Christopher Columbus | Page 8

up until Prince Henry sent out his discoverers. Then,
in order to make Portugal's claim very sure to whatever she might find,
Pope Martin V. issued an order that all land which might be discovered
between Cape Bojador (on the most southerly point of the Morocco
coast) and the Indies should belong to Portugal, no matter what
navigator discovered it. This was in 1479. Naturally, when his turn
came to navigate, Columbus would not be interested in taking the
Portuguese path, since, by papal order, he would have to turn over to
Portugal whatever he might discover.
But to return to Prince Henry. His successes began in 1422 when a
Portuguese captain pushed past the high promontory of Cape Nun and
did not "turn again" till he had gone far enough to see that the Southern
Atlantic was as full of water as the Northern. After that these brave
people kept sailing farther and farther south, down past Guinea and the
mouth of the Congo, always asking for the India of Prester John; but
the savage blacks at whose coasts they touched had never heard of it.
Finally Bartholomew Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope and proved
that the African India had no Atlantic coast; and he also proved that
there existed a southern hemisphere of great possibilities. Then the
question of reaching Asiatic India by sea loomed large in the
Portuguese mind. Vasco da Gama, following Dias around the Cape of
Good Hope, crossed the Indian Ocean and at last cast anchor in the
dazzlingly rich city of Calcutta, the real India.
This last did not happen, however, till 1498, six years after Columbus
discovered America. Long before this time the good Prince Henry had
died; and though he did not live to learn of this sea route to India, he
died knowing that the Madeiras and the Azores existed out in the open
sea, while Africa stretched far south of the Equator. His devotion to
navigation had imbued his countrymen with great enthusiasm, and
placed little Portugal at the head of European nations in maritime
matters. Not only did she discover how to sail to India, but to Siam,

Java, China, and Japan as well.
From Prince Henry's day, Lisbon became the city where all men
interested in the fascinating study of geography wished to dwell, in
order that they might exchange ideas with navigators and get
employment under the Crown. We can readily understand why Lisbon
was a magnet to the ambitious Christopher Columbus; and we may feel
sure that had the brave, intelligent "Protector of Studies in Portugal"
been still alive when Columbus formed his plan for discovery, the
intrepid discoverer would have been spared those weary years of
waiting. He would have found America ten years sooner, and it would
have been the Portuguese, and not the Spanish, flag that he would have
carried westward to the New World.
Our young Genoese is supposed to have sailed to Iceland and even
farther into the Polar regions, probably after continuing that trip to
Bristol which the pirates interrupted off Cape St. Vincent. Many writers
consider that it was in Iceland where he heard rumors of "land in the
west." If the Iceland trip really was made, Christopher may indeed have
heard the story; for long before, Icelanders, and Norsemen also, had
discovered America.
These discoveries, as we now believe, took place in the far-away
eleventh century; but they made no impression on Europeans of that
time, because Iceland and Scandinavia were not in touch with other
European countries. Civilization then had the Mediterranean for its
center, and no one in Southern Europe ever heard of what the
Icelanders or the Norsemen were doing. But these northern peoples did
not entirely lose sight of their discoveries, for they sang about them
from century to century in quaint and beautiful ballads called sagas. It
was not until after Columbus revealed the west to European eyes that
these sagas were published; nevertheless, it is not improbable that, if
Columbus landed in Iceland, some inhabitant who knew the story of the
far western country told it to him. He never refers to it in his writings,
however, and one cannot help thinking that, if it really was true, he
would have mentioned it, at least to those whom he was trying to
persuade to help him. The only reference he ever made to the northern

voyage is when writing his journal in 1492, where he states,
"I have seen all the Levant (where the sun rises); and the Ponent (where
the sun sets); I have seen what is called The Northern Way, and
England; and I have sailed to Guinea."
Columbus's elder brother, Bartholomew, who was a map-maker and a
serious student of geography, also settled in Lisbon. The two either