The Discovery of America Part 27

[Footnote 431: I translate this prologue from the Italian text of the _Vita dell' Ammiraglio_, cap. viii. The original Latin has nowhere been found. A Spanish version of the whole may be found in Las Casas, _Historia_, tom. i. pp. 92-96. Las Casas, by a mere slip of the pen, calls "Paul, the physicist," _Marco Paulo_, and fifty years later Mariana calls him _Marco Polo, physician_: "por aviso que le dio un cierto Marco Polo medico Florentin," etc. _Historia de Espana_, tom. viii. p. 343. Thus step by step doth error grow.]

[Footnote 432: He means that his friend Martinez has been a member of King Alfonso's household ever since the time before the civil wars that began with the attempted deposition of Henry IV. in 1465 and can hardly be said to have come to an end before the death of that prince in December, 1474. See Humboldt, _Examen critique_, tom. i. p. 225.]

[Footnote 433: I translate this enclosed letter from the original Latin text, as found, a few years ago, in the handwriting of Columbus upon the fly-leaves of his copy of the _Historia rerum ubique gestarum_ of aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini (Pope Pius II.), published at Venice in 1477, in folio, and now preserved in the Colombina at Seville. This Latin text is given by Harrisse, in his _Fernand Colomb_, pp. 178-180, and also (with more strict regard to the abbreviations of the original) in his _Bibliotheca Americana Vetustissima--Additions_, Paris, 1872, pp. xvi.-xviii. Very likely Columbus had occasion to let the original MS. go out of his hands, and so preserved a copy of it upon the fly-leaves of one of his books. These same fly-leaves contain extracts from Josephus and Saint Augustine.

The reader will rightly infer from my translation that the astronomer's Latin was somewhat rugged and lacking in literary grace. Apparently he was anxious to jot down quickly what he had to say, and get back to his work.]

[Footnote 434: A sketch of this most memorable of maps is given opposite. Columbus carried it with him upon his first voyage, and shaped his course in accordance with it. Las Casas afterwards had it in his possession (_Hist. de las Indias_, tom. i. pp. 96, 279). It has since been lost, that is to say, it may still be in existence, but n.o.body knows where. But it has been so well described that the work of restoring its general outlines is not difficult and has several times been done. The sketch here given is taken from Winsor (_Narr. and Crit. Hist._, ii. 103), who takes it from _Das Ausland_, 1867, p. 5. Another restoration may be found in St. Martin's _Atlas_, pl. ix. This map was the source of the western part of Martin Behaim's globe, as given below, p. 422.]

[Footnote 435: All the description that follows is taken by Toscanelli from the book of Marco Polo.]

[Footnote 436: On modern maps usually called Chang-chow, about 100 miles S. W. from Fou-chow.]

[Footnote 437: I have given an account of this mission, above, p. 281.]

[Footnote 438: Eugenius IV., pope from 1431 to 1447.]

[Sidenote: Conclusion of Toscanelli's first letter to Columbus.]

"From[439] the city of Lisbon due west there are 26 s.p.a.ces marked on the map, each of which contains 250 miles, as far as the very great and splendid city of Quinsay.[440] For it is a hundred miles in circ.u.mference and has ten bridges, and its name means City of Heaven, and many wonderful things are told about it and about the mult.i.tude of its arts and revenues. This s.p.a.ce is almost a third part of the whole sphere. That city is in the province of Mangi, or near the province of Cathay in which land is the royal residence. But from the island of Antilia, which you know, to the very splendid island of c.i.p.ango[441]

there are ten s.p.a.ces. For that island abounds in gold, pearls, and precious stones, and they cover the temples and palaces with solid gold.

So through the unknown parts of the route the stretches of sea to be traversed are not great. Many things might perhaps have been stated more clearly, but one who duly considers what I have said will be able to work out the rest for himself. Farewell, most esteemed one."

[Footnote 439: This paragraph is evidently the conclusion of the letter to Columbus, and not a part of the letter to Martinez, which has just ended with the date. In _Vita dell'

Ammiraglio_ the two letters are mixed together.]

[Footnote 440: On modern maps Hang-chow. After 1127 that city was for some time the capital of China, and Marco Polo's name _Quinsay_ represents the Chinese word _King-sse_ or "capital,"

now generally applied to Peking. Marco Polo calls it the finest and n.o.blest city in the world. It appears that he does not overstate the circ.u.mference of its walls at 100 Chinese miles or _li_, equivalent to about 30 English miles. It has greatly diminished since Polo's time, while other cities have grown.

