chapter iii. of this volume. Washington Irving's _Life and Voyages

of Christopher Columbus and his Companions_, published in London, 1828-31 (edition used, that of New York, 1869, 3 vols.), is an able and elegant abridged translation of Navarrete, and of _La Historia de el Almirante D. Christoval Colon_, by his son Fernando Colon, in _Barcia_, _Historiadores Primitivos_, tom. i., Madrid, 1749. Alexander von Humboldt's _Examen critique de l'histoire de la Géographie du nouveau continent, et des progrès de l'astronomie nautique aux 15ème et 16ème Siècles_, 5 vols. 8vo, Paris, 1836-9, is a most exhaustive digest of materials furnished by Navarrete and the older historians, illustrated with the results of the author's personal investigations. The work embraces two treatises; first, the causes which led to the discovery of America; second, facts relating to Columbus and Vespucci, with the dates of geographic discoveries. Humboldt's _Abhandlung über die ältesten Karten_, printed as an introduction to _Ghillany_, _Geschichte des Seefahrers Ritter Martin Behaim_, Nuremberg, 1853, of which I have only a manuscript English translation, is an essay as well on the naming of America as on early maps. Another important treatise is that of J. G. Kohl, _Die beiden ältesten General-Karten von America_, Weimar, 1860, of nearly two hundred large folio pages on the earliest manuscript and printed maps, two of the former, dated 1527 and 1529, accompanying the work, reproduced in chromo-lithographic fac-simile. The same author has produced other works on the subject, the most important being _A History of the Discovery of the East Coast of North America, published in Collections of the Maine Historical Society_, 2d series, vol. i., Portland, 1869. This contains reduced copies of twenty-three early maps, and is perhaps the most complete work existing, so far as the northern coasts are concerned, giving comparatively little attention to more southern voyages. _Kunstmann_, _Die Entdeckung Amerikas_, Munich, 1859, is a careful compilation of ninety-six imperial quarto pages, with copious notes and references, written to accompany a collection of thirteen large chromo-lithographic reproductions of manuscript maps preserved in the Academy of Sciences at Munich, and generally known as the _Munich Atlas_. Herr Kunstmann treats chiefly of the Atlantic islands, with special reference to the connection between the discoveries of Spaniards and Northmen. _Major's Life of Prince Henry of Portugal_, London, 1868, is the best authority for Portuguese voyages as well as for the revival of maritime enterprise in the fifteenth century. _Stevens' Historical and Geographical Notes on the Earliest Discoveries in America, 1453-1530_, New Haven, 1869, was written originally as an introduction to a book by the author's brother on his proposed interoceanic communication via Tehuantepec. It is a concise statement of the whole matter, presenting some of its phases in a practically new light. _Varnhagen_, _Le Premier Voyage de Amerigo Vespucci_, Vienna, 1869, must not be omitted as the chief support of a theory on Vespucci's voyages which nearly concerns the first discovery of our Pacific States territory proper. _Rafn_, _Antiquitates Americanæ_, Hafniæ, 1837, is the source of nearly all our knowledge of the discoveries of the Northmen in America in the tenth and following centuries; and _De Costa_, _The Pre-Columbian Discovery of America_, Albany, 1868, presents an English translation of the same Icelandic _sagas_ in which the enterprises of the Northmen are recorded. The _Cartografía Mexicana_ of Orozco y Berra, published by the Mexican Geographical Society, contains, as its title indicates, a mention of early maps in chronologic order; and the _Mapoteca Colombiana_ of Urricœchea, London, 1860, is another important contribution of similar nature. There should be mentioned the excellent review given in the first volume of _Bryant's History of the United States_, which has appeared since this Summary was written; and I might present quite a list of papers read before the various learned societies of Europe and America on different topics connected with this subject in late years, none of them I believe materially affecting my conclusions.

The above form but a small portion of the works devoted wholly or in part to the subject, but they are believed to contain all the material necessary for even a more detailed statement than my purpose demands.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: ADVENTURES OF THE ANCIENTS.]

Of the voyages of the ancients, properly so called, that is, of such as preceded the fall of the Roman Empire at the end of the fourth century, I shall here say little. These maritime expeditions, confined for the most part to the Mediterranean, though extending for some distance along the coasts of the Indian and Atlantic oceans, with occasional voyages designedly or accidentally prolonged to more distant islands, and it may be continents, come down to us through antique histories, cosmographies, and poems, so mixed with vague hypothetical and mythological conceptions, that the most searching investigation is often unable to separate fact from fable. There are multitudes of classic and mediæval legends adopted by Tasso, Pulci, and other Italian poets, such, for example, as that which makes the Greek wanderer Ulysses the pioneer of western adventure, which in a sober treatise are scarcely worthy of mention. Turning to the dawn his vessel's poop, this son of Laertes, it is said, passed Gibraltar, the bound ordained by Hercules not to be overstepped by man, and, as Dante tells us, sailed for the Happy Isles of the unknown Atlantic, unrestrained by son, or father, or even Penelope's ever-weaving web of love.

A little journey was a wonderful exploit before the time of Christ—instance the immortal fame achieved by Hanno, the Carthaginian, in visiting the west coast of Africa, B. C. 570; by Herodotus, in making the excursion of Egypt and India, B. C. 464-456; by Pytheas, in his voyage to the British Isles, B. C. 340; by Nearchus, in descending the Indus, B. C. 326; by Eudoxus, in his attempt to sail round Africa, B. C. 130; by Cæsar, in undertaking the conquest of Gaul, B. C. 58; by Strabo, in penetrating Asia some thirty or forty years later. After the Christian era Pausanias, a Roman, in 175 wrote a guide-book of Greece; Fa Hian, a Chinese monk, went westward into India in the year 400 or thereabout; Cosmas Indicopleustes travelled in India a century and a half later and wrote a book to prove the world square, and the universe an oblong coffer; Arculphe wrote of the Holy Land about 650; an Englishman, Willibald, made the tour of southern Europe and Palestine, setting out from Southampton in 721; in 851 went Soliman from Persia to the China sea. So it has been said.

Indeed, the writings of Herodotus indicate that, over two thousand years before Dias and Vasco da Gama, Africa was circumnavigated by a fleet of Phœnician ships sent by Pharaoh Necho down the Red Sea with orders to return to Egypt by way of the Pillars of Hercules. A Persian, Sataspes, endeavored to accomplish the voyage from the other direction, but failed. Plato's island of Atlantis, founded by the god Neptune, was of great size, "larger than Asia and Libya together, and was situated over against the straits now called the Pillars of Hercules." The climate and soil were so good that fruits ripened twice every year. There were metals, with elephants and other animals in abundance. Upon a mountain was a beautiful city with gold and ivory palaces, having gardens and statues. Unfortunately in time the sea swallowed up this island, so that it could scarcely have been America.

[Sidenote: THE PROPHECY OF QUETZALCOATL.]

So far as these voyages and strange tales concern the possible knowledge of America by the ancients, I have already discussed them in my _Native Races of the Pacific States_. Therein is mentioned a theory which has found many advocates, and to which I will again briefly allude in this place. It is that at the beginning of the Christian era America was visited by the Apostle St Thomas. He was accompanied by a number of fellow-laborers in the ministry, who preached the gospel and planted the Christian religion in America. The theory is ably advocated in the excellent work of Rev. W. Gleeson, _The History of the Catholic Church in California_. The principal arguments advanced may be briefly stated as follows: First, that the whole tenor of Scripture teaching is in favor of the supposition that the gospel was preached to all the world from the beginning, rather than after the lapse of several centuries. Second, that at a date fixed by Mexican hieroglyphics as a little before the middle of the first century after Christ, a celebrated personage, certainly the most remarkable in Mexican mythology, came from the north. He is represented as a white man, with flowing beard, clad in a long white robe, adorned with red crosses, head uncovered, and a staff in his hand. This was the Quetzalcoatl, whom the Mexicans afterward worshipped, and whose return was so anxiously looked for by them. See _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._ Third, that to him popular tradition ascribes the worship paid to the cross, the practice of confession, and in a word all the customs found on the arrival of the Spaniards to be nearly identical with those of the Christian religion. _Veytia_, _Hist. Ant. de Mexico_. Fourth, that the name Quetzalcoatl is synonymous with that of St Thomas. See _Native Races_, v. 26. Fifth, that Quetzalcoatl promised on his departure to return at some future day with his posterity and resume the possession of the empire, and that day was looked forward to with general confidence, _Prescott's Conq. Mex._, and that a general feeling prevailed at the time of Montezuma that the period of his return had arrived. _Veytia_, _Hist. Ant. Mex._ Sixth, that there were at the convent of Nijapa, in the province of Oajaca, hieroglyphs containing all the principal doctrines of the Christian religion, and the coming of the Apostle to the country. _Id._

Sahagun, who wrote at the time of the conquest, speaks of the general belief in this prophecy, and assures us that on the arrival of the Spaniards they repeatedly offered them divine honors, believing that their god Quetzalcoatl had returned. _Conq. Mex._, i. chap. iii.

"It is then undeniably true," says Gleeson, _Catholic Church in Cal._, 185, "that a popular tradition existed in the country respecting a prophecy made by Quetzalcohuatl, in which was foretold the future arrival of whites on the coast; and this, while it proves the reality of the man, and his character as a teacher of religion, also proves the still more important and appreciable fact of his being a Christian, and of western origin; for, it was clearly set forth in the prophecy, that the persons who should come would be whites, and of the same religion as he. The time also seems to have been specified by the Apostle, if we are to judge by the expression that they were expecting him every day. And, indeed, Boturini assures us that the time mentioned in the Mexican hieroglyphics was that in which the Christians arrived. The year _ce acatl_ was that foretold by Quetzalcohuatl, and in that year the Spaniards landed in the Country." On ancient voyages and cosmography see also Humboldt, _Exam. Crit._, tom. i. pp. 125-206.

It is the results of ancient voyages, the point of geographical knowledge attained by ancient civilization in its most advanced stage and by it bequeathed to the Dark Age, and not the voyages themselves, with which we have to do at present. This knowledge is found for the most part embodied in the system of Ptolemy, the Alexandrian geographer of the second century, whose works became the standard text-books, and holding their prominence for fourteen hundred years were not superseded as late as the sixteenth century, but were republished from time to time, with additions, setting forth the results of new discoveries. In this manner twenty-one editions appeared during the first half of that century. Nor was even Ptolemy the originator of this prolonged system. One hundred and fifty years before him was the Greek geographer Strabo, who gave descriptions of countries and peoples, fixing his localities usually by itinerary distances; and to this work of Strabo's, Ptolemy added a century and a half of progress, and determined his localities by astronomical observation. The work of Pomponius Mela, the Roman geographer who wrote probably somewhat later than Strabo, is regarded as no improvement on that of his predecessor.

Ptolemy's World was nearly all in the north temperate zone, embracing about fifty degrees of latitude and one hundred and twenty of longitude. The Fortunate Isles, now called the Canaries, were known to Ptolemy, and by him used as a western limit or first meridian. This, and as a nucleus of poetic myths, seem to have been their only use; as Muñoz says, _Hist. del Nuevo Mundo_, p. 30: "Fuera de este uso apenas aprovecharon sino para entretenir ociosas imaginaciones con fábulas de poetas." The eastern limit was vaguely located in the region beyond the Ganges; actually in about 100° east longitude. On the south were included the African coasts of the Mediterranean and Red Sea, with the southern coasts of Arabia and India proper—the term India being then applied indefinitely to all eastern lands, including even parts of Africa—thus fixing the southern bound at about 30° north latitude in the west, and 10° in the east. Northward the limit may be placed a little above 60°, within which falls the southern part of the Scandinavian peninsula, then supposed to be an island, and also the island of Thule, the location of which is disputed, some claiming it to have been Iceland, others the Faroe Islands, and others the Shetland Islands. But Ptolemy's latitudes were all some ten degrees too far north, while in his longitudes he went still further astray; since, reckoning from the Canaries as his first meridian, he made his last meridian 180°, when it should have been 120°, and thus by narrowing half the circumference of the globe some sixty degrees he made the world nearly one third less than it really is. Authorities differ, however, as to what were Ptolemy's ideas. But more of this hereafter. On the opposite page is a map in which the world as known in these times is left white, the shaded portions being the result of subsequent discoveries down to the last half of the fifteenth century. A map of Ptolemy's World, reduced to its true proportions, may be seen in _Goselin_, _Recherches sur la géographie systématique et positive des anciens_, tom. iv., Paris, 1813.

Within these limits, then, geographical knowledge was confined at the end of the fourth century; limits not sharply defined, but indefinite and wavering according to ages, to the directions of conquest, and to distances from Mediterranean centres. Beyond these limits was a realm of darkness peopled by strange beings, creatures of poetic fancy or crude conjecture. Just as the wonder-land of Homer to contemporaneous eastern Greeks, was Italy, with its strange waters inhabited by very strange beasts, and Sicily, and neighboring isles, where were the Satyrs, and the gigantic one-eyed Cyclops eating milk and mutton and men, so to later teachers were the strange seas beyond. On the north was an impenetrable region of eternal ice; on the south, an equatorial zone of burning heat; a barrier of frost on the one side and of fire on the other, both equally uninhabitable to the European man, and cutting off all communication with possible habitable lands elsewhere. The burning zone, however, seems to have been a popular idea, rather than a part of the system taught by Ptolemy, who, indeed, held that Africa extended south-east and north-east toward the eastern parts of Asia, making of the Indian Ocean an immense gulf not connected with the Atlantic on the west. Strabo and other geographers who preceded Ptolemy gave Africa approximately its correct shape; traditions of its circumnavigation even were kept alive, in spite of Ptolemy's theory, influencing geographic thought not a little during the fifteenth century. Irving is of opinion, _Columbus_, vol. iii. p. 440, that modern authors consider the knowledge of the ancients concerning Africa much less extensive than has been generally supposed; but Major, _Prince Henry_, p. 89 et seq., accepts a circumnavigation of Africa in the seventh century B. C., and also Hanno's voyage far down the African coast, placing the date of the latter 570 B. C. Among the philosophers of western Europe no definite hypotheses appear to have been advanced as to the extent of land beyond the known region; as to the ideas of the Arabs and Buddhist priests concerning the matter it is difficult to determine. See _Kohl's Hist. Discov._, p. 149; _Draper's Intellectual Development_, p. 451, New York, 1872. Beyond the Fortunate Isles to the west stretched a _Mare Tenebrosum_, or Sea of Darkness, as early writers express it, separating the known western coast from the far unknown east. In this dark sea tradition planted islands at various points, reiterating the fact of their existence so often that names and locations were finally given them on maps, though the islands themselves have never yet been found. Except these fabulous islands, there was little thought of land between the coasts of Europe and Asia. Compare maps in this volume; also _George Bancroft's History of the United States_, vol. i. p. 6, Boston, 1870; _D'Avesac_, in _Nouvelles Annales des Voyages_, 1845, tom. cv. p. 293; tom. cvi. p. 47.

