and you came back to Cambridge in due time to assume your high office. Twelve years ago, sought by you, I likewise came, to discharge a duty under you._ _You took me away from many cares, and transferred me to the more congenial service of the University. The change has conduced to the progress of those studies in which I hardly remember to have had a lack of interest._ _So I owe much to you; and it is not, I trust, surprising that I desire to connect, in this work, your name with that of your_ _Obliged friend_, [Illustration] CAMBRIDGE, 1889. CONTENTS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [_The cut on the title represents a mask, which forms the centre of the Mexican Calendar Stone, as engraved in D. Wilson’s Prehistoric Man, i. 333, from a cast now in the Collection of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland._] INTRODUCTION. PART I. AMERICANA IN LIBRARIES AND BIBLIOGRAPHIES. _The Editor_ i ILLUSTRATIONS: Portrait of Professor Ebeling, iii; of James Carson Brevoort, x; of Charles Deane, xi. PART II. EARLY DESCRIPTIONS OF AMERICA, AND COLLECTIVE ACCOUNTS OF THE EARLY VOYAGES THERETO. _The Editor_ xix ILLUSTRATIONS: Title of the _Newe Unbekanthe Landte_, xxi; of Peter Martyr’s _De Nuper sub D. Carolo repertis insulis_ (1521), xxii; Portrait of Grynæus, xxiv; of Sebastian Münster, xxvi, xxvii; of Monardes, xxix; of De Bry, xxx; of Feyerabend, xxxi. CHAPTER I. THE GEOGRAPHICAL KNOWLEDGE OF THE ANCIENTS CONSIDERED IN RELATION TO THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. _William H. Tillinghast_ 1 ILLUSTRATIONS: Maps by Macrobius, 10, 11, 12; Carli’s _Traces of Atlantis_, 17; Sanson’s _Atlantis Insula_, 18; Bory de St. Vincent’s _Carte Conjecturale de l’Atlantide_, 19; Contour Chart of the Bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, 20; The Rectangular Earth, 30. CRITICAL ESSAY 33 NOTES 38 A. The Form of the Earth, 38; B. Homer’s Geography, 39; C. Supposed References to America, 40; D. Atlantis, 41; E. Fabulous Islands of the Atlantic in the Middle Ages, 46; F. Toscanelli’s Atlantic Ocean, 51. G. (_By the Editor._) Early Maps of the Atlantic Ocean, 53. ILLUSTRATIONS: Map of the Fifteenth Century, 53; Map of Fr. Pizigani (A.D. 1367), and of Andreas Bianco (1436), 54; Catalan Map (1375), 55; Map of Andreas Benincasa (1476), 56; Laon Globe, 56; Maps of Bordone (1547), 57, 58; Map made at the End of the Fifteenth Century, 57; Ortelius’s Atlantic Ocean (1587), 58. CHAPTER II. PRE-COLUMBIAN EXPLORATIONS. _Justin Winsor_ 59 ILLUSTRATIONS: Norse Ship, 62; Plan of a Viking Ship 63, and her Rowlock, 63; Norse Boat used as a Habitation, 64; Norman Ship from the Bayeux Tapestry, 64; Scandinavian Flags, 64; Scandinavian Weapons, 65; Runes, 66, 67; Fac-simile of the Title of the Zeno Narrative, 70; Its Section on Frisland, 71; Ship of the Fifteenth Century, 73; The Sea of Darkness, 74. CRITICAL NOTES 76 A. Early Connection of Asiatic Peoples with the Western Coast of America, 76; B. Ireland the Great, or White Man’s Land, 82; C. The Norse in Iceland, 83; D. Greenland and its Ruins, 85; E. The Vinland Voyages, 87; F. The Lost Greenland Colonies, 107; G. Madoc and the Welsh, 109; H. The Zeni and their Map, 111; I. Alleged Jewish Migration, 115; J. Possible Early African Migrations, 116. ILLUSTRATIONS: Behring’s Sea and Adjacent Waters, 77; Buache’s Map of the North Pacific and Fusang, 79; Ruins of the Church at Kakortok, 86; Fac-simile of a Saga Manuscript and Autograph of C. C. Rafn, 87; Ruin at Kakortok, 88; Map of Julianehaab, 89; Portrait of Rafn, 90; Title-page of _Historia Vinlandiæ Antiguæ per Thormodum Torfæum_, 91; Rafn’s Map of Norse America, 95; Rafn’s Map of Vinland (New England), 100;...