, he was compelled
to go on his way to Hispaniola. We are hardly so much concerned with what
the admiral saw and heard, as with what he afterwards thought and
reported. To understand this, it will be desirable to enter somewhat into
the scientific questions which occupied the mind of this great mariner and
most observant man.

THE ADMIRAL'S REASONING ABOUT THE CONTINENT.

The discovery of the continent of America by Columbus, in his third
voyage, was the result of a distinct intention on his part to discover
some new land, and cannot be attributed to chance. It would be difficult
to define precisely the train of ideas which led Columbus to this
discovery. The Portuguese navigations were one compelling cause. Then the
change, already alluded to, which Columbus had noticed in his voyages to
the Indies, on passing a line a hundred leagues west of the Azores, was in
his mind, as it was in reality, a circumstance of great moment[21] and
significance. It was not a change of temperature alone that he noticed,
but a change in the heavens, the air, the sea, and the magnetic current.

[Footnote 21: It is the opinion of HUMBOLDT, as mentioned before, that
the celebrated division, made by Alexander the Sixth between the
Castilian and Portuguese monarchs, was adopted in reference to these
phenomena which Columbus had noticed: and, if the line of no variation
were a "constant," no better marine boundary could well be suggested.]

In the first place, the needles of the compass, instead of north-easting,
north-wested at this line; and that remarkable phenomenon occurred just
upon the passage of the line, as if, Columbus says, one passed a hill.
Then, the sea there was full of sea-weed like small pine-branches, laden
with a fruit similar to pistachio nuts. Moreover, on passing this
imaginary line, the admiral had invariably found that the temperature
became agreeable, and the sea calm. Accordingly, in the course of this
voyage, when they were suffering from that great heat which has been
mentioned, he determined to take a westerly course, which led, as we have
seen, to his discovering the beautiful land of Paria.[22]

[Footnote 22: Las Casas, who had other authentic information about this
voyage besides the manuscripts of Columbus, says, that the admiral
intended to have gone southwards, after he had taken a westerly course,
on quitting the place where he was becalmed. Had he done so, which the
state of his s