“[...] the fleet sent by the King of Portugal two years ago to make discoveries about the region of Guinea: such a voyage as that I do not call discovery, but merely a going to discovered lands, since, as you will see by the map, they navigate continually in sight of land, and sail along the entire southern part of Africa [...] It is true that the navigation has been most profitable [...] I hear that they passed beyond the Red Sea, and reached the Persian Gulf, and a city called Calicut, which is situated between the Persian Gulf and the river Indus.”
Amerigo Vespucci to Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de’ Medici, July 18, 1500