The women of this island were excessively fat, insomuch that some were thicker than a man could grasp round; they all wear their hair long and loose upon their shoulders, nor do they cover any part of their bodies except as before mentioned. As soon as their children can use their limbs, they give them bows and arrows that they may learn to shoot. The woman who made so much resistance said that the island was only inhabited by women, and that those who made demonstrations of hindering the landing of our men were all women, except four men who had come there accidentally from another island; for at certain times of the year the men come from the other islands to sport and cohabit with the women of this. The same customs were followed by the women in another island, called Matrimonio or the Island of Matrimony, and this woman gave an account of these islanders similar to what we read concerning the Amazons; and the admiral believed it because of the strength and courage of these women64. It is also said that these women seemed to have clearer understandings than those of the other islands; for in the other islands they only reckon the day by the sun and the nights by the moon, whereas these women reckoned by other stars, saying that it is time to do such and such things when the great bear or certain other stars, as it may be, are due north.

When they had made provision of bread for twenty days besides what they had on board, the admiral resolved to continue his voyage into Spain. But, considering that the island of Guadaloupe was an inlet to others, he thought fit to send all the women on shore, having first made them some gifts in compensation of the loss they had sustained; except the chief lady, who chose to go into Spain with her daughter along with the other Indians from Hispaniola. One of these was Cannabo, the chief cacique of that island in the late disturbances, who was himself a Carib and not a native of that island. Having furnished all the vessels with bread, wood, and water, the admiral set sail on Wednesday the twentieth of April from Guadaloupe, with the wind very scant, keeping near the latitude of twenty-two degrees north: as at this time they had not found out the method of running away north to meet the S.W. winds.

Having made but little way and the ships being full of people, they began by the twentieth of May to be much afflicted with scarcity of provisions, insomuch that they were reduced to an allowance of six ounces of bread and less than a pint of water for each person daily, and had no other article of provision besides. Though there were eight or nine pilots in the two ships, yet none of them knew whereabout they were, but the admiral was confident that they were then only a little west of the Azores, whereof he gives the following account in his journal.

"This morning the Dutch compasses varied as they used to do a whole point, while those of Genoa, which used to agree with them, varied but a very little, though afterwards sailing farther east they varied more, which is a sign that we were 100 leagues west of the Azores or somewhat more; for when we were just 100 leagues there were only a few scattered weeds to be seen, the Dutch needles varying a point while those of Genoa pointed due north; and when we got somewhat farther E.N.E. they altered again." This idea was verified on the twenty-second of May, when by exact reckoning the admiral found that he was 100 leagues to the west of the Azores. He was much astonished at this singular difference between the two kinds of compasses, which he was disposed to attribute to their having been made by different kinds of loadstones; for until they had arrived at that longitude they all varied a point from the true north, and some of them continued to do so even there, while those constructed at Genoa, now pointed due north, and the same remarkable discrepancy continued upon the twenty-fourth of May.

They thus continued their course, all the pilots going on with blind confidence, till on Wednseday the 8th of June they came in sight of Odemira, between Lisbon and Cape St Vincent; but the admiral, confident that they were near that cape, slackened sail the night before, though laughed at by many, some affirming that they were in the English channel, while those who erred least believed themselves on the coast of Galicia. The scarcity was now become so great that many objected to shortening sail, alleging that it were better to run the risk of perishing at once by running on shore than to starve miserably on the sea; and many, like the canibals, were for eating the Indians who where on board, or at least were for throwing them overboard, on purpose to make some small saving of the provisions which remained; and this would certainly have been done if the admiral had not exerted his whole authority to save them, as human creatures who ought not to be worse used than the rest. At length it pleased God to reward him with the sight of land in the morning, according to his promise the preceding evening; for which he was ever afterwards considered by the seamen as most expert and almost prophetical in maritime affairs.

Having landed in Spain the admiral went to Burgos, where he was very favourably received by their Catholic majesties, who were then at that place celebrating the marriage of their son Prince John with Margaret of Austria, daughter of the Emperor Maximilian. That princess was conducted into Spain with great splendour, and received by most of the nobility and by the greatest concourse of persons of quality that ever had been seen together in Spain. But though I was present on the occasion as page to prince John, I shall not enter into the particulars of this solemnity, since it does not belong to the history I have undertaken to write, and because the royal historiographers will have doubtless taken care to record this event.

On his arrival at Burgos, the admiral presented their majesties, with many curious specimens of the productions of the Indies, as birds, beasts, trees, plants, instruments, and other things used by the Indians in their employments and amusements; also girdles, and masks, having ears and eyes made of gold plates; likewise with much gold dust, small and gross as produced by nature, some of the grains as big as vetches, some like beans, and others as large as pigeons eggs. These latter, then so much admired, were not afterwards so much valued, as in progress of time lumps of gold have been found which weighed above thirty pounds; but they were then held in high estimation in prospect of great future hopes, and were received in good part by their majesties. When the admiral had given them an account of all that seemed to him necessary for improving and peopling the Indies, he was very desirous to return thither with all speed, lest some disaster might happen during his absence, considering that he had left the colony in great want of necessaries; and though he strongly solicited and pressed the necessity of speedy succours, such was the tediousness and delay of business in that court, that ten or twelve months elapsed before he could procure the equipment of two ships, which were sent out in February 1498, under the command of Pedro Fernandez Coronel.

The admiral remained at court to solicit the appointment of such a fleet as he considered to be necessary for his return to the Indies. But he was forced to remain above a year at Burgos and Medina del Campo, where in the year 1497 their majesties granted him many favours, and gave the necessary orders for expediting his affairs, and for the settlement and government of the Indies. These I here mention to shew that their Catholic majesties were, still ready to acknowledge and reward his services and merit; though they afterwards altered greatly in this respect, through the false information and scandalous insinuations of malicious and envious persons, so as to permit gross wrongs to be done him, as will afterwards appear.