er to which we were exposed, we determined to turn our prows to the
northwest.

As I know, if I remember right, that your excellency understands
something of cosmography, I intend to describe to you our progress in our
navigation, by the latitude and longitude. We sailed so far to the south
that we entered the torrid zone and penetrated the circle of Cancer. You
may rest assured that for a few days, while sailing through the torrid
zone, we saw four shadows of the sun, as the sun appeared in the zenith
to us at midday. I would say that the sun, being in our meridian, gave us
no shadow; but this I was enabled many times to demonstrate to all the
company, and took their testimony of the fact. This I did on account of
the ignorance of the common people, who do not know that the sun moves
through its circle of the zodiac. At one time I saw our shadow to the
south, at another to the north, at another to the west, and at another to
the east, and sometimes, for an hour or two of the day, we had no shadow
at all.

We sailed so far south in the torrid zone that we found ourselves under
the equinoctial line, and had both poles at the edge of the horizon.
Having passed the line, and sailed six degrees to the south of it, we
lost sight of the north star altogether, and even the stars of Ursa
Minor, or, to speak better, the guardians which revolve about the
firmament, were scarcely seen. Very desirous of being the author who
should designate the other polar star of the firmament, I lost, many a
time, my night's sleep while contemplating the movement of the stars
around the southern pole, in order to ascertain which had the least
motion, and which might be nearest to the firmament; but I was not able
to accomplish it with such bad nights as I had, and such instruments as
I used, which were the quadrant and astrolabe. I could not distinguish a
star which had less than ten degrees of motion around the firmament; so
that I was not satisfied within myself to name any particular one for the
pole of the meridian, on account of the large revolution which they all
made around the firmament.

While I was arriving at this conclusion as the result of my
investigations, I recollected a verse of our poet Dante, which may be
found in the first chapter of his _Purgatory_, where he imagines he
is leaving this hemisphere to repair to the other, and, attempting to
describe the antarctic pole, says:

"I turned to the right hand and fixed my mind On