838 COSMOS. 



of Saba, and the long established colony of the Joctamdes. 

 The southernmost extremity of Arabia, at Aden, on the Straits 

 of Bab-el-Mandeb, is situated in 12 45', andLoheia in 15 44' 

 north latitude. The settlement of many Arabian colonies on 

 the eastern coast of Africa between the tropics, north and 

 south of the equator, naturally led to a inorj special know* 

 ledge of the southern stars. 



The western coasts of Africa beyond the line were first 

 visited by some of the more cultivated European pilots (espe- 

 cially Catalauians and Portuguese). Undoubted documents, 

 such as the Map of the World of Marino Sanuto Torsello, of the 

 year 1306, the Genoese Portulano Mediceo (1351), ihePlanis- 

 ferio de la Palatina (1417), and the Mappa-mondo di Fra 

 Mauro Camaldolese (between 1457 and 1459); prove that the 

 triangular configuration of the southern extremity of the 

 African Continent was known 178 years before the so-called 

 first discovery of the Cabo Tormentoso (Cape of Good Hope), 

 by Bartholomaeus Diaz, in the month of May, 1487. 88 The 

 importance of such a commercial route, rapidly increasing 

 from the time of Gama's expedition, was, on account of the 

 common aim of all West- African voyages, the occasion of 

 the two Southern Clouds being designated by the pilots Cape 



83 See my geographical investigations on the discovery of 

 the southern extremity of Africa, and on the statements of 

 Cardinal Zurla and Count Baldelli in the Examen crit. de 

 I' Hist, de la Geographic aux quinzieme et seizieme siecles, 

 torn. i. pp. 229-348. The discovery of the Cape of Good 

 Hope, which Martin Behaim calls the Terra Frayosa, arid not 

 Cabo Tormentosa, was made, singularly enough, when Diaz 

 came from the east (from the Bay of Algoa, 33 47' south 

 latitude, and more than 7 18' east of Table Bay). Liclv 

 tenstein, in Das VatcrLdndische Museum, Hamburgh, 1810, 

 372-389. 



