Part 3 (1/2)
We left this place, and co a course between east and south Thus we sailed along the land,no intercourse with them We sailed on until we found that the coast made a turn to the e had doubled a cape, to which we gave the naan to shape a course to the south-west
The cape is distant froues towards the east, and this cape is 8 froone day a greatat the wonderful sight of our shi+ps As we sailed we turned the shi+p towards theood place, and went on shore with the boats We found the people to be better conditioned than those we hadto our overtures, they soon made friends, and treated with us We were five days in this place, and found _canna fistola_ very thick and green, and dry on the tops of the trees We deterht teach us their language, and three of thenificence should be tired of sothis port, we sailed along on a westerly course, always in sight of land, continuallywith an infinite number of people We were so far south that ere outside the Tropic of Capricorn, where the South Pole rises above the horizon 32 We had lost sight altogether of _Ursa Minor_ and _Ursa Major_, which were far below and scarcely seen on the horizon[115] We guided ourselves by the stars of the South Pole, which are nuhter than those of our Pole I traced the figure of the greater part of those of the first nitude, with a declaration of their orbits round the South Pole, and of their diameters and semi-dia that coast for 750 leagues, 150 froustine_, to the west, and 600 to the south
Desiring to recount the things I saw on that coast, and what happened to us, as many more leaves would not suffice me On the coastan infinite number of trees, brazil wood[116] and _cassia_, and those trees which yield myrrh, as well as othernow been tenwealth whatever in that land, we decided upon taking leave of it, and upon sailing across the sea for so held a consultation, it was decided that the course should be taken which seeood to ave orders that the fleet should be supplied ood and water for sixthe decision of the officers of the shi+ps Having ation with a southerly course on the 15th of February, when already the sun moved towards the equinoctial, and turned towards our Hemisphere of the North We sailed so far on this course that we found ourselves where the South Pole had a height above our horizon of 52 and we could no longer see the stars of _Ursa Minor_ or of _Ursa Major_ We were then 500 leagues to the south of the port whence we had departed, and this was on the 3rd of April On this day such a tempest arose on the sea that all our sails were bloay, and we ran under bare poles, with a heavy southerly gale and a treale was such that all the people in the fleet were ht we had on the 7th of April lasted fifteen hours, the sun being at the end of Aries, and in that region it inter, as your Magnificence will be well aware Sailing in this storht of new land,[117] along which we ran for nearly 20 leagues, and found it all a rocky coast, without any port or inhabitants I believe this was because the cold was so great that no one in the fleet could endure it Finding ourselves in such peril, and in such a stor to the greatness of the waves and the blinding nal should be made to the shi+ps that they should al This was very good counsel, for it is certain that if we had delayed another night all would have been lost; for, as ore round on the next day, ere met by such a storries and perform other ceremonies, as is the custom of sailors at such ti towards the equinoctial line, where the air and sea became more temperate It pleased God to deliver us from such peril Our course was noeen the north and north-east, for our intention was to reach the coast of Ethiopia, our distance froues, in the Gulf of the Atlantic Sea By the grace of God, on the 10th day of May, we caht of land, where ere able to refresh ourselves, the land being called _La Serra Liona_ We were there fifteen days, and thence shaped a course to the islands of the _Azores_, which are distant nearly 750 leagues from that _Serra_ We reached the islands in the end of July, where we re soues to the west, and arrived at that port of Lisbon on the 7th of September 1502, may God be thanked for our salvation, with only two shi+ps We burnt the other at _Serra Liona_, because she was no longer seaworthy We were ee nearly fifteenthe North Star, nor the Great or Little Bears, which they call _el corno_, and ere guided by the stars of the other Pole This is what I saw on this voyage
_Letter on his Third Voyage from_ AMERIGO VESPUCCI _to_ LORENZO PIETRO FRANCESCO DI MEDICI
_March (or April) 1503_
Alberico Vesputio to Lorenzo Pietro di Medici, salutation In passed days I wrote very fully to you of my return from the new countries, which have been found and explored with the shi+ps, at the cost, and by the coal; and it is lawful to call it a neorld, because none of these countries were known to our ancestors, and to all who hear about them they will be entirely new
