Though the need of a good history of the most important maps and charts of America, enriched by copies of the most interesting, cannot but have been felt by every one who has spent much time in the study of its first settlement and growth, such a work still remains a desideratum in our literature. As a trifling aid to any who may hereafter engage in an undertaking of this kind, and as an assistance to the future historian of that portion of our country, I add a brief notice of those that best illustrate the progress of geographical knowledge respecting Florida. On the earliest extant sketch of the New World--, that made by Juan de Cosa in 1500--, a continuous coast line running east and northeast connects the southern continent to the shores of the _Mar descubierta por Ingleses_ in the extreme north. No signs of a peninsula are visible. Eight years later, on the _Universalior cogniti Orbis Tabula_, of Johannes Ruysch found in the geography of Ptolemy printed at Rome under the supervision of Marcus Beneventanus and Johannes Gotta, the whole of North America is included in a small body of land marked Terra Nova or Baccalauras,[120] joined to the countries of Gog and Magog and the _desertum Lob_ in Asia. A cape stretching out towards Cuba is called Cabo de Portugesi.[121] This brings us to the enigmatical map in the magnificent folio edition of Ptolemy, printed at Venice in 1513. On this, North America is an oblong parallelogram of land with an irregularly shaped portion projecting from its south-eastern extremity, maintaining with general correctness the outlines and direction of the peninsula of Florida. A number of capes and rivers are marked along its shores, some of the names evidently Portugese, others Spanish. Now as Leon first saw Florida in 1512, and the report of his discovery did not reach Europe for years, whence came this knowledge of the northern continent? Santarem and Ghillany both confess that there were voyages to the New World undertaken by Portuguese in the first decade of the century, about which all else but the mere fact of their existence have escaped the most laborious investigations; hence, probably to one of these unknown navigators we are to ascribe the honor of being the first discoverer of Florida, and the source of the information displayed by the editors of this copy of Ptolemy.[122]