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Page 31
No entirely legible copy of this map has yet been made public. Two
photographs, both much reduced from the original, have been made for
the American Geographical Society, from the larger of which, so much
as relates to the present purpose, has been carefully reproduced
here on the same scale. It is to be regretted that the names along
the coast, and the legends relating to the Verrazzano exploration,
are not photographed distinctly, though the legends and a few names
have been supplied by means of a pen. But although a knowledge of
all the names is necessary for a thorough understanding of this map,
these photographs, nevertheless, affording a true transcript of it
in other respects, enable us to determine that it is of no authority
as to the alleged discovery itself. [Footnote: This map was first
brought to public notice by M. Thomassey, in a memoir entitled, Les
Papes Geographes et la Cosmographie du Vatican, which was published
in the Nouvelles Annales des Voyages. Nouvelle serie, tome XXXV.
Annee 1853. Tome Troisieme. Paris. We are indebted to this memoir
for the explanation of our copy of the map of the scale of
distances, which is illegible on the photographs. According to this
explanation there should be nine points in the narrower, and
nineteen in the wider spaces. These being two and half leagues
apart, give twenty-five leagues for the smaller and fifty leagues
for the larger spaces, making three hundred and fifty leagues for
the whole scale.]
It will be found, in the first place, to contravene the Verrazzano
letter as to the limits of the discovery, both north and south, and
to indicate merely an attempt to reconcile that discovery generally
with the discoveries of the Spaniards, Bretons and Portuguese, as
shown on the maps of the period to which it relates. The coast of
North America is laid down continuously from the gulf of Mexico to
Davis straits, in latitude 60 Degrees N. Beginning at the point of
Florida, which is placed IN LATITUDE 33 1/2 Degrees N., more than
eight degrees north of its true position, it runs northerly along
the Atlantic, trending slightly to the west, to a bay or river, in
latitude 38 Degrees N. On this part of the country, called Terra
Florida, the arms of Spain are represented, denoting its discovery
by the Spaniards: and the whole of its coast for a distance of
eighty or ninety leagues, is entirely devoid of names.
From 38 Degrees N. that is, from the land of Florida as here shown,
the coast continues in a northerly direction thirty or forty leagues
farther, to a point between 40 Degrees and 41 Degrees N. when,
turning northeasterly, it runs with slight variations, on a general
course of east north east, for six hundred and fifty leagues to Cape
Breton placed in latitude 51 1/2 S., five and a half degrees north
of it true position. Along this part of the coast more than sixty
names of places occur at intervals sufficiently regular to denote
one continuous exploration. They are for the most part
undistinguishable on the photographs, but nine of them, at the
beginning, are made legible by hand, the first two of which
commencing AT LATITUDE 38 Degrees, are Dieppa and Livorno. The
others, proceeding north, are Punta de Calami, Palamsina, Polara
flor, Comana, Santiago, C. d' Olimpe, and Olimpe, indicating a
nomenclature different from that used on any other known map of this
region. At a distance of three hundred leagues from Dieppa, and IN
LATITUDE 46 Degrees N., is a large triangular island, designated by
the name of Luisia. Hence to Cape Breton the names are illegibly
photographed. Along this coast, at three points, namely, in latitude
42 Degrees; opposite the island of Luisia, in latitude 46; and in
latitude 50 Degrees, standards are displayed, the nationality of
which cannot be distinguished, but which no doubt were intended for
those of France, inasmuch as over them occurs the name of Nova
Gallia sive Iucatanet in large, commanding letters, with the
Verrazzano legend, before referred to underneath it, in these words:
'Verrazana seu Gallia nova quale discopri 5 anni fa Giovanni di
Verrazano fiorentino per ordine et comandamete del Chrystianissimo
Re di Francia; that is, Verrazzana or New Gaul which Giovanni di
Verrazzano, a Florentine, discovered five years ago by order and
command of the most Christian king of France. [Footnote: The names
Verrazzana and Verrazzano in this legend are WRITTEN on the
photograph by hand, with a double z, though M. Thomassey uses only
the single z, which is adopted on our copy. It would be a singular
circumstance, leading to some speculation, if they should really be
spelt with the two z's on the original. Hieronimo, if he were the
brother of Giovanni, would hardly have written his own name, as it
is inscribed on the map, with one z, and that of his brother with
two, in the same document.]
Over Cape Breton is a representation of the shield of Brittany,
denoted by its ermines, in token of the discovery of that country by
the Bretons, which is separated by a bay or gulf from Terra Nova
sive Le Molue, the latter term being evidently intended for Bacalao
(codfish, Fr. morue), the received name of Newfoundland. The
southerly coast of Terra Nova for an hundred leagues, and its
easterly coast running to the north, are delineated, with the
Portuguese name of C. Raso and the island of Baccalaos barely
legible. The coast runs north from C. Raso to C. Formoso in latitude
60 Degrees where it meets the straits which separate it from Terra
Laboratoris, the country discovered by Gaspar Cortereal on his first
voyage, but here attributed to the English, and being in fact
Greenland. [Footnote: Mr. Brevoort gives other names as legible on
the easterly coast of Terra Nova, which we have not been able to
distinguish, namely: c. de spera, illa de san luis, monte de trigo,
and illa dos avos. Mr. B. reads IUCATANET, and M. Margry YUCATANET,
where our engraver has IUCATANIA, for the general name of the
country. The word in either form is apochryphal, as Yucatan is
designated in its proper place, though as an island; but which form
is correct cannot be determined from the photograph.]
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