262 COSMOS. 



peai from Las Casas's manuscript history, which I have ex- 

 amhicd, that this was the same " carta de marear" which the 

 admiral showed to Martin Alonso Pinzon on the 25th of Sep- 

 tember, 1492, and on which many prominent islands were de- 

 lineated. Had Columbus, however, alone followed the chart 

 of his counselor and adviser, Toscanelli, he would have kept 

 a more northern course in the parallel of Lisbon ; but instead 

 of this, he steered half the way in the latitude of Gomera, 

 one of the Canaries, in the hope of more speedily reaching 

 Zipangu (Japan) ; and subsequently keeping a less high lati- 

 tude, he found himself, on the 7th of October, 1492, in the 

 parallel of 25° 30'. Uneasy at not discovering the coast of 

 Zipangu, which, according to his reckoning, ought to lie 216 

 nautical miles further to the east, he yielded, after long con- 

 tention, to the commander of the caravel Pinta, Martin Alon- 

 so Pinzon, of whom we have already spoken (one of three 

 wealthy and influential brothers, hostile to him), and steered 

 toward the southwest. This change of direction led, on the 

 12th of October, to the discovery of Guanahani. 



We must here pause to consider the wonderful concatena- 

 tion of trivial circumstances which undeniably exercised an 

 influence on the course of the world's destiny. The talented 

 and ingenious Washington Irving has justly observed, that if 

 Columbus had resisted the counsel of Martin Alonso Pinzon, 

 and continued to steer westward, he would have entered the 

 Gulf Stream, and been borne to Florida, and from thence 

 probably to Cape Hatteras and Virginia — a circumstance of 

 incalculable importance, since it might have been the meana 

 of giving to the United States of North America a Catholic 

 Spanish population in the place of the Protestant English one 

 by which those regions were subsequently colonized. " It 

 seems to me like an inspiration," said Pinzon to the admiral, 

 " that my heart dictates to me (el corazon me da) that we 

 ought to steer in a diflerent direction." It was on the strength 

 of this circumstance that in the celebrated lawsuit which Pin- 

 zon carried on against the heirs of Columbus between 1513 

 and 1515, he maintained that the discovery of America was 

 alone due to him. This inspiration, emanating from the hed-rt, 



Esta carta es la que le embio Paulo Fisico el Florentin la qual yo tengo 

 en mi poder con otras cosas del Almirante y escrituras de su misma mano 



que trax6ron d mi poder. En ella le pinto muchas islas " Are 



we to assume that the admiral had drawn upon the map of ToscaneUi 

 the islands which he expected to reach, or would " tenia pintadas'* 

 merely mean that " the admiral had a map on which these were paint» 

 ed . . . . ?" 



