d on trade with those eastern countries, and
more recently with the Chinese, so that he was well acquainted with
these matters (he also, having been ill-used by the King of Portugal,
had returned to his native country, Castille), pointed out to the
emperor, that it was not yet clearly ascertained, whether Malacca
was within the boundaries of the Portuguese or of the Castillians,
because hitherto its longitude had not been definitely known; but
that it was an undoubted fact that the Great Gulf and the Chinese
nations were within the Castilian limits They asserted also that it
was absolutely certain, that the islands called the Moluccas, in which
all sorts of spices grow, and from which they were brought to Malacca,
were contained in the western, or Castilian division, and that it would
be possible to sail to them, and to bring the spices at less trouble
and expense from their native soil to Castille. The plan of the voyage
was to sail west, and then coasting the Southern Hemisphere round
the south of America to the east. Yet it appeared to be a difficult
undertaking, and one of which the practicability was doubtful. Not
that it was impossible, _prima facie_, to sail from the west round
the Southern Hemisphere to the east; but that it was uncertain,
whether ingenious Nature, all whose works are wisely conceived, had
so arranged the sea and the land that it might be possible to arrive
by this course at the Eastern Seas. For it had not been ascertained
whether that extensive region, which is called Terra Firma, separated
the Western Ocean [the Atlantic] from the Eastern [the Pacific]; but
it was plain that that continent extended in a southerly direction,
and afterwards inclined to the west. Moreover two regions had been
discovered in the north, one called Baccalearum from a new kind of
fish, [223] the other called Florida; and if these were connected
with Terra Firma, it would not be possible to pass from the Western
Ocean to the Eastern; since although much trouble had been taken to
discover any strait which might exist connecting the two oceans, none
had yet been found. At the same time it was considered that to attempt
to sail through the Portuguese concessions and the Eastern Seas would
be a hazardous enterprise, and dangerous in the highest degree.

The emperor and his council considered that the plan proposed by
Magellan and Haro, though holding out considerable advantages, was one
of very considerable difficulty as