I PINZON. 
 
MERIC 
 
 \YESP UC/ti 
 
A HISTORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 CHAEAOTEE AND ACHIEVEMENTS 
 
 OF THE SO-CALLED 
 
 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, 
 
 BY 
 
 AAEON GOODEICH. 
 
 " As the most obscure soldier of an army may sometimes by a fiery arrow destroy the strongest 
 fortress of the enemy, so may the weakest man, when he makes himself the courageous champion of 
 truth, overcome the most solid ramparts of superstition and error." MANOU. 
 
 WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS, AND AN APPENDIX. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 
 549 & 551 BROADWAY. 
 
 1874. 
 
Elll 
 
 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874, 
 
 BY AAEON GOODRICH, 
 In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 
 
igancroft Library 
 
 TO THE MEMORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 PATRIOT, SCHOLAR, JUEIST, STATESMAN, AND FEIEND, 
 
 WILLIAM HENRY SEWAED, 
 
 WHO, 
 
 DURING A LONG AND EVENTFUL LIFE, 
 
 SUFFERED PATIENTLY, AND LABORED EARNESTLY AND WISELY, 
 FOR THE ADV ANOEMENT OF HIS RACE, 
 
 THIS WORK 
 IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED 
 
 BY AARON GOODRICH. 
 
 A few months before his lamented death, while this work was yet 
 in progress, Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD had kindly permitted its 
 dedication to himself, but, in the interval which elapsed before its 
 completion, the nation was called to mourn the loss of one of her 
 greatest sons, and the author that of a revered and beloved friend. 
 It is, therefore, as a tribute to his memory, that this volume is in 
 scribed. 
 
" Gold is the most precious of all commodities ; gold constitutes treasure, 
 and he who possesses it has all he needs in this world, as also the means of 
 rescuing souls from purgatory, and restoring them to the enjoyment of para 
 dise." (CoLUMBUs's letter to the sovereigns, July 7, 1503.) 
 
 " When Simon saw that through laying on of the apostle's hands the Holy 
 Ghost was given, he offered them money, saying, ' Give me also this power, 
 that, on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost.' But 
 Peter said unto him, 'Thy money perish with thee, hecause thou hast 
 thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money.' " (Acts viii. 
 18-2(U 
 
PEE FAC E. 
 
 IN giving the present work to the public, in sending it forth 
 a single champion against a host of opponents, many of whom 
 are the flower of literary chivalry, the author is aware that its 
 reception will not be altogether a friendly one ; he has, however, 
 devoted several years of thought and study to the subject which 
 is now imperfectly treated, and the deeper he has dived into 
 the secrets of unpublished or forgotten history, the more firm 
 have become his convictions that some proclamation of the 
 truth should be made, some protest entered against the further 
 propagation of a falsehood under the name of history. 
 
 If, in his attempt to do this, he should appear too solely to 
 attach himself to one side of the case, too severely to censure, 
 and to dwell too particularly on the errors and crimes of his 
 hero, on the partiality and inaccuracy of historians, let it be 
 remembered that for three centuries only one side of the case has 
 been presented, the one laudatory of Columbus ; that during all 
 that time nothing has been left unwritten which could excite the 
 enthusiasm and admiration of the reader in his behalf: histories 
 have hitherto been written solely to praise him ; the writer ap 
 pears, therefore, as the self-constituted counsel for the opposite 
 side, the vindicator, however inadequate, of the truth of history ; 
 he would show the injustice which has been done to worthy men 
 who lived when Columbus lived, whom the latter and his advo 
 cates ruthlessly assail, and would prove that what has hitherto 
 been termed the history of a great man is but a gilded lie, a 
 
VI 
 
 PKEFACE. 
 
 wliited sepulchre, fair without, but within full of rottenness and 
 dead men's bones. 
 
 In this attempt he departs widely from the plan of any for 
 mer history of the discovery of America ; he treats some subjects 
 which at the first blush appear irrelevant, or at any rate far 
 fetched, in their association with the inscription on the title-page ; 
 yet he feels assured that upon reflection the reader will find no 
 subject broached which has not a direct bearing on the state 
 ments contained in the life of Columbus, the facts revealed, or 
 the theory which is inevitably deduced from these facts. 
 
 "Works of genius, human greatness, cannot, it would seem, be 
 too largely or too enthusiastically extolled ; the historian should, 
 however, bear in mind that justice more than enthusiasm is his 
 mission : however small a portion of the history of Immanity his 
 work may embrace, however ardently he may be enamored of 
 his subject, he should see to it that he does not commit injustice 
 toward any individual, land, race, or age ; that he sacrifices no 
 truth, immolates no worthy name to the shrine which he would 
 honor. 
 
 This conception of the higher moral duties of the historian is 
 too rarely entertained; the learning of antiquity is ignored that 
 the pride of modern times may be inflated, great names of all 
 ages are unjustly thrust into oblivion or condemned to ignominy, 
 that some one or more of their contemporaries may be made to 
 embody all the greatness and virtue which belonged to a gener 
 ation. Examples of this will rise innumerable to the mind of 
 the scholar and thinker. 
 
 In many lands, in many races, humanity has risen to the 
 acme of intelligence, then sunk again into the insignificance of 
 ignorance and superstition. As centuries have succeeded centu 
 ries in the great calendar of time, races and nations in regular 
 rotation have had their childhood, their manhood, their old age : 
 their childhood, simple and credulous ; their manhood, vigorous, 
 and, as far as things of this world can be, perfect ; their old age, 
 which sinks them into the puerility of childhood without its hope 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Vll 
 
 and promise ; with some, old age has terminated in moral or 
 actual death and extinction, but as each falls into this sad and 
 inevitable dotage, another race, youthful and vigorous, springs 
 up, which v must tread the same path, attain substantially the 
 same perfection, and decline into the same insignificance. Not 
 without thought did the wise man of the Hebrews declare, when 
 his race was at the height of its strength and glory, that there is 
 no new thing under the sun ; the hopes, aspirations, emotions, 
 plans, and projects, which to the youth appear a part of himself 
 and his generation, individualizing it and him especially, have 
 all been experienced and projected before him, by his sire, 
 grand- and great-gran dsires ; even so, the science, learning, and 
 civilization which appear to pretentious modern times especially 
 to distinguish them, and to prove the law of progression, had 
 been discovered, achieved, attained by the remote nations of an 
 tiquity, in what are termed dark and prehistoric ages. 
 
 The injustice done is not altogether willful ; the present is 
 surrounded as with an atmosphere by its great thoughts and 
 achievements, while in the past these are only represented by 
 isolated results or obscure traditions : what wonder, then, that the 
 men of the present should regard the times in which they live, 
 the age in which their race attains its perfect manhood, as teem 
 ing with more thought and brain, throwing greater light, and 
 nearer grasping perfection, than those gone by, each of which in 
 its turn looked with like self-gratulation on its own attainments, 
 and with like misconception and injustice on those of its prede 
 cessors ? 
 
 It is with a conviction of this great fact, with a belief that 
 there is no new thing under the sun, that races and nations rise 
 inevitably in turn, and in turn as inevitably fall, that the writer, 
 while endeavoring to sink the so-called Christopher Columbus to 
 his just level in the estimation of posterity, and raise to theirs 
 those of his contemporaries whose fame was sacrificed to create 
 the fictitious glory with which he has been endowed, also en 
 deavors to rehabilitate the memory of past generations whose 
 
v jii PKEFACE. 
 
 achievements have been ignored or denied for the especial ag 
 grandizement of modern times. Hence the chapters on the An 
 cients and the Northmen. 
 
 The writer may therefore ascribe a twofold object to his 
 work : 
 
 1. To place in its true light the character of a man the 
 importance of whose connection with the history of America has 
 been magnified ; in whom have been incorporated, at the sac 
 rifice of justice and truth, the thoughts, deeds, and glory which 
 belong in far greater measure to his contemporaries. 
 
 2. To enter a protest, however feeble, against the spirit 
 of the age, which would incorporate in modern times all the 
 greatness of past ages, and arrogates to itself the honor of in 
 venting or discovering sciences and arts which had been carried 
 to as great perfection as human intelligence will permit, before 
 the so-called history of the world began. 
 
 With this twofold object in view, seeking ever the guidance 
 of justice and truth, the author has written the present work. 
 Its success or failure cannot alter his convictions that the cause 
 he has espoused is a righteous one, and that it is worthy a far 
 abler pen than his, not only to rehabilitate those who have been 
 unjustly contemned, but also to cast down idols which have be 
 come the objects of base and ignoble, because blind and unthink 
 ing, worship. 
 
 AAEON GOODKIOH. 
 
 ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA, July 6, 1873. 
 
LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 AECHITECTUEAL ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE ANCIENTS. 
 
 IT has been too much the custom of modern writers to dis 
 parage the achievements of the ancients, that they may thereby 
 magnify the deeds and exploits of those in whose interests they 
 write ; hence we are taught that, in ancient times, the facilities 
 
 BAALBEC. 
 
 for promulgating knowledge were small, the ideas entertained 
 of astronomy and the form and size of our planet primitive to 
 a ridiculous extent ; the ships rude in construction and unable to 
 
2 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 leave the coast ; while many of the phenomena of Nature, which 
 are now in daily use, were totally unknown. How unjust are 
 these teachings we will endeavor briefly to expose. 
 
 It is universally admitted that one branch of knowledge leads 
 almost inevitably to another ; that the whole vast array of sci 
 ences and arts move in a circle, linked hand-in-hand, as it were, 
 one with another ; when, therefore, we find a nation or people 
 incontestably preeminent in one or more of these, w^e may, should 
 their learning and achievements have fallen in to f oblivion, natu 
 rally infer that in other branches they equally excelled. 
 
 As the modern traveler visits the fallen cities of Asia, and 
 pauses amid the ruins of Babylon, Nineveh, Tadmor in the 
 Desert, grand even in their decay, he can scarce imagine an 
 ignorant people inhabiting such noble structures, still less plan 
 ning and erecting them ; these fallen stones and prostrate col 
 umns, in their colossal size and beauty, put to shame the fairest 
 of our modern architectural monuments. We allow that here the 
 people of the past were preeminent, we concede them perfection 
 in the extraordinary, yet deny them the knowledge of even the 
 ordinary attainments of less civilized nations. Let us, however, 
 rapidly review their achievements, not only in architecture, of 
 which living proof exists, but in geography, astronomy, naviga 
 tion ; let us study somewhat the facts which have been handed 
 down to us, obscured by superstitious constructions, metaphori 
 cal or poetical language, and that inevitable and too often im 
 penetrable veil which the mighty hand of Time casts over all 
 things ; then, following the laws of cause and effect, let us arrive, 
 if possible, at a more just appreciation of the mighty nations 
 that have preceded us. 
 
 The earliest architectural monument of which we find any 
 mention is that of the Tower of Babel ; though, indeed, Josephus, 
 speaking of the learning and achievements of the sons of Seth, 
 writes : " They studiously turned their attention to the knowl 
 edge of the heavenly bodies and their configurations. And, lest 
 their science should at any time be lost among men, and what 
 they had previously acquired should perish, .... they erected 
 two columns, the one of brick and the other of stone, and en 
 graved upon each of them their discoveries, so that in case the 
 brick pillar should be dissolved by the waters, the stone one 
 might survive to teach men the things engraved upon it, and at 
 
TOWER OF BABEL. 3 
 
 the same time inform them that a brick one had formerly Been 
 also erected by them. It remains even to the present day in the 
 land of Siriad." l 
 
 This interesting account of the antediluvian Siriadic columns 
 excepted, the Tower of Babel remains first in the list of the ar 
 chitectural efforts of the ancients. The Hebrew tradition has 
 most probably given us but an erroneous idea of the reasons in 
 ductive to the undertaking ; we contend that it is too much the 
 rule among modern writers upon antiquity, to take for granted 
 the superstition, and, we may almost so express it, infantile ig 
 norance, of what they term the primitive races. Scientific re 
 search has proved the world to be far older than biblical history 
 would lead us to suppose ; the so-called primitive races must, 
 then, have had an earlier origin, and have attained a more ad 
 vanced stage of civilization, than is generally accorded them, 
 tradition tells us that Babel was intended to become a temple 
 for the worship of Baal, which worship was that of the sun, 
 moon, stars, light, heat. Astronomy was long a study in the 
 East ; we have read how, even in an antediluvian period, the 
 sons of Seth had made and recorded their discoveries, and we 
 know that the Hindoos were at an early age far advanced in this 
 science. The flat plains and clear skies of Babylon are admirably 
 adapted for observatories, and the learned men inhabiting them, 
 passing their lives in the contemplation of the heavenly bodies, 
 might easily be supposed to worship these by the unenlightened 
 masses, who, in their ignorance, might adopt the apparent reli 
 gion. We know that to this day the enlightened Persian, the 
 so-called worshiper of the sun, when accused of such an act, will 
 reply, not without some contempt for the ignorance of the Chris 
 tian, that in paying respect to the Deity he turns toward the 
 sun, the greatest of his works, but no more thinks of worship 
 ing that orb than does the Christian devotee the emblems which 
 decorate his churches. 
 
 If the Tower of Babel was, as we believe, intended for an 
 astronomical observatory, or gnomen, the confusion which re 
 sulted in the abandonment of the enterprise is not difficult to 
 account for; the most learned men of the land and of the 
 countries round about must have been assembled to superintend 
 
 1 It has been said that Josephus here confounds Seth with the Egyptian Pharaoh 
 Sesostris. 
 
4 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 its erection, 3 and what more probable than that these same 
 learned men, each eager for the adoption of his own peculiar 
 views, should desire them carried out at the expense of those 
 of others ? Hence disagreement, contests, division, and the final 
 abandonment of the work ; the diverse languages spoken by the 
 learned of different countries, which were unintelligible jargon 
 to the ignorant, might easily have been believed by the masses 
 to have caused the dispersal, and would account for the tradi 
 tional confusion of tongues. The vast pile amid the ruins of 
 Babylon, called Birs Nimroud, is supposed by many curious an 
 tiquarians to be the remains of this once famous tower; Nimrod, 
 desiring to embellish the metropolis of his vast empire, is said 
 to have completed it, raising it to the height of seven hundred 
 feet. 
 
