And Another Train of Thought: Samuel Eliot Morison

First spotted on the Q train (November 7, 2008):

"America was discovered accidentally by a great seaman who was looking for something else; when discovered it was not wanted; and most of the exploration for the next fifty years was done in the hope of getting through or around it. America was named after a man who discovered no part of the New World. History is like that, very chancy."

Samuel Eliot Morrison (1887-1976) The Oxford History of the American People (1965), Ch. 2 "The European Discovery of America."