A history of the United States . cal grounds lent the weight of its authority. Columbus, in common with other navigators, appears tohave accepted the scientific view without serious question:I have always read, said he, that the world, comprisingthe land and the water, is spherical, as is testified by theinvestigations of Ptolemy and others, who have proved itby the eclipses of the moon and other observations made fromeast to west, as well as by the elevation of the pole from northto south. Still there were no convincing geographicaldata to support this theory, and ignorance of the law ofgravi
A history of the United States . cal grounds lent the weight of its authority. Columbus, in common with other navigators, appears tohave accepted the scientific view without serious question:I have always read, said he, that the world, comprisingthe land and the water, is spherical, as is testified by theinvestigations of Ptolemy and others, who have proved itby the eclipses of the moon and other observations made fromeast to west, as well as by the elevation of the pole from northto south. Still there were no convincing geographicaldata to support this theory, and ignorance of the law ofgravitation, as expounded by Sir Isaac Newton two centurieslater, made very real to the ignorant sailor the now absurdfear that if a ship should sail too far down the sides of theearth it would be impossible to sail back to the top. The enthusiasm which inspired men to undertake perilousvoyages of discovery and exploration during the fifteenthcentury was one of the many expressions of the new spirit 1 liO 140° 120° 100° Rcr oof 40. 140° 120° 100° 80° 60° 40°West from 30° Greenwich 0° Lonrit
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