The Santa María and Niña entered a Cuban harbor to explore and, ashore, the locals shouted, raised their spears, and gestured that the visitors should depart. Columbus dispatched armed sailors to try to establish relations but the locals fled.
That night, Columbus recorded in the Journal that the Cuban rivers—unlike in Africa—were safe to drink and that, thanks to the Lord, none of his crews had become sick on the entire voyage except for one preexisting condition. He promised Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand that Cuba would hold infinite things of great profit and that they would have cities built for traffic with all of Christendom, convert the natives to the Faith, and restrict admission to the territory to Christians.