IN THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 71 



pocket and has been accused of stealing the glory which should 

 belong to Columbus. But all the evidence shows Amerigo guiltless 

 of aught except of being a member of several important voyages 

 of exploration and of writing somewhat hazily about them. And 

 equally, barring the error in regard to Amerigo's commander, there 

 was every reason why Waldseemuller should name the new land 

 America. For remember he did not impinge on the discoveries of 

 Columbus : he applied the name America only to the coast of Brazil, 

 where it should still be. It was only years after all the actors in 

 the matter were dead, that the name gradually became attached to 

 the entire continent. Having myself named the two halves of the 

 Antarctic Continent, West Antarctica and East Antarctica, and also 

 some parts of it such as Charcot Land and Nordenskjold Land, 

 personally I have the deepest fellow feeling for Waldseemuller. 



Occasionally some mystery is cleared up. For instance, in 1894 

 entirely private documents were discovered showing that Joao 

 Fernandes Lavrador was one of the commanders of one or more 

 expeditions sent to discover lands to the northwest of Europe be- 

 tween 1491 and 1496. This was probably the origin, formerly 

 unknown, of the name of the part of North America which we 

 call Labrador.^ 



More often, mysteries are not cleared up. For instance the 

 map of Juan de la Cosa of 1500 shows a coast line extending from 

 Newfoundland to Florida which must be the coast of the United 

 States. The maps of Cantino and of Canerio of 1502 show the 

 southern part of the coast between Florida and about New York, 

 then a blank, then Newfoundland. Apparently two navigators had 

 explored the coast roughly before 1502 but who were they? John 

 Cabot possibly was the first and Amerigo is sometimes guessed to 

 be the second culprit. But no one knows ! 



There are some curious mysteries connected with Magellan's 

 voyage. One is the statement of Antonio Pigafetta that when 

 Magellan's expedition arrived at the north of the straits so well 

 named after him : " all the men were so assured that these straits 

 had no opening to the west, that no one would have thought of 



8 Batalha-Reis, The Geographical Journal, February, 1897. 



