The next day he came to a town called Cubiga, where the Indians of Cariari said that the trading country ended; this began at Carabora and extended to Cubiga for 50 leagues along the coast. Without making any stay here, the admiral proceeded on till he put into Porto Bello, to which he gave that name because it is large, well peopled, and encompassed by a finely cultivated country. He entered this place on the 2d of November, passing between two small islands within which ships may lie close to the shore, and can turn it out if they have occasion. The country about that harbour and higher up is by no means rough, but cultivated and full of houses a stone throw or a bow-shot only from each other, and forms the finest landscape that can be imagined. We continued there seven days on account of rain and bad weather, and canoes came constantly to the ships from all the country round to trade with provisions and bottoms of fine spun cotton, which they gave in exchange for points and pins and other trifles.
On Wednesday the ninth of November we sailed from Porto Bello eight leagues to the eastwards, but were driven back four leagues next day by stress of weather, and put in among some islands near the continent where the town of Nombre de Dios now stands; and because all these small islands were full of grain, the admiral called this place Puerto de Bastimentos, or Port of Provisions. While here one of our boats pursued a canoe, and the Indians imagining our men would do them some harm, and perceiving the boat within less than a stones throw of them, they leapt into the sea to swim away, which they all effected; for though the boat rowed hard it could not overtake any of them, or if it did come up with one he would dive like a duck and come up again a bow-shot or two distant. This chase lasted above half a league, and it was very pleasant to see the boat labour in vain and come back empty handed.
We continued here till the 23d of November, refitting the ships and mending our casks, and sailed that day to a place called Guiga, there being another of the same name between Veragua and Cerago. The boats went ashore at this place, where they found above 300 persons ready to trade in provisions and some small gold ornaments which they wore at their ears and noses. On Saturday the 24th of November we put into a small port which was called Retrete, or the Retired Place, because it could not contain above five or six ships together; the mouth of it was not above 15 or 20 paces over, and on both sides rocks appeared above water as sharp as diamonds. The channel between was so deep that no bottom could be found, though if the ships inclined only a little way to either side the men could leap on shore. This sharpness of the rocks saved the ships in this narrow passage, and the danger we were now in was owing to the covetousness of the people who went in the boats to view it, as they were desirous of trafficking with the Indians, and believed that the ships might be in safety close to the shore. In this place we were detained nine days by bad weather. At first the Indians came very familiarly to trade in such articles as they had to dispose of; but our seamen used to steal privately on shore and commit a thousand insolencies like covetous dissolute fellows, insomuch that they provoked the Indians to break the peace, and several skirmishes happened between them and our people. The Indians at length took courage to advance to our ships which lay with their sides close to the shore, intending to do us some harm; but their designs turned out to their own detriment, although the admiral always endeavoured to gain them by patience and civility. But perceiving their insolence to increase, he caused some cannon to be discharged, thinking to frighten them; this they answered with loud shouts, thrashing the trees with their clubs and staves, and showed by threatening signs that they did not fear the noise. Therefore to abate their pride and to surprise them with respect for the Christians, the admiral ordered a shot to be fired at a company of them that stood upon a hillock near the shore; and the ball falling among them made them sensible that our thunder carried a bolt along with it, and in future they dared not to show themselves even behind the hills.
The people of this country were the handsomest we had yet seen among the Indians, being tall and thin, without large bellies, and with agreeable countenances. The country was all plain, bearing little grass and few trees. In the harbour there were crocodiles or alligators of a vast size, which go on shore to sleep, and they scatter a scent as if all the musk in the world were together: They are fierce and ravenous, so that if they find a man asleep they drag him to the water and devour him, but they are fearful and cowardly when attacked. These alligators are found in many other parts of the continent, and some affirm that they are the same with the crocodiles of the Nile.