Toscanelli was perhaps afraid to repeat Polo's figure as to the number of stone bridges; Polo says there were 12,000 of them, high enough for ships to pa.s.s under! We thus see how his Venetian fellow-citizens came to nickname him "Messer Marco Milione." As Colonel Yule says, "I believe we must not bring Marco to book for the literal accuracy of his statements as to the bridges; but all travellers have noticed the number and elegance of the bridges of cut stone in this part of China."

_Marco Polo_, vol. ii, p. 144.]

[Footnote 441: For c.i.p.ango, or j.a.pan, see Yule's _Marco Polo_, vol. ii. pp. 195-207. The venerable astronomer's style of composition is amusing. He sets out to demonstrate to Columbus that the part of the voyage to be accomplished through new and unfamiliar stretches of the Atlantic is not great; but he is so full of the glories of Cathay and c.i.p.ango that he keeps reverting to that subject, to the manifest detriment of his exposition. His argument, however, is perfectly clear.]

Some time after the receipt of this letter Columbus wrote again to Toscanelli, apparently sending him either some charts of his own, or some notes, or something bearing upon the subject in hand. No such letter is preserved, but Toscanelli replied as follows:--

[Sidenote: Toscanelli's second letter to Columbus.]

"Paul, the physicist, to Christopher Columbus greeting.[442] I have received your letters, with the things which you sent me, for which I thank you very much. I regard as n.o.ble and grand your project of sailing from east to west according to the indications furnished by the map which I sent you, and which would appear still more plainly upon a sphere. I am much pleased to see that I have been well understood, and that the voyage has become not only possible but certain,[443] fraught with honour as it must be, and inestimable gain, and most lofty fame among all Christian people. You cannot take in all that it means except by actual experience, or without such copious and accurate information as I have had from eminent and learned men who have come from those places to the Roman court, and from merchants who have traded a long time in those parts, persons whose word is to be believed (_persone di grande autorita_). When that voyage shall be accomplished, it will be a voyage to powerful kingdoms, and to cities and provinces most wealthy and n.o.ble, abounding in all sorts of things most desired by us; I mean, with all kinds of spices and jewels in great abundance. It will also be advantageous for those kings and princes who are eager to have dealings and make alliances with the Christians of our countries, and to learn from the erudite men of these parts,[444] as well in religion as in all other branches of knowledge. For these reasons, and many others that might be mentioned, I do not wonder that you, who are of great courage, and the whole Portuguese nation, which has always had men distinguished in all such enterprises, are now inflamed with desire[445] to execute the said voyage."

[Footnote 442: The original of this letter is not forthcoming.

I translate from _Vita dell' Ammiraglio_, cap. viii.]

[Footnote 443: Yet poor old Toscanelli did not live to see it accomplished; he died in 1482, before Columbus left Portugal.]

[Footnote 444: That is, of Europe, and especially of Italy.

Toscanelli again refers to Kublai Khan's message to the pope which--more or less mixed up with the vague notions about Prester John--had evidently left a deep impression upon the European mind. In translating the above sentence I have somewhat retrenched its excessive verbiage without affecting the meaning.]

[Footnote 445: In including the "whole Portuguese nation" as feeling this desire, the good astronomer's enthusiasm again runs away with him.]

[Sidenote: Who first suggested the feasibleness of a westward route? Was it Columbus?]

These letters are intensely interesting, especially the one to Martinez, which reveals the fact that as early as 1474 the notion that a westward route to the Indies would be shorter than the southward route had somehow been suggested to Alfonso V.; and had, moreover, sufficiently arrested his attention to lead him to make inquiries of the most eminent astronomer within reach. Who could have suggested this notion to the king of Portugal? Was it Columbus, the trained mariner and map-maker, who might lately have been pondering the theories of Ptolemy and Mela as affected by the voyage of Santarem and Escobar, and whose connection with the Moniz and Perestrelo families would now doubtless facilitate his access to the court? On some accounts this may seem probable, especially if we bear in mind Columbus's own statement implying that his appeals to the crown dated almost from the beginning of his fourteen years in Portugal.

