IN THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 65 



to this effect on Martin Behaim's globe of 1492, on which it is also 

 stated that a Spanish ship visited Antillia in 1414. In the four- 

 teenth century the name Antillia was applied to the most westerly 

 of the Azores. In the fifteenth century, however, several cartog- 

 raphers, Andrea Biancho in 1436 among others, drew maps which 

 jump Antillia far, far to the west of the Azores. It is figured as a 

 great big island, in about the latitude of Portugal; with another 

 big island, Salvagio or Satanaxio, to the north of it. The main 

 extension of Antillia and Satanaxio is about north and south, their 

 latitude is somewheres between Florida and Massachusetts, and 

 considering their distance beyond the Azores, their longitude would 

 coincide roughly with the eastern coast of the United States. 



Although the matter is hazy and there is no verbal evidence 

 beyond the few words on Behaim's globe, yet the cartographical 

 evidence shows positively that map makers of the fifteenth century 

 had a distinct belief in big lands far west of the Azores, in about 

 the latitude and longitude of the eastern coast of the United States. 

 Several of these maps certainly point to extensive coasts way 

 beyond the Azores having been reached before 1435. The name 

 Antillia would validate rather than invalidate the reality of such 

 a discovery. And where there is so much smoke it seems as if 

 there must be some fire. A visit to the Antilles or to the coast of 

 the United States before 1435 seems much less improbable than that 

 map-makers should have correctly guessed the existence of big land 

 masses so far to the west, which in their extension north and 

 south and in their latitude and longitude, so closely approximate to 

 the eastern coast of the United States. Personally I am strongly 

 inclined to believe in the genuineness of this discovery, which may 

 perchance have been made by the Spanish ship whereof Behaim 

 speaks. 



The most interesting and important pre-Columbian map of the 

 Atlantic, however, without question is the Venetian cartographer 

 Andrea Biancho's map of 1448. The problems presented by this 

 map were broached by Dr. Yule Oldham'' and were admirably de- 



5 The Geographical Journal, March, 1895. 



PROC. AMER. PHIL. SOC, VOL. LVIII, E, JULY I I, I9I9. 



