On Thursday, the fifth of July, Columbus steered westward from the islands of Cape Verd, and on the last day of the month altered his course and stood to the north. “One day about noon as he was thus sailing [off the coast of Venezuela, South America, north of the mouths of the Orinoco river], Alonso Perez Nirando, a sailor of the town of Huelva, while going up to the round-top, saw the peaks of three mountains to the westward, distant about fifteen leagues. Not long afterward they beheld land extending northeastwardly as far as they could see. When they had given thanks to God and said the _Salve Regina_ and other prayers used by seamen in times of distress or joy, the admiral called the discovered island, la Isla de Trinidad (the island of the Trinity), for he had thought of giving this name to the first land they should find on the voyage, and now God had graciously granted him the sight of three mountains near together as has been mentioned. The fleet stood directly west to reach a point of land on the south side of the island, and then coasted along that side of it until the anchors were cast, five leagues beyond the cape, which Columbus called Punta de la Galera (Point of the Galley), which name was suggested by a rock on the headland, resembling, at a distance, a galley under sail. On the following morning, Wednesday, Columbus continued his course westward, for there was only one cask of water on board his ship, and one on each of the other vessels, and at the last anchorage no convenient place had been found to obtain more. At the next headland, which he called Punta de la Playa (Point of the Strand), the ships anchored and the crews went to a small brook and obtained a supply of fresh water. No town or people were seen here, although they had observed many houses and towns along the coast.... This day, which was the first of August, when the vessels were sailing between Punta de la Galera and Punta de la Playa, they discovered the continent, distant about twenty-five leagues as they guessed. Inasmuch as they thought it was another island, they called it Isla Santa (Holy Island).” When the ships anchored at the southwestern extremity of the island of Trinidad, which point of land Columbus called Punta del Arenal, “a large canoe,” the admiral writes, “came from the eastward, containing twenty-four men, all in the prime of life, fully armed with bows, arrows, and shields. As I have said, they were all young, well proportioned, and not dark black, but whiter than any other Indians that I had seen.... They wore their hair long and straight, cut in the Spanish fashion. Their heads were encircled with cotton scarfs elaborately colored, like the head-dresses of the Moors. Some wore these scarfs round their bodies as a covering in the place of breeches. When I reached Punta del Arenal I found that the island of Trinidad was separated from the land of Gracia (_la tierra de Gracia_)[202] by a strait two leagues wide....