In a few days the caravel sailed again at nightfall; but it carried withit two unexpected passengers; the archbishop lost his architect, and theproposed convent lost its unwilling abbess.From this point both the Island of the Seven Cities and its escapinglovers disappear from all definite records. It was a period whenexpeditions of discovery came and went, and when one wondrous tale droveout another. There exist legends along the northern coast of Spain in theregion of Santander, for instance, of a youth who once eloped with ahigh-born maiden and came there to dwell, but there may have been manysuch youths and many such maidens--who knows? Of Antillia itself, or theIsland of the Seven Cities, it is well known that it appeared on the mapsof the Atlantic, sometimes under the one name and sometimes under another,six hundred years after the date assigned by the story that has here beentold. It was said by Fernando Columbus to have been revisited by aPortuguese sailor in 1447; and the name appeared on the globe of Behaim in1492.The geographer Toscanelli, in his famous letter to Columbus, recommendedAntillia as likely to be useful to Columbus as a way station for reachingIndia, and when the great explorer reached Hispaniola, he was supposed tohave discovered the mysterious island, whence the name of Antilles wasgiven to the group.
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