"FLORIDA" ON CANTINO MAP 129 



tion of their identity these two lands may be re- 

 garded as distinct; in any case they are represented 

 differently on the charts. 



The land discovered by the Cabots^° is not iden- 

 tifiable, as, apparently, its latitude cannot be de- 

 termined. Its supposed distance from England 

 was early put in question. The Soncino letter of 

 August 24, 1497,^^ gives it as 400 leagues. This dis- 

 tance was questioned by Ruy Gonzalez de Puebla in 

 his letter to the Catholic sovereigns dated July 2^ (?), 

 1498. Pedro de Ayala, in his despatch of July 25, 

 1498, says he does not believe that the distance is 

 400 leagues but that the land was part of what had 

 been discovered for the Spanish sovereigns. The 

 Pasqualigo letter of August 23, 1497, reported 

 Cabot's statement that the distance to the new land 

 was 700 leagues and that it was the mainland of the 

 country of the Great Khan. The second Soncino 

 letter, of December 18, 1497, represents John Cabot 

 as hoping, after occupying the fish country, to ''keep 

 on still further towards the East, where he will be 

 opposite to an island called Cipango." Juan de la Cosa 

 delineated the English discoveries along a coast ex- 

 tending east and west (Fig. 10; enlarged on Fig. 16), 

 the most westerly name being apparently considerably 



50 Henry Harrisse: John Cabot, the Discoverer of North America, 

 and Sebastian, His Son, London, 1896, pp. 42-84, 126-141, and 385-469; 

 idem: Discovery of North America, pp. 1-50; Charles Deane: The 

 Voyages of the Cabots, in Winsor: Narrative and Critical History, Vol. 3, 

 pp. 1-58. 



51 For this and the following documents see Markham, op. cit., pp. 202, 

 207, 208-209, 201-202, 203-206. 



