Editorial note — BOOK VI

[Note 6: See Orinoco Illustrado, by Gumilla, 1754, also Schomburgk's Reisen in Guiana und Orinoco. The fresh waters of the estuary are in fact driven a considerable distance out to sea.]

[Note 7: This was the first landing of the Spaniards on the American continent, but Columbus, being ill, did not go on shore. Pedro de Torreros took possession in the Admiral's name (Navarrete, tom. iii., p. 569). Fernando Columbus states that his father suffered from inflamed eyes, and that from about this time he was forced to rely for information upon his sailors and pilots (Storia, cap. lxv.-lxxiii.). He seemed nevertheless to divine the immensity of the newly discovered land, for he wrote to the sovereigns y creo esta tierra que agora, mandaron discrubir vuestras altezzas sea grandissima.]