Note 24 — Relation of the Filipinas Islands

There is evidently a play of words in this passage. The French reads Mais il se trouua bie loing de ses esperances, & auec vn pied de nez. Pied de nez (literally “a foot of nose”) is an exact equivalent of the Spanish phrase palmo de narices, and the French expression demeurer avec un pied de nez is equivalent to the Spanish idiom quedar con un palmo de narices, which signifies “the frustration of one’s hopes,” or “to be left out in the cold.”