USA > Maine > A history of the discovery of Maine > Part 31
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From the fact that the inscriptions and names of the map are written in Spanish, and also because Charles V, in one of the inscriptions, is called " Nuestro señor" (our lord), we might be induced to think, that the map was engraved and published in Spain. But other considera- tions render this supposition improbable.
Long before the date of this map, there were, in Spain, very able mathematicians and map-makers; but they made their charts for the
* Edition Antverpiae, 1609.
.
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CABOT'S MAP, 1544.
king of Spain, or for his hydrographical bureau, and for the use of the Spanish navy. Such charts were kept in manuscript, because the Spanish officials were desirous of preventing their discoveries from being known. In the year 1527, only seventeen years before the date of this map, the English merchant, Robert Thorne, in his well-known letter to Doctor Ley, ambassador of Henry VIII. to the Emperor Charles, says, that "in Spain, none may make Cardes but certain ap- pointed and allowed masters, as for that peradventure it woulde not sounde well to them, that a stranger shoulde knowe or discover their secretes." And in sending to his countryman a very rough and small chart of the world, Thorne entreats him not to show or communicate this chart to the other courts of Europe, " because it might bee a cause of paine to the maker." Is it probable that seventeen years after this, the policy of the Spanish government would have been so changed, as to allow a complete and detailed chart of the world to be engraved, printed, and published in Spain in the name of the royal chief pilot ?
All the first engraved maps of the world, particularly of the new world, were published elsewhere than in Spain, and principally in Italy and Germany. Not one of the editions of Ptolemy, to which the first maps of the modern discoveries were attached, was published in Spain. Ortelius, in his catalogue above quoted of two hundred maps and charts of the sixteenth century, has not mentioned a single map representing America, or any parts of it, as having been engraved and published in Spain. The two maps of America which were first printed in Spain, so far as I know, are those added, first, to the Spanish work of Pedro de Medina, "Libro de grandezas y cosas memorables de Spaña," published in 1549; and, second, to Gomara's history of the Indies, published in 1554. These, however, are not sea-charts, but only general outlines of the new world in a very small compass, gathered from well-known foreign publications. The publishing of such small charts might have been easily allowed by the Spanish government in the middle of the sixteenth century, without incurring any danger of betraying its secrets.
Oviedo, in the second part of his great work on the history of Amer- ica, which he wrote several years after 1544, mentions the map of Ribero made in 1529, and of Chaves made in 1536; but does not allude to a map of Sebastian Cabot, as having been published in Spain.
The copy of the map of 1544, which I am examining, was found in Germany; but several copies of maps, ascribed to Sebastian Cabot, formerly existed in England; and one is mentioned by Ortelius as having been seen by him in Belgium. These may have been copies, or perhaps different editions of the map engraved in 1544, as they all have
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CABOT'S MAP, 1544.
a general resemblance. But though seen in other countries,* not a single copy is known to have existed in Spain, or to have come from there.
We therefore come to the conclusion, that the Cabot map was neither engraved nor published in Spain, but perhaps in Germany or Belgium. In Belgium, particularly in Antwerp, many Spanish books were early printed, and there, as well as in Spain, they might call the Emperor Charles "nuestro señor." There, too, they could take more liberty with Spanish secrets; though even there, the publisher may have had his reasons for not mentioning his name, or the place of publication.
If it should appear probable, for the reasons adduced, that this map was not published in Spain, but in some other country, as Belgium for instance, it is rendered extremely doubtful, whether Cabot, who was then residing in Spain, had any agency in it. Is it to be supposed that he would direct the work from so distant a country as Spain, examine proof-sheets, correct errors, and do other necessary acts in the publica- tion ? This doubt is confirmed by the contents of the map, such as the configuration of the countries, the orthography of the names attached to them, and other circumstances, which go to show that Cabot could not have prepared or inspected the work.
In the inscription, No. XVII, the map is called a marine chart (carta de marcar) ; but it is not strictly this, but something between a chart and a map. For in regions where the interior was known, as in Europe and Asia, the map gives the rivers, mountains, and cities belonging thereto.
