Venient annis
  Secula feris, quibus Oceanus
  Vincula rerum laxat, et ingens
  Pateat tellus, Typhysque novos
  Detegat orbes, nec sit terris
    Ultima Thule.

“There will come an age in latter times, when the ocean shall loosen the bonds of things, and a great country shall be discovered; when another Typhys shall find out new worlds, and Thule shall no longer remain the ultimate boundary of the earth.”

This prophecy has now certainly been fulfilled by my father.  In the first book of his cosmography, Strabo says that the ocean encompasses the whole earth; that in the east it washes the shores of India, and in the west those of Mauritania and Spain; and that if it were not for the vast magnitude of the Atlantic, men might easily sail in a short time from the one to the other upon the same parallel; and he repeats the same opinion in his second book.  Pliny, in the Second Book of his Natural History, Chap. iii. says that the ocean surrounds all the earth, and extends from east to west between India and Cadiz.  The same author, in his Sixth Book, Chap. xxxi. and Solinus in the sixty-eight chapter of the Remarkable Things of the World, say that, from the islands of the Gorgonides, which are supposed to be those of Cape Verd, it was forty days sail across the Atlantic Ocean to the Hesperides; which islands the admiral concluded were those of the West Indies.  Marco Polo the Venetian traveller, and Sir John Mandeville, say that they went much farther eastward than was known to Ptolemy and Marinus.  Perhaps these travellers do not mention any eastern sea beyond their discoveries; yet from the accounts which they give of the east, it may be reasonably inferred that India is not far distant from Spain and Africa.  Peter Aliacus, in his treatise on the Figure of the Earth, in the eighth Chapter respecting the extent of habitable land, and Julius Capitolinus upon inhabitable places, and in several other treatises, both assert that Spain and India are neighbours towards the west.  The latter author, in the nineteenth Chapter of his Cosmography says, according to the opinion of Pliny and other philosophers, the ocean which stretches from the western shores of Spain and Africa to the eastern limits of India is of no great extent, and might certainly be sailed over in a few days with a fair wind; and therefore that the beginning of India eastwards cannot be far distant from the western limits of Africa.

From these and similar authorities of eminent writers, the admiral was led to believe that he had formed a sound opinion on this subject; and he was much encouraged to undertake his proposed voyage of discovery by his contemporary Paul, physician to Signior Dominico of Florence.  This Paul corresponded with Ferdinand Lopez, a canon of Lisbon, concerning the voyages which had been undertaken to Guinea in the reign of King Alphonzo of Portugal, and concerning future discoveries which might be made to the westwards.  The admiral, who was always exceedingly ardent in inquiries on these topics, came to the knowledge of this correspondence; and soon afterwards, by means of Laurentio Girarde, a Florentine who then resided in Lisbon, entered into correspondence with Paul on this subject, acquainting him with his design, and sending him a small terrestrial globe.  The communications from Paul on this subject are as follow: