Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Was Mobile Bay the Bay of Spiritu Santo?
There are a large number of early maps of various nations in books and in collections. The tests of their value are age and ac curacy, an-d, as they are seldom made by the explorers themselves, neither test can always be made out. Mr. Winsor wrote me once that often old maps confused him and made him more uncertain, and Humboldt's remark is certainly correct that in early explora tions distances will be incorrect, but directions approximately true. Almost necessarily we have to consider all the main maps that re late to our subject, making special remarks upon such as seem to be of importance.
The earliest known is one on ox - hide, by Cosa, a companion of Columbus. It gives Cuba and many names on South America, but the Gulf of Mexico, while shown, is conjectural. Peninsular Florida is hardly indicated, for there is not a name on the coast, and a vignette of St. Christopher covers all the other parts that are of interest to us. This is good negative evidence. We had not as yet been discovered.
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