THE STORY OF COLUMBUS AND THE WORLD'S FAIR. 253 
rain did not come down as rain, but formed a perfect deluge! 
The sailors, haggard with fright, and almost drowned, gave 
themselves up for lost. They began to prepare for death, 
confessing themselves one to another. But a new terror, a 
water-spout, appeared and was rapidly advancing toward them. 
Despairing of human help, they began to repeat aloud passages 
from St. John. The dreaded danger came close to the ships, 
but passed them by unharmed, and they gave the credit of their 
escape to the efficiency of their quotations. They lost one of 
their caravels during this dreadful storm, but after three days’ 
absence it rejoined them. A delightful calm succeeded the 
storm, and sharks began to play around the vessels. Much as 
the sailors regarded their vicinage as an unlucky omen, yet 
hunger conquered their fears, and they gladly captured and ate. 
some portions of this monster fish. ae 
, Entering a port which looked like a large canal, the natives 
proved friendly. Their cabins were built in trees, on poles laid 
from one branch to another, probably to guard against frequent 
floods from the mountains. It was on the 10th of January that — 
‘Columbus again entered the river Veragua. For a month he 
had been buffeted about by wind and wave, and had only come 
thirty leagues. So changeable had been the winds and currents, 
  
and so many had been his perplexities, that he rightly named | 
this line of seaboard “ The Coast of Contradictions.” The river 
which he anchored in was known by the natives as Yebra, but ? 
as he arrived there on the day of the Epiphany, he renamed it — 
13 : 5 one 
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