30 COSMOS. 



We have hitherto considered nebulae in reference to their 

 number and their distribution in what we call the firmament 



(Novus Orbis. 1532, -p. 58) ; while Ramusio (Navigation*, vol. i., p. 107), 

 and the new Colleccao de Noticias para a Hist, e Geog. das Nacoes Ultra- 

 marinas (torn, ii., Lisboa, 1812, p. 57, cap. 39), in the place of the for- 

 mer, give an equally arbitrary drawing of the Southern Cross. (Hum- 

 bold t, Examen Crit. de V Hist, de la Geogr., torn, v., p. 236.) Since, in 

 the Middle Ages, and probably for the sake of replacing the two Dan- 

 cers, %opev rat, of Hyginus (Poet.Astron., iii.. 1), i. e., the Ludentes of the 

 Scholiast of Germanicus, or the Custodes of Vegetius in the Lesser Wain, 

 the stars /3 and y of Ursa Minor had been denominated the Guards, le 

 due guardie, of the neighboring north pole, on account of their rotation 

 round that point, and as this designation, as well as the habit of determ- 

 ining polar altitudes by these Guards (Pedro de Medina, Arte de Nave- 

 gar, 1545, lib. v., caps. 4-7, p. 183-195), was familiar to the European 

 pilots of all nations in the northern seas, so erroneous conclusions led 

 men to believe from analogy that they could recognize in the southern 

 horizon the polar star which had so long been sought for. It was not 

 until Amerigo Vespucci's second voyage (from May, 1499, to Septem- 

 ber, 1500), when he and Vicente Yanez Pinzon (both voyages are per- 

 haps one and the same) advanced as far in the southern hemisphere 

 as Cape San Augustin, that they devoted themselves diligently, but to 

 710 purpose, to the search for a visible star in the immediate vicinity of 

 the South Pole. (Bandini, Vita e Lettere di Amerigo Vespucci, 1745, p. 

 70; Anghiera, Oceanica, 1510, dec. i., lib. ix., p. 96; Humboldt, Exa- 

 men. Crit., torn, iv., p. 205, 319, 325.) The South Pole was then situ- 

 ated within the constellation Octaris, so that (3 of Hydrus, if we follow 

 the reduction of Brisbane's Catalogue, had still a southern declination 

 of fully 80 5'. " While I was engaged in observing the wonders of the 

 southern heavens, and in vainly seeking for a pole-star, T was remind- 

 ed," says Vespucci, in his letter to Pietro Francesco de' Medici, "of an 

 expression made use of by our Dante, when, in the first chapter of the 

 Purgatorio, he depicts a presumed passage from one hemisphere to the 

 other, and in describing the Antarctic Pole, says, To mi volsi a man des- 

 tra In my opinion, the author intended in these verses to in- 

 dicate the pole of the other firmament by his four stars (?ion viste mai 

 fuorch? allaprima gente). I am the more certain of this, because I act- 

 ually saw four stars, which together formed a lozenge, and had a slight 

 (?) movement." Vespucci refers to the Southern Cross, la croce mara- 

 vigliosa of Andrea Corsali (Letter from Cochin, dated January 6, 1515, 

 in Ramusio, vol. i., p. 177), whose name he did not then know; but 

 which subsequently served to mark to all pilots the position of the South 

 Pole (as (3 and y Urs. Min. indicated the North Pole. (Mem. de VAc'ad. 

 des Sciences, 1666-1699, torn, vii., part 2. Paris, 1729, p. 58.) This 

 constellation also served for determinations of latitude. (Pedro de Me- 

 dina, Arte de Navegar, 1545, lib. v., cap. xi., p. 204.) Compare my in- 

 vestigation of the celebrated passage of Dante in the Examen Crit. 

 de VHist. de la Geogr., torn, iv., p. 319-334. I there drew attention to 

 the fact that a of the Southern Cross, which was carefully observed in 

 modern times by Dunlop (1826), and by RUmker (1836) at Paramatta, 

 is one of those stars whose multiple nature was first recognized in 1681 

 and 1687 by the Jesuits Fontaney, Noel, and Richaud. (Hist, de V Acad. 

 dep. 1686-1699, torn, ii., Par., 1733, p. 19; Mem de V Acad. dep. 1666- 

 1699, torn. vii.. 2, Par., 1729, p. 206 ; Lettres edifiantes, recueil vii., 1703, 



