"country of the Tanais." Cabot on the
other hand might have heard of Tana when in Mecca without getting any
very definite idea of its location except that it was far to the East in
India. The phrase "toward the East," like the one earlier in the letter
"toward the Oriental regions," is used of the ultimate destination, not
the direction, and of the destination as a known spot always thought of
in Europe as "the East."

[426-2] _El brasilio_ for _el legno brasilio_. Brazil wood was an East
Indian red wood imported into Europe. It is the _Caesalpina sappan_. Its
bright color led to its being compared to glowing coals, _brazia_,
_brascia_, etc., Eng. brazier, and then to its being called, as it were,
"glowing coals wood," _lignum brasile_, _lignum brasilium_, etc., and in
Italian most commonly _brasile_ and _verzino_, a popular corruption.
Heyd, _Histoire du Commerce du Levant au Moyen-Age_, II. 587. On the
transference of the name of this wood to a mythical island in the
Atlantic and then, after the discoveries, to the present country of
Brazil which produced dye-woods similar to _Brasilio_, see Yule's art.
"Brazil, Island of," _Encyclopaedia Britannica_, and Winsor, _Narrative
and Critical History_, I. 49-51.

[427-1] _Stochfissi._ The English word "stockfish" Italianized. Of the
English fish trade with Iceland, Biggar gives a full account, _Voyages of
the Cabots_, pp. 53-62, making frequent citations from G.W. Dasent,
_Icelandic Annals_, IV. 427-437. He quotes also a passage from the
_Libell of English Policy_, 1436, beginning:

"Of Yseland to wryte is lytille nede Save of stokfische;" etc.

[427-2] _El Levante_, here again as a known place, oriented from Europe.
His destination, not the direction of his route.

[427-3] In Cabot's mind the Cipango of Marco Polo is confused with the
Spice Islands. Marco Polo says nothing of the production of spices in his
account of Cipango. The confusion is probably to be traced to Columbus's
reports that he had discovered Cipango and that the islands he had
discovered produced spices.

[427-4] From 1425 Jiddah on the east shore of the Red Sea rapidly
displaced Aden as an emporium of the spice trade where the cargoes were
transshipped from Indian to Egyptian vessels. Jiddah is the port of entry
for Mecca, distant about forty-five miles, and Mecca became a great spice
market. See Heyd, _Histoire du Commerce du Levant au Moyen-Age_, II. 445
_et seqq._, and Biggar, _Voyages of th