(APPENDIX No. 18, COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY REPORT FOR 1880.) AN ATTEMPT TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM OF THE FIRST LANDING PLACE OF COLUMBUS IN THE NEW WORLD. By Capt. G. V, FOX, Assistant Secretary of the Navy from May, 1861, to November, 1866, Member of the Massachusetts Historical Society, etc. I. The discovery of America by Christopher Columbus is, perhaps, the most important event recorded in secular history. Ancient philosophers had suggested the sphericity of the earth, the zone of water, and the theoretical possibility of reaching the Indies by sailing west; and Columbus recalled these suggestions before the great councils that ridiculed and rejected his proposal. The art of navigation is as old as civilization, and the practice of it must have begun when bartering commenced. Its early development in European waters was, probably, in the eastern part of the Mediterranean, with open boats, such as Homer mentions. Vessels of this character could not make a commercial nation like that which throve in Phoenicia. Therefore we find that her ships were large and that they used both sails and oars.(1) More than three thousand years ago the sailors of this little state had passed out of the Mediterranean, had founded Cadiz, and were trafficking along the Atlantic shores of Europe and Africa. The maritime spirit of the Phoenicians descended upon the Carthagenians, the Italians, and the Portuguese. The last named began that golden age of geographical discovery which characterized the fifteenth century. All navigators antecedent to Columbus followed the same way in searching for new countries. They crept along the shores of contiguous lands making no discoveries beyond unless by chance, through the stress of storms, or by the letting loose of birds. The Vikings tribe of Norway were an exception. The area of sheltered fiords in their fretted coast exceeds all the arable land in the country. Hardy venturesome seamen grew here from the law of environment, and their vessels also were evolved in a tempestuous ocean and by means of a business very different from trade. In shape these resembled the present whale-boats, (2) which are proved to be the best type for rough seas. A well-preserved specimen, supposed to have been made about the tenth century, was dug out of a tumulus at Gogstad, Norway, in the spring of 1880.(3) It is 72 feet long, 17 wide, and it probably drew 5 feet of water. There are twenty benches for rowers. Near the middle is a wooden step for a mast, and indications that this might have been lowered at will. The vessels of the Northmen were obviously good sea-boats and from their light draft and the alternative of oars, they must have been very handy in the neighborhood of land, but under canvas they could make no headway unless by "sailing large." The Phoenicians used the Pole Star in navigating and the ancient mariners of Ceylon regulated their track through the ocean by observing the flight of the birds which they set free at intervals.(*) In this mode, and also from being forced to scud in gales, the Northmen extended (1) Ezekiel xxvii, 5-7 [about 588 B. C.]. Probably this time was the height of her power. (2) See frontispiece, Denmark in the Early Iron Age. London, 1866. C. Engelhardt. (3) See La Nature for 1880. (*) History of Merchant Shipping and Ancient Commerce. W. S. Lindsay; 4 vols. London, 1874. Vol. I, pp. 14 and 359. |