Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 1).djvu/669

 *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.

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,