422 TRINIDAD. 



Columbus immediately sailed westward along the southern 

 coast, looking for a safe roadstead and water. He anchored in a 

 small bay, probably that of Moruga, where he took a supply of 

 water. The next day he again dropped anchor, most likely in 

 the bay of Erin. On landing he saw on the sandy beach human 

 footsteps, and picked up some fishing implements. 



Here and there were thatched huts and patches of cultivated 

 grounds. It was during his navigation along the coast that 

 Columbus discovered, towards the south, a low land, which he 

 designated by the name of " Isla Santa/'' This Isla Santa was 

 nothing else but part of the Delta of the Orinoco, or of the 

 continent of South America ; and from that day we should date 

 the discovery of the Continent, not by Amerigo Vespucci, but by 

 Columbus. The next day he was off Point Jicacos, or " Punta 

 Arenal," as he termed it, forming with a line of rocks a narrow 

 pass, near which he anchored his vessels. To the principal 

 these rocks he gave the name of " El Gallo," and to the ps 

 itself that of " Boca de la Sierpe," or the serpent's moutl 

 "Whilst at anchor his caravel was approached by a large cane 

 with some twenty-five islanders; they, however, stood at 

 distance, and soon paddled off to the shore. 



During the night of the 2nd o£ August he had the opporti 

 nity of witnessing the phenomenon of a ground swell; his 

 vessels were lifted up by the surge, whilst one of the caravels 

 lost its anchor. Some time in the year 1877 an anchor was 

 found imbedded in the sand at Constance Estate, Point Jicacos, 

 and deemed to be the anchor lost by Columbus. Mr. Fr. 

 Agostini, the owner of La Constance Estate, had the same sent 

 to the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1878. 



Columbus on leaving his anchorage at "Punta Arenal/' 

 entered the Gulf of Paria, and, on finding its water nearly fresh 

 at places, came to the conclusion that some large rivers must 

 discharge their contents into it, and gave the Gulf the name of 

 " Mar Dulce " — the fresh sea. After some days' sailing in the 

 Gulf, Columbus debouched into the Atlantic, through the Grand 

 Boca. 



The island, of which the name was " Cain/' as reported by 

 Sir Walter Raleigh, or " Yere " — the land of humming-birds — 

 according to Joseph, was, as it appears, well settled and pretty 

 densely inhabited by Caribs, who were subdivided into smaller 



