CHAP. 1. (1.)—THE BOUNDARIES AND GULFS OF EUROPE FIRST SET FORTH IN A GENERAL WAY.
I shall first then speak of Europe, the foster-mother of that
people which has conquered all other nations, and itself by
far the most beauteous portion of the earth. Indeed, many
persons have, not without reason [Note], considered it, not as a
third part only of the earth, but as equal to all the rest,
looking upon the whole of our globe as divided into two
parts only, by a line drawn from the river Tanais to the
Straits of Gades. The ocean, after pouring the waters of the
Atlantic through the inlet which I have here described, and,
in its eager progress, overwhelming all the lands which have
had to dread its approach, skirts with its winding course the
shores of those parts which offer a more effectual resistance,
hollowing out the coast of Europe especially into numerous
bays, among which there are four Gulfs that are more particularly remarkable. The first of these begins at Calpe, which
I have previously mentioned, the most distant mountain of
Spain; and bends, describing an immense curve, as far as
Locri and the Promontory of Bruttium [Note].
