oks of the _General Chronicle of Spain_ of Florian de
Ocampo, 1552 (lib. ii. cap. II).]

Having considered the measurement of its great size we come to the third
point, which is the true position over which this great island extended.
Plato says that the position of the island extended to the south;
opposite to the north. From this we should understand that, the front
conterminous with Spain from the strait of Gibraltar to Cadiz thence
extended westward, making a curve along the coast of Barbary or Africa,
but very close to it, between west and south, which is what sailors call
south-west. For if it was opposite to north, which is between east and
north, called north-east, it must necessarily have its direction in the
said south-west, west-south-west, or south-south-west. It would include
and incorporate the Canary Islands which, according to this calculation,
would be part of it, and from thence the land trended south-west. As
regards the south, it would extend rather more to the south and
south-south-west, finally following the route by which we go when we
sail from Spain to the Indies, forming a continent or main land with
these western Indies of Castille, joining on to them by the parts
stretching south-west, and west-south-west, a little more or less from
the Canaries. Thus there was sea on one side and on the other of this
land, that is on the north and south, and the Indies united with it, and
they were all one. The proof of this is that if the Atlantic Island had
2300 leagues of longitude, and the distance of Cadiz to the mouth of the
river Maranon or Orellana and Trinidad, on the coast of Brazil, is, not
more than 1000, 900, or 1100 leagues, being the part where this land
joined to America, it clearly appears that, to complete the complement
of 2300 leagues, we have to include in the computation all the rest of
the land from the mouth of the Maranon and Brazil to the South Sea,
which is what they now call America. Following this course it would come
to Coquimbo. Counting what is still wanting, this would be much less
than 2300 leagues. Measuring the circumference, the island was more than
7100 leagues round, because that is about the circumference of Asia and
Africa by their coasts. If this land is joined to the other, which in
fact it was in conformity with the description, it would have a much
greater circuit, for even now these parts of the western Indies,
measured by compass, and latitude, have more than 710