The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1803-04-15 00:00:00

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4a.

[PRICE SIXPF.ti

Lisbon, who had consulted Toscanelli, on the part
of the King of Portugal, as to the possibility of
finding the Indies. It was afterwards sent to Chris-
topher Columbus, in answer to a letter that he had
written to Toscanelli, relative to the voyage he pro-
posed to undertake. The letter of Toscanelli, re-
fers only to what appeared to hint to be the shortest
course to the Indies, and those parts of the Indies
which he thought the richest and the most worthy'
of being explored. The shortest course. in his
opinion, was, on leaving Lisbon, to go directly to
the West, across the Atlantic Ocean, and to pro-
ceed in the same direction, or on the parallel of
Lisbon, nearly a third of the circumference of that
parallel ; at that distance they would find, said he,
the city of Guisay or Quinsay, the capital of China,
in the time of Marc-Paul ; they would also find the
island of Cipango (now Japan) extremely fertile in
gold, pearl, :Ind precious stones • it was in this
course he placed the island of Antillia, when he
said, And of Mr island ofAnti.'lia, which you snow,
and which pu call SETT E-CiT A, to She famous island
Cifrango there are ten spaces which ma& 2.500
mi'es, or '2.25 leaguer. It results from this passage,
that at the epoch of l 474, the island of Antalia
was known at least to the King of Portugal, for
wham the letter of Toscanelli was written, and that
it passed for one of the richest countries in .the
world. It further results, that in the opinion of
Toscanelli, it was sheeted in the eastern parts of the
Indies, which were then thq countries of the most
precious and wonderful productions. It is proba-
ble, that it was from the idea of Toscooelli, that.
Christopher Columbus gave the name of Antilla's
to those islands of America, which he found in his
first voyage, and which he supposed to be the east-
ern part of the Indies. It was from the charts of
his time, that Toscanelli made his calculations re-
speCting the course he pointed out ; and the Antil-
ha of the chart of Bianchi, can be no other than the
Antillia mentioned in the letter of Toscanelli ; it
therefore can represent no part of America. . •
To dissipate entirely the doubts founded on thhi
chart of Branchi, it would have been satisPaanry to
have discovered in the ancient Continent the namet
of Antillia and De la Man Satanaxion, which tine
chart presents. Citizen Buache ha; made every pas-
sible research on this subject ; he first examined,
after the opinion of Toscanelli, at the islands of the
Archipelago, of the Indies, but without success ;
considering then, that the islands of Antillia was
known to the Portuguese, according to Toscanelli,
which coals! not be said of the Indian Is! mils at
that epoch ; considering also that the King of Por-
tugal had paid no attention to the information of
- -or to the proposition of Christopher
Columbus, and that several authors had confound-
ed the island of Antillia with that of the famous
San Borandon, or Brandon, which was supposed to
be near the Canaries; Citizen Buache 'direeted his
attention to the Western Coasts of Africa, which
the Portuguese were then occupied in discovering;
after a variety of information furnished him by
the itinerary Alundi of Peristol. From a manuscript
chart of the national library of la and another
of the library of the Duke of Parma, 13ti7, ho
thought he had ascertained that the names of "flue-
and De la Man Sasanaxi9, were the -result of the
first acquaintance the Europeans had with the rich
countries of the interior of Africa, or of the country
of the blacks, which the Arabs named Sudan ; the
name Sudan, appeared to him to have some refe-
rence to that of Satanaxio, the name of Sette-Cita,
which the Portuguese gave to Antillia, according to
Toscanelli, and which they translated by Svern.
Civitates, the seven cities, appeared to him to he the
Regis, Sepiem Mont urn, which the chart of Sanas, in
the Gala del, perfrancos, places on the western side
of Africa, at the extremity of an island, and rye
the country of Gaulolia With regard. to the name
of Antillia, he considers it analogous to the name of
Cautin, which Peritsol points out between Cape Bo-
jockr and Cape Bloat, where there is a coast called.
the Seven Mountains ; and to the name of Ansilrr
Angel, otherwise called the Seven Hills, on the
coast of Senegal ; and to the name of And, a pore
adjacent to the hills of Angel, from which they
have made Poriandie. It is to be remarked, that it
is on -the coast situated bet Ween the Canaries and
Senegal, that they began to carry on the corn nerctt
of gold, before the discovery of the coast of Guinea.
If these observations do not amount to proofs,
they are at least satisfactory indicia, in favor of the
opinion Citizen Buache has adopted, namely, that
the island of Antillia was not America. " A thick
veil," says hi, " still covers the geography of all
Africa ; the namesof the different points of that
coast, which is alone known, are for the most part.
new names, which have been given them by the
Portuguese, afid it is difficult to ascertain the ob-
je...as which ate pointed out by the natives of the
country.
UN THE DIFFERENT MANNERS OF WRITING
HISTORY.

NY CITIZEN TOVEONGENON.

Citizen Toulongenon, occupied with the history
of our times, has been led, by the nature of the work
in which he is engaged, to consider, even more par-
ticularly than Citizen Levesque, the diferent ma,,esere
of euribmg b;story, and particularly contemporaneous
history. His Memoir will be read in the. course of
the sitting. He insists on the .necessity of those de-
tails which can alone discover or afford a conjeaure
of the causes of events, and describe characters with
fidelity.
Modern history, as well as ancient history, is com-
posed of two epochs—times of calmness, and times
of trouble. He distinguishes civil history, which
comprehends military events, as the cause, and his-
tory purely military, which excludes civil events al
foreign to the history of the art.
In times of tranquillity, civil effeas having but
little or no influence on military events, there arc
consequently some very good histories which are
purely military ; such arc those of the campaigns of
Turenne, of Condi, of Luxemburgh ; technical
works, which include the grand lessons of the art.
But. Citizen Toulongenon doubts whether the

• Thir letter may Lc found in a work of the Jesuit Ximenos,
entitled, " Del Vecchio e ntrove Gnome:re lioreArino," and
in A letter from M }tarns, to the author of the Jour.!al der
Swale', January,