In 1508 the governor of Española sent Sebastian de Ocampo to explore Cuba. He was the first to sail round the island, thus proving it such, as Juan de la Cosa probably imagined it to be eight years earlier. _Aa_, _Naaukeurige Versameling_, tom. vi. p. 1; _Herrera_, _Hist. Gen._, dec. i. lib. vii. cap. i.; _Stevens' Notes_, p. 35. [Sidenote: BOOKS AND MAPS OF THE PERIOD.] _Ptolemy_, _In hoc opere hæc continentvr, Geographiæ Cl. Ptolemæi_, Rome, 1508, is said to be the first edition of this work which contains allusions to the New World. Other editions of Ptolemy, prepared by different editors, with additional text and maps, and with some changes in original matter, appeared in 1511, 1512, 1513, 1519, 1520, 1522, 1525, 1532, and 1535. The edition first mentioned contains, in addition to the preceding one of 1507, fourteen leaves of text and an engraved map by Johann Ruysch—the first ever published which includes the New World. Copies have been printed by Lelewel in his _Géog. du moyen âge_, atlas; by Santarem, in his _Recherches_, Paris, 1842, atlas; and by Humboldt, Kohl, and Stevens. I have taken the annexed copy from the three last mentioned authorities, omitting some of the unimportant names. [Illustration: MAP BY JOHANN RUYSCH, 1508.] This map follows closely that of Juan de la Cosa in 1500, but illustrates more clearly the geographical idea of the time. The discoveries of Cabot, whom Ruysch is supposed to have accompanied, as well as those of Cortereal in the north, of Greenland, Labrador, and Newfoundland, are laid down with tolerable accuracy; and the rest of the supposed Asiatic coast as in Behaim's globe is taken from Marco Polo. In the centre we have the lands discovered by Columbus, and the old fabulous island of Antilia restored. To 'Spagnola' (Española) is joined an inscription stating the compiler's belief that it was identical with Zipangu, or Japan. Western Cuba is cut off by a scroll, instead of by green paint as in the map of Juan de la Cosa, with an inscription to the effect that this was the limit of Spanish exploration. Ruysch, having as yet no knowledge of Ocampo's voyage performed during this same year, evidently entertained the same idea respecting Cuba that was held by Juan de la Cosa, but did not venture to proclaim it an island. In the south, the New World is shown under the name 'Terra Sanctæ Crucis sive Mvndvs Novvs.' An open sea separates the New World from Asia, showing that Ruysch did not know of the unsuccessful search for this passage by Columbus, Bastidas, and Pinzon. It is worthy of remark that the name America is not used by this countryman of Hylacomylus. Humboldt thinks that he had not seen the _Cosmographiæ Introdvctio_, but had read some other edition of Vespucci's third voyage. _Exam. Crit._, tom. ii. pp. 5, 9; tom. iv. p. 121, and Preface to _Ghillany_. See also _Kunstmann_, _Entdeckung Am._, pp. 136-7; _Harrisse_, _Bib. Am. Vet._, pp. 107-8; _Kohl's Hist. Discov._, pp.