Waterbury evening Democrat., 1895-05-06
MAKING GEOGRAPHY.
A SUPPOSED PRE-coLUM5IAN DIS
 COVERY OF AMERICA.


 Geographcrs on the Question.
 The Geographical Journal contains an important paper by Mir. Oldham on q supposed pre-C Columbian discovery of America by tho Portuguese. Tho ovi- dence on which the Genoese mariner is to be displaced from the position which he has held for more than 400 years ap- pears says the London Standard, some what slender. It consists of an inScrip- tion on Il manuscript map executed ill London during the year HAS by Andrea Bianco, q famous Venetian cartogra- pher. On this document, now one of the most valued treasures of the Ambrosian library in Milan, it is recorded that ill l449 an ''iNola otintcha," an authentic island, had been discovered |, 800 miles to the west, which is portrayed in the shape of a long stretch of coast line southwest from Cape Verde Tho only land in such n position is South America. MT. Oldham therefore concludes that, IS actually happened to Cahral in 1900, n Portuguese ship-and Bianco's map was intended to illustrate the latest Portuguese exploration-might have been driven on the South American coast. Ingenious though this informa- tion undoubtedly is, the opinions of Mir. Markham and other eminent geogra- phers. appended to Mr. OlGham's pa per, aro for the most part rather against tho conclusions at which he arrives.
 More than likely tho ''authentio is land" was one of the group discovered to the west of Cape Ncrtlc, or else some mythical country, such as "Antilia " which so long occupied tho position of the Azores. St. Brandau's island was one of those fabulous seagirt spots which. ages after the world had ceased to believe in the fablcd Atlantis, were fondly imagined to exist fur ont in tho Atlantic. Tho Irish saint is supposed to have reached it i'll the year 5G5, just as Robert O'Machin and his ladylove inadvertently discovered Madeira 500 years later. But as exploration proceed ed, and no St. Brandan's isle could bo found, tho trustful cartographor, un- willing to dispense with so useful q piece of territory, shifted it farther and farther into the bywayS of the ocean, until, on Sanson's map of 1869, an is land of that namo is placed to tho west of Madagascar. Tho silence of the Por- tugucse regarding their suggested pri- ority ill tho discovery of America is a strong presumption that they know nothing about the "authcntic island. v They woro so angry at buinS anticipated by Columbus that they would certainly havo put ill q claim, if they had heard of it, to tho voyage of tho name!css mariner. Tho early naviEators wrro persistent in holding almost every new land they discovered to ho an island. It is just possible, though not very probable, that such an island existed and has now disappeared below tho surface. In tho course of tho last 400 or 500 years earthquakes, volcanic dis | turbanccs and tho slow secular dcpres- sion of the sea bottom havo been stead | lily at work. On the sea charts of Is | centuries ago various islets are marked which further search has failed to dis cover. Besides the Atlantis, so long be- | lieved in, tho old ''suuken land of Buss," west of Rockall. that lonely rock ill tho Atlantic, is by many belicv- ed to havo been founded on something more substantial than myth. whilo geo 
 ening in favor of the once discarded "Miocene Atlantis. But apart from these hypothetical places, or others ad- mittedly fabulous, very recent charts note Atlantic isles which the surveyor has long ago set down as fiction. | Where, for instance, is St. Matthew $ island, which Garcia dc Loyasa report ed in 1895, if it was not really the isle of Annobon, i'll the gulf of Guinea? Santa Cruz, which in sixteenth century | charts is placed about two leagues west of St Matthews, Ascensao or the Falso Trinidad and Santa Maria d'Agosto are equally chimerical. unless they can be merged into actual spots or have porished since their discovery. All over the Atlantic rocks just rising above the surface had a place on tho charts of a century ago. For instance between St. Helena and Cape Negro. the African Pilot" of l799 places "St. Helena Nova" as doubtful, and between the bay of Biscay and Newfoundland. the "isle of Mayda, tho Devils Rocks and tho Green island. But of all of these spots in mid-Atlantic, St. Paul's rocks, or tho PeTudo of St. Pedro. arc about the only ones which havo survived the unimaginative Cartography of tho pres, r ent day.
 We hear nothing of the others. Where are they? Did they ever exist? The At lantiC is so much traverscd and retra, versed every year that it is scarcely possible for any spot to bo overlooked. Indeed new islets arc no longer among the annual discoveries of Soamen in tht Pacific. though now and then we hear of submarine volcanoes throwing III cinder heaps, We arc there fore justified in speCulating whether the forces of na ture may not perhaps have saved tho credit of the old naviGators by occasion ally submerSlng n islet i'll the Atlartic
 Psrilous.
 As described by recent traveller Rus
 sian babies, as seen in the homes of tn
 Russian peasants in Siberia, arc very un attractive specimens of humanity. II looked curiously at one little bun
 dle," said he, which was laid upon shelf another hung from the wall on , peg, while a third was slung over one c the supporting raftcrs and was bcin , swung back and forth by the mother, wh had a cord loopcd over her foot.
 "'Why, cried I, in surprise, that's
 childH
 "'Of course it is, replied the woman , | What else should it boz
 Having learned SD much in such I short length of time, had an irrosistibl |, desire to inspect the contents of tho swing l ing bundle. Asa rule, I abominate babie:
 but thought might learn little soma
 thing of the habits of the creature whic
 could continue cOntCnted throughout thi
 remarkable operation.
 II looked, but turned away in disgus
 for tho child was as dirty as n pig in
 pen. I could not refrain from asking or
 question. It may havo been impertincn