BRAZIL, or BRASIL  , a legendary island in the Atlantic Ocean . The name connects itself with the red dye-woods so called in the middle ages, possibly also applied to other vegetable dyes, and so descending from the Insulae Purpurariae of Pliny . It first appears as the I. de Brazi in the Venetian map of Andrea Bianco (1436), where it is found attached to one of the larger islands of the Azores . When this group became better known and was colonized, the island in question was renamed Terceira . It is probable that the familiar existence of " Brazil " as a geographical name led to its bestowal upon the vast region of South America, which was found to supply dye-woods kindred to those which the name properly denoted . The older memory survived also, and the Island of Brazil retained its place in mid-ocean, some hundred miles to the west of Ireland, both in the traditions of the forecastle and in charts . In J . Purdy's General Chart of the Atlantic, " corrected to 1830," the " Brazil Rock (high) " is marked with no indication of doubt, in 51° 10' N. and 150 50' W . In a chart of currents by A.G.Findlay, dated 1853, these names appear again . But in his 12th edition of Purdy's Memoir Descriptive and Explanatory of the N . Atlantic Ocean (1865), the existence of Brazil and some other legendary islands is briefly discussed and rejected .