letter. Nothing could more conclusively show the factitious origin
of this delineation and its worthlessness as an exposition of the
Verrazzano discovery.

Some importance, however, attaches to this map in its assisting us
to fix approximately the time of the fabrication of the Verrazzano
letter. If it were constructed in 1529, as some would infer, with
the portions relating to the discovery upon it, then it is the
earliest recognition of the CLAIM to this discovery yet produced,
irrespective of the letter. But it is by no means certain that it
was originally made in that year. Nothing appears on the map itself
giving that date in terms; but it is left to be inferred exclusively
from the language of the legend, which states that the discovery was
made FIVE YEARS AGO, without any indication, either in the legend
itself or elsewhere on the map, to what time that period relates;
and leaving the discovery, therefore, to be ascertained from
extraneous sources. If the discovery be assumed to have been made in
1524, then indeed the map, according to the legend, would have been
constructed in 1529. But no person, unacquainted with the letter,
can determine from this inscription, or any other part of the map,
the date either of the discovery or map; and this precise difficulty
Euphrosynus Ulpius apparently encountered in attempting to fix the
time of the discovery for his globe, as will hereafter be seen. Why
the time of the discovery should have been left in such an ambiguous
state, compatibly with fair intentions, it is difficult to
understand. The year itself could and should, in the absence of any
date on the map, have been stated directly in the legend, without
compelling a resort to other authorities. It is not unusual, it is
true, for valuable maps and charts of this period to be left without
the dates of their construction upon them; but when, as in this