[Sidenote: Perhaps it was Toscanelli.]

All the circ.u.mstances, however, seem to be equally consistent with the hypothesis that the first suggestion of the westward route may have come from Toscanelli himself, through the medium of the canon Martinez, who had for so many years been a member of King Alfonso's household. The words at the beginning of the letter lend some probability to this view: "I have formerly spoken with you about a shorter route to the places of Spices by ocean navigation than that which you are pursuing by Guinea."

It was accordingly earlier than 1474--how much earlier does not appear--that such discussions between Toscanelli and Martinez must probably have come to the ears of King Alfonso; and now, very likely owing to the voyage of Santarem and Escobar, that monarch began to think it worth while to seek for further information, "an exhibition to the eye," so that mariners not learned in astronomy like Toscanelli might "grasp and comprehend" the shorter route suggested. It is altogether probable that the Florentine astronomer, who was seventy-seven years old when he wrote this letter, had already for a long time entertained the idea of a westward route; and a man in whom the subject aroused so much enthusiasm could hardly have been reticent about it. It is not likely that Martinez was the only person to whom he descanted[446] upon the glory and riches to be found by sailing "straight to Cathay," and there were many channels through which Columbus might have got some inkling of his views, even before going to Portugal.

[Footnote 446: Luigi Pulci, in his famous romantic poem published in 1481, has a couple of striking stanzas in which Astarotte says to Rinaldo that the time is at hand when Hercules shall blush to see how far beyond his Pillars the ships shall soon go forth to find another hemisphere, for although the earth is as round as a wheel, yet the water at any given point is a plane, and inasmuch as all things tend to a common centre so that by a divine mystery the earth is suspended in equilibrium among the stars, just so there is an antipodal world with cities and castles unknown to men of olden time, and the sun in hastening westwards descends to shine upon those peoples who are awaiting him below the horizon:--

Sappi che questa opinione e vana Perche piu oltre navicar si puote, Per che l' acqua in ogni parte e piana, Benche la terra abbi forma di ruote; Era piu grossa allor la gente umana, Tal che potrebbe arrossirne le gote Ercule ancor, d' aver posti que' segni, Perche piu oltre pa.s.seranno i legni.

E puossi andar giu nell' altro emisperio, Per che al centro ogni cosa reprime: Sicche la terra per divin misterio Sospesa sta fra le stelle sublime, E laggiu son citta, castella, e imperio; Ma nol cogn.o.bbon quelle gente prime.

Vedi che il sol di camminar s' affretta, Dove io dico che laggiu s' aspetta.

Pulci, _Morgante Maggiore_, xxv. 229, 230.

This prophecy of western discovery combines with the astronomical knowledge here shown, to remind us that the Florentine Pulci was a fellow-townsman and most likely an acquaintance of Toscanelli.]

[Sidenote: The idea was suggested by the globular form of the earth;]

[Sidenote: and was as old as Aristotle.]

[Sidenote: Opinions of ancient writers.]

However this may have been, the letter clearly proves that at that most interesting period, in or about 1474, Columbus was already meditating upon the westward route.[447] Whether he owed the idea to Toscanelli, or not, is a question of no great importance so far as concerns his own originality; for the idea was already in the air. The originality of Columbus did not consist in his conceiving the possibility of reaching the sh.o.r.es of Cathay by sailing west, but in his conceiving it in such distinct and practical shape as to be ready to make the adventure in his own person. As a matter of theory the possibility of such a voyage could not fail to be suggested by the globular form of the earth; and ever since the days of Aristotle that had been generally admitted by men learned in physical science. Aristotle proved, from the different alt.i.tudes of the pole-star in different places, that the earth must necessarily be a globe. Moreover, says Aristotle, "some stars are seen in Egypt or at Cyprus, but are not seen in the countries to the north of these; and the stars that in the north are visible while they make a complete circuit, there undergo a setting. So that from this it is manifest, not only that the form of the earth is round, but also that it is part of not a very large sphere; for otherwise the difference would not be so obvious to persons making so small a change of place.

