Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/140

116 116 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. PART of the world then resorted, as the sreat theatre of 1. maritime enterprise. After his arrival, he continued to make voyages to the then known parts of the world, and, when on shore, occupied himself with the construction and sale of charts and maps ; while his geographical researches were considerably aided by the possession of papers belonging to an emi- nent Portuguese navigator, a deceased relative of his wife. Thus stored with all that nautical sci- ence in that day could supply, and fortified by large practical experience, the reflecting mind of Colum- bus was naturally led to speculate on the existence of some other land beyond the western waters ; and he conceived the possibility of reaching the eastern shores of Asia, whose provinces of Zipango and Cathay were emblazoned in such gorgeous colors in the narratives of Mandeville and the Poli, by a more direct and commodious route than that which trav- ersed the eastern continent.^ Belief of The existence of land beyond the Atlantic, which iHiid in the _ , west. .^yjjg jjQ^ discredited by some of the most enlight- ened ancients, ^ had become matter of common 8 Antonio de Herrera, Historia speculations of the ancients ; third- General de las Indias Occidentales, ly, testimony of sailors, compre- (Amberes, 1728,) torn. i. dec. 1, hending, in addition to popular lib. Leap. 7. — Gomara, Historia rumors of land described in west- de las Indias, cap. 14, apud Bar- ern voyages, such relics as appear- cia, Hist. Primitivos, torn. ii. — ed to have floated to the European Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, MS., shores from the other side of the cap. 118. — Navarrete, Coleccion Atlantic. Hist, del Almirante, de Viages, tom. i. introd., sec. 30. cap. 6-8. Ferdinand Columbus enumerates 9 None of the intimations are so three grounds on which his father's precise as that contained in the conviction of land in the west was well-known lines of Seneca's Me- founded. First, natural reason, — dea, or conclusions drawn from science ; " Venicnt annis stecnla," &c., secondly, authority of writers, — although, when regarded as a mere amounting to little more than vague poetical vagary, it has not the I