Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 28, 2025
The same is said of Formentera, in the Mediterranean, anciently Ophiusa, between Majorca and Minorca. On their return from Banda towards Malacca, in 1512, Francis Serrano perished with his junk on the flats called Baxos de Luçapinho, nine or ten of the Portuguese crew escaping to the island of Mindanao, who were sent for by the kings of the Moluccas.
Furious at the slight, the professor resolved to set to work independently on his own account, and declaring that there were inaccuracies in the previous geodesic operations, he determined to re-examine the results of the last triangulation which had united Formentera to the Spanish coast by a triangle, one of the sides of which measured over a hundred miles, the very operation which had already been so successfully accomplished by Arago and Biot.
I heard at Argier of seuen Gallies that were at that time cast away at a towne called Formentera: three of them were of Argier, the other foure were the Christians. We found here 13.
M. Biot quitted me afterwards to return to Paris, whilst I made the geodesical junction of the island of Majorca to Iviza, and to Formentera, obtaining thus, by means of one single triangle, the measure of an arc of parallel of one degree and a half. I then went to Majorca, to measure there the latitude and the azimuth.
"We must have passed close to Formentera," he said, "when we explored the site of the Balearic Isles; this fragment must be very small; it must be smaller than the remaining splinter of Gibraltar or Ceuta; otherwise, surely it would never have escaped our observation." "However small it may be," replied Servadac, "we must find it. How far off do you suppose it is?"
He related the true history of the cavern of Formentera, where the Normans had stored the product of their freebooting expeditions throughout Spain and Italy golden images of saints, chalices, chains, jewels, precious stones and coins measured by the peck. A frightful dragon, trained doubtless by the red men, used to guard the deep, dark cavern, with the treasure beneath his belly.
He was soon conveyed to the yawl; his books, his scanty wardrobe, his papers, his instruments, and the blackboard which had served for his calculations, were quickly collected; the wind, by a fortuitous Providence, had shifted into a favorable quarter; they set their sail with all speed, and ere long were on their journey back from Formentera.
After a thaw should set in, neither the yacht nor the tartan could be reckoned on for service, and it would be inexpedient to make use of the steam launch, for which only a few tons of coal had been reserved, just sufficient to convey them to Gourbi Island when the occasion should arise; whilst as to the yawl, which, transformed into a sledge, had performed so successful a trip to Formentera, the absence of wind would make that quite unavailable.
From the prima facie appearance of his papers, then, it seemed probable that the astronomer, during his sojourn at Formentera, had been devoting himself to the study of cometary orbits; and as calculations of this kind are ordinarily based upon the assumption that the orbit is a parabola, it was not unlikely that he had been endeavoring to trace the path of some particular comet.
"To hit the Island of Formentera at this distance?" "Dost dare to sneer at me?" cried Marzak, ruffling. "What daring would that ask?" wondered Sakr-el-Bahr. "By Allah, thou shalt learn." "In all humility I await the lesson." "And thou shalt have it," was the answer viciously delivered. Marzak strode to the rail. "Ho there! Vigitello! A cross-bow for me, and another for Sakr-el-Bahr."
Word Of The Day
Others Looking