more green and beautiful or more
populated; moreover the temperature since I have been in this island,"
says he, "is, I say, cool enough each morning for a lined gown, although
it is so near the equinoctial line; the sea is however fresh. They called
the island Paria." All are the words of the Admiral. He called the
mainland an island, however, because so he believed it to be.

Friday, August 10, he ordered sail to be made and went to the west of
that which he thought to be an island, and travelled five leagues and
anchored. For fear of not finding bottom, he went to search for an
opening [mouth] by which to get out of that gulf, within which he was
going, encircled by mainland and islands, although he did not believe it
to be mainland, and he says it is certain that that was an island,
because the Indians said thus, and thus it appears he did not understand
them. From there he saw another island facing the south, which he called
Ysabeta,[347-1] which extends from the south-east to north-west,
afterwards another which he called La Tramontana,[348-1] a high land and
very beautiful, and it seemed that it ran from north to south. It
appeared very large. This was the mainland. The Indians whom he had taken
said--according to what he understood--that the people there were
_Canibales_ and that yonder was where the gold was found and that the
pearls which they had given the Admiral they had sought and found on the
northern part of Paria toward the west. The water of that sea he says was
as fresh as that of the river of Seville and in the same manner muddy. He
would have wished to go to those islands except for turning backward
because of the haste he felt in order not to lose the supplies that he
was taking for the Christians of Espanola, which with so much labor,
difficulty and fatigue he had gathered for them; and as being a thing for
the sake of which he had suffered much, he repeats this about the
provisions or supplies many times. He says he believes that in those
islands he had seen, there must be things of value because they are all
large and high lands with valleys and plains and with many waters and
very well cultivated and populated and the people of very good speech, as
their gestures showed. These are the words of the Admiral.

He says also that if the pearls are born as Pliny[348-2] says from the
dew which falls in the oysters while they are open, there is good reason
for having them there because much dew falls