It is not an island yonder; it is a great main!"
We called the gulf where we were the Gulf of the Whale.
Trinidad stood on the one hand, the unknown continent on
the other. After rest in milky water, we set sail to cross
the width of the Whale, and found glass-green and shaken
water, but never so piled and dangerous as at the Mouth of
the Serpent. So we came to that land that must be--we
knew not what! It hung low, in gold sunlight. We saw no
mountains, but it was covered with the mightiest forest.
Anchoring in smooth water, we took out boats and went
ashore, and we raised a cross. "As in Adam we all die,
so in Christ we be alive!" said the Admiral, and then,
"What grandeur is in this forest!"
In truth we found trees that we had not found in our
islands, and of an unbelievable height and girth. Upon the
boughs sat parrots, and we were used to them, but we were
not used to monkeys which now appeared, to our mariners'
delight. We met footprints of some great animal, and presently,
being beside a stream, we made out upon a mud bank
those crocodiles that the Indians call "cayman." And never
have I seen so many and such splendid butterflies. All this
forest seemed to us of a vastness, as the rivers were vast.
There rang in our ears "New! New!"
And at last came an Indian canoe--two--three, filled
with light-hued, hardly more than tawny, folk, with cloth
of cotton about their middles and twisted around their heads,
with bows and arrows and those new bucklers.
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