MABELLANIC CLOUDS. 45

the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, is situated in 12° 45', aitd Lo-
heia in 15° 44' north latitude. The settlement of many Ara-
bian colonies on the eastern coast of Africa, between the trop-
ics, north and south of the equator, naturally led to a mora
special knowledge of the southern stars.
The western coasts of Afnca beyond the line were first
visited by some of the more cultivated European pilots (espe-
cially Gatalanians and Portuguese). Undoubted documents,
such as the'Map of the World of Marino Sanuto Torsello, of
the year 1306, the Genoese Portulano Mediceo (1351), the
Planisferio de la Palatina (1417), and the Mappa-mondo
di Fra Mauro Camaldolese (between 1457 and 1469), prove
that the triangular configuration of the southern extremity of
the African Continent was known 178 years before the so-
called _/?rsi discovery of the Cabo Tormentoso (Cape of Good
Hope) by Bartholomeeus Diaz, in the month of May, 1487.*
The importance of such a commercial route, rapidly increas
ing from the time of Gama's expedition, was, on account of
the common aim of all West- African voyages, the occasion of
the two Southern Clouds being designated by the pilots Cape-
Clouds, as remarkable celestial phenomena seen during voy-
ages to the Cape.
