[214] The original is defective here, and these readings are conjectural.

[215] The title given formerly to the governor of a province.

[216] The Portuguese transcriber was unable to decipher the original of the bracketed words.  Navarrete, who prints these instructions to Magalhaes and Falero, (Col. de Viages, tomo iv, pp. 116-121) reads this passage thus “quien se pase” and continues “e se asiente.” Alguns Documentos reads “que ...” and continues “& se entregue.”  The MS. in Torre do Tombo from which the Portuguese transcript was made read “q enpase,” continuing as does the Portuguese version.  It must be remembered that Navarrete took his copy from the original document (existing in Seville) of the agreement made with Magalhaes and Falero, made March 22, 1518; this was included in the instructions given to Juan de Cartagena, the recipient of the present letter, and was doubtless copied from the original in Seville.

[217] A metal found by Columbus in the Isla Espanola.  It is composed of 18 parts gold, 6 of silver, and 8 of copper.—­Dic. de la Lengua Castellano.

[218] This must have been the Strait of Magellan.

[219] The Spanish reads literally, “They gave him a blow on the head with a mallet.”

[220] The original is defective here, and this reading is only conjectural.

[221] Juan Sebastian del Cano.—­Stevens.

[222] Pietro Martire d’Anghiera (commonly known as Peter Martyr) was an Italian priest and historian, who was born in 1455.  At the age of thirty-two years he went to the Castilian court; at various times, he served in the army (during two campaigns), maintained a school for boys, was sent as an ambassador to other courts, and in many ways occupied a prominent place in the affairs of the Spanish Kingdom.  He died in 1526.  His most noted work was De orbe nouo Decades (Alcala, 1516); it had numerous editions, and was translated into several other languages.  An English translation of the first three Decades was made by Richard Eden (London, 1555); this was reprinted in Arber’s First Three English Books on America (Birmingham, 1885).

[223] The name Bacallaos (according to early French writers a Basque appellation of the codfish) was also applied, by a natural extension, to the region afterward known as Canada.  According to Peter Martyr, the name Bacallaos was given to those lands by Sebastian Cabot, “because of the great multitudes of fishes found in the seas thereabout.”  See Jesuit Relations (Cleveland reissue), i, p. 308, and ii, p. 295.

[224] Fifty-six degrees west of the Canaries would be about seventy-four degrees west of Greenwich—­Magellan was some ten or twelve degrees out.—­Stevens.

[225] Among whom was Esteven Gomez; this ship was the “San Antonio.”—­Steven’s.

[226] The measure of length known as a mile varies greatly in different countries.  The geographical or nautical mile (one-sixtieth of a degree of the equator, and equal to 1.153 English statute miles) is used by mariners of all nations.  The milha of Portugal is equivalent to 1.2786 English miles; the Italian miglio varies from O.6214 to 1.3835 English miles; the legua (league) of Spain amounts to 4.2151 English miles.