Note 8 — I
Reading edition
According to Gehler’s Phys. Lex. VI, 450, the log was first mentioned by Purchas in an account of a voyage to the East Indies in 1608. Pigafetta does not cite it in his treatise on navigation; but in the forty-fifth page of his work it is said: “Secondo la misura che facevamo del viaggio colla cadena a poppa, noi percorrevamo 60 a 70 leghe al giorno.” This was as rapid a rate as that of our (1870) fastest steamboats—ten knots an hour.