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III. The love of gain, and a difpofition to lefien the difficulties and expences inci-dent on the traffic with India , originated fchemes for obtaining its merchandizediredtly from the firft hand ; thefe fchemes were planned at the epoch of the regenera-tion of literature, that at which the art of printing, newly difcovered, had already dif-fufed through a greater number of hands the knowledge tranfmitted to pofterity byancient writers on navigation and the figure of the earth. It became known thatcertain Phoenician navigators, failing from the Red Sea , entered the Mediterranean bythe Strait of Gibraltar it consequently was conje&ured, it would be poffible to failfrom the Atlantic to the mouth of the Red Sea , and, by purfuing an eaftern courfe,to reach the Spice Iflands. Moreover, it ceafed any longer to be doubted that theancients were acquainted with the fpherical form of the earth, and the exillence of ourantipodes, an opinion which, in the age of ignorance, was not only confidered to beantiphilofophical, but alfo a herefy. Travellers who, treading in the fteps of the Ve-netian Marco Polo , had traced all the fea-coaft of Afia, affirmed that the earth defcribeda curve from eaft to weft ; and the Portuguefe who, in the beginning of the fifteenthcentury, had vifited all the fhores of Guinea , by uniting their information to that of thenavigators of the north of Europe , made evident, from their account of the elevation anddepreffion of the polar ftar, that the earth, from north to fouth, in a fimilar mannerwas marked by a curve. From thefe two data it confequently followed that the earthwas of a fpherical form, and that it would be poffible to make the circuit of it. Thededu&ion correfponded well with the obfervations of aftrologers, who, notwithftandingthe ridiculous objedt by which they were a&uated in their obfervations, that of deviningthe future, had yet much advanced the fcience of aftronomy. Narratives alfo werecurrent, though of a vague defcription, of certain failors faid to have been tranfportedto the iflands between Europe and America , and thence to the new continent thenunknown. On thefe grounds were built the hope of reaching Malucho (the namethen given to the Spice Iflands, now termed the Maluccas,) either by coafting alongthe fhores of Africa and afterwards fleering eaft, or by keeping a weftern courfe acrofsthe Atlantic Ocean . So little obftacle was expedted to this latter courfe, that the moftcelebrated geographers, in their charts, placed only a few iflands between the wefternfhores of Europe and Africa and the eaftern coaft of Afia, as will be feen in para-graph XII. This was indeed an error, but an error very excufable in the geographersof that time; for, though the ancients had pretty corredtly afcertained the circumferenceof the earth f, and had even laid down certain rules to determine the longitude of
places.
reader may be qualified to judge of the (lyle of Pigafetta ; and for the fame reafon as often as occafion mayprefent itfelf to quote his words the fame plan will be followed. The words of Pigafetta are, Sono forficinquanta aunt, che quejli mori haVitano in Malucho: prima li hahitano gentili: p.203. “ The Moors have
inhabited Molucca about fifty years ; before them it was peopled by Pagans .”
* Herodotus, 1 . iv. c. 4.; Strabo , 1 . i. ; and others enumerated by Riccioli Geogr. 1 . iii. c. 20.French Tr.
+ Ariftotle (de Ccelo, lib. ii.) fpeaks of it as an eftablilhed fadl. It appears that the mathematiciansof Egypt meafured a degree in the latitude of Memphis , that is to fay in thirty' degrees north, upon theirdetermining on the pofition and fize of the pyramids ; for each of the fides of the largcll pyramid is jJ B tUpart of a degree in length, whence it may be fair to conjecture, that they divided the degree into a thoufandparts, and gave to each fide of the pyramid the length of T ^% 6 th parts of a degree. (Venini Delle MifureFrancefe. Opufc. Sulti, tom. xx. p. 9H. ) French Tr.
A degree in latitude thirty degrees meafures ^63,724 Englifh feet, according to the tables of ProfefforPond. The 500th part of a degree is confequently 727* * Englifh feet. Now, as will be feen in the notes tothe relation refpe&ing Egypt of Abd Allatif, in that portion of this work which comprizes the Travels in