valuable discoveries in chemistry. So, with Columbus. He did not rebuild
the Holy Sepulchre; he did not lead a new crusade; he did not find his
Kublai Khan, or his Prester John; but he brought into relation the New
World and the Old.

It is impossible to read without the deepest interest the account from day
to day of his voyages. It has always been a favourite speculation with
historians, and, indeed, with all thinking men, to consider what would
have happened from a slight change of circumstances in the course of
things which led to great events. This may be an idle and a useless
speculation, but it is an inevitable one. Never was there such a field for
this kind of speculation as in the voyages, especially the first one, of
Columbus. The first point of land that he saw, and landed at, is as nearly
as possible the central point of what must once have been the United
Continent of North and South America. The least change of circumstance
might have made an immense difference in the result. The going to sleep of
the helmsman, the unshipping of the rudder, (which did occur in the case
of "The Pinzon,") the slightest mistake in taking an observation, might
have made, and probably did make, considerable change in the event. During
that memorable first voyage of Columbus, the gentlest breeze carried with
it the destinies of future empires. Had he made his first discovery of
land at a point much southward of that which he did discover, South
America might have been colonized by the Spaniards with all the vigour
that belonged to their first efforts at colonization; and, being a
continent, might not afterwards have been so easily wrested from their
sway by the maritime nations.

On the other hand, had some breeze, big with the fate of nations, carried
Columbus northwards, it would hardly have been left for the English, more
than a century afterwards, to found those Colonies which have proved to be