The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus (Vol. II)

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Nicolo Zeno, a noble Venetian, is said to have made a voyage to the north
in 1380, in a vessel fitted out at his own cost, intending to visit
England and Flanders; but meeting with a terrible tempest, was driven for
many days he knew not whither, until he was cast away upon Friseland, an
island much in dispute among geographers, but supposed to be the
archipelago of the Ferroe islands. The shipwrecked voyagers were assailed
by the natives; but rescued by Zichmni, a prince of the islands, lying on
the south side of Friseland, and duke of another district lying over
against Scotland. Zeno entered into the service of this prince, and aided
him in conquering Friseland, and other northern islands. He was soon
joined by his brother Antonio Zeno, who remained fourteen years in those
countries.

During his residence in Friseland, Antonio Zeno wrote to his brother
Carlo, in Venice, giving an account of a report brought by a certain
fisherman, about a land to the westward. According to the tale of this
mariner, he had been one of a party who sailed from Friseland about
twenty-six years before, in four fishing-boats. Being overtaken by a
mighty tempest, they were driven about the sea for many days, until the
boat containing himself and six companions was cast upon an island called
Estotiland, about one thousand miles from Friseland. They were taken by
the inhabitants, and carried to a fair and populous city, where the king
sent for many interpreters to converse with them, but none that they could
understand, until a man was found who had likewise been cast away upon the
coast, and who spoke Latin. They remained several days upon the island,
which was rich and fruitful, abounding with all kinds of metals, and
especially gold. [323] There was a high mountain in the centre, from which
flowed four rivers which watered the whole country. The inhabitants were
intelligent and acquainted with the mechanical arts of Europe. They
cultivated grain, made beer, and lived in houses built of stone. There
were Latin books in the king's library, though the inhabitants had no
knowledge of that language. They had many cities and castles, and carried
on a trade with Greenland for pitch, sulphur, and peltry. Though much
given to navigation, they were ignorant of the use of the compass, and
finding the Friselanders acquainted with it, held them in great esteem;
and the king sent them with twelve barks to visit a country to the south,
called Drogeo. They had nearly perished in a storm, but were cast away
upon the coast of Drogeo. They found the people to be cannibals, and were
on the point of being killed and devoured, but were spared on account of
their great skill in fishing.

The fisherman described this Drogeo as being a country of vast extent, or
rather a new world; that the inhabitants were naked and barbarous; but
that far to the southwest there was a more civilized region, and temperate
climate, where the inhabitants had a knowledge of gold and silver, lived
in cities, erected splendid temples to idols, and sacrificed human victims
to them, which they afterwards devoured.

After the fisherman had resided many years on this continent, during which
time he had passed from the service of one chieftain to another, and
traversed various parts of it, certain boats of Estotiland arrived on the
coast of Drogeo. The fisherman went on board of them, acted as
interpreter, and followed the trade between the main-land and Estotiland
for some time, until he became very rich: then he fitted out a bark of his
own, and with the assistance of some of the people of the island, made his
way back, across the thousand intervening miles of ocean, and arrived safe
at Friseland. The account he gave of these countries, determined Zichmni,
the prince of Friseland, to send an expedition thither, and Antonio Zeno
was to command it. Just before sailing, the fisherman, who was to have
acted as guide, died; but certain mariners, who had accompanied him from
Estotiland, were taken in his place. The expedition sailed under command
of Zichmni; the Venetian, Zeno, merely accompanied it. It was
unsuccessful. After having discovered an island called Icaria, where they
met with a rough reception from the inhabitants, and were obliged to
withdraw, the ships were driven by a storm to Greenland. No record remains
of any further prosecution of the enterprise.

The countries mentioned in the account of Zeno, were laid down on a map
originally engraved on wood. The island of Estotiland has been supposed by
M. Malte-Brun to be Newfoundland; its partially civilized inhabitants the
descendants of the Scandinavian colonists of Vinland; and the Latin books
in the king's library to be the remains of the library of the Greenland
bishop, who emigrated thither in 1121. Drogeo, according to the same
conjecture, was Nova Scotia and New England. The civilized people to the
southwest, who sacrificed human victims in rich temples, he surmises to
have been the Mexicans, or some ancient nation of Florida or Louisiana.

