e relished. Wind and current were dead against him, too; and
when, after forty days of wretched weather, he succeeded in doubling the
cape which marks on that coast the end of Honduras and the beginning of
Nicaragua, and found it turning square to the south, it was doubtless
joy at this auspicious change of direction, as well as the sudden relief
from head-winds, that prompted him to name that bold prominence Cape
Gracias a Dios, or Thanks to God.

[Footnote 610: _Vita dell' Ammiraglio_, cap. lxxxviii.]

[Footnote 611: Irving (vol. ii. pp. 386, 387) seems to think it
strange that Columbus did not at once turn westward and
circumnavigate Yucatan. But if--as Irving supposed--Columbus
had not seen the Yucatan channel, and regarded the Honduras
coast as continuous with that of Cuba, he could only expect by
turning westward to be carried back to Cape Alpha and Omega,
where he had already been twice before! In the next chapter,
however, I shall show that Columbus may have shaped his course
in accordance with the advice of the pilot Ledesma.]

[Sidenote: The coast of Veragua.]

[Sidenote: Fruitless search for the Strait of Malacca.]

[Sidenote: Futile attempt to make a settlement.]

[Sidenote: Columbus shipwrecked.]

As the ships proceeded southward in the direction of Veragua, evidences
of the kind of semi-civilization which we recognize as characteristic of
that part of aboriginal America grew more and more numerous. Great
houses were seen, built of "stone and lime," or perhaps of rubble stone
with adobe mortar. Walls were adorned with carvings and pictographs.
Mummies were found in a good state of preservation. There were signs of
abundant gold; the natives wore plates of it hung by cotton cords about
their necks, and were ready to exchange pieces worth a hundred ducats
for tawdry European trinkets. From these people Columbus heard what we
should call the first "news of the Pacific Ocean," though it had no such
meaning to his mind. From what he heard he understood that he was on the
east side of a peninsula, and that there was another sea on the other
side, by gaining which he might in ten days reach the mouth of the
Ganges.[612] By proceeding on his present course he would soon come to a
"narrow place" between the two seas. There was a curious equivocation
here. No doubt the Indians were honest and correct in what they tried to