[182] In August, 1495, Peter Martyr, writing to Cardinal Bernardino, says: “Columbus asserts that this region is the continent of the Ganges of India,—Indiæ Gangetidis continentem eam esse plagam contendit Colonus.”—Opvs, epistolaru Petri Martyris Anglerii Mediolanēsis Protonotarij Aplici atque a cōsilijs reru Indicaru: nuc pmu et natu y mediocri cura excursum: quod q dē preterstili venustatē, nostroru quoque tēporum histori loco esse poterit. Cōpluti Anno dni MDXXX.
[183] Historie del S. D. Fernando Colombo. cap. lviii-lxiv.
[184] Columbus writing from Española in October, 1498, says: “Each time that I sail from Spain to India, as soon as I have proceeded about a hundred nautical miles to the west of the Azores, I perceive an extraordinary alteration in the movement of the heavenly bodies, in the temperature of the air, and in the character of the sea. I have observed these alterations with especial care, and I notice that the mariner’s compass, whose declination had hitherto been northeast, was now changed to northwest; and when I had crossed this line, as if in passing the brow of a hill, I found the ocean covered with such a mass of sea-weed, similar to small branches of pine covered with pistachio nuts, that we were apprehensive that for want of a sufficiency of water our ships would run upon a shoal. Before we reached the line of which I speak, there was no trace of any such sea-weed. On the boundary line, one hundred miles west of the Azores, the ocean is found still and calm, being scarcely ever moved by a breeze. On my passage from the Canary Islands to the parallel of Sierra Leone, we had to endure a frightful degree of heat, but as soon as we had crossed the above-mentioned line, the climate changed, the air became temperate, and the freshness increased the farther we proceeded.”
“It is evident that the extract from the third voyage is but an amplification of his first account, and expresses his conviction that west of the Azores, where the declination was a little easterly, it changed to the westward, being nearly zero at Corvo, and gradually increasing to one point or 11° W., at a distance of 300 nautical miles W. of the longitude of Corvo. The position of Rosario on the S.E. part of the island of Corvo is, according to the Carta Esferica de las Islas Azores, Madrid, 1855, in latitude 39° 41´ and longitude 24° 53´ west of San Fernando, or in 31° 07´ west of Greenwich (according to the Conn. des Temps), 100 leagues or 300 nautical miles west of this longitude would correspond (in latitude 28°) to 5° 40´, and would bring the Columbus line in longitude 36° 47´ W.”—An inquiry into the variation of the compass off the Bahama Islands at the land fall of Columbus in 1492. By Charles A. Schott. p. 51.
[185] Histoire del S. D. Fernando Colombo. cap. lxiv.
“The necessity for attaching a special and well-informed astronomer to every great expedition was so generally felt that Queen Isabella wrote to Columbus on the 5th of September, 1493, ‘that although he had shown in his undertakings that he knew more than any other living being (que ninguno de los nacidos), she counselled him, nevertheless, to take with him Fray Antonio de Marchena, as being a learned and skillful astronomer.’ Columbus writes in the narrative of his fourth voyage that ‘there was only one infallible method of taking a ship’s reckoning, viz., that employed by astronomers. He who understands it may rest satisfied; for that which it yields is like unto a prophetic vision (vision profetica). Our ignorant pilots, when they have lost sight of land for several days know not where they are. They would not be able to find the countries again which I have discovered. To navigate a ship requires the compass (compas y arte) and the knowledge or art of the astronomer.’”—Humboldt: Cosmos. Otté’s trans. vol. ii. pp. 671-673.
[186] “That any individual among our subjects and natives, that desires, may go hereafter (according to our pleasure and will) to discover islands and the mainland in the said part of the aforesaid Indies, either to those already discovered or to any other, and to traffic in them, provided it be not in the aforesaid island of Española. He may buy from the Christians there or from those who may hereafter be there any article and merchandise, provided it be not gold; and this he may and shall do with any suitable ship, provided that at the time he leaves our kingdom he depart from the city of Cadiz, and there present himself before our officers. And they must carry thence in each of such vessels one or two persons named by our officers.... And it is our will and pleasure that of all which the said persons shall find in the aforesaid islands and mainland they shall have for themselves nine parts, and the tenth shall be our part.”—Vide Memorials of Columbus; or a collection of authentic documents of that celebrated navigator. London, 1823. pp. 88-95.
[187] Amerigo Vespucci, the third son of Anastasio Vespucci and Elizabetta Mina, was born in Florence, March 9, 1451. In his boyhood he attended the school taught by his uncle, Giorgio Antonio Vespucci, a monk of the order of St. Mark. About the year 1493 Vespucci went to Seville, and engaged in the business of furnishing and equipping vessels for voyages of discovery. He died in Seville, February 22, 1512.—Vide The life and voyages of Americus Vepucius. By C. Edwards Lester and Andrew Foster. New York, 1846. Amerigo Vespucci. Son caractère, ses écrits (même les moins authentiques), sa vie, et ses navigations, par F. A. de Varnhagen. Lima, 1865.
[188] Vide Bibliotheca Americana Vetustissima.—A description of works relating to America published between the years 1492 and 1551. [By Henry Harrisse.] New York, 1866. pp. 55-68.
[189] “Electo per sua alteza che io fussi in essa flocta per adiutare a discoprire.”