To sum up the geographical knowledge of the ancients, we have first, the sphericity of the earth surmised, although its size was vaguely conceived and underrated; secondly, the positive knowledge of Europeans limited to the unshaded portion of the map on page 73; thirdly, divers theories respecting the conformation of southern Africa; fourthly, a _mare oceanum_ stretching westward to the unknown Asiatic shore, with hypothetical islands intervening, and expressed opinions that this sea was navigable, and that possibly India might be reached by sailing westward. These ideas, vague as they seem, were held only by the learned few; the world of the ignorant reached scarcely beyond the horizon of their actual experience. Not until long after its actual circumnavigation, in the sixteenth century, was the popular mind able to grasp the idea of the earth's sphericity.

* * * * *

We come now to mediæval times, when from the fifth to the fifteenth century the cosmographical as well as all other knowledge of the ancients lay well-nigh dormant; to the people a land of darkness as well as a sea, though in some few colleges and convents these things were thought of. "Ces ténèbres," says Humboldt, _Exam. Crit._, tom. i. p. 59, "s'étendaient sans doute sur les masses; mais, dans les couvens et les colléges quelques individus conservaient les traditions de l'antiquité." Upon this world of darkness light first broke from the far north, the voyages of the Scandinavians from the ninth to the twelfth centuries being the _aurora borealis_ of maritime discovery. These Northmen, as in their expeditions Danes, Norwegians, and Swedes were indiscriminately called, by their warlike propensities made themselves known and feared along the shores of Europe at an early date; but their western discoveries were known only to themselves; at all events, no trace of distant voyages to the west are found in the records of their neighbors. It is only quite recently that the sagas of the Northmen were brought to the attention of European scholars; and when the Danish bishop, Müller, published his bibliography of the sagas, 3 vols., Copenhagen, 1817-1820, these narratives were held to be more fiction than fact. Even so late a writer as George Bancroft, _History of the United States_, vol. i. pp. 5, 6, says that the story of colonization by the Northmen "rests on narratives, mythological in form, and obscure in meaning; ancient, yet not contemporary," and that "no clear historic evidence establishes the natural probability that they accomplished the passage." Irving, _Columbus_, vol. iii. pp. 432-5, considers the matter "still to be wrapped in much doubt and obscurity." Both of these authors, however, seem to have considered only the evidence presented by Malte-Brun and Forster. Since their time proofs beyond question have established the authenticity of these voyages of the Northmen. The sagas on American discoveries are preserved in the archives at Copenhagen, with a collection of other historical data, reaching down to the fourteenth century, the date of their completion. It is true that they deal somewhat in the marvellous—they would not be authentic else, written at that time—but they contain tales no more wonderful or monstrous than the writings of more southern nations. See an account of the Copenhagen documents and the examination of their authenticity in _De Costa's Pre-Columbian Discov. Am._, pp. i-lx. Two nearly contemporary ecclesiastical histories—that of Adam of Bremen, 1073, and Ordericus Vitalis, about 1100—describe briefly the western lands of the Northmen. Further reference, _Kunstmann_, _Entdeckung Am._, p. 32; _Rafn_, _Antiquitates Am._, p. 337; _Kohl's Hist. Discov._, p. 76.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: THE NORTHMEN AND THEIR SAGAS.]

Vague notions were not wanting of communication with America before the time of the Northmen, but these, whatever they were, are now to us pure speculation and may be omitted here. Passing over a general movement by which before the middle of the ninth century the Northmen appear to have broken through their former bounds, and to have extended their plundering raids in all directions, taking possession of the Shetland and Faroe islands and even of the north of Britain, we come to the first definite adventure westward.

[A. D. 860-4.] Two bold men, Naddod and Gardar, in one of their coast-island cruises, were driven from their course to the north-west and discovered Iceland, called by one Snowland, and by the other Gardar Island. Kohl, _Hist. Discov._, p. 61, dates both voyages 860; Forster gives 861 to Naddod's; other authors place the former in the year 860, and the latter in 864.

[874.] Ingolf made a settlement in Iceland at a point still called by his name. Other immigrants followed, and a flourishing colony was founded. The Northmen found on the island Irish priests, who had come there at a time not definitely known, but who immediately abandoned the country to the new settlers. Within twenty years thereafter Iceland was fairly well inhabited. De Costa, _Pre-Columbian Discov. Am._, pp. xxii-iv., makes the date A. D. 875.

[876.] One Gunnbjörn, an Icelandic colonist, is reported to have seen accidentally, from a distance, the coast of Greenland. Kohl dates this voyage 877.

[982-6.] Eric the Red, banished from Iceland for murder in 982, sailed west, found land, remained there three years, and returned, naming the country Greenland to attract settlers. In 985, or 986, he sailed again with a larger force, this time founding a settlement to which other adventurers resorted. Of the first voyage Kohl makes no mention.

[983.] One of the sagas contains a report by an Irish merchant that one Are Marson was carried in a storm to Whiteman's Land "in the Western Ocean, opposite Vinland, six days' sail west of Ireland." Rafn thinks this may have been that part of America in the vicinity of Florida; others make it the Azores. There are also vague reports of later voyages to the same land by Björn Asbrandson in 999, and by Gudleif in 1027. In the present stage of investigation the proof is insufficient to establish an Irish pre-Scandinavian discovery of America.

[990.] In this year, or, as De Costa makes it, in 986, Biarne, sailing from Iceland in search of his father, who had previously gone to Greenland, was carried far to the south-west, to within sight of land, undoubtedly America, which he coasted north-east for several days and returned to Greenland. Three points particularly noticed on the new coast are conjectured by Kohl to have been Cape Cod, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland.

[1000.] Leif, son of Eric the Red, sailed from Greenland south-west in search of the lands seen by Biarne, reached the same in reverse order, landing probably at Newfoundland, which he named Helluland (Stony Land); Nova Scotia, he called Markland (Woodland); and passing round Cape Cod, made a settlement, named after himself, Leifsbudir, at some point on Narragansett Bay. He called this country Vinland from the fact that vines were found there, and the name was afterwards applied to the whole region extending northward to Markland. In the spring of 1001 Leif returned to Greenland with a cargo of grapes and wood.

[1002-5.] Thorwald, another of Eric's sons, sailed with one vessel to Vinland, where Leif had landed, and lived there through the winter by fishing. Early in 1003 he explored the country westward in boats, and in the spring of 1004 doubled Cape Cod, naming it Kialarnes (Ship's Nose), and perished in a battle with the Skraellings, or Indians, at some point on the shore of Massachusetts Bay. His companions spent the winter at Leifsbudir and returned to Greenland in 1005.

[1008.] In the spring of 1008 Thorfinn Karlsefne sailed from Greenland with three vessels to Helluland—which name was applied not only to Newfoundland but to the region north of that point—and thence along the coast to Nova Scotia, and to Cape Cod. Here the party divided, Thorhall, the hunter, in attempting to explore northward, being driven by a storm to Ireland, while Thorfinn spent the winter farther south near Leifsbudir, where a son was born to him. After an unsuccessful search for Thorhall by one vessel, a third winter was spent in Vinland, and in 1011 Thorfinn returned to Greenland, leaving perhaps a small colony. De Costa, _Pre-Columbian Discov. Am._, pp. 48-76, makes the date of this voyage 1007-10.

[1012.] Helge, Finboge, and Eric's daughter Freydisa, who had before visited America with her husband, sailed to Vinland, and such as were not killed in the internal dissensions of the party returned to Greenland in 1013. The records of this expedition are very slight. De Costa's date is 1011-12.

[1035.] Adam of Bremen speaks of Frisian or German navigators who about the year 1035 landed on an island beyond Iceland, where the inhabitants were of great size, and were accompanied by fierce dogs—perhaps the Eskimos.

[1121.] After the expeditions that have been mentioned, concerning each of which the sagas contain one or more accounts, no farther regular reports have been preserved; but various voyages are briefly alluded to in different records, as though trips to the new regions of Vinland were no longer of sufficient rarity to be specially noticed. Such allusions refer to voyages made in 1121, 1285, 1288, 1289, 1290, and 1357. After 1357 no more is heard of the western lands. The settlements were gradually abandoned both in Vinland and Greenland, as the power of the Northmen declined, and so far as can be known, even their memory was buried in the unread records of former greatness. On Scandinavian discoveries, besides Rafn and De Costa, see _Kunstmann_, _Entdeckung Am._, p. 32; _Kohl's Hist. Discov._, pp. 61-85 and 478; _Humboldt_, _Exam. Crit._, tom. ii. pp. 88-128; _Abstract of Rafn_, in _Journal Lond. Geog. Soc._, 1838, vol. viii. pp. 114-29.

[Sidenote: DECLINE OF SCANDINAVIAN DISCOVERY.]

Thus after this play of northern lights upon the western horizon for four or five centuries, enterprise in that direction languished, and finally the Sea of Darkness lapsed into its primeval obscurity. Nevertheless the deeds of the Scandinavians must have become more or less known to other parts of Europe, for the spirit of uneasiness which sent these Northmen across their western waters sent them also—particularly the Danes—eastward in the Holy Crusades. It would be well for the student to examine the works of Adam of Bremen, and Ordericus Vitalis, who beside these pre-Columbian voyages describe also the Crusades. Moreover, Iceland had Catholic bishops and was therefore in communication with Rome, where the discoveries of the Northmen must have been known. Rafn, _Antiquitates Am._, pp. 283, 292, and De Costa, _Pre-Columbian Discov. Am._, pp. 106-109, give translations from Scandinavian archives of contemporaneous descriptions of the earth in which these New World discoveries of the Northmen are included. Sailing charts and maps of the new discoveries must have been drawn by the Northmen, for although none of them were preserved, yet in _Torfæus_, _Grœnlandia antiqua_, Hauniæ, 1706, made by Icelandic draughtsmen in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and in Ptolemy's Geography, edition of 1482, is information of certain things contained in no other charts of the period extant, which must therefore have been partially compiled from Scandinavian sources.

It is not to be supposed that the Northmen imagined that they had found a new continent; very naturally to them Greenland, Helluland, Markland, and Vinland were but the western continuation of Europe. It is to this belief, as well as to the prevailing apathy and skepticism of the age concerning matters beyond the reach of positive knowledge, that the strange fact of the loss of all trace of these discoveries is due.

The exact results of these ancient expeditions, and their influence on the subsequent revival of maritime enterprise, form a difficult and as yet undecided point in the discussion of this subject. Kunstmann gives particular attention to this matter, and attaches more importance to northern voyages and their connection with later expeditions than most other authors; still it has not yet been proved that Prince Henry, Toscanelli, or Columbus in the fifteenth century had any knowledge of north-western discoveries.

* * * * *

[1096-1271.] The Crusades—as expeditions, but chiefly for their results—deserve a brief mention in this connection. When in the seventh century Palestine passed from Christian to Mahometan hands, in which possession it has remained with but temporary interruptions to the present time, Christian pilgrimages to the Holy City for a few centuries were allowed, and to some extent protected. By successive changes of dynasty, however, power was transferred from the Arab to the Turkish branch of the Mahometans, so that in the eleventh century Christian pilgrims were cruelly oppressed, and hindered from their pious visits to the tomb of Christ. Roused at first by the exhortations of Peter the Hermit, Italy, France, England, and Germany sent armies of the undisciplined and fanatical rabble to avenge the insults to their faith, and wrest the Holy City from the power of barbarian heretics. From the eleventh to the thirteenth century nine expeditions were undertaken eastward in the prosecution of this work. Jerusalem was several times taken and retaken, but finally the Crescent was successful in resisting the encroachments of the Cross, and the Crusades failed in their visionary purpose. Still the continued migration of vast multitudes, from different nations through strange and distant lands, contributed much to increase popular knowledge of the world, to arouse fresh interest in regions hitherto little known, and to excite curiosity respecting the countries still further to the east. Meanwhile, commerce received an impetus from the work of furnishing supplies to the crusaders; so that these expeditions are included by modern writers as prominent among the causes which led to the coming revival of civilization.

[1147.] During the twelfth century few maritime expeditions are reported deserving of notice. At some not very clearly defined date before 1147, eight Arabs, the Almagrurins, are said to have sailed thirty-five days south-west from Lisbon with the intention of exploring the Sea of Darkness. At the end of the thirty-five days they found and named an Isle of Sheep, and twelve days farther south reached another island peopled by red men. They are said to have found there a man who spoke Arabic. Upon the whole the claim to a discovery of any part of America in this voyage should be slight. If the voyage be authentic, the land reached was perhaps the Canary Islands; some say those of Cape Verde.

[1160-73.] Benjamin de Tudela, a Spanish Jew, travelled for thirteen years in India, bringing back considerable information respecting Chinese Tartary and the islands of the Indian Ocean. _D. Benjamini_, _Itinerarium ex versione Montani_, Antwerp, 1575; _Itinerarium D. Benjaminis_, Leyden, 1633; _Travels of Benjamin, Son of Jonas_, London, 1783.

[1170.] In this year is placed the reported voyage of Madoc, a Welsh prince, who, sailing to the west and north from Ireland, landed on an unknown shore. He afterward returned to this new country with ten ships with the intention of colonizing, but was never again heard of. This voyage rests on very slight authority, but has claimed importance by reason of reports, long believed, of the existence in various parts of America of Welsh-speaking Indian tribes. These reports, like scores of others referring the Americans to European relationships, proved groundless. To say the least, the voyage of Madoc must be considered doubtful. _The most ancient Discouery of the West Indies by Madoc the sonne of Owen Guyneth, Prince of North-wales, in the yeere 1170; taken out of the history of Wales, in Hakluyt_, vol. iii. p. 1.

[1246 et seq.] In the middle of the thirteenth century the desire to extend Christianity was encouraged by rumored conversions already made in the dominions of the Mogul, and especially by the report of a powerful Christian monarch, Prester John, who had reigned somewhere in the interior of Asia. This report led to the sending of several priests as missionaries to the far East. Carpini in 1246, and Ascelino in 1254, Italian Franciscans, penetrated to the region now known as Chinese Turkestan. About the same time, 1253 according to Hakluyt, Rubruquis, also a Franciscan, from Brabant, traversed the central Asiatic deserts. He was the first to present a definite idea of the position of Tartary and Cathay. A notice of his travels was given in the writings of Roger Bacon in 1267. Toward the end of this century Odorico, of the same order, visited Persia, India, and finally China, remaining three years in Peking. _Viaggio del Beato Frate Odorico di Porto Maggiore del Frivli fatto nell'Anno MCCCXVIII_ (half a century later than above), in _Ramusio_, tom. ii., fol. 254. See also _Hakluyt's Voy._, vol. i. pp. 21-117; vol. ii. pp. 39, 53; _Navarrete_, _Col. Viages_, tom. i. pp. ix. x.

