[Footnote: There is some ambiguity in the account, as to the time
when they first saw land. The letter reads as follows: "On the 17th
of last January we set sail from a desolate rock near the island of
Madeira, and sailing westward, in twenty-five days we ran eight
hundred leagues. On the 24th of February, we encountered as violent
a hurricane as any ship ever weathered. Pursuing our voyage toward
the west, a little northwardly, in twenty-four days more, have run
four hundred leagues, we reached a new country," &c. If the twenty-
four days be calculated from the 24th of February, the landfall
would have taken place on the 20th of March; but if reckoned from
the first twenty-five days run, it would have been on the 7th of
that month. Ramusio changes the distance first sailed from 800 to
500 leagues; the day when they encountered the storm from the 24th
to the 20th of February; and the twenty-four days last run to
twenty-five; making the landfall occur on the 17th or 10th of March
according to the mode of calculating the days last run. As it is
stated, afterwards, that they encountered a gale WHILE AT ANCHOR ON
THE COAST, EARLY in March, the 7th of that month must be taken as
the time of the landfall.] It seemed very low and stretched to the
south, in which direction they sailed along it for the purpose of
finding a harbor wherein their ship might ride in safety; but
DISCOVERING NONE in a distance of fifty leagues, they retraced their
course, and ran to the north with no better success. They therefore
drew in with the land and sent a boat ashore, and had their first
communication with the inhabitants, who regarded them with wonder.
These people are described as going naked, except around their
loins, and as being BLACK. The land, rising somewhat from the shore,
was covered with thick forests, which sent forth the sweetest
fragrance to a great distance. They supposed it adjoined the Orient,
and for that reason was not devoid of medicinal and aromatic drugs