will be. But so far as her brief past may serve as a key wherewith to open
the future? a study of it will not be idle.



CHAPTER FIRST

COLUMBUS, RALEIGH AND SMITH


The records will have it that America was discovered in consequence of
the desire of Europe to profit by the commerce of Cathay, which had
hitherto reached them only by the long and expensive process of a journey
due west. One caravan had passed on the spices and other valuables to
another, until they reached the Mediterranean. It was asked whether the
trip could not be more quickly and cheaply made by sea. Assuming, as was
generally done, that the earth was flat, why might not a man sail round
the southern extremity of Africa, and up the other side to the Orient? It
was true that the extremity of Africa might extend to the Southern ice, in
which case this plan would not serve; but the attempt might be worth
making. This was the view of Henry of Portugal, a scientific and ingenious
prince, whose life covered the first sixty years of the Fifteenth Century.
And Portuguese mariners did accordingly sail their little ships far down
the Atlantic coast of the Dark Continent; but they did not venture quite
far enough until long after good Prince Henry was dead, and Columbus had
(in his own belief) pioneered a shorter way.

Columbus was a theorist and a visionary. Many men who have been able to
show much more plausible grounds for their theories than he could for his
have died the laughing-stock of the world. Columbus was a laughing-stock