COLUMBUS. 
3 
effected. Otho accordingly sailed into the Baltic, but being 
wholly ignorant of the navigation of that dangerous sea, in 
rounding the southern-most point of Sweden, his ship struck on 
the ledge of rocks, now known by the name of Falsterborn 
Reef, and he and his whole crew were in the most imminent 
danger of perishing. By great exertion, however, the ship was 
got off, and after undergoing some repairs at a small town in the 
Danish territory, supposed to be the present Elsineur, he re¬ 
entered the North Sea, and proceeded along the coast of Norway 
until he reached the latitude of 68° north. Here his ship re¬ 
ceived considerable damage amongst the small rocky Islands 
which abound in that quarter ; and not possessing the enterpris¬ 
ing spirit of the mariners of the present day, he bent his course 
homewards, being satisfied that he had penetrated to a higher 
latitude than any former navigator, although he could not boast 
of any farther advantage, resulting from the expedition. 
This may be considered as the first voyage on record, un¬ 
dertaken for the express purpose of Discovery, It was the infant 
manifestation of the future maritime greatness of England, but 
which for a time was prevented from extending and developing 
itself, by the political troubles which distinguished the after 
reigns, and by the ignorance and imbecility of the reigning 
monarches. 
Until this period, the fragile barks of the Europeans, had been 
principally confined to the coasting trade, but the daring genius 
of Columbus saw at a distance far beyond the ocean’s visible 
verge, the mountains of a distant land, although the ignorance 
and superstition of the age in which he lived, threw the most 
disheartening obstacles in his way; the priests laughed at his 
deductions and his arguments; the soidisant Philosophers ridi¬ 
culed his analogies founded on the Laws of Nature, and he was 
finally threatened with a prison, for presuming to entertain the 
heretical doctrine, that beyond “ the furthest ken of Sea’’ there 
might exist a people, who had never heard of the name of Christ, 
and who lived like the beasts, in the gloom and darkness oi 
savage nature. That genius, however which will not be daunted 
by the blasting tyranny of Priestcraft, nor which quail under 
