ngdom of Congo[4]. If the
following assertion of de Barros could be relied on, we might conclude
that some nameless Portuguese navigators had crossed the line even before
the death of Don Henry; but the high probability is, that the naval
pupils of that illustrious prince continued to use his impress upon their
discoveries, long after his decease, and that the limits of discovery in
his time was confined to Cape Vergas. Some Castilians, sailing under the
command of Garcia de Loaysa, a knight of Malta, landed in 1525 on the
island of St Matthew, in two degrees of southern latitude[5]. They here
observed that it had been formerly visited by the Portuguese, as they
found an inscription on the bark of a tree, implying that they had been
there eighty-seven years before[6]. It also bore the usual motto of
that prince, _talent de bien faire_.

In the paucity of authentic information respecting these discoveries, it
seems proper to insert the following abstract of the journal of a
Portuguese pilot to the island of St Thomas, as inserted by Ramusio,
previous to the voyage of Vasco de Gama, but of uncertain date; although,
in the opinion of the ingenious author of the Progress of Maritime
Discover, this voyage seems to have been performed between the years 1520
and 1540. In this, state of uncertainty, it is therefore made a section
by itself, detached in some measure from the regular series of the
Portuguese discoveries.

[1] Astley, I. 15. Clarke, I. 290. Purchas, I. Harris, I. 664.

[2] Clarke, I. 295.

[3] These may possibly be the nuts of the Ricinus Palma Christi, from
which the castor oil is extracted.--E.

[4] Strictly speaking the northern limits of Loango, one of the divisions
of the extensive kingdom of Congo, is at the Sette river, ten leagues
S.S. E. from Cape St Catherine.--E.

[5] There is no island of that name in this position; so that the island
of St Matthew of de Barros must refer to Annobon.--E.

[6] These dates would throw back the discovery of this island, and the
passage of the line by the mariners of Don Henry, to the year 1438, at
a time when they had not reached the latitude of 25 deg. N. which is quite
absurd.--E.

SECTION II.

Voyage of a Portuguese Pilot from Lisbon to the Island of St Thomas[1].

Before I left Venice, I was requested by letter from Signior Hieronimo
Fracastro of Verona, that, on my arrival at Conde, I would send, him an
account of my voya