The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus (Vol. II)

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He had intended to visit other rivers along this coast, but the wind
coming on to blow freshly, he ran before it, passing in sight of five
towns, where his interpreters assured him he might procure great
quantities of gold. One they pointed out as Veragua, which has since given
its name to the whole province. Here, they said, were the richest mines,
and here most of the plates of gold were fabricated. On the following day,
they arrived opposite a village called Cubiga, and here Columbus was
informed that the country of gold terminated. [146] He resolved not to
return to explore it, considering it as discovered, and its mines secured
to the crown, and being anxious to arrive at the supposed strait, which
he flattered himself could be at no great distance.

In fact, during his whole voyage along the coast, he had been under the
influence of one of his frequent delusions. From the Indians met with at
the island of Guanaja, just arrived from Yucatan, he had received accounts
of some great, and, as far as he could understand, civilized nation in the
interior. This intimation had been corroborated, as he imagined, by the
various tribes with which he had since communicated. In a subsequent
letter to the sovereigns, he informs them that all the Indians of this
coast concurred in extolling the magnificence of the country of Ciguare,
situated at ten days' journey, by land, to the west. The people of that
region wore crowns, and bracelets, and anklets of gold, and garments
embroidered with it. They used it for all their domestic purposes, even to
the ornamenting and embossing of their seats and tables. On being shown
coral, the Indians declared that the women of Ciguare wore bands of it
about their heads and necks. Pepper and other spices being shown them,
were equally said to abound there. They described it as a country of
commerce, with great fairs and sea-ports, in which ships arrived armed
with cannon. The people were warlike also, armed like the Spaniards with
swords, bucklers, cuirasses, and cross-bows, and they were mounted on
horses. Above all, Columbus understood from them that the sea continued
round to Ciguare, and that ten days beyond it was the Ganges.

These may have been vague and wandering rumors concerning the distant
kingdoms of Mexico and Peru, and many of the details may have been filled
up by the imagination of Columbus. They made, however, a strong impression
on his mind. He supposed that Ciguare must be some province belonging to
the Grand Khan, or some other Eastern potentate, and as the sea reached
it, he concluded it was on the opposite side of a peninsula: bearing the
same position with respect to Veragua that Fontarabia does with Tortosa in
Spain, or Pisa with Venice in Italy. By proceeding farther eastward,
therefore, he must soon arrive at a strait, like that of Gibraltar,
through which he could pass into another sea, and visit this country of
Ciguare, and, of course, arrive at the banks of the Ganges. He accounted
for the circumstance of his having arrived so near to that river, by the
idea which he had long entertained, that geographers were mistaken as to
the circumference of the globe; that it was smaller than was generally
imagined, and that a degree of the equinoctial line was but fifty-six
miles and two-thirds. [147]

With these ideas Columbus determined to press forward, leaving the rich
country of Veragua unexplored. Nothing could evince more clearly his
generous ambition, than hurrying in this brief manner along a coast where
wealth was to be gathered at every step, for the purpose of seeking a
strait which, however it might produce vast benefit to mankind, could
yield little else to himself than the glory of the discovery.

Chapter V.

Discovery of Puerto Bello and El Retrete.--Columbus Abandons the Search
after the Strait.

[1502.]

On the 2d of November, the squadron anchored in a spacious and commodious
harbor, where the vessels could approach close to the shore without
danger. It was surrounded by an elevated country; open and cultivated,
with houses within bow-shot of each other, surrounded by fruit-trees,
groves of palms, and fields producing maize, vegetables, and the delicious
pine-apple, so that the whole neighborhood had the mingled appearance of
orchard and garden. Columbus was so pleased with the excellence of the
harbor, and the sweetness of the surrounding country, that he gave it the
name of Puerto Bello. [148] It is one of the few places along this coast
which retain the appellation given by the illustrious discoverer. It is to
be regretted that they have so generally been discontinued, as they were
so often records of his feelings, and of circumstances attending the
discovery.

