WHOLE VOL. THE WEST INDIES ^VAZQUEZ DE ESPINOSA 5 



Majesty, over those regions as a whole, clay is unceasingly to be found, 

 and in consequence agreeable sacrifice is always being made and 

 ofifered to God in over 70,000 churches which exist in those countries. 



12. Besides this, there exists, in the territories of His Majesty, a 

 difference of entire days, within a short distance ; the reason is that 

 in sailing from E. to W., and from W. to E., one makes a complete 

 circle of the globe ; some arrive in India going E., others going W. 

 reach the Philippines which are close to India and China, to Goa and 

 Macao, which are some 80 or 100 leagues from the Philippines ; and 

 in that distance which is so slight, there is a whole day's difference, 

 so that when it is Sunday in Macao, it is Saturday in Manila. The 

 reason is that those sailing from W. to E. gain a day, for the sun 

 keeps constantly rising earlier for them ; whereas for those who sail 

 from E. to W., the sun keeps rising later every day ; so that the 

 farther they keep traveling E. or W., the earlier or later day dawns 

 on them. 



13. And so when the Castilians have sailed from E. to W. via 

 New Spain, and the Portuguese from W. to E., finishing the jour- 

 ney to Macao and the Philippines, which are not far from each other, 

 those who have sailed from W. to E. have gained 12 hours, and those 

 coming from W. to E. have lost 12 other hours, for the reason stated 

 above ; and thus at one and the same moment, though Macao is so 

 near Manila, they find a difference of an entire day, that is 24 hours. 

 And so when it is Sunday in Macao, in Manila it is Saturday, because 

 those who have sailed to Macao have followed the rising sun, and 

 so kept reckoning the day earlier, since the sun rose before them at 

 an earlier hour ; and thus on the contrary in the case of those sailing 

 to the Philippines from E. to W., the sun has kept rising later. Thus 

 the diversity of meridians causes a difference in the reckoning of 

 days, and since those who sail E. or W. keep altering meridians with- 

 out noticing it, and keep following the same reckoning they started 

 with, it is perfectly certain that when they have made the entire circuit 

 of the globe, they find themselves one whole day out, as we have said. 



Chapter III 



Of the World-Wide Flood and the Confusion of Tongues in the 

 Building of the Tower of Babel. 



14. When 1,056 years had passed since the creation of the earth, 

 Noah was born, son of Lamech ; and when Noah was 500 years old, 

 God decided to put an end to the earth with a universal flood, on 

 account of the serious and abominable sins of mankind ; and in order 



