together with an enormous mass of gold,--
the principal part of the treasure gained by the miseries of the
Indians. Many other ships were lost, some returning to San Domingo
sorely battered, while only one, the weakest of the fleet, with the
treasure of the Admiral on board, continued her voyage to Spain.

The squadron of Columbus, though having suffered much, safely reached
the port of Hermoso, at the west end of San Domingo. Here he remained
several days, and then, after touching at some small islands off Jamaica
swept by the current, he reached a group near the coast of Honduras, one
of which he called the Isla de Pinos, now known as Guanaja, or Bonacca.

The Adelantado, on landing on its beautiful and fertile shore, saw an
immense canoe approaching, eight feet wide, and of great length, though
formed of the trunk of a single tree. Under a canopy of palm-leaves sat
a cacique, with his wives and children, rowed by twenty-five Indians.

The canoe was filled with all kinds of articles of manufacture and
natural production. The Indians, without fear, came alongside the
Admiral's caravel. He was delighted to obtain, without trouble,
specimens of so many important articles of this part of the New World.
Among them were hatchets formed of copper, wooden swords with channels
on each side of the blade, in which sharp flints were firmly fixed by
cords formed of the intestines of fishes, such as were afterwards found
among the Mexicans. There were bells and other articles of copper, and
clay utensils; cotton shirts worked, and dyed with various colours;
great quantities of cacao, a fruit as yet unknown to the Spaniards, and
a beverage resembling beer, extracted from Indian corn. Their
provisions consisted of maize bread, and roots of various kinds. Many
of the articles they willingly exchanged for European trinkets. The
women were wrapped in mantles like the female Moors of Grenada, and the
men had cloths of cotton round their loins. From their being clothed,
and from the superiority of their manufactures, the Admiral believed
that he was approaching more civilised nations.

The natives stated that they had just arrived from a rich cultivated
country, with the wealth and magnificence of which they endeavoured to
impress him. His mind, however, being bent on the discovery of the
strait, and believing that he could easily visit them at some future
period, he determined to seek the mainland, and keep steadily on until