THE ENGLISH VOYAGES 



Papal Bull of Pope Martin V, granted in 1444, came 

 into possession of all the lands they had visited, as far 

 as the Indies. 



Spain. To a Spaniard of the later Fifteenth Century the 



politics of Europe must have worn something the same 

 aspect that they wore for an Englishman of the Six- 

 teenth. The world had been divided among rival 

 claimants, and his country had been left portionless. 

 But it was not by the genius of a Spaniard that the 

 balance was redressed. Christopher Columbus, a Genoese, 

 who had passed his youth in the commerce and wars 

 of the Mediterranean, settled in Lisbon about 1470, 

 married the daughter of one of Prince Henry's men, 

 and devoted himself to map-making and the study of 

 navigation, diversified by occasional cruises to the coast 

 of Guinea. At Lisbon, which was the headquarters 

 of the best and latest school of navigation, he was kept 

 in touch with the progress of Portuguese discovery, and 

 must have learned all there was to know concerning 

 the difficulties and dangers of the circumnavigation of 

 Africa, and the hopes that inspired the Portuguese in 

 their unceasing eiforts. He was a dreamer, a grave and 

 pious man, of a simple mind, and great tenacity of 



The Scheme of imagination. To him there came the idea that Cathay, 

 ^^ ^^- ^\^Q ultimate goal of all Eastern travel, and Cipangu, 

 * the richest island in the world for gold and spices,' 

 might best be reached by striking directly across the 

 trackless Atlantic. Memories of his reading, whether 

 in boyhood at the University of Pavia, or in the hours 

 of study stolen from an active life, confirmed him, by the 

 opinions of the Ancients, and the mistakes of mediaeval 

 geographers, in his belief that the width of the Atlantic 



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