342
LIFE
AND
VOYAGES
OF
[BOOK
XV.
the heat and humidity of the climate, and the leakage of the ships, had damaged the remainder, and their biscuit was so filled with worms, that, notwithstanding their hunger, they were obliged to eat it in the dark, lest their stomachs should revolt at its appearance.* At length, on the 17th, they were enabled to enter a port resembling a great canal, where they enjoyed three days of re pose. The natives of this vicinity built their cabins in trees, on stakes or poles laid from one branch to another. The Spaniards supposed this to be through the fear of wild beasts, or of surprisals from neighboring tribes ; the different nations of these coasts being extremely hostile to one another. It may have been a pre caution against inundations caused by floods from the mountains. After leaving this port, they were driven backwards and forwards, by the changeable and tempestuous winds, until the day after Christmas; when they sheltered themselves in another port, where they remained until the 3d of January, 1503, repairing one of the caravels, and procuring wood, water, and a supply of maize or Indian corn. These measures being completed, they again put to sea, and on the day of Epiphany, to their great joy, anchored at the mouth of a river called by the natives Yebra, within a league or two of the river Veragua, and in the country said to be so rich in mines. To this river, from arriving at it on the day of Epiphany, Columbus gave the name of Belen or Bethlehem. For nearly a month he had endeavored to accomplish the voy age from Puerto Bello to Veragua, a distance of about thirty leagues ; and had encountered so many troubles and adversities, from changeable winds and currents, and boisterous tempests, that he gave this intermediate line of sea-board the name of La Costa de los Contrastes, or The Coast of Contradictions.† * Hist. del Almirante, cap. 94.
†
Idem, cap. 94.