CHAP. V.l
CHRISTOPHER
COLUMBUS.
299
Columbus was roused to emulation by these accounts. He now conceived the idea of a voyage, in which, with his usual en thusiasm, he hoped to surpass not merely the discovery of Vasco de Gama, but even those of his own previous expeditions. Ac cording to his own observations in his voyage to Paria, and the reports of other navigators, who had pursued the same route to a greater distance, it appeared that the coast of Terra Firma stretched far to the west. The southern coast of Cuba, which he considered a part of the Asiatic continent, stretched onwards towards the same point. The currents of the Caribbean sea must pass between those lands. He was persuaded, therefore, that there must be a strait existing somewhere thereabout, opening into the Indian sea. The situation in which he placed his con jectural strait, was somewhere about what at present is called the Isthmus of Darien.* Could he but discover such a passage, and thus link the New World he had discovered, with the opulent ori ental regions of the old, he felt that he should make a magnifi cent close to his labors, and consummate this great object of his existence. When he unfolded his plan to the sovereigns, it was listened to with great attention. Certain of the royal council, it is said, endeavored to throw difficulties in the way ; observing that the various exigencies of the times, and the low state of the royal treasury, rendered any new expedition highly inexpedient. They intimated also that Columbus ought not to be employed, until his good conduct in Hispaniola was satisfactorily established by let ters from Ovando. These narrow-minded suggestions failed in their aim : Isabella had implicit confidence in the integrity of * Las Casas, lib. ii. cap. 4.
Las Casas specifies the vicinity of Nombre de
Dios as the place.
u 2