PROCEEDINGS FOR 1897 CXXV 



Hence, we can legitimately conclude that to John Cahot helongs the 

 glory of having been the tirst to dare the mysteries and terrors of the 

 ])olar seas. His chart contirras this, as we shall now proceed to prove. 



Cabot's Chart. 



From da Soncino's letter^ we learn that Cabot had a " description of 

 the world on a plane, and also on a solid globe which he himself had 

 made, and on which he pointed out the place of his landing." The 

 Spanish Prothonotary de Ayala, writing to his sovereign (25th Jul}', 

 1498), spaaks of a chart which Cabot had made. This, of course, refers 

 to the tirst voyage. No doubt he made a more accurate one during the 

 second expedition. It has bean generally taken for granted that those 

 charts have been lost, and many a student, endeavouring to reconcile the 

 various accounts of these voyages, has often sighed " if only we had 

 Cabot's charts." Now, I think I can say with all confidence, that the 

 chart of the second voyage has not been lost. It has been hidden, like 

 many prized paintings, under dust and rubbish, or, more aptly, like a 

 beautiful fresco, distorted and partially veiled by a coat of whitewash, 

 but we have it still. Its true proportions and, consequently, its value, 

 can be readily recognized when restored to its proper position, and the 

 scale on which it was drawn pointed out. Let us take the map of Juan 

 de la Cosa issued in Spain in 1500, before any news of Cortereal's return 

 had reached that country. It is admitted by all that the northern 

 portion of that map, so far as our continent is concerned, must be founded 

 on information derived in some way from Cabot. "We have absolutely 

 no historic evidence to broach a contrary ojiinion. An attentive consid- 

 eration of Cosa's map will convince the student that he has before him a 

 work made up of two pieces. As the Spaniards knew well, not only the 

 latitude of Cuba, but its length and breadth in miles, or leagues, it is 

 easy to find the scale on which the portion covered by the Spanish flags 

 is drawn. Trv that scale on the coast line over which the English flao-s 

 wave, and you will find it has no possible application. The conclusion is 

 irresistible, viz., that Cosa did not draw the northern portion from in- 

 formation received ; had he done so, the scale would have been the same. 

 He simply copied another man's work. Happily for us he did not attempt 

 to reduce it to his own scale, or to tamper with its proportions. He had 

 either the original, or a correct copy, of Cabot's chart, and has preserved 

 it for us, with a translation of the English names thereon. 



The next step is to discover the scale of Cabot's shore line. It is 



scarcely necessary to note that only the chart, properly so called, is 



Cabot's ; the map is the offspring of Cosa's imagination. From what has 



been said regarding the lowest latitude reached by Cabot, and which, no 



^ Appendix B. 



