Note 5 — INTRODUCTION.

Toscanelli’s letter to Columbus was written long after that addressed to Fernão Martinz, for the expression ha dias (perhaps a rendering of pridem or haud diu) does not mean “a few days ago”, but “long ago.” Columbus himself uses it in that sense when he writes from Jamaica that the “Emperor of Catayo asked long ago (ha dias) for men of learning to instruct him in the faith of Christ.” The request for missionaries had been made to the Pope in 1339 (Navarrete, Colleccion, 2nd ed., I, p. 457).