The admiral being much delighted with the relations of sea voyages, his mother-in-law gave him the journals and sea charts which had been left by her husband, which excited his curiosity to make inquiry respecting the other voyages which the Portuguese had made to St George del Mina and the coast of Guinea, and he enjoyed great delight in discoursing with such as had sailed to those parts. I cannot certainly determine whether he ever went to Mina or Guinea during the life of this wife. But while he resided in Portugal he seriously reflected on the information he had thus received; and concluded, as the Portuguese had made discoveries so far to the southward, it was reasonable to conclude that land might be discovered by sailing to the westwards. To assist his judgment, he again went over the cosmographers which he had formerly studied, and considered maturely the astronomical reasons which corroborated this new opinion. He carefully weighed likewise the information and opinions on this subject of all with whom he conversed, particularly sailors. From an attentive consideration of all that occurred to him, he at length concluded that there must be many lands to the west of the Canary and Cape de Verd islands; and that it must be perfectly possible to sail to and discover them. But, that it may distinctly appear by what train of arguments he came to deduce so vast an undertaking, and that I may satisfy those who are curious to know the motives which induced him to encounter so great danger, and which led him to his great discovery, I shall now endeavour to relate what I have found among his own papers respecting this matter.