The Ships Being Now Almost Shattered To Pieces By The Tempest,
And The Men Quite Spent With Incessant Labour, A
Calm for a day or two
gave them some relief, and brought such multitudes of sharks about the
ships as
Were dreadful to behold, especially to such as were superstitious.
Ravens are reported to smell out dead bodies from a great distance, and
some think that sharks have the same perceptive faculty. They have two
rows of sharp teeth in the nature of a saw, with which if they lay hold of
a mans leg or arm they cut it off as with a razor. Multitudes of these
sharks were caught by a hook and chain, but being able to destroy no more,
they continued in vast numbers swimming about. They are so greedy that
they not only bite at carrion, but may be taken by means of a red rag upon
the hook. I have seen a tortoise taken out of the stomach of one of these
sharks that lived for some time afterwards aboard the ship; and out of
another was taken the head of one of its own kind, which we had cut off
and thrown into the water as not fit to be eaten, and the shark had
swallowed it, which to us seemed strange and unnatural that one creature
should swallow the head of another as large as its own; this however is
owing to the vast size of their mouth which reaches almost to the belly,
and the head is shaped like an olive. Though some of the people considered
these creatures as foreboding misfortune, and others thought them bad fish,
yet we were all thankful for them on account of the want we were now in:
We had been eight months at sea, so that all the flesh and fish we had
brought from Spain was consumed, and owing to the heat and moisture of the
atmosphere, the biscuit was become so full of maggots that many of the
people waited till night before they could eat the pottage made of it,
that they might not see the maggots; but others were so used to eat them
that they were not curious to throw them away, lest they might lose their
supper.
Upon Saturday the 17th of December we put into a large bay or port three
leagues to the eastwards of Pennon called Huiva by the Indians, where
we remained three days. We there saw the Indians dwelling upon the tops
of trees, like birds, laying sticks across the boughs upon which they
build a kind of huts. We conceived this might have been for fear of the
griffins which are in that country, or to be out of reach of their
enemies; for all along that coast the little tribes at every league
distant are great enemies to each other and perpetually at war. We sailed
from this port on the 20th with fair weather but not settled, for as soon
as we were got put to sea the tempest rose again and drove us into another
port, whence we departed the third day, the weather being somewhat mended,
but like an enemy that lies in wait for a man, it rushed out again and
drove us to Pennon, but when we hoped to get in there the wind came quite
contrary and drove us again towards Veragua. 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. But an Indian of that coast who understood them
a little went on shore and persuaded them that we were good people, and
desired nothing from them but what we would pay for; by this they were
pacified and trucked twenty plates of gold, likewise some hollow pieces
like the joints of reeds, and some unmelted grains. On purpose to enhance
the value of their gold they said it was gathered a great way off among
uncouth mountains, and that when they gathered it they did not eat, nor
did they carry their women along with them, a story similar to which was
told by the people of Hispaniola when it was first discovered.
On Monday the 9th of January the admirals ship and that called Biscaina
went up the river, and the Indians came presently on board to barter away
such things as they had, especially fish, which at certain times of the
year come up these rivers from the sea in such quantities as would seem
incredible to those who had not seen it.
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