46 



for it's fishery of pearls. There the Spaniards, 

 immediately after the voyages of Columbus and 

 Ojeda, founded, under the name of New Cadiz, 

 a town, of which there now remains no vestige. 

 At the beginning of the sixteenth century, the 

 pearls of Cubagua were known at Seville, at To- 

 ledo, and at the great fairs of Augsburg and 

 Bruges. New Cadiz having no water, that of 

 the Rio Manzanares was conveyed thither from 

 the neighbouring coast, though for some reason, 

 I know not what, it was thought to be the cause 

 of diseases of the eyes*. The writers of that 

 period all speak of the riches of the first plant- 

 ers, and the luxury they displayed ; at present, 

 downs of shifting sand cover this uninhabited 

 land, and the name of Cubagua is scarcely found 

 in our charts. 



Having reached these latitudes, we saw the 

 high mountains of Cape Macanao, on the west- 

 ern side of the isle of Margaretta, which rose 

 majestically on the horizon. If we might judge 

 from the angles of altitude of the tops, taken at 

 eighteen miles distance, they appeared to be 

 about 5 or 600 toises high. According to Ber- 

 thoud's time-keeper, the longitude of Cape Ma- 

 canao is 66° 47' 5" t I speak of the rocks at the 

 extremity of this cape, and not that strip of very 

 low land, which stfetches toward the west, and 



* Herrera, Descrip. de las Indias occidentales (Madrid,, 

 1730), vol. i, p. 12. 



