ontinent.

Although none of the charts of Columbus have come down to us, there
still exists a map of all discoveries up to the year 1500, drawn by the
pilot Juan de la Cosa, who accompanied him in his first and second
voyages, and sailed with Ojeda on a separate expedition in 1499, when
the coast of the continent was explored from the Gulf of Paria to Cabo
de la Vela. Juan de la Cosa drew this famous map of the world (which is
preserved at Madrid) at Santa Maria, in the Bay of Cadiz, when he
returned from his expedition with Ojeda in 1500. It is drawn in color,
on oxhide, and measures 5 feet 9 inches by 3 feet 2 inches. La Cosa
shows the islands discovered by Columbus, but it is difficult to
understand what he could have been thinking about in placing them north
of the tropic of cancer. The continent is delineated from 8 deg. S. of
the equator to Cabo de la Vela, which was the extreme point to which
discovery had reached in 1500; and over the undiscovered part to the
west, which the Admiral himself was destined to bring to the knowledge
of the world a few years afterward, Juan de la Cosa painted a vignette
of St. Christopher bearing the infant Christ across the ocean. But the
most important part of the map is that on which the discoveries of John
Cabot are shown, for this is the only map which shows them. It is true
that a map, or a copy of a map, of 1542, by Sebastian Cabot, was
discovered of late years, and is now at Paris, and that it indicates the
"Prima Vista," the first land seen by Cabot on his voyage of 1497; but
it shows the later work of Jacques Cartier and other explorers, and does
not show what part was due to Cabot. Juan de la Cosa, however, must have
received, through the Spanish ambassador in London, the original chart
of Cabot, showing his discoveries during his second voyage in 1498, and
was enabled thus to include the new coast-line on his great map.

The gigantic labor wore out his body. But his mind was as active as
ever. He had planned an attempt to recover the Holy Sepulcher. He had
thought out a scheme for an Arctic expedition, including a plan for
reaching the north pole, which he deposited in the monastery of
Mejorada. It was not to be. When he returned from his last voyage, he
came home to die. We gather some idea of the Admiral's personal
appearance from the descriptions of Las Casas and Oviedo. He was a man
of middle height, with courteous manners and noble bearing. His face was
oval, with a