248 Tlie Progress of Geographical Discovery. 



South America, in 1487, and the visits of the Welsh in 1170, we call 

 your attention to some later discoverers. I have mentioned the first 

 visit to Labrador and Newfoundland by the Cabots, and spoken of the 

 voyage of Sebastian Cabot, the son, along the coast to Cape Hatteras. 

 But his examination of the coast south of Maine is strongly doubted 

 by some of the best students of early American history, particularly by 

 Henry Stevens, who gives substantial reasons for his opinion. One of 

 the earliest maps, that of Juan la Cosa in 1500, is explained satisfac- 

 torily on this theory. La Cosa was a pilot with Columbus in 1494 

 exploring about Cuba. His map gives an accurate result of the geo- 

 graphical knowledge then obtained of the West India islands and also 

 of the discoveries of the Cabots along Newfoundland, the Gulf of St. 

 Lawrence and Nova Scotia. The question is, in regard to La Oosa's 

 map, is the line from Nova Scotia a guess line of America, or the coast 

 line of Asia? I am inclined to think with Henry Stevens that the 

 pilot of Columbus adopted the theory of his leader and intended to 

 put the east coast of Asia from Halifax or Cape Race. The map is 

 valuable as the one nearest to the time of the discovery, and as con- 

 taining the discoveries of Columbus, Vespucius and the Cabots. 



On the Ribero map of 1529-35 we notice the inscriptions, "theland of 

 Garay," " the land of Ayllon," "the land of Gomez," etc. In 1518 Fran- 

 cisco de Garay, the wealthy governor of Jamaica, fitted out an expedi- 

 tion of three ships on a voyage of discovery, and they skirted along 

 the west coast of Florida, westward, along what are now the Gulf States 

 to Texas. That acconnts for his name on the Ribero map. The 

 land of Ayllon is so called from Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon, who 

 w ent on a voyage of discovery and kidnapping slaves along the coast 

 of what is now Georgia and South Carolina, in the years 1529-1534. 

 The designation of the land of Gomez in the Ribero map grew out 

 of the voyage of discovery of Estevan Gomez of Portugal in 1525. As 

 the shores of South and Central America and of the peninsula of 

 Florida had been examined by Columbus, Vespucius, Ponce de Leon 

 and Ayllon, and the extreme north by the Cabots for a western pass- 

 age to Cathay, and unsuccessfully, Gomez undertook the same quest 

 in the middle latitudes and examined the coast from about New York 

 to Maine, and the Ribero map rewarded him, by placing thereon the 

 name of the land of Gomez. But all this coast had already been 

 explored in the previous year, 1524, by Giovanni Verazzano, a 

 Florentine in the service of the king of France. As early as 1504 

 the French claim that their ships from Britany and Normandy 



