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.
