hould have upset the vessel
when they came under its bows."

[Footnote 20: The Boca del Drago and the Boca de la Sierpe.]

COLUMBUS MISTAKES THE CONTINENT FOR ISLANDS.

Previously to entering the gulf, the admiral had sought to make friends
with some Indians who approached him in a large canoe, by ordering his men
to come upon the poop, and dance to the sound of a tambourine; but this,
naturally enough, appears to have been mistaken for a warlike
demonstration, and it was answered by a flight of arrows from the Indians.

The admiral, still supposing that he was amongst islands, called the land
to the left of him, as he moved up the gulf, the island of Gracia; and he
continued to make a similar mistake throughout the whole of his course up
the gulf, taking the various projections of the indented coast for
islands. Throughout his voyage in the gulf, Columbus met with nothing but
friendly treatment from the natives. At last he arrived at a place which
the natives told him was called Paria, and where they also informed him
that, to the westward, the country was more populous. He took four of
these natives, and went onwards, until he came to a point which he named
Punto de Aguja (Needle Point), where, he says, he found the most beautiful
lands in the world, very populous, and whence, to use his own words, "an
infinite number of canoes came off to the ships."

Proceeding onwards, the admiral came to a place where the women had pearl
bracelets, and, on his enquiring where these came from, they made signs,
directing him out of the Gulf of Paria towards the island of Cubagua. Here
he sent some of his men on shore, who were very well received and
entertained by two of the principal Indians. It is needless to dwell upon
this part of the narrative. Very few of the places retain the names which
the admiral gave them, and, consequently, it is difficult to trace his
progress. He began to conjecture, from the immense amount of fresh water
brought down by the rivers into the Gulf of Paria, that the land which he
had been calling the island of Gracia was not an island, but a continent,
of which fact he afterwards became more convinced. But little time was
given him for research of any kind. He was anxious to reach Hispaniola, in
order to see after his colonists there, and to bring them the stores which
he had in charge; and so, after passing through the "Boca del Drago," and
reconnoitring the island of Margarita, which he named