954 A P P E N D I X TO Vol. III. 



nuch more arduous expeditions ; for at Cuba Columbus found ca- 

 noes nintty-five fpans in length, and able to hold fifty perfons. At 

 Hifpaniola he faw fome piraguas of twenty-five oars, as large as 

 brigantines ; and what is ftill more to our purpofe, in paffing 

 through the Honduras Gulph, he fell in with one as long as a 

 Spanifli galley, eight feet in breadth, manned with twenty-five 

 hands, laden with Weftern corn modifies, and bound, as he ima- 

 gined from the province of Yucatan j in the middle of it was an 

 awning compofed of mats, made of palmeto leaves, and underneath 

 it were difpofed feveral women and children, and their goods, in 

 fuch fecurity, that neither the rain nor fpray of the fea could 

 annoy them. The lading confided of great abundance of cotton 

 cloths dyed, with feveral colours and curioufly wrought j (hort fhirts 

 or jerkins of the fame materials, but without fieeves or collars; and 

 clouts or aprons for men and women in their undrefs. They had 

 wooden fwords edged with fliarp ftones grooved in, and fixed with 

 thread and bitumen, copper hatchets for hewing wood, fmall 

 bells and plates of the fame metal, crucibles for melting it, and 

 cacao nuts, which, on the continent, pafl'ed current as money. 



That the Indians, therefore, on this coaft were in no want of conve- 

 nient means for tranfporting whole families, nor imfkilled in trade and 

 navigation, mufi: be very apparent ; add to this, that the clcarnefs of 

 the heavens, and brilliancy of the ftars in this hemifphere at night, 

 miift have greatly affifted their navigation, and enabled them to fhape 

 their courfe with tolerable accuracy. It is laid of the Indians of Yuca- 

 tan, that, in order to know the hour of the night, they obferved the 

 evening ftar, the Pleiades, and the conftellation of Orion. By day 

 they had particular names alligned to different quarters of the heaven, 

 and governed their reckonings of time by them. But their voyages 

 at fea were probably made by night, to which they had feveral induce- 

 ments: a cooler atmofphere, which lefl'ened their toil of rowing; a 

 calmer fen, and lefs wind to contend againli ; laftly, a diftind: view of 

 thofe ftars or planets which fcrved for their guides. They lay by, 

 perhaps, in the day-time under fhcltcr of Ibme little caye, or ifle, of 

 which there are fuch multitudes in this fea. 



The people of the continent, and of this diftrifl in particular, had 

 peither the \ife of iron nor letters; yet gave fuch proofs of .advanced 



Ikill 



