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Portuguefe 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. Colum bus'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 resembled 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, resembl ing 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 straight 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 Euhad ever advanced, feemed to confirm these 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 vast extent. From thefe accounts, which, however defective, were the most accurate that the people of Europe had received at that period, with respect to the remote parts of the Eaft, Columbus drew a juft conclufion. He contended, that, in proportion as the continent of India stretched out towards the Eaft, it muft, in confequence of the fpherical figure of the earth, approach nearer to the islands which had lately been discovered to the west 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 course, to the remote regions of the Eaft, was to be found by failing due weft. This notion concerning the vicinity of India to the

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western parts of our continent, was countenanced by fome eminent writers among the ancients, the fanction of whose authority was neceffary, in that age, to procure a favourable reception to any tenet. Arif totle 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 fuppofed by many to be a real country, beyond which an unknown continent was fituated, is represented by him as lying at no great diftance from Spain. After weighing all these 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 abfolute 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 early as the year one thousand four hundred and feventy-four, he communicated his ideas concerning the probability of discovering 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 discovers in his reply, appears to have been well intitled to the confidence which Columbus placed in him. He warmly approved of the plan, fuggested feveral facts in confirmation of it; and encouraged Columbus to perfe vere in an undertaking fo laudable, and which muft redound fo 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 thofe reafonings, and obfervations, and authorities, would have ferved only as the foundation of fome plaufible and fruitless theory, which might have furnished matter for ingenious discourse, 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 such an enterprise. 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 firft tender of his fervice, offered to fail under the banners of the republic, in queft of the new regions which

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he expected to difcover. But Columbus had refided for fo many years in foreign parts, that his countrymen were unacquainted with his abi lities and character; and, though a maritime people, were fo little accustomed to diftant voyages, that they could form no juft idea of the principles on which he founded his hopes of fuccefs. They inconfiderately rejected his propofal, as the dream of a chimerical projector, and loft for ever the opportunity of reftoring their commonwealth to its ancient fplendour.

Having performed what was due to his country, Columbus was fo little difcouraged by the repulfe which he had received, that, instead of relinquishing his undertaking, he purfued it with fresh ardour. He made his next overture to John II. king of Portugal, in whofe dominions he had been long established, and whom he confidered, on that account, as having the fecond claim to his fervice. Here every circumftance feemed to promife him a more favourable reception. He applied to a monarch of an enterprifing genius, no incompetent judge in naval affairs, and proud of patronifing every attempt to discover new countries. His fubjects were the most experienced navigators in Europe, and the leaft apt to be intimidated either by the novelty or boldness of any maritime expedition. In Portugal, the profeffional fkill of Columbus, as well as his perfonal good qualities, were thoroughly known; and as the former rendered it probable that his fcheme was not altogether vifionary, the latter exempted him from the fufpicion of any finifter intention in propofing it. Accordingly, the king listened to him in the moft gracious manner, and referred the confideration of his plan to Diego Ortiz, bishop of Ceuta, and two Jewish phyficians, eminent cofmographers, whom he was accustomed to confult in matters of this kind. As in Genoa, ignorance had oppofed and difappointed Columþus; in Lisbon, he had to combat with prejudice, an enemy no less formidable. The perfons, according to whofe decifion his scheme was to be adopted or rejected, had been the chief directors of the Portuguese navigations, and had advised to fearch for a paffage to India, by fteering a courfe directly oppofite to that which Columbus recommended as shorter and more certain. They could not, therefore, approve of his propofal, without fubmitting to the double mortification, of condemnning their own theory, and of acknowledging his fuperior fagacity. After teafing him with captious queftions, and starting innumerable objections, with a view of betraying him into fuch a particular explanation of his fyftem, as might draw from him a full difcovery of its n ture, they deferred paffing a final judgement with respect to it. In the mean time, they confpired to rob him of the honour and advantages

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which he expected from the fuccefs of his scheme, advising the king to dispatch a vessel, fecretly, in order to attempt the proposed discovery, by following exactly the course which Columbus feemed to point out. John, forgetting on this occafion the fentiments becoming a monarch, meanly adopted this perfidious counfel. But the pilot, chofen to execute Columbus's plan, had neither the genius, nor the fortitude of its author. Contrary winds arofe, no fight of approaching land appeared, his courage failed, and he returned to Lisbon, execrating the project as equally extravagant and dangerous.

