And now he had his opportunity.

Having commissioned his brother Diego and Margarita and appointed also a council of four other gentlemen, he sailed to explore new coasts, on the twenty-fourth of April.
He was soon tempted from his western course that he might examine Jamaica, of which he saw the distant lines on the south.

"This island," says the account of the time, "is larger than Sicily.

It has only one mountain, which rises from the coast on every side, little by little, until you come to the middle of the island and the ascent is so gradual that, whether you rise or descend, you hardly know whether you are rising or descending." Columbus found the island well peopled, and from what he saw of the natives, thought them more ingenious, and better artificers, than any Indians he had seen before.

But when he proposed to land, they generally showed themselves prepared to resist him.