A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels | Page 3

truth.
Columbus assuredly grounded his grand discovery of America upon the knowledge of the earth being a sphere; and had not the new western world intervened, his voyage had probably been the first circumnavigation. In modern times, an idea has been advanced that Columbus only retraced the steps of some former navigator, having seen certain parts of the grand division of the world which he discovered, already delineated on a globe. It were improper to enter upon a refutation of this idle calumny on the present occasion; yet it is easy to conceive, that the possessor of that globe, may have rudely added the reported discoveries of Columbus, to the more ancient delineations. At all events, Columbus was the first person who conceived the bold idea that it was practicable to sail round the globe. From the spherical figure of the earth, then universally believed by astronomers and cosmographers, in spite of the church, he inferred that the ancient hemisphere or continent then known, must of necessity be balanced by an equiponderant and opposite continent. And, as the Portuguese had discovered an extensive track by sailing to the eastwards, he concluded that the opposite or most easterly coast of that country might certainly be attained, and by a nearer path, by crossing the Atlantic to the westwards. The result of this profound conception, by the discovery of America, has been already detailed in the Second Book of this collection; and we now proceed in this Fourth Book to detail the various steps of other navigators, in prosecution of this grand design of surrounding the globe, in which many curious and interesting discoveries have been made, and by which geographical knowledge and practical navigation have been brought to great degrees of perfection.
Before commencing the narrative appropriated for this division of our arrangement, it is proper to give the following complete table of all the circumnavigators, within the period assigned to the present portion of this collection; with the names of the ports from which they sailed, and the dates of their respective voyages, and returns.--Ed.
|_Sailed from_| |Returned. 1. Ferdinand, | Seville, | Aug. 10, 1519. | Sept. 8, 1522. Magellan, | in Spain, | | 2. Sir Francis | Plymouth Sound, | Dec. 30, 1577. | Sept. 16, 1580. Drake, | | | 3. Sir Thomas | Plymouth, | July 25, 1586. | Sept. 9, 1588. Candish, | | | 4. Oliver van | Goeree, | Sept. 13, 1598. | Aug. 26, 1601. Noord, | | | 5. George | Texel, | Aug. 8, 1614. | July 1, 1617. Spilbergeny,| | | 6. Shouten and | Texel, | June 24, 1615. | July 1, 1617. LeMair, | | | 7. Nassau | Goeree, | April 29, 1623. | Jan. 21, 1626. fleet, | | | 8. Cowley,[A] | Achamack, in | Aug. 23, 1683. | Oct. 12, 1686. | Virginia, | | 9. William | Achamack, | Aug. 28, 1683. | Sept. 16, 1691. Dampier,[A] | | | 10. Dampier and | the Downs, | Aug. 9, 1703. | Aug. 1706. Funnel, | | | ll. Wood Rogers,| Bristol, | June 15, 1708. | Oct. 1, 1711. and Courtney,| | | 12. John | Plymouth, | Feb. 15, 1719. | June, 1722. Clapperton, | | | 13. George | Plymouth, | Feb. 15, 1719. | Aug. 1, 1722. Shelvocke | | | 14. Roggewein, | Texel, | July 17, 1721. | July 11, 1723. 15. George | St Helens, | Sept. 18, 1740. | June 15, 1744. Anson, | | |
[Footnote A: These two are conjoined in Chap. VIII. of this book, for reasons which will appear there sufficiently obvious.--E.]
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CHAPTER I.
VOYAGE OF FERDINAND MAGELLAN ROUND THE WORLD, IN 1519--1522.[1]
SECTION I.
_Some Account of Magellan, precious to the Commencement of his Voyage._
Owing to the discoveries made under the authority of the sovereign of Castile, the Portuguese were excessively jealous of the safety of their possessions in the East Indies. At length, after various negociations, the authority of the pope was interposed, then considered as supreme among the princes of Europe who were in communion with the church of Rome. By a bull or papal decree, all countries discovered, or to be discovered, in the East, were declared to belong to the crown of Portugal, and all that were found in the west were to be the property of Spain. Yet this measure rather smothered than extinguished the flames of contention; as both courts readily listened to any proposals that tended to aggrandise the one at the expence of the other. This spirit of contention between the courts of Spain and Portugal, gave occasion to several men of enterprise, who happened to be dissatisfied by the delays or refusal of either of these courts, in countenancing their projects, to apply themselves