[s. E. DAWSON] THE VOYAGES OF THE CABOTS 143 



latitude of language which otherwise would have carried on its face its 

 own refutation. In the mass of literature contributed to the press by 

 Bishop Howley and by Judge Prowee, as well as in the long and care- 

 fully prepared lecture afterwards published by the former, there is no 

 hint that they are attacking opinions long and widely held among 

 scholars. This was scarcely fair to the people of Newfoundland who 

 were entitled to a full presentation of the subject. Again, in the elabo- 

 rate discussion of the question in his lecture, Bishop Howley makes allu- 

 sions to Homer, Plato and Aristotle, to the Norsemen and Adam of 

 Bremen and to many other authoi'ities of an earlier age, as well as to many 

 persons and matters incidentally connected with this inquiry ; but no 

 mention is made of Juan de La Cosa, the one sailor and cartographer who 

 knew more about the question than anybody else save the two Cabots. 

 No notice was taken of the existence of a map upon which the whole 

 discussion was turning — a map which is the chief treasure of the Naval 

 Museum of Madrid — which was published in facsimile as the contribu- 

 tion of Spanish scholarship to the Columbus celebration of 1492 ; for La 

 Cosa was the companion of Columbus on his first and second voyages, 

 pilot and master chart-maker, and owner of the admiral's flag-ship. 

 This map is the first map containing any delineation of the new world. 

 There are facsimiles of it in all the works of reference and all the 

 writers on this question discuss it. It was, therefore, due to the intelli- 

 gent audience of Newfoundlanders who listened to that long lecture to 

 inform them of this cardinal point in the discussion, in order that they 

 might be able to arrive at a reasoned opinion based on all the evidence. 

 Of the Newfoundlanders then who took part in this discussion two 

 have written on behalf of a landfall on the island — one at Cape St. John, 

 the other at Cape Bonavista and each has, in effect, confuted the other. 

 Bishop Howley says : " I believe that I am the only person who has fixed 

 " upon Cape St. John as the landfall. I may say that this is not, strictly 

 " speaking, a new theory. It is included in the norrhern coast of New- 

 " foundland. It is only a question of a very few miles between it and 

 " Bonavista ; an absolutely trifling distance when the whole breadth of 

 " the Atlantic ocean is considered." ^^ There is an element of inconsist- 

 ency in the above sentence, for if he first launched the theory it must be 

 new; besides, on examining the chart, it will appear that two of the 

 widest bays on the coast intervene between the two points in question. 

 Measuring from the lighthouses : From Cape St. John across Notre Dame 

 bay to Cape Fogo is 60 miles ; from Cape Togo along the coast in a 

 straight line to Cape Freels is 30 miles, and across Bonavista Bay, from 

 Cape Freels to Cape Bonavista, is 39 miles. In all, the distance is 129 

 nautical or 149 English miles. This is too long to be considered as an 

 " absolutely trifling distance " in any relation. Without, however, 

 stopping to discuss this, it may well be asked, what has become of the 



Sec. II., 1897. 7. 



