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.
I share the view that the clouds are converted into
water, which is absorbed into the mountain caverns,
for I have seen with my own eyes in Spain, rain falling
drop by drop incessantly into caverns from whence
brooks flowed down the mountainside, watering the olive
orchards, vineyards and gardens of all kinds.
The most illustrious Cardinal Ludovico of Aragon,
who is so devotedly attached to you, and two Italian
bishops, one of Boviano, Silvio Pandono, and the other,
an Archbishop whose own name and that of his diocese
I am unable to recollect, will bear me witness.
We were together at Granada when it was captured from
the Moors, and to divert ourselves we used to go to
some wooded hills, whence a murmuring rivulet flowed
across the plain. While our most illustrious
Ludovico went bird-hunting with his bow along its
banks, the two bishops and I formed a plan to ascend
the hill to discover the source of the brook, for
we were not very far from the top of the mountain.
Taking up our soutanes, therefore, and following the
river-bed, we found a cavern incessantly supplied by
dropping water. From this cavern, the water formed
by these drops trickled into an artificial reservoir
in the rocks at the bottom where the rivulet formed.
Another such cave filled by the dew is in the celebrated
