DIGITISED MANUSCRIPTS

( 2) afloat of a great continent, which went by the name of Atalantis, and was supposed to be situated somewhere in the centre of that strange ocean. Then, again, there was a hope of reaching India by crossing the ocean—a mythical India which went by the name of Cathay, and was reputed to be blazing with jewels and gold. But to reach this fabulous land the ocean had to be traversed, and it was a tempestuous ocean, into whose fathom- less depths evils spirits and genii dragged the fool- hardy mariner. To essay such a venture was a tremendous temptation. Success would lead to honours, fame, and wealth, but the most daring buccaneer recoiled before that gloomy waste, and from those waves which ran mountains high. That it could be accomplished seemed never to enter any sane man’s head ; it would be sheer folly, it would be defying the will of Providence, it would be courting certain death. ‘Wherever ship has sailed there have I journeyed,’ wrote Christopher Columbus about the year 1470. He was destined to sail where no ship had sailed yet. Born in 1436 at Genoa, the son of a wool-comber, when he reached his fifteenth year he became a sailor; and in the course of twenty rough and adventurous years visited England, Iceland, the West Coast of Africa, and the Greek Isles, and had become familiar with the terrors of the deep.