FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30  
31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   >>   >|  
Europe and Africa. The most _easterly_ of these are supposed in the first place to be the Azores, Madeira, the Canaries and Cape Verds. Beyond these, but at no great distance towards the _west_, occurs the _Ysola de Antillia_; which we may conclude, even allowing the date of the map to be genuine, to be a mere gratuitous or theoretic supposition, and to have received that strange name, because the obvious and natural idea of _Antipodes_ had been anathematized by Catholic ignorance. Still farther to the _north-west_, another fabulous island is laid down, under the strange appellation of _Delaman Satanaxia_, or the land created by the hand of Satan. This latter may possibly have some reference to an ignorant position of Iceland. Both were probably theoretic, for the fancied purpose of _preserving a balance_ on the globe with the continents and islands already known; an idea which was transferred by learned theorists, and even persisted in for a considerable part of the eighteenth century, under the name of the _Terra Australis incognita_; and was only banished by the enlightened voyages of scientific discovery, conducted under the auspices of our present venerable sovereign. The globe of Martin Behaim, in 1492, repeats the island of _Antillia_, and inserts beyond it to the _west_, the isle of St Brandan or Ima, from a fabulous work of the middle ages. Occasion has already occurred to notice two other ancient pretended discoveries of the New World: the fabulous voyages of the Zenos, another Venetian tale; and the equally fabulous Portuguese island of the _Seven Churches_, abounding in gold, and inhabited by Spanish or Portuguese Christians. Britain even had its Madoc prince of North Wales; and a _white_ nomadic nation in North America, speaking _Welsh_, is still among the puerile fancies of this nineteenth century. All these pretended proofs of any previous knowledge of the _western_ world, resolve into complete demonstrations of perfect ignorance, even in the art of deception and forgery. Not only is the world indebted to COLUMBUS for this great and brilliant discovery, but every subsequent improvement in navigation, geography and hydrography, is justly attributable to his illustrious example. Much and deservedly as our COOK and his coadjutors and followers have merited from their country and the world, they are all to be considered as pupils of the truly great archnavigator COLUMBUS; himself a worthy scholar from the
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30  
31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

fabulous

 

island

 
century
 
COLUMBUS
 
ignorance
 

theoretic

 

Portuguese

 

strange

 

pretended

 

discovery


Antillia

 

voyages

 

nation

 

America

 

Spanish

 
speaking
 

prince

 
Christians
 

Britain

 
nomadic

Venetian

 

occurred

 
notice
 

Occasion

 

Brandan

 

middle

 

ancient

 

Churches

 

abounding

 

equally


discoveries

 
inhabited
 

resolve

 

deservedly

 

coadjutors

 

illustrious

 

attributable

 

navigation

 

geography

 

hydrography


justly

 

followers

 

merited

 

archnavigator

 

worthy

 

scholar

 
pupils
 
considered
 
country
 

improvement