would divide the earth's surface into two equal portions. All unknown lands hereafter discovered to the east of this line were assigned to the Portuguese; all on the west to the Castilians. Hence it came to pass that the Castilians always sailed southwest, and there discovered a very extensive continent, besides numerous large islands, abounding in gold, pearls, and other valuable commodities; and have quite recently discovered a large inland city named Tenoxtica [Mexico] situated in a lake like Venice. Peter Martyr,[1] an author who is more careful as to the accuracy of his statements than of the elegance of his style, has given a full but truthful description of this city. But the Portuguese sailing southward past the Hesperides [Cape Verde Islands] and the Fish-eating Ethiopians [West Coast of Africa], crossed the Equator and the Tropic of Capricorn, and sailing eastward discovered several very large islands heretofore unknown, and also the sources of the Nile and the Troglodytes. Thence, by way of the Arabian and Persian Gulfs, they arrived at the shores of India within the Ganges, where now there is the very great trading station and the kingdom of Calicut. Hence they sailed to Taprobane which is now called Zamatara [Sumatra]. For where Ptolemy, Pliny, and
- ↑ 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).
