CARTOGRAPHY OF THE GREAT DISCOVERIES 85 



prising the American discoveries and perhaps the West African 

 coasts having been joined to a portion of a world map resembling 

 those of fifty years earlier which display the influence of 

 Ptolemy. If we use the distance between the tropic and the 

 equator to obtain a scale of degrees, and apply this to the map, 

 we find that in the western section, though there are dis- 

 crepancies, the general picture is not wildly inaccurate. The 

 newly discovered lands are placed in fair relationship to those 

 of western Europe. The longitudinal difference between 

 the Iberian coast and Hispaniola is apparently about 62°, 

 instead of 59°, and between the African coast and the north- 

 east coast of South America approximately 16°, instead of 

 17f°. For a reason which has never been satisfactorily ex- 

 plained, Hispaniola and Cuba are placed well to the north of 

 the tropic; the north coast of Cuba being shown in approxi- 

 mately 36° N., some 12° too far north. Whatever the reason 

 for this, it would appear that the Central and South American 

 portion is on a larger scale than the rest of the map. 



The representation of Africa is distorted by the excessive 

 length of the Mediterranean. The general shape of the western 

 coastline is good, though, in relation to the west-east extent of 

 the Gulf of Guinea coast, the coastline southwards to the Cape 

 is too short. This was a characteristic of early Portuguese 

 charts of this region: owing to adverse sailing conditions, it was 

 usual to underestimate distances run.^ 



Much attention has been attracted to the representation of 

 the north-eastern coastline of America. The principal features 

 are (1) a prominent cape, 'Cavo da Yngleterra', about 1,300 

 miles from south-west Ireland, and approximately in the same 

 latitude; (2) to the west of this Cape, an extent of coastline, 

 running about due west for approximately 1,200 miles: a 

 number of features along this coast are named, and this is the 

 only portion of the North American coastline on which names 

 occur; (3) beyond this coast, a stretch without names continues 

 for another 700 miles, forms a bay, 'Mar descubierta por 

 Yngleses', and then turns southwards. 



The 'Cavo da Yngleterra' is shown in about 56° N. 



^See 'Esmeraldo de situ orbis* by Duarte Pacheco Pereira, ed. G. H. T. 

 Kimble. {Hakluyt Soc, ser. ii, vol. 79, 1936.) 