The premises do not appear to warrant this deduction. The whole story
abounds with improbabilities; not the least of which is the civilization
prevalent among the inhabitants; their houses of stone, their European
arts, the library of their king; no traces of which were to be found on
their subsequent discovery. Not to mention the information about Mexico
penetrating through the numerous savage tribes of a vast continent. It is
proper to observe that this account was not published until 1558, long
after the discovery of Mexico. It was given to the world by Francisco
Marcolini, a descendant of the Zeni, from the fragments of letters said to
have been written by Antonio Zeno to Carlo his brother. "It grieves me,"
says the editor, "that the book, and divers other writings concerning
these matters, are miserably lost; for being but a child when they came to
my hands, and not knowing what they were, I tore them and rent them in
pieces, which now I cannot call to remembrance but to my exceeding great
grief." [324]

This garbled statement by Marcolini derived considerable authority by
being introduced by Abraham Ortelius, an able geographer, in his Theatrum
Orbis; but the whole story has been condemned by able commentators as a
gross fabrication. Mr. Forster resents this, as an instance of obstinate
incredulity, saying that it is impossible to doubt the existence of the
country of which Carlo, Nicolo and Antonio Zeno talk; as original acts in
the archives of Venice prove that the chevalier undertook a voyage to the
north; that his brother Antonio followed him; that Antonio traced a map,
which he brought back and hung up in his house, where it remained subject
to public examination, until the time of Marcolini, as an incontestable
proof of the truth of what he advanced. Granting all this, it merely
proves that Antonio and his brother were at Friseland and Greenland. Their
letters never assert that Zeno made the voyage to Estotiland. The fleet
was carried by a tempest to Greenland, after which we hear no more of him;
and his account of Estotiland and Drogeo rests simply on the tale of the
fisherman, after whose descriptions his map must have been conjecturally
projected. The whole story resembles much the fables circulated shortly
after the discovery of Columbus, to arrogate to other nations and
individuals the credit of the achievement.

M. Malte-Brun intimates that the alleged discovery of Vinland may have
been known to Columbus when he made a voyage in the North Sea in
1477,[325] and that the map of Zeno, being in the national library at
London, in a Danish work, at the time when Bartholomew Columbus was in
that city, employed in making maps, he may have known something of it,
and have communicated it to his brother. [326] Had M. Malte-Brun examined
the history of Columbus with his usual accuracy, he would have perceived,
that, in his correspondence with Paulo Toscanelli in 1474, he had
expressed his intention of seeking India by a route directly to the west.
His voyage to the north did not take place until three years afterwards.
As to the residence of Bartholomew in London, it was not until after
Columbus had made his propositions of discovery to Portugal, if not to the
courts of other powers. Granting, therefore, that he had subsequently
heard the dubious stories of Vinland, and of the fisherman's adventures,
as related by Zeno, or at least by Marcolini, they evidently could not
have influenced him in his great enterprise. His route had no reference to
them, but was a direct western course, not toward Vinland, and Estotiland,
and Drogeo, but in search of Cipango, and Cathay, and the other countries
described by Marco Polo, as lying at the extremity of India.

No. XV.

Circumnavigation of Africa by the Ancients.

The knowledge of the ancients with respect to the Atlantic coast of Africa
is considered by modern investigators much less extensive than had been
imagined; and it is doubted whether they had any practical authority for
the belief that Africa was circumnavigable. The alleged voyage of Endoxns
of Cyzicus, from the Red Sea to Gibraltar, though recorded by Pliny,
Pomponius Mela, and others, is given entirely on the assertion of
Cornelius Nepos, who does not tell from whence he derived his information.
Posidonius (cited by Strabo) gives an entirely different account of this
voyage, and rejects it with contempt. [327]

