Mediterranean and the other narrow seas that border the great ocean. The
mariner's compass had been invented and in common use for more than a
century; yet with the help of this sure guide, and prompted by a laudable
spirit of discovery, the mariners of those days rarely ventured from the
sight of land.

They acquired wonderful applause by sailing along the coast of Africa,
and discovering some of the neighboring islands; and after pushing their
researches with great industry for half a century, the Portuguese, who were
the most fortunate and enterprising, extended their voyages southward no
farther than the equator.

The rich commodities of the East had, for several ages, been brought into
Europe by the Red Sea and the Mediterranean; and it had now become the
object of the Portuguese to find a passage to India by sailing round the
southern extremity of Africa, and then taking an eastern course. This great
object engaged the general attention, and drew into the Portuguese service
adventurers from the other maritime nations of Europe. Every year added to
their experience in navigation, and seemed to promise some distant reward
to their industry. The prospect however of arriving at India by that route
was still by no means encouraging. Fifty years perseverance in the same
track having brought them only to the equator, it was probable that as many
more would elapse before they could accomplish their purpose.

But Columbus, by an uncommon exertion of genius, formed a design no less
astonishing to the age in which he lived than beneficial to posterity. This
design was to sail to India by taking a western direction. By the accounts
of travellers who had visited that part of Asia, it seemed almost without
limits on the east; and by attending to the spherical figure of the earth
Columbus drew the natural conclusion, that the Atlantic ocean must be