Aurora Islands

In his "Lettera" of 1504, his most detailed note, he states that he left the coast of Brazil from Cabo Frío and followed the path of the Sirocco south-east covering 500 leagues (about 3000 kilometres) by sea down to 50°S or 52°S.

The probability is confirmed by Vice-Admiral Ernesto Basilico in The Third Voyage of Amerigo Vespucci (Buenos Aires, 1967) and by Lt-Cdr Barreiro Meiro (General Journal of Navy, October 1968, Madrid).

In the middle of this storm of 7 April we sighted a new land, which we sailed alongside of for almost 20 leagues, finding the coast wild, and we did not see any harbour or people.

3 April is not winter but the first month of autumn and a night of fifteen hours duration implies a mysterious shift of the sun; furthermore, sailors would not find the cold intolerable at that season of the year in 52°S.

[3]: 80  Commenting on Ramsay's dismissal of the possibility that they sank, Stephen Royle notes that several volcanic islands have been known to have disappeared in recent times.