File:The storied West Indies (1900) (14793876923).jpg

Identifier: storiedwestindie00ober (find matches)
Title: The storied West Indies
Year: 1900 (1900s)
Authors: Ober, Frederick A. (Frederick Albion), 1849-1913
Subjects:
Publisher: New York, D. Appleton and company
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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h coastof Haiti. I was then on board ship, passing throughthe canal, or narrow passage, between Haiti andthe smaller island of Tortuga. The water was assmooth as glass, and between Tortuga and the mainisland numerous boats and canoes were passing, eachlittle craft bearing a black cultivator of the soil to orfrom his garden, and laden with fruits and vege-tables, or else containing a sable fisherman with theprimitive implements of his humble calling. On theone hand lay the gray crags of Tortuga, the TurtleIsland, so named by Columbus, and years after hehad discovered it the haunt of bloodthirsty buccaneers;on the other the hill-tossed island of Haiti, its moun-tains blue-tipped with distant haze, while near athand lay smiling valleys, abloom with many a flower.It was a scene of peace and plenty, of picturesquecontentment: such, according to my fancy, as greeted 34 THE STORIED WEST INDIES the eyes of the Admiral after he had crossed theWindward Passage, in December, 1492, and drew * TOT
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near this same island of Haiti, or Hispaniola. Hehad been told by the natives of Cuba that Bohio, or THE SEARCH FOR CIPAXGO 35 Babeque, tlie Land of Gold, lay east and southward;and there is every reason for believing that Haitiwas the land they meant. The name by which itis at present known is aboriginal, Ai-ti, the High-land, one portion of which was also called by thenatives Quisqueya, or Mother of the Earth, and isnow known as Santo Domingo. The first port in Bohio, or Babeqne. that Colum-bus entered he called San Xicolas. and he found itsafe, capacious, and deep, encompassed with thickwoods, the land hilly: a pleasant river ran into theharbor, and on the shore there were many canoes aslarge as a brigantine of twenty-five oars. Pish wereabundant in the bay and birds of sweetest song dis-ported in the trees on shore, while the air was balmyand the weather delightful. He did not make a longstay in this noble harbor, but sent the little Xina,smallest caravel of the fleet, ahead to ma

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