Columbus hears Ayiti has much gold and judges it larger than England

He could not set out with the ships for the land of that lord who had sent to beg and invite him, for lack of wind; but he sent the boats with people, and the notary, with the three messengers who were waiting there. While those men were going, he sent two of the Indians he had with him to the villages that lay near there, close to where the ships were, and they came back to the ship with a lord, with news that on that island Española there was a great quantity of gold, and that people came to it to buy it from other parts, and they told him that there he would find all he wished. Others came who confirmed that there was much gold on it, and showed him the way they had of gathering it. All this the Admiral understood with difficulty; but still he held it certain that in those parts there was a very great quantity of it, and that, finding the place where it is taken out, there will be great cheapness of it, and, as he imagined, for nothing at all. …