Being At An Anchor In The
River The Weather Became Again Very Stormy, So That We Had Reason To Be
Thankful For Having Got Into That Port, Where We Had Been Before On The
12th Of The Same Month.
We continued here from the 26th of December to the
3d of January 1508; when, having repaired the ship
Gallega and taken on
board a good store of Indian wheat, water, and wood, we turned back to
Veragua with bad weather and contrary winds, which changed crossly just as
the admiral altered his course. This continual changing of the wind gave
us so much trouble between Veragua and Porto Bello that the admiral named
this Costo de Contrasses, or the Coast of Thwartings.
Upon Thursday, being the feast of the Epiphany, 6th January, we cast
anchor near a river called Yebra by the Indians, but which the admiral
named Belem or Bethlem, because we came to it on the festival of the three
kings. He caused the mouth of that river and of another to the westwards
to be sounded; in the latter, called Veragua by the Indians, the water
was shoal, but in the river Belem there were four fathoms at high water.
The boats went up this river to the town where we had been informed the
gold mines of Veragua were situated. At first the Indians were so far from
conversing that they assembled with their weapons to hinder the Christians
from landing; and the next day on going up the river of Veragua, the
Indians did the same, not only on shore, but stood upon their guard with
their canoes in the water.
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