gulf, which
he called "de la Ballena," where he travelled so many days encircled by
land. I add that it is a good 50 leagues, as appears from the chart.

Having gone out of the gulf and the Boca del Drago and having passed his
danger, he decides to go to the west by the coast below[355-2] of the
mainland, believing yet that it was the island of Gracia, in order to get
abreast, on the right, of the said Gulf of the Pearls, north and south,
and to go around it,[355-3] and see whence comes so great abundance of
water, and to see if it proceeded from rivers, as the sailors affirmed
and which he says he did not believe because he had not heard that either
the Ganges, the Nile or the Euphrates[355-4] carried so much fresh
water. The reason which moved him was because he did not see lands large
enough to give birth to such great rivers, "unless indeed," he says,
"that this is mainland." These are his words. So that he was already
beginning to suspect that the land of Gracia which he believed to be an
island is mainland, which it certainly was and is, and the sailors had
been right, from which land there came such a quantity of water from the
rivers, Yuyapari and the other which flows out near it, which we now call
Camari, and others which must empty there, so that, going in search of
that Gulf of the Pearls, where the said rivers empty, thinking to find it
surrounded by land, considering it an island and to see if there was an
entrance there, or an outlet to the south, and if he did not find it, he
says he would affirm then that it was a river, and that both were a great
wonder,--he went down the coast that Monday until the setting of the sun.

He saw that the coast was filled with good harbors and a very high land;
by that lower coast he saw many islands toward the north and many capes
on the mainland, to all of which he gave names: to one, Cabo de Conchas;
to another, Cabo Luengo; to another, Cabo de Sabor; to another, Cabo
Rico. A high and very beautiful land. He says that on that way there are
many harbors and very large gulfs which must be populated, and the
farther he went to the west he saw the land more level and more
beautiful. On going out of the mouth, he saw an island to the north,
which might be 26 leagues from the north, and named it La Isla de la
Asuncion; he saw another island and named it La Concepcion, and three
other small islands together he called Los Testigos.[356-1] They are
called this to-day. Another