;248 ProceeJiiii/s of the lioi/al Irish Academy. 



Spaniards believed so firmly in the Isle of the Seven Cities that they actually 



inserted a clause in the Treaty of Evora >vitli Portugal, reservmg " the islands 



which had not been found," and the people of the Canaries also petitioned 



to be allowed to annex it. Columbus,' as his son Ferdinand records,^ knew 



of Seneca's future continent and of Aristotle's "Antilia." This almost 



certainly inipUes knowledge of the Atlantis legend He gathered all he could 



learn of these and of St. 15orondon's Isle, and the Seven Citie.'?. He had heard 



of Antonio I>eone (or Ijcme) reachiug an island 100 leagues west from 



Madeira, of two floating islands, more to the south-west, mentioned by 



Juventius Fortunatus, and of a Madeiran asking for a caravel in which to 



seek for Antilla. Peter Velasques, a pilot, told Columbus at La Eabida 



how, in the time of Prince Henry, his Master (lx)m 1394, died 1460), 



James de Fine, going from Fayal to Cape Clear, in Ireland,^ about 1450, got 



under shelter of an unknown isle to the west of Ireland. Peter Yelasques, of 



Galicia, confirmed this of his own knowledge, and Columbus had a letter of 



Vincent Dea. a Portuguese, teUing how he had seen an island beyond Madeii-a. 



The great explorer went northward, heard what the Bristol merchants 



(indefatigable seekere for Brasil) had to tell, and in February, 1477, sailed 100 



leagues beyond Thile (Iceland). There, if the passage be not an intei-polation, 



he may well have seen manuscripts' such as exist, dated fifty to seventy years 



before his \Tsit, telling, in matter-of-fact words, of Greenland, HeUuland,* 



Markland, and Vinland (the last "stietching towards Africa"), with wide 



channels between, and manuals are often more convincing than folios. He 



was in touch with Galway, the centre of Irish lore of Hy BrasU, for he 



included among his sailoi-s in 1492 WUliam Irez, of Galway, in Ireland.^ He 



cites religious legends for accounts of the wonderful birds and plants of the 



ocean islands. He fully expected to meet such islands on his way to Cipango, 



Cathay, and the Indies ; what he did not expect was to be walled off from 



' For what follows see the Diary of Columbus, 9th Aug., 1492 (I use Meuliors edition of his 

 " Voyages " (ed. 1703), vol. ii, chan. ix) ; Xotes of Ferdinand Columbus in Pintenon, " Voyages" 

 (ed. 1819}, Tol. ii, p. 77 ; Memorials of Columbus (Trenfel k Vurtz, 1823, p. xx, Introd.) ; 

 Hakluyt's " Voyages " ; Weise's " Discovery of America " ; and many other works. 



- If the work be not a forgery, it seems at least to show jnterpolatiou. Harrisse shows that it 

 dates after 1537 ; Ferdinand died 1539. The part lelating to Tile and Frislanda may be taien from 

 La Casts, or from some source used by him. See also Lucas (Voyages of the Brothers Zeni, 1898, 

 p. 61). Xo Spanish original of Ferdinand's work is known, only an Italian " translation" at Venice, 

 published 1571. 



'Cap de CLir in Dulcert's map, 1339 ; Cuuo de Clar.i in the Catalan Atlas, 1375 ; Clara in the 

 Upsal map, 1450, and Agnesi, 1544. 



* Several of these interesUng UtUe works, from 1400 to after 1430, are published by Eeeves in 

 "The Finding of WinelanU the Good," pp. 13-16. 



^Thc Frisshok (Couex, Frisianus, c. 1420-30, col. 136, p. 34) says " there is an open sea flowing 

 between Vinland and Markiand" (VTeise, p. 14). 



« ■' Guliern.o Ires natural de Galuy en Irlanda." 



