here, and that it
was both possible and practicable for a man to sail around the world and
return to the place of starting; but neither Sir John himself nor any
other seaman of his times was bold enough to undertake so hazardous an
enterprise. Columbus was, no doubt, the first _practical_ believer in
the theory of circumnavigation, and although he never sailed around the
world himself, he demonstrated the possibility of doing so.

The great mistake with Columbus and others who shared his opinions was
not concerning the figure of the earth, but in regard to its size. He
believed the world to be no more than 10,000 or 12,000 miles in
circumference. He therefore confidently expected that after sailing
about 3,000 miles to the westward he should arrive at the East Indies,
and to do that was the one great purpose of his life.

AN IMPORTANT FIND OF MSS.

JUAN F. RIANO. "Review of Continental Literature," July, 1891, to
July, 1892. From "_The Athenaeum_" (England), July 2, 1892.

The excitement about Columbus has rather been heightened by the
accidental discovery of three large holograph volumes, in quarto, of Fr.
Bartolome de Las Casas, the Bishop of Chiapa, who, as is well known,
accompanied the navigator in his fourth voyage to the West Indies. The
volumes were deposited by Las Casas in San Gregorio de Valladolid, where
he passed the last years of his life in retirement. There they remained
until 1836, when, owing to the suppression of the monastic orders, the
books of the convent were dispersed, and the volumes of the Apostle of
the Indies, as he is still called, fell into the hands of a collector of
the name of Acosta, from whom a grandson named Arcos inherited them.
Though written in the bishop's own hand, they are not of great value, as
they only contain his well-known "Historia Apologetica de las Indias,"
of which no fewer than three different copies, dating from the sixteenth
century, are to be found here at Madrid, and the whole was published
some years ago in the "Documentos Ineditos para la Historia de Espana."

The enthusiasm for Columbus and his companions has not in the least
damped the ardor of my countrymen for every sort of information
respecting their former colonies, in America or their possessions in the
Indian Archipelago and on the northern coast of Africa. Respecting the
former I may mention the second volume of the "Historia del Nuevo
Mundo," by Cobo, 1645; the third and fourth volume o