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Narrative and Critical History of America, Vol. 3 (of 8): English Explorations and Settlements in North America 1497-1689

History

Narrative and Critical History of America, Vol. 3 (of 8): English Explorations and Settlements in North America 1497-1689

America -- Discovery and exploration; America -- History; United States -- History

1. Engronelant (Greenland).
  2. Grolandia.
  3. Islanda (Iceland).
  4. Norvegia (Norway).
  5. Estland (Shetland Islands?).
  6. Icaria.
  7. Frisland (Faroe Islands?).
  8. Estotiland (Labrador?).
  9. Drogeo (Newfoundland or New England?).
  10. Podalida.
  11. Scocia (Scotland).
  12. Mare et terre incognite.

Its influence can be further traced, twenty years later, in the map of
the world which Wolfe, in 1598, added to his English translation of
Linschoten. We annex a sketch-map of the Arctic portion, which needs to
be interpreted by the key below the cut.

[Illustration: FROM WOLFE’S LINSCHOTEN, 1598.

  1. Terra Septemtrionalis.
  2. Grocland.
  3. Groenland.
  4. Island (Iceland).
  5. Friesland.
  6. Drogeo.
  7. Estotiland.
  8. R. Nevado.
  9. C. Marco.
  10. Gol di S. Lorenzo.
  11. Saguenay flu.
  12. Canada.
  13. Nova Francia.
  14. Norōbega.
  15. Terra de Baccalaos.
  16. Do Bretan.
  17. Juan.
  18. R. de Tomēta.
  19. S. Brādam.
  20. Brasil.]

Considering the doubt attached to the Zeno chart, it would seem that
the earliest undoubted delineation of American parts of the Arctic
land is the representation of Greenland which appears in the Ptolemy
of 1482. This position of Greenland was reproduced, about ten years
before Frobisher’s voyage, in Olaus Magnus’s Latin _Historia_, Basil,
1567, who puts on the peninsula this legend: “Hic habitant Pygmei
vulgo Screlinger dicti.” There had been an earlier Latin edition of
the _Historia_ at Rome in 1555, and one in Italian at Venice in 1565:
there was no English edition till 1658. (_Carter-Brown Catalogue_, p.
269.) Ziegler’s _Schondia_ had in Frobisher’s time been for forty years
or more a source of information regarding the most northern regions.
(_Carter-Brown Catalogue_, pp. 103, 120, for editions of 1532 and 1536.)

The cartographical ideas of the North from the earliest conceptions
may be traced in the following maps, which for this purpose may be
deemed typical: In 1510-12, in the Lenox Globe, which is drawn in Dr.
De Costa’s chapter; the map in Sylvanus’s _Ptolemy_, 1511, represents
Greenland as protruding from the northwest of Europe; the globe of
Orontius Fine, 1531, is resolvable into a similar condition, as shown
on page 11 of the present volume; Mercator’s great map of 1569,
blundering, mixes the Zeno geography with the later developments;
Gilbert’s map, 1576, gives an insular Greenland of a reversed trend
of coast; the Lok map of 1582 may be seen on page 40, and the
Hakluyt-Martyr map on page 42. The map of America showing the Arctic
Sea which appears in Boterus’s _Welt-beschreibung_, 1596, and Acosta’s
map (1598) of Greenland and adjacent parts, can be compared with
Wolfe’s, in Linschoten, already given in this note. Finally, we may
take the Hondius maps of 1611 and 1619, in which Hondius places at 80°
north this legend: “Glacis ab Hudsono detecta.”

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

History

Narrative and Critical History of America, Vol. 3 (of 8): English Explorations and Settlements in North America 1497-1689

America -- Discovery and exploration; America -- History; United States -- History

1. Engronelant (Greenland).
  2. Grolandia.
  3. Islanda (Iceland).
  4. Norvegia (Norway).
  5. Estland (Shetland Islands?).
  6. Icaria.
  7. Frisland (Faroe Islands?).
  8. Estotiland (Labrador?).
  9. Drogeo (Newfoundland or New England?).
  10. Podalida.
  11. Scocia (Scotland).
  12. Mare et terre incognite.

Its influence can be further traced, twenty years later, in the map of
the world which Wolfe, in 1598, added to his English translation of
Linschoten. We annex a sketch-map of the Arctic portion, which needs to
be interpreted by the key below the cut.

[Illustration: FROM WOLFE’S LINSCHOTEN, 1598.

  1. Terra Septemtrionalis.
  2. Grocland.
  3. Groenland.
  4. Island (Iceland).
  5. Friesland.
  6. Drogeo.
  7. Estotiland.
  8. R. Nevado.
  9. C. Marco.
  10. Gol di S. Lorenzo.
  11. Saguenay flu.
  12. Canada.
  13. Nova Francia.
  14. Norōbega.
  15. Terra de Baccalaos.
  16. Do Bretan.
  17. Juan.
  18. R. de Tomēta.
  19. S. Brādam.
  20. Brasil.]

Considering the doubt attached to the Zeno chart, it would seem that
the earliest undoubted delineation of American parts of the Arctic
land is the representation of Greenland which appears in the Ptolemy
of 1482. This position of Greenland was reproduced, about ten years
before Frobisher’s voyage, in Olaus Magnus’s Latin _Historia_, Basil,
1567, who puts on the peninsula this legend: “Hic habitant Pygmei
vulgo Screlinger dicti.” There had been an earlier Latin edition of
the _Historia_ at Rome in 1555, and one in Italian at Venice in 1565:
there was no English edition till 1658. (_Carter-Brown Catalogue_, p.
269.) Ziegler’s _Schondia_ had in Frobisher’s time been for forty years
or more a source of information regarding the most northern regions.
(_Carter-Brown Catalogue_, pp. 103, 120, for editions of 1532 and 1536.)

The cartographical ideas of the North from the earliest conceptions
may be traced in the following maps, which for this purpose may be
deemed typical: In 1510-12, in the Lenox Globe, which is drawn in Dr.
De Costa’s chapter; the map in Sylvanus’s _Ptolemy_, 1511, represents
Greenland as protruding from the northwest of Europe; the globe of
Orontius Fine, 1531, is resolvable into a similar condition, as shown
on page 11 of the present volume; Mercator’s great map of 1569,
blundering, mixes the Zeno geography with the later developments;
Gilbert’s map, 1576, gives an insular Greenland of a reversed trend
of coast; the Lok map of 1582 may be seen on page 40, and the
Hakluyt-Martyr map on page 42. The map of America showing the Arctic
Sea which appears in Boterus’s _Welt-beschreibung_, 1596, and Acosta’s
map (1598) of Greenland and adjacent parts, can be compared with
Wolfe’s, in Linschoten, already given in this note. Finally, we may
take the Hondius maps of 1611 and 1619, in which Hondius places at 80°
north this legend: “Glacis ab Hudsono detecta.”

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Narrative and Critical History of America, Vol. 3 (of 8): English Explorations and Settlements in North America 1497-1689

Narrative and Critical History of America, Vol. 3 (of 8): English Explorations and Settlements in North America 1497-1689

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