Late July 1496, 0 degrees Equator, mouth of the Amazon River.
The tropical wind blew across the deck, carrying the salty smell of the sea, mixed with a certain damp, raw, yet disastrously sweet scent, like the lingering mist beneath giant trees. The morning sun rose at the far end of the North Atlantic, but the southern horizon was not an endless expanse of sea and sky. Gazing far from the deck, the lookout saw only thick blue-gray lines – the contour of the coastline, but not just the coastline.
"Splash! Splash!"
The mighty river water stretched endlessly, as wide as a strait, and so deep the bottom was invisible. The surging waves carried the scent of the entire continent, rushing into the Atlantic Ocean. Even the surrounding sea changed color from deep blue to strange muddy yellow and swirling green. It was as if the earth had melted into the river, flowing from its heart into the sea.
