Free ebooks ==> http://www.Ebook777.com
voyages. All of Columbus’s voyages to the
Americas set forth from the CanaryIslands
after leaving Spain.
IMAGINARY KINGDOMS
Not every location on maps created in Europe
during the Middle Ages was drawn from first-
hand knowledge. Some grew from religious
mythology. After the Muslim Moors’ invasion
ofthe Iberian Peninsula in A.D. 714, it was said
that seven Catholic Portuguese bishops sailed
west to a large island, where they founded a
prosperous Christian utopia. This mythical
island, which appeared due west of Portugal
on some nautical maps of the time, was
named Antilia (“opposite island”).
Antilia would lend its name to the islands
discovered by Columbus in the Caribbean
Sea. The Greater Antilles include the largest
islands (Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola, and
Puerto Rico), while the Lesser Antilles include
smaller islands lined south from the Virgin
Islands to Grenada. As late as 1540, the search
for Antilia would obsess Francisco Vásquez de
Coronado’s expedition on the North American
mainland.
Many geographers and mariners believed
that such lands existed, even when they were
not represented on maps. Some EuropeanAlthough not as abundant as in earlier centuries, misconceptions about the Earth persisted into Columbus’s
time. Explorers confronted many dangers, some real and some mythical, such as sea serpents. Published in
the early 17th century, this engraving depicts sea serpents attacking a ship.(Library of Congress, Prints and
Photographs Division [LC-USZ62-65366])(^22) B Discovery of the Americas, 1492–1800
http://www.Ebook777.com