OCEANIC DISCOVERIES. 239 



design of attempting to discover a new quarter of the world, 

 and although it would appear to be proved that Columbus 

 and Amerigo Vespucci died in the firm conviction that they 

 had merely touched on portions of Eastern Asia,=^ yet the ex- 

 pedition manifested the perfect character of being the fulfill- 

 ment of a plan sketched in accordance with scientific com- 

 binations. The expedition was safely conducted westward, 

 through the gate opened by the Tyrians and Colseus of Samos, 

 across the immeasurable dark sea, tiiare tenebrosiim, of the 

 Arabian geographers. They strove to reach a goal, with the 

 limits of which they believed themselves acquainted . They 

 were not driven accidentally thither by storms, as Naddod and 

 Gardar had been borne to Iceland, and Gunlijorn, the son of 

 Ulf Kraka, to Greenland. Nor were the discoverers guided 

 on their course by intermediate stations. The great cosmog- 

 rapher, Martin Behaim, of Niirnberg, who accompanied the 

 Portuguese Diego Cam on his expedition to the western coasts 

 of Africa, lived four years, from 1486 to 1490, in the Azores ; 



* See the proofs, which I have collected from trustworthy docu- 

 ments, for Columbus, in the Examen Crit., t. iv., p. 233, 250, and 261, 

 and for Vespucci, t. v., p. 182-185. Columbus was so fully convinced 

 that Cuba was part of the continent of Asia, and even the south part 

 of Khatai (the province of Mango), that on the 12th of June, 1494, he 

 caused all the crews of his squadron (about 80 sailors) to swear that 

 they were convinced he might go from Cuba to Spain by land, " que 

 esta tierra de Cuba fuese la tierra firme al comienzo de las Indias y fin 

 k quien en estas partes quisiere venir de Espana por tierra ;" and 

 that "if any who now swore it should at any future day maintain the 

 contrary, they would have to expiate their perjuiy by receiving one 

 hundred stripes, and having the tongue torn out." (See Informacion 

 del Escribano publico, Fernando Perez de Luna, in Navarrete, Viages y 

 Descubrimientos de los Espanoles, t. ii., p. 143, 149.) Wlien Columbus 

 was approaching the island of Cuba on his first expedition, he believed 

 himself to be opposite the Chinese commercial cities of Zaitun and 

 Quinsay (y es cierto, dice el Almirante questa es la tierra firme y que 

 esfoy, dice el, ante Zayto y Guinsay). " He intends to present the let- 

 ters of the Catholic monarchs to the great Mogul Khan (Gran Can) in 

 Khatai, and to return immediately to Spain (but by sea) as soon as he 

 shall have thus discharged the mission intrusted to him. He subse- 

 quently sends on shore a baptized Jew, Luis de Torres, because he un- 

 derstands Hebrew, Chaldee, and some Arabic," which are languages 

 in use in Asiatic trading cities. (See Columbus's Journal of his Voy- 

 ages, 1492, in Navarrete, Viages y Descubrim., t. i., p. 37, 44, and 46.) 

 Even in 1533. the astronomer Schoner maintained that the whole of 

 the so-called New World was a part of Asia (superioris Indiie), and 

 that the city of Mexico (Temistitan), conquered by Cortes, was no 

 other than the Chinese commercial city of Quinsay, so excessively ex- 

 tolled by Marco Polo. (See Joannis Schoneri Carlostadii Opuscuium 

 Geographiciim, Norimb., 1533, pars ii., cap. 1-20.) 



