[Note 2: The _Mare Sargassum_ of the ancients: also called _Fucus Natans_, and by the Spaniards _Mar de Sargasso_. A curious marine meadow nearly seven times larger than France, in extent, lying between 19° and 34° north latitude. There is a lesser _Fucus_ bank between the Bahamas and the Bermudas. Consult Aristotle, _Meteor_, ii., I, 14; _De mirabilibus auscutationibus_, p. 100; Theophrastus, _Historia Plantarum_, iv., 7; Arienus, _Ora Maritima_, v., 408; Humboldt, _Cosmos_, tom. ii.; Gaffarel, _La Mer des Sargasses_; Leps, _Bulletin de la Soc. Geog_., Sept., 1865.] The fourth day of the ides of March snow-covered mountains were observed. The sea runs strongly to the west and its current is as rapid as a mountain torrent. Nevertheless the Spaniards did not lay their course directly towards the west, but deviated slightly to the south. I hope to be able to demonstrate this by one of the tables of the new cosmography which it is my intention to write, if God gives me life. The Gaira River, celebrated for the massacre of the Spaniards during the voyage of Roderigo Colmenares, which I have elsewhere related, rises in these mountains. Many other rivers water this coast. The province of Caramaira has two celebrated harbours, the first being Carthagena and the second Santa Marta, these being their Spanish names. A small province of the latter is called by the natives Saturma. The harbour of Santa Marta is very near the snow-covered mountains; in fact it lies at their foot. The port of Carthagena is fifty leagues from there, to the west. Wonderful things are written about the port of Santa Marta, and all who come back tell such. Among the latter is Vespucci,[3] nephew of Amerigo Vespucci of Florence who, at his death, bequeathed his knowledge of navigation and cosmography to his nephew. This young man has, in fact, been sent by the King as pilot to the flagship and commissioned to take the astronomical observations. The steering has been entrusted to the principal pilot, Juan Serrano, a Castilian, who had often sailed in those parts. I have often invited this young Vespucci to my table, not only because he possesses real talent, but also because he has taken notes of all he observed during his voyage.[4] [Note 3: He was appointed cartographer of the _Casa de Contractacion_ at Seville, in 1512. Henry Harrisse makes frequent mention of the Vespucci in his work on the Cabots.] [Note 4: One of many instances of Peter Martyr's hospitality to men of parts and activity, from whose conversation and narrations he set himself to glean the material for his writings. His information was first-hand, and was frequently poured out to him over his hospitable board, under which the home-coming adventurers were glad to stretch their legs, while their genial host stimulated their memories and loosed their tongues with the generous wines of his adopted country.]