Chapter IX: Magellan’s Discovery (5)

[5] Some of the documents at Simancas and in other repositories, beginning with 1485, have been edited in the Rolls Series (published for the English Government) by G. A. Bergenroth and by Gayangos (London, 1862-1879), in the _Calendar of Letters, Despatches, and State Papers relating to Negotiations between England and Spain_, contained in five volumes. Vol. i. comes through 1509; and the first paper in it is a complaint of Ferdinand and Isabella against Columbus for his participancy in the piratical service of the French in 1485. Various documents from the archives of Simancas are given in Alaman’s _La República Megicana_, three volumes, 1844-1849. We get glimpses in the _Historia_ of Las Casas of a large number of the letters of Columbus, to which he must have had access, but which are now lost. Harrisse thinks it was at Simancas, that Las Casas must have found them; for when engaged on that work he was living within two leagues of that repository. It seems probable, also, that Las Casas must have had use of the Biblioteca Colombina, when it was deposited in the convent of San Pablo (1544-1552), from whose Dominican monks Harrisse thinks it possible that Las Casas obtained possession of the Toscanelli map. He regrets, however, that for the personal history of Columbus and his family, Las Casas furnishes no information which cannot be found more nearly at first hand elsewhere. See Harrisse, _Christophe Colomb_, i. 122, 125-127, 129, 133.

[6] Robertson prefixes to his _History_ a list of the Spanish books and manuscripts which he had used.

“The English reader,” writes Irving in 1828, when he had published his own _Life of Columbus_, “hitherto has derived his information almost exclusively from the notice of Columbus in Dr. Robertson’s _History_; this, though admirably executed, is but a general outline.”—_Life of Irving_, ii. 313.

[7] Harrisse, _Christophe Colomb_, i. 35. He also refers to the notarial records preserved at Seville, as having been but partially explored for elucidations of the earliest exploration. He found among them the will of Diego, the younger brother of Columbus (p. 38). Alfred Demersay printed in the _Bulletin de la Société de Géographie_, June, 1864, a paper, “Une mission geographique dans les archives d’Espagne et de Portugal,” in which he describes, particularly as regards their possessions of documents relating to America, the condition at that time of the archives of the Torre do Tombo at Lisbon (of which, after 1842 and till his death, Santarem was archivist); those of the Kingdom of Aragon at Barcelona, and of the Indies at Seville; and the collections of Muñoz, embracing ninety-five vols. in folio, and thirty-two in quarto, and of Mata-Lanares, included in eighty folios, in the Academy of History at Madrid. He refers for fuller details to Tiran’s _Archives d’Aragon et de Simancas_ (1844), and to Joáo Pedro Ribeiro’s _Memorias Authenticas para a Historia do real Archivo_, Lisbon, 1819.

[8] This authority to search was given later, in 1781 and 1788.

[9] This volume is worth about five dollars.

[10] It was he who allowed Irving to use them.

[11] J. C. Brevoort, in the _Magazine of American History_, March, 1879. Cf. Prescott’s _Ferdinand and Isabella_ (1873), ii. 508, and his _Mexico_, preface.

[12] Vol. i. p. 56, referring to Fuster’s “Copia de los manuscritos que recogió D. Juan Bautista Muñoz,” in _Biblioteca Valenciana_, ii. 202-238.

[13] Harrisse, in his _Notes on Columbus_, p. 5, describes a collection of manuscripts which were sold by Obadiah Rich, in 1848 or 1849, to James Lenox, of New York, which had been formed by Uguina, the friend of Muñoz. There is in the Academy of History at Madrid a collection of documents said to have been formed by Don Vargas Ponçe.

[14] Harrisse (_Christophe Columb_, i. 65) refers to an unpublished fragment in the Lenox Library. The _Ticknor Catalogue_ (p. 244) shows a discourse on Muñoz read before the Academy of History in 1833, as well as a criticism by Iturri on his single volume. Harrisse (_Christophe Colomb_, i. 65) gives the titles of other controversial publications on the subject of Muñoz’s history. Muñoz died in 1799. It is usually said that the Spanish Government prevented the continuation of his work.

[15] _Christophe Colomb_, i. 20.

[16] See _post_, p. 77. A third copy, made by Columbus’ direction was sent to his factor in Hispaniola, Alonzo Sanchez de Carvajal. This is not known; and Harrisse does not show that the archives of Santo Domingo offer much of interest of so early a date. A fourth copy was deposited in the monastery of the Cuevas at Seville, and is probably the one which his son, Diego, was directed to send to Gaspar Gorricio. Cf. Harrisse, _Christophe Colomb_, i. 16-23, 41, 46.

[17] This letter is given in fac-simile in the Navarrete Collection, French translation, vol. iii.

[18] This book was reprinted at Genoa in 1857, with additions, edited by Giuseppe Banchero, and translated into English, and published in 1823 in London, as _Memorials of a Collection of Authentic Documents_, etc. A Spanish edition was issued at Havana in 1867 (Leclerc, nos. 134, 135). Wagner, in his _Colombo und seine Entdeckungen_ (Leipsic, 1825), makes use of Spotorno, and translates the letters. These and other letters are also given in Torre’s _Scritti di Colombo_; in the _Lettere autografe di Colombo_, Milan, 1863; and in Navarrete’s _Coleccion_, vol. ii. following the text of those in the Veraguas collections. Cf. _North American Review_, xviii. 417; xxi. 398.

[19] Dodge also translated the other letters. Photographic fac-similes of these letters are in the Harvard College Library and in the Library of the Massachusetts Historical Society. See the _Proceedings_ of the latter Society, February, 1870.

[20] _Christophe Colomb_, p. 11.

[21] Prescott, in the preface to his _Mexico_, speaks of him as “zealously devoted to letters; while his reputation as a scholar was enhanced by the higher qualities which he possessed as a man,—by his benevolence, his simplicity of manners, and unsullied moral worth.”

[22] His projected work on the Spanish navy was never printed, though a fragment of it appeared in the _Memorias_ of the Academy of History (_Ticknor Catalogue_, p. 247).

[23] Leclerc says it is “difficile à trouver,” and prices it at 80 francs. The English price is from £2 to £3. A letter by Navarrete, descriptive of his _Coleccion_, is to be found in Zach’s _Correspondance_, xi. 446. Cf. also Duflot de Mofras, _Mendoza et Navarrete_, Paris, 1845, quoted by Harrisse, _Christophe Colomb_, i. 67.

[24] There is a memoir of him, with a catalogue of his works, in the _Coleccion de documentos inéditos_, vol. vi.; and of those published and unpublished in his _Biblioteca marítima Española_, ii. 458-470. These sixth and seventh volumes have never been published. The sixth was to cover the voyages of Grijalva and Lopes de Villalobos. Harrisse (_Christophe Colomb_, i. 68) learned that the _Cartas de Indias_ (Madrid, 1877) contains some parts of what was to appear in vol. vii.

[25] Columbus, Vespucius, Ojeda, Magellan, etc.

[26] It is an alphabetical (by Christian names,—a not uncommon Spanish fashion) record of writers on maritime subjects, with sketches of their lives and works.

