TBINIPAD : THEN AND NOW. 47 



described by Marco Polo, the Venetian voyager. The 

 theory — afterwards found to be wrong — which he 

 had already formed on this subject appeared to re- 

 ceive confirmation by certain facts which came to his 

 knowledge. For instance, he heard of pieces of 

 carved wood, evidently not cut with a knife or any 

 steel instrument, which had been carried to the coast 

 of Porto Santo by strong westerly winds ; that other 

 navigators had picked up canes of enormous size and 

 many plants apparently belonging to the Old World ; 

 and fhst the bodies of men were found thrown up by 

 the waves on the shores of the Azores, who had fea- 

 tures differing essentially from those of Africans or 

 Europeans and who had evidently come from the 

 west. 



These things seemed to have weighed much with 

 Columbus in his idea that by sailing west he could 

 find a shorter way to India. It is impossible to arrive 

 at any proper conclusion as to the tilne when he con- 

 ceived this idea. It is certain, however, that he medi- 

 tated it as early as the year 1474, though as yet it 

 lay crude and unmatured in his mind. This is con- 

 firmed by the correspondence which he had with 

 Toscanelli, of Florence, which took place in the sum- 

 mer of that year and who applauded the design which 

 Columbus had expressed of making a voyage to the 

 west. To demonstrate this more clearly he obtained 

 a map partly projected according to the ideas of 

 Ptolemy and partly according to the description of 

 Marco Polo. While the design of attempting the dis- 

 covery in the west was maturing in his mind, he made 