Wherefore we may judge that _those persons who connect the region in the neighbourhood of the Pillars of Hercules with that towards India, and who a.s.sert that in this way the sea is_ ONE, do not a.s.sert things very improbable."[448] It thus appears that more than eighteen centuries before Columbus took counsel of Toscanelli, "those persons" to whom Aristotle alludes were discussing, as a matter of theory, this same subject. Eratosthenes held that it would be easy enough to sail from Spain to India on the same parallel were it not for the vast extent of the Atlantic ocean.[449] On the other hand, Seneca maintained that the distance was probably not so very great, and that with favouring winds a ship might make the voyage in a few days.[450] In one of his tragedies Seneca has a striking pa.s.sage[451] which has been repeatedly quoted as referring to the discovery of America, and is certainly one of the most notable instances of prophecy on record. There will come a time, he says, in the later years, when Ocean shall loosen the bonds by which we have been confined, when an immense land shall lie revealed, and Tethys shall disclose new worlds, and Thule will no longer be the most remote of countries. In Strabo there is a pa.s.sage, less commonly noticed, which hits the truth--as we know it to-day--even more closely. Having argued that the total length of the Inhabited World is only about a third part of the circ.u.mference of the earth in the temperate zone, he suggests it as possible, or even probable, that within this s.p.a.ce there may be another Inhabited World, or even more than one; but such places would be inhabited by different races of men, with whom the geographer, whose task it is to describe the _known_ world, has no concern.[452] Nothing could better ill.u.s.trate the philosophical character of Strabo's mind. In such speculations, so far as his means of verification went, he was situated somewhat as we are to-day with regard to the probable inhabitants of Venus or Mars.

[Footnote 447: It was formerly a.s.sumed, without hesitation, that the letter from Toscanelli to Columbus was written and sent in 1474. The reader will observe, however, that while the enclosed letter to Martinez is dated June 25, 1474, the letter to Columbus, in which it was enclosed, has no date. But according to the text as given in _Vita dell' Ammiraglio_, cap.

viii., this would make no difference, for the letter to Columbus was sent only a few days later than the original letter to Martinez: "I send you a copy of another letter, which I wrote a few days ago (_alquanti giorni fa_) to a friend of mine, a gentleman of the household of the king of Portugal before the wars of Castile, in reply to another," etc. This friend, Martinez, had evidently been a gentleman of the household of Alfonso V. since before the civil wars of Castile, which in 1474 had been going on intermittently for nine years under the feeble Henry IV., who did not die until December 12, 1474. Toscanelli apparently means to say "a friend of mine who has for ten years or more been a gentleman of the royal household," etc.; only instead of mentioning the number of years, he alludes less precisely (as most people, and perhaps especially old people, are apt to do) to the most notable, mentionable, and glaring fact in the history of the Peninsula for that decade,--namely, the civil wars of Castile. As if an American writer in 1864 had said, "a friend of mine, who has been secretary to A. B. since before the war," instead of saying "for four years or more." This is the only reasonable interpretation of the phrase as it stands above, and it was long ago suggested by Humboldt (_Examen critique_, tom. i. p.

225). Italian and Spanish writers of that day, however, were lavish with their commas and sprinkled them in pretty much at haphazard. In this case Ferdinand's translator, Ulloa, sprinkled in one comma too many, and it fell just in front of the clause "before the wars of Castile;" so that Toscanelli's sentence was made to read as follows: "I send you a copy of another letter, which I wrote a few days ago to a friend of mine, a gentleman of the household of the king of Portugal, before the wars of Castile, in reply to another," etc. Now this unhappy comma, coming after the word "Portugal," has caused ream after ream of good paper to be inked up in discussion, for it has led some critics to understand the sentence as follows: "I send you a copy of another letter, which I wrote a few days ago, before the wars of Castile, to a friend of mine," etc.

This reading brought things to a pretty pa.s.s. Evidently a letter dated June 25, 1474, could not have been written before the civil wars of Castile, which began in 1465. It was therefore a.s.sumed that the phrase must refer to the "War of Succession" between Castile and Portugal (in some ways an outgrowth from the civil wars of Castile) which began in May, 1475, and ended in September, 1479. M. d'Avezac thinks that the letter to Columbus must have been written after the latter date, or more than five years later than the enclosed letter.

