 
In pursuance of his plan Columbus sailed from the coast of Honduras to the eastward, hoping to find the straits which the natives assured him were in that direction. On their eastern journey along the coast they saw men who were very different from those they had met before and at the same time more uncivilized. They went entirely naked, ate raw meat and fish, and their ears were distended even to their shoulders by the many things they wore in them. They were tattooed with pictures of deer, lions, and other animals all over their bodies. The most important of the natives were distinguished from the others by white and red head coverings of woollen stuff. Some were black, others red, and still others painted their lips, nostrils, and eyes with stripes of various colors. From there he sailed farther on, making, however, but a short distance each day as the wind was almost continually contrary and he was greatly troubled by the currents. At last he reached a cape, stretching toward the south, and there the wind was so favorable that he coasted along without difficulty. Columbus, who never was lacking in gratitude toward the only Source of all good, named this cape Gracias Á Dios, or “Thanks to God.” In one place where they lay at anchor for several days they encountered boats filled with armed savages who looked as if they intended to prevent them from making a landing. As soon as they were convinced, however, of the friendly intentions of the Spaniards, they approached with the utmost confidence and offered to sell their weapons of various kinds, crossbows, canes of a black hardwood—tipped with fish bone,—clubs, waistcoats of wool, and little pieces of pale gold which they wore on their necks. The Admiral presented them with various European playthings without taking anything for them. This seemed to dissatisfy them and when the Spaniards also declined their repeated invitation to go ashore they regarded it as a sign of mistrust. For this reason they shortly sent an old man of distinguished appearance, accompanied by two young maidens wearing gold necklaces, as ambassadors to the Spaniards. The old man appeared with a banner in his hand, which doubtless was a flag of truce, and desired to be conducted to the Admiral. Columbus received them courteously, provided them with food and clothing, and sent them back to shore delighted with their friendly treatment. On the next day Columbus’ brother went ashore and saw all the presents which had been given to the natives lying in a heap, probably because it was not their custom to accept gifts without making gifts in return. As he landed, two of the foremost natives took him by the arms and requested him to sit between them on the grass. He did as they wished, asked them various questions with the help of an interpreter, and ordered his secretary to take down their answers in writing. Hardly had the savages noticed pen, paper, and ink before they sprang up excitedly and ran up to their fellows who were looking on near by. The poor superstitious people fancied that the secretary was a magician, that the writing materials were the instruments of his magic, and that he would do them harm. Every effort was made to convince them of their folly but they would not venture to come near the Spaniards until they had averted the danger in their peculiar way, which was as follows: They threw a kind of powder at them which gave out a smoke, and this smoke, which they probably believed had the power of averting magic, they managed so that it should touch the one whom they regarded as the master magician. Immediately after this Bartolomeo went with them to their village. The most remarkable thing he saw was a large wooden structure which served as a burial-place. He found several corpses in it wrapped in woollen cloths, one of which was embalmed. Upon each one of the graves there was a board upon which were figures of animals. Upon some there were likenesses of the deceased, ornamented in various ways. On the next day the Admiral detained several natives on board in order to obtain further information from them, which led the others to believe that he intended to keep them until they were ransomed. Accordingly they sent messengers to him with two young wild hogs as a ransom for the prisoners. The Admiral sought to make them understand their comrades were not prisoners and that a ransom was not necessary. He bought the hogs from them, whereupon they returned contented. After another cruise of several days the Admiral reached the mouth of a stream, came to anchor, and sent a boat’s crew ashore, but a multitude of armed natives resisted their landing. Over a hundred sprang waist deep into the water, threateningly brandished their lances, blew horns, beat a kind of drum, dashed water at the Spaniards, and spit at them as a sign of their contempt and aversion. The Spaniards had orders to maintain a friendly attitude toward them. They made no reply to the hostile actions of the natives but contented themselves with watching the spectacle at a safe distance until the leaders were weary of their useless operations, when, in place of a battle, communication was opened up with them, and an exchange of several little trifles was made for sixteen plates of gold, valued at one hundred and fifty ducats. On the next day the natives changed their views of the peaceful attitude of the Spaniards toward them. They attributed it to cowardice and even went so far with their audacity as to hurl their spears at the approaching boats. Finding it necessary to give them a lesson they could understand, a cannon was fired and at the same time one of the savages was wounded by an arrow, which created a panic among them. The Spaniards availed themselves of the opportunity to land without inflicting further injury upon the fugitives. They made signals to them in the hope of inducing them to return. As the natives were now convinced that the white strangers would not harm them, they came back, laid down their arms, and exchanged their gold quietly and peacefully. After learning the nature of the region and its products the Admiral continued his course along the coast, still hoping to find the straits. On this voyage he at last came to a gulf with a spacious and secure harbor. The natives there had built an apparently large town, which was densely populated and surrounded by well-cultivated land. Columbus named this place Porto Bello on account of its beautiful harbor. The natives were universally friendly and brought fine-spun cloths, besides all kinds of food, which they gladly exchanged for nails, needles, and bells, and other similar trifles. From there Columbus sailed eight miles farther to that region where now is the city of Nombre de Dios. As the stormy weather compelled him to remain there several days he spent the time in repairing his vessels, which had now become badly damaged. After this he resumed his voyage but bad weather forced him to run into a little harbor which he named the “Refuge.” The natives there were also very friendly at first but the insulting behavior of a sailor provoked them to hostility. Confiding in their numbers, they made a concerted attack and attempted to board the vessels. The Admiral tried to induce them to abandon their purpose but, as his good offices were of no avail, he had a cannon fired in hopes that its mere noise would intimidate them. He was mistaken, however. When the natives saw that no damage was done, they became even bolder and replied to the cannon with shouts of derision. Seeing that it was necessary to make some impression upon them and show them what the cannon could do, he had a large one heavily loaded and aimed at a hill where a multitude of the natives were collected. The ball flew through the crowd. They saw to their dismay that the thunder could also hit and they fled in consternation into the woods. These natives were the handsomest he had yet seen. They were slim, had well-shaped limbs, and none of them the protruding paunches which were common among the savages. The harbor was filled with large alligators which used to come down to the shore to sleep. These animals gave out an aroma which filled the air. Although they seemed to be timid, they would strive, when attacked, to seize and devour their assailant. At last Columbus began to despair of finding the passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. As he was also threatened by furious storm winds he decided to turn back, and sailed to a spot which he called Veragua and in which, according to the natives, there were rich gold mines. A terrible storm, which lasted several days, and the rapid diminishing of his supplies made this short voyage one of his most troublesome and dangerous. The entire supply of food which remained, after being at sea eight months, consisted of some poor remnants of ship biscuit which had become so tainted by the hot, damp weather of the region that it was unfit to eat. Notwithstanding this, the disgusting stuff was eagerly devoured, but those eating it would go off into dark corners so as not to see what they were putting into their mouths. In this wretched plight they looked askance at the great number of sharks swimming around the vessels. The superstitious followers of Columbus regarded these monsters as signs of misfortune. But in spite of their superstitious fears and in spite of the disgust which Europeans have for such oily flesh, these famished people devoured shark meat with still greater zest because it tasted better than maggoty biscuit. |
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