CHAP. I V . ]
CHRISTOPHER
COLUMBUS.
129
dern ; among whom he cites Aristotle and Seneca, St. Augustine and Cardinal Pedro de Alliaco. He lays particular stress also on the assertion of the apocryphal Esdras, that of seven parts of the world, six are dry land, and one part only is covered with water. The land, therefore, surrounding the Gulf of Paria, was but the border of an almost boundless continent, stretching far to the west and to the south, including the most precious regions of the earth, lying under the most auspicious stars and benignant skies, but as yet unknown and uncivilized, free to be discovered and ap propriated by any Christian nation. “ May it please our Lord," he exclaims in his letter to the sovereigns, “ to give long life and health to your highnesses, that you may prosecute this noble enter prise, in which, methinks, God will receive great service, Spain vast increase of grandeur, and all Christians much consolation and delight, since the name of our Saviour will be divulged throughout these lands." Thus far the deductions of Columbus, though sanguine, admit of little cavil ; but he carried them still farther, until they ended in what may appear to some mere chimerical reveries. In his letter to the sovereigns, he stated that, on his former voyages, when he steered westward from the Azores, he had observed, after sailing about a hundred leagues, a sudden and great change in the sky and the stars, the temperature of the air, and the calm ness of the ocean. It seemed as if a line ran from north to south, beyond which every thing became different. The needle which had previously inclined toward the northeast, now varied a whole point to the northwest. The sea, hitherto clear, was covered with weeds, so dense, that in his first voyage he had expected to run aground upon shoals. A universal tranquillity reigned through-