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once.  He wrote enthusiastically about the great prospects instore for the first person who made the voyage.
   His chart, of course, was far from accurate.  He pictured the Atlantic as much narrower than it actually is.  He accurately depicted the Azores and the Canaries.  Beyond these he was working on conjecture alone.  Between them and the "Spice Islands," he depicted two legendary islands called St. Brandan and Antilia, which do not exist.  But his Japan "Cipango" was in approximately the position of Cuba, while his "Spice Islands" ranged far to the south.  How much reliance Columbus placed on the map is unknown.  He probably used it, however, in his arguments for the financial backing of the Spanish Court.
   Another discovery concerns the rapid disappearance of the Lucayan Indians seen by the Spaniards in the Bahamas.  This record comes from the Naval Tracts of Sir William Monson, prepared at about the time of Queen Elizabeth, in which it is stated that a certain Vasquez de Ayllon, a resident of Puerta Plata on the island of Hispaniola, in 1520 had sent two caravels which returned empty.  There were no natives left.
   It is possible that the islanders had fled in their large dugouts, capable of carrying as many as 45 persons, to escape the Spanish slave raids.  They may have gone as far as the Florida Keys.  They may have found refuge in Cuba or in the little-known interior of the large Andros Island.  It also is possible that all may have perished.
  In addition to the West Indian material the new Smithsonian exhibit includes a display of the head-shrinking techniques of the Jivaro Indians of the Ecuadorian jungles, a hunting camp of the Yahgans of Tierra del Fuego who are the southern-most people on earth, and 17 other features.
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