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ASTOR, LEOX AND

TILDEN FOURDATIONS.

DISCOVERY OF AMERICA.

R 1900ce of his birth are known with certainty; but he was defcended of an honourable family, though reduced to indigence by various misfortunes. His ancestors having betaken themfelves for fubfiftence to a fea-faring life, Columbus difcovered, in his early youth, the peculiar character and talents which mark out a man for that profeffion. 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, he was inftructed in geometry, cofmography, aftronomy, and the art of drawing. To thefe he applied with fuch ardour and predilection, on account of their con nection with navigation, his favourite object, that he advanced with rapid proficiency in the study 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 to thofe ports in the Mediterranean which his countrymen the Genoefe frequented. This being a sphere too narrow for his active mind, he made an excurfion to the northern feas, in 1467, and visited the coasts of Iceland, to which the English and other nations had begun to refort on account of its fifhery. As navigation, in every direction, was now become enterprifing, he proceeded beyond that island, the Thule of the ancients, and advanced feveral degrees within the polar circle. Having satisfied his curiofity by a voyage which tended more to enlarge his knowledge of naval affairs, than to improve his fortune, he entered into the fervice of a famous fea-captain, of his own name and family. This man commanded a small fquadron, fitted out at his own expence, and by cruifing fometimes againft the Mahometans, fometimes against the Venetians, the rivals of his country in trade, had acquired both wealth and reputation. With him Columbus continued for several years, no less distinguished for his courage, than for his experience as a failor. At length, in an obftinate engagement, off the coaft of Portugal, with fome Venetian Caravels, returning richly laden from the Low Countries, the vessel on board which he ferved took fire, together with one of the enemy's fhips, to which it was faft grappled. In this dreadful extremity his intrepidity and presence of mind did not forfake him. He threw himself into the fea, laid hold of a floating oar, and by the fupport of it, and his dexterity in swimming, he reached the fhore, though above two leagues diftant, and faved a life referved for great undertakings.

As foon as he recovered ftrength for the journey, he repaired to Libon, where many of his countrymen were fettled. They foon con

ceived such a favourable opinion of his merit, as well as talents, that they warmly folicited him to remain in that kingdom, where his naval fkill and experience could not fail of rendering him confpicuous. To every adventurer, animated either with curiofity to vifit new countries, or with ambition to diftinguifh himfelf, the Portuguese fervice was at that time extremely inviting. Columbus listened with a favourable ear to the advice of his friends, and having gained the esteem of a Portuguefe lady, whom he married, fixed his refidence in Lisbon. This alliance, inftead of detaching him from a fea-faring life, contributed to enlarge the fphere of his naval knowledge, and to excite a defire of extending it still farther. His wife was a daughter of Bartholomew Pereftrello, one of the captains employed by prince Henry in his early navigations, and who, under his protection, had difcovered and planted the islands of Porto Santo and Madeira. Columbus got poffeffion of the journals and charts of this experienced navigator, and from them he learned the courfe which the Portuguese had held in making their difcoveries, as well as the various circumstances which guided or encouraged them in their attempts. The study of these foothed and inflamed his favourite passion; and while he contemplated the maps, and read the defcriptions of the new countries which Pereftrello had feen, his impatience to visit them became irrefiftible. In order to indulge it, he made a voyage to Madeira, and continued during feveral years to trade with that ifland, with the Canaries, the Azores, the fettlements ia Guinea, and all the other places which the Portuguese had difcovered on the continent of Africa.

By the experience which Columbus acquired, during fuch a variety of yoyages, to almost every part of the globe with which, at that time, any intercourse was carried on by fea, he was now become one of the most fkilful navigators in Europe. But, not fatisfied with that praise, his ambition aimed at fomething more. The fuccefsful progrefs of the Portuguese navigators had awakened a spirit of curiofity and emulation, which fet every man of science upon examining all the circumftances that led to the discoveries which they had made, or that afforded a profpect of fucceeding in any new and bolder undertaking. The mind of Columbus, naturally inquifitive, capable of deep reflection, and turned to fpeculations of this kind, was so often employed in revolving the principles upon which the Portuguefe had founded their fchemes of difcovery, and the mode in which they had carried them on, that he gradu ally began to form an idea of improving upon their plan, and of accomplishing difcoveries which hitherto they had attempted in vain.

To find out a paffage by fea to the East Indies, was the great object in yiew at that period. From the time that the Portuguese doubled Cape de

Verd,

Verd, this was the point at which they aimed in all their navigations, and, in comparison with it, all their discoveries in Africa appeared inconfiderable. The fertility and riches of India had been known for many ages; its spices and other valuable commodities were in high requeft throughout Europe, and the vast wealth of the Venetians arifing from their having engroffed this trade, had raised the envy of all nations. But how intent foever the Portuguese were upon difcovering a new route to those desirable regions, they fearched for it only by fteering towards the fouth, in hopes of arriving at India, by turning to the east, after they had failed round the farther extremity of Africa. This courfe was still unknown, and, even if discovered, was of fuch immense length, that a voyage from Europe to India must have appeared, at that period, an undertaking extremely arduous, and of very uncertain iffue. More than half a century had been employed in advancing from Cape Non to the equator; a much longer space of time might elapfe before the more extensive navigation from that to India could be accomplished. These reflections upon the uncertainty, the danger and tedioufnefs of the course which the Portuguese were purfuing, naturally led Columbus to confider whether a fhorter and more direct paffage to the East Indies might not be found out. After revolving long and feriously every circumftance fuggefted by his fuperior knowledge in the theory as well as practice of navigation, after comparing attentively the observations of modern pilots with the hints and conjectures of ancient authors, he at last concluded, that by failing directly towards the weft, across the Atlantic ocean, new countries, which probably formed a part of the great continent of India, muft infallibly be difcovered.