But the shape and outlines of these portions of the old world, although covered by a series of names, are not accurately given. They were much better represented on several maps of the middle of the sixteenth century, particularly on some French and Italian maps. Even the coasts of the best and earliest known of all the seas, the Mediterranean, are here much misshapen and misplaced. Even Spain itself, and also Great Britain, the countries in which Sebastian Cabot passed the greater part of his life, are very carelessly represented : as, for instance, Ireland is made as large as England and Scotland together. In Spain, we find places like " Guadelupe " mentioned, but not the im- portant harbor of Corunna. In Great Britain, several small places are indicated, but not Bristol !- that commercial centre, in which the Cabots lived, and from which their exploring expeditions proceeded ..
* These engraved maps, ascribed to Sebastian Cabot, and reported to have been seen in England and Belgium, are enumerated in Charles Deane's Remarks on Sebastiau Cabot's " Mappe-monde," pp. 3, 4. Cambridge, 1567.
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CABOT'S MAP, 1544.
In connection with Bristol I may also observe, that this map gives to Iceland the longitude of the Shetland Islands! and places it directly north, instead of north-west of Scotland. The route from Great Britain to Iceland had been, from time immemorial, familiar to British ships, in their yearly traffic. That Iceland was situated north-west, and not north of Great Britain, must have been known in Cabot's time to every sailor in Bristol. How then can we account for it, that Cabot, on a maritime chart, should have made so great a mistake with respect to an island so well known?
The ill success of the author in delineating the oldest countries, does not lead us to anticipate any better results in his attempts in the new world. I may however add, that his latitudes and drawings of the new world are, in some instances, better than those of the old world, as in those of Mexico, Yucatan, Florida, and some others.
The language of the map is partly Latin and partly Spanish. The Latin is not always correct or elegant .* But it is more surprising, that the Spanish terms and names are corrupted and disfigured in such an extraordinary way, that sometimes it is nearly impossible to make out what the author means. I will give some instances :
España is called "Hispaia"; the island "S. Miguel," "S. Migel"; the island "S. Juan Estevanez," "de Juaninos" (? ); Bimini is writ- ten " binimi "; the "Laguna of Nicaragua," " Laguna de Nicaxagoe."
The Spanish phrase, which occurs on the map, "por aqui no puede passar" (here one cannot pass), is written pora quinopede pasar. Another Spanish phrase, "aqui se desembarco Pamfilo de Narvaez " (here landed Pamphilo de Narvacz), is written thus, aqui de san barco panfilo de narnaez, etc.
Such errors furnish strong proof that Cabot had no agency, either in writing the map, or correcting it, or in any way superintending its pub- lication ; but on the contrary, that some ignorant compiler bad copied an original manuscript in a very careless manner, and had written, in bad Spanish, his construction of the language. Still, in the inscription, No. XVII, the map is styled, "a faithful and most learned guide " (fida doctissimaque magistra) !
The old maps, it is true, often have a quaint style of their own; a mixture of Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, etc .; but such barbarous lan- guage and such false orthography as are seen on this map of 1544, are never found on the maps of Ribero prior to this date; nor on the
* [Chytræus, in copying these inscriptions, takes care to say, that he does this, " non propter latinitati-, qua non magna est, elegantiam." Varior. in Europa Itiner. Deliciæ, p. 599 .- ED.]
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CABOT'S MAP, 1544.
French charts some years later, where everything is comparatively correct.
On this map, in the region of Carolina, a tiger-like animal is drawn, which, with a sweep of his tail, completely covers up, or brushes out, a large section of an important coast.
It would appear to be incredible, that a distinguished mariner and a mathematician, like Cabot, should not have been shocked by such a rough and stupid proceeding; and that he should not have corrected the draftsman, who could prefer an elaborate picture of the tuft of a tail, to a correct drawing of the coast-line.
This may suffice for the present in considering the question, how far Sebastian Cabot may be regarded as having made this map; or rather, it may serve to show, how utterly improbable it is, that it was either originally drawn by him, or executed under his direction or superin- tendence. I will now endeavor to analyze the particular contents of the fragment of this map, of which we have given a sketch in No. 20.