 The great city of Babylon, the oldest and largest of which 
 we have any account, is itself now but a vast and chaotic heap of 
 ruins. Herodotus has, however, left us a detailed and vivid de 
 scription of its splendors as well as of the greatness of its 
 sovereigns. Fifty miles square, surrounded by a wall eighty- 
 seven feet through at the base, and, though three hundred and 
 fifty feet high, so broad at the summit that four chariots could 
 drive abreast, one hundred gates of massy brass giving entrance 
 to it, the first aspect of this city must have been imposing indeed. 
 " Yet," writes the Father of History, " its internal magnificence 
 exceeds whatever has come within my knowledge." May we 
 not echo the sentiment, even at the present stage of advanced 
 civilization f Where shall we now find such a palace as that of 
 Nebuchadnezzar, six miles in circumference, entered by gates of 
 wrought brass and adorned with statues of gold and silver ? Here 
 were the hanging-gardens, styled even by the Greeks, that most 
 refined and artistic nation, one of the wonders of the world ; an 
 artificial mountain four hundred feet high, terraced on all sides ; 
 the tallest trees of the forest grew upon these terraces, fountains 
 and flowers adorned them ; the massive stone pillars and arches 
 supporting them were protected from the action of moisture 
 from the soil by sheetings of lead and zinc, the soil was irri- 
 
 2 In the "Paschal Chronicle," written in the fourth century, we find the following: 
 "About the time of the construction of the tower, a certain Indian of the race of 
 Arphaxad made his appearance, a wise man, and an astronomer, whose name was 
 Andubarius ; and it was he that first instructed the Indians in the science of as 
 tronomy." 
 
BABYLON, TADMOR, ETC. 5 
 
 gated by means of hydraulic machinery which drew up water from 
 the Euphrates. The magnificent Temple of Belus, the Jupiter 
 Belus of the Greeks, was one of the chief among the superb 
 buildings of Babylon, and indeed the beauties of that city alone 
 would occupy more space than our brief chapter will allow ; these 
 have all disappeared. "Babylon is fallen. The beauty of the 
 Chaldees* excellency is laid low ; " a few ruined mounds point the 
 place where once she stood ; the stones of her mighty walls and 
 superb temples have builded cities which in the days of her glory 
 were not known ; those uncouth mounds have indeed served 
 somewhat to demonstrate how far more advanced were knowl- 
 
 TAUMOR. 
 
 edge and civilization two thousand years ago than the pride of 
 modern ages would care to have known. Here were found glass 
 of exquisite transparency, ornaments of fine earthen-ware, ala 
 baster, and marble, and, still greater the discovery, the magnify- 
 ing-lens, which is called a modern invention. 
 
 How many other great ruins might we not name, that silently 
 testify to the greatness of the past ! Baalbec, with its airy col 
 umns, so light and graceful against the eastern sky, that the be 
 holder cannot realize that they are formed of stones similar to the 
 huge masses fallen around ; glorious old Thebes, where the silent 
 
6 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 Sphinx lias sat for more than four thousand years, and whose 
 beautiful monuments were conveyed by the greatest of modern 
 conquerors to adorn the greatest of modern cities ; Tadmor in the 
 Desert, the far-famed Palmyra of the Greeks and Romans, built 
 or adorned by the wise man of Israel the beautiful words of Yol- 
 ney as he contemplated its ruins may well apply to the many 
 fallen cities of the East : " Here once flourished an opulent city ; 
 here was the seat of a powerful empire. A busy crowd once cir 
 culated in these streets now so solitary. "Within these walls, 
 where a mournful silence now reigns, the noise of the arts, the 
 shouts of joy and festivity, incessantly resounded ; these piles of 
 marble were regular palaces ; these prostrate pillars adorned the 
 majesty of temples; these ruined galleries surrounded public 
 places. Here a numerous people assembled for the sacred duties 
 of religion, or the anxious cares of subsistence ; here Industry, 
 parent of Enjoyment, collected the riches of all climes ; here the 
 purple of Tyre was exchanged for the precious thread of Serica ; 
 the soft tissues of Cashmere for the sumptuous tapestry of Lydia ; 
 the amber of the Baltic for the pearls and perfumes of Arabia ; 
 the gold of Ophir for the tin of Thule. 
 
 " Now naught remains of its vast domination but a doubtful 
 and empty remembrance ! To the tumultuous throng which cir 
 culated under these porticoes, has succeeded the solitude of 
 death. The opulence of a commercial city is changed to hideous 
 poverty. The palaces of kings are become a den of wild beasts ; 
 flocks fold on the area of the temple, and unclean reptiles and 
 creeping things inhabit the sanctuary of the Most High." 
 
 Thus it is with the glorious cities of the past, thus must it 
 also be with those of the present ; even so shall the traveler yet 
 meditate in solitude where now are London, Paris, and become 
 amazed at the vast pile of ruins which was once the great Cathe 
 dral of Cologne Time must annihilate all. With what admira 
 tion mingled with awe do we not, then, gaze at the gigantic 
 structure overlooking the plains of Jizeh (Gish) ! Here Time has 
 been powerless, during four thousand years, to destroy, and the 
 Great Pyramid has been preserved through all these ages, per 
 haps to teach us the great moral lesson of our own insignifi 
 cance, and that what we term progress may sometimes be retro 
 gression. 
 
 For centuries it was believed that the Great Pyramid, like 
 
THE GREAT PYRAMID. 7 
 
 many of the other more modern pyramidal structures which are 
 found in the valley of the Nile, was destined as a place of sepul 
 ture for Egyptian kings, but the curious researches of many 
 learned men in this century have opened a wider and far more 
 interesting field for the antiquarian, and have demonstrated that 
 this vast monument was raised to be an eternal standard for 
 weights and measures, also for an astronomical observatory ; so 
 perfectly are the statements made, in support of this theory, in 
 accordance with the measurement of the pyramid, that it is im 
 possible to regard as accidental such wonderful concurrence. 
 
 That the Great Pyramid was not intended for a receptacle of 
 the dead is evident from various facts, the foremost of which is 
 that no hieroglyphics or inscriptions are found within or without. 
 It is well known that the Egyptians never entombed their dead 
 without some such inscription being placed on the monument. 
 
 When the Great Pyramid was in its original state, that is to 
 say, when each of the angular sides, rising from a perfect rec 
 tangular base, and joining in a perfect point at the summit, was 
 covered with polished beveled casing-stones, it presented a per 
 fect geometrical figure, its height being to twice its base as the 
 diameter of a circle to its circumference. This assertion, first 
 made by Mr. John Taylor in his remarkable work on the pyra 
 mid, has since been confirmed by the learned research of Prof. 
 Piazzi Smyth, Royal Astronomer of Scotland; it was contra 
 dicted by many professed antiquarians and Egyptologists, who, 
 in their measurement of the base of the pyramid, had failed to 
 'make allowance for the heap of rubbish which has accumulated 
 on the rocky platform upon which it is built, as also to ascertain 
 with any certainty how far the marble casing which once cov- 
 ered-the pyramid extended beyond its present limits; these diffi 
 culties were finally removed by the finding of the sockets cut in 
 the solid rock base, wherein the corner-stones of the pyramid 
 were set, and the important discovery, by Colonel Howard Yyse, 
 of two of the white marble casing-stones, in situ, a discovery 
 which, besides enabling the pyramid to be measured correctly, also 
 permits us to form some idea of its external appearance in its pris 
 tine perfection smooth, polished marble " shining resplendent 
 afar " in a sloping plane, the workmanship as exquisite as that of 
 an optician, the joints so fine as to be almost imperceptible to the 
 
 close observer, and this with stones nearly five feet high, eight 
 
 2 
 
8 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 feet broad, and twelve feet long ; the cement joining these two 
 stones is as firm and solid as it was four thousand years ago. 
 Portions of other casing-stones have been found, efforts to sun 
 der which at the joints have resulted in the breaking of the mar 
 ble itself, without accomplishing the object. 
 
 Since the above discoveries, every attempt to measure the 
 pyramid has served to bring a nearer result, to prove the per 
 fection of the plan ; and, if there are yet some fractional differ 
 ences, learned geometricians avow that the more perfect their 
 means of measurements, the more perfect the result shows the 
 form of the pyramid to be. 3 The self-conceit of the modern 
 man of science must receive a slight shock when he is forced to 
 admit that the facilities for making perfect measurements were 
 greater four thousand years ago than at the present day. When 
 the French academicians visited Egypt in 1799, they found, much 
 to their astonishment and admiration, that the orientation of the 
 pyramid (the correspondence of its four corners with the four 
 cardinal points) was exact within a fraction, and nearer ap 
 proaching exactness than any modern orientation ; and it has since 
 been found that the fractional difference they noted diminishes 
 as greater perfection of calculation is employed, and would per 
 haps totally disappear should modern science be able to dis 
 cover the means employed by the builders of the pyramid to fix 
 
 3 Prof. Smyth, perhaps the most learned of modern writers on the subject, 
 says: "Modern theoretical science no doubt both can compute and actually has com 
 puted the proportion to a far greater degree of closeness, to three hundred places of 
 decimals, for instance ; but modern science is unfortunately very unequal. Some 
 theoretical points are pursued to an excessive extent, past all visible use, while the 
 application of others to Nature and art is left in a sadly crude condition ; and with 
 regard to realizing the proportion now spoken of in a building, the moderns have 
 never reached any thing at all equal to the accuracy of the Great Pyramid. . . . 
 In their measurement of the pyramid, the moderns have had an advantage over 
 the primeval builders of it; and how have they come off in the trial? Why, it has 
 been shown that the exactness of the pyramid has improved under every advance 
 of exactness in the measures applied to it ; and whether the differences of modern 
 measures, in their first stage of coarseness, differed from each other by several degrees 
 or subsequently by several minutes, and latterly by a few seconds only, the pyramid 
 itself was ever found in the mean position among them, like the bull's eye in the 
 centre of a target, though the bullet-holes of bad shooters might be found more fre 
 quently at all points of its circumference ; and whose marks, therefore, seen by them 
 selves, would give subsequent visitors exceeding trouble in concluding precisely what 
 the marksmen had been firing at." (Prof. SMYTH, " Our Inheritance in the Great 
 Pyramid," chap, ii., p. 25.) 
 
ORIENTATION OF PYRAMID. 9 
 
 orientation. The fractional inexactness which occurs in meas 
 urements may also be the result of the different standards of 
 measure employed at the present day from those of the Egyp 
 tians four thousand years ago, which appear to have been much 
 more minute. Prof. Smyth, after a succession of ingenious 
 calculations, declares that the standard measure employed at the 
 building of the Great Pyramid was an inch, this pyramidal inch 
 b em g TowouYoinr P ar * f kh e earth's axis of rotation, and within 
 one-thousandth part the same as the present English inch. 
 Should this wonderful assertion be correct, and to us there ap 
 pears no reason to doubt its exactness, what a perfect standard 
 of measurement is here handed down to us, and with what ad 
 vantage might it not be adopted ! It is superior even to the 
 French metre, which is declared to be ToYtrroroinr f tne quadrant 
 of the earth's meridian, science having shown that much varia 
 tion may exist in the shape of that meridian, but fixing the unit 
 measure by the earth's axis at once gives us a perfect and invari 
 able standard. 
 
 The Great Pyramid, then, considered in its external phase, 
 after its completion, presented an exact geometrical solid figure, 
 (about seven hundred and sixty feet broad at the base, and in 
 vertical height about five hundred feet), perfect in orientation, 
 perfect in workmanship, polished and smooth as glass; thus it 
 stood for three thousand years, a sealed and wondrous mystery 
 to the beholder, exciting in the ardent imagination of the East 
 visions of unheard-of wealth, secrets, spells long forgotten, con 
 cealed within its walls ; yet its silent majesty was long respected, 
 perhaps because a subterranean entrance or descending passage 
 which existed in this as in other pyramids, was considered in 
 early ages as the only entrance, and prevented curiosity from 
 sooner beginning the work of destruction, which has, alas ! in 
 modern times advanced only too rapidly. 
 
 In 820 A. D. the Caliph Al-Mamoun, his cupidity excited by 
 the legends aforesaid of hidden treasures, determined to enter 
 the pyramid ; the subterranean entrance was now totally con 
 cealed by sand ; the workmen of the caliph therefore began ruth 
 lessly to quarry into the polished marble surface of the north side. 
 Long and laborious was the task ; at last, aided by the sound of 
 a falling stone, they reached a narrow passage, the primitive 
 subterranean one through which the Eomans and others had 
 
10 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 penetrated downward into the building ; but the stone which had 
 fallen, once a part of the polished ceiling of this passage, revealed 
 by its fall another, ascending instead of descending ; a portcullis 
 of stone, which, though evidently intended to be raised, was too 
 heavy for the present workers to move, obstructed their advance ; 
 round it they therefore quarried an entrance into the passage ; 
 thus unexpectedly revealed, this led them to what is now termed 
 the Grand Gallery, which ascends at an angle of 26, and is one 
 hundred and fifty feet long, twenty-eight feet high, built of hard, 
 polished cyclopean stone ; from this gallery the eager seekers for 
 treasure, believing they had now reached the goal, emerged into 
 the final chamber, which was thirty-four feet long, seventeen 
 broad, and nineteen high, built of polished granite so exqui 
 sitely finished and cemented that the joints could hardly be per 
 ceived on the closest inspection ; yet the blocks thus finished 
 were so large that eight roofed the apartment, eight floored it, 
 eight flagged the ends, and sixteen the sides ; but beauty and 
 symmetry were alike lost upon the eager horde that first broke the 
 solitude and silence which for thousands of years had reigned in 
 this mystic recess : they had hoped to find treasures untold with 
 in its walls, and it contained nothing save an empty stone coffer 
 without a lid ! They abandoned the chamber in disgust. 
 
