S04 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



ish and then in Latin. Across the map, in the region of Hudson straits, 

 is legend No. 8, in Spanish, which reads as follows : 



" This land was discovered by Juan Cabot, a Venetian, and by Sebas- 

 tian Cabot, his son, in the year of the birth of our Saviour, Jesus Christ, 

 1494, on the 24th of June, in the morning, to which they gave the name 

 of ' First Land Seen ' {Prima Tierra Vista) ; and to a large island which 

 is situated along the said land they gave the name San Juan, because it 

 had been discovered the same day. The people of it are dressed in skins 

 of animals. They use in their wars bows and arrows, lances and darts, 

 and certain clubs of wood, and slings. It is a very sterile land. There 

 are in it many white bears, and very large stags, of the size of horses, 

 and many other animals ; and likewise there is infinite tish." 



The Latin version of the legend agrees in the main with the Span- 

 ish, except that the 24th day of July, instead of June, is given as the 

 day of discovery, and the specific hour of five o'clock in the morning is 

 mentioned, instead of " early in the morning," as in the Spanish. In both 

 legends the year of discovery is 1494 ; in the Spanish it is written in 

 Roman numerals, in the Latin it is written in Arabic numerals. The four 

 is made by writing four straight lines, as on the face of a watch. It is 

 thought that the hand which inscribed the Roman numerals intended to 

 make a V or five, but left the first two lines separated. At all events, no 

 one seriously contends that the jenr of discovery should be 1494 instead 

 of 1497. There is but one copy of this map known, and that is preserved 

 in the National Library in Paris. In 1549 an English rejjroduction of 

 the map was made by Clement Adams, copies of which, says Hakluyt in 

 his 1589 edition, were to be found in the " privie gallerie at Westminster 

 and in many other ancient merchants houses." Hakluyt in this same 

 1589 edition quotes the date of the discovery recorded in the map as 1494, 

 but in his subsequent edition of 1599 he corrects the date to 1497. No copy 

 of this map exists to-day. In the region now known as Cape Breton Island 

 are the three Spanish words, Prima tierra vista. Close to the land is an 

 island named St. John. The geographers have been puzzled to reconcile 

 the position of this island with the statement of Sebastian Cabot regarding 

 its discovery and its baptism on St. John the Baptist's day. John Cabot 

 nowhere refers to this island or to St. John the Baptist's day. These 

 things are mentioned for the first time in the map of 1544, as it is certain 

 the Bristol chronicle was composed long after this date. If the landfall 

 was on Cape Breton, the only large island which could possibly be 

 Cabot's St. John would be Prince Edward Island, and that would be 

 nearly 180 miles from the landfall. The account says the island was seen 

 and named the day of the landfall, and no ship in those days could have 

 made 180 miles in the sixteen hours of daylight. Accepting the map and 

 considering it by itself, one would seem justified in calling Cape Breton 

 the site of the first landfall, and in accepting St. John the Baptist's day. 



