Section II, 1920 [51] Trans. R.S.C. 



The Legend of St. Brendan 



By James F. Kenney 



Presented by Dr. A. G. Doughty, F.R.S.C. 



(Read May Meeting, 1920) 



William Wycestre, a native of Bristol who became secretary 

 to that Sir John Falstaff who gave his name, but nothing more, to 

 Shakespeare's hero, left an Itinerarium in which appeared the follow- 

 ing entry: 



"On July 15, 1480, a ship .... of John Jay. junior, of eighty tons burden, 

 began a voyage from Kingroad near the port of Bristol in search of the island of 

 Brasylle, to the west of Ireland .... On September 18 news came to Bristol that 

 they had sailed over the sea in the aforesaid ship for about nine months [probably 

 we should read weeks] without finding the island, but in consequence of storms they 

 had returned to a port in Ireland." ^ 



On July 15, 1498, Pedro de Ayala, representative of Ferdinand 

 and Isabella of Spain at the court of London, wrote as follows to those 

 sovereigns, in reference to the discovery of land in the west by John 

 Cabot in the preceding year: 



"I think Your Highnesses have already heard how the King of England has 

 equipped a fleet to explore certain islands or mainland which he has been assured 

 certain persons who set out last year from Bristol in search of the same have dis- 

 covered. I have seen the map made by the discoverer, who is another Genoese like 

 Columbus, who has been in Seville and at Lisbon seeking to obtain persons to aid 

 him in this discovery. For the last seven years the people of Bristol have equipped 

 two, three (and) four caravels to go in search of the island of Brazil and the seven 

 Cities according to the fancy of this Genoese."* 



We can see what a very real connection there was between the 

 popular ideas of mediaeval Europe regarding strange islands out in the 

 Atlantic, and the first voyages of discovery to America. These popular 

 ideas were based mainly on two sets of legends, the Spanish legends 

 of the Seven Cities, and the Irish legends of a wonderful land to the 

 west, a land of many names, of which one of the most popular with 

 the geographers of the later middle ages was "Hy Brasil."^ In Ireland 



1 Nasmyth Itineraria (Cambridge, 1778) p. 267: quoted by Henry Harrisse, 

 Discovery of North America (London, 1892) p. 659. 



* H. P. Biggar, The Precursors of Jacques Cartier {Publications of the Canadian 

 Archives No. 5: Ottawa, 1911) pp.27-28. 



» Cf. T. J. Westropp "Brasil and the Legendary Islands of the North Atlantic" 

 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, vol. XXX (1912), sect. C, pp. 223-260; 

 W. H. Babcock "The So-Called Mythical Islands of the Atlantic in Mediaeval Maps" 

 ScoUish Geographical Magazine. May-August, 1915, pp. 261-269, 315-320, 360-377, 

 411-422. 



