In This Long Course, Beginning From Cape St Augustine[6], We Had Run 700 Leagues Along The Coast; 100 Of These Towards The West, And 600 Towards The S.W.[7].

Were I to attempt enumerating every thing we saw in this long and arduous navigation, my letter would exceed all bounds.

We found few things of any value, except great numbers of cassia trees, and many others which produce certain nuts, to describe which and many other curious things would occasion great prolixity. We spent ten months in this voyage, but finding no precious minerals, we agreed to bend our course to a different quarter. Accordingly orders were issued to lay in a stock of wood and water for six months, as our pilots concluded that our vessels were able to continue so much longer at sea.

Having provided ourselves for continuing the voyage, we departed with a south-east wind, and on the 13th of February, when the sun had already begun to approach the equinoctial on its way to our northern hemisphere, we had gone so far that the south pole was elevated fifty-two degrees above the horizon, so that we had now lost sight not only of the Less but of the Great Bear; and by the 3d of April we had got 500 leagues from the place of our last departure[8]. On that day, 3d April, so fierce a tempest arose at S.W. that we had to take in all our sails and scud under bare poles, the sea running mountains high, and all our people in great fear. The nights now were very long, as on the 7th April, when the sun is near the sign of Aries, we found them to last fifteen hours, the winter now beginning. While driving amid this tempest, we descried land on the 2d of April[9] at about twenty leagues distance. We found this land altogether barren, without harbours, and destitute of inhabitants, in my opinion because the intense cold would render it almost impossible for any one to live there[10].

We had undergone such fatigue and danger from this storm, that all now agreed to return towards Portugal; yet on the following day we were assailed by a fresh tempest of such violence that every one expected to be overwhelmed by its fury. In this extremity, our sailors made many vows of pilgrimages for their safety, and performed many ceremonies according to the customs of sea-faring men. We were driven by this terrible storm for five days without a single rag of sail in which time we proceeded 250 leagues on the ocean, approaching towards the equator, the temperature of the sea and air always improving, till at length, by the cessation of the storm, it pleased God to relieve us from our danger. In this course our direction was towards the N.N.E. because we wished to attain the coast of Africa, from which we were 1300 leagues distant across the Atlantic; and by the blessing of the Almighty, we arrived on the 10th of May at that province which is named Sierra Leone, where we remained fifteen days for refreshments, and to rest ourselves from the fatigues of our long and perilous voyage. From thence we steered for the Azores, distant 750 leagues from Sierra Leone, and arrived there near the end of July, where likewise we stopped fifteen days for refreshments. We sailed hence for our port of Lisbon, whence we were now 300 leagues distant to the west, and arrived there by the aid of the Almighty in 1502[11], with two only of our ships, having been forced to burn the other at Sierra Leone, as it was incapable of being navigated any farther. During this third voyage we were absent about sixteen months, eleven of which we had sailed 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.

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