 The work of destruction on the outside of the pyramid com 
 menced two hundred years later ; the exquisite marble casing- 
 stones and much of the solid masonry were carried away, and 
 served to build many edifices in the city of Cairo. The vast 
 pyramid, though desecrated and shorn of all its pristine beauty, 
 still remains a mystery, reminding the traveler that " Time sad 
 ly overcometh all things and is now dominant, and sitteth on a 
 Sphinx, and looketh into Memphis and old Thebes, while her 
 sister Oblivion reclineth semi-somnorous on a pyramid, gloriously 
 triumphing, making puzzles of Titanian erections, and turning 
 old glories into dreams. History sinketh beneath her cloud. 
 The traveler, as he passeth amazedly through these deserts, ask- 
 eth of her who hath builded them, and she mumbleth some 
 thing, but what it is he heareth not." 4 
 
 In latter days those who visited the Great Pyramid, the 
 King's or Porphyry Chamber, the empty coffer, began to con- 
 
 4 " Remarks on Mummies," Sir Thomas Browne : Wilkins's edition. 
 
NOT A RECEPTACLE FOR THE DEAD. 
 
 11 
 
 sider more deeply into the matter. True it had long been ac 
 cepted as a fact that the pyramid was built to receive the care 
 fully-embalmed body ot some great Egyptian king ; but if so, 
 why was the coffer (the only object in the chamber) empty, 
 without inscription ? Why was the chamber ventilated by ad 
 mirably-constructed air-holes, which demonstrated the intention 
 of the builders that it should be visited with impunity ? These 
 questions, indeed, remained unanswered. The riddle was un 
 solved till, within the last twenty years, a school of men arose, 
 
 PLAINS OF GISH. 
 
 represented indeed but by the smallest numbers, who assert that 
 the Great Pyramid was built for the noble purpose of preserving 
 an unalterable standard for weights and measures. Very curious 
 have been the results of the investigations which ensued ; we 
 can, however, but briefly mention a few. 
 
 It was found that the English measure for wheat, called a 
 quarter, was exactly one-fourth of the cubic contents of the cof 
 fer. The chamber is exquisitely constructed to further physical 
 experiments ; protected on all sides from heat and cold by one 
 hundred and eighty feet of solid masonry, the temperature 
 
12 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 would be invariably 68 Fahr., or 20 Centigrade, being one- 
 fifth of the distance between the freezing and boiling points of 
 water. The temperature of the country, we know, has not 
 changed, the vegetation being the same as that described by 
 Herodotus. The porphyry coffer is hewn out of one solid rock, 
 so that when struck it gives forth a bell-like sound. Here, then, 
 the standard measure of capacity may become a standard meas 
 ure of weight ; the filtered water of the Nile, drawn up from a 
 reservoir in this cool, invariable temperature, would serve the 
 purpose, as does distilled water at the present day ; the standard 
 measure of capacity would therefore be the interior of the coffer, 
 and the standard measure of weight the weight of its contents 
 in water at a temperature of 20, the coffer at the same time 
 typifying the earth's mean density with great exactness. "We 
 have already spoken of the measure of length, the inch, as if to 
 confirm our belief that this was the standard. Over the last 
 door that leads to the king's chamber are five lines, drawn par 
 allel ; these present the pyramidal cubit, each cubit fifty inches, 
 each inch ginr,TrJir,iru' f * ne earth's axis of rotation. 
 
 Nor is the measurement of time forgotten. The three years 
 of three hundred and sixty-five days, and our leap-year of three 
 hundred and sixty-six, the twelve months of the year, the seven 
 clays of the week, are all typified, not in figures or hieroglyphics, 
 but by the simple overlapping or grooving of the polished stones 
 in the gallery, antechamber, and king's chamber. If all this be 
 accidental coincidence, then verily is accident more wonderful 
 than forethought ! Further proofs are not wanting in support 
 of this theory. The ancient Saxon chaldron, a measure for 
 wheat, whence the English are said to derive their quarter 
 (which represents one -fourth of the contents of the chaldron) 
 bears strong resemblance in dimensions to the pyramidal coffer, 
 and may very possibly have been transmitted from that source. 
 The tradition that the coffer was destined for some such purpose 
 as the one we ascribe to it, is evidently prevalent in the East. 
 Hekekyan Bey, of Constantinople, writes of this chest : " De 
 posited by the Aryans in the sanctuary of the first pyramid, as 
 a record of their standard metric system." 
 
 The vast functions of the pyramid were evidently still more 
 numerous. The sun's rays, obstructed by its sides and apex, cast 
 shadows on the sandy plain, which, as they wax and wane, indi- 
 
WEIGHT, MEASURE, ASTRONOMY. 13 
 
 cate the hours of the day. The plain of Gish formed one great 
 dial, superior to the small metallic one proportionately to its size ; 
 here the heavenly bodies record their own history, and lay down 
 their own charts. Astronomy, indeed, played no small part in 
 the building of the pyramid ; through the long inclined passage 
 the north-star was seen in 1817 at the period of its culmination, 
 a- fact which excited great interest, and led to the inference that 
 the polar star occupied the same position when the pyramid was 
 built : calculations were made, and it was found that, though the 
 present polar star could not have been visible, owing to the pre 
 cession of equinoxes, the star a Draconis, which must have been 
 the polar star four thousand years ago, would have occupied the 
 same position. The builders of the pyramid appear, therefore, 
 not only to have fixed its orientation from this observation of the 
 star, but to have intended the passage itself to be an observatory 
 whence accurate astronomical calculations could be made ; we 
 need not add that they must have been learned in astronomy to 
 base such practical operations upon that science. 
 
 Here, then, we have the standard measurement of weight, ca 
 pacity, length, time, the practical uses of astronomy, and wonder 
 ful facilities for making observations and correct calculations 
 in that science, all preserved in one building four thousand 
 years ago, by a people who, to arrive at such wonderful accuracy 
 of result, must have long been versed and preeminent in all scien 
 tific knowledge (for we cannot bring ourselves to believe in the 
 sudden divine revelation of this knowledge which reason tells 
 us can only be acquired by, and was only intended by the Om 
 nipotent to reward, the thought, wisdom, and patient industry 
 of generations). " Wise in all the learning of the Egyptians," 
 was an expression in the days of Moses and of Solomon ; we 
 to-day find that we are not wise in all the learning of the Egyp 
 tians, that our knowledge is often infinitely inferior to theirs, 
 that we are unable even justly to measure and calculate their 
 work. Can we believe that the scientific results and coinci 
 dences we have recorded are accidental ? Or, admitting they 
 were planned, that a polished people like the Egyptians would 
 have expended such vast labor, research, and learning, to fashion 
 a tomb or sarcophagus for some real or unborn person ? We 
 answer : No ! the Great Pyramid was never intended for such a 
 purpose ; an ignorant people was incapable of planning it, and a 
 
14: LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 learned people superior to the task of rearing it for any other 
 than national objects. 
 
 Could the builders of this proud monument of a nation's 
 glory have looked with prophetic eye, down the dark vista of 
 time, to that fearful day that witnessed the destruction of the 
 Alexandrian Library beheld the genius of unnumbered ages con 
 signed to the flames above all, had they foreseen that an igno 
 rant people should arise and fill the earth, who in affected wis 
 dom, pointing to this august structure of other days, should at 
 tribute to its founders objects or motives incompatible with 
 true greatness, their efforts might have ceased, their arms have 
 been paralyzed. 
 
 Long might we linger, did space permit, among the architect 
 ural monuments of Egypt, her temples, obelisks, sphinxes, and 
 colossal statues volumes could not exhaust the subject ; but we 
 must leave this land of mystery, and leaving it we arrive nat 
 urally at its offspring, Greece. Cadmus and Moses left Egypt 
 nearly simultaneously, 5 the one migrating to Greece, the other to 
 Judea ; the former introduced into his new country much of the 
 learning and many of the customs of the father-land. 
 
 The three orders of architecture, Doric, Ionic, and Corin 
 thian, are generally declared of Grecian birth ; the first two must, 
 however, be excepted, for the Doric .column bears strong evi 
 dences of Egyptian extraction, and an Ionic column was found 
 amid the ruins of J^ineveh, others on the banks of the Tigris ; so 
 that this order is proved to be of Asiatic origin. Another style, 
 said to be invented by the Greeks to perpetuate the humiliation 
 
 6 Diodorus Siculus who wrote in the first century B. C., gives the following account 
 of and reasons for the Exodus of Cadmus and Moses : " There having arisen in former 
 days a pestiferous disease in Egypt, the multitude attributed the cause of the evil to 
 the Deity ; for a very great concourse of foreigners of every nation then dwelt in 
 Egypt, who were addicted to strange rites in their worship and sacrifices : whence 
 the natives of the land inferred that, unless they removed them, there would never be 
 an end to their distresses. They immediately, therefore, expelled these foreigners; 
 the most illustrious and able of whom passed over in a body (as some say) into 
 Greece and other places, under the conduct of celebrated leaders, of whom the most 
 renowned were Danaus and Cadmus. But a large body of the people went forth 
 into the country which is now called Judea, situated not far distant from Egypt, 
 being altogether desert in those times. The leader of this colony was Moses, a man 
 very remarkable for his great wisdom and valor. When he had taken possession of 
 the land, among other cities he founded that which is called Jerusalem, which is now 
 the most celebrated." (DiOD., lib. xl.) 
 
ANCIENT ARCHITECTURE. 15 
 
 of some of their captives, the caryatid, or supporting figure, tak 
 ing the place of a column, is also found in several Egyptian 
 temples ; the only order, therefore, of pure Greek extraction is 
 the Corinthian. 
 
 The Pandroseum, with its caryatids ; the ancient Temple of 
 Corinth ; the Sysipheum, which Strabo speaks of as in ruins ; the 
 magnificent Temple of Minerva at Athens, the oldest Grecian 
 edifice, perhaps, whose remains permit us to form an adequate 
 idea of the grandeur and beauty of the perfect whole these and 
 many others, amid the picturesque mountains and valleys of 
 Greece, recall to us the days of her glory, when Phidias, Scopas, 
 and Praxiteles, wrought their exquisite handiwork, when all 
 that was noble, learned, and beautiful, was found within her 
 shores. Few will be the readers who are not familiar with the 
 names, at least, of her monuments, and, thanks to her exquisite 
 works of art, which are yet unrivaled, as also to the rich inheri 
 tance of literature and science she has handed down to us, the 
 civilization of this country is not often questioned. 
 
 Greece in turn bequeathed civilization to Home, which is also 
 rich in monuments, better known and more modern than those 
 of the former ; what need to dwell on the grandeur of the Coli 
 seum, the Pantheon, the glorious Column of Trajan, the Arches 
 of Titus and Constantine, or to describe the remnants of palaces 
 and temples, the ruins of the Forum, the Capitol, amid which 
 Gibbon resolved to write his "Decline and Fall of the Roman 
 Empire ? " These are so often depicted with pen and pencil as to 
 be familiar to nearly all. 
 
 These two lands, Greece and Italy, contain the greater part 
 of ancient architecture to be found in Europe. Other countries, 
 indeed, possess scattered and isolated fragments, but to find an 
 accumulation of ruins which denote the existence of a civilized 
 people ages ago, we must traverse the ocean ; to find remnants 
 of cities that were old when Greece was in its infancy, we must 
 come to the NEW WOULD ! The reader will here imagine, no doubt, 
 that allusion is made to the Aztec civilization of Mexico, which 
 Prescott depicts in such glowing colors ; but, while admiring the 
 research and perseverance displayed by that eloquent writer, we 
 regret that the " authorities " which he quotes, and which would be 
 beyond refutation had the stories of the Spanish Conquest deserved 
 the name of history, were in reality but one mass of fiction, owing 
 
16 
 
 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 to the despotic empire exercised by the Church and its desire to 
 make all redound to its glory, as also to the self-glorification of the 
 chief actors in the scene, who were their own historians, and not 
 unwilling to play the part of conquerors of a civilized and war 
 like nation. The Spaniards, at the time of the Mexican Con 
 quest, had but just emerged from their wars with the Moors or 
 Arabs, a people who had inherited from the East art, wealth, and 
 learning, as well as a poetic and fiery imagination, and a taste for 
 gorgeous display ; who had enriched Spain beyond measure, built 
 the Alhambra and embellished Granada, and who in most arts 
 and sciences were superior to their conquerors. The adventurers 
 
 ETTINS IN CENTRAL AMERICA. 
 
 who reached Mexico were not willing to assume a secondary posi 
 tion to the heroes of the Moorish wars, they therefore depicted the 
 primitive Indian of the forest in colors of Oriental splendor, and 
 magnified their own exploits to the greatness of those of the Cid. 
 No blame attaches to Mr. Prescott, who, resting in good faith 
 upon a "weight of authority" which is in reality but a fiction, 
 the work of fraud, bigotry, and vain ambition, transmits to us 
 those splendid fables. That they are fables there can be little 
 doubt ; no vestiges of past grandeur appear in' 'those places where 
 the splendid towns described by Cortez and his contemporaries 
 
ANCIENT AMERICAN RUINS. 
 
