This Report Prevailed So Universally Among The Caciques In
These Parts, That There Was Not A Brook In All Florida,
Nay scarcely a
lake or puddle, that they had not bathed in; and some still ignorantly
persist in believing that
This virtue resides in the river now called
Jordan, at Cape Santa Helena, forgetting that the Spaniards first gave
it this name in 1520, when they discovered the country of Chicora.
Though this voyage of Ponce de Leon turned out to no account to him, it
gave him encouragement to go to court to seek a reward for the countries
he had discovered, which he believed to be all islands, and not the
continent, as it afterwards turned out. Yet his voyage was beneficial, on
account of the route soon afterwards found out, by which the ships returned
to Spain through the Bahama channel, which was first accomplished by the
pilot Antonio de Alaminos, formerly mentioned. For the better
understanding this voyage of Juan Ponce, it must be understood that there
are three different groups in the archipelago of the Lucayos. The first is
composed of the Bahama islands, giving name to the channel where the
currents are most impetuous. The second is called los Organos; and the
third los Martyres, which are next the shore of los Tortugas to the
westwards; which last being all sand, cannot be seen at any distance,
wherefore many ships have perished on them, and all along the coasts of
the Bahama channel and the Tortugas islands. Havanna in the island of Cuba
is to the southwards, and Florida to the northward, and between these are
all the before mentioned islands, of Organos, Bahamas, Martyres, and
Tortugas. Between Havanna and los Martyres, there is a channel with a
violent current, twenty leagues over at the narrowest; and it is fourteen
leagues from los Martyres to Florida. Between certain islands to the
eastwards, and the widest part of this passage to the westwards, is forty
leagues, with many shoals and deep channels; but there is no way in this
direction for ships or brigantines, only for canoes. The passage from the
Havanna, for Spain is along the Bahama channel, between the Havanna the
Martyres, the Lucayos, and Cape Canaveral; and the giving occasion to this
discovery was the great merit of Ponce de Leon, for which he was well
rewarded in Spain.
[1] The account of this voyage is often contradictory, and almost always
unintelligible. In this instance, De Leon is made, with a southern
course, to increase his latitude almost nine degrees to the north. - E.
[2] This account of the island of Bimini is perfectly ridiculous, as its
whole extent does not exceed twenty miles in length, and not exceeding
one mile broad; it is one of the smallest of the Bahama or Lucayo
islands, and the largest of them cannot possibly contain any stream of
water beyond the size of a brook. - E.
SECTION X.
The Martyrdom of two Dominican Friars on the coast of Venezuela, through
the Avarice of the Spaniards.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 343 of 415
Words from 181304 to 181813
of 219607
