Narrative of the surveying voyages of his majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle (vol.2- Appendix): between the years 1826 and 1836 : describing their examination of the southern shores of South America, and the Beagles's circumnavigation of the globe

304 APPENDIX. No. 52. In pp. 228-9 of vol. ii, it is stated, "In 1501-2 Americus Vcspucius, then employed by the King of Portugal, sailed six hundred leagues south, and one hundred and fifty leagues west, from Cape San Agos- tinho (lat. 8° 20' S.) along the coast of a country then named Terra Sanctfe Crucis. His account of longitude may be very erroneous, but how could his latitude have erred thirteen degrees in this his southernmost voyage ? Since those pages were printed, I have obtained a perfect copy of the four voyages of Americus Vespucius, written in Latin ; and I noAv hasten to correct any erroneous impression which might arise out of my having asserted that Vespucius " could not have explored farther south than the right bank of La Plata." By the subjoined extracts from the third voyage of Vespucius, it appears that he sailed to about fiftj'-two degrees of south latitude and near that latitude discovered land : — which I have no doubt whatever was Georgia. These extracts are not only verbally but literally copied from the original : every passage which can throw even the slightest light upon dates, times, courses, distances or positions, is here given ; the portions of the narrative which are omitted relate solely to what Vespucius saw on the land. According to his narrative, he went to the Canaries, thence to the coast of Africa near Cape Verde ; from which place he sailed to the coast of Brazil, near, but to the west- ward of Cape St. Roque ; thence he worked to windward against the current, till he reached Cape San Agostinho ; and from that point he coasted to about the River Grande, in thirty-two south. From this port, whether the River Grande or a place near it, Vespucius steered to the south-east (per Seroccum) five hundred leagues ; found the south pole elevated fifty-two degrees, the night fifteen hours long, the cold excessive, a high sea, a succession of tempestuous weather, and land precisely like Georgia, but not at all resembUng any part of the Falklands. Georgia lies somewhat farther south than the latitude mentioned (being in 54°— 55°) ; but we should take into consideration the instruments used at sea in 1502 ; the all but utter ignorance of southern stars ; and the succession of bad weather encountered by Vespucius about the time of his seeing land near 52° S.