The Life of Columbus: From His Own Letters and Journals and Other Documents of His TimeHale, Edward Everett
History
The Life of Columbus: From His Own Letters and Journals and Other Documents of His Time
Hale, Edward Everett
Columbus, Christopher, 1451-1506
He did so. Bobadilla and his fleet put to sea. In ten days a West India
hurricane struck them. The ship on which Columbus’s enemies, Bobadilla
and Roldan, sailed, was sunk with them and the gold accumulated for
years. Of the whole fleet, only one vessel, called the weakest of all,
reached Spain. This ship carried four thousand pieces of gold, which
were the property of the Admiral. Columbus’s own little squadron,
meanwhile--thanks probably to the seamanship of himself and his
brother--weathered the storm, and he found refuge in the harbor which
he had himself named “the beautiful,” El Hermoso, in the western part of
San Domingo.
Another storm delayed him at a port which he called Port Brasil. The
word Brasil was the name which the Spaniards gave to the red log-wood,
so valuable in dyeing, and various places received that name, where this
wood was found. The name is derived from “Brasas,”--coals,--in allusion,
probably, to the bright red color of the dye.
Sailing from this place, on Saturday, the sixteenth of June, they made
sight of the island of Jamaica, but he pressed on without making any
examination of the country, for four days sailing west and south-west.
He then changed his course, and sailed for two days to the northwest and
again two days to the north.
On Sunday, the twenty fourth of July, they saw land. This was the key
now known as Cuyago, and they were at last close upon the mainland.
After exploring this island they sailed again on Wednesday, the
twenty-seventh, southwest and quarter southwest about ninety miles, and
again they saw land, which is supposed to be the island of Guanaja or
Bonacca, near the coast of Honduras.
The Indians on this island had some gold and some pearls. They had seen
whites before. Columbus calls them men of good stature. Sailing from
this island, he struck the mainland near Truxillo, about ten leagues
from the island of Guanaja. He soon found the harbor, which we still
know as the harbor of Truxillo, and from this point Columbus began a
careful investigation of the coast.
He observed, what all navigators have since observed, the lack of
harbors. He passed along as far as the river now known as the Tinto,
where he took possession in the name of the sovereigns, calling this
river the River of Possession. He found the natives savage, and the
country of little account for his purposes. Still passing southward, he
passed what we call the Mosquito Coast, to which he found the natives
gave the name of Cariay.
These people were well disposed and willing to treat with them. They
had some cotton, they had some gold. They wore very little clothing,
and they painted their bodies, as most of the natives of the islands had
done. He saw what he thought to be pigs and large mountain cats.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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