686 



SCIENCE. 



[K. S. Vol. XIX. No. 487. 



been coasted along once or twice soon after 

 the discovery of the Indias (America), no 

 one returned to it. This declaration indi- 

 cates that in the official Spanish depart- 

 ment (Casa de la Contratacion of Seville) 

 especially charged with the gathering of 

 information regarding voyages and dis- 

 coveries, maps already known in Italy, like 

 those on which Fredueei, Maiollo and the 

 author of that of Turin based their work, 

 were either unknown or overlooked. Ac- 

 cording to this declaration the prototype 

 for the section here considered must have 

 been a map representing the discoveries of 

 Pinzon and Lepe, but differing in the draw- 

 ing and in the nomenclature from that of 

 Juan de la Cosa. On a comparison of the 

 two it appears that Diego Ribeiro identified 

 the Amazonas (with the name of Maranon) 

 with the first great indentation, or Rio Para 

 (?) of the map of Juan de la Cosa, re- 

 ducing the second to a bay full of islands, 

 and with the name of 'furna grande.' 

 Thus is explained the erroneous placing of 

 the mouth of the great river to the south- 

 ward of the equator, which persisted for a 

 long time in the Spanish maps (or those 

 derived from them) and introduced great 

 confusion in geography. The gulf of 

 Maranhao (with the name of 'furna') is of 

 slight prominence in the Ribeiro map, but 

 is well placed with reference to the south- 

 ern mouth of the Amazonas, and is figured 

 with the characteristic entrance of two 

 rivers at the head. 'C. negro' is the only 

 name that can be positively identified on 

 any preceding map, including that of Juan 

 de la Cosa. The name 'R. de uicete pison' 

 appears to be an interpolation made by the 

 cartographer in his prototype, in com- 

 memoration of the first discoverer. Other 

 map-makers, commencing with Fredueei, 

 made a similar interpolation, but in the 

 section to the north of the Amazonas, and 

 this use prevailed, giving as a result the 

 well-known complication of the Oj^apoek 



question between Brazil and France. The 

 absence in this map of characteristic Pin- 

 zonian names is a notable fact which 

 perhaps indicates that its prototype was 

 based principally on the voyage of Lepe. 



The maps that succeeded that of Diego 

 Ribeiro, commencing with one dated 1534, 

 indicate the introduction, for the section in 

 question, of a neAV prototype of Portuguese 

 origin; and it is a notable fact that this 

 served for many years as a prototype for 

 maps of all origins, Portuguese, Spanish, 

 French and Dutch. This new prototype 

 mtist therefore have been based on a Portu- 

 guese exploration made between the years 

 1529 and 1534. The original maps based 

 on this prototype are the Spanish ones of 

 Alonzo de Chaves (Padron Real of 1536), 

 Alonzo de Santa Cruz (1542), Sebastian 

 Cabot (1544) and Diego Gutierrez (1550, 

 1562) ; the French ones of Nicolas Desliens 

 (1541) and Pierre Deseeliers (1550) ; the 

 Portuguese ones of Gaspar Viegas (1534), 

 Diogo Homen (1558, 1568), Andre Homen 

 (1559), Lazaro Lxiiz (1563), Bartholemeu 

 Velho (1564) and Fernao Vaz Dourado 

 (1568, 1571 and 1580), and the Dutch maps 

 in great number derived from one or an- 

 other of the preceding, but for the most 

 part from that of Gutierrez of 1562 and 

 of Bax'tholemeu Velho of 1564. 



The characteristic of this prototype by 

 which it can be identified in all of its re- 

 productions is the topographical design of 

 the gulf of Maranhao and of the rivers that 

 discharge into it. The nomenclature is 

 characterized by the preservation of a good 

 part of the names of the Maiollo map 

 (probably indicating that the explorer fol- 

 lowed the coast with this map, or a deriva- 

 tive from it, in hand) and by the intro- 

 duction of many new Portuguese names, 

 amongst which that of Diogo Leite is espe- 

 cially significant, as it may be presumed to 

 be that of the explorer himself. 



