9 



Azores and the Bermuda islands, and which 

 is traversed in returning to Europe by the high 

 latitudes, is called by the Spaniards by the sin- 

 gular name of Golfo de las Yeguas (the Mares' 

 Gulf). Colonists who are not accustomed to 

 the sea, and who have led solitary lives in the 

 forests of Guiana, the savannahs of the Caraccas, 

 or the Cordilleras of Peru, dread the neighbour- 

 hood of the Bermudas more than the inhabitants 

 of Lima fear at present the passage round Cape 

 Horn. They exaggerate the danger of a navi- 

 gation which is perilous only in the winter. 

 They defer from one year to another the execu- 

 tion of a project which appears hazardous, and 

 death very often surprises them in the midst of 

 the preparations which they make for their re- 

 turn. 



To the north of the Cape Verd islands we 

 met with great masses of floating sea-weeds. 

 They were the tropic grape, fucus natans, which 

 grows on submarine rocks, only from the equa- 

 tor to the fortieth degree of north and south la- 

 titude. These weeds seem to indicate the exist- 

 ence of currents in this place, as well as to the 

 southwest of the banks of Newfoundland. We 

 must not confound the latitudes abounding in 

 scattered weeds with these banks of marine 

 plants, which Columbus compares to extensive 

 meadows, the view of which struck with terror 

 the crew of the Santa Maria in the forty-second 



