VOYAGE FROM ODESSA, 
400 
chap. Phidonisi \ It is placed wrong in all the charts : in 
> -i some it is altogether omitted ; indeed its exist- 
ence has been doubted by modern geographers. 
The best, and almost the only charts of the 
Black Sea, are those printed in Paris; yet 
even in these the Isle of Serpents lies 15 minutes, 
or geographical miles, too far towards the 
north. A greater error prevails respecting 
the port of Odessa, calculated to lead ships into 
danger : this is placed at least 27 out of 
its position towards the north. The great 
obscurity which often prevails over the Blach 
Sea, during winter, renders it a fortunate event 
to make the Isle of Serpents ; not only, as was 
said before, from the impossibility of descrying 
the coast near the Danube, but because ships 
are liable to run upon it during the night. The 
principal cause of danger, however, must be 
(l) It is laid down in the manuscript chart of Freducius of Ancona, 
preserved in the Library of IFolfcnbutcl, near Vienna, under the name 
of Fidonixi, and delineated as having a port. This chart bears date 
A. D. 1497. Count John Potochi, in its illustration, states that Fidn- 
Nixi signifies Isle de la Foy. The Count sailed from the Dnieper for 
Constantinople in 1784, and gives this account of the island, which he 
passed during the voyage : “ J'ai fait nwi-memc ce trajet on I'anncc 
1784, el n’ai pas manqud de demander s’il ne se trouvoit pas dans I'isle 
dcs restes de temple ou de quelque autre edifice. Von me ripondmt alm s, 
qu'il etoit difficile d'y aborder ; taut pareeque la cite ctoit dasigcratse qvc 
pareeque la terre y itoit couverte de serpents vdnimeux." lil ('■moire sur 
un Nouveau Peryple du Pont F.uxin, par le Comte Jeon Potochi. 
Vien. 1796. 