[Sidenote: VENETIAN AND GENOESE EXPEDITIONS.]

[1250-95.] Nicolo and Maffio Polo, Venetian brothers, left Venice in 1250 on a trading trip north-eastward. Passing north of the Caspian Sea, they spent three years at Bokhara, and afterward in 1265, proceeded to the court of Kublai Khan at Kemenfu in Chinese Tartary, whence they returned in 1269, intrusted with a mission to the Pope. In 1271 they again set out, taking with them Marco, son of Nicolo. They revisited the Tartar court, where they spent seventeen years, and returned by sea down the Chinese and Indian coasts to Ormuz in Persia and thence overland to Constantinople, reaching Venice in 1295. Marco seems to have been a great favorite at the eastern court, where he was intrusted with missions in all directions. By means of his own travels and by reports of the natives from all sections whom he met, he gained an extensive knowledge of China and adjoining countries, including the numerous islands of the coast, chief among which was Zipangu, or Japan. From his memoranda, he afterwards wrote in prison, a full account of his eastern travels, which was copied and widely circulated in manuscript. See _Hakluyt Society_, _Divers Voyages_, Introd., p. lii., London, 1850, for an account of printed editions of Polo's work. Its authenticity and general reliability are now admitted, though doubtless errors have been multiplied by copyists. This journey of Marco Polo was by far the most important, for revising geography, of any undertaken during the middle ages. From this time the coasts of Asia were laid down on maps and described with tolerable accuracy by cosmographers. _De i Viaggi di Messer Marco Polo, Gentil 'hvomo Venetiano_, in _Ramusio_, tom. ii. fol. 2-60; _Marco Polo de Veniesia de le meravegliose cose del mondo_, Venice, 1496; _Marci Pauli veneti de regionibus orientalibus libri tres_, Cologne, 1671.

The Venetians were the most enterprising navigators of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. They reached England at an early date,—_Estancelin_, _Recherches_, pp. 114-16, Paris, 1832—and not improbably extended their commercial operations still farther north, Iceland being at the time a flourishing republic with Catholic bishops. _Kohl's Hist. Discov._, pp. 92-4. No details however are preserved of any particular one of these voyages, nor of such as may have been directed toward Cape Non, the southern limit of oceanic navigation. Some time during this century a Moor, Ibn Fatimah, was driven by storms from Cape Non down past Cape Blanco, and his adventure was recorded in an Arabian geography.

[1291.] Doria and Vivaldi, Genoese, undertook a voyage down the African coast with a view of reaching India, and were last heard of at a place called Gozora. On this voyage, which rests on several authorities, has been founded a claim that the Italians preceded the Portuguese in passing Cape Bojador. Major, _Prince Henry_, pp. 99-110, concludes from an examination of all the documents that there are no grounds for this claim, although admitting the voyage and its purpose, in fact everything but its success. Gozora was probably Cape Non. Kohl regards this expedition as uncertain. One of the documents gives the date as 1281; from which circumstance Kohl and Humboldt erroneously make of it two voyages. D'Avesac, in _Nouvelles Annales des Voyages_, 1845, tom. cviii. p. 45, has the date 1285. Muñoz, _Hist. Nuevo Mundo_, pp. 30-1, speaks of Genoese expeditions and the rediscovery of the Canaries during this century.

[1306.] On a map made by the Venetian Sanuto in 1306, Africa is represented as surrounded by the sea, but there is no evidence that the geography of that region is derived from any actual observations. The map simply shows one of the two theories then held respecting the shape of southern Africa.

[1332 et seq.] Sir John Mandeville, an English physician, between 1332 and 1366, travelled in eastern parts, including the Holy Land, India, and China. On his return he wrote in three languages an account of his adventures, with descriptions of the countries visited. See _Hakluyt Soc._, _Divers Voy._, Introd. p. xliii. His work corroborates that of Marco Polo, and although full of exaggerations, and probably tampered with by copyists in respect to adventures and anecdotes, "yet," says Irving, "his accounts of the countries which he visited have been found far more veracious than had been imagined." _Purchas_, _His Pilgrimes_, vol. iii. pp. 128-38; _Travels of Sir John Mandeville_, London, 1725.

[1341 et seq.] As we have seen, the Canaries were known to the ancients, and made by Ptolemy the western limit of the world; but subsequently they were nearly forgotten until rediscovered and visited, perhaps several times, toward the middle of the fourteenth century, by the Portuguese. There is a definite account of one of these voyages. Two vessels were sent there by the King of Portugal in 1341, and nearly all the islands of the group visited, but no settlement was made. Before this, Luis de la Cerda represented to the Pope the existence of such islands, and received by a bull of lordship of them, with the title of Prince of Fortune. The king of Portugal claimed in 1345 to have sent out previous expeditions to the islands. The project of Cerda proved a failure and no colony was founded. Voyages to the Canaries became quite frequent before the end of the century. _Galvano_, _Discoveries_, London, 1862; and in _Collection of Curious Voyages_, London, 1812, p. 10; _Muñoz_, _Hist. Nuevo Mundo_, pp. 30-1; _Kunstmann_, _Entdeckung Am._, pp. 1-4. Major, _Prince Henry_, pp. 139-45, dates the bull 1334.

[1346.] In August, 1346, Jaime Ferrer, a Catalan navigator, sailed from Majorca in the Mediterranean to search down the African coast for the Rujaura, or River of Gold, and never was heard from. This is proved by a document in the Genoese archives, and by an inscription on a Catalan map of 1375. Major shows this to have been an expedition in search of an unknown or imaginary river of gold, whose supposed existence rested on ancient traditions that a branch of the Nile flowed into the Atlantic, and which belief was strengthened by the gold brought from Guinea by the Arabs. Humboldt understands this Rujaura to have been the Rio d'Ouro below Cape Bojador, an inlet named later by the Portuguese; and he also states that Ferrer actually reached that point; but of this there seems to be no evidence.

[1351 et seq.] The Azores appear to have been discovered by the Portuguese early in this half century, appearing on a map of 1351. There is however no account of the voyage by which this discovery was made, although there is a tradition of a Greek who was there cast away in 1370. On a Genoese map of the same date the Madeira group is shown, having probably been discovered by Portuguese ships under Genoese captains early in the fourteenth century.

[1364.] By Villault de Bellefond, _Relation des costes d'Afrique_, Paris, 1669, it is stated that the Dieppese in 1364 made a voyage round Cape Verde, and far beyond, establishing trading-posts, which were repeatedly visited in the following years. On this account, repeated by many writers—_Estancelin_, _Recherches_, p. 72; _Humboldt_, _Exam. Crit._, tom. i. p. 285—is founded the French claim of having preceded the Portuguese in passing Cape Bojador and occupying the gold coast. Major, _Prince Henry_, pp. 117-33, maintains by strong proofs that this voyage rests on no good authority, and that the French occupation of that coast is of much later date.

[Sidenote: THE ZENI.]

[1380.] Nicolo Zeno, a Venetian, sailing northward for England, was driven in a storm still farther north, and landed on some islands in possession of the Northmen, which he named Friesland, but which are supposed to have been the Faroe group. Kindly received by the people, he sent to Venice for his brother, and both spent there the rest of their lives, making frequent excursions to neighboring islands, and gaining a knowledge of other more distant lands known to the Northmen, including two countries called Drogeo and Estotiland, lying to the southward of Greenland, which countries the Frieslanders claimed once to have visited. Nicolo died in 1395, and Antonio in 1404, after writing an account of their adventures, which, with a chart, he sent to a third brother, Carlo. The manuscript was preserved by the family and first published under the title _Dei Commentarii del viaggio in Persia, etc._, Venezia, 1558. After passing the ordeal of criticism the work is generally accepted as a faithful report of actual occurrences, though embellished, like all writings of the time, with fable. _Dello Scoprimento dell' Isola Frislanda Eslanda, en Grovelanda, et Icaria_, in _Ramusio_, tom. ii. fol. 230-4; _Hakluyt's Voy._, vol. iii. pp. 121-8; _Bos_, _Leben der See-Helden_, pp. 523-7; _Cancellieri_, _Notizie di Colombo_, pp. 48-9; _Lelewel_, _Géog. du moyen âge_, tom. iii. pp. 74 et seq. Irving, however, _Columbus_, vol. iii. pp. 435-40, sees in this voyage only another of "the fables circulated shortly after the discovery of Columbus, to arrogate to other nations and individuals the credit of the achievement," while Zahrtmann, _Remarks on the Voy. to the Northern Hemisphere, ascribed to the Zeni of Venice_, in _Journal of the Geog. Soc._, vol. v. pp. 102-28, London, 1835, claims that the whole account is a fable.

The chart by the brothers Zeni, published with the manuscript, is of great importance as the first known map which shows any part of America. It contains internal evidences of its own authenticity, one of which is that Greenland is much better drawn than could have been done from other or extraneous sources even in 1558. I give from Kohl's fac-simile a copy of the map, omitting a few of the names.

There can be little doubt that the countries marked Estotiland, Drogeo, and Icaria—possibly Nova Scotia, New England, and Newfoundland—owe their position on this chart to the actual knowledge of America, obtained either by a fishing-vessel wrecked there, as stated by the Zeni, or from a tradition preserved since the time of the Northmen. The lines of latitude and longitude were not on the original manuscript chart, but were added by the editors in 1558. _Lelewel_, _Géog. du moyen âge_, tom. iii. pp. 79-101, Bruxelles, 1852; _Kohl's Hist. Discov._, pp. 97-106.

At an unknown date, probably near the end of the thirteenth century, Robert Machin, an Englishman, eloped with a lady in his own vessel from Bristol. He steered for France, but was driven by a tempest to the island of Madeira, where both died. Some of the crew escaped to the African coast, where they were taken prisoners, but afterward were redeemed by the Spaniards, to whom one of them related the discovery of Madeira, his account leading to its rediscovery. Major concludes, "that henceforth the story of this accidental discovery of Madeira by Machin must be accepted as a reality," but the date cannot be fixed. That of 1344 often assigned to the voyage results from a misreading of Galvano. Beside _Galvano_, _Discov._, pp. 58-9, see _Purchas_, _His Pilgrimes_, vol. ii. p. 1672; _The Voyage of Macham, an English man, wherein he first of any man discovered the Iland of Madera_, in _Hakluyt_, vol. ii. pt. ii. p. 1; _Curious and Ent. Voy._, p. 13; _Major's Prince Henry_, p. 67; _Kunstmann_, _Entdeckung Am._, p. 4.

[1402.] At the beginning of the fifteenth century, Jean de Betancourt with a company of Norman adventurers conquered Lanzarote, one of the Canary Islands. He afterward became tributary to the crown of Castile, and by the aid of the Spanish government obtained possession of other islands of the group, establishing there a permanent colony. _Muñoz_, _Hist. del Nuevo Mundo_, pp. 30-33; _Peter Martyr_, dec. i. cap. i., gives the date 1405; _Galvano_, _Discov._, p. 60; _Kunstmann_, _Entdeckung Am._, p. 6; _Pinkerton's Col. Voy._, vol. xvi. pp. 808-15.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: PRINCE HENRY OF PORTUGAL.]

We enter now a new epoch in maritime discovery. Hitherto, if we exclude the voyages of the Northmen, there had been no attempt worthy the name of systematic ocean exploration. In the words of Major, "the pathways of the human race had been the mountain, the river, and the plain, the strait, the lake, the inland sea," but now a road is open through the trackless ocean, "a road replete with danger, but abundant in promise." Portugal, guided by the genius of Prince Henry the Navigator, was the first to shake off the lethargy which had so long rested on Europe. For some time past the Portuguese had been gradually eclipsing the Italians in maritime enterprise; but not until a prince leaves the pleasures of youth for the perils of the sea, throwing his life into the cause with all the ardor of a devotee, does ocean navigation become anything more than private commercial speculation, with now and then some slight aid from governments. True, others had undertaken the voyage round Africa, but Portugal was perhaps the first to make it. As D'Avesac remarks, _Nouvelles Annales des Voy._, 1846, tom. cx. p. 161: "Les Portugais ne s'y engagèrent point les premiers; mais seuls ils y persevérèrent, et les premiers ils atteignirent le but." Born in the year 1394, at a time when under his father, John, Portugal was already casting wistful glances over the Sea of Darkness, Prince Henry devoted his early life to geographical studies and his later life to discovery. Leaving the pomp and luxury of his father's court, he removed to the coast of Algarve, and from the dreary headland of Sagres let fly his imagination along the unknown shores of Africa. Drawing to him such young noblemen as were willing to share his labors, he established a school of navigation, giving special care to the study of cartography and mathematics. The geographical position of his native land was to the Portuguese, in regard to oceanic adventure, not unlike that of the Italians in regard to Mediterranean navigation. Several causes united to inspire this prince with so noble an ambition. He desired to promote geographical science; to test the theories and traditions of the day; to know the truth concerning the disputed question of the form and extent of southern Africa; to turn the flow of riches, the gold and spices and slaves of India, from Italy into his own country. Nor was this last stimulant lessened by the fact that of late, by reason of Mahometan encroachments on Christian dominions, the old avenues of eastern traffic _via_ the Caspian Sea and Persian Gulf, or by the Red Sea and caravans across the deserts, were yearly becoming more insecure, and this too at a time when the taste for eastern luxuries was constantly increasing. Yet other incentives were Christian rivalry and Christian zeal. Spain had carried the cross to the Canaries; rumors kept coming in of Prester John and his Christian kingdom, now supposed to be in Africa instead of in Asia. Prince Henry moreover was grand master of the Order of Christ, and it behooved him to be stirring. _Navarrete_, _Col. de Viages_, tom. i. p. xxvi.; _Muñoz_, _Hist. Nuevo Mundo_, pp. 33-4.

[1415.] Prince Henry began his voyages along the coast of Africa about the year 1415, at which time João de Trasto was sent with vessels to the Canaries. It was Henry's custom to despatch an expedition almost every year, endeavoring each time to advance upon the last, and so finally attain the end of the mystery—whereat the nobles grumbled not a little about useless expense. Obviously progress southward at this rate was very slow, and many years elapsed before Cape Bojador was passed and unknown seas were entered. _Major's Prince Henry_, pp. 64-65.

[1416-28.] Meanwhile Pedro, Henry's brother, travelled extensively, journeying through the Holy Land, visiting Rome, Babylon, and even England. Fortunately he found at Venice a copy of Marco Polo's work, and brought it home to Prince Henry. _Galvano's Discov._, pp. 66-7; _Kunstmann_, _Entdeckung Am._, pp. 11, 12.

