Little Falls Herald

NAMED BY EARLY VOYAGERS

Venezuela So Called Because Spaniards
Saw Certain Degree of Re-
semblance to Venice.

Columbus while cruising in the Gulf
of Paria, on the coast of Venezuela,
during his third voyage, caught a
glimpse for the first time of the west-
ern hemisphere. Since he was ill with
the gout, and his eyes troubled him,
he did not go ashore; but as he lay
in his cabin his mind was full of great
imaginings. He was convinced that he
had discovered the Garden of Eden.
At the first opportunity, says an Eng-
lish writer, he sent a messenger to
Spain, announcing the great news. One
effect of the dispatch was to cause an
old comrade, Alonzo de Ojeda, to set
out at once for the new land. He did
not go with a hallowed wish to gaze
upon the tree of life, but to make
money; for Columbus had said that
pearls were to be found in the region,
and perhaps seeds of the apple that
Eve had eaten.

With Ojeda sailed Amerigo Vespucci.
Skirting the coast of the mainland
upon their arrival in the gulf, they
reached a placid bay where the natives
had built their huts on piling in the
water. Their little village reminded
Vespucci of Venice; so they called the
place Venezuela, little Venice, and
of Venice; the name gradually came to be applied
not merely to the village but to the
whole region, and became the name of
the country.