| Its tall twin bell towers were the first sign of port for the caravels making the long voyage from Lisbon, Africa or Macau. |
| He then sailed north to Paracoa Bay where he built a palisade to protect his caravels before he careened them in order to repair their poorly maintained hulls. |
| The local fishing caravels and brigs appeared small and insignificant, overshadowed by the tall ships. |
| The caravels, cockleshell boats that took Portuguese seafarers off to new worlds, return carrying the shabby detritus of empire. |
| The Portuguese discovered coconuts there, which cured the scurvy and enabled them to make hawsers for their caravels. |
| In one of them, he imagined the pilot of La Pinta, one of the caravels from Christopher Colombus' first voyage, on board his boat. |