 IT 
 
 are said to have been situated, and where towns of the same 
 name still stand ; no remains of stately palaces, basins carved in 
 solid rock, gardens, and strong walls, are to be foiind on the site 
 of the fabulous city of Tezcuco ; had these wonders existed there 
 must surely have remained some traces ; even had the stones been 
 taken to build the present town, they would still be recognizable, 
 but this is built of adobe or dried mud-bricks, and there are no signs 
 of its ever having been otherwise ; so with Mexico, so with Ta- 
 cuba. Furthermore, the Indian of the present day does not rec 
 ognize or appear to have any knowledge of the ancient ruins in 
 Central America ; it is well known that the traditional history 
 of the Indian is handed down with almost as much accuracy as 
 
 KUINS IN CENTBAL AMERICA. 
 
 our own written records, and descends unvaried from father to 
 son ; if, therefore, their race had ever rea'ched any thing like the 
 civilization attributed to the Aztecs, some remembrance of its 
 past glories would still be preserved among its descendants. 
 
 The fine carving of the ruins in Yucatan and elsewhere in 
 Central America appears to have been executed in the same 
 manner as in Egypt ; the tools used in the latter country were, 
 we know, of bronze 1 or copper, hardened by some process un 
 known to our time ; the arrow-heads and hatchets of the Indians 
 
18 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 were of sharpened stone or flint. Is it likely that their race could 
 once have possessed the art of forging and hardening metals to 
 such perfection as the workmanship on the ruins in question de 
 notes, and then become totally ignorant of that art ? These ruins 
 appear, indeed, throughout, of Egyptian, Phoenician, or perhaps 
 Asiatic origin, and show signs of great wealth having been 
 expended upon them. Some of the cities are declared to be as 
 large as Thebes. We find among them the Egyptian square 
 column with its carved hieroglyphics. All the ornaments, im 
 ages, and vessels which have been found, bear the unmistakable 
 Egyptian type, notably the statue found at Palenque, which is 
 inscribed in hieroglyphics at the base, and holds in its hand an 
 indented ornament, supposed by some to be the mural crown of 
 the Phoenician Hercules. The statues and carvings are all color 
 ed. Fine specimens of painting are found, showing this unknown 
 people to have been further advanced in this art than in that of 
 sculpture. The flesh-tints are of that peculiar red-brown which the 
 Egyptians always used. Another notable Egyptian feature is the 
 pyramidal form of building. True, the Mexican pyramids are 
 truncated, bearing on their summits palaces or temples, neverthe 
 less, this peculiar style of architecture is common to Egypt and 
 Central America. The pyramid at Copan is almost equal in size 
 at the base to the Great Pyramid, though less perfect in propor 
 tion and workmanship ; that on which stands the palace at Pa 
 lenque even bears traces of having been covered with polished 
 stones similar to the casing-stones of the Great Pyramid. The 
 pyramidal gate- ways, of Egypt also appear to have existed in 
 America. Specimens are found at Copan. The serpent, which 
 is carved on the tomb of Pharaoh Necho, and which is one of the 
 chief emblems of the Egyptians, forms one of the principal feat 
 ures of adornment in the Nuns' Hall at Uxmal. A copper coin 
 found at Palenque was impressed with the same emblem. 
 
 The Spaniards, finding a square stone or altar, on which 
 were beautifully-carved figures of warriors leading captives by 
 the hair, immediately declared this to be a representation of 
 human sacrifice, and termed the altar " the sacrificial stone," as 
 having been consecrated to this loathsome rite. We believe, how 
 ever, that the Spaniards, themselves under the power of priest 
 craft, were too ready to give every emblem, statue, or hiero 
 glyphic, a religious meaning, and were too apt to interpret that 
 
ORIGIN" OF ANCIENT AMERICAN RUINS. 19 
 
 meaning to the detriment of the unfortunate Aztecs. The latter 
 were probably as innocent of the crime of human sacrifice as they 
 were of having erected the stone in question, which is a remnant 
 of the long-extinguished race that first peopled America, raised 
 by them, no doubt, to commemorate their victories. Kenrick de 
 scribes a similar stone as existing in one of the temples of the Up 
 per Nile, on which appears a king " holding a number of captives 
 by the hair, who stretch their hands out toward him in an attitude 
 of supplication, while he threatens to strike them with a hatchet." ' 
 
 We might multiply, ad infinitum, the points of resemblance 
 between the ancient ruins of America and those of Egypt, a re 
 semblance which can scarcely be considered accidental, as it com 
 prises the history of the habits, customs, and worship of a people. 
 This resemblance we can record as an incontestable fact, but dis 
 coveries have hitherto been too limited to admit of any thing 
 but surmise in accounting for it. The ruins in America are in a 
 more advanced state of decay than those of Egypt shall we 
 therefore believe that here was the parent race, the birthplace of 
 Egyptian art ? that' the Asiatic nation which gave civilization 
 to Egypt had previously spread itself eastward to this conti 
 nent \ 7 or shall we rather believe that the Phoenicians, when 
 they flourished at Tartessus or Tarshish (the present Cadiz), trad 
 ing with, perhaps colonizing, the British Islands, extended their 
 voyages as far as America, and colonized the latter, whose ancient 
 monuments mark the decadence of Egyptian art ? 
 
 Be this as it may, the Spaniards in 1492, the Northmen five 
 hundred years previously, were not the first to establish a con 
 necting link between the Eastern and "Western Hemispheres ; 
 thousands of years before their time, a people had risen, in what 
 is now termed the New "World, to a civilization similar if not 
 equal to that of Egypt. This civilization flourished evidently dur 
 ing many hundred years, as the many inland cities of which re 
 mains are visible testify. These must have taken centuries to ar 
 rive at such dimensions, and prove that inland home commerce 
 existed, sufficient for the support of millions. This, then, was no 
 sea-coast colony of rapid growth and extinction, but a nation that 
 
 6 Kenrick, vol. i., p. 8. 
 
 7 In our own day Japanese junks have drifted uncontrolled from the shores of that 
 island to those of Alaska and California. Some such accident may have revealed to 
 the Asiatics the so-called New World, thousands of years ago. 
 
20 
 
 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 slowly and steadily increased in numbers and wealth, how many 
 thousand years ago we know not ; but this we know, that trees 
 more than a thousand years old have been found growing on the 
 ruins in Central America, which could only have commenced 
 growth many years after the buildings had fallen into decay. 
 
 How this people became extinct is yet a mystery. Was it 
 some internal war ? some fell disease or black death ? or, more 
 
 TOMB OF SESOBTRIS. 
 
 likely, did savage tribes overcome and destroy them, as barba 
 rism seems ever to destroy civilization ? These are questions yet 
 unanswered. Future discoveries, perhaps, of other ruins, in a bet 
 ter state of preservation, may throw greater light on the subject. 
 All we are able now to do is, to travel amazedly through these 
 ruins. Here, indeed, History, to our eager query, " Who hath 
 builded them ? " mumbleth something, but what it is we hear not. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 ASTRONOMY, GEOGRAPHY, NAVIGATION, LEARNING, AMONG THE 
 
 ANCIENTS. 
 
 As well might we attempt to determine the antiquity of intel 
 lectual man as to fix the age of astronomy. That it is almost 
 coeval with humanity we may, however, reasonably infer, for it is 
 not curiosity, or even a love of science, but the dictates of ne 
 cessity which impel us to its study : by it the seasons are deter 
 mined, the proper dates fixed for civil and religious affairs, the 
 favorable periods for voyages on. the vast ocean ascertained. 
 Without it there would be no possibility of fixed rules and regu 
 lations ; thus is astronomy indispensable to agriculture, politics, 
 and religion. In tracing back its history, the most we can do is, 
 to observe the ancient landmarks, and note the early fragments 
 which have come down to us bearing upon the subject. These are 
 sufficient to show that at a very early age mankind had reached 
 such proficiency in that science as to render it probable that 
 their knowledge was as complete as that of the present day. 
 
 The Hebrew historian claims for his people the honor of 
 having first studied the heavens ; but the Hindoos, according to 
 their own record, are the most ancient astronomers of whom we 
 have knowledge. They computed eclipses 3102 years B. c., and, as 
 their calculations at this early period represent the state of the 
 heavens with astonishing accuracy, and appear upon examination 
 to be even more correct than those they subsequently made, it is 
 evident they were the result of actual observation. It was the 
 Hindoos who for greater facility of calculation invented the ten 
 numeral figures which the Arabs introduced into Spain, and 
 which have now superseded the old Roman method of comput 
 ing by means of the letters of the alphabet. 
 
22 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 India, then, as far as we can trace back, appears to have been 
 the cradle of astronomy. She spread her knowledge eastward 
 to China and Japan, westward to Chaldea and Egypt, who in turn 
 bequeathed it to Phoenicia and Greece. Learned men of these 
 lands appear to have determined the motion and volume of the 
 stars, the constellations were named in writings both sacred and 
 profane, the signs of the zodiac fixed many centuries anterior to 
 our era. One of the learned men of our day, who for forty years 
 labored to decipher the hieroglyphics of the ancients, found upon 
 a coffin or Egyptian mummy-case (now in the British Museum) a 
 delineation of the signs of the zodiac and the position of the 
 planets ; the date to which they pointed was the autumnal equi 
 nox of the year 1722 B. c. Prof. Mitchell, to whom the fact 
 was communicated, employed his assistants to ascertain the ex 
 act position of the heavenly bodies belonging to our solar sys 
 tem on the equinox of that year. This was done, and a diagram 
 furnished by parties ignorant of his object, which showed that 
 on the 7th of October, 1722 B. c., the moon and planets occupied 
 the exact points in the heavens marked upon the coffin in the 
 British Museum. 
 
 The Egyptians had, we have already shown, a most perfect 
 knowledge of astronomy, and applied that science to such practi 
 cal uses that a knowledge of it must have been common to all. 
 Mathematics and geometry are said to have had their birth with 
 them. Diodorus writes : 
 
 " They pay great attention to geometry and arithmetic. For 
 the river, changing the appearance of the country very materially 
 every year, causes many and various discussions among neighbor 
 ing proprietors, about the extent of their property ; and it would 
 be difficult for any person to decide upon their claims without 
 geometrical proof founded on actual observation ; of arithmetic 
 they have also frequent use, both in their domestic economy and 
 in the application of geometrical theorems, besides its utility in 
 the cultivation of astronomical studies ; for the orders and mo 
 tions of the stars are observed at least as industriously by the 
 Egyptians as by any other people whatever ; and they keep a 
 record of the motions of each for an incredible number of years, 
 the study of this science having been, from the remotest times, 
 an object of national ambition with them. 
 
 "They have also most punctually observed the motions, 
 
ANCIENT ASTEONOMY. 23 
 
 periods, and actions of the planets .... and not uncommonly 
 predict the failure of crops, or an abundance, and the occurrence 
 of epidemic diseases among men and beasts; foreseeing also 
 earthquakes and floods, the appearance of comets, and a variety 
 of other things which appear impossible to the multitude." 
 
 The most ancient astronomer of Greece, Thales, acquired 
 much of his great learning in Egypt. Six hundred years before 
 Christ he computed the diameter of the sun, and is said to have 
 predicted that memorable eclipse which on the 30th of Septem 
 ber, 610 B. c., stayed the effusion of blood and caused an armis 
 tice between the Medes and Libyans. Pythagoras, one of his 
 disciples, taught the principles of our solar system, also that the 
 moon reflected the sun's rays, and described accurately the na 
 ture of comets. He is said to have been the first to observe that 
 Venus is alternately the evening and the morning star. Eratos 
 thenes measured the diameter of the earth, 200 B. c., by an arc 
 of the meridian, which is the means now employed. Epicurus 
 speaks incidentally as a matter of course, of " the world turning 
 as it does round the axis of the heavens, and that too with sur 
 prising rapidity." But the work of the ancients which may be 
 called the most complete that has come down to us is that of 
 Claudius Ptolemy, well named the Prince of Astronomers. In 
 the second century of our era he wrote at Alexandria his ad 
 mirable works. He determined the latitude and longitude of 
 more than four thousand places, and gives the history of ancient 
 astronomy, with an elaborate list of the stars as known to him 
 and older astronomers. The term " colossal," given by the 
 great Humboldt to the work of Ptolemy on geography, applies as 
 well to his astronomical labors. ^Beroseus 8 repeats the follow 
 ing Babylonian tradition, which, whatever may be thought of it 
 as a theory, shows what study and calculation were expended by 
 the ancients on these matters : he maintains that all terrestrial 
 things will be consumed when the planets which now are trav 
 ersing their different courses shall all coincide in the sign of 
 Cancer, and be so placed that a .straight line could pass directly 
 through all their orbs ; but the inundation will take place when 
 the same conjunction shall occur in Capricorn. In the first is 
 
 8 Berosens, or Berosus, lived in the fourth century B. c., and was the contempo 
 rary of Alexander the Great. His works are quoted by Josephus, by Alexander Poly- 
 histor, who wrote in the second century B. c., by Eusebius, and others. 
 3 
 
24 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 the summer, in the last the winter of the year. The great year 
 of Aristotle is that in which the planets, in completing their 
 course, return to the sign from which they originally started to 
 gether when God set them in motion ; in the winter of this year 
 comes the deluge, its summer brings the conflagration of the 
 world. This periodical revolution or conjunction is fixed by 
 Orpheus at one hundred and twenty thousand years, and by 
 Copandras at one hundred and thirty - six thousand. Other 
 writers contend that the heavenly bodies shall no more coincide 
 in their original positions. 
 
 No science seems to have been held by the ancients in such 
 veneration as the noble one which lifts men above the petty 
 strife and turmoil of the world, causing them to contemplate the 
 immense expanse of the heavens and numberless stars. Among 
 all the splendors of the Persian Chosroes, the most magnificent 
 was perhaps a dome supported by a forest of forty thousand col 
 umns, which was adorned with one thousand globes of gold, imi 
 tating the motions of the planets and constellations of the zodiac : 
 
 " 'Twas thus he taught the fabric of the spheres, 
 The changeful moon, the circuit of the stars, 
 The golden zones of heaven." 
 
