77

Giap.XIX. from the Conquest, to the Death oj A, Mary I.

c °lumbus

ly°B eafourteen^ of Age.

nter s into

the o

.service

£*-C**_h? der > of

tiffs 5 his

Kjy.

’Kfning.

li>' to

\ft n > an d

r, es.

r^arri e .

" which lies under the Equinoctial, and" I am a Witness that it is not uninha-" bitable, as some would have it.” Inhis Book of his first Voyage, he fays :" I was upon the Sea three and twenty" Years, without being off it any Time" worth' speaking of; And I saw all“ the Eaft, and all the Weft, and may“ lay towards the North, or England," and have been at Guinea ; Yet I ne-" ver saw Harbours for Goodness, like" those of the V/efl Indies.^ And a lit-tle farther he says: " He took to the" Sea at fourteen Years of Age, and" ever after followed it.” From allwhich, and other Circumstances, givenby his Son in the fame Place, we findthat Columbus had been an old Sailor, ofat least thirty Years standing, when hefirst made an Osier of his Service for theDiscovery of new Lands, that he hadgreat Experience in Sea-Affairs, andhad been a great Traveller, before heundertook his Discovery.

Having said thus much in general, Isnail now descend to some few Particu-lars, previous to the History of his Dis-coveries. It is certain, that he went toSpain or Portugal very young, into theService of a famous Sea-Commander, ofhis own Name and Family, who wasknown by the Name of Columbus, theYounger, to distinguish him from ano-ther of the fame Name, who was a not-ed Sea-Man before him. With this Re-lation our Columbus failed a long Time :And being once with him in an Engage-ment with four great Venetian G allies,the Ship they were in took Fire, andthere was no Remedy left, but for allthat could, to leap into the Water, andsubmit to an easier Death, rather thanbear the Torture of the Fire. Our Co-lumbus, being an excellent Swimmer,gained the Land, with the Help of anOar whichProvidence threw in his Way,tho’ above two Leagues distant. Beingnear Lisbon, where he knew there weremany Genoese, his Country-men, he re-solved to go thither. There he marri-ed his first Wife, the Daughter of PeterMoniz Perejlrcllo, a famous Navigator,who, with two other Captains, first dis-covered Madera and Porto Santo, andwhose Journal and Sea-Charts he by thatMeans becameMaster of. Columbus\ firstWife dying, he married a second, andby her had his Son Ferdinand, the Au-thor of his Life, who had the Characterof a well qualified and learned Gentle-man. How soon Columbus embracedthe Opinion, that there might be new

Memoirs.

Lands discovered ? Whether he wasexcited by the Example of his Fatherin Law : Or whether his Opinion pro-ceeded from a Consideration of the Motives,SphericalForm of this Body of Earth and tabs fss. 'Water, believing that there must nece- ced Colum-ssarily be some other great Tract of b ‘i 3 'A'/ALand, between the IVfern Coasts of fortes.Europe, and Africa, and the RafternCoasts of Afta, to counterpoise ourvast Continent ? Or whether again, assome alledge, (tho' his Son takes noManner of Notice of any such Thing)he was possessed of the Memoirs of anancient Mariner, who had been driven,by Stress of Weather, on the Coasts ofHispaniola, and, on his Return fromthence, died in Columbus' s House, atMadera, by which he was assured ofthe Existence of some unknown Coun-tries to the Weftward, is not so perfect-ly cleared up in History.

What Authors relate, with Regard The Story ofto the latter of these Suppositions, (whe- sftfffss*th er true or false, I shall not pretend to fed to havedetermine) is this: That a certain Pilot, le fl Colum-Inhabitant and Native of the TownGuelva, in the County of Niebla, inAndalusia, called Alonzo Sanchez deHualva, or, according to others, Bu-xula, used to trade with a small Vesselto the Canaries ; and that, one Time,in his Return to Spain, he met with amighty strong Levant, which was sopowerful, that in twenty Days he foundhimself in one of the Isiands of theWell-Indies, one of those which we callthe Isiands of Barlovento, or the Wind-ward Islands, and it was judged it wasHispaniola ; from whence, fearing heshould perish, for Want of Provisions,he returned to the Island of Madera,having suffered so much, that almosthis whole Ship’s Company died, andhe himself returned, in such a pitifulCondition, that tho’ Columbus , who wasa Lover of Sea-faring Men, and hadtherefore chosen his Habitation in thatIsland, received him into his House,and took great Care of him, yet hedied. On his Death-bed, being wil-ling to make some Return for the Kind-ness he had received, he called Colum-bus to him, and left him, as an Inhe-ritance, the Journal he had made, withthe Rhumbs of Wind, both going andcoming, and all his other Observationsduring the Voyage, and about the Placewhere he landed.

Si r William Monfon thinks this Storya base Invention of the Spaniards, todetract from Columbus r for no other

Reason