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George Bancroft, History of the Colonization of the United States, Vol. 1, 17th edition., Colonial History (search)
ed untold wealth to the merchants of Europe, new dominions to its princes, and heathen nations to the religion of the cross. As early perhaps as the year 1470, or probably before 1474, Columbus was attracted to Lisbon, as the great centre of maritime adventure. He came to insist with immovable resoluteness that the shortest route to the Indies lay across the Atlantic. By letters from the venerable Toscanelli, the illustrious astronomer of Florence, who had drawn a map of the world with eastern Asia rising over against Europe, he was riveted in his faith, and longed for the opportunity of proving its reality. After more than ten years of vain solicitations in Portugal, he left the banks of the Tagus, to seek the aid of Ferdinand and Isabella, rich in nautical experience, having watched the stars at sea from the Chap. I.} latitude of Iceland to near the equator at Elmina. Though yet longer baffled by the scepticism which knew not how to share his aspirations, he lost nothing of