VOYAGES OF THE CABOTS IN 1497 AND 1498. 



7B 



so long a time after appear as part of the tirm land. There is no answer to his question but 

 one. It is impossible ; anil any theory identifying Cabot's St. John with I'rince Edward island 

 will lead to endless contradictions. It may be observed here, however, that about 1520 there 

 began to ajspear, south of Cape Race and often in the same meridian, an imaginary island of 

 St. John Estevan ; one of those flying islands which had no real existence and which 

 disappeared off the maps about A.D. 1600. This must not be eontounded with the island 

 of St. John opposite the east point of Cape Breton often marked on the same maps with it. 



The next map having relation to the 



subject is Ruysch's found in the Ptolemy- 

 published at Rome in 1508 and the first 

 printed map containing any notice of Amer- 

 ica. Cape Race is called Cabo di Portugesi ; 

 Labrador, Newfoundland and Greenland 

 are parts of the solid continent of Asia and 

 the great Southern ocean Joins the Atlantic 

 and separates them from the Spanish dis- 

 coveries at the south, but a deep bay marks 

 the separation of Newfoundland from Cape 

 Breton, and off a point south of the bay a 

 little island (Biggetu — a name never occur- 

 ring again) keeps the place of St. John.*" 



The same mark of the landfall appears on 

 a map in Kunstmann's atlas. It is assigned 

 to the date of A.D. 1514-20. This follows Reinel's type and indicates by unclosed lines the 

 passages north and south of Newfoundland. The coasts are however part of the solid con- 



^" JDOLAVJKBft 



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Ruycsh, A.D. 150S. 



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t^fa:* 



tinent. Ofl:' the extreme point mark- 

 ing Cape Breton is a legend stating 

 that it was discovered by the Bretons 

 and opposite to it in the ocean is a 

 small island, unnamed, marking the 

 place of St. John's island of Reinel. 

 In 1527 Robert Thorne sent a map 

 to the English ambassador as pre- 

 viously observed. It is valuable 

 only as vindicating for the English 

 the same extent of coast as was marked 

 by English flags on La Cosa's map — a 

 claim which Sebastian Cabot, then also at Seville as pilot major to Spain, was letting go 

 to Portugal without one recorded remonstrance. 



The next map calling for notice is a very important one in the Ambrosian library at 

 Milan. It is by Vesconte de Maggiolo and is dated 1527. We still have the contour of a 

 solid continent and, in the ocean, south and opposite to C. de Bertoni is the I. de S. Juan in 

 its proper place and named. Neither the gulf nor Cape North are indicated. This map is 

 plate XIV. of Kretsclimer's collection. The French flag now begins to appear, showing 

 evidences of Verrazano's presence on the coast of New England and the Middle states. The 



S it 



A.D. 1514-20 (from Kunstniann.) 



