'The world is round,' is NOT what Columbus reported back to the royals! This is a historical myth invented by Washington Irving in his biography of Columbus. What the true debate was about was how LARGE the globe was and in THAT Columbus was actually proven incorrect! It was quite a bit smaller than he had reckoned. However, in God's grace he was saved from dying at sea by a continent he didn't know existed. And that is the rest of the story!
The world was *larger* than Columbus reckoned. :0)