60 CONCEPTIONS OF COLUMBUS 



see also PI. II). With these materials we may pro- 

 ceed to reconstruct the Columbian geography of 1502. 



The Geographical Background 



We are not as much concerned with the southern 

 coast of Asia (beyond the question of its extent east 

 and west) as we are with the eastern coast. Ptolemy^ 

 made the distance from the Fortunate Isles (Canary 

 Islands), his prime meridian on the west, to Catti- 

 gara on the east, 180° (Fig. 3 and PL II). Ptolemy 

 also recorded the ideas of Marinus of Tyre, who 

 made the same distance equal 225° instead of 180°. 

 Columbus accepted the views of Marinus in pref- 

 erence to those of Ptolemy. When, on his fourth 

 voyage, he had learned from the natives of Veragua 

 of the gold mines of Ciguare and of the sea be- 

 yond, he wrote :^° 



Footnote 8, continued 



carta geografica, Madrid, 1892, text in Spanish, French, and English, 

 accompanied by a facsimile of the map in the original colors edited by 

 Canovas Vallejo and Traynor. There are reproductions in black and 

 white in [E. F.] Jomard: Les monuments de la geographic, ou recueil 

 d'anciennes cartes europeennes et orientales . . . Paris [1842-62], Pis. 

 XVI, I, 2, 3; and Nordenskiold, Periplus, Pis. 43-44. 



9 A. E. Nordenskiold: Facsimile-Atlas to the Early History of Cartog- 

 raphy, transl. by J. A. Ekelof and C. R. Markham, Stockholm, 1889, 

 PI. I (our Fig. 3) and p. 4. 



"Letter of July 7, 1503, on the fourth voyage. In Raccolta, Part I, 

 Vol. 2, pp. 175-205; reference on pp. 183-184. The version on pp. 296- 

 312 of M. F. de Navarrete: Relaciones, cartas y otros documentos con- 

 cernientes a los cuatro viages que hizo el Almirante D. Cristobal Colon 

 para el descubrimiento de las Indias occidentals (forming Vol. i of his 

 "Coleccion de los viages y descubrimientos que hicieron por mar los 

 Espanoles desde fines del siglo XV, 5 vols., Madrid, 1825-37), in mod- 



