Note 590 — Chapter VI · THE FINDING OF STRANGE COASTS.

Footnote 590: The figure given by Columbus is equivalent only to 360 geographical miles (Navarrete, Coleccion, tom. i. p. 246), but as Las Casas (Hist. tom. ii. p. 226) already noticed, there must be some mistake here, for on a S. W. course from the Cape Verde islands it would require a distance of 900 geographical miles to cut the fifth parallel. From the weather that followed, it is clear that Columbus stated his latitude pretty correctly; he had come into the belt of calms. Therefore his error must be in the distance run.[Back to Main Text]