HRISTOPHER C O L U M £ U S. 
hbout them. We fhall content ourfelves therefore with 
fetting down only Certainties •, among which we may 
reckon the Fads following ; That he had an early Paffion 
for the Sea, ftudied Navigation with the utmaft Induftry, 
and began both to trade, and make Charts for Sea Service, 
when he was very young. The Fame of the Portuguefe , 
for their Skill in Maritime Affairs, brought him to thofe 
Parts ; where he married, fettled, and traded to the 
Coafts of Guiney. He had, throughout his Life, the Cha- 
racter of a Man fober, temperate, grave, and devout, 
of competent Learning in other refpeds, and very ftudicus 
in the Mathematics a . 
2. His ftrid Application to thefe Sciences, joined very 
probably to the manyRelations he had heard from. Sea-faring 
People, tempted him to think of making Difcoveries. The 
Spaniards indeed, who, notwithftanding the great Services 
he did them, envied his Reputation, becaufe he was not 
their Countryman, have circulated abundance of Stories 
with a View to make the World believe, that he only pro- 
fited by the Misfortunes of other Men •, and, as thisfeems 
to be a Point that has never been throughly underftood, I 
flatter myfelf, that the Reader will not think either his Pains 
or mine ill beftowed in clearing it up. They tell us, that 
one Martin Vincent , a Mariner, who ufed the Azores or 
5 Veneras, had told him, that he was once carried Four 
hundred and Fifty Leagues to the Weft of Cape St. Vincent , 
and there took up a Piece of Wood or Timber, wrought 
by Man’s Hand, and that, as far as he could judge, with- 
out Iron, which he imagined had come from fome Weftern 
Ifland. Pedro Correa , who had married his Wife’s Sifter, 
had likewife informed him, that at Puerto Santo he had 
feen the like Piece driven thither by the Weftern Winds, 
wrought in the fame Falhion ; and, befides, he had feen 
great Canes, which, in each Knot, might contain above 
Two Gallons of Water, which he alfo fent to him to look 
upon ; which being unlikely to grow in the known Parts of 
the Weft, and having read of fuch growing in India, he 
fuppofed, that fome long and violent Weftern Winds had 
brought them thither from thence. The Inhabitants alfo 
of the Azores had told him, that ftrong Weft and North- 
weft Winds had brought by Sea, upon Graciofa and 
Fayal, certain Pine-trees •, Two dead Men alfo on the Coaft 
of Flores, with larger Faces than are ufual in thofe Parts, 
and quite a different Look ; and Two Canoes another time, 
driven alfo by the Wind. Antonio Lema , of Madeira, had 
related, that being carried in his Caravel far Weftward, he 
believed hefaw Three Hands : And another of that Ifland 
had fued to the King of Portugal , in the Year 1484. for 
Licence to difcover certain Lands, which he fwore he had 
feen every Year over-againft the Azores. Diego Velazquez 
had Forty Years before been carried far into the Weft, and 
there obfcrved the Seas and Winds fuch as if the Land was 
not far of, as he affirmed to Columbus : And another Ma- 
riner told him of Land he had feen far Weft from Ireland , 
which is fuppofed to be Newfoundland. Pedro de 
Vehfco had obierved the like in his going for Ireland ; 
and Vincent Diaz, a Portugal Pilot, had fanfled, in his 
Return from Guiney , he faw an Ifland in the Height of 
Madeira , for which alfo Search was afterwards made, but 
no Difcovery followed. The Fa d, however, upon which 
the greateft Strefs is laid, remains yet untold, and is this ; 
That in the Year 1484. one Alonfo Sanchez , of Huelua , in 
the County of Niebla, died in ‘the Houfe of Chrippher 
Columbus , in the Ifland of Fercera, and left him his Papers, 
from whence he acquired thofe Lights that directed him in 
his great Undertakings. This Alonfo Sanchez had for 
many Years traded from Spain to the Canaries , and from 
thence to Fladeir a , in his laft Voyage from whence he was 
carried out to Sea, and, after Nine-and-twenty Days Sail- 
ing, arrived at a certain Ifland, fuppofed to be Hifpaniola , 
where he landed, and took an Obfervation. He kept an 
exad Journal of all the Occurrences ; and, after a tedious 
Voyage back, in which he loft Twelve out of Seventeen of 
his Men, he came to Fercera , where he and the other Five 
foon after died of mere Fatigue b . 
