Part 22

When I sailed from Spain to the Indies, I found, that as soon as I had passed a hundred leagues westward of the Azores, there was a very great change in the sky and the stars, in the temperature of the air, and in the water of the sea; and I have been very diligent in observing these things. I remarked, that from north to south, in traversing these hundred leagues from the said islands, the needle of the compass, which hitherto had turned towards the north-east, turned a full quarter of the wind to the north-west, and this took place from the time when we reached that line. At the same time an appearance was presented, as if the sea shore had been transplanted thither, for we found the sea covered all over with a sort of weed, resembling pine branches, and with fruits like that of the mastic tree, so thick, that on my first voyage I thought it was a reef, and that the ships could not avoid running aground; whereas until I reached this line, I did not meet with a single bough. I also observed, that at this point the sea was very smooth, and that though the wind was rough, the ships never rolled. I likewise found, that within the same line, towards the west, the temperature was always mild, and that it did not vary summer or winter. While there, I observed that the north star described a circle five degrees in diameter; that when its satellites[174] are on the right side, then the star was at its lowest point, and from this point it continues rising until it reaches the left side, where it is also at five degrees, and then again it sinks until it at length returns to the right side. In this voyage I proceeded immediately from Spain to the island of Madeira, thence to the Canaries, and then to the Cape Verde islands, and from the Cape Verde islands I sailed southwards, even below the equinoctial line, as I have already described. When I reached the parallel of Sierra Leone, in Guinea, I found the heat so intense, and the rays of the sun so fierce, that I thought that we should have been burnt; and although it rained and the sky was heavy with clouds, I still suffered the same oppression, until our Lord was pleased to grant me a favourable wind, giving me an opportunity of sailing to the west, so that I reached a latitude where I experienced, as I have already said, a change in the temperature. Immediately upon my reaching this line, the temperature became very mild, and the more I advanced, the more this mildness increased; but I did not find the positions of the stars correspond with these effects. I remarked at this place, that when night came on, the polar star was five degrees high, and then the satellites were over head; afterwards, at midnight, I found that star elevated ten degrees, and when morning approached, the satellites were fifteen degrees below. I found the smoothness of the sea continue, but not so the weeds; as to the polar star, I watched it with great wonder, and devoted many nights to a careful examination of it with the quadrant, and I always found that the lead and line fell to the same point. I look upon this as something new, and it will probably be admitted, that it is a short distance for so great a change to take place in the temperature. I have always read, that the world comprising the land and the water was spherical, and the recorded experiences of Ptolemy and all others, have proved this by the eclipses of the moon, and other observations made from east to west, as well as by the elevation of the pole from north to south. But as I have already described, I have now seen so much irregularity, that I have come to another conclusion respecting the earth, namely, that it is not round as they describe, but of the form of a pear, which is very round except where the stalk grows, at which part it is most prominent; or like a round ball, upon one part of which is a prominence like a woman’s nipple, this protrusion being the highest and nearest the sky, situated under the equinoctial line, and at the eastern extremity of this sea,—I call that the eastern extremity, where the land and the islands end. In confirmation of my opinion, I revert to the arguments which I have above detailed respecting the line, which passes from north to south, a hundred leagues westward of the Azores; for in sailing thence westward, the ships went on rising smoothly towards the sky, and then the weather was felt to be milder, on account of which mildness, the needle shifted one point of the compass; the further we went, the more the needle moved to the north-west, this elevation producing the variation of the circle, which the north star describes with its satellites; and the nearer I approached the equinoctial line, the more they rose, and the greater was the difference in these stars and in their circles. Ptolemy and the other philosophers, who have written upon the globe, thought that it was spherical, believing that this hemisphere was round as well as that in which they themselves dwelt, the centre of which was in the island of Arin,[175] which is under the equinoctial line between the Arabian Gulf and the Gulf of