The Wadsworth dispatch. [volume] (Wadsworth, Nev.) 1892-1899, 1895-05-15

An authentic island" and the Ingenious
Deductions Made From Its Supposed Lo-
atlon-M Oldham and Other Eminent
G~oographors ON the Question.
The Geographical journal contains an
important paper BY MI. Oldham ON a
supposed pref Columbian discovery of
America by the Portuguese The evil
dence on which the Genoese mariner ia
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-
ton on a manuscript map executed In
London duIe.Ag the year 1448 by Andrea
Bianco, a famous Venetian cartogra-
pher. On this document, now n Of the
most valued. treasures of the Ambrosian
library in Milan, it is recorded that in
1447 an ''ixola otintcha," an authentic
island, had been discovered l, 500 miles
TO the west, which is portrayed In the
shape of a long stretch Of coast line
southwest from Cape Verde. The only
land in such a position Is South America
MI. Oldham therefore concludes that,
as actually happened to Cabral in 1900,
q 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-
| ton undoubtedly is. the opinions of Mr..
Markham and other eminent geogra-
piers. appended to Mr.. Oldham's pa
per. are for the most part rather against
| the conclusions at which he arrives.
More than likely the Authentic L.
land" was N Of the group discovered
to the west of Cape Verde, or $50 some
mythical country. such as "Antilia.
which SO long occupied the position Of
the Azores. st. Brandan's island was
one Of those fabulous seagirt spots
which. ages after the world had ceased
to believe in the tabled Atlantis, were
fondly imagined to exist far ont in the
Atlantic. The Irish saint is supposed
to have reached 1t in the year 686. just
as Robert O'Maohin and his ladylove
inadvertently discovered Madeira 800
years later. But as exploration proceed
ed, and no st. Brandan's isle could be
found, the trustful photographer, n
willing to dispense with SO useful a
piece Of territory, shifted IL farther and
farther into the byways of the ocean,
until, on Sanson's map Of 1859. an Is
land Of that name is placed to the west
of Madagascar. The silence of the Por-
tuguese regarding their suggested pri-
GRITTY in the discovery Of America is q
strong presumption that they knew
nothing about the authentic island.
They were SO angry at being anticipated
have put in a claim, if they had heard
Of it, to the voyage Of the nameless
mariner. The early navigators were
persistent in holding almost every new
land they discovered to be an island.
It is just possible, though not very
probable, that such an island existed
and has now disappeared below the
or 500 years earthquakes, volcanic dis
turbances and the slow secular depres-
sion of the sea bottom have been stead
lily at work. On the sea charts Of 1X
centuries ago various islets are marked
which further search has failed to dis
cover. Besides the Atlantis, so long be-
lieyed in, the old ''sunken land Of
Buss," west Of Rockall. that lonely
rock in the Atlantic, is by many believ-
ed to have been founded on something
more substantial than myth. while geo.
logical opinion seems again to be stiff
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's
island, which Garcia de Loyasa report
ed in 1926. il it was not really the isle
Of Annobon, in the gulf of Guinea?
Santa Cruz, which in sixteenth century
charts is placed about two leagues west
of st. Matthew's, Ascensao or the False
Trinidad and Santa Maria d'Agosto