C H A P . III.]
CHRISTOPHER
COLUMBUS
321
CHAPTER III. VOYAGE ALONG THE MOSQUITO COAST, AND TRANSACTIONS
AT CARIArI. [1503.]
AFTER doubling Cape Gracias a Dios, Columbus sailed directly south, along what is at present called the Mosquito shore. The land was of varied character, sometimes rugged, with craggy pro足 montories and points stretching into the sea, at other places ver足 dant and fertile, and watered by abundant streams. In the rivers grew immense reeds, sometimes of the thickness of a man's thigh : they abounded with fish and tortoises, and alligators basked on the banks. At one place Columbus passed a cluster of twelve small islands, on which grew a fruit resembling the lemon, on which account he called them the Limonares.* After sailing about sixty-two leagues along this coast, being greatly in want of wood and water, the squadron anchored on the 16th of September, near a copious river, up which the boats were sent to procure the requisite supplies. As they were returning to their ships, a sudden swelling of the sea, rushing in and en足 countering the rapid current of the river, caused a violent com* P . Martyr, decad. iii. lib. iv.
These may have been the lime, a small
and extremely acid species of the lemon.