beating their lances and clubs against the trees and bushes in furious
menace. The situation of the ships so close to the shore exposed them to
assaults, and made the hostility of the natives unusually formidable.
Columbus ordered a shot or two, therefore, to be discharged among them.
When they saw the havoc made, they fled in terror, and offered no further
hostility. [151]

The continuance of stormy winds from the east and the northeast, in
addition to the constant opposition of the currents, disheartened the
companions of Columbus, and they began to murmur against any further
prosecution of the voyage. The seamen thought that some hostile spell was
operating, and the commanders remonstrated against attempting to force
their way in spite of the elements, with ships crazed and worm-eaten, and
continually in need of repair. Few of his companions could sympathize with
Columbus in his zeal for mere discovery. They were actuated by more
gainful motives, and looked back with regret on the rich coast they had
left behind, to go in search of an imaginary strait. It is probable that
Columbus himself began to doubt the object of his enterprise. If he knew
the details of the recent voyage of Bastides, he must have been aware that
he had arrived from an opposite quarter to about the place where that
navigator's exploring voyage from the east had terminated; consequently
that there was but little probability of the existence of the strait he
had imagined. [152]

At all events, he determined to relinquish the further prosecution of his
voyage eastward for the present, and to return to the coast of Veragua, to
search for those mines of which he had heard so much, and seen so many
indications. Should they prove equal to his hopes, he would have
wherewithal to return to Spain in triumph, and silence the reproaches of
his enemies, even though he should fail in the leading object of his