Columbus Took
His Departure From Gomera On Thursday The 6th September, And Landed On
Guanahani On Friday The 12th October, Both 1492.
The time, therefore,
which was employed in this first passage across the Atlantic, not
including the 12th, because the land was observed in the night before,
was exactly 36 days.
Had Columbus held a direct course west from
Gomera, in latitude 27 deg. 47' N. he would have fallen in with one of the
desert sandy islands on the coast of Florida, near a place now called
Hummock, or might have been wrecked on the Montanilla reef, at the
north end of the Bahama banks: his deflection therefore, to the S.W.
on the 7th October, was fortunate for the success of his great
expedition. - E.
[3] How infinitely better it had been for Columbus, and his precursors the
Portuguese, to have retained the native names, where these could be
learnt; or, otherwise, to have imposed single significant new names
like the Norwegian navigators of the ninth century, instead of these
clumsy long winded superstitious appellations. This island of St
Mary of the Conception seems to have been what is now called
Long-island, S.S.E. from St Salvador or Guanahani, now Cat-island. - E.
[4] A small Portuguese coin worth less than twopence. - Churchill.
[5] This sentence is quite inexplicable, and is assuredly erroneously
translated. It is possible the original meant, that Columbus was
misled by the opinion of Paul, to disregard the indications of the
Indians; and instead of sailing directly west, which would have led
him to the coast of Mexico, induced him to coast eastwards along Cuba,
which brought him to Hispaniola, always searching for Cipango or
Japan.
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