446 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



mighty river' tviiicli ruus into the yrcat river Parana. Juan Diaz de Solis, pilot-major 

 of their- Catholic Majesties^ of (jlorious memory, discovered it, and he explored it as 

 far as an island, to which the said Jnan Diaz gave the name of the island, of Martin 

 Garcia, because in it he buried a sailor who was called Martin Garcia, whicli said island 

 is about thirty leagues above the moutli of this river and the said discovery cost him 

 rm-yd^ar, for the Indians of the said land slew him and ate him ; and after many years 

 had gone by it was again discovered by Sebastian Cabot, Captain and Pilot-major* of 

 his Scvrrfd C(esarean Catholic Majesty the Emperor Don Carlos Fifth of tlie name, and 

 king, our lord, who was commander of an expedition which his Majesty ordered should 

 be made to discover Tarsis and Ophir^ and Oriental Cathay ; which said Captain 

 Sebastian Cabot came to tliis river by chance, for the commander's ship, in which he 

 was, was lost,® and seeing that he could not continue his said voyage, he determined 

 to explore with the people he had with him the said river, bj' reason of the very great 

 account which the Indians of the land gave him of the very great wealth in gold and 

 silver which there was in the land, and not without very great labor and hunger, and 

 dangers both of his own person and of those who were with him. '' And* the said* 

 Captain endeavored to make near the said river certain settlements of the, people whom 

 he hreiKjht from Spain.'^*' This river is larger than any that is known up to the present 

 time Its breadth at the mouth where it enters the sea is thirty-five^^ leagues, and 

 three hundred leagues above the said mouth it is two leagues in breadth. The cause 

 of its being so great and mighty is that there run into it many other and mighty rivera. 

 It is a river infinitely full of fish and of the best there is in the world. The people, on 

 arriving in that land, wished to learn if it were fertile and fit to plough and raise 

 bread ; and they planted in the month of September fifty-two grains of wheat, — for 

 there was no more in the ships, — and they gathered soon in the month of December 

 fifty-two thousand grains of wheat ; and this same fertility was found in all the other 

 seeds. ^- Those who live in that land say that not far from there, in the country 

 inland, there are certain great mountain-ranges from which they take infinite gold, 

 and further on in the same mountains they take infinite silver. There are in this land 

 certain sheep large as ordinary asses, of the shape of camels, except that the wool they 

 bear is fine as silk, and other animals of different kinds. The people of the country 

 differ very much ; for those who live on the slopes of the mountains are white like us, 

 and those who are near the banks of the river are dark. Some say that in the said 

 mountains there are men who have faces like dogs, and others are from the knee down 

 like ostriches, and that these are great workers, and that they raise much maize, of 

 which they make bread and wine. Many other things they say of that land, which are 

 not put down here lest they be tedious.^'' 



N° 8. This land was discovered by Juan Cabot, a Venetian, and by Sebastian 

 Cabot, his son, in the year of the birth of our Saviour Jesus Christ 1494, on the 24th 

 of June,'* in the morning, to which they gave the name of " first land seen " (prima 

 tierra vista) ; and to a large island which is situated along the said land they gave the 

 name San Juan, because it had been discovered the same day.'* The people of it are 

 dressed in the skins of animals. They use in their wars bows and arrows, lances and 

 darts, and certain clubs of wood, and slings. It is a very sterile land. There are in 

 it many'* white bears, and very large stags like horses, and many other animals ; and 

 ■ likewise there is infinite fish, — sturgeons, salmon, vei-y large soles a yard in length, 

 and many other kinds of fish, — and the greatest quantity of them is called (baccallaos) 

 codfish ; ' ^ and likewise there are in the same land hawks black as crows, eagles, par- 

 tridges, ' ^ linnets, and many other kinds of birds of different species. 



I into which runs. 2 conquering and. 3 Ferdinand and Isabel. 



4 most skilful in the art of navigation and of astronomy, 



5 Ciapangu and Eolcatii. 6 being buried in the stormy waves. 



7 [In the Latin version the last clause, beginning " and not without very great labor," iire- 

 ccdes the clause beginning " by reason of."] 



8 Wherefore. 9 most energetic. 



10 and to build certain citadels and forts by which the Spanish inhabitants could easily be 

 protected and could thence repol the attacks of their Indian enemies. 



II twenty-five. 



12 This extraordinary statement as to the productiveness of a grain of wheat in the country of 

 the La Plata is repeated in the Latin version of this section. It is probably an inadvertence. Eden, 

 who copied this section from Cabot's map, in the free English version, into his " Decades of the 

 New World," London, 1555, pp. 317-319, corrects the error, hut on what authority, except his i wn 

 knowledge of natural history, we do not know. lie makes the text read thus ;" Taking, there- 

 fore, fifty grains of wheat and committing the same *u the earth in the month of September they 

 gathered thereof two thousand and fifty at December next following." Eden then proceo Is : 

 " Wherein some being deceived and mistaking the thing, have written in the stead of two thousand 

 and fifty, fifty thousand and two."— iVo^c liy Mr. Dfune. 



1."'. [In the Latin version the last sentence follows immediately after " infinite silver," and is 

 itself followed by the clause beginning " and that these are great workers,"] 



14 24 July, at the fifth hour, about daybreak. 



1.5 on the solemn festival of St. John. KJ lions. 



17 by the common people. 18 dark. 



