New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-06-28


of Carolina and Florida was intended TO represent
knorH points in ASIA why not sail in that direction
rather than search the rugged western shore of the
Gulf of Mexicoi
That Cosa's cOast-lino of South America repre-
scented the then known facts of that country Is un-
questionable. Even if China had closely adIoined
Mexico and Yucatan, still the vast Indian ocean,
known to the,scientifc world of Europe, must have
lain west of it, A large portion of South America
was known to lie north Of the equator So far AZ its
coast-ne was followed, it still trcnded north OF
west, and its bend to the northeast, to make the
sweep of the Mexican Gulf, was at least partially
known. Where was India and the ocean west OF It'll
Ii is true, an opinion was very commonly enter
tanned then and for time afterward that in the
Northern Hemisphere far north of the equator, the
lands of Asia adoined these lands newly discovered
One great question is, Did the knowledge of that
time justify the idea with these who cooy colated
all that had been discovered and embodied all that
was positively known filling up the shadowy gaps
with what were evident probabilities Above al,
Does the map of Cosa contain the idea OF such
continent as America has been proved to bel we
think il did.
Defective although thu astronomical and nautical
skill of that time mis- b have BEEN it will not do TO
forget that in 1494, at HispanOla, Columbus took an
observation of the eclipse of that year. lie founu
that point five hours west of Seville. NOW, "hlie
Copernicus, like another Joshua, had NOT com
manded the sun TO stand still at that time, never
theless as clear notions were entertained as to the
results of the earths revolutions if the sun had
moved Both Columbus and COsa knew that these
five hours re,preseedles than 20 degrees. The map
of Cosa is evidently predicated in part on the 1ae'S
of that observation Now, if the distance Irofn Do
Vile TO San Domingo was about Us degrees "hoio
were the other 29S Admit all that can be claimed
for the fabulous extent of Asia and yet we nave
worse difficulties to reconcile than that the North
American seaboard is the China of Marco Polo WIN
a great southern continent extending north Oh tne
equator a thousand miles of Zipangn II CUBA Is
"ZipangTi."
Our author intmates that the Ruysch map in the
Ptolemy. published at Rome in 1903, and the other
American map in the Ptoemy of 1913, were merely
combinations of this Asiatic blunder. The map of
Peter Martez made in 1910 and published in l5l1,
shows the Floridian coast Terra Bimina" and Is
among the reprints of Mr.. Stevens. That was the
name given by the West India Islanders to that land
And yet its coast-ne is much too correctly laid down
to be attributed to Indian navgatOrs alone Yet this
map was made in Spain two years before the
discovery by Ponce de Leon which, the initial STEP
has become mbedded in our traditions. In the
PtOlemy map of 1913, there is striking picture OF
the mouths of the Mississippi and the Floridian
peninsula. Our author seems to think it was the
Ganges The world would have been small indeed to
admit of such theory, and its ideas of latitude as
obscure as were those of longitude 1t must be re-
membered that, while Columbus speculated
Cumana being contiguous to Cathay, Cosa continues
and connects these discoveries with the whole east
ern coast-line of South America. Is it quite phlOs
optical to confound the perplexities and surprises
which met Columbus, while he and Others sought in
the Gulf of Mexico for passage still further west
to Cathay with the collected data in the hands of
Cosa in 1900 from all sources guided by the wisest
astronomers and cosmographers of that tmei
Columbus himself, in his letter Of 1893, in discuss
ing these problems, the s0yereigns OF Spain
that they have found very great country and that
Ptolemy, in fixing the limit just beyond the Pillars
of Hercules, had only given them half the sphere,
and that his discoveries had added hemisphere
to the world
Our author asks if North America is not intended
to represent Eastern ASIA where is Asia He forgets
that the portion of the map he does not copy is cut
off beyond the Aurea Ckersoneas or includes the
old geography of Ptolemy, leaving the regions be-
yond affected by the reports of Asiatic travellers
like Marco Polo, and other more ancient specula-
tons, as much in the dark the vast continent or
shaded regions in the north portion of this
world which COsa's map, indeed, suggests to be q
continent but what it's connections with Asia were,
he does not know, and Of did not attempt to
represent.
So far, we dissent from part of the deductions of
this treatise, in itself very credtable production,
embodying much Of scholarly lore, and touching,
even though family and sketchly, those grander
ideas of history, the and consequences of mi
grations. The reprints of old maps good in
their selection that only regret the smalness
of the size and poorness of the execution. If de-
signed to give merely general idea and illustrate
purely popular work, they might do. One of these
reprints is from the Venetian map of 1884 the original
of which is in the possession of James Lennox esq.
of New-YOrk.