familiar with all the various theories of the earth which it had inspired. And revolving these over in his mind for years, he came to the conclusion and put forward the proposition that by sailing directly westward from Europe he could reach the east coast of Asia in the latitude of Cipango (Japan) as it was then known. And in this view he was supported by the learned Italian, Toscanelli, of Florence, who on learning of the proposition of Columbus wrote him a letter heartily encouraging the project. And to demonstrate to Columbus that he could reach the east coast of Asia by sailing west, Toscanelli sent him a map of the world proposed by the learned Greek geographer, Ptolemy, who taught at Alexandria about 125 years after Christ, which map was altered and amended to correspond to the descriptions of Marco Polo. On this map the eastern coast of Asia was outlined in front of the western coasts of Africa and Europe, with a little ocean between them, in which was placed the imaginary islands of Cipango and Antilla.
In taking up this proposition, Columbus was met with a storm of opposition and persecution, which would have crushed any other man. The church denounced the scheme as heresy, and for nearly twenty years the great man traveled, begged and toiled for recognition and favor from those who could give aid, and at last found a good priest who sympathized with his grand idea, and through whose influence, Queen Isabella of Spain was induced to recall a former refusal of aid.
How Columbus finally induced Queen Isabella to support his enterprise with money and two small ships while a third ship was added by himself and friends, and how on August 3, 1492, he sailed out of Palos harbor with one hundred and twenty men in the three little ships—Santa ]Iaria, Pinta and Nina—is an oft-told story and familiar tale. This exploratory voyage, all things considered, is the greatest enterprise ever planned and carried out by the genius and energy of a single man. The voyage itself was not a great affair, the little vessels of still less account, the use of the compass was then but little understood; the seamen were all ignorant and superstitious to the limit; but when we consider the weakness of such an outfit to venture out upon a vast and unknown ocean and brave all the terrors pictured by the imagination in addition to the real dangers of the sea, and then place over and against them all the glory and grandeur of the achievement in practically adding to the use and enjoyment of the race of man, a new world as large, useful and beautiful as the one already enjoyed, our minds are unable to grasp and no words can fully express the greatness of the achievement, or the honor, praise and obligation which mankind owes to the name of Christopher Columbus.
After seventy days sailing westward, Columbus struck Cat island in the West Indies. It was inhabited by red men. The people of Hindostan (India) were red. Columbus believed he had reached India—the east coast of Asia; and he called the natives Indians. The name stuck, and thus all the natives of America came to be called Indians. Columbus made three subsequent voyages from Spain to the West India islands, but never reached the mainland, and died in ignorance of his great discovery of a continent equal to the old world and separated from it by two great oceans.
It may seem irrevelant to go back over four hundred years to begin this narrative about the city of Portland, but it must be remembered that it was Christopher Columbus who started and steered the tide of the Caucasian race across the Atlantic which finally overran the American continent and halted here on the Willamette to build the greatest city of the Pacific coast. And believing that the readers of this book will take a genuine interest in the man who discovered America, and will be glad to have a lifelike, truthful portrait of his face, we have, at much trouble and expense, procured from the Marine Museum at Madrid, Spain, and here print the best likeness ever made of the great man.
When we look into the books of geographical discovery, we find that the site of the city of Portland was for a long period of time the center of a great un-
