CHRISTOPHER
CHAP. VII.]
COLUMBUS.
273
verse with intelligent men who have returned from these regions. It is like an accession of wealth to a miser.
Our minds, soiled
and debased by the common concerns of life and the vices of society, become elevated and ameliorated by contemplating such glorious events.”* Notwithstanding this universal enthusiasm, however, no one was aware of the real importance of the discovery. No one had an idea that this was a totally distinct portion of the globe, sepa rated by oceans from the ancient world.
The opinion of Colum
bus was universally adopted, that Cuba was the end of the Asiatic continent, and that the adjacent islands were in the Indian seas. This agreed with the opinions of the ancients, heretofore cited, about the moderate distance from Spain to the extremity of India, sailing westwardly.
The parrots were also thought to resemble
those described by Pliny, as abounding in the remote parts of Asia.
The lands, therefore, which Columbus had visited were
called the West Indies; and as he seemed to have entered upon a vast region of unexplored countries, existing in a state of nature, the whole received the comprehensive appellation of “ The New World." During the whole of his sojourn at Barcelona, the sovereigns took every occasion to bestow on Columbus personal marks of their high consideration.
He was admitted at all times to the
royal presence, and the queen delighted to converse with him on the subject of his enterprises.
The king, too, appeared occasion
ally on horseback, with Prince Juan on one side, and Columbus on the other.
To perpetuate in his family the glory of his
achievement, a coat of arms was assigned him, in which the royal * Letters of P Martyr, let. 153.
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