186 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



maps of Columbus have disappeared, and yet nobody has been charged 

 with stealing them ; but Cabot's maps are stolen twice over, and by men 

 of different nations ! Too much has been said about these "mysterious" 

 losses. Where are Cartier's maps, or the many maps of Alonzo de Santa 

 Cruz ? Where is the great Padron Eeal ? Two maps at Weimar alone 

 represent its features, and all official copies but these are lost. ISTo docu- 

 ment is so soon thrown away as an old map, for none are more useless. 

 We do not miss them excepting in some controversy such as this. It is no 

 wonder that Cabot's papers are lost by this time. We had nearly lost the 

 discoverer himself out of our history, and we do not now know when 

 either of the Cabots died or where they are buried. Bishop Howley 

 charges Cortereal with palming off a false map," when that great sailor 

 was dead in some unknown region across the Atlantic. Who drew that 

 map is not known, but it is certain that it was not Cortereal. If Soncino 

 and Pasqualigo do not report in the direction of some favoured theory of 

 the present day they are " not nautical men, and not particular to a point 

 " or two." If John Euysch, in 1508, says he sailed no farther than 53° 

 north it must be a misprint, for he should have gone to 58°. If La Cosa's 

 map is inconvenient, the "distinguished Biscayan navigator and pilot" is 

 transformed into " an old Spanish pilot who made a rude sketch and 

 " studded it with names out of his own head," and, last of all, we take 

 the map of the man who made maps which Avere hung up in the study 

 of Juan de Fonseca, the Spanish minister of marine at that period — and, 

 as if he knew nothing about maps, we take a piece out of it — a map 

 made for the King of Spain — and wheel it up to an angle of 90 degrees, 

 as if he, the celebrated Biscayan pilot, the greatest native Spanish sailor 

 of the time, did not know west from north. 



IS. — Censorship over Spanish Maps. 



It must not be suj^ijosed that an inquiry under this heading is of 

 academic interest alone. It has a real and very important bearing upon 

 the question ; first, as it maj^ reveal the circumstances of Cabot's official 

 life in Spain ; then, as affecting the publication of the map of 1544, and, 

 consequently, the degree of importance to be given to the testimony of the 

 map regarding the landfall at Cape Breton. " Sebastian Cabot," says Mr. 

 Harrisse, " certainly enjoyed a high reputation at least in Italy and Eng- 

 " land. The Mantuan gentleman said that he had not his equal in Spain 

 " as a man versed in navigation. Guido Gianetti de Fano told Livio 

 " Sanuto that Cabot was held in the highest esteem in England." ^^ It 

 will not do, then, to accept Judge Prowse's dictum "that his proved in- 

 " famous character keeps him out of court." We are bound to judge him 

 by the standard of his day, and to measure him with the measure of his 

 contemporaries. We do not put Lord Bacon "out of court" becau.se of 



