in that place and there are
an infinite number of oysters and very large ones and because there are
no tempests there, but the sea is always calm, a sign of which is that
the trees enter into the sea, which shows there is never a storm there,
and every branch of the trees which were in the water (and there are also
roots of certain trees in the sea, which according to the language of
this Espanola are called _mangles_[348-3]) was full of an infinite number
of oysters so that breaking a branch, it comes out full of oysters
attached to it. They are white within, and their flesh also, and very
savory, not salt but fresh and they require some salt, and he says that
they do not know or spring from mother-of-pearl. Wherever the pearls are
generated, he says, they are extremely fine and they pierce them as in
Venice. As for this that the Admiral says that the branches were full of
oysters there, we say that those oysters that he saw and that are on the
branches above the water and a little under the water are not those that
produce pearls, but another species; because those that bear pearls are
more careful from their natural instinct to hide themselves as much
further under water as they can than those he saw on the
branches....[349-1]

Returning to where I dropped the thread of the history, at this place the
Admiral mentions many points of land and islands and the names he had
given them, but it does not appear when. In this and elsewhere the
Admiral shows himself to be a native of another country and of another
tongue, because he does not apprehend all the signification of the
Castilian words nor the manner of using them. He gave names to the Punta
Seca, the Ysla Ysabeta, the Ysla Tramontana, the Punta Llana, Punta Sara,
assuming them to be known, although he has said nothing of them or of any
of them. He says that all that sea is fresh, and he does not know from
whence it proceeds, because it did not appear to have the flow from great
rivers, and that, if it had them, he says it would not cease to be a
marvel. But he was mistaken in thinking there were no rivers, since the
river Yuyapari furnished so great a flow of fresh water, as well as
others which come from near there.

Desiring to get out of this Gulf of Ballena, where he was encircled by
mainland and La Trinidad, as already said, in going to the west by that
coast of the mainland, which he called "de Gracia" towards the point
Seca, although he does not say where it