Note 425-1 — THE VOYAGES OF JOHN CABOT

The Seven Cities was a legendary island in the Atlantic. They are all placed and named on the legendary island of Antilia on the map of Grazioso Benincasa in 1482. See E. G. Bourne, Spain in America, pp. 6 and 7, and Kretschmer, Die Entdeckung Amerikas, Atlas, plate 4. Columbus reported in Portugal that he had discovered Antilia (see p. 225, note 1); hence the deduction either of John Cabot or of Raimondo that the region explored by Cabot, being far to the west in the ocean, was the same as that visited by Columbus. Cf. also art. “Brazil, Island of,” Encyclopaedia Britannica.