Cartographic Speculations Part I


vewing North America in maps

I did a survey of 21 maps printed between 1507 and 1610 at the Univeristy of Minnesota - using only those which showed nothern Canada. Of those 21 maps, 10 showed a large bay in mid-continent, roughly corresponding to the location of Hudson Bay; 6 left the area blank, and 5 showed a relatively flat coastline (some minor 'waviness' included, but no descernable bay).
Of the 10 which showed a Bay, 6 also showed a 'polar sea' surrounded by islands, such as is shown in Mercator's 1569 Arctic map, and 2 maps did not go as far north as the pole. This certainly suggests the same source for both features. Mercator gives this source as the 'Invetio Fortunate' of Nicholas of Lynn (or rather Cnoyen's summary of that doucment) as given to Dr. Dee in his 1577 letter.

I did not make specific note at the time, but it occured afterward that several maps also showed an island to the west of and smaller than Greenland, usually labeled "Grocland". This island is long and thin, roughly in a kidney bean shape - very similar to how Baffin Island is shaped and in the same location. Undoubtably the Vikings and Norse settlers in Greenland would have visited the east coast of Baffin Is. (some think this is Heluland), but what suddenly struck me is how would they have known that it was an island without sailing around it?

Obviously these cartographic features could simply lie in the imagination of the mapmaker, or of the author of the Inventio Fortunate to whom the mapmakers referred. The polar sea, with its strong currents and four islands surrounding it do seem at first glance to be mythic. However, if this sea is moved beyond Baffin Island, it does bear a resemblance to the Foxe Basin. And the Mercator letter does say this 'indrawing sea' lays beyond Grocland.

Let me speculate a moment on the possible route of the voyage. The Knudsen/Nicholas expedition having not found signs of the missing Greenlanders on the coast of Greenland (say in 1360) return to the Eastern settlement base. The next year they seek northward from Vinland along the coast of Newfoundland, and finding no sign there continue north to Baffin Island (Helluland).
They continue along the west coast of Baffin Island, and through the Lancaster Sound which according to to the US Navy Ice Charts is ice free from July through Sept (see here for JPL moveis of polar sea ice from 1994), then heading south through a narrow channel to the Foxe Basin (the indrawing sea), mistaking the Melville Penninsula for an island. At some point they cross to Southampton Island, and follow the west coast of Hudson Bay (possible due to difficult currents in the Foxe Channel??), making a winter camp at the mouth of the Nelson River.
The Nelson is obviously a continental size river and so, thinking of the gold and riches of Cathay, part of the expedition heads south in the middle of May, leaving a small crew and Nicholas at their base camp. The expedition ends up lost in the wilds of Minnesota, with only a small marker to let the world know of their ill-fated journey.
Having waited for a pre-determained time, the survivors set off around southern Hudson Bay, bypassing James Bay (which is at 54 degrees N - which according to Mercator is the southern boundary of the area described in the Inventio Fortunate), eventually returning to the East Greenland settlement, and from there, in 1364 back to Bergen.

A Fantasy? Oh yes, but one which at least reasonably fufills the cartographic features of Grocland and the continental bay shown on so many maps.

At the very least, it is a reasonable supposition to connect the author of the Inventio Fortunate with the inclusion of Hudson Bay on 16th century maps, as the maps which contain that feature also contain features (Grocland, the polar sea) which are know to have been found in Nicholas' book. Wether this came of invention or personal observation is not clear, but if the later, it puts an expediton in Hudson Bay at the very time that the KRS was supposed to have been inscribed.


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