DEVELOPMENT OF THE CARTOGRAPHY OF AMERICA. 289 



supposed from his chart he ought to have found it, aud Zipangu he 

 believed he had discovered ou reaching Haiti. All the observations 

 of the discoverer respecting his ideas of the division of land and water 

 are intelligible through this chart. And lastly, due weight should be 

 given to the highly important testimony of Bishop Las Casas, which, 

 in view of its manifold repetitions, should not be treated as a common 

 error, as is sometimes the case with his statements. 



Las Casas (Lib. I, chap. 12, Bd. I, p. 96) having referred to the geo- 

 graphical error of Toscanelli, through which, in a western voyage, the 

 territories of the " Grosschans" were first touched upon (remarks which, 

 in an abbreviated form and in part also verbally, are again met with 

 in the histories, Chap. VIII') the Bishop adds some significant para- 

 graphs to this, which are omitted in the histories, being somewhat 

 equivocal as affecting the reputation of the Genoese: "La carta de 

 marear (Toscanelli) que le invio, yo, que esta historia escribo, tengo en 

 mi jjoder, y della se hara mds mencion abajo." (The marine chart which 

 1 sent to him, I, who am writing this history, hold in my custody, and 

 about which further mention will be made below.) And a few lines 

 farther on he adds: "Y ansi creo que todo su viaje sobre esta carta 

 fundo." (I believe also that his [Columbus's] entire voyage was based 

 upon this chart.) Then Las Casas again returns to the chart in his 

 narrative of the first passage across the ocean, when Columbus, on Sep- 

 tember 25, 1492, Avithheld the marine chart of Martin Alfonso Pinzon, 

 while borne onward upon the ocean waters which they were then navi- 

 gating. It was a question of the precise situation of Antilia. Here 

 Las Casas remarks, in chapter 38 (p. 279) : "Esta carta es la, que envio 

 Paulo, fisico, el Florentin, la cual tengo en mi poder." (This is the chart 

 which the Florentine physician [Toscanelli] sent, whom I hold in my 

 power.) Toscanelli's chart was held in high estimation by Columbus. 

 Of this there can exist no doubt, for no other chart was obtainable that 

 exhibited the entire ocean as far as the coast of Asia. He must have 

 had the Toscanelli chart on board, for he could have guided himself by 

 none other, and he piloted his course solely by this chart. 



The uncertainty of the latitudes, which I ascribe to the influence of 

 Toscanelli, can even be recognized in a chart handed down from very 

 early times. It is Table II in Kunstmann's Atlas. Here the shores 

 of the Greater Antilles extend from Puerto Eico to Cuba, and directly 

 onward to the northwest, so that the northwestern extremity of Cuba 

 reaches the fiftieth i)arallel of latitude. Such errors disappear grad- 

 ually, and not until after the death of Colon, and by degrees only, 

 does the tropical circle assume its i^roi^er position relatively to the 

 Greater Antilles. The correct delineation of the chart does not come 

 to us until it is first exhibited in the general map of 1527. On the 

 other hand, the mouth of the Amazon was correctly placed, from the 



^I say designedly "again met with," for I consider here Las Casas as the original 

 and the one upon which the historians have drawn. 



SM 94 19 



