xo

LIFE OF COLON, BY HIS SON.

may be added, that given by Strabo in the fifteenth book of his cofmography, thatno man with an army ever went fo far as the eaftern bounds of India , which Ctefiaswrites is as big as all the reft of Afia ; Oneficritus affirms, it is the third part of theglobe ; and Nearchus , that it is four months’ journey in a ftrait line; befides that, Pliny ,in the leventeenth chapter of his fixth book, fays that India is the third part of theearth ; whence he argued, that being fo large, it muft be nearer Spain by way of weft.The fifth argument that induced him to believe, that the diftance that way was fmall,he took from the opinion of Alfragranus and his followers, who make the circumferenceof the globe much lefs than all other writers and cofmographers, allowing but fifty-fix miles and two-thirds to a degree. Whence he would infer, that the whole globebeing fmall, that extent of the third part muft of neceffity be fmall, which Marinus leftas unknown; therefore that part might be failed in lefs time than he affigned ; forfince the eaftern bounds of India were not yet difcovered, thofe bounds muft lie nearto us weftward, and therefore the lands he fliould difcover, might properly be calledIndies. By this it plainly appears, how much one Mr. Roderick, archdeacon of Seville ,was in the wrong as well as his followers, who blame the admiral; faying, he oughtnot to have called thofe parts Indies, becaufe they are not fo ; whereas the admiral didnot call them Indies, becaufe they had been feen or difcovered by any other perfon,but as being the eaftern part of India beyond Ganges , to which no cofmographer everaffigned bounds, or made it border on any other country eaftward, but only upon theocean ; and becaufe thefe were the eaftern unknown lands of India , and have no parti-cular name of their-own ; therefore he gave them the name of the neareft country,calling them Weft Indies, and the more becaufe he knew all men were fenfible of theriches and wealth of India ; and therefore by that name he thought to tempt theircatholic majefties, who were doubtful of his undertaking, telling them he went todifcover the Indies by way of the weft. And this moved him rather to defire to beemployed by the King of Caftile, than by any other Prince.

CHAP. VII. — The fecond Motive inducing the Admiral to difcover the Wejf Indies.

THE fecond motive that encouraged the admiral to undertake the aforefaid enter-prife, and which might reafonably give occafion to call the countries he fhould fodifcover Indies, was the great authority of learned men, who faid that it was poffibleto fail from the weftern coaft of Afric and Spain , weftward to the eaftern bounds ofIndia , and that it was no great fea that lay between them, as Ariftotle affirms, at theend of his fecond book of heaven and the world ; where he fays, That they may failfrom India to Cadiz in a few days ; which feme think Averroes proves, writing uponthat place. And Seneca in his firft book of nature, looking upon the knowledge ofthis world as nothing in refpect of what is attained in the next life, fays, a Ihip mayfail in a few days with a fair wind from the coaft of Spain to that of India . And if, asfome would have it, this fame Seneca writ the tragedies, we may conclude it was tothe fame purpofe,that in the chorus of his Medea, he fpeaks thus ;

Venient annis

Ssecula feris, quibus OceanusVincula rerum laxet, et ingensPateat tellus, Typhyfque novosDetegat orbes, nec fit terrisUltima Thule.

That is, there will come an age in latter years, when the occean will loofe the bonds

of