473, and
shortly afterwards he married Felipa Moniz, daughter of Bartolomeo
Perestrello, an Italian in the service of the King of Portugal,
and for some time Governor of Madeira.

Now it chanced just at this time that there was a rumour in Portugal
that a certain Italian philosopher, named Toscanelli, had put forth
views as to the possibility of a westward voyage to Cathay, or
China, and the Portuguese king had, through a monk named Martinez,
applied to Toscanelli to know his views, which were given in a letter
dated 25th June 1474. It would appear that, quite independently,
Columbus had heard the rumour, and applied to Toscanelli, for in
the latter's reply he, like a good business man, shortened his
answer by giving a copy of the letter he had recently written to
Martinez. What was more important and more useful, Toscanelli sent
a map showing in hours (or degrees) the probable distance between
Spain and Cathay westward. By adding the information given by Marco
Polo to the incorrect views of Ptolemy about the breadth of the
inhabited world, Toscanelli reduced the distance from the Azores
to 52 deg., or 3120 miles. Columbus always expressed his indebtedness
to Toscanelli's map for his guidance, and, as we shall see, depended
upon it very closely, both in steering, and in estimating the distance
to be traversed. Unfortunately this map has been lost, but from
a list of geographical positions, with latitude and longitude,
founded upon it, modern geographers have been able to restore it
in some detail, and a simplified sketch of it may be here inserted,
as perhaps the most important document in Columbus's career.

Certainly, whether he had the idea of reaching the Indies by a
westward voyage before or not, he adopted Toscanelli's views with
enthusiasm, and devoted his whole life henceforth to trying to
carry them into operation.

He gathered together all the information he could get about the
fabled islands of the Atlantic--the Island of St. Brandan, where
that Irish saint found happy mortals; and the Island of Antilla,
imagined by others, with its seven cities. He gathered together
all the gossip he could hear--of mysterious corpses cast ashore
on the Canaries, and resembling no race of men known to Europe;
of huge canes, found on the shores of the same islands, evidently
carved by man's skill. Curiously enough, these pieces of evidence
were logically rather against the existence of a westward route to
the Indies than