59 



with corn, and bound from the Island of Lance- 

 rotte, to Santa Cruz, in TenerifF, was driven to 

 sea, while none of the crew were on hoard. The 

 motion of the waters from east to west, carried 

 it to America, where it went on shore at La 

 Guayra near Caraccas # . 



Whilst the art of navigation was yet in it's in- 

 fancy, the Gulf-stream furnished the genius of 

 Christopher Columbus with certain indications of 

 the existence of western regions. Two corpses, 

 the features of which indicated a race of un- 

 known men, were thrown on the coasts of the 

 Azores, towards the end of the 15th century. 

 Nearly at the same period, the brother-in-law of 

 Columbus, Peter Correa, governor of Porto San- 

 to, found on the strand of this island pieces of 

 bamboo of an extraordinary size, brought thither 

 by the western currents-}*. These corpses and the 

 bamboos attracted the attention of the Genoese 

 navigator, who conjectured, that both came from 

 a continent situate towards the west ; we know 

 at present, that in the torrid zone the trade 

 winds and the current of the tropics are in oppo- 

 sition to every motion of the waves in the direc- 

 tion of the earth's rotation. The productions of 

 the new world cannot reach the old, but by the 

 very high latitudes, and in following the direc- 



* Viera Hist. gen. de las Islas Canarias, t. ii, p. 167- 

 t Munorz, Hist, del nuevo mundo, Lib. ii,§. 14. Fernan 

 Colon, vida del Almirante, cap.9. Herera Decad. 1, cap. ii 



