her, hatchets of copper, wooden swords with sharp flints inserted, and made fast by lines of fish intestines, several copper bells and a rude kind of crucible—with various utensils in clay, marble, and hard wood. It also contained quantities of cacao, a substance not then known to the Spaniards, and which the Indians used both for food and as a species of currency. The Indians made use of a beverage resembling beer, and made from maize; and their women wore mantles, like those of the Moorish women at Granada. From some intelligent natives who were on board this vessel Columbus learned that they came from a rich and luxuriant country in the West, towards which they strongly advised the admiral to steer; and had he acted on this advice, he must have reached Yucatan in a day or two, and added to his previous discoveries that also of Mexico.
Prosecutes his researches to the South.
Reaches Cape Honduras.
The discovery of the other opulent countries of New
Spain would have necessarily followed; while the
disclosure of the Southern Ocean would have revealed
to him the true form of that interesting portion of
the world, and, affording a succession of splendid
discoveries, would have shed fresh renown on his
declining years. But Columbus was intent on discovering
the imaginary strait which would lead him
to the land of Cathay, and the spice islands of India,
which Marco Polo had so glowingly described.[1] Consequently
on leaving the island of Guanaga, he stood
southerly till he discovered the land now known
as Cape Honduras, where he again encountered
heavy storms, by which his vessel suffered much
damage. "I have seen many storms," said Colum-*
- ↑ Letter of Columbus from Jamaica, "Select Letters," p. 20.
