Taken from The Log of Columbus (Part 1)
Friday, 21 December 1492
Today I went with the ships’ boats to see this harbor, which surpasses any other harbor* I have seen before. I have praised the others so much that I do not know how to rate this one highly enough. I fear that I will be accused of stretching the truth to an excessive degree when I say that this is the finest harbor I have encountered in these islands. Still, there are experienced men with me who will confirm that everything I have said about the other harbors is true, but that this is much finer than any of the others.
I have been sailing the seas for 23 years, without laying off for any time long enough to be counted, and I have seen all the East and West (as it is called in going to the north, which is England), and I have traveled through Guinea, but in all those regions harbors as perfect as these will never be found. And it has been the case that each harbor I have come to has been better than the last one. I have considered what I have written very carefully, and I assert I have written correctly and that now this harbor surpasses all the others. All the ships of the world could be contained in it, it is so sheltered that the oldest line on the ship would hold it fast.
It is 4 ½ miles from the entrance to the innermost point. I saw well-cultivated fields, although they are all like that. I ordered two men to get out of the boats and go climb a hill to see if there was a village since none could be seen from the sea. I know that the area is inhabited with many people because of the extensive fields; moreover, last night, about 10 o’clock, some Indians came to the ship in a canoe to see us, believing that we are supernatural. I gave them some of the articles of barter, with which they were greatly pleased.
*The harbor was Acul Bay. Columbus named the vast approach to the bay La Mar de Santo Tomas (The Sea of St. Thomas). The bay itself was named the Puerto de la Mar de Santo Tomas (Port of the Sea of St. Thomas).
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