70 CONCEPTIONS OF COLUMBUS 



Identifications Made by Columbus 



It was on his first voyage that Columbus identified 

 Espanola as Cipangu ; he confused the name Civao, a 

 local Indian name, with Cipangu. Cuba he took to 

 be a part of Mangi : its northern shore trended in the 

 direction indicated by Behaim and IMartellus. The 

 southern coast of Cuba seemed to him to correspond 

 with the southern coast of oMangi. He had coasted 

 Cuba for a great distance — 335 leagues on his 

 second voyage — until he became convinced that 

 Cuba was the mainland. An oath affirming this 

 belief was administered to the crew;^- after which 

 Columbus turned back to Espafiola. The puzzling 

 thing about Cuba was the fact that it did not seem 

 to contain the great cities he looked for, and that it 

 was so close to Espanola, or Cipangu. On the third 

 voyage Columbus had gone farther south and 

 touched the coast of South America near the mouth 

 of the Orinoco River. Here, again, he found partial 

 confirmation of his geographical beliefs. The land 

 found was almost exactly in the position of islands 

 indicated by Behaim, modified by the addition of 

 the 45° to Ptolemy. The 7459 islands were there 

 and were inhabited by savages, as both Marco Polo 

 and Mandeville had said. The disturbing factor 

 this time was the evidently continental proportions 

 of the land. 



22 Quoted with translation (after Navarrete, pp. 143-149 of Coleccion 

 de documentos concernientes a la persona, viages y descubrimientos del 

 Almirante D. Cristobal Colon, forming Vol. 2 of the work cited in foot- 

 note 10) in Thacher, op. cit.. Vol. 2, pp. 322-332. 



