USA > Maine > A history of the discovery of Maine > Part 25
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Agnese delineates on his chart a third, or northern, great highway through America to the eastern countries of Asia. He makes it com- mence at some harbor of France, perhaps in Normandy; then passes it by water, or over a narrow strip of land, across the isthmus of New England, into the neighboring Pacific Ocean, and thence directly on a straight course to " Cataia provincia " (the province of Cathay) and the great city of Quinsay, which he places at the north of the Moluc- cas. He calls the dotted line marking this course "el viages de France" (the voyages of France). That he is not, however, quite sure of the correctness of this third highway across America to Asia, may be inferred from the fact, that while he indicates this way by dots only, he represents the passages of Spain and Portugal by gilded and sil- vered tracings.
The particular interest which the map has for our locality is, that it makes New England a narrow isthmus between the Atlantic and Pacific, across which the proposed highway of the king of France runs directly to China.
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MAPS BY DIFFERENT AUTHORS, 1530-1544.
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3. ON FOUR MAPS, No. 15 a, b, c, d, OF NORTH AMERICA, BY DIFFER- ENT AUTHORS BETWEEN 1530 AND 1544.
The general features of the map of Agnese just described, such as the meagre continent, the proximity of the Atlantic and Pacific, the narrow isthmus of New England, and the highway over it from France to China, were retained on many maps after that time. It would be tedious and unnecessary to mention them in detail. But I have selected some of them from different authors, and brought them together on map No. 15. By this it will be perceived, that the ideas to which I have alluded, were deeply rooted in the minds of geogra- phers in the middle of the sixteenth century. I have been able to include these various drafts on a single plate, because they contain very few names, with rough outlines, and no minute work.
The first map, No. 15 a, is a sketch of North America, from a map of the new world contained in the Ptolemy, edited in Basle, 1530. The map was drawn and engraved a few years after Verrazano's expedi- tion. It has nothing of the Spanish expeditions to Peru and California.
The plate upon which it was engraved, must have been in use for a long time; for the same map appears both in earlier and in much later editions of Ptolemy, without any corrections or additions whatever. The same also reappears in the cosmography of Sebastian Münster, published in Basle. I myself have seen the same delineation in an edition of Munster of the year 1572. It may also have been presented to the " curious public" in still later works.
In the work from which I take the sketch, it has the very an- cient title "Novarum insularum descripto" (a description of the new islands). And after this, follows a Latin note, of which the following is a verbal translation : " Nearly infinite is the number of new islands, which, since the year 1492 until this day, have been discovered by the Spaniards. The most remarkable of these islands are America,* Cuba, Hispaniola, Francisca,t terra Florida. America received her name from the discoverer; and, from its magnitude, the whole is called a New World. It has several adjacent islands, namely : Pariana and Hispana, which is also called Ophir."
North America is circumscribed within narrow limits. "Zipangu" is very near to Mexico, surrounded by the " Archipelago of 7448 islands," taken from the maps of the time before Behaim and Columbus. New England is located upon the narrow isthmus above mentioned, and is
" The name " America," for a long time was applied only to South America.
t Canada.
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RUSCELLI'S MAP, 1544.
partly included in "Francisca," the old name of New France. All the rest of North America is placed under the head of "Terra Florida." Newfoundland is called "Corterati," a corruption of the name Corte- real. The other names on the map will explain themselves.
It is an extraordinary fact, that such a sketch should have been pub- Ished repeatedly in works of high repute, for more than half a century, until 1572. It shows how slowly improvements were made in maps prepared for the instruction of the people. The map, No. 15 a, has this particular interest for us, that it is probably the first on which ' the Sea of Verrazano" was depicted in the form given to it by Lok, in 1582. I have found no map prior to 1530, on which this delineation appears.
