ced them about
where they were placed in 1837 by Professor Rafn; that, among other
things, he thus obtained a correct knowledge of the width of the
Atlantic ocean in latitude 28 deg. N.; and that during fifteen subsequent
years of weary endeavour to obtain ships and men for his westward
voyage, he sedulously refrained from using the most convincing argument
at his command,--namely that land of continental dimensions had actually
been found (though by a very different route) in the direction which he
indicated.

[Footnote 472: See Anderson's _America not discovered by
Columbus_, Chicago, 1874; 3d ed. enlarged, Chicago, 1883.]

[Sidenote: That hypothesis has no evidence in its favour.]

I have already given an explanation of the process by which Columbus
arrived at the firm belief that by sailing not more than about 2,500
geographical miles due west from the Canaries he should reach the coast
of Japan. Every step of that explanation is sustained by documentary
evidence, and as his belief is thus completely accounted for, the
hypothesis that he may have based it upon information obtained in
Iceland is, to say the least, superfluous. We do not need it in order to
explain his actions, and accordingly his actions do not afford a
presumption in favour of it. There is otherwise no reason, of course,
for refusing to admit that he might have obtained information in
Iceland, were there any evidence that he did. But not a scrap of such
evidence has ever been produced. Every step in the Scandinavian
hypothesis is a pure assumption.

[Sidenote: It is not probable that Columbus knew of Adam of Bremen's
allusion to Vinland,]

[Sidenote: or that he would have understood it if he had read it.]

First it is assumed that Columbus _must_ have read the appendix to Adam
of Bremen's history. But really, while it is not impossible that he
should have read that document, it is, on the whole, improbable. The
appendix was first printed in Lindenbrog's edition, published at Leyden,
in 1595. The eminent Norwegian historian, Gustav Storm, finds that in
the sixteenth century just six MSS. of Adam's works can now be traced.
Of these, two were preserved in Denmark, two in Hamburg, one had
_perhaps_ already wandered southward to Leyden, and one as far as
Vienna. Dr. Storm, therefore, feels sure that Columbus never saw Adam's
mention of Vinland, and pithily adds that "had Columbus known it, it
would not have been able to show him