For The Isle Of Brazil, Long Before The Discovery Of America,
Was A Name Applied To An Imaginary Island In The Atlantic.
This island
appears in the map of Andrea Bianco and in many others, down at least to
Coronelli's splendid
Venetian Atlas (1696); the Irish used to fancy that
they could see it from the Isles of Arran; and the legend of this Island of
Brazil still persisted among sailors in the last century.[6] The story was
no doubt the same as that of the green Island, or Island of Youth, which
Mr. Campbell tells us the Hebrideans see to the west of their own Islands.
(See Pop. Tales of West Highlands, IV. 163. For previous references,
Delia Decirna,, III. 298, 361; IV. 60; I.B. IV. 99; Cathay, p. 77;
Note by Dr. H. Gleghorn; Marsh's ed. of Wedgwood's Etym. Dict. I. 123;
Southey, H. of Brazil, I. 22.)
NOTE 3. - This is the Colombine ginger which appears not unfrequently in
mediaeval writings. Pegolotti tells us that "ginger is of several sorts,
to wit, Belledi, Colombino, and Mecchino. And these names are
bestowed from the producing countries, at least this is the case with the
Colombino and Mecchino, for the Belledi is produced in many
districts of India. The Colombino grows in the Island of Colombo of India,
and has a smooth, delicate, ash-coloured rind; whilst the Mecchino comes
from the districts about Mecca and is a small kind, hard to cut," etc.
(Delia Dec. III.
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