For the opinion of the ancients was, that the greater part of the world beyond the equinoctial line to the south was not land, but only sea, which they have called the Atlantic; and if they have affiriventhat it is inhabited But this their opinion is false, and entirely opposed to the truth My last voyage has proved it, for I have found a continent in that southern part; more populous and more full of animals than our Europe, or Asia, or Africa, and even ion known to us, as will be explained further on I shall write succinctly of the principal things only, and the thingsremembered, which I either saw or heard of in this neorld, as presently will becoe, on the 14th of May[118] 1501, sailing fro, with three shi+ps, to discover new countries towards the west; and we sailed towards the south continuously for twenty ation the order is as follows: Our course was for the Fortunate Islands, so called formerly, but noe call them the Grand Canary Islands, which are in the third climate, and on the confines of the inhabited west Thence we sailed rapidly over the ocean along the coast of Africa and part of Ethiopia to the Ethiopic Promontory, so called by Ptolemy, which is now called Cape Verde, and by the Ethiopians _Biseghier_, and that country _Mandraga_, 13 within the Torrid Zone, on the north side of the equinoctial line The country is inhabited by a black race Having taken on board e required, eighed our anchors andour way across the vast ocean towards the Antarctic Pole, with so From the day e left the before-mentioned promontory, we sailed for the space of two months and three days[120] Hitherto no land had appeared to us in that vast sea In truth, how ers of shi+pwreck, I leave to the judgs is very well known What a thing it is to seek unknown lands, and how difficult, being ignorant, to narrate briefly what happened It should be known that, of the sixty-seven days of our voyage, ere navigating continuously forty-four We had copious thunderstorms and perturbations, and it was so dark that we never could see either the sun in the day or the reat fear, so that we lost all hope of life In these h to show us the continent and the new countries, being another unknoorld These things being in sight, ere as ine who, after calamity and ill-fortune, has obtained safety
It was on the 7th August[121] 1501, that we reached those countries, thanking our Lord God with sole a choral Mass We knew that land to be a continent, and not an island, fro round, the infinite number of inhabitants, the numerous tribes and peoples, the numerous kinds of wild animals unknown in our country, andwhich it would take long to make reference The cleht to these regions; for the shi+ps were in a leaking state, and in a few days our lives lory, and the grace of the action
We took counsel, and resolved to navigate along the coast of this continent towards the east, and never to lose sight of the land We sailed along until we came to a point where the coast turned to the south The distance froues[122]
In this stretch of coast we often landed, and had friendly relations with the natives,[123] as I shall presently relate I had forgotten to tell you that from Cape Verde to the first land of this continent the distance is nearly 700 leagues; although I estinorance of the route, and partly owing to the tempests and foul winds which drove us off our course, and sent us in various directions If raphy was known, no one, not the leader of our navigation, would have knohere ere after running 500 leagues We andering and full of errors, and only the instru the altitudes of heavenly bodies showed us our position These were the quadrant and astrolabe, as known to all These have been much used by e of the ht by it, are more worth than all the pilots in the world For these pilots have no knowledge beyond those places to which they have often sailed Where the said point of land showed us the trend of the coast to the south, we agreed to continue our voyage, and to ascertain what therethe coast for nearly 500 leagues, often going on shore and having intercourse with the natives, who received us in a brotherly manner We sometimes stayed with theuests, as I shall relate presently Part of this continent is in the Torrid Zone, beyond the equinoctial line towards the South Pole But it begins at 8 beyond the equinoctial We sailed along the coast so far that we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn, and found ourselves where the Antarctic Pole was 50 above our horizon We went towards the Antarctic Circle until ere 17 30' from it[124]; all which I have seen, and I have known the nature of those people, their customs, the resources and fertility of the land, the salubrity of the air, the positions of the celestial bodies in the heavens, and, above all, the fixed stars, over an eighth of the sphere, never seen by our ancestors, as I shall explain below
