WicsTKOPP — Brasit and the Legendary Islands of the J^. Atlantic. 24f 



into it by a plank. It is supposed by some that the shore at Cotentin sank, 

 so that the sea easily ate away the low land for 12 to 15 miles between it and 

 the islands as at present. luis Fitae in Corcovaskin,now Iniscaeragh or Mutton 

 Island, was split into three (Inismatal, Iniscaerach, and Seal Eock) between 

 799 and 802. The Godwin Sands, the coasts of Norfolk and Suffolk, where 

 villages and eleven churches have been swallowed by the sea in a few centiiries, 

 and in our own time the rapid cutting away of the land at Ardmore, Co. 

 Waterford, show how without any vast cataclysm, save in the case of Inis Fitae, 

 islands may become shoals. The only question is whether the land sank in 

 sufficiently late times to have affected tradition. Two cases between Terceira 

 and St. Michael were upheaved in modern times. A volcano rose over the 

 sea 15 leagues to the north-west of St. Michael in 1719, and sank in 1723. It 

 was said to have previously appeared in 1638. In 1720 another island rose 

 about a mile from the shore of St. Michael ; and in the same year a third was 

 upheaved, twenty- eight leagues away toward Terceira. It was two leagues 

 across, and when it sank was long traceable as a shoal. The question there- 

 fore should be scientifically investigated very fully before the possible 

 upheaval and submergence of islands, especially near such a volcanic region 

 as Iceland, can be denied, still more so before the disappearance of Kilstuithin 

 or Manister Ladra can be relegated to myth. To sum up, the mythic islands 

 (so far as I am aware, for the finding of other early maps may move back the 

 dates) appear from at least the following years. The " Fortunatarum Insulae " 

 appear on the eighth-century map of Beatus (Periplus, p. 11); 1325, Brasile 

 and Daithuli; 1373, St. Brendan's Isle, and Mam ; Mam (as I believe), Mate, 

 1448, or Manda(Asmaida), the latter is named first in 1513. The Fortunate 

 Isles are identified with Brazil, 1459. Antilla appears ante 1420; the Seven 

 Cities, 1450; a nameless island corresponding to Frisland, 1508. Almeidas 

 is first named in 1513 ; Frisland before 1500 ; Estotiland, Drogeo, and Estland 

 ta 1558 on the Zeni map, alleged to be copied from one of 1390 ; and Buss, 

 in 1599. 



6.— COLUMBUS AND THE MYTHIC ISLANDS. 



This is no place for any elaborate study of the most interesting question 

 relating to the mythic islands, namely, how far the belief in them affected the 

 discovery of Columbus. A few notes must sufSce. It will be remembered that 

 Christopher Columbus based his great enterprise on three errors — the 

 extension of Asia so far eastward as to reach within a comparatively short 

 distance from the west of Europe; the inaccurately small circumference of 

 the world ; and the existence of large islands in mid-ocean. The maps of two 

 centuries and the traditions known to him bore out the last item. The 



B.I. A. PKOC, VOL. XXX., SKCT. C. [34] 



