Scientist calls "discovery" by Columbus a fake

Title

Language

English

Source

Panorama Volume XIX (No. 12) December 1967

Year

1967

Subject

Colombo, Cristoforo.

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Abstract

This is another so-called exposure of an alleged mistake or untruth of the achievement of Columbus

Fulltext

■ This is another so-called exposure of an alleged mistake or untruth of the achievement of Columbus. SCIENTIST CALLS "DISCOVERY" BY COLUMBUS A FAKE A British scientist recently told the British Association for the Advancement of Science that Christopher Co lumbus faked the log of the Santa Maria on his first vo yage to America in 1492-93 because he knew that the new world already had been discovered. The scientist, Prof. A. Da vies, of Exeter University geography department, said the credit for the discovery of land in the west prior to Columbus should go to a Portuguese explorer named Dualma. After leaving Spain, Davies claimed, Columbus would record in his private journal that the day’s run had been 34 leagues, but would tell his crew that it had been 17 leagues. Near the Bahamas the journal recorded the run as having been 1,076 leagues while the shorter version for the crew put the figue at 852 leagues — a difference of 900 miles. [A league is about three miles.] Davies scoffed at the sug gestion that Columbus scaled down the figures so as to re assure his crew of the cer tainty of finding land 750 leagues west of the Canary Islands. This suggestion, the scien tist said, was “almost certain ly untrue,” becaue the daily run was estimated by the pilot, the ship’s master, and all the expert seamen on the ship, and no attempt was made to disguise the figures on the two accompanying vessels. “Columbus clearly was ar ranging the run shown in his log to be much longer than it really was for purposes of his own,” Davies said. The falsification of the log and other records was done to hide the true position of the land Columbus was to “dis cover,” he added. 38 Panorama “He had foreknowledge of a land already discovered in the west and was arrang ing his own log in order to claim that it was a new dis covery,” Davies said. This advance knowledge, he said, would account for the con viction of Columbus that he would reach land 750 leagues west of the Canaries and his rigid adherence to a course due west at 28 degrees north latitude across the Atlantic. — Chicago Daily Tribune. OBSERVATION Before turning to those moral or mental aspects of the matter which present the greatest difficulties, let the inquirer begin by mastering more elementary problems. Let him, on meeting a fellow-mortal, learn at a glance to distinguish the history of the man and the trade or profession to which he belongs. Puerile as such an exercise may seem, it sharpens the faculties of observation and teaches one where to look for. By a man’s fingernails, by his coat sleeve,' by his boots, by his trouser-knees, by the callosities of his forefinger and thumb, by his ex pression, by his shirt-cuffs — by each of these things a man’s calling is plainly revealed. That all united should fail to enlighten the competent inquirer in any case is almost inconceivable. — Arthur Conan Doyle. December 1967 39

pages

38+

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