The most southern point of South America was called Cape Hoorn (or, according to the English, =Cape Horn=) by Schonten, who first rounded it in 1616, after Hoorn, his native place in North Holland. =Patagonia= was so styled by Magellan in accordance with the Spanish word _patagon_, meaning a large, clumsy foot. It was from the fact of seeing the impressions of the large shoes (not, as he imagined, the feet) of the aborigines that he at once concluded the country must be inhabited by giants. =Chili= is a Peruvian word denoting the “land of snow.” =Argentina=, now the =Argentine Republic=, owes its name to the silvery reflection of its rivers. =Brazil= is a Portuguese term derived from _braza_, “a live coal,” relative to the red dye-wood with which the country abounds. =Bolivia= perpetuates the memory of General Simon Bolivar, “the Liberator of Peru.” =Uraguay= and =Paraguay= are both names of rivers; the former meaning “the golden water,” and the latter “the river of waters,” referring to its numerous tributaries. =Peru= likewise received its name from its principal river, the Rio Paro, upon which stands the ancient city of Paruru. The Brazilian term _Para_, however modified, is at all times suggestive of a river. =Pernambuco= means “the mouth of hell,” in allusion to the violent surf always distinguished at the mouth of its chief river. =Ecuador= is Spanish for Equator, so called by virtue of its geographical position. =Columbia= was named in honour of Christopher Columbus. =Venezuela= expresses the Spanish for “Little Venice,” which designation was given to this country owing to the discovery of some Indian villages built upon piles after the manner of the “Silent City” on the Adriatic Sea.
The term =Panama= is Caribbean, indicative of the mud fish that abound in the waters on both sides of the isthmus. =Costa Rica= is literal Spanish for “rich coast”; while =Honduras= signifies, in the same tongue, “deep water.” The name of =Nicaragua= was first given by Gil Gonzales de Arila in 1521 to the great lake situated in the region now called after it, in consequence of his friendly reception by the _Cacique_, a Haytian term for a chief, whose own name was Nicaro, of a tribe of West Indians, with whom he fell in on the borders of the lake referred to. The =Mosquito Coast= owes its name to the troublesome insects (Spanish _mosca_, from the Latin _musca_, a fly) which infest this neighbourhood. =Yutacan= is a compound Indian word meaning “What do you say?” which was the only answer the Spaniards could obtain from the natives to their inquiries concerning a description of the country. =Quatemala= is a European rendering of the Mexican _quahtemali_, signifying “a decayed log of wood”; so called by the Mexican Indians who accompanied Alvarado into this region, because they found an old worm-eaten tree near the ancient palace of the Kings, or _Kachiquel_, which was thought to be the centre of the country.