[27] Cf. an article in the _North American Review_, xxiv. 265, by Caleb Cushing.

[28] These form vols. i. and ii. of Marmocchi’s Collection (Leclerc, no. 133).

[29] Bancroft, _Central America_, i. 199.

[30] _Ticknor Catalogue_, p. 247.

[31] _Magazine of American History_, iii. 176. Cf., however, Navarrete’s generous estimate of Irving’s labors in the Introduction to the third volume of his _Coleccion_.

[32] The story of this undertaking is told in Pierre Irving’s _Life of Washington Irving_, vol. ii. chaps. xiv., xv., xvi. The book was kindly reviewed by Mr. A. H. Everett in the _North American Review_, January, 1829 (vol. xxviii). Cf. other citations and references in Allibone’s _Dictionary_, 942, and Poole’s _Index_, p. 280. A portion, at least, of the manuscript of the book is in existence (_Massachusetts Historical Society’s Proceedings_, xx. 201). Longfellow testified to Irving’s devotion to his subject (_Proc._, iv. 394). See _post_, p. 68.

[33] Irving also early made an abridged edition, to forestall the action of others.

[34] Their bibliography is fully given in Sabin, vol. ix. p. 150.

[35] It was completed in twenty volumes, and is now worth from 250 to 300 francs. See Leclerc, no. 562, for contents; Field’s _Indian Bibliography_, no. 1,540; Alexander Young in _North American Review_, xlv. 222. Ternaux died in 1864. Santarem speaks of “the sumptuous stores of his splendid American library.” Cf. H. H. Bancroft, _Central America_, ii. 759.

[36] Now worth from $12 to $15.

[37] Cf. contents in _Ticknor Catalogue_, p. 87.

[38] Cf. _Magazine of American History_, i. 256; ii. 256; (by Mr. Brevoort), iii. 175 (March, 1879); Sabin, _Dictionary_, vol. xiv. no. 58,072. Leclerc, _Bibliotheca Americana, Supplément_, no. 3,016, for 22 vols. (300 francs). Harrisse, referring to this collection, says: “It is really painful to see the little method, discrimination, and knowledge displayed by the editors.” The documents on Columbus largely repeat those given by Navarrete.

[39] Sabin, _Dictionary_, vol. xiv. no. 58,270.

[40] H. H. Bancroft, _Central America_, i. 484; ii. 736.

[41] Collections like that of Icazbalceta on Mexico may be barely mentioned in this place, since their characteristics can better be defined in more special relations. Prescott had eight thousand manuscript pages of copies of documents relating to Mexico and Peru. Cf. Preface to his _Mexico_. In 1792 Father Manuel de la Vega collected in Mexico thirty-two folio volumes of papers, in obedience to an order of the Spanish Government to gather all documents to be found in New Spain “fitted to illustrate the antiquities, geography, civil, ecclesiastical, and natural history of America,” and transmit copies of them to Madrid (Prescott, Mexico, iii. 409).

[42] This book was privately printed (ninety-five copies) for Mr. S. L. M. Barlow, of New York. It has thrice, at least, occurred in sales (Menzies, no. 894,—$57.50; J. J. Cooke, vol. iii. no. 580; Brinley, no. 17). It is an extremely valuable key to the documentary and printed references on Columbus’ career. To a very small number (nine) of a separate issue of the portion relating to the letters of Columbus, a new Preface was added in 1865. Cf. Ernest Desjardin’s _Rapport sur les deux ouvrages de bibliographie Américaine de M. Henri Harrisse_ (Paris, 1867, p. 8), extracted from the _Bullétin de la Société de Géographie_. The article on Columbus in Sabin’s _Dictionary_ (iv. 274, etc.) is based on Harrisse, with revisions. Cf. references in H. H. Bancroft, _Central America_, i. 238; Saint-Martin, _Histoire de la géographie_ (1873), p. 319; F. G. Cancellieri’s _Dessertazioni epistolari bibliografiche sopra Colombo_, etc. (Rome, 1809).

[43] The Archives of Venice, at the beginning of this century, contained memorials of Columbus which can no longer be found (Marin, _Storia civile e politica del commercio de’ Veneziani_, Venezia, 1800; Harrisse, _Bibl. Amer. Vet. Additions_, p. xxi). This is perhaps owing to the Austrian depredation upon the Venetian archives in the Frari and Marciana in 1803-1805, and in 1866. Not a little, however, of use has been preserved in the _Calendar of State Papers in the Archives of Venice_ published by the British Government, in the Rolls Series, since 1864. They primarily illustrate English history, but afford some light upon American affairs. Only six volumes (the last volume in three parts) have been printed. Mr. Rawdon Brown, who edited them, long a resident of Italy, dying at Venice, Aug. 25, 1883, at eighty, has sent, during his labors in this field, one hundred and twenty-six volumes of manuscript copies to the English Public Record Office.

[44] Of these, twenty-nine are also given in fac-simile; there are besides about two hundred and fifty fac-similes of autographs. The volume is priced at 150 marks and 300 francs. Cf. Leclerc, no. 2,688. H. H. Bancroft (_Mexico_, ii. 606) says of the volume: “There are about two hundred and twenty-four pages of geographical notes, vocabulary, biographical data, a glossary, and cuts, maps, and indexes. The letters and fac-similes, from the first to the last, are valuable in a historic sense, and the vocabulary is useful; but the biographical and historical data are not always reliable, numerous errors having been detected in comparing with official records and with memoranda of witnesses of the events related.” Mr. Bancroft’s own library is said to contain twelve hundred volumes of manuscript amassed for his own work; but a large portion of them, it is supposed, do not concern the Spanish history of the Pacific coast.

[45] Mr. Dexter, a graduate of Harvard in 1858, after most serviceable labors as Recording Secretary of the Massachusetts Historical Society, resigned that position on account of ill health, and died at Santa Barbara, California, Dec. 18, 1883. The _Proceedings_ of the Society for January, 1884, contain tributes to his memory. Various communications in earlier volumes of the same _Proceedings_ show the painstaking of his research, and the accuracy of his literary method. The first chapter in Vol. IV. of the present _History_ was his last effort in historical study, and he did not live to correct the proofs. His death has narrowed the circle of those helpful friends who have been ever ready to assist the Editor in his present labors.

[46] _Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc._, xvi. 318; also issued separately. The letters of Columbus are also translated in the _Magazine of American History_, January, 1883, p. 53.

[47] An Italian version of the letters of Columbus and Vespucius, with fac-similes of the letters (_Tre lettere di Colombo ed Vespucci_), edited by Augusto Zeri, was printed (six hundred copies) at Rome in 1881. Cf. _Murphy Catalogue_, no. 642.

[48] Irving’s _Life of Columbus_, app. no. vii.

[49] Ferdinand Columbus tried to make his readers believe that his father was of some kinship with this corsair. The story of Columbus escaping on an oar from a naval fight off Cape St. Vincent, and entering Portugal by floating to the shore, does not agree with known facts in his life of the alleged date. (Harrisse, _Les Colombo_, p. 36.) Allegri Allegretti, in his _Ephemerides Senenses ab anno 1450 usque ad 1496_ (in Muratori, xxiii. 827), gives a few particulars regarding the early life of Columbus. (Harrisse, _Notes on Columbus_, p. 41.) Some of the latest researches upon his piratical life are given by Rawdon Brown in the _Calendar of State Papers_, 1864, covering 1202-1509, vol. i.

