d thither, of such a size that every joint could contain a
gallon of liquor. Columbus had farther heard mention made of these canes
by the king of Portugal, who had some of them, which he ordered to be
shewn to the admiral, who concluded that they must have been drifted from
India by the west wind, more especially as there are none such in Europe.
He was the more confirmed in this opinion, as Ptolemy, in the 17th chapter
of the first book of his cosmography, describes such canes as being found
in India. He was likewise informed by some of the inhabitants of the
Azores, that when the wind continued long and violent from the west and
north-west, the sea used to throw pine trees on the coasts of the isles of
Gracioso and Fayal, in which no trees of that sort grew. The sea once cast
two dead bodies on the coast of Flores, having very broad faces, and quite
different features from those of the Christians. Two canoes were seen at
another time, having several articles in them, which might have been
driven out to sea by the force of the wind while passing from one island
to another, and thence to the Azores. Anthony Leme, who had married in
Madeira, declared that he once run a considerable way to the westwards of
that island in his caravel, and fancied that he saw three islands; and
many of the inhabitants of Gomera, Hierro, and the Azores, affirmed that
they every year saw islands to the westwards. These were considered by
Columbus as the same with those mentioned by Pliny in his Natural History,
where he says, "That the sea to the northwards cuts off some pieces of
woods from the land; and the roots being very large, they drift on the
water like floats, and looked at a distance like islands."

In the year 1484, an inhabitant of the island of Madeira asked permission
from the king of Portugal to go upon the discovery of a country, which he
declared he saw every year exactly in the same position, agreeable to what
had been reported by the people of the Azores. On these accounts, the
ancient sea-charts laid down certain islands in these seas, which they
called _Antilla_, and placed them about 200 leagues west from the Canaries
and Azores; which the Portuguese believed to be the island of the Seven
Cities, the fame of which has occasioned many to commit great folly from
covetousness, by spending much money to no purpose. The story is, that
this island of the Seven Cities was peopled by those who fled from the
persecution of the inf