[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 assigned 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 pass between the island of Ascension and the main of Yucatan. The latitudes 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 latitude 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 latitude 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. [53] Id: Hist. Gen. II. vii.