of the period in which he lived, for the
world was then but just awakening from the dull sleep of the Middle
Ages. The discovery of printing heralded the new birth of the republic
of letters, and maritime enterprise received a vigorous impulse. The
shores of the Mediterranean, thoroughly explored and developed, had
endowed the Italian States with extraordinary wealth, and built up a
very respectable mercantile marine. The Portuguese mariners were
venturing farther and farther from the peninsula, and traded with many
distant ports on the extended coast of Africa.

To the west lay what men supposed to be an illimitable ocean, full of
mystery, peril, and death. A vague conception that islands hitherto
unknown might be met afar off on that strange wilderness of waters was
entertained by some minds, but no one thought of venturing in search
of them. Columbus alone, regarded merely as a brave and intelligent
seaman and pilot, conceived the idea that the earth was spherical, and
that the East Indies, the great El Dorado of the century, might be
reached by circumnavigating the globe. If we picture to ourselves the
mental condition of the age and the state of science, we shall find no
difficulty in conceiving the scorn and incredulity with which the
theory of Columbus was received. We shall not wonder that he was
regarded as a madman or as a fool; we are not surprised to remember
that he encountered repulse upon repulse as he journeyed wearily from
court to court, and pleaded in vain to the sovereigns of Europe for
aid to prosecute his great design. The marvel is that when door after
door was closed against him, when all ears were deaf to his earnest
importunities, when day by day the opposition to his views increased,
when, weary and footsore, he was forced to beg a bit of bread and a
cup of water for his fainting and famishing boy at the door of a
Spanish convent, his reason did not give way, and his great heart did
not break with disappointment.

But he felt himself to be the instrument of a higher power, and his
soul was then as firm and steadfast as when, launched in his frail
caravel upon the ocean, he pursued day after day and night after
night, amidst a murmuring, discontented, and even mutinous crew, his
westward path across the trackless waters. No doubt he believed
himself to be inspired, or at least specially prompted from above.
This was shown by his tenacious observance of all ceremonies of the
Church, in his un