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LIFE OF COLON, BY HIS SON.

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CHAP. IX. — The third Motive and Inducement , which in fome Meafure excited the

Admiral to Difcover the Weft Indies.

THE third and laft motive the admiral had to undertake the difcovery of the WeftIndies, was the hopes of finding, before he came to India , fome very beneficial iflandor continent, from whence he might the better purfue his main defign. This his hopewas grounded upon the authority of many wife men and philofophers, who lookedupon it as moft certain, that the greateft part of this terraqueous globe was land, orthat there was more earth than fea ; which if fo, he argued, that between the coaft ofSpain and the bounds of India then known, there rauft be many iflands, and muchcontinent, as experience has fince demonftrated, which he the more readily believed,being impofed upon by many fables and ftories which he heard told by feveral perfonsand failors, who traded to the iflands and weftern fea, and to Madera ; which tefti-monies making fomewhat to his purpofe, they were fure to gain a place in his me-mory. Therefore I will not forbear relating them, to fatisfy thofe that take delightin fuch curiofities. It is therefore requifite to be underftood, that a pilot of the Kingof Portugal , whofe name was Martin Vicente, told him, that he being once four hun-dred and fifty leagues weftward of Cape St. Vincent , found and took up in the fea, apiece of wood ingenioufly wrought, but not with iron; by which, and the wind havingbeen weft for many days, he gueffed that piece of wood came from fome ifland thatway. Next one Peter Correa, who had married the admiral’s wife’s filter, told him,that in the ifland of Porto Santo he had feen another piece of wood brought by thefame winds, well wrought, as that above mentioned ; and that there had been canesfound fo thick, that every joint would hold above four quarts of wine; which he faidhe affirmed to the King of Portugal himfelf difcourfing with him about thefe affairs,and that they were Ihewn him; and there being no place in our parts where fuchcanes grow, he looked upon it as certain, that the wind had brought them from fomeneighbouring iflands, or elfe from India . For Ptolemy , in the firft book of his cof-mography, chap. 17, fays, there are fuch canes in the eaftern parts of India : andfome of the iflanders, particularly the Azores , told him, that when the weft windblew long together, the fea drove fome pines upon thofe iflands, particularly uponGratiofaand Fayal, there being no fuch in all thofe parts. And that the fea call uponthis ifland of Flores, another of the Azores , two dead bodies of men, very broad faced,and differing in afpect from the Chriftians. At Cape Verga and thereabouts, theyfay, they once faw fome covered Almadies or boats, which it is believed were drovethat way by ftrefs of weather, as they were going over from one ifland to another.Nor were thefe only the motives he then had, which yet feemed reafonable; but therewere thofe that told him they had feen fome iflands, among whom was Anthony Leme,married in the ifland of Madera, who told him, that having made a confiderable runin a caraval of his own weftward, he had feen three iflands. Thefe he did not givecredit to, becaufe he found by their own words and difcourfe, that they had not failedone hundred leagues to the weftward, and that they had been deceived by fome rocks,taking them for iflands ; or elfe perhaps they were fome of thofe floating iflands thatare carried about by the water, called by the failors Aguadas, whereof Pliny makesmention in the firft book, chap. 97, of his natural hiftory; where he fays, that inthe northern parts the fea difcovered fome fpots of land, on which there are trees ofdeep roots, which parcels of land are carried about like floats or iflands upon thewater. Seneca undertaking to give a natural reafon why there are fuch forts of

iflands,