CiiAP. vir.
CIUIISTOPHER COLUMBUS.
4!)
stantinople under the Greek emperors, placed them in a false position, and the negotiation proved fruitless. The Venetians, accordingly, were once more in the ascendent. Their most formidable rival had been obliged to resign the contest ; and they began to rmi a new coui-se of prosperity, to whicii, as far as human foresight reached, no limit could be assigned. At this period of unexampled ])rosperity Venice was tottering to her fall.
The revival of learning and the discovery of printing had at once awakened a spirit of in(][uiry, and furnished the most effectual means of diffusing it. In aU departments of literature and science rapid progress was made ; and discoveries leading to practical results in some of the m)st important arts of life, were con- stantly rewarding the diligent inquirer, and stimulating others to follow in his footsteps. Among the arts thus improved was navigation. Hitherto, when the shore was lost sight of, there had been no means of dii'ecting the com'se of a vessel at sea ; and the utmost which the boldest and most experienced navigator attem})ted, was to steer from headland to headland without hugging the inter- vening shore, or to take advantage of a wind which blew regularly like the monsoons of the Indian Ocean, and thus use it according to the direction from which it blew for traversing a wide expanse of sea on an outward or a homeward voyage. When the compass was discovered, the greatest obstacle to a voyage out of sight of land was at once removed ; and there was even less danger in launching out on the wide ocean than in following the windings of the coast, exposed to rocks and shoals, and the many dangei's of a lee shore.
Among the first who proposed to tui'n the use of the compass to jjractical account in the discovery of new lands, was the cele- brated Christopher Columbus. He had become satisfied, both on scientific grounds and from the accounts of travellers, par- ticularly those of Marco Polo, that as the continent of Asia extended much further eastward than had been generally imagined, it would be possible to arrive at the East Indies by sailing west across the Atlantic. The immense importance of such a passage, once proved to be practicable, was perfectly obvious. It would at once dispense with the tedious and expensive overland routes by which the produce of the East was then brought to Europe, and transfer the most valuable traffic with which the world was yet acquainted, from the hands of infidels to those of Christians. These were the grand objects at which Columbus aimed ; but so much were iiis views in advance of his n^e, that manv vears
fill.
A.IJ. 1460.
I'logrcss of the art of iiavigntioii.
Chuistopher CoLVMBrs. — From noi8.«.ir.i.
Cliristoiilier Coluiubua.
