- bus, "but none so violent or of such long duration."
Against these he struggled for forty days, having advanced in that time only about seventy leagues, to another headland, to which he gave the name of Gracias a Dios (Thanks to God): here the coast turned directly south, and he obtained for his further course a fair wind for his leaky and tempest-tost caravels.
Discovers and explores the Mosquito coast.
Puerto Bello.
Steering along the shore now known as the Mosquito
coast, Columbus passed a cluster of twelve small
islands, which he named the Limanares, and continuing
south for about sixty-two leagues, reached,
on the 16th of September, a copious river, where one
of his boats, during an expedition to obtain a supply
of wood and fresh water, was totally lost with her
crew. Thence he proceeded to Cariavi, which he
left, on the 5th of October, for a cruise along the
coast of Costa Rica until he reached a large bay,
called by the natives Carabaro, where he anchored.
Here the Spaniards met with specimens of pure gold,
and many indications of a higher state of cultivation
if not of civilization than they had hitherto seen;
signs in the opinion of Columbus of his approach to
the territory of the Grand Khan. Pursuing his
course, the squadron, on the 2nd of November,
anchored in a spacious and commodious harbour, to
which he gave the name of Puerto Bello, by
which the town and harbour are still known. Here
they were detained for seven days by heavy rain and
stormy weather. Sailing hence on the 9th of November,
the squadron proceeded eight leagues to the
eastward, to the point since known as Nombre de
Dios, where after visiting other places on the coast,