No. 15 b. This sketch of North America is taken from a map said to have been made by Girolamo Ruscelli,* of Viterbo, of whom some account has already been given, in treating (Appendage to Chap. VI, {2) of the map, No. 12. That map was composed by him in 1561; but before that date he must have composed others. And our sketch is a nduced copy of one of those ascribed to him, which I found in the Fritish Museum, bearing the date of 1544. On this map Ruscelli draws tle isthmus of New England according to the notions of Agnese and the author of No. 15 a, which probably were the original ideas of Verra- zano. He presents, however, the "Sea of Verrazano " as a part of the Northern Ocean (Oceanus Settentrionalis). As on the former maps, North America has here only two principal sections, " La Florida " and "Terra de Baccalaos." At the south-west of Florida appears New Spun, "Nueva Hispania." In respect to the connection of the new wald, with Asia on one side, and with Europe on the other, Ruscelli adiered to the old notions. As Peschel says, " he fell back into the old Ptolemaic errors."t He represents North America as connected on a broad line with Asia. His "India superior" (Cathay) stands at no great distance north-east of New Spain. A similar error was made, at alater date, by other geographers. On the other side, he connects "Terra de Baccalaos," including New England, Canada, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Labrador, by the way of " Grotlandia," with "Norve- gia' in Europe; so that the whole North Atlantic, on his map, as on the old Scandinavian maps, is surrounded in the north, by continuous land And he repeats, in the different editions of his Italian Ptolemy of 1:61, 1563, exactly the same description of America.
* See upon Ruscelli, T. Lelewel, Geographie du moyen age, tom. 1, p. 170. Brussels, 1852.
t Ieschel, Geschichte der Erdkunde, p. 371. München, 1865.
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298
MAP OF 1536.
No. 15 c. This is a fragment of a map, contained in a manuscript Portolano, preserved in the Bodleian library at Oxford. On one of the maps of this Portolano, we see in the handwriting of the map, the date, " 1536 die martii." The author is nowhere mentioned. But it is shown from internal evidence, that the author must have been either the Por- tuguese Diego Homem, or the Italian Baptista Agnese, both of whom repeatedly gave on their maps exactly the same configurations of the countries brought to view, as are represented on our sketch. The map is quite similar to No. 14, with this difference only, that the great oceanic highroad from France to Cathay, in the present sketch, runs through an open passage between "Terra de Baccalaos " (Newfound- land and Labrador) and "Terra de los Bretones " (Nova Scotia and New England), and not, as on No. 14, over the Isthmus of New Eng- land. At the time when the author made this map he must have been acquainted, either with the discoveries on the St. Lawrence River by Cartier in 1534 and 1535, or, at least, with Cartier's intentions and plans for thesc expeditions. Cartier, as well as other explorers of this time, who entered any inlet or river-mouth on our east coast, thought he had found an opening to the Pacific and to Cathay. It was a general belief for some time after Cartier, that " his river " (the St. Lawrence) was no a river at all, but a broad opening, an oceanic passage or highway t> Northern China. Even Ramusio, as I have before remarked, stated, in 1533, that all the countries seen by Cartier toward the north, were prol- ably only islands cut up by channels .* This map indicates the north- west passage to China, which Cartier suggested, by a dotted line fron a harbor in France across the Atlantic, entering the American conti- nent between "Terra de los Bretones " and " Terra de Baccalaos," anxl reaching the coast of "Cataia provincia " in about 40º N. Our mars, Nos. 14 and 15, are probably the first maps on which a north-west passage is distinctly drawn.
No. 15 d. This number is a copy of a sketch of North America, made about the year 1540, by Diego Homem, a Portuguese. Homem was a well-known map-maker, of the first half of the sixteenth century. of whom I shall speak more fully hereafter. His maps and manner of composing them, are so similar to those of his contemporary Agnese, that one would think they had copied each other. Most probably the Italian copied the Portuguese.
I annex here Homem's sketch merely for the purpose of showing, that, at the time of Verrazano's and Cartier's first voyages, North America was depicted even by the Portuguese as a very narrow con-
*See Ramusio in his Introductory Discourse, vol. 3, fol. 4. Venetia, 1556.
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299
CHART OF RIBERO, 1529.
try, with an isthmus in the region of New England. I found the map from which this is copied in the British Museum, under the name of Diego Homem, but without a date. It must, however, be assigned to about the year 1540. For its explanation, I refer to my remarks on the sketches preceding it on the same plate.
