The nomenclature along the African coast is fairly full, and evidently taken from original sources,[465] but the spelling is so corrupt, and the letters are frequently so illegible, that I failed to make out many of the names, although I had that portion of the map which specially interested me enlarged from Dr. Hamy’s facsimile by photography. An examination of the copy, which I give, will show that the drawing of the coast-line leaves very much to be desired.
A very great advance upon the preceding is shown by a chart which Alberto Cantino, the correspondent of Hercules d’Este, Duke of Ferrara, caused to be specially designed for his patron, at Lisbon, and for which he paid twelve golden ducats. There can be no doubt about the date of this map. It was begun after Cortereal’s return, October 11th, 1501, and had been completed some time before November, 1502. The MS. of this valuable chart is deposited in the Biblioteca Estense at Modena. The American portion of it has been published by Mr. Harrisse (Les Cortereals, Paris, 1888[466]), and the Indian Section by the Vienna Geographical Society.[467] Through the kindness of Signor M. C. Caputo, librarian of the Biblioteca Estense, who procured for me an excellent photograph, I am enabled to publish Africa from the Gulf of Guinea to Makhdesho. An examination of this reproduction will at once establish the superiority of this chart over those already noticed, as also over later charts. The outline of Africa is wonderfully correct, considering the age of the chart, and the broad face presented by that continent to the south is brought out most satisfactorily. Unfortunately, several of the names along the south coast are rendered illegible, even on the original, owing to the coloured Table Mountain, and I have failed to decipher these satisfactorily, notwithstanding the kind help afforded me by Signor Caputo. Along the east coast there is a paucity of names. It should be observed that the padrões and Portuguese flags have been located somewhat at haphazard.
Whilst the African coast is taken exclusively from recent Portuguese sources, that of India and Further India is largely based upon native information. This is proved by some of the legends. At Çatiguam we read “esta em xi pulgados a o norte,” but these “pulgados” or inches are clearly the “isbas” of the “Mohit,” a mode of expressing the latitude which is peculiar to the Indian Ocean and has been explained by me on p. [26], note 4.
Sidi Ali Ben Hosein’s MOHIT 1554.
In order to enable the reader to judge of the extent to which the compilers of early Portuguese maps were indebted to native sailing directories and charts, and of the judgment exercised by them in their use, I insert here a reduction of Dr. Tomaschek’s elaborate reconstruction of a chart in accordance with the data contained in Admiral Sidi Ali ben Hosein’s “Mohit,” or “Encyclopædia of the Sea,” which, although only written in 1554, embodies the local knowledge gained in the course of centuries, and is not indebted to Portuguese charts for its superiority.[468]
The next chart to be considered is by Nicolas de Canerio, of Genoa. Its date is undoubtedly the same as that of the Cantino Map, that is, it was drawn before the results of João da Nova’s voyage had become available. This is proved by finding “y. tebas, iste insulle chamada secular” in the mid-Atlantic (9° S.), with a Portuguese flag, for these islands are borrowed from Juan de la Cosa, and have nothing to do with Conceiçao (Ascension) or St. Helena, discovered by João da Nova. It is almost wholly based upon the materials previously utilised by Cantino’s draughtsman, although more detailed in outline and with a more ample nomenclature in some places. The shape of Africa, however, is far more correctly given on Cantino’s chart than on Canerio’s,[469] and the technical workmanship of the former is of a superior character. The legends on both maps have evidently been taken from the same source: those on Cantino’s map, as far as I have been able to examine it, appearing to be more numerous and in some cases fuller.
The MS. of this important chart is at present in the Hydrographic Office at Paris. Prof. L. Gallois, whose contributions to the history of geography are highly appreciated by all interested in the subject, has given an account of it in the Bulletin of the Geographical Society of Lyons.[470] This account is accompanied by a reproduction of two sections of the map, viz., America and Africa. Prof. Gallois has had the extreme kindness to supply me with a tracing of the Asiatic portion of the map, and has thus enabled me to produce Map VII, illustrating this volume. My reproduction contains all the names of the original to the east of the Cape of Good Hope, whilst the legends for which there was no room upon the Reduction are given at the end of this Appendix.