And He Was Desirous Of Being Employed In The Service Of The Crown Of
Castile, In Preference To Any Other.
The second motive which encouraged the admiral to undertake his great
enterprize, and which might reasonably induce him to
Call the countries he
proposed to discover by the name of the Indies, was derived from the
authority of learned men; who had affirmed that it was possible to sail
from the western coast of Africa and Spain to the eastern bounds of India
by the westwards, and that the sea which lay between these limits was of
no great extent. This is affirmed by Aristotle, in his Second Book of the
Heaven and of the World, as explained by Averroes; in which he says that a
person may sail from India to Cadiz in a few days. Seneca, in his book of
Nature, reflecting upon the knowledge of this world as insignificant in
comparison with what shall be attained in a future life, says that a ship
may sail in a few days with a fair wind from Spain to India. And if, as
some suppose, the same Seneca were the author of the tragedies, he
expresses himself to the same purpose in the following chorus of the Medea:
Venient annis
Secula feris, quibus Oceanus
Vincula rerum laxat, et ingens
Pateat tellus, Typhysque novos
Detegat orbes, nec sit terris
Ultima Thule.
"There will come an age in latter times, when the ocean shall loosen the
bonds of things, and a great country shall be discovered; when another
Typhys shall find out new worlds, and Thule shall no longer remain the
ultimate boundary of the earth."
This prophecy has now certainly been fulfilled by my father. In the first
book of his cosmography, Strabo says that the ocean encompasses the whole
earth; that in the east it washes the shores of India, and in the west
those of Mauritania and Spain; and that if it were not for the vast
magnitude of the Atlantic, men might easily sail in a short time from the
one to the other upon the same parallel; and he repeats the same opinion
in his second book. Pliny, in the Second Book of his Natural History, Chap.
iii. says that the ocean surrounds all the earth, and extends from east to
west between India and Cadiz. The same author, in his Sixth Book, Chap.
xxxi. and Solinus in the sixty-eight chapter of the Remarkable Things of
the World, say that, from the islands of the Gorgonides, which are
supposed to be those of Cape Verd, it was forty days sail across the
Atlantic Ocean to the Hesperides; which islands the admiral concluded were
those of the West Indies. Marco Polo the Venetian traveller, and Sir John
Mandeville, say that they went much farther eastward than was known to
Ptolemy and Marinus. Perhaps these travellers do not mention any eastern
sea beyond their discoveries; yet from the accounts which they give of the
east, it may be reasonably inferred that India is not far distant from
Spain and Africa. Peter Aliacus, in his treatise on the Figure of the
Earth, in the eighth Chapter respecting the extent of habitable land, and
Julius Capitolinus upon inhabitable places, and in several other treatises,
both assert that Spain and India are neighbours towards the west. The
latter author, in the nineteenth Chapter of his Cosmography says,
according to the opinion of Pliny and other philosophers, the ocean which
stretches from the western shores of Spain and Africa to the eastern
limits of India is of no great extent, and might certainly be sailed over
in a few days with a fair wind; and therefore that the beginning of India
eastwards cannot be far distant from the western limits of Africa.
From these and similar authorities of eminent writers, the admiral was led
to believe that he had formed a sound opinion on this subject; and he was
much encouraged to undertake his proposed voyage of discovery by his
contemporary Paul, physician to Signior Dominico of Florence. This Paul
corresponded with Ferdinand Lopez, a canon of Lisbon, concerning the
voyages which had been undertaken to Guinea in the reign of King Alphonzo
of Portugal, and concerning future discoveries which might be made to the
westwards. The admiral, who was always exceedingly ardent in inquiries on
these topics, came to the knowledge of this correspondence; and soon
afterwards, by means of Laurentio Girarde, a Florentine who then resided
in Lisbon, entered into correspondence with Paul on this subject,
acquainting him with his design, and sending him a small terrestrial globe.
The communications from Paul on this subject are as follow:
"To Christopher Columbus, Paul the Physician wisheth health. I perceive
the noble and earnest desire which you entertain to sail to those parts
which produce spices; and therefore, in answer to your letter, I send you
one which I wrote some time ago to a friend of mine, a servant to the king
of Portugal, before the wars of Castile, in answer to one he had written
to me by the order of his highness upon this same subject; and I send you
a sea chart similar to the one I sent to him, which will satisfy your
demands. The copy of that letter is this!"
"To Ferdinand Martinez, Paul the physician wisheth health. - I rejoice to
learn the familiarity which you have with your most serene and magnificent
king; and although I have often discoursed concerning the short way by sea
from hence to the Indies where spice is produced, which I consider to be
shorter than that you now take by the coast of Guinea; yet you now inform
me that his highness requires me to explain and demonstrate this my
opinion, so that it may be understood and reduced to practice. Therefore,
though I could better shew it with a globe in my hand, so as to make him
sensible of the figure and dimensions of the world; yet I have resolved to
make it as easy and intelligible as possible by delineating this way upon
a chart, such as is used in navigation.
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