The Northwest Passage 189 



voyage from Iberia (Spain) to India along the 

 same latitude.&quot; 



The people of the middle ages lived, we are 

 told by Captain Nansen, to a great extent on 

 remnants of the geographical knowledge of the 

 Greeks. The Isles of the Blest, the fabled 

 Continent of Atlantis, Antillia, and the Isle of 

 the seven cities of the Arabs, all were to be found, 

 by following across the western seas the glowing 

 pathway of the setting sun. 



Those fabled isles constituted, in large part, 

 the magnet which drew the bluff prows of Col 

 umbus into the depths of the unknown ocean. 

 With the reported discovery of land, the fables 

 and phantasies began to take on more definite 

 shape; one result being that a marvellous island Fabled Brazil 

 known as Brazil was placed in the seas at varying 

 distances West of Ireland. &quot;It was the Irish 

 fortunate isle Hy Breasail of which it is sung: 



&quot;On the ocean that hollows the rocks where ye 



dwell, 



A shadowy land has appeared, as they tell; 

 Men thought it a region of sunshine and rest, 

 And they called it Brazil the isle of the blest. 



From year unto year, on the ocean s blue rim, 

 The beautiful spectre showed lovely and dim; 

 The golden clouds curtained the deep where it lay, 

 And it looked like an Eden, away, far away.&quot; 



(Gerald Griffin) 



