The distance might mean 1500 miles to the westward of the English coast, on about the parallel of London, where Biancho drew the map. The information would come from some expedition in the days of William Canyng.[1]
About twenty years later, voyages of discovery began to be dispatched from Bristol, to discover or re-discover an island called Brazil, reported to be in the ocean to the westward of Ireland. William Botoner knew something about one of these voyages, because his brother-in-law, John Jay, took part in it. He says that the commander's name was Thylde, and that he was the most scientific seaman in all England. Sailing from the port of Bristol, on the 15th of July, 1480, he preceded Columbus by upwards of twelve years. His task, however, was far more difficult and perilous than that of the Genoese. Columbus merely ran down the trades in lovely weather. But Thylde and his gallant Englishmen, in a little vessel of 80 tons, had to battle against the gales of the North Atlantic in the roaring forties. They failed to discover land, but they deserved success. The time occupied by the voyages of Columbus and Thylde respectively was about the same, one sixty-nine and the other sixty-four days; but while the Spaniards enjoyed the pleasant weather of the trade wind, the English adventurers fought a brave fight against the mighty seas and adverse gales of the boisterous North Atlantic. Thylde returned to Bristol on the 18th of September; and we owe it to the accident that one of his crew was related to one out of the very few chroniclers of that time, that any record was preserved of the existence of the most scientific seaman in all England, or of his voyage of discovery. Other similar voyages followed; but the English sailors, in their more stormy latitudes, had no trade wind to carry them easily across the ocean; while Thylde, as a scientific observer, for a long time had no English successor. The unknown facts which led to the insertion of the coast-line on the margin of Andrea Biancho's map, possibly account for the subsequent efforts of Thylde and others to re-discover that land which they called Brazil. It seems certain, from what we are told by William Botoner, that such efforts were actually made.
The minds of English mariners were thus quite prepared for another attempt, when the news of the discoveries of Columbus
- ↑ Mr. Yule Oldham, however, suggests a Portuguese source for the information which induced Biancho to draw the outline on the margin of his map.