For seven days they were detained in this port by heavy rain and stormy
weather. The natives repaired from all quarters in canoes, bringing fruits
and vegetables and balls of cotton, but there was no longer gold offered
in traffic. The cacique, and seven of his principal chieftains, had small
plates of gold hanging in their noses, but the rest of the natives appear
to have been destitute of all ornaments of the kind. They were generally
naked and painted red; the cacique alone was painted black. [149]

Sailing hence on the 9th of November, they proceeded eight leagues to the
eastward, to the point since known as Nombre de Dios; but being driven
back for some distance, they anchored in a harbor in the vicinity of three
small islands. These, with the adjacent country of the main-land, were
cultivated with fields of Indian corn, and various fruits and vegetables,
whence Columbus called the harbor Puerto de Bastimentos, or Port of
Provisions. Here they remained until the 23d, endeavoring to repair their
vessels, which leaked excessively. They were pierced in all parts by the
teredo or worm which abounds in the tropical seas. It is of the size of a
man's finger, and bores through the stoutest planks and timbers, so as
soon to destroy any vessel that is not well coppered. After leaving this
port, they touched at another called Guiga, where above three hundred of
the natives appeared on the shore, some with provisions, and some with
golden ornaments, which they offered in barter. Without making any stay,
however, the admiral urged his way forward; but rough and adverse winds
again obliged him to take shelter in a small port, with a narrow entrance,
not above twenty paces wide, beset on each side with reefs of rocks, the
sharp points of which rose above the surface. Within, there was not room
for more than five or six ships; yet the port was so deep, that they had
no good anchorage, unless they approached near enough to the land for a
man to leap on shore.

From the smallness of the harbor, Columbus gave it the name of _El
Retrete_, or The Cabinet. He had been betrayed into this inconvenient
and dangerous port by the misrepresentations of the seamen sent to examine
it, who were always eager to come to anchor, and have communication with
the shore. [150]

The adjacent country was level and verdant, covered with herbage, but with
few trees. The port was infested with alligators, which basked in the
sunshine on the beach, filling the air with a powerful and musky odor.
They were timorous, and fled on being attacked, but the Indians affirmed
that if they found a man sleeping on shore they would seize and drag him
into the water. These alligators Columbus pronounced to be the same as the
crocodiles of the Nile. For nine days the squadron was detained in this
port, by tempestuous weather. The natives of this place were tall, well
proportioned, and graceful; of gentle and friendly manners, and brought
whatever they possessed to exchange for European trinkets.

As long as the admiral had control over the actions of his people, the
Indians were treated with justice and kindness, and every thing went on
amicably. The vicinity of the ships to land, however, enabled the seamen
to get on shore in the night without license. The natives received them in
their dwellings with their accustomed hospitality; but the rough
adventurers, instigated by avarice and lust, soon committed excesses that
roused their generous hosts to revenge. Every night there were brawls and
fights on shore, and blood was shed on both sides. The number of the
Indians daily augmented by arrivals from the interior. They became more
powerful and daring as they became more exasperated; and seeing that the
vessels lay close to the shore, approached in a great multitude to attack
them.

The admiral thought at first to disperse them by discharging cannon
without ball, but they were not intimidated by the sound, regarding it as
a kind of harmless thunder. They replied to it by yells and howlings,
beating their lances and clubs against the trees and bushes in furious
menace. The situation of the ships so close to the shore exposed them to
assaults, and made the hostility of the natives unusually formidable.
Columbus ordered a shot or two, therefore, to be discharged among them.
When they saw the havoc made, they fled in terror, and offered no further
hostility. [151]

The continuance of stormy winds from the east and the northeast, in
addition to the constant opposition of the currents, disheartened the
companions of Columbus, and they began to murmur against any further
prosecution of the voyage. The seamen thought that some hostile spell was
operating, and the commanders remonstrated against attempting to force
their way in spite of the elements, with ships crazed and worm-eaten, and
continually in need of repair. Few of his companions could sympathize with
Columbus in his zeal for mere discovery. They were actuated by more
gainful motives, and looked back with regret on the rich coast they had
left behind, to go in search of an imaginary strait. It is probable that
Columbus himself began to doubt the object of his enterprise. If he knew
the details of the recent voyage of Bastides, he must have been aware that
he had arrived from an opposite quarter to about the place where that
navigator's exploring voyage from the east had terminated; consequently
that there was but little probability of the existence of the strait he
had imagined. [152]

At all events, he determined to relinquish the further prosecution of his
voyage eastward for the present, and to return to the coast of Veragua, to
search for those mines of which he had heard so much, and seen so many
indications. Should they prove equal to his hopes, he would have
wherewithal to return to Spain in triumph, and silence the reproaches of
his enemies, even though he should fail in the leading object of his
expedition.

