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3. The mariner's compafs had been invented, and in com. mon ufe, for more than a century; yet, with the help of this fure guide, prompted by the most ardent fpirit of difcovery, encouraged by the patronage of princes, the mariners of thofe days rarely ventured from the fight of land.

4 They acquired great applaufe by failing along the coaft of Africa and difcovering fome of the neighboring iflands; and after pufhing their refearches with the greatest induftry and perfeverance for more than half a century, the Portuguese, who were the moft fortunate and enterprifing, extended their difcoveries fouthward no farther than the equator.

5. 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 object of the Portuguese to find a paffage to India, by failing round the fouthern extremity of Africa, and then taking an eaftern course.

6. This great object engaged the general attention of mankind, and drew into the Portuguese fervice, adventurers from every maritime nation of Europe. Every year added to their experience in navigation, and feemed to promife a reward to their industry.

7. The profpect, however, of arriving in the Indies, was extremely diftant; fifty years perfeverance in the fame track, had brought them only to the equator; and it was probable that as many more would elapfe before they could accomplish their purpofe: But Columbus, by an uncommon exertion of genius, formed a defign no less astonishing to the age in which he lived, than beneficial to pofterity.

8. This defign was to fail to India by taking a western direction. By the accounts of travellers who had vifited India, that country feemed almost without limits on the east and by attending to the fpherical figure of the earth, Columbus drew this conclufion, that the Atlantic Ocean must be bounded on the weft, either by India itself, or by fome great continent not fr diftant from it.

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9. This extraordinary man, who was now about twentyfeven years of age, appears to have united in his character, every trait, and to have poffeffed every talent requifit to form and execute the greatest enterprises.

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10. He was early educated in all the ufeful fciences that were taught in that day. He had made great proficiency in

geography, aftronomy and drawing, as they were neceffary to his favorite purfuit of navigation. He had now been a num. ber of years in the service of the Portuguese, and had acquir ed all the experience that their voyages and difcoveries could afford.

11. His courage and perfeverance had been put to the fe verest test, and the exercise of every amiable and heroic vir tue rendered him univerfally known and refpected. He had masried a Portuguese lady by whom he had two fons, Diego and Ferdinand; the younger of whom is the hiftorian of his life.

12. Such was the fituation of Columbus, when he formed and thoroughly digefted a plan, which in its operation and confequences, unfolded to the view of mankind one half of the globe, diffused wealth and dignity over the other, and extended commerce and civilization through the whole.

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13. To corroborate the theory which he had formed of the existence of a western continent, his difcerning mind, which always knew the application of every circumftance that fell in way, had obferved feveral facts, which by others would have paffed unnoticed. In his voyages to the African islands, he had found floating afhore after a long western storm, pieces of wood carved in a curious manner, canes of a fize unknown in that quarter of the world, and human bodies with very fingu. lar features.

14. Fully confirmed in the opinion that a confiderable por. tion of the earth was ftill undiscovered, his genius was too vigorous and perfevering to fuffer an idea of this importance to reft merely in fpeculation, as it had done in the minds of Plato and Seneca, who appeared to have had conjectures of a fimilar nature.

15. He determined, therefore, to bring his favorite theory to the test of actual experiment. But an object of that magnitude required the patronage of a Prince; and a design fo extraordinary met with all the obftructions, delay and disappointments, which an age of fuperftition could invent, and which perfonal jealoufy and malice could magnify and encourage.

16. Happily for mankind, in this inftance, a genius capa ble of devifing the greatest undertakings, affociated in itself a degree of patience and enterprife, modefty and confidence, which rendered him fuperior not only to thefe misfortunes, but to all the future calamities of his life.

17. Prompted by the most ardent enthufiafm to be the dif coverer of new continents; and fully fenfible of the advantages that would refult to mankind from fuch difcoveries, he had the mortification to waste away eighteen years of his life, after his fyftem was well established in his own mind, before he could obtain the means of executing his defigns.

18. The greatest part of this period was spent in fucceffive and fruitlefs folicitations, at Genoa, Portugal and Spain. As a duty to his native country, he made his first propofal to the Senate of Genoa ; where it was foon rejected.

19. Conscious of the truth of his theory and of his own ability to execute his defign, he retired without dejection from a body of men who were incapable of forming any juft ideas upon the fubject; and applied with fresh confidence to John the fecond, King of Portugal, who had diftinguifhed himself as a great patron of navigation, and in whofe fervice Columbus had acquired a reputation which entitled him and his project to general confidence and approbation.

