Holding His Course Westwards Along
The Coast Of Paria, He Came To The Islands Called Los Testigos, Or The
Witnesses,
Beyond which is the island of Cubagua, where there is a great
fishing for pearl-muscles, and where also there
Is a well of rock oil.
Beyond that he came to the Frailes islands, named Roques, Aruba, and
Curacoa, and other small islands, along the coast of the main land, and
to the point of land named Cabo de Vela, having discovered 200 leagues of
coast. He thence crossed over the Caribbean Sea, directly north for
Hispaniola, passing by the island Beata.
In this same year[10] 1497, on the 20th day of June[11], King Emanuel
sent a squadron of three ships for India, commanded by one Vasques de
Gama, having under his command his brother Paulus de Gama and Nicolas
Coello, as captains of the other two ships, the whole having a complement
of 120 men. They were accompanied by a fourth ship laden with provisions.
In fourteen days they reached the island of St Jago, one of the Cape
Verds, whence they went along the coast beyond the Cape of Good Hope,
erecting pillars of stone in proper places, as marks of discovery and
possession, and came to Mosambique in lat. 15 deg. S. After staying only a
short time there, de Gama went to Mombaza and Melinda, the king of which
last place gave him pilots, who conducted him to India, in which passage
he discovered Los Baxos do Padua, or the Flats of Padua. In the month of
May 1498, de Gama came to anchor before the city of Calicut, _and
Panama_[12], where they remained till the first day of September, when
they sailed towards the north, discovering all the coast till they came to
the island of Angediva, on the western side of India, in 15 deg. N. where they
came to an anchor in the beginning of October. They remained here till
February 1499, when they departed on their voyage homewards; coming first
to Melinda, and so by Mosambique and along the coast to the Cape of Good
Hope, and by the islands of Cape de Verd, and lastly to the city of Lisbon,
in September of that year, having been absent on their voyage for twenty-
six months.
On the 13th of November 1499, Vincent Yannez Pinzon, who had sailed with
Columbus in his first voyage of discovery, and his nephew Aries Pinzon,
departed from the port of Palos with four well appointed ships, fitted
out at their own cost, having a license from the king of Spain to
prosecute discoveries in the new world, but with express orders not to
touch anywhere that had been visited by Columbus. Going first to the
islands of Cape de Verd, they passed the line and stood over towards the
new world, which they fell in with at Cape St Augustine, in lat. 8 deg. 30' S.
where they carved on the barks of trees the date of their arrival, and
the names of the king and queen of Spain.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 41 of 427
Words from 21109 to 21624
of 224388
