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

APPENDIX. 305 From this latitude he sailed thirteen hundred leagues towards the north and north-east, and arrived at Sierra Leone ; whence he went to the Azores and to Lisbon. The internal evidence contained in the narrative of this voyage affords satisfactorj' proof of its authenticity. Whether the design of Vespucius was to seek for southern land, or endeavour to sail to ' Cathay' by the shortest line (the arc of a great circle), does not appear : but as we know he was skilled in mathematics and of an enterprising character, such a conjecture as the latter may be not totally improbable. Navigatio tertia Americi Vesputii. " loitur ab hoc Lisbonse portu cum tribus conservantiae navibus die Mali decima MDI abeuntes, cursum nostrum versus magnse Cana- rife insulas arripuimus, secundum quas et ad earum prospectum instanter enavigantes, idem navigium nostrum coUaterahter secundiim Aphricam occidentem versus sequuti fuimus." * * * H= * * * " Exinde autem ad partem illam ^thiopise, quse Besilicca dicitur, devenimus : quae quidem sub torrida zona posita est, et superquam quatuordecim gradibus se septentrionalis erigit polus in climate pri- mo : ubi diebus undecim nobis de lignis et aqua provisionem parantes restitimus, propter id quod Austrum versus per Atlanticum pelagus navigandi mihi inesset affectus. Itaque portum J^^thiopise ilium post haec reUnquentes, tunc per Lebeccium ventum in tantum navigavimus, ut sexaginta et septem infra dies insulse cuidam ajiplicuerimus, quse insula septingentis a portu eodem leucis ad Lebeccii partem distaret. In quibus quidem diebus pejus perpessi tempus fuimus, qu^m un- quam in mari quispiam antea pertulerit, propter ventorum nimbo- rumve impetus, qui quamplurimum nobis intulere gravamina, ex eo quod navigium nostrum Irneae prsesertim eequinoctiali continue junc- tum fuit. Inibique in mense Junio hyems extat, ac dies noctibus sequales sunt, atque ipsse umbrae nostrae continue versus meridiem erant. Tandem vero omninotanti placuit novam unam nobis osten- dere plagam, decima septima, scilicet, Augusti, juxta quam, leuca sepositi ab eadem cum media, restitimus, et postea assumptis cymbis nonnullis in ipsam visuri si inhabitata esset, profecti fuimus." H: * -t H= * * *