disputed possession of Eastern Brazil by rule of ignorance of longitude, claiming it as hers because it was east of the line of demarcation. All the science of Spain at that time could not disprove this, and therefore Pinzon abandoned it to the Portuguese. The same year, the Portuguese hearing of the voyage of the Cabots, and probably suspecting irreverence in the English for Papal bull lines of demarcation, sent Gaspar Cortereal to follow in their track. Labrador was discovered, and laborers (slaves) brought back to Lisbon the 8th of October, 1501. A second voyage was made the next year by the same captain, but not returning with his ship, a third expedition was sent in search of him, under command of his brother. Of this last expedition nothing was ever heard, and thus ended the Portuguese attempts to reach Cathay by the northwest. In 1501 New Granada, Darien, and Panama were taken possession of for the Spanish by Bastides, and in 1501-2 Vespucci explored the coast of Brazil for the Portuguese, down as far as 50° S. lat., within two or three degrees of the strait, and in 1502 there was published an account of his expedition under the title of Mundus Novus. The years 1502 to 1504 were occupied by Columbus in his fourth and last voyage, in which he was accompanied by his brother Bartholemew, and his son Ferdinando, who afterwards wrote a life of his father. He explored the coast of Veragua, still looking for the Ganges and inquiring for the home of the Grand Kahn. An account of this voyage, coming down to July 7, 1503, was printed at Venice in 1505. In 1502 Valentim Fernandez,, a German, attached to the household of the ex-queen of Portugal, edited and printed at Lisbon a collection of voyages in the Portuguese language, com prising Marco Polo, Nicolo Conti, Santo Stephano, &c., with a view of stirring up the people to a more lively interest in the commerce and navigation of the Indies. The success of Columbus and the Cabots is referred to, and the speedy return of Cortereal from the north, from his second voyage, is expected. This magnificent folio volume, the first important book (not biblical) printed in Portugal, must have had a powerful effect in drawing popular attention to the land of spices. It was the first collection of voyages printed in the vernacular tongue, and could be read by all the unlearned who had a penny to venture. It was translated into Spanish, and printed at Seville in 1503. No rarer books are now known to geographers. In May, 1507, the four voyages of Vespucci were published for the first time together, in Latin, at St Dié, in France, as stated above, as an appendage to a little work on cosmography, a science which now began to assume new and startling importance. On the third of November, the same year, there was published in Italian, at Vicenza, a most important collection of voyages, under the title, Countries newly discovered, and the New World of Albericus Vespucci, containing accounts of the voyages of Cadamosto to Cape Verde, in 1454-5; of de Cintra to Senegal, in 1462; of Vasco da Gama, in 1497-1500; of Cabral, in 1500-1; of Columbus (three voyages); of Alonzo Negro and the Pinzons; of Vespucci (four voyages; of Cortereal, &c. This work was the next year, 1508, printed in Latin and German. All these new geographical works hitherto printed, it will be perceived, pointed to the same thing, enlightenment of the public as to India beyond the Ganges, and how to go and trade thither. In 1508, for the first time in print, all these discoveries were collected and laid down in a beautiful copper-plate map, by Johann Ruysch, a German, who had probably* visited the new found islands with the Cabots, and knew well what he was doing. It appears in the Ptolemy of 1508, published at Rome, accompanied by A new description of the world, and the new Navigation of the Ocean from Lisbon to India, by Marcus Beneventanus. A careful study of this map and its descriptive text, if we exclude all subsequent publications, and look at the world as seen by the geographers of that day, will greatly aid us in clearing up many apparent inconsistencies. There were three distinct and independent fields of discovery. First, the Archipelago of Columbus in the center, filling a space of above a thousand miles from north to south, and open to India. This part of the map was no doubt laid down from Columbus' own letter, the only authority, in 1507, existing in print. He had, indeed, coasted along Paria from Trinidad westward, in June, 1498, as Pinzon, Ojeda, and others had done subsequently, supposing it to be another large island, or part of the mainland of Cathay, but nothing of this had then been printed. Second, the Mundus Novus of Vespucci, * Beneventanus says "Joannes vero Ruisch Germanus Geographorum meo judicio peritissimus, ac in pingendo orice diligentissimus cujus adminiculo in hac lucubratiuncula usi sumus, dixit, se navigasse ab Albionis australi parte; et tamdiu quo ad subparallelum ab subæquatore ad boream subgradum, 53, pervenit; et in eo parallelo navigasse · ad ortus littora per angulum noctis atque plures insulas lustrasse, quarum inferius descriptionem assignabimus." Anglicé: But John Ruysch, of Germany, in my judgment a most exact geographer, and a most painstaking one in delineating the globe, to whose aid in this little work I am indebted, has told me that he sailed from the south of England, and penetrated as far as the 53d degree of north latitude [straits of Belle Isle (?)], and on that parallel he sailed toward the shores of the East [Asia (?)], bearing a little northward, and explored many islands, the description of which I have given below. 