the "Dragon," he found the sea running westward and the wind
gentle. He notices that the waters are swept westward as the trade winds
are. In this way he accounts for there being so many islands in that
part of the earth, the mainland having been eaten away by the constant
flow of the waves. He thinks their very shape indicates this, they being
narrow from north to south and longer from east to west. Although some
of the islands differ in this, special reasons maybe given for the
difference. He brings in many of the old authorities to show, what we
now know to be entirely false, that there is much more land than water
on the surface of the globe.

All this curious speculation as to the make-up of the world encourages
him to beg their Highnesses to go on with the noble work which they have
begun. He explains to them that he plants the cross on every cape
and proclaims the sovereignty of their Majesties and of the Christian
religion. He prays that this may continue. The only objection to it is
the expense, but Columbus begs their Highnesses to remember how much
more money is spent for the mere formalities of the elegancies of
the court. He begs them to consider the credit attaching to plans of
discovery and quickens their ambition by reference to the efforts of the
princes of Portugal.

This letter closes by the expression of his determination to go on with
his three ships for further discoveries.

This letter was written from San Domingo on the eighth of October. He
had already made the great discovery of the mainland of South America,
though he did not yet know that he had touched the continent. He had
intentionally gone farther south than before, and had therefore struck
the island of Trinidad, to which, as he had promised, he gave the name
which it still bears. A sailor first saw the summits of three mountains,
and gave the cry of land. As the ships approached, it was seen that
these three mountains were united at the base. Columbus was delighted by
the omen, as he regarded it, which thus connected his discovery with the
vow which he had made on Trinity Sunday.

As the reader has seen, he first passed between this great island and
the mainland. The open gulf there described is now known as the Gulf of
Paria. The observation which he made as to the freshness of the water
caused by the flow of the Orinoco, has been made by all navigators
since. It may be said that he was then really in the mouth of the
Orinoco.