Note 4 — Chapter XIII · IN THE TRACK OF PLATE-FLEETS AND BUCCANEERS
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The experience of Columbus was even more terrifying. In a letter to Ferdinand and Isabella, giving an account of his fourth voyage, the great navigator informs them that, so great was the force of wind and current, he was able to advance only seventy leagues in sixty days. During this time, there was no “cessation of the tempest, which was one continuation of rain, thunder and lightning; indeed, it seemed as if it were the end of the world.... Eighty-eight days did this fearful tempest continue, during which I was at sea, and saw neither sun nor stars.”4 The name Cape Gracias á Dios—Thanks be to God—which he gave to the easternmost point of Nicaragua and Honduras, still remains to attest his gratitude for his miraculous escape from what for many long weeks seemed certain destruction.