of its lands lies in that direction. In like manner
we observe that the leg forming Italy branches out beyond the Alps
into the countries of the Gauls, the Germans, the Pannonians, and
ultimately those of the Sarmats and the Scythians extending to the
Riphe Mountains and the glacial sea, not to mention Thrace, all
Greece, and the countries ending towards the south at Cape Malea and
the Hellespont, and north at the Euxine and the Palus Maeotidus. The
Admiral believes that on the left and west, this continent joins on
to the India of the Ganges, and that towards the right it extends
northwards to the glacial sea and the north pole, lying beyond the
lands of the Hyperboreans; the two seas, that is to say the southern
and the northern ocean, would thus join one another at the angles of
this continent. I do not believe all its coasts are washed by the
ocean, as is our Europe which the Hellespont, the Tanais, the glacial
ocean, the Spanish sea and the Atlantic completely surround. In my
opinion the strong ocean currents running towards the west prevent
these two seas from being connected, and I suppose, as I have said
above, that it does join on to northern lands.

We have spoken enough about longitude, Most Holy Father; let us see
what are the theories concerning latitude.

We have already stated that the distance separating the South Sea from
the Atlantic Ocean is a very small one; for this fact was demonstrated
during the expedition of Vasco Nunez and his companions. Just as our
Alps in Europe, narrow in some places and broaden out over a greater
extent in others, so by an analogous arrangement of nature this new
continent lengthens in some places, extending to a great distance, and
in others it narrows by gulfs which, from the opposite seas, encroach
on the land between them. For example: at both Uraba and Veragua the
distance between the two oceans is trifling, while in the region of
the Maragnon River, on the contrary, it is vastly extended. That
is, if the Maragnon is indeed a river and not a sea. I incline
nevertheless to the first hypothesis, because its waters are fresh.
The immense torrents necessary to feed such a stream could certainly
not exist in a small space. The same applies in the case of the river
Dobaiba,[14] which flows into the sea at the gulf of Uraba, by an
estuary three miles wide and forty-five ells deep; it must be supposed
that there is a large country amongst the mountains of Dobaiba from
which