LECTURES. 101 



knowledge from others. So authentic a picture of an empire, with all 

 its roads, its navigable streams, and approachable coasts, has seemed 

 too dangerous a document to be exposed to the risk of falling into the 

 hands of an enemy. The Roman emperor Augustus acted upon this 

 policy, when he ordered the maps and other results of the extensive 

 survey of the empire, which was ccmipleted under his reign, to be de- 

 posited in the innermost rooms of the palace, and that only such par- 

 tial coi)ies should be issued at times as the imperial councillors might 

 find necessary for generals going to war, or useful for the schools of 

 the provinces. Nor were his successors less jealous and circums])ect. 

 Domitian is said to have once severely punished one of his councillors 

 for an indiscreet disclosure of something which those maps contained. 

 The em])eror condemned him to death^ as a traitor ; some say that he 

 even killed him with his own hands. Of course, when Alaric burnt 

 the city of Home, the entire collection of those precious documents 

 w^as also destroyed. Had copies of them been deposited in different 

 towns, some one of these, at least, might have been preserved for our 

 use and advantage. So constantly, indeed, has this tendency to keep 

 maps secret and scarce prevailed among statesmen and sorereigns, 

 that even so late fus thirty or forty years ago it was considered, in the 

 greater ])art of Europe, a case of high treason to divulge anything of 

 the official maps of the country which were deposited in its archives. 



Maritime nations, and their sea-captains, have exhibited the same 

 inclination to conceal their hard-earned knowledge from the eyes of 

 strangers. The Greeks succeeded in obtaining certain Phoenician sea- 

 charts, drawn on copper only, through the treason of the master of a 

 vessel, whom they probably bribed ; and a patriotic Carthaginian sea- 

 captain, who, on an expedition to a distant country, was pursued by 

 some Roman vessels, is said to have driven his ship on the rocks, and 

 to have drowned himself and his men, to prevent the journals and 

 charts, and thus the whole secret of a profitable branch of Carthagi- 

 nian trade, from falling into the enemy's hands. 



The kings of Spain^ from the very commencement of the discovery 

 of America, observed great caution and reserve, and gave strict orders 

 about the safe keeping of the maps which their captains and conquerors 

 brought home from the New World. All the originals of these maps 

 were deposited in the archives of Seville, and copies of them were 

 issued only to such Spanish sea-captains and generals as could be 

 trusted. No map of Columbus, none of Cortes, of Magellan, or any 

 of the other innumerable explorers, was allowed to be engraved and 

 published ; and the consequence of this system has been, that nearly 

 all those interesting documents are lost to us for ever. 



All the first maps of the New World were engraved and published 

 in other countries, in Italy, in France, and in Germany, in which last 

 country even the name America originated. They were made after 

 a few documents and original drawings, which occasionally escaped 

 the vigilance of the Sjjaniards. They were, of course^ very rude 

 sketches, and far behind what the Spaniards themselves possessed. 

 An Englishman, the well known Robert Thome, who was settled 

 in Seville, was therefore very anxious that nothing should be said 

 about it when he sent from Spain a report and a map of the West 



