Tlie Progress of Geographical Discovery. 243 



by trade and commerce, and crude ore from the mine. Europe wanted 

 the silks and gold and spices of the east. All these came slowly with 

 toilsome travel, by caravan, and in small quantities from India and 

 China and the neighboring islands. The Portuguese were on the same 

 quest. They had discovered the Azores in 1431 and Cape Verde Is- 

 lands in 1472. The ships of Prince Henry and of Alfonso and John, 

 his successors, went creeping down the west coast of Africa, each 

 succeeding voyage penetrating a little farther, until at last in 1484 

 Diaz came to the Cape of Good Hope, and in 1487 went beyond it into 

 the Indian ocean and announced his new route to the riches of the 

 east. The camel of the desert was now to give way to the ship on the 

 ocean. But Columbus now conceived a snorter cut; sail west until 

 you find the east; and if the ocean is no wider than Behaim and all the 

 famous geographers declare then that is the shortest route to India and 

 Cathay. It is not the only time that science has been indebted to vulgar 

 trade for its most valuable discoveries. Nor science only. Art and liter- 

 ature as well have furnished the world some of their best productions 

 under the spur of necessity. When, therefore, after a voyage of some- 

 what over two months, he began to thread the channel of the Antilles, 

 he thought he was in the archipelago of islands east of the Ganges. 

 And when a little later he discovered the large island of Santo Domingo 

 he believed it to be Japan, or Zipangu, as Japan was then called. 

 This theory satisfied him until Cuba was sighted and then this island 

 was identified as the Zipangu of Marco Polo. To Santo Domingo he 

 gave the name of Espagnola, and to Cuba that of Isabella. Cuba re- 

 tained the honors of Zipangu in the mind of Columbus until his con- 

 fidence in that theory was shaken by the great length of the southern 

 and southwestern coast. Now he thinks it too large for an island 

 and that it must be the main coast of Cathay and Tartary. Accord- 

 mgly he sends two ambassadors inland to present his respects to the 

 Grand Khan, and these return in a few days with graphic reports of 

 their adventures. In his second voyage on the south coast of Cuba, 

 he still believes he is on the Gulf of Ganges and so writes to Peter 

 Martyr and even has the crew subscribe to a declaration under oath 

 that they were on the coast of the country of the Grand Khan. And 

 then he transfers the name of Zipangu back to Espagnola and gives 

 the name of Juana to Cuba. In his third voyage in 1498 he obtains his 

 first view of the American continent, on the coast of Venezuela, discov- 

 ered the year before by Vespucius, and goes north along the peninsula 

 of Darien and supposes it to be the coast of China. He goes down to 

 h* 8 grave in 1506, to the last unconscious of the magnitude and mean' 



