The Story of Mankind [86]
They had accepted the doctrine of the Polish
mathematician, Nicolaus Copernicus, whose studies had con-
vinced him that the earth was one of a number of round planets
which turned around the sun, a discovery which he did not venture
to publish for thirty-six years (it was printed in 1548,
the year of his death) from fear of the Holy Inquisition, a
Papal court which had been established in the thirteenth century
when the heresies of the Albigenses and the Waldenses
in France and in Italy (very mild heresies of devoutly pious
people who did not believe in private property and preferred
to live in Christ-like poverty) had for a moment threatened the
absolute power of the bishops of Rome. But the belief in the
roundness of the earth was common among the nautical experts
and, as I said, they were now debating the respective
advantages of the eastern and the western routes.
Among the advocates of the western route was a Genoese
mariner by the name of Cristoforo Colombo. He was the son
of a wool merchant. He seems to have been a student at the
University of Pavia where he specialised in mathematics and
geometry. Then he took up his father's trade but soon we find
him in Chios in the eastern Mediterranean travelling on business.
Thereafter we hear of voyages to England but whether
he went north in search of wool or as the captain of a ship we
do not know. In February of the year 1477, Colombo (if we
are to believe his own words) visited Iceland, but very likely
he only got as far as the Faroe Islands which are cold enough
in February to be mistaken for Iceland by any one. Here
Colombo met the descendants of those brave Norsemen who
in the tenth century had settled in Greenland and who had
visited America in the eleventh century, when Leif's vessel
had been blown to the coast of Vineland, or Labrador.
What had become of those far western colonies no one
knew. The American colony of Thorfinn Karlsefne, the husband
of the widow of Leif's brother Thorstein, founded in the
year 1003, had been discontinued three years later on account
of the hostility of the Esquimaux. As for Greenland, not a
word had been heard from the settlers since the year 1440.
Very likely the Greenlanders had all died of the Black Death.
which had just killed half the people of Norway. However
that might be, the tradition of a ``vast land in the distant west''
still survived among the people of the Faroe and Iceland, and
Colombo must have heard of it. He gathered further information
among the fishermen of the northern Scottish islands and
then went to Portugal where he married the daughter of one
of the captains who had served under Prince Henry the
Navigator.
From that moment on (the year 1478) he devoted himself
to the quest of the western route to the Indies. He sent his
plans for such a voyage to the courts of Portugal and Spain.
The Portuguese, who felt certain that they possessed a monop-
oly of the eastern route, would not listen to his plans. In
Spain, Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, whose
marriage in 1469 had made Spain into a single kingdom, were
busy driving the Moors from their last stronghold, Granada.
They had no money for risky expeditions. They needed every
peseta for their soldiers.
Few people were ever forced to fight as desperately for
their ideas as this brave Italian. But the story of Colombo
(or Colon or Columbus, as we call him,) is too well known to
bear repeating. The Moors surrendered Granada on the second
of January of the year 1492. In the month of April of the
same year, Columbus signed a contract with the King and
Queen of Spain. On Friday, the 3rd of August, he left Palos
with three little ships and a crew of 88 men, many of whom
were criminals who had been offered indemnity of punishment
if they joined the expedition. At two o'clock in the morning
of Friday, the 12th of October, Columbus discovered land. On
mathematician, Nicolaus Copernicus, whose studies had con-
vinced him that the earth was one of a number of round planets
which turned around the sun, a discovery which he did not venture
to publish for thirty-six years (it was printed in 1548,
the year of his death) from fear of the Holy Inquisition, a
Papal court which had been established in the thirteenth century
when the heresies of the Albigenses and the Waldenses
in France and in Italy (very mild heresies of devoutly pious
people who did not believe in private property and preferred
to live in Christ-like poverty) had for a moment threatened the
absolute power of the bishops of Rome. But the belief in the
roundness of the earth was common among the nautical experts
and, as I said, they were now debating the respective
advantages of the eastern and the western routes.
Among the advocates of the western route was a Genoese
mariner by the name of Cristoforo Colombo. He was the son
of a wool merchant. He seems to have been a student at the
University of Pavia where he specialised in mathematics and
geometry. Then he took up his father's trade but soon we find
him in Chios in the eastern Mediterranean travelling on business.
Thereafter we hear of voyages to England but whether
he went north in search of wool or as the captain of a ship we
do not know. In February of the year 1477, Colombo (if we
are to believe his own words) visited Iceland, but very likely
he only got as far as the Faroe Islands which are cold enough
in February to be mistaken for Iceland by any one. Here
Colombo met the descendants of those brave Norsemen who
in the tenth century had settled in Greenland and who had
visited America in the eleventh century, when Leif's vessel
had been blown to the coast of Vineland, or Labrador.
What had become of those far western colonies no one
knew. The American colony of Thorfinn Karlsefne, the husband
of the widow of Leif's brother Thorstein, founded in the
year 1003, had been discontinued three years later on account
of the hostility of the Esquimaux. As for Greenland, not a
word had been heard from the settlers since the year 1440.
Very likely the Greenlanders had all died of the Black Death.
which had just killed half the people of Norway. However
that might be, the tradition of a ``vast land in the distant west''
still survived among the people of the Faroe and Iceland, and
Colombo must have heard of it. He gathered further information
among the fishermen of the northern Scottish islands and
then went to Portugal where he married the daughter of one
of the captains who had served under Prince Henry the
Navigator.
From that moment on (the year 1478) he devoted himself
to the quest of the western route to the Indies. He sent his
plans for such a voyage to the courts of Portugal and Spain.
The Portuguese, who felt certain that they possessed a monop-
oly of the eastern route, would not listen to his plans. In
Spain, Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, whose
marriage in 1469 had made Spain into a single kingdom, were
busy driving the Moors from their last stronghold, Granada.
They had no money for risky expeditions. They needed every
peseta for their soldiers.
Few people were ever forced to fight as desperately for
their ideas as this brave Italian. But the story of Colombo
(or Colon or Columbus, as we call him,) is too well known to
bear repeating. The Moors surrendered Granada on the second
of January of the year 1492. In the month of April of the
same year, Columbus signed a contract with the King and
Queen of Spain. On Friday, the 3rd of August, he left Palos
with three little ships and a crew of 88 men, many of whom
were criminals who had been offered indemnity of punishment
if they joined the expedition. At two o'clock in the morning
of Friday, the 12th of October, Columbus discovered land. On