CHRISTOPHER
CHAP. I L ]
COLUMBUS.
313
CHAPTER II. VOYAGE
ALONG
THE
COAST
OF
HONDURAS.
[1502.]
F O R several days Columbus remained in Port Hermoso to repair his vessels, and permit his crews to repose and refresh themselves after the late tempest. He had scarcely left this harbor, when he was obliged to take shelter from another storm in Jacquemel, or as it was called by the Spaniards, Port Brazil. Hence he sailed on the 14th of July, steering for Terra Firma. The weather falling perfectly calm, he was borne away by the cur足 rents until he found himself in the vicinity of some little islands near Jamaica,* destitute of springs, but where the seamen ob足 tained a supply of water by digging holes in the sand on the beach. The calm continuing, he was swept away to the group of small islands, or keys, on the southern coast of Cuba, to which, in 1494, he had given the name of The Gardens. He had scarcely touched there, however, when the wind sprang up from a favorable quarter, and he was enabled to make sail on his des足 tined course. He now stood to the southwest, and after a few days discovered, on the 30th of July, a small but elevated island, * Supposed to be the Morant Keys.
VOL. II.
X