_Facing_ 265

Two sheets of the Catalan Map, 1375, _from Yule's Cathay,
published by the Hakluyt Society_ 288, 289

Map of the World according to Pomponius Mela, cir. A. D. 50,
_from Winsor's Narrative and Critical History of America_ 304

Map illustrating Portuguese voyages on the coast of Africa,
_from a sketch by the author_ 324

Toscanelli's Map, 1474, _redrawn and improved from a sketch
in Winsor's America_ _Facing_ 357

Annotations by Columbus, _reduced from a photograph in
Harrisse's Notes on Columbus_ 373

Sketch of Martin Behaim's Globe, 1492, preserved in the city
hall at Nuremberg, _reduced to Mercator's projection and
sketched by the author_ 422, 423

Sketch of Martin Behaim's Atlantic Ocean, with outline of the
American continent superimposed, _from Winsor's America_ 429

Map of the discoveries made by Columbus in his first and
second voyages, _sketched by the author_ 469

Map of the discoveries made by Columbus in his third and
fourth voyages, _ditto_ 493

Arms of Ferdinand Columbus, _from the title-page of
Harrisse's Fernand Colomb_ 515

THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA.

CHAPTER I.

ANCIENT AMERICA.

[Sidenote: The American aborigines.]

When the civilized people of Europe first became acquainted with the
continents of North and South America, they found them inhabited by a
race of men quite unlike any of the races with which they were familiar
in the Old World. Between the various tribes of this aboriginal American
race, except in the sub-arctic region, there is now seen to be a general
physical likeness, such as to constitute an American type of mankind as
clearly recognizable as those types which we call Mongolian and Malay,
though far less pronounced than such types as the Australian or the
negro. The most obvious characteristics possessed in common by the
American aborigines are the copper-coloured or rather the
cinnamon-coloured complexion, along with the high cheek-bones and small
deep-set eyes, the straight black hair and absence or scantiness of
beard. With regard to stature, length of limbs, massiveness of frame,
and shape of skull, conside