vast stretches of water full of grass[2]; neither the Admiral, Columbus, who first discovered these lands and crossed this sea of grass, nor the Spaniards accompanying Pedro Arias are able to explain the cause of this growth.  Some people think the sea is muddy thereabouts and the grasses, growing on the bottom, reach to the surface; similar phenomena being observed in lakes and large rivers of running waters.  Others do not think that the grasses grow in that sea, but are torn up by storms from the numerous reefs and afterwards float about; but it is impossible to prove anything because it is not known yet whether they fasten themselves to the prows of the ships they follow or whether they float after being pulled up.  I am inclined to believe they grow in those waters, otherwise the ships would collect them in their course,—­just as brooms gather up all the rubbish in the house,—­which would thus delay their progress.

[Note 2:  The Mare Sargassum of the ancients:  also called Fucus Natans, and by the Spaniards Mar de Sargasso.  A curious marine meadow nearly seven times larger than France, in extent, lying between 19 deg. and 34 deg. north latitude.  There is a lesser Fucus bank between the Bahamas and the Bermudas.  Consult Aristotle, Meteor, ii., I, 14; De mirabilibus auscutationibus, p. 100; Theophrastus, Historia Plantarum, iv., 7; Arienus, Ora Maritima, v., 408; Humboldt, Cosmos, tom. ii.; Gaffarel, La Mer des Sargasses; Leps, Bulletin de la Soc.  Geog., Sept., 1865.]

The fourth day of the ides of March snow-covered mountains were observed.  The sea runs strongly to the west and its current is as rapid as a mountain torrent.  Nevertheless the Spaniards did not lay their course directly towards the west, but deviated slightly to the south.  I hope to be able to demonstrate this by one of the tables of the new cosmography which it is my intention to write, if God gives me life.  The Gaira River, celebrated for the massacre of the Spaniards during the voyage of Roderigo Colmenares, which I have elsewhere related, rises in these mountains.  Many other rivers water this coast.  The province of Caramaira has two celebrated harbours, the first being Carthagena and the second Santa Marta, these being their Spanish names.  A small province of the latter is called by the natives Saturma.  The harbour of Santa Marta is very near the snow-covered mountains; in fact it lies at their foot.  The port of Carthagena is fifty leagues from there, to the west.  Wonderful things are written about the port of Santa Marta, and all who come back tell such.  Among the latter is Vespucci,[3] nephew of Amerigo Vespucci of Florence who, at his death, bequeathed his knowledge of navigation and cosmography to his nephew.  This young man has, in fact, been sent by the King as pilot to the flagship and commissioned to take the astronomical observations.  The steering has been entrusted to the principal pilot, Juan Serrano, a Castilian, who had often sailed in those parts.  I have often invited this young Vespucci to my table, not only because he possesses real talent, but also because he has taken notes of all he observed during his voyage.[4]