He therefore deferred a full examination of the island to his return, and, with the first favorable wind, pressed on toward the southern coast of Cuba.

He insisted on calling this the "Golden Chersonesus" of the East.
This name had been given by the old geographers to the peninsula now known as Malacca.
Crossing the narrow channel between Jamaica and Cuba, he began coasting that island westward.

If the reader will examine the map, he will find many small keys and islands south of Cuba, which, before any survey had been made, seriously retarded his westward course.

In every case he was obliged to make a separate examination to be sure where the real coast of the island was, all the time believing it was the continent of Asia.
One of the narratives says, with a pardonable exaggeration, that in all this voyage he thus discovered seven hundred islands.

His own estimate was that he sailed two hundred and twenty-two leagues westward in the exploration which now engaged him.
The month of May and the beginning of June were occupied with such explorations.