he 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 southwards[5] 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 Cape[6]
----. 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
tha