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This is the follow-up post dealing with the circumnavigation issue which I
raised in my post entitled Dating the Waldseemueller Map, Circumnavigation
and The Magellan Myth (see Maphist Volume 71 Issue 26, July 30, 2011).
However, before further exploring the circumnavigation issue relating to
South America, I should summarize the issue relating to a wood block insert in
the Waldseemueller map that bears on the dating of this famous map which
cannot be separated from the issue of the time the Portuguese required to
circumnavigate Africa on a return leg back to Lisbon.
To recapitulate, some years ago while working on my book The
Magellan Myth: Reflections on Columbus, Vespucci and the Waldseemueller Map
of
1507, now available again for sale at the Book Store at the Library of
Congress, I had read that the last datable inscription or text on the
Waldseemueller map related to a reference to Portuguese success in gaining a
commercial-political foothold on the Subcontinent. Despite many efforts, I
was
not able to relocate the pre-1914 scholarly essay containing this assertion.
However, the obvious candidate is the boxed text placed as an insert
right off the Indian west coast as Waldseemueller shows it in his 1507 world
map.
The actual text seems to lack the specificity to the year of 1506
as claimed by this other scholar. As best as I can transcribe the script
with the aid of a magnifying glass, the text in apparently impure, medieval
Latin is as follows:
Calliqut provincia nobilis in ca funt multa genera minararu
pimeta (?) alta genera mercantorum que veniutoc multi
gtib canella zinimomu zinzibar gario'ol fanvalu r oc
omnibus fpeciebus:hec est incu rege portugallie.
I consulted William McCulloh, Emeritus Professor of the Classics at my
alma mater (Kenyon College), and he confirmed that there is not enough
specificity to tie this text conclusively to something that happened in 1506.
However, the Portuguese who struggled before and well after 1506 to
secure/sustain their position in the Subcontinent did achieve a great naval
victory
on the west coast of India in March 1506 known as the famous Battle of
Cannanore over a combined Arab-Turkish fleet attempting to drive the
Portuguese
out of the region altogether.
So this is a good candidate but could news of something that
happened in March 1506 in India get back to Lisbon and then up to Saint-Die no
later than April 1507, meaning in less than 13 months? Possibly but it
would be tight.
The Circumnavigation of Africa
Travel times are hard to pin down but in 1488, Diaz reached the
Cape of Good Hope and a little bit beyond that in 5-6 months and in
1497-1498 Da Gama sailed from Lisbon to Calicut in 10 months and 2 weeks in
the
first such attempt by a European. His return voyage was 11 months.
By 1506-1507, the Portuguese might have been able to reduce these
travel time but not likely under 9 months.
So it seems not impossible that great naval victory in the
entrance to the harbor of Cannanore
explains the boxed text in the Waldseemueller map but one would have to
include the extra time required for messages to get from Lisbon by ship to
most likely the major French port -- Honfleur -- at the mouth of the Seine
and then over to Saint-Die.
As stated in my post a few hours ago, there is one other
intriguing fact that points to the probability that this boxed text was a late
insertion -- if not the last insertion -- of text on the Waldseemueller map.
As far as I can determine, all the other boxed texts on the Waldseemueller
map inserted into the ocean regions of the map are placed inside genuine
rectangles.
However, that is not the case with this odd shaped box for the
text. It is in what might be described as an inverted L-shaped box. It
seems to stand out as a case in which someone wanted to insert some last
minute information into the map at this specific location but did not have
enough room (ocean space in this case) available on the map to insert the text
inside a perfect rectangle. Therefore, they inserted the text inside an
odd-shaped box that had t be wedged between the west coast of India and a
rather mysterious depiction of an offshore land mass or island.
Thus, it looks like an eleventh-hour attempt to backfit some text
into a map that was nearly set and ready for printing. At the moment this
is the best I can offer in terms of analysis. As far as we know, there is
nothing in the map that can categorically be dated to a time after 1507.
