A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 02: Arranged in Systematic Order: Forming a Complete History of the Origin and Progress of Navigation, Discovery, and Commerce, by Sea and Land, from the Earliest Ages to the Present TimeKerr, Robert
History
A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 02: Arranged in Systematic Order: Forming a Complete History of the Origin and Progress of Navigation, Discovery, and Commerce, by Sea and Land, from the Earliest Ages to the Present Time
Kerr, Robert
Voyages and travels
In the same year 1502, Alfonso Hojeda went to discover the Terra Firma,
and followed its coast till he came to the province of Uraba I7. In 1503,
Roderigo Bastidas of Seville went with two caravels at his own cost, to
the Antilles, where he first came to the Isla Verde, or the Green island,
close by Guadaloupe; whence he sailed westwards to Santa Martha and Cape
do la Vela, and to the Rio Grande or Great river. He afterwards
discovered the haven of Zamba, the Coradas, Carthagena, the islands of S.
Bernard de Baru, the Islas de Arenas, Isla Fuerta, and the Point of
Caribana, at the end of the Gulf of Uraba, where he had sight of the
Farrallones, close by the river of Darien. From Cape de la Vela to this
last place, which is in lat. 9° 40' N. is 200 leagues. From thence he
stood over to Jamaica for refreshments. In Hispaniola he had to lay his
ships on the ground to repair their bottoms, because a certain species of
worms had eaten many holes in the planks. In this voyage Bastidas
procured _four hundred marks_[18] of gold; though the people were very
warlike, and used poisoned arrows.
In the same year 1502, Columbus entered upon his fourth voyage of
discovery, with four ships, taking with him his son Don Ferdinando. The
particular object of this voyage, by command of King Ferdinand, was to look
out for the strait which was supposed to penetrate across the continent
of the new world, and by which a route to India by the west was expected
to be discovered. He sailed by Hispaniola and Jamaica to the river Azua,
Cape Higueras, the Gamares islands, and to Cape Honduras, which signifies
the Cape of the Depths. From thence he sailed eastwards to Cape Garcias a
Dios, and discovered the province and river of Veragua, the Rio Grande,
and others, which the Indians call Hienra. Thence to the river of
Crocodiles, now called Rio de Chagres, which rises near the South Sea,
within four leagues of Panama, and runs into the Caribbean Sea. He went
next to the Isle of Bastimentos, or of Provisions, and after that to
Porto Bello; thence to Nombre de Dios and Rio Francisco, and the harbour
of Retreat. Then to the Gulf of Cabesa Cattiva, the islands of Caperosa
and Cape Marmora; having discovered two hundred leagues along the coast.
He thence returned to the island of Cuba, and from that to Jamaica, where
he laid his ships aground, on account of their bottoms being much eaten
by the worms.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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