OCEANIC DISCOVERIES. 639 



observed in the evening flying towards the south-west, in 

 order, as he might well have conjectured, to roost on trees on 

 the land. Never has a flight of birds been attended by more 

 important results. It may even be said that it has decided 

 the first colonization in the new continent, and the original 

 distribution of the Roman and Germanic races of man.* 



The course of great events, like the results of natural pheno- 

 mena, is ruled by eternal laws, with few of which we have any 

 perfect knowledge. The fleet which Emanuel, king of Portu- 

 gal, sent to India, under the command of Pedro Alvarez Cabral, 

 on the course discovered by Gama, was unexpectedly driven 

 on the coast of Brazil on the 22nd of April, 1500. From 

 the zeal which the Portuguese had manifested since the expe- 

 dition of Diaz in 1487, to circumnavigate the Cape of Good 

 Hope, a recurrence of fortuitous circumstances similar to 

 those exercised by oceanic currents on Cabral's ships, could 

 hardly fail to manifest itself. The African discoveries would 

 thus probably have brought about that of America south of 

 the equator ; and thus Robertson was justified in saying that 

 it was decreed in the destinies of mankind, that the new con- 

 tinent should be made known to European navigators before 

 the close of the fifteenth century. 



Among the characteristics of Christopher Columbus we 

 must especially notice the penetration and acuteness with 

 which, without intellectual culture, and without any know- 

 ledge of physical and natural science, he could seize and com- 

 bine the phenomena of the external world. On his arrival in 

 a new world, and under a new heaven,f he examined with 

 care the form of continental masses, the physiognomy of 

 vegetation, the habits of animals, and the distribution of heat 



* Navarrete, Documentos, 'No. 69, in t. iii. of the Viages y Discvibr., 

 pp. 565-171 ; Examen crit., t. i. pp. 234-249 and 252 ; t. iii. pp. 158-165 

 and 224. On the contested spot of the first landing in the West Indies, 

 see t. iii. pp. 1 86-222. The map of the world of Juan de la Cosa, made 

 six years before the death of Columbus, which was discovered by 

 Walckenaer and myself in the year 1832, during the cholera epidemic, 

 and has since acquired so much celebrity, has thrown new light on 

 these mooted questions. 



t On the graphical and often, poetical descriptions of nature found in 

 Columbus, see pp. 421-423. 



