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[Page 6]
manner unknown to the Antients to this I answer that the whole of this delineation from the Said Upwards *
[In margin] * that is towards the South, as appears by the Context, not towards the South but the North. No missionaries in that age had been farther south than Egypt.
I have received from particular persons who were either Natives of the Country, from Missionaries, who with their own hands traced for me all these Provinces, & cities & rivers, & mountains, with their names - all which things I have not been able to arrange in due order, for want of room. He then adds, at the point when he has marked Cape Diab. [Cape of Good Hope] #
[In margin] # This seems as if Mauro had written Diab himself.
"Beyond this Cape Navigators do no pass", but he observes, that an Indian vessel had passed this Cape in the Year 1420, & after a long course of Navigation it had returned". he mentions also, that at the very Cape a large Island appears in the middle of the channel, & speaking of the Country, he says, "This tract is extremely fertile & has been lately conquered **
[In margin] ** Who the King of Abyssinia is, does not very well appear from Brure but perhaps Thoodomy who died about 1412, but we are by this brought from the Cape to the Country of Magadorco that is about 35 Degrees at one step In Brure V. 11 p. 84.
by the great King of Abassia (Habez or Abyssinia) about the Year 1430, & here commences (El Mar obscuro) ## the Dark Sea.
[In margin] ## The Marc tenet rasum of Arabian Geographers.
Fra Mauro likewise fixed the limits of his Planisphere, East, at Java Major, which he lays down North & South, & not East & West. so also his Java Minor does not face North to Java Major, but South betn Java Major & Sumatra. ***
[In margin] *** In Marco Polo Java Minor is Sumatra
To the North he lays down Catai (China) as his termination. & to the North Permia immediately after the Russia's, on the North West his limit is Scandinavia & Ireland, on the West the Kingdom of Spain, & on the South West is the Island of Dragons & Athiopia, but his termination South is Cape Diab beyond which he places Islands