The writer, after explaining the nature of latitude and longitude, and taking the meridian of no variation running through the eastern extremity of the Cape de Verde islands as the basis of his observations of longitude, proceeds to a description of Terra Nova; so much of which as is pertinent is here abstracted.

“The Terra Nova, the nearest cape of which is called the Cape de Ras, is situated west of our diametrical or meridional line whereon is fixed the first point of longitude according to the true meridian of the compass; and the said Cape de Ras is in west longitude 40 Degrees and 47 of North latitude.  The Terra Nova extends towards the Arctic pole from 40 Degrees to 60, and from Cape de Ras going towards the pole, the coast almost always runs from south to north, and contains in all 350 leagues, and from said Cape de Ras to the cape of the Brettons, the coast runs east and west, for an hundred leagues, and the cape of the Brettons is in 47 Degrees west longitude and 46 north latitude.  To go from Dieppe to the Terra Nova, the course is almost all east and west, and there are from Dieppe to said Cape de Ras 760 leagues.

“Between Cape de Ras and cape of the Brettons dwell an austere and cruel people with whom you cannot treat or converse.  They are large of person, clad in skins of seals and other wild animals tied together, and are marked with certain lines, made with fire, on the face and as it were striped with color between black and red, (tra il nero & berrettino) and in many respects as to face and neck, are like those of our Barbary, the hair long like women, which they gather up on top of the head as we do with a horse’s tail.  Their arrows are bows with which they shoot very dexterously, and their arrows are pointed with black stones and fish bones. * * *

“This land was discovered 35 years ago, that is, the part that runs east and west, by the Brettons and Normands, for which reason the land is called the Cape of the Brettons.  The other part that runs north and south was discovered by the Portuguese from Cape de Ras to Cape Buona-vista, which contains about 70 leagues, and the rest was discovered as far as the gulf of the Castles, and further on by said Brettons and Normands, and it is about 33 years since a ship from Honfleur of which Jean Denys (Giovanni Dionisio) was captain and Camart (Camarto) of Rouen, was pilot, first went there, and in the year 1508, a Dieppe vessel, called the Pensee, which was owned by Jean Ango, father of Monsignor, the captain and Viscount of Dieppe went thither, the master or the captain of said ship being Thomas Aubert, and he was the first who brought hither people of the said country.