[127] Antonio Pigafetta, in his Treatise on navigation, written about the year 1523, says: “The circumference of the earth is supposed to be divided into three hundred and sixty degrees, and to each degree are assigned seventeen leagues and a half; the circumference of the earth is consequently six thousand three hundred leagues. The land league is three miles, the sea league is four.”—MS. in Ambrosian library, Milan. [128] Cipango (Japan), now called by the natives Dai Nippon or Dai Nihon, is a group of islands lying between the twenty-third and fiftieth parallels of north latitude and the one hundred and twenty-second and one hundred and fifty-third meridians of east longitude. [129] From Lisbon, Spain, in 38° 42´ north latitude and 9° 8´ west longitude (first meridian at Greenwich), to Tokio, Japan, in 35° 40´ north latitude and 139° 40´ east longitude, the westward distance is about eleven thousand six hundred statute miles; and from Lisbon to Peking, China, in 39° 56´ north latitude and 116° 27´ east longitude, about twelve thousand one hundred miles. From Liverpool, England, to New York, on the sailing route, the distance is about three thousand and twenty-three miles, and from New York to Canton, China, _via_ the Isthmus of Panama and the Sandwich Islands, the distance is about ten thousand six hundred miles. “As the old continent, from the western extremity of the Iberian peninsula [Portugal], to the coast of China, comprehends almost 130° of longitude, there remain about 230° for the distance which Columbus would have had to traverse if he wished to reach Cathai (China); but less if he only desired to reach Zipangi (Japan). This difference of 230°, which I have indicated, depends on the position of the Portuguese Cape St. Vincent (11° 20´ W. of Paris), and the far projecting part of the Chinese coast, near the then celebrated port of Quinsay, so often named by Columbus and Toscanelli (lat. 30° 28´, long. 117° 47´ E. of Paris).... The distance of Cape St. Vincent from Zipangi (Niphon) is 22° of longitude less than Quinsay, therefore about 209° instead of 230° 53´.”—Humboldt: Cosmos. Otté’s trans. vol. ii. p. 264. Note. [130] Historie del S. D. Fernando Colombo. cap. viii. [131] Diego Ortiz de Cazadilla, bishop of Ceuta. [132] This conclave of the learned men of Spain held its meetings in the Dominican convent of St. Stephen, in Salamanca.