The famous voyage of Hanno, the Carthaginian, is supposed to have taken
place about a thousand years before the Christian era. The Periplus
Hannonis remains, a brief and obscure record of this expedition, and a
subject of great comment and controversy. By some it has been pronounced a
fictitious work, fabricated among the Greeks, but its authenticity has
been ably vindicated. It appears to be satisfactorily proved, however,
that the voyage of this navigator has been greatly exaggerated, and that
he never circumnavigated the extreme end of Africa. Mons. de Bougainville
[328] traces his route to a promontory which he named the West Horn,
supposed to be Cape Palmas, about five or six degrees north of the
equinoctial line, whence he proceeded to another promontory, under the
same parallel, which he called the South Horn, supposed to be Cape de Tres
Puntas. Mons. Gosselin, however, in his Researches into the Geography of
the Ancients (Tome 1, p. 162, etc.), after a rigid examination of the
Periplus of Hanno, determines that he had not sailed farther south than
Cape Non. Pliny, who makes Hanno range the whole coast of Africa, from
the straits to the confines of Arabia, had never seen his Periplus, but
took his idea from the works of Xenophon of Lampsaco. The Greeks
surcharged the narration of the voyager with all kinds of fables, and on
their unfaithful copies Strabo founded many of his assertions. According
to M. Gosselin, the itineraries of Hanno, of Scylax, Polybius, Statius,
Sebosus, and Juba; the recitals of Plato, of Aristotle, of Pliny, of
Plutarch, and the tables of Ptolemy, all bring us to the same results,
and, notwithstanding their apparent contradictions, fix the limit of
southern navigation about the neighborhood of Cape Non, or Cape Bojador.

The opinion that Africa was a peninsula, which existed among the Persians,
the Egyptians, and perhaps the Greeks, several centuries prior to the
Christian era, was not, in his opinion, founded upon any known facts; but
merely on conjecture, from considering the immensity and unity of the
ocean; or perhaps on more ancient traditions; or on ideas produced by the
Carthaginian discoveries, beyond the Straits of Gibraltar, and those of
the Egyptians beyond the Gulf of Arabia. He thinks that there was a very
remote period when geography was much more perfect than in the time of the
Phenicians and the Greeks, whose knowledge was but confused traces of what
had previously been better known.

The opinion that the Indian Sea joined the ocean was admitted among the
Greeks, and in the school of Alexandria, until the time of Hipparchus. It
seemed authorized by the direction which the coast of Africa took after
Cape Aromata, always tending westward, as far as it had been explored by
navigators.

It was supposed that the western coast of Africa rounded off to meet the
eastern, and that the whole was bounded by the ocean, much to the
northward of the equator. Such was the opinion of Crates, who lived in the
time of Alexander; of Aratus, of Cleanthes, of Cleomedes, of Strabo, of
Pomponius Mela, of Macrobius, and many others.

Hipparchus proposed a different system, and led the world into an error,
which for a long time retarded the maritime communication of Europe and
India. He supposed that the seas were separated into distinct basins, and
that the eastern shores of Africa made a circuit round the Indian Sea, so
as to join those of Asia beyond the mouth of the Ganges. Subsequent
discoveries, instead of refuting this error, only placed the junction of
the continents at a greater distance. Marinus of Tyre, and Ptolemy,
adopted this opinion in their works, and illustrated it in their maps,
which for centuries controlled the general belief of mankind, and
perpetuated the idea that Africa extended onward to the south pole, and
that it was impossible to arrive by sea at the coasts of India. Still
there were geographers who leaned to the more ancient idea of a
communication between the Indian Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. It had its
advocates in Spain, and was maintained by Pomponius Mela and by Isidore of
Seville. It was believed also by some of the learned in Italy, in the
thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries; and thus was kept alive
until it was acted upon so vigorously by Prince Henry of Portugal, and at
length triumphantly demonstrated by Vasco de Gama, in his circumnavigation
of the Cape of Good Hope.

No. XVI.

Of the Ships of Columbus.

In remarking on the smallness of the vessels with which Columbus made his
first voyage, Dr. Bobertson observes, that, "in the fifteenth century, the
bulk and construction of vessels were accommodated to the short and easy
voyages along the coast, which they were accustomed to perform." We have
many proofs, however, that even anterior to the fifteenth century, there
were large ships employed by the Spaniards, as well as by other nations.
In an edict published in Barcelona, in 1354, by Pedro IV, enforcing
various regulations for the security of commerce, mention is made of
Catalonian merchant ships of two and three decks and from 8000 to 12,000
quintals burden.

In 1419, Alonzo of Aragon hired several merchant ships to transport
artillery, horses, etc., from Barcelona to Italy, among which were two,
each carrying one hundred and twenty horses, which it is computed would
require a vessel of at least 600 tons.

In 1463, mention is made of a Venetian ship of 700 tons which arrived at
Barcelona from England, laden with wheat.

