I Was So Young At His Death, That Owing To Filial Respect, I
Had Not The Boldness To Ask An Account From Him Of The Incidents Of His
Youth, And Besides I Was Not Then Interested In Such Inquiries.
But some
account of these things may be gleaned from his letters to their Catholic
majesties, to whom he would not dare to write any thing but the truth.
In
one of these letters, written in the year 1501, he says,
"Most Serene Princes! I went to sea when very young, and have continued to
the present day; and this art of navigation inclines those who follow it
to be desirous of discovering the secrets of this world. It is now forty
years[2] that I have been sailing to all those parts of the world which
are frequented at present; and I have conversed with many wise and learned
men, both clergy and laity, Latins, Greeks, Indians and Moors, and of many
other sects and nations. God has been favourable to my inclination, and
has given me the spirit of understanding, so that I have become very
skilful in navigation, with a competent knowledge in arithmetic, geometry,
and astronomy, and both genius and skill to draw maps and charts of this
world, with its cities, rivers, islands, and ports, all in their proper
places and proportions. During my whole life, I have endeavoured to see
and understand all books of cosmography, history, and philosophy; by which
my understanding hath been enlightened so as to enable me to sail from
Europe to the Indies, and God hath inclined me to put this design into
execution. Filled with this desire I came to your highnesses; and after
all who had heard an account of my proposed undertaking had rejected it
with scorn and contempt as visionary and impracticable; in your highnesses
alone I found judgment to believe in the practicability of my proposal,
and constancy and spirit to put it into execution."
In another letter, written in January 1495 from Hispaniola, to their
Catholic majesties, in illustration of the errors and mistakes common in
voyages and the piloting of ships, he thus writes, "I was formerly sent to
Tunis by King Renee, whom God hath since taken to himself, to take the
galeasse called Fernandina; and, when near the island of St Peter off
Sardinia, I was informed that the Fernandina was accompanied by two ships
and a carack. This intelligence dismayed my people, who refused to proceed
in the enterprize, and demanded to go back to Marseilles for another ship
and more men. Finding that it was impossible to go on against their
inclinations, without a stratagem, I pretended to yield to their desires;
but having altered the card of the ships compass, I set sail when it was
late, under pretence of making for Marseilles. But next morning at
day-break, when all on board believed we had been sailing for Marseilles,
we found ourselves close in with Cape Carthagena[3]."
In a memorandum or observation tending to prove that all the five zones
are habitable by the experience of navigation, he thus writes: "In
February 1467, I sailed an hundred leagues beyond Thule, or Iceland, the
northern part of which is 73 degrees distant from the equinoctial, and not
63 degrees as some suppose; neither does it lie upon the line where
Ptolemy begins the West, but considerably more to the westwards. To this
island, which is as large as England, the English carry on trade,
especially from the port of Bristol. When I was there the sea was not
frozen, but the tides were so great that in some places it rose and fell
twenty-six fathoms[4]. I have likewise been in the Portuguese fort of St
George del Mina, under the equinoctial, and can witness that it is not
uninhabitable, as some have supposed." In his book respecting his first
voyage, he says that he saw some mermaids on the coast of Menegueta, but
that they were not by any means so like ladies as represented in paintings.
In another place he says, that, in several voyages between Lisbon and
Guinea, he had observed that a degree on the earth corresponds to 56 miles
and two thirds. He notices having seen mastick drawn from some trees in
the island of Scio, one of the isles in the Greek Archipelago.
In one place of his own writings he says that he had been at sea during
twenty-three years, without being on shore for any length of time; and had
seen all the countries of the east and west, and towards the north,
particularly England and Guinea; yet had never seen any harbours that
could be compared for goodness with those which he had discovered in the
West Indies. He says farther, "I went first to sea at fourteen years of
age, and have followed that profession ever since." In his note book of
his second voyage he says, "I had two ships, one of which I left at Porto
Sancto, for a certain reason, where it continued one day; and on the day
following, I rejoined it at Lisbon[5]; because I encountered a storm, and
had contrary winds at south-west, and the other ship had contrary winds at
south-east." From these instances it may be inferred that he had great
experience in sea affairs, and that he had visited many countries and
places, before he undertook his great discovery.
[1] This must be understood as referring to voyages in the Mediterranean,
in respect of the port of Genoa. - E.
[2] Supposing Columbus to have been 14 years of age on first going to sea,
it may be concluded that he was born in 1447. He must therefore have
been 45 years old when he set out in 1492 for the discovery of America;
and 59 years old at his death, in 1506. - E.
[3] Or rather Cape Carthago, on the coast of Barbary near Tunis.
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