October ran into November and November into December, and the Admiral
was still finding islands. He had come, on October 21, to such a far-
reaching coast that he agreed with Martin Pinzon that it must be the
mainland, or Cathay, and started eagerly to follow it west. But the
natives near the shore were timid and fled at the approach of the
strangers. No splendid cities of marble palaces, nor even any mean
little villages of huts, were in sight; so two of the sailors were sent
inland to explore and find the capital of the country. After three days
the explorers returned and reported that all they had seen were many,
many naked savages who dwelt in tiny huts of wood and straw, and who had
the curious custom of rolling up a large dry leaf called tobago,
lighting it at one end, and drawing the smoke up through their nostrils.
Obviously, another "poor people" like those of San Salvador; they were
not the rich and civilized Chinese that Marco Polo had written about.
Neither capital nor king had they, and their land, they told the
explorers, was surrounded by water. They called it Colba. It was, in
fact, the modern Cuba which Columbus had discovered.
Instead of continuing west along Cuba's northern shore till he came to
the end of it, the Admiral preferred to turn east and see what lay in
that direction.
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