expedition.

Here, then, ended the lofty anticipations which had elevated Columbus
above all mercenary interests; which had made him regardless of hardships
and perils, and given an heroic character to the early part of this
voyage. It is true, he had been in pursuit of a mere chimera, but it was
the chimera of a splendid imagination, and a penetrating judgment. If he
was disappointed in his expectation of finding a strait through the
Isthmus of Darien, it was because nature herself had been disappointed,
for she appears to have attempted to make one, but to have attempted it in
vain.




Chapter VI.

Return to Veragua.--The Adelantado Explores the Country.

[1502.]



On the 5th of December, Columbus sailed from El Retrete, and relinquishing
his course to the east, returned westward, in search of the gold mines of
Veragua. On the same evening he anchored in Puerto Bello, about ten
leagues distant; whence departing on the succeeding day, the wind suddenly
veered to the west, and began to blow directly adverse to the new course
he had adopted. For three months he had been longing in vain for such a
wind, and now it came merely to contradict him. Here was a temptation to