western voyages and personally met explorers
like Vasco Núñez de Balboa and renowned
pilot Antón de Alaminos. Opportunities to
meet such participants allowed Martyr broad
access to information about the civilizations
of the Americas. Writing extensively after
1511, he spread his findings throughout
Europe. In 1530, four years after his death, his
collected writings were published in Latin
under the title De Orbe Novo—“The New
World”—thus coining a phrase used by future
generations to describe the Western Hemi-
sphere. By then, Europeans, although they
had at first been slow to abandon the idea that
lands discovered by Columbus werepart of
Asia—were accepting that the Americas were
continents distinct from Asia.
This was a revelation that Columbus would
never share. He once wrote in his journal that
he had discovered “a very great continent
which until today has been unknown”—and
even referred to it as “an Other World”—but he
remained convinced that he could find a land-
mass linking it to China. Many years would
pass before anyone on either side of the
Atlantic Ocean would realize how wrong he
was, yet how important his mistake would
become.Columbus Returns to Spain B 9