A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels Volume Ii Part 9

[53] Id: Hist. Gen. II. vii.

[54] In this lat.i.tude, on the sh.o.r.e of Costa Rica, there is a town now called Porto Cartago; but whether that indicated in the text it is difficult to say, as Galvano is not always perfectly accurate in his lat.i.tudes.--E.

[55] Gomar. Hist. Gen. II. lxv. and Conqu. f. 243.

[56] Gomar. Hist. Gen. II. lxvi, and Conqu. f. 256-261.

[57] The Spanish leagues are 17-1/2 to the degree of lat.i.tude, hence this march exceeded 2000 English miles.--E. Gomar. Hist. Gen. II. lxvi. Id.

Conqu. 246-273.

[58] Gomar. Hist. Gen. V. i. and ii.

[59] The ambiguity of the language is here utterly inexplicable.--E.

[60] Meaning probably the lake of t.i.ticaca in Peru. It is hardly necessary to say that this slight survey of the Plata must be erroneous, especially in its reports. The Rio San Francisco, alludes to one of the sources of the Great Maranon, or river of the Amazons.--E.

[61] Ramusio, III. 310. Ramusio gives a long and minute account of this unfortunate expedition, ent.i.tled, Relation made by Alvaro Nunez, of what befel the armament sent to the _Indies_ (America) under Pamphilo Narvaez in the year 1527, to the end of 1536; when he returned to Seville with _three_ only of his companions.--Clarke.

[62] The inhabitants of this island were most probably _tatooted_, of which custom a particular description will be given hereafter, in the particular voyages of discovery in the South Sea.--E.

[63] The longitudes being altogether neglected in these relations by Galyano, it is impossible to form any conjecture as to the islands indicated in text. They may possibly have belonged to the Carolines of modern maps, which extend between long. 135 and 180 E. and about the lat.i.tudes of the text.--E.

[64] The account which Galvano gives of this voyage is very vague and inconclusive. We shall find afterwards that the Spaniards found out the means of counteracting the perpetual eastern trade winds of the Pacific within the tropics, by shaping a more northerly course from the Philippine islands, where they established the staple of their Indian commerce, between Acapulco and Manilla.--E.

[65] Galvano certainly mistakes here in a.s.signing Tecoantepec, which is at least 340 miles from the nearest part of the bay of Honduras. If a navigation were practicable from Tecoantepec, it would more probably be towards Tabasco, at the bottom of the bay of Campechy. Perhaps he ought to have said from Guatimala to the gulf of Dolse, at the bottom of the bay of Honduras. This splendid navigation between the Atlantic and Pacific, within the tropics, like that between the Mediterranean and Red Sea, still remains an unsolved problem. It will be resumed hereafter, among the voyages and travels to Spanish America.--E.

[66] These seem all to have been brothers to Pizarro, and named from the town of Alcantara in Spain.--E.

[67] The mouth of the Maranon is exactly under the line.--E.

[68] The lat.i.tude of Cusco is only 13 30' S.--E.

[69] Gomar. Hist. Gen. V. vi. vii. viii. ix

[70] Gomar. Hist. Gen. V. xvi. xviii. xix.

[71] So named from the two brothers, Caspar and Michael Cortereal, who are said to have been lost on this coast of North America in 1500, as formerly mentioned by Galvano.--E.

[72] Xalis, or Xalisco, the residence of Gusman is in lat. 2145'N. The mouth of the river St Francis, on the north-eastern sh.o.r.e of the gulf of California, is in lat. 26 40' N. so that the discovery on the present occasion seems to have comprised about 350 miles to the north of Xalis.--E.

[73] Gomar. Hist. Gen. II. Lxxiv. xcviii.

[74] Xauxa or Jauja, stands on the high table land of Peru; Lima, or de los Reys, near the coast of the South Sea, in the maritime valley, or low country, and on the river Rimac, called Lima in the text.--E.

[75] Gomar. Hist. Gen. IV. xxiii. and V. xxii.

[76] Gomar. H. G. V. xxiv. and xxv. Almagro appears, both on his march to Chili and back to Cusco, to have gone by the high mountainous track of the Andes, and the carcases of his dead horses must have been preserved from corruption amid the ever during ice and snow of that elevated region.--E.

[77] The text seems ambiguous, and it appears difficult to say whether Galvano means, that Cosesofar, or Coje Sofar, was captain under D'Acunha, or general of the Guzerat army, belonging to Badu.--E.

[78] This probably refers to the _Bore_, or great and sudden influx of the sea, after a great recession.--E.

[79] Gomar. H. G. IV. xiii.

[80] Probably a mistake for La Paz, the princ.i.p.al town of the north- western district, or mining province, belonging to the Viceroyalty of La Plata.--E.

[81] The only island mentioned in this voyage, which can be traced by the names in our modern maps, is the Piscadores, about lat. 11 N. long.

167 E.--E.

[82] This strange expression is quite inexplicable, and must have been misunderstood by Hakluyt.--E.

[83] Probably Morty, of our present maps.--E.

[84] Chron. del Peru, c. ix, xx.

[85] Ramus. III. 356.

[86] This obviously refers to an inaccurate description of the Babyroussa.

--E.

[87] Gomar. H. G. II. lxiv. Ramus. III. 329.

[88] Gomar. H. G. VI. xvii.

[89] In this paragraph we have very vague indications of humming birds, rattlesnakes, and of the animal now called Pecari.--E.

[90] Gomar. H. G. V. x.x.xv. and Chron. del Peru, c. 103.

[91] The word Brazil in the text obviously includes the whole flat country to the east of the Andes, Guiana, Brazil, Paraguay, Buenos Ayres, and Patagonia.--E.

[92] This idea, ever since the time of Lord Monboddo, has been renewed, and occupies the attention of the explorers of Africa; links may exist, in creation, with which we are yet unacquainted.--Clarke.

The fancy of tailed men has probably arisen from inattentive observers, seeing people clothed in the skins of beasts, with the tails hanging down. The natives of New South Wales wear tails in imitation of the Kangaroo: Yet, having been closely observed, are not described as tailed men--E.

[93] This word ought to have been _Pacos_. Of these animals, with the Llamas and Vicugnas, different species of the camel genus, a more extended account will occur, when we come to the particular travels in Peru.--E.

[94] It will be seen afterwards, in the account of the West India Islands, and the Continent of Guiana, that there are many warlike tribes of Caribs, or Caraibs, constantly engaged in predatory warfare; whose women, when their husbands are absent in search of prisoners for _food_, take arms for the protection of themselves and children; whence they have been reported as nations of female warriors, or Amazons.--E.

[95] Gomar. H.G.V. x.x.xvi.

[96] The true lat.i.tudes of the places mentioned in the text are, Suakim, 19 30', Ma.s.soua, 15 20', Cossier, 26 16', Judda, 21 20', Suez, 30.

--E.

[97] The lat.i.tude of 30 N. would lead to the idea of Sonora being the district, or province, indicated in the text by Sibola; Cinaloa is only in 26 N. yet, from the context, appears to be the country intended by Galvano--E.

[98] The idea that a dog, even able to bear a load of fifty pounds, should carry a woman, is truly absurd. If there be any truth in the story, the dogs must have performed the services in the text by drawing sledges; yet nothing of the kind has. .h.i.therto been found in North America, though common in North-east Asia.--E.