h
there was no tempest or tide at the time--they sank. It is said that
in that year the sea penetrated more deeply than usual into the earth,
and that it rose more than a cubit. The natives whispered that the
Spaniards were the cause of this disturbance of the elements and these
catastrophes. These tempests, which the Greeks called typhoons, are
called by the natives _huracanes_.[8] According to their accounts
hurricanes are sufficiently frequent in the island, but they never
attain such violence and fury. None of the islanders living, nor any
of their ancestors remembers that such an atmospheric disturbance,
capable of uprooting the greatest trees, had ever swept the island;
nor, on the other hand, had the sea ever been so turbulent, or the
tidewater so ravaged. Wherever plains border the sea, flowery meadows
are found nearby.

[Note 8: The word _hurricane_ is from _Hurakan_, the name of the
god or culture hero who, in the mythology of Yucatan, corresponded to
Quetzalcoatl of the Mexicans. Being the god of the winds, storms were
ascribed to his fury, and the typhoons and tempests which broke out
at times with destructive violence over the seas and countries were
called by his name.]

Let us now return to Caunaboa. When it was sought to take them to the
sovereigns of Spain, both he and his brother died of grief on
the voyage. The destruction of his ships detained the Admiral at
Hispaniola; but, as he had at his disposal the necessary artisans, he
ordered two caravels to be built immediately.

While these orders were being carried out, he despatched his brother,
Bartholomew Columbus,--Adelantado, the Spaniards call him, of the
island,--with a number of miners and a troop of soldiers, to the gold
mines, which had been discovered by the assistance of the natives
sixty leagues from Isabella in the direction of Cipangu, As some
very ancient pits were found there, the Admiral believed that he had
rediscovered in those mines the ancient treasures which, it is stated
in the Old Testament, King Solomon of Jerusalem had found in the
Persian Gulf. Whether this be true or false is not for me to decide.
These mines cover an area of six miles. The miners, in sifting some
dry earth gathered at different places, declared that they had found
such a great quantity of gold hidden in that earth that a miner could
easily collect three drachmas in a day's work. After they had
explored that region, the Adelantado and the miners wrote to C