 Many of the proudest achievements of the ancients, both in art 
 and letters, have been lost, mutilated, or so falsified that it is 
 difficult to form a just idea of the original. Notwithstanding 
 these disadvantages under which they must labor, enough re 
 mains to prove that they had arrived at many just conclusions 
 touching astronomy, and the form and size of our planet, so that, 
 from the days of Mmrod to our own, the ignorant only can 
 have believed the earth to be other than spherical, the ridicu 
 lous story touching Columbus and the sages of Salamanca to the 
 contrary notwithstanding. If this knowledge was attained with 
 out the aids of which we boast, their achievements should be re 
 garded as more wonderful than ours. It may, however, be as well 
 to conclude that, as in all ages human nature has under the 
 same circumstances been about the same, an equal amount of 
 learning, thought, and similar instruments, have ever been em 
 ployed ; in short, that there is no new thing under the sun, and 
 that " wisdom shall not die with us." 9 
 
 9 It is generally believed that Galileo was, persecuted by the Church, and tortured 
 Iby the Inquisition, on account of discoveries made by him in astronomy. In (his be- 
 
ANCIENT EGYPTIAN EXPLORATIONS. 25 
 
 The attainments of the ancients in astronomy are less often 
 contested than their knowledge of geography, in which they are 
 represented as decidedly deficient ; nevertheless, with the aid of 
 those fragments of their writings which have come down to us, 
 we are able in great measure to refute the charge. Certainly in 
 terest and enterprise were as nearly connected and as great as at 
 the present day. The huge ships propelled by sails, with hun 
 dreds of oarsmen to take the place of the latter during calms or 
 adverse winds, guided by the magnetic needle (their knowledge 
 of which we shall presently prove), afforded even greater advan 
 tages than modern sailing-ships. Pharaoh Necho sent out a for 
 midable exploring expedition, about 600 B. c., manned by Phoe 
 nicians, which, descending the Red Sea and circumnavigating 
 Africa, reached the Pillars of Hercules in the third year nd re 
 turned to Egypt by the Mediterranean, thus performing at that 
 early period the voyage, in an inverse direction, for which Yasco 
 de Gama, two thousand years later, became so renowned, with 
 the additional navigation of the Mediterranean and Red Seas. 
 Herodotus is disposed to discredit the accounts of this voyage, 
 for the best reason that could well be given to. establish their 
 veracity: that is, he writes that the Phoenicians asserted that 
 during a portion of their voyage the sun was in the north. 
 
 A gentleman of our day, who, after seven years' study, travel, 
 and observation, finds the sources of the Nile to be the several 
 lakes mentioned by Ptolemy, and corresponding in number, form, 
 size, and location, with the description of the latter, is thought 
 worthy of knighthood, and hailed with triumph by his learned 
 brethren. If these honors are to be paid to one who has sufficient 
 ly informed himself to enable him to indorse the correctness of 
 
 lief we do not fully concur. Books much older than Galileo were then preserved at 
 Rome and Pisa, containing those very theories for which it is alleged this Pisan was 
 persecuted ; these records have come down to our time. It is more just and reason 
 able to suppose that he and his books were condemned by the Inquisition on account 
 of an attack made upon that body in the preface of a book for the publication cf 
 which he had obtained a license from the holy office, as is alleged, by deception or 
 falsehood. Would the Church destroy his book for affirming that the earth revolved 
 round the sun in little more than three hundred and sixty-five days, while carefully 
 preserving the writings of the ancients in which they proclaim the same doctrines ? 
 We would not here defend the Inquisition, or justify the tyranny of the Church ; yet, 
 let it be remembered that Pope Urban VIII. granted an annual pension of one hun 
 dred crowns for the support of Galileo in the evening of his days, and one of sixty 
 crowns to his son. 
 
26 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 Ptolemy, what honors should we not pay to the memory of the 
 great geographer of seventeen hundred years ago ? 
 
 The question, however, touching the geographical knowledge 
 of the ancients which most interests us in the present work is : 
 Were they or were they not ignorant of the existence of the 
 Western Hemisphere ? Without reverting to what we have said 
 in the preceding chapter touching the resemblance between the 
 ruins of Central America and of Egypt, in accounting for which 
 we can only have recourse to hypothesis, we may rest upon a sure 
 foundation our belief that they were not. Although most writers 
 on the discovery of America, and extravagant eulogists of Co 
 lumbus, affect either utterly to ignore, or to regard as fables, the 
 allusions in ancient writings to a land which can be no other than 
 that wkich we now call the New World, those who assisted Co 
 lumbus in his undertaking and instructed him in the course he 
 was to pursue, were actuated and inspired mainly by these allu 
 sions. Columbus himself, seeking to give a learned air to his 
 enterprise, and to draw attention from the real source whence he 
 derived his knowledge, dwells largely upon these ancient frag 
 ments, as does also his son. 10 
 
 We will not multiply quotations, but will content ourselves 
 with the following from Plato, which so accurately describes the 
 situation of America that the reader must indeed be obstinate 
 who will not believe that he described a country which had been 
 known, and did not marvelously imagine one which should coin 
 cide so well with the situation of the real continent : 
 
 " That sea " (the Atlantic) " was then navigable, and had an isl 
 and fronting that mouth which you in your tongue call the Pillars 
 of Hercules .... and there was a passage hence to the rest of 
 the islands , as well as from these islands to the whole opposite 
 continent that surrounds that real sea .... the Atlantic Isl 
 and itself was plunged beneath the sea, and entirely disappeared ; 
 whence even now that sea is neither navigable nor to be traced 
 out, being blocked up by the great depth of mud which the sub 
 siding island produced." 
 
 We cannot conceive, when we observe the character of the 
 writings of Plato, that he could have any object in deceiving or 
 misleading his readers. A disciple of the sublime Socrates, his aim 
 
 10 See Fernando Columhus's "History of the Admiral," chapters vi., vii., viii., ix.,x. 
 
 11 Plato, " The Timams," Davis's translation. 
 
ISLAND OF ATLANTIS. 27 
 
 was to elevate and instruct mankind. With regard to the " great 
 island " of which he speaks, we see no reason to term it the 
 "fahled island of Atlantis," as do most authors. Wonderful sub 
 mersions and convulsions have in our own day changed the as 
 pect of coasts. The groups of islands east of the West Indies 
 may be remains of one vast island ; their broken nature renders 
 this hypothesis probable. Why should we not, observing the cor 
 rectness of the greater part of the above description, accept the 
 whole as truthful, instead of rejecting the whole as a fable be 
 cause one part records an event which, though wonderful, is by no 
 means impossible ? If this great island were submerged it must 
 have taken years before the sea became navigable ; by that time 
 men had ceased to consider it as such, and, drawn toward other 
 interests and pursuits, had abandoned or forgotten the " islands 
 and the whole opposite continent which surrounds that real sea," 
 which could have been none other than the West Indies and the 
 Continent of America. It is not probable that the learned, or 
 even ordinarily educated, ever became totally ignorant or obliv 
 ious of the existence of this continent, while a convulsion so 
 terrible as must have been the one recorded by Plato would have 
 deeply impressed the masses, whose vague and traditional ac 
 counts of the event may have given rise to those legends respect 
 ing the horrors pervading " the shadowy " or " gloomy ocean " 
 which are said to have been prevalent in the time of Columbus. 
 
 Why should we wonder that the allusions to the Western Hem 
 isphere are so vague, or be so assured that Atlantis was a fable? 
 were not Herculaneum and Pompeii lost for more than a thousand 
 years, their existence forgotten, and those authors mentioning 
 them accused of inventing fables to mislead the ignorant ? Yet 
 after all those years an accident revealed to astonished modem 
 times the "fabulous cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii," and 
 with them the habits and customs in their minutest details of a 
 people who had been thus buried in the midst of the affairs of 
 daily life, by the flood of molten lava and fiery shower of ashes, 
 and who are proved to have rivaled, if not excelled, us in all the 
 refinements of civilization. The hardened lava can be hewn 
 asunder, the ashes swept away, but none can roll back the mighty 
 ocean, nor disclose what its waves conceal ; this must remain till 
 the day when the sea shall give up its dead. 
 
 Nothing more fully proves the advanced stage of civilization 
 
28 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 in the earliest ages, than the extensive commerce which was car 
 ried on. In the infancy of nations and peoples, the desire for the 
 acquisition of property is indeed implanted in the breast of man, 
 but this desire cannot develop into commerce till the nation is 
 wealthy and populous. In the days of the Hebrew patriarchs, he 
 who first sat down at a spring, or reposed in the grateful shade 
 of a tree, acquired a right to possess the same, which was respected 
 by subsequent visitors. Abraham exclaims to Lot, when their flocks 
 have become so numerous as to render a separation necessary : 
 
 " Is not the whole land before thee ? separate thyself, I pray 
 thee, from me : if thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to 
 the right ; or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to 
 the left. And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of 
 Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere .... even as the 
 garden of the Lord .... Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan ; 
 .... and Abraham dwelled in the land of Canaan." 
 
 We are not, however, to suppose that all nations were thus 
 primitive in the days of the Patriarch. As well might it be main 
 tained that the world is at present sparsely populated because 
 there are vast regions in America where a citizen may acquire 
 an ample homestead simply by a residence of a few years on the 
 spot of his choice. Trade and commerce were already well sys 
 tematized. Gold and silver, in exchange for wares, had taken the 
 place of barter, at the time of which we speak. Abraham paid 
 four hundred shekels of silver, such as were current with the 
 merchant, for the cave of Machpelah ; and Joseph was sold to 
 the Ishmaelitish merchants, who were on their way to Egypt 
 with spices and perfumes, for twenty pieces of silver. 
 
 An extensive commerce was carried on by the Phcenicians, 
 the earliest merchants of antiquity of whom we have knowledge. 
 To their great mart, Tyre, the merchants of every nation brought 
 their choicest goods. The beauteous slaves of Greece, soft linen, 
 purple dyes and silks of Syria, embroideries of Egypt, perfumes 
 of Arabia, horses and horsemen, mules, wheat, honey, balm, 
 iron, gold, silver, precious stones, even tin from Cornwall, all 
 found ready sale in the vast markets of " the crowned city whose 
 merchants were princes." 12 
 
 12 No more glowing description of the commercial greatness of a city can be im 
 agined than that in which Ezekiel (chapter xxvii.) enumerates the many peoples who 
 traded with Tyre. 
 
COMMERCE OF THE ANCIENTS. 29 
 
 Carthage and Alexandria rivaled and succeeded Tyre as the 
 great commercial marts of the world. Arabia Felix, when that 
 country was the medium through which passed the commerce be 
 tween Egypt and India, seemed to concentrate the wealth of the 
 world within its borders. The doors of the dwellings were of ivo 
 ry studded with rich jewels ; the pillars glistened with gold and 
 silver ; aromatic woods were burned to cook food ; and so cloyed 
 with rich perfumes were the inhabitants of this happy land that 
 we are told they burned pitch and goat's-hair under their noses 
 to stimulate their sense of smell. Among the many castes into 
 which the people of India were from the earliest ages divided, 
 merchants are distinctly mentioned, so that we may conclude 
 that trade was established in that country from the remotest 
 periods. 
 
 The staple articles of commerce with the ancients do not 
 seem to have greatly varied from those of the present day, they 
 consisted of rich silks, precious stones, and metals, linens, slaves, 
 ivory, ebony, purple dyes, spices, wines, horses, mules, sugar, 
 wheat, honey, fans from China, carved images, flint-glass, etc. 
 This vast commerce can scarcely have existed without carrying 
 the science of navigation to a very advanced state. The Phoeni 
 cians, there is no doubt, navigated all the known seas and very 
 probably crossed the Atlantic. 13 The voyage of the Carthaginian 
 Hanno, about six hundred years before Christ, a curious record 
 of which was found suspended in the Temple of Saturn at Car 
 thage, and the expedition of Pharaoh Necho before mentioned, 
 are the earliest great enterprises in navigation which have come 
 down to us. 
 
 The "Periplus " of Hanno is apparently an official document 
 recording a voyage of discovery which the Carthaginians decreed 
 should be made with a view to establishing Liby-phcenician col 
 onies. Modern writers have not been wanting who, seeking to 
 cast doubt upon the authenticity of the " Periplus," would detract 
 from the knowledge and enterpriseof antiquity. Falconer has, 
 however, ably refuted these aspersions ; and, as the descriptions 
 given by Hanno correspond to the aspect of the shores which he 
 
 13 In the tomb of Rameses the Great is a representation of a naval combat between 
 the Egyptians and some other people, supposed to be the Phrenicians, whose huge 
 ships are propelled by sails. In these, guided by their stone of Hercules, or mariner's 
 compass, they were enabled boldly to leave the coast. 
 
30 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 declares to have coasted, we may regard the fact as established 
 that, six hundred years before our era, a voyage of discovery 
 was made, which was worthier in its objects than that of Co 
 lumbus. 
 
