LIFE OF COLON, BY HIS SON.

9

The admiral being much delighted to hear fuch voyages and relations, his mother-in-law gave him the journals and fea charts left her by her hufband, which ftill moreinflamed the admiral ; and he inquired into the other voyages the Portuguefe thenmade to St. George de la Mira, and along the coaft of Guinea , being much pleafed todifcourfe with thofe that had failed thither. To fay the truth, I cannot certainly tellwhether, whilft this wife lived, the admiral went to Mira or Guinea , as I faid above,the reafon feems to require it. However it was, as one thing leads to another, and oneconfideration to another, fo whilft he was in Portugal he began to refleft, that as thePortuguefe travel fo far fouthward, it were no lefs proper to fail away weftward, andland might in reafon be found that way. That he might be the more certain and con-fident in this particular he began to look over all the cofmographers again whom hehad read before, and to obferve what aftrological reafons would corroborate this pro-ject ; and therefore he took notice of what any perfons whatfoever fpoke to that pur-pofe, and of failors particularly, which might any way be a help to him. Of all whichthings he made fuch good ufe, that he concluded for certain, that there were manylands weft of the Canary iflands, and Cabo Verde ; and that it was poffible to fail toand difcover them. But that it may appear from what mean arguments he came todeduce, or make out fo vaft an undertaking, and to fatisfy many who are defirous toknow particularly, what motives induced him to difcover thefe countries, and expofehimfell in fo dangerous an undertaking, I will here fet down what I have found in hispapers relating to this affair.

CHAP. VI. — The principal Motives that inclined the Admiral to believe he might dif-cover the Wejl Indies.

BEING about to deliver the motives that inclined the admiral to undertake thedifcovery of the Weft Indies, I fay they were three, viz, natural reafon, authorityof writers, and the teftimony of failors. As to the firft, which is natural reafon, Ifay, he concluded that all the fea and land compofed a fphere or globe; which mightbe gone about from eaft to weft, travelling round it, till men came to ftand feetto feet one againft another in any oppofite parts whatfoever. Secondly, he gave it forgranted, and was fatisfied by the authority of approved authors, that a great part ofthis globe had been already travelled over, and that there then only remained, todifcover the whole, and make it known that fpace which lay between the eafternbounds of India , known to Ptolemy and Marinus, round about eaftward, till theycame through our weftern parts to the iflands Azores , and of Cabo Verde tfie moltweftern parts yet difcovered. Thirdly, he confidered, that this fpace lying between theeaftern limits known to Marinus, and the aforefaid ifland of Cabo Verde , could notbe above a third part of the great circumfernce of the globe, fince the faid Marinuswas already gone fifteen hours, or twenty-four parts, into which the world is dividedtowards the eaft *, and therefore to return to the faid ifles of Cabo Verde , there wantedabout eight parts ; for the faid Marinus is faid to have begun his difcovery towards theweft. Fourthly, he reckoned, that fince Marinus had in his faid cofmography, givenan account of fifteen hours, or parts of the globe towards the eaft, and yet was notcome to the end of the eaftern land, it followed of courfe, that the faid end muftbe much beyond that; and confequently the farther it extended eaftward, the nearerit came to the iflands Cabo Verde , towards our weftern parts ; and that if fuch fpacewere fea, it might eafily be failed in a few days, and if land, in would be fooner dif-covered by the weft, becaufe it would be nearer to the faid iflands. To which reafon

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