Upon difcovering this dishonourable tranfaction, Columbus felt the indignation natural to an ingenuous mind, and in the warmth of his refentment determined to break off all intercourse with a nation capable of fuch flagrant treachery. He inftantly quitted the kingdom, and landed in Spain towards the close of the year one thousand four hundred and eighty-four. As he was now at liberty to court the protection of any patron, whom he could engage to approve of his plan, and to carry it into execution, he refolved to propofe it in perfon to Ferdinand and Ifabella, who at that time governed the united kingdoms of Caftile and Arragon. But as he had already experienced the uncertain issue of applications to kings and minifters, he took the precaution of sending into England his brother Bartholomew, to whom he had fully communicated his ideas, in order that he might negociate, at the fame time, with Henry VII. who was reputed one of the most fagacious as well as opulent princes in Europe.

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It was not without reafon that Columbus entertained doubts and fears with respect to the reception of his proposals in the Spanish court. Spain was, at that juncture, engaged in a dangerous war with Granada, the laft of the Moorish kingdoms in that country. The wary and fufpicious temper of Ferdinand was not formed to relish bold or uncommon defigns. Ifabella, though more generous and enterprifing, was under the influence of her husband in all her actions. The Spaniards had hitherto made no efforts to extend navigation beyond its ancient limits, and had beheld the amazing progrefs of discovery among their neighbours the Portuguese, without one attempt to imitate or to rival them. The war with the Infidels afforded an ample field to the national activity and love of glory. Under circumftances fo unfavourable, it was impoffible for Columbus to make rapid progrefs with a nation, naturally flow and dilatory in forming all its refolutions. His character, however, was admirably adapted to that of the people, whose confidence and protection he folicited. He was grave, though courteous in his deportment; circumfpect in his words and actions; irreproachable in his morals; and

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exemplary in his attention to all the duties and functions of religion. By qualities fo refpectable, he not only gained many private friends, but acquired fuch general esteem, that, notwithstanding the plainnefs of his appearance, fuitable to the mediocrity of his fortune, he was not confidered as a mere adventurer, to whom indigence had fuggefted a vifionary project, but was received as a person to whose propofitions serious attention was due.

Ferdinand and Ifabella, though fully occupied by their operations against the Moors, paid fo much regard to Columbus, as to remit the confideration of his plan to the queen's confeffor, Ferdinand de Talavera. He confulted fuch of his countrymen as were fuppofed best qualified to decide with respect to a subject of this kind. But true fcience had, hitherto, made fo little progrefs in Spain, that the pretended philofophers, felected to judge in a matter of fuch moment, did not comprehend the first principles upon which Columbus founded his conjec tures and hopes. Some of them, from mistaken notions concerning the dimenfions of the globe, contended that a voyage to those remote parts of the eaft, which Columbus expected to difcover, could not be performed in less than three years. Others concluded, that either he would find the ocean to be of infinite extent, according to the opinion of fome ancient philofophers; or, if he should perfift in fteering towards the weft beyond a certain point, that the convex figure of the globe would prevent his return, and that he muft inevitably perish, in the vain attempt to open a communication between the two oppofite hemispheres, which nature had for ever disjoined. Even without deigning to enter into any particular difcuffion, many rejected the fcheme in general, upon the credit of a maxim, under which the ignorant and unenterprifing fhelter themselves in every age, "That it is presumptuous in any perfon, to fuppofe that he alone poffeffes knowledge fuperior to all the reft of mankind united." They maintained, that if there were really any fuch countries as Columbus pretended, they could not have remained fo long concealed, nor would the wisdom and fagacity of former ages have left the glory of this invention to an obfcure Genoefe pilot.

It required all Columbus's patience and address to negociate with men capable of advancing fuch strange propofitions. He had to contend not only with the obftinacy of ignorance, but with what is ftill more intractable, the pride of falfe knowledge. After innumerable conferences, and wafting five years in fruitless endeavours to inform and to fatisfy judges fo little capable of deciding with propriety, Talavera, at last, made fuch an unfavourable report to Ferdinand and Isabella, as induced them to acquaint Columbus, that until the war with the Moors should be

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