.; Herrera, Dec. I.,
lib. i., cap. vii.; Munoz, _Hist. del Nuevo Mundo_, lib. ii.--Quoted by
Prescott.]

[Footnote 42: "Le Vendredi n'etant pas regarde dans la Chretiente comme
un jour de bon augure pour le commencement d'une entreprise, les
historiens du 17[me] siecle, qui gemissaient deja sur les maux dont,
selon eux, l'Europe a ete accable par la decouverte de l'Amerique, on
fait remarque que Colomb est parti pour la premiere expedition
_vendredi_, 3 aout 1492, et que la premiere terre d'Amerique a ete
decouverte _vendredi_ 12 Octobre de la meme annee. La reformation du
calendrier appliquee au journal de Colomb, qui indique toujours a la
fois, les jours de la semaine et la date du mois, feroit disparoitre le
pronostic du jour fatal."--Humboldt's _Geog. du Nouveau Continent_, vol.
iii., p. 160.]

[Footnote 43: His first landing in the New World partook of the same
character as his departure from the Old.

"Christoforo Colombo--primo con una bandiera nella quale era figurato il
nostro Signore Jesu Christo in croce, salto in terra, e quella pianto, e
poi tutti gli alti smontarono, e inginocchiati baciarono la terra, tre
volti piangendo di allegrezza. Di poi Colombo alzate le mani al cielo
lagrimando disse, Signor Dio Eterno, Signore omnipotente, tu creasti il
cielo, e la terra, e il mare con la tua santa parola, sia benedetto e
glorificato il nome tuo, sia ringraziata la tua Maesta, la quale si e
degnata per mano d' uno umil suo servo far ch' el suo santo nome sia
conosciuto e divulgato in questa altra parte del mondo."--Pietro
Martire, _Dell' Indie Occidentali_, in Ramusio, tom. iii., p. 2; Oviedo,
_Hist. Gen. dell' India_.]

[Footnote 44: Columbus not only has, incontestably, the merit of first
discovering the line where there is no declination of the needle, but
also of first inducing a study of terrestrial magnetism in Europe, by
his observations concerning the increasing declination as he sailed in a
westerly direction from that line. It had been already easily recognized
in the Mediterranean, and in all places where, in the twelfth century,
the declination was as much as eight or ten degrees, even though their
instruments were so imperfect that the ends of a magnetic needle did not
point exactly to the geographical north or south. It is improbable that
the Arabs or Crusaders drew attention to the fact of the compass
pointing to the northeast and northwest in different parts of the world,
as to a phenomenon wh