[1418.] Gonzalez and Vaz, who were sent this year by Prince Henry on the regular annual expedition, were driven from their course and rediscovered Porto Santo. _Galvano_, _Discov._, pp. 62-4; _Kunstmann_, _Entdeckung Am._, pp. 11, 12; _Curious and Ent. Voy._, pp. 14, 15.

[1419.] Nicolo di Conti, Venetian, spent twenty-five years in India, Mangi, and Java, returning in 1444, and confirming many of Polo's statements. _Discorso sopra il Viaggio di Nicolo di Conti Venetiano_, in _Ramusio_, tom. i. fol. 373. Twice in 1419, if we may credit Navarrete, _Col. de Viages_, tom. i. p. xxvi., did Prince Henry's ships pass seventy leagues beyond Cape Non.

[1420.] Gonzalez again embarks from Portugal intending to plant a colony, and guided by one Morales, a survivor of Machin's voyage, rediscovered Madeira. _Navarrete_, _Col. de Viages_, tom. i. pp. xxvi-vii.; _Major's Prince Henry_, pp. 73-7; _Kunstmann_, _Entdeckung Am._, p. 13; _Galvano's Discov._, pp. 63-4; _Aa_, _Naaukeurige Versameling_, tom. i. pt. ii. p. 16. On a certain map dated 1459 is a cape supposed to be Good Hope, with the statement that in 1420 an Indian junk had passed that point from the east; but for this no authority is given.

1431.] The Formigas and Santa María islands of the Azore group were this year discovered by Cabral. Kunstmann, _Entdeckung Am._, p. 15, makes the date August 15, 1432. For details of the discovery and settlement of all the eastern Atlantic islands, see _idem_, pp. 1-25.

[1434-6.] Gil Eannes, after an unsuccessful attempt in the preceding year, succeeded in 1434 in doubling Cape Bojador for the first time. Muñoz, _Hist. Nuevo Mundo_, p. 34, makes the date 1433, and Navarrete, _Col. de Viages_, tom. i. p. xxvii., 1423. In 1435 Eannes with Baldaya passed fifty leagues beyond the cape, and in 1436 Baldaya advanced to a point fifty leagues beyond the inlet since known as Rio d'Ouro.

[Sidenote: THE SLAVE-TRADE.]

[1441-8.] For several years after the successful doubling of Cape Bojador, no new attempt of importance is recorded, but in 1441 the voyages were renewed, and in the next eight years the exploration was pushed one hundred leagues below Cape Verde. Prior to 1446 fifty-one vessels had traded on the African coast, nearly one thousand slaves had been taken to Portugal, and the discoveries in the Azores had been greatly extended. By these explorations Prince Henry had exploded the theory of a burning zone impassable to man, and of stormy seas impeding all navigation; his belief that Africa might be circumnavigated was confirmed; and he had obtained from the pope a grant to the crown of Portugal of lands he might discover beyond Cape Bojador to the Indies inclusive.

[1455-6.] According to Ramusio, _Viaggi_, tom. i. p. 105, Alvise Cadamosto, a Venetian, the first of his countrymen as he claims to sail down the new coast, made a voyage for Prince Henry to the Gambia River below Cape Verde. This expedition derives its importance not from the limit reached, where others had preceded him, but from his numerous landing points, careful observations, and the detailed account published by the voyager himself in _La Prima Navigazione, etc._, Vicenza, 1507; also in _Ramusio_, _Viaggi_, tom. i. pp. 104-15. This explorer touched at Porto Santo, Madeira, the Canaries, Cape Blanco, Senegal, Budomel, Cape Verde, and the Gambia River.

[1457.] Cadamosto claims, _La seconda navigazione_, in _Ramusio_, _Viaggi_, tom. i. pp. 116-20, to have made a second voyage, during which he discovered the Cape Verde Islands; but Major, _Prince Henry_, pp. 278-88, shows that such a voyage was not made in that year, if at all.

[1460.] Diogo Gomez discovered the Cape Verde Islands, and their colonization was effected during the following years. Major, _Prince Henry_, pp. 288-99, publishes the original account for the first time in English. Prince Henry died in November of this year. _Major's Prince Henry_, p. 303; _Kunstmann_, _Entdeckung Am._, p. 19. Irving, _Columbus_, vol. i. p. 30, fixes this date 1473; and Galvano, _Discov._, p. 14, says 1463.

[1461.] The spirit of discovery and the thirst for African gold and slaves had become too strong to receive more than a temporary check in the death of its chief promoter. In the year following Prince Henry's death a fort was built on the African coast to protect the already extensive trade, and in 1461 or 1462 Pedro de Cintra reached a point in nearly 5° north, being over six hundred miles below the limit of Cadamosto's voyage. _La Nauigation del Capitan Pietro di Sintra Portoghese, scritta per Meser Aluise da ca da Mosto_, in _Ramusio_, tom. i. fol. 119.

[1469-89.] In 1469 Fernam Gomez rented the African trade from the king of Portugal for a term of five years, and during that time pushed his explorations under Santarem and Escobar to Cape St Catherine in 2° south, first crossing the equator in 1471. Under João II., who succeeded Alfonso V. in 1481, the traffic continued, and in 1489 Diogo Cam reached a point in 22°, over two hundred leagues below the Congo River, planting there a cross which is said to be yet standing. Martin Behaim, the mathematician and cosmographer, accompanied Cam on this voyage, and an error or interpolation in _Schedel_, _Registrum, etc._, Nuremberg, 1493, gave rise to the unfounded report that they sailed west and discovered America. _Humboldt_, _Exam. Crit._, tom. i. pp. 257, 283, 292, 309; _Major's Prince Henry_, pp. 325-38; _Navarrete_, _Col. de Viages_, tom. i. p. xl.; _Harrisse_, _Bibliotheca Americana Vetustissima_, p. 40; _Galvano's Discov._, pp. 74-6; _Otto_, in _Am. Phil. Soc._, vol. ii., 1786.

* * * * *

We enter now the Columbian epoch proper, to which, as we have seen, the enterprises of Prince Henry and the Portuguese were precursory. About 1484, Christopher Columbus having proposed a new scheme of reaching India by sailing west, the king of Portugal surreptitiously sent a vessel to test his theory, which, after searching unsuccessfully for land westward, returned to the Cape Verde Islands. _Muñoz_, _Hist. Nuevo Mundo_, pp. 53-4 et al. Columbus had resided in Portugal since 1470, and had made several trips in Portuguese ships down the African coast, in the course of which he is supposed to have first conceived his new project. Indignant at the conduct of the Portuguese king, Columbus left for Spain. _Colon_, _Hist. del Almirante_, in _Barcia_, _Hist. Prim._, tom. i. pp. 9-10; translation in _Pinkerton's Col. Voy._, vol. xii. pp. 1-16; and in _Kerr's Col. Voy._, vol. iii. pp. 1-242.

In 1486 Bartolomeu Dias sailed round Cape Good Hope and continued his voyage to Great Fish River on the south-east coast, from which point he was compelled to return on account of the murmurs of his men. The cape, now for the first time doubled by Europeans, was seen and named by him on his return. In 1487 King João sent two priests, Covilham and Payva, to travel in the East, in the hope of gathering more definite information respecting Prester John and his famous Christian kingdom. Prester John they did not find, but Covilham in his wanderings reached Sofala on the east coast of Africa in about 20° south latitude, being the first of his countrymen to sail on the Indian Ocean. At Sofala he learned the practicability of the voyage which Dias had actually accomplished a little before, and a message to that effect was immediately sent to the king. _Major's Prince Henry_, pp. 339-42; _Navarrete_, _Col. de Viages_, tom. i. p. xl-i; _Humboldt_, _Exam. Crit._, tom. i. pp. 230 et seq.; _Galvano's Discov._, pp. 77-8.

From this time to the great discovery of 1492, few expeditions remain to be mentioned. It must not be forgotten, however, that by this time trading voyages were of ordinary occurrence all along the eastern Atlantic coast and its adjoining islands from Scandinavia to Guinea. A lively commerce was carried on throughout this century between Bristol and Iceland, and in the words of Kunstmann, substantiated by older authorities, "a bull of Nicolas IV. to the bishops of Iceland, proves that the pope in 1448 was intimately acquainted with matters in Greenland." It seems incredible that during all this intercourse with northern lands, no knowledge of America was gained by southern maritime nations, yet so far as we know there exists no proof of such knowledge.

[1476.] John of Kolno, or Szkolny, is reported to have made a voyage in the service of the king of Denmark in 1476, and to have touched on the coast of Labrador. The report rests on the authority of Wytfliet, _Descriptionis Ptolemaicæ augmentum_, Lovanii, 1598, fol. 188, supported by a single sentence, "Tambien han ydo alla hombres de Noruega con el Piloto Iuan Scolno," in _Gomara_, _Hist. Gen. de las Indias_, Anvers, 1554, cap. xxxvii. fol. 31; by a similar sentence in _Herrera_, _Hist. Gen._, Madrid, 1601, dec. i. lib. vi. cap. xvi., in which the name is changed to Juan Seduco; and by the inscription, _Jac Scolvus Groetland_, on a country west of Greenland on a map made by Michael Lok in 1582, fac-simile in _Hakluyt Soc._, _Divers Voy._, p. 55. According to Kohl, _Hist. Discov._, pp. 114-15, this voyage is considered apocryphal by Danish and Norwegian writers. Lelewel, _Géog. du moyen âge_, p. 106, regards the voyage as authentic, and Kunstmann, _Entdeckung Am._, pp. 45-8, attaches to it great importance as the source of all the voyages to the north which followed. Humboldt, _Exam. Crit._, tom. ii. pp. 152-4, gives but little attention to the voyage, and confesses his inability to decide on its merits: "Je ne puis hasarder aucun jugement sur cette assertion de Wytfliet."

[1477.] In this year Columbus, whom we first find with the Portuguese traders on the African coast, sailed northward, probably with an English merchantman from Bristol, to a point one hundred leagues beyond Thule, in 73° north. _Colon_, _Hist. del Almirante_ in _Barcia_, tom. i. p. 4; _Muñoz_, _Hist. Nuevo Mundo_, pp. 43-7; _Humboldt_, _Exam. Crit._, tom. i. p. 272. He probably visited Iceland, although he gives the latitude incorrectly, taking it very likely from ancient geography rather than his own observations.

[1482.] According to Kunstmann, the edition of Ptolemy this year, _Ptolomæi Cosmographia_, Ulmæ, 1482, lib. viii., contains a map that includes Greenland, and must have been compiled from northern sources.

[1488.] Desmarquets, _Mémoires Chronologiques, etc._, Dieppe, 1785, tom. i. pp. 92-8, states that one Cousin sailed from Dieppe early in 1488, stood off further from land than other voyagers had done, and after two months reached an unknown land and a great river, which he named the Maragnon. Was this the Marañon in South America? He then sailed south-eastward and discovered the southern point of Africa, returning to Dieppe in 1489. The discovery was kept secret, but Cousin made a second voyage round the cape and succeeded in reaching India. Major, besides pointing out some inconsistencies in this account, shows that M. Desmarquets "could commit himself to assertions of great moment which are demonstrably false." He is not good authority for so remarkable a discovery not elsewhere recorded.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: THE COLUMBIAN EPOCH.]

Before striking out with Columbus in his bold venture to the west, let us sum up what we have learned thus far and see where we stand. First, the geographical knowledge of the ancients was restricted to a parallelogram extending north-west and south-east from the Atlantic to the Indian ocean, comprising one hundred and twenty degrees east and west by fifty degrees north and south; circumscribe this knowledge with legendary stories and hypothetical and traditional beliefs concerning the regions beyond; then add a true theory of the earth's sphericity, though mistaken as to its size. This is all they knew, and this knowledge they committed to the Dark Age, during which time it was preserved, and, indeed, little by little enlarged, as we have seen. During the latter part of the fifteenth century, particularly, a powerful impulse had been given to discovery, especially toward the south; so that now the limits of the ancients were moved eastward at least forty degrees, to the eastern coasts and islands of Asia, chiefly by the travels of Marco Polo and Sir John Mandeville. Toward the south, the true form of Africa had been ascertained, and its coasts had been explored by the Portuguese, except a space of about fifteen degrees on the south-west. Northward the old limit had been advanced but slightly, but within this limit much information had been gained by actual navigation about regions only vaguely described by Ptolemy. Westward, in what was still a Sea of Darkness, great discoveries had been made by the Northmen, but their results were now practically lost; while toward the south, several important groups of islands had been added to the known world. See map on page 73, where the regions added during this period are lightly shaded. And now, within the old bound the world is much better known than at the beginning of the period, and many minor geographical errors of the ancients have been corrected by the Crusaders, and others who attempted on a smaller scale to extend the Catholic faith, as well as by commercial travellers in distant lands. Again, by the influx of Mahometans into Europe during five or six centuries, eastern luxuries had been introduced to an extent hitherto unknown, and had in fact become necessities in Christian courts, thus making the India trade the great field of commercial enterprise even by the tedious and uncertain overland routes where middle-men absorbed the profits, and rendering the opening of other and easier routes an object of primary importance. The almost exclusive possession of trade _via_ the old routes by the Italians, furnished an additional motive to other European nations for explorations by sea. The art of printing, recently invented, facilitated the diffusion of learning, so that it was impossible for the world ever again to lapse into the old intellectual darkness. The astrolabe, the foundation of the modern quadrant, had been adapted by a meeting of cosmographers in Portugal to the observation of latitudes by the sun's altitude, and thus the chief obstacle to long sea-voyages was removed. The polarity of the magnet had long been known, but the practical adaptation of the magnetic needle to purposes of navigation occurred about the beginning of the fourteenth century. The mariner's compass, however, only attained its highest purpose toward the close of the fifteenth century, when the Sea of Darkness was traversed. But before this, the greatest impediments to ocean navigation had been overcome by voyages actually made through the aid of the new inventions. Beside the coasts brought to light by these voyages, they had done much to dispel the old superstitions of burning zones, impassable capes, and unnavigable seas.

[Sidenote: REAL AND IMAGINARY ISLANDS.]

