[101] Goodrich’s Life of the so-called Christopher Columbus. Cf. Luciano Cordeiro, “Les Portugais dans la découverte de l’Amérique,” in Congrès des Américanistes, 1875, i. 274.
[102] Humboldt sees no reason to doubt that Iceland was meant. (Examen critique, i. 105; v. 213; Cosmos, ii. 611.) It may be remarked, however, that “Thyle” and “Islanda” are both laid down in the Ptolemy map of 1486, which only signifies probably that the old and new geography were not yet brought into accord. Cf. Journal of the American Geographical Society, xii. 170, 177, where it is stated that records prove the mild winter for Iceland in 1477, which Columbus represents at Thule.
[103] A like intimation is sustained by De Costa in Columbus and the Geographers of the North, Hartford, 1872; and it is distinctly claimed in Anderson’s America not discovered by Columbus, 3d edition, 1883, p. 85. It is also surmised that Columbus may have known the Zeni map.
[104] Humboldt discusses the question whether Columbus received any incentive from a knowledge of the Scandinavian or Zeni explorations, in his Examen critique, ii. 104; and it also forms the subject of appendices to Irving’s Columbus.
[105] This problem is more particularly examined in Vol. I. Cf. also Vol. IV. p. 3.
[106] Harrisse, Les Cortereals, p. 25, who points out that Behaim’s globe shows nothing of such a voyage,—which it might well have done if the voyage had been made; for Behaim had lived at the Azores, while Cortereal was also living on a neighboring island. Major, Select Letters of Columbus, p. xxviii, shows that Faria y Sousa, in Asia Portuguesa, while giving a list of all expeditions of discovery from Lisbon, 1412-1460, makes no mention of this Cortereal. W. D. Cooley, in his Maritime and Island Discovery, London, 1830, follows Barrow; but Paul Barron Watson, in his “Bibliography of pre-Columbian Discoveries” appended to the 3d edition (Chicago, 1883) of Anderson’s America not discovered by Columbus, p. 158, indicates how Humboldt (Examen critique, i. 279), G. Folsom (North American Review, July, 1838), Gaffarel (Études, p. 328), Kohl (Discovery of Maine, p. 165), and others dismiss the claim. If there was any truth in it, it would seem that Portugal deliberately cut herself off from the advantages of it in accepting the line of demarcation in 1493.
[107] Edition of 1597, folio 188.
[108] Follows Wytfliet in his Rerum Danicarum historia, 1631, p. 763.
[109] Ulyssea, Lugduni, 1671, p. 335.
[110] Journal of the American Geographical Society, xii. 170. Asher, in his Henry Hudson, p. xcviii, argues for Greenland.