86 MAPS AND THEIR MAKERS 



latitude. Since, however, the latitudes of many places in Europe 

 are out by several degrees (Land's End, for example, is shown 

 4|^° too far north) the Cavo may be assumed to be not further 

 north than 51° 30' N., which would put it in the neighbour- 

 hood of Belle Isle Strait. On the other hand, the 1,200 miles 

 of explored coastline is in all probability southern Newfound- 

 land or Nova Scotia, so that the Cavo de Yngleterra must have 

 lain further south, and Cape Race at once suggests itself, but 

 as nothing more than a possibility. J. A. Williamson, however, 

 who credits this charting to the Cabots in 1497-8, believes 

 that the Cavo was Cape Breton, while G. E. Nunn identifies it 

 with Cape Farewell in Greenland. 



The earliest Portuguese example of these New World 

 charts is that known as the Cantino chart. It owes its name to 

 the fact that it was procured for the Duke of Ferrara, Hercules 

 d'Este, by one Alberto Cantino. The Portuguese king had 

 placed an embargo on the provision of charts showing the new 

 discoveries, and Cantino had obtained this clandestinely to 

 satisfy the curiosity of the Duke, anxious at the threat to the 

 Italian share in the spice trade. As correspondence concern- 

 ing the transaction has survived, we know that the chart was 

 received by the Duke in November 1502, and that it embodied 

 discoveries as late as the summer of that year. The chart is 

 clearly the work of a Portuguese cartographer; at a later period 

 apparently some amendment has been made to the Brazilian 

 portion, and half a dozen Italianized names written in. The 

 title given to it suggests that the main interest of the draughts- 

 man was in the western discoveries: "Marine chart of the islands 

 recently discovered in the parts of the Indies." 



The chart is large, so that the coasts are shown in consider- 

 able detail, and names are numerous. The Equator and tropics 

 are drawn in, but there is no graduated scale of latitudes. From 

 west to east it extends from Cuba to the eastern coast of Asia. 

 The Tordesillas demarcation line between the Spanish and 

 Portuguese spheres is inserted, and the Portuguese discoveries 

 in the north-west are made to lie just on the Portuguese side of 

 the line. 



The African continent is shown for the first time with some- 

 thing closely approaching its correct outline: on the east coast 



