without
sight of the north Star or of the Greater and Lesser Bears, during which
time we directed our course by the other stars of the southern pole.

[1] Assuredly Brasil is here meant, yet the latitude is absurdly
erroneous.--E.

[2] This must necessarily be an error, as he now sailed in the service of
the king of Portugal.--E.

[3] Perhaps malefactors, who have been formerly mentioned in the early
Portuguese voyages to India, as employed in such hazardous
commissions.--E.

[4] Could we trust to the position in the text, lat. 8 deg. S. this voyage
must have been upon the coast of Brazil, and the cape named St Vincent
by Americus ought to be that now called St Augustine: Indeed in a
subsequent passage of this same voyage he gives this cape that
name.--E.

[5] Lat. 32 deg. S. as in the text, would bring this voyage of Americus all
down the coast of Brazil almost to the mouth of the _Rio Grande_, or
of St Pedro, now the boundary between Portuguese America and the
Spanish viceroyalty of Buenos Ayres.--E.

[6] Obviously the same cape which was called St Vincent only a little way
before, and which now receives its true name.--E.

[7] The difference of latitude between Cape St Augustine and the Rio
Grande, is 24 degrees, or 480 leagues, and their difference of
longitude 17 degrees or 340 leagues.--E.

[8] The circumstances in the text would indicate that Americus had now run
down the eastern coast of South America, almost to the entrance of the
Straits of Magellan.--E.

[9] The tempest has been already stated as beginning on the 3d of April,
whence we must presume the present date in the text to be a
typographical error, perhaps for the _twenty_-second.--E.

[10] From the high latitude of 52 deg. S. in which they were at the
commencement of the storm, and the direction of the wind from the S.W.
it seems highly probable that this barren land was what is now called
the Falkland Islands.--E.

[11] Though not mentioned in the text, we may conclude, from the time
occupied in this voyage, as indicated a little farther on, that
Americus returned to Lisbon in August 1502, the voyage having
commenced in May 1501, and lasted sixteen months.--E.

SECTION IV.

_The Fourth Voyage of Americus Vespucius_.

It now remains for me to inform your majesty of what things I saw during
my fourth voyage. But, both because I h