ice and snow to the latitude of Gibraltar was
accepted as true by La Cosa, whatever later Spanish writers may have
said. Recent writers of authority have arrived at the conclusion that,
immediately after Columbus and Cabot had opened the way, many independent
adventurers visited the western seas; for there are a number of
geographical facts recorded on the earliest charts not easy to account
for on any other hypothesis. Dr. Justin Winsor shows that La Cosa, and
others of the great sailors of the earliest years of discovery, soon
recognized that they had encountered a veritable barrier to Asia,
consisting of islands, or an island of continental size, through which
they had to find a passage to the golden East. Their views were not,
however, generally accepted.

That La Cosa based the northern part of his map upon Cabot's discoveries
is demonstrated by the English flags marked along the coast and the
legend "_Mar descubierto por Ingleses_," because no English but the Cabot
expeditions had been there; and what is evidently intended for Cape Race
is called "Cavo de Ynglaterra." The English flags mark off the coast from
that cape to what may be considered as Cape Hatteras. Cabot, as before
stated, confidently expected to reach Cathay. He sailed for that as his
objective point, and he was looking for a broad western ocean, so that
narrow openings were to him simply bays of greater or less depth. The
sailors of those early voyages coasted from headland to headland, as
plainly appears from many of the maps upon which the recesses of the
sinuosities of the coast are not completed lines, and it must be borne in
mind that in sailing between Newfoundland and Cape Breton the bold and
peculiar contours of both can be seen at the same time. This is possible
in anything like clear weather, but, in the bright weather of Midsummer
Day, Cape Ray would necessarily have been seen from St. Paul's, and the
opening might well have been taken for a deep indentation of the coast.
Between "Cavo descubierto" and "Cavo St. Jorge" such an indentation is
shown on the map, but the line is closed, showing that Cabot did not sail
through.

Cavo descubierto ("the Discovered Cape"), and, close to it, "_Mar
descubierto por Ingleses!_" What can be more evident than that the spot
where Europeans first touched the American continent is thus indicated?
Why otherwise should it especially be called "the Discovered Cape" if not
because this cape was first disco