Here, then, ended the lofty anticipations which had elevated Columbus
above all mercenary interests; which had made him regardless of hardships
and perils, and given an heroic character to the early part of this
voyage. It is true, he had been in pursuit of a mere chimera, but it was
the chimera of a splendid imagination, and a penetrating judgment. If he
was disappointed in his expectation of finding a strait through the
Isthmus of Darien, it was because nature herself had been disappointed,
for she appears to have attempted to make one, but to have attempted it in
vain.

Chapter VI.

Return to Veragua.--The Adelantado Explores the Country.

[1502.]

On the 5th of December, Columbus sailed from El Retrete, and relinquishing
his course to the east, returned westward, in search of the gold mines of
Veragua. On the same evening he anchored in Puerto Bello, about ten
leagues distant; whence departing on the succeeding day, the wind suddenly
veered to the west, and began to blow directly adverse to the new course
he had adopted. For three months he had been longing in vain for such a
wind, and now it came merely to contradict him. Here was a temptation to
resume his route to the east, but he did not dare trust to the continuance
of the wind, which, in these parts, appeared but seldom to blow from that
quarter. He resolved, therefore, to keep on in the present direction,
trusting that the breeze would soon change again to the eastward.

In a little while the wind began to blow with dreadful violence, and to
shift about in such manner as to baffle all seamanship. Unable to reach
Veragua, the ships were obliged to put back to Puerto Bello, and when they
would have entered that harbor, a sudden veering of the gale drove them
from the land. For nine days they were blown and tossed about, at the
mercy of a furious tempest, in an unknown sea, and often exposed to the
awful perils of a lee-shore. It is wonderful that such open vessels, so
crazed and decayed, could outlive such a commotion of the elements.
Nowhere is a storm so awful as between the tropics. The sea, according to
the description of Columbus, boiled at times like a caldron; at other
times it ran in mountain waves, covered with foam. At night the raging
billows resembled great surges of flame, owing to those luminous particles
which cover the surface of the water in these seas, and throughout the
whole course of the Gulf Stream. For a day and night the heavens glowed as
a furnace with the incessant flashes of lightning; while the loud claps of
thunder were often mistaken by the affrighted mariners for signal guns of
distress from their foundering companions. During the whole time, says
Columbus, it poured down from the skies, not rain, but as it were a second
deluge. The seamen were almost drowned in their open vessels. Haggard with
toil and affright, some gave themselves over for lost; they confessed
their sins to each other according to the rites of the Catholic religion,
and prepared themselves for death; many, in their desperation, called upon
death as a welcome relief from such overwhelming horrors. In the midst of
this wild tumult of the elements, they beheld a new object of alarm. The
ocean in one place became strangely agitated. The water was whirled up
into a kind of pyramid or cone, while a livid cloud, tapering to a point,
bent down to meet it. Joining together, they formed a vast column, which
rapidly approached the ships, spinning along the surface of the deep, and
drawing up the waters with a rushing sound. The affrighted mariners, when
they beheld this water-spout advancing towards them, despaired of all
human means to avert it, and began to repeat passages from St. John the
evangelist. The water-spout passed close by the ships without injuring
them, and the trembling mariners attributed their escape to the miraculous
efficacy of their quotations from the Scriptures. [153]