 It is not possible that the art of ship-building should have 
 reached such perfection as it undoubtedly did in early times, had 
 not navigation been extensive enough to demand such perfec 
 tion. The dimensions of the most ancient vessel on record, the 
 ark of Noah, three hundred cubits long, fifty broad and thirty high, 
 are almost precisely the same as those of the fastest vessels of 
 the present day, which are three hundred and twenty-two feet 
 long, fifty broad, and twenty-eight and a half in height. The 
 ships of the Egyptians were often upon a most magnificent scale. 
 The fleet with which Sesostris conquered all the countries adja 
 cent to the Red Sea is described in ancient Egyptian chronicles 
 to have been composed of four hundred large vessels. 14 That 
 which Alexander ordered to be constructed on the banks of the 
 Hydaspes, one thousand miles inland, was of one thousand ships ; 
 with these he descended the Indus, and, on reaching the ocean, 
 sailed to the Persian Gulf. The Indians seem to have had large 
 fleets. 16 Archimedes superintended the building of a ship for 
 Hiero of Syracuse which surpassed in magnificence any thing of 
 which we read. The wood which would have built fifty ordinary 
 galleys was expended in its construction. It contained galleries, 
 gardens, stables, fish-ponds, mills, baths, an engine to throw 
 stones three hundred pounds in weight, and arrows twelve 
 yards long. Its floors were inlaid with scenes from Homer's 
 " Iliad." A temple of Yenus was also among the wonders it con 
 tained. 
 
 The famous voyage of St. Paul to Eome was effected in three 
 vessels. In the first, no doubt a small coasting one, he went from 
 Cesarea to Myra, where he went on board an Alexandrian corn- 
 ship, which was wrecked off the cost of Malta ; this ship con 
 tained a cargo of wheat, and two hundred and seventy persons, 
 all of which were carried by another Alexandrian corn-ship, be 
 sides its own crew and cargo, by Syracuse and Rhegiurn, to 
 Puteoli. Now, as it is usual to allow a ton and a half per man in 
 
 14 Diodorus Siculus, "Canon of the Kings of Egypt." 
 
 1B Diodorus Siculus relates that four thousand ships opposed the invasion of Semi- 
 ramis into India. 
 
SIZE OF ANCIENT SHIPS. 31 
 
 transport-ships, it will be safe to conclude that the average an 
 cient merchant-ships ranged from five hundred to a thousand 
 tons burden. The vessel in which the great obelisk of the Vat 
 ican was transported to Rome carried eleven hundred tons of 
 pulse as ballast, besides the obelisk, which weighed fifteen hundred 
 tons. 
 
 Nor did the ships of the ancients lack many so-called modern 
 improvements. The chain-cable, which we have seen patented in 
 our own day, was well known to the Yenitii, whose galleys are 
 thus described by Julius Csesar : 
 
 " Their bottoms were some.what flatter than ours, the better 
 to adapt themselves to the shallows, and sustain without danger 
 the regress of the tides. Their prows were very high and erect, 
 as likewise their sterns, to bear the hugeness of the billows and 
 the violence of tempests. The body of the vessel was entirely 
 of oak, to stand the shocks and assaults of that tempestuous ocean. 
 The benches of the rowers were made of strong beams of about 
 a foot in breadth, and fastened with iron nails an inch thick. In 
 stead of cables, they secured their anchors with chains of iron" 
 
 A Roman vessel of the time of Trajan had been sunk in the 
 Lake Ricciola ; it w T as raised after more than thirteen hundred 
 years, and found to be in a good state of preservation ; the planks 
 were of cypress and pine, calked with linen rags, and covered 
 with Greek pitch ; the outside was covered with sheets of lead 
 fastened with small copper nails.' So the idea of metal sheeting 
 is no more modern than that of the chain-cable. 
 
 All this, it will be argued, were useless to sail across a vast 
 expanse of water, without a knowledge of the magnet, the mag 
 netized needle, or mariner's compass. 
 
 The invention of the compass is commonly attributed to a 
 pilot of Amalfi. 18 His name, and the date of so memorable an 
 event, are alike misty and uncertain. In our time he is known 
 
 16 The Amalfitans boasted their descent from Roman citizens sent to Byzantium by 
 Constantine the Great, and who, after shipwreck on the way, established themselves 
 at Melfi, the name of which they transferred to their new city built on the shores of 
 the Gulf of Salerno, on the spot where Paestum formerly flourished. In the ninth 
 century, the republic of Amalfi was already the mistress of the commerce of the Le 
 vant, and her maritime code was adopted throughout the Mediterranean and Ionian 
 Seas, as was formerly that of Rhodes. Sicilians, Arabs, Africans, Indians even, 
 frequented her mart to exchange their respective products. Her tari were the most 
 approved circulation throughout the Levant until the Venetian ducat prevailed. 
 
32 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 as Flavio Gioia, but writers nearer to his own day call him Giri 
 and Gira, and give him the Christian name Giovane. In like 
 manner, the year 1302 has been selected for the discovery, out of 
 a number of dates to which it is assigned in the older authors. 
 The particulars of the man's history are unknown, nor is there a 
 scrap of historical evidence that he either discovered or even 
 improved the mariner's compass. On tracing to its origin a 
 story so generally received, reiterated as it is in most books of 
 reference, and accepted in Italy as an article of the national 
 creed, we find the authority for it lost in tradition and guess 
 work. The celebrated Antony Panormita, one of the great 
 poets of the fifteenth century and secretary of Alphonso, King 
 of Naples, has embalmed in verse the tradition of the discovery 
 at Amalfi : 
 
 <; First Amalfi gave to seamen the use of the magnet." 
 And elsewhere : 
 
 " Of the magnet, Amalfi 
 Boasts the noble discovery." 
 
 In more recent times this story has been received by local 
 writers, who, indulging a lively fancy, have appeared to see in the 
 arms of Amalfi the heraldic symbol of the mariner's compass, 
 and have thereupon alleged that the city did in fact take the 
 compass for its arms, to perpetuate the memory of its invention 
 by the citizen Giovane Gira or Giri, or Flavio Gioia. It is not 
 improbable that the sign of the compass which still remains over 
 the door of a certain dwelling in that renowned seaport originally 
 suggested the tradition, and may have served to commemorate 
 a famous nautical instrument-maker who had made some improve 
 ment in the indications of the points of the compass and in the 
 suspension of the magnetic needle. 
 
 Notwithstanding this absence of all historic testimony, our 
 students' guides and Italian patriotism 17 cleave to a story which 
 will not bear serious examination. For there is a cloud of wit 
 nesses that long before the era of Gioia the compass was in famil 
 iar use in Europe, and that in the East the knowledge of the 
 
 17 In the naval action off Lissa, in July, 1866, the first hostile encounter of iron- 
 clad fleets in the world's history, the Flavio Gioia and. Christoforo Colombo figured as 
 dispatch-boats on the Italian side. 
 
THE MAGNETIC NEEDLE. 33 
 
 polarity of the magnet, and its application to traveling by sea 
 and land, were of immemorial antiquity. 
 
 The first notice of the compass in European literature appears 
 in the accounts of the voyages of the Northmen. " The Land- 
 namabok " has this passage in the second chapter of the first 
 volume : 
 
 " Floke Yilgedarson set out about the year 868 from Roga- 
 land in Norway to rediscover Iceland. He took with him three 
 ravens to act as guides. It was the custom of our ancestors 
 when looking out for land to let fly these birds. If they re 
 turned to the ship, it was presumed they were still far from land, 
 but if they flew away they were watched, and the direction they 
 had taken followed as a sure guide to land. To consecrate the 
 ravens to this use, Floke offered a great sacrifice at Smorsund, 
 where his vessel was at anchor. For at that time the navigators 
 of Scandinavia did not make use of the loadstone." 
 
 This was written about the year 1075, and, though the last 
 clause is not absolutely correct, as we shall presently see, it yet 
 proves that the polarity of the magnet and its use in navigation 
 were by that time, at any rate, perfectly familiar to the North 
 men. 
 
 A century later, in the year 1190, the use of the magnet at 
 sea is used as a simile in a French satirical poem a proof that it 
 could not even at that date have been recently invented, but was 
 notorious and familiar to all. The title of the poem is u La Bible," 
 the author was Guyot de Provins. The writer, after having de 
 claimed against every state, proceeds to attack the court of 
 Rome. The pope, according to him, should be what the polar 
 ctar is to the mariner, the one conspicuous, fixed, unchanging, 
 infallible guide. In natural connection with this, he goes on to 
 speak of the magnet, the loving-stone which reveals the place of 
 the Tresmontaigne when clouds and mist obscure it. But we 
 will, as nearly as we can render it in English, give the entire 
 passage : 
 
 " Would that our Holy Father the pope 
 Resembled th' immovable star. 
 Very clearly they see it 
 The mariners, they trust to its ray : 
 By that star they go out and home, 
 They hold on their way with all calm. 
 
34 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 It is known as the Tresmontaigne, 
 
 It is fixed, central, and certain. 
 
 While others shoot, wander, revolve, 
 
 This star is the centre of all. 
 
 The seaman knows an art that can't deceive : 
 
 The compass 18 is his sacred oracle. 
 
 The potent charm of the magnet 
 
 (A stone dark and ugly in look, 
 
 Yet to it iron fondly adheres), 
 
 Gives its impulse to the needle 
 
 Which then, cased, and freely suspended, 
 
 Set in movement unhindered, 
 
 True and certain points to that star. 
 
 The sky with sea in mist confused, 
 
 No moon or constellation to be seen, 
 
 The needle's lighted up without delay : 
 
 The sailor has no fear of going astray, 
 
 To th' invisible star points the faithful iron, 
 
 And on the trackless deep his way is sure. 
 
 Unchanging, central, bright, that star, 
 
 Such surely should our Holy Father be." 
 
 Another notice of the compass is found in the " History of the 
 East and West " by the Cardinal Jacques de Vitry, Bishop of Tus- 
 culum and Ptolemais, a legate of the pope in the fourth Crusade 
 and in the army of Montfort against the Albigenses, A. D. 
 1204-1210. He calls the magnet adamas (English adamant), a 
 name very much in vogue in the middle ages, in lieu of magnes 
 (magnet). The passage in question is this : 
 
 " The magnet (adamas) is found in India. It attracts iron, 
 by some hidden quality. The iron needle, after it has touched 
 the magnet, always turns toward the north-star, which does not 
 move, as if it were the centre of the firmament, the other stars 
 revolving around it. Wherefore the magnet is very necessary 
 to navigators at sea." 19 
 
 It is evident that it is not a new discovery that is here de 
 scribed a century before Gioia's reputed discovery, but an 
 established usage, and an instrument necessary to mariners, the 
 use of which was notorious. 
 
 Another conspicuous authority on the same point, in the thir 
 teenth century, is Brunetto Latini, poet, philosopher, astrolo- 
 
 18 EAmani&re. 19 "Historia Hierosolimitanae," cap. 89. 
 
ROGER BACOK 35 
 
 ger, of Florence. He had the honor of instructing " the divine 
 Dante," and foretold the glory of his pupil's genius. Having 
 been banished from Florence with his party, the Guelphs 
 as was subsequently Dante himself, who was also sentenced to be 
 burnt alive, and never dared return to his beloved home Bru- 
 netto settled in France, where he wrote his " Tresor de Sapience," 
 a sort of encyclopaedia, in the Romance language. In this work, 
 he makes mention of the loadstone and the magnetized needle, 
 and, though the description is not altogether accurate, it admits 
 of no doubt about the use of the needle in the navigation of the 
 period : 
 
 " Take a magnet, that is calamite. You will find it has two 
 faces, one lies toward the north pole, the other toward the south 
 pole. Each of the faces draws the needle toward that pole to 
 which that face is turned ; and thereby mariners may be deceived 
 if they are not on their guard." 
 
 Brunetto had before this paid a visit to England, and spent 
 some time at Oxford with the illustrious monk, the greatest of 
 mathematicians from Archimedes down, the chemist whose won 
 derful discoveries secured him ten years' incarceration as a magi 
 cian, the marvel of his age Roger Bacon. Brunetto, in a letter 
 to his friend Guido Cavalcanti, also a celebrated poet of Florence, 
 gives the following account of his visit to Oxford. "We trust it 
 will be found sufficiently interesting to justify our giving a 
 translation of the whole letter : 
 
 " The Parliament being summoned to assemble at Oxford, I 
 had an opportunity of visiting that famous school, of which you 
 have heard so much happily somewhat sooner than, from the 
 nature of my avocations, I might have otherwise done. 
 
 " The English word parliament is said, by some learned men 
 here, to be derived quasi parium lamentum, because the Eng 
 lish barons (peers) at these meetings complain of the enormities 
 of their country. But I am of opinion it is borrowed from our 
 word parleure (speech), and parleor (an orator), as indeed 
 there are a great many speakers, and often much virulent speech 
 delivered in these assemblies. 
 
 " Our journey from London to Oxford was made in two days, 
 not without difficulty and danger ; for the roads are bad, and 
 we had to climb hills of hazardous ascent, which to descend 
 are eoually perilous. We passed through many woods consid- 
 
36 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 ered here as dangerous places, as they are infested with robbers ; 
 which indeed is the case with most roads in England. This is 
 connived at by the neighboring barons, for the consideration of 
 sharing the booty, and the robbers serving their protectors on all 
 occasions, personally, and with the whole strength of their band. 
 However, as our company was numerous, we had not much 
 cause to tremble. 
 
 " Accordingly, the first night we arrived safely at Sherburn 
 Castle, in the neighborhood of Watlington, under the chain of 
 hills over which we passed at Stocquinchurque. 
 
 " This castle was built by the Earl of Tanqucrville, one of the 
 followers of the fortunes of William the Bastard of Normandy, 
 who invaded England, and slew King Harold in a battle which 
 decided the fate of this kingdom. As the barons are frequently 
 embroiled in disputes and quarrels with the sovereign and with 
 each other, they take the precaution of building strong castles 
 with lofty towers and deep moats, with drawbridges, posterns, 
 and portcullises. They also make a provision of victuals in case 
 they happen to be besieged, so as to hold out for a considerable 
 time. They have also a large collection of all arms and ma 
 chines for defense. 
 