The Circumnavigation of South America by 1507
Regarding this issue, I think that the cartographic evidence --
especially what I have described as my Majestic Lenox-Rosselli-Waldseemueller
Cartographic Troika -- plus the remarks by Ringmann and Ludd in 1507,
those of Glareanus on his 1510 maps derived from Waldseemueller's maps, and
Schoener's explicit reference to a Portuguese circumnavigation in 1515 as
also conveyed in his 1515 and 1520 globes -- leave no doubt that there was
such a circumnavigation by the time Waldseemueller depicted South America in
1507 in a way that was not merely hypothetical.
Ludd, Ringmann and Waldseemueller each in their own fashion made
clear that the source for this sensitive information came from Portugal,
although we cannot totally rule out circuitously via Vespucci who was in the
Portuguese service from 1500-1504 but was back in Spain no later than
February 1506 (see below). Ringmann's rewrite/update of his August 1505 poem
in time for inclusion in the April 1507 release of Cosmographiae Introductio
and the world map is the most revealing, intriguing piece of evidence.
All this wipes out the old claim that in Waldsemueller's mind he
was simply recycling the shape of South America as found in the
Cantino/Caverio maps -- an argument advanced by James Kelly in commentary on
my original
essay in Exploring Mercator's World (November-December 2002) and also
recycled by Toby Lester in his recent book (see page 366).
But how long would it have taken for such an illegal, clandestine
maritime achievement to disseminate (even if only in limited detail) back to
Saint-Die in eastern France, if the Portuguese really got to at least as
far as Arica on the west coast where the coastline abruptly shifts to the NW
and where Chile and Peru meet at about 18 degrees latitude south?
What was the minimum time travel time required for such an
achievement? Here below are some rough calculations.
Travel Time Estimates
There are two parts to this issue: minimum time to reach the
Strait and minimum time to reach Arica.
We know for a fact that in 1519 it took only 6 months for Magellan
to reach San Julian on March 23 1520 where he then had to contend with a
major mutiny that stopped the expedition in is tracks for the next six
months. What is the latitude of San Julian? It is 49 degrees latitude south
--
only two degrees or so short of the strait -- which only took a couple of
days for Magellan to reach after he resumed the expedition when he departed
San Julian in mid-October 1520.
Thus total sailing time for Magellan (i.e. not including the 7
months sojourn at San Julian) to the Strait was a just little over 6 months.
How does Vespucci's voyage with Coelho in 1501-1502 compare?
His entire voyage lasted exactly 16 months. He departed Lisbon
circa May 14, 1501. When did he reach the 50 degrees below the equator as he
claimed still in sight of the coastline?
Regarding this question, keep in mind my proof that Vespucci (not
Portuguese censors) later falsified his original account about the coastline
issue in his letter to Lorenzo di Medici (see the Ridolfi Letter fragment
and also the Mundus Novus version) in the later published Sodorini/Italian
edition about this same voyage. This was a clear case of Vespucci (and
not anyone else) rewriting his text or account after he realized he had
revealed far too much to Medici in a prior letter to him in late 1502 only a
short time after completing his first voyage in the service of the Portuguese
King Manuel.
So what month was it when Vespucci says he reached 50 degrees
along the coast on this voyage?
Again keep in mind that 50 degrees was just short of the strait --
unless of course Vespucci lied and actually reached the strait's eastern
opening as I have wondered or pondered in lectures/writings since 2002 and
which John Hessler's stealth essay strongly suggest was in fact the case --
namely that Vespucci was hiding how far the Portuguese had reached along
that coast to in 1501-1502.
The answer for the minimum time travel to the Strait is not
precise given weather would have been a factor, However, even in the
doctored
Italian-Sodorini edition where Vespucci reverses himself and claims he was
way out in the South Atlantic at 50 degrees -- the Florentine navigator
dates his revealing celestial observations at that latitude as having been
taken on February 15, 1502.
This would mean that it took Vespucci 9 months (including
evidently some lengthy sojourns along the coast that he describes in rich
detail)
to reach 50 degrees latitude south in 1501-1502. The return leg of his
trip back to Lisbon was 7 months. So actually sailing time down to the Strait
and back would have been something like 13-14 months -- basically 16
months minus the sojourns during which Vespucci and the Portuguese queried the
natives about the location of precious metals and obtained rest and enjoyed
other forms of recreation no doubt sexual with the naked native women
descriptions of whom in Mundus Novus captivated all of Europe.
