s want of
population. Finding ourselves in great danger, and the storm
so violent that we could scarce distinguish one ship from
another, on account of the high seas that were running and
the misty darkness of the weather, we agreed that the
superior captain should make signals to the fleet to turn
about, leave the country, and steer direct for Portugal.

"This proved to be very good counsel, for certain it is, if
we had delayed that night, we should all have been lost. We
took the wind aft, and during the night and next day the
storm increased so much that we were apprehensive for our
safety, and made many vows of pilgrimage, and the
performance of other ceremonies usual with [superstitious]
mariners in such weather. We ran five days, making about two
hundred and fifty leagues, and continually approaching the
equinoctial line, finding the air more mild and the sea less
boisterous; till at last it pleased God to deliver us from
this our great danger.

"It was our intention to go and reconnoitre the coast of
Ethiopia, which was thirteen hundred leagues distant from
us, through the great Atlantic sea, and by the grace of God
we arrived at it, touching at a southern port called Sierra
Leone, where we stayed fifteen days, obtaining refreshments.
From this place we steered for the Azore Islands, about
seven hundred and fifty leagues distant, where we arrived in
the latter part of July, and stayed another fifteen days,
taking some recreation. Then we departed for Lisbon, three
hundred leagues farther, which port we entered on the 7th of
September, 1502--for which the All-Powerful be
thanked!--with only two ships, having burned the other in
Sierra Leone because it was no longer sea-worthy.

"In this voyage we were absent about fifteen months, and
sailed eleven of them without seeing the north star, or
either of the constellations Ursa Major and Minor (which are
called the "horn"), steering meanwhile by the stars of the
other pole. The above is what I saw in this my third voyage,
made for his Serene Highness the King of Portugal."

XII

THE "FOURTH PART OF THE EARTH"

The following letter from Vespucci to Lorenzo di Pier Francesco de
Medici, his friend and patron in Florence, was probably written in the
spring of 1503.

"_To m