MAGELLANIC CLOUDS. 339 



Clouds, as remarkable celestial phenomena seen during voy- 

 ages to the Cape. 



The constant endeavours made to advance along the 

 eastern shores of America, beyond the equator, and even 

 to the southern extremity of the continent, directed the 

 attention of mariners uninterruptedly to the southern stars, 

 from the period of Alonso de Hojeda's expedition, in which 

 Amerigo Vespucci took part (in 1499), to that of Magellan 

 and Sebastian del Cano in 1521, and of Garcia de Loaysa, 84 

 with Francisco de Hoces in 1525. It would appear from the 

 journals still extant, and from the historical testimony of 

 Anghiera, that the southern stars were made the special 

 objects of attention during the voyage in which Amerigo 

 Vespucci and Vicente Yanez Pinzon discovered Cape San 

 Augustin in 8 20' south latitude. Vespucci boasts on this 

 occasion of having seen three Canopi (one dark, Canopo 

 fosco; and two bright stars, Canopi risplendenti). We find 

 from an attempt made by Ideler, the ingenious author of 

 works on the "Names of the Stars" and on <c Chronology," 

 to explain Vespucci's very confused description of the 

 southern heavens, in his letter to Lorenzo Pierfrancesco de' 

 Medici, of the party of the u Popolani," that Vespucci used 

 the name in nearly as indefinite a manner as the Arabian 



84 The merit of the discovery of the southernmost extremity 

 of the new continent in 55 south latitude (whose importance 

 has not been sufficiently estimated) , is due to Francis de 

 Hoces, who commanded one of the ships of the expedition of 

 Loaysa in 1525. It is very characteristically described in 

 Urdaneta's Journal by the words acdbamiento de tierra, " the 

 ceasing of land." De Hoces probably saw a portion of Terra 

 del Fuego west of Staten Island, for Cape Horn is situated, 

 according to Fitzroy, in 55 58' 41*. See Navarrete, Viages 

 y descubrim. de los Espanoles, torn. v. pp. 28, 404. 



VOL. iv. E 



