The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1910-10-22
! new idea in his time; some seem

W CAIuh IAdC uS OllSludISU IL, VI
that it was opposed and ridiculed
by most of his learned contemporary
les and especially by the clergy. Moth
ing could be further from the truth.
The globular form of the earth was
proved by Aristotle, and after him &C.
cepted by nearly all the ancient
philosophers; and 1900 years before
Columbus the geographer Eratos-
themes declared that it would be easy
enough to sail from Spain to India
on the same parallel we're it not for
the vast extent of the Atlantic ocean.
But that vast extent was all a mat
ter of guesswork, and other ancient
writer's, such as Seneca, maintained
that the distance was probably not
SO very great. and that with favoring
winds ship might make the voyage
In few days. This question of diff
erence was the main difficulty which
Columbus had to meet. Objections
arising from belief in the earths
f1atness were made by ignorant cler-
gymen, as by uneducated people in
general; but learned clergymen, IA
miliar with Aristotle and Ptolemy, did
not for moment call in question the
roundness of the earth. knowledge
of such scientific points, however, was
is those days apt to lie stagnant, and
some striking experience was needed
to vivify it,
In the year 1471 voyage was
made, the Importance Of which was
the first to point out. Portuguese
ships had already reached the coast
of Upper Guinea, where it runs for
several hundred miles from west to
east. Here 1t seemed as if Melas
opinion was correct, and as if one
might go sailing on eastward to the
mouth of the Red Sea. But in 1471
two captains, Santarem and Escobar,
went on and followed that coast until
they found it turning toward the
south; and on they went till-first
Of all Europeans-they crossed the
equator, sailed Ave degrees beyond
it, and still that African coast
stretched before them steadily south
ward
1t was thus made clear that ,Mela
was mistaken and that it was possible
that Ptolemy might be right For
aught they knew, that coast might
keep on running southwark, all the
way to the pole, and even IL that
we're not the Casa route to Asia
by sailing around Africa was going
to be much longer route than they
had supposed.
We can we'll believe that the pros
poets were discouraging. 1t was one
of those interesting situations that
make men stop and think Now, il
ever, was the natural moment for
somebody to ask the question, wheth-
cr there might not be some better and
shorter ocean route to Asia than that
could be found by pursuing the Afri-
can coast.
NoIunpuS IN fortu9al.
Now IT was just about this time
that Christopher Columbus seems to
have found his way to Portugal He
was now between 80 and IS, or, as
many writer's think, not more than 26
years old. A dozen or more towns
and villages have been claimed as his
birthplace, but | see no reason for
doubling his own explicit statement
made in solemn legal document, that
he was born in the city of Genoa.
Son of wool comber in very humble
circumstances, he had taken to the
sea at an early age, as was natural
for Genoese boy. Somewhere and
somehow he learned Latin and geom-
etry and as much Of astronomy as
that age knew how to apply to pur-
poses of navigation. lie had sailed
to and fro from the Mediterranean
in merchant voyages and had prob
ably taken hand in scrimmages with
Turkish corsairs. which is the foun-
dation for the ridiculous charge of
piracy" sometimes alleged against
him by modern dabblers in history,
His younger brother Bartholomew
had led similar life, and both won
a reputation for skill in map max
ing.
In those days when Italian COM
MERGE, cut from it's eastern roots NV
Turkish shears, was languishing, Ital.
ian skill and talent were apt to drift
westward to Lisbon, and so it was
with the brothers Columbus.
Both were deeply Interested in the
problem of circumnavigating Africa,
both sailed in more than one of the
Portuguese voyages on that coast and
Bartholomew was in the first voyage
that doubled the cape of Good Hone
in 1887.