with the islands and places where you will land. You will see for
yourself how many miles you must keep from the arctic pole toward
the equator, and at what distance you will arrive at these regions so
fertile and productive of spices and precious stones." In Toscanelli's
letter, he not only indicates Japan, but, in the middle of the ocean, he
places the island of Antilia. This old name afterwards gave the name by
which the French still call the West Indies, Les Antilles. Toscanelli
gives the exact distance which Columbus will have to sail: "From Lisbon
to the famous city of Quisay (Hang-tcheou-fou, then the capital of
China) if you take the direct route toward the West, the distance will
be thirty-nine hundred miles. And from Antilia to Japan it will be two
hundred and twenty-five leagues." Toscanelli says again, "You see that
the voyage that you wish to attempt is much legs difficult than would be
thought. You would be sure of this if you met as many people as I do who
have been in the country of spices."

While there were so many suggestions made that it would be possible to
cross the Atlantic, there was one man who determined to do this. This
man was Christopher Columbus. But he knew well that he could not do
it alone. He must have money enough for an expedition, he must have
authority to enlist crews for that expedition, and he must have power to
govern those crews when they should arrive in the Indies. In our times
such adventures have been conducted by mercantile corporations, but in
those times no one thought of doing any such thing without the direct
assistance and support of some monarch.

It is easy now to see and to say that Columbus himself was singularly
well fitted to take the charge of the expedition of discovery. He was an
excellent sailor and at the same time he was a learned geographer and
a good mathematician. He was living in Portugal, the kings of which