Guacanagarí’s noblemen offered to guide the Santa María and Niña to his village. But the wind was too weak to sail, and Columbus dispatched an embassy in the ship’s launch led by the expedition’s royal secretary to accompany the noblemen back to meet Guacanagarí.
Countless of Guacanagarí’s subjects visited the Santa María and Niña during the day. Perhaps more than a thousand came by canoe, over five hundred simply swam, and five local chieftains brought their households, wives, and children. They swarmed over the ships’ decks, sharing food and water freely and bearing cotton skeins and parrots as gifts. They also brought substantial gold jewelry and pieces of unworked gold.
Guacanagarí received and honored the embassy with a banquet, gifts, and other courtesies due noblemen.
That night, the embassy returned in the moonlight to report to Columbus that Guacanagarí’s village was the largest they had yet seen—with thousands of inhabitants, many streets, and a central plaza cleanly swept—and that Guacanagarí was a great lord.