“But to return to ourselves:—in the voyage which we have made by the order of your majesty, in addition to the ninety-two degrees we ran toward the west from the point of our departure before we reached land on the thirty-fourth parallel, we have to count 300 leagues which we sailed northeastwardly, and 400 nearly east along the coast before we reached the fiftieth parallel of north latitude, the point where we turned our course from the shore toward home. Beyond this point the Portuguese had sailed as far north as the arctic circle without coming to the end of the continent. Adding the degrees of south latitude explored, which are fifty-four, to those of the north, which are sixty-six, the sum is one hundred and twenty degrees, and therefore more than are included in the latitude of Africa and Europe, for the north point of Norway, the extremity of Europe, is in 71° north latitude, and the Cape of Good Hope, the southern extremity of Africa, is in 35° south latitude, and their sum is only one hundred and six degrees. If the breadth of this newly discovered country correspond to the extent of its sea-coast, it doubtless exceeds Asia in size. In this way we find that the land forms a much larger part of our globe than the ancients supposed, who maintained, contrary to mathematical reasoning, that it was less than the water, whereas actual experience proves the reverse, so that judging in respect to extent of surface, the land covers apparently as much space as the water.[411] “I hope to point out and explain more clearly and satisfactorily the great extent of the New Land or New World, of which I have been speaking. Asia and Africa, we know, are joined together and are connected with Norway and Russia with Europe, which disproves the idea of the ancients that all this northern part had been navigated from the promontory of Cimbri [Denmark] eastward as far as the Caspian Sea. They also maintained that the whole continent was surrounded by two oceans, lying east and west of it, which seas in fact do not surround either of the two continents, for as we have already seen the land in the western hemisphere at 54° south latitude extends eastwardly an unknown distance, and that the land north of the equator, beyond the sixty-sixth parallel, turns to the east and does not terminate at the seventieth parallel.[412] “In a short time, I hope we shall have more satisfactory information concerning these things by the aid of your serene majesty, whom I pray Almighty God to prosper in lasting glory, that we may see the most important results of this our geography in the fulfillment of the holy words of the gospel. “On board the ship Dauphine, in the port of Dieppe, in Normandy, the 8th day of July, 1524. “Your humble servant, “Janus Verazzanus.” CHAPTER X. (_Addenda._) 1524-1526.