riis, among the
problems of Aristotle which he collected in a book entitled De Admirandis
in Natura auditis, in the following strain:

"Beyond the pillars of Hercules, it is reported that certain Carthaginian
merchants discovered an island in the Atlantic, which had never before
been inhabited except by beasts. This island was not many days sail from
the continent, was entirely covered over with trees, and abounded in all
the usual productions of nature, having a considerable number of navigable
rivers. Finding this a beautiful country, possessing it fertile soil and
salubrious atmosphere, these Carthaginians began to people it; but the
senate of Carthage, offended with this procedure, passed a decree
forbidding any person to go to that island under pain of death, and they
ordered all those who had already gone there to be slain; meaning thereby
to prevent all other nations from acquiring any knowledge of the place,
lest some other and more powerful state might take possession, to the
detriment of their liberty and commercial interest."

Oviedo had no just grounds for asserting that this island must have been
Hispaniola or Cuba. As he was ignorant of Latin, he was obliged to take
such interpretation of this story as he could procure from some other
person, who certainly was very ill qualified for the task, since the Latin
text has been altered and misinterpreted in several particulars. This may
have misled Oviedo, and induced him to believe that the foregoing
quotation referred to some island in the West Indies. In the Latin text we
do not read of the Carthaginian merchants going out of the straits of
Gibraltar as Oviedo writes[9]. Neither is it said that the island was
extensive, or its trees large, but only that it was much wooded. Nor do we
find that the rivers were wonderful, or the soil fat, or that the island
was more remote from Africa than from Europe; but merely that it was
remote from the continent. It is not said in the original that any towns
were built here, and indeed it is not likely that these traders should
build much; neither is the place said to have become famous, as we see on
the contrary that the Carthaginians were careful to prevent its fame from
spreading among the nations. Thus the translator being ignorant, led
Oviedo to believe quite a different story from the reality[10].

It is quite ridiculous to suppose that Carthaginian merchants could
possibly be carried so far out of their way as Hispa