Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1880-01-24
STRANGE CHART.

The annual meeting of the Anthropological
Society was held Tuesday evening in the re-
gents room, Smithsonian Institution, Major j..
W. Powell, president, Prof. Elmer r. Reynolds,
secretary.
The following gentlemen were nominated by
the council and elected: Col. F. A. Seeley and
Prof. A. L. Guss as active members and A. f.
Berlin, of Allentown, Pa, as corresponding
member.
resulted as follows: President, Major J. w.
Powell; vice presidents, DIR. j. Meredith Toner,
N. A, Colonel Garrick Mallery, L. S. army DR..
wills De HAS, and Dr. George a. Otis L: S.
Columbian University, and Elmer r. Rey-
nolds; treasurer, j. c. Lang. esq; curator,
Frank II. Gushing, Smithsonian Institution;
M. Wilson. DR.. C. A. White, G. X. Gilbert. esq.,,
DR.. II. c. Yarrow. U. S. A. and Prot. E. NJ. Gal
laudet, National Deaf Mute College.
U. S. navy, read highly interesting paper on
"a Strange Chart" in which he stated that
while attached to the European squadron in
1853 he was shown nov, chart, In the dreeaa "a
novelty about 1t to be worthy of special notice.
1t represented the Indian and Pacific oceans
lying between say 800 n. and $50 E. latitude,
and extending sufficiently in longitude as to
embrace the eastern African and Asiatic coasts
and the western coast of America. 1t had been
prepared by Spanish Jesuit, who dedicated
~,
World" and had preceded his signature with
prayer The text was in Latin, and the date OF
the chart was somewhere in the first quarter OF
the seventeenth century.
The extraordinary feature of this map was
that geographical positions had seemingly been
laid down at random, and that any correction
for latitude and longitude applied to any one
point did not answer for another. Nearly all the
results OF late discovery were on this chart but
entirely adrift as regard to their proper Local
ton. This would lead us to belit.e that the
chart had been Intentionally disCOrted-and
this proved to be the case.
The map in question was constructed upon
Mercator'S projection, but instead or the parai-
lels and meridians being straight lines at right
angles to one another, they were arbitrarily
drawn curves 1t was OF course necessary to
have key to this chart, which. upon being fur
nished. proved TO be very elaborate. Besides
giving proper diagrams OF the arbitrary line; It
gave the constants to be applied to individual
localities and their corrected ATTITUDES and Ion
gitudeS. On the chart itself was a ciUptoJTapb.
statement OF the necessary J)I1a1iR for con
structing the curves commercially, referred u
the n. E.-S. w. and n. VS.. E. points OF the
compass as axes.
said the author: Il am constrained to believe
that the English, Dutch and French-Onc hun
dred years latef-must have made use Of these
distorted charts. For although Cook, Tor in
stance, claims that on charts prior to his vog
age no land is laid down where he found arch!-
peagos, still groups OF islands of the same num-
Der and general geographical relation are found
on these Spanish charts. but distorted as re-
CARDS latitude and longitude.
These charts, considering the one described
as one OF number, were made for the use OF
the treasury galleonS, to enable them In case OF
capture to keep as much information as was
possible from their vlctorS.
That the early Spanish navgators, in
passing with their treaSure-shfpS from Manila
to the western coast OF America, fell in with
the Hawaiian group hundred year prior to
Cooks time, is rendered probable from the fact
that an archipelago was laid down ON their
charts, which, when allowance is made for the
would undoubtedly identify the group of LAS
Mesas' OF the Spanish nayigators with the
sandwich Islands OF Captain Cook.
do not suppose that the Spanish set much
store by this discovery, since they could not
obtain gold there, which seems TO be the ruling
motive in their work OF discovery. However,
they LEFT their mark on the Hawaiian language
especially In those words ordinarily used in bar
ter; as, for instance:
English. Spanish. Hd'rdiiaH.
Good. Bueno. Pono.
Bad Malo. Mai.
Pig. Puerco Baaka.
II The Spanish nayigators did not discover
honor-stfll this Spanish influence on their Ian
guage could be accounted for by the SUPPOSE
ton that some Spanish vessel from the East In
dian Spanish possessions were wrecked on
these shores. / learned OF case of this kind,
where Junk had been found stranded on the
coast OF the Island OF Ranai, one OF the leeward
islands, whose sole surviving member OF the
crew was a young woman. She was found to
be from the island OF Java, and had been many
months at sea; had experienced snow and cold.
The rest OF the crew had died probably from the
fright and terror produced by their appreciation
OF their position, while the ignorance OF the
young girl OF their dangerous condition had
stood her in good stead.
Here was vessel that had been swept up the
China coast by the prevailing simeon into the
k,To Sico, or Japanese current, across the Pa
ciflc by this influence and the Californian north
west wind. down the Californian coast until
the northeast trade wind was caught which
took the vessel TO its destruction ON the shores
OF the Sandwich Islands.
This woman became the wife OF prominent
white man in the Islands.