3 being the eastern coast of South America from Darien to Upper Patagonia, one vast Island with an unknown background. The authority for this was what has since been called Vespucci's "Third Letter," first printed at the end of 1502, or probably early in 1503. And third, the discoveries of the Cabots and the Cortereals in the north, represented by them as part of the mainland of Asia. This is only Marco Polo's chart of Cathay extended considerably to the northeast, and modified by the experience, probably, of Ruysch himself, and the information he gathered from the Bristol men, when he was with them in 1497-8.* * The chart of Juan de la Cosa, representing the then known world, bearing the date of 1500, is not overlooked, but its significance, so far as the coast line of the United States is concerned, has been so manifestly distorted by almost every one who has described it, from its discovery by Humboldt in the library of Baron Walckenaer, nearly forty years ago, down to the present day, that the writer hesitates to venture his opinion. But by long study and comparison of this with other early maps, especially those of Ruysch and Peter Martyr of 1508 and 1511, he is convinced that the coast line, from the most westerly of the five English flag-staffs marking the extent of Cabot's discoveries southward and westward, to a point west of Cuba, precisely like the map of Ruysch seven or eight years later, is laid down as the eastern coast of Cathay, from the map of Marco Polo. If our Maine friends, therefore, will place behind their red line border, Marco Polo's name Mangi, they will see that this territory is farther “down East” than is generally supposed, being indeed Eastern Asia. The word Cuba, instead of Juana the name given by Columbus, and the fact that it is represented as an island, may be accounted for by a circumstance mentioned by Peter Martyr, that it was customary to add to recent maps the new discoveries as they were made. La Cosa perished in Ojeda's mad expedition in Dec., 1509. He was a clever fellow, and a great favorite, and used to boast that he knew more of the geography of the new lands than did Columbus himself. Indeed, of all others, says Peter Martyr in 1514, his charts were the most esteemed. His knowledge and experience were great, for he had been, between the years 1493 and 1509, on no less than six exploring expeditions, either as pilot or commander, with Columbus, Ojeda, Vespucci, and Bastides, and had visited repeatedly the entire coast, from Paria to Uraba, and thence on his own account, north to the mid Columbus had placed his discoveries in the Indian Archipelago beyond the Ganges, and the world accepted the names he gave to the separate islands. No new general name was required. Cabot's discoveries being also East, were so re dle of Yucatan, as well as most of the islands in Columbus' vast Archipelago. When with Bastides, in 1501-2, he found that the Portuguese were meddling on the wrong side of the line of demarcation, endeavoring, probably, to find a shorter route to Calcutta via Darien, and therefore, on his return to Spain, La Cosa was sent to Lisbon to remonstrate against this encroachment. He was there imprisoned and was not released till August, 1504. Nothing daunted, the next year, 1505–6, he went on an exploring and trading expedition of his own to Uraba and Panama, and on another similar one in 1507-8. On the 11th of November, 1509, he embarked with Ojeda from Hispaniola, and perished soon after. From this it will be seen that he might be in Spain, chart-making, from June to October, 1500; from September, 1502, to 1504, autumn (except when in prison in Lisbon); and again parts of the years 1506-7, as well as parts of 1508-9. He had, therefore, ample time to touch up his great chart of the world, which he made and dated in 1500. The date is positive, and there is probably no reason to doubt it. But that he did retouch it subsequently is apparent from many circumstances. In the first place, there are manifestly two distinct letterings, in what may be called thin and thick letters, probably all by the same hand, but written at considerable intervals. All the thin letters may have been put on in 1500, but it is impossible to believe that all the thick letterings could have been received or known in time to be recorded in that year. There are many other points for discussion, but as the writer has never had under his eye the original chart, but judges only from M. Jomard's excellent colored facsimile on three double elephant folio sheets, he feels that he is treading on ticklish ground. The fac-similies (greatly reduced in size) given by Humboldt, Ghillany, Lelewel, and other writers, are in many respects defective, and tend to mislead the student, inasmuch as the coloring, and the lines of latitude and longitude are left out. Some names are misplaced and others are misspelled, while many important ones are omitted altogether. Only the western sheet or third, is given (except by Humboldt). But it should not be forgotten that the chart is intended to represent, on a plain, the entire globe as far as known in 1500. There is a broad green border above and beyond the Ganges, showing that the northeast of Asia is terra incognita. But La Cosa had the same authorities up to the Polisacus river and bay, in latitude 52° north that Behaim had for his globe made in 1492. Hence the two works agree remarkably well, but La Cosa, taking advantage of the seven years progress in geography has attempted to complete Asia by |