The Discovery of America Vol. 1 (of 2): with some account of Ancient America and the Spanish ConquestFiske, John
History
The Discovery of America Vol. 1 (of 2): with some account of Ancient America and the Spanish Conquest
Fiske, John
America -- Discovery and exploration; Latin America -- History
[Footnote 279: It appears on the Zeno map as "Trin
p[-p]montor," about the site of Cape Farewell; but how could
six days' sail W. from Kerry, followed by four days' sail N.
E., reach any such point? and how does this short outward sail
consist with the return voyage, twenty days E. and eight days
S. E., to the Faeroes? The place is also said to have had "a
fertile soil" and "good rivers," a description in nowise
answering to Greenland.]
[Footnote 280: "Pero non ni diro altro in questa lettera,
sperando tosto di essere con uoi, e di sodisfarui di molte
altre cose con la uiua uoce." Major, p. 34.]
[Sidenote: Publication of the remains of the documents by the younger
Nicolo Zeno.]
The person thus addressed by Antonio was his brother, the illustrious
Carlo Zeno. Soon after reaching home, after this long and eventful
absence, Antonio died. Besides his letters he had written a more
detailed account of the affairs in the northern seas. These papers
remained for more than a century in the palace of the family at Venice,
until one of the children, in his mischievous play, got hold of them and
tore them up. This child was Antonio's great-great-great-grandson,
Nicolo, born in 1515. When this young Nicolo had come to middle age, and
was a member of the Council of Ten, he happened to come across some
remnants of these documents, and then all at once he remembered with
grief how he had, in his boyhood, pulled them to pieces.[281] In the
light of the rapid progress in geographical discovery since 1492, this
story of distant voyages had now for Nicolo an interest such as it could
not have had for his immediate ancestors. Searching the palace he found
a few grimy old letters and a map or sailing chart, rotten with age,
which had been made or at any rate brought home by his ancestor Antonio.
Nicolo drew a fresh copy of this map, and pieced together the letters as
best he could, with more or less explanatory text of his own, and the
result was the little book which he published in 1558.[282]
[Footnote 281: "All these letters were written by Messire
Antonio to Messire Carlo, his brother; and I am grieved that
the book and many other writings on these subjects have, I
don't know how, come sadly to ruin; for, being but a child when
they fell into my hands, I, not knowing what they were, tore
them in pieces, as children will do, and sent them all to ruin:
a circumstance which I cannot now recall without the greatest
sorrow. Nevertheless, in order that such an important memorial
should not be lost, I have put the whole in order, as well as I
could, in the above narrative." Major, p. 35.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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