Finding that the violent winds from the E. and N.E. did not cease, and that no trade could be had with those people, the admiral resolved to go back that he might make farther inquiry into the reports of the Indians concerning the mines of Veragua, and therefore returned on Monday the 5th of November to Porto Bello ten leagues westwards. Continuing his course next day, he was encountered by a west wind which was quite contrary to his new design, though favourable for that which he had been attempting for three months past, but expecting that this wind would not last long because the weather was unsettled, he bore up against the wind for some days; but when the weather would seem a little favourable for going to Veragua, another wind would start up and drive us back again to Porto Bello, and when almost in hopes of getting into port we were quite beat off again. Sometimes there were such incessant flashes of thunder and lightning that the men durst hardly open their eyes, the ships seemed just sinking, and the sky appeared as if it would come down upon us. At times the thunder was so continued, that it was conceived some ship was firing its guns for assistance. At other times there would fall such incessant and heavy torrents of rain for two or three days together as if an universal deluge were going to overwhelm the world. This almost unceasing war of the elements perplexed the men and reduced them almost to despair, so that they were continually wet and could not get half an hours rest at a time, always beating up to windward. In such terrible tempests they dreaded the fire in flashes of lightning, the air for its fury, the water for its mountainous waves, and the earth for hidden rocks and sands; where they expected safety in a near haven, often encountering danger, and therefore preferring to contend against all the other elements to avoid the land. In the midst of all these terrors there occurred another no less wonderful and dangerous, which was a water-spout rising from the sea on Thursday the 13th of December; which, if they had not dissolved by reciting the gospel of St John, had certainly sunk whatever it had fallen upon. This phenomenon draws the water up to the clouds like a pillar and thicker than a butt, twisting it about like a whirlwind.
That same night we lost sight of the ship called the Biscaina, but had the good fortune to see it again after three or four dreadful dark days. It had lost its boat and had been in great danger, being so near the land as to be forced to come to anchor, which it likewise lost by being obliged to cut the cable. It now appeared that the currents on this coast follow the prevailing wind, running westwards with the east wind, and eastwards with the west. The ships being now almost shattered to pieces by the tempest, and the men quite spent with incessant labour, a calm for a day or two gave them some relief, and brought such multitudes of sharks about the ships as were dreadful to behold, especially to such as were superstitious. Ravens are reported to smell out dead bodies from a great distance, and some think that sharks have the same perceptive faculty. They have two rows of sharp teeth in the nature of a saw, with which if they lay hold of a mans leg or arm they cut it off as with a razor. Multitudes of these sharks were caught by a hook and chain, but being able to destroy no more, they continued in vast numbers swimming about. They are so greedy that they not only bite at carrion, but may be taken by means of a red rag upon the hook. I have seen a tortoise taken out of the stomach of one of these sharks that lived for some time afterwards aboard the ship; and out of another was taken the head of one of its own kind, which we had cut off and thrown into the water as not fit to be eaten, and the shark had swallowed it, which to us seemed strange and unnatural that one creature should swallow the head of another as large as its own; this however is owing to the vast size of their mouth which reaches almost to the belly, and the head is shaped like an olive. Though some of the people considered these creatures as foreboding misfortune, and others thought them bad fish, yet we were all thankful for them on account of the want we were now in: We had been eight months at sea, so that all the flesh and fish we had brought from Spain was consumed, and owing to the heat and moisture of the atmosphere, the biscuit was become so full of maggots that many of the people waited till night before they could eat the pottage made of it, that they might not see the maggots; but others were so used to eat them that they were not curious to throw them away, lest they might lose their supper.
Upon Saturday the 17th of December we put into a large bay or port three leagues to the eastwards of Pennon called Huiva by the Indians, where we remained three days. We there saw the Indians dwelling upon the tops of trees, like birds, laying sticks across the boughs upon which they build a kind of huts. We conceived this might have been for fear of the griffins which are in that country, or to be out of reach of their enemies; for all along that coast the little tribes at every league distant are great enemies to each other and perpetually at war. We sailed from this port on the 20th with fair weather but not settled, for as soon as we were got put to sea the tempest rose again and drove us into another port, whence we departed the third day, the weather being somewhat mended, but like an enemy that lies in wait for a man, it rushed out again and drove us to Pennon, but when we hoped to get in there the wind came quite contrary and drove us again towards Veragua. Being at an anchor in the river the weather became again very stormy, so that we had reason to be thankful for having got into that port, where we had been before on the 12th of the same month. We continued here from the 26th of December to the 3d of January 1508; when, having repaired the ship Gallega and taken on board a good store of Indian wheat, water, and wood, we turned back to Veragua with bad weather and contrary winds, which changed crossly just as the admiral altered his course. This continual changing of the wind gave us so much trouble between Veragua and Porto Bello that the admiral named this Costo de Contrasses, or the Coast of Thwartings.
