The North Side 



founded seven cities — such were examples in 

 literary form of the vague mass of tradition 

 which existed in the popular mind. And 

 Columbus, lingering in the solitude of Porto 

 Santo, weighed the various stories which reached 

 him, of islands seen afar, of mysterious reeds 

 and trunks of pine trees of an unknown kind 

 wafted by westerly gales, of the bodies of two 

 dead men cast upon the island of Flores, whose 

 features differed from those of any known race 

 of people. Of such stories, false or true, 

 Madeira and Porto Santo were doubtless as full 

 as a mining-camp to-day with rumours of rich 

 '* strikes." According to the statement of his 

 son Fernando, he passed from one position to 

 another, until he came to the conclusion that 

 there was undiscovered land in the western part 

 of the ocean ; that it was attainable, that it was 

 fertile, and finally, that it was inhabited. To 

 few men has it been more fully given to prove 

 the truth of their theoretical speculations. 



The existence of a mine of quicksilver in 

 Porto Santo is affirmed by some Portuguese 

 writers. Mr. Yate-Johnson describes this as a 

 figment of the imagination, and believes that it 

 arose from the fact that a little mercury was 



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