In this same night, they lost sight of one of the caravels, and for three
dark and stormy days gave it up for lost. At length, to their great
relief, it rejoined the squadron, having lost its boat, and been obliged
to cut its cable, in an attempt to anchor on a boisterous coast, and
having since been driven to and fro by the storm. For one or two days,
there was an interval of calm, and the tempest-tossed mariners had time to
breathe. They looked upon this tranquillity, however, as deceitful, and,
in their gloomy mood, beheld every thing with a doubtful and foreboding
eye. Great numbers of sharks, so abundant and ravenous in these latitudes,
were seen about the ships. This was construed into an evil omen; for among
the superstitions of the seas, it is believed that these voracious fish
can smell dead bodies at a distance; that they have a kind of presentiment
of their prey; and keep about vessels which have sick persons on board, or
which are in danger of being wrecked. Several of these fish they caught,
using large hooks fastened to chains, and sometimes baited merely with a
piece of colored cloth. From the maw of one they took out a living
tortoise; from that of another the head of a shark, recently thrown from
one of the ships; such is the indiscriminate voracity of these terrors of
the ocean. Notwithstanding their superstitious fancies, the seamen were
glad to use a part of these sharks for food, being very short of
provisions. The length of the voyage had consumed the greater part of
their sea-stores; the heat and humidity of the climate, and the leakage of
the ships, had damaged the remainder, and their biscuit was so filled with
worms, that, notwithstanding their hunger, they were obliged to eat it in
the dark, lest their stomachs should revolt at its appearance. [154]

At length, on the 17th, they were enabled to enter a port resembling a
great canal, where they enjoyed three days of repose. The natives of this
vicinity built their cabins in trees, on stakes or poles laid from one
branch to another. The Spaniards supposed this to be through the fear of
wild beasts, or of surprisals from neighboring tribes; the different
nations of these coasts being extremely hostile to one another. It may
have been a precaution against inundations caused by floods from the
mountains. After leaving this port, they were driven backwards and
forwards, by the changeable and tempestuous winds, until the day after
Christmas; when they sheltered themselves in another port, where they
remained until the 3d of January, 1503, repairing one of the caravels, and
procuring wood, water, and a supply of maize or Indian corn. These
measures being completed, they again put to sea, and on the day of
Epiphany, to their great joy, anchored at the mouth of a river called by
the natives Yebra, within a league or two of the river Veragua, and in the
country said to be so rich in mines. To this river, from arriving at it on
the day of Epiphany, Columbus gave the name of Belen or Bethlehem.

For nearly a month he had endeavored to accomplish the voyage from Puerto
Bello to Veragua, a distance of about thirty leagues; and had encountered
so many troubles and adversities, from changeable winds and currents, and
boisterous tempests, that he gave this intermediate line of sea-board the
name of _La Costa de los Contrastes_, or The Coast of Contradictions.
[155]

Columbus immediately ordered the mouths of the Belen, and of its
neighboring river of Veragua, to be sounded. The latter proved too shallow
to admit his vessels, but the Belen was somewhat deeper, and it was
thought they might enter it with safety. Seeing a village on the banks of
the Belen, the admiral sent the boats on shore to procure information. On
their approach, the inhabitants issued forth with weapons in hand to
oppose their landing, but were readily pacified. They seemed unwilling to
give any intelligence about the gold mines; but, on being importuned,
declared that they lay in the vicinity of the river of Veragua. To that
river the boats were dispatched on the following day. They met with the
reception so frequent along this coast, where many of the tribes were
fierce and warlike, and are supposed to have been of Carib origin. As the
boats entered the river, the natives sallied forth in their canoes, and
others assembled in menacing style on the shores. The Spaniards, however,
had brought with them an Indian of that coast, who put an end to this show
of hostility by assuring his countrymen that the strangers came only to
traffic with them.

The various accounts of the riches of these parts appeared to be
confirmed by what the Spaniards saw and heard among these people. They
procured in exchange for the veriest trifles twenty plates of gold, with
several pipes of the same metal, and crude masses of ore. The Indians
informed them that the mines lay among distant mountains; and that when
they went in quest of it they were obliged to practice rigorous fasting
and continence. [156]

The favorable report brought by the boats determined the admiral to remain
in the neighborhood. The river Belen having the greatest depth, two of the
caravels entered it on the 9th of January, and the two others on the
following day at high tide, which on that coast does not rise above half a
fathom. [157] The natives came to them in the most friendly manner,
bringing great quantities of fish, with which that river abounded. They
brought also golden ornaments to traffic; but continued to affirm that
Veragua was the place whence the ore was procured.

