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Page 60
As to the religions faith of all these tribes, not understanding
their language, we could not discover either by sign or gestures any
thing certain. It seemed to us that they had no religion or laws, or
any knowledge of a First Cause or Mover, that they worshipped
neither the heavens, stars, sun, moon nor other planets; nor could
we learn if they were given to any kind of idolatry, or offered any
sacrifices or supplications, or if they have temples or houses of
prayer in their villages; our conclusion was, that they have no
religious belief whatever, but live in this respect entirely free.
All which proceeds from ignorance, as they are very easy to be
persuaded, and imitated us with earnestness and fervour in all which
they saw us do as Christians in our acts of worship.
It remains for me to lay before your Majesty a Cosmographical
exposition of our voyage. Taking our departure, an I before
observed, from the above mentioned desert rocks, which lie on the
extreme verge of the west, as known to the ancients, in the meridian
of the Fortunate Islands, and in the latitude of 32 degrees north
from the equator, and steering a westward course, we had run, when
we first made land, a distance of 1200 leagues or 4800 miles,
reckoning, according to nautical usage, four miles to a league. This
distance calculated geometrically, upon the usual ratio of the
diameter to the circumference of the circle, gives 92 degrees; for
if we take 114 degrees as the chord of an arc of a great circle, we
have by the same ratio 95 deg., as the chord of an arc on the
parallel of 34 degrees, being that on which we first made land, and
300 degrees as the circumference of the whole circle passing through
this plane. Allowing then, as actual observations show, that 62 1/2
terrestrial miles correspond to a celestial degree, we find the
whole circumference of 300 deg., as just given, to be 18,759 miles,
which divided by 360, makes the length of a degree of longitude in
the parallel of 34 degrees to be 52 miles, and that is the true
measure. Upon this basis, 1200 leagues, or 4800 miles meridional
distance, on the parallel of 34, give 92 degrees, and so many
therefore have we sailed farther to the west than was known to the
ancients. During our voyage we had no lunar eclipses or like
celestial phenomenas, we therefore determined our progress from the
difference of longitude, which we ascertained by various
instruments, by taking the sun's altitude from day to day, and by
calculating geometrically the distance run by the ship from one
horizon to another; all these observations, as also the ebb and flow
of the sea in all places, were noted in a little book, which may
prove serviceable to navigators; they are communicated to your
Majesty in the hope of promoting science.
My intention in this voyage was to reach Cathay, on the extreme
coast of Asia, expecting however, to find in the newly discovered
land some such an obstacle, as they have proved to be, yet I did not
doubt that I should penetrate by some passage to the eastern ocean.
It was the opinion of the ancients, that our oriental Indian ocean
is one and without interposing land. Aristotle supports it by
arguments founded on various probabilities; but it is contrary to
that of the moderns and shown to be erroneous by experience; the
country which has been discovered, and which was unknown to the
ancients, is another world compared with that before known, being
manifestly larger than our Europe, together with Africa and perhaps
Asia, if we might rightly estimate its extent, as shall now be
briefly explained to your Majesty. The Spaniards have sailed south
beyond the equator on a meridian 20 degrees west of the Fortunate
Islands to the latitude of 54, and there still found land; turning
about they steered northward on the same meridian and along the
coast to the eighth degree of latitude near the equator, and thence
along the coast more to the west and north-west, to the latitude of
21 Degrees, without finding a termination to the continent; they
estimated the distance run as 89 degrees, which, added to the 20
first run west of the Canaries, make 109 degrees and so far west;
they sailed from the meridian of these islands, but this may vary
somewhat from truth; we did not make this voyage and therefore
cannot speak from experience; we calculated it geometrically from
the observations furnished by many navigators, who have made the
voyage and affirm the distance to be 1600 leagues, due allowance
being made for the deviations of the ship from a straight course, by
reason of contrary winds. I hope that we shall now obtain certain
information on these points, by new voyages to be made on the same
coasts. But to return to ourselves; in the voyage which we have made
by order of your Majesty, in addition to the 92 degrees we run
towards the west from our point of departure, before we reached land
in the latitude of 34, we have to count 800 leagues which we ran
north-east-wardly, and 400 nearly east along the coast before we
reached the 50th parallel of north latitude, the point where we
turned, our course from the shore towards home. Beyond this point
the Portuguese had already sailed as far north as the Arctic circle,
without coming to the termination of the land. Thus adding the
degrees of south latitude explored, which are 54, to those of the
north, which are 66, the sum is 120, and therefore, more than are
embraced in the latitude of Africa and Europe, for the north point
of Norway, which is the extremity of Europe, is in 71 north, and the
Cape of Good Hope, which is the southern extremity of Africa, is in
35 south, and their sum is only 106, and if the breadth of this
newly discovered country corresponds to its extent of sea coast, it
doubtless exceeds Asia in size. In this way we find that the land
forms a much larger portion of our globe than the ancients supposed,
who maintained, contrary to mathematical reasoning, that it was less
than the water, whereas actual experience proves the reverse, so
that we judge in respect to extent of surface the land covers as
much space as the water; and I hope more clearly and more
satisfactorily to point out and explain to your Majesty the great
extent of that new land, or new world, of which I have been
speaking. The continent of Asia and Africa, we know for certain is
joined to Europe at the north in Norway and Russia, which disproves
the idea of the ancients that all this part had been navigated from
the Cimbric Chersonesus, eastward as far as the Caspian Sea. They
also maintained that the whole continent was surrounded by two seas
situate to the east and west of it, which seas in fact do not
surround either of the two continents, for as we have seen above,
the land of the southern hemisphere at the latitude of 54 extends
eastwardly an unknown distance, and that of the northern passing the
66th parallel turns to the east, and has no termination as high as
the 70th. In a short time, I hope, we shall have more certain
knowledge of these things, by the aid of your Majesty, whom I pray
Almighty God to prosper in lasting glory, that, we may see the most
important results of this our cosmography in the fulfilment of the
holy words of the Gospel.
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