II. CHARTS TO GOMEZ.
1. ON CHART, No. 16, OF THE EAST COAST OF NORTH AMERICA, FROM A MAP OF THE WORLD, BY DIEGO RIBERO, IN 1529.
Diego Ribero was a very able map-maker and cosmographer of Spain, at the beginning of the sixteenth century. He is often men- tioned by the early Spanish historians, Gomara, Oviedo, and Herrera, as "Maestro de hacer cartas" (a master in map-making), and as ".Cosmograph de Su Majestad" (cosmographer of His Majesty). He is said to have made many charts, having for his partner in this business the Portuguese Pedro Reinel, of whom we have given a chart in No. 9.
In 1524, at the celebrated junta of Badajoz, which was called upon to decide the difficult question about the division of the world between Spain and Portugal, Ribero was employed as " Consultor" (Counselor) "to furnish the members of that junta with the necessary charts, globes, and instruments." He also made the charts for the second great expedition to the Straits of Magellan and the South Sea, under the command of Loaysa in 1525, who is said "to have had Ribero's charts on board." Ribero's charts were not made from actual survey ; for as far as we know, he never was a voyager and explorer, like Juan de la Cosa, who, for the most part, made his drawings on the spot. Ribero's maps and charts were all compilations, made by study and research.
In 1526 the emperor Charles V, hearing that the then existing sea- charts were very uncertain and contradictory, appointed a commission of cosmographers and pilots, under the presidency of Don Hernando Colon, the son of the great Christopher; [and ordered them to review and correct the Spanish charts; to bring them into harmony and uni- formity, and to make such additions as were required by recent dis- coveries. This commission prepared a map of the world, drawn on parchment, which is preserved in the collections of the Grand Duke of Weimar in Germany; on which is an inscription stating that it was drawn by " a cosmographer of his Majesty," probably Hernando Colon himself, in the year 1527.
Ribero, as one of the commissioners, was probably employed on this map of 1527. However this may be, in the year 1529 he composed a
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300
CHART OF RIBERO, 1529.
similar map of the world, which, in exactness and beauty, surpassed that of 1527; and which contained, in addition, the Spanish discove- ries made after that date. This document, drawn on parchment, after having passed through several hands, is also preserved in the collec- tions of the Grand Duke of Weimar. The emperor, Charles V, prob- ably carried it himself from Spain to Germany, on his journey through Italy to Augsburg in 1580. In Bologna, where, at the end of 1529, he had an interview with the Pope, he probably showed him the map,* and presented him with the copy, which is still preserved in Rome.t And then, perhaps, the Venetians also procured the copy which they printed and published in 1534, at Venice.#
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As a work of great accuracy, and as an official map, "composed at the command of the emperor Charles V.," it has always attracted the attention of the learned, and has been copied and used by many per- sons. In subsequent times, when the discovery and exploration of America had made further progress, it was, like other old maps belong- ing to the beginning of the age of discovery, laid aside and forgotten, In modern times, when the history of American geography began to be treated in a more critical manner, it was again brought to light. A German geographer, Sprengel, at the end of the eighteenth century wrote an essay on it; and that part of it which represents America was copied and engraved by Güsselfeldt, a German. This remarkable document attracted the earnest attention of the Baron Humboldt; and he and the illustrious owner of the map, the Grand Duke Charles Au- gustus Saxe Weimar, are said to have been often observed sitting in that part of the grand ducal library, which is called " the tower," with this picture of the world before them, discussing the contents of the old parchment, and admiring its beautiful workmanship. In 1860, a fac-simile of this map of Ribero of 1529, and also of that of the year 1527, were published, with critical notes, by the author of the present work.
.Our map, No. 16 is a reduced but exact copy of the east coast of North America, as given in this last-mentioned fac-simile. It is unne- cessary to give here the contents of the map of 1527, because it has throughout the same configuration of the east coast, and the same names with Ribero's map, though less perfect and less complete. A few exceptions to this remark I shall hereafter have occasion to mention.
* I have made this probable in a work published by me under the title: " Die beiden Aeltesten General-Karten von America," etc., p. 43-44, Weimar, 1860.
t See MI. R. Thomassy, Les Papes geographes, etc., in Nouvelles annales des voyages, III, p. 272 seq. 1953.
# I have a copy of this Venetian draft in my possession. It gives only the general features of our map.
.. #
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301
CHART OF RIBERO, 1529.
Our map comprises the entire development of the North American east coast, from Florida in the south, to Greenland and Iceland in the north, and the greater western half of the North Atlantic Ocean. In the ocean, there may be observed, scattered through its vast spaces, a few of the old fabulous islands, " Brasil," "Maidas," " Ya Verde,"-the last remnants of the geographical myths of the middle ages, as they are about to disappear.
