yages of Vincent Alonzo Pinzon, and of Americus Vespucius,
which will be attended to hereafter; and the travels of Marco Polo, which
have been already given at full length from a better source.

The language of the _Novus Orbis_ is perhaps the most barbarous Latin
ever composed for the press, and its punctuation is so enormously
incorrect that it would have been easier understood without any points
whatever.

As already mentioned, the edition here used is dated in the year 1555,
little more than fifty years after the discoveries they commemorate; and
the letters themselves are dated in 1501, 1502, and 1503, immediately
after the return of the earliest of the Portuguese voyages from India.
Indeed the first letter seems to have been written only a day or two
after the arrival of the first ship belonging to Cabrals fleet.

This work is accompanied by a very curious map of the world, on one
planisphere, much elongated to the east and west, which may be considered
as a complete picture of the knowledge then acquired of the cosmography
of our globe. The first meridian is placed at the island of Ferro, and
the degrees of longitude are counted from thence eastwards all round the
world, so that Ferro is in long. 0 deg. and 360 deg. E. In every part of the
world, the outlines are grossly incorrect, and it would serve no purpose
to give an extended critical view of this map; yet a few notices
respecting it may gratify curiosity.

Europe is singularly incorrect, especially in the north and east. America,
called likewise _Terra Nova_, has an approximated delineation of its
southern division, stretching far to the south, as if the cosmographer
had received some tolerable notices of Brazil, Cape Horn, and the coasts
of Peru and Chili. But instead of the continent of North America, the
island of Cuba is delineated in a north and south direction, reaching
between the latitudes of 10 deg. and 50 deg. north; leaving a small strait or
passage between its southern extremity and the Isthmus of Darien into the
South Sea. About twelve degrees west from Cuba the island of Zipangri is
placed; and at least twenty degrees east from Cathay or China. At sixteen
degrees east from the northern end of Cuba, a large island is placed in
the _Oceanus Magnus_ or Atlantic, called _Terra Cortesia_; which the
cosmographer seems to have intended to represent the kingdom of Mexico,
recently discovered by Cortez; though placed almost in lat. 50 deg. N.
Perhap