ded there, however."

Sancho's eyes turned seaward. "It is marvelous," he said after a pause,
"what things men think they see. And you think, senhor, that the world
is not yet all known to us?'"

"I do not know." Colombo stood up to take his departure. "If God hath
reserved any great work to be done, He hath also chosen the man who is
to do it. His tasks are not done by accident, or left to the blind or
the selfish. Toscanelli thinks that since the world is round, we should
reach the Indies by sailing due west from this coast, but in that case
India would seem to be far greater than we have believed. If I had the
ships and the men I would venture it. But at this time the King is
altogether taken up with the eastward route to the Indies. It was said
of old time, 'He that believeth shall not make haste.'"

"But you will sail to Paradise some day, will you not, senhor?" asked
Beatriz, treasuring the tiny globe in one careful hand while the other
shaded her eyes from the level rays of the evening sun.

"There is only one way to Paradise, little maid. That is by the will of
our Lord. And if you, my lad, are the first to sail round the world,
remember that the sea is His, and He made it. Man makes his own Sea of
Darkness by ignorance, and hate, and fear."

NOTES

[1] Prince Henry of Portugal, often called "Henry the Navigator" built
the first naval observatory in Europe at Sagres. He may be said to have
laid the foundation of the Portuguese and later Spanish discoveries. In
the time of Columbus the Mappe-Mondo or Map of the World of a Venetian
monk was considered the most complete map yet made.

[2] The statement has been carelessly made in some juvenile books
dealing with the age of discovery, that in the time of Columbus nobody
knew that the world was round. This of course is not even approximately
the case. The conception of the earth as a sphere was generally set
forth in what might be called books of science, and even in some popular
works like that of Sir John Maundeville, who died in 1372. Its
acceptance by the public, however, may be said to have followed somewhat
the course of the Darwinian theory in the nineteenth century. Long after
evolution was admitted as a truth by scientific men there were schools
and even colleges which refused to teach it, and in fact it was not
accepted by the public until the generation which first heard of it had
died.

SUNSET SONG

Down upon our seaward light,