[50] This name is sometimes given _Palestrello_.

[51] Rawdon Brown’s _Calendar of State Papers in the Archives of Venice_, vol. i. (1864).

[52] Prescott (_Ferdinand and Isabella_, ed. 1873, vol. ii. p. 123) says: “The discrepancies among the earliest authorities are such as to render hopeless any attempt to settle with precision the chronology of Columbus’s movements previous to his first voyage.”

[53] It cannot but be remarked how Italy, in Columbus, Cabot, and Vespucius, not to name others, led in opening the way to a new stage in the world’s progress, which by making the Atlantic the highway of a commerce that had mainly nurtured Italy on the Mediterranean, conduced to start her republics on that decline which the Turk, sweeping through that inland sea, confirmed and accelerated.

[54] Notwithstanding this disappointment of Columbus, it is claimed that Alfonso V., in 1474, had consulted Toscanelli as to such a western passage “to the land where the spices grow.”

[55] There is great uncertainty about this English venture. Benzoni says Columbus’s ideas were ridiculed; Bacon (_Life of Henry VII._) says the acceptance of them was delayed by accident; Purchas says they were accepted too late. F. Cradock, in the Dedication of his _Wealth Discovered_, London, 1661, regrets the loss of honor which Henry VII. incurred in not listening to the project. (Sabin, v. 55.) There is much confusion of statement in the early writers. Cf. Las Casas, lib. i. cap. 29; Barcia, _Hist. del Almirante_, cap. 10; Herrera, dec. i. lib. 2; Oviedo, lib. i. cap. 4; Gomara, cap. 15; Harrisse, _Bibl. Amer. Vet._, p. 4.

[56] As, for instance, Oviedo and Bossi.

[57] The same whom Isabella advised Columbus to take “as an astrologer” on one of his later voyages. Cf. P. Augustin d’Osimo’s _Christophe Colomb et le Père Juan Perez de Marchena; ou, de la co-opération des franciscains à la découverte de l’Amérique_, 1861, and P. Marcellino da Civezza’s _Histoire générale des missions franciscaines_, 1863.

[58] Cf. Schanz on “Die Stellung der beiden ersten Tudors zu den Entdeckungen,” in his _Englische Handelspolitik_.

[59] Stevens, _Historical Collection_, vol. i. no. 1,418; Leclerc, no. 235 (120 francs); Carter-Brown, vol. ii. no. 376; Sabin, vol. vii. no. 27,116; Murphy, no. 1,046. This book, which in 1832 Rich priced at £1 10_s._, has recently been quoted by Quaritch at £5 5_s._ Harrisse calls the book mendacious (_Notes on Columbus_, p. 37). The book was written in 1522; its author was born in 1465, and died in 1525 as bishop of Santo Domingo.

[60] There are two views of Seville in Braun and Hogenberg’s _Civitates orbis terrarum_, published at Antwerp in 1572, and again at Brussels (in French) in 1574. In one of the engravings a garden near the Puerta de Goles is marked “Guerta de Colon;” and in the other the words “Casa de Colon” are attached to the top of one of the houses. Muller, _Books on America_, 1877, no. 712. The book is in the Harvard College Library.

[61] Santangel supplied about seventeen thousand florins from Ferdinand’s treasury. Bergenroth, in his Introduction to the Spanish State Papers, removes not a little of the mellow splendor which admirers have poured about Isabella’s character.

[62] Palos is no longer a port, such has been the work of time and tide. In 1548 the port is described in Medina’s _Libro de grandezas y cosas de España_. (Harrisse, _Bibl. Amer. Vet._, no. 281.) Irving described it in 1828. Its present unmaritime character is set forth by E. E. Hale in _Amer. Antiq. Soc. Proc._, ii. 159; _Seven Spanish Cities_, p. 17; and _Overland Monthly_, Jan., 1883, p. 42.

[63] Cf. Irving, app. no. xvi., on the route of Columbus. Brevoort in his _Verrazzano_, p. 101, describes the usual route of the early navigators from Spain to the West Indies. Columbus kept two records of his progress. One was an unworthily deceitful one (reminding us of an earlier deceit, when he tampered with the compass to mislead his crew), by which he hoped to check the apprehensions of his men arising from his increasing longitude; and the other a dead reckoning of some kind, in which he thought he was approximately accurate. The story of his capitulating to his crew, and agreeing to turn back in three days in case land was not reached, is only told by Oviedo on the testimony of a pilot hostile to Columbus.

[64] It may have been on some island or in some canoe; or just as likely a mere delusion. The fact that Columbus at a later day set up a claim for the reward for the first discovery on the strength of this mysterious light, to the exclusion of the poor sailor who first actually saw land from the “Pinta,” has subjected his memory, not unnaturally, to some discredit at least with those who reckon magnanimity among the virtues. Cf. _Navarrete_, iii. 612.

[65] The prayer used was adopted later in similar cases, under Balboa, Cortes, Pizarro, etc. It is given in C. Clemente’s _Tablas chronologicas_, Valencia, 1689. Cf. Harrisse, _Notes on Columbus_, p. 140; Sabin, vol. iv. no. 13,632; Carter-Brown, vol. ii. no. 1,376; Murphy, no. 599; and H. H. Bancroft’s _Central America_, i. 371.

[66] Humboldt in his _Cosmos_ (English translation, ii. 422) has pointed out how in this first voyage the descriptions by Columbus of tropical scenes convince one of the vividness of his impressions and of the quickness of his observation.

[67] Pinzon’s heirs at a later day manifested hostility to Columbus, and endeavored to magnify their father’s importance in the voyage. Cf. Irving, App. x. In the subsequent lawsuit for the confirmation of Columbus’s right, the Pinzons brought witnesses to prove that it was their urgency which prevented Columbus from giving up the voyage and turning back.

[68] This Latin name seems to have been rendered by the Spaniards La Española, and from this by corruption the English got Hispaniola.

[69] There is a wide difference as reported by the early writers as to the number of men which Columbus had with him on this voyage. Ferdinand Columbus says ninety; Peter Martyr, one hundred and twenty; others say one hundred and eighty. The men he left at Hayti are reckoned variously at thirty-nine, forty-three, forty-eight, fifty-five, etc. Major, _Select Letters_, p. 12, reckons them as from thirty-seven to forty. The lists show among them an Irishman, “Guillermo Ires, natural de Galney, en Irlanda,” and an Englishman, “Tallarte de Lajes, Ingles.” These are interpreted to mean William Herries—probably “a namesake of ours,” says Harrisse—and Arthur Lake. Bernaldez says he carried back with him to Spain ten of the natives.

[70] The line of 1494 gave Portugal, Brazil, the Moluccas, the Philippines, and half of New Guinea. Jurien de la Gravière, _Les marins du XV^e et du XVI^e siècle_, i. 86.

[71] Bancroft, _Central America_, i. 496, describes the procedures finally established in laying out towns.

