EXPLORATION OF THE SOUTH AMERICAN SEABOARD. 9 



reach Buenos Ayres from Paris in eleven days, that is, in a third of the time 

 occupied by existing lines.* 



Exploration of the Seaboard. 



The work of discovery, begun in North America centuries before the time of 

 Columbus, was retarded in the southern continent by its greater distance from the 

 populous and trading lands of the Old World. No Norse sea-rover ever landed 

 on its shores ; no legend anterior to the age of the great navigators speaks of 

 mysterious islands dimly seen by monks wandering, like St. Brendan, in these 

 remote waters of the austral hemisphere ; the pretended Phœnician inscription 

 said to have been found on the banks of the Parnahyba, in equatorial Brazil, was 

 no more authentic than so many others reported from various parts of the New 

 World. 



The Spanish caravels had already been plying for six years in the West Indian 

 waters, when Columbus, in 1498, reached the mainland near the Orinoco delta. 

 He recognised the importance of this immense watercourse ; but he explored none 

 of its branches, and, escaping from the Gulf of Paria by one of the " Dragon's 

 Mouths," where the marine currents clash, he hastily returned to his mines and 

 plantations in Espanola. 



Next year Peralonso Niiio and Cristobal Guerra landed in their turn on the 

 shores of the mainland, which they traced for some distance in the direction of the 

 west, trading as they went with the natives. Then followed a few months later the 

 memorable expedition of Hojeda, who was accompanied by the learned pilots, 

 Juan de la Cosa and Amerigo Vespucci. The party extended its explorations for 

 over 600 miles between the muddy shores of the present Guiana and the peninsula 

 roamed by the Goajiros Indians, west of the Gulf of Maracaibo. 



During the first two years of the sixteenth century Bastidas de Sevilla com- 

 pleted the survey of the Columbian coastlands as far as the Gulf of Uraba. About 

 the same time the shores of the continent facing Africa were also visited by 

 European navigators. Vicente Pinzon explored the coasts and fluvial estuaries 

 of the Guianas, sailed into the "Freshwater Sea" encircling the Amazonian 

 island of Marajo, and coasted the shores of the present Brazil to and beyond its 

 easternmost headland of Cape Sao Poque. Diego de Lepe traversed the same 

 waters, while Alvarez Cabrai, striking the land at Porto Seguro farther south, 

 reported the discovery of the "island" of Santa Cruz, which subsequent discoveries 

 showed to be a part of the continental seaboard visited by his predecessors. 



Then Amerigo Vespucci traced the coastline as far as the bay of Cananea, south 

 of the present Brazil, and hither came Gonneville and other Normans of Dieppe 



* Dimensious of South America according lo Ch. Perron : — - 



Superficial area with adjacent and dependent islands . . 6,740,000 sq. miles. 



Mean area of the other continents with their islands . . 8,900,000 sq. miles. 



Coastline 18,000 miles. 



Extreme length 4,500 miles. 



Extreme breadth 3,100 miles. 



Extreme distance from the centre to the coast ..... 1,740 miles. 



