Having refreshed his men and repaired his ships, the admiral went from Azua to the port of Brazil called Yaquimo by the Indians, to shun another storm of which he observed the approach. From thence he sailed again on the 14th of July, and was so becalmed that instead of holding on his course he was carried away by the current to certain small sandy islands near Jamaica; not finding any springs in these islands, the people had to dig pits or wells in the sand whence they procured water; on account of which circumstance the admiral named them Islas de los Poros, or the Well Islands. Then sailing southwards86 for the continent, we came to certain islands, where we went on shore on the biggest only called Guanaia; whence those who make sea charts took occasion to call all those the islands of Guanaia, which are almost twelve leagues from that part of the continent now called the province of Honduras, but which the admiral then named Cape Casinas. These fabricators of charts often commit vast mistakes from ignorance; thus these same islands and that part of the continent nearest them are twice inserted in their charts, as if they were different countries; and though cape Garcias a Dios, and that they call Cape87 -. The occasion of this mistake was, that after the admiral had discovered these countries, one John Diaz de Solis, from whom the Rio de Plata was named Rio de Solis because he was there killed by the Indians, and one Vincent Yanez Pinzon, who commanded a ship in the first voyage when the admiral discovered the Indies, set out together on a voyage of discovery in the year 1508, designing to sail along that coast which the admiral discovered in his voyage from Veragua westwards; and following almost the same track which he had done, they put into the port of Cariari and passed by Cape Garcias a Dios as far as Cape Casinas, which they called Cape Honduras, and they named the before mentioned islands the Guanaias, giving the name of the biggest to them all. Thence they proceeded farther on without acknowledging that the admiral had been in those parts, that the discovery might be attributed to them, and that it might be believed they had found out extensive countries; although Peter de Ledesma, one of their pilots who had been with the admiral in his voyage to Veragua, told them that he knew the country, having been there with the admiral, and from whom I afterwards learnt these circumstances. But, independent of this authority, the nature of the charts plainly demonstrates that they have laid the same thing down twice, as the island is of the same shape and at the same distance; they having brought a true draught of the country, only saying that it lay beyond that which the admiral had before discovered. Hence the same country is twice delineated on the same chart, as time will make apparent when it shall please God that this coast shall be better known; for they will then find but one country of that sort. But to return to our voyage; the admiral ordered his brother Bartholomew to land with two boats on the island of Guanaia, where he found people like those of the other islands, except that their foreheads were not so high. They also saw abundance of pine trees, and found pieces of lapis calaminaris, such as is used for mixing with copper in the process for making brass; and which some of the seamen mistaking for gold concealed for a long time.

While the admirals brother was on shore, using his endeavours to learn the nature of the country, it so happened that a canoe eight feet wide and as long as a galley, made all of one piece, and shaped like those which were common among the islands, put in there. It was loaded with commodities brought from the westwards, and bound towards New Spain88. In the middle of this canoe there was an awning made of palm-tree leaves, not unlike those of the Venetian gondolas, which kept all underneath so close, that neither rain nor sea water could penetrate to wet the goods. Under this awning were the women and children, and all the commodities; and though there were twenty-five men in the canoe, they had not the courage to defend themselves against the people in our boats who pursued them. The canoe being thus taken without any opposition, was brought along side of the admiral, who blessed GOD for having given him samples of the commodities of that country, without exposing his men to any danger. He therefore ordered such things to be taken as he judged most sightly and valuable; such as quilts, cotton shirts without sleeves, curiously wrought and dyed of several colours; some small cloths for covering the nudities, large sheets, in which the women in the canoe wrapped themselves, as the Moorish women in Granada used to do, long wooden swords, having a channel on each side where the edge should be, in which many pieces of sharp-edged flints were fixed by means of thread and a tenacious bituminous matter; these swords could cut naked men as well as if they had been made of steel; hatchets for cutting wood made of good copper, and resembling the stone hatchets usual among the other islanders, also bells and plates of the same metal, and crucibles for melting it. For provisions, they had such roots and grains as they eat in Hispaniola, and a sort of liquor made of maize like English beer. They likewise had abundance of cacao nuts, which serve as money in New Spain, and on which they seemed to place great value; for when these were brought on board along with their other goods, I observed that when any of them fell, they all anxiously stooped to gather them up as if they had been of great importance.

These poor creatures seemed to be in a manner out of their wits, on being brought on board as prisoners among a people so strange and fierce as our men seemed to them; but so prevalent is avarice in man, that we ought not to wonder that it should so prevail over the apprehensions of these Indians, as to make them so anxious about their cacao-nut money, even in their present situation89. The modesty of their demeanour was admirable; for in getting them from the canoe into the ship, it happened that some of their clouts were removed, when they would clap their hands before them to supply the deficiency; and the women wrapped themselves up like the Moors of Granada, to avoid observation. The admiral restored their canoe, and gave them some things in exchange for those of which they had been deprived. And he only detained one old man named Giumbe, who seemed the chief, and the most intelligent person among them, that from him something might be learnt concerning the country, and that he might draw others of the natives to converse and traffic with the Christians. This he did very readily and faithfully all the while he sailed with us, where his language was understood; and as a reward for his service, when we came to where a different language was spoken, which was before we reached Cape Garcias a Dios, the admiral gave him some things, and sent him home quite satisfied.

Though the admiral had heard so much from those in the canoe concerning the great wealth, politeness, and ingenuity of the people westwards, towards what is now called New Spain; yet, considering that as these countries lay to leewards, he could sail thither whenever he might think fit from Cuba, he would not go that way at this time, but persisted in his design of endeavouring to discover a strait or passage across the continent, by which he might clear a way into what we now call the South Sea, in order to arrive at those countries which produce spice. He therefore determined to sail eastwards towards Veragua and Nombre de Dios, where he imagined that strait would be found, as in effect it was; yet was he deceived in this matter, as instead of an isthmus, he expected to discover a narrow gulf or inlet, communicating between the two seas. This mistake might proceed from the similarity of the two names; for when the natives said that the strait which he so anxiously desired to find was towards Veragua and Nombre de Dios, it might be understood either of land or water, and he understood it in the most usual sense, and that which he most earnestly desired90. And though that strait is actually land, yet it is the means of acquiring the dominion of both seas, and by which such enormous riches have been discovered and conveyed to Spain; for it was GODS will that this vast concern should be so found out, as from this canoe the admiral received the first information respecting New Spain.