My intention in this voyage was to reach Cathay, on the extreme coast of Asia, expecting however, to find in the newly discovered land some such an obstacle, as they have proved to be, yet I did not doubt that I should penetrate by some passage to the eastern ocean. It was the opinion of the ancients, that our oriental Indian ocean is one and without interposing land. Aristotle supports it by arguments founded on various probabilities; but it is contrary to that of the moderns and shown to be erroneous by experience; the country which has been discovered, and which was unknown to the ancients, is another world compared with that before known, being manifestly larger than our Europe, together with Africa and perhaps Asia, if we might rightly estimate its extent, as shall now be briefly explained to your Majesty. The Spaniards have sailed south beyond the equator on a meridian 20 degrees west of the Fortunate Islands to the latitude of 54, and there still found land; turning about they steered northward on the same meridian and along the coast to the eighth degree of latitude near the equator, and thence along the coast more to the west and north-west, to the latitude of 21 Degrees, without finding a termination to the continent; they estimated the distance run as 89 degrees, which, added to the 20 first run west of the Canaries, make 109 degrees and so far west; they sailed from the meridian of these islands, but this may vary somewhat from truth; we did not make this voyage and therefore cannot speak from experience; we calculated it geometrically from the observations furnished by many navigators, who have made the voyage and affirm the distance to be 1600 leagues, due allowance being made for the deviations of the ship from a straight course, by reason of contrary winds. I hope that we shall now obtain certain information on these points, by new voyages to be made on the same coasts. But to return to ourselves; in the voyage which we have made by order of your Majesty, in addition to the 92 degrees we run towards the west from our point of departure, before we reached land in the latitude of 34, we have to count 800 leagues which we ran north-east-wardly, and 400 nearly east along the coast before we reached the 50th parallel of north latitude, the point where we turned, our course from the shore towards home. Beyond this point the Portuguese had already sailed as far north as the Arctic circle, without coming to the termination of the land. Thus adding the degrees of south latitude explored, which are 54, to those of the north, which are 66, the sum is 120, and therefore, more than are embraced in the latitude of Africa and Europe, for the north point of Norway, which is the extremity of Europe, is in 71 north, and the Cape of Good Hope, which is the southern extremity of Africa, is in 35 south, and their sum is only 106, and if the breadth of this newly discovered country corresponds to its extent of sea coast, it