Transference of Mayda To American Waters
The maps made after the world had become more or less familiarized with the details of modern discoveries, in this case as in most others of its kind, indicate little except the dying out of old traditions, whatever they may have been, and haphazard or conventional substitution of locations and forms or the influence of the new geographic facts and theories. Thus Desceliers’ map of 1546[163] ([Fig. 9]), a museum of strangely-named sea islands, makes the latitude of “Maidas” 47° and the longitude that of St. Michaels, but not long afterward Nicolay (1560;[164] [Fig. 6]) and Zaltieri (1566)[165] transferred the island to Newfoundland waters. Nicolay calls it “I man orbolunda,” and places it just south of the Strait of Belle Isle. It is accompanied by Green Island and by Brazil, a little farther out on the Grand Banks where the Virgin Rocks may still be found at low tide. Taken together these three islands look like parts of a disintegrated Newfoundland. Zaltieri of 1566 gives Maida by that name more nearly the same outward location, though it is still distinctly American. Nicolay’s name “orbolunda” is one of the many puzzling things connected with this island. His “Man” may be either a reversion to the fifteenth-century name, or, more likely, a modification of, or error in copying from Gastaldi’s map-illustration[166] of Ramusio about ten years previously, which allots the same inclement site to an “isola de demoni” and depicts the little capering devils in wait there for their prey. It is likely, though, that Gastaldi had no thought of identifying it with Mayda. But the neighborhood of the island of Brazil and Green Island seem nearly conclusive evidence that Nicolay intended I Man for Mayda and had ascribed to it, by reason of evil association, the supposed attributes of Gastaldi’s island. However, Ramusio himself in 1566,[167] the same year as Zaltieri, set his “Man” south of Brazil off the coast of Ireland. The only really important contributions of these maps are their testimony to the continued diabolical reports of Mayda, or Man, and the apparent conviction of Nicolay and Zaltieri that the island was after all American; a suggestion that could have had no meaning and no support in the times when America was unrecognized. Evidently these map-makers did not regard the inadequate western longitude of Mayda, or Man, in the older maps as a formidable objection. Presumably they were well aware how many of the insular oceanic distances as shown by these forerunners needed stretching in the light of later discovery. But their views with regard to an American Mayda seem to have ended with them, so far as map representation is concerned.
Fig. 12—Section of the Prunes map of 1553 showing Mayda (in latitude 48°), Brazil, and Estotiland (“Esthlanda”). (After Kretschmer’s hand-copied reproduction.)