We have seen that, as a result either of the poetic fancy or of the actual discovery of the ancients, various islands were traditionally located in the Atlantic. Most of them undoubtedly owed their existence to the natural tendency of man to people unknown seas with fabulous lands and beings, "Il est si naturel à l'homme de rêver quelque chose au-delà de l'horizon visible," observes Humboldt. For a full account of the history and location of these islands, "dont la position est encore plus variable que le nom," and the important part played by them in ancient and middle-age geography, see _Humboldt_, _Exam. Crit._, tom. ii. pp. 156-245, and _Kunstmann_, _Entdeckung Am._, pp. 6 et seq., and 35-37. In the fifteenth century, with the revival of maritime enterprise, came a renewal and multiplication of the old fables. Monastic scholars, by their continued study of the old writers, by their attempts to reconcile ancient geography with fabulous events in the lives of the saints, and by their inevitable tendency to exaggeration, had contributed largely to their preservation. Still, throughout the preceding period, the belief in the existence of such islands had been vague and hypothetical; but when the actual existence of numerous islands in the western ocean was proved, and the Canary, Madeira, Azore, and Cape Verde groups were discovered and explored, the old ideas were naturally revived and confirmed, and with them rose a desire to rediscover all that had been known to the ancient voyagers. The reported wonders of the fabulous isles, having on them great and rich cities, were confidently sought in each newly found land, and not appearing in any of them, the islands themselves were successively located farther and farther to the west, out in the mysterious sea, to be surely brought to light by future explorations.

And of a truth, this wondrous western empire was subsequently brought to light; peoples and cities were found, but beyond the limits within which the wildest dreams of their discoverers had ever placed them. On this foundation not a few speculators build a theory that America was known to the ancients. The chief of the hypothetical isles were San Brandan, Antilia, and the Island of the Seven Cities; their existence was firmly believed in, and they were definitely located on maps of the period. San Brandan is said to have been visited by the saint whose name it bears in the sixth century. It was at first located far north and west of Ireland, but gradually moved southward until at the time of Columbus' first voyage it is found nearly in the latitude of Cape Verde. To the inflamed imagination mirage is solid earth, or sea, or a beautiful city; an island which was long supposed to be visible from Madeira and the Canaries had something to do with the location of this island of the saint, and of the others.

Antilia, and the Island of Seven Cities, according to Behaim's map, are identical. See page 93 this volume; also a reputed letter of Toscanelli, about the existence of which Humboldt thinks there may be some doubt. The only tangible point in the traditionary history is the migration of seven bishops, driven from the Peninsula by the Moorish invasion in the eighth century, who took refuge there and built the Seven Cities. The history and location of this Island of the Seven Cities in the fifteenth century are similar to those of San Brandan Island. Galvano says a Portuguese ship was there in 1447. Brazil, Bracie, or Berzil, was another of these wandering isles, whose name has been preserved and applied to a rock west of Ireland, to one of the Azore islands, and to a country in South America. This name has been the theme of much discussion, which, so far as I know, leads to no result beyond the fact that the name of a valuable dye-wood known to the ancients was afterward applied to lands known or conjectured to produce such woods. _Humboldt_, _Exam. Crit._, tom. ii. pp. 214-45; _Kunstmann_, _Entdeckung Am._, pp. 7-10, and 35 et seq. Kunstmann attaches greater geographical importance to the fabulous isles than Humboldt, connecting them in a manner apparently not quite clear to himself with the previous discoveries of the Northmen. Thus stood facts and fancies concerning the geography of the world, when the greatest of discoverers arose and achieved the greatest of discoveries.

* * * * *

Although in the chapters following I speak more at length of the deeds of the Genoese and his companions, yet in order to complete this Summary it is necessary to mention them here. I shall attempt no discussion concerning the country, family, date of birth, or early life of Christopher Columbus. For the differences of opinion on these points, with numerous references, see _Harrisse_, _Bibliotheca Americana Vetustissima_, New York, 1866, p. 2 et seq. Born somewhere in Italy, probably Genoa, about 1435, he received something more than a rudimentary education, went to sea at the early age of fourteen, and in 1470, which is about the date of his coming to Portugal, had already an extensive experience in the navigation of the Mediterranean, and was skilled in the theory as well as the practice of his profession. We have already seen him with the Portuguese on the African coast, and with the English in Iceland. In fact, before his first voyage westward in 1492, he was practically acquainted with all waters then navigated by Europeans.

The promptings which urged forward this navigator to the execution of his great enterprise may be stated as follows: The success of the Portuguese in long voyages down the African coast suggested to his mind, soon after 1470, that if they could sail so far south, another might sail west with the same facility and perhaps profit. Says his son: "Estando en Portugal, empeçó à congeturar, que del mismo modo que los Portugueses navegaron tan lejos al Mediodia, podria navegarse la buelta de Occidente, i hallar tierra en aquel viage." _Colon_, _Hist. del Almirante_, in _Barcia_, tom. i. p. 4; edition of Venetia, 1709, pp. 22-3; _Humboldt_, _Exam. Crit._, tom. i. p. 12; _Navarrete_, _Col. de Viages_, tom. i. p. lxxix; _Herrera_, _Hist. Gen._, dec. i. lib. i. cap. 1-7. His ardent imagination once seized with this idea, every nook and corner of geographical knowledge was searched for evidence to support his theory. By intercourse with other navigators he learned that at different times and places along the western coasts of Europe and Africa, objects apparently from unknown western lands had been washed ashore, suppositionally by the wind, really by the Gulf Stream or other oceanic currents. _Humboldt_, _Exam. Crit._, tom. ii. p. 249. Though well aware of existing rumors of islands seen at different times in the western ocean, it was not upon these, if any such there were, that he built his greatest anticipations of success. In the writings of the ancients he found another stimulant. Filled with fervent piety and superstitious credulity, he pored over every cosmographical work upon which he could lay his hands, as well the compilations of antiquated notions, such as the _Imago Mundi_ of Pierre D'Ailly, or the more modern travels of Marco Polo and Sir John Mandeville. _Colon_, _Hist. del Almirante_, in _Barcia_, tom. i. p. 4 et seq.; _Major's Prince Henry_, pp. 349, 352; _Humboldt_, _Exam. Crit._, tom. i. pp. 46, 60; _Kunstmann_, _Entdeckung Am._, pp. 74-6.

[Sidenote: EVOLUTION OF THE GRAND CONCEPTION.]

The result of these studies was a complete acquaintance with the geographical knowledge of the day, with the greater part of what I have thus far epitomized, the doings of the Northmen excepted. From all this he knew of the earth's sphericity; he believed that the larger part of the world's surface was dry land; that the land known to Ptolemy extended over at least 180 degrees, or half the circumference of the globe, that is, from the Canaries to the Ganges; he knew that by later travels the eastern limit of geographical knowledge had been moved much farther east, even to Cathay; he believed that far out in the ocean lay the island of Zipangu; he knew that some eight or ten degrees had been added on the west by the discovery of the Azores; he believed that at most only one third of the circumference remained to be navigated; that this space might naturally contain some islands available as way stations in the voyage; that the explorations in the East were very indefinite, and consequently Asia might, and probably did, extend farther east than was supposed; that Ptolemy's figures were not undisputed—Marino making the distance from the Canaries to the Ganges 225 degrees instead of 180, while another geographer, Alfragano, by actual measurement, made each degree about one sixth smaller than Ptolemy, thus reducing the size of the earth, and with it the remaining distance to India; that several ancient writers—see quotations from Aristotle, Strabo, Seneca, et al., in _Humboldt_, _Exam. Crit._, tom. i. pp. 38, 61, 98 et seq.—had pronounced the distance to India very short, and had affirmed that it might be navigated in a few days; and finally that other scholars, as Toscanelli, had arrived at the same conclusions as himself, possibly before himself. _Cartas de Pablo Toscanelli, Físico Florentin, á Cristobal Colon y al Canónigo Portugues Fernando Martinez, sobre el descubrimiento de las Indias_, in _Navarrete_, tom. ii. pp. 1-4; _Muñoz_, _Hist. Nuevo Mundo_, pp. 48-9. See also, on Columbus' motives, _Irving's Columbus_, vol. i. pp. 42-51, and vol. ii. p. 148; _Muñoz_, _Hist. Nuevo Mundo_, pp. 45-7; _Humboldt_, _Exam. Crit._, tom. ii. pp. 324-9; _Stevens' Notes_, p. 28; _Major's Prince Henry_, pp. 347-52; _Kunstmann_, _Entdeckung Am._, p. 74. Many of these conclusions were erroneous, being founded on an incorrect idea of longitude; but this reduction of the earth's size was an error most fortunate for discovery, inasmuch as with a correct idea of the distance to be traversed, and with no suspicion of an intervening continent, such an expedition as that of the Genoese would not have been undertaken at the time.

Such were the ideas and aspirations of Columbus before his undertakings; later in life a theologic mysticism took possession of his mind, and his success was simply a fulfillment of divine prophecy in which cosmographical realities went for nothing. See _Cartas de Don Cristobal Colon_, in _Navarrete_, tom. i. p. 330.

All attempts to diminish the glory of Columbus' achievement by proving a previous discovery whose results were known to him have signally failed. The reports of mysterious maps which have been claimed to have prompted his enterprise evidently amount to nothing in view of the fact that Columbus never suspected the existence of any new countries, yet that he saw maps of the world, including the Asiatic coasts, can not be doubted. The case of the pilot Sanchez, said to have died in the house of Columbus, and to have told him of lands he had seen toward the west, if true, is likewise of little moment as touching the honor due to Columbus, for many men were confident of having seen such lands from the Canaries and other islands, and several voyages had been made in search of them, all of which was certainly known to Columbus. The story of Sanchez was started by Oviedo, who gives no authority or date for the event; it was repeated generally with disapproval by other historians, until revived by Garcilaso de la Vega with date and details; but his date, 1484, is ten years after Columbus is known to have proposed his scheme to the Portuguese government. Columbus originated no new theory respecting the earth's form or size, though a popular idea has always prevailed, notwithstanding the statements of the best writers to the contrary, that he is entitled to the glory of the theory as well as to that of the execution of the project. He was not in advance of his age, entertained no new theories, believed no more than did Prince Henry, his predecessor, or Toscanelli, his contemporary; nor was he the first to conceive the possibility of reaching the east by sailing west. He was however the first to act in accordance with existing beliefs. The Northmen in their voyages had entertained no ideas of a New World, or of an Asia to the west. To knowledge of theoretical geography, Columbus added the skill of a practical navigator, and the iron will to overcome obstacles. He sailed west, reached Asia as he believed, and proved old theories correct.

There seem to be two undecided points in that matter, neither of which can ever be settled. First, did his experience in the Portuguese voyages, the perusal of some old author, or a hint from one of the few men acquainted with old traditions, first suggest to Columbus his project? In the absence of sustaining proof, the statement of the son Fernando that the father should be credited with the reconception of the great idea, goes for little. Second, to what extent did his voyage to the north influence his plan? There is no evidence, but a strong probability, that he heard in that voyage of the existence of land in the west. It is hardly possible that no tradition of Markland and Vinland remained in Iceland, when but little more than a hundred years had passed since the last ship had returned from those countries, and when many persons must have been living who had been in Greenland. If such traditions did exist, Columbus certainly must have made himself acquainted with them. Still his visit to the north was in 1477, several years after the first formation of his plan, and any information gained at the time could only have been confirmatory rather than suggestive. Both Humboldt and Kunstmann think that even if he ever heard of the discoveries of the Northmen—which is thought probable by the latter—this knowledge would not have agreed with, nor encouraged, his plans. Kohl, _Hist. Discov._, pp. 115-20, believes that such a knowledge would have been the strongest possible confirmation of his idea of the nearness of Asia and Europe, in which opinion I concur. The idea of Draper, _Hist. Int. Develop._, p. 446, that had Columbus known of the northern discoveries he would have steered farther to the north, seems of no weight, since he sought not the northern but the southern parts of India.

[Sidenote: FIRST VOYAGE OF COLUMBUS.]

What Columbus had to contend with at this juncture was not, as I have said, old doctrines oppugnant to any new conception, but the ignorance of the masses, who held no doctrine beyond that of proximate sense, which spread out the earth's surface, so far as their dull conceptions could reach, in one universal flatness; and the knowledge of courts, whence alone the great discoverer could hope for support, was but little in advance of that of the people. Then the Church, with its usual firmness and conservatism, was against him. The monks, who were then the guardians of learning, knew, or might have known, all that Prince Henry, Columbus, and other earnest searchers had ascertained regarding the geography of the earth; but what were science and facts to them if they in any wise conflicted with the preconceived notions of the Fathers, or with Church dogmas? "II est vrai," says Humboldt, "que les scrupules théologiques de Lactance, de St. Chrysostôme et de quelques autres Pères de l'Eglise, contribuèrent à pousser l'esprit humain dans un mouvement rétrograde." And again, the African expeditions of the Portuguese had not on the whole been profitable or encouraging to other similar undertakings, and the financial condition of most European courts was not such as to warrant new expenses. Portugal, more advanced and in better condition to embark in new enterprises than any other nation, now regarded the opening of her route to India _via_ the Cape of Good Hope an accomplished fact, and therefore looked coldly on any new venture. Nor were the extravagant demands of Columbus with respect to titles and authority over the new regions of Asia which he hoped to find, likely to inspire monarchs, jealous of their dignities, with favor toward a penniless, untitled adventurer. Passing as well the successive disappointments of Columbus in his weary efforts to obtain the assistance necessary to the accomplishment of his project, as his final success with Queen Isabella of Castile, let us resume our chronological summary.

[1492.] Shortly before the sailing of Columbus, the learned astronomer Martin Behaim, of Nuremberg, constructed a globe showing the whole surface of the earth as understood by the best geographers of the time. This globe has been preserved, and I present a fac-simile of the American hemisphere published in _Ghillany_, _Geschichte des Seefahrers Ritter Martin Behaim_, Nürnberg, 1853. The entire globe may be seen in _Jomard_, _Les Monuments de la Géographie_, no. xv., Paris, 1854. A section of the globe is given by Irving, _Columbus_, vol. i. p. 53 (see also _Id._, p. 135), by _London Geog. Soc. Journal_, 1848, vol. xviii. p. 76; and a copy from Ghillany, with some of the names omitted, may be found in _Kohl's Hist. Discov._, p. 147, map no. iv.

The chart by which the voyage of Columbus was made is supposed to have been a copy of Behaim's Globe, which indeed may be regarded as the exponent of geographical conceptions, those of Columbus as well as those of the learned men and practical navigators of the day. By an inscription on the original, the Asiatic coast is known to have been laid down from Marco Polo, and to the islands of Antilia and San Brandan are joined other inscriptions giving their history as I have before indicated. Sailing from Palos on the 3d of August, 1492, with one hundred and twenty men in three vessels commanded by himself and the two brothers Pinzon, Columbus was at last fairly launched on the Sea of Darkness. After a detention of three weeks at the Canaries, he sailed thence the 6th of September; marked, not without alarm, the variation of the needle on the 30th of September; and on the 12th of October discovered San Salvador, or Cat Island.

