^ The Normans and the Genoese 



ships passed beyond the dreaded Cape Bojador ^ in 1291, but 

 were not known to return. Other Catalan or Genoese ad- 

 venturers, however, may have been more fortunate in their 

 attempts to reach the Guinea Coast, the " Land of Gold." 

 There is certainly a very remarkable map of the continent of 

 Africa painted in 1351,^ and known as the Laurentian Portolano 

 in the Medician Library at Florence. This map, of which a 

 copy is reproduced in The Discovery and Conquest of Guinea^ 

 published by the Hakluyt Society,^ gives a remarkably true 

 indication (for that period) of the bend of the West Coast of 

 Africa, though of course the extent of this great bight is 

 proportionately exaggerated at the expense of the rest of the 

 continent. But this indication of the coast-line shows firstly the 

 projection of Cape Blanco ; secondly, gives some idea of Cape 

 Verde and Cape Palmas (Cape Palmas being not much out in 

 longitude), the northward trend of the coast between Cape 

 Palmas and the Bight of Benin ; and, thirdly, it suggests the 

 sharp southward turn after the Niger Delta is passed. The 

 situation of the Bight of Biafra is of course much too far to 

 the east. It is curious, however, that the photograph of this 

 painting shows an alternative line of coast much farther to the 

 west and much more in the true position of the southern 

 projection of Africa. Off this coast lie two islands which 

 might be Sao Thome and Principe ; while there is the in- 

 dication of a river that may be intended for the Congo. It is 

 quite possible, however, that this alternative line may be a 

 sketch by some traveller or geographer a century or two later, 



1 This name meant in Portuguese " Jutting out " (Bojar = to bulge, jut out). 

 The Cape does not appear particularly prominent on the coast of Africa to modern 

 travellers, but it seems to have been a turning-point of winds and currents, and 

 was for many years the obstacle at which Portuguese explorers turned back. 



^ Nearly a century before the Portuguese discoveries. 



» Vol. i. (1896). 



35 



