such exploratory voyages had ended, and in 1492, under the Spanish flag of Ferdinand and Isabella, Christopher Columbus set out on his historic journey to Asia, citing the island as the perfect halfway house by the authority of Paul Toscanelli. Columbus had supposedly gained charts and descriptions from a Spanish navigator, who had "sojourned ... and died also" at Columbus's home in Madeira, after having made landfall on Antillia. Following John Cabot's first 1497 voyage to Newfoundland, several people believed he had discovered Antillia. Upon Cabot's return to England, two residents of Bristol – the Italian merchant Raimondo de Soncino (in a letter to the Duke of Milan, dated August 24, 1497) and Bristol merchant John Day (in a letter to Christopher Columbus, written c.December 1497) – refer to Cabot making landfall and coasting the "Island of Seven Cities". Later influence Others following d'Anghiera suggested contenders in the West Indies for Antillia's heritage (most often either Puerto Rico or Trinidad), and as a result the Caribbean islands became known as the Antilles. As European explorations continued in the Americas, maps reduced the scale of the island Antillia, tending to place it mid-Atlantic, whereas the Seven Cities of Gold were attributed to mainland Central or North America, as the various European powers vied for territory in the New World. See also Great Ireland (Hvítrmannaland) References Sources Babcock, W.H. (1920) "Antillia and the Antilles", Geographical Review, vol. 9 (2), p. 109-24. Babcock, W.H. (1922) Legendary islands of the Atlantic: a study in medieval geography New York: American Geographical Society. online Barreto, M. (1988) O português Cristóvão Colombo, 1992 trans. as The Portuguese Columbus: secret agent of King John II. New York: Macmillan. Beazley, C.R. (1897–1906) The Dawn of Modern Geography. London. vol. 1 (-900), vol.2 (900–1260) vol. 3 (1260–1420) Beazley, C. (1899) Raymond "Introduction" in C.R. Beazley and E. Prestage, 1898–99, The Chronicle of the Discovery and Conquest of Guinea, London: Halyut. v.2 Buache, Jean-Nicholas (1806) "Recherches sur l'île Antillia et sur l'époque de la découverte de l'AmériqueMémoires de l'Institut des Sciences, Lettres et Arts, Vol. 6, Paris: Baudoin, p.1-29 Columbus, Ferdinand (c. 1539) Historia del Almirante Don Cristobal Colon, en la cual se da particular y verdadera relacion de su vida y de sus hechos, y del descubrimiento de las Indias Occidentales, llamadas Nuevo-Mundo (1892 Madrid edition, 5 volumes) Cortesão, Armando (1953) "The North Atlantic Nautical Chart of 1424" Imago Mundi,