JOHN CABOT'S VOYAGES 



ister in London, we know that the latter had obtained a copy 

 of " the chart, or mapa mundi " that John Cabot had made in 

 order to set forth his discoveries of 1497; and there can be no 

 doubt that a copy of this was also sent to Spain, as Ayala says 

 he believes their majesties already had the map. It may, there- 

 fore, be regarded as a matter of course that La Cosa was in 



a few names are given; the network of compass-lines is omitted, 

 possession of this map when, less than two years later, he was 

 about to make his own, and that it is from this source and no 

 other that he derived his information about the English dis- 

 coveries. We do not know of any other map being sent from 

 England to Spain during these two years, and there is no ground 

 whatever for assuming that La Cosa's information may be de- 

 rived from Cabot's voyage of 1498, which, in any case, must have 

 been a failure. 



For the understanding of La Cosa's map it must be remarked, 



311 



