WHO DISCOVERED AMERICA

New Zealand Times, Volume LII, Issue 12163, 13 June 1925, Page 11

WHO DISCOVERED AMERICA

NOT CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS . PORTUGUESE AND DANISH CLAIMS It ia generally thought that everybody knows who discovered America. But now it appears that, although the small hoy at the primary instruction schools entertains no doubt whatever on the subject, the same does not occur with certain European professors and men of natural science. Each of these points out a different name as that of the man who won the record of transatlantic navigation in the fifteenth century, and among those names that of Christopher Columbus is generally not even mentioned. The articles recently published by Dr. Sofus Larsen in. Danish newspapers and in an important Paris review, are interesting historians, and men of letters in Portugal. In the article referred to. Dr. Larsen affirms that it- was not Christopher Columbus who discovered America., but an expedition composed' of Danes and Portuguese. This subject is being largely discussed in the Portuguese press. A PORTUGUESE DISCOVERER Recently the “Seoolo,” one of the most widely circulated newspapers of this capital, published an article refuting the assertions bf the Danish savant. ' The writer declares that the man who discovered America was a Portuguese, Alfonso Sanches, who left Lisbon in a caravel, in the beginning of th> year 1486, bound i’or the west coast ot Africa, on a commercial mission. Affonso ..Sanches oalled at the Canary Isles, and, inspired bv the tales he heard there of the existence of a new land lying to the west, lie/ sailed in that direction, and, on August'6t-h, 1486, anchored at an island, to which he gave the name of St. Salvador. There he got on friendly terms with the natives, tut one dav when they went ashore, Affonso Sanches and some or his companions were treacherously assassinated. Three jailors that were aboard escaped in the caravel to Europe, and arrived ft Funchal, Madeira, in the early months of 1487. COLUMBUS OBTAINED CARAVEL’S LOG Christopher Columbus, who had for ft long time been residing m Funchal, went on board and heard the story from the sailors, who were worn out by privations and suffering. Columbus took possession of the 9 Caravel’s log-book, and took the three sailors to his house to be attended to, but

bus obtained from Isabella of Spain leave to organise the final] fleet that led him to success. He followed, like Sanches, the route via the Canary isles, and on October 11th, 1492, in view of the mutiny on the part of the Bailors, who did not want)to go any further, Columbus, who knew the route through Alfonso Sanches’ log book, pro uised them that if the wind did not fail them, on the following day they would see land. As a fact, on the next day Columbus anchored at the same islaud where Sanches had anchored on August 6th, 1486. Columbus bestowed on it the same name that Sanches had given it, hut without mentioning the first discoverer.