Abstract
LOOKING at an old map of Africa last year, I noticed an island named San Matteo about half-way between Ascension and the Gold Coast. My curiosity was aroused, and in the past eighteen months I have examined more than a dozen maps dating from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, including the two oldest maps of Africa in the Vatican library. In every case San Matteo is indicated in approximately the same position. Lately, a French map of 1722 has come into my possession, which gives the following note: “Isle St. Mathieu découverte par les Portugais l'an 1526. Il y a une Source de Bonne Eau.” The position of the island on this map is lat. 2° S., long. 16° E. of Ferro. Is it likely that a Portuguese navigator could have been so far out of reckoning, both in latitude and in longitude, as to have rediscovered Ascension without knowing it? Or did San Matteo really exist?
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SHAND, S. The Island of San Matteo. Nature 122, 440 (1928). https://doi.org/10.1038/122440b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/122440b0
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