ora
tre milo e cento novantatre anni che la Spagna e'l suo Re Hespero
signoreggiavano queste Indie o Isole Hesperidi. E come cosa sua par che
abbia la divina giustizia voluto ritornargliele."--_Hist. Gen. dell'
Indie de Gonzalo Fernando d'Oviedo_, in Ramusio, tom. iii., p. 80.]

[Footnote 11: "It is very possible that in the same temperate zone, and
almost in the same latitude as Thinae (or Athens?), where it crosses the
Atlantic Ocean, there are inhabited worlds, distinct from that in which
we dwell."[12]--Strabo, lib. i., p. 65, and lib. ii., p. 118. It is
surprising that this expression never attracted the attention of the
Spanish authors, who, in the beginning of the sixteenth century, were
searching every where in classical literature with the expectation of
finding some traces of acquaintance with the New World.]

[Footnote 12: "The idea of such a locality in a continuation of the long
axis of the Mediterranean was connected with a grand view of the earth
by Eratosthenes (generally and extensively known among the ancients),
according to which the entire ancient continent, in its widest expanse
from west to east, in the parallel of about thirty-six degrees, presents
an almost unbroken line of elevation."--Humboldt's _Cosmos_.]

[Footnote 13: "D'Anville a dit avec esprit que la plus grande des
erreurs dans la geographie de Ptolemee a conduit les hommes a la plus
grande decouverte de terres nouvelles c'est, a dire la supposition que
l'Asie s'etendait vers l'est, au dela du 180 degre de longitude."

Both Strabo and Aristotle speak of "the same sea bathing opposite
shores," Strabo, lib. i., p. 103; lib. ii., p. 162. Aristotle, _De
Caelo_, lib. ii., cap. 14, p. 297. The possibility of navigating from the
extremity of Europe to the eastern shores of Asia is clearly asserted by
the Stagirite, and in the two celebrated passages of Strabo. Aristotle
does not suppose the distance to be very great, and draws an ingenious
argument in favor of his supposition from the geography of animals.
Strabo sees no obstacle to passing from Iberia to India, except the
immense extent of the Atlantic Ocean. It is to be remembered that
Strabo, as well as Eratosthenes, extend the appellation of Atlantic Sea
to every part of the ocean.--Humboldt's _Geog. du Nouveau Continent_.]

[Footnote 14: See Appendix, No. III. (see Vol II)]

[Footnote 15: "Au milieu de tant de discussions acerbes qu'une curieuse
malignite et le gout d'une fausse erud