NEBULA. 315 



This paucity of stars in the south polar region, and the 

 absence of any pole-star visible to the naked eye, were made 

 the subject of bitter lamentation by Amerigo Vespucci and 

 Vicente Yaiiez Pinzon, when, at the close of the fifteenth 

 century, they penetrated far beyond the equator to Cape San 

 Augustin, and when the former even expressed the erroneous 

 opinion that the fine passage of Dante, " lo mi volsi a man 

 destra, e posi mente . . ." and the four stars described as 

 " non viste maifuorcti alia prima gente" referred to antarctic 

 polar stars. 44 



44 Humboldt, Examen critique de I* Hist, de la Geographic, 

 torn. iv. p. 319. The Venetian Cadamosto (more properly 

 called Alvise da Ca da Mosto) first turned his attention to 

 the discovery of the position of a south-polar star, when in 

 company with Antoniotto Usodimare at the mouth of the 

 Senegal, in 1454, in the course of one of the many voyages in 

 which the Portuguese engaged, under the auspices of the 

 Infante Don Henrique, for the purpose of advancing along 

 the western shores of Africa, beyond the equator. fc * While 

 I still see the north polar star," he writes, being then in 

 about 13 north latitude, " I cannot see the south polar star 

 itself, but the constellation which I perceive towards the 

 south, is the Carro del ostro, (waggon of the south) ; (Aloysii 

 Cadam. Navig., cap. 43, p. 3.2; Kamusio, Delle Navigationi et 

 Viaggi, vol. i. p. 107). Could he have traced the figure of a 

 waggon among some of the larger stars of the constellation 

 Argo ? The idea that both poles had a constellation of the 

 " Wain" or waggon, appears to have been so universal in that 

 age that there is a drawing of a constellation perfectly similar 

 to Ursa Minor, supposed to have been seen by Cadamosto, 

 both in the Itinerarium Portugallense, 1508, fol. 23 b, and 

 in Grynaius, (Novus Orbis^ 1532, p. 58); whilst Ramusio 

 (Navigation*) vol. i. p. 107), and the new Collecgao de No- 

 ticias para a Hist, e Geog. das Nagoes Ultramarinas (torn. ii. 

 Lisboa, 1812, p. 57, cap. 39), in the place of the former, give 

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

 boldt, Examen crit. de I' Hist, de la Geogr. torn. v. p. 236.) 



