Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 February 1894 — Reaching for Colombus's Laurels, London Pall Mall Gazette. [ARTICLE]

Reaching for Colombus's Laurels, London Pall Mall Gazette.

Capt. Gam bier, R. N., goes a step further than the assertion that Columbus did not know what he was discovering, and denies him the merit of having discovered at all. The first sight of America, he says in the Fortnightly, was obtained by one Jean Cousin of Dieppe in 1488, four years before the arrival of Columbus at San Salvador. Cousin actually sailed up the .Amazon River, which he called after the native name “Maragnon.” On board his vessel was a man named Pincou, who was tried and punished for insubordination on the return to Dieppe. Being banished from France, this Pincon made his way to Palos, in Spain; and though there is no direct evidence that Columbus sought him out and obtained information as to Cousin’s voyage, it is a remarkable fact that one of Columbus’s vessels was actually commanded by a man of this name, who was accompanied by two brothers. The principal thing to be said in opposition to Capt. Gambier’s theory is that France, which assiduously lays claim to every scientific invention and discovery that can be named has never been known to put forward a pretention to the discovery of America. Perhaps after this she will.