VOYAGES OF THE CABOTS IX 1497 AND 1498. 87 



but ou the sides are descriptive legends in letter press, divided into two tables numbered one 

 and two and attached after the plate was struck oft". There can be no doubt but that the 

 legends form part of the original publication, because upon the map proper are numbered 

 references which identify them with it. There are twenty-two legends, seventeen of which 

 are in two languages, Latin with a Spanish translation, and iive in Spanish alone. 



Although reproductions of the American portion are frequent enough, the whole map 

 (for it is a mappenioiuh, or map of the world) has not often been reproduced. It is access- 

 ible to us in the facsimile in Jomard's " Monuments de la Géographie." It professes to 

 embody all discoveries down to the date of its i)ul)lication, and to that cud gathers materials 

 from all sources, even as far back as Pliny's Natural History. 



In 1544 Cabot had got through the law-suits and troubles consequent upon the 

 unfortunate expedition to the Rio de la Plata and had been restored to his high position ; 

 still the map was not pulilished in Spain. It l>ears no publisher's name nor place of publi- 

 cation. The map, when it mentions Cabot, speaks in the third person, thus : " Sebastian 

 Cabot made this figure " ; " the said Sebastian Cabot, my author " ; " discovered by John 

 Cabot and himself; " " that most honest man, John Cabot, and his son ; " " my author, the 

 most learned of all in knowledge of astronomy and navigation " ; l)ut in the Ifith legend 

 the compiler speaks in the first person, " How Ptolemy places it (Trapovana) is, I think, 

 known to all" ; and, in the Latin version of the legend No. 17, the relation of Cabot is 

 more precisely stated ; not, as in the Spanish, " made this figure," but " laid the last 

 touch to me (the map)," thus modifying very much the force of the argument founded on 

 the Spanish version alone. 



The geographical basis of the map is Portuguese, upon which is grafted information 

 from French sources. Most of Cartier's names are given, as well as the results of his second 

 voyage, thus demonstrating the existence of charts made by Cartier to which the compiler 

 had access, and, although the names are much corrupted in translation and transcription, 

 they can be, for the most part, identified by a reference to other charts of al)out that date 

 and later. 



The map appears to be the work of some very careless person, and the jiroofs could 

 never have been corrected by such a man as Cabot. The Latin of the legends is rough and 

 incorrect, as corvi for eenn. The Spanish inscriptions are admitted to be ungrammatical, and 

 could not have passed a Spaniard ; nor would it have been necessai-y in the legends for 

 Cabot to explain to Spaniards that "Seville was a famous city of Andalusia." Still it must 

 have been published in some part of the dominions of Charles V., and Winsor is probably 

 correct in supposing Antwerp to be the place. The editing is careless ; for instance, the 

 reference in the body of the map to the legend No. 8, concerning Baccalaos, is given as 

 No. 3 ; on the right hand margin of the map the latitude reads 90 degrees instead of 80 

 degrees;"^* the year 1494 is given instead of 1497. The Latin version of the legend No. 8 

 gives July 24 as the date of the landfall, while the Spanish version gives the correct date, 

 June 24 ; the reference to Pliny at No. 18 cites the wrong chapter; at the Orcades there is 

 a reference to a legend No. 30, whereas there are only twenty-two legends in all ; the spell- 

 ing is inconsistent and is twisted so as to be inaccurate in any language; Lake St. Peter, 

 called Lac d'Angouleme, is, of course, translated into Spanish, but it is spelled Laaga de 

 Golesme, and, just underneath, on the lake is a place called Golosme, as if there were some 

 town there of that name — this same error is found ori Homem's map, which is undoubtedly 



