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Page 42
NINTH. "We had no intercourse with the people. After sailing between
east and north ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY LEAGUES MORE we determined to
return France, having discovered 700 leagues of unknown lands." 150
Making a total of 695 L.
Now let the reader trace for himself, these courses and distances,
as shown on the accompanying sketch of the map of Ribero. according
to the following scale, [Proofreaders Note: scale omitted]
representing the measurements in the letter; which are calculated on
the basis of 15.625 leagues to a degree, while those on the map are
17 1/2 leagues; and he will find, that not only is the whole
littoral distance between the parallels of 34 degrees and 50 degrees
on the map about seven hundred leagues, but that the several courses
and distances, of which this entire distance is composed according
to the letter, correspond with similar divisions on the map, proving
to a certainty that this map was the source from which the line of
coast described in the letter was derived, or the reverse.
It will be observed that the FIRST course, beginning according to
the letter at the landfall, in latitude 34 N., commences on the map
a little north of C. Trafalgar as there laid down, now Cape Fear,
and proceeds southerly fifty leagues to C. de S. Roman.
The first course being retraced, the SECOND, also of fifty leagues,
starting from the landfall near C. Traffalgar, extends to C. de S.
Juan of the map, the well known point of Hatteras.
The THIRD, runs from C. de S. Juan, one hundred leagues NORTHWARDLY,
to the Montana verde, the Navesinks at the mouth of the Hudson,
"described as the pleasant situation among steep hills, through
which a very large river forced its way into the sea." The perfect
identification of this course and distance has already been
observed.
The fourth extends EASTERLY from the Montana verde eighty leagues
and strikes the islands of the C. de Muchas yllas, or Cape Cod,
where, among the Elizabeth islands, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket,
the island of Louise is intended by the letter to be placed. This
course, easterly, fixes the position of that island at this point.
The FIFTH course and distance embrace fifteen leagues from the
islands of C. de Muchas yllas, but the direction is not stated, and
is left to be inferred from the fact which is stated that they
proceeded on to another place where they entered a harbor, at the
mouth of a large bay opening between NORTH and east, of twelve
leagues in width. This course must therefore have been NORTHERLY and
proceeded along the easterly shore of C. de Muchas yllas or Cape
Cod.
The sixth runs easterly from the harbor on the C. de Muchas yllas,
or Cape Cod, one hundred and fifty leagues EASTERLY which include
the opening of the great bay of twelve leagues and proceeds along
the Arecifes or C. Sable on the coast of Nova Scotia to the
Sarcales, probably Cape Canso at Chedabucto bay, WHERE THE COAST
TRENDED MORE NORTHERLY.
The SEVENTH, from the Sarcales, fifty leagues MORE TO THE NORTH,
extends along the tierra de los Bretones or island of C. Breton to
the cape of that name, passing the R. de la buelta, the easterly
limit of the voyage of Gomez. From this river easterly the map is
compiled, as the names indicate, from Portuguese charts.
The EIGHTH, from C. Breton FIFTY LEAGUES between north and east,
runs along the easterly coast of the tierra de los Bretones, to the
supposed northerly shore of the bay between that land and the tierra
de los Bacallaos or Newfoundland, but in reality the southerly
entrance into the gulf of St. Lawrence,
The NINTH from the termination of the last course, embraces one
hundred and fifty leagues between north and east along the coast of
the Bacallaos to C. Rasso or Cape Race and thence along the easterly
coast of the Bacallaos to the Y. de Bacallaos In latitude 50 degrees
N., the point of departure from the coast, and making the complement
of 695 leagues, in all.
Such exact and unexceptional concurrence in the observation of
distances for over two thousand miles, as this comparison exhibits,
by two different navigators sailing at different times, under
different circumstances of wind and weather, and under different
plans of exploration, is impossible. So far as regards the distances
running north and south, such an agreement might happen, because the
truth in that direction was ascertainable by any one, by means of
observations of the latitude; but not as regards those running east
and west; for these, no means of determining them existed, as before
explained: and accordingly on the Ribero map they are grossly
incorrect. From the Montana verde to the C. de Muchas yllas, that
is, from the Hudson to the west end of the peninsula of Cape Cod,
the distance appears to be eighty leagues, or nearly double its true
length; while the width of the great bay between the C. de Muchas
yllas and the Arecifes, or from Cape Cod to Cape Sable is shown to
be less than twenty leagues, whereas it is more than fifty. And so
also from the Arecifes to the Sarcales, from Cape Sable to Cape
Canso, it is one hundred and thirty-five leagues on the map, or
twice the actual distance. These great errors show how impossible it
was at that time to calculate longitudinal distances correctly. But
two navigators, sailing independently as mentioned, could not have
fallen into these errors exactly to the same extent, exaggerated in
the two cases by the same excessive length, and in the other by the
same extraordinary diminution. Yet in the particulars just described
the map and the letter correspond precisely. Such a coincidence of
mistakes, could not have been accidental.
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