VOYAGES OF THE CABOTS IN USn AND 1498. 89 



elsewhere of information from the Spanish official documents, it was that which caused the 

 deprivation of Diego Gutierez the younger ; but he would not he indisposed to communicate 

 information concei-ning himself to a third party for use by this anonymous compiler, the 

 more especially as publication was to be made at a distance from Spain and near to England. 

 It was characteristic of his oblique methods, for he could not be held responsible for such a 

 publication. The map was based on Portuguese and French documents ; and, as pointed 

 out above, he could not have seen the proofs; but still upon the map appeared information 

 bearing on his English plans. The name of John Cabot alone stood in the English archives, 

 to the knowledge and within the memory of many then living, as the discoverer of 

 the new found land over the Atlantic. Seliastian could have no status in England save in 

 so far as he could associate his name with that of John Cabot ; therefore the elder Cabot 

 after a suppression of forty years, was suddenly resurrected as the discoverer of America, 

 precisely at the juncture wlien it became the interest of his son that such should 1)0 tlie case. 



It is abundantly evident that there were at the end of the century many maps ascribed 

 to Cabot extant, and it is also beyond question (appendix H) that they were not alike. They 

 difiered in the date of publication, some being dated 154 J:, two years before Cabot left Spain ; 

 some dated 1549, two years after he settled in England. A comparison of the legends is 

 made in appendix H : but it would appear evident from Purchas that the map referred to 

 by Hakluyt in the queen's gallery as having been cut by Clement Adams, was dated 1549. 

 Copies of this map were in the merchants' houses,"^ and that version of the map might well 

 be supposed to have Cabot's approval, so far as that was of value. Referring to appendix 

 H a number of interesting questions which would lie confusing here, it would lie well to 

 concentrate attention upon the inquiry whether there is any clue to indicate the features of 

 that map which Adams engraved and llakluyt saw. It would appear that such a clue 

 exists. 



Whatever information Clement Adams's map contained nnist have lieeii common infor- 

 mation in Ilakluyt's time; because it is expressly recorded that the map was in "many 

 ancient merchants' houses.'' The reason for supposing the landfall of 1497 to have been at 

 Cape Breton east point have been given, and rests upon other foundations ; liut if the island 

 of St. John had been our Prince Edward island, all the merchants would have known that 

 fact, and it would have come out in some of the many narratives given in llakluyt — liut no 

 mention is made of any such island in the gulf. 



Affain, all the merchants knew (and Hakluyt records some of their ventures in that 

 direction) of the island of Raniea in the gulf. That island was much frequented, and is 

 mentioned in many places in llakluyt. It is identified as the great Magdalen, not only by 

 its physical features, but by its attendant islands — the two Birds and Bryon island. The 

 island of Ramea lies across the [lath of vessels sailing through the strait at St. Paul, and no 

 other island is met or laid down until Anticosti is reached. The island in the Paris map is 

 identified as Ramea. or the great Magdalen : first, by its position in the track of vessels 

 sailing through the strait, and second, by the three little islets at the northeastern extremity, 

 which are Bryon islanil and the two Bird islands, and by a little island at the other extremit\- 

 which is Deadman's island — the Alezay of Cartier. The thickened form of the island betrays 

 the Portuguese origin of the nuip, for the same shape is given in Vallard's and Ilomem's 

 maps ; while on the Dauphin map, which is wholly French, the same position is occupied 

 by an island of the correct shape of the great Magdalen. 



Sec. II., 1S94. 12. 