Persia; and the circle passes over Cape St. Vincent, in Portugal, westward, and eastward, by Cangara and the Seras,[176] in which hemisphere I make no difficulty as to its being a perfect sphere as they describe; but this western half of the world, I maintain, is like the half of a very round pear, having a raised projection for the stalk, as I have already described, or like a woman’s nipple on a round ball. Ptolemy and the others who have written upon the globe, had no information respecting this part of the world, which was then unexplored; they only established their arguments with respect to their own hemisphere, which, as I have already said, is half of a perfect sphere. And now that your Highnesses have commissioned me to make this voyage of discovery, the truths which I have stated are evidently proved, because in this voyage, when I was off the island of Hargin,[177] and its vicinity, which is twenty degrees to the north of the equinoctial line, I found the people are black, and the land very much burnt; and when after that I went to the Cape Verde islands, I found the people there much darker still, and the more southward we went, the more they approach the extreme of blackness; so that when I reached the parallel of Sierra Leone, where, as night came on, the north star rose five degrees, the people there were excessively black; and as I sailed westward, the heat became extreme. But after I had passed the meridian, or line which I have already described, I found the climate become gradually more temperate; so that when I reached the island of Trinidad, where the north star rose five degrees as night came on, there, and in the land of Gracia, I found the temperature exceedingly mild; the fields and the foliage likewise were remarkably fresh and green, and as beautiful as the gardens of Valencia in April. The people there are very graceful in form, less dark than those whom I had before seen in the Indies, and wear their hair long and smooth; they are also more shrewd, intelligent, and courageous. The sun was then in the sign of Virgo, over our heads and theirs; therefore, all this must proceed from the extreme blandness of the temperature, which arises, as I have said, from this country being the most elevated in the world, and the nearest to the sky. On these grounds, therefore, I affirm, that the globe is not spherical, but that there is the difference in its form which I have described; the which is to be found in this hemisphere, at the point where the Indies meet the ocean, the extremity of the hemisphere being below the equinoctial line. And a great confirmation of this is, that when our Lord made the sun, the first light appeared in the first point of the east, where the most elevated point of the globe is; and although it was the opinion of Aristotle, that the antarctic pole, or the land under it, was the highest part of the world, and the nearest to the heavens, other philosophers oppose him, and say, that the highest part was below the arctic pole, by which reasoning it appears, that they understood, that one part of the world must be loftier, and nearer the sky, than the other; but it never struck them that it might be under the equinoctial, in the way that I have said, which is not to be wondered at, because they had no certain knowledge respecting this hemisphere, but merely vague suppositions, for no one has ever gone or been sent to investigate the matter, until now that your Highnesses have sent me to explore both the sea and the land. I found that between the two straits, which, as I have said, face each other in a line from north to south, is a distance of twenty-six leagues; and there can be no mistake in this calculation, because it was made with the quadrant. I also find, that from these two straits on the west up to the above-mentioned gulf, to which I gave the name of the Gulf of Pearls,[178] there are sixty-eight leagues of four miles to the league, which is the reckoning we are accustomed to make at sea; from this gulf the water runs constantly with great impetuosity towards the east, and this is the cause why, in these two straits, there is so fierce a turmoil from the fresh water encountering the water of the sea. In the southern strait, which I named the Serpent’s Mouth, I found that towards evening the polar star was nearly at five degrees elevation; and in the northern, which I called the Dragon’s Mouth, it was at an elevation of nearly seven degrees. The before-mentioned Gulf of Pearls is to the west of the [179] of Ptolemy, nearly three thousand nine hundred miles, which make nearly seventy equinoctial degrees, reckoning fifty-six miles and two-thirds to a degree. The Holy Scriptures record, that our Lord made the earthly paradise, and planted in it the tree of life, and thence springs a fountain from which the four principal rivers in the world take their source; namely, the Ganges in India, the Tigris, and Euphrates in [180] which rivers divide a chain of mountains, and forming Mesopotamia, flow thence into Persia,—and the Nile, which rises in Ethiopia, and falls into the sea at Alexandria.

