DEVELOPMENT OF THE CARTOGRAPHY OF AMERICA. 285 



seca's, and obtained a copy of the chart for his own first voyage (ISTavarr. 

 Ill, pp. 539, 586). But of all his charts, not one has been preserved. 



The restored chart of Juan de laCosa, 1500, is, then, the earliest car- 

 tographic memorial handed down to us; and in this map the skillful 

 Basque mariner has combined in one exhibit the various Spanish dis- 

 coveries, and, possibly also, the discoveries of John Cabot in North 

 America. 



The incidents of the fourth voyage of the Admiral in 1502-1504 were 

 rapidly disseminated throughout Europe, for not only Columbus him- 

 self and his brother Bartholomew, but likewise the other mariners had 

 each designed charts. It might therefore be readily inferred that not 

 merely facts but names themselves might vary in many important i)ar- 

 ticulars. Charts were no mystery, and they might be indiscriminately 

 reproduced, or even acquired by purchase. In Portugal there was a 

 chart industry, and there was an open traffic in them under the restric- 

 tion, however, that it was forbidden, under a heavy penalty, to draw 

 plans of the route by sea to the Molucca Islands. We thus find that 

 later on an Italian draftsman, Baptista Agnese, contributed, as a sup- 

 plement to his finely executed collection of maps, a chart of the world, 

 upon which the Molucca route was clearly traced, and it was recognized 

 as such. 



When, in 1500, the Portuguese Indian fleet under Cabral discovered 

 Brazil, and when in succeeding years Portuguese vessels had coasted 

 along a considerable portion of the eastern coast of South America, it 

 appears that in Portugal they encouraged the publication of these 

 facts. This was naturally in the highest degree obnoxious to the 

 Spaniards, for at Lisbon copies of the charts were willingly accorded 

 to Italians. It appears further that charts of Cabot's voyages were 

 brought to Lisbon earlier than to Spain. At all events, the explora- 

 tions of Cortoreal and the earliest received charts of Cantino and 

 Canario had their origin in Portugal. To a wide diflusion of the 

 incidents of his own voyages in Portuguese ships, Vespucci himself 

 contributed, as they were accustomed to say, through picture and nar- 

 rative; and thus the influence of Portuguese charts, copied by Italians, 

 upon the ideas of Middle Europe was already inaugurated before 

 Spanish cartography was directed intO' regular channels. The first 

 foundation for the system was laid in the establishment of the Indian 

 office at Seville in 1503. The lead in all transmarine enterprises 

 emanated from the Casa de Contrataciou for the Indies. Here were 

 necessarily collected charts of all recent discoveries. But it would 

 necessarily soon become evident that such charts, based upon charts 

 often widely deviating from each other and giving imperfect or errone- 

 ous delineations of the coasts in the new hemisphere, would rather 

 expose mariners to danger than aftbrd them security. It became nec- 

 essary, therefore, to exercise a many-sided critique and careful investi- 

 gation of the charts accessible, and care be taken that seamen were 