M. Harrisse is somewhat less exacting, and is willing to admit that it may have been written at any time after this war had fairly begun,--say in the summer of 1475, not more than a year or so later than the enclosed letter. Still he is disposed on some accounts to put the date as late as 1482. The phrase _alquanti giorni fa_ will not allow either of these interpretations. It means "a few days ago," and cannot possibly mean a year ago, still less five years ago. The Spanish retranslator from Ulloa renders it exactly _algunos dias ha_ (Navarrete, _Coleccion_, tom. ii. p. 7), and Humboldt (_loc.

cit._) has it _il y a quelques jours_. If we could be sure that the expression is a correct rendering of the lost Latin original, we might feel sure that the letter to Columbus must have been written as early as the beginning of August, 1474.

But now the great work of Las Casas, after lying in ma.n.u.script for 314 years, has at length been published in 1875. Las Casas gives a Spanish version of the Toscanelli letters (_Historia de las Indias_, tom. i. pp. 92-97), which is unquestionably older than Ulloa's Italian version, though perhaps not necessarily more accurate. The phrase in Las Casas is not _algunos dias ha_, but _ha dias_, i. e. not "a few days ago," but "some time ago." Just which expression Toscanelli used cannot be determined unless somebody is fortunate enough to discover the lost Latin original. The phrase in Las Casas admits much more lat.i.tude of meaning than the other. I should suppose that _ha dias_ might refer to an event a year or two old, which would admit of the interpretation considered admissible by M.

Harrisse. I should hardly suppose that it could refer to an event five or six years old; if Toscanelli had been referring in 1479 or 1480 to a letter written in 1474, his phrase would probably have appeared in Spanish as _algunos anos ha_, i. e.

"a few years ago," not as _ha dias_. M. d'Avezac's hypothesis seems to me not only inconsistent with the phrase _ha dias_, but otherwise improbable. The frightful anarchy in Castile, which began in 1465 with the attempt to depose Henry IV. and alter the succession, was in great measure a series of ravaging campaigns and raids, now more general, now more local, and can hardly be said to have come to an end before Henry's death in 1474. The war which began with the invasion of Castile by Alfonso V. of Portugal, in May, 1475, was simply a later phase of the same series of conflicts, growing out of disputed claims to the crown and rivalries among great barons, in many respects similar to the contemporary anarchy in England called the Wars of the Roses. It is not likely that Toscanelli, writing at any time between 1475 and 1480, and speaking of the "wars of Castile" in the plural, could have had 1474 in his mind as a date previous to those wars; to his mind it would have rightly appeared as a date in the midst of them. In any case, therefore, his reference must be to a time before 1465, and Humboldt's interpretation is in all probability correct. The letter from Toscanelli to Columbus was probably written within a year or two after June 25, 1474.

On account of the vast importance of the Toscanelli letters, and because the early texts are found in books which the reader is not likely to have at hand, I have given them entire in the Appendix at the end of this work.]

[Footnote 448: [Greek: Hoste ta hyper tes kephales astra megalen echein ten metabolen, kai me tauta phainesthai pros arkton te kai mesembrian metabainousin; enioi gar en Aigypto men asteres horontai, kai peri Kyp.r.o.n; en tois pros arkton de chorious ouch horontai kai ta dia pantos en tois pros arkton phainomena ton astron, en ekeinois tois topois poieitai dysin.

Host' ou monon ek touton delon peripheres on to schema tes ges, alla kai sphairas ou megales. Ou gar an houto tachy epidelon epoiei methistemenois houto brachy. Dio tous hypolambanontas synaptein ton peri tas Herakleious stelas topon to peri ten Indiken, kai touton ton tropon einai ten Thalattan mian, me lian hypolambanein apista dokein.] Aristotle, _De Coelo_, ii.

14. He goes on to say that "those persons" allege the existence of elephants alike in Mauretania and in India in proof of their theory.]

[Footnote 449: [Greek: Host' ei me to megethos tou Atlantikou pelagous ekolye, kan plein hemas ek tes Iberias eis ten Indiken dia tou autou parallelou.] Strabo, i. 4, - 6.]

[Footnote 450: "Quantum enim est, quod ab ultimis litoribus Hispaniae usque ad Indos jacet? Paucissimorum dierum spatium, si navem suus ventus implevit." Seneca, _Nat. Quaest._, i. praef. - 11.]

[Footnote 451:

Venient annis saecula seris, Quibus Ocea.n.u.s vincula rerum Laxet, et ingens pateat tellus, Tethysque novos detegat orbes, Nec sit terris ultima Thule.

Seneca, _Medea_, 376.