178
LIFE A N D
VOYAGES
OF
[BOOK
IV.
Toscanelli, and had imbibed from Columbus all his ideas respect ing the coast of Asia.
He concluded, therefore, that the Indians
were talking of Cublai Khan, the Tartar sovereign, and of certain parts of his dominions described by Marco Polo.*
He understood
from them that Cuba was not an island, but terra firma, extending a vast distance to the north, and that the king who reigned in this vicinity was at war with the Great Khan. This tissue of errors and misconceptions, he immediately com municated to Columbus.
It put an end to the delusion in which
the admiral had hitherto indulged, that this was the island of Ci pango ; but it substituted another no less agreeable.
He con
cluded that he must have reached the mainland of Asia, or as he termed it, India, and if so, he could not be at any great distance from Mangi and Cathay, the ultimate destination of his voyage. The prince in question, who reigned over this neighboring country, must be some oriental potentate of consequence; he resolved, therefore, to seek the river beyond the Cape of Palms, and dis patch a present to the monarch, with one of the letters of recom mendation from the Castilian sovereigns; and after visiting his dominions, he would proceed to the capital of Cathay, the resi dence of the Grand Khan. Every attempt to reach the river in question, however, proved ineffectual.
Cape stretched beyond cape; there was no good
anchorage; the wind became contrary, and the appearance of the heavens threatening rough weather, he put back to the Rio de los Mares. On the 1st of November, at sunrise, he sent the boats on shore to visit several houses, but the inhabitants fled to the
* Las Casas, lib. i. cap. 44, M S .