Columbus

1. Who Really Discovered America?
A well-known rhyme
goes like this:
“In fourteen hundred
and ninety-two,
Columbus sailed the
ocean blue” – and
then discovered
America.
However, Columbus
may not have been
the first to visit

2. Who Really Discovered America?
A well-known rhyme
goes like this:
“In fourteen hundred
and ninety-two,
Columbus sailed the
ocean blue.”
However, maybe
Columbus wasn’t
the first to visit

3. the Western Hemisphere.

4. So many other potential
discoverers have been
nominated that the question
might almost be rephrased as
Who didn’t discover America?

5. But what does the evidence
show? Who really discovered
the New World? Those
suggested include

6. the Vikings,

7. the Japanese,

8. the Chinese,

9. the Egyptians,

10. the Hebrews,

11. the Portuguese,

12. and some Irish monks.

13. The Vikings are perhaps the best-
known contenders.

14. Evidence suggests
that Lief Erickson
and cohorts
visited the New
World about the
year 1000,
almost 500 years
before
Columbus.

15. Viking records and artifacts found in the New World
indicate that they arrived at a place they named
“Vinland the Good” – the land of grapes.
.

16. = Scholars originally assumed that Vinland
must have been the present-day
Newfoundland.
.

17. Scholars originally assumed that Vinland
was probably the present-day
Newfoundland.
.

18. Today, though, the assumption is
that Vinland couldn’t have been
Newfoundland, since that island is
too far north for grapes to grow.
Could the climate have been
warmer in Erickson’s day?
Perhaps.

19. = Today, though, the assumption is
that it is impossible that Vinland
was Newfoundland, since that
island is too far north for grapes to
grow.
Is it possible that the climate
was warmer in Erickson’s day?
Perhaps.

20. .
However, the
current theory is
that Vinland may
have been the
New England
coast.

21. .
=However, the
current theory is
that maybe
Vinland was the
New England
coast.

22. .
However, the
current theory is
that maybe
Vinland was
what is now
Rhode Island,
Cape Cod, the
Boston area, or
Nova Scotia

23. The Japanese are more recent
candidates.

24. Pottery fragments discovered in 1956 on the
Pacific coast of Ecuador date back about 5,000
years.

25. These fragments resemble Japanese pottery of the same
era, and it has been established that there was no native
pottery in Equador in 3000 B.C.E. Could the Japanese
have introduced it?

26. These fragments resemble Japanese pottery of the same
era, and it has been established that there was no native
pottery in Equador in 3000 B.C.E. Is it possible that the
Japanese introduced it?

27. Smithsonian Institute scholars conclude that
individuals may have sailed from Japan across the
Pacific to Ecuador,

28. = Smithsonian Institute scholars conclude that
maybe individuals sailed from Japan across the
Pacific to Ecuador,

29. .
or Japanese
fishermen might
have been swept
out to sea and
10,000 miles
across the ocean.

30. .
Or maybe
Japanese
fishermen were
swept out to sea
and 10,000 miles
across the ocean.

31. This theory may sound unlikely, and may
eventually be disproved. Nonetheless, the pottery
evidence must mean something.

32. = Maybe this theory sounds unlikely, and may be it
will eventually be disproved. Nonetheless, the
pottery evidence probably means something.

33. One interesting
theory stems from
the story of St.
Brendan, a 6th
century Irish monk,
who made many
voyages to
establish
monasteries.

34. A 6th century document suggests that Brendan made a
journey far out into the Atlantic,

35. reports of which may have influenced Columbus
to believe that there really was a New World.

36. = reports of which maybe influenced Columbus
to believe that there really was a New World.

37. Brendan and his fellow
monks saw “sea
monsters,” “crystals
that rose up into the
sky,” and described “a
rain of bad-smelling
rocks.”

38. In 1976, British
navigation scholar
Tim Severin decided
to see if Brendan and
his companions
could really have
accomplished this
voyage.

39. = In 1976, British
navigation scholar
Tim Severin decided
to see if it was really
possible for
Brendan and his
companions to
accomplish this
voyage.

40. Using the specifications described in St. Brendan’s text,
they built a curragh, an Irish leather boat, and attempted
the journey.

41. On the way, they passed Greenland and wintered
in Iceland, where they saw

42. whales,

43. a volcano,

44. and icebergs.

45. They theorized that
Brendan’s sea monsters
might have been
whales,
that the crystals icebergs,

46. They theorized that
Brendan’s sea monsters
maybe were whales,
that the crystals icebergs,

47. and the bad-smelling rocks volcanic
debris.

48. Severin’s group did eventually get to
Newfoundland, proving that a curragh could
have made the journey to North America.

49. = Severin’s group did eventually get to
Newfoundland, proving that it was possible for a
curragh to make the journey to North America.

50. Religious artifacts and stone carvings showing
vocabulary and grammatical constructions from
Old Irish have been found in Virginia.

51. This suggests that other
missionaries could have gone
to the New World after
Brendan’s return. Thus, the
story may be true.

52. = This suggests that it is
possible that other
missionaries went to the New
World after Brendan’s return.
Thus, the story may be true.

53. But back to the original
question: Who really
“discovered” the New World?
Future research could get us
closer to an answer.

54. But back to the original
question: Who really
“discovered” the New World?
Future research will maybe get
us closer to an answer.

55. Columbus and the others
mentioned above did not, of
course, really discover America.

56. The real finders were the Native Americans

57. who migrated across the Bering Strait more than 10,000
years ago.

58. In any case, even if Columbus
did not discover the New World,
no one disputes that he started
two-way communication
between the Old World and the
New.
In that sense, his reputation is
still safe.