"Nay, nay, good Signor Vespucci. I have the confidence in my heart that you are mistaken. I feel, indeed, persuaded, by the many and wonderful manifestations of divine Providence in my especial favor, that I am the chosen instrument of God in bringing to pass a great event: no less than the conversion of millions who are now existing in the darkness of paganism. I would, indeed, provide for the good of the poor natives we have already met, as well by building cities on their islands and cultivating their lands, as by the erection of churches and the establishment of Christian worship. But I would by no means forget the greater end in view--namely, that of bringing to bear upon the infidels the wealth and power of the vast kingdom of Cathay, that thus being encompassed, by the armies from Europe on the one side, and by the innumerable hosts of Asia on the other, they may be utterly destroyed, and the tomb of our Lord be again placed in the possession of the true believers.... In these things I marvel much at your incredulity, Signor Vespucci, seeing that you have often had opportunities of conversing with the learned physicist Paolo, your own countryman--peace to his ashes!--who in his lifetime so nearly coincided with me in opinion." "I have, indeed, as your excellency observes, oftentimes disputed and argued with the venerable Toscanelli, and to him is due much of the little knowledge I have been able to acquire in cosmography and astronomy. But from him I also learned that the descriptions which are given by Marco Polo were considered by many wise men as not altogether beyond the reach of doubt. If, then, he is in error in some particulars, how shall we draw the line, and say wherein he speaks the truth of his own knowledge? And how could he know the distance which exists between Cathay and the western shores of Europe, save by hearsay, and the reports of mariners on that unknown shore, who themselves must have been falsifiers, as it is well known that not one of them has ever appeared here who might have estimated the distance? I cannot, then, think that we are so near to Cathay as your excellency supposes, and had much rather follow the opinion that you have possibly approached the shore that has been hitherto represented as inaccessible to mortals." "You speak of the paradise, which so many sound and able divines assert to be still in existence on earth." "I do, though not so firmly believing in the relation as they do. If there be such a place existing, as described by the learned St. Basil, methinks it must be near unto those balmy isles which you have discovered, so similar in climate and in verdancy."