[s. K. DAWSON] TUE VOYAGES OF THE CABOTS 209 



has crept into the record. It is probable that, with the wish to minimize 

 the distance from the nearest point of the new land, or from a real error 

 because of the inability at that time to compute longitude, or from hav- 

 ing had a good run home with favouring west winds, Cabot stated the 

 distance, not of the landfall, but of the new land, to be one-fourth less 

 than it really is, and La Cosa's, as also the succeeding maps for a number 

 of years, do in fact draw the east coast of Newfoundland a long way 

 east of its proper longitude. On La Cosa's map, as before observed, it 

 is drawn east almost to the longitude of the Azores. 



There remains now, therefore, the statement of Pasqualigo that the 

 landfall on the new land was 700 leagues, or 2,100 miles away, and in the 

 table of distances calculated in view of a proposed line of steamships I 

 find the distance between Milford Haven and Sydney to be exactly 2,186 

 miles. Milford Haven is near Bristol, and Sydney is near the eastern- 

 most part of Cape Breton. 



I am well aware that all I have said of the 400-league distance is 

 hypothesis, but that is unavoidable. The nearest point must be taken, 

 unless, indeed, we restore the mythical island of the Seven Cities to 

 its old longitvide on the map and put it twenty degrees north of its 

 old latitude. The only remaining diiiiculty is that Pasqualigo says Cabot 

 coasted for 300 leagues. There seems scant time for that. The distance 

 from Cape Eace to Cape Breton is 300 miles. It is possible that Cabot 

 may have coasted for some distance farther west along the shore of Nova 

 Scotia before he turned to go back, and then counted the coasting twice 

 as it really was, though in his outward course he did not see the New- 

 foundland coast. These considerations I put forward not as proved, but 

 as hypotheses to reconcile the divergent statements which otherwise are 

 irreconcilable, for it is impossible to get over the fact that nothing exists 

 now across the Atlantic so near to England as Cape Race, and that it is 

 far more than 400 leagues distant. 



18. — The Island of St. John and the .Legends of the '^ Cabot" Map. 



In the first paper of this series, the legends on the map of 1544 were 

 very fully discussed, and I would refer to that paper any one who may 

 suppose that I am passing over this important point. It has, however, 

 been necessary to make incidental mention of Legend No. 8, and some 

 farther notice is required here in view of the more recent controversies. 

 The statement in that legend on Clement Adams's map is, in effect, that 

 the landfall was made early on the morning of June 24, and that there 

 was an island, lying out before the land, discovered the same day, which 

 Cabot called St. John. The landfall, if ascertained, will identify the 



Sec. II., 1897. 11. 



