither, he may order them not to do us any harm." They accordingly all began to dance and sing, and continued till they were quite tired, as it is their custom to dance from nightfall till daybreak, as long as they can stand. Their dances, as in Hispaniola, are to the music of their songs; and though 50,000 men and women may have assembled at one time, no one differed in the motions of their hands, feet, and bodies from all the rest. But the natives of Hispaniola sung much more agreeably than those of Cuba. After the subjects of Hatuey were quite spent with singing and dancing around the little basket of gold, the cacique desired them not to keep the lord of the Christians in any place whatsoever; for even if they were to conceal him in their bowels, the Christians would rip them up to fetch him out; wherefore he advised them to cast him into the river, where the Christians might not be able to find him; and this they did.