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His theory was, that the earth was not a perfect sphere, but pear-shaped; and he thought that, as he proceeded westwards in this voyage, the sea went gradually rising, and his ships rising too, until they came nearer to the heavens. It is very possible that this theory had been long in his mind, or, at any rate, that he held it before he reached the coast of Paria.
He had an opportunity to see us start, at least, on the following morning. Before leaving, we climbed a 300-foot mound on the left bank of the Paria River, directly opposite the Lee ranch. This mound is known as Lee's Lookout. Whether used by Lee or not, it had certainly served that purpose at some time.
So he sailed away northward, on the 12th of March, to plunder Spanish ships, with his brains full of stories of El Dorado, and the wonders of the Orinoco among them 'four golden half-moons weighing a noble each, and two bracelets of silver, which a boat's crew of his had picked up from the Indians on the other side of the Gulf of Paria. He left somewhat too soon.
That the route had been definitely determined upon was indicated by the establishment, January 31, 1870, of a Paria fort, with guards. In the fall of that year President Brigham Young visited the Paria, as is shown in a letter written by W.T. Stewart, this after the President had seen the mouth of the Virgin and otherwise had shown his interest in a southern outlet for Utah.
The journey started at Hamblin's home in the Santa Clara settlement and was by way of the mouth of the Paria, where a good ferry point was found, but not used, and the Crossing of the Fathers on the Colorado, probably crossed by white men for the first time since Spanish days. The Hopi villages were found none too soon, for the men were very hungry.
However this may be, he went with four ships to the Cape de Verd islands, whence he ran along a parallel, finding great rains and calms, and the first land he came to in the Antilles was an island in nine degrees of north latitude, called Trinidada, which lies close to the main land. Here he entered the Gulf of Paria, and came out by the Bocca de Dragone, or Dragons-mouth.
The nones of November he reached the coast of that immense country of Paria, between the port of Carthagena and the district of Cuchibacoa, discovered by Columbus. He suffered equally during this voyage from the attacks of the natives and from the fury of the sea. Being short of water, he stopped at the mouth of the river called by the natives Gaira, which was large enough for his ships to enter.
They arose and scattered the ingredients from the medicine bag into the air, upon the men and into the waters of the river. Hamblin wrote, "To me the whole ceremony seemed humble and reverential. I feel the Father had regard for such petitions." There was added prayer by Tuba when the expedition safely landed on the opposite shore, at the mouth of the Paria. Tuba had a remarkable trip.
The lighter colour of the skin of the natives and the great coolness of the mornings on the coast of Paria, seemed to confirm the fantastic hypothesis which that great man had framed, respecting the irregularity of the curvature of the earth, and the height of the plains in this region, which he regarded as the effect of an extraordinary swelling of the globe in the direction of the parallels of latitude.
He therefore sailed for a long distance beyond the Boca de la Sierpe and Spanish Paria, which face the north and the pole star. In these parts are found some of those abominable anthropophagi, Caribs, whom I have mentioned before.
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