2 A. D. 1492. 



was certain, that by perfevering in a weftern courfe he fhould arrive 

 at the eaftern coaft of Afia, if he did not fall in with any intervening 



land *. 



His greateft difficulry was, to find the means to make the attem.pt, 

 he himfelf being a poor and obfcure perfon. He firft propofed to un- 

 dertake the difcovery in the fervice of his native city of Genoa ; but the 

 fenate treated it with ridicule. He next addrefled himfelf to John 11, 

 king of Portugal, who, it is faid, kept him unfairly in fufpenfe, till a 

 fhio, he had fecretly fent to attem.pt the difcovery, returned unfuccefs- 

 fuf, and then rejefted his propofal. He next applied to the court of 

 Spain, where he iblieited for eight years, during which time he fent his 

 brother Bartholomew on the fame errand to the court of England. Af- 

 ter many ignorant objedions to his propofal by the Spanifli courtiers, he 

 at length obtained three fliips, with ninety men. In Auguft 1492, he 

 failed from Palos in Andalufia, and in thirty-three days landed in one 

 of the Lucay or Bahama Ifles, which he named St. Salvador (at prefent 

 known by the name of Cat-liland), having failed 950 leagues diredly 

 weftward from the Canaries. He failed thence to the weftward, and at 

 laft difcovered the great ifland of Cuba ; but he no where found the 

 riches he hoped for, there being neither gold, manufadures, nor pro- 

 dud found among the firaple and innocent natives ; who had no poul- 

 try, oxen, fheep, goats, fwine,^ horfes, alTes, camels, elephants, cats, nor 

 dogs, excepting a dumb unbarking creature, refembling our dogs. Nei- 

 ther had they any lemons, oranges, pomegranates, quinces, figs, olives, 

 melons, vines, nor fugar-canes ; neither apples, pears, plumbs, cherries, 

 currants, gooleberries, rice, nor any other corn but maize, on which, 

 and on caflada and other wild roots, and on fifh, they ufually fed-, and 

 occafionally on worms and other vermin bred in rotten trees ; neither 

 knew they the comforts of fire-fight, either by oil, wax, or tallow-can- 

 -djes; nor had they any iron inftruments. Yet (fuch are the almoft mar- 

 vellous effeds of commerce and navigation, joined to a tropical climate) 

 thofe very ifles are, in our days, plentifully fiocked with all fuch conve- 

 niencies, (the vine only excepted, which does not ufually thrive fo near 

 the equator), which are long fiace naturalized to their climate. It is 

 true, that on the middle continent of America (which was not difcover- 

 ed till the former part of the next century), the Spaniards found the na- 

 tives of Mexico and Peru much more civilized tlmn in any other part of 

 America, whether iflands or continent ; they had better houfes and tem- 

 ples ; they made a fort of cotton cloth ; they had wooden fwords and 

 (pears, hnrdened by fire, and pointed with tiint ; and although they 

 had no iron, yet in Peru they had copper tools, inftruments, and veflels. 



* To lir.d tlic \Yay to the Eaft Indies was un-. pofition of the,caft«rn parts of Afia in the maps of 

 doubtcdly the objcft of Columbus ; and he was en- Ptolemy, who h.is extended them eaft ward to a pro- 

 coliraged'to expect thfe acGomplifhment of it by the digloiis dillance beyond th^ir trne fituation. M. 



