Here the necessary repairs were made, and, as the Spaniards worked on
their boats, they could look across to a low strip of land in the west--
the coast, did they but suspect it, of an unheard-of continent nearly as
large as all Europe!
Thinking it another island, they sailed over to it when the boats were
mended. The Admiral was suffering torture with eyestrain (small wonder,
one would say who has seen those hundreds of cramped pages he wrote), so
he called a reliable man and ordered him to conduct a party ashore and
take possession in the name of their sovereigns. He himself, he said,
would lie down awhile in his dark cabin, for the glare of the tropic sun
made his eyes ache cruelly. That is how it happened that, on August 10,
1498, the Admiral lost the chance of putting foot on the vast mainland
of South America.
Back came the party from shore after a few hours to report that the
natives appeared very intelligent, that their land was called Paria,
that they wore a little gold which came (as usual) from "the west," and
that they wore strings of pearls that were gathered a little farther
south on the Paria coast. At last, pearls! How it must have encouraged
our ever hopeful Admiral!
So now, though they did not suspect it, the great continent of South
America was discovered.
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