In the high north, there is depicted a large tract of country, the coast- line of which ends in about 67º 30' N., with the inscription, " costa del hues norueste " (coast running west-north-west). This is the latitude in which Cabot's voyage of 1498, according to his own statement, ended. It appears from this, that it was designed to indicate here the ne plus ultra of this voyage. However, in giving this latitude of 67º 30' N., he is, at the same time, stated to have said, that there the coast had been, for some distance, trending to the east. I have tried to explain above, that this coast could have been no other than that of Cumber- land Island in Davis' Strait, and that therefore, with Humboldt and some other authors, we should look for the termination of Cabot's second voyage on the shores of this island. On the other hand, Mr. Biddle puts the highest northern latitude reached by Cabot in Fox Channel, on the shores of Melville peninsula; while our map puts it on the shores of a country which has the form of the Greenland of all the early maps,* and makes there the coast turn to the west-north-west. Our map appears, accordingly, to be in contradiction to the statement ascribed to Cabot, that, in the high north, he was arrested by a coast trending to the east.
Between that nameless arctic country (Greenland) and the next large portion of territory at the south, the present Labrador, the map shows a gulf in about 58º N. This gulf, at least in its eastern portion, must
* Compare the configuration of this arctic country, which is nameless on our map, with the configuration given to " tierra de Labrador" (Greenland) on our maps, Nos. 16 and 19.
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CABOT'S MAP, 1544.
be the beginning of Davis' Strait. It runs on this map, however, not like Davis Strait north-north-west, but nearly due east and west. like Hudson's Strait ; nor is it as broad as Davis' Strait. This strait, instead of opening in the west as a spacious sea like Hudson's Strait, is repre- sented as discharging itself in a fresh-water river (rio duce). This de- lineation of the entrance of Hudson's Strait does not support the opinion of some authors, who have thought that Cabot passed through Hudson's Strait, and discovered the broad open water of Hudson's Bay.
The great tract of country south of Davis' and Hudson's Straits (Rio duce), is a disfigured and contracted picture of the present peninsula of Labrador, which, with portions of Davis' Strait, was delineated much better in 1504, after the chart of Cortereal, as appears on our map No. S.
In the essay upon this map, No. 8, I have said, that it was very. creditable to Cortereal to have given so true a picture of the coasts of Labrador, Greenland, and Davis' Strait. In comparison with that map, we may well ask, is it to be supposed that Cabot, who had twice visited the coast of Labrador, and gone high up into Davis' Strait, should, in 1544, have furnished a chart of those regions so incorrect and imper- fect, as the one we are examining ?
Between Labrador and Newfoundland on the south, the Strait of Belle Isle, as surveyed by Cartier in 1534, is clearly depicted. The cape at its northern entrance, is called " Cabo del gado del mare"* (Cape of the Cod-fish) ; and it may interest us to know, that here we have another Cape Cod.
The cape at the southern entrance is called "Cabo de Gamas " (Deer Cape), and the numerous islands are arranged in lines, four and four, along the south coast of Labrador in a fantastical manner, an unwar- rantable invention of the author of the map, having probably no other authority than the report of Cartier, " that along this coast were many islets."
The gulf and river St. Lawrence are truly represented according to the surveys and reports of Cartier and Roberval, whose charts could not have appeared in Europe before 1542. But the French maps of the time are more complete and in better style, as is shown in our copies, Nos. 18 and 19. In the present map, the French names are sadly changed and corrupted ; as for instance, "baya del loreme " ( ?), "Rio de S. quenam" for Cartier's " Rivière du Saguenay," etc. Near that part of the river where Cartier puts his "premier sault" (first rapids), our map has the corrupted Spanish phrase, " pora quinopede
" The map has incorrectly "maro."
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CABOT'S MAP, 1544.
pasar" (here one cannot pass) ; and some other corrupted names, as "tuttonaer," and " estadas."
Newfoundland is here erroneously broken up into a group of islands of various sizes, in accordance with an antiquated notion of this re- gion. Cabot would certainly have been better acquainted with New- foundland than to have so described it. The names given to it are the same as contained on the Cartier maps, especially the Portuguese, whose orthography the author seems to have adopted. We find no names attached to it such as we may suppose Cabot would have given. The names "St. Gregor," "Cape of England," etc., on the south of New- foundland, which are seen on Cosa's map of 1500, and which Cosa may have taken from the chart of Cabot's first voyage, do not appear at all on this map.
