"The third zone is all of the space included between de [Tropic of Cancer] and fg [Tropic of Capricorn]. Because of the amount of heat this zone is barely habitable. The sun describes circles in this zone with a constant motion along the line fe, which marks the ecliptic, and by reason of the excessive heat makes the zone torrid and uninhabited… When a zone is difficult to live in we likewise say that it is uninhabited or uninhabitable. There are many peoples who inhabit the hot and dry torrid zone, such as the inhabitants of the Golden Chersonese [Malay peninsula], the Taprobanenses [inhabitans of the modern Sri Lanka], the Ethiopians, and of a very large part of the earth that for all time was unknown, but has been recently discovered by Amerigo Vespucci." (Cosmographiae introductio, chap. V - Hessler 2008)