CHAP.
VI.]
CHRISTOPHER
COLUMBUS.
57
CHAPTER VI. CORRESPONDENCE OF COLUMBUS W I T H PAULO TOSCANELLI. — EVENTS IN PORTUGAL RELATIVE TO DISCOVERIES. SITION
OF COLUMBUS TO THE PORTUGUESE
PROPO
COURT.-
DE
PARTURE FROM PORTUGAL.
IT is impossible to determine the precise time when Columbus first conceived the design of seeking a western route to India.
It
is certain, however, that he meditated it as early as the year 1474, though as yet it lay crude and unmatured in his mind. This fact, which is of some importance, is sufficiently established by the correspondence already mentioned with the learned Tos canelli of Florence, which took place in the summer of that year. The letter of Toscanelli is in reply to one from Columbus, and applauds the design which he had expressed of making a voyage to the west. To demonstrate more clearly the facility of arriving at India in that direction, he sent him a map, projected partly according to Ptolemy, and partly according to the descriptions of Marco Polo, the Venetian.
The eastern coast of Asia was de
picted in front of the western coasts of Africa and Europe, with a moderate space of ocean between them, in which were placed at convenient distances Cipango, Antilla, and the other islands.* * This map, by which Columbus sailed on his first voyage of discovery, Las Casas (lib. i. cap. 12) says he had in his possession at the time of writing