As regards the people: we have found such a multitude in those countries that no one could enuentle and tractable, and all of both sexes go naked, not covering any part of their bodies, just as they cao until their deaths They have large, square-built bodies, and well proportioned Their colour reddish, which I think is caused by their going naked and exposed to the sun Their hair is plentiful and black They are agile in walking, and of quick sight They are of a free and good-looking expression of countenance, which they the the nostrils and lips, the nose and ears; nor s are small, nor that they only have one, for I have seen those who had no less than seven borings in the face, each one the size of a plum They stop up these perforations with blue stones, bits of marble, of crystal, or very fine alabaster, also with very white bones and other things artificially prepared according to their custoe andOne had in the nostrils and lips alone seven stones, of which soth It will astonish you to hear that I considered that the weight of seven such stones was as much as sixteen ounces In each ear they had three perforations bored, whence they had other stones and rings suspended This custom is only for the men, as the women do not perforate their faces, but only their ears Another custo them is sufficiently sha very libidinous, make the penis of their husbands swell to such a size as to appear defor the bite of some poisonous anian and remain eunuchs
They have no cloth, either of wool, flax, or cotton, because they have no need of it; nor have they any private property, everything being in co or ruler, eachas many wives as they please The children cohabit with the mothers, the brothers with the sisters, the male cousins with the female, and each one with the first he meets
They have no temples and no laws, nor are they idolaters Whatto nature, and are more inclined to be Epicurean than Stoic They have no coe ithout art or order The old men hts, in which they hter those who are captured, and the victors eat the vanquished; for hu them You may be the more certain of this, because I have seen a man eat his children and wife; and I knew a man as popularly credited to have eaten 300 human bodies I was once in a certain city for twenty-seven days, where hu up near the houses, in the same way as we expose butcher's meat I say further that they were surprised that we did not eat our enemies, and use their flesh as food, for they say it is excellent Their aro to war they cover no part of their bodies, being in this like beasts We did all we could to persuade them to desist from their evil habits, and they proo naked, and are very libidinous, yet their bodies are coined
They live for 150 years, and are rarely sick If they are attacked by a disease they cure themselves with the roots of sos I know about theood, as ere able to learn from their accounts that there are never any pestilences or epidemics caused by bad air Unless theyI believe this is because a southerly wind is always blowing, a south wind to the what a north wind is to us They are expert fishermen, and the sea is full of all kinds of fish They are not hunters; I think because here there are many kinds of wild animals, principally lions and bears, innumerable serpents, and other horrible creatures and deformed beasts; also because there are vast forests and trees of iers naked and without any defence
The land is very fertile, abounding in ated by very refreshi+ng springs It is covered with extensive and dense forests, which are almost impenetrable, and full of every kind of wild beast Great trees groithout cultivation, of whichto the hureat many have an opposite effect The fruits are unlike those in our country; and there are innumerable different kinds of fruits and herbs, of which they make bread and excellent food They also have many seeds unlike ours No kind of old, in which the country abounds, though we have brought none back in this our first navigation The natives, however, assured us that there was an i was to be had from them for a price Pearls abound, as I wrote to you
If I was to atte and tedious task I believe certainly that our Pliny did not touch upon a thousandth part of the aniion; nor could an artist such as Policletus,[125] succeed in painting theums, oils, or other liquors If they were our property, I do not doubt but that they would be useful to man If the terrestrial paradise is in some part of this land, it cannot be very far from the coast we visited It is, as I have told you, in a cli neither cold in winter nor hot in sureat part of the year Thick vapours, with fine rain falling, last for three or four hours and then disappear like sures, in which I have noted as ht as we sometimes see Venus and Jupiter I have considered the orbits and motions of these stars, and I have eoest I saw in the heaven three _Canopi_, two certainly bright, and the other obscure The Antarctic Pole is not figured with a Great Bear and a Little Bear, like our Arctic Pole, nor is any bright star seen near it, and of those which go round in the shortest circuit there are three which have the figure of the orthogonous triangle, of which the srees To the east of these is seen a _Canopus_ of great size, and white, which, when in ure:--
s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s canopus
After these come two others, of which the half-circurees; and with them is seen another Canopus
To these succeed six other ht stars, beyond all the others of the eighth sphere, which, in the superficies of the heaven, have half the circumference, the diameter 32, and with them is one black Canopus of immense size, seen in the Milky Way, and they have this shape when they are on the meridian:--
s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s