Westropp — Brasil and the Legendary Islands of the N. Atlantic. 243 



had fancied in wildest romance. I believe " Priscilia " first attaches to the 

 modern Brazil in Eeiseh's Margarita Philosopliiae in 1515. 



England, having so narrowly lost her chance of being patron to Columbus, 

 was now taking her place among the world-explorers. In August, 1497, the 

 minister of the Duke of Milan wrote to his master from England to say that 

 Cabot had found two large and fertile islands, San Juan and Prima Vista, 

 and had found the " Seven Cities," 400 leagues from England. Eleven months 

 later the Spanish Ambassador in London wrote to Ferdinand and Isabella, 

 telling of Cabot's discoveries and second expedition, and telling how " the 

 men of Bristol have, for the last seven years " (since 1492), " sent every year, 

 two, three, or four caravels to search for the Isle of Brazil and the Seven 

 Cities."' Next year, 1499, the real Brazil was discovered. Nevertheless, 

 Conte Freducci's Map in 1497 (Per. xxii) marked the large circular indented 

 Brasil, and in 1499 to 1500, Juan de la Cosa on his fine coloured map marked 

 it and Daithuli ; he also distinguished Eshlanda (Iceland) from lUatille 

 (Thule) in the northern seas (Per. xxii and xliii). 



Sixteenth- Century. — The increasing traffic with America might have 

 been supposed to have swept all the mythic isles into the " Never-Never 

 Land," whence they had come ; but this was not the case ; and we must see how 

 for some three centuries the islands held their own, while, perhaps, the earliest 

 and latest of the group, Brasil and Buss, were found on maps till past the 

 middle of the nineteenth century. I need only give the principal maps 

 onward to the eighteenth century. 



In 1508 the Euyseh " Ptolemaeus " (Fac. xxxii), published at Eome, shows 

 Antilia half-way between the Azores and Terra Nova (South America), also 

 an island (probably Huitserk), about where Frisland is shown on later 

 maps, with the note, " Insula hec in Ano Dni. 1456 fuit totaliter cobusta." It 

 is interesting to find it and two islands near Terceira sinking into the sea 

 by volcanic action in such a late period. Subsequent research may also reveal 

 similar causes for belief in lost islands ; but this is a question for science alone. 

 Glareanus (Per. p. 173), in 1510, shows a large island (evidently Asmaida) to 

 the south-west of Ireland. The Argentine "Ptolemaeus" map in 1513 

 (Fac. xxxv) marks Daithuli to the north-west of Ireland, Obrassell to the 

 west, and Salnaga to the north of Ireland* ; Almeidas further away to the 

 south-west. In 1524 the Argentorati "Ptolemaeus" (Per. p. 177) shows 

 Brazil and Asmaidas in their usual chart position, but it omits Ireland. 



'Calendar of Spanish State Papers, vol. i, p. 177 ; and Calendar of Italian Papers (1864), vol.ii, 

 p. 262. 



' Plate XX gives one of the 1,513 maps with Brazil and Dathuli. Most of the place-names are 

 omitted in this copy. 



