AMERICA. 
than that he had diftinguiihed himfeif by fea and land. 
It is pretended that he made two voyages ; that, failing 
weft, he left Ireland fo far to the north, that he came to 
a land unknown, where he faw many ftrange things ; that 
he returned home, and, making a report of the fruitful- 
nefs of the new-difcovered country, prevailed on numbers 
of the Welfti of each fex to accompany him on a fecond 
■voyage, from which he never returned. The favourers 
of this opinion affert, that feveral Welfti words, fuch as 
gwrartdo, “ to hearken or liftenthe ifle of Crecefo, or 
“ welcome Cape Breton, from the name of Britain ; 
gwynndwr , or, “the white water;” and pengwin, or, “ the 
bird with a white headare to be found in the Ameri¬ 
can language. But likenefs of found in a few words w ill 
rot be deemed fufficient to eftablilh the fail; efpecially 
if the meaning has been evidently perverted : for exam¬ 
ple, the whole penguin tribe have unfortunately not only 
black heads, but are not inhabitants of the northern he- 
mifphere ; the name w'as alfo beftowed on them by the 
Dutch, a pingitedine, from their exceftive fatnefs; but the 
inventor of this, thinking to do honour to his country, 
inconfiderately caught at a word of European origin, and 
unheard of in the New World. It may be added, that 
the Welfti were never a naval people; that the age in 
which Madoc lived was peculiarly ignorant in navigation ; 
and the moft which they could have attempted rnuft have 
been a mere coafting voyage. 
The Norwegians feem to claim a (hare of the glory, on 
grounds rather better than the Welfti. By their fettle- 
ments in Iceland and in Greenland, they had arrived 
within fo final! a diftance of the New World, that there is 
at leaft a poflibility of its having been touched at by a 
people fo verfed in maritime affairs, and fo adventurous, 
as the ancient Normans were. The proofs are much more 
numerous than tliofe produced by the Britifti hiftorians ; 
for the difeovery is mentioned in feveral of the Icelandic 
manuferipts. The period was about the year 1002, when 
it was vifited by one Biorn ; and the difeovery purfued to 
greater eftefit by Leif, the foil of Eric, the difcoverer of 
Greenland. It does not appear that they reached farther 
than Labrador; on which coaft they met with the Efqui- 
maux, on whom they beftowed the name of S/tmlingues, 
or dwarfifh people, from their fmall ftature. They were 
armed with bows and arrows, and had leathern canoes, 
fuch as they have at prefent. All this is probable; nor 
ihould the tale of the German, called Tuckil, one of the 
crew, invalidate the account. He was one day miffing ; 
but foon returned, leaping and finging, with every mark 
of joy, on difeovering the inebriating fruit of his country, 
the grape. Torfeus even fays, that he returned in a ftate 
of intoxication. To convince his commander, he brought 
feveral bunches, who, from that circumftance, named the 
country Finland. It is not to be denied, that North Ame¬ 
rica produces the true vine ; but it is found in far lower 
latitudes than our adventurers could reach in the time 
employed in their voyages, which was comprehended in 
a very fmall fpace. There appears no reafon to doubt of 
the difeovery ; but, as the land was never colonized, nor 
any advantages made of it, it may fairly be conjedtured, 
that they reached no farther than the barren country of 
Labrador, In fhort, it is from a much later period that 
we muft date the real difeovery of America. 
Towards the dole of the fourteenth century, the navi¬ 
gation of Europe was fcarcely extended beyond the limits 
cf the Mediterranean. The mariner’s compafs had been 
invented and in common ufe for more than a century; 
yet, with the help of this hire guide, prompted by the 
moft ardent fpirit of difeovery, and encouraged by the 
patronage of princes, the mariners of thofe days rarely 
ventured from the fight of land. They acquired great 
applaufe by failing along the coaft of Africa and difeover¬ 
ing feme of the neighbouring iHands ; and, after pufifing 
their refearches with the greateft induftry and perfeverance 
for more than half a century, the Portuguefe, who were 
Von. I. No. 26 , 
4*3 
the moft fortunate and enterprifing, extended their difeo- 
veries fouthward no farther than the equator.- 
The rich commodities of the Eaft had for feveral ages 
been brought into Europe by the way of the Red Sea and 
the Mediterranean ; and it had now become the oVjedl of 
the Portuguefe to find a paffage to India, by failing round 
the fouthern extremity of Africa, and then taking an 
eaftern courfe. This great objeft engaged the gei e al at¬ 
tention of mankind, and drew into the Portuguefe lervice 
adventurers from every maritime nation in Europe. 
