"To these Indians," says the Admiral, "as soon as they were here, I gave hawks' bells and beads and sugar, and sent them to land, where there was a great battle among them, and after they knew the good treatment, all wished to come to the ships. Those who had canoes came and they were many, and to all we gave a good welcome and held friendly conversation with them, giving them the things which pleased them." The Admiral asked them questions and they replied, but they did not understand each other. They brought them bread and water and some beverage like new wine; they are very much adorned with bows and arrows and wooden shields, and they almost all carry arrows poisoned.
Tuesday, August 7, there came an infinite number of Indians by land and by sea and all brought with them bread and maize and things to eat and pitchers of beverages, some white, like milk, tasting like wine, some green, and some of different colors; he believes that all are made from fruits. Most or all of it is made from maize but as the maize itself is white or violet and reddish, it causes the wine to be of different colors. I do not know of what the green wine is made. They all brought their bows and poisoned arrows, very pointed;[343-1] they gave nothing for beads, but would give as much as they had for hawks' bells, and asked nothing else. They gave a great deal for brass. It is certain that they hold this in high estimation and they gave in this Española for a little brass as much gold as any one would ask, and I believe that in the beginning it was always thus in all these Indies. They called it _turey_ as if it came from Heaven because they called Heaven _hureyo_.[343-2] They find in it I do not know what odor, but one which is agreeable to them. Here the Admiral says whatever they gave them from Castile they smelled it as soon as it was given them. They brought parrots of two or three kinds, especially the very large ones like those in the island of Guadeloupe, he says, with the large tail. They brought handkerchiefs of cotton very symmetrically woven and worked in colors like those brought from Guinea, from the rivers of the Sierra Leona and of no difference, and he says that they cannot communicate with the latter, because from where he now is to Guinea the distance is more than 800 leagues; below he says that these handkerchiefs resemble _almayzars_.[343-3] He desired, he says, to take a half-dozen Indians, in order to carry them with him, and says that he could not take them because they all went away from the ships before nightfall.