Note 540 — Chapter II

But see Vol. III. 45; IV. 3. Forster (Northern Voyages, book iii. ch. 3 and 4) contends for these pre-Columbian visits of the European fishermen. Cf. Winsor’s Bibliog. of Ptolemy, sub anno 1508. The same currents and easterly trade-winds which helped Columbus might easily have carried chance vessels to the American coasts, as we have evidence, apparently, in the stern-post of a European vessel which Columbus saw at Guadaloupe. Haven cites Gumilla (Hist. Orinoco, ii. 208) as stating that in 1731 a bateau from Teneriffe was thrown upon the South American coast. Cf. J. P. Casselius, De Navigationibus fortuitis in Americam, ante Columbum factis (Magdeburg, 1742); Brasseur’s Popul Vuh, introd.; Hunt’s Merchants’ Mag. xxv. 275.