First Contact With Europeans
The Warao of eastern Venezuela's Orinoco first had contact with Europeans when, soon after Christopher Columbus reached the Orinoco river delta, Alonso de Ojeda decided to navigate the river upstream. There, in the delta, Ojeda saw the distinctively stilted Warao huts, balanced over the water. Similar architecture in Sinamaica far to the west had been likened to Venice, with its famous canals below and buildings above; this new encounter propagated the name of Venezuela ("little Venice") for the whole land. The Warao are credited with introducing hammocks and tobacco to Europeans. There is a hypothesis that they infected early European explorers with syphilis, previously unknown in Europe.
Read more about this topic: Warao People
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