Columbus says he saw three sirens rise from the sea

… These lands from Monte-Cristi to where he anchored are high, level lands and very lovely open country, and behind them very beautiful mountains that run from east to west, and they are all cultivated and green, so that it is a marvel to see their beauty, and they have many streams of water. In all this land there are many turtles, of which the sailors took some at Monte-Cristi that came ashore to lay their eggs, and they were very large, like a great buckler. The day before, when the Admiral was going to the Río del Oro, he said that he saw three sirens that rose well up out of the sea, but they were not as beautiful as they are painted, for in some fashion they had the form of a man in the face. He said that at other times he saw some in Guinea, on the coast of the Manegueta. He says that this night, in the name of our Lord, he would set out on his voyage without delaying further for anything, since he had found what he was looking for, because he wants no more trouble with that Martín Alonso until Their Highnesses should know the news of his voyage and of what he has done: …