- Bacalao
Bacalao (also spelled Bacalhau, Bachalaos, Bacalhaos, Baccalieu, Baccalar) was a
phantom island depicted on several early16th century maps. The name first appears on a map in1508 , but there are earlier accounts of "Bacalao"Fact|date=August 2008.Some have attempted to link the island to Newfoundland, in an effort to bolster claims of pre-Columbian European discovery of the Americas. Off the north-east tip of Newfoundland's
Avalon Peninsula , there is a Baccalao Island, however, it was likely named after the mythical island.In 1472, the Portuguese navigator
João Vaz Corte-Real was granted lands in theAzores by the king of Portugal, because of his discovery of the "Terra do Bacalhau"Fact|date=August 2008. Also,Bartolomé de Las Casas wrote about Portuguese voyages of discovery to "Tierra de los Bacallao"Fact|date=August 2008. This has led some to believe that Corte-Real reachedthe Americas a couple of decades before Columbus."Bacalao" literally means "
cod "; it as also a term used for "stockfish"."
The Cliffs of Baccalieu ", a song by T. Withers, tells the tale of a ship that is caught in a storm and is nearly wrecked.References
ee also
*
Cape Cod
*Sacred Cod of Massachusetts
*Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact
*Vinland
*Brazil (mythical island)
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