452 PROCEEDINGS 01* SECTION E. 



very fine port, wliich was formed by a large island that was 

 situated at the mouth, inside of which there was a bay, very 

 deeply indented " {Lettera, p. 18 ; in this bay he anchored in 

 his second voyage, in the summer of 1 499. The description 

 applies either to the Gulf of Paria or to the mouth of the 

 Orinoco ; and that Baye Perdue is intended for one of these 

 places is evident from its position relatively to St. Kitts. If 

 " Perdue " is a translation of the Spanish " Perdita," the 

 name may have been given it after the loss of two of the 

 ships of Vincente Pinzon in that neighbourhood in the year 

 1500. The islands off the coast to the west of Baye Perdue 

 represent very fairly the Leeward Islands, and one might 

 without difficulty pick out Margarita, Tortuga, and Curacoa ; 

 whilst some of the headlands are probably represented as 

 islands. The Gulf of Venezuela is not drawn as such, but, 

 at the place where we should expect to find it, are several 

 islands representing the peninsulas of Paraguana and La 

 Guajira. We may conclude that the pilot who drew the 

 original chart (like the pilot who drew the original charts 

 from which the Hydrographia of 1513 was constructed) 

 sailed past the entrance of this gulf without detecting it. 

 Another West Indian island serves as an index to this part 

 of the coast, under the name " Ye de Lucayos." This name 

 appears on De la Cosa's map in the singular, " Lucayo," 

 apparently as the equivalent of Guanahani, and it is else- 

 where used in the plural of the Bahamas generally. The 

 coast then trends S.W. into the Gulf of Darien ; and on 

 this part appears on the chart of Desliens the word 

 " forillons," an adaptation of the Spanish " farallones," or 

 reefs above water. The " Farallones " of the Gulf of Darien 

 are referred to by Galvano (Hakluyt Soc. Ed., p. 99), who 

 speaks of them as being sighted by Rodrigo Bastidas in his 

 voyage of the year 1503, but mentions them as if well known 

 prior to that time. 



At the extremity of the Gulf of Darien the coast-line 

 of the MS. charts ceases to correspond with the actual coast. 

 The explanation, I think, is to be found in supposing that 

 the navigator who drew the chart left the coast at this point, 

 crossed the mouth of the Mosquito Gulf, and resumed his 

 hydrographical labours where he again sighted the coast — 

 that of Nicaragua, — some distance to the south of C. 

 Gracias a Dios. At this point another of the West Indian 

 Islands assists our identification. N.N.E. from the promon- 

 tory which we have supposed to be C. Gracias a Dios — 



