Epilogue 



It is worth remembering that America be- 

 gan, or rather almost didn't begin, with a 

 commission on marine science. In 1484, King 

 John II of Portugal, intrigued by a project 

 to sail west to the Indies and Japan proposed 

 by a Genoese navigator named Christopher 

 Columbus, appointed a commission of dis- 

 tinguished scientists to hear him and report 

 on the worthiness of his proposal. One year 

 later, this commission turned tliumbs down 

 on the whole idea; it considered a western 

 route to the Indies to be too long and too 

 hazardous to merit support. The king ac- 

 cepted this report. 



Columbus, of course, went to Spain where 

 Ferdinand and Isabella appointed the Tala- 

 vera Commission to consider the project. A 

 number of hearings were held but no report 

 was made until 1491 ; it expressed this 

 conclusion : 



This Committee fudged his promises and of- 

 fers ivere impossible and vain and worthy of 

 rejection; that it ivas not a proper object for 

 their royal authority to favor an affair that 

 rested on such weak foundations and which 

 appeared uncertain and impossible to any 

 educated person, however little learning he 

 might have.^ 



The sovereigns neither approved nor re- 

 jected this report and told Columbus that his 

 proposals might again be brought to their 

 attention when the war with Granada had 

 come to an end. In the meantime, a second 

 committee of experts was appointed. Colum- 

 bus appeared before it and, in January 1492, 

 was told that his project was "absolutely and 

 definitely rejected." Columbus was persistent, 

 however, and through sources close to the 

 queen he managed to convince her that his 

 project was a good risk. The voyage "to The 

 Indies'' began, and here we are. 



In reference to the stated aims of the Indies 

 project, the Talavera Commission's appraisal 

 was correct. But even the most learned and 

 enlightened men can seldom anticipate great 

 discoveries in new fields of endeavor. Like 

 that earlier marine commission, we have tried 

 to give full weight to realistic appraisals and 

 practicality. Because we know of the impact 

 of the unexpected, from Columbus to com- 

 putere, we have also tried to balance practi- 

 cality with an optimistic and wide-open \dew 

 of the future and allow room for the unfore- 

 seen. If we have erred, we hope we have 

 erred on the side of optimism, for ultimately 

 that may prove to be no error at all. 



' Admiral of the Ocean Sea, Samuel Eliot Morlson 

 (Boston : Little, Brown & Co., 1942). 



