374
LIFE
AND
VOYAGES
OF
[BOOK X V .
with great difficulty that they were separated. One anchor only remained to the admiral's ship, and this saved him from being driven upon the rocks ; but at daylight the cable was found nearly worn asunder. Had the darkness continued an hour longer, he could scarcely have escaped shipwreck.* At the end of six days, the weather having moderated, he resumed his course, standing eastward for Hispaniola : “ his people,” as he says, “ dismayed and down-hearted ; almost all his anchors lost, and his vessels bored as full of holes as a honey comb." After struggling against contrary winds and the usual currents from the east, he reached Cape Cruz, and anchored at a village in the province of Macaca,t where he had touched in 1494, in his voyage along the southern coast of Cuba. Here he was detained by head winds for several days, during which he was supplied with cassava bread by the natives. Making sail again, he endeavored to beat up to Hispaniola ; but every effort was in vain. The winds and currents continued adverse ; the leaks con tinually gained upon his vessels, though the pumps were kept incessantly going, and the seamen even baled the water out with buckets and kettles. The admiral now stood, in despair, for the island of Jamaica, to seek some secure port ; for there was im minent danger of foundering at sea. On the eve of St. John, the 23d of June, they put into Puerto Bueno, now called Dry Har bor, but met with none of the natives from whom they could obtain provisions, nor was there any fresh water to be had in the neighborhood. Suffering from hunger and thirst, they sailed eastward, on the following day, to another harbor, to which the * HIST. DEL ALMIRANTE, CAP. 100.
LETTER OF COLUMBUS FROM JAMAICA.
† HIST. DEL ALMIRANTE.
JOURNAL OF PORRAS.