Columbus .-- Meantime Christopher Columbus, an Italian, had returned from an even more startling voyage.

From what he had read, and from what other men had told him, he had come to believe that the earth was round.

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.