The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-10-12
Liberal Viewpoint
by DIR. HARRY ELMER BARNES

! Il Columbus on the Island, of San Salvador
(Watling Island in the Bahamas) 442 years ago.
How do the historians of today size up the sig
nidcance of his achievements?
Without knowing it, Columbus rediscovered
America and encouraged other Europeans to
follow his example The spirit of the times was
such, however, that others would have performed
the feat of Columbus if he had not possessed
the great courage to set out for the Indies on
Aug. 3, 1892. Yet Columbus is Of sufficient i'm
portance for American history to warrant
| reconsideration of his career
Columbus did not, of course discover Amer
lea. The first human beings to come here were
the Monaghan foTebears of our American In
dams who crossed from Asia by way of Alaska
with stone culture perhaps 10000 years ago.
They built up high civilizations in Mexico
Yucatan, Peru, and central New York In some
other places they remained in a. state of bar
barism until long after the white man came.
Some, following G. Elliott Smith and his
school, believe that America was next dis
covered" by civilized Africans crossing the At
lantic and bringing with them the pyramid cul-
ture of Egypt This supposition is not impos-
sble, but it is certainly unlikely. The adven-
turouS Mortimer came here in successive ex-
plorations between 975 and 1850, but any settle
ments they may have left were wiped out before
Columbus 1t is believed that fishermen from
western Europe frequently reached the Grand
Banks of Newfoundland before Columbus sailed
| IF Columbus did not discover America, he was
certainly the first to come here after the time
was ripe for extensive and continued interest in
exploration and after inventions in the science
of navigation had made possible successful
traversing of the great ocean barrier.
For thousands of years sailors off the coast
of Europe had possessed ships about as large as
those used by Columbus But he had the mar
iner's compass which made accurate navigation
possible, if not wholly safe far out of sight of
land.
Columbus was not the first man to think the
world is round or to talk about getting to the
riches of the Indies by westward passage.
Most geographical scholars of the fifteenth
century believed that the world was round and
there was wide interest among scholars and
traders in the western passage to the far east.
Columbus was the first man to combine the
necessary bravery with the lucky breaks in the
way of financial and political support These
facts do not detract from his repute for courage
and initiative, but they give a better idea of
the background of his voyage of discovery.
1t is an interesting fact that major geo.
graphic error was probably responsible for
Columbus willingness to make his daring trip.
Medieval geographers held that the world was
slightly less than half its actual size This
placed the East Indies essentially in the region
OF Central America. Had the real size of the
oeeil recognized, QOuOC1uI Columbus
or anybody else would have risked the voyage in
the puny ships then available.
COLUMBUS reputation for veracity as
~ geographer naturalist and historian has
been assailed severely in recent years by a num-
Der Of scholars, among them DR.. Leo Wiener of
Harvard
Columbus, it is true, had soaked himself in
the lurid accounts of the far east in the travel
books from Marco Polo to the spurious Travels
Of Sir John de Vaudeville" He had come to
think in these rainbow phrases
Believing that he had found the East Indies
he related his discoveries" in terms not so
much compatible with what he really found as
With language about the far east in the work
he had read by the earlier overland travellers to
the fabulous realms of the Mongol Enperors.
His description Of his discoveries was like writ
ing the history of our oil industry in the Ian
guage Of some of the more optimistic pros
pectuses of oil syndicates
Yet this lurid fabrication proved all to the
good in its effect upon subsequent history A
sober and accurate narrative would not have
attracted such great popular interest. Column
bus grandiose eXaggerations helped nightly to
sell the idea of the western route to Europeans
and so helped on the further exploration of the
Americas
Columbus did not Of course, sell the idea of
America to Europe, for he died believing that
he had tapped the riches of the East Indies AS
late as 1909 Hendrick Hudson imagined as he
sailed past the Palisades. that he soon would
burst forth upon the open sea which quickly
would bring him to the treasure islands of the
Orient