Principles and arguments of various kinds, and derived from different fources, induced him to adopt this opinion, feemingly as chimerical as it was new and extraordinary. The fpherical figure of the earth was known, and its magnitude afcertained with fome degree of accuracy. From this it was evident, that the continents of Europe, Afia, and Africa, as far as they were known at that time, formed but a small portion of the terraqueous globe. It was fuitable to our ideas concerning the wisdom and beneficence of the Author of Nature, to believe that the vaft space, ftill unexplored, was not covered entirely by a waste unprofit able ocean, but occupied by countries fit for the habitation of man. It appeared likewife extremely probable, that the continent, on this fide of the globe, was balanced by a porportional quantity of land in the other. hemifphere. Thefe conclufions concerning the existence of another continent, drawn from the figure and ftructure of the globe, were confirmed by the obfervations and conjectures of modern navigators. A Portuguese

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Portuguese pilot, having ftretched farther to the weft than was ufual at that time, took up a piece of timber artificially carved, floating upon the fea; and as it was driven towards him by a wefterly wind, he concluded that it came from fome unknown land, fituated in that quarter. Columbus's brother-in-law had found, to the weft of the Madeira ifles, a piece of timber fashioned in the fame manner, and brought by the fame wind; and had feen likewife canes of an enormons fize floating upon the waves, which refembled thofe defcribed by Ptolemy, as productions peculiar to the Eaft Indies. After a courfe of wefterly winds, trees, torn up by the roots, were often driven upon the coafts of the Azores, and at one time the dead bodies of two men, with fingular features, resembling neither the inhabitants of Europe nor of Africa, were caft afhore there.

As the force of this united evidence, arifing from theoretical principles and practical obfervations, led Columbus to expect the discovery of new countries in the Western Ocean, other reafons induced him to believe that these must be connected with the continent of India. Though the ancients had hardly ever penetrated into India farther than the banks of the Ganges, yet fome Greek authors had ventured to defcribe the provinces beyond that river. As men are prone, and at liberty, to magnify what is remote or unknown, they reprefented them as regions of an immenfe extent. Ctefias affirmed that India was as large as all the reft of Afia. Oneficritus, whom Pliny the naturalift follows, contended that it was equal to a third part of the inhabitable earth. Nearchus afferted, that it would take four months to march in a ftraight line from one extremity of India to the other. The journal of Marco Polo, who had proceeded towards the Eaft far beyond the limits to which any European had ever advanced, feemed to confirm thefe exaggerated accounts of the ancients. By his magnificent defcriptions of the kingdoms of Cathay and Cipango, and of many other countries, the names of which were unknown in Europe, India appeared to be a region of vaft extent. From these accounts, which, however defective, were the most accurate that the people of Europe had received at that period, with refpect to the remote parts of the Eaft, Columbus drew a juft conclufion. He contended, that, in proportion as the continent of India ftretched out towards the Eaft, it muft, in confequence of the fpherical figure of the earth, approach nearer to the islands which had lately been difcovered to the weft of Africa; that the distance from the one to the other was probably not very confiderable; and that the most direct, as well as fhortest courfe, to the remote regions of the Eaft, was to be found by filing due weft. This notion concerning the vicinity of India to the

weftern

western parts of our continent, was countenanced by fome eminent writers among the ancients, the fanction of whofe authority was neceffary, in that age, to procure a favourable reception to any tenet. Ariftotle thought it probable that the Columns of Hercules, or Straits of Gibraltar, were not far removed from the Eaft Indies, and that there might be a communication by fea between them. Seneca, in terms ftill more explicit, affirms, that, with a fair wind, one might fail from Spain to India in a few days. The famous Atlantic island defcribed by Plato, and supposed by many to be a real country, beyond which an unknown continent was fituated, is reprefented by him as lying at no great diftance from Spain. After weighing all thefe particulars, Columbus, in whofe character the modefty and diffidence of true genius was united with the ardent enthusiasm of a projector, did not reft with such abso lute affurance either upon his own arguments, or upon the authority of the ancients, as not to confult fuch of his contemporaries as were capable of comprehending the nature of the evidence which he produced in fupport of his opinion. As carly as the year one thousand four hundred and feventy-four, he communicated his ideas concerning the probability of difcovering new countries, by failing weftwards, to Paul, a phyfician of Florence, eminent for his knowledge of cofmography, and who, from the learning as well as candour which he difcovers in his reply, appears to have been well intitled to the confidence which Columbus placed in him. He warmly approved of the plan, fuggefted feveral facts in confirmation of it, and encouraged Columbus to perfe vere in an undertaking fo laudable, and which must redound so much to the honour of his country, and the benefit of Europe."

To a mind lefs capable of forming and of executing great defigns than that of Columbus, all those reasonings, and observations, and au thorities, would have ferved only as the foundation of fome plaufible and fruitless theory, which might have furnished matter for ingenious difcourfe, or fanciful conjecture. But with his fanguine and enterprifing temper, fpeculation led directly to action. Fully fatisfied himself with refpect to the truth of his fyftem, he was impatient to bring it to the test of experiment, and to fet out upon a voyage of difcovery. The first ftep towards this was to fecure the patronage of fome of the confiderable powers in Europe, capable of undertaking fuch an enterprife. As long abfence had not extinguished the affection which he bore to his native country, he wished that it should reap the fruits of his labours and invention. With this view, he laid his fcheme before the fenate of Genoa, and making his country the first tender of his fervice, offered to fail under the banners of the republic, in queft of the new regions which