Before the voyage of Columbus in 1492, nothing of America was really known. Scanty scraps from antiquity, vague rumors from the resounding ocean, and the hesitating speculations of science were all that the inspired navigator found to guide him. Foremost among these were the well-known verses of Seneca, so interesting from ethical genius and a tragical death, in the chorus of his “Medea,” which for generations had been the finger-point to an undiscovered world:—
“Venient annis
Secula seris, quibus Oceanus
Vincula rerum laxet, et ingens
Pateat tellus, Tiphysque novos
Detegat orbes, nec sit terris
Ultima Thule.”[242]
These verses are vague and lofty rather than specific; but Bacon, after setting them forth, says of them, “A prophecy of the discovery of America”; and this they may well be, if we adopt the translation of Archbishop Whately, in his notes to the Essay on Prophecies: “There shall come a time in later ages, when Ocean shall relax his chains and a vast continent appear, and a pilot shall find new worlds, and Thule shall be no more earth’s bound.”[243] Fox, turning from statesmanship to scholarship, wrote to Wakefield: “The prophecy in Seneca’s ‘Medea’ is very curious indeed.”[244] Irving says of it: “Wonderfully apposite, and shows, at least, how nearly the warm imagination of a poet may approach to prophecy. The predictions of the ancient oracles were rarely so unequivocal.”[245] These verses were adopted by Irving as a motto on the title-page of the revised edition of his “Life of Columbus.”
Two copies are extant in the undoubted handwriting of Columbus,—precious autographs to tempt collectors,—both of them in his book on the Prophecies.[246] By these the great admiral sailed.