176 



HISTORY OF THE SEA. 



The fleet was unable to remain in these seductive regions, 

 owing to the scarcity of provisions and the increasing blindness 

 of the admiral. He would have been glad to stay in a spot 

 which, in his letter to his sovereigns, he describes as the Terres- 

 trial Paradise, the Orinoco being one of the four streams flowing 

 from it, as described in the Bible. The fact that this river 



MOUTH OF THE ORINOCO. 



throws from its forty issues fresh water enough to overcome the 

 saltness of the sea to a great distance from the shore, was one 

 of the circumstances which gave to this portion of the world the 

 somewhat marvellous and fantastic character with which the 

 imagination of Columbus invested it. He sailed at once from 