 " The country around Oxford is beautiful. The city is watered 
 by the Cher well and the Isis, or Ouse, which rivers wander over 
 the land in many a wild meander. As I stood viewing these 
 scenes from the surrounding hills, this thought occurred to me : 
 6 Medicine and the useful arts are commendable pursuits. But a 
 petty trade is considered ignoble ; if it be large, and very pro 
 ductive, it benefits a large number without vanity, and is not to 
 be lightly esteemed. No pursuit, however, is better than agri 
 culture, more satisfactory or more worthy of a gentleman (franc 
 home). 9 Then I remembered the words of Horace : 
 
 ' Happy is he quitting all trades, who, 
 As did they of the olden time, 
 Cultivates his land and rears his beasts, 
 Unknown to usurers, and unjust to none.' 
 
 The number of scholars in this high-school is about three thousand : 
 indeed, their number is too great, inasmuch as the revenues of 
 their houses are insufficient for their support, so that they are 
 constrained to ask relief at the butteries of the great barons and 
 the cabins of their vassals. This is true chietly of those edu- 
 
ROGER BACON. 37 
 
 cated to be priests and to display the religion and the faith of 
 Jesus Christ, with the rewards of the good, and the sufferings of 
 'the wicked. The others, who are to practise law and physic, 
 or other learned profession, live with their respective societies, 
 without wrong and without scandal. 
 
 " You may be assured I did not fail to see Friar Bacon as soon 
 as possible. He is the only one I could hear of that is skilled in 
 Hebrew and Greek. Even the Latin they use is not that of 
 Tully, and, as the doctors know nothing of the Romance tongue, 
 my communication with them was very slight. But I had 
 ample amends in the frequent conversations I had with this mir 
 ror of good learning. 
 
 " For, unlike one described by Horace 
 
 'He seeks not smoke from flame, 
 But light from smoke to give.' 
 
 " As the friar studied long in Paris, he makes himself well 
 understood in the Romance language, according to the patois of 
 France. 20 Friar Roger Bacon is a Cordelier of the order of Saint 
 Francis ; he is a D. D., a good physician, and the greatest chem 
 ist, mathematician, and astrologer, of the present age. He is, 
 moreover, a profound philosopher, and has made a number of 
 discoveries which have brought upon him the imputation of sor 
 cery and magic. This absurd idea rises above the common peo 
 ple and even the scholars, and makes his own community and 
 
 20 The Romance language was a popular Latin, in use over the greater part of Eu 
 rope, modified in different countries to adapt it to the idiom of the respective races. 
 From the twelfth to the fourteenth centuries the University of Paris was the means of 
 diffusing " the patois of France " far and wide. Of England, Germany, and Italy, it 
 used to be said : 
 
 " Filii nobilium dum sunt juniores 
 Mittuntur in Franciam fieri doctores." 
 
 Thus the French, the dialect of the provinces north of the Loire only, prevailed 
 over the Provenfal, the southern dialect of the Romance, that of the Troubadours. 
 Roger Bacon and Chaucer used it ; Frederick II., the German emperor, wrote his 
 poems, and Marco Polo his adventures, in the idiom of Paris ; and we find Brunetto 
 corresponding in it with his fellow-townsmen of Florence. Dante and Petrarch had 
 not yet formed the Italian. 
 
 Europe has at present seven literary modifications of the Romance language. Of 
 these, three preserve the name ; the Rvuman, of the Danubian Principalities ; the Rou- 
 mansch, or Romanese, of the Grisons of Switzerland ; and the Lower Romanese, called 
 also the Latinique, of the Engadine, on the borders of the Tyrol The languages of 
 Italy, Spain, Portugal, and France, are the other members of the family. 
 
38 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 the doctors fear and shun him. This makes him cautious about 
 his experiments ; but he assures me he has placed on record his 
 several discoveries, and that they will be found after his death 
 among his papers, for they do not suit the times we live in, 
 when all learning is a vain study of abstruse speculations pro 
 ducing nothing useful. I told him the story which you and I 
 have both frequently heard, of the Brazen Head how that he 
 and his brother in religion, Friar Thomas Bungey, had labored 
 seven years to complete it, in order to know whether it would 
 not be possible to inclose England within a wall and rampart, 
 and that they foiled after all to receive the answer, because not 
 expecting it so soon, they were both out of the way, and did not 
 hear the reply which the Oracle had made. It is very certain 
 that the friar has invented many wonderful machines, in particu 
 lar, a head of brass which utters certain sounds. This is un 
 doubtedly the Brazen Head which gave rise to the story of the 
 oracle. He showed me curious mirrors of his invention. One 
 sort sets fire to any combustible, when under the sun's rays ; 
 another, in which figures are made to appear and disappear at 
 pleasure ; a third, which enables a person to discover objects at 
 a great distance, not discernible by the naked eye. 21 In the pur 
 suit of these discoveries he has spent a great deal of money. He 
 has now succeeded to a large property ; and his family, being 
 wealthy, had liberally supplied him with means. He told me 
 that he knew a method of combining saltpetre with charcoal in 
 certain proportions, so as to produce wonderful effects on being 
 touched with the least possible spark of fire. 22 I had no oppor- 
 
 21 The discovery of an instrument of long sight by the arrangement of convex and 
 concave glasses in a tube, is generally attributed to a Dutch spectacle-maker of 
 Middlebourg, about the year 1600; its application in the telescope, to Galileo, who 
 began with a magnifying power of four, then of seven, finally of thirty, with which 
 he made out the satellites of Jupiter and the lunar mountains. We see that, nearly 
 four centuries before, Bacon had anticipated them. The Chinese had such instru 
 ments in use long ages before the Christian era. 
 
 22 The discovery and use of gunpowder are of much older date than is generally al 
 lowed. The German monk, Berthold Schwarz, is commonly credited with the inven 
 tion. But it is noticed in the works of two churchmen who lived a century before 
 Schwarz Albertus Magnus, the Dominican monk, who gave up an archbishopric, to 
 be free to pursue his scientific researches ; and our present acquaintance, Friar Bacon. 
 
 Gunpowder was employed in Europe certainly as early as 1257, if not before, at 
 the siege of Niebla, in Spain ; and there is no doubt of its ha^ng been in use by the 
 Arabs much earlier. In an Arab treatise on engines of war, in the early part of the 
 
GUNPOWDER. THE MAGNET. 39 
 
 tunity of witnessing the experiment, but some persons in whose 
 presence he had performed it assured me that it had the closest 
 resemblance to thunder and lightning. It is, I suppose, on ac 
 count of the great noise, that the good friar is so cautious of mak 
 ing any trial of it except in retired places, laboring as he does 
 under the suspicion of being a necromancer. He further showed 
 me a black, ugly stone, the magnet, to which iron readily ad 
 heres. If a needle be rubbed upon it, and then left free to float 
 on the surface of water by means of a reed, the point of the 
 needle turns, and remains steadily pointing to the polar star. 
 So that, be the night ever so obscure, and neither star nor moon 
 be visible, the mariner by the help of the needle holds on his 
 right course. This discovery, which appears so useful to all who 
 voyage by sea, encounters great prejudice, even on the part of 
 seamen, so that pilots use it with caution for fear of falling under 
 the suspicion of magic, as every thing which is not understood is 
 commonly attributed to some infernal agency. The time will 
 come, no doubt, when these prejudices, which are so great a hin- 
 derance to research into the secrets of Nature, will die out, and 
 mankind will then reap the benefit of the labors of Friar Bacon, 
 and do justice to the genius and industry which now meet with 
 mistrust and obloquy." 
 
 We next come upon works of very great value : an elaborate 
 " Review of Ancient Astronomy," by John-Baptist Riccioli, the 
 great astronomer of Ferrara, also a churchman ; and, by the 
 same author, a treatise in twelve books on geography and hy 
 drography. In chapter xviii. of. the tenth book of this latter 
 work, a chapter on the compass, we are informed that 
 
 " Under the reign of Saint-Louis (1226-'70), French navigators 
 used the magnetized needle, which they kept swimming in a 
 little vase of water, supported by two tubes so as not to sink." 
 
 Riccioli claims for the Northmen from a remote antiquity 
 the use of the magnet in their navigation. He says : 
 
 thirteenth century it is described under the name by which it is at present known. 
 The Arabs may have imported it from China ; but the so-called Greek fire, which was 
 introduced into Greece from China by Callinichus, architect of Heliopolis, in the 
 year 673, was nothing else than gunpowder, which was thrown in the form of 
 fusees and explosive shells. The Roman fireworks, which began to be used in 
 theatrical representations about the end of the third century, were also of Chinese 
 origin. Records of that wonderful people carry back the use of gunpowder to a very 
 high antiquity. 
 
40 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 " In the seventh century, the navigators of the Baltic and of 
 the German Ocean, instead of a needle, used a triangular piece of 
 iron wire, which swam in a small vessel of water, and the use of 
 this instrument was considered among them to be of great an 
 tiquity (valde antiquus)" 
 
 It is remarkable that the compass which Yasco de Gama 
 found in use among the pilots of the Indian Ocean was similar 
 to this of the Northmen, only, instead of being of iron wire, it was 
 a simple iron plate magnetized, supported on the surface of a 
 vase of water in the same way. This we learn from the Cicero 
 of Portugal, Bishop Osorio, who, about the middle of the six 
 teenth century, wrote a great work, " De rebus Emmanuelis vir- 
 tute et auspicio gestis " (" The Golden Age in Portugal "). 
 
 After the learned authorities, it is pleasant to turn to a 
 professor of the gay science, and to find the minstrel as good a 
 witness as the mathematician. Gauthier d'Espinois commences 
 one of his ballads with this simile : 
 
 " As ever the magnet inclines 
 
 The needle, when the charm's once wrought : 
 So who my lady's beauty divines, 
 He too's irretrievably caught." 
 
 Gauthier was a friend of Thibaut IV., King of Navarre 
 (1205-' 5 3), who, besides being a renowned warrior and Crusader, 
 also cultivated literature and poetry, and left at his death a 
 number of ballads, more than sixty of which are still preserved. 
 
 The poem of Gauthier' s reminds us of a more ancient idyl, 
 from the pen of Claudian, the last of the line of classical poets, 
 in whom appeared once more, before its final extinction amid the 
 decay and ruins of the Latin Empire, the genius of Horace and 
 Yirgil. Claudian had the misfortune to be court-poet to a roi 
 faineant, Honorius ; a reign made memorable by the sack and 
 pillage of Rome by the Goth Alaric in the year 409. The poem 
 which we borrow from Claudian, offers an ingenious allusion to 
 the loves of Mars and Yenus, founded on 
 
 THE MAGNET. 
 
 " thou, with anxious mind worming out the secrets of Nature, 
 Seeking to unravel her mysteries : 
 
 How the moon wanes and increases, what power eclipses the sun : 
 Who wouldst search out the cavern of the winds. 
 
THE MAGNET. 4 
 
 And what convulses the bowels of the earth : 
 
 Thou wouldst know who sends the cloud with the lightning-flash, 
 
 And speaks in the solemn responding peal, 
 
 And what light determines the colors of Iris. 
 
 If thy understanding grasp the truth, inform me also, 
 
 For I hmg to resolve these problems. 
 
 A stone there is by the name of Magnet, 
 
 Colorless, unattractive, despised ; 
 
 Its lot is not to adorn the hair of the Caesars, 
 
 Or the alabaster throat of the virgin, 
 
 Nor does it set off" as a clasp the warrior's tunic : 
 
 Yet the powers of this dark stone are prized above the fairest gems, 
 
 And whatever the Indian fisherman may produce 
 
 Of Oriental pearls, it will surpass. 
 
 That stone it lives ! but to iron it owes its life, 
 
 And by the unbending bar it is fed : 
 
 Iron is its nourishment, its stimulus, its banquet ; 
 
 It renews through iron its exhausted strength ; 
 
 This rude aliment animates its members 
 
 And long preserves a latent vigor. 
 
 The iron absent, the magnet languishes, 
 
 Sadly numbed with hunger it succumbs, 
 
 And thirst dries up its opened veins. 
 
 " Mars, with blood-stained lance chastising cities 
 Venus, who resolves the miseries of mortals by her tender gifts, 
 Have in common the sanctuary of a golden temple. 
 The divinities have not the same image : 
 Mars appears in the glistening iron, 
 The loving-stone represents the Cyprian goddess. 
 The priest with the accustomed rites celebrates their union 
 The torches light the dance, myrtle crowns the temple-gate, 
 The nuptial purple veils the lovers' couch ; 
 Then appears a prodigy unheard of: 
 Venus of her own force ravishes her spouse. 
 Recalling the bonds of which the gods were witnesses, 
 Her voluptuous breathing attracts the limbs of Mars : 
 Around the helmet of the God her arms are clasped, 
 And with live chains she holds him captive. 
 She sustains his weight while he, 
 Excited by the amatory impulse of her breath, 
 Allows himself to be ensnared with bands invisible. 
 At the Hymen, Nature herself presides. 
 A tenacious breath is the marriage-bond ; 
 Their stolen bliss with joy the gods renew. 
 "What secret heat constrains the sympathetic metals? 
 What inspires the mutual penchant under their rude exterior? 
 
42 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 The loving-stone glows and betrays a conscious trouble 
 
 In the presence of the friendly steel : 
 
 Which, in turn, learns the lesson of a placid love. 
 
 Thus, with a look does Venus soften and arrest her bosom's lord, 
 
 When, heated with blood and brandishing naked steel, 
 
 He urges his fierce coursers and whets their rage. 
 
 Alone, she encounters them : she stills his raging heart, 
 
 She tempers its fury with a milder flame. 
 
 Peace is restored to his soul. Murderous fights 
 
 He forgets. The blood-red crest is seen to stoop for a kiss! 
 
 O Love, thou cruel boy ! What sway is not allowed thee ? 
 
 Thou art indifferent to the thunder-bolt of Jove. 
 
 The Thunderer himself, attacked by thee, is fain to quit 
 
 Olympus, and amid the waves bellows as a bull. 
 
