It was while on the coast of Veragua that Columbus heard of the great ocean now known as the Pacific.[16] He was not, however, permitted to add its discovery to the long list of his marvelous achievements. That honor was reserved for Vasco Nuñez de Balboa.
About nine o’clock the morning following our departure from Limon we dropped anchor in the harbor of Colon. The sea was so tranquil that there was scarcely a ripple on its placid waters. It was certainly in marked contrast with the condition in which Columbus once found it in these parts; for he assures us, in the oft-quoted letter to Ferdinand and Isabella, that “never was sea so high, so terrific, and so covered with foam.” It seemed like a “sea of blood, seething like a cauldron on a mighty fire.” So continual, indeed, were the shifting winds, and so terrific were the storms, that the coast from Veragua to Colon which we had found washed by so calm a sea was by Columbus and his companions named La Costa de los Contrastes.
Immediately on our arrival our vessel was boarded by the health officers of the port. Those who could not produce a satisfactory health certificate—and many could not—were sent to quarantine. Many of our party, however, did not require any, as they did not purpose landing at Colon. Some of them were bound for Jamaica and for points more distant. Among them was C., my brave and resolute companion across the Andes, the loyal and generous young cavalier who, if he had not been of superior mold, would more than once have lost his heart during the course of our long journey. I would fain have enjoyed his companionship longer while following the conquistadores in lands farther south; but it was not to be. To him, and to other friends, I had regretfully to pronounce the words of parting that had so frequently been addressed to us by the kindly and hospitable people we had met all along our route—Que Uds. vayan bien, y con la Virgen!—A happy journey and with the Virgin Mother!
As I left our good ship and the friends it bore to divers destinations and stepped ashore alone, a stranger in a strange land, I felt, I must confess, not unlike Dante when he suddenly found himself deprived of the companionship of Virgil, who had been his friend and guide during his arduous journey down through the fearsome pits of Hell and up the precipitous ledges of the mountain of Purgatory. But this impression, strong though it was, could not long remain dominant. What had in the beginning of my journey been but “a consummation devoutly to be wished,” had during our wanderings in tropical lands crystallized into a determination to make the desire a reality. The happy termination of our voyage up the Orinoco and down the Magdalena was conclusive evidence that travel, even through the least frequented parts of South America, was far from being as difficult as it has long been depicted. The moment, then, that I stepped from the gang plank that connected our steamer with Panaman soil, the Rubicon was crossed, and I had resolved, coûte que coûte,—alone, if necessary,—to realize the long-cherished dream of my youth,—to visit the famed lands of the Incas and explore the fertile valleys under the equator. If my experience in the llanos and among the Cordilleras had not made me “fit to mount up to the stars,” as Dante was when he left the Terrestrial Paradise, it had at least renewed me “even as new trees with new foliage,” and I was ready to undertake a longer and more difficult journey than the one just completed and eager to follow the conquistadores along the Andes and down the Amazon.
[1] Hakluyt’s Early Voyages, Vol. III, p. 594, London, 1810. [↑]
[2] The origin of the name Costa Rica is uncertain. It appears for the first time in an account of an expedition made by Martin Estete to the river San Juan in 1529, twenty-seven years after the discovery of the country by Columbus. It occurs subsequently in a document signed by the King of Spain, dated May 14, 1541. It is probable that the name was given in consequence of the rich mines that had been discovered near the town of Estrella, in Talamanca—from which it was inferred that all the interior of the country was equally rich in the precious metals—and not on account of the luxuriant vegetation that abounds, as is sometimes supposed. Cf. Diccionario Geografico de Costa Rica, p. 47, por Felix F. Noriega, San José, Costa Rica, 1904. [↑]
[3] “Alli vide una sepultura en el monte, grande como una casa y labrada.”—Relaciones y Cartas de Colon, p. 375, Madrid, 1892. [↑]
[4] In his Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain, Book IV, Chap. IX, he asserts that for a given area of land “The produce of bananas is to that of wheat as 133:1, and to that of potatoes as 44:1.” These proportions, however, refer to the weights and not to the nutritive values of the products compared. The ratio of the nutritive value of bananas and wheat is, according to Humboldt, twenty-five to one in favor of bananas. Hence, he writes, “a European, newly arrived in the torrid zone is struck with nothing so much as the extreme smallness of the spots under cultivation round a cabin which contains a numerous family of Indians.” [↑]
[5] Stanley, in In Darkest Africa, writes: “If only the virtues of banana flour were publicly known, it is not to be doubted but it would be largely consumed in Europe. For infants, persons of delicate digestion, dyspeptics, and those suffering from temporary derangement of the stomach, the flour properly prepared would be of universal demand. During my two attacks of gastritis a light gruel of this, mixed with milk, was the only matter that could be digested.” Vol. II, pp. 261, 262, New York, 1890. [↑]