54 AMERICA DISCOVERED BY CHANCE. 



LIB. i. Ports and Regions, which they discovered; as at this day, 

 in all the South Sea, they sayle from Chile to newe Spaine, 

 the which voyage, although it bee more certaine, yet is it 

 longer by reason of the turnings they are forced to make 

 vpon the Coast, and they stay in divers Fortes. And in 

 trueth I doe not find in ancient bookes that they have 

 lanched farre into the Ocean, neyther can I beleeve that 

 this their say ling was otherwise then they vse at this day 

 in the Mediterranean Sea; which makes learned men to 

 coniecture that in old time they did not sayle without 

 owers, 1 for that they went alwayes coasting along the 

 shoare; and it seems the holy Scripture doth testifie as 

 much, speaking of that famous voyage of the Prophet lonas, 

 where it sayes, that the Marriners being forced by the 

 weather, rowed to land. 



CHAP. xix. That we may coniecture hoiu the first inhabitants 



of the Indies came thither by force of weather, and 

 not willingly. 



Having shewed that there is no reason to beleeve that 

 the first Inhabitants of the Indies came thither purposely, 

 it followeth then, that if they came by Sea, it was by chance 

 or by force of weather, the which is not incredible, notwith 

 standing the vastnesse of the Ocean, seeing the like hath 

 happened in our time, when as that Marriner, whose name 

 we are yet ignorant of, to the end so great a worke, and of 

 such importance, should not be attributed to any other 

 Author then to God, having, through tempest, discovered 

 this new world, left for payment of his lodging, where he 

 had received it, to Christopher Columbus, the knowledge of 

 so great a secret. 2 Even so it might chance that some of 



1 &quot; Que antiguamente no navegaban sin remos.&quot; 



2 On this story, see my note in the first volume of the Royal Com 

 mentaries of Garcilasso de la Vega, p. 24. 



