th.

BOOK X

This continent extends into the sea exactly like Italy, but is
dissimilar in that it is not the shape of a human leg. Moreover, why
shall we compare a pigmy with a giant? That part of the continent
beginning at this eastern point lying towards Atlas, which the
Spaniards have explored, is at least eight times larger than Italy;
and its western coast has not yet been discovered. Your Holiness may
wish to know upon what my estimate of _eight times_ is based. From the
outset when I resolved to obey your commands and to write a report
of these events, in Latin (though myself no Latin) I have adopted
precautions to avoid stating anything which was not fully
investigated.

I addressed myself to the Bishop of Burgos whom I have already
mentioned, and to whom all navigators report. Seated in his room, we
examined numerous reports of those expeditions, and we have likewise
studied the terrestrial globe on which the discoveries are indicated,
and also many parchments, called by the explorers navigators' charts.
One of these maps had been drawn by the Portuguese, and it is claimed
that Amerigo Vespucci of Florence assisted in its composition. He is
very skilled in this art, and has himself gone many degrees beyond the
equinoctial line, sailing in the Service and at the expense of the
Portuguese. According to this chart, we found the continent was larger
than the caciques of Uraba told our compatriots, when guiding them
over the mountains. Columbus, during his lifetime, began another map
while exploring these regions, and his brother, Bartholomew Columbus,
Adelantado of Hispaniola, who has also sailed along these coasts,
supported this opinion by his own judgment. From thenceforth,
every Spaniard who thought he understood the science of computing
measurements, has drawn his own map; the most valuable of these maps
are those made by the famous Juan de la Cosa, companion of Hojeda, who
was murdered, together with the ship's captain, Andre Moranes, by the
natives of Caramaira, near the port of Carthagena, as we have already
recounted. Both these men not only possessed great experience of these
regions, where they were as well acquainted with every bit of the
coast as with the rooms of their own houses, but they were likewise
reputed to be experts in naval cosmography. When all these maps were
spread out before us, and upon each a scale was marked in the Spanish
fashion, not in miles but in leagues, we set to work