The Adelantado, with his usual activity and enterprise, set off on the
third day, with the boats well armed, to ascend the Veragua about a league
and a half, to the residence of Quibian, the principal cacique. The
chieftain, hearing of his intention, met him near the entrance of the
river, attended by his subjects, in several canoes. He was tall, of
powerful frame, and warlike demeanor: the interview was extremely
amicable. The cacique presented the Adelantado with the golden ornaments
which he wore, and received as magnificent presents a few European
trinkets. They parted mutually well pleased. On the following day Quibian
visited the ships, where he was hospitably entertained by the admiral.
They could only communicate by signs, and as the chieftain was of a
taciturn and cautious character, the interview was not of long duration.
Columbus made him several presents; the followers of the cacique exchanged
many jewels of gold for the usual trifles, and Quibian returned, without
much ceremony, to his home.

On the 24th of January, there was a sudden swelling of the river. The
waters came rushing from the interior like a vast torrent; the ships were
forced from their anchors, tossed from side to side, and driven against
each other; the foremast of the admiral's vessel was carried away, and the
whole squadron was in imminent danger of shipwreck. While exposed to this
peril in the river, they were prevented from running out to sea by a
violent storm, and by the breakers which beat upon the bar. This sudden
rising of the river, Columbus attributed to some heavy fall of rain among
a range of distant mountains, to which he had given the name of the
mountains of San Christoval. The highest of these rose to a peak far above
the clouds. [158]

The weather continued extremely boisterous for several days. At length, on
the 6th of February, the sea being tolerably calm, the Adelantado,
attended by sixty-eight men well armed, proceeded in the boats to explore
the Veragua, and seek its reputed mines. When he ascended the river and
drew near to the village of Quibian, situated on the side of a hill, the
cacique came down to the bank to meet him, with a great train of his
subjects, unarmed, and making signs of peace. Quibian was naked, and
painted after the fashion of the country. One of his attendants drew a
great stone out of the river, and washed and rubbed it carefully, upon
which the chieftain seated himself as upon a throne. [159] He received the
Adelantado with great courtesy; for the lofty, vigorous, and iron form of
the latter, and his look of resolution and command, were calculated to
inspire awe and respect in an Indian warrior. The cacique, however, was
wary and politic. His jealousy was awakened by the intrusion of these
strangers into his territories; but he saw the futility of any open
attempt to resist them. He acceded to the wishes of the Adelantado,
therefore, to visit the interior of his dominions, and furnished him with
three guides to conduct him to the mines.

Leaving a number of his men to guard the boats, the Adelantado departed on
foot with the remainder. After penetrating into the interior about four
leagues and a half, they slept for the first night on the banks of a
river, which seemed to water the whole country with its windings, as they
had crossed it upwards of forty times. On the second day, they proceeded a
league and a half farther, and arrived among thick forests, where their
guides informed them the mines were situated. In fact, the whole soil
appeared to be impregnated with gold. They gathered it from among the
roots of the trees, which were of an immense height, and magnificent
foliage. In the space of two hours each man had collected a little
quantity of gold, gathered from the surface of the earth. Hence the guides
took the Adelantado to the summit of a high hill, and showing him an
extent of country as far as the eye could reach, assured him that the
whole of it, to the distance of twenty days' journey westward, abounded in
gold, naming to him several of the principal places. [160] The Adelantado
gazed with enraptured eye over a vast wilderness of continued forest, where
only here and there a bright column of smoke from amidst the trees gave
sign of some savage hamlet, or solitary wigwam, and the wild unappropriated
aspect of this golden country delighted him more than if he had beheld it
covered with towns and cities, and adorned with all the graces of
cultivation. He returned with his party, in high spirits, to the ships, and
rejoiced the admiral with the favorable report of his expedition. It was
soon discovered, however, that the politic Quibian had deceived them. His
guides, by his instructions, had taken the Spaniards to the mines of a
neighboring cacique with whom he was at war, hoping to divert them into the
territories of his enemy. The real mines of Veragua, it was said, were
nearer and much more wealthy.