Nino Had Sailed In The Third Voyage Along With
Columbus, When Trinidada, Paria, And Margarita Were Discovered, And The
Sole
Object of these interlopers appears to have been the acquisition of
pearls, which were found by Columbus in considerable numbers
On this coast.
Accordingly, they do not appear to have extended their researches beyond
the coast which Columbus had already discovered; and in what is called the
Bay of Pearls, which is formed between the Island of Margarita and the
main, they procured great numbers of that precious commodity from the
natives, in barter for hawks-bells, and various baubles made of tin. From
thence they proceeded westwards to Coro and Venezuela, where they
augmented their store of pearls. This last place, the name of which
signifies Little Venice, appears to have been the town built in the water,
which is mentioned in the first voyage of Americus. Farther on, at a place
which they named Curiana, they procured some gold, both wrought and in its
native state, with monkeys and beautiful parrots. In the course of this
voyage, they are said to have procured 150 marks, or 1200 ounces of pearls,
all very beautiful, and of a fine water, some as large as hazel-nuts, but
ill bored, owing to the imperfect tools of the natives. Besides pearls and
gold, they took on board a considerable quantity of Brazil wood, though
contrary to their instructions. They returned eastwards along the coast of
Paria or Cumana to the gulf of Paria, whence they took their departure for
Spain, and arrived in Galicia on the 6th February 1500; where they were
accused by their own crew of concealing the pearls, on purpose to deprive
the crown of the established duty, being a fifth of all importations[8].
Vincent Yanez Pinzon, who had accompanied Columbus during his first and
second voyages, sailed on a voyage of discovery about the close of the
year 1499, with four stout vessels fitted out at his own expence. In this
voyage Pinzon appears to have sailed along the east coast of South America,
and to have discovered Cape St Augustine in Brazil, to which he gave the
name of Cape Consolation. On his return to the northwards, he likewise
appears to have discovered the great Maranon, or river of the Amazons, and
the mouth of the Oronoko; which latter he named Rio Dulce, or Fresh
River, because he took up fresh water twenty leagues out at sea. He
thence proceeded to the coast of Paria, where he took in a cargo of Brazil
wood, and stood over to the islands between that coast and Hispaniola,
losing two of his ships in a great storm. With the two which remained he
went to Hispaniola to refit, and returned thence into Spain about the end
of September 1500[9].
In the immediately subsequent chapter a summary will be found of the
discoveries and settlements of the Spaniards in the West Indies, from the
death of the great Columbus to the commencement of the expedition under
Cortes, by which the rich and populous empire of Mexico was added to the
Spanish dominions in the New World.
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