PROCEEDINGS FOR 1S97 CXI 



east. Hence he liad passed its latitude, and he had gone either noi'th or 

 south of it, according as we shall find Tanais above or below the latitude 

 of Bristol. Once we have located the " country of Tanais," we shall 

 have a clew that would have saved reams of MSS. had it been picked up 

 years ago. 



The Eivcr Don was formerly called Tanais, and was looked upon as 

 the dividing line between Europe and Asia. 



Qua Vertice lapsus 

 Rhipht¥0 Tanais diversi nomina mundi 

 Imposuit ripis, Asia-que et teruiinus idem 

 Europ;^, et mediae dirimens confinia teme. — Liican. 



On its devious way southward, it takes at one point a sharp bend 

 to the east, then sweeps to the south, and finall}^ runs back westward, 

 forming an irregular crescent, from the lower corner of which it flows 

 south to the Sea of Azov, formerly Palus Moeotis. On Ptolemy's map ^ 

 the country of Tanais is marked in this crescent, and in the letter-press 

 he tells us that the Tanaitœ dwell in the region included in that bend of 

 the river. The City of Tanais ^ was lower down, at the mouth almost of 

 the river, and not preciselj^ in the country of Tanais, being rather on 

 what was then called the Asiatic side. Early in its history the town of 

 Tanais had, by reason of its commercial importance, risen to such power 

 that it freed itself from the domination of the kings of the Bosphorous, 

 and remained a great trading emporium for many centuries. Doubtless 

 Cabot had gone thither in his youth. ^ This great commercial mart had 

 made the country of Tanais well known throughout Eurojic. Hence we 

 are able to appreciate the appositeness of Cabot's or da Soncino's illustra- 

 tion. If, now, we look on the map, we see that the Don begins its great 

 bend just above the fiftieth degree, and the lower corner of the crescent 

 is in the forty-eighth ; hence the country of Tanais lies between the 

 fiftieth and forty-eighth degrees. The town of Azov is the successor of 

 the city of Tanais, but it is somewhat southeast of the ancient site. 

 Bristol is above the fifty-first degree, consequently Cabot on his historic 

 voyage must have gone south of the latitude of the country of Tanais, 

 since he " passed it." "VVe have thus a third known quantity which 

 enables us to solve the problem. The landfall is seven hundred leagues 

 distant from Bristol ; it is west of that city, and it is somewhat (assai) 

 south of the forty-eighth degree. The premises rest on unimjseachable 

 authorit}' ; the conclusion therefrom emphatically and inexoral)ly 

 excludes Labrador, Cape St. John and Bona Vista. The only place 

 which fulfils all the conditions, viz., west of Bristol, distant seven hun- 



1 Bertius' edition. 



* See Mercator's and Blaeu's maps, as well as Bertius' Ptolemy. 



* A collection of voyages by Venetians to Tanais, Persia, India and Constanti- 

 nople was published at Venice in 1544. 



