ROUTE ON FIRST VOYAGE 33 



lei of the Canary Islands very closely. He only devi- 

 ated from it twice during the whole voyage, once, be- 

 tween the dates of September 20 and 25, to search for 

 islands and again in the final days of the voyage when 

 the land signs in the southwest forced him to change. 

 This inquiry proposes to examine the matter of 

 scientific preparation for the famous voyage of 1492. 

 The scientific preparation has two aspects: first, a 

 course of reasoning by which Columbus came to the 

 conclusion that eastern Asia was not far distant west 

 of Europe, and, second, Columbus' study of the prob- 

 lem of navigating the Atlantic. The first of these 

 questions the writer has already investigated in the 

 preceding study (pp. 27-30). This question wull not 

 be dealt with here. The second question alone will 

 be the subject of the present study. Obviously, 

 since it has been plausibly maintained that there 

 was no scientific background to the voyage, it is 

 difficult to prove directly that there was such a back- 

 ground. However, there are internal evidences that 

 may properly be pointed out and examined for what 

 they are worth. 



The Island Outposts As Key Points for the 

 Study of the Atlantic 



Columbus originated some plan of westward ex- 

 ploration during his stay in Portugal. Whether this 

 plan was the same as the one he later carried out 



parellele, singulier, si le projet n'avait en vue que les Indes et n'etait fonde 

 que sur des raisons theoriques" (Vignaud, op. cit.. Vol. 2, p. 559, end of 

 footnote 7). 



