APPENDIX. 



305 



From this latitude he sailed thirteen hundred leagues towards the 

 north and north-east, and arrived at Sierra Leone ; whence he went 

 to the Azores and to Lisbon. 



The internal evidence contained in the narrative of this voyage 

 affords satisfactory proof of its authenticity. Whether the design 

 of Vespucius was to seek for southern land, or endeavour to sail 

 to * Cathay' by the shortest line (the arc of a great circle), does not 

 appear : but as we know he was skilled in mathematics and of an 

 enterprising character, such a conjecture as the latter may be not 

 totally improbable. 



Navlgatio tertia Americi Vesputii. 



" Igitur ab hoc Lisbonse portu cum tribus conservantise navibus 

 die Mail decima MDI abeuntes, cursum nostrum versus magnoe Cana- 

 rise insulas arripuimus, secundum quas et ad earum prospectum 

 instanter enavigantes, idem navigium nostrum coUateraliter secundum 

 Aphricam occidentem versus sequuti fuimus." 



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Exinde autem ad partem illam ^thiopise, quee Besilicca dicitur, 

 devenimus : quse quidem sub torrida zona posita est, et superquam 

 quatuordecim gradibus se septentrionalis erigit polus in climate pri- 

 mo : ubi diebus undecim nobis de lignis et aqua provisionem parantes 

 restitimus, propter id quod Austrum versus per Atlanticum pelagus 

 navigandi mihi inesset affectus. Itaque portum -^Ethiopise ilium post 

 hsec relinquentes, tunc per Lebeccium ventum in tantum navigavimus, 

 ut sexaginta et septem infra dies insulse cuidam appHcuerimus, quae 

 insula septingentis a portu eodem leucis ad Lebeccii partem distaret. 

 In quibus quidem diebus pejus perpessi tempus fuimus, quam un- 

 quam in mari quispiam antea pertulerit, propter ventorum nimbo- 

 rumve impetus, qui quamplurimum nobis intulere gravamina, ex eo 

 quod navigium nostrum linese prsesertim sequinoctiali continue junc- 

 tum fuit. Inibique in mense Junio hyems extat, ac dies noctibus 

 sequales sunt, atque ipsse umbrse nostrse continue versus meridiem 

 erant. Tandem vero omninotanti placuit novam unam nobis osten- 

 dere plagam, decima septima, scilicet, Augusti, juxta quam, leuca 

 sepositi ab eadem cum media, restitimus, et postea assumptis cymbis 

 nonnullis in ipsam visuri si inhabitata esset, profecti fuimus." 



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