Columbus raises a great cross at the harbor entrance for the Sovereigns

He did not leave this day, for the same cause of the contrary wind already stated. He set up a great cross at the entrance of the harbor, on the west side, on a very conspicuous height, as a sign (he says) that Your Highnesses hold the land as your own, and chiefly as a sign of Jesus Christ our Lord, and in honor of Christendom; and when it was set up, three sailors went into the woods to see the trees and grass, and they heard a great crowd of people, all naked like those before, whom they called and went after, but the Indians took to flight. And finally they took a woman, for they could take no more, because I (he says) had ordered them to take some in order to honor them and make them lose their fear, and to learn if there was anything of profit, as it seems it can be nothing else, given the beauty of the land; and so they brought the woman, very young and beautiful, to the ship, and she spoke with those Indians, because they all had one language. …