Another very singular thing the Admiral has told me, and which is confirmed by his companions (all worthy of credence and whom I carefully questioned concerning the details of the voyage), is that he sailed twenty-six leagues, that is to say, one hundred and forty-eight miles, in fresh water; and the farther he advanced to the west, the fresher the water became.[6] Finally, he sighted a very lofty mountain, of which the eastern part was inhabited only by a multitude of monkeys with very long tails.  All this side of the mountain is very steep, which explains why no people live there.  A man, sent to reconnoitre the country, reported however that it was all cultivated and that the fields were sown, though nowhere were there people or huts.  Our own peasants often go some distance from their homes to sow their fields.  On the western side of the mountain was a large plain.  The Spaniards were well satisfied to drop anchor in such a great river.[7] As soon as the natives knew of the landing of an unknown race on their coasts, they collected about the Spaniards anxious to examine them, and displaying not the slightest fear.  It was learned by signs that that country was called Paria, that it was very extensive, and that its population was most numerous in its western part.  The Admiral invited four natives to come on board and continued his course to the west.

[Note 6:  See Orinoco Illustrado, by Gumilla, 1754, also Schomburgk’s Reisen in Guiana und Orinoco.  The fresh waters of the estuary are in fact driven a considerable distance out to sea.]

[Note 7:  This was the first landing of the Spaniards on the American continent, but Columbus, being ill, did not go on shore.  Pedro de Torreros took possession in the Admiral’s name (Navarrete, tom. iii., p. 569).  Fernando Columbus states that his father suffered from inflamed eyes, and that from about this time he was forced to rely for information upon his sailors and pilots (Storia, cap. lxv.-lxxiii.).  He seemed nevertheless to divine the immensity of the newly discovered land, for he wrote to the sovereigns y creo esta tierra que agora, mandaron discrubir vuestras altezzas sea grandissima.]

Judging by the agreeable temperature, the attractiveness of the country, and the number of people they daily saw during their voyage, the Spaniards concluded that the country is a very important one, and in this opinion they were not wrong, as we shall demonstrate at the proper time.  One morning at the break of dawn the Spaniards landed, being attracted by the charm of the country and the sweet odours wafted to them from the forests.  They discovered at that point a larger number of people than they had thus far seen, and as they were approaching the shore, messengers came in the name of the caciques of that country, inviting them to land and to have no fears.  When Columbus refused, the natives urged by curiosity, flocked about the ships in their barques.  Most of them