The tale is of a prolonged residence among these alleged relatively
advanced Estotiland people, followed by a much longer wandering
sojourn, mostly as a captive, in a great “new world” southwest of it
and a final escape. Drogio (also spelled “Drogeo” and “Droceo” on some
maps) was the region through which this continental territory was
entered. It is plainly an island, to judge by the maps; but, according
to the narrative, it should be close inshore, since no mention is made
of water being crossed by the neighboring chief, who made war on the
first captors and thus acquired the fishermen. This accords curiously
with the facts as to Cape Breton Island, which is barely cut off by
the Gut of Canso, being easily reached by any incursion from the
mainland. It also lies southward from Newfoundland (Estotiland), but
sailing vessels would ordinarily be required to get to it across the
broad Cabot Strait, where the conditions of storm and shipwreck might
well be supplied. It is, indeed, surprising, since the description of
inhabitants and conditions is so far from the truth, that the geography
of Estotiland and Drogio should be given so much more accurately than
in some carefully prepared and useful maps of the same period, for
example Nicolay’s of 1560[223] (Fig. 6) and Zaltieri’s of 1566,[224]
both of which represent Newfoundland as broken up into an archipelago;
and the same may be said of Gastaldi’s map illustrating Ramusio.[225]
It has been generally surmised that the name Drogio represents some
native word, but there is a lack of evidence and a difficulty in
identification. Lucas thinks it may be a corruption of Boca del
Drago,[226] a strait between Trinidad and the mainland South America;
but this seems a far-fetched and unsupported conjecture: All the
other island names used by Zeno are of European origin, and Drogio by
its sound and orthography suggests Italy. Perhaps the best guess we
can make would point to the Italian words “deroga” or “dirogare” as
supplying in disparagement a form afterward contracted to Drogio; for
the latter island, lower in latitude and elevation, was also, according
to the narrative, inferior in the status of its population and might
well be spoken of derogatively. We have seen that a fairly high culture
is imputed to Estotiland; whereas the natives of Drogio were sunk
in mere cannibal savagery. Notwithstanding the plain implication of
the story as to the comparative nearness of the two regions and the
concurrent testimony of the Zeno map, Drogio has been located by some
theorizers at divers different points of our coast line from Canada to
Florida and even as far afield as Ireland--which is perhaps a shade
more extravagant than Lucas’s South American derivation of the name.
DISCREPANCIES IN THE NARRATIVE OF THE FISHERMAN
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