Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 6, 2025
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.
The Spaniards, who settled at first at Cubagua, and soon after on the coasts of Cumana, worked, from the beginning of the sixteenth century, the salt marshes which stretch away like a lagoon to the north of Cerro de la Vela.
We must not be surprised that fertile islands, so near Terra Firma, are not now inhabited. It was only at the early period of the discovery, and whilst the Caribbees, Chaymas, and Cumanagotos were still masters of the coast, that the Spaniards formed settlements at Cubagua and Margareta.
As soon as the clerico's back was turned he sent one boat off one way and the other another; and sorry enough he must have been for it before long, for trouble came almost at once. The pearl fishers of Cubagua had not ceased to molest the Indians, and it was hardly two weeks after Las Casas had sailed before the Franciscans detected signs of danger.
To requite which manifold courtesies, he carried off, not only all the gold, but all the Indians he could seize, and took them in irons to Cubagua, and sold them for slaves; after which, Delgado was shot in the eye by an Indian, of which hurt he died;" Pedro d'Orsua, who found the cinnamon forests of Loxas, "whom his men murdered, and afterwards beheaded Lady Anes his wife, who forsook not her lord in all his travels unto death," and many another, who has vanished with valiant comrades at his back into the green gulfs of the primaeval forests, never to emerge again.
To the south is Cape Araya on the continent, 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.
An official report dated September 26, 1528, informs us that "on the day of the Apostle Saint John a French caravel and a tender bore down on the port of Cubágua and attempted to land artillery from the ship with the help of Indians brought from Margarita, five leagues distant.
All might yet have gone well if it had not been for the Spaniards on the island of Cubagua. They had no good water on that island, and this made an excuse for coming to the mainland very often. They brought liquor with them, which made the Indians drunk and unmanageable, and they taught them many evil ways. This was a great perplexity to Las Casas and the good monks.
It has no land animals, except a few rabbits. The few natives which inhabited it, fed on the pearl oysters, and had to bring their water in canoes from the continent of Cumana, seven leagues distant, giving seed pearls in payment to those who brought it over. They had their wood from the isle of Margarita, which almost surrounds Cubagua from east to north-west, at the distance of a league.
The venado of Cubagua belongs to one of those numerous species of small American deer, which zoologists have long confounded under the vague name of Cervus mexicanus. It does not appear to be the same as the hind of the savannahs of Cayenne, or the guazuti of Paraguay, which live also in herds. Its colour is a brownish red on the back, and white under the belly; and it is spotted like the axis.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking