70 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 



marked, and digested all the cosmographical literature 

 available in his time. He had read a Latin translation of 

 the book of Marco Polo, and his copy, with marginal notes 

 in his handwriting, still exists. 1 His imagination had been 

 fired by the thought of a Great Kaan eagerly expecting the 

 Christian missionary. He thought also of the gold-roofed 

 palaces of Cipango, and of the incredible richness of the 

 Spice Islands. Here was wealth sufficient to arm Christen- 

 dom in a last great crusade, which should recover the Holy 

 Sepulchre, and make the whole world the Kingdom of God. 

 In the Imago Mundi, the geographical compendium of his 

 day, he read extracts from those authors of ancient and 

 recent times who had shown that the earth was a sphere, 

 and had drawn the inevitable conclusion that it was possible 

 to reach India and Cathay by travelling West. The 

 question remained how great was the distance to be tra- 

 versed by him who, sailing from the Canaries, sought to 

 touch Cipango ? Columbus consulted the ancient writers, 

 the Scriptures, Arabian and Italian cosmographers, and, 

 putting facts and arguments together, he .reached the con- 

 clusion that the distance from the Canaries to Cipango was 

 but two thousand five hundred miles ! 2 That is to say, 

 he imagined the Eastern coast of Asia to be where the 

 Eastern coast of America actually is. He hoped to reach 

 the Marco Polo Paradise by a route as much shorter than 

 the Portuguese route as a direct voyage to the West Indies 

 is shorter than a voyage to the Spice Islands by way of the 

 Cape and India. 



Columbus brought his proposal to Spain in good time. 

 Ferdinand and Isabella had united the Christian Kingdoms 

 of the peninsula in a Spanish nation, virile, fierce, 

 passionately devoted to the Faith of the Knight and 

 the Crusader. They fought the last great fight against 

 the Moors. In 1492 they conquered the Moorish capital 

 at Granada. Columbus was present at the surrender with 

 exulting heart. The triumph of the Cross at Granada was 

 to be but the beginning of a story of knightly venture, 

 which should make the Cross triumphant throughout the 

 1 Fiske, vol. i. p. 372. ' 2 Ibid. 



