Oviedo insists that the Spaniards had the entire dominion of these islands, which he was pleased to consider as the same with our West Indies.  He grounds this opinion on what is said by Statius and Sebosus, that certain islands called Hesperides lay forty days sail west from the Gorgonian islands on the coast of Africa.  Hence he argued, that these islands must necessarily be the West Indies, and were called Hesperides from Hesperes king of Spain, who consequently with the Spaniards his subjects were lords of these islands.  But I am quite tired of this dispute, and shall now proceed to the history of the admirals discovery.

[1] In his reasoning, by some error which cannot be now corrected, a
    twenty-fourth part, or one hour, is omitted.—­E.

[2] Paul here evidently speaks of the empire of China, and the port here
    named Zacton or Zaiton, may be that now called Canton, although spice
    certainly is not the produce of that country.—­E.

[3] Cathay seems here to denote northern China.—­E.

[4] This is obviously the Quinsay of Marco Polo.—­E.

[5] Mangi or southern China.—­E.

[6] The island Antilia, the name of which has been since adopted by the
    French for the smaller West India islands, was, like the more modern
    Terra Australia incognita, a gratuitous supposition for preserving the
    balance of the earth, before the actual discovery of America.  Cipango
    was the name by which Japan was then known in Europe, from the
    relations of Marco Polo.—­E.

[7] Such appeared to the early travellers the richly gilt and lackered
    tile used in Japan and other parts of India.—­E.

[8] This report must have proceeded from some very erroneous account of
    Iceland, as it is the only place in the northern part of the Atlantic
    which contains a volcano.—­E.

[9] Don Ferdinand, or his translator, has forgot here that, in the extract
    from Ferrarius, beyond the straits, and in the Atlantic, are the
    distinctly expressed situation of the island.—­E.

[10] There is a good deal more in the original, totally uninteresting to
    the reader, in the same querulous strain of invective against Oviedo,
    but which is here abridged as conveying no information.—­E.

[11] Our author falls into a mistake in this chapter, supposing the Azores
    to have been the Cassiterides of the ancients, well known to have been
    the Scilly islands.—­E.

SECTION III.

The Admiral, being disgusted by the procedure of the King of Portugal, in regard to the proposed Discovery, offers his services to the Court of Spain.