ensamientos." Mariana, _Historia de Espana_, tom. viii.
p. 341.]

[Sidenote: His marriage, and life upon the island of Porto Santo.]

The acquaintance between Columbus and Philippa Moniz de Perestrelo was
not long in ripening into affection, for they were married in 1473. As
there was a small estate at Porto Santo, Columbus went home thither with
his bride to live for a while in quiet and seclusion. Such repose we may
believe to have been favourable to meditation, and on that little
island, three hundred miles out on the mysterious ocean, we are told
that the great scheme of sailing westward to the Indies first took shape
in the mind of Columbus.[429] His father-in-law Perestrelo had left a
quantity of sailing charts and nautical notes, and these Columbus
diligently studied, while ships on their way to and from Guinea every
now and then stopped at the island, and one can easily imagine the eager
discussions that must have been held over the great commercial problem
of the age,--how far south that African coast extended and whether there
was any likelihood of ever finding an end to it.

[Footnote 429: Upon that island his eldest son Diego was born.
This whole story of the life upon Porto Santo and its relation
to the genesis of Columbus's scheme is told very explicitly by
Las Casas, who says that it was told to him by Diego Columbus
at Barcelona in 1519, when they were waiting upon Charles V.,
just elected Emperor and about to start for Aachen to be
crowned. And yet there are modern critics who are disposed to
deny the whole story. (See Harrisse, tom. i. p. 298.) The
grounds for doubt are, however, extremely trivial when
confronted with Las Casas, _Historia_, tom. i. p. 54.]

[Sidenote: Alfonso V. asks advice of the great astronomer Toscanelli.]

How long Columbus lived upon Porto Santo is not known, but he seems to
have gone from time to time back to Lisbon, and at length to have made
his home--or in the case of such a rover we might better say his
headquarters--in that city. We come now to a document of supreme
importance for our narrative. Paolo del Pozzo dei Toscanelli, born at
Florence in 1397, was one of the most famous astronomers and
cosmographers of his time, a man to whom it was natural that questions
involving the size and shape of the earth should be referred. To him
Alfonso V. of Portugal made application,