[72] Navarrete, ii. 143. It is the frequent recurrence of such audacious and arrogant acts on the part of Columbus which explains his sad failure as an administrator, and seriously impairs the veneration in which the world would rejoice to hold him.

[73] The question of the priority of Columbus’ discovery of the mainland over Vespucius is discussed in the following chapter. M. Herrera is said to have brought forward, at the Congrès des Américanistes held at Copenhagen in 1883, new evidence of Columbus’s landing on the mainland. Father Manoel de la Vega, in his _Historia del descobrimiento de la America septentrional_, first published in Mexico in 1826 by Bustamante, alleges that Columbus in this southern course was intending to test the theory of King John of Portugal, that land blocked a westerly passage in that direction.

[74] Irving, app. xxxiii.

[75] H. H. Bancroft, _Central America_, vol. i. chap. iv., traces with some care the coast-findings of this voyage and the varying cartographical records.

[76] Helps says: “The greatest geographical discoveries have been made by men conversant with the book-knowledge of their own time.” The age of Columbus was perhaps the most illustrious of ages. “Where in the history of nations,” says Humboldt, “can one find an epoch so fraught with such important results as the discovery of America, the passage to the East Indies round the Cape of Good Hope, and Magellan’s first circumnavigation, simultaneously occurring with the highest perfection of art, the attainment of intellectual and religious freedom, and with the sudden enlargement of the knowledge of the earth and the heavens?” _Cosmos_, Eng. tr., ii. 673.

[77] This manuscript is the _Libro de las profecias_, of which parts are printed in Navarrete. Cf. Harrisse, _Notes on Columbus_, p. 156, who calls it a “curious medley of quotations and puerile inferences;” and refers for an analysis of it to Gallardo’s _Ensayo_, ii. 500. Harrisse thinks the hand is that of Ferdinand Columbus when a boy, and that it may have been written under the Admiral’s direction.

[78] Irving, book i. chap. v.; Humboldt, _Examen critique_ and _Cosmos_; Major, _Prince Henry of Portugal_, chap. xix. and _Discoveries of Prince Henry_, chap. xiv.; Stevens, _Notes_; Helps, _Spanish Conquest_; and among the early writers, Las Casas, not to name others.

[79] Columbus, it is well known, advocated later a pear-shape, instead of a sphere. Cf. the “Tercer viage” in Navarrete.

[80] Robertson’s _America_, note xii. Humboldt cites the ancients; _Examen critique_, i. 38, 61, 98, etc.

[81] Ferdinand Columbus says that the Arab astronomer, Al Fergani, influenced Columbus to the same end; and these views he felt were confirmed by the reports of Marco Polo and Mandeville. Cf. Yule’s _Marco Polo_. vol. i. p. cxxxi.

[82] By a great circle course the distance would have been reduced to something short of five thousand eight hundred miles. (Fox in _U. S. Coast Survey Report_, 1880, app. xviii.) Marco Polo had not distinctly said how far off the coast of China the Island of Cipango lay.

[83] Cf. D’Avezac in _Bulletin de la Société de Géographie de Paris_, August-October, 1857, p. 97. Behaim in his globe placed China 120° west of Cape St. Vincent; and Columbus is supposed to have shared Behaim’s views and both were mainly in accord with Toscanelli. Humboldt, _Examen Critique_, ii. 357.

[84] Not long from the time of his first voyage the _Orbis breviarium_ of Lilius, which later passed through other editions and translations, summarized the references of the ancients (Stevens, _Bibl. Geog._ no. 1,670). But Harrisse, _Notes on Columbus_, p. 180, holds that the earliest instance of the new found islands being declared the parts known to the ancients, and referred to by Virgil in the 6th book of the Æneid,—

“Jacet extra sidera tellus,” etc.,

is in the _Geographia_ of Henricus Glareanus, published at Basle in 1527. Cf. also Gravier, _Les Normands sur la route des Indes_, Rouen, 1880, p. 24; Harrisse, _Bibl. Am. Vet._ 262. Mr. Murphy, in placing the 1472 edition of Strabo’s _De Situ orbis_ in his American collection, pointed to the belief of this ancient geographer in the existence of the American continent as a habitable part of the globe, as shown when he says: “Nisi Atlantici maris obstaret magnitudo, posse nos navigare per eundem parallelum ex Hispania in Indiam, etc.” Cf. further, Charles Sumner’s _Prophetic Voices concerning America_; also in his _Works_; Bancroft’s _Native Races_, v. 68, 122; Baldwin’s _Prehistoric Nations_, 399; Fontaine’s _How the World was peopled_, p. 139; Las Casas, _Historia general_; Sherer, _Researches touching the New World_, 1777; _Recherches sur la géographie des anciens_, Paris, 1797-1813; _Memoirs_ of the Lisbon Academy, v. 101; Paul Gaffarel, _L’Amérique avant Colomb_, and his “Les Grecs et les Romains, ont ils connu l’Amérique?” in the _Revue de Géographie_ (1881), ix. 241, etc.; Ferdinand Columbus’ life of his father, and Humboldt’s examination of his views in his _Examen critique_; Brasseur de Bourbourg’s Introduction to his _Popul-Vuh_.

Glareanus, above referred to, was one of the most popular of the condensed cosmographical works of the time; and it gave but the briefest reference to the New World, “de regionibus extra Ptolemæum.” Its author was under thirty when he published his first edition in 1527 at Basle. There is a copy in the Carter-Brown Library (_Catalogue_, i. 90). Cf. also _Bibl. Amer. Vet._, 142; Huth, ii. 602; Weigel, 1877, p. 82, priced at 18 marks. It was reprinted at Basle, the next year, 1528 (Trömel, 3), and again in 1529. (_Bibl. Amer. Vet._, 143, 147.) Another edition was printed at Freiburg (Brisgau) in 1530, of which there are copies in Harvard College and Carter-Brown (_Catalogue_, no. 95) libraries. (Cf. _Bibl. Amer. Vet._, 147; Muller, 1877, no. 1,232.) There were other Freiburg imprints in 1533, 1536, 1539, 1543, and 1551. (_Bibl. Amer. Vet._, 183, 212, 248; _Additions_, 121; Carter-Brown, i. 160; White Kennett, p. 12; Trömel, no. 12; Murphy, 1049.) There were Venice imprints in 1534, 1537, 1538, 1539, and 1544. (_Bibl. Amer. Vet._, 225, 228, 259; _Additions_, 120; Lancetti, _Buchersaal_, i. 79.) An edition of Venice, without date, is assigned to 1549. (_Catalogue of the Sumner Collection in Harvard College Library._) Editions were issued at Paris in 1542, with a folded map, “Typus cosmographicus universalis,” in 1550 (Court, 144), and in 1572, the last repeating the map. (_Bibl. Amer. Vet._, 139.) The text of all these editions is in Latin. Sabin, vol. vii. no. 27,536, etc., enumerates most of the editions.

[85] Such as Plato’s in his _Critias_ and _Timæus_, and Aristotle’s in his _De Mundo_, cap. iii., etc.

[86] Harrisse, _Bibliotheca Americana Vetustissima; Additions_, no. 36.

