ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 25 



THIRTEENTH REGULAR MEETING. 



December 2, 1879. 



Ancient Maps of North America. 

 By JOHN C. LANG. 



Maps bear the same relation to the history of geographic 

 discovery that portraits do to biography. Historians find in 

 charts of the early explorers historical documents easily in- 

 terpreted and needing no translation. 



The old writer or geographer who has given us a map has 

 furnished us a check on his verbal report. Even the com- 

 piler of a map cannot hide from us the sources of his in- 

 formation. As in a hall of statuary we may recognize casts 

 from antique marbles, so upon the map we can identify and 

 separate, if need be, the work of many hands. 



But few of the cartographic representations of the early 

 discoverers in the New World exist. It would take less time 

 to describe the historical maps to which we can now refer, 

 than to mention those which we know to have perished. 

 Columbus came of a family of map-makers, and was himself 

 an experienced cartographer, and for years carried on the 

 work of constructing charts for sale. Previous to his mem- 

 orable voyages he was doubtless an enthusiastic collector of 

 geographic information from every available source. 



In February, 1467, he visited Iceland, to examine into 

 the facts touching upon the discoveries of the Northmen, 

 and while there it is probable that he searched the whole 

 range of documents necessary to his subject. At that time 

 he was probably able to find those who remembered the 

 visits of the Zeri Brothers, who three-fourths of a century 

 previous had compiled from the Norse records a complete 

 map of the coast discovered and colonized by the Norsemen 

 three hundred years before. 



