Notes on the earliest discoveries in America. 807 
he is an old friend, but because he is likely to render any further discussion of 
the present subject, on the part of the writer, superfluous. 
Historical and Geographical Notes, 1453—1530; by Henry 
STEVENS, of Vermont, F.S.A., etc., Trafalgar Square, London. 
accomplishment. Let us, therefore, go back for a moment, and 
survey the little old world and its inhabitants as they appeared 
about the middle of the fifteenth century. According to Ptol- 
emy, the best recognized authority, whose geography had stood 
the test of thirteen hundred years, the then known world was 
a strip of some seventy degrees wide, mony north of the equa- 
tor, with Cadiz on the west, and farthest India or Cathay on the 
east, lying between the frozen and burning zones, both impassa- 
ble by man. The inhabitants, as far as known in Europe, were 
Christians and Mohamedans, the one sect about half the age of 
the other. Christendom, the elder, that once held considerable 
portions of Asia and Africa, had been driven back inch by inch, 
in spite of the Crusades, even from the Holy Land, the place of 
its birth, up into the northwest corner of Kurope; and both in 
lands and people was outnumbered six to one by the followers 
of Mahomet. For seven hundred years the fairest provinces 
Spain acknowledged the sway of the Moors, and : 
Tanean, from Jaffa to the Gates of Hercules, was under their 
control. The crescent was constantly encroaching on the cross; 
der, and Aristotle, to say nothing of the Seographers Pompo- 
) 
