CARTOGRAPHY OF THE GREAT DISCOVERIES 83 



Alba in Madrid, there is a hasty outline sketch of the north 

 and north-western coastline of Cuba, on which occurs the 

 name 'nativida', for La Natividad, the first settlement in the 

 New World, which Columbus had founded on his first voyage. 

 This is ascribed to Christopher. The second consists of three 

 marginal sketches in a copy of Columbus' letter of July 1503 

 describing his fourth voyage, preserved in the National 

 Library, Florence. From this we learn that a regular survey of 

 the Central American coast was carried out by Bartolomeo. 

 The sketch maps, ascribed to him, form an outline of the 

 world between the tropics, and are of particular interest as they 

 illustrate very clearly Columbus' ideas on the relationship 

 of his discoveries to south-eastern Asia. The north coast of 

 South America is prolonged westward before it joins that of 

 Central America, and the latter is joined to the Asian coastline 

 of Ptolemy in the neighbourhood of Cattigara. This synthesis 

 required the placing of Central America 120° of longitude to 

 the west of Cape Verde! 



Some years ago Charles de la Ronciere drew attention to a 

 circular world map in the Bibliotheque National, Paris, which 

 he argued had been prepared at Columbus' direction for 

 presentation to the Spanish sovereigns. La Ronciere's argu- 

 ments have been strongly controverted; in any case, the map 

 ante-dates the first voyage, and does not throw any significant 

 light upon Columbus' aims. 



There is some doubt as to which is the earliest extant chart 

 to show any of the discoveries in the New World. This is 

 I either a chart by La Cosa, or an anonymous one, known by 

 the name Cantino, which can be definitely dated 1502. The La 

 Cosa chart bears the date 1500, but this has been challenged. 

 j We may accept it for the chart as a whole, though some addi- 

 ! tions were probably made to it later, for G. E. Nunn's argu- 

 ments for dating it c. 1508 are not entirely convincing. 



Juan La Cosa, an expert Biscayan navigator and owner of 

 the Santa Maria, accompanied Columbus on his first two 

 voyages. He later made further voyages to the American 

 continent, and is known to have drawn several other charts since 

 lost. The map, 180x96 cms., somewhat crudely drawn on 

 parchment, has suffered considerable damage. On the western 



