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emerge into the seas frequented by the ancients, and bordered by the luxurious nations of the East.
Stretching across the gulf of
the Ganges, he might pass by Taprobana, and continuing on to the straits of Babelmandel, arrive on the shores of the Red Sea. Thence he might make his way by land to Jerusalem, take ship ping at Joppa, and traverse the Mediterranean to Spain.
Or
should the route from Ethiopia to Jerusalem be deemed too peri lous from savage and warlike tribes, or should he not choose to separate from his vessels, he might sail round the whole coast of Africa, pass triumphantly by the Portuguese, in their midway groping along the shores of Guinea, and after having thus circum navigated the globe, furl his adventurous sails at the Pillars of Hercules, the ne plus ultra of the ancient world!
Such was the
soaring meditation of Columbus, as recorded by one of his inti mate associates ;* nor is there any thing surprising in his ignorance of the real magnitude of our globe.
The mechanical admeasure
ment of a known part of its circle has rendered its circumference a familiar fact in our day ; but in his time it still remained a prob lem with the most profound philosophers. * Cura de los Palacios, cap. 123, M S .