South America | Page 7

southernmost shores of Portugal, where Prince Henry the Navigator
had founded his maritime school, that royal scientist had watched with
pride the captains whom he had trained as they sailed their vessels over
the gold and blue horizon of the Far South, and had exultantly drunk in
on their return the tales of new shores and of oceans ploughed for the
first time; of spices, riches men, and beasts, all new and strange, and,
all appealing strongly to the imagination of the learned Prince, who
only restrained himself with difficulty from plunging into the unknown.
It was with men such as these of Prince Henry's with whom the
Genoese had been brought into contact on his first visit to Portugal.
That he had been received by this set as one of themselves is
sufficiently evidenced by the fact of his marriage with a daughter of
Bartholomew Perestrello. It was naturally, therefore, to the Portuguese
Government that Columbus first applied for the assistance in men and
ships which were to bear him to the land which he so fiercely promised.
As has been said, there is no doubt that Columbus was a visionary who
possessed a large amount of practical knowledge and experience, from
which the indulgence in these visions sprang. That his theories were the
result of something more than the merest speculation is certain.
Maritime legend and lore were rife in Genoa and the Mediterranean,
and certainly abounded in Portugal under the benevolent and strenuous
encouragement of Prince Henry the Navigator. That some vague echoes
of the feats performed by the Norsemen and others who had long
before won their way to the Western Continent had penetrated to these
parts of Europe there is no doubt. Columbus, moreover, had stayed for
many months at one of those half-way houses between Europe and the
western mainland, Porto Santo, and the neighbouring Island of

Madeira.
His father-in-law was at the time Governor of the lesser island, that of
Porto Santo. In such a spot as this the requirements of Columbus were
naturally few, and he had gained a livelihood with ease by the making
of maps. His father was a carder of wool at Genoa, and young
Christopher, rebelling at the monotony of this trade, commenced his
maritime life before he was fifteen years old.
It was doubtless while at Porto Santo that Columbus had thought out
his theories, aided by not a little evidence of the material order, such as
floating logs and other objects, which had sailed, wind and current
borne, from the unknown lands across the Atlantic. Columbus, of
course, was not actually the first to feel convinced of the possibility of
gaining India by sailing to the West; the theory had been held by
Aristotle, Seneca, Strabo, and others. The sole mistake Columbus made
in his calculations was concerning the size of the world. He had
overestimated the extent of the Continent of Asia, and underestimated
the extent of the Atlantic Ocean; he seems to have been convinced that
a very few days' sailing to the west of Madeira would bring him to the
shores of India. It was this error in calculation that undoubtedly was
responsible for many long and agonizing hours spent on the actual
voyage.
[Illustration: JORGE CABRAL.
_From a coloured drawing in a Spanish MS. in the Sloane Collection in
the British Museum._]
Columbus's proposals, it is true, were received with a certain interest by
the Portuguese; but for the jealousy of some officials it is very probable
that he would, in the first instance, have seen his cherished plans
carried into effect. As it was, a vessel was secretly fitted out, and was
sent in command of a rival navigator to test the theories of Columbus.
After a while the ship returned, battered and worn, having discovered
nothing beyond a series of exceptionally violent tempests.
This attempt was in any case destined to prove equally adverse to the

fortunes of Columbus. Had it succeeded, he would have undoubtedly
been deprived of the credit which should have been his by right; since
it failed, the venture was considered to have proved the fallacy of
Columbus's theories. When, disgusted with experiences such as these,
Columbus left Portugal and took up his residence near the Court of
Spain in company with this great idea of his, which followed him
everywhere, and was in a sense bigger than himself, he met with an
equal lack of success in the first instance. Queen Isabella was
sympathetic, but her cautious husband Ferdinand showed himself cold.
Dreading the utter destruction of his plans, Columbus determined to
wash his hands of the Iberian Peninsula and its over-cautious rulers and
statesmen.
He was actually on his way to England, whither one of his brothers had
already preceded him, when a message from the