near them he called El Romero, and three
other little small islands he called Las Guardias. Afterwards he arrived
near the Isla Margarita, and called it Margarita, and another near it he
named El Martinet.

This Margarita is an island 15 leagues long, and 5 or 6 wide, and is very
green and beautiful on the coast and is very good within, for which
reason it is inhabited; it has near it extending lengthwise east and
west, three small islands, and two behind them extending north and south.
The Admiral did not see more than the three, as he was going along the
southern part of Margarita. It is six or seven leagues from the mainland,
and this makes a small gulf between it and the mainland, and in the
middle of the gulf are two small islands, east and west, beside each
other: the one is called Coche, which means deer, and the other Cubagua,
which is the one we have described in chapter 136, and said that there
are an infinite quantity of pearls gathered there. So that the Admiral,
although he did not know that the pearls were formed in this gulf,
appears to have divined that fact in naming it Margarita; he was very
near it, although he does not express it, because he says he was nine
leagues from the island of Martinet, which he says was near Margarita, on
the northern part, and he says near it, because as he was going along the
southern part of Margarita, it appeared to be near, although it was eight
or nine leagues away; and this is the small island to the north, near
Margarita, which is now called Blanca, and is distant eight or nine
leagues from Margarita as I said. For here it seems that the Admiral must
have been close to or near Margarita and I believe that he anchored
because the wind failed him. Finally of all the names that he gave to the
islands and capes of the mainland which he took for the island of Gracia
none have lasted or are used to-day except Trinidad, Boca del Drago, Los
Testigos, and Margarita.

There the eyes of the Admiral became very bad from not sleeping. Because
always, as he was in so many dangers sailing among islands, it was his
custom himself to watch on deck, and whoever takes ships with cargo
should for the most part do that very thing, like the pilots, and he says
that he found himself more fatigued here than when he discovered the
other mainland, which is the island of Cuba, (which he regarded as
mainland even until now), because his eyes were bloodshot; and thus his
labors on the sea were