Among the foreigners whom the fame of the difeove- 
ries made, by the Portuguefe had allured into their fer- 
vice, was Chriftopher Colon, or Columbus, a fubjedl of 
the republic of Genoa. Neither the time nor place of 
his birth are known with certainty; but he was defeended 
of an honourable family, though reduced to Indigence by 
various misfortunes. His anccftors having betaken them- 
felves for fubiiftence to a fea-faring life, Columbus dif- 
covered, in his early youth, the peculiar charafter and 
talents which mark out a man for that profellion. His 
parents, inftead of thwarting this original propenfity of 
his mind, feem to have encouraged and confirmed it, by 
the education which they gave him. After acquiring 
fome knowledge of the Latin tongue, the only language 
in which fcience was taught at that time, lie was inftructed 
in geometry, cofmography, aflronomy, and the art of 
drawing. To thefe he applied with inch ardour and pre¬ 
dilection, on account of their connection with navigation, 
his favourite obieCt, that lie advanced with rapid profi¬ 
ciency in the ftudy of them. Thus qualified, in the year 
1461, he went to fea at the age of fourteen, and began 
his career on that element which conducted him to fo 
much glory. His early voyages were limited principally 
to thofe places which had before been difeovered, in which 
nothing very remarkable happened, except that in a fea- 
fight, off the coaft of Portugal, with fome Venetian coaft¬ 
ers, the veftel on-board which he ferved took fire, toge¬ 
ther with one of the enemy’s, to which it was faft grap¬ 
pled ; upon which he threw himfeif into the fea, laid 
hold of a floating oar, and by the fupport of it, and his 
dexterity in fwimming, he readied the-ftiore, though me.re 
than fix miles diftant, and thus preferved a life deiigned 
for great undertakings. 
Soon after this lie went to Liftoon, where he married a 
daughter of Bartholomew Pereftrello, one of the captains 
employed by prince Henry in his early voyages, and who 
had difeovered and planted the iflands of Porto Santo and 
Madeira. The journals and charts of this experienced 
navigator, his father-in-law, fell into his hands, and he, 
with avidity, availed himfeif of the valuable information 
they contained. His impatience to vifit the places which 
Pereftrello had feen and deferibed, became irrefiftible; 
and he made a voyage to Madeira, and fpent feveral years 
in trading with that illand, Hie Canaries, the Azores, the 
fetllements in Guinea, and all other places which the Por¬ 
tuguefe had difeovered on the continent of Africa. 
By the experience acquired during fuch a variety of 
voyages, Columbus became one of the moft fkilful navi¬ 
gators of Europe. But his ambition did not fuffer him 
to reft fatisfied with that praife. He aimed at fomething 
more. A project had been conceived of finding out a 
paffage by fea to the Eaft Indies. The accomplifiiment of 
this became a favourite object, with Columbus. The Por¬ 
tuguefe fought this route by fleering towards the fouth, in 
hope of arriving at India, by turning to the eaft, after 
they had failed round the farther extremity of Africa; 
which paffage was afterwards effected in 1497, by Vafco 
de Gama, a Portuguefe navigator. Columbus contem¬ 
plated a ihorter and more direct paffage to the Eaft Indies, 
by Jailing towards the weft, acrofs the Atlantic Ocean, 
The principles and arguments which induced him to adopt 
this opinion, then conlidered as chimerical, were highly 
rational and philofophicaL The fphericity and magnitude 
of the earth, were at that period ascertained Avith forne 
5 N degree 