Thus, surely the Portuguese had more than enough time to reach the
Strait before 1507 and in fact the evidence including the highly revealing
legal deposition of Valentine Fernandez dated May 1503 surely puts that
discovery well before 1507.
Indeed, Fernandez states emphatically that the King's ships had
reached 53 degrees latitude south though he makes no mention of a Strait --
something at the Top Secret level to which he was most likely not privy.
Since there is no reason to believe or insist that Fernandez was a liar -- it
would appear given the information time lag back to Lisbon -- that the
Portuguese may well have discovered the Strait as early as the second half of
1502. Vespucci presumably could not have been an eyewitness to such a
discovery since he had completed his voyage and was back in Lisbon in
September 1502 -- unless Fernandez was referring in his deposition to the
Coelho-Vespucci expedition's return about 8 months earlier.
In any case, the Portuguese had a substantial window or time
interval in the 1501-1506 period to discover the Strait and perhaps also
explore
a portion of the west coast prior to 1507 as the following analysis also
supports.
.
Magellan Provides Clues Re: Western Coastline
While Vespucci may not have seen the Strait, Magellan did and he
took about 5 weeks after reaching the Strait to navigate through the Strait
to reach the Pacific. Then he sailed more or less due North after
entering the Pacific on November 27, 1520.
How far up that western coastline did he actually sail and when
and why did he suddenly turn away from the coast?
Two of the most recent Magellan scholars (Tim Joyner in 1992 and
Andre Rossfelder in 2010) give different dates for the abrupt shift in
direction -- the former citing December 19 and the latter suggesting December
15. But at what latitude?
Joyner says at 32-33 degrees latitude south and Rossfelder who --
unlike Joyner works evidently more closely with Sebastian Elcano's surviving
log -- suggests at around 38 degrees or more specifically at Punta Lavapie
and Isla Santa Maria.
But whatever the exact truth, Magellan sailed around 18-22 days
(less than one month) northward and covered at least 14 degrees of latitude
(Rossfelder) and perhaps as much as 20 degrees (Joyner) which would have
been more than halfway to Arica which is about 34 degrees of latitude north
of the Strait's western opening.
Surely it seems Magellan and perhaps others before him could
have reached Arica from the western entrance to the Strait in 2 months or so.
One could speculate that from San Jullian to Arica and then back to San
Julian should have been accomplished in less than 10 months, probably in 6-8
months.
It is also possible that Arica is about where the Portuguese
simply might have turned around. That point is the primary distinct
geographical point and Waldseemueller (unless told otherwise) might have
conveyed the
NW drift of the coastline based on just what the Portuguese sensed from
that point or what natives might have suggested to them -- without them
really having sailed as far as Acapulco.
Why did Waldseemueller run the coastline in a NW direction to
about 100 longitude west and then straight north to the pole? I think he may
have done that because the Spanish had determined that the farthest west in
terms of longitude the Gulf waters reached or extended was 100 degrees
longitude west. Ergo the west coastline of what we know as Central America
would have had to extend westward generally at least as far as that as well.
At least this is some speculative analysis concerning Waldseemueller's
thought process that suggests that the Portuguese may not have sailed actually
as far as Acapulco but instead not much beyond Arica.
In any case, excluding base camp sojourns along the east coast,
actual travel or sailing time from Lisbon to Arica and back probably would
have been something like 24 months or two years -- thus not so much time as
to have been impossible by the Portuguese in the 1501-1506 time frame,
especially given their curiosity was killing them about a possible second door
to Asia and their need to determine which side of the maritime demarcation
line established by the Treaty of Tordesillas with Spain in 1494 that
pathway or door (a cape and/or strait) fell -- on their side of the line or
the
Spanish side. They evidently sensed that it fell on the Spanish side --
hence one trip up the western coastline was enough to satisfy their curiosity.
They concluded correctly that they still had the shortest route to Asia.
Magellan's Strange Decision
For his part, why did Magellan not continue northward for another
month or two to the Equator? Why not just go all the way, follow the
coastline back to the Equator and then onward from there to Asia proper if
this
coastline was part of Asia and therefore the obvious, convenient and safe
route to get there, including the Moluccas? Again he should have been able
to reach Arica from the eastern opening of the Strait in 3 months or so.