Upon Thursday, being the feast of the Epiphany, 6th January, we cast anchor near a river called Yebra by the Indians, but which the admiral named Belem or Bethlem, because we came to it on the festival of the three kings. He caused the mouth of that river and of another to the westwards to be sounded; in the latter, called Veragua by the Indians, the water was shoal, but in the river Belem there were four fathoms at high water. The boats went up this river to the town where we had been informed the gold mines of Veragua were situated. At first the Indians were so far from conversing that they assembled with their weapons to hinder the Christians from landing; and the next day on going up the river of Veragua, the Indians did the same, not only on shore, but stood upon their guard with their canoes in the water. But an Indian of that coast who understood them a little went on shore and persuaded them that we were good people, and desired nothing from them but what we would pay for; by this they were pacified and trucked twenty plates of gold, likewise some hollow pieces like the joints of reeds, and some unmelted grains. On purpose to enhance the value of their gold they said it was gathered a great way off among uncouth mountains, and that when they gathered it they did not eat, nor did they carry their women along with them, a story similar to which was told by the people of Hispaniola when it was first discovered.
On Monday the 9th of January the admirals ship and that called Biscaina went up the river, and the Indians came presently on board to barter away such things as they had, especially fish, which at certain times of the year come up these rivers from the sea in such quantities as would seem incredible to those who had not seen it. They likewise exchanged some gold for pins, and what they most valued they gave for beads, or hawks-bells. Next day the other two ships came in, having to wait for the flood, which does not rise above half a fathom in these parts. As Veragua was famed for mines and extraordinary wealth, the admirals brother went up the river the third day after our arrival to the town of Quibio, the king or cacique of this province; who, hearing of the lieutenants coming, came down the river in his canoes to meet him. Quibio behaved in a very friendly manner, and interchanged several articles with the lieutenant, and after a long discourse they parted in peace. Next day Quibio came on board to visit the admiral, and having discoursed together about an hour, his men trucked some gold for bells, and he returned to his own place.
While we lay here as we thought in perfect ease and security, the river of Belem suddenly swelled on the 24th of January so high, that before we could get a cable on shore the fury of the water came so impetuously on the admirals ship that it broke one of her anchors, and drove her with such force against the Galega as to bring the foremast by the board, and both ships were carried away foul of each other in the utmost danger of perishing. Some judged that this sudden and mighty flood had been occasioned by the heavy rains, which still continued incessantly; but in that case the river would have swelled gradually and not all of a sudden, which made us suppose that some extraordinary rain had fallen in the mountains about 20 leagues up the country, which the admiral called the mountains of St Christopher. The highest of that range was above the region of the air in which meteors are bred, as no cloud was ever seen to rise above, but all floated below its summit; this mountain of St Christopher looks like a hermitage[13], and lies in the midst of a range of woody mountains whence we believed that flood came which was so dangerous to our ships; for had they been carried out to sea they must have been shattered to pieces, as the wind was then extremely boisterous. This tempest lasted so long that we had time to refit and caulk the ships; and the waves broke so furiously on the mouth of the river, that the boats could not go out to discover along the coast, to learn where the mines lay, and to seek out for a proper place in which to build a town; for the admiral had resolved to leave his brother in this place with most of the men, that they might settle and subdue the country, while he should return into Spain to send out supplies of men and provisions. With this prospect, he sent his brother on Monday the 6th of February with 68 men by sea to the mouth of the Veragua river, a league to the westward of the Belem river, who went a league and a half up the river to the caciques town, where he staid a day inquiring the way to the mines. On Wednesday they travelled four leagues and half, and rested for the night on the side of a river which they had crossed 44 times in the course of that days march; next day they travelled a league and a half towards the mines, being directed in their journey by some Indian guides who were furnished by Quibio. In about two hours time they came thither, and every man gathered some gold from about the roots of the trees, which were there very thick and of prodigious height. This sample was much valued, because none of those who went upon this expedition had any tools for digging, or had ever been accustomed to gather gold; and as the design of this expedition was merely to get information of the situation of the mines, they returned very much satisfied that same day to Veragua, and the next day to the ships. It was afterwards learnt that these were not the mines of Veragua which lay much nearer, but belonged to the town of Urira the people of which being enemies to those of Veragua, Quibio had ordered the Christians to be conducted thither to do a displeasure to his foes, and that his own mines might remain untouched.