THE NAME AMERICA. 651 



According to Vanihagen the chiefs of this expedition of 1497 were V. 

 Y. Pinson and J. D. de Solis; they first saw the land in the vicinity of 

 the Cape Gracias a Dios, and after two days' sailing, in following a sandy 

 coast, they stoi)ped at a small harbor near the Lagima de Oaratasca, 

 Honduras. They met there a great many Indians of the Caraibes type, 

 some of whom possessed a few gold ornaments, which they got from 

 some neighboring tribes. As we know now that the Amerriques Indi- 

 ans had relations with the Caraibes of the coast as far as the Laguna 

 de Caratasca, we have here the first contact of the Spaniards with the 

 Indians possessing a little gold on the coast of Central America; and 

 it is possible that the name Amerrique was then spoken of as a tribe of 

 Indians and a country rich in gold, for it is the only gold area of that 

 part of the coast of Honduras. 



THE LAST VOYAGE OF COLOMBO. 



Oristoforo Colombo in bis fourth and last voyage sighted the Cape 

 Gracias ^ Dios the 14th of September, 1502, followed all along the Mos- 

 quito coast, until he stopped at Quiriviri (Huerta Island), now Booby 

 Island, opposite the Indian village of Cariai at the mouth of the Eio 

 Rama. He staid there ten days, from the 25th of September until 

 the 5th of October. There he repaired his vessels and let his crews 

 recruit after their very fatiguing navigation from Cuba. 



The Indians were friendly and there was a great deal of communica- 

 tion and intercourse between them and the one hundred and fifty sea- 

 men composing the crews of his four caravels (schooners). Colombo 

 in his Lettera rarissima says that at Cariai he heard of gold mines in 

 the province of Ciamba ; that he took with him two Indians who con- 

 ducted him to another place called Carambaru, where the aborigines 

 are always naked and carry round their necks mirrors in gold, which 

 they declined to exchange on any account. At Cariai, tbe Indians 

 named several places where gold mines existed ; the last named being 

 Veragua, 25 leagues distant. 



As de Humboldt says, that letter is not clear ; it is written in a mel- 

 ancholy mood, and characterized by many obscuriti< s and want of 

 order, due to many injustices and deceptions to which Colombo was 

 subjected at the end of his life. Colombo was then an old man, almost 

 infirm, when he wrote the letter at Jamaica, the 7th July, 1503, just 

 after returning from the rich gold region of Veragua; being badly treated 

 by the governor, Ovando, his mind was more or less affected by his suf- 

 fering, and it is not strange if he did not give all the details and all the 

 names of the countries rich in gold, as well as the names of the Indian 

 tribes with which he came in contact. 



However, from his letter, we can say almost to a certainty that Cariaf 

 was at the mouth of the Eio Rama, that Colombo heard there of the 

 tribe of Amerriques as possessing a good deal of gold, which the Span- 

 iards were so anxious to get; that he took with him two Indians with 