[87] Bernaldez tells us that Columbus was a reader of Ptolemy and of John de Mandeville. Cf. on the spreading of Ptolemy’s views at this time Lelewel, _Géographie du moyen âge_, ii. p. 122; Thomassy, _Les papes géographes_, pp. 15, 34. There are copies of the 1475 edition of Ptolemy in the Library of Congress and the Carter-Brown Library (cf. also _Murphy Catalogue_, no. 2,044); of the 1478 edition, the only copy in this country, so far as known, is the one in the Carter-Brown Library, added to that collection since its catalogue was printed. The Perkins copy in 1873 brought £80 (cf. _Livres payés en vente publique 1,000 francs_, etc., p. 137). It was the first edition with maps. Lelewel (vol. ii. p. 124) had traced the influence of the Agathodæmon (Ptolemean) maps on the cartography of the Middle Ages. The maps representing the growth of geographical ideas anterior to Columbus will be examined in another place. The Ulm edition of Ptolemy, 1482, showed in its map of the world a part of what is now called America in representing Greenland; but it gave it a distinct relation to Europe, by making Greenland a peninsula of the Scandinavian north. There seems reason to believe that this map was made in 1471, and it passes for the earliest engraved map to show that northern region,—“Engrone-land,” as it is called. If we reject the Zeno map with its alleged date of 1400 or thereabout (published long after Columbus, in 1558), the oldest known delineations of Greenland (which there is no evidence that Columbus ever saw, and from which if he had seen them, he could have inferred nothing to advantage) are a Genoese manuscript map in the Pitti palace, which Santarem (_Histoire de la Cartographie_, vol. iii. p. xix) dates 1417, but which seems instead to be properly credited to 1447, the peninsula here being “Grinlandia” (cf. Lelewel, _Epilogue_, p. 167; _Magazine of American History_, April, 1883, p. 290); and the map of Claudius Clavus, assigned to 1427, which belongs to a manuscript of Ptolemy, preserved in the library at Nancy. This, with the Zeno map and that in the Ptolemy of 1482, is given in _Trois cartes précolombiennes représentant Groenland, fac-simile présentés au Congrès des Américanistes à Copenhague; par A. E. Nordenskiöld_, Stockholm, 1883. In the Laon globe (1486-1487) “Grolandia” is put down as an island off the Norway coast. There is a copy of this 1482 edition of Ptolemy in the Carter-Brown Library, and another is noted in the _Murphy Catalogue_, no. 2,046. Its maps were repeated in the 1486 edition, also published at Ulm; and of this there was a copy in the Murphy Collection (no. 2,047,—bought by President White, of Cornell); and another belongs to the late G. W. Riggs, of Washington. In 1490 the Roman edition of 1478 was reproduced with the same maps; and of this there is a copy in the Carter-Brown Library; and another is shown in the _Murphy Catalogue_ (no. 2,048). A splendidly illuminated copy of this edition sold in the Sunderland sale (part v. no. 13,770) has since been held by Quaritch at _£_600. See further on these early editions of Ptolemy in Winsor’s _Bibliography of Ptolemy’s Geography_, published by Harvard University.

[88] Gravier, _Les Normands sur la route des Indes_, Rouen, 1880, p. 37.

[89] Humboldt, _Cosmos_ (Eng. ed.), ii. 619. The _Speculum naturale_ of Vincenzius (1250) is an encyclopædic treatise, closely allied with other treatises of that time, like the _De rerum natura_ of Cantipratensis (1230), and the later work of Meygenberg (1349).

[90] Humboldt, _Examen Critique_, i. 61, 65, 70; ii. 349. Columbus quoted this passage in October, 1498, in his letter from Santo Domingo to the Spanish monarch. Margry, _Navigations Françaises_, Paris, 1867, p. 71, “Les deux Indes du XV^e siècle et l’influence Française sur Colomb,” has sought to reflect credit on his country by tracing the influence of the _Imago mundi_ in the discovery of the New World; but the borrowing from Bacon destroys his case. (Major, _Select Letters of Columbus_, p. xlvii; Harrisse, _Notes on Columbus_, p. 84.) If Margry’s claim is correct, that there was an edition of the _Imago mundi_ printed at Nuremberg in 1472, it would carry it back of the beginning of Columbus’s advocacy of his views; but bibliographers find no edition earlier than 1480 or 1483, and most place this _editio princeps_ ten years later as Humboldt does. It is generally agreed that the book was written in 1410. A copy of this first edition, of whatever date, is preserved in the Colombina Library in Seville; and it was the copy used by Columbus and Las Casas. Its margins are annotated, and the notes, which are by most thought to be in the hand of Columbus, have been published by Varnhagen in the _Bulletin de la Société de Géographie de Paris_, January, 1858, p. 71, and by Peschel in his _Geschichte des Zeitalters der Entdeckungen_, p. 112,—who, however, ascribes the notes to Bartholomew Columbus. A fac-simile of part of them is given on p. 31. Cf. Major, _Prince Henry_, p. 349; Carter-Brown, vol. i. no. 3; _Murphy catalogue_, no. 27, bought by Cornell Univ. and Dinaux, _Cardinal P. d’Ailly_, Cambray, 1824.

[91] Mandeville had made his Asiatic journey and long sojourn (thirty-four years) thirty or forty years later than Marco Polo, and on his return had written his narrative in English, French, and Latin. It was first printed in French at Lyons, in 1480. The narrative is, however, unauthentic.

[92] A copy of this edition is in the Colombina Library, with marginal marks ascribed to Columbus, but of no significance except as aids to the memory. Cf. _Harper’s Monthly_, xlvi. p. 1.

[93] There were other editions between his first voyage and his death,—an Italian one in 1496, and a Portuguese in 1502. For later editions, cf. Harrisse, _Bibl. Am. Vet._, no. 89; Navarrete, _Bibl. maritima_, ii. 668; Brunet, iii. 1,406; Saint-Martin, _Histoire de la Géographie_, p. 278. The recent editions of distinctive merit are those, in English, of Colonel Yule; the various texts issued in the _Recueil de voyages et de mémoires publiés par la Société de Géographie de Paris; and Le livre de Marco Polo, rédigé, en Français sous sa dictée en 1298 par Rusticien de Pise, publ. pour la 1^e fois d’après 3 MSS. inéd., av. variantes, comment. géogr. et histor., etc._, par G. Pauthier. 2 vols. Paris: Didot, 1865. Cf. Foscarini, _Della lett. Ven._ 239; Zurla, _Di Marco Polo_; Maltebrun, _Histoire de la Géographie_; Tiraboschi, _Storia della lett. Ital._, vol. iv.; Vivien de Saint-Martin, _Histoire de la Géographie_, p. 272; and the bibliography of the MSS. and printed editions of the _Milione_ given in Pietro Amat di S. Filippo’s _Studi biog. e bibliog._, published by the Società Geografica Italiana in 1882 (2d ed.). A fac-simile of a manuscript of the fourteenth century of the _Livre de Marco Polo_ was prepared under the care of Nordenskiöld, and printed at Stockholm in 1882. The original is in the Royal Library at Stockholm.

[94] The actual distance from Spain westerly to China is two hundred and thirty-one degrees.

