Panama and the canal . bies, and emeralds. Asia had been reached!How mean Columbuss voyages now looked in comparisonwith this triumph! Portugal had won the race by the longer African wonder that men began to doubt the existence of Co-lumbuss shorter route. Not so Columbus. „ , ^ Columbus He was now an old man, poor and sick; but and the his noble spirit still clung to the belief thatsomewhere, through the new lands that he had found, theremust be a waterway that would lead him on to Asia. Spainmust do something to offset the triumph of Portugal. Soit came about that the king and queen
Panama and the canal . bies, and emeralds. Asia had been reached!How mean Columbuss voyages now looked in comparisonwith this triumph! Portugal had won the race by the longer African wonder that men began to doubt the existence of Co-lumbuss shorter route. Not so Columbus. „ , ^ Columbus He was now an old man, poor and sick; but and the his noble spirit still clung to the belief thatsomewhere, through the new lands that he had found, theremust be a waterway that would lead him on to Asia. Spainmust do something to offset the triumph of Portugal. Soit came about that the king and queen sent him from Cadiz,on the nth of May, 1502, on his fourth and last voyage. In June he reached the West Indies, and in July theCape of Honduras south of Yucatan (Map II). For five lo EVIDENCES OF GOLD months he proceeded southward down the coast, encoun-tering head winds and wretched weather, but encouragedbecause he found the Indians there hving in large stonehouses, possessed of much good pottery and copper tools,. The Beautiful Harbor of Porto Bello. and well clothed in brightly-colored cotton garments. Therewere plentiful evidences of gold, too, and many nativeswere seen with plates of gold suspended from their the rich lands of Asia could not be far away! Ondown the coast the vessels went, until they reached theIsthmus of Panama. Here the low hills, clothed with densetropical forests, rose but little above the sea. Each bay NO WATERWAY ii and river was now carefully explored, especially the Chagresriver, up which Columbus went to its sources, and was atone time but fifteen miles from the Pacific! The beautifulharbor of Porto Bello (Good Harbor) was entered andnamed on November 2, 1502. Still no passage to the westwas found. Already the sailors were grumbling; the foodwas almost gone; and the vessels were worm-eatenand hard to manage. Yet the determined man pressed onmile after mile, hoping against hope. But in December,having passed along the entire coast o
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