"I should not proceed by land to the East, as is customary, but by a Westerly route, in which direction we have hitherto no certain evidence that anyone has gone."
— Christopher Columbus
I Should Not Proceed By Land
I should not proceed by land to the East, as is customary, but by a Westerly route, in which direction we have hitherto no certain evidence that anyone has gone.
About this quote
This passage comes from the letter Christopher Columbus sent to Ferdinand and Isabella explaining the rationale for his first voyage, as abstracted by Bartolomé de las Casas. Columbus's plan was based on a significant underestimate of the Earth's circumference — he believed Asia was roughly where the Americas turned out to be. His argument that a westward route to Asia had never been attempted was, in fact, largely correct; no recorded European or Arab expedition had previously attempted a sustained western Atlantic crossing.
Source
Letter to Ferdinand and Isabella, 1492, as abstracted by Las Casas
