SECOND VOYAGE. 167 adopted the erroneous hypothesis of Columbus, who chapter considered the lands he had discovered, as bordering L_ on the eastern shores of Asia, and lying adjacent to the vast and opulent regions depicted in such golden colors by Mandeville and the Poll. This conjecture, which was conformable to the admiral's opinions before undertaking the voyage, was cor- roborated by the apparent similarity between vari- ous natural productions of these islands, and of the east. From this misapprehension, the new domin- ions soon came to be distinguished as the West Indies, an appellation by which they are still recog- nised in the titles of the Spanish crown. ^^ Columbus, during his residence at Barcelona, continued to receive from the Spanish sovereigns the most honorable distinctions which royal bounty could confer. When Ferdinand rode abroad, he was accompanied by the admiral at his side. The Pomponio Leto, he breaks out in plando, hujuscemodi rerum notitiS, a strain of warm and generous sen- demulceamus." Opus Epist., epist. tiinent. " Prae laetitia prosiliisse 124, 152. te, vixque a lachrymis prae gaudio ^^ Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, temperasse, quando literas adspex- MS., cap. 118. — Gallo, apud Mu- isti meas, quibus de Antipodum ratori, Rerum Ital. Script., torn. Orbe latenti hactenus, te certiorem xxiii. p. 203. — Gomara, Hist, de feci, mi suavissime Pomponi, in- las Indias, cap. 18. sinuasti. Ex tuis ipse literis col- Peter Martyr seems to have re- iigo, quid senseris. Sensisti autem, ceived the popular inference, re- tantique rem fecisti, quanti virum specting the identity of the new summa doctrina insignitum decuit. discoveries with the East Indies, Quis namque cibus sublimibus prae- with some distrust. " Insulas re- start potest ingeniis isto suavior .' peril plures ; has esse, de quibus fit quod condimentum gravius ? a me apud cosmographos mentio extra facio conjecturam. Beari sentio Oceanum Orientalem, adjacentes spiritus meos, quando accitos alio- Indias arbitrantur. Nee inficior ego quor prudentes aliquos ex his qui penitus, quamvis sphasrae magnitu- ab ea redeunt provincia. Implicent do aliter sentire videatur ; neque animos pecuniarum cumulis augen- enim desunt qui parvo tractu a fini- dis miseri avari, libidinibus obscoeni; bus Hispanis distare littus Indicum, nostras nos mentes, postquam Deo putent." Opus Epist., epist, 135. pleni aliquandiu fuerimus, contem-
