near which there are extensive
_salines_ or salt ponds. Cubagua has a good harbour on the northern shore,
which is sheltered by the opposite island of Margarita. There was at first
such abundance of pearl oysters, that at one time the royal fifth amounted
to 15,000 ducats yearly. The oysters are brought up from the bottom by
divers, who stay under water as long as they can hold in their breath,
pulling the shells from the places to which they stick. Besides this place
there are pearls for above 400 leagues along this coast, all the way from
Cape _de La Vela_ to the gulf of Paria; for Admiral Christopher Columbus,
besides Cubagua, which he named the Island of Pearls, found them all along
the coast of Paria and Cumana, at _Maracapana_, _Puerto Flechado_, and
_Curiana_, which last is near _Venezuela_.

SECTION V.

_Alonzo de Hojeda and Diego de Nicuessa are commissioned to make
Discoveries and Settlements in the New World, with an account of the
adventures and misfortunes of Hojeda_.

Among the adventurers who petitioned the court of Spain for licenses to
make discoveries, was Alonzo de Hojeda, a brave man, but very poor, who
had spent all he had hitherto gained; but John de la Cosa, who had been
his pilot and had saved money, offered to assist him with his life and
fortune. They got the promise of a grant of all that had been discovered
on the continent; but one Diego Nicuessa interposed, and being a richer
man, with better interest, he stopped their grant and procured half of it
to himself. Hojeda and Cosa got a grant of all the country from Cape _De
la Vela_ to the gulf of _Uraba_, now called the Gulf of Darien, the
country appropriated to them being called _New Andalusia_; while Nicuessa
received the grant of all the country from the before-mentioned gulf to
Cape _Garcias a Dios_, under the name of _Castilla del Oro_, or Golden
Castile. In neither of these grants was any notice taken of the admiral,
to whom, of right, all these countries belonged, as having being
discovered by his father. Nicuessa got likewise a grant of the island of
Jamaica; but the admiral being in the West Indies secured that to himself.
Hojeda fitted out a ship and a brigantine, and Nicuessa two brigantines,
with which vessels they sailed together to St Domingo, where they
quarrelled about their respective rights, and their disputes were adjusted
with much difficulty. These were at length settled, and they both
proceeded for their respec