Kalm's account of his visit to England : on his way to America in 1748 / translated by Joseph Lucas ; with two maps and several illustrations.

  • Pehr Kalm
Date:
1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Kalm's account of his visit to England : on his way to America in 1748 / translated by Joseph Lucas ; with two maps and several illustrations. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    140/520 page 116
    [T. I. p. 418.] The 22nd May, 1748. Silk-grass in America. I asked Dr. Mitchel what sort of grass silk-grass was, which is mentioned in the description of Virginia, and is said to serve the same purpose as hemp. He answered that it is called by Morison in liis Hist* Yucca foliis filamentosis, and grows in Virginia on the sea-shore. It was formerly used like flax and hemp to make clothes of, maps last named show that it is the “Stillante” of the Fra Mauro map, 1459, i.e. Estland or Shetland. This, however, is not altogether inconsistent with its being the genesis of the Frislanda in the Zeno map, referred to below, as the name may liave been then misread, as it has been in later days, and the learned ignorance of the cartographers of the XlVth and two following centunes, and their confusion as to the names and true situations of the islands in lle Nort ' Atlantic, is abundantly evidenced by their maps. The first map on wlnch e name “Frislanda” is found clearly written, is that by Juan de la Cosa, who accompanied Columbus on his second voyage (1493-*496). drawn 111 1500. The name occurs also on the Portuguese “Carta da Nav,gar by Albe Cantino, 1503, but in this the position of the ,sland ,s shifted farther to the east, close to the Ilhas de Fogo. “Insula de Uresland’ is shown on a Map in Kunstmann, c. iSo5 (Brit. Mus. Tab. 1850, a. Blatt ll ^ Neaher Bordone. 1528, nor Zeigler, 1532, mentions it either m their text o maps Zurla recognises Frisland in the “ Ixilandia” of the Fra Mauro map, 459- Yrisl.ndt, isVentiohed by Cluistopher Co.ttmbus j * referring to his voyage to keland in .477 «t“»ted >« «“ l'fe °f “V, written by his son, Ferdinand Columbus, who died in 1539- ^ Spa , t first published in 157 C in Italian) in which he distinguishes it from lceland and identifies it with the Thule of Ptolemy. But it is principally in connection with the apocryphal voyages of the Venetian brothers Nicolö and Antonio Zeno at the end of the XI century that the name of Frisland is known. An account of these traveis was published in Venice in December, 155». and was accompanied by a map compiled by Nicolö Zeno, a direct descendant of Antonio, and founded, as he alleges, on an old and rotten map found among the fam, y paf e of the Zeni. The narrative is given by Ramusio (3rd ed., 2nd vo ., 574b by Hakluyt (Divers Voyages 1582. and Voyages and Navigations vol. 3. ^ and an abstract appears in Purchas hys Pilgrims (vol. 3. 1625). The Ze map was accepted as genuine, and copied with slight a teration ly * Historia plantarum Universalis, lomi III 1680, 1689, Fol. IJ.L.] Robert Morison. Oxon
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