yours, I send you another letter which, some
days since, I wrote to a friend of mine, a servant of the
King of Portugal before the wars of Castile, in answer to
another that he wrote me by his highness's order, upon this
same account. And I also _send you another sea-chart_, like
the one I sent to him, which will satisfy your demands. This
is a copy of the letter:

"_'To Ferdinand Martinez, Canon of Lisbon, Paul the
Physicist wishes health._

"'I am very glad to hear of the familiarity you enjoy with
your most serene and magnificent king, and though I have
very often discoursed concerning _the short way there is
from hence to the Indies_, where the spice is produced, by
sea (which I look upon to be shorter than that you take by
the coast of Guinea), yet you now tell me that his highness
would have me make out and demonstrate it, so that it may be
understood and put in practice.

"'Therefore, though I could better show it to him with a
globe in my hand, and make him sensible of the figure of the
world, yet I have resolved, to make it more easy and
intelligible, to show the way on a chart, such as is used in
navigation, and therefore I send one to his majesty, made
and drawn with my own hand, wherein is set down the _utmost
bounds of the earth, from Ireland in the west to the
farthest parts of Guinea_, with all the islands that lie in
the way; opposite to which western coast is described the
beginning of the Indies, with the islands and places whither
you may go, and how far you may bend from the North Pole
towards the Equinoctial, and for how long a time--that is,
how many leagues you may sail before you come to those
places most fruitful in spices, jewels, and precious stones.

"'Do not wonder if I term that country where the spice
grows, _West_, that product being generally ascribed to the
_East_, because those who sail westward will always find
those countries in the west, and those who travel by land
eastward will always find those countries in the east! The
straight lines that lie lengthways in the chart show the
distance there is from west to east; the others, which cross
them, show the distance from north to south. I have also
marked down in the chart several places in India where ships
might put in, upon any s