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In a subsequent letter to the sovereigns, he informs them that all the Indians of this coast concurred in extolling the magnificence of the country of Ciguare, situated at ten days' journey, by land, to the west. The people of that region wore crowns, and bracelets, and anklets of gold, and garments embroidered with it.
He understood from the Indians that there was a magnificent country called Ciguare, situated at about ten days' journey to the west, where the people wore crowns and bracelets and necklets of gold, and used it for all domestic purposes; that they were armed like the Spaniards, with swords, bucklers, and cuirasses.
They described it as a country of commerce, with great fairs and sea-ports, in which ships arrived armed with cannon. The people were warlike also, armed like the Spaniards with swords, bucklers, cuirasses, and cross-bows, and they were mounted on horses. Above all, Columbus understood from them that the sea continued round to Ciguare, and that ten days beyond it was the Ganges.
They used it for all their domestic purposes, even to the ornamenting and embossing of their seats and tables. On being shown coral, the Indians declared that the women of Ciguare wore bands of it about their heads and necks. Pepper and other spices being shown them, were equally said to abound there.
He also fancied they said that the sea continued round to Ciguare, and that ten days beyond it was the Ganges. Probably they were describing Mexico or Peru. The country was everywhere beautiful and fertile in the extreme. On the 2nd of November the squadron anchored in a commodious harbour, to which Columbus gave the name of Puerto Bello, which it still retains.
He supposed that Ciguare must be some province belonging to the Grand Khan, or some other Eastern potentate, and as the sea reached it, he concluded it was on the opposite side of a peninsula: bearing the same position with respect to Veragua that Fontarabia does with Tortosa in Spain, or Pisa with Venice in Italy.
By proceeding farther eastward, therefore, he must soon arrive at a strait, like that of Gibraltar, through which he could pass into another sea, and visit this country of Ciguare, and, of course, arrive at the banks of the Ganges.
Columbus now believed himself to be arrived near the mouth of the Ganges, and from the natives speaking of a certain province of Ciguare, which was surrounded by the sea, he felt himself confirmed in this opinion. They declared that it was a country containing rich gold-mines, of which the most important was situated seventy-five miles to the south.
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