river in the Peruvian territory.]

The first is the size of the mountains. It is claimed that they are
very great and this was the opinion of Columbus, who discovered them.
He had also another theory, asserting that the terrestrial paradise
was situated on the top of the mountains visible from Paria and Boca
de la Sierpe. He ended by convincing himself that this was a fact.
If these mountains are so immense, they must contain extensive and
gigantic reservoirs.

If such be the case, how are these reservoirs supplied with water? Is
it true, as many people think, that all fresh waters flow from the
sea into the land, where they are forced by the terrible power of the
waves into subterranean passages of the earth, just as we see it pour
forth from those same channels to flow again into the ocean?

This may well be the explanation of the phenomenon, since, if the
reports of the natives be true, nowhere else will two seas, separated
by such a small extent of land, ever be found. On the one side a vast
ocean extends towards the setting sun; on the other lies an ocean
towards the rising sun; and the latter is just as large as the former,
for it is believed that it mingles with the Indian Ocean. If this
theory be true, the continent, bounded by such an extent of water,
must necessarily absorb immense quantities, and after taking it up,
must send it forth into the sea in the form of rivers. If we deny that
the continent absorbs the excess of water from the ocean, and admit
that all springs derive their supply from the rainfall which filters
drop by drop into mountain reservoirs, we do so, bowing rather to the
superior authority of those who hold this opinion, than because our
reason grasps this theory.