102 LECTURES. 



Indies to one of his coimtrymeu, Doctor Ley, ambassador of King 

 Henry VIII. to the Emperor Charles. "Also, this carde," he 

 says, "is not to he shewed or communicated there. For though there 

 is notliing in it prejudicial to the Emperor^ yet it may be a cause of 

 pain to the maker, as well for that none may make here these cards 

 bat certain appointed and allowed for masters, as for that peradven- 

 ture it would not sound well, that a stranger should discover their 

 secretes." "And I beseeQh your lordship let it bee put to silence." 



Whole editions of books, and probably maps also, which seemed to 

 reveal too much of the Spanish possessions, have been bought up and 

 destroyed by order of the court of Spain, and their authors imprisoned, 

 of which instances are not Avanting even in later times. A true Span- 

 ish map of America, or parts of it, was, therefore, considered by the 

 English and French captains as a real treasure. When they captured 

 a Spanish vessel, they searched her as well for the maps as for the 

 piasters. Some of these Spanish maps captured by the English have 

 become quite famous ; those, for instance, of the coasts of Peru and 

 Chile, which the English freebooter Rogers captured in the South sea, 

 and which were immediately engraved and published in England, by 

 the well-known map maker, Senex. Such instances of the casual pre- 

 servation or recovery of Spanish maps show us how many valuable 

 documents for history and geography we have lost by that system of 

 secrecy. 



But, when interest demanded it, other nations acted no better. 

 Thus, it is recorded of the famous English navigator, Frobisher, that 

 he kept secret the journal of his track, and showed to nobody the maps 

 which he made of his strait and his new discovered country in the 

 north. The consequence was, that for a long time geographers were 

 at a loss to say under what latitude and longitude his discoveries were 

 to be placed. 



Even in our "enlightened" days, proofs are not wanting that we 

 are not much less inclined to hide geographical knowledge, when 

 interest prompts us to do so. One of the most distinguished geogra- 

 phers of our time, who wanted to complete the charts of the Atlantic 

 ocean, applied for information respecting a certain route from New 

 York to Brazil, to a gentleman who had formerly been a very exten- 

 sive trader to those regions. "As my firm no longer exists," was 

 the reply, "I can speak freely to you about the advantages of this 

 route. Some years ago I could not have done it. For the thorough 

 knowledge of it was a secret which enabled our sea-captains to regu- 

 larly make a passage some days shorter than that made by others ; and 

 upon this secret our profits, in a great measure, depended." 



Suppose that an American captain had discovered, somewhere in 

 the South sea, a valuable guano island, and that he had taken its lati- 

 tude and longitude, and made a complete survey of it, is it likely that 

 he would liasten much to have this map engraved and published for 

 the benefit of science and for general use? We think not. And 

 thus, at this very moment, we may be surrounded by many mysteries, 

 by n)any secreted maps, without being aware of it ; and hence much 

 information may be, even yet, withheld from geography by the iron 

 grasp of interest. * 



