This Country Of Ours | Page 9

of it only in minstrel tales, and it came to be for them a sort
of fairy-land which had no existence save in a poet's dream.
But now wise men have read these tales with care, and many have
come to believe that they are not mere fairy stories. They have come to
believe that hundreds of years before Columbus lived the Vikings of

the North sailed the western seas and found the land which lay beyond,
the land which we now call America.
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Chapter 2
- The Sea of Darkness and the Great Faith of Columbus

In those far-off times besides the Vikings of the North other daring
sailors sailed the seas. But all their sailings took them eastward. For it
was from the east that all the trade and the riches came in those days.
To India and to far Cathay sailed the merchant through the Red Sea and
the Indian Ocean, to return with a rich and fragrant cargo of silks and
spices, pearls and priceless gems.
None thought of sailing westward. For to men of those days the
Atlantic Ocean was known as the Outer Sea or the Sea of Darkness.
There was nothing to be gained by venturing upon it, much to be
dreaded. It was said that huge and horrible sea-dragons lived there,
ready to wreck and swallow down any vessel that might venture near.
An enormous bird also hovered in the skies waiting to pounce upon
vessels and bear them away to some unknown eyrie. Even if any
foolhardy adventurers should defy these dangers, and escape the horror
of the dragons and the bird, other perils threatened them. For far in the
west there lay a bottomless pit of seething fire. That was easy of proof.
Did not the face of the setting sun glow with the reflected light as it
sank in the west? There would be no hope nor rescue for any ship that
should be drawn into that awful pit.
Again it was believed that the ocean flowed downhill, and that if a ship
sailed down too far it would never be able to get back again. These and
many other dangers, said the ignorant people of those days, threatened
the rash sailors who should attempt to sail upon the Sea of Darkness.
So it was not wonderful that for hundreds of years men contented
themselves with the well-known routes which indeed offered adventure

enough to satisfy the heart of the most daring.
But as time passed these old trade-routes fell more and more into the
hands of Turks and Infidels. Port after port came under their rule, and
infidel pirates swarmed in the Indian Ocean and Mediterranean until no
Christian vessel was safe. At every step Christian traders found
themselves hampered and hindered, and in danger of their lives, and
they began to long for another way to the lands of spice and pearls.
Then it was that men turned their thoughts to the dread Sea of Darkness.
The less ignorant among them had begun to disbelieve the tales of
dragons and fiery pits. The world was round, said wise men. Why then,
if that were so, India could be reached by sailing west as well as by
sailing east.
Many men now came to this conclusion, among them an Italian sailor
named Christopher Columbus. The more Columbus thought about his
plan of sailing west to reach India, the more he believed in it, and the
more he longed to set out. But without a great deal of money such an
expedition was impossible, and Columbus was poor. His only hope was
to win the help and friendship of a king or some other great and
wealthy person.
The Portuguese were in those days a sea-faring people, and their ships
were to be found wherever ships dared go. Indeed Prince Henry of
Portugal did so much to encourage voyages of discovery that he was
called Henry the Navigator. And although he was by this time dead, the
people still took great interest in voyages of discovery. So at length
Columbus determined to go to King John of Portugal to tell him of his
plans, and ask for his aid.
King John listened kindly enough, it seemed, to what Columbus had to
say. But before giving him any answer he said that he must consult his
wise men. These wise men looked upon the whole idea of sailing to the
west to reach the east as absurd. So King John refused to give
Columbus any help.
Yet although most of King John's wise men thought little of the plan,

King John himself thought that there was something in it. But instead
of helping Columbus he meanly resolved to send out an expedition of
his own. This he did, and when Columbus