In 1497, a Castilian vessel arrived there being of 12,000 quintals burden.
These arrivals, incidentally mentioned among others of similar size, as
happening at one port, show that large ships were in use in those days.
[329] Indeed, at the time of fitting out the second expedition of
Columbus, there were prepared in the port of Bermeo, a Caracca of 1250
tons, and four ships, of from 150 to 450 tons burden. Their destination,
however, was altered, and they were sent to convoy Muley Boabdil, the last
Moorish king of Granada, from the coast of his conquered territory to
Africa. [330]

It was not for want of large vessels in the Spanish ports, therefore, that
those of Columbus were of so small a size. He considered them best adapted
to voyages of discovery, as they required but little depth of water, and
therefore could more easily and safely coast unknown shores, and explore
bays and rivers. He had some purposely constructed of a very small size
for this service; such was the caravel, which in his third voyage he
dispatched to look out for an opening to the sea at the upper part of the
Gulf of Paria, when the water grew too shallow for his vessel of one
hundred tons burden.

The most singular circumstance with respect to the ships of Columbus is
that they should be open vessels; for it seems difficult to believe that a
voyage of such extent and peril should be attempted in barks of so frail a
construction. This, however, is expressly mentioned by Peter Martyr, in
his Decades written at the time; and mention is made occasionally, in the
memoirs relative to the voyages written by Columbus and his son, of
certain of his vessels being without decks. He sometimes speaks of the
same vessel as a ship, and a caravel. There has been some discussion of
late as to the precise meaning of the term caravel. The Chevalier Bossi,
in his dissertations on Columbus, observes, that in the Mediterranean,
caravel designates the largest class of ships of war among the Mussulmans,
and that in Portugal, it means a small vessel of from 120 to 140 tons
burden; but Columbus sometimes applies it to a vessel of forty tons.

Du Cange, in his glossary, considers it a word of Italian origin. Bossi
thinks it either Turkish or Arabic, and probably introduced into the
European languages by the Moors. Mr. Edward Everett, in a note to his
Plymouth oration, considers that the true origin of the word is given in
"Ferrarii Origines Linguae Italicae," as follows: "Caravela, navigii
minoris genus. Lat. Carabus: Grsece Karabron."

That the word caravel was intended to signify a vessel of a small size is
evident from a naval classification made by king Alonzo in the middle of
the thirteenth century. In the first class he enumerates Naos, or large
ships which go only with sails, some of which have two masts, and others
but one. In the second class smaller vessels, as Carracas, Fustas,
Ballenares, Pinazas, Carabelas, &c. In the third class vessels with sails
and oars, as Galleys, Galeots, Tardantes, and Saetias. [331]

Bossi gives a copy of a letter written by Columbus to Don Raphael Xansis,
treasurer of the king of Spain; an edition of whicli exists in the public
library at Milan. With this letter he gives several woodcuts of sketches
made with a pen, which accompanied this letter, and which he supposes to
have been from the hand of Columbus. In these are represented vessels
which are probably caravels. They have high bows and sterns, with castles
on the latter. They have short masts with large square sails. One of them,
besides sails, has benches of oars, and is probably intended to represent
a galley. They are all evidently vessels of small size, and light
construction.

In a work called "Kecherches sur le Commerce," published in Amsterdam,
1779, is a plate representing a vessel of the latter part of the fifteenth
century. It is taken from a picture in the church of St. Giovanni e Paolo
in Venice. The vessel bears much resemblance to those said to have been
sketched by Columbus; it has two masts, one of which is extremely small
with a latine sail. The mainmast has a large square sail. The vessel has a
high poop and prow, is decked at each end, and is open in the centre.

It appears to be the fact, therefore, that most of the vessels with which
Columbus undertook his long and perilous voyages, were of this light and
frail construction; and little superior to the small craft which ply on
rivers and along coasts in modern days.

No. XVII.

Route of Columbus in His First Voyage.

[332]

It has hitherto been supposed that one of the Bahama Islands, at present
bearing the name of San Salvador, and which is also known as Cat Island,
was the first point where Columbus came in contact with the New World.
Navarrete, however, in his introduction to the "Collection of Spanish
Voyages and Discoveries," recently published at Madrid, has endeavored to
show that it must have been Turk's Island, one of the same group, situated
about 100 leagues (of 20 to the degree) S.E. of San Salvador. Great care
has been taken to examine candidly the opinion of Navarrete, comparing it
with the journal of Columbus, as published in the above-mentioned work,
and with the personal observations of the writer of this article, who has
been much among these islands.