"Iceland " has its true position in about 70° N.
In the western part of the ocean we find " La Bermuda," discovered about 1526, in its true position. This is the first time that we see the Bermudas depicted on a map. Between these islands, in the midst of the ocean, on the usual home-track of the Spanish vessels, a ship is seen under full sail, with the inscription, " Vengo de las Indias" (I come from the Indies).
Greenland, Labrador, and Newfoundland, on our map, have the same configuration as had been given to them on many former maps. They were probably taken from the Portuguese maps, drawn originally from the actual surveys of the Cabots and Cortereals ; for instance, from the map of Pedro Reinel (map No. 9); who, as has been before remarked, was a partner of Ribero, and perhaps his teacher.
Greenland has here the same name given to it as on Portuguese maps, namely, " Tierra del Labrador," and has over it the inscription, "This country the English discovered; but there is nothing useful in it."
Newfoundland and Labrador are joined by one continuous coast- line, and there is no indication of the Strait of Belle Isle, or of the insu- larity of Newfoundland. The south-eastern part of Newfoundland is, however, very well drawn, particularly its great south-eastern penin- sula, now called " Placentia and St. Mary." These bays and harbors, so well delineated, must all have been explored by observing seamen, before this map was drawn in 1529.
" C. Rasso" (Race) has its true latitude of about 47º N. The name given to Newfoundland and Labrador is, "Tierra de los bacallaos ;" and to this there is added the inscription, "which the Cortereals dis- covered, and they were lost here. Until now, nothing very useful has been found in it, except the cod-fishery, which, however, is of little esteem."
This language of some Spanish cosmographer would certainly not have been admitted by the Portuguese, Normans, or Bretons, of that period. The disparaging terms of this inscription appear, however, to lend some support to the view of Navarrete, above quoted, that the Newfoundland fisheries were not much frequented by the Spanish Basques before the voyage of Gomez in 1525.
302
CHART OF RIBERO, 1529.
The inlet between " Tierra del Labrador" and " Tierra de los bacal- laos," the present Hudson's and Davis' Straits, is closed on our map, and represented as a gulf. The Gulf of St. Lawrence, south of New- foundland, is likewise closed. Both of these inlets, on the map of Her- nando Colon, 1527, are represented as being open. Some writers have suggested, that Ribero represents these waters as closed, not from ignorance, but by design, and for political reasons. The king of Spain, so these writers argue, wished to turn the attention of the English and French from the north-east coast of America, and throw obstacles in the way of their finding here a passage to the Pacific and China; and therefore ordered him to represent the coast as everywhere a continu- ous and unbroken continent .* Against this suggestion, however, there is this fact, if nothing else, that charts, like that of the royal cosmogra- pher Ribero, were made only for the use of the king of Spain, and his officers; and that to show such charts to foreigners, was regarded as high treason in Spain, unless this was done by the act of the emperor himself, as in his presenting them to the pope.
At the west of the opening of the Gulf of St. Lawrence appears the square-shaped end of Cape Breton and the peninsula of Nova Scotia, called here as usual, "Tierra de los Bretones." The distance of the eastern point of this country from Cape Race, is here made about a hundred and twenty Spanish leagues, which is somewhat greater than the true distance. From that point for about three hundred leagues, the coast runs east and west; and then with a great bend, turns to the south. On this large section of the coast. we find the inscription, " The country of Stephen Gomez, which he discovered at the command of His Majesty in the year 1525. There are here many trees and fruits similar to those in Spain; and many walrusses, and salmon and fish of all sorts. Gold they have not found." The name of the country " Tierra de Estevan Gomez" is written in large letters in the first line.
* [The writers referred to have probably derived their opinion from such statements as that of Sir Humphrey Gilbert in his " Discourse to prove a passage by the north- west to Cathaia," where, in chap. 10 ( Hakluyt's Voyages, etc., vol. 3, p. 23, ed. ot 1600, London), he says: " It is likely that the king of Spaine, and the king of Portugall, would not have sit out [quietly] all this while, but that they are sure to possesse to themselves all that trade they now use, and feare to deale in this discovery, least the Queen's Majesty having so good opportunitie, and finding the commoditie which thereby might ensue to the commonwealth, would ent them off. and enjoy the whole raffique herselfe, and thereby the Spaniards and Portugals, with their great charges, should beate the bush, and other men catch the birds: which thing they foreseeing, have commanded that no pilot of theirs, upon paine of death, should seeke to discorer to the Northwest, or plut out, in any Sea card, any thorou passage that way by the North. west."-ED.]
