ing islands, by the help of which he accounted for the appearances related to him by his marine brethren. It is not improbable that the large islands of floating ice driven from the Polar Seas to the southward, or the Fog Banks, which form many singular appearances resembling land and trees, might have been the true foundation of this opinion and of these reports.*

* The following account of a curious deception, extracted from the Gentleman's Magazine, may elucidate the above observations.

"March 4, 1748-9, at two in the afternoon, made land which bore N.E. seven leagues distant by estimation: at five tacked, being about three leagues from said island, wind E.S.E., latitude by observation 49° 40′, longitude 24° 30′ from the Lizard. This island stretches N.W. and S.E., about 5 leagues long and 9 miles wide. On the south side fine valleys and a great number of birds.

"March 5, said island bore N. three leagues, N.W. a reef of rocks three miles. This day a ship's mast came alongside. On the south point of said island is a small marshy island. 66 6 A copy of my journal on board the snow St. Paul, of London, bound from South Carolina to London.

"William Otton, Commander. "P.S. Captain Otton thought he saw a tent on the island, and would have gone ashore, but had unfortunately stove his boat some time before.'

"Commodore Rodney is commissioned to go in quest of an island, which, according to the report of a master of a ship and some others, on examination before the Lords of the Admiralty, lies about 50° N. and about 300 leagues west of England. Capt. Murdock Mackenzie, an excellent mathematician, and au

It is not pretended that Columbus was the only person of his age who had acquired these ideas of the form, dimensions, and ba'ancing of the globe, but he was one of the few who had begun to think for themselves, and he had a genius of that kind which makes use of speculation and reasoning only as excitements to action. He was not a closet projector, but an enterprising adventurer; and, having established his theory on principles, he was determined to exert himself to the utmost to demonstrate its truth by experiment. But, deeming the enterprise too great to be undertaken by any but a sovthor of the sea charts of the Orkney and Lewis Islands, attends him in the Culloden sloop to bring back an account of what discoveries he may make. As this island lies out of the track of the trade to America, it is supposed to have been missed by navigators to our colonies, though marked in some Dutch maps. If the commodore discovers it, he is to take possession of it by the name of Rodney's Island."

66

Friday, April 10, 1752, Commodore Rodney arrived at Woolwich; he had been cruising ten days in quest of an island, and the men at the topmasthead were more than once deceived with what the sailors call fog-banks. About the 6th or 7th day the crew observed branches of trees with their leaves on, and flights of gulls, and pieces of shipwreck, which are generally regarded as certain signs of an adjacent shore, but could not discover any."—Gent. Mag. for 1751, p. 235 ; for 1752, p. 88, 189. N.B. The island marked in the Dutch maps could not have been mistaken for this imaginary island, being but a single rock. It is the same that is described in the life of Zeno, p. 153.

ereign state, he first applied (as it is said) to the Republic of Genoa, by whom his project was treated as visionary.* He then proposed his plan to John II., king of Portugal, who, though a prince of good understanding and of an enterprising disposition, yet was so deeply engaged in prosecuting discoveries on the African coast, with a view to find a way to India round that continent, and had been at so vast an expense without any considerable success, that he had no inclination to accept the terms which Columbus proposed. Influ

This is said on the authority of Herrera, the royal Spanish historian Ferdinando Columbus, in the life of his father, says nothing of it, but represents his application to the King of Portugal as the first, and gives this reason for it, "because he lived under him."

+ [The previous application to Genoa, though strongly affirmed, has now, we believe, been generally rejected. The circumstances of the case, apart from any conclusive historical evidence, render it probable that his first application was to the King of Portugal. Columbus was residing in his dominions, and John was eminently liberal to maritime enterprise. His proposals were more likely to be well received by him than by a republic then engaged in wars and torn by internal dissensions; and we find no traces of so fond an attachment to his native country as would induce a prudent man to forego the advantages held out to him in the land of his residence and adoption. The precise date of this application is not known. It was undoubt edly in 1482 or 1483, as John II. ascended the throne in 1481, and Columbus left Portugal in 1484.-H.]

enced, however, by the advice of Calzadilla,* a favourite courtier, he privately gave orders to a ship, bound to the islands of Cape de Verd, to attempt a discovery in the west; but, through ignorance and want of enterprise, the navigators, after wandering for some time in the ocean and making no discovery, reached their destined port and turned the project of Columbus into ridicule.

Disgusted with this base artifice, he quitted Portugal,† and went to Ferdinand, king of

* [Diego Ortiz, called Calzadilla, from the name of his native place, a man of learning, then bishop of Ceuta, and confessor to the king. He was one of a number of scientific men to whom the proposals of Columbus were referred by the king for their judgment.-H.]

+ [He left Portugal near the close of the year 1484. In the fall of 1485 he entered Spain. He had left Portugal deeply in debt and to avoid an arrest. He entered Spain with his fortunes in no way improved, and with feeble hopes. The circumstances of his entrance are too singular and romantic to be omitted. One day a stranger, on foot, in humble guise, but of a distinguished air, accompanied by a small boy, stopped at the gate of a convent of Franciscan friars, half a league from the little seaport of Palos, in Andalusia, and asked of the porter a little bread and water for his child. While receiving this humble re freshment, the prior of the convent, Juan de Perez Marchena, happening to pass by, was struck with the appearance of the stranger, and entered into conversation with him. That stranger was Columbus, attended by his little son Diego. The prior was a man of learning, especially in geography and nautical He was struck with the lofty views of Columbus, and detained him as his guest. It was now late in August, and

science.

Spain, having previously sent his brother to England to solicit the patronage of Henry

The prior

Columbus passed the winter in this lonely retreat. was charmed by his conversation and persuaded by his arguments, and continued ever after his zealous and steadfast friend. When the spring opened and his guest would be gone, the worthy prior gave him a letter to Fernando de Talavera, confessor to the queen, a man of great influence in public affairs, urging the scheme of Columbus upon his attention. Refreshed with this hope, the wanderer set forth again, to seek an audience of the confessor, and, through him, of the queen.

Talavera received him with coolness, and believed him visionary. Ferdinand and Isabella were in the midst of their wars with the Moors. The whole court was busied in military preparations and action. None had leisure to listen to the speculations of an obscure adventurer; and he who could open a new world to him who would befriend him, was fain to take his place among lackeys and the humblest servitors, that he might, perchance, in some happy hour, gain a hearing for his vast suit. Slowly did he gain here and there a friend who might at some time be of service to him. After many delays and much uncertainty, the archbishop of Toledo assented to his views, and brought him to the presence of the king. The king hesitated and was doubtful, and referred the subject to a select council of learned men, to hear, examine, and report.

The council met in 1486, in the Dominican convent of St. Stephen at Salamanca; the dignitaries of the Church, studious monks, and learned professors, to decide on the project of an obscure and solitary theorizer. They gave more heed to the fathers than to the deductions of reason, and answered an argument of science with a quotation from Lactantius. They were not ignorant, but they had not learned the different provinces of faith and reason. Some of them were convinced, but a majority could not be persuaded. The simple navigator proved himself no mean theologian, and quoted prophecy as an offset to the