So why dart almost due westward into the vast ocean?
I have never seen a clear or credible answer over the years.
Joyner is silent in his excellent biography entitled Magellan. However,
Rossfelder says that since one the mutineers whom Magellan had executed at San
Julian was a protege or nephew (his text is contradictory on this point) of
the all-powerful Spanish Archbishop Juan de Fonseca, Magellan was afraid to
sail all the way to Panama for a rest stop (see Rossfelder, In Pursuit of
Longitude: Magellan and the AntiMeridian, (page 286-287).
But what was there to fear in Panama? And why and how would
Magellan know that the west coast of Panama was part of the same coastline he
was sailing along, namely that of Chile?
Rossfelder suggests that Magellan feared Spanish officials in Panama would
arrest him for his brutal handling of the mutineers and the execution of
Fonseca's nephew. But Magellan, if he had continued sailing onto Panama,
would have reached there long before these officials would have learned
circuitously via Seville/Madrid about the execution and other punishments of
the
mutineers ay San Julian. It could have easily taken close to a year, not
until late 1521 before these officials in Panama would learn anything about
the mutiny at San Julian.
Meanwhile, why would Magellan know or even think that Panama was
connected to the Chilean coast? Rossfelder is silent on this issue.
I think that Magellan knew that they were connected based either
on prior Portuguese exploration or a reasonable conclusion from therein by
1519 and also because the Spanish probably had explored at least on foot
the western coastline of Panama and some points to the north and south by
1519 when Magellan set off from Spain. They may well have established a base
on the west coast of Panama and that Magellan was well aware of that when
he departed on this voyage in service of Spain.
I do not think that the fear of being arrested in Panama was a
factor for turning and sailing into the vast ocean. However, I do think that
Magellan knew in advance in 1519 that the western coastline ran much much
father to the north. And of course anyone can see this clearly in the 18
pre-Magellan maps, globes and globe gores which I have catalogued in Table A
of my book The Magellan Myth.
Why should Magellan have been in the total dark when I have
catalogued at least 18 pre-Magellan maps showing a western coastline?
Moreover, why should the Spanish court and Emperor Charles V be totally
ignorant of
all these globes and maps circulating throughout Europe well before 1519
-- Lenox, Rosselli, Waldseemuller, Stobnicza, Schoener, the Green globe,
etc,?
Finally, the astute Magellan biographer and famous RGS member,
Francis Henry Hill Guillemard observed in 1890 that the Capitulations
(contract) between the Emperor and Magellan uses "El" the definite article for
Magellan's goal and contract to find or locate "The Strait" with the
implication
or presumption that there at least was one.
In any case, since Magellan knew that the Moluccas -- unlike China
and Japan -- were virtually at the Equator, he easily could have sailed
due north to the Equator and then gone to the west but he did not do this.
This remains the mystery.
What is not a mystery is the highly misleading and fallacious
notion of Balboa-Magellan precedency and regarding European knowledge of the
Pacific and the display at the Firestone Library at Princeton University
last year. It failed to take into account my meticulously detailed
scholarship and rock solid cartographic/documentation unless there really is
some
super-brilliant scholar out there who thinks that he or she can best me in a
public debate by exposing its flaws. I have yet to hear of any such person
accepting my challenge to a public debate.
If nothing happened, if the Europeans were still in the total
dark prior to Magellan -- the orthodoxy to which the misleading Princeton
exhibition defers and gives credence -- there would be no basis for the
existence of the long paper trail of documentary evidence, including that of a
cartographic nature, which I have uncovered since 2002 and connected into a
more compelling, rational account of what the Europeans knew and when they
knew it.
Peter Dickson The foregoing essay posted
on Maphist is for the benefit of
Arlington, Virginia Maphisters. Given the
author's rights under US Copyright Law,
Phone: 703-243-6641 there should be no
republication of this text without his
Email: [email protected]_ (mailto:[email protected]) prior
approval. c Peter W. Dickson, 2010 All Rights Reserved
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