[95] Cf. Zurla, _Fra Mauro_, p. 152; Lelewel, ii. 107.

[96] The Italian text of Toscanelli’s letter has been long known in Ferdinand Columbus’ Life of his father; but Harrisse calls it “très-inexact et interpolée;” and, in his _Bibl. Am. Vet. Additions_ (1872), p. xvi, Harrisse gives the Latin text, which he had already printed, in 1871, in his _Don Fernando Colon_, published at Seville, from a copy made of it which had been discovered by the librarian of the Colombina, transcribed by Columbus himself in a copy of Æneas Sylvius’ (Pius II.’s) _Historia rerum ubique gestarum_, Venice, 1477, preserved in that library. Harrisse also gives a photographic fac-simile of this memorial of Columbus. Cf. D’Avezac, in the _Bulletin de la Société de Géographie de Paris_, October, 1873, p. 46; and Harrisse, _Les Cortereal_, p. 41. The form of the letter, as given in Navarrete, is translated into English in Kettell’s _Journal of Columbus_, p. 268, and in Becher’s _Landfall of Columbus_, p. 183. Cf. Lelewel, _Géographie du moyen âge_, ii. 130; _Bulletin de la Société de Géographie_, 1872, p. 49; Ruge, _Geschichte des Zeitalters der Entdeckungen_, p. 225. H. Grothe, in his _Leonardo da Vinci_, Berlin, 1874, says that Da Vinci in 1473 had written to Columbus respecting a western passage to the Indies.

[97] Navarrete, iii. 28.

[98] Note xvii.

[99] Appendix xi.

[100] Stevens, _Bibl. Geog._, no. 1147, and Sabin, _Dictionary_, vii. no. 26,342, give different dates.

[101] Goodrich’s _Life of the so-called Christopher Columbus_. Cf. Luciano Cordeiro, “Les Portugais dans la découverte de l’Amérique,” in Congrès des Américanistes, 1875, i. 274.

[102] Humboldt sees no reason to doubt that Iceland was meant. (_Examen critique_, i. 105; v. 213; _Cosmos_, ii. 611.) It may be remarked, however, that “Thyle” and “Islanda” are both laid down in the Ptolemy map of 1486, which only signifies probably that the old and new geography were not yet brought into accord. Cf. _Journal of the American Geographical Society_, xii. 170, 177, where it is stated that records prove the mild winter for Iceland in 1477, which Columbus represents at Thule.

[103] A like intimation is sustained by De Costa in _Columbus and the Geographers of the North_, Hartford, 1872; and it is distinctly claimed in Anderson’s _America not discovered by Columbus_, 3d edition, 1883, p. 85. It is also surmised that Columbus may have known the Zeni map.

[104] Humboldt discusses the question whether Columbus received any incentive from a knowledge of the Scandinavian or Zeni explorations, in his _Examen critique_, ii. 104; and it also forms the subject of appendices to Irving’s _Columbus_.

[105] This problem is more particularly examined in Vol. I. Cf. also Vol. IV. p. 3.

[106] Harrisse, _Les Cortereals_, p. 25, who points out that Behaim’s globe shows nothing of such a voyage,—which it might well have done if the voyage had been made; for Behaim had lived at the Azores, while Cortereal was also living on a neighboring island. Major, _Select Letters of Columbus_, p. xxviii, shows that Faria y Sousa, in _Asia Portuguesa_, while giving a list of all expeditions of discovery from Lisbon, 1412-1460, makes no mention of this Cortereal. W. D. Cooley, in his _Maritime and Island Discovery_, London, 1830, follows Barrow; but Paul Barron Watson, in his “Bibliography of pre-Columbian Discoveries” appended to the 3d edition (Chicago, 1883) of Anderson’s _America not discovered by Columbus_, p. 158, indicates how Humboldt (_Examen critique_, i. 279), G. Folsom (_North American Review_, July, 1838), Gaffarel (_Études_, p. 328), Kohl (_Discovery of Maine_, p. 165), and others dismiss the claim. If there was any truth in it, it would seem that Portugal deliberately cut herself off from the advantages of it in accepting the line of demarcation in 1493.

[107] Edition of 1597, folio 188.

[108] Follows Wytfliet in his _Rerum Danicarum historia_, 1631, p. 763.

[109] _Ulyssea_, Lugduni, 1671, p. 335.

[110] _Journal of the American Geographical Society_, xii. 170. Asher, in his _Henry Hudson_, p. xcviii, argues for Greenland.

[111] Gomara, _Historia general de las Indias_, Medina, 1553, and Anvers, 1554, cap. xxxvii, folio 31; and Herrera, _Historia general_, Madrid, 1601, dec. 1, lib. 6, cap. 16. Later writers have reiterated it. Cf. Humboldt, _Examen critique_, ii. 152, who is doubtful; Lelewel, iv. 106, who says he reached Labrador; Kunstmann, _Entdeckung Amerikas_, p. 45. Watson, in his _Bibliography of the pre-Columbian Discoveries_, cites also the favorable judgment of Belleforest, _L’histoire universelle_, Paris, 1577; Morisotus’ _Orbis maritimi_, 1643; Zurla’s _Marco Polo_, 1818; C. Pingel in _Grönlands Historisk Mindesmaeker_, 1845; Gaffarel, _Étude_, 1869; and De Costa, _Columbus and the Geographers of the North_, 1872, p. 17.

[112] _America not discovered by Columbus_, p. 164. Estancelin, in his _Recherches sur les voyages et découvertes des navigateurs Normands en Afrique, dans les Indes orientales, et en Amérique; suivies d’observations sur la marine, le commerce, et les établissemens coloniaux des Français_, Paris, 1832, claims that Pinzon, represented as a companion of Cousin, was one of the family later associated with Columbus in his voyage in 1492. Léon Guérin, in _Navigateurs Français_, 1846, mentions the voyage, but expresses no opinion. Parkman, _Pioneers of France_, p. 169, does not wholly discredit the story. Paul Gaffarel, _Étude sur les rapports de l’Amérique et de l’ancien continent avant Colomb_, Paris, 1869, and _Découverte du Brésil par Jean Cousin_, Paris, 1874, advocates the claim. Again, in his _Histoire du Brésil Français_, Paris, 1878, Gaffarel considers the voyage geographically and historically possible. (Cf. also a paper by him in the _Revue politique et littéraire_, 2 mai, 1874.) It is claimed that the white and bearded men whom, as Las Casas says, the natives of Hispaniola had seen before the coming of the Spaniards, were the companions of Cousin. Cf. Vitet’s _Histoire de Dieppe_, Paris, 1833, vol. ii.; David Asseline’s _Antiquitéz et chroniques de Dieppe, avec introduction par Hardy, Guérillon, et Sauvage_, Paris, 1874, two vols.; and the supplemental work of Michel Claude Guibert, _Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire de Dieppe_, Paris, 1878, two vols. Cf. Sabin, vol. xii. no. 47,541; Dufossé, _Americana_, nos. 4,735, 9,027.