So far all was well; all was as the bold navigator had anticipated; all accorded with current opinions, his own among the number; he had sailed certain days, had accomplished a certain distance, and had reached triumphantly one of the numerous islands mentioned by Marco Polo, and, God willing, would soon find the larger island of Zipangu. Alas for mathematical calculations, for that other third of the earth's circumference; alas for the intervening continent and broad Pacific sea, which baffled the great discoverer to the day of his death!

Passing over the cruise through the Bahamas, or Marco Polo's archipelago of seven thousand islands, in which the discoverers touched successively at Concepcion, Exuma (Fernandina), and Isla Larga (Isabela), we find Columbus sailing from the last-mentioned island on the 24th of October for Zipangu, with the intention of proceeding thence to the main-land, and presenting his credentials to the great Khan.

Touching at the Mucaras group, Columbus arrived at Zipangu, which was none other than the island of Cuba, on the 28th of October, and gave to the island, in place of its barbarous appellation, the more Christian name of Juana. Cruising along the northern shore of Cuba, in frequent converse with the natives, he soon learned that this was not Zipangu, was not even an island, but was the veritable Asiatic continent itself, for so his fervid mind interpreted the strange language of this people. Unfortunately he could not find the Khan; after diligent search he could find no great city, nor any imperial court, nor other display of oriental opulence such as were described by Marco Polo and Sir John Mandeville—only naked barbarians and thatched huts; so after advancing west beyond Savana la Mar, the discoverers returned to the eastern end of Cuba, visiting on the way the group El Jardin del Rey. Postponing the exploration of the coast toward the south-west, Columbus returned eastward and followed the northern coast of Española, turning off on his way to discover the Tortugas, and arriving at La Navidad, where he built a fort and left a colony of thirty-nine men. Now, Española, and not Cuba as he had at first supposed, was the true Zipangu; for the main-land of China could not by any possibility be the island of Japan; and in this belief Columbus sailed for Spain on the 16th of January, reaching the Azores on the 18th of February, and arriving at Palos the 15th of March, 1493. _Primer viage de Colon_, in _Navarrete_, tom. i. pp. 1-197; _Purchas_, _His Pilgrimes_, vol. i. booke ii. pp. 10-13; _Sammlung aller Reisebeschreibungen_, tom. xiii. p. 10; _Napione_ and _De Conti_, _Biografia Colombo_, pp. 305-36; _Peter Martyr_, dec. i. cap. i.; _Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i. pp. 21-31, 46-55; _Colon_, _Hist. del Almirante_, in _Barcia_, tom. i. pp. 13-38; _Irving's Columbus_, vol. i. pp. 124-289; vol. iii. pp. 447-68; _Major's Prince Henry_, pp. 356-7; _West-Indische Spieghel_, p. 10; _Cancellieri_, _Notizie di Colombo_, pp. 66-76.

[1493.] Just before reaching the Azores, Columbus wrote on shipboard two letters describing his voyage, one under date of the 15th of February, and the other of the 14th of March. The manuscript of one, with copies printed in Spain probably during this same year, are yet preserved. Of the other, both the original manuscript and Spanish copies, if any were printed, are lost; but of a Latin translation, six editions are extant, supposed to have been printed in 1493, in France and in Italy, under the title _Epistola Christofori Colom_, or _De Insulis Inventis_, etc. A poetical paraphrase of the same letter appeared the same year as _Dati_, _Questa e la Hystoria_, etc., Florence, 1493, and four other works of this year contain slight allusions to Columbus. Seven or eight editions of Columbus' letters appeared in different forms during the next forty years. Both letters may be found with Spanish translations in the first volume of Navarrete's collection. For the bibliographical notices of this sketch I have depended chiefly on Harrisse, _Bib. Am. Vet._, as the latest and most complete essay on early American books, notwithstanding the few blunders that have subjected it to so much ridicule. I shall not consider it necessary to repeat the reference with each notice, as Harrisse's work is arranged chronologically.

[Sidenote: PAPAL BULL OF PARTITION.]

As soon as Columbus had explained to Ferdinand and Isabella the nature of his important discovery, the Spanish sovereigns applied to the Pope for the same grants and privileges respecting lands discovered, and to be discovered, in the west, that had before been granted the Portuguese in the south and east. His Holiness, accepting the Spanish statements that the concessions demanded did not in any way conflict with previous grants to the Portuguese, by bull of May 2, 1493, ceded to Spain all lands which might be discovered by her west of a line drawn from pole to pole, one hundred leagues west of the Azores; the Portuguese to have all new lands east of the same line. It is obvious that his Holiness fixed this line arbitrarily, without a thought of the position or importance of the corresponding meridian at the antipodes. This opposite meridian, according to the idea of longitude entertained at the time, would fall in the vicinity of India proper; and the Portuguese, besides their natural jealousy of this new success of Spain, feared that the western hemisphere thus given to her rival might include portions of their Indian grants. Hence arose much trouble in the few following years between the two courts. See _infra_.

Amidst the enthusiasm following his success Columbus had no difficulty in fitting out another expedition. Embarking from Cádiz September 25, 1493, with seventeen vessels and over 1,200 men, among whom were Alonso de Ojeda and Juan de la Cosa, _el almirante_, or the admiral, as Columbus was now called, touched at the Canaries, discovered Dominica the 3d of November, and Guadalupe a few days later; thence sailing north-west through the Caribbean Archipelago, he occasionally landed and gave names to islands. Resting two days at Puerto Rico, he reached the coast of Española on the 22d of November, and on the 27th anchored off the port of Navidad. The settlement established at this place in the previous voyage had totally disappeared; the colonists as is supposed falling victims to internal dissensions and general excesses. A new city called Isabela was then founded at another port of this island, and Ojeda was sent inland to explore the country. After a short absence he returned, reporting the country rich in gold. On the second of February, 1494, twelve vessels, with specimens of the people and products of the country, were despatched for Spain under Antonio de Torres. By this departure was also sent a request for immediate supplies. Recovering from a serious illness, Columbus checked a revolt among his people on the 24th of April, built a fort in the interior, and then sailed to explore the main coast of Asia—as he supposed, but in truth Cuba—south-westward from the point where he left it on his first voyage. Following the south coast of Cuba the admiral at length reached the vicinity of Philipina, or Cortés Bay, where the shore bends to the southward. This to him seemed conclusive proof that it was indeed the main-land of Asia which he was coasting. The statements of the natives who said that Cuba was in fact an island, but that it was so large that no one had ever reached its western extremity, confirmed him in his belief—since one might question the knowledge of a boundary which no one had ever reached and from which no one had ever come. The theory of the age was thus made good, and that was sufficient; so Columbus brought all his crew, officers and men, before the notary, and made them swear that the island of Cuba was the continent of Asia—an act significant of methods of conversion in those days. He even proposed to continue the voyage along the coast to the Red Sea, and thence home by way of the Mediterranean, or, better still, round the Cape of Good Hope, to meet and surprise the Portuguese; but his companions thought the supplies insufficient for so long a voyage, and the admiral was persuaded to postpone the attempt.

Returning therefore to Española, on the way back Columbus discovered and partially explored Jamaica, Isla de Pinos, and the small islands scattered to the southward of Cuba, arriving at Isabela on the 4th of September. There he found matters in a bad way. The colony, comprising a motley crew of lawless adventurers, ever ready to attribute success to themselves and ill-fortune to their governor, trumped up numerous complaints which caused the admiral no little trouble. Margarite, to whom had been given a command for an expedition inland, had revolted and sailed with several ships for Spain. Open war had been declared with the natives, and the colonists were hard pressed; but the admiral's presence and Ojeda's impetuous bravery soon secured order. Meanwhile two arrivals inspired the colonists with fresh courage; that of Bartolomé Colon, brother of the admiral, with three ships, and that of Torres, with four vessels laden with supplies. With the gold that had been accumulated, and specimens of fruits and plants, and five hundred natives as slaves, Torres was sent back to Spain, accompanied by Diego Colon, whose mission was to defend his brother's interests at court. The pacification of the natives was then completed, and heavy taxes were imposed upon them. In October, 1495, arrived Juan de Aguado, sent by the king to ascertain the facts concerning charges against the admiral. This man, in place of executing his commission fairly, only stirred up the accusers of Columbus to greater enmity—which quality of justice well accorded with the temper of his master Ferdinand. On account of these troubles, as well as from the discovery of a new gold mine, which proved beyond question that Española was the ancient Ophir of King Solomon, Columbus decided to return to Spain. So leaving his brother, Bartolomé, in command as _adelantado_, or lieutenant-governor, he sailed with Aguado, on the 10th of March, in two caravels, carrying 225 Spaniards and thirty natives. Touching at Marigalante, and Guadalupe, he arrived at Cádiz June 11, 1496. _Segundo Viage de Cristobal Colon_, in _Navarrete_, tom. i. pp. 198-241; _Colon_, _Hist. del Almirante_, in _Barcia_, tom. i. pp. 42-73; _Peter Martyr_, dec. i. cap. 2-4; _Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i. pp. 31-5; _Napione_ and _De Conti_, _Biografia Colombo_, pp. 331-50; _Irving's Columbus_, vol. i. pp. 338-497; vol. ii. pp. 1-87; _Major's Prince Henry_, p. 358; _Humboldt's Exam. Crit._, tom. iv. p. 217; _Cancellieri_, _Notizie di Colombo_, pp. 93-9. The letters which Columbus sent to Spain by Torres in February, 1494, if ever printed, are lost; but in _Syllacio_, _ad Sapiẽtissimũ ... de insulis_, etc., Pavia, 1494 or 1495, appeared certain letters from Spain to the author of this work, describing the second voyage of Columbus.

[1494.] Thus during the absence of Columbus on his second voyage we have seen the ocean route between Spain and Española six times navigated; first, by the fleet of twelve vessels sent back to Spain by the admiral under Antonio de Torres; second, by Bartolomé Colon, who followed his brother to Española with three ships; third, by Margarite, who revolted and left Española during the absence of Columbus in Cuba; fourth, by Torres in command of four vessels from Spain with supplies for the colony; fifth, by the return of the same four ships to Spain with gold and slaves; and sixth, by Juan de Aguado with four ships from Spain in August, 1495.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: REPARATION OF THE WORLD.]

With the division of the world by Pope Alexander VI., Portugal was not satisfied. The world was thought to be not so large then as now, and one half of it was not enough for so small a kingdom which had boasted so great a navigator as Prince Henry. It was not their own side, but the other side, that troubled the Portuguese, fearing as they did that the opposite meridian threw into Spain's half a part or the whole of India. So Spain and Portugal fell to quarrelling over this partition by his Holiness; and the matter was referred to a commission, and finally settled by the treaty of Tordesillas in June, 1494, which moved the line 270 leagues farther west. About the location of this line of demarcation, and its effect on Brazil, and the Moluccas, much has been written, though little has been said as to the motive that prompted Portugal in making this change. The fact is, that at a time when the Spice Islands were but vaguely known, and the existence of Brazil not even suspected, it is impossible to conceive why Portugal desired to change the partition line from 100 leagues to 370 leagues west of the Azores; for the change could only diminish the possessions of Portugal in India by 270 leagues, as in truth it did, including the Moluccas in the loss, and gaining in return 270 leagues of open Atlantic sea! True, there proved to be an accidental gain of a part of Brazil, but there could have been no idea at the time that this partition line cut through any eastern portion of lands discovered by Columbus to the west. In whatever light we imagine them to have regarded it, there is still an unexplained mystery. The Pacific ocean was unknown; between the discoveries of Spain and Portugal, so far as known, all was land—India. By carrying the partition line westward, Portugal may have thought to find some western land; at all events, it is generally believed that the effect of the partition in the antipodes was not well considered; that the only point in question was the right of making discoveries in the western ocean, and that the treaty of Tordesillas was decided in favor of Spain—Portugal being forced to yield the main point, but insisting on the change of partition in order to give her more sea-room. On the other hand it may be claimed that the antipodes, of which they knew so little, were the avowed object of all the expeditions sent out by both parties. See the original bull and treaty in _Navarrete_, _Col. de Viages_, tom. ii. pp. 28, 130; also _Prescott's Ferdinand and Isabella_, vol. ii. pp. 173-83; _Calvo_, _Recueil Complet des Traités_, Paris, 1862, tom. i. pp. 1-36; _Purchas_, _His Pilgrimes_, vol. i. booke ii. pp. 13-15; _Curious and Ent. Voy._, p. 20; _Cancellieri_, _Notizie di Colombo_, p. 183.

Italy, and especially Venice, as we have seen, was the first of the European states to display in any marked degree in mediæval times that commercial spirit so early and so well developed in the Phœnicians. Portugal caught the flame under John the Great, 1385-1433, and led the van of a more daring discovery and exploration by conquests on the north-west coast of Africa. Simultaneously Prince Henry was sending expeditions farther down the western coast of Africa, and among the islands of the Atlantic. His country reaped the reward in 1486, when the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope opened her a way by sea to Hindostan, and to the commerce of the Orient, and gave at the same time the death-blow to Venetian ascendancy in that market.

But Spain, as chance would have it, did not lag far behind her sister kingdom. The fact of the great navigators, Columbus and Vespucci, being Italians, and yet having to seek assistance of Spain, sufficiently indicates in what direction the swing of maritime power was tending. The astronomical schools of Córdova, Seville, and Granada had well prepared Spain for the application of astronomy to navigation, and the long internal wars had bred those bold and enduring spirits who alone are fitted to conduct with success great enterprises of certain danger and uncertain result.

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It is claimed by some that John and Sebastian Cabot made their first voyage and discovered Newfoundland in 1494. The claim rests on a statement of the Spanish ambassador to England in a letter dated July 25, 1498, to the effect that during the past seven years several vessels had been sent each year from Bristol in search of Brasil and the Islands of the Seven Cities, and on an inscription on Sebastian Cabot's map of 1544, which states that land was first discovered by the Cabots on June 24, 1494. _D'Avesac_, _Letter on the Voyages of John and Sebastian Cabot_, in _Kohl_, pp. 506-7. But other authors consider the map—even if made by Cabot, which is extremely doubtful—insufficient authority to prove such a voyage.

[1495.] At the solicitation of the brothers Pinzon and other navigators, a license was granted April 10, 1495, permitting any native-born Spaniard to make private voyages for trade and discovery from Cádiz to the Western India; such expeditions to be under the inspection of government, one of whose officials was to accompany each vessel to ensure the payment to the crown of one tenth of the profit of the voyage. For this document in full, see _Navarrete_, _Col. de Viages_, tom. ii. p. 165. See also _Humboldt_, _Exam. Crit._, tom. i. pp. 356 et seq. Whether any one actually took advantage of this license before its repeal—which was on June 2, 1497, at the instigation of Columbus—is a disputed point of some importance in connection with certain doubtful expeditions to be considered hereafter.

[1496.] Pedro Alonso Niño sailed from Cádiz June 17, 1496, just after the return of Columbus, in command of three vessels laden with supplies for the colony at Española.

