340 COSMOS. 



astronomers had used the word Suhel. Ideler shows that the 

 " Canopo fosco nella via lattea" must have been the black 

 spot, or large coal-sack in the Southern Cross ; while the posi- 

 tion of three stars, in which are supposed to be recognized 

 , ft, and 7 of Hydrus, renders it very probable that the 

 " cancpo risplendente di notabile grandezza" (of considerable 

 extent) is the Nubecula major, and the second risplendente 

 the Nubecula minor. 85 It is very singular that Vespucci 

 should not have compared these recently-noticed celestial 

 objects to clouds, as all other observers had done. One 

 would have thought the comparison irresistible. Peter Mar- 

 tyr Anghiera, who was personally acquainted with all the 

 discoverers, and whose letters were written under the 

 vivid impression excited in his mind by their narratives, 

 describes, with striking truthfulness, the mild, but unequal 

 effulgence of the nubeculaB. He says: " Assecuti sunt Por- 

 tngallenses alterius poli gradum quinquagesimum amplius, 

 ubi punctum, (polum?) citcumeuntes quasdam nubeculas licet 

 intueri, veluti in lactea via sparsos fulgores per universi cccli 

 globum intra ejus spatii latitudinem." 86 * The exceeding fame, 



85 Humboldt, Examen crit. de la Geoyr. torn. iv. pp. 205, 

 295-316; torn. v. pp. 225-229, 235. Ideler, Stemnamen, 

 346. 



86 Petrus Martyr Angh. Oceanica, dec. iii. lib. i. p. 217, 

 I can prove from the numerical data in dec. ii. lib. x. p. 204, 

 and dec. iii. lib. x. p. 232, that the portion of the Oceanica. 

 in which the Magellanic Clouds are referred to, was written 

 between 1514 and 1516, and therefore immediately after the 

 expedition of Juan Diaz de Solis to the Ilio de la Plata (then 

 known as the Rio de Solis, una mar dulce). The latitudes are 

 much exaggerated. 



* " The Portuguese extended their discoveries to within 

 less than 50 degrees of the South Pole, where they plainly 

 observed certain nebuloo moving round the point (pole ?), 



