The first thing, therefore, that he tried to find out from the people of the island--whom he called "Indians," because he thought he had come to a part of the coast of India was where Cathay might be.
Of course they did not understand him.

Even Louis, the interpreter, who knew a dozen languages and who tried them all, could not make out what these "Indians" said.

But from their signs and actions and from the sound of the words they spoke, Columbus understood that Cathay was off somewhere to the southwest, and that the gold he was bound to find came from there.

The "Indians" had little bits of gold hanging in their ears and noses.

So Columbus supposed that among the finer people he hoped soon to meet in the southwest, he should find great quantities of the yellow metal.