THE ARREST OF INQUIRY. 85 



that he had sailed from Spain to India, gave the name 

 West Indies to the island-group. America itself had 

 been discovered by roving Norsemen five hundred 

 years before, but the fact was buried in Icelandic 

 tradition. Following Columbus, Vasco de Gama, a 

 Portuguese, set sail in 1497, and taking a southerly 

 course, doubled the Cape of Good Hope. Twenty- 

 two years later, Ferdinand Magellan started on a 

 voyage more famous than that of Columbus, since 

 his ambition was to sail round the world, and thus 

 complete the chain of proof against the theory of its 

 flatness. For " though the Church hath evermore 

 from Holy Writ affirmed that the earth should be a 

 widespread plain bordered by the waters, yet he 

 comforted himself when he considered that in the 

 eclipses of the moon the shadow cast of the earth is 

 round; and as is the shadow, such, in like manner, 

 is the substance." Doubling Cape Horn through 

 the straits that bear his name, Magellan entered the 

 vast ocean whose calm surface caused him to call it 

 the Pacific, and after terrible sufferings, he reached 

 the Ladrone Islands where, either at the hands of a 

 mutinous crew, or of savages, he was killed. His 

 chief lieutenant, Sebastian d'Eleano, continued the 

 voyage, and after rounding the Cape of Good Hope, 

 brought the San Vittoria — name of happy omen- 

 to anchor at St. Lucar, near Seville, on 7th of Sep- 

 tember, 1522. Brought, too, the story of a circum- 

 navigated globe, and of new groups of stars never 

 seen under northern skies. 



