A popular history of the United States : from the first discovery of the western hemisphere by the Northmen, to the end of the first century of the union of the states ; preceded by a sketch of the prehistoric period and the age of the mound builders . er of the Admiral to the (quondam) nurse of the Prince John, in the Select Lettersof Christopher Columbus, translated by R. H. Major, for the Hakluyt Society, p. 148. ^ Letter of Columbus to Ferdinand and Isabella, in the Profecias. See HumboldtsExamen Critique, Tome I., p. 15. THEORIES OF OTHER GEOGRAPHERS. 103 the logic of the sphere. It was b
A popular history of the United States : from the first discovery of the western hemisphere by the Northmen, to the end of the first century of the union of the states ; preceded by a sketch of the prehistoric period and the age of the mound builders . er of the Admiral to the (quondam) nurse of the Prince John, in the Select Lettersof Christopher Columbus, translated by R. H. Major, for the Hakluyt Society, p. 148. ^ Letter of Columbus to Ferdinand and Isabella, in the Profecias. See HumboldtsExamen Critique, Tome I., p. 15. THEORIES OF OTHER GEOGRAPHERS. 103 the logic of the sphere. It was because the world was round, becauseone third of it yet remained to sail across, and because it was possibleto sail across it, that God had given him that mission. On the ever-lasting truths of science must rest the possibility of human achieve-ment. God would not appoint to him the task of bringing the ends ofthe earth together if it could not be done. The theory of the sphericalform of the earth was not new, for that was taught five hundred yearsbefore the Christian era. But the ancient geographers supposed thatthe ocean of the western hemisphere was of such expanse as to bepractically if not absolutely impassable. It was on this all-important. Globus Martini Behaim Narinbergensis 1492. Globe of Martin Behaim. point, the size of the globe, that the learned men of modern timesassumed that they had received new light. The globe was muchsmaller than the ancients supposed ; the ocean west of Europe coveredonly one third of it, and then came Asia. Columbus was not a manof wide learning, but he had diligently informed himself of all thathad been advanced on these points by both ancient and modernwriters, and he knew that the geographers of the highest reputation ofhis own time maintained the theory, on which he relied, not only ofthe shape but of the size of the earth. From these he sought argument and encouragement. He can hardly 104 INDIA—THE EL DORADO OF COLUMBUS. [Chap. Y. hav
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