The Great Object Of Mauro, In Drawing Up This Map, Was To Encourage The
Portuguese In The Prosecution Of Their Voyages To The South Of Africa.
This
is known to be the fact from other sources, and the construction of the
map, as well as some of the notices and remarks, which are inserted in its
margin, form additional evidence that this was the case.
Two passages, as
Dr. Vincent observes, will set this in the clearest light. The first is
inserted at Cape Diab; "here," says the author, about the year 1420, "an
Indian vessel, on her passage across the Indian ocean was caught by a
storm, and carried 2000 miles beyond this Cape to the west and south-west;
she was seventy days in returning to the Cape." This the author regards as
a full proof that Africa was circumnavigable on the south.
In the second passage, inserted on the margin, after observing that the
Portuguese had been round the continent of Africa, more than 2000 miles to
the south-west beyond the Straits of Gibraltar; that they found the
navigation easy and safe, and had made charts of their discoveries; he
adds, that he had talked with a person worthy of credit, who assured him he
had been carried by bad weather, in an Indian ship, out of the Indian
Ocean, for forty days, beyond Cape Sofala and the Green Islands, towards
the west and south-west, and that in the opinion of the astronomer on
board, (such as all Indian ships carry,) they had been hurried away 2000
miles.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 517 of 1007
Words from 141344 to 141606
of 273188
