Ancient Navigators Series
While rereading an old Argentine history book, part of a collection that my dad bought second hand back in the late 1960s, I came across the following text (in the chapter dedicated to the ancient voyages to America prior to Columbus' discovery):
"The map of fra Mauro of the year 1457... holds a mystery regarding Cape Diab, that is, the southern tip of Africa corresponding to the current Cape of Good Hope. There, it depicts a large southern land mass, and in an inscription it says that the strait that divides Cape Diab from that sourthern land it s flanked by tall mountains and thick jungles and the water has dangerous whirpools. There is no such narrows at the Cape of Good Hope. This fact has no other explanation than that of admitting that some unknown navigator who was thrown by the storms to the Strait of Magellan, on his return to Europe, and refer his adventures. As America's existence was not known, the goeographer situated this strait in the only spot in the world where it was possible to imagine it: on the tip of Africa, which had not yet been discovered, and due to this story, it was imagined as separated by a strait from a large southern land mass."
Source: See p. 233 in Historia de la Nación Argentina v.ii, chap.ix, 1939, Enrique de Gandia. Ricardo Levene, General Director.
The map below shows where the landmarks mentioned by de Gandia and this post.
Checking online, I found many interesting sites on fra Mauro's 1457 map, including a zoomable interactive copy of the map. The map, unlike modern ones, has the North on the bottom and the South on the top as you can see below:
Below is a closeup of the Diab area, the text in ancient Venetian Italian in red can be read clearly:
Fra (from Frater - brother in Latin) Mauro was a Venetian map-maker and monk (c.1400 - 1464) he compiled information from different sources and produced his map of the known world (notice it does not include America or Australia, Oceania or the Antarctic).
Since ancient Venetian Italian is not my forte, I found an online translated version of the map's text in English, but it is not very complete.
The inscription in red ink, upper right ("Circa di ani del signor 1402 una nave...") is translated as follows (I have added some text omitted in this translation):
"About the year of Our Lord 1420 a ship, what is called an Indian junk [çoncho d'India], on a Crossing of the Sea of India towards the Isle of Men and Women, was driven by a storm beyond the Cape of Diab, through the Green Isles [tra le isole verde] , out into the Sea of Darkness on their way west and Southwest, in the direction of Algarve for 40 days. Nothing but air and water was seen for forty days and by their reckoning they ran 2,000 miles and fortune deserted them. When the stress of the weather had subsided they made the return to the said Cavo de Diab in seventy days and drawing near to the shore to supply their wants the sailors saw the egg of a bird called roc, the egg being as big as a seven gallon cask, and the size of the bird is such that from the point of one wing to another was sixty paces and it can quite easily lift an elephant or any other large animal. It does great damage to the inhabitants and is very fast in its flight."
These "Green Isles" therefore seem to be west of Cape Diab (in the Atlantic or "Sea of Darkness"). Algarve is on the southern coast of Portugal. The roc bird with gigantic eggs found upon their return to Africa are surely eggs of the now extinct Elephant Birds of Madagascar, probably the largest birds in the world. They were wiped out after humans reached the island some 500 to 1000 years ago. Madagascar and the Roc is mentioned in "The Travels of Marco Polo" (Chap. XXVI p. 429)
Diab and the "channel"
On the lower side of the Diab "Strait" by a sailing ship is an inscription, that is not translated in the source mentioned further up ("Nota che questo cavo de Diab..."): "Note on this Diab Cape, it is separated from Abassia (Abbysina?) by a channel which is surrounded on one side and another by very high mountains and and trees so large that they protect the dark canal which in its depths creates a dangerous circle so that if a ship were to descend it would be in danger."
This is the text mentioned by de Gandia. But which is this channel, and Diab, the Green Men, the Men and Women isles?
The channel that separates Madagascar from Africa, or Mozambique Channel is over 420 km wide at its narrowest point (260 mi), it is very different to the narrow channel with whripools, dark and concealed by trees described by Fra Mauro.
To the left of Diab, the map shows two islands, Nebila and Magla. Above them is a scroll with an inscription "These two islands are inhabited by Christians, in one of them called Nebila, live the women, in the other called Mangla, live the men who pass only three months a year with the women". They are in the SW of the Indian Ocean east of Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
These islands are found in Marco Polo's Travels (Chap. XXIV p. 423) and they are 30 miles from each other (48 km.) Perhaps the women's Island is a mythical one related to the Amazon female tribe. The word Nebila is Arabic and means "beautiful" - nabilah (Source). The isle of Magla seems to be close to the Maldvies Island (source).
The Atlantic?
On the western or southern tip of Diab's channel is another scroll that reads "Just beyond these off-shore islands, shadows begin to appear, but within this cape they do not hinder navigators." There is a string of islands running along the coast. There are no islands along the eastern coast of South Africa, but if it were South America, these would be the islands along the Pacific coast of Chilean Patagonia, with storms, clouds, squalls and sleet. (possibly the "shadows"). See this timelapsed crossing of the Strait of Magellan.
Fra Mauro repeats the story of the voyagers swept westwards (the text can be seen in the 2 o'clock quadrant above the words "Ethyopia Occidetal" and "Garbi":
"What is more, I have spoken with a person worthy of trust, who says that he sailed in an Indian ship caught in the fury of a tempest for 40 days out in the Sea of India, beyond the Cape of Soffala and the Green Islands towards west-southwest; and according to the astrologers who act as their guides, they advanced 2,000 miles."
He mentions that Eudossus (see my post on Eudoxus) sailed from the Arabian Gulf to Gades around Africa.
Soffala is no other than the old port-city in Mozambique, Africa, on the Indian Ocean (see map). Pieter Derideaux, in his blog states that the Green Islands were known to the Arabs as Zanzibar and Pemba. The Kilwa Chronicle, reported by Barros in the 1550s (online) calls Pemba "the Green Island". Pemba is in Tanzania (see it in Google Maps).
I understand that the "Green Islands" were in the Atlantic, they are reached only after you enter the Atlantic Ocean. There are not many Islands in the South Atlantic: Tristan da Cunha, Ascencion, Saint Helena, and further north, in Guinea, Santo Tome, Falkland-Malvinas, South Georgias).
An article by Marco Vigiano states that "Diab means Gold, Dehab in Arabic, or Swahili" and suggests that it represents the Rift Valley in East Africa, it does not agree with it being identified with Madagascar.
The distance from South Africa to Brazil is 6000 km (3700 mi) and more or less the same to the Falklands-Malvinas Islands, far more than the 3200 km (2000 mi) that the Indian Junk sailed.
Nevertheless, de Gandia's theory of the Strait of Magellan is very interesting, and original.
Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2025 by Austin Whittall ©
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