[176] Amoretti reads: “three degrees east of Capo Verde.” If the cape is meant, the correction is proper, but if the islands, the MS. is correct. See Mosto, p. 67, note 4.
[177] Cipangu is Japan, while Sumbdit Pradit may be the island of Antilia, called “Septe citade” on Martin Behaim’s globe (Mosto, p. 67, note 5). The locations given by Pigafetta prove that they did not see them, but that he writes only from vague reports. Europe first learned of Japan, near the end of the thirteenth century, through Marco Polo, who had been told in China fabulous tales of the wealth of Zipangu. This word is derived by Marco Polo from the Chinese Dschi-pen-Kuë or Dschi-pon, which the Japanese have transformed into Nippon or Nihon. See Travels of Marco Polo, book iii, ch. ii; and Rein’s Japan, p. 4.
[178] See Vol. I, pp. 208, 209, 210, 312, 336.
[179] MS. 5,650 reads: “sixty.” Transylvanus (Vol. I, p. 322) names two islands of the Ladrones Inuagana and Acacan, but says that both were uninhabited. Guillemard (ut supra, p. 223) conjectures these names to be identical with Agana in Guam and Sosan in Rota. Hugues (Mosto, p. 67, note 7) believes the first island visited to have been Guam, and his conjecture is undoubtedly correct.
[180] MS. 5,650 adds: “called skiff.”
[181] MS. 5,650 adds: “of the said island.”
[182] MS. 5,650 has a new unnumbered chapter heading before the following paragraph.
[183] This phrase is omitted in MS. 5,650, as is also all the following sentence; but that MS. adds: “We left the said island immediately afterward, and continued our course.” This was on March 9, on which day the only Englishman in the fleet, “Master Andrew” of Bristol, died (Guillemard, ut supra, p. 226).
[184] Eden (p. 254) says: “two hundreth of theyr boates.”
[185] MS. 5,650 has a new chapter at this point, although the chapter is unnumbered.