Paul the Physician afterwards wrote the following letter to my father. -"I received your letter with those things you sent me, which I esteem a great favour, and I greatly commend your noble and ardent desire of sailing from the east to the west, as marked out in the chart which I sent you; but which would be much better demonstrated in the form of a globe. I am rejoiced that it is well understood, that the voyage laid down is not only possible but true, certain, honourable, advantageous, and most glorious among Christians. You can only become perfect in the knowledge of it by practice and experience, which I have had in some measure, especially by the solid and true information of many worthy and wise men who came from those parts to the court of Rome, and from merchants who are persons of good reputation and have long traded to those regions. Hence, when the voyage shall be performed, it will be to powerful kingdoms, and to most noble provinces and cities, rich, flourishing, and abounding in all those commodities of which we are in need: particularly in great quantities of all sorts of spice, and in great store of jewels. It will likewise be very grateful to the kings and princes of those parts, who are exceedingly desirous to have intercourse and trade with the Christians; whether that some of them are inclined to become Christians, or else desire to communicate with the wise and learned men of Europe, as well in regard to religion, as in all the sciences, by reason of the extraordinary accounts they have received of the kingdoms and governments and learning of our part of the world. On all which accounts, and others which might be alleged, it is reasonable that your own magnanimity, and the whole Portuguese nation, ever renowned for great men, and memorable in all their undertakings, should be eagerly bent upon performing this voyage."

By this letter, as has been before observed, the admiral was greatly encouraged to go upon his discovery, although the learned physician was mistaken in believing that Cathay and the empire of the great Cham was the first land to be met with in sailing towards the west; for experience has made it appear, that the distance from the West Indies to that country is greater than from Europe to the West Indies.

The third and last motive by which the admiral was incited to the discovery of the West Indies, was the hope of finding in his way to India some very beneficial island or continent, from whence he might the better be enabled to pursue his main design. This hope was founded upon the authority and opinion of many wise and learned men, who believed that the greatest part of the surface of the terraqueous globe was composed of land, or that there certainly was more earth than sea. If that were the case, he concluded that, between the coast of Spain and the then known bounds of India, there must be many islands and a great extent of continent interposed, which experience has since demonstrated to be true. In this opinion he was confirmed by many fabulous stories which he had heard from sailors and others who had sailed to the islands and western coast of Africa, and to Madeira; and as these testimonies, though false, tended to confirm the purpose he had so long and ardently cherished, they the more readily gained his assent; and, to satisfy the curiosity of such as are curious in these matters, I shall here relate them.

One Martin Vicente, a pilot in the service of the king of Portugal, related to the admiral, that, being once 450 leagues to the westward of Cape St Vincent, he had found a piece of wood most curiously curved, but not with iron; and seeing that the winds had blown for many days previously from the west, he conjectured that the carved wood must have been drifted from some island in that direction. One Peter Correa, who had married a sister of the admirals wife, told him of having seen another piece of wood which had been brought to the island of Porto Sancto by the same westerly wind, and of certain drifted canes, so thick that every joint was large enough to contain four quarts of wine. These he alleged to have shewn to the king of Portugal, and as there were no such canes in our parts of the world, he believed that the winds must have wafted them from some distant islands in the west, or else from India: More especially as Ptolemy, in the first book of his cosmography, and chapter 17. says, that such canes grow in the eastern parts of India; and some of the islanders, particularly those in the Azores, informed Correa that when the west wind blew long together, the sea sometimes drove pine trees on the islands Gratioso and Fayal, where no such trees were otherwise to be found. He was likewise told that the sea had cast upon the island of Flores, another of the Azores, the dead bodies of two men, having very broad visages, and very different in their appearance from Europeans.

It was likewise reported to the admiral that the people about Cape Verga had once seen some almadias or covered boats, which it was believed had been driven thither by stress of weather while going from one of these supposed islands in the west to another island. One Anthony Leme, who was married and settled in the island of Madeira, told the admiral that, having once made a considerable run to the westward, he had descried three islands. To this information, however, he gave little credit, as by his own account Leme had not sailed above 100 leagues to the west, and might have been deceived by some rocks; or what he had seen might have been some of those floating islands, called Aguades by the sailors, of which Pliny makes mention in the 97th chapter of the first book of his natural history. Pliny says that some spots of land are seen in the northern parts of the ocean on which there are deep-rooted trees, and that these parcels of land are carried about like floats, or islands swimming upon the water. Seneca, in his third book, endeavouring to give a probable reason for the existence of such islands, alleges that there are certain rocks so light and spongy in their substance, that islands in India which are composed of such do actually swim upon the water. Therefore, even if it were actually the case that Leme had seen the three islands, the admiral, was of opinion that they must have been of that kind, such as those called the islands of St Brandan are supposed to be, where many wonders are reported to have been seen. Accounts have also been propagated of other islands, which are continually burning, and which lie far to the northward15.

Juventius Fortunatus mentions an account of two floating islands considerably to the west, and more southward than those of Cape Verd. These and such like reports, might induce several of the inhabitants of Ferro and Gomera, and of the Azores, to affirm that they saw islands towards the west every year; of which they were so thoroughly convinced, that many reputable persons swore that it was true. The same Fortunatus relates, that a person came from Madeira to Portugal in the year 1484, to beg a caravel from the king in which he might go in quest of an island which he made oath that he saw every year, and always after the exact same manner; with whom others agreed, who declared that they had seen the same land from the Azores.

On these grounds, in all the former maps and charts, certain islands were placed in that direction. In his book concerning the wonderful things of nature, Aristotle informs us of a report, that some Carthaginian merchants had sailed across the Atlantic to a most beautiful and fertile island, of which we shall give a more particular account hereafter. Some Portuguese cosmographers have inserted this island in their maps under the name of Antilla; though they do not agree with Aristotle in regard to its situation, yet none have placed it more than 200 leagues due west from the Canaries and Azores. This they assert to be certainly the island of the seven cities, which is said to have been peopled by the Portuguese in the year 714, at the time when Spain was conquered by the Moors. At that time, according to the legend, seven bishops with their people sailed to this island, where each of them built a city; and, that none of their people might ever think of returning to Spain, they burnt their ships with all the tackling, and destroyed every thing that was necessary for navigation. There are who affirm that several Portuguese mariners have been to that island, but could never find their way back to it again. It is said particularly, that in the time of Don Henry, infant of Portugal, a Portuguese ship was driven by stress of weather upon this island of Antilla, where the men went on shore, and were led by the islanders to a church, that they might see whether they were Christians and observed the ceremonies of the Roman worship; and perceiving that they did, the islanders requested them to remain till their lord should return, who happened to be then absent, but who would be very kind to them, and give them many presents. But the master and seamen were afraid of being detained, and suspected that the islanders had no mind to be discovered, and might burn their vessel; wherefore they sailed back to Portugal, hoping to be rewarded for their discovery by Don Henry. But he reproved them severely, and ordered them to return quickly; wherefore the master and all his crew escaped from Portugal with their ship, and never returned. It is likewise reported, that while the master and seamen of this vessel were at church in the foresaid island, the boys of the ship gathered sand for the cook room, a third part of which was found to be pure gold.