Travels in South America Volume 1; During the Years 1801, 1802, 1803, and 1804 Containing a Description of the Captain-Generalship of Caraccas, and an (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: by dint of courage, patience, privations and dangers. Discovery of Terra Firma by Columbus. Terra Firma was not discovered until the year 1498, and that glory too was reserved for Christopher Columbus. This was the third voyage he made from Spain to America. His intention was to advance to the south as far as the equator; but the calms prevented him, and he was carried by the currents to the Mouths of the Dragons, situated between the island of Trinidad and Terra Firma. Lopez de Gomara maintains that Columbus discovered all the coast as far as Cape de Vela; but Oviedo, whose testimony I have learnt to respect, from the character which has been given me of his accuracy by his own countrymen,asserts that Columbus did not sail along the coast of Terra Firma, farther than the point of Araya, which is nearly due south of the westernmost point of Margaretta, from which he steered to the northward in order to make St. Do. mingo. Don Fernando Columbus, son of the ad. iniral, says that his father, after having discovered the gulph of Paria, coasted along Terra Firma as far west as the Testigo Islands, from which point he sailed with a fair wind to St. Domingo; an account which too nearly corresponds with what is related by Oviedo, not to consign the assertion of Lopez de Gomara to the list of blunders which are so frequent in his work. Ojeda and Americus Vesfiucius follow his track, In consequence of the account which Columbus gave the Spanish court, of the discovery of that part of Terra Firma, of the manners of the inhabitants with whom he had had communications, and of the riches which he had observed, of which pearls constituted the chief part, the government granted Captain Alphonso Ojeda permission to pursue the discovery. Americus Vespucius, who enjoys a celebrity usurpe...