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Eccentricity of the Sextant by Frederic Furbish, 1893

Eccentricity of the Sextant by Frederic Furbish, 1893, Page 22

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use he bravely started out into the vast unknown with as perfect confidence as though he were only going from Genoa to Palos. It is safe to say that without this instrument Columbus would ever have been so rash as to make this venture. He would have remained in Spain a derided and despised dreamer and the discovery of the New World, the great American continent would have been left for another people and another time. It is an established fact that Columbus kept two maps of the course of the vessels, one of his own, a correct chart, made from observations, and another, falsified, showing shorter distances than had actually been made, which he showed to the sailors in order to calm their troubled spirits. As a French historian says: - "Colomb seul sentait sou coeur plus a l'aise;