(1) Where are the Antilles, as we all know them today?: The Antilles, as commonly known, are a group of islands  located in Central America, in the Caribbean Sea, between the Peninsula of Florida and the north coast of Venezuela. They are also called the West Indies because Columbus was convinced to the very end that these islands were  in Asia off the coast  of India...

 The Caribbean Antilles are composed by the Greater Antilles and the Lesser Antilles. The Greater Antilles are Cuba, Jamaica, Puerto Rico and the Island of Hispaniola with the republics of Haiti and Saint Domingo’s. The Lesser Antilles are composed of  hundreds of smaller islands, shaped like a closing parenthesis, all the way south to the Island of Trinidad. 

The most important fact we should know concerning  the Central American Antilles is that  they are situated  between 10 and 23 degrees of latitude north of the Equator.

(2) Would you explain the meaning of the word Antille?: Antille is an exclusive Portuguese word. It is composed by two words: ante   which means in front of something, and ilha, which means island. The combination of two Portuguese words  gives us Antilha, or the island in front of something, in this case in front of the North American Continent. The Spanish call it  Antisla and the  Italians call it  Antiglia, which is  easily distinguished from the Portuguese Antilha.  

(3) Why do you call Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, in Canada, the True Antilles?: In November 1986,  I discovered on  an ancient map made in 1424 that there has been an enormous error in the location of the Antilles. This error is on the same level as Columbus naming the natives of Central America, Indians, thinking he was in India! 

In actuality the Nautical Chart of 1424  depicts Newfoundland and Nova Scotia rather than the Caribbean Islands, 2,000 miles to the south.  

 (4) Could you describe for us the Nautical Chart of 1424?: The Nautical Chart of 1424 is a parchment map or sheep skin, with a shape of large  tongue, measuring 22 by 35 inches.  The original Chart is now in the University of Minnesota in the James Ford Bell Collection which  purchased  it, in 1954. It is worth today several   million dollars!  There are absolutely no  doubts concerning the genuineness and authenticity of the Nautical Chart of 1424. This map is so important and so famous because it is the oldest and most important geographic document known, showing, for the first time, lands of America. 

 (5) What does the map show?: First,  it shows the name of the map maker, Zuane Pizzigano, a cartographer from Venice, and the date written on the map when it was completed: August 22nd, 1424.

It also shows, very clearly, the coast of North Africa, Gibraltar, Portugal, Spain, France, England and Ireland. 

To the west of Europe, in  the  Atlantic, we see the islands of Azores, Madeira, Canaries and Cape Verde. To the northwest  of the Azores, are drawn four islands with  Portuguese names: Saya, Satanazes, Antilha and Ymana. These four islands are drawn in a much larger scale than the  other islands of Azores, Madeira, Canary  and Cape Verde. 

(6) Tell us about the Nautical Chart of 1424. When was it discovered and why is it so important and  famous?: The Nautical Chart of 1424 was number 25,924 among the 60,000 old and rare manuscripts in the fabulous collection belonging to Sir Thomas Phillips of London. In 1949, Professor Armando Cortesão, who was  considered the world renowned cartographer  (Secretary General of the International Commission for a Scientific and Cultural History of Mankind of UNESCO), was asked  to inspect  and study the Nautical Chart of 1424.  

He spent 5 years studying this map and in 1954 published a  book describing it, in every detail,  and concluding that the four islands: Saya, Satanazes, Antilia and Ymana  were Portuguese islands and therefore must have been discovered by Portuguese navigators before 1424. 

He further concluded that these islands on the old map of 1424 must be a representation of the Antilles,  in the Caribbean Sea,  in Central America.

With all due respect to Professor Cortesão, I must say, that he, failing to measure the latitudes on the Nautical Chart of 1424,  he maintained  the  gigantic error of 2,000 miles! 

Professor Cortesão’s book entitled "The Nautical Chart of 1424", was published in English, by the University of Coimbra, Portugal. Now it is available only in the most important libraries of the world.

(7) Why such an enormous mistake of 2,000 miles?  Could you explain?: The Nautical Chart of 1424 was made in a period when the map makers did not trace the lines of latitude on the map itself. Yet, they drew the continents and the islands according to correct latitudes positions!  My great discovery came when I drew the lines of latitudes   on the Nautical Chart of 1424, made a photo negative of the Chart and projected the enlarged negative image over a modern map of the Atlantic Ocean which included  Europe, North Africa, North and Central America.  

Fusing  on the same scale  a 563-year old map with a modern day map, Eureka, I found out that the latitudes of the four islands depicted on the map of 1424, Saya, Satanazes, Antilia and Ymana,  situated at northwest  of the Azores, had latitudes very closed to the latitudes of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. I was struck by the enormous discrepancy between the latitudes of the islands shown on the Nautical Chart of 1424 and the latitudes of the islands of the Caribbean Sea.  Perhaps I received a latitude inspiration because the village in Portugal where I was born has the latitude 40 degrees  North. 

Today the  latitudes of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia are between 50 and 43 degrees north of   the Equator.  The latitudes of the islands of Antilhas on the map of 1424 are between 47 and 35.  But  the latitudes of the Antilles in Central America are between 23 and 10 degrees north, off by 2,000 miles. The entire world has been wrong for 563 years calling  the islands in the Caribbean Sea, the Antilles. Now, we know,  these are the False Antilles. The True Antilles are,  in Canada, 2,000 miles to the north.

(8) What other discoveries did you make on the 1424 map?: I compared the areas, shapes, bays, capes and angles of inclination of the islands on the 1424 map with  the islands of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia and I  found out  striking similarities.

The Island of Satanazes on the 1424 map,  means in Portuguese "Island of the Devils" and corresponds  to Newfoundland. It was a name well chosen because it describes the diabolic conditions  for maritime navigation, which exist even today,  along the coast of Newfoundland,   constantly exposed to dense fog, extreme tides and dangerous icebergs, such as the one that  sank the "Titanic." 

Another interesting fact is that  all the islands on the 1424 map are inclined toward Europe like Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. On the other hand,  the islands of the West Indies  in Central America are inclined the opposite direction  toward  the American Continent. It is also very impressive to note that the scale size of the islands on the 1424 map can only correspond to the size of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. These 1424 islands  are in a far too large a scale to depict the Caribbean Islands.

Zuane Pizzigano, the map maker of 1424 Chart, never intended  to depict the Caribbean Islands and in fact never had them in mind. When we look closely at the 1424 map, we find no geographic characteristics  that can even remotely remind us of any of the Caribbean Islands. The 1424 map has nothing Caribbean, whatsoever!

(9) What do you conclude from your discoveries?: It is very  clear that Portuguese navigators discovered North America before August 22, 1424, i. e. sixty eight years before Columbus arrived in the Caribbean, on October 12, 1492.  

(10) What do you think will be the impact of the  discovery of the True Antilhas?: I am convinced that my fresh revelation of the True Antilhas will cause ripples of excited controversy, and  will force a reexamination and ultimately a correction in the geographic history of the Americas.

When we combine  all the facts,  they  form a strong chain of geographic evidence, leading  us to conclude that  Newfoundland,  Nova Scotia  and Prince Edward Island are the True Portuguese Antilhas in Canada discovered by the Portuguese navigators before August 22nd, 1424.

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