174 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



over the words themselves, but would merely remark that the procedure 

 is based on another hypothesis. The archbishop says that "Cosawas a 

 " classic scholar imbued with the epigrammatic spirit of the age. He was 

 " learned in the classicism of the Eenaissance, and condensed a description 

 " into a compound word, adapting Spanish or Latin terms." Everything 

 known of La Cosa points the other way. No record of his birth or bap- 

 tism can be found, and although it is generally thought that he was born 

 at Santona, it is not proved. It is proved, however, that he belonged to a 

 family of sailors, and that the greater part of his youth was spent at sea. 

 He had been sailing and trading to Flanders when Columbus chartered 

 his vessel, and himself with it, to go on his first voyage. No indication 

 of his classical studies exists, but his consummate skill as a seaman is the 

 theme of many Spanish authors, and his capacity as a geographer is 

 evidenced by the fact that he was master chart-maker to Columbus, who 

 became jealous of La Cosa's reputation. It will be necessary to cite some 

 authority for La Cosa's classical attainments before discussing his etymo- 

 logies. History shows that he was an accomplished navigator and a 

 skilful cartographer, while this hypothesis assumes that he was an accom- 

 plished epigrammatist and a classical scholar, but so ignorant a sailor 

 and cartographer as to mistake north and south for east and west, 



11. — The Bonavista Landfall. 



At the time of the meeting of the Eoyal Society at Halifax, I had re- 

 ceived a report, in an English newspaper, of the pajjer read by Sir Clements 

 Markham before the, Eoyal Geographical Society. It was a very full re- 

 port, but since that time the Journal of the society for June has been 

 published, containing an authentic copy of the paper. Judge Prowse 

 informs us that " Sir Clements Markham has seen the error of his ways, 

 " and, in his recently carefully prepared address, goes out of his way to 

 " refute the absurd Capo Breton theory." '^ And, again, he says Sir 

 Clements Markham " made a complete recantation of his erroneous 

 " views," adding that "I [Judge Prowse] took infinite pains to bring 

 '• him round to the Newfoundland side." It is remarkable that an 

 " absurd theory" which, the judge adds, "no sensible man would be- 

 " lieve," ^* should have been advocated for so many years by a man of Sir 

 Clements Markham's attainments, and that it should have required "in- 

 " finite pains" to remove it. Again, the judge informs us that he has,, 

 in the Marquess of Dufferin, another illustrious convert. Whatever Lord 

 Dufi'erin may have written in the unpublished letter referred to, is not 

 open to discussion. He wrote in Scribner's Magazine, depending upon 

 Judge Prowse's " History " for the existence of an " immemorial tradi- 

 " tion." In his address at the inauguration of the Cabot tower in Bristol, 

 Lord Dufferin spoke of *' the Cape of Bonavista, or whatever point on the 



