[54] The consulate (see Vol.  XIII, p. 57) of Sevilla was formed in accordance with a law dated August 23, 1543; it authorized the exporting merchants of that city to meet annually for the election of prior and consuls to administer, regulate, and guard the commercial interests of those merchants.  See the laws enacted regarding this institution, in Recopilacion de leyes, lib. ix, tit. vi.

[55] The Atlantic Ocean; the new trade-route opened by the Portuguese a century before led to the Atlantic via the Cape of Good Hope.

[56] Spanish, tan en las mantillas, i.e., the long outer garments in which an infant is dressed.

[57] Referring to the Cerro Gordo ("rich hill”) of Potosi; see Vol.  XIV, p. 306.

[58] Perhaps the region known as Miztecapan, which has fertile valleys.

[59] A truce of eight months, to begin with May, 1607, was arranged between Spain and the United Provinces, in which for the first time Spain gave up its claims to control the latter.  This paved the way to the long truce of twelve years signed at the meeting of the States-General at Bergen-op-Zoom, in April, 1609, in which the independence of the United Provinces was recognized (see Vol.  XI, p. 166, note 27).  But that independence was completely recognized and assured only by the treaty of Westphalia or Muenster (in October, 1648), which also opened to the Dutch the ports of the Eastern and Western Indias.

[60] Thus in the text, according to the editor of Docs. ineditos; apparently an error for Manila.

[61] That is, if the Philippine trade to Nueva Espana were suppressed the commodities from Spain which are now shipped to Manila via Acapulco, and are mainly articles of luxury, would not find any greater sale in the Orient than before.

[62] In 1525 Esteban Gomez—­who had been one of Magalhaes’s pilots (Vol. 1, pp. 263, 319) was sent by Charles V “to find a route to Cathay” north of Florida.  He had but one caravel with which to make this voyage, but he went to the Bacalaos (New-foundland coast), and thence as far south as Florida.  His discoveries were noted on the map of the cosmographer Diego Ribero (1529).  Gomez’s voyage is described by Peter Martyr.

[63] Referring to the treaty of Zaragoza (Vol.  II, pp. 222-240).

[64] Montesclaros has forgotten the capture of the “Santa Ana” by Candish.  See Vol.  VI, p. 311, and Vol.  XV, appendix A.

[65] The fictitious strait of Anian (for which name see Bancroft’s History of Northwest Coast, i, pp. 53-56), was the supposed western terminus of the northwest passage, whose eastern terminus Cortereal was thought to have found in Hudson Strait.  A kingdom marked Anian is shown On Ortelius’s map (Theatrum orbis terrarum, Antwerp, 1574), with the strait just north of it, above 60 deg..  Both the kingdom and district are shown on a number