were peopled, others uninhabited, and which are supposed to have been
the Caribbee Islands. [Then ensues Vespucci's account of the fight,
with the substitution of Ojeda as captain in command.]

His crew being refreshed, and the wounded sufficiently recovered,
Ojeda made sail and touched at the island of Curacao, which, according
to the accounts of Vespucci, was inhabited by a race of giants, "every
woman appearing a Penthesilia, and every man an Antei." As Vespucci
was a scholar, and as he supposed himself exploring the regions of
the extreme East, the ancient realm of fable, it is probable his
imagination deceived him, and construed the formidable accounts given
by the Indians of their cannibal neighbors of the islands into
something according with his recollections of classic fable. Certain
it is that the reports of subsequent voyagers proved the inhabitants
of the island to be of the ordinary size.

Proceeding along the coast, he arrived at a vast, deep gulf,
resembling a tranquil lake, entering which he beheld, on the eastern
side, a village, the construction of which struck him with surprise.
It consisted of twenty large houses, shaped like bells, and built on
piles driven into the bottom of the lake, which in this part was
limpid and of but little depth. Each house was provided with a
draw-bridge, and with canoes, by which the communication was carried
on. From these resemblances to the Italian city, Ojeda gave to the bay
the name of the Gulf of Venice, and it is called at the present day
Venezuela, or Little Venice. The Indian name was _Coquibacoa_. [In
this connection Irving quotes freely from Vespucci's account of the
Lake Dwellers, and also gives entire his description of the
Spaniards' entertainment by Indians of the interior.]

Continuing to explore this gulf, Ojeda penetrated to a port or harbor,
to which he gave the name of St. Bartholomew, supposed to be the same
at present known by the original Indian name of _Maracaibo_.... The
Spaniards brought away with them several of the beautiful and
hospitable females of this place, one of whom, named by them Isabel,
was much prized by Ojeda, and accompanied him on a subsequent voyage.
Leaving the friendly port of Coquibacoa, Ojeda continued along the
western shores of the Venezuelan gulf, and standing out to sea,
doubling Cape Maracaibo, he pursued his voyage from port to port, and
promontory to promontory, of this unknown continent, until he reached
that long