New-York tribune., 1906-04-30
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
COLUMBUS AND AMERICA.
Writer Takes Issue seith Statement
4bout PreUious Knozcledge.
, the Editor Of The Tribune.

To the Editor Of The Tribune.
Sir: 1t is not very often that inaccurate or IN
fair statements creep into the columns of The
tribune but when yous-in editorial in to-day 8
paper not only reject DR.. Emil Reich's assertion
that Columbus had the idea of America in his
head before ne discovered that continent" and
also rather unfeelngly the learned doctor OF
DONG stunts il occurs to me that your memory
II not your benignity is really suffering from the
want of a gentle stmulant
1t is generally admitted that the sea-roving
Mortimer of Scotland and Thule" were the first
discoverers of America. The discovery of the
Western world was we'll known in Rome hundreds
Of years before the birth of Columbus. and the
Papai government several unsuccessful mis-
sionaries to the new settlements by way of Norway
and Iceland. But the probability is that Column
bus's first intimation of the New World OBJ
tanned when his visit TO Iceland in February,
147-hfteen years before his alleged discovery of
America. 1t then only 190 years after the last
expedition O3fO Of the Mortimer to the land of
the West and the tales thereof still on every
bodys lips. The memory of that great eXpoH
lived as fresh among the Icelanders as the last
century's events live amorg
OF this visit of Columbus TO the vikings we have
no other and no less memorial than the following
massage. extracted by his son from one of Column
buss letters: I'm the year l47 in February, navi-
gated 100 leagues beyond Thule the southern part
not g. as some pretend: neither is ii situated within
b lis beone 90 6uv w Il hHn to
this island which is as large es England. When
! was there the sea was not frozen. and the TIDE
was so great as to and fall % % fathoms
This most notable letter is quoted in Washington
Irvings Columbus CVol. l. page 5sl, and anaio-
sous facts and statements are presented in His,
t%9 WiPanG iAnEg ainiP aafnS 17
both translations from the ancient 'eddasp ana
hagen. Won Humboldt Cosmos H. page 233) Brun
Forster and other authorities are equally firm IN
the subject of the existence Of western land
In his History of the United States q, II.
81 n nj
editor of 'Hunlandet," and one of the greatest
at great length how Columbus came to be sent to
Iceland by merchants of Bristol Mr. Enander
from the Icelanders in regard the Vinland expe-
dltions OF the Mortimer which seems to me II not @
entirely demonstrated at least hlgAIy pIobable ne
was careful 10 conceal all such information In
discovery OF a world the existence OF which the
Mortimer hen little known to the rest Gf GHTGpe
Columbus his pluck and enterprise, and it seems
to me that it is no detraGtion from his greatness @
America in his head before he discovers tRaf soh
New; New York City. April %. 1896.
Whatever Columbus may have known or
thought about "Vinland," he had no idea it was
a great continent a part of one, that any
continent existed at the west between Europe
and Asia or that the Atlantic and Pacific oceans
were separate bodies Following the cosmog-
raphy of Ptolemy and the reports of Mande
vile. Marco fOlp. JOIln Oh tIdio Cdl pm dhN
William of Rubruquis he assumed the Asian
continent to be enormously extended eastward
so as to cover the area actually occupied by the
Pacific Ocean and America, and believed that by
sailing westward from Spain two three thou
sand miles he would reach Japan and China.
The object of his first voyage was to reach the
land of the Great Khan. Cipango, Mangi and
Cathay. He bore with him letters to the Great
Khan. When he reached America he believed it
TO be Asia. On his return home he reported that
he had visited Asia-''islands in the Indian Sea
beyond the Ganges.' on his second and
third voyages he clung TO that same deusion.
identifying Cuba with part of China, and Santo
Domingo with Japan. He devoted his fourth
and last voyage largely to identifying Central
America with Siam and the Malay Peninsula
and with trying TO find the Strait of Malacca
in the Isthmus of Panama. To the end of his
life he cung TO that belief, that he had found
a waterway from Europe westward to the Indies
and Cathay. In his will he said: ut pleased the
Lord Almighty that in the year 1892 l should
discover the continent of the Indies and .
Cipango" We perceive proof that he
ever had the idea of America in his head"