74
LIFE
AND
VOYAGES,
ETC.
[BOOK V I I I .
sia, and round Trapoban to this island,* which, according to his idea, lay opposite to the extreme end of Asia, for such he firmly believed the island of Cuba. It is probable that Columbus gave free license to his imagina足 tion in these conjectures, which tended to throw a splendor about his enterprises, and to revive the languishing interest of the public. Granting, however, the correctness of his opinion, that he was in the vicinity of Asia, an error by no means surprising in the im足 perfect state of geographical knowledge, all his consequent sup足 positions were far from extravagant. The ancient Ophir was believed to lie somewhere in the East, but its situation was a matter of controversy among the learned, and remains one of those conjectural questions about which too much has been written for it ever to be satisfactorily decided. * Peter Martyr, decad. i. lib. iv.