S. and 35 deg.  W. longitude from Lisbon.  Leaving this place we steered our course N.N.E. for Lisbon, at which place we arrived in seventy-seven days after many toils and dangers, on the 28th June 1504.  We were there received very honourably, even beyond our expectations, the whole city believing we had perished on the ocean, as indeed all the rest of our companions did, through the presumptuous folly of our commander.  I now remain in Lisbon, unknowing what may be the intentions of his majesty respecting me, though I am now desirous of resting myself after my great labours.

[1] Such is the expression in the original, the eastern horizon being so
    named apparently by way of eminence.—­E.

[2] As written by an Italian, Melcha has the sound of Melka, and the place
    here indicated is obviously the city of Malacca in the Malayan
    peninsula, long a famous emporium for the trade of eastern India and
    China.—­E.

[3] The Bay of Bengal and sea of China.—­E.

[4] In the original these positions are thus unaccountably misrepresented,
    as literally translated:  “Melcha is more to the west, and Calicut
    more to the south; being situated 33 deg. from the Antarctic pole.”—­E.

It would appear from some circumstances in the sequel, that this fleet was directed to visit Brazil on its way to India; and that the ultimate object of the voyage was frustrated through its early misfortunes.—­E.

[5] Per suduestium, qui ventus est inter meridiem et lebeccium: Between
    the S. and S.W. or S.S.W.—­E.

[6] Perhaps the island of St Matthew, which is nearly in the latitude
    indicated in the text, and about the distance mentioned from Sierra
    Leone; yet it is difficult to conceive how they could get there with a
    storm at S.S.W. as the course is S.S.E. from Sierra Leone.—­E.

[7] Such is the literal meaning of the original, yet I suspect Americus
    here means his largest boat.—­E.

[8] In the original, Omnium Sanctorum Abbatium, but which must assuredly
    be Bahia dos todos los Santos, in lat 13 deg.  S. on the coast of
    Brazil.—­E.

[9] The distance between the island of St Matthew, and the Bay of All
    Saints, is not less than 600 leagues, or thirty degrees; yet that
    distance might certainly be run in seventeen days with a fair wind.—­E.

[10] The number of leagues mentioned in the text would lead us to the Bay
    of Santos on the coast of Brazil, in latitude twenty-four degrees S.
    but in the text this first attempt to colonize Brazil is said to have
    been in latitude eighteen degrees S. near which the harbour now named
    Abrolhos is situated.—­E.

* * * * *

CHAPTER IV.

SUMMARY OF THE DISCOVERIES AND SETTLEMENTS OF THE SPANIARDS IN THE WEST
INDIES, FROM THE DEATH OF COLUMBUS, TO THE EXPEDITION OF HERNANDO CORTES
AGAINST MEXICO[1].