From Thence He Sailed Again On
The 14th Of July, And Was So Becalmed That Instead Of Holding On His
Course he was carried away by the current to certain small sandy islands
near Jamaica; not finding any springs in
These islands, the people had to
dig pits or wells in the sand whence they procured water; on account of
which circumstance the admiral named them Islas de los Poros, or the
Well Islands. Then sailing southwards[5] for the continent, we came to
certain islands, where we went on shore on the biggest only called Guanaia;
whence those who make sea charts took occasion to call all those the
islands of Guanaia, which are almost twelve leagues from that part of the
continent now called the province of Honduras, but which the admiral then
named Cape Casinas. These fabricators of charts often commit vast mistakes
from ignorance; thus these same islands and that part of the continent
nearest them are twice inserted in their charts, as if they were different
countries; and though cape Garcias a Dios, and that they call Cape[6]
- - . The occasion of this mistake was, that after the admiral had
discovered these countries, one John Diaz de Solis, from whom the Rio de
Plata was named Rio de Solis because he was there killed by the Indians,
and one Vincent Yanez Pinzon, who commanded a ship in the first voyage
when the admiral discovered the Indies, set out together on a voyage of
discovery in the year 1508, designing to sail along that coast which the
admiral discovered in his voyage from Veragua westwards; and following
almost the same track which he had done, they put into the port of Cariari
and passed by Cape Garcias a Dios as far as Cape Casinas, which they
called Cape Honduras, and they named the before mentioned islands the
Guanaias, giving the name of the biggest to them all. Thence they
proceeded farther on without acknowledging that the admiral had been in
those parts, that the discovery might be attributed to them, and that it
might be believed they had found out extensive countries; although Peter
de Ledesma, one of their pilots who had been with the admiral in his
voyage to Veragua, told them that he knew the country, having been there
with the admiral, and from whom I afterwards learnt these circumstances.
But, independent of this authority, the nature of the charts plainly
demonstrates that they have laid the same thing down twice, as the island
is of the same shape and at the same distance; they having brought a true
draught of the country, only saying that it lay beyond that which the
admiral had before discovered. Hence the same country is twice delineated
on the same chart, as time will make apparent when it shall please God
that this coast shall be better known; for they will then find but one
country of that sort. But to return to our voyage; the admiral ordered his
brother Bartholomew to land with two boats on the island of Guanaia, where
he found people like those of the other islands, except that their
foreheads were not so high. They also saw abundance of pine trees, and
found pieces of lapis calaminaris, such as is used for mixing with copper
in the process for making brass; and which some of the seamen mistaking
for gold concealed for a long time.
While the admirals brother was on shore, using his endeavours to learn the
nature of the country, it so happened that a canoe eight feet wide and as
long as a galley, made all of one piece, and shaped like those which were
common among the islands, put in there. It was loaded with commodities
brought from the westwards, and bound towards New Spain[7]. In the middle
of this canoe there was an awning made of palm-tree leaves, not unlike
those of the Venetian gondolas, which kept all underneath so close, that
neither rain nor sea water could penetrate to wet the goods. Under this
awning were the women and children, and all the commodities; and though
there were twenty-five men in the canoe, they had not the courage to
defend themselves against the people in our boats who pursued them. The
canoe being thus taken without any opposition, was brought along side of
the admiral, who blessed GOD for having given him samples of the
commodities of that country, without exposing his men to any danger. He
therefore ordered such things to be taken as he judged most sightly and
valuable; such as quilts, cotton shirts without sleeves, curiously wrought
and dyed of several colours; some small cloths for covering the nudities,
large sheets, in which the women in the canoe wrapped themselves, as the
Moorish women in Granada used to do, long wooden swords, having a channel
on each side where the edge should be, in which many pieces of sharp-edged
flints were fixed by means of thread and a tenacious bituminous matter;
these swords could cut naked men as well as if they had been made of steel;
hatchets for cutting wood made of good copper, and resembling the stone
hatchets usual among the other islanders, also bells and plates of the
same metal, and crucibles for melting it. For provisions, they had such
roots and grains as they eat in Hispaniola, and a sort of liquor made of
maize like English beer. They likewise had abundance of cacao nuts, which
serve as money in New Spain, and on which they seemed to place great value;
for when these were brought on board along with their other goods, I
observed that when any of them fell, they all anxiously stooped to gather
them up as if they had been of great importance.
These poor creatures seemed to be in a manner out of their wits, on being
brought on board as prisoners among a people so strange and fierce as our
men seemed to them; but so prevalent is avarice in man, that we ought not
to wonder that it should so prevail over the apprehensions of these
Indians, as to make them so anxious about their cacao-nut money, even in
their present situation[8]. The modesty of their demeanour was admirable;
for in getting them from the canoe into the ship, it happened that some of
their clouts were removed, when they would clap their hands before them to
supply the deficiency; and the women wrapped themselves up like the Moors
of Granada, to avoid observation.
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