Leaving Jamaica on Wednesday the 15th of May, the admiral came to that point of Cuba which he named Cabo de Santa Cruz, or Cape Holy Cross. In running along the coast they encountered a great storm of thunder and lightning which, combined with numerous flats and strong currents, occasioned much trouble and great danger, being obliged to struggle at the same time against two evils which required opposite remedies; for it is proper during thunder to strike the sails, whereas it is necessary to spread them to avoid the flats, and had this double calamity lasted for eight or ten leagues it had been quite insupportable. The worst of all was, that all over this sea, both northwards, and to the north-east, the farther they went the greater number of low little islands they met with, in some of which there were trees, but others were sandy and scarcely appeared above the surface of the water; some of these were a league in compass, some more and some less. The nearer they kept to the coast of Cuba the higher and pleasanter these small islands appeared; and it being difficult and useless to give names to every one, the admiral called them all in general Jardin de la Reyna, or the Queens Garden. They saw many more islands next day to the north-east, north-west, and south-west, insomuch that they counted 160 islands that day, all parted by deep channels, many of which the ships sailed through. In some of these islands they saw many cranes resembling those of Spain in shape and size, but of a scarlet colour42. In others they found great numbers of turtles, or sea tortoises, and immense quantities of their eggs, which are not unlike those of a hen but with much harder shells. The female turtle deposits her eggs in holes on the sand, and covering them up leaves them to be hatched by the heat of the sun, which brings forth the little turtles, which grow in time to be as large as a buckler or great target. In these islands they also saw crows and cranes like those of Spain, and sea crows, and infinite numbers of small birds which sung delightfully, and the very air was sweet, as if they had been among roses and the finest perfumes; yet the danger was very great on account of the innumerable channels among the islands, by which much time was spent in finding the way through.

In one of these channels they observed a canoe with Indian fishermen, who very quietly awaited our boat coming towards them, and made signs not to approach near till they had done fishing. Their manner of fishing was so strange and new to our people that they willingly complied, and looked on with astonishment. They had tied certain small fishes which they call reves by the tail with a long line and let them into the water, where these reves attached themselves to other fishes, by means of a certain roughness which they have from the head to the middle of the back, and stick so fast that the Indians drew both up together. It was a turtle our men saw taken in this manner, and the reve clung close to its neck, which place they usually fasten upon because safe from being bitten by the other fish, and they sometimes fasten upon vast sharks. When the Indians in the canoe had thus taken the turtle, having already two others, they came in a very friendly manner to know what our men would have, and went by their direction on board the admiral who treated them courteously, and to whom they would have freely given all they had; but he would only allow their fish to be taken, and refused their nets, hooks, and calabashes full of water which they had on board to drink, for which he gave them some trifles with which they went away very well contented. From these Indians he learnt that there were an infinite multitude of islands in that sea, and he held on his course. But beginning to want provisions he could not continue much longer, otherwise he meant to have gone west about before returning to Hispaniola, although much spent, having never had it in his power to go to bed, except eight nights, from the time he left Hispaniola on the 24th of April till now, which was the 19th of May. He always had much care and anxiety in his voyages, but infinitely greater this time by reason of the innumerable islands among which he was sailing, insomuch that on the 20th of May they counted seventy-one, besides a great many more that were seen about sun-set. These islands are not only dangerous on account of their numbers, but there rises from them every night a heavy fog to the eastwards, so dismal to behold as if some great shower of hail would fall, and it is generally accompanied by violent thunder and lightning; but when the moon rises it all vanishes, partly turning to rain and wind. These phenomena are so natural and usual in these seas that they not only took place all those nights on which the admiral was there, but I saw the same among those islands in the year 1503 on my return from the discovery of Veragua; and generally, the wind here is every night from the north, coming from the island of Cuba, and afterwards when the sun rises it comes about east, and follows the sun till it comes to the west.

The admiral still held on his course westwards among infinite numbers of islands, and came to one on the 22d of May somewhat larger than the rest, which he called St Mary. They landed at a town which was seen on shore, but none of the natives would stay to converse with the Christians, and nothing was found in their houses save fish upon which they feed, and several dogs like mastiffs which feed likewise on fish. They sailed thence to the north-west still among numerous islands, on which they saw many scarlet cranes or flamingos, parrots, and other birds, and dogs like those mentioned before, and the sea was covered with large quantities of weeds. The sailing among so many islands, channels, and shoals, fatigued the admiral extremely, as sometimes they had to stand west, sometimes north, and sometimes south, according as the channels would permit; and notwithstanding his constant care in sounding and keeping men continually on the look-out from the round top, yet the ship often touched, and there was no avoiding it, there being no end to the flats on all hands. Sailing on in this manner, they came at length again to Cuba to take in water, of which they stood much in need. Though no town could be seen because the place was entirely overgrown with trees, yet one of the seamen who was on shore, having gone among the trees to kill some bird or beast with his cross-bow, saw about thirty people armed after the Indian manner with spears and a kind of clubs or staves, which they use instead of swords, and which they call macanas. Among these he said that he saw one person clad in a white coat or vest down to his knees, carried by two others who had white vestments down to their feet, all three of them as white as Spaniards; but that he had no intercourse with them, because being afraid of such a number he called out to his comrades, and the Indians ran away without looking back43.

Next day, the admiral sent some people on shore to look after these natives, but they could not travel above half a league from the shore on account of the thickness of the trees and bushes, and because all that coast for two leagues up the country, where the hills and mountains begin, is boggy and marshy, so that they only saw a few footsteps of fishermen on the shore, and abundance of cranes like those of Spain but larger. Having sailed about ten leagues farther westwards, they saw some houses on the shore, whence some canoes came off with water, and such food as the Indians use, and for which they were well paid. The admiral caused one of those Indians to be detained, telling him and the rest, by means of an interpreter, that he would freely permit him to go home as soon as he had given him an account of the country and some directions for the voyage. This Indian assured the admiral that Cuba was an island, and that the king or cacique of the western part of it never spoke to any of his subjects but by signs, yet that all his orders were immediately obeyed; that all this coast was very low and full of small islands. This latter information was found to be too true; as next day, the 11th of June, the admiral was forced to have the ships towed over a flat where there was not a foot of water, and its whole breadth did not exceed two ships length44. Bearing up closer to Cuba, they saw turtles of vast bigness, and in such numbers that they covered the sea. At break of day, they saw such an enormous flock of sea crows as even darkened the sun, these were going from sea towards to the island, where they all alighted; besides these abundance of pigeons and other birds were seen; and the next day such immense swarms of butterflies, as even to darken the air, which lasted till night, when a heavy rain carried them all away.