NOTES. Ixxxiii 



nothing on the subject we are considering, in the literature of the middle 

 ages, until we come to the period of several " books of Nautical Instruction," 

 written or printed in quick succession by Antonio Pigafetta (Trattato di Navi- 

 gazione, probably before 1530); Francisco Falero (1535, a brother of the 

 astronomer Ruy Falero, who was to have accompanied Magellan on his voy- 

 age round the world, and left behind him a Regimiento para observar la lon- 

 gitud en la mar) ; Pedro de Medina of Seville (Arte de Navegar, 1545) ; Mar- 

 tin Cortes of Bujalaroz (Breve Compendio de la esfera y de la arte de navcgar, 

 1551) ; and Andres Garcia de Cespedes (Regimiento de Navigacion y Hidro- 

 grafia, 1606). From almost all these works, some of which have become 

 extremely rare, as well as from the Suma de Geografia which Martin Fer- 

 nandez de Enciso had published in 1519, we recognise most distinctly that 

 navigators were taught to estimate the " distance sailed over" in Spanish and 

 Portuguese ships, not by any distinct measurement, but only by estimation or 

 appreciation by the eye, according to certain established principles. Medina 

 says (libro iii. cap. 11 and 12), "to know the course of the ship as to the 

 length of distance passed over, the pilot must set down in his register how 

 much distance she has made according to hours (i. e. guiding himself by the 

 hourglass, " ampolleta,") and for this he must know that the most a ship 

 advances in an hour is four miles, and with feebler breezes three, or only two." 

 Cespedes (Regimiento, p. 99 and 156) calls this mode of proceeding "echar 

 punto por fantasia." This fantasia, as Enciso justly remarks, depends, if 

 great errors are to be avoided, on the pilot's knowledge of the qualities of his 

 ship : on the whole, however, every one who has been long at sea will have 

 remarked with surprise, when the waves are not very high, how nearly the mere 

 estimation of the ship's velocity accords with the subsequent result obtained by 

 the log. Some Spanish pilots call the old, and it must be admitted hazardous, 

 method of mere estimation (cuenta de estima), sarcastically, and certainly very 

 incorrectly, " la corredera de los Holandeses, corredera de los perezosos." In 

 Columbus's ship's journal, frequent reference is made to the contest with Alonso 

 Pinzon as to the distance passed o? er since their departure from Palos. The 

 hour or sandglasses, ampolletas, which they made use of, ran out in half an 

 hour, so that the interval of a day and night was reckoned at 48 ampolletas. 

 In this important journal of Columbus, it is said (for example on the 22d of 

 January, 1493) : " Andaba 8 millas por hora hasta pasadas 5 ampolletas, y 

 3 antes que comenzase la guardia, que eran 8 ampolletas." (Navarrete, T. i. 

 p. 143.) The Log (la corredera) is never mentioned. Are wo to assume 

 that Columbus was acquainted with aud employed it, but that, being 



