Note 136-1 — JOURNAL OF THE FIRST VOYAGE OF COLUMBUS

The last words should be, “distant from the one and from the other.” Las Casas, I. 327, says: “Zayton and Quisay are certain cities or provincias of the mainland which were depicted on the map of Paul the physician as mentioned above.” These Chinese cities were known from Marco Polo’s description of them. This passage in the Journal is very perplexing if it assumes that Columbus was guided by the Toscanelli letter. Again a few days earlier Columbus was sure that Cuba was Cipango, and now he is equally certain that it is the mainland of Asia asserted by Toscanelli to be 26 spaces or 6500 Italian miles west of Lisbon, but the next day his estimate of his distance from Lisbon is 4568 miles. It would seem as if Columbus attached no importance to the estimate of distances on the Toscanelli map which was the only original information in it.