pted it, and it may be read to-day upon his tomb
in the cathedral at Seville. The time-honoured tradition has evidently
transferred to the father the legend adopted, if not originally
devised, by his son.

[Footnote 617: _Vita del Ammiraglio_, cap. cvii. This is
unquestionably a gloss of the translator Ulloa. Cf. Harrisse,
_Christophe Colomb_, tom. ii. pp. 177-179.]

[Illustration: Arms.]

But why is this mere question of heraldry a matter of importance for the
historian? Simply because it furnishes one of the most striking among
many illustrations of the fact that at no time during the life of
Columbus, nor for some years after his death, did anybody use the phrase
"New World" with conscious reference to _his_ discoveries. At the time
of his death their true significance had not yet begun to dawn upon the
mind of any voyager or any writer. It was supposed that he had found a
new route to the Indies by sailing west, and that in the course of this
achievement he had discovered some new islands and a bit or bits of
Terra Firma of more or less doubtful commercial value. To group these
items of discovery into an organic whole, and to ascertain that they
belonged to a whole quite distinct from the Old World, required the work
of many other discoverers, companions and successors to Columbus. In the
following chapter I shall endeavour to show how the conception of the
New World was thus originated and at length became developed into the
form with which we are now familiar.

[Illustration: Sketch of Toscanelli's map, sent to Portugal in 1474, and
used by Columbus in his first voyage across the Atlantic.]

[Illustration: Claudius Ptolemy's world, cir. A. D. 150.]

[Illustration: John Fiske.]

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Discovery of America Vol. 1 (of 2), by
John Fiske

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA ***

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