tural inquiry was how to
reach India by sea instead of going overland. Columbus, therefore,
sailed due west to reach Asia, and stumbled upon a "New World" without
knowing what he did; then Cabot, sailing from Bristol, sailed northwest
to reach India, and stumbled upon the continent of America; and during
the same reign (Henry VII) the Atlantic coast of both North and South
America was visited by English, Portuguese, or Spanish navigators. The
third expedition to reach India by sea was under De Gama. He set out in
the same year as Cabot, sailing into the South Atlantic, and ultimately
did find the west coast of India at Calicut, after rounding the cape.

The mere enumeration of so many events, all of first-rate importance,
proves that that half century (say from A. D. 1460 to 1520) must be
called "an age of marvels," _saeclum mirabile_. The concurrence of so
many epoch-making results gave a great impulse, not only to the study of
literature, science, and art, but to the exploration of many unknown
countries in America, Africa, and Asia, and the universal expansion of
human knowledge generally.

I.--We shall now consider the first of these discoverers, who was also
the greatest.

COLUMBUS, the Latinized form of the Italian Colombo, Spanish, Colon.
This Genoese navigator must throughout all history be called the
discoverer of America, notwithstanding all the work of smaller men. From
his study of geographical books in several languages, Columbus had
convinced himself that our planet is spherical or ball-shaped, not a
flat, plane surface. Till then India had always been reached by
traveling overland toward the rising sun. Why not sail westward from
Europe over the ocean, and thus come to the eastern parts of Asia by
traveling toward the setting sun? By doing so, since our world is
ball-shaped, said Columbus, we must inevitably reach Zipango (i. e.,
"Japan") and Cathay (i. e., "China"), which are the most eastern parts
of Asia. India then will be a mere detail. Judging from the accounts of
Asia and its eastern islands given by Marco Polo, a Venetian, as well as
from the maps sketched by Ptolemy, the Egyptian geographer, Columbus
believed that the east coast of Asia was not so very far from the west
coast of Europe. Columbus was confirmed in this opinion by a learned
geographer of Florence, named Paul, and henceforward impatiently waited
for an opportunity of testing the truth of his theory.

He convinced himself, but cou