20. But here he suffered an infult much greater than a direct refufal. After referring the examination of his scheme to the council who had the direction of naval affairs; and drawing from him his general ideas of the length of the voyage and the course he meant to take, that great monarch had the meanness to confpire with the council to rob Columbus of the glory and advantage he expected to derive from his undertaking.

21. While Columbus was amufed with this negociation, in hopes of having his scheme adopted and patronized, a veffel was fecretly difpatched, by order of the king, to make the intended difcovery. Want of skill and perfeverance in the pilot rendered the plot unfuccefsful: And Columbus, on discovering the trechery, retired with an ingenuous indignation, from. a court capable of fuch duplicity.

22. Having now performed what was due to the country that gave him birth, and to the one that adopted him as a fub ject, he was at liberty to court the patronage of any prince who fhould have the wisdom and juftice to accept his proposals.

23. He had communicated his ideas to his brother Bartholomew, whom he fent to England to negociate with Henry the seventh; at the fame time that he went himself into Spain, to apply in perfon to Ferdinand and Ifabella, who governed the United Kingdoms of Arragon and Caftile.

24. The circumstances of his brother's application in England, which appears to have been unfuccefsful, it is not to my purpose, to relate; and the limits prefcribed to this sketch, will prevent the detail of all the particulars relating to his own negociation in Spain.

25. In this negociation Columbus fpent eight years in the various agitations of fufpenfe, expectation and disappointment; till at length his fcheme was adopted by Ifabella, who undertook as queen of Caftile, to defray the expenfes of the expe dition; and declared herself, ever after, the friend and patron of the hero' who projected it.

26. Columbus, who, during all his ill fuccefs in the nego ciation, never abated any thing of the honors and emoluments which he expected to acquire in his expedition, obtained from Ferdinand and Isabella a full ftipulation of every article contained in his first propofals.

27. He was conftituted high Admiral and Viceroy of all the Seas, Islands and Continents which he should discover, with power to receive one tenth of the profits arifing from their productions and commerce. Thefe offices and emolu

ments were to be hereditary in his family.

28. Thefe articles being adjusted, the preparations for the voyage were brought forward with rapidity, but they were by no means adequate to the importance of the expedition. Three small veffels, fcarcely fufficient in fize to be employed in the coafting business, were appointed to traverse the vast Atlantic; and to encounter the ftorms and currents that might be expected in fo lengthy a voyage, through distant and unknown feas.

29. These veffels, as might be expected in the infancy of navigation, were ill conftructed, in a poor condition and manned by feamen unaccustomed to diftant voyages. But the

tedious length of time which Columbus had spent in folicitation and fufpenfe, and the profpect of being able foon to obtain the object of his wifhes, induced him to overlook what he could not easily remedy, and led him to difregard those circumstances which would have intimidated any other mind.

30. He accordingly equipped his small squadron with as much expedition as poffible, manned with ninety men, and victualled for one year. With these, on the third of Auguft,

1492, amidst a vaft crowd of anxious fpectators, he fet fail on an enterprise, which, if we confider the ill condition of his fhips, the inexperience of his failors, the length and uncertainty of his voyage, and the confequences that flowed from it, was the most daring and important that ever was undertaken.

31. He touched at fome of the Portuguese fettlements in the Canary Isles, where, altho he had but a few days run, he found his veffels needed refitting. He foon made the neceffary repairs, and took his departure from the westermost Ilands that had hitherto been difcovered. Here he left the former track of navigation, and steered his course due west.

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32. Not many days after he had been to fea, he began to experience a new fcene of difficulty. The failors now began to contemplate the dangers and uncertain iffue of a voyage, the nature and length of which was left entirely to conjec

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33. Befides the fickleness and timidity, natural to men unaccustomed to the difciplin of a feafaring life, feveral circumftances contributed to infpire an obftinate and mutinous difpofition, which required the moft confummate art as well as fortitude in the admiral to control.

34. Having been three weeks at fee, and experienced the uniform courfe of the trade winds, which always blow in a western direction, they contended, that, fhould they continue the fame courfe for a longer period, the fame wind would never permit them to return to Spain.

35. The magnetic needle began to vary its direction. This being the first time that phenomenon was ever difcovered, it was viewed by the failors with aftonishment, and confidered as an indication that nature itself had changed her course, and that Providence was determined to punish their audacity, in venturing for beyond the ordinary bounds of man.

36. They declared that the commands of their fovereign had been fully obeyed in their proceeding fo many days in the fame direction, and fo far furpaffing the attempts of all former navigators, in queft of new discoveries. Every talent, requifit for governing, foothing and tempering the paffions of men, is confpicuous in the conduct of Columbus on this occafion.

37. The dignity and affability of his manners, his furpri fing knowledge and experience in naval affairs, his unwearied

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