us. O! thou northern site, bereft
Indeed, and widowed, since of these deprived!'

"It seems to me that the poet wished to describe in these
verses, by the four stars, the pole of the other firmament,
and I have little doubt, even now, that what he says may be
true. I observed four stars in the figure of an almond which
had but little motion; and if God gives me life and health I
hope to go again into that hemisphere and not to return
without observing the pole. In conclusion I would remark
that we extended our navigation so far south that our
difference in latitude from the city of Cadiz was sixty
degrees and a half, because, at that city, the pole is
elevated thirty-five degrees and a half, and we had passed
six degrees beyond the equinoctial line. Let this suffice as
to our latitude. You must observe that this our navigation
was in the months of July, August, and September, when, as
you know, the sun is longest above the horizon in our
hemisphere and describes the greatest arch in the day and
the least in the night. On the contrary, while we were at
the equinoctial line, or near it, the difference between the
day and night was not perceptible. They were of equal
length, or very nearly so....

"It appears to me, most excellent Lorenzo, that by this
voyage most of the philosophers are controverted who say
that the torrid zone cannot be inhabited on account of the
great heat. I have found the case to be quite the contrary.
The air is fresher and more temperate in that region than
beyond it, and the inhabitants are more numerous here than
they are in the other zones, for reasons which will be given
below. Thus, it is certain, that practice is more valuable
than theory.

"Thus far I have related the navigation I accomplished in
the South and West. It now remains for me to inform you of
the appearance of the country we discovered, the nature of
the inhabitants and their customs, the animals we saw, and
of many other things worthy of remembrance which fell under
my observation. After we turned our course to the north, the
first land we found inhabited was an island at ten degrees
distant from the equinoctial line [island of Trinidad]. When
we arrived at it we saw on the sea-shore a great many
people, who stood looking at