Note 269-1 — LETTER FROM COLUMBUS TO LUIS DE SANTANGEL
Reading edition
Columbus had read in the Imago Mundi of Pierre d’Ailly and noted in the margin the passage which says that in the ends of the earth there “were monsters of such a horrid aspect that it were hard to say whether they were men or beasts.” Raccolta Colombiana, pt. I., vol. II., p. 468. Cf. also the stories in the Book of Sir John Mandeville, chs. XXVII. and XXVIII.