d found a piece
of carved wood evidently laboured with an iron instrument, and as
probably the wind had drifted it from the west, it might have come from
some unknown land in that direction. A brother-in-law of Columbus had
likewise found a similar piece of wood drifted from the same quarter.
Reeds of enormous size, such as were described by Ptolemy to grow in
India, had been picked up, and trunks of huge pine-trees had been driven
on the shores of the Azores, such as did not grow on any of those
islands. The bodies of two dead men, whose features differed from those
of any known race of people, had been cast on the island of Flores.
There were islands, it was rumoured, still farther west than those
visited, and a mariner sailing from Port Saint Mary to Ireland asserted
that he had seen land to the west, which the ship's company took to be
some extreme point of Tartary.

These facts being made known to Columbus, served to strengthen his
opinion. The success indeed of his undertaking depended greatly on two
happy errors: the imaginary extent of Asia to the east, and the supposed
smallness of the earth. A deep religious sentiment mingled with his
meditations. He looked upon himself as chosen by Heaven for the
accomplishment of its purposes, that the ends of the earth might be
brought together, and all nations and tongues united under the banner of
the Redeemer.

The enthusiastic nature of his conceptions gave an elevation to his
spirit, and dignity and eloquence to his whole demeanour. He never
spoke in doubt or hesitation, but with as much certainty as if his eyes
had beheld the promised land.

No trial or disappointment could divert him from the steady pursuit of
his object. That object, it is supposed, he meditated as early as the
year 1474, though as yet it lay crude and immatured in his mind.
Shortly afterwards, in the year 1477, he made a voyage to the north of
Europe, navigating one hundred leagues beyond Thule, when he reached an
island as large as England, generally supposed to have been Iceland.

In vain he had applied to Don John the Second, who ascended the throne
of Portugal in 1481. That king was so deeply engaged in sending out
expeditions to explore the African coast that his counsellors advised
him to confine his efforts in that direction. He would, however, have
given his consent had not Columbus demanded such high and honourable
rewards as were considered inadmissible.

To his eternal dis