BELIEF IX ASIA 61 



Tanblen esto que io supe por palabra, avialo io sabido 

 largo por escrito. Ptolomeo creio de aver bien remedado 

 a Marino, i ahora se falla su escritura bien propinqua al 

 clerto. Ptolomeo assienta Catigara a doge lineas lejos 

 de su ocgidente, que el assento sobre el cabo de S. Vi- 

 cente, en Portugal, dos grados i un tergio. Marino en 

 .15. lineas constituio la tierra, e terminos. ... El 

 mundo es poco; el injuto d'ello es seis partes, la septima 

 solamente cubierta de agua. La experiengia ia esta vista, 

 i la escrivi por otras letras, i con adornamiento de la 

 Sacra Escritura . . . (What I learned from the mouth 

 of these people I already knew in detail from books. 

 Ptolemy thought that he had satisfactorily corrected 

 Marinus, and yet this latter appears to have come very 

 near the truth. Ptolemy places Catigara at a distance 

 of twelve lines [hours] from his western meridian, which 

 he fixes at two degrees and a third beyond Cape St. 

 Vincent in Portugal. Marinus comprises the earth and 

 its limits in fifteen lines [hours]. ^^ . . . The world is but 

 small; out of seven divisions of it the dry part occupies 

 six, and the seventh only is covered by water. Ex- 

 perience has shown it, and I have written it with quota- 

 tions from the Holy Scripture, in other letters. . . .) 



Since Columbus was seeking India, on the southern 

 coast of Asia, as well as Cathay, on the eastern 



ernized Spanish, with English translation, is reproduced in R. H. Major, 

 transl. and edit.: Select Letters of Christopher Columbus, With Other 

 Original Documents, Relating to His Four Voyages to the New World, 

 2nd edit., Hakliiyt Soc. Pubis., ist Series, Vol. 43, London, 1870, pp. 175- 

 211; reference on pp. 183-184. 



11 Cf. the legend between Africa and South America on one of the 

 Bartholomew Columbus maps (Fig. 7): "Secodo Marino e Col° da C. 

 Sa Vicetio a Cathicara g. 225, so hore 15. Secodo Ptol. infine a Cattigara 

 g. 180 che sia hore 12." 



