two days to the northwest and
again two days to the north.

On Sunday, the twenty fourth of July, they saw land. This was the key
now known as Cuyago, and they were at last close upon the mainland.
After exploring this island they sailed again on Wednesday, the
twenty-seventh, southwest and quarter southwest about ninety miles, and
again they saw land, which is supposed to be the island of Guanaja or
Bonacca, near the coast of Honduras.

The Indians on this island had some gold and some pearls. They had seen
whites before. Columbus calls them men of good stature. Sailing from
this island, he struck the mainland near Truxillo, about ten leagues
from the island of Guanaja. He soon found the harbor, which we still
know as the harbor of Truxillo, and from this point Columbus began a
careful investigation of the coast.

He observed, what all navigators have since observed, the lack of
harbors. He passed along as far as the river now known as the Tinto,
where he took possession in the name of the sovereigns, calling this
river the River of Possession. He found the natives savage, and the
country of little account for his purposes. Still passing southward, he
passed what we call the Mosquito Coast, to which he found the natives
gave the name of Cariay.

These people were well disposed and willing to treat with them. They
had some cotton, they had some gold. They wore very little clothing,
and they painted their bodies, as most of the natives of the islands had
done. He saw what he thought to be pigs and large mountain cats.

Still passing southward, running into such bays or other harbors as they
found, he entered the "Admiral's Bay," in a country which had the name
of Cerabaro, or Zerabora. Here an Indian brought a plate of gold and
some other pieces of gold, and Columbus was, encouraged in his hopes of
finding more.

The natives told him that if he would keep on he would find another
bay which they called Arburarno, which is supposed to be the Laguna
Chiriqui. They said the people, of that country, lived in the mountains.
Here Columbus noticed the fact,--one which has given to philologists one
of their central difficulties for four hundred years since,--that as he
passed from one point to another of the American shores, the Indians did
not understand each other's language. "Every ten or twenty leagues
they did not understand each other." In entering the river Veragua, the
Indians appeared armed with lances and arrows,