4oO ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



sailed over in the time of Augustus, passing by all Germany as far as the Ciiiilirian 

 Cape, and tlience as far as Scythia. And from the East the fleet of Macedonia sailed 

 along the Indian Ocean towards the north until the Caspian Sea was to the south of 

 them, in the time that Seleucus and Antiochus reigned, and they ordered that that 

 region should be called Seleuchida and Autiochida. And to the north of the Caspian 

 many parts have been sailed over, so that the northern sea has been nearly all sailed 

 over : and he likewise says, in the same chapter, that Cornelius Xepos writes that to 

 Quintus Metellus Celer, who had been consul with Afranius, and who was then pro- 

 consul in Gaul, there were sent certain Indians by the king of the Suevi, who, starting 

 from tlie Indian Ocean, had without mischance been carried to Germany. 



N° 19. ^ In these Rocos islands there are birds of such size (as they say) and 

 strength that they take up an ox and bear it in their flight^ in order to eat it, and fitill 

 more they say''' that they take a vessel, no matter how* great it may be, and raise it to 

 a great height and then let it drop, and they eat the men. Petrarch likewise says so 

 in his book of Prosperous and Adverse Fortune. 



N^ 20. There are in the isX&nA of the j)eople of Calenguan lions, tigers, panthers, 

 deer, and many other different kinds of animals ; likewise there are eagles, and white 

 parrots who speak as dearly as human beings lohat is taught them, and many other 

 countless birds of various kinds. The people of the island are idolaters ; they eat 

 human flesh. 



N° 21. A ship from Cambaya discovered this island of Mamorare, and it is said 

 there was so much gold in it that they loaded it with nothing else according to what the 

 Portuguese say. 



N° 22.* There are in this island of Ceylon native cinnamon, and rubies and 

 hyacinths and cats' eyes and other kinds of precious stones. 



Ciapangu is a large island lying in the high seas, which island is one thousand five 

 hundred miles distant from the mainland of the Grand Khan towards the east. They 

 are idolaters, and a gentle and handsome race. It lias an independent king of its own, 

 who is tributary to no one. It contains mucli virgin gold, which is never taken away 

 from the said island, because ships never touch there, as it is so distant and out of the 

 way. The king of this island has a very great and very wonderful palace, all made of 

 gold in ingots of the thickness of two reals, and the window s and columns of the palace 

 are all of gold. It [the island] contains precious stones and pearls in great quantities. 

 The Graoii Khan, having heard the fame of the riches of this said island, desiied to 

 conquer it, and sent to it a great fleet, and could never conquer it, as Marco Polo more 

 amply relates and tells in his book, chapter 106. 



[S. W. Quadrant of Map.] 



In this figure, projected on a plane, are contained all the lands, islands, ports, 

 rivers, waters, bays, which have been discovered to the present day, and their names, 

 and who were the discoverers of them, as is made more manifest bj- the inscriptions 

 [tables] of this said -figure, — with all the rest that was known before, and all thiit has 

 been written by Ptolemy, such as provinces, regions, cities, mountains, rivers, climates, 

 and parallels, according to their degrees of longitude and latitude, both of Europe and 

 of Asia and Africa. 



And you must note that the land is situated according to the variation which the 

 needle of the compass makes with the north star, for the reason of which you may look 

 in the second table of No. 17. 



[S. E. Quadrant of Map.] 



Of the fish ivhich stops a ship. 



Pliny writes in his ninth book, chapter twenty-five, of a fish which is called 

 Nichio, which he describes as being round, and that attaching itself to a ship it holds 

 it even though it be under sail. And Petrarch, in the preface to the second book of 

 Prosperous and Adverse Foitune, says that the echciiis or rémora, a fish of half a foot 

 in length, stops a ship, though it be very largo, and winds and waves and oar& and 

 sails aid its course ; it alone overpowers the power of the elements and of man, with 

 no other agency save attaching itself to the pliir.ks of the ship, and with no other force 

 tiian its own nature ; which fish is like mud or mire, and taking it out of the water it 

 loses its power. The aforesaid is found in very distinguished writings, which arc not 

 quoted here lest it take too much space. 



1 [The Latin of Nos. 19, 20, nnd 21 ii^ in tlie S. E. quadrant of the map. It cnd.= in cîicli case 

 wi;li ;i rolereiict! in Si)!inish to the Spanish of the tables.] 

 :' t(i tlieir nest.'*. 



3 I heir talons nre so strong. 



4 Latin in N. E. auadrant of map. 



