A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels Volume Ii Part 8

[5] Cape de Verd is in 14 30' N. Deseada in 16 30' N. a difference of two degrees of lat.i.tude. Dominica, in 15 30' is the first land said to have been discovered by Columbus in his _second_ voyage, in the authentic original narrative by his son, which will be found in the sequel.--E.

[6] Counting from Dominica to the north side of Cuba, between 15 30' and 23 15'.--E.

[7] The negociators of the two crowns, as here related, seem to have been ignorant that this loose division of the globe gave the whole reciprocally to each of the parties.--E.

[8] The apparent object seems to have been in search of a pa.s.sage to the East Indies by way of the north-west, a chimera long and anxiously sought after. It is needless to make any observations on these indistinct notices, as the voyage of Cabot will be afterwards given at full length.--E.

[9] The centre of Trinidada is in 10 30'N. its S.W. point in 10 12', and the N.E. cape in 10 45' N.--E.

[10] De Barros, Dec. I. 1. 4. c. 2. and to the end of ch. 11.--Hakl.

[11] Osorius says this voyage commenced on the 9th of July.--Clarke.

[12] This Panama seems a blunder of some ignorant copyist, for Panarame.

--E.

[13] The coast here is nearly N. and S. and their course must have been to the north.--E.

[14] The Marannon and Amazons are the same river. Perhaps by the Rio Dolce the Orinoco may be meant; but in these slight notices of discovery it is impossible at times to ascertain the real positions, through the alteration of names.--E.

[15] From the lat.i.tude indicated by Galvano, the land of Cortereal may have been somewhere on the eastern side of Newfoundland.--E.

[16] Barros, Dec. 1. I. 5. c. 10.

[17] Gomara, I. 2.

[18] About 8200 ounces, worth about L. 16,000 sterling; equal in modern efficacy, perhaps, to L. 100,000.--E.

[19] Probably an error for Taprobana; the same by which Ceylon was known to the ancients.--E.

[20] The Cakerlaka of other writers, which can only be large monkeys or baboons, called men with tails, through ignorance or imposture.--E.

[21] Rumi still continues the eastern name of the Turkish empire, as the successor of the Roman emperors, in a.s.syria and Egypt. Hence these Roman gold coins may have come in the way of trade from a.s.syria or Egypt, or may possibly have been Venetian sequins.--E.

[22] The author must here mean Cochin China by the coast of Patane.--E.

[23] About 1000 by 320 English miles.--E.

[24] This story of the skull of a small insect is quite unintelligible, and must have been misunderstood entirely by Hakluyt, the translator: It is the Elephant, probably, that is here meant.--E.

[25] Probably the bird of Paradise.--Clarke.

[26] P. Martyr, Dec. 3. c. 10.

[27] The island of Tararequi is in lat. 5 N.

[28] These leagues are elsewhere explained as 17-1/2 to the degree, or about 4 English miles: Hence the estimate of Galvano is 2000 miles long by 1200 miles broad; certainly a very extensive dominion. China Proper may be said to extend in length from lat. 27 to 41 N. and in breadth from long. 97 to 121 E. not very inferior to the above estimate; but including the immeasurable bounds of its dependencies, Chinese Tartary, Thibet, and almost the whole of central Asia, it prodigiously exceeds the magnitude here a.s.signed by Galvano.--E.

[29] Castagnada, I. 4. c. 36. 37. Osorius, I. 11. f. 315. p. 2.

[30] Pet. Mart. IV. iv. Gomar. II. xiv. and xvii.

[31] The text is obscure, and seems to indicate that they were unable to pa.s.s between the island of Ascension and the main of Yucatan. The lat.i.tudes are extremely erroneous: Cozumel is in lat. 20 N. The island of Ambergris, perhaps the Ascension of the text, is in 18 30'.

From errors in lat.i.tude and alterations of nomenclature, it is often impossible to follow distinctly the routes of these early voyagers.--E.

[32] Pet. Mart. IV. vi. Gomar. II. xviii, &c.

[33] Gomar. II. xxi, xxii, xxiii, xxiv.

[34] This certainly ought to be called the Molucca islands; but Galvano uniformly applies the same name, Malacca, both to the spice islands and the city of Malacca on the Continent.--E.

[35] Gomar. IV. iii. Pet. Mart. V. vii.

[36] Ramusio, I. 874.

[37] This seems to mean the Straits of Babelmandel. Having lost sight of Prester John in Tartary, the Portuguese were delighted with the discovery of a Christian king in Africa, the Negus of Abyssinia; and transferred to him that popular fable.--E.

[38] These countries, with the river and cape mentioned in the text, are now unknown, these arbitrary names having merged in the nomenclature of more recent settlers. If the lat.i.tude be nearly accurate, it may have been on the confines of Georgia and South Carolina.--E.

[39] Gomar. II. l.

[40] Id. II. lx.

[41] Malacca of the text ought certainly to be Molucca: Bouro is in lat.

3 20' S. Timor between 8 30' and 10 20' S.--E.

[42] Gomar. IV. viii.

[43] Id. VI. iv. li.

[44] Gomar. IV. viii, and xii. Castagn. VI. xli.

[45] Gomar. VI. xii.

[46] Castagn. VI. xlii.

[47] Gomar. II. lxi. The text, in Hakluyt's translation, has the absurd number of 76,000 Castilians lost in this war; 76 is a more probable number, and is considerable out of his small force: yet, the text may mean 76,000 _Castellans_ of gold, as the sum expended on the expedition; and which Hakluyt, or his printer, changed to that number of _Castilians_.--E.

[48] Gomar. Conqu. de Mex. f. 226.

[49] Id. 242. This bay reaches no farther to the S. than 148 10' N.--E.

[50] Id. f. 229. 230.

[51] Id. f. 233.

[52] Gomar. Conqu. f. 234. and Hist. Gen. III. xxi.