Contemporary Voyages of Discovery.



The general license granted by the Spanish sovereigns in 1495, to
undertake voyages of discovery, had given rise to various expeditions by
enterprising individuals, chiefly persons who had sailed with Columbus in
his first voyages. The government, unable to fit out many armaments
itself, was pleased to have its territories thus extended, free of cost,
and its treasury at the same time benefited by the share of the proceeds
of these voyages, reserved as a kind of duty to the crown. These
expeditions had chiefly taken place while Columbus was in partial disgrace
with the sovereigns. His own charts and journal served as guides to the
adventurers; and his magnificent accounts of Paria and the adjacent coasts
had chiefly excited their cupidity.

Beside the expedition of Ojeda, already noticed, in the course of which he
touched at Xaragua, one had been undertaken at the same time by Pedro
Alonzo Nino, native of Moguer, an able pilot, who had been with Columbus
in the voyages to Cuba and Paria. Having obtained a license, he interested
a rich merchant of Seville in the undertaking, who fitted out a caravel of
fifty tons burden, under condition that his brother Christoval Guevra
should have the command. They sailed from the bar of Saltes, a few days
after Ojeda had sailed from Cadiz, in the spring of 1499, and arriving on
the coast of Terra Firma, to the south of Paria, ran along it for some
distance, passed through the Gulf, and thence went one hundred and thirty
leagues along the shore of the present republic of Columbia, visiting what
was afterwards called the Pearl Coast. They landed in various places;
disposed of their European trifles to immense profit, and returned with a
large store of gold and pearls; having made, in their diminutive bark, one