s decades. His
repeated explanations of his deflections from classical nomenclature
are, however, reasonable.]

[Note 4: Meaning, of course, in the duchy, not the city. The
passage reads: _Neutro cruciare statuo ad summum; voloque sciant, me
insubrem esse non Latium; et longe a Latio natum, quia Mediolani; et
longissime vitam egisse, quia in Hispania_.]

Vincent Yanez discovered that the chieftains were elected for only one
year. Their followers obeyed them in making war or in signing peace.
Their villages are built around this immense gulf. Five of these
caciques offered gifts to the Spaniards, and I have wished to record
their names in memory of their hospitality: Chiaconus Chianaocho,
Chiaconus Fintiguanos, Chiaconus Chamailaba, Chiaconus Polomus,
Chiaconus Pot.

This gulf is called Bahia de la Natividad, because Columbus discovered
it on the Feast of Christmas; but he only sailed by, without
penetrating into the interior. The Spaniards simply call it Bahia.
Having established friendship with these chieftains, Vincent Yanez
continued his voyage[5] and found to the east countries which had been
abandoned because of frequent inundations, and a vast extent of marsh
lands. He persisted in his undertaking until he reached the extreme
point of the continent[6]; if indeed we may call points, those corners
or promontories which terminate a coast. This one seems to reach out
towards the Atlas, and therefore opposite that part of Africa called
by the Portuguese the Cape of Good Hope, a promontory in the ocean
formed by the prolongation of the Atlas Mountains. The Cape of Good
Hope, however, is situated within thirty-four degrees of the antarctic
pole, whereas this point in the New World lies within the seventh
degree. I think it must be part of that continent which cosmographers
have named the Great Atlantis, but without giving further details as
to its situation or character.

[Note 5: Comparing this account of Pinzon's voyage with that
of Vespucci, it is seen that Peter Martyr describes the itinerary
reversed, making Pinzon finish where Vespucci makes him begin.]

[Note 6: Cape Sant Augustin.]

And since we have now reached the shores of the first land encountered
beyond the Pillars of Hercules, perhaps it may not be out of place to
say something of the motives which might have provoked war between the
Catholic King, Ferdinand of Spain, and Emanuel of Portugal, had they
not been father-in-law and son-in-law. Note tha