112 CONCEPTIONS OF COLUMBUS 



This statement must be taken in connection with 

 others relating to the first voyage. Regarding the 

 land discovered, Columbus saidi^^ 



... I thought it must be the mainland — the province 

 of Cathay; and, as I found neither towns nor villages on 

 the sea-coast but only a few hamlets, with the inhabitants 

 of which I could not hold conversation because they all 

 immediately fled, I kept on the same route, thinking that 

 I could not fail to light upon some large cities and towns. 

 At length, after the proceeding of many leagues, and 

 finding that nothing new presented itself, and that the 

 coast was leading me northwards. . . . 



Again, Martin Alonso Pinzon reported-^ to Co- 

 lumbus on October 30, 1492, that he believed "the 

 land was the mainland and went far to the north and 

 was very great" (y que toda aquella tierra era tierra 

 firme, pues iba tan to al Norte y era tan grande). 

 Furthermore, according to Las Casas,^!^ Columbus 

 found the latitude to be 42° N. Las Casas is suspi- 

 cious of this value, and justly so, for it should be 21° 

 N., and ascribes it to a slip of the pen. The discrep- 

 ancy is, however, explained, as Navarre te points 

 out,-^^ by the fact that the quadrants of the time were 

 graduated to half degrees. Nevertheless, it is prob- 

 able that this erroneous latitude influenced the maker 

 of the Cantino map. 



20 Raccolta, Part I, Vol. i, p. 121; Major, op. ciL, pp. 2-3. 



21 Las Casas, op. cit.. Book I, Ch. 44, (Vol. i, p. 322); and journal 

 of the first voyage, in entry for Oct. 30, 1492 (Raccolta, Part I, Vol. i, 

 p. 32; Markham, op. cit., p. 63). 



21a Las Casas, op. cit.. Book i, Chs. 44 and 45 (references in Vol. i, 

 pp. 324 and 328.) 21b Navarrete, op. cit., Vol. i, p. 44, note 5. 



