This was on a Wednesday, the first of August.

From the point where he now was, the low lands of the Orinoco must have been visible, and Columbus must have beheld the continent of America for the first time.[18] He supposed it to be an island of about twenty leagues in extent, and he gave it the somewhat insignificant name of Zeta.
[Footnote 18: The northern part of the continent had been discovered by Sebastian Cabot, on the 24th of June, 1497.] The same signs of felicity which greeted his eyes on his first sight of land, continued to manifest themselves.

Farms and populous places[19] were visible above the water as he coasted onwards; with the trees flourishing close to the sea--a sure sign of the general mildness of the weather, wherever it occurs.
[Footnote 19: "Vido muchas labranzas por luengo de Costa y muchas Poblaciones."-- LAS CASAS, Hist.

de las Indias, MS., lib.

i cap.