[113] The ordinary designation of Hartmann Schedel’s _Registrum huius operis libri cronicarum cū figuris et ymagībus ab inicio mūdi_, Nuremberg, 1493, p. 290. The book is not very rare, though much sought for its 2,250 woodcuts; and superior copies of it bring from $75 to $100, though good copies are often priced at from $30 to $60. Cf. _Bibliotheca Spenceriana_; Leclerc, no. 533; Carter-Brown, vol. i. nos. 12, 18; Huth, iv. 1305; Sunderland, no. 2,796; Harrisse, _Bibl. Amer. Vet._, no. 13; Muller, _Books on America_, 1872, no. 1,402; Cooke, no. 2,961; Murphy, no. 2,219, with a note by that collector.

[114] Cf. Von Murr, _Memorabilia bibliothecarum Norimbergensium_, vol. i. pp. 254-256: “nec locus ille de America loquitur, sed de Africa.”

[115] Watson’s _Bibliography of pre-Columbian Discoveries of America_, p. 161, enumerates the contestants; and Harrisse, _Bibl. Amer. Vet._, nos. 13, 14, epitomizes the authorities. The earliest reference, after Schedel, seems to be one in Guillaume Postel’s _Cosmographicæ disciplinæ compendium_, Basle, 1561, in which a strait below South America is named Behaim’s Strait; but J. Chr. Wagenseil, in his _Sacra parentalia_, 1682, earliest urged the claim, which he repeated in his _Historia universalis_, while it was reinforced in Stüven’s or Stuvenius’ _De vero novi orbis inventore_, Frankfort, 1714. (Copy in Harvard College Library; cf. Carter-Brown, vol. iii. no. 195.) The first important counter-argument appeared in E. Tozen’s _Der wahre und erste Entdecker der Neuen Welt, Christoph Colon, gegen die ungegründeten Ausprüche, welche Americus Vespucci and Martin Behaim auf diese Ehre machen, vertheidiget_, Göttingen, 1761. (Sabin, xii. 489.) Robertson rejected the claim; and so, in 1778, did C. G. von Murr, in his _Diplomatische Geschichte des Ritters Behaim_, published at Nuremberg (2d ed., Gotha, 1801; Jansen’s French translation, Paris, 1801 and Strasburg, 1802; also appended to Amoretti’s _Pigafetta_; English in Pinkerton’s _Voyages_, 1812). A letter from Otto to Benjamin Franklin, in the _American Philosophical Society’s Transactions_, 1786, ii. 263, urged the theory. Dr. Belknap, in 1792, in the Appendix to his _Discourse on Columbus_, dismissed it. Cladera, in his _Investigaciones históricas sobre los principales descubrimientos de los Españoles_, Madrid, 1794, was decidedly averse, replying to Otto, and adding a translation of Von Murr’s essay. (Leclerc, nos. 118, 2,505.) Amoretti, in his Preface to _Pigafetta’s Voyage_, Paris, 1801, argues that Columbus’ discoveries convinced Behaim of his own by comparison. Irving says the claim is founded on a misinterpretation of the Schedel passage. Humboldt, in his _Examen critique_, i. 256, enters into a long adverse argument. Major, in his _Select Letters of Columbus_, and in his _Prince Henry_, is likewise decided in opposition. Ghillany, in his _Geschichte des Seefahrers Ritter Martin Behaim_, is favorable. Gaffarel, _Étude sur les rapports de l’Amérique et de l’ancien continent avant Colomb_, Paris, 1869, is sceptical.

It seems to be a fact that Behaim made a map showing the straits passed by Magellan, which Pigafetta refers to; and it is also clear that Schöner, in globes made earlier, also indicated a similar strait; and Schöner might well have derived his views from Behaim. What we know of Behaim’s last years, from 1494 to 1506, is not sufficient to fill the measure of these years; and advocates are not wanting who assign to them supposed voyages, on one of which he might have acquired a personal knowledge of the straits which he delineated. Such advocates are met, and will continue to be answered, with the likelier supposition, as is claimed, of the Straits in question being a happy guess, both on Behaim’s and Schöner’s part, derived from the analogy of Africa,—a southern extremity which Behaim had indeed delineated on his globe some years before its actual discovery, though not earlier than the existence of a prevalent belief in such a Strait. Cf. Wieser, _Magalhâes-Strasse_.

[116] Las Casas is said to have had a manuscript by Columbus respecting the information derived by him from Portuguese and Spanish pilots concerning western lands.

[117] These were accounted for by the westerly gales, the influence of the Gulf Stream not being suspected. Humboldt, _Cosmos_, English translation, ii. 662; _Examen critique_, ii. 249.

[118] See Major’s Preface to his _Prince Henry_. Cf. H. H. Bancroft, _Central America_, i. 373, for the successive names applied to the Atlantic.

[119] Cf. _Les voyages merveilleux de Saint-Brandan à la recherche du paradis terrestre. Légende en vers du XI^e siècle, publiée avec introduction par Francisque-Michel_, Paris, 1878; and references in Poole’s _Index_, p. 159.

[120] Humboldt points this island out on a map of 1425.

[121] Cf. Humboldt, _Examen critique_, ii. 156-245; Kunstmann, _Entdeckung Amerikas_, pp. 6, 35; D’Avezac on the “Isles fantastiques,” in _Nouvelles annales des voyages_, April, 1845, p. 55. Many of these islands clung long to the maps. Becher (_Landfall of Columbus_) speaks of the Isle of St. Matthew and Isle Grande in the South Atlantic being kept in charts till the beginning of this century. E. E. Hale tells amusingly of the Island of Bresil, lying off the coast of Ireland and in the steamer’s track from New York to England, being kept on the Admiralty charts as late as 1873. _American Antiquarian Society Proceedings_, Oct. 1873. Cf. Gaffarel, _Congrès des Américanistes_, 1877, i. 423, and Formalconi’s _Essai sur la marine ancienne des vénitiens; dans lequel on a mis au jour plusieurs cartes tirées de la bibliothèque de St. Marc, antérieures à la découverte de Christophe Colomb, & qui indiquent clairement l’existence des isles Antilles. Traduit de l’italien par le chevalier d’Hénin_, Venise, 1788.

[122] There are seven inhabitable and six desert islands in the group.

[123] Cf. _Die Entdeckung der Carthager und Griechen auf dem Atlantischen Ocean_, by Joachim Lelewel, Berlin, 1831, with two maps (Sabin, x. 201) one of which shows conjecturally the Atlantic Ocean of the ancients (see next page).

[124] Two priests, Bontier and Le Verrier, who accompanied him, wrote the account which we have. Cf. Peter Martyr, dec. i. c. 1; Galvano, p. 60; Muñoz, p. 30; Kunstmann, p. 6.

