ghly probable that the date is here falsified by error, or
rather purposely to give a pretext for having discovered the continent
of the New World before Columbus; for we are assured by Harris, II. 37,
that the real date of this voyage was 1499. Alonzo Hojeda and Americus
Vespucius were furnished by Fonseca, bishop of Burgos, with charts and
projects of discovery made by Columbus, whose honour and interest the
bishop was eager to destroy by this surreptitious invasion of his
rights as admiral and viceroy of the West Indies.--E.

[2] In the original, having the wind between south and south-west. It is
often impossible to ascertain, as here, from the equivocal language of
the original, whether the author intends to express the course of the
voyage or the direction of the wind. The course of the voyage from
Cadiz to the Cananaries, whither Americus was now bound, certainly was
towards the direction expressed in the text, and to this course the
wind indicated is adverse.

[3] In the original, _per Ponentem, sumpta una Lebeccio quarta_. _Ponente_
is the West in Italian, and _Lebeccio_ the south-west; but it is
difficult to express in English nautical language the precise meaning
of the original, which is literally translated in the text.--E.

[4] The latitude and longitude of the text would indicate the eastern
coast of Yucutan, near the bay of Honduras; but from other
circumstances, it is probable the coast now visited by Americus was
that of Paria or the Spanish main, between the latitudes of 10 deg. and
12 deg. N. and perhaps twenty-five degrees less to the west than
expressed in the text. But the geographical notices in this work of
Americus are scanty and uncertain.--E.

[5] Praeterquam regiuncula illa anterior, quam verecundiore vocabulo
pectusculum imum vocamus.

[6] The author appears to mean here that they were entirely destitute of
religious belief.--E.

[7] The expression of the author seems here ambiguous. He probably means
towns or collections of huts as containing such large numbers; and it
is hard to say whether he meant to say that these eight populous
_habitations_ had 10,000 each, or altogether.--E.

[8] The expression of the original _serpens_, here translated serpent, had
been better expressed, perhaps, by the fabulous term _dragon_.
The animal in question was probably the _lacerto igu