these people did not wish to be discovered, and might for this reason burn their ship. On this account they returned to Portugal, hoping to be rewarded by the prince for what they had done. He reproved them severely, and bid them return at once to the island, but the master, through fear, ran away from Portugal with the ship and men. It is reported that while the seamen were at church on the island, the ship-boys gathered sand for the cook-room, the third part of which they found to be pure gold. Seneca, in his fourth book, tells us that Thucydides speaks of an island called Atlantica, which in the time of the Peloponnesian war was entirely, or the greater part of it, submerged; whereof Plato also makes mention in his Timæus."

It is said that in 1431 Prince Henry of Portugal sent Goncalo Cabral in search of certain islands which were marked on a map brought from Italy (Lisboa, lib. iv. cap. i. p. 97). A belief existed in Portugal that in 1447 a Portuguese ship was driven by stress of weather "to the Island of the Seven Cities" (De Originibus Americanis, p. 77); and, according to Columbus, an adventurer named Vogado succeeded in discovering two oceanic islands (Christopher Columbus, i. p. 315).

In the early part of the fifteenth century, according to a tradition, a pilot arrived at Lisbon, and stated that he had landed upon an island in the Atlantic Ocean "which he had found peopled with Christians and adorned with noble cities." The sequel of this story is exceedingly romantic in its details. Don Fernando de Alma, a young Portuguese cavalier, came to the conclusion that the pilot had discovered the Island of the Seven Cities. With

the consent of the king he fitted out two vessels, and started upon a voyage of discovery. After encountering some difficulties, the caravel, with Don Fernando on board, after a storm, lay perfectly becalmed off the mouth of a river, "on the banks of which, about a league off, was descried a noble city, with lofty walls and towers and a protecting castle.' Don Fernando was welcomed to the Island of the Seven Cities by the Grand Chamberlain. He spent an agreeable time on shore, and at night he returned in the State barge of the Grand Chamberlain. "The barge sailed out to sea, but no caravel was to be seen. The oarsmen rowed on,-their monotonous chant had a lulling effect. A drowsy influence crept over Don Fernando; objects swam before his eyes, and he lost consciousness. On his recovery

he found himself in a strange cabin, surrounded by strangers. Where was he? On board a Portuguese ship bound for Lisbon. How had he come there? He had been taken senseless from a wreck drifting about the ocean. The vessel arrived in the Tagus, and anchored before the famous capital. Don Fernando sprang joyfully on shore, and hastened to his ancestral mansion. A strange porter opened the door, who knew nothing of him or of his family; no people of the name had inhabited the house for many a year. He sought the house of his betrothed, the Donna Serafina. He beheld her on the balcony; then he raised his arms towards her with an exclamation of rapture. She cast upon him a look of indignation, and hastily retired. He rang at the door; as it was opened by the porter, he rushed past, sought the well-known chamber, and threw himself at the feet of Serafina. She started back

with affright, and took refuge in the arms of a youthful cavalier.

"What mean you, señor?" cried the latter.

"What right have you to ask that question?" demanded Don Fernando fiercely.

"The right of an affianced suitor!"

"O Serafina! is this your fidelity?" cried he in a tone of agony.

"Serafina! What mean you by Serafina, señor? This lady's name is Maria."

66

What!" cried Don Fernando; "is not this Serafina Alvarez, the original of yon portrait which smiles on me from the wall?"

66

Holy Virgin!" cried the young lady, casting her eyes upon the portrait," he is talking of my great-grandmother!" 1

In the Decades of the New World (Eden's translations, Arber's edition, Birmingham, 1885, p. 287), in the course of some allusions to the noble enterprise of Antoni di Mendeza, Viceroy of Mexico, the narrator says: "And I remember that when I was in Flanders, in the Emperor's Court, I saw his letter written in the year 1541, and dated from Mexico; wherein was declared how towards the north-west he had found the kingdom of Sette Citta, (that is) Seven Cities, and how beyond the said kingdom, yet farther toward the northwest, Capitain Francesco Vasques came to the seaside, where he found certain ships; .. he understood that these ships could be of none other country than of Cathay." This is a fair example of the universal belief in the existence of the Island of the Seven Cities, and of the 1 Curious Myths of the Middle Ages, p. 543.

possibility of reaching India by a "North-West passage.

"There was a tradition afloat in Europe, that on the occasion of the conquest of the Spanish peninsula by the Arabs in the eighth century, a certain bishop of Lisbon, with a goodly company of followers, took refuge upon an island, or group of islands, far out on the Sea of Darkness, and founded seven cities there.

. Its seven cities were curiously transferred into the very heart of the American continent. Among the Nahuatl tribes there was a legend of Chicomoztoe, or the Seven Caves, from which at some period in the past their ancestors issued. As soon as the Spaniards got hold of this legend they contrived to mix up these seven caves with their seven cities. They were supposed to be somewhere to the northward, and when Cabeza de Vaca and his comrades had disclosed the existence of such a vast territory north of Mexico, it was resolved to search for the seven cities in that direction. The work was entrusted to Fray Marcos, . . . a Franciscan monk. He was attended on the journey by the negro Estevánico and a few Pima Indians, who had been educated at Mexico. At Matape, an Indian village in Senora, they heard definite news of a country situated thirty days' march to the northward, where there were seven large cities. . . The name of the first of these cities was said to be Cibola. And from that time forth this became a common name for the group, and we hear much of the seven cities of Cibola. These were the seven pueblos of Zuñi, in New Mexico, of which six were still inhabited at the end of the sixteenth century. . . Estevánico travelled some miles in advance of Fray Marcos.

When he arrived at the first of the cities of Cibola, flaunting the turquoises and the handsome Indian girls, with whom he had been presented in the course of his journey, much to the disgust of the Franciscan friar, the elders and chiefs of the pueblo would not grant him admittance. He was lodged in a small house outside the enclosure, and was cautiously catechised. When he announced himself as the envoy and forerunner of a white man, sent by a mighty prince beyond the sky to instruct them in heavenly things, the Zuñi elders were struck with a sense of incongruity. How could black represent white, or be the envoy and forerunner of white? To the metaphysics of the middle status of barbarism the question wore a very uncanny look, and to the common sense of the middle status of barbarism the self-complacent Estevánico appeared to be simply a spy from some chieftain or tribe that wanted to conquer the Zuñis. While the elders were debating whether they should do reverence to him as a wizard, or butcher him as a spy, he stole out of his lodging and sought safety in flight; and this act, being promptly detected, robbed him of all dignity, and sealed his fate. A hue-and-cry went after him, and an arrow soon found its way to his heart. The news of this catastrophe checked the advance of Fray Marcos. His Indian comrades were discouraged, and the most he could do was to keep them with him while he climbed a hill, whence he could get a Pisgah sight of the glories of Cibola. After he had accomplished this, the party returned with all possible haste to Culiacan, and arrived there in August 1539, after an absence of five months" (The Discovery of America, by J. Fiske, vol. ii. pp. 502-507).