After The Actual Discovery, And When Both New Spain And Peru Were
Found Out, The Name Was Made Plural, And The New World Was Called The West
Indies.
These West Indies are the countries comprehended within the limits
assigned to the crown of Castile and Leon, consisting of one hemisphere,
or half the globe, being 180 degrees of longitude.
These limits commenced
at a meridian, 30 or 40 degrees westwards from that of the city of Toledo,
and proceeded from thence to the west; so that allowing 17-1/2 leagues to
a degree, this allotment contains 3700 Spanish leagues in breadth, between
east and west[2].
Columbus, whom the Spaniards call Colon, to adapt his name to their
language, was born in Genoa, his fathers name being Dominick. As to the
original of his family, some derive it from Placentia, others from Cucureo,
a town on the coast near that city, others from the lords of the castle of
Cucaro, in Montferrat, near Alexandria de la Pagla. In 940, the Emperor
Otho II. confirmed to the brothers and earls, Peter, John, and Alexander
Columbus, the real and feudal estates which they possessed in the
liberties of the cities of Aqui, Savona, Asti, Montferrat, Turin, Vercelli,
Parma, Cremona, and Bergamo, with all the rest they held in Italy. By
other records, it appears that the Columbi of Cucaro, Cucureo, and
Placentia, were the same; and that the before-mentioned emperor granted,
in the same year 940, to the same three brothers, the castles of Cucaro,
Cowzana, Rosignano, and others, with the fourth part of Bistagno, which
belonged to the empire. This sufficiently demonstrates the antiquity and
importance of the family. When very young, Christopher Columbus came into
Spain, or Portugal rather, to seek his fortune like other men. He there
married Donna Philippa Moniz de Perestrello, by whom he had one son, Don
James Columbus; and afterwards, by a second wife, Donna Beatrix Henriquez
of the city of Cordova, he had another son, Don Ferdinand Columbus, a
gentleman excellently qualified and well learned.
Being entirely convinced that there were new lands to discover, which he
had been long revolving in his mind, he at length determined to attempt
carrying his design into execution; but knowing that such an undertaking
was fit only for some sovereign prince or state, he made the proposal, in
the first place, to the republic of Genoa, where it was looked upon as a
chimera. He then communicated his design to John II. of Portugal, who gave
him a favourable hearing, but was so much occupied with the discoveries
along the western coast of Africa, that he was unwilling to engage in
another enterprize of so much importance. King John, however, referred the
matter to three persons on whom he placed great reliance in matters
relating to cosmography and discovery; one of these was Don James Ortez,
bishop of Ceuta who was a Spaniard, born at Calzadilla in the commandary
of St Jago, and commonly called the Doctor Calzadilla; the other two were
Roderick and Joseph, two Jewish physicians.
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