I do not find, nor have ever found, any account by the Romans or Greeks, which fixes in a positive manner the site of the terrestrial paradise, neither have I seen it given in any mappe-monde, laid down from authentic sources. Some placed it in Ethiopia, at the sources of the Nile, but others, traversing all these countries, found neither the temperature nor the altitude of the sun correspond with their ideas respecting it; nor did it appear that the overwhelming waters of the deluge had been there. Some pagans pretended to adduce arguments to establish that it was in the Fortunate Islands, now called the Canaries, etc.

St. Isidore, Bede, Strabo,[181] and the Master of scholastic history,[182] with St. Ambrose, and Scotus, and all the learned theologians, agree that the earthly paradise is in the east, etc.

I have already described my ideas concerning this hemisphere and its form, and I have no doubt, that if I could pass below the equinoctial line, after reaching the highest point of which I have spoken, I should find a much milder temperature, and a variation in the stars and in the water; not that I suppose that elevated point to be navigable, nor even that there is water there; indeed, I believe it is impossible to ascend thither, because I am convinced that it is the spot of the earthly paradise, whither no one can go but by God’s permission; but this land which your Highnesses have now sent me to explore, is very extensive, and I think there are many other countries in the south, of which the world has never had any knowledge.

I do not suppose that the earthly paradise is in the form of a rugged mountain, as the descriptions of it have made it appear, but that it is on the summit of the spot, which I have described as being in the form of the stalk of a pear; the approach to it from a distance must be by a constant and gradual ascent; but I believe that, as I have already said, no one could ever reach the top; I think also, that the water I have described may proceed from it, though it be far off, and that stopping at the place which I have just left, it forms this lake. There are great indications of this being the terrestrial paradise, for its site coincides with the opinion of the holy and wise theologians whom I have mentioned; and moreover, the other evidences agree with the supposition, for I have never either read or heard of fresh water coming in so large a quantity, in close conjunction with the water of the sea; the idea is also corroborated by the blandness of the temperature; and if the water of which I speak, does not proceed from the earthly paradise, it seems to be a still greater wonder, for I do not believe that there is any river in the world so large or so deep.

When I left the Dragon’s Mouth, which is the northernmost of the two straits which I have described, and which I so named on the day of our Lady of August,[183] I found that the sea ran so strongly to the westward, that between the hour of mass,[184] when I weighed anchor, and the hour of complines,[185] I made sixty-five leagues of four miles each; and not only was the wind not violent, but on the contrary very gentle, which confirmed me in the conclusion, that in sailing southward, there is a continuous ascent, while there is a corresponding descent towards the north.

I hold it for certain, that the waters of the sea move from east to west with the sky, and that in passing this track, they hold a more rapid course, and have thus eaten away large tracts of land, and hence has resulted this great number of islands; indeed, these islands themselves afford an additional proof of it, for on the one hand all those which lie west and east, or a little more obliquely north-west and south-east, are broad; while those which lie north and south, or north-east and south-west, that is, in a directly contrary direction to the said winds, are narrow; furthermore, that these islands should possess the most costly productions, is to be accounted for by the mild temperature, which comes to them from heaven, since these are the most elevated parts of the world. It is true, that in some parts, the waters do not appear to take this course, but this only occurs in certain spots, where they are obstructed by land, and hence they appear to take different directions.

Pliny writes that the sea and land together form a sphere, but that the ocean forms the greatest mass, and lies uppermost, while the earth is below and supports the ocean, and that the two afford a mutual support to each other, as the kernel of a nut is confined by its shell. The Master of scholastic history, in commenting upon Genesis, says, that the waters are not very extensive; and that although when they were first created they covered the earth, they were yet vaporous like a cloud, and that afterwards they became condensed, and occupied but small space, and in this notion Nicolas de Lira agrees. Aristotle says that the world is small, and the water very limited in extent, and that it is easy to pass from Spain to the Indies; and this is confirmed by Avenruyz,[186] and by the Cardinal Pedro de Aliaco, who, in supporting this opinion, shows that it agrees with that of Seneca, and says that Aristotle had been enabled to gain information respecting the world by means of Alexander the Great, and Seneca by means of the Emperor Nero, and Pliny through the Romans; all of them having expended large sums of money, and employed a vast number of people, in diligent inquiry concerning the secrets of the world, and in spreading abroad the knowledge thus obtained. The said cardinal allows to these writers greater authority than to Ptolemy, and other Greeks and Arabs; and in confirmation of their opinion concerning the small quantity of water on the surface of the globe, and the limited amount of land covered by that water, in comparison of what had been related on the authority of Ptolemy and his disciples, he finds a passage in the third book of Esdras, where that sacred writer says, that of seven parts of the world six are discovered, and the other is covered with water. The authority of the third and fourth books of Esdras is also confirmed by holy persons, such as St. Augustin, and St. Ambrose in his _Exameron_, where he says,—“Here my son Jesus shall first come, and here my son Christ shall die!” These holy men say that Esdras was a prophet as well as Zacharias, the father of St. John, and _El Braso_[187] Simon; authorities which are also quoted by Francis de Mairones.[188] With respect to the dryness of the land, experience has shown that it is greater than is commonly believed; and this is no wonder, for the further one goes the more one learns.

