The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1892-06-04
ooLuMRus lIl PORTUGAL.
Lisbon the Capital of Commerce end DIi

covery.
The harmony between the individual
vocations of men and their destinies
cannot be ignored. Columbus would
not have ranked among the foremost of
navigators but for the influence of
Lisbon; that city whence voyages first
were undertaken upon the high seas,
which as far excelled in effort and eX-
tent the petty Mediterranean cruises as
the latter exceeded the. ancient naviga-
tion of rivers. Columbus the Genoese
went to Lisbon; for there was the fame
of science, and all roads then led to the
mouth of the Tagus. From the Nor
mans to the Mallorcans, all sought at
Lisbon opportunities of commerce and
nautical instruction. And this decision
of his, reached by deliberate and con-
scious reflection, was inspired by the
inward voice, ceaselessly heard, of
earnest thought moving him and guild
ing him in his work. 1t was not mere
chance, as those historians hold who
see him cast upon the Portuguese coasts
by destroying tempests and fatal ship
wreck.
The presence of Columbus at Lisbon is
like the presence of artists in Rome and
arch@ologists in Athens. Mathemati-
clan, skilled mariner, navigator and
pilot, the Mediterranean must have
seem Strengthened to his generous am
bition, and he turned to the ocean.
Reared in those Italian cities which
gazed toward the Orient and the past,
he came, pcrforce, hither where by
a providential law the eyes of men
looked to the west and the future. This
was the paramount cause of his seeking
Lisbon, but the incidental motive was
| the soiourn of his brother. Bartholo-
new Columbus among the Portuguese.
Very open to criticism are all the bio
graphical dates in the life of Columbus
before his achievement won him such
! high renown and worldwide fame; but
we must assume that he arrived three
or four years before the good Dom
| Henry passed from this mortal life to
the life eternal. So fortunate coinci-
| dence permitted him to learn the use of
the quadrant, invented by our mariners
as an auxiliary to the compass, and the
application of the astrolabe to sea-
manship, an innovation by means Of
| which vessels were enabled to quit
the coast and shape their course out
into the infinitudes of the sea; to wit
ness the intepidity with which the eX-
plorers who put forth from Cape Sagres
had doubled the promontory of Bojador,
supposed to be the EXTREMIST verge of
earth; and to admire the western cara
VEL small but so nimble that in the
words of a famous Portuguese, its
lateen sails seemed like sea-gulls' wings
and it's hull like fish, light of draft
for sailing on the coast and in shallow
waters, but strong and stout to en-
counter the waves and gales, an indis-
pensable instrument for the lofty task
of exploration and discovery. Besides
all this, no doubt now remained as to
the sphericity of the earth. And, the
earth's shape being no longer in ques-
ton, neither was there doubt with re-
gard to the co-essential conviction that
the lands of the Orient would be reached
by sailing westward. And there being
no doubt whatever on this point, so
also could there be none that neither
the Azores, nor the Cape Verde Islands,
nor Guinea, nor any spot yet discovered
by the Portuguese, could BE- the last
western extremity of our globe.-Cen-
tury.