India by the Cape of Good Hope, was one of the signal events of the day.
Pedro Alvarez Cabral, following in his track, had made a most successful
voyage, and returned with his vessels laden with the precious commodities
of the East. The riches of Calicut were now the theme of every tongue, and
the splendid trade now opened in diamonds and precious stones from the
mines of Hindostan; in pearls, gold, silver, amber, ivory, and porcelain;
in silken stuffs, costly woods, gums, aromatics, and spices of all kinds.
The discoveries of the savage regions of the New World, as yet, brought
little revenue to Spain; but this route, suddenly opened to the luxurious
countries of the East, was pouring immediate wealth into Portugal.

Columbus was roused to emulation by these accounts. He now conceived the
idea of a voyage, in which, with his usual enthusiasm, he hoped to surpass
not merely the discovery of Vasco de Gama, but even those of his own
previous expeditions. According to his own observations in his voyage to
Paria, and the reports of other navigators, who had pursued the same route
to a greater distance, it appeared that the coast of Terra Firma stretched
far to the west. The southern coast of Cuba, which he considered a part of
the Asiatic continent, stretched onwards towards the same point. The
currents of the Caribbean sea must pass between those lands. He was
persuaded, therefore, that there must be a strait existing somewhere
thereabout, opening into the Indian sea. The situation in which he placed
his conjectural strait, was somewhere about what at present is called the
Isthmus of Darien. [110] Could he but discover such a passage, and thus
link the New world he had discovered with the opulent oriental regions of
the old, he felt that he should make a magnificent close to his labors,
and consummate this great object of his existence.

When he unfolded his plan to the sovereigns, it was listened to with great
attention. Certain of the royal council, it is said, endeavored to throw