Columbus calls this harbor the best in his 23 years at sea

… that is to say, that all the praises he has spoken of the past harbors are true, and that this one being much better than all is likewise true. He says further in this manner: “I have gone 23 years at sea, without leaving it for any time worth counting, and I saw all the Levant and the Ponent, which he says means going by the way of the North, which is England, and I have gone to Guinea, but in all these parts the perfection of the harbors will not be found… (A line and a half left blank in the original.) found always the better than the other, for I with good care watched my writing, and I say again that I affirm that I have written well, and that now this one is above all, and all the ships of the world would fit in it; and so enclosed that the oldest rope of the ship would hold her moored.” From the entrance to the head there will be five leagues. He saw some lands much tilled, although all are so, and he ordered two men out of the boats to go to a height to see whether there was a village, because from the sea none could be seen; …