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CHART OF RIBERO, 1529.
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Up to the year 1525, according to Herrera's statement, " no Spanish vessels had sailed along this section of our coast." From the West India Islands in the south, the Spaniards, under the command of Ponce de Leon in 1512, and Ayllon in 1520, had explored the coast north- ward to about 33º or 34º N. But in 1526, Ayllon had sailed as far north as about 38°, a little beyond Chesapeake Bay (Baia de St. Maria). From thence northward, the coast was unknown to the Spaniards, except by what they had heard about it from Sebastian Cabot, whose explorations had been delineated in Spain by Cosa, in 1500; and ex- cepting also, what they learned afterwards from the discoveries of Gomez in 1525.
From these circumstances we may infer, that Ribero drew this section of our coast entirely from the explorations and reports of Gomez; and we have in the names and coast-lines which he gives, a very good representation of this famous region, particularly interesting to us, on which the Spanish historians unhappily are so very deficient.
I will endeavor to decipher and identify the names and objects given on our map, proceeding as Gomez himself did, from north-east to south-west.
At the distance of about twenty-five leagues from the south-east point of "tierra de los Bretones," we find an inlet on our map on which is written the name, " Rio de la buelta" (the river of return). It is possible that the " Gut of Canso" is meant here; that Gomez looked into it, and not finding the outlet, returned from it.
About twenty-five leagues onward to the west, we find a bay with some small islands before it, with the name, "sarçales " (brambles). There are on the coast of Nova Scotia many islets with brambles and shrubs. The distance above given would bring us to the Bay of Hali- fax, which possibly is indicated here.
About twenty leagues further to the west comes another inlet with the name, " R. de montañas " (the River of Mountains). The distance brings us to the bays and harbors of Metway and Bristol. Mr. Blunt, in his Coast Pilot says, that near Metway harbor, some inland hum- mocks may be seen; and he observes, that to the west of Halifax the highlands of Apostogon and La Have are in sight on the coast .* Per- haps Gomez saw these highlands near his " R. de montañas."
About thirty leagues further west, a somewhat larger opening occurs, with the name of "Golfo." It is possible, that the broad entrance of the Bay of Fundy is meant here. Gomez probably saw something of this entrance; but fog or other unfavorable circumstances may have prevented him from observing it more accurately.
* See Blunt, American Coast l'ilot, 18th edition, p. 178. New York, 1857.
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CHART OF RIBERO, 1529.
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Passing from Cape Sable, the western cape of Nova Scotia, and hav- ing caught only a glimpse of the Bay of Fundy, in the midst of fogs and storms, Gomez descried a coast on which he perceived a long se- ries of reefs, breakers, leadlands, and small islands. He describes the coast west of the "Golfo " by the words " medanos " (sand-hills) and "arecifes " (reefs). He puts down also small islands along the coast- line. Here we are evidently on the much indented and broken coast of Maine, which abounds in islands far more than Nova Scotia, or any other section of the American east coast.
About sixty leagues to the west of " Golfo" (Bay of Fundy), there is depicted a long, deep, triangular inlet, full of islands, running directly south and north, and ending at the north in a river. It is the most prominent object on the whole coast. The latitude given to its mouth is 44º N., and the longitude about that of the island of Bermuda.
This description agrees nearly in every point with the broad triangu- lar Penobscot Bay, the largest inlet and river on the coast of New Eng- land. Gomez probably entered this inlet, and explored it more accu- rately than any other part of the coast; and in his report to the king may probably have lavished his praises on its harbors, its islands, and beautiful scenery. Since the year 1529, it is delineated on subsequent maps in the same manner as Ribero has here depicted it, after the sur- veys of Gomez. On these maps it is sometimes called " Rio Grande " (Great River) or " Rio de las Gamas" (Deer River), or, at a later date, " the great river of Norumbega."
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