friendly reception of Columbus himself at the monastery of la Rabida and the interested protection of the Pinzons, but from the great expectations of his undertaking to sail to regions known to be rich in natural resources and in nations to be converted? It is likely that Martin Pinzon had received information of the gold-mines of Española, when he encouraged Columbus's crews by telling them they would, beyond the ocean, sleep under roofs of gold. It is likely that Pedro Vasquez de la Frontera had heard Alonso Sanchez, if no other discoverers, before he assured the sailors of the year 1492 that they would cross a sea covered with green herbs without any danger, and could be sure of finding land. It would, indeed, suffice to know that Alonso Sanchez was a citizen of Huelva to understand why Columbus chose to equip his expedition in that neighborhood, and how, a perfect stranger, he could find there the men and means to carry out the audacious plans which at the courts of Europe were considered as dreams of a sickly brain."

A certain Thomas Cano, an illiterate ship-builder, born on the Canary Islands, wrote an essay on the "Art of building Ships," which was afterwards published in Seville; and, in the Introduction, he speaks of the casual discoveries of the distant ocean islands made before Columbus revealed them; and he says of them, "That thing is a most certain fact beyond all possibility of a doubt, well known to-day on the island Maderia and among the old sailors of Portugal, of Algarve, and of the county of Niebla. I know it to be so from some people who were acquainted with that time and belonged to it, and who told it so very plainly and publicly."

From what we reported already it is evident that Columbus was not the least-informed of the results of

the long western voyages made, whether accidentally or intentionally, by the bold pilots of Portugal and Spain.

Nor was it from Portugal and Spain alone that sailors set out in search of land in and across the Atlantic Ocean shortly before the memorable voyage of Christopher Columbus.

2

John Cabot,' a naturalized Venetian, had established himself in the year 1477 as a mercantile agent at Bristol, in England. He was a seaman by nature and study. In A.D. 1481 he undertook to find the island of Brezill, famous on the European continent and in Ireland; without success, of course. He continued, however, to study the geography and the material interests of the islands and territories lying to the Northwest of Great Britain, as appears from the fact that, in the year 1495, he was the representative of the Bristol merchants to make an agreement with the king of Denmark, by which the former were allowed to transact business with Iceland and the other Danish oceanic possessions. It can hardly be doubted that he had obtained a clear knowledge of Newfoundland in particular, when we notice that he confirmed this name to the island which was designated long before in the Icelandic sagas as “Nyja land," New land.3

On June 24, 1497, more than one year before Columbus, John Cabot and his son Sebastian discovered the American main-land, which they called "Prima Vista," First Sight; and which was described in a second diploma, obtained on February 3, 1498, from Henry VII., king of England, as "the londe and isles

1 Giovanni Gaboto, or Cabotto.

2 Amat, p. 103; Rafn, Mémoire, p. 35; supra, p. 5.

3

Rafn, Mémoire, p. 36; supra, p. 248.

• Von Humboldt, Examen, t. v. p. 181.

late founde by the said John in oure name and by our commaundamente."

The discovery of Labrador was not, it seems, the result of the first voyage made in the name of Henry VII., probably by Cabot, "the most learned seaman of England,"1 for, on the 25th of July, 1498, Peter de Ayala, Spanish ambassador in London, wrote to his government that "since seven years, the men of Bristol have every year fitted out two, three, and four caravels to go and find the islands of Brezill and of the Seven Cities, in consequence of the ideas of that Genoese," John Cabot.2

Raimund di Soncino, ambassador of Ludovico il Moro at the court of England, wrote to the same effect on August 24, 1497: "A few years ago His Majesty has sent out a Venetian, a distinguished mariner, who has a special aptitude to discover new islands. He has returned hale and hearty, after having found again the Seven Cities." "

1 Magister navis scientificus marinarius totius Angliæ. (Eden, a contemporary writer.)

2

Amat, p. 104; Payne, p. 235; Ruge, Festschrift, S. 60.

Gaffarel, t. ii. p. 288.

CHAPTER XXIV.

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

THE result of the annual English explorations of the Atlantic Ocean is not recorded, but we know that the Spanish discoverers found the English flag flying in several places of the North American sea-coast.

It is generally stated that the discoveries of Cabot are owing to those of Columbus, yet the question might reasonably be raised, whether Columbus did not rather profit by the knowledge acquired on the Atlantic Ocean by his illustrious countryman.

Be this as it may, there is no sense in ascribing Columbus's admirable achievement merely to his enthusiasm or genius. Foolhardiness would in this case be the more correct expression. Divine revelation only, or scientific acquirements, could entitle him to predict with assurance, as he did, the success of his undertaking. Of revelation there was no need, after all the studies he had made and all the pains he had taken to become perfectly acquainted with the feasibility of reaching "the East by way of the West," and with the routes to follow in the execution of his plans. Toscanelli had told him that he would meet with islands in the ocean,' and Alonso Sanchez had revealed to him their approximate location. Ferdinand Columbus not only testifies that his glorious father's conviction was based in a third part on reports of other navigators, but also that, when he set sail, he gravely announced to

1 "Che estan situadas en este viage." (Von Humboldt, Examen, t. i. p. 228.)

2

* Prescott, Ferdinand and Isabella, p. 307.

his companions that they would find land at a distance of seven hundred and fifty leagues west of the Canary group. The absolute certainty he professed to have of discovering land in the West could not have rested on theory alone; it must have been based upon information of facts also. When his crew mutinied on the ocean, he showed his confidence in this knowledge of facts by promising to them that, if he did not discover land within three days, he would abandon the voyage. Land was in sight in half the time he had bespoken. Would he have risked his all upon a conjecture and made a promise which would have been an act of insanity but for the knowledge he possessed??

3

Leaving Palos on the 3d of August, 1492, Columbus decidedly took a southwestern course for the Canary Islands; he knew his way to the lands seen by former pilots, says van Speybrouck pointedly; he knew the assistance to be derived in a westward voyage from the equatorial current and from the trade-winds. Columbus knew more than this. It was to be expected that, on his return, he would retrace the route found to be safe during the outward voyage. But no; scarcely had he finished exploring and locating the coast of Hispaniola, when he steered his prow to the North, thus describing, in his very first expedition through seas which we are too much inclined yet to call the dark mysterious ocean, the routes of both the outward and the homeward WestIndian voyages, which, if not the only practicable, have never since been corrected or improved. This fact is more remarkable still, when we see not only Columbus, but Pinzon also, Antonio Torres, Pedro Alonso Niño, Ojeda, and every pioneer on the middle Atlantic Ocean

1 Von Humboldt, Examen, t. i. Quar. Rev., vol. xiii. pp. 236, 237; p. 251, n. cf. Clarke, ibid., vol. xvii. p. 67.

Clarke, in the Amer. Cath.

3 Bl. 77.