[21] Rumi still continues the eastern name of the Turkish empire, as the
successor of the Roman emperors, in Assyria and Egypt. Hence these
Roman gold coins may have come in the way of trade from Assyria or
Egypt, or may possibly have been Venetian sequins. - E.
[22] The author must here mean Cochin China by the coast of Patane. - E.
[23] About 1000 by 320 English miles. - E.
[24] This story of the skull of a small insect is quite unintelligible,
and must have been misunderstood entirely by Hakluyt, the translator:
It is the Elephant, probably, that is here meant. - E.
[25] Probably the bird of Paradise. - Clarke.
[26] P. Martyr, Dec. 3. c. 10.
[27] The island of Tararequi is in lat. 5 deg. N.
[28] These leagues are elsewhere explained as 17-1/2 to the degree, or
about 4 English miles: Hence the estimate of Galvano is 2000 miles
long by 1200 miles broad; certainly a very extensive dominion. China
Proper may be said to extend in length from lat. 27 deg. to 41 deg. N. and in
breadth from long. 97 deg. to 121 deg. E. not very inferior to the above
estimate; but including the immeasurable bounds of its dependencies,
Chinese Tartary, Thibet, and almost the whole of central Asia, it
prodigiously exceeds the magnitude here assigned by Galvano. - E.
[29] Castagnada, I. 4. c. 36. 37. Osorius, I. 11. f. 315. p. 2.
[30] Pet. Mart. IV. iv. Gomar. II. xiv. and xvii.
[31] The text is obscure, and seems to indicate that they were unable to
pass between the island of Ascension and the main of Yucatan. The
latitudes are extremely erroneous: Cozumel is in lat. 20 deg. N. The
island of Ambergris, perhaps the Ascension of the text, is in 18 deg. 30'.
From errors in latitude and alterations of nomenclature, it is often
impossible to follow distinctly the routes of these early voyagers. - E.
[32] Pet. Mart. IV. vi. Gomar. II. xviii, &c.
[33] Gomar. II. xxi, xxii, xxiii, xxiv.
[34] This certainly ought to be called the Molucca islands; but Galvano
uniformly applies the same name, Malacca, both to the spice islands
and the city of Malacca on the Continent. - E.
[35] Gomar. IV. iii. Pet. Mart. V. vii.
[36] Ramusio, I. 874.
[37] This seems to mean the Straits of Babelmandel. Having lost sight of
Prester John in Tartary, the Portuguese were delighted with the
discovery of a Christian king in Africa, the Negus of Abyssinia; and
transferred to him that popular fable. - E.
[38] These countries, with the river and cape mentioned in the text, are
now unknown, these arbitrary names having merged in the nomenclature
of more recent settlers. If the latitude be nearly accurate, it may
have been on the confines of Georgia and South Carolina. - E.
[39] Gomar. II. l.
[40] Id. II. lx.
[41] Malacca of the text ought certainly to be Molucca: Bouro is in lat.
3 deg. 20' S. Timor between 8 deg. 30' and 10 deg. 20' S. - E.
[42] Gomar. IV. viii.
[43] Id. VI. iv. li.
[44] Gomar. IV. viii, and xii. Castagn. VI. xli.
[45] Gomar. VI. xii.
[46] Castagn. VI. xlii.
[47] Gomar. II. lxi. The text, in Hakluyt's translation, has the absurd
number of 76,000 Castilians lost in this war; 76 is a more probable
number, and is considerable out of his small force: yet, the text may
mean 76,000 _Castellans_ of gold, as the sum expended on the
expedition; and which Hakluyt, or his printer, changed to that number
of _Castilians_. - E.
[48] Gomar. Conqu. de Mex. f. 226.
[49] Id. 242. This bay reaches no farther to the S. than 148 10' N. - E.
[50] Id. f. 229. 230.
[51] Id. f. 233.
[52] Gomar. Conqu. f. 234. and Hist. Gen. III. xxi.
[53] Id: Hist. Gen. II. vii.
[54] In this latitude, on the shore of Costa Rica, there is a town now
called Porto Cartago; but whether that indicated in the text it is
difficult to say, as Galvano is not always perfectly accurate in his
latitudes. - E.
[55] Gomar. Hist. Gen. II. lxv. and Conqu. f. 243.
[56] Gomar. Hist. Gen. II. lxvi, and Conqu. f. 256-261.
[57] The Spanish leagues are 17-1/2 to the degree of latitude, hence this
march exceeded 2000 English miles. - E. Gomar. Hist. Gen. II. lxvi. Id.
Conqu. 246-273.
[58] Gomar. Hist. Gen. V. i. and ii.
[59] The ambiguity of the language is here utterly inexplicable. - E.
[60] Meaning probably the lake of Titicaca in Peru. It is hardly necessary
to say that this slight survey of the Plata must be erroneous,
especially in its reports. The Rio San Francisco, alludes to one of
the sources of the Great Maranon, or river of the Amazons. - E.
[61] Ramusio, III. 310. Ramusio gives a long and minute account of this
unfortunate expedition, entitled, Relation made by Alvaro Nunez, of
what befel the armament sent to the _Indies_ (America) under Pamphilo
Narvaez in the year 1527, to the end of 1536; when he returned to
Seville with _three_ only of his companions. - Clarke.
[62] The inhabitants of this island were most probably _tatooted_, of
which custom a particular description will be given hereafter, in the
particular voyages of discovery in the South Sea. - E.
[63] The longitudes being altogether neglected in these relations by
Galyano, it is impossible to form any conjecture as to the islands
indicated in text. They may possibly have belonged to the Carolines of
modern maps, which extend between long. 135 deg. and 180 deg. E. and about the
latitudes of the text. - E.
[64] The account which Galvano gives of this voyage is very vague and
inconclusive. We shall find afterwards that the Spaniards found out
the means of counteracting the perpetual eastern trade winds of the
Pacific within the tropics, by shaping a more northerly course from
the Philippine islands, where they established the staple of their
Indian commerce, between Acapulco and Manilla.
![A General History And Collection Of Voyages And Travels - Volume 2 - By Robert Kerr
- - E.
[20] The Cakerlaka of other writers, which can only be large monkeys or
baboons, called men with tails, through - Page 46](../images/travel.jpg)