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[Sidenote: AMERIGO VESPUCCI.]

[1497.] Amerigo Vespucci, a Florentine navigator, claims to have set sail from Cádiz with four vessels in the service of the king of Spain on the tenth, or twentieth, of May, 1497. In what capacity he accompanied the expedition, or who was its commander, he does not state, but says that he was chosen by the king to go with the expedition. "Me ad talia investiganda in ipsam societatem elegit." Sailing south-south-west to the Canaries, 280 leagues from Lisbon, he remained there eight days, and then sailed west-one-quarter-south-west 1,000 leagues in twenty-seven, or thirty-seven, days, to a point on the main-land in 16° north and 75° west of the Canaries—that is to say, on the coast of Central America near Cape Gracias á Dios. This must have been about the 1st of July, some days perhaps after Cabot's landing farther north, which was the 24th of June. The Spaniards went ashore in boats, but the natives were too timid to trade; so that continuing their voyage for two days north-west in sight of the flat coast, they reached a more secure anchorage, established friendly relations with the people, and found some traces of gold. The ships then followed the coast for several days, to a port where was found a village built over the water like Venice, and there fought with the natives (of Tabasco?); sailed eighty leagues along the coast to a region of many rivers (Pánuco?), where they were kindly received by people of a different language, and made a journey of eighteen leagues inland, visiting many towns. This province was called by the inhabitants Lariab, and is situated in the torrid zone, near the tropic of Cancer, in 23° north. Again they started, pursued a north-west course and frequently anchored, sailing thus 870 leagues, until after thirteen months, that is to say in June, 1498, they reached "the best harbor in the world" (port of Cape Cañaveral?), in 28° 30', where they resolved to repair their ships for the return voyage. There they remained thirty-seven days, and when about to depart, the natives complained of certain cannibals who came each year from an island 100 leagues distant to attack them. The Spaniards, in return for their kindness, promised to avenge their wrongs. Accordingly they sailed north-east and east to a group of islands, some of which were inhabited (Bermudas?); landing at one of them called Ity, they defeated the cannibals, and made 250 prisoners, with a loss of one man killed and twenty-two wounded. Returning, they arrived at Cádiz October 15, 1499, with 222 prisoners, who were sold as slaves. The above is the account given by Vespucci in a letter written in 1504, according to the edition adopted as authentic and original by Varnhagen, _Le premier Voyage de Amerigo Vespucci_, who believes that Vicente Yañez Pinzon and Juan Diaz de Solis were the commanders. This voyage is not generally regarded as authentic; and a long and complicated discussion has arisen on the question whether the account given is to be regarded as true, as wholly a fabrication, or as belonging to a subsequent voyage and accidentally or intentionally dated back two years. As this voyage, if actually made as claimed by M. Varnhagen, would be the first to touch the territory which I denominate the Pacific States, I find it necessary to give in this place the leading points in the discussion. In what may be called the standard authorities on American discovery, such as Navarrete, Humboldt, and others, is found fully presented the question of the authenticity of Vespucci's voyage, always, however, under the supposition that the land claimed to have been visited was the coast of Paria. The theory of M. Varnhagen, that that region must be sought in North America, reopens the question and introduces some new features which cannot be passed by unnoticed in this connection. Without entering upon the somewhat complicated bibliography of Vespucci's narrations, or taking up the question of his claims in the matter of naming America, I shall attempt to state briefly, and as clearly as I am able, the arguments for and against the authenticity of a voyage, in which perhaps is involved the question of the first post-Scandinavian discovery of the North American continent.

[Sidenote: THE DISPUTED VOYAGE OF VESPUCCI.]

Besides Vespucci's own statement, in a letter written in 1504, no contemporary document has been found which mentions such an expedition, though most diligent search for such documents has been made in the Spanish archives by partisans and opponents of the Florentine's claim. This absence of confirmatory documents is the more noticeable as the expedition was made under royal patronage. In another and previously written letter describing his second voyage in 1499, Vespucci not only makes no mention of this voyage, but even excuses his long silence by saying that nothing had occurred worth relating. True, a short letter of one Vianello, dated 1506, published by Humboldt, mentions a voyage to which no date is given, made by Vespucci in company with Juan de la Cosa. M. Varnhagen supposes this to have been the voyage in question, and a large river discovered at the time to have been the Mississippi; but, beside the fact that there is no reason for attributing the date of 1497 rather than any other to this voyage, Vianello's letter, with two others, published by Harrisse, indicates a much later date for the expedition with Juan de la Cosa.

Moreover, not only is there a want of original records, but contemporary historians are silent respecting this expedition; the first mention by later writers being a denial of its authenticity when it was thought to conflict with the admiral's claims as discoverer of the continent. Yet, on the supposition of a voyage to the North American coast, there are some passages in the historians Peter Martyr, Oviedo, Gomara, and Herrera, which point more or less definitely to an exploration of the gulf of Honduras before 1502. Peter Martyr, dec. i. cap. vi., writing before 1508, says that many claim to have sailed round Cuba; and later, dec. i. cap. x., he mentions a report that Pinzon and Solis had explored the coast of Honduras, giving, however, no dates. Oviedo, _Hist. Gen._, tom. ii. p. 140, says positively that the gulf of Honduras was discovered not by Columbus, but by Pinzon and Solis, and that before the former discovered the Amazon, or the latter the Rio de la Plata, that is to say before 1499. Gomara, _Hist. de las Indias_, fol. 63, states that Pinzon and Solis are said by some to have explored the coast of Honduras three years before Columbus, which would make it in 1499. Herrera, _Hist. Gen._, dec. iv. lib. viii. cap. iii., says that the gulf of Honduras was named Hibueras from the gourds found floating in its waters by the first Spaniards who sailed along the coast. To M. Varnhagen, this it may be random remark of Herrera is proof positive that as Columbus did not enter or name the gulf, he was not the first Spaniard who sailed along the coast. Whatever weight may be attached to these passages from the historians, in proving a voyage to North America previous to that of the admiral, such evidence is manifestly increased by the fact that the date of the voyage attributed to Pinzon and Solis seems to rest entirely on the statement of Herrera, _Hist. Gen._, dec. i. lib. vi. cap. xvi., who describes the expedition with other events under the date of 1506. Yet in the testimony in the lawsuit hereinafter to be mentioned, it is implied, though not expressly stated, that the voyage was after that of Columbus, since special pains was taken by the king to prove the coast explored by Pinzon to be distinct from that discovered by the admiral. Another point is that in this same testimony the name 'Caria' is given to a place visited during Pinzon's voyage, and for this name Vespucci's 'Lariab' may possibly be a misprint.

Humboldt, _Exam. Crit._, tom. iv. pp. 59, 267, 272-4, repeatedly states it as an undeniable fact that Vespucci was employed in Spain in fitting out the vessels for the third voyage of Columbus, up to the date of the sailing of the expedition, May 30, 1498, and consequently could not himself have sailed in May or any other month of 1497. He makes this statement on the authority of documents collected by Muñoz. Harrisse, _Bib. Am. Vet._, p. 57, states, also on the authority of Muñoz, that from April, 1497, to May 30, 1498, Vespucci was "constantly travelling from Seville to San Lúcar." Vespucci is known to have succeeded Juanoto Berardi, who died in December, 1495, in a contract to fit out vessels for the Spanish government, and to have received money on account of that contract on the 12th of January, 1496. Irving, with access to the documents of Muñoz, says that four caravels fitted out by Vespucci sailed February 3, 1496, but were driven back; and he speaks of no evidence of his presence in Spain in 1497 or 1498. Navarrete, relying on the same Muñoz documents—which consist of extracts from the books of expenses of Indian armadas in the Casa de Contratacion in Seville—gives no date to the sailing and wreck of the four vessels mentioned by Irving, but implies that the event took place before Berardi's death. After speaking of the receipt of money on the 12th of January, 1496, he states that Vespucci "went on attending to everything until the armada was despatched from San Lúcar." _Col. de Viages_, tom. iii. p. 317. He does not state that the fleet thus fitted out was that in which Columbus sailed in 1498. Muñoz in the printed portion of his work is silent on the subject. Varnhagen, _Vespuce et son Premier Voy._, p. 18, argues that Humboldt had no authority whatever for applying Navarrete's statement respecting the armada despatched from San Lúcar to the admiral's fleet, that statement having probably been his authority, and not the original documents of Muñoz; and that the four vessels whose fitting-out Vespucci personally superintended were much more probably those in which he himself sailed and made the voyage in question. Varnhagen furthermore thinks that the death of Berardi furnished a reasonable motive for the resolution formed by Vespucci to visit the Indies, and a favorable opportunity for carrying out his resolution. If it can be proved that Vespucci was in Spain in 1497 and 1498, of course the question of his claimed voyage admits of no farther discussion; but if Humboldt's only authority be his interpretation of Navarrete's statement, even if the interpretation be not unnatural or improbable, the matter must still be considered doubtful until the original Muñoz documents are produced.

The silence of contemporary documents respecting Vespucci's voyage carries the greater weight from the fact that there are special reasons for the existence of such documents, if the voyage had been actually made. In 1508 a suit was begun by Diego Colon against the Spanish crown for the government of certain territory claimed by virtue of the discovery of Paria by his father, the admiral. The suit continued to 1513, and every effort was made by the crown to prove a previous discovery of the coast in question; hundreds of witnesses were examined, and their testimony has been preserved and published in Navarrete's collection. In this suit Vespucci was not summoned as a witness, although much of the time in royal employ, having held the office of _piloto mayor_ from 1508 to his death in 1512. No claim was advanced for his discovery, although the voyage is stated to have been made under royal patronage, and by proving its authenticity the crown would have gained its object. Indeed, Vespucci's name is only mentioned once in all the testimony, and that as having accompanied Alonso de Ojeda in his voyage of 1499. That no one of the many witnesses examined knew of Vespucci's voyage in 1497, if it were a fact, is hardly possible. Not only were the witnesses silent on the Florentine's expedition, but many of them, including Ojeda, affirmed that Paria was first discovered by Columbus, and next afterward by Ojeda himself. Now as Vespucci accompanied Ojeda, the latter would surely have known of any previous discovery by Vespucci, and as Ojeda was not friendly to Columbus he certainly would have made the fact known. Moreover, the admiral's charts and sailing-directions were followed by Ojeda in his voyage, which would hardly have been done with a skilful pilot like Vespucci on board, and one who had visited the coast before. True, this last point would have little weight if the coast of Paria was not the region visited by Vespucci, while the other points would be little if at all affected by the theory that North America was the coast explored. No other Spanish voyage to the new region was neglected; indeed, to have so completely disregarded Vespucci's expedition, it must be supposed that the king not only knew exactly what region he explored, but had a positive conviction that said region was entirely distinct from Paria; and we have seen that no such definite opinion was held at the time, but on the contrary, special pains was taken to prove that the new regions were "all one coast." When it is considered that Vespucci's voyage, that is the voyage of Pinzon and Solis, was mentioned in the testimony, the failure to summon the piloto mayor appears all the more remarkable. What more efficient witness could have been brought forward? Thus the silence of the testimony in this suit on the question under discussion, must be deemed something more than mere negative proof, as it is termed by M. Varnhagen. This gentleman also notes that only one witness mentions that Vespucci accompanied Ojeda in 1499; but he does not note that the presence of Vespucci on Ojeda's ships was of no importance to either party in the suit, while a previous discovery by him was of the very greatest importance to the crown.

[Sidenote: VESPUCCI'S VOYAGE FURTHER CONSIDERED.]

The date of sailing from Cádiz is given by different editions of Vespucci's letter as May 10, and May 20, 1497; and of his return as October 1, 15, and 18, 1499. From these dates two difficulties arise; first, the duration of the voyage is stated in the letter to have been eighteen months, while the period between the dates of sailing and return is twenty-nine months; and again, Vespucci is known to have sailed with Ojeda in May, 1499, that is, five months before he returned from the voyage in question. One way of reconciling the first difficulty is to suppose that the author reckoned time by the Florentine method, then common in familiar correspondence, according to which the year began the 25th of March. Then in case of a very natural misprint in the original of May for March, the voyage really began in 1498, its duration being thus reduced to nineteen months. A more simple method of removing both difficulties is to suppose a misprint of 1499 for 1498 as the date of the return; this would reduce the time to seventeen months. Several later editions have made this change. The edition claimed as original by M. Varnhagen has the date 1499 according to his translation, and strangely enough the editor makes no allusion to it in his notes, although in a former pamphlet he speaks of 1498 as the date of the return. I attach very little weight to discrepancies in dates in this relation except as evidence against any intentional deception on the part of Vespucci. Confusion in dates is common in all relations of the period; and Vespucci's letters were written hastily, not for publication, and merely to interest his correspondents by a description of the marvels he had seen in his New World adventures. It may here be stated that the long and bitterly argued question of the rival claims of Vespucci and Columbus in the matter of naming America has no bearing on the present discussion. There is no evidence that the voyage in question had any influence in fixing the name America; and to pronounce this expedition not authentic has no tendency to weaken Vespucci's reputation for honesty, which may now be considered fully established; nor do the arguments against intentional falsification on Vespucci's part tend to prove the voyage authentic.

Several coincidences between the narratives of this voyage and that of Ojeda have led many writers to conclude that both describe the same expedition, the dates having been accidentally or intentionally changed. Humboldt, after a careful examination, was convinced that the two voyages were identical. But when we consider that Humboldt, Navarrete, and Irving formed their conclusions without a suspicion of a voyage to North America, and before that question had ever once arisen; that Navarrete severely criticises Vespucci's narrative as applied to Ojeda's voyage; that two of the strongest coincidences—the mention of Paria as the coast visited, and the discovery of a town built over the water like Venice—have no weight in view of the new theory, since the province is called Lariab in the original edition, and that method of building was not uncommon in all the tropical regions of America, it must be admitted that this argument has by itself little force against the authenticity of Vespucci's voyage.

The right granted to private individuals by the Spanish government in April, 1495, to make voyages of discovery at their own expense, subject to certain regulations, was partially revoked in June, 1497, after Vespucci's claimed departure. All authorities agree that during this time such private voyages, or even clandestine expeditions, may have been and probably were made, of which no records have been preserved. It is argued that Vespucci's voyage may have been of this number, although claimed to have been made under royal patronage, and by no means clandestine. It is even suggested that the revocation of the right of private navigation, brought about by the influence of Columbus, was purposely delayed until after Vespucci's departure—all of which proves, if it proves anything, simply that there was nothing to prevent Vespucci from making the voyage.