3. But that all this, or at leaft the far greateft Part of it, 
and particularly the lad-mentioned Tale, is pure Invention, 
appears from hence ; that Columbus had perfeded his 
Scheme, and actually offered it to his Countrymen the 
Genoefe , in 1484. The Reafons he went upon were thefe : 
That the Figure of the Earth being fpherical, it was highly 
probable, that the Continent on one Side was balanced by 
an equal Quantity of Earth on the other. That the Por- 
tuguefe having already difcovered, firft Iflands, and then a 
vaft Trade of Country, by failing Eaft, it was highly' 
likely, or rather in a manner certain, that, by failing Weft, 
it was equally poffible to reach other Elands, and the other 
Side of that Continent ; that this would be a new Diff 
covery, of equal Value with that which then made fo great 
a Noife *, and that there was the greater Certainty of it, 
fince it had been obferved in the Cape de Verde Elands, that 
the Winds blew for a certain Sealon from the Weft, which 
muft be owing to a great Trad of Land on that Side. It 
is evident enough from thefe Reafons, that his Projed was 
to fail round the World, and fo the very beft Writer on 
this Subjed c lays it down ; which is the Reafon that we 
place him among the Circum-navigators : For though he 
did not himfelf furround the Globe, yet he was^ for 
aught we know, the firft who thought it pradicable, who 
attempted it, and who pointed out the Way by which it was 
afterwards effeded, as will be fhewn in its proper Place. 
4. 1 he State of Genoa rejeded his Propofal, as being be- 
yond their Power, and likely to draw upon them the Re- 
fentment of leveral Princes. He next propofed his Scheme 
to. the King of Portugal , John the Second, in whofe Do- 
minions he had refided for fome Years : Commifiioners 
were appointed to treat with him, who, when, by provoking 
with Objedions, they had drawn out of him all they could, 
advifed the King to fit out a Veffel, and to fend it to try 
if the thing was pradicable ; whereby they meant to rob 
Columbus both of the Honour and Advantage refolding 
from the Difcovery. The Defign mifearried, through the 
want of Courage and Condud in Perfons employed $ but 
Columbus , finding out the Trick, was exceedingly incenfed, 
fo that though the King of Portugal would have treated 
with him a fecond time, being himfelf a better Judge of 
fuch Projeds than any other Prince of his Age, yet he 
declined it, and refolved to apply elfewhere d . 
5. X his was in 1485. In the fame Year, having fully 
inftr uded his Brother Bartholomew in his intended Projed, 
he fent him into England , with Diredions to apply himfelf 
to Henry VII. who was juftly reputed one of the wileft 
Monarchs in Chrifiendom , in hopes that he would embrace 
a Propofal manifeftly tending to his Profit ; and in the 
mean time he prepared himfelf to go into Spain , on the 
fame Account. Bartholomew Columbus was fo unfortunate 
as to fall into the Hands of Pirates, who ftripped him of 
all he had. On his coming into England in this poor 
Condition, he fell ill of a Fever y and, when he recovered 
from that, he fpent fome time in making Maps, and 
felling them, before he put himlelf into filch an Ecjuipa°*e 
as enabled him to addrels himfelf to the King. This how- 
ever he did in 1488. was well received, and adually entered 
into Agreement with that Prince, in the Name, and on 
the Behalf, of his Brother, feveral Years before he clofed 
with their Catholic Majefties, as his Son tells us in his 
Life °. By virtue of this Agreement, it fhould feem that 
our Title to the new World is prior to that of Spain . This 
8 Herre> J’^viedo Gomera, I di Barr os, P. Martyr. — b The Royal Commentaries of Peru Purchase Pilgrims Vol IV n 
Am <: r ™ "7 C i 7 l - 1 4 i wtk ln p ^ 
“ jnventum. Meminiftis Colonum Lio-urum inftitiffe in caftris nnnH Rpo-ps P a L fapientiffimi du° fenefeentes; audite novum 
“ ' “f 1 ™® opo , rte , t : 0-“ * vobifculn aliquando ..Sum eft. N« fine vitro, M arbkror ° conTo'rem 
rightly inferred, that the wan. of fnch Harmony in 7 j , 7 a ‘hroughout ■" was perfeftly known j from whence he 
whatever was reqaifite to eftablifh. that Harmony! was moil likely ^ the Y ™ 6 Wa . S not T lreI f difccvered J and that 
Matter, viz. that Care was taken the Defign fhould mifearrv in ‘5* J r a^FA T~~T~ r T te 13 an0ther Accoun£ § iven of this 
Method of Difcovery by the Weftlro^t p7S’dl°±l Halit , ’ ^ “ "* of 
IS 
