[s. B. DAWSON] THE VOYAGES OF THE CABOTS 169 



the east coast of Greenland is a legend, which cannot be shown on the 

 small sketch, slating that it (Cape Farewell) is taken to be the extremity 

 of Asia. That was the opinion current at that time. 



It is admitted by all authorities that the outline of the northeast 

 coast of America is based on John Cabot's map. That Ayala sent a map 

 of John Cabot's first voyage to the King of Spain is on record, and he 

 sent it before the return of the second expedition. Some have thought 

 that the results of the second voyage also appear, but, while that may be 

 true, it is an assumption which has not the support of a document 

 on record. The insertion of names shows that La Cosa had before him 

 an authentic chart of that portion only of the coast he has placed names 

 upon. The extension of the nameless coast north and south may, as some 

 high authorities have supposed, have been borrowed from previous maps 

 of Asia, or from a general report of the second voyage of Cabot. If he 

 had had a chart of the second voyage he would have copied the names. 

 In any case the second voyage did not reach farther south than 35° to 

 38°, according to the existing records, and beyond that the coast line 

 must be conjectural. When it is asserted that La Cosa had procured a 

 map of the second voj'age more correct than the first, it is assuming 

 something for which not the least shadow of proof can be adduced. 



The cardinal point of the controversy is the Cavo de Ynglaterra. If 

 it be Cape Eace, then, of necessity, the named coast line is the south coast 

 of Newfoundland, and the last name of the series, Cavo Descubierto, is a 

 point by compass west from Cape Eace. Cabot's discoveries are laid 

 down as west from Bristol, and Columbus's discoveries are west from Go- 

 mera — west from the point of departure of each ; while their true direc- 

 tion is south of west by very nearly the angle of the course by their com- 

 passes. It is significant that the Cavo de Ynglaterra is laid down on the 

 same parallel as Bristol — exactly west of it, and it is too far north of its 

 true latitude by the same distance that Cuba and the West India islands 

 are too far north of theirs. This need not interfere with its identification 

 as Cape Eace, because in Eeinel's map of 1505, C. Easo is 50° 30' by the 

 perpendicular scale, and in the great mappemonde of Henry II., A.D. 

 154G, showing Cartier's discoveries, it was also placed at 50° 30', though 

 its real latitude is 46° 39', or about four degrees farther south. That 

 the longitude is far out need not be wondered at, for the sailors of those 

 days had no means of ascertaining longitude save by dead reckoning. 

 Nordenskiold informs us that " longitude could only be got in excep- 

 " tional circumstances," ■*** and Humboldt saj^s : " The direction is more 

 " important than the estimation of distances, for, as before stated, in the 

 '• voyages of those days thej^ exaggerated the distances."^" This map of 

 La Cosa's must not be taken separatelj^ from the series of maps of the 

 period, and the disproportion of the longitude upon it is not more than 

 on the other early maps. 



