"There Is No Sailing Upon The Ocean,
Because Its Entrance Is Shut Up By The Pillars Of Hercules.
Yet there had
formerly been an island in that ocean, larger than all Europe, Asia, and
Africa in one;
And from thence a passage to other islands, for such as
went in search of them, and from these other inlands people might go to
all the opposite continent, near the true ocean." These detractors from
the honour of Columbus, in explaining the words of Plato after their own
manner, evince more wit than truth, when they insist that the shut up
passage is the strait of Gibraltar, the gulf the great ocean, the great
island Atlantis, the other islands beyond that the leeward and windward
islands, the continent opposite them the land of Peru, and the true ocean
the great South Sea, so called from its vast extent. It is certain that no
one had any clear knowledge of these matters: and what they now allege
consists merely of notions and guesses, patched together since the actual
discovery; for the ancients concluded there was no possibility of sailing
across the ocean on account of its vast extent. These men, however, labour
to confirm their opinions, by alleging that the ancients possessed much
knowledge of the torrid zone; as they insit that Hano the Carthaginian
coasted round Africa, from the straits of Gibraltar to the Red Sea, and
that Eudoxias navigated in the contrary direction from the Red Sea to the
Mediterranean. They allege farther, that both Ovid and Pliny make mention
of the island of Trapobano, now Zumatra[2] which is under the line.
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