[125] Charton (_Voyageurs_, iii. 75) gives a partial bibliography of the literature of the discovery and conquest. The best English book is Major’s _Conquest of the Canaries_, published by the Hakluyt Society, London, 1872, which is a translation, with notes, of the Béthencourt narrative; and the same author has epitomized the story in chapter ix. of his _Discoveries of Prince Henry_. There is an earlier English book, George Glas’s _Discovery and Conquest of the Canary Islands_, London, 1764, 1767, which is said to be based on an unpublished manuscript of 1632, the work of a Spanish monk, J. de Abreu de Galineo, in the island of Palma. The Béthencourt account was first published in Paris, 1630, with different imprints, as _Histoire de la première descovverte et conqueste des Canaries_. Dufossé prices it at from 250 to 300 francs. The original manuscript was used in preparing the edition, _Le Canarien_, issued at Rouen in 1874 by G. Gravier (Leclerc, no. 267). This edition gives both a modern map and a part of that of Mecia de Viladestes (1413); enumerates the sources of the story; and (p. lxvi) gives D’Avezac’s account of the preservation of the Béthencourt manuscript. The Spanish translation by Pedro Ramirez, issued at Santa Cruz de Tenerife in 1847, was rendered from the Paris, 1630, edition.

Cf. Nuñez de la Peña’s _Conquista y antiguedades de las Islas de la Gran Canaria_, Madrid, 1676, and reprint, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, 1847; Cristóval Perez de el Christo, _Las siete Islas de Canaria_, Xeres, 1679 (rare, Leclerc, no. 644,—100 francs); Viera y Clavijo, _Historia general de las Islas de Canaria_, Madrid, four volumes, 1772-1783 (Leclerc, no. 647, calls it the principal work on the Canaries); Bory de Saint Vincent, _Essais sur les Isles Fortunées_, Paris, an xi. (1803); _Les Iles Fortunées_, Paris, 1869. D’Avezac, in 1846, published a _Note sur la première expéditien de Béthencourt aux Canaries_, and his “Isles d’Afrique” in the _Univers pittoresque_ may be referred to.

[126] It is given by Lelewel, _Géographie du Moyen Age_; and has been issued in fac-simile by Ongania at Venice, in 1881. It is also given in Major, _Prince Henry_, 1868 edition, p. 107, and in Marco Polo, edition by Boni, Florence, 1827. Cf. Winsor’s _Kohl Collection of Early Maps_, issued by Harvard University.

[127] This chart is given by Jomard, pl. x., and Santarem, pl. 40. Ongania published in 1881 a Pizigani chart belonging to the Ambrosian Library in Milan, dated 1373.

[128] This map is given in _Manuscrits de la Bibliothèque du Roi_, vol. xiv. part 2; in Santarem, pl. 31, 40; Lelewel, pl. xxix.; Saint-Martin’s _Atlas_, pl. vii.; Ruge’s _Geschichte des Zeitalters der Entdeckungen_, 1881, and full size in fac-simile in _Choix de documents géographiques conservés à la Bibliothèque Nationale_, Paris, 1883.

[129] Winsor’s _Kohl Collection of early maps_, part i., no. 17.

[130] Cf. Santarem, _Histoire de la Cartographie_, iii. 366, and the references in Winsor’s _Kohl Collection_, part i. no. 19; and _Bibliography of Ptolemy_, sub anno 1478. A sea-chart of Bartolomeus de Pareto, A. D. 1455, shows “Antillia” and an island farther west called “Roillo.” Antillia is supposed also to have been delineated on Toscanelli’s map in 1474. In 1476 Andreas Benincasa’s portolano, given in Lelewel, pl. xxxiv. and Saint-Martin, pl. vii. shows an island “Antilio;” and again in the portolano belonging to the Egerton manuscripts in the British Museum, and supposed to represent the knowledge of 1489, just previous to Columbus’s voyage, and thought by Kohl to be based on a Benincasa chart of 1463, the conventional “Antillia” is called “Y de Sete Zitade.” It is ascribed to Christofalo Soligo. Behaim’s globe in 1492 also gives “Insula Antilia genannt Septe Citade.” Cf. Harrisse, _Les Cortereal_, p. 116. The name “Antilhas” seems first to have been transferred from this problematical mid-ocean island to the archipelago of the West Indies by the Portuguese, for Columbus gave no general name to the group.

[131] Cf. Kunstmann, _Entdeckung Amerikas_, pp. 1, etc.; Drummond, _Annales da Ilha Terceira_; Ernesto do Canto, _Archivo dos Açores_; Major’s _Discoveries of Prince Henry_, chap. x.; _Quarterly Review_, xi. 191; Cordeyro’s _Historia insulana_, Lisbon, 1717.

[132] Appendix xxv.

[133] Vol. ii. part 2, p. 1; also Purchas, ii. 1672.

[134] Edition of 1868, pp. xvii and 69; Kunstmann, _Entdeckung Amerikas_, p. 4.

[135] Cf. Gaspar Fructuoso’s _Historia das Ilhas do Porto-Santo, Madeira, Desertas e Selvagens_, Funchal, 1873.

[136] Cf. _Studi biog. e bibliog._ i. 137, which places Perestrello’s death about 1470.

[137] It has sometimes been put as early as 1440; but 1460 is the date Major has determined after a full exposition of the voyages of this time. _Prince Henry_ (1868 edition), p. 277. D’Avezac _Isles de l’Afrique_, Paris, 1848.

[138] Prince Henry, edition of 1868, pp. xxiv and 127. Guibert, in his _Ville de Dieppe_, i. 306 (1878), refers, for the alleged French expedition to Guinea in 1364, to Villault de Belfond, _Relation des costes d’Afrique appelées Guinée_, Paris, 1669, p. 409; Vitet, _Anciennes villes de France_, ii. 1, Paris, 1833; D’Avezac _Découvertes dans l’océan atlantique antérieurement aux grands explorations du XV^e siècle_, p. 73, Paris, 1845; Jules Hardy, _Les Dieppois en Guinée en 1364_, 1864; Gabriel Gravier, _Le Canarien_, 1874.

[139] Cf. Jurien de la Gravière’s _Les marins du XV^e et du XVI^e siècle_, vol. i. chap. 2.

[140] Humboldt, _Examen critique_, i. 144, 161, 329; ii. 370; _Cosmos_, ii. 561; Jules Codine’s _Mémoire géoqraphique sur la mer des Indes_, Paris, 1868.

[141] Irving, app. xiv.

[142] _Prince Henry_, p. 116 (1868). Cf. _Studi biog. e bibliog. della Soc. Geog. Ital._, ii. 57.

[143] The author tells, in his preface, the condition of knowledge regarding his subject which he found when he undertook his work, and recounts the service the Royal Academy of Sciences at Lisbon has done since 1779 in discovering and laying before the world important documents.

[144] Gustav de Veer’s _Prinz Heinrich der Seefahrer, und seine Zeit_, Dantzig, 1864, is a more popular work, and gives lists of authorities. Cf. H. Monin in the _Revue de géographie_, December, 1878.

[145] There is some question if the school of Sagres had ever an existence; at least it is doubted in the _Archivo dos Açores_, iv. 18, as quoted by Harrisse, _Les Cortereal_, p. 40.

[146] Cf. Harrisse, _Bibl. Amer. Vet._, 261; _adds_ 154.

[147] Major (p. xvi) has more or less distrust of Cadamosto’s story as given in the _Paese novamente_. Cf. the bibliography in _Studi biog. e bibliog. della Soc. Geog. Ital._, i. 149 (1882); and Carter-Brown, i. 101, 195, 202, 211; also _Bibl. Amer. Vet. Add._, no. 83.

[148] “Through all which I was present,” said Bartholomew, in a note found by Las Casas.