246 Proceedings of the Roi/al Irish Academy. 



Eighteenth Century. — So far as I know, Estotiland, St. Brandon's Isle, 

 and Antilia do not appear in any map after 1700 ; Brazill, Buss, and Maida 

 survived. Guillaume Delisme, in -his Map of the British Isles in 1702 

 (published in his Atlas, 1714 and 1720), and his Map of Europe, 1724, gives 

 the Islede Bus, Frislaude, and the Eoche (Eocher) de Bresil. The latter is on 

 the first meridian from Ferro. It is thus noted in 1702 : — "In this parallel 

 51° latitude and 1° longitude several sea-charts represent an isle to which 

 they give the name of Brasil at 46|° of latitude and 356°, or about, of 

 longitude; another which they call Asmanda. I do not know on what 

 foundation these two isles have been placed; but I have difficulty in persuading 

 myself that there are isles so short a distance from our coasts which have 

 remained unknown to us up to this." The note is repeated in " Le Nouveau 

 Theatre du Monde " by Gruendeville in 1713. Two years later Louis Eenard' 

 shows Brazil (west from Kerry) and Buss. Maida appears in the Maritime 

 Atlas of 1749, and in Faden's Atlas of 1776, where Mayda Island is laid 

 down as in longitude 20° west and Green Island or Ilha Verde in longitude 

 24°, while Brazil is in Jeffrey's American Atlas in the same year in longitude 

 17° '65' west, and lying west from Cape Clear. St. Brendan's Isle is also 

 given. Buss was only eliminated in 1850. Brazil was finally removed from 

 the charts so late as 1865. John Purdy's general chart of the Atlantic 

 (corrected to 1830) says that the Brazil Eock was high and was fixed at 

 51° 10' north, and 15° 30' west. In a chart of currents in A. Findlay's edition 

 of " Purdy," and in the " Memoir, Description, and Explanation of the North 

 Atlantic Ocean" (p. 487) we read "Brasil Eock, lat. 51° 10', long. 16°. 

 M. Bellin in 1742 states that this rock is marked in lat. 51° 10', long. 

 19° 80' Paris." Its existence has been doubted by Messrs. Verdun and 

 Border. " It was, however, seen in the year 1791 by the company and master 

 of an English merchant ship, the commander of which favoured the editor of 

 the present work with a description of it, stating that it is really a high rock, 

 or islet, apparently bold-to, and to which he passed so near that he could 

 have cast a biscuit on shore." " We suspect that if it exists it is more to the 

 westward." Findlay's doubts increased, and he eliminated Brazil finally in 

 1865, after it had held its place for over 550 years on the maps. A rock of 

 little literary interest named Aitkens Eock to the north-west of Ireland was 

 found to be a submarine bank ; the Porcupine Bank, and the bottom round 

 Eockall give evidence of submergence by abundant shallow- water shells. Local 

 histories assert that the Channel Isles were connected with France up to 

 709, and that when St. Lo visited Jersey on inspection in 565 he could cross 



' Atliis de la Navigation et du Commerce. 



