A Journal of the First Voyage of Vasco da Gama 1497-1499
History
A Journal of the First Voyage of Vasco da Gama 1497-1499
Africa -- Description and travel; Gama, Vasco da, 1469-1524; India -- Description and travel; Voyages and travels
The next chart to be considered is by Nicolas de Canerio, of Genoa.
Its date is undoubtedly the same as that of the Cantino Map, that is,
it was drawn before the results of João da Nova’s voyage had become
available. This is proved by finding “y. tebas, iste insulle chamada
secular” in the mid-Atlantic (9° S.), with a Portuguese flag, for these
islands are borrowed from Juan de la Cosa, and have nothing to do with
Conceiçao (Ascension) or St. Helena, discovered by João da Nova. It is
almost wholly based upon the materials previously utilised by Cantino’s
draughtsman, although more detailed in outline and with a more ample
nomenclature in some places. The shape of Africa, however, is far more
correctly given on Cantino’s chart than on Canerio’s,[469] and the
technical workmanship of the former is of a superior character. The
legends on both maps have evidently been taken from the same source:
those on Cantino’s map, as far as I have been able to examine it,
appearing to be more numerous and in some cases fuller.
The MS. of this important chart is at present in the Hydrographic
Office at Paris. Prof. L. Gallois, whose contributions to the history
of geography are highly appreciated by all interested in the subject,
has given an account of it in the _Bulletin_ of the Geographical
Society of Lyons.[470] This account is accompanied by a reproduction of
two sections of the map, viz., America and Africa. Prof. Gallois has
had the extreme kindness to supply me with a tracing of the Asiatic
portion of the map, and has thus enabled me to produce Map VII,
illustrating this volume. My reproduction contains all the names of
the original to the east of the Cape of Good Hope, whilst the legends
for which there was no room upon the Reduction are given at the end of
this Appendix.
On examining this chart it will at once be seen that the author—not the
Italian copyist, whose name alone appears upon it—drew very largely
upon native information. Still, he has not ventured to disassociate
himself altogether from Ptolemy. He has, however, made some use of
Marco Polo, though he puts the names taken from him—such as Murfulu,
Var and Coilu—in the wrong places. The island in the middle of the
Indian ocean—Y. rana—is not one of the Mascarenhas, as might be
supposed, but the Illa Iaua of the Catalan map, that is, Java. The
legend tells us that “In this island is much benjoim, and silk and
porcelain.” Still further south there are three islands, representing
the Mascarenhas, then known by Malabari names.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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