Volume 1

A new and complete collection of voyages and travels / [John Hamilton Moore].

  • John Hamilton Moore
Date:
[1785?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A new and complete collection of voyages and travels / [John Hamilton Moore]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    17/684 page 1
    AND TRAVELS. THE FIRST VOYAGE OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. ^CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, who Mf 1 added a fourth quarter to the world by his . H difcoveries towards the latter end of the i fifteenth century, was a native of Genoa, of uncertain parentage, but of confefled abilities. He had a ftrcng propenfity to the ftudy of navigation, early in life he difcovered an inclination to mathematical refearches, and had been employed in trading voyages to divers parts of the world before he attempted to fet out upon this grand difcovery. His motives to the undertaking, according to his own account, were the following: Firft, The figure of the earth fuggefted to him the probability that there mull be fome counterbalance of land, to anfwer to the vaft tradl of ocean which appeared to furround the habitable world. Secondly, He greatly relied upon fome hints of this kind, which he thought he traced in feveral ancient writers, as well as on the obferva- tions whieh he himfelf had made in the courfe of fome of his own voyages. Thefe were confirmed by thofe of other navigators, among whom was one who mentioned a large ifland, which he faid he had dif¬ covered to the weftward of Ireland, fince fuppofed to be Newfoundland. One Martin Vincent, who ufed to fail to the Azores, is faid to have told Columbus, that being 450 leagues to the weftward of Cape St. Vincent, he took up a piece of timber which feemed to be wrought by fome artifan, but apparently, with¬ out the help of iron. Peter Correa, who had married Columbus’s wife’s filler, reported that he had feen another piece of the fame fort at Puerto Santo, and that there had alfo been canes found fo thick that every joint would hold a gallon of wine, which were fliewn to the king of Portugal. Such canes being generally found in India, concurred with other circumftances to infpire Columbus with the notion of failing weftward to the Eaft Indies; which, if no intervening lands obftrudled, he concluded there was a moral certainty of accom- plilhing. The calling up of pines and dead bodies at the Floras, which latter, by their features, feemed to have been the inhabitants of fome remoter region, tended Hill farther to confirm him in his opinion. Poflefled with the refolution of making the experi¬ ment, he firft propofed the matter to his countrymen the Genoefe, by whom it was rejected. He then ad- drefled himfelf to the King of Portugal, in whofe dominions he lived, and where he had married and in¬ tended to fettle. But that monarch feemed extremely backward to engage in fuch an extenfive undertaking. The reafons urged were, that his Majefty had already been at great expence in fending perfons to make difcoveries along the African coaft, and to find out an eaftern paflage to the Indies \>y fea, without having Vp4. I. N° i.» reaped the expe&ed advantages; and that there ap¬ peared little profpedl of attaining the end by an ex¬ pedition to the weftward where frefh difficulties and dangers would arife, fince after all the labour that had been bellowed on the favourite fcheme of the Por- tuguefe, carried on fince Prince Henry’s time, there had not been found any navigators yet fuccefsful enough to weather the Cape of Good Hope, and fpread their fails upon the Indian Ocean. However plaufible this reafoning might feem, it appeared in the fequel, that his Portuguefe Majefty was not fo much bent againft a expedition of this fort, as he was averfe to employing Columbus ; for* by the advice of fome who lhared his confidence, the king fecretly caufed a veftel to be fitted out, which was fent to difcover what fome, in jell, had termed Columbus’s world } but for want of conftancy and a proper idea of what courfe to take, the fcheme miff carried, and thofe who had thus been fent to circum¬ vent the firft propofer, returned without having ef¬ fected any thing, and fully convinced that there could be no lands to the weftward beyond thofe already dif¬ covered ; becaufe they had not the fortune to find them out. Columbus being informed of what had palled, was Columbu fo much difgufted at this duplicity, that (his wife leaves Po being already dead) he determined to leave Portugal, Sal* and accordingly departed privately from that kingdom, taking with him his fon James, and proceeded to Caftile. Then, having left the child in a monaftery at Palos, he went to Cordova, where the Spanilh court then was, and where he recommended himfelf by his knowledge and abilities to the notice and friendlhip of feveral perfons whom he thought moll likely to favour his fcheme, which he intended to ptopofe to the reigning princes King Ferdinand and Queen Ifabeila. But left he Ihould meet with another repulfe in Spain, in order that no time might be loft, hedifpatched his brother Bartholomew to England to make propofals to King Henry VII. but his meflenger falling into the hands of pirates, and afterwards not getting a fpeedy audience of the king, thefe and other circum¬ ftances occafioned Columbus no longer to rely upon the Englilh, who might otherwife have infured to themfelves the Weft India illands and ruoft probably a lafting Englifh eftablifhment in South America. The application at firft intended was now made to their Catholic Majefties, but the matter being referred to certain Spanilh cofmographers, by the prior of Prado, afterwards archbilhop of Grenada, whom the king had thought fit to confult upon the occafion j thefe men whofe ideas were by no means fo extenfive as thofe of Columbus, gave their opinions againft the C expedition.
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