hence for our port of Lisbon, whence we were now 300 leagues distant to the west, and arrived there by the aid of the Almighty in 1502[11], with two only of our ships, having been forced to burn the other at Sierra Leone, as it was incapable of being navigated any farther.  During this third voyage we were absent about sixteen months, eleven of which we had sailed without sight of the north Star or of the Greater and Lesser Bears, during which time we directed our course by the other stars of the southern pole.

[1] Assuredly Brasil is here meant, yet the latitude is absurdly
    erroneous.—­E.

[2] This must necessarily be an error, as he now sailed in the service of
    the king of Portugal.—­E.

[3] Perhaps malefactors, who have been formerly mentioned in the early
    Portuguese voyages to India, as employed in such hazardous
    commissions.—­E.

[4] Could we trust to the position in the text, lat. 8 deg.  S. this voyage
    must have been upon the coast of Brazil, and the cape named St Vincent
    by Americus ought to be that now called St Augustine:  Indeed in a
    subsequent passage of this same voyage he gives this cape that
    name.—­E.

[5] Lat. 32 deg.  S. as in the text, would bring this voyage of Americus all
    down the coast of Brazil almost to the mouth of the Rio Grande, or
    of St Pedro, now the boundary between Portuguese America and the
    Spanish viceroyalty of Buenos Ayres.—­E.

[6] Obviously the same cape which was called St Vincent only a little way
    before, and which now receives its true name.—­E.

[7] The difference of latitude between Cape St Augustine and the Rio
    Grande, is 24 degrees, or 480 leagues, and their difference of
    longitude 17 degrees or 340 leagues.—­E.

[8] The circumstances in the text would indicate that Americus had now run
    down the eastern coast of South America, almost to the entrance of the
    Straits of Magellan.—­E.

[9] The tempest has been already stated as beginning on the 3d of April,
    whence we must presume the present date in the text to be a
    typographical error, perhaps for the twenty-second.—­E.

[10] From the high latitude of 52 deg.  S. in which they were at the
    commencement of the storm, and the direction of the wind from the S.W.
    it seems highly probable that this barren land was what is now called
    the Falkland Islands.—­E.

[11] Though not mentioned in the text, we may conclude, from the time
    occupied in this voyage, as indicated a little farther on, that
    Americus returned to Lisbon in August 1502, the voyage having
    commenced in May 1501, and lasted sixteen months.—­E.

SECTION IV.

The Fourth Voyage of Americus Vespucius.