[729] Columbus also resided some time at Funchal in Madeira, where his house was still shown (in 1846).
[730] His correspondence with Toscanelli was in 1474 (Major, p. 350).
[731] Strabo, i. c. 3-5; ii. c. 5.
[732] The celebrated travels of Marco Polo have been recently edited by Colonel Yule, C.B., an accomplished Oriental scholar, who has shown much ability in arranging the mass of new material for their illustration which has been discovered during the fifty years since Marsden’s edition. Colonel Yule completely confirms the general truthfulness of Polo’s narrative, and shows that the occasional credulity of the traveller (like that of Herodotus) is mainly due to the period in which he journeyed. The date of Marco Polo’s absence from Venice is from 1271 to 1295 (Yule, Book of Ser Marco Polo, the Venetian, 2 vols. 8vo. 1871).
[733] It seems probable that Columbus was more influenced by what he heard from Toscanelli of the discoveries of Marco Polo than by anything else. Martin Behaim, in 1492, constructed a map in which Zipango (supposed to be Japan) is placed according to Polo’s description, and it is believed that Columbus had a similar map with him on his first voyage. A copy of this map, which was nearly, if not quite, the same as Toscanelli’s, is given in W. Irving, p. 16 (Murray).
[734] W. Irving, p. 60.
[735] This instrument was certainly used by Vasco de Gama in 1497 (Major, p. 393). It was invented by Behaim about the year 1480, with the aid of two physicians, Roderigo and Josef (Major, “Select Letters of Columbus,” Introd. p. lvi.).
[736] W. Irving, p. 24.
[737] W. Irving, vol. i. p. 125, where it appears that these learned men relied chiefly on the authority of the Fathers, Lactantius and St. Augustine, holding that the views of Columbus were in opposition to Holy Scripture.
[738] D. G. Spotomo, “Memoir of Columbus,” p. 243.