Spanish Discovery 5
Hispaniola. From outside the reef they discerned in the west
the jagged, saw-like crest of what are now the Cockscomb
Mountains, to which the name Sierra de Caria, or Cariay, was
applied. Every seaman is impressed by this isolated moun-
tain group which is the colony's most conspicuous landmark
from the sea. The Moskito Indians, the abundance of turtle,
the cayes, the flatness of the coast, reminded Pedro Ledesma
of the Mosquito Coast he had sailed along with Columbus
in 1502, which coast Columbus called Caria, or Cariay, after
the shell of the hawksbill turtle.
 The Honduras Almanack of 1829 says-"Turtle eggs are
found in abundance on the low sandy beaches of the cayes
towards the Spanish Main, between the ports of Omoa and
Truxillo. Prodigious shoals of turtle cross the spacious Bay
of Honduras as far as the Grand Cayman to lay, a passage of
about 150 leagues, and it has frequently been asserted that
vessels which had lost their latitude in hazy weather have
often been safely conducted by the noise of their swimming
towards these islands. When they are done laying they re-
turn to the cayes where they recover."
 Amerigo Vespucci had helped to prepare this expedition,
but did not go with it on account of the many set-backs in
Spain and the curtailment of its intended scope before the
king gave his sanction in 1505. However, Amerigo Vespucci
had touched the mainland of Honduras in the summer of
1497 on the first of his so-called four voyages to America, and
Pedro Ledesma had been in the Bay of Honduras in 1499
searching for the waterway to the Spice Islands. Sailing be-
yond the assigned latitudes or without the royal permission
caused much animosity with Columbus and his supports,
and so the accounts of these two voyages sometimes took the
dates when they occurred or when the accounts were pub-
lished.
 In 1492 Vicente Yanez Pinzon had commanded the caravel
"Nina" when Columbus discovered America, and in 1500
he discovered Brazil a few months before the Portuguese un-