[α. We see by our author's account what was the state in 1453 of the town of which the Infant had laid the foundations in 1416, and to which at first was given the name of "Tercena Naval" (Naval Arsenal), from the Venetian word "Darcena," an arsenal for the construction and docking of galleys; it afterwards received the name of Villa do Infante (the Infant's town), and later on that of Sagres--derived from Sagro, Sacrum, the famous Promontorium Sacrum of the ancients, according to D. Francisco Manoel, _Epanaphoras_, p. 310. It should be noted that the celebrated Cadamosto, who had speech with the Infant in 1455, at Cape St. Vincent, does not give the name of the town, though he speaks of the interview which he had with him (Henry) at Rapozeira]. [β. In writing "Callez" for "Cadiz" in this paragraph, our author follows the corrupt nomenclature of the authors and MSS. of the Middle Ages, which altered the name of that city from the Gades of Pliny (v, 19), Macrobius, Silius Italicus (xvi, 468), Columella (viii, ch. xvi), a form more like the primitive Gadir (a hedge) in the Phœnician or Punic language. The corrupt terms Calles, Callis, etc., are, however, met with even in documents of the sixteenth century. See the letters of Vespucci in the edition of Gruninger (1509)]. [γ. As to this reference to the Genoese (desiring to buy Sagres from Portugal), the meaning must be that they offered great sums of money for the concession of a place in the new town for the establishment there of a factory, and perhaps of a colony, similar to those they possessed in the Black Sea, as especially Caffa (now Theodosia, in the Crimea), or Smyrna in the Archipelago. It is, however, improbable that they proposed to the Infant the cession of a town of which he did not hold the sovereignty. The Republic of Genoa had preserved very close relations with Portugal from the commencement of the monarchy, and could not be ignorant that even the Sovereigns of the country were not able to alienate any portion of the land without the consent of the Cortes (on this subject see Part III of our _Memorias sobre as Cortes_). Howsoever the case may have been, the detail referred to by our author illustrates the prudence of the Portuguese Government of that time in having resisted such a proposal, in view of the fact that the Republic of Genoa had by its immense naval power obtained from the Moorish and African princes the concession of various important points in Asia and Africa; and had also procured from the Greek Emperors the cession of the suburbs of Pera and Galata in Constantinople, and the isles of Scios, Mitylene (Lesbos), and Tenedos in the Archipelago. The reader will find it worth his attention that Portugal refused to accede to a similar offer when the Emperors of the East and of Germany, the Kings of Sicily, Castile, Aragon, and the Sultans of Egypt constantly sought the alliance of that Republic and the protection of its powerful marine. True it is that the