United States or Ghana ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
If they sank under us and we drowned, the King and Queen if the Queen still lived never would come to know that Christopherus Columbus had found Veragua thrice more golden even than Paria! Found Veragua, met men of Yucatan; and heard of Ciguarre. At last not only the mutinous but steadfast men cried, "If there is a strait it is too far with these ships!" For a time he was obstinate.
They found here, however, the tokens of fishermen who had fled, leaving behind them some of their fishing tackle; and they noticed the prints of the feet of beasts, which they judged might have been goats, and they saw the bones of one, the head of which had no horns, and which, therefore, they thought might have been a monkey, or cat-o-mountain, as they afterwards found it to have been, having found many of these cats in Paria . This same day, being the 1st of August, while sailing between Cape Galera and la Plaga, they discovered the continent about twenty-five leagues distant, but thinking it another island, it was named Isla Santo, or the Holy Island . The coast of Trinidada between those two points was thirty leagues in length from E. to W. without any harbour, but all the country appeared pleasantly covered with trees down to the water side, and had abundance of towns.
That island, so long the object of his pride and hopes, had been taken from him, and was a scene of confusion; the pearl coast of Paria was ravaged by mere adventurers; all his plans concerning both had been defeated; but here was a far more wealthy region than either, and one calculated to console him for all his wrongs and deprivations.
After collecting the gold given him by the natives of the fertile province of Chamba, Vincent Yañez returned from Cape San Augustin and directed his course towards a lofty mountain chain which he saw on the southern horizon. He had taken some prisoners in the Gulf of Paria, which, beyond contest, lies in the Spanish dominions.
The latter name shows that the admiral had obtained the correct information from the natives of Paria respecting the locality of the pearl-fishery. But the current carried him far to the westward, and on August 19th he sighted the coast fifty leagues to leeward of the new capital.
Moreover, on passing this imaginary line, the admiral had invariably found that the temperature became agreeable, and the sea calm. Accordingly, in the course of this voyage, when they were suffering from that great heat which has been mentioned, he determined to take a westerly course, which led, as we have seen, to his discovering the beautiful land of Paria.
In Upper Guiana also the Orinoco is called Parava. In the Peruvian, or Quichua, I find rain, para; to rain, parani. Besides, there is a lake in Peru that has been very anciently called Paria. This is a striking example of identity of name between an American nation and the territory it possessed.
Whether in the smoky and almost impenetrable recesses of the cabin, or braving the cold and penetrating rain upon deck, it mattered not, she was ever at my side, and not only martyring me by the insufferable annoyance of her vulgar loquacity, but actually, from the appearance of acquaintanceship such constant association gave rise to, frightening any one else from conversing with me, and rendering me, ere many hours, a perfect Paria among the passengers.
They were tall men with long hair, and they told Columbus that the name of their country was Paria; and when they were asked about other inhabitants they pointed to the west and signified that there was a great population in that direction. On the 10th of August 1498 a party landed on this coast and formally took possession of it in the name of the Sovereigns of Spain.
Hojeda, after some ineffectual attempts to hold intercourse with the natives, with whom he had several skirmishes, next saw the Island of Margarita; after sailing about 250 miles to the east of the river Orinoco he reached the Gulf of Paria, and entered a bay called the Bay of Las Perlas, from the natives of that part being employed in the pearl fisheries.
Word Of The Day