Within sight of those mountains we found ourselves at the end or tip of an islet situated off the center of the range and about three miles distant from it. We anchored and all went ashore on this islet, which we called Isla de los Sacrificios. It is small, measuring some six miles around. We found several buildings of lime and sand which were very large, and a section of a building of this same material constructed like an old arch that is found in Mérida; also some buildings whose bases were the height of two men, and ten feet wide and very long. Another building made like a tower was fifteen paces wide, and round, and on top was a base of marble like those of Castile, with an animal like a lion on it, also made of marble, and it had a hole in the head in which they put the perfumes. This lion had its tongue hanging out of its mouth, and near it was a stone basin with dried blood that must have been a week old. There were two posts the height of a man, between which were some articles of clothing embroidered like the Moorish silks called almaizares. On the other side was an idol with a plumed head, its face turned to the aforementioned stone, and behind this idol was a pile of large stones. Also between the posts, near the idol, were two dead Indians of tender age wrapped in a painted mantle, and behind the clothing lay another two Indians who seemed to have been dead about three days. The first two had been dead some twenty days. Near these dead Indians and the idol were many skulls and bones, and many pine fagots, and some wide stones on which these Indians were killed. And there was also a fig tree and another called zuara, which bears fruit.

. . .

the animals

There are many different kinds of animals, such as lions, tigers and wolves; and also jackals, some of which are between a fox and a dog, and others between a lion and a wolf. The tigers are about the same size or perhaps a little larger than the lions, but they are heavier and stronger, and more fierce. Their bodies are covered with white spots. While they do no harm to the Spaniards, they do not fawn on the natives but are more likely to eat them.