COLUMBUS, CHKJSTOPil KK. 



131 



nrlli sprinkled liberally in his map as being con- 

 venient .slopping places on the comparatively 

 short route to A.-ia. 



Tlu' riches of the Orient, dwelt upon by the 

 travelers, were also pictured afresh in the letters 

 of Toscanelli. it was a time of wild rumor and 

 fantastic faith in regard to the unknown lands 

 supposed to be hidden by the sea. The Am ilia, 

 I lie Suven Cities, and many other islands, lived 

 firmly in fancy, while the unseen "Island of St. 

 Brandon " was not only set down on the maps, 

 hut i-states on it were given by princes to sub- 

 jects who set out to take possession of a home 

 that forever retreated with the margin of the 

 sea. Columbus noted all these ; but he said, 

 especially in regard to St. Brandon, which the 

 people of the Canary islands described as being 

 often distinctly visible, that the mirage might 

 have come from rocks lying in the ocean, or 

 floating islands of twisted roots and light, porous 

 stone, often with trees upon them, driven about 

 the ocean by winds. Visionary in regard to 

 mental phenomena, Columbus, though imagina- 

 tive, as all genius must be, was sternly practical 

 in regard to physical phenomena. One of the 

 points of deepest interest in his career is the 

 fact that his was no random or accidental dis- 

 covery. It was founded on carefully considered 

 knowledge, and carried out according to the 

 most advanced scientific methods. That the 

 knowledge was incorrect, and the science in part 

 deceptive, does not in the least militate against 

 the value to human progress of that element in 

 the undertaking. It was better for the cause of 

 the human intellect that savage America should 

 have been discovered in that way than that the 

 wealth of the Indies should have been hit upon 

 by accident. Meantime he was gaining prac- 

 tical experience as a navigator. Of one of his 

 voyages at this time he afterward writes to his 

 son: 



In the year 1477, in February, 1 navigated 100 

 leagues beyond Thule, the southern part of which is 

 73 distant from the equator, and not 63, as some pre- 

 tend ; neither is it situated within the line which in- 

 cludes the west of Ptolemy, but is much more wester- 

 ly. The English, principally those of Bristol, go with 

 tneir merchandise to this island, which is as large as 

 England. When I was there the sea was not frozen, 

 and the tides were so great as to rise and fall 26 

 fathoms. 



It was about the year 1474 that Columbus 

 formed his conclusion that the land at the east 

 could be reached by sailing westward. While 

 that was a startling step in advance of those who 

 still hooted at the idea that the earth was round, 

 the attempt to reach it was far from feasible 

 even to the adventurous navigator's fancy. Al- 

 though the compass was in use, sailors had navi- 

 gatcd far enough toward the equator to know 

 that the north star was seen in a different quar- 

 ter while a guide in the southern heavens had 

 not been sought and was not known. Land in 

 < -a~y i, :K h had hern thus far the only safety for 

 the mariner. A hint of the difficulties through 

 which Columbus had worked his own way to his 

 conclusion may be gained if we pause to remem- 

 ber that in all his calculations this earth was the 

 center of the solar system. Although Coper- 

 nicus was born, the most daring students of 

 geography and astronomy had not yet got far 



beyond the opinion of the old Arabian writer 

 Xe'rif al Edrisi : " The ocean encircles the ulti- 

 mate bounds of the inhabited earth, and all be- 

 yond it is unknown. There is no mariner who 

 dares to enter into its deep waters; or, if any 

 have done so, they have merely kept along its 

 coasts, fearful of departing from them. The 

 waves of this ocean, although they roll as high 

 as mountains, yet maintain themselves without 

 breaking ; for if they broke, it would be impos- 

 sible for ship to plow them.'' 



Meantime, while Columbus was nursing bis 

 secret project and strengthening his conclusions 

 by every means in his power, King John II of 

 Portugal was endeavoring to further the great 

 scheme that Prince Henry had bequeathed to 

 him and to the Portuguese people, to find a 

 route to China round the shores of Africa. In 

 furtherance of this, he called a council of the 

 most learned scientific men of the kingdom, and 

 as a result of this conference the astrolabe was 

 applied to navigation, and henceforth the sailor 

 was able, from the altitude of the sun. to ascer- 

 tain his distance from the equator. This dis- 

 covery allowed the mariner to forget the land, 

 and by the sun and stars to map his course on 

 the hitherto hopelessly wide waste of waters. 

 To Columbus this was the final fact, and with- 

 out the least hesitation he offered himself and 

 his great enterprise at the court of Portugal. 



King John received his proposition, that, if the 

 King would furnish him with ships and men, he 

 would sail by a shorter route, cross the Atlantic 

 to the island of Cipango (Japan), at which he 

 should expect first to arrive ; and the reasons for 

 this belief were fully set forth to the monarch. 

 John called a council, in which were two able 

 cosmographers, and the council agreed that the 

 project was visionary and absurd. The Bishop 

 of Ceuta took occasion to say that the whole 

 business of discovery was detrimental to the 

 interests of the country, and that Christian wars 

 against the infidel Moors would be much more 

 profitable. This drew from a distinguished 

 courtier, Count of Villa Real, not of the coun- 

 cil, a reply, from which the following is an ab- 

 stract: Portugal is not in its infancy, nor are 

 its princes so poor as to lack means to engage in 

 discoveries. Even granting that those proposed 

 by Columbus are conjectural, why should they 

 abandon those begun by the late Prince Henry f 

 It would be the greatest laud for Portuguese 

 valor to penetrate into the secrets and horrors 

 of the ocean sea, so formidable to the other na- 

 tions of the world. Great souls were born for 

 great enterprises. He wondered much that a 

 prelate so religious as the Bishop of Ceuta should 

 oppose this undertaking, the ultimate object of 

 which was to augment the Catholic faith and 

 spread it from pole to pole. He ended by say- 

 ing that, although a soldier, he dared to prog- 

 nosticate with a voice and spirit as if from heav- 

 en, to whatever prince should achieve this 

 enterprise, more happy success and durable re- 

 nown than had ever been obtained by sovereign 

 the .most valorous and fortunate. 



His words were echoed with enthusiasm, and 

 the King showed to his confessor such an evident 

 desire to try the wondrous plan set forth by Co- 

 lumbus, that the bishop suggested its trial in a 

 way that would secure the advantage if success- 