Columbus describes Guanahani, on which he landed, and to which he gave the
name of San Salvador, as being a beautiful island, and very large; as
being level, and covered with forests, many of the trees of which bore
fruit; as having abundance of fresh water, and a large lake in the centre;
that it was inhabited by a numerous population; that he proceeded for a
considerable distance in his boats along the shore, which trended to the
N.N.E., and as he passed, was visited by the inhabitants of several
villages. Turk's Island does not answer to this description.

Turk's Island is a low key composed of sand and rocks, and lying north and
south, less than two leagues in extent. It is utterly destitute of wood,
and has not a single tree of native growth. It has no fresh water, the
inhabitants depending entirely on cisterns and casks in which they
preserve the rain; neither has it any lake, but several salt ponds, which
furnish the sole production of the island. Turk's Island cannot be
approached on the east or northeast side, in consequence of the reef that
surrounds it. It has no harbor, but has an open road on the west side,
which vessels at anchor there have to leave and put to sea whenever the
wind comes from any other quarter than that of the usual trade breeze of
N.E. which blows over the island; for the shore is so bold that there is
no anchorage except close to it; and when the wind ceases to blow from the
laud, vessels remaining at their anchors would be swung against the rocks,
or forced high upon the shore, by the terrible surf that then prevails.
The unfrequented road of the Hawk's Nest, at the south end of the island,
is even more dangerous. This island, which is not susceptible of the
slightest cultivation, furnishes a scanty subsistence to a few sheep and
horses. The inhabitants draw all their consumption from abroad, with the
exception of fish and turtle, which are taken in abundance, and supply the
principal food of the slaves employed in the salt-works. The whole wealth
of the island consists in the produce of the salt-ponds, and in the
salvage and plunder of the many wrecks which take place in the
neighborhood. Turk's Island, therefore, would never be inhabited in a
savage state of society, where commerce does not exist, and where men are
obliged to draw their subsistence from the spot which they people.

Again: when about to leave Guanahani, Columbus was at a loss to choose
which to visit of a great number of islands in sight. Now there is no land
visible from Turk's Island, excepting the two salt keys which lie south of
it, and with it form the group known as Turk's Islands. The journal of
Columbus does not tell us what course he steered in going from Guanahani
to Concepcion, but he states, that it was five leagues distant from the
former, and that the current was against him in sailing to it: whereas the
distance from Turk's Island to the Gran Caico, supposed by Navarrete to be
the Concepcion of Columbus, is nearly double, and the current sets
constantly to the W.N.W. among these islands, which would be favorable
in going from Turk's Island to the Caicos.

From Concepcion Columbus went next to an island which he saw nine leagues
off in a westerly direction, to which he gave the name of Fernaudina. This
Navarrete takes to be Little Inagua, distant no less than twenty-two
leagues from Gran Caico. Besides, in going to Little Inagua, it would be
necessary to pass quite close to three islands, each larger than Turk's
Island, none of which are mentioned in the journal. Columbus describes
Fernandina as stretching twenty-eight leagues S.E. and N. W.: whereas
Little Inagua has its greatest length of four leagues in a S. W.
direction. In a word, the description of Fernandina has nothing in common
with Little Inagua. From Fernandina Columbus sailed S.E. to Isabella,
which Navarrete takes to be Great Inagua: whereas this latter bears S. W.
from Little Inagua, a course differing 90 deg. from the one followed by
Columbus. Again: Columbus, on the 20th of November, takes occasion to say
that Guanahani was distant eight leagues from Isabella: whereas Turk's
Island is thirty-five leagues from Great Inagua.

Leaving Isabella, Columbus stood W. S. W. for the island of Cuba, and fell
in with the Islas Arenas. This course drawn from Great Inagua, would meet
the coast of Cuba about Port Nipe; whereas Navarrete supposes that
Columbus next fell in with the keys south of the Jumentos, and which bear
W.N.W. from Inagua: a course differing 45 deg. from the one steered by the
ships. After sailing for some time in the neighborhood of Cuba, Columbus
finds himself, on the 14th of November, in the sea of Nuestra Senora,
surrounded by so many islands that it was impossible to count them:
whereas, on the same day, Navarrete places him off Cape Moa, where there
is but one small island, and more than fifty leagues distant from any
group that can possibly answer the description.