86 NAMES OF PLACES 



31st July 1498 Columbus sighted three mountains, which 

 he afterwards found to be united in one island. Recog- 

 nising in this a symbol of the Trinity, he named the 

 new land Ilha de la Trinidad, and Trinidad it has 

 remained after passing into British possession. The year 

 previous, the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama had 

 discovered South Africa on Christmas Day, so he called 

 it Costa do Natal — Christmas Coast — and here again 

 British colonists are quite content with the name Natal. 

 In like manner a vast number of places bear the name 

 of Vera Cruz or Santa Cruz — True or Holy Cross; and 

 our own Captain Cook followed suit by calling places 

 discovered on Trinity Sunday by the names of Trinity 

 Bay (Queensland) and Trinity Island (Alaska). Other 

 British captains named new lands after the ships in 

 which they sailed, like ' Adventure ' Bay in Tasmania 

 and ' Fury ' beach in the Arctic seas. 



The last name brings to mind a name on the Scottish 

 coast. Cape Wrath is usually associated in our minds 

 with the angry winds and violent seas which rage round 

 our northern shores ; but the name Cape Wrath bears no 

 reference to them, however appropriately it might do so. 

 ' Wrath ' merely represents the Norse hvarf — a turning- 

 point — for it was there that Norse mariners used to put 

 their helms a-starboard, to run down to their possessions 

 in the Hebrides, which they, coming from the north, 

 called the Sudreyar or southern islands. Even this name 

 Sudreyar, though it became thoroughly inappropriate as 

 soon as the seat of rule shifted from north to south, has 

 not passed wholly into disuse. The diocese of Sodor and 

 Man was once wholly under Norse dominion — the title 

 Sodor is the ancient Sudreyar or Hebrides; but it is 



