4 



FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



nants of birds, fishes, and mollusks found only 

 in coastal waters. 



The Aztecs, who developed their own system of 

 navigation, were fairly well acquainted with 

 certain parts of the Gulf. This is probably true 

 also of the Mexican and Yucatec Indians, who 

 sailed over considerable distances off shore. 

 Evidence for this is given in the report of the 

 fourth voyage of Columbus, who on July 2,1502, 

 sighted a large Indian ship of the size of a Spanish 

 galley about 80 miles east of the Yucatdn coast 

 (Kohl 1863). 



The art of map making practiced by Aztecs had 

 reached a high degree of perfection as can be 

 judged from the incident described by Bernal 

 Diaz de Castillo (Hakluyt Society Works, 2d 

 ser.. No. 24, p. 129, quoted from W. Lowery, 

 1912, p. 27). During the Cortes invasion of 

 Mexico, he writes, "The great Montezuma gave 

 our Captain a henequen cloth on which were 

 painted and marked very true to nature, all the 

 rivers and bays on the northern coast from Pdnuco 

 to Tabasco, that is, for a matter of one hundred 

 and forty leagues, and the river of Coatzacoalcos 

 was marked on it." 



For more than 1,400 years of the Chi'istian era 

 the geography of the western world was under 

 the influence of the writings of Claudius Ptolemy, 

 an Egyptian who lived in Alexandria about the 

 middle of the second century (the dates of his 

 life are usually given as between 90 and 168 

 A. D.), and spent 40 years in making astronomical 

 observations. For many centuries Ptolemy's data 

 on the locations of many places on earth with 

 reference to the parallel of Alexandria were the 

 principal source of information for map makers. 

 No existing Ptolemy maps are known earlier thaa 

 that of the thirteenth century, the first printed 

 edition of which was executed in 1475 in Vicenza 

 (Thacher 1896). 



Some idea of the type of maps available to 

 navigators at the end of the fifteenth and the 

 beginning of the sixteenth century can be gained 

 from examining figure 1 representing the map of 

 the world by Johannes Ruysch, copied from 

 Ptolemy's geography of 1507-08. The discovery 

 of the New World has been already incorporated 

 in it, and the name "Mundus novus" appears for 

 the first time on the engraved map. 



During the last 40 years of the fifteenth century 

 the Portuguese seamen made persistent and almost 



continuous efforts to search for new Atlantic 

 islands beyond the Azores. So far, no docu- 

 mentary proof has been found of the pre- 

 Columbian discovery of western lands by Portu- 

 guese, but, as stated by the Portuguese historian, 

 Antonio Baiao, "... there are numerous in- 

 dications that the existence of other islands be- 

 yond the Azores was known or suspected in 

 Portugal. It was in the wake of these indications 

 that Columbus sailed. His voyage is integrated 

 with cycle of Portuguese explorations of the 

 Western Ocean." (Quoted from Morison, 1940, 

 p. 75.) 



Because of the secrecy attached by the Portu- 

 guese Government to the discoveries of new 

 lands and their location, the findings of Portu- 

 guese seamen were lost, and only inconclusive 

 traces of their efforts remain on certain documents 

 originated in Lisbon. One of these is the famous 

 map by Alberto Cantino which is discussed in 

 the next section of this article (p. 8). 



DISCOVERY OF THE GULF OF MEXICO 



The discoverer of the New World came almost 

 to the very entrance of the Gulf of Mexico but 

 failed to enter it. On his second voyage, June 

 1494, Columbus followed the southern shores of 

 Cuba as far as Isia de Pinos, where he stopped. 

 Disregarding the infoi'mation received from the 

 Indians that the end of the land was not far, he 

 changed his course and sailed eastward. The 

 decision was influenced by his strong belief that 

 Cuba represented the end of the new continent. 

 As it is generally known, he asked his companions 

 to sign a statement to this effect. The declaration, 

 however, was not universally accepted since the 

 earliest maps of the New World by Cosa, 1500 

 (fig. 3, p. 9), and Waldseemiiller, 1507 (fig. 2), 

 show Cuba (Isabella) as an island. 



The question who was the first European ex- 

 plorer to sail along the coast of the American 

 continent is by no means settled. The credit is 

 usually given to the man whose name is forever 

 associated with the New World. Amerigo Ves- 

 pucci, the third son of a Florentine notary, was 

 born on March 9, 1451. He studied diligently 

 and became proficient in astronomy and in the use 

 of the astrolabe, but his principal interest was in a 

 commercial career. After establishing himself 

 as an agent for the House of Cadiz, Vespucci 

 undertook to settle the claims left after the death 



