Yanez Pinzon, one of the brave companions of Columbus,
undertook a voyage to the new world in 1499.

This navigator suffered much from storms, and having sailed southward,
he crossed the equator and lost sight of the polar star.

The sailors were exceedingly alarmed at this circumstance, as the polar
star was relied upon by them as one of their surest guides; not knowing
the shape of the earth, they thought that some prominence hid this star
from their view.

The first land that Pinzon discovered, after crossing the line, was Cape
St. Augustine, in eight degrees south latitude, the most projecting part
of the extensive country of Brazil.

As the fierceness of the natives made it unsafe to land on this coast,
he continued his voyage to the north-west, and fell in with the mighty
river Amazon, which is nearly under the equinoctial line.

The mouth of this river is more than thirty leagues in breadth, and its
waters enter more than forty leagues into the ocean without losing its
freshness.

He now recrossed the line, and coming again in sight of the polar star,
he pursued his course along the coast, passed the mouth of the Oronoko,
and entered the Gulph of Paria, after which he returned to Spain.

Ojeda also undertook a voyage expressly to found a settlement; but as
the character of the Spaniards was now well known to the inhabitants of
these parts, they determined to oppose their landing, and being a
numerous and warlike people, Ojeda nearly lost his life in the attempt.

Many of his companions were slain; the survivors, however, succeeding in
making good their retreat on board the ships.

Shortly afterwards he landed on the eastern side of the Gulph of Darien,
and built a fortress which they called San Sebastian.

Ojeda had with him in this expedition Francisco Pizarro, about whom I
shall have to tell you something more presently.

About the same time another Spaniard, of the name of Nicuessa, formed a
settlement on that part of the coast, and built a fortress there, which
he called Nombre de Dios, not very distant from the harbour of
Portobello.

Thus, by degrees, the whole coast of America, on the side of the
Atlantic, was discovered and explored.

But the Spaniards did not know that in the part where they were, it was
only a narrow neck of land (which you know is called an Isthmus) that
separated them from another vast ocean; and this, when they discovered
the ocean on the other side, was called the Ist