We have seen how certain statements of the old chroniclers may be taken as indicative of a voyage along the Central American coast previous to that of Columbus. There are also similar indications in some of the early maps. Thus Juan de la Cosa's map representing Cuba as an island in 1500 (see page 115 this volume) might be accounted for by such a voyage as Vespucci claims to have made. It will be seen hereafter that early maps show some slight traces of a knowledge of Florida before its discovery in 1512 (pp. 128-9 this vol.) In the Ruysch map of 1508 (p. 126 this vol.) the eastern coast of what seems to be Cuba is identified by M. Varnhagen with the main-land; in his opinion the inscription at the north point of that coast refers directly to Vespucci's expedition, and 'Cape S. Marci' at the southern point may indicate Vespucci's arrival on Saint Mark's day, especially as his uncle was a priest of the order of St Mark. If this appears somewhat far-fetched, perhaps more weight should be attached to the name 'Cape Doffin de Abril' on the southern point of what may be Florida on the Ptolemy map of 1513 (p. 130 this vol.), for at the end of April Vespucci may, according to his narrative, have been at that point. On this matter of an early voyage it may be noted that Columbus, striking the coast at Guanaja Island in 1502 in search of a passage westward, instead of following westward, as he naturally would have done, at least to the head of the gulf of Honduras, turned directly east. A knowledge on his part that Vespucci had already explored westward and northward without finding a passage, would account for his actions. But they have already been satisfactorily accounted for by the fact that he simply proposed to sail along the sinuosities of the supposed southern coasts of Asia to India, rather than to penetrate any intervening continent, whose existence he did not suspect.

[Sidenote: CONCLUSIONS CONCERNING THE VOYAGE OF VESPUCCI.]

In addition to the leading arguments for and against the voyage in question, the following minor points are urged:

It is claimed that the command of such an expedition would not have been given to a foreigner, and Vespucci did not become a naturalized citizen of Spain until 1505. But on the other hand, if Vespucci had rendered no other service to Spain than to have accompanied Ojeda, he would hardly have received so many favors from the government, especially after having served four years under the king of Portugal.

Señor Navarrete finds a difficulty in Vespucci's claim to have brought back to Spain 222 slaves in the few small vessels under his command. Vespucci also speaks of Ferdinand as king of Castile, which it was not customary to do until after Isabella's death.

The high opinion held of Vespucci during his life by Columbus and his zealous friends is of little weight, because the admiral's claim to have discovered the supposed Asiatic continent or islands adjacent thereto was undoubted; but the favorable opinions expressed by later writers, especially by Fernando Colon, writing after America was known to be distinct from Asia, tend to prove that the Florentine made in his lifetime no claim to a voyage in 1497. Yet the publication and circulation of his letter in several languages, uncontradicted for years, would indicate its authenticity, unless it be taken as a sign of carelessness for dates and details so long as they were not supposed to conflict with the admiral's claims. It must also be remembered that the same voyager's second, third, and fourth expeditions have all been disputed and have at last proved authentic.

M. Varnhagen applies to Vespucci and his men the well-known tradition related by Sahagun and others of white men who appeared at Pánuco from the east before the coming of the Spaniards. He also supposes Guerrero, the soldier found by Cortés at Cozumel, and believed by other authors to have been a survivor with Aguilar of Valdivia's shipwreck in 1512, to have been left in Yucatan by Vespucci; but he gives no reason for this belief, except that Guerrero had married among the natives, and had adopted many of their customs. By the same writer it is thought much more likely that Cape Gracias á Dios was named by Vespucci after a long voyage in search of land, than by Columbus after following the coast a few days and taking possession; especially as Columbus in his own letter simply mentions his arrival at the cape, the fact of his having given the name coming from other sources.

The events of the voyage, and the description of the coast visited by Vespucci as given in his letter, furnish no evidence whatever for or against the authenticity of the expedition; but if it be admitted from outside evidence that the voyage was actually made, and was distinct from that of Ojeda, while the narrative has nothing except the occurrence of the name Paria in favor of a South American destination, from it may be gathered the following points in support of the theory that a more northern coast was the one explored. The course sailed from the Canaries, W. ¼ SW.; the time thirty-seven days; the distance 1,000 leagues, taking the distance from Lisbon to the Canaries, 280 leagues, as a scale of measurement; the latitude of the landing 16°, and longitude 75° west of the Canaries; and the arrival by sailing up the coast at a province situated in about 23°, and near the tropic of Cancer, are worthy of consideration, since a series of blunders such as these is hardly probable. The natives of Lariab were of different language from and hostile to the nations passed further south, as the Huastecs of the Pánuco region are known to have been with respect to the Mexicans. Moreover, Lariab has a slight claim to being a Huastec word, since Orozco y Berra gives three names of places in that language containing an _l_ and ending in _ab_; but of course this would interfere sadly with the theory that Lariab is a misprint of Caria. Vespucci's description of the natives, criticised by Navarrete as incorrect when applied to the people of Paria, agrees better, as M. Varnhagen thinks, with the aborigines of Honduras. Other parts of Vespucci's vague and rambling descriptions apply well enough to the North American coasts, or in fact to any part of tropical America, north or south.

The application of the narrative to North America is not, however, without its difficulties. Vespucci makes no mention of the Antilles, through which his course must have led him; perhaps not seeing them by reason of fog; or he had instructions not to concern himself with what the admiral had already discovered. He also refers to a larger work, never published, in which details were to be given. Neither does he mention the prominent peninsulas of Yucatan and Florida, nor the lofty mountain peaks which he would naturally have seen in following the Mexican coast. He claims to have sailed north-west from Pánuco 870 leagues (over dry land?) to the best harbor in the world. M. Varnhagen's explanation of this difficulty is that Vespucci simply states incidentally that he left Pánuco "tuttavia verso il Maestrale" still toward the north-west, not intending to include in this course the whole voyage of 870 leagues. All the windings of the coast and the entering and leaving of many ports or rivers must be taken into account to make up a distance of 870 leagues between Pánuco and Cape Cañaveral; and the latter port would hardly be considered the 'best harbor in the world' except by a great stretch of the imagination, or by a navigator little acquainted with good harbors. The archipelago of Ity has generally been supposed to be Hayti, but there is probably no reason for the identity beyond the resemblance of names. The Bermudas when discovered in 1522 were uninhabited, but this does not prove that they were always so; the Spaniards may have returned and captured the people for slaves. Indeed the Bermudas may have been the archipelago of San Bernardo, famous for its fierce Carib population, but generally located off the gulf of Urabá. It may even have been named by Vespucci, for on San Bernardo's day, the 20th of August, he was probably there.

Thus have I given, and let me hope without prejudice, the arguments for and against this disputed voyage; and from the evidence the reader may draw his own conclusions. To me the proofs seem conclusive that Vespucci made no voyage to South America prior to 1499, when he accompanied Alonso de Ojeda. Against a North American expedition the evidence, if less conclusive, is still very strong; since the most that can be claimed in its favor is a probability that the Central American coast was visited by some navigator before 1502, and a possibility, though certainly a very slim one, that Vespucci accompanied such navigation.

On this voyage see _Navigationum Alberici Vesputii Epitome_, in _Grynæus_, _Novus Orbis_, pp. 122, 155; _Varnhagen_, _Le Premier Voyage de Vespucci_; Id., _Vespuce et son Prem. Voy._; also in _Société Géog._, _Bulletin_, Jan. and Feb., 1853; _Harrisse_, _Bib. Am. Vet._, pp. 58-68, and _Additions_, pp. xxvii-viii.; _Lester and Foster's Life of Vespucius_, pp. 93-139; _Leben der See-Helden_, p. 24; _Navarrete_, _Col. de Viages_, tom. iii. pp. 183-241, 291-3, 309-34; _Irving's Columbus_, vol. iii. pp. 395-418; _Humboldt_, _Exam. Crit._, tom. iv. v.; _Major's Prince Henry_, pp. 370-5; _Kerr's Col. Voy._, vol. iii. p. 342; _Eerste Zee-Togt van Alonso D'Ojeda, en Amerikus Vesputius_, in _Gottfried_, _Reysen_, tom. iii. p. 38; _Cancellieri_, _Notizie di Colombo_, pp. 41-7, 257.

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[Sidenote: CABOT AND VASCO DA GAMA.]

[1497.] To continue our chronological summary. Following the brilliant success of Spain, England was the first nation to attempt discovery to the westward. Fully acquainted with the achievements and hypotheses of Columbus, having been indeed almost persuaded by him to embrace his beliefs, King Henry VII. on the 5th of March, 1496, granted a license to John Cabot, a Venetian citizen and trader of Bristol, to attempt discoveries in that direction.

Either from respect for Portuguese and Spanish rights in the south, or from some vague hints received from the Northmen during their trading voyages to Iceland, or possibly from a dim idea of the advantages of great-circle sailing, the English determined to attempt reaching India by a northern route. This expedition of Cabot's, with perhaps several vessels, sailed from Bristol probably in May, 1497; discovered land the 24th of June on the coast of Labrador between 56° and 58°; sailed some 300 leagues in a direction not known, but probably northward; and one vessel, the _Matthew_, returned to Bristol in August of the same year. No further details of the voyage are known, and those given, which are the conclusions of Humboldt, Kohl, and Stevens, have all been disputed in respect to date, commander, and point of landing. D'Avesac, as we have seen (pp. 98-9), insists on a previous voyage in 1494. Biddle, _Memoir of Sebastian Cabot_, London, 1831, p. 42 et seq., claims that Sebastian Cabot was the commander. Robinson, _Account of Discov. in the West_, Richmond, 1848, pp. 81-93, explains that by a change in the method of reckoning time after 1752, the date should properly read 1498. Many authors moreover confound this voyage with a later one. _Hakluyt's Voy._, vol. iii. pp. 4-11; _Galvano's Discov._, pp. 87-9; _Viages Menores_, in _Navarrete_, tom. iii. pp. 40-1. Irving, _Columbus_, vol. ii. p. 316, names but one voyage and regards the accounts as "vague and scanty." See also _Humboldt_, _Exam. Crit._, tom. i. pp. 279, 313; _Hakluyt Soc._, _Divers Voy._, pp. lxviii., 19-26; _Kohl's Hist. Discov._, pp. 121-35; _Kunstmann_, _Entdeckung Am._, pp. 48-53; _Stevens' Notes_, pp. 17-19; _Pinkerton's Col. Voy._, vol. xii. p. 158; _Bancroft's Hist. U. S._, vol. i. p. 13.

The Portuguese, to complete their discovery of the route to India by way of the Cape of Good Hope, sent out Vasco da Gama with four ships. Sailing from Lisbon July 8, 1497, he doubled the Cape of Good Hope the 22d of November, passed the limit reached by Dias on the 17th of December, received intelligence of Prester John at several points on the eastern coast, and anchored at Calicut May 20, 1498. Trading somewhat, jealous of everybody, after quarrelling with Arabian merchants and failing to make good his arbitrary measures, he thought best to return. Accordingly he set sail the 29th of August, passed the cape March 20, 1499, and reached Lisbon about the end of August. Thus Gama was the first to accomplish the grand object of so many efforts, and to reach India by water. His achievement would doubtless have been regarded as the most glorious on record, both to himself and to Portugal, had not Columbus for Spain reached the same continent, as he supposed, farther east several years before. _Navigatione di Vasco di Gama_, in _Ramusio_, tom. i. fol. 130; _Galvano's Discov._, pp. 93-4; _Navarrete_, _Col. de Viages_, tom. i. pp. xli.-ii.; _Major's Prince Henry_, pp. 391-406; _Voyages, Curious and Entertaining_, p. 103; _Leben der See-Helden_, p. 40; _Notizie di Vasquez di Gama_, in _Cancellieri_, _Notizie_, p. 165.

[1498.] After the return of the Cabots in August, 1497, with the news of having discovered the northern regions of Cathay, King Henry issued a new patent dated February 3, 1498, and, probably in May of the same year, two vessels with 300 men sailed from Bristol under command of Sebastian Cabot. Little is known of the voyage, save that he reached the coast of Labrador, which he followed northward until at a certain point where the coast trends eastward he found much ice even in July. This northern limit is placed by Ramusio at latitude 56°; by Gomara, who states that Cabot himself gives a much higher latitude, at 58°; by Galvano, at above 60°. Kohl follows Humboldt in the opinion that it was 67° 30', which would place it on the Cumberland peninsula. Cabot then turned southward and sailed as near shore as possible. The southern limit of this voyage is more indefinite than the northern. In a conversation with Peter Martyr, prior to 1515, Cabot stated that he reached the latitude of Gibraltar, and the chronicler adds that he sailed so far west that he had Cuba on his left. Cabot's remark would place him in latitude 36°, near Cape Hatteras, while Martyr's addition might apply to any locality on the east coast. Martyr's statement is the only authority for the supposition by Humboldt and others—see _Exam. Crit._, tom. i. p. 313, and Preface to Ghillany—that Cabot reached Florida. Stevens, _Notes_, pp. 17-19 and 35, considers Peter Martyr's remark as absurd, since it would place Cabot near Cincinnati. He is satisfied that the southern limit was the gulf of St Lawrence, founding this belief on maps of 1500 (see p. 115 this vol.) and 1508 (p. 126 this vol.), 1514, and 1544, the latter said to have been made by Cabot himself. That Cabot did not reach the southern coast of the United States seems proved by the fact that he was in Spain from 1513 to 1524, holding high positions, including that of piloto mayor, while that coast was actually being explored, and he making no claim to a previous discovery. The point reached, therefore, must remain undetermined between Cape Hatteras, where Kohl fixes it, and the gulf of St Lawrence, with a strong probability, as I think, in favor of the latter. Nothing whatever is known of the route or date of Cabot's return. And it is to be remembered that concerning this voyage we have only one contemporary document, which is a letter dated in 1498, stating simply that the expedition was still absent. All additional details are from accounts written after the geography of the New World was better known in consequence of the discovery of the South Sea. Nothing, then, can be proved by Cabot's voyages beyond the discovery of the continent in June, 1497, and the exploration of the coast from the gulf of St Lawrence to above 60° in 1498. The statement of Asher, _Life of Henry Hudson_, London, 1860, that Cabot "was the first to recognize that a new and unknown continent was lying as one vast barrier between western Europe and eastern Asia," accepted also by Kohl, _Hist. Discov._, p. 145, appears to me utterly without foundation. Cabot's complaint that a new-found land—that is a land further north and east than any part of Asia described by Polo—was a barrier to his reaching India, and the fact that on a map made as late as 1544, and doubtfully attributed to him, a separate continent is shown, seem weak authority for according him so important a discovery, especially when other voyagers and geographers, intimate with him and fully acquainted with his discoveries, continued for many years to join those discoveries to the Asiatic continent. See, beside references on page 107, _Peter Martyr_, dec. iii. cap. vi.; _Gomara_, _Hist. Ind._, fol. 31, 115; _Robertson's Hist. Amer._,