Others Argued Nearly In The Same Manner As
Had Been Formerly Done By The Portuguese In Regard To The Navigation Along
The Western Coast Of Africa:
That if any one should sail due westwards, as
proposed by the admiral, it would certainly be impossible to
Return again
to Spain; because whoever should sail beyond the hemisphere which was
known to Ptolemy, would then go downwards upon the rotundity of the globe,
and then it would be impossible to sail up again on their return, which
would necessarily be to climb up hill, and which no ship could accomplish
even with the stiffest gale. Although the admiral gave perfectly valid
answers to all these objections; yet, such was the ignorance of these
people, that the more his reasons were powerful and conclusive so much the
less were they understood: For when people have grown old in prejudices
and false notions of philosophy and mathematics, these get such firm hold
of the mind that true and just principles are utterly unintelligible.
The prior and his coadjutors were all influenced by a Spanish proverb,
which, though contradictory to reason and common sense, says Dubitat
Augustinus, or it is contradicted by St Augustine; who, in the 9th
chapter of the 21st book of his city of God, denies the possibility of the
Antipodes, or that any person should be able to go from one hemisphere
into the other. They farther urged against the admiral the commonly
received opinions concerning the five zones, by which the torrid zone is
declared utterly uninhabitable, and many other arguments equally absurd
and ridiculous.
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