a sea chart similar to the one I sent to him, which will satisfy your
demands. The copy of that letter is this!"

"To Ferdinand Martinez, Paul the physician wisheth health.--I rejoice to
learn the familiarity which you have with your most serene and magnificent
king; and although I have often discoursed concerning the short way by sea
from hence to the Indies where spice is produced, which I consider to be
shorter than that you now take by the coast of Guinea; yet you now inform
me that his highness requires me to explain and demonstrate this my
opinion, so that it may be understood and reduced to practice. Therefore,
though I could better shew it with a globe in my hand, so as to make him
sensible of the figure and dimensions of the world; yet I have resolved to
make it as easy and intelligible as possible by delineating this way upon
a chart, such as is used in navigation. Wherefore I now send one to his
majesty, drawn by my own hand; in which I have set down the utmost bounds
of the west, from Ireland in the north to the farthest parts of Guinea,
with all the islands that lie in the way: Opposite to which western coast,
the beginning of the Indies is delineated, with the islands and places to
which you may go, and how far you may bend from the north pole towards the
equinoctial, and for how long a time; that is, how many leagues you must
sail before you arrive at those places which are most fruitful in all
sorts of spice, in jewels and precious stones.

"Do not wonder that I term the country where the spice is produced in the
_west_, because that production has been generally ascribed to the _east_:
Since those who may sail to the westward will always find those places in
the _west_, which those who travel by land eastwards must find in the
_east_. The straight lines that run lengthways in the chart shew the
distances from east to west, and the other lines which cross these at
right angles shew the distances from north to south. I have likewise