of Marco Polo, Conti, and Mandeville, scarcely credited before, received the closest attention, and their glowing descriptions only added fresh fuel to the flame of western commercial desire.1

Great inducements came thus to be held out by the powerful reigning families of the West to explorers and adventurers who would § 15. 15th brave the dangers of the unknown seas Century and discover a direct water-route to the Voyages of Discovery. Indies. The mercantile policy had already paved the way for this enterprise by building up a merchant marine and training skilled navigators during the days of the maritime revolution. Each of the absolute monarchies on the Atlantic had fleets of its own to keep the balance of trade in its favor, while their demands for Eastern products had had the further effect of improving the navigation of the Mediterranean. Vessels and navigators there were, and now that the mariner's compass was invented, all was ready for the great voyages of discovery of the fifteenth century.

All but the northern coast line of Africa was wrapt in mystery to the Europeans of that day. Geographers were now agreed, however, that this

1J. K. Ingram, "History of Political Economy." London, 1888. Julius Kautz, “Die Geschichtliche Entwickelung der Nationalökonomik und ihrer Litteratur." Third edition, Berlin, 1879.

Luigi Cossa, "Introduction to the Study of Political Economy," Translated by Louis Dyer, pp. 193-210, London, 1893.

R. H. Inglis Palgrave, “Dictionary of Political Economy," Vol. I, pp. 85-88. London, 1894.

J. Conrad et al, "Handwörterbuch der Staatswissenschaften," Vol. IV., pp. 1168-1173. Jena, 1890.

great continent must have an end, and could one but round its southernmost cape, he must of necessity come upon the southern shores of India, and thus execute a flank movement on the Mohammedan and Tartar alike. Thus the Infant Henry of Portugal -the Navigator-argued, and ultimately his point was proved, though it took some fifty years of cautious sailing along the mighty stretch of western sea-board to the south, before Bartholomeu Dias finally, in 1487, peered around the southern cape. In the meantime other explorers in the employ of Spain and England, with the same end in view of establishing direct connections by sea with the Indies, were unwittingly being borne on the crest of the last wave of western advance to the shores the New World.1

Discoveries

and his

The conception of the sphericity of the earth, hit upon by some nameless Greek and discussed by Aristotle and Strabo in the days of the § 16. The classic world, had already been revived of Columbus during the middle ages by Albertus Magnus and Roger Bacon, and was now gaining ground through its popularization in the "Imago Mundi" of Alliacus. Columbus at last determined to demonstrate the theory in practice, and, while Portugal was continuing her search for an easterly route to the Indies, he was finally able to persuade the Spanish monarchs to

Contemporaries.

1 C. R. Markham, "The Sea Fathers," Chapters I. and II. London and New York, 1884.

C. Raymond Beazley, "Henry the Navigator and the Age of Discovery in Europe." New York, 1895.

allow him to seek a more direct route to these selfsame Eastern lands by sailing due west.

The trade-winds carried his vessels to the Bahamas, and as, according to the ideas of those days, "whatever land was not Africa nor Europe was Asia," Columbus naturally thought he had reached the lands of his desires. In all his voyages of discovery, therefore, Columbus busied himself identifying these new shores with the countries of the far East. Cuba he considered to be part of the mainland of Asia, and Hayti, he was sure, must be the island of Cipango (Japan), described by Marco Polo. The other islands of the group belonged thus, in his fancy, to the Indian Archipelago. So when Columbus sighted the mainland of South America, off the delta of the Orinoco, on his third voyage of discovery in 1498, he was doubly sure he had again come upon the eastern shores of Asia. He accordingly spoke of this land as the "Tierra Firma," and, skirting the coast to the westward, he believed he had found the Terrestrial Paradise so glowingly depicted by Mandeville.

Columbus's success encouraged his monarchs and spurred on other ambitious explorers. In the following year Hojedo and Vespucci came also to the shores of South America and continued the discovery of its northern coast line westward to the Gulf of Venezuela. Vincent Pinzon followed, being the first to cross the equator in these parts. He landed at about the eighth degree south latitude, and then cruised northwest along the shore, crossing the mouth of the

Amazon, to the island of Trinidad and the lands that Columbus had discovered before. In the year 1500 Bastidas further developed the line of this northern shore from Cape Vela, where Hojedo and Vespucci had left off, to the Gulf of Darien and the isthmus of Panama.

Thus a considerable stretch of unbroken coast line had already been developed when Columbus set out again in 1502, on his fourth and last voyage of discovery, with the avowed purpose of connecting the supposed mainland of Cuba with that of Paria (South America), or of finding the strait between them leading to the Indian Ocean. He mistook his bearings, however, and landed this time on the northern shores of Honduras, August 17th, where the little town of Truxillo afterwards grew up. Returning eastward he entered what has since been named the Black river, and took possession in the name of the Crown of Castile, calling the stream in witness thereof, the Rio Possession. He then rounded the point, calling it Cape Gracias à Dios, in gratitude for the deliverance it afforded him from the fury of the storm, and again took possession for his sovereigns. Skirting along the coast from this point toward the south, Columbus landed again at Bluefields Lagoon and at the mouth of the San Juan, holding intercourse with the natives at both points and trying to learn from them the nature of the country. Seeing that these savages possessed ornaments of gold, Columbus was now convinced he had reached at last the Golden Chersonesus, and eagerly continued his

search to the south, that he might pass through the Straits of Malacca and, coming upon the mouths of the Ganges, so fulfil his dream. He was soon forced to put back, however, and, disappointed in his ambition, he returned to Spain to die.'

§ 17. The

and the Treaty of Tordesillas.

The Pope, as we know, favored the ambitions of the absolute monarchs of the West so long as they continued to regard him as their feudal over-lord. In the voyages of discovery Pope's Bull and conquest, now well under way, there was as yet no source of conflict between the temporal and spiritual powers. The sovereigns wanted the wealth of the Indies, while the Church desired to bring their teeming populations within her fold. Thus conqueror and priest went hand in hand and mutually aided each other. Already the Portuguese had received Papal grants of the lands they had discovered, including the islands of the Atlantic off the west coast of Africa; and now the Spanish sovereigns also became suitors for like favors. To avoid future disputes between his two vassals, the Pope then drew a line of demarkation between their respective fields of enter prise, running along an imaginary meridian a hundred leagues to the west of the Azores and the Cape Verde islands. King Emanuel of Portugal was not satisfied with the rights thus saved, however, and after some dispute, an agreement was reached by 'Edward John Payne, "History of the New World Called America," Vol. I., pp. 117-196. Oxford and New York, 1892.

John Fiske, "The Discovery of America," Vol. I., Chapters V. and VI. Boston, 1894.