South-west of Newfoundland, Cape Breton and Nova Scotia may be recognized. Here, too, occur the famous inscriptions, " prima vista," and " prima tierra vista " (the land first seen). These words are evi- dently attached to the northern point of the island of Cape Breton; and this inscription has led some esteemed authors to designate that locality as the part of North America first discovered by the Cabots. These learned authors are strengthened in their opinion by the fact, that the island which the Cabots discovered near their first land-fall, and named Ya de S. Juan (St. John), is here placed near this "Prima vista," and bears the name given by the Cabots. It is apparently what we now call Prince Edward Island. But I will leave this subject at present, and return to it hereafter.
South and west of " Prima vista " and Cape Breton, stretches a long line of coast, first in a south-western, and then in nearly a due western direction, through thirty degrees of longitude. There can be no doubt that this is intended to represent the coast of Nova Scotia and New England. On my examination of Cosa's map and for other reasons, I came to the conclusion, that Sebastian Cabot, on his voyage of 1498, surveyed this coast, and depicted, with much clearness, the Gulf of Maine and also Cape Cod on the chart which he brought home, and which Cosa copied in 1500. The author of our present map appears not to have used this survey of Cabot; but has copied the whole coast- line from Ribero's and other Spanish charts, which were themselves copied from those of Gomez. For the illustration of Cabot's own voyages, this map of 1544 is not as valuable as that of Cosa of 1500.
But the author of our map, if he copied Ribero and Gomez, has done it in a very careless and imperfect manner. He places the entire coast- line of Nova Scotia nearly two degrees too far south, and does not give so good a view of the Gulf of Maine as that presented in Ribero's
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CABOT'S MAP, 1544.
map: though he has not omitted the long chain of small islands, by which the coast of Maine is particularly characterized.
He has inserted upon this coast many Spanish names, principally those which were adopted by Ribero from Gomez, though he has omit- ted some of them. Four or five of them he gives in duplicate, namely the following: " baya de S. Christoval," "riv de San Antonio," " Rio de buena madre," "montagnas," which are placed in the centre of this coast-line, and then again in the same manner, and in the same order, at the west end. This doubling of names can be nothing else than an extraordinary blunder, or a mark of great negligence in the prepara- tion of the map. We can, therefore, attach but little importance to these names as defining localities, and I shall pay but little attention to them.
I will, however, try to designate some of the places passing from east to west:
Along the coast of Nova Scotia some names are placed which I have not seen on any other map, as " C. Madabida " ( ?), " baya pequeña " (a small bay), "rio dabol " (?), " cacomedas " (?), and after this "rio fon- do" (deep river), an oft-recurring name, which probably indicates the Bay of Fundy.
After some other insignificant names appear the following: "rio de peros " (river of dogs), and " Costa de Don Marti " (coast of Don Marti), which evidently belong to the coast of Maine. I cannot tell from whom these new names were obtained by the author of this map. Was it from some Spanish visitor, a certain "Don Marti," for instance, un- known to us ?
Near " Don Marti" is that large river which Gomez discovered and laid down on his map, and which the Spaniards called " Rio de Gamas " (Penobscot Bay). It is called on our map " baya fernosa," probably a mistake for " baya fermosa" (the beautiful bay).
Then comes that detestable duplicate of a series of old Spanish names of which I have spoken, which here are placed in the centre of the coast-line without any authority, and then repeated at its west end, after the example of Spanish maps. To make room for these names, it seems to have been found necessary to give an undue extension to the coast-line. This may explain why " Cabo de muchas islas " and the " arcipelago" (of Gomez) are so far distant from the " beautiful bay."
Between the " arcipelago " and " C. de muchas islas," we find a " baya de S. Maria," which, perhaps, is Saco or Casco Bay. It is filled with small islands, and appears to have been added by the maker of the map on his own authority. After " arcipelago," we find "Capo de arecife " (reef cape), the name which Oviedo seems to have given to
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CABOT'S MAP, 1544.
Cape Cod, but which here is attached to another point not at all prout- inent. The names on the map are in such a state of disorder, and show so much negligence in the author or copyist, that we have lost all confidence in him and his work.
Then follows "baya de S. Juan Baptista," and the other Spanish names found in this region on Ribero's and other Spanish maps.
