They were probably the islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon; but that John Cabot had no idea of a northward voyage at that time in his mind would appear from his intention to sail farther to the east on his next voyage until he reached the longitude of Cipango.

This island, known now as Japan, was called Cipango, and was supposed to be inexhaustible in riches, especially when the reports of Polo were confirmed by Sir John Mandeville, an English traveller in the time of Edward III.,and with even greater exaggerations, since he represented the royal palace to be more than six miles in circumference, occupied by three hundred thousand men.

In an awakening age of enterprise, when chivalry had not passed away, nor the credulity of the Middle Ages, the reports of this Cipango inflamed the imagination of Europe, and to reach it became at once the desire and the problem of adventurers and merchants.

Nor could this Cipango be reached by crossing the Eastern Continent, for the journey was full of perils, dangers, and insurmountable obstacles.

His studies and experience convinced him that the Cipango of Marco Polo could be reached by sailing directly west.

He knew that the earth was round, and he inferred from the plants and carved wood and even human bodies that had occasionally floated from the West, that there must be unknown islands on the western coasts of the Atlantic, and that this ocean, never yet crossed, was the common boundary of both Europe and Asia; in short, that the Cipango could be reached by sailing west.

He sets sail to find the real Cipango of which he is in search.

Nor has he reached the Cipango of his dreams, but new countries, of which there was no record or suspicion of existence, yet of vast extent, and fertile beyond knowledge.

He could only see the gold of Cipango.

They took the Canaries in their way, whence shaping their course for Cipango, or towards Japan, they were much amazed to find the sea all full of weeds, and with great fear arrived at the Antilles on the tenth day of October; the first island they descried, called Guanahany by the natives, they named San Salvador.

Had he come upon some wild island far in the Indian Sea, or was this the famed Cipango itself, the object of his golden fancies?

And so I think it must be the island of Cipango (Japan), of which they tell such wonders."

" Having landed at this indefinitely located point, Columbus, believing that he had reached the region he was seeking, despatched messengers to the interior to open communication with some high official of Cathay, in which country he supposed himself to be, the idea of Cipango apparently having been abandoned.

The whole subsequent history seems as if it were the revenge of Columbus's own imagination, when the sober truth was discovered instead of Cipango and the King of India.

From the island of Antilia, which you call the Seven Cities, and of which you have some knowledge, there are ten spaces in the chart to the most noble island of Cipango, which make 2500 miles or 875 leagues.

The island of Cipango abounds in gold, pearls and precious stones, and the people even cover their temples and palaces with plates of pure gold.

Cipango was the name by which Japan was then known in Europe, from the relations of Marco Polo.

[Sidenote: Marco Polo, Cathay, and Cipango.] 2.

He told of Cathay or China and of Cipango or Japan.

If this were really true, Cipango and Cathay were west of Europe as well as east of Europe.

Columbus also believed that the earth was very much smaller than it really is, and that Cipango was only three thousand miles west of Spain.

For a time people laughed at the idea of sailing westward to Cipango and Cathay.

These Indians were not at all like those wonderful people of Cathay and Cipango whom Marco Polo had described.

But it was plain enough that the island they had found was not Cipango.

It was probably some island off the coast of Cipango, so on Columbus sailed and discovered Cuba.