from Columbus’s Narrative of the Third Voyage

from Columbus’s Narrative of the Third Voyage[1]

…Each time I sailed from Spain to the Indies I found that when I reached a point a hundred leagues west of the Azores, the heavens, the stars, the temperature of the air and the waters of the sea abruptly changed. I very carefully verified these observations, and found that, on passing this line from north to south, the compass needle, which had previously pointed north-east, turned a whole quarter of the wind to the north-west. It was as if the seas sloped upwards on this line. I also observed that here they were full of a vegetation like pine branches loaded with fruit similar to that of the mastic. This weed is so dense that on my first voyage I thought we had reached shallows, and that the ships might run aground. We had not seen a single strand of weed before we came to that line. I noticed that when we had passed it the sea was calm and smooth, never becoming rough even in a strong wind. I found also that westwards of this line the temperature of the air was very mild and did not change from winter to summer. Here the Pole Star describes a circle of five degrees in diameter, and when it is at its lowest the Guards[2] towards the right. It then rises continuously until they point to the left. It then stands at five degrees, and from there it sinks until they are again on the right.…

I have always read that the world of land and sea is spherical. All authorities and the recorded experiments of Ptolemy and the rest, based on the eclipses of the moon and other observations made from east to west, and on the height of the Pole Star made from north to south, have constantly drawn and confirmed this picture, which they held to be true. Now, as I said, I have found such great irregularities that I have come to the following conclusions concerning the world: that it is not round as they describe it, but the shape of a pear, which is round everywhere except at the stalk, where it juts out a long way; or that it is like a round ball, on part of which is something like a woman's nipple. This point on which the protuberance stands is the highest and nearest to the sky. It lies below the Equator, and in this ocean, at the farthest point of the east, I mean by the farthest point of the east the place where all land and islands end.

In support of this belief, I urge all the arguments which I have stated concerning the line from north to south a hundred leagues west of the Azores. As we passed it in a westerly direction, the ships mounted gently nearer to the sky, and we enjoyed the mildest weather. On account of this mildness the needle shifted by a quarter north-westwards, and continued to shift farther to the north-west as we sailed on. It is this increase of height that causes the changes in the circle described by the Pole Star and the Guards. The closer I came to the Equator the higher they rose, and the greater the alteration in these stars and their orbits.

Ptolemy and the other geographers believed that the world was spherical and that the other hemisphere was as round as the one in which they lived, its centre lying on the island of Arin, which is below the Equator between the Arabian and Persian gulfs; and that the boundary passes over Cape St. Vincent in Portugal to the west, and eastward to China and the Seres.[3] I do not in the least question the roundness of that hemisphere, but I affirm that the other hemisphere resembles the half of a round pear with a raised stalk, as I have said, like a woman's nipple on a round ball. Neither Ptolemy nor any of the other geographers had knowledge of this other hemisphere, which was completely unknown, but based their reasoning on the hemisphere in which they lived, which is a round sphere, as I have said.

Now that your Highnesses have commanded navigation, exploration and discovery, the nature of this other hemisphere is clearly revealed. For on this voyage I was twenty degrees north of the Equator in the latitude of Hargin[4] and the African mainland, where the people are black and the land very parched. I then went to the Cape Verde Islands, whose inhabitants are blacker still, and the farther south I went the greater the extremes. In the latitude in which I was, which is that of Sierra Leone, where the Pole Star stood at five degrees at nightfall, the people are completely black, and when I sailed westwards from there the heats remained excessive. On passing the line of which I have spoken, I found the temperatures growing milder, so that when I came to the island of Trinidad, where the Pole Star also stands at five degrees at nightfall, both there and on the mainland opposite the temperatures were extremely mild. The land and the trees were very green and as lovely as the orchards of Valencia in April, and the inhabitants were lightly built and fairer than most of the other people we had seen in the Indies. Their hair was long and straight and they were quicker, more intelligent and less cowardly. The sun was in Virgo above their heads and ours. All this is attributable to the very mild climate in those regions, and this in its turn to the fact that this land stands highest on the world's surface, being nearest to the sky, as I have said. This confirms my belief that the world has this variation of shape which I have described, and which lies in this hemisphere that contains the Indies and the Ocean Sea, and stretches below the Equator. This argument is greatly supported by the fact that the sun, when Our Lord made it, was at the first point of the east; in other words the first light was here in the east, where the world stands at its highest. Although Aristotle believed that the Antarctic Pole, or the land beneath it, is the highest part o£ the world and nearest to the sky, other philosophers contest it, saying that the land beneath the Arctic Pole is the highest. This argument shows that they knew one part of the world to be higher and nearer to the sky than the rest. It did not strike them however that, for the reasons of shape that I have set down, this part might be below the Equator. And no wonder, since they had no certain information about this other hemisphere, only vague knowledge based on deduction. No one had ever entered it or gone in search of it until now when your Highnesses commanded me to explore and discover these seas and lands….

Holy Scripture testifies that Our Lord made the earthly Paradise in which he placed the Tree of Life. From there flowed four main rivers: the Ganges in India, the Tigris and the Euphrates in Asia, which cut through a mountain range and form Mesopotamia and flow into Persia, and the Nile, which rises in Ethiopia and flows into the sea at Alexandria.

