He sailed along the coast until evening, when he saw yet another island in the distance to the south-west; and he therefore lay-to for the night.

At dawn the next morning he landed on the island and took formal possession of it, naming it Santa Maria de la Concepcion, which is the Rum Cay of the modern charts.

As the wind chopped round and he found himself on a lee-shore he did not stay there, but sailed again before night.

Two of the unhappy prisoners from Guanahani at this point made good their escape by swimming to a large canoe which one of the natives of the new island had rowed out--a circumstance which worried Columbus not a little; since he feared it would give him a bad name with the natives.
He tried to counteract it by loading with presents another native who came to barter balls of cotton, and sending him away again.
The effect of all that he was seeing, of the bridge of islands that seemed to be stretching towards the south-west and leading him to the region of untold wealth, was evidently very stimulating and exciting to Columbus.

His Journal is almost incoherent where he attempts to set down all he has got to say.