gale. All that they had seen, however, betokened a primitive and simple state of society. The wonder with which they had been regarded, showed clearly that the people were strangers to civilized men, nor could they hear of any inland city superior to the one they had visited.

The report of the envoys put an end to many splendid fancies of Columbus, about the barbaric prince and his capital. He was cruising, however, in a region of enchantment, in which pleasing chimeras started up at every step, exercising by turns a power over his imagination. During the absence of the emissaries the Indians had informed him, by signs, of a place to the eastward, where the people collected gold along the river banks by torch-light and afterwards wrought it into bars with hammers. In speaking of this place they again used the words Babeque and Bohio, which he, as usual, supposed to be the proper names of islands or countries. The true meaning of these words has been variously explained. It is said that they were applied by the Indians to the coast of terra firma, called also by them Caritaba. It is also said that Bohio means a house, and was often used by the Indians to signify the populousness of an island. Hence it was frequently applied to Hispaniola, as

as the more general name of Hayti, which means high land, and occasionally Quisqueya (i. e. the whole), on account of its extent.

1 Muñoz, Hist. N. Mundo, cap. 3.

The misapprehension of these, and other words, was a source of perpetual error to Columbus. Sometimes he supposed Babeque and Bohio to signify the same island; sometimes to be different places or islands; and Quisqueya he supposed to mean Quisai or Quinsai, (i. e. the celestial city) mentioned by Marco Polo.

His great object was to arrive at some opulent and civilized country of the East, with which he might establish commercial relations, and whence he might carry home a quantity of Oriental merchandise as a rich trophy of his discovery. The season was advancing; the cool nights gave hints of approaching winter; he resolved, therefore, not to proceed further to the north, nor to linger about uncivilized places, which, at present, he had not the means of colonizing, but to return to the east-south-east, in quest of Babeque, which he trusted might prove some rich and civilized island on the coast of Asia.

Before leaving the river, to which he had given the name of Rio de Mares, he took several of the natives to carry with him to Spain, for the purpose of teaching them the language, that, in future voyages, they might serve as interpreters. He took them of both sexes, having learned from the Portuguese discoverers, that the men were always more contented on the voyage, and serviceable on their return, when accompanied by females. With the religious feeling of the day, he anticipated great triumphs to the faith, and glory to the crown, from the

conversion of these savage nations, through the means of the natives thus instructed. He imagined that the Indians had no system of religion but a disposition to receive its impressions; as they regarded with great reverence and attention the religious ceremonies of the Spaniards, soon repeating by rote any prayer taught them, and making the sign of the cross with the most edifying devotion. They had an idea of a future state, but limited and confused. "They confess the soul to be immortal," says Peter Martyr," and having put off the bodily clothing, they imag. ine it goes forth to the woods and the mountains. and that it liveth there perpetually in caves; nor do they exempt it from eating and drinking, but that it should be fed there. The answering voices heard from caves and hollows, which the Latines call echoes, they suppose to be the souls of the departed, wandering through those places." 1

From the natural tendency to devotion which Columbus thought he discovered among them, from their gentle natures, and their ignorance of all warlike arts, he pronounces it an easy matter to make them devout members of the Church, and loyal subjects of the crown. He concludes his speculations upon the advantages to be derived from the colonization of these parts by anticipating a great trade for gold, which must abound in the interior; for pearls and precious stones, of which, though he had seen none, he

1 P. Martyr, decad. viii. cap. 9; M. Lock's translation,

had received frequent accounts; for gums and spices, of which he thought he found indubitable traces; and for the cotton which grew wild in vast quantities. Many of these articles, he observes, would probably find a nearer market than Spain, in the ports and cities of the Great Khan, at which he had no doubt of soon arriving.1

1 Primer Viage de Colon. Navarrete, tom. i.

[1492.]

N the 12th of November, Columbus turned his course to the east-south-east, to follow back the direction of the coast. This may be considered another critical change in his voyage, which had a great effect upon his subsequent discoveries. He had proceeded far within what is called the old channel, between Cuba and the Bahamas. In two or three days more, he would have discovered his mistake in supposing Cuba a part of terra firma: an error in which he continued to the day of his death. He might have had intimation also of the vicinity of the continent, and have stood for the coast of Florida, or have been carried thither by the Gulf Stream, or, continuing along Cuba where it bends to the south-west, might have struck over to the opposite coast of Yucatan, and have realized his most sanguine anticipations in becoming the discoverer of Mexico. It was sufficient glory for Columbus, however, to have discovered a new world. Its more golden regions were reserved to give splendor to succeeding enterprises.