262 EPOCHS IN THE HISTORY OF THE CONTEMPLATION OP 



" Every day brings to us new wonders from a new world, 

 from those western antipodes which a certain Genoese 

 (Christophorus quidam vir Ligur) has discovered. Sent by 

 our monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, he could with diffi- 

 culty obtain three ships, since what he said was regarded as 

 fabulous. Our friend Pomponius Lsetus" (one of the most 

 distinguished promoters of classical literature, and perse- 

 cuted at Rome on account of his religious opinions), " could 

 hardly refrain from tears of joy, when I gave him the first 

 tidings of an event so unhoped for/' Anghiera, from whom 

 these words are taken, was a highly intelligent and distin- 

 guished statesman at the court of Ferdinand the Catholic 

 and Charles Y., was once sent as ambassador to Egypt, and 

 was a personal friend of Columbus, Amerigo Yespucci, Se- 

 bastian Cabot, and Cortes. His long life comprised the 

 discovery of the westernmost of the Azores (Corvo), and the 

 expeditions of Diaz, Columbus, Gama, and Magellan. Pope 

 Leo X. " continued to a very late hour in the night" read- 

 ing to his sister and the cardinals, Anghiera's Oceanica. 

 Anghiera says, " henceforward I would not willingly leave 

 Spain again, for I am here at the fountain-head of the tid- 

 ings from the newly discovered lands, and I may hope, as 

 the historian of such great events, to obtain for my name 

 some fame with posterity. ( 4 9)" Thus vividly did cotempo- 

 raries feel the splendour of events, of which the remem- 

 brance will survive through ah 1 ages. 



Columbus, in sailing westward of the meridian of the 

 Azores, through an entirely unexplored sea, and employing 

 the newly-improved astrolabe for the determination of his 

 position, sought the east of Asia by the western route, not 

 as an adventurer, but according to a preconceived and 



