218 COLUMBUS. 



gator shrank from the task of exploring. Navi- 

 gation, also, was quite in its infancy, for, al- 

 though the compass had been brought into pretty 

 general use, yet the important desiderata for 

 determining the position of a ship at sea were 

 wanting, and the mariner scarcely ever wilfully 

 ventured out of sight of land. 



An eventful period was, however, at hand. 

 Whilst the Portuguese were tardily maturing 

 their project, the master mind of Columbus, 

 aided by the almost contemporaneous applica- 

 tion of the astrolabe to marine purposes, by 

 Martin Behaim, about 1489, swept from the 

 performance of distant voyages the terrors and 

 obstacles which hitherto attached to them, and 

 navigation at once broke from the trammels 

 by which it had so long been confined. 



It is useful to observe what rapid strides are 

 made in either art or science, when a way has 

 been opened by the enlightened genius of some 

 favoured individual. No sooner had Columbus 

 dashed across that immeasurable waste of waters, 

 over which the maritime nations of Europe had 

 long and wistfully cast their eyes in vain, than 

 his example was followed by the other principal 

 naval powers of Europe. In England, his bril- 

 liant discovery was no sooner known than it 

 became a subject of deep interest at court ; and 



