146 : The Atlantic 



Markland, and Vineland did not correspond with the description of the 

 east that Columbus had become familiar with from the pages of 

 Marco Polo, With this interpretation, Columbus' purpose was not 

 to discover lands in the west but to avoid lands until he should arrive 

 at the Chinese or Indian coast. 



If we turn to the commission and the contract under which Colum- 

 bus undertook the voyage, it appears that Columbus probably had a 

 double purpose for two different conditions are provided for. Colum- 

 bus stated that his purpose was to open up a way to India and he 

 carried letters to the Great Khan, but at the same time he took the 

 precaution of having it firmly stated that he was to be admiral of the 

 ocean sea, whatever that might be intended to mean, and also gover- 

 nor of any new lands he might discover. 



Of this we may say either that Columbus had a double purpose or 

 that he was taking no chances. His principal bet was that he would 

 establish a contact with India or China that would rival the route 

 Portugal was already developing, but he was hedging this bet by also 

 protecting himself if he should discover any new lands. 



At the very least, there is here revealed some confusion of think- 

 ing about the geography of the world and about his purposes. This is 

 not a unique example of double talk or double thinking on the part 

 of Columbus; in fact, some confusion of thought is quite characteris- 

 tic of most things that Columbus wrote and also most things that 

 have been written about him. 



It seems to be now pretty generally agreed that Columbus was very 

 far from being a precise geographer. He did believe that the world 

 was round and that China might be reached by saihng to the west. 

 In fact, he made a great show of this argument, but this was not his 

 discovery and he knew that he could count for support in this view 

 from a number of people from his time including the Italian geogra- 

 pher Torricelli with whom he had communicated. 



The curious thing, however, is that while he could be clear about 

 the globular character of the earth, he could at the same time write 

 in the most fantastic and unreaUstic way about the lands that he was 

 encountering in his various voyages. His letter to the king and queen 

 respecting his third voyage will serve to anybody interested as a most 

 curious mixture of geography and metaphysics. We must not think 

 that this capacity of developing two conflicting ideas at the same time 

 was necessarily a handicap to Columbus. On the contrary, it was prob- 

 ably by a considerable advantage. It probably made his writings seem 

 quite familiar to the people with whom he had to deal. It permitted 



