LIFE OF COLON, BY HIS SON.

II

of things, and a great country be difcovered, and another like Typhys fliall difcovera new world, and Thule fhall no longer be the laft pari of the earth. Which nowmod certainly has been fulfilled in the perfon of the admiral. And Strabo in thefirfb book of his cofmography, fays the ocean encompaffes all the earth; that in theeaft, it wafhes the coaft of India , and in the weft, thofe of Mauritania and Spain , andthat, if the vaftnefs of the Atlantic did not hinder, they might foon fail from theone to the other upon the fame parallel. The fame he repeats in the fecond book.Pliny in the fecond book of his natural hiftory, chap. 3. adds, that the oceanfurrounds all the earth, and that the extent of it from eaft to weft, is from India toCadiz . The fame author, book the fixth, chap. .31, and Solinus , chap. 68. ofthe remarkable things in the world, fay, that from the illands Gorgones, fuppofedto be thofe of Cabo Verde , was forty days fail on the Atlantic ocean , to the iflandsHefperides, which the admiral concluded were thofe of the Weft Indies, MarcusPaulus Venetus, and John Mandiville, in their travels fay, they went much farthereaftward than Ptolemy and Marinus mention, who perhaps do not fpeak of the eafternfea ; yet by the account they give of the eaft, it may be argued, that the faid India isnot far diftant from Afric and Spain . Peter Abacus in his treatife, De imaginemundi, chap. 8. De quantitate terra habitabilis , et Julius Capitolinas , de locishabitabilibus, and in feveral other treatifes, fay, that Spain and India are neighboursweftward. And in the nineteenth chapter of his cofmography, he has thefe words ;according to the philofophers and Pliny , the ocean that ftretches between the wefternborders of Spain and Africk, and from the beginning of India eaftward is of no greatextent, and there is no doubt but it may be failed over in a few days, with a fairwind, and therefore the beginning of India eaftward, cannot be far diftant from theend of Africk weftward. Thefe and the like authorities of fuch writers, inclinedthe admiral to believe that the opinion he had conceived was right, and one Mr. Paul,phyfician to Mr. Dominic of Florence, contemporary with the admiral, much en-couraged him to undertake the faid voyage. For this Mr. Paul, being a friend to oneFerdinand Martinez, a canon of Lifbon, and they writing to one another concerningthe voyages made in the time of King Alphonfo of Portugal to Guinea , and con- •cerning what might be made weftward; the admiral who was inoft curious in thefeaffairs, got knowledge of it, and foon, by the means of Laurence Girardi, a Floren-tine refiding at Lilbon, writ upon this fubje£t to the faid Mr. Paul, fending him a fmallfphere, and acquainting him with his defign. Mr. Paul fent his anfwer in Latin , whichin Englifh is thus.

CHAP. VIII. — A Letter from Paul, a Phyfician of Florence , to the Admiral, concern *

ing the Difcovery of the Indies.

u To Chriftopher Colon, Paul the phyfician wifhes health.

44 I perceive your noble and earneft defire to fail to thofe parts where the fpice isproduced -, and therefore in anfwer to a letter of yours, I fend you another letter,which fome days fince I writ to a friend of mine, and fervant to the King of Portugal ,before the wars of Caftile, in anfwer to another he writ to me by his Highnefs’s order,upon this fame account, and I fend you another fea-chart like that I fent him, whichwill fatisfy your demands. The copy of that letter is this.”

“ To Ferdinand Martinez, canon of Lifbon, Paul the phyfician wifhes health.

“ I am very glad to hear of the familiarity you have with your molt ferene andmagnificent King, and though I have very often difeourfed concerning the fhort way

c 2 the