CAPE GUACIAS A DIOS.

Steering along the coast of Honduras, on the 12th of September, he reached
Cape Gracias a Dios, to which he gave this name in pious thankfulness for
the southerly turn taken by the land at that point, so that the east
winds, which had hitherto obstructed him, were now favourable to his
course along the coast. A month later he entered several bays on the
Isthmus of Panama, where he was able to procure provisions and to refit
his vessels, but failed to obtain any intelligence either of the kingdom
of the Khan, or of the strait which he fancied would lead him there. The
natives whom he encountered were generally disposed to be friendly; but,
in one instance, when the depth of water in a creek obliged him to moor
his vessels close to the shore, an attack of the Indians was only repulsed
by the use of artillery, the thunder and lightning of which seemed always
to possess, in the eyes of the savages, a supernatural and therefore awful
character. On another occasion, when a conference was held with one of the
tribes, great alarm was caused by a notary, who attended to take notes of
the conversation. The savages had never before seen the operation of
writing; and they regarded it as a spell which was to have some magic
effect upon them, and which they must neutralize by various mystic
fumigations which they believed to act as counter-charms. "They were
themselves skilled sorcerers," says Columbus,--whose credulity in such
matters was only that of his age.


EASTERLY COURSE ABANDONED; THE BETHLEHEM RIVER.

It was not until the 5th of December that the admiral could resolve to
abandon his easterly course, although the conviction had been gradually
forcing itself upon him that the condition of his ships was such as to