At the end of the coast-line, near the "baya de S. Christoval," we reach the aforesaid tuft of a tiger's tail, which effaces in so shocking a manner some thirty miles of the coast.
In latitude about 40° N., appears the pointed cape, represented on old Spanish maps under the name of "Cabo de Arenas," which I think was intended for Cape Cod, although the cape is not found in that latitude.
The map contains no trace of the coast of Rhode Island or of New York, and no evidence appears that the author knew anything of that excellent description of our east coast given by Oviedo in 1537, nor of the interesting map made by Chaves in 1536, by command of the emperor. We may therefore properly ask again, is it credible that Cabot, the chief pilot of Spain, should not have been acquainted in 1544 with these excellent works ; or that having these in view, he should have delineated the coasts in the erroneous and wretched style in which they are drawn on this map ?
South of Cape Cod I have selected for our map only a few well-known Spanish names. The copy ends at the south-west with the mouth of the Mississippi, then called by the Spaniards " rio del espiritu santo."
I should observe that the term " Terra incognita" is placed on my copy a little too far east. On the original it is more west, and even runs over from North America to Asia through a blank space left be- tween the two continents, of which the author seems to have been uncertain, whether they were connected by land or separated by water.
Besides what I have above described, the map contains a great num- ber of long legends or inscriptions, added to the sections of the several continents. These inscriptions are not new ; but were well known be- fore the publication of this map of 1544. They were copied, with a few and unimportant variations, by the German traveler, Nathaniel Kochhaf, or, as he is usually called by his Latin name, Chytraus, from another edition of this map of Cabot, which was published in 1549, and which was still exhibited at Oxford after the middle of the six- teenth century. They were then published by him in his curious and often quoted book, " Variorum in Europa itinerum deliciac." From this book these inscriptions, ever since the time of its publication (1594),
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CABOT'S MAP, 1544.
have been known to the learned. They contain nothing new or very remarkable, even for the time of the composition of the map in 1544, and cannot be considered as an important authority or source of in- formation on the early history of discovery. They repeat, concerning Columbus, Cortes, Pizarro, and several other discoverers and conquer- ors, only what had already been said many times before. And this is done in a very general manner, and in a pedantic style, as if intended for the curious, or for the use of schools. From Sebastian Cabot, who lived so near the times of these events, and was so prominent an actor in them, and was personally acquainted with most of the celebrated men named in these inscriptions, it would be reasonable to expect some pertinent observations or personal anecdotes regarding these men and their performances not found elsewhere, even if they were in the most brief and summary form. But we have nothing of the kind in these inscriptions. They are of the most meagre character; they con- vey no historical or geographical information, such as we should expect from the hand of a master, and especially from the great cosmographer of his age, which Sebastian Cabot is admitted to have been. On the con- trary, the inscriptions are full of legends about sea monsters, people with one foot, or one eye, or immense ers, in short, all the old fables related by Adam of Bremen and other authors of the middle ages. The stories may have been believed by Martin Behaim, and perhaps also by Columbus, when he was first entering on his cosmographical studies in the last half of the fifteenth century. But to see them em- braced and reproduced in the middle of the sixteenth century by a. man so enlightened and ingenious as Sebastian Cabot, would be rather astonishing.
In the inscription "No. VII," where the River La Plata and Cabot's, expedition to it are described, it is said, that along this river a nation had been found which had feet and legs like an ostrich. In No. IX, where the waters of Iceland are described, it is related, that. there had been seen in those waters a fish of the species " morae- na," a veritable sea-serpent, and so colossal that it would attack a ves- sel and snap up the sailors. "Spectres or ghosts speaking in the air " are also mentioned in the inscription on Iceland. But in describing that country, and Newfoundland, and the northern regions generally,. no allusion whatever is made to a north-west passage, or a route to. China, the favorite idea of Cabot, cherished through his whole life.
In the same manner in No. XIX, where the seas surrounding Russia. and Siberia are described, nothing is said of a north-eastern passage to China, which soon after 1544, and toward the end of his life, be- came a settled conviction of Cabot. The inscription No. XII treats
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CABOT'S MAP, 1544.
of a monstrous nation, who have ears so large that they cover the whole body. Nothing of this kind occurs in the writings of Fernando Cortes, or of Oviedo, who both wrote before the year 1544.
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