They had a fermented liquor, a kind of maize beer which looked like English ale; they had some kind of money or medium of exchange also, and they told the Admiral that there was land to the west where all these things existed and many more.
It is strange and almost inexplicable that he did not follow this trail to the westward; if he had done so he would have discovered Mexico.

But one thing at a time always occupied him to the exclusion of everything else; his thoughts were now turned to the eastward, where he supposed the Straits were; and the significance of this canoe full of natives was lost upon him.
They crossed over to the mainland of Honduras on August 15th, Bartholomew landing and attending mass on the beach as the Admiral himself was too ill to go ashore.

Three days later the cross and banner of Castile were duly erected on the shores of the Rio Tinto and the country was formally annexed.

The natives were friendly, and supplied the ships with provisions; but they were very black and ugly, and Columbus readily believed the assertion of his native guide that they were cannibals.
They continued their course to the eastward, but as the gulf narrowed the force of the west-going current was felt more severely.

Columbus, believing that the strait which he sought lay to the eastward, laboured against the current, and his difficulties were increased by the bad weather which he now encountered.