I now return to my subject of the land of Gracia, and of the river and lake found there, which latter might more properly be called a sea; for a lake is but a small expanse of water, which, when it becomes great, deserves the name of a sea, just as we speak of the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea; and I think that if the river mentioned does not proceed from the terrestrial paradise, it comes from an immense tract of land situated in the south, of which no knowledge has been hitherto obtained. But the more I reason on the subject, the more satisfied I become that the terrestrial paradise is situated in the spot I have described; and I ground my opinion upon the arguments and authorities already quoted. May it please the Lord to grant your Highnesses a long life, and health and peace to follow out so noble an investigation; in which I think our Lord will receive great service, Spain considerable increase of its greatness, and all Christians much consolation and pleasure, because by this means the name of our Lord will be published abroad.

In all the countries visited by your Highnesses’ ships, I have caused a high cross to be fixed upon every headland, and have proclaimed, to every nation that I have discovered, the lofty estate of your Highnesses, and of your court in Spain. I also tell them all I can respecting our holy faith and of the belief in the holy mother Church, which has its members in all the world; and I speak to them also of the courtesy and nobleness of all Christians, and of the faith they have in the Holy Trinity. May it please the Lord to forgive those who have calumniated and still calumniate this excellent enterprise, and oppose and have opposed its advancement, without considering how much glory and greatness will accrue from it to your Highnesses throughout all the world. They cannot state anything in disparagement of it, except its expense, and that I have not immediately sent back the ships loaded with gold. They speak this without considering the shortness of the time, and how many difficulties there are to contend with; and that every year there are individuals who singly earn by their deserts out of your Majesties’ own household, more revenue than would cover the whole of this expense. Nor do they take into consideration that the princes of Spain have never gained possession of any land out of their own country, until now that your Highnesses have become the masters of another world, where our holy faith may become so much increased, and whence such stores of wealth may be derived; for although we have not sent home ships laden with gold, we have, nevertheless, sent satisfactory samples, both of gold and of other valuable commodities, by which it may be judged that in a short time large profit may be derived. Neither do they take into consideration the noble spirit of the princes of Portugal, who so long ago carried into execution the exploration of Guinea, and still follow it up along the coast of Africa, in which one-half of the population of the country has been employed, and yet the King is more determined on the enterprise than ever. The Lord grant all that I have said, and lead them to think deeply upon what I have written; which is not the thousandth part of what might be written of the deeds of princes who have set their minds upon gaining knowledge, and upon obtaining territory and keeping it.

I say all this, not because I doubt the inclination of your Highnesses to pursue the enterprise while you live,—for I rely confidently on the answers your Highnesses once gave me by word of mouth,—nor because I have seen any change in your Highnesses, but from the fear of what I have heard from those of whom I have been speaking; for I know that water dropping on a stone will at length make a hole. Your Highnesses responded to me with that nobleness of feeling which all the world knows you to possess, and told me to pay no attention to these calumniations; for that your intention was to follow up and support the undertaking, even if nothing were gained by it but stones and sand. Your Highnesses also desired me to be in no way anxious about the expense, for that much greater cost had been incurred on much more trifling matters, and that you considered all the past and future expense as well laid out; for that your Highnesses believed that our holy faith would be increased, and your royal dignity enhanced, and that they were no friends of the royal estate who spoke ill of the enterprise.

And now, during the despatch of the information respecting these lands which I have recently discovered, and where I believe in my soul that the earthly paradise is situated, the “Adelantado” will proceed with three ships, well stocked with provisions, on a further investigation, and will make all the discoveries he can about these parts. Meanwhile, I shall send your Highnesses this letter, accompanied by a map of the country, and your Majesties will determine on what is to be done, and give your orders as to how it is your pleasure that I should proceed: the which, by the aid of the Holy Trinity, shall be carried into execution with all possible diligence, in the faithful service and to the entire satisfaction of your Majesties. Thanks be to God.

TERCER VIAGE DE COLON.

_La historia del viage quel Almirante D. Cristobal Colon hizo la tercera vez que vino á las Indias cuando descubrió la tierra firme, como lo envió á los Reyes desde la Isla Española._