I do not find and have never found any Greek or Latin writings which definitely state the worldly situation of the earthly Paradise, nor have I seen any world map which establishes its position except by deduction. Some place it at the source of the Nile in Ethiopia. But many people have traveled in these lands and found nothing in the climate or altitude to confirm this theory, or to prove that the waters of the Flood which covered, etc., etc.[5] ... reached there. Some heathens tried to show by argument that it was in the Fortunate Islands (which are the Canaries; and St Isidore, Bede, Strabo, the Master of Scholastic History, St Ambrose and Scotus[6] and all learned theologians agree that the earthly Paradise is in the East, etc.

I have already told what I have learnt about this hemisphere and its shape, and I believe that, if I pass below the Equator, on reaching these higher regions I shall find a much cooler climate and a greater difference in the stars and waters. Not that I believe it possible to sail to the extreme summit or that it is covered by water, or that it is even possible to go there. For I believe that the earthly Paradise fits here, which no one can enter except by God's leave. I believe that this land which your Highnesses have commanded me to discover is very great, and that there are many other lands in the south of which there have never been reports. I do not hold that the early Paradise has the form of a rugged mountain, as it is shown in pictures, but that it lies at the summit of what I have described as the stalk of a pear, and that by gradually approaching it one begins, while still at a great distance, to climb towards it. As I have said, I do not believe that anyone can ascend to the top. I do believe, however, that, distant though it is, these waters may flow from there to this place which I have reached, and form this lake. All this provides great evidence of the earthly Paradise, because the situation agree; with the beliefs of those holy and wise theologians and all the signs strongly accord with this idea. For I have never read or heard of such a quantity of fresh water flowing so close to the salt and flowing into it, and the very temperate climate provides a further confirmation. If this river does not flow out of the earthly Paradise, the marvel is still greater. For I do not believe that there is so great and deep a river anywhere in the world….

I strongly believe that the waters of the sea flow from east to west, following the course of the heavens, and that here, in passing this region, they flow more rapidly and have consequently eaten away a large part of the land, which will account for the great number of islands hereabouts. The islands themselves supply evidence of this, for all those that lie west and east or a little more obliquely north-west and south-east are broad, and those lying north and south and north-east and south-west are narrow, for they stand in the way of these prevailing winds. All these islands produce precious things, because of the mild climate which comes to them from heaven and because of their proximity to the highest point of the earth. It is true that at certain places the waters do not appear to flow in this direction, but this is only so in particular places where it is interrupted by land, which apparently causes the current to change course.

Pliny writes that the sea and the land together form a sphere, and states that this ocean sea forms the greatest body of water and lies towards the heavens, that the land is beneath it and supports it, and that the two are related like the kernel of the nut and the containing shell. The Master of Scholastic history commenting on Genesis says that the waters are very small, although on the day of creation they covered the whole land. They were then gaseous like a mist. But when they became solid and compact they occupied a very small space. This is confirmed by Nicholas of Lyra,[7] and Aristotle says that the world is small with very little water, and that it is easy to go from Spain to the Indies. This view is supported by Averroes[8] and by Cardinal Pedro de Aliaco,[9] who confirm his statement and that of Seneca (who is of the same opinion). The Cardinal says that Aristotle was able to learn many of the world's secrets through Alexander the Great, Seneca through the Emperor New, and Pliny by way of the Romans, who devoted men and wealth and great effort to the discovery of the world's secrets, and their explanation to the peoples. The Cardinal accords greater authority to them than to Ptolemy and the other Greeks and the Arabs. In confirmation of the belief that the seas are small and cover only a small part of the world, the Cardinal opposes to the belief of Ptolemy and his followers a passage from II Esdras,[10] in which he says that, of the seven parts of the world, six are revealed, and the seventh covered with water. Such Saints as Augustine and Ambrose (in his Exameron) quote 11 Esdras 28, 29, ‘Here my son Jesus shall come and my son Christ shall die’,[11] as proof that Esdras was a prophet, which is the belief also of Zacharias, father of St John, and of the Blessed Simeon.[12] Francisco de Maironis also cites thee authorities. As to the area of dry land, many voyages have shown that it is much greater than is commonly believed, which is not surprising, for the further one travels the more one learns.

[1] Source: The Four Voyage of Christopher Columbus, ed. and trans. J. M. Cohen (London: Penguin, 1969).

[3] Seres: The Romans’ name for the Chinese, of whom they knew very little except that they produced the silk which arrived along the caravan trails.

[4] Hargin: Arguin, an island off the west coast of Africa.

[5] Etc.: The abbreviations and ellipses are Columbus’s own.

[6] St Isidore… Scotus: St. Isidore (ca. 560–636), archbishop of Seville and a great medieval scholar. Bede (672-735): a Northumbrian monk and author of The Ecclesiastical History of the English People. Strabo (63BC-24AD): a famous Greek geographer. Master of Scholastic History: Petrus Comestor, author of Historia scolastica. St Ambrose 339-97): one of the four great Latin doctors of the church. Scotus: probably John Duns Scotus (1266-1308): an Oxford theologian, philosopher, and logician.

[7] Nicholas of Lyra (1270-1349): a Franciscan theologian and doctor at the Sorbonne, later appointed the head of all Franciscans in France.

[8] Averroes: Ibn Rushd (1126 –1198), an Andalusian-Arab philosopher, physician, legal scholar, and mathematician from Córdoba.

[9] Cardinal Pedro de Aliaco: the Spanish name for Pierre d'Ailly (1350-1420), a French theologian and cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church from Compiègne.

[10] Esdras II. 42: “Upon the third day thou didst command that the waters should be gathered in the seventh part of the earth: six parts has though dried up.”

[11] ‘Here … shall die’: In the Vulgate version of Esdras II, vii, 28 and 29.