[189] “_Electo per sua alteza che io fussi in essa flocta per adiutare a discoprire._” [190] “_Partimo del porto di Calis adi 10 maggio_, 1497.” [191] Likely the double altitude, and therefore eight degrees of north latitude, or near the mouths of the Orinoco River. [192] “_Una terra, ch’ la giudica’mo essere terra ferma: la quale dista dalle isole d’Canaria piu allo occidente a circha di mille leghe fuora dello habitato d’ rento della torrida zona: perche trouva’mo el polo del septentrione al zare fuora del suo orizonte 16. gradi, & piu occide’tale che le isole di Canaria, seco’do che mostrouano e nostri instrumenti 75. gradi._” [193] “_Nauiga’mo per el maestrale, che cosi sicorreua la costa sempre a uista di terra._” In Italy the different points of the compass were designated by the winds: North, _tramontana_; northeast, _greco_; east, _levante_; southeast, _sirocco_; south, _ostro_; southwest, _libeccio_; west, _ponente_; northwest, _maestro_ or _maestrale_. [194] Evidently the Gulf of Coquibacoa, called shortly afterward by the Spaniards the Gulf of Venezuela—the Gulf of Little Venice.—_Vide_ Juan de la Cosa’s map in the cover-pocket. [195] “_Questa terra sta dentro del la torrida zona giuntamente, o di basso del paralello, che descriue el tropico di cancer: doue alza el polo dello orizonte 23 gradi nel fine del secondo clyma._” [196] “_Tanto che corremo dessa 870 leghe tutta uerso el maestrale._” The end of the second climate was at 8° 25´ north latitude. Ptolemy, the geographer, divided the surface of the globe, from the equator to the sixty-sixth parallel, into zones, called climates, to represent the successive increase of fifteen minutes in the length of a mid-summer day. The first climate extended to 4° 15´, on the north side of the equator; the second, from 4° 15´ to 8° 25´; and the third, to 12° 30´. [197] “_Noi alsi facemo uela p, Spagna con 222 prigioni schiaui: & giugnemo nel porto di Calis adi 15 doctobre 1498._” [198] Lettera di Amerigo Vespucci delle isole nuouamente trouate in quattro suoi viaggi. Primo viaggio. _Vide_ Amerigo Vespucci. Varnhagen. pp. 34-48. Bibliotheca Americana Vetustissima. [Harrisse.] pp. 55-68, 149, 150. [199] _Vide_ Memorials of Columbus. pp. 96, 97. [200] At this time, says Ferdinand Columbus, “in order that Don Diego, my brother, and I, who had served as pages to Prince Juan, who was now dead, might not suffer by his delays or be absent from court until the time of his departure, he [the admiral] sent us, on the second of November, 1497, from Seville, to serve as pages to her majesty, Queen Isabella.” [201] Historie del S. D. Fernando Colombo. cap. lxv. [202] Although, according to Ferdinand Columbus’s statement, his father called the firm land (or rather an island) at the mouths of the Orinoco River, Isla Santa (Holy Island), Columbus really called the continent, La Tierra de Gracia (Land of Grace).