 Thy arrows pierce the frozen crag, and forms inanimate : 
 
 Rocks feel thy darts. A secret ardor consumes the loadstone 
 
 Whose blandishments the hardened steel cannot resist. 
 
 Thy flames prevail against the heart of marble." 
 
 This notion of the attraction of Love lias given its name to the 
 magnet in many languages. Chin-Tsang-ki, the author of a 
 Chinese .Natural History, under the title of " Pent-tzou-chi-hy," 
 written twelve hundred years ago, says of the loadstone : 
 
 "It attracts iron as a tender mother attracts her 
 Children by love. Hence its name Tsu-chy (loving-stone). " 
 
 This name has also been adopted by the Japanese from the 
 Chinese. 
 
 In the ancient language of the Hindoos, the Sanscrit, which has 
 been a dead language now some twenty-two hundred years, the 
 magnet was called ' tkoumbdka, the kisser, also ay askant aman'i, 
 the precious stone beloved of iron. These names remain in the 
 modern Indian tongues, Hindoostani, Bengali, etc., and in Sin 
 ghalese, the loving-stone. 
 
 In some of the European languages also the sentiment is found. 
 The French call it the aimant, the loving one. In Spanish and 
 Portuguese it is iman, equivalent to amante, the lover. The inti 
 mate connection for eight hundred years with Asia accounts for 
 the prevalence of Oriental ideas and of Oriental names in the 
 Peninsula. 
 
 In colder latitudes and among more roving populations, utility 
 and hardy activity displace the tender and soft. In Dutch and 
 Swedish it is known as the sailing-stone (zeilsteen, and segel steri). 
 
THE MAGNET. 43 
 
 In the British Islands, it is the leading, directing, drawing stone. 
 This last is the sense of the Irish tarrangart, the drawer, and 
 of the Welsh tywysfwn, the conductor : while the English load 
 stone corresponds with the notion of the loadstar that leads or 
 guides in the heavens. In Icelandic, the identical sense, the con 
 ducting or leader stone (leider-stein}. Bat we have seen Brunetto 
 Latini give it in his Romance language, the name of calamite, 
 by which it is at present best known in Italy and the Levant 
 (It. calamity Gr. Kd^a^lra). This name is supposed to refer to 
 the primitive way of suspending the needle on reeds so as to float 
 on the surface in a vase of water. Kalamis, in Greek, signifies a 
 reed, and Tcalamites a dweller among reeds, and this was the name 
 of a very green little frog whose name and address were thus con 
 tained in one word. The word calamite in the Eomance language 
 preserved the sense of green frog, and was applied to the magnet 
 ized needle from its supposed resemblance to the frog floating on 
 reeds. Hugo Bertius, who lived in the reign of Saint-Louis, 
 King of France, gives a graphic account of this frog-like appa 
 ratus. The Hebrew term Icalamitah for this stone may, however, 
 have the priority of age. It is not found in the Bible, but its 
 near congener, chalamish, is found Deut. viii. 15, and xxxii. 13, 
 and Psalm cxiv. 8. In the last-cited text it seems to have the 
 sense of a cut or sharpened stone. The Talmud calls it tJie Stone 
 of Attraction. The ancient Hebrew prayers contain allusions to 
 the magnet under the name of Kalamitah, and also of Magnis. 
 The latter appellation (as magnis, magnes, magnetes, maghnathis, 
 magnet^ magneet, or other terminations to suit the idiom of the 
 people) appears to be almost universal, even where, as in English, 
 it is popularly known by another name. It has no such other 
 name in German, Russian, and Magyar. In Arabic, Turkish, 
 Persian, and kindred languages, every object has a number of 
 names, 23 scientific, popular, and figurative : al-maghnathis is the 
 usual designation in them all of this stone ; one of its other names 
 is the Stone of Devils, and another, the Stone of Attraction. 
 There is no doubt that magnet is a Greek word, probably from its 
 having been found in great abundance in the province of Mag 
 nesia, in Lydia. The ancient name of the capital of Magnesia was 
 Heraclea, or city of Hercules ; hence the magnet was often called 
 
 23 As many as a thousand, five hundred, and, commonly, hundreds. 
 
44 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 Ai&os rjpafckela, rendered in English the stone of Hercules, also 
 Mcvyvrja-ios X/$o? and AvSi/cr) X/$o9, the Magnesian, and the Lydian 
 Stone. According to Nicander, a physician who wrote medicine 
 in verse, about two hundred years before Christ, it was the 
 shepherd Magnes who introduced the stone to the knowledge of 
 mankind, and who gave it his own name. He is said to have 
 made the discovery when, at the head of his flock, he suddenly 
 found himself fastened to the soil by the nails of his sandals and 
 the iron point of his staff. 
 
 There can be little doubt that the Phoenicians made use of 
 the compass in their voyages. Ancient Phoenician coins bear the 
 impress of a vessel, at the prow of which stands a woman (their 
 goddess Astarte) holding in one hand a cross and with the other 
 pointing the way : the cross symbolized the mariner's compass or 
 cross of the ancients, which is thus described by an Arabian writer 
 of the thirteenth century (1242), Boulak Kibdjalick : They 
 take a cup of water, which they shelter from the wind ; they then 
 take a needle, which they fix in a peg of wood or straw, so as to 
 form a cross / they then take the magnes and turn round for 
 some time above the cup, moving from left to right, the needle 
 following ; they then withdraw the magnes, after which the 
 needle stands still and points north and south." 
 
 The cross, then, was a fit emblem or coat-of-arms for a great 
 commercial and maritime people, like the Phoenicians. The com 
 pass was their guide ; they symbolized it by the goddess Astarte, 
 who, with her magnetic cross, indicated to them a path across the 
 pathless waves. 
 
 Hercules was the patron divinity of the Phoenicians. This was 
 also natural ; the magnes, or stone of Hwcules, was indispensable 
 to the mariner, as it was the chief agent in making the compass 
 which was his guide. 
 
 The name given to the magnet by the ancient Egyptians 
 shows that they were acquainted with its two opposite properties 
 of attraction and repulsion. The loadstone was called the bone 
 of Haroeri, and the iron the bone of Typhon. Haroeri was the 
 son of Osiris 24 and of Isis, who conceived him while in the 
 womb of her own mother Khea, so that he was born at the same 
 
 24 In Egypt brother and sister often became man and wife. While in Egypt, 
 Abraham and Isaac gave out that Sarah and Rebecca were not wives, but might at 
 any moment be taken hi marriage by their pretended brothers if not otherwise engaged. 
 
THE MAGNET. 45 
 
 moment with both his parents. Isis was the emblem of the 
 generative and fructifying powers of Nature Haroeri that of 
 the Universal Cause : while Typhon, also a son of Rhea, having 
 destroyed Osiris, the Egyptian Messiah, the benefactor of human 
 ity, became the emblem of Destruction, the ideal of the powers 
 of Nature inimical to man, as among the winds the dread Ty 
 phoon. The crocodile and the scorpion are sacred to Typhon. 
 Considering Nature, in the state of union and decomposition, 
 under the symbol of Haroeri and Typhon, the Egyptian priests 
 seem to have seen an image of these conditions in the action of 
 the loadstone on the iron, according as the stone attracted or 
 repelled the metal. 
 
 Indeed, ample evidence exists that the characteristics of mag 
 netism, and, to some extent, the closely-related phenomena of 
 electricity, were known both to Egyptian priests and to Greek nat 
 uralists. Diogenes Laertius, in his " Lives of the Philosophers ," 
 gives a list of Aristotle's works, among which is a volume on the 
 loadstone, entitled Ilepl r^ Ai&ov a precious contribution to 
 science which has not survived the lamentable destruction of the 
 great Greek libraries. But we have preserved fragments of a 
 work of that truly encyclopedic master, on stones in general 
 their extraction, the mines and the countries that supplied 
 them, their properties, varieties, colors, and their application in 
 the arts and in medicine. In this work, Ilepl r&v AiQwv, Aris 
 totle described no less than seven hundred different kinds of 
 stones, minerals, and metals, the greater part of which were un 
 known even by name to the non-artistic majority of men. "We 
 cite the following passage from this work as a condensed ex 
 position of all that can be said even to this day upon the 
 magnetic forces in the loadstone, upon magnetism by influence 
 or artificial magnets, and especially on the polarity of the 
 magnet : 
 
 " The occult force by which this stone attracts iron, acts even 
 through interposed solid bodies as well as through the air. It 
 has not only an attractive force, but also that of repulsion ; by 
 the one angle it flies from the iron, while with the other face it 
 attracts it. The one face, of itself regards the north, the oppo 
 site one the south. Now, the magnet has the property of infus- 
 
 Cleopatra was the wife of her two brothers successively, Ptolemy XII. and XIII., as 
 well as the mistress of Caesar and of Marc Antony. 
 
46 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 ing these forces into an iron bar which on being applied to the 
 loadstone immediately exercises both attraction and repulsion, 
 and assumes precisely the same direction the one angle regard 
 ing the north, the other the south. If to this iron you apply an 
 other bar, the former will produce the same effects upon the lat 
 ter as the loadstone itself." 
 
 In the work on the Soul, Ilepl "vxf)s, of the same great 
 genius, he reverts to this topic, speaking of the loadstone as 7; 
 \l0rj, the stone, par excellence: 
 
 Se KOLI @a\rj$ e' lov aTTOfjLvrjfjLOvevovo-i, KIVTJTI/COV TI rrjv 
 , elirep TOV \l&ov e<f)rj ^v^]V e%t,v, OTL 
 
 " Now, even Thales seems, according to what has been hand 
 ed down concerning him, to have held that whatever communi 
 cates movement possesses a soul ; ' thus, the stone,' he said. ' has 
 a soul because it sets iron in motion.' ' 
 
 Ancient Chinese topographical works also contain allusions 
 to the minerals of their own and neighboring countries, and de 
 scribe situations where they abound. The "Nan Chouan i wey 
 chi," or " Memoirs on the Phenomena of the Southern Territo 
 ries," relate that 
 
 " On the capes and headlands of the Chang-hai (the southern 
 sea on the coasts of Tonquin and Cochin-china) shallows abound, 
 and a vast amount of magnetic stone, so that the large foreign 
 ships which are fastened with iron plates are attracted as they 
 approach the coast and drawn inshore by the great accumulation 
 of loadstones, and they cannot get past such spots, which are 
 very numerous in the south." 
 
 It is a remarkable coincidence that the greatest of ancient 
 astronomers, Claudius Ptolemy, was aware of this phenomenon 
 in the China seas. In the very detailed enumeration and de 
 scription of the coasts and islands of those waters, contained in 
 the second chapter of the seventh book of his " Geography," he 
 says: 
 
 " 2aTvp(ov vr\croi y a)v TO fiera^v fioipai pod 2B . . . 
 ol Kare^ovre^ ovpas e^euv \eyovrcu, oirolas $iaypd<t>ov(ri ras 
 o-arvpcov. fyepovrai 8e teal aXXat avve^elv Sew ev als <pdcn ra 
 
 25 Ptolemy's zero of longitude was on the meridian of the Fortunate Islands 
 (Canaries), the westernmost land known to him. His localities are identified by data 
 more reliable than his figures, which are often wide of the truth. 
 
THE MAGNET. 47 
 
 7r\oia /tare^ecr^at, /^Trore r?}? rjpaic\eias 
 irepl aura? <yevv(t)fj,vr)s. 8ia TOVTO enriovpoi 
 iv 76 /cal aura? av&pcoTro^dyov? /caXov/jievovs 
 
 " The islands of the satyrs, the centre one of which is 171 
 .... Those who inhabit these isles are fabled to have tails, such 
 as are drawn for satyrs. There are said to be other islands to the 
 number of ten, lying near these, at which ships having iron 
 fastenings are arrested by the stone of Hercules there existing, 
 wherefore ships are put together with treenails. The islands are 
 said to be in the possession of man-eaters called Manioles." 
 
 Centuries earlier, one greater than Ptolemy had made allu 
 sion to this phenomenon. Aristotle, who, accompanying his 
 pupil Alexander the Great in his Asiatic expedition, accumulated 
 vast stores of facts in natural history in the many countries 
 overrun, affirms in the above-mentioned work, Ilepl TWV Al&cw, 
 that 
 
 " On the coasts of the Indian Ocean are masses of magnetic 
 rock. If vessels approach, they lose their nails and iron fasten 
 ings, which are attracted away from the vessels so that the force 
 of cohesion of the wood cannot retain them. On account of 
 these dangers, ships that navigate those seas are not fastened with 
 iron nails, but with nails of soft wood that swell in the water." 
 
 Galen, the great Greek physician, also writing a work on 
 stones, declares : 
 
 " On the coasts of the Indian Ocean the magnet is found in 
 great abundance, so that seamen dare not take their ships in 
 close to the shore if fastened with iron nails, nor must they have 
 any sort of iron- work ; for, on approaching those magnetic cliffs, 
 all the nails and whatever of iron they possess are attracted away 
 by the magnetic force." 
 
 The mention of Galen reminds us of a word upon our theme 
 from another physician, who was also busy with stones, Marcel- 
 lus Empiricus, physician of Theodosius the Great, the last sov 
 ereign of an undivided Eoman Empire. He says : 
 
 "The loadstone, called Antiphyson, attracts and repels 
 iron." 
 
 These words show a familiarity, as early as the fourth cen 
 tury, with the inverse action of the poles of the magnet or the 
 existence of two magnetic fluids. The term Antiphyson admi 
 rably expresses this natural incompatibility. 
 
48 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 St. Ambrose (in the sixth century) gives a narrative of a 
 Theban's voyages in the Indian Ocean. Speaking of the island 
 Taprobana (Ceylon), he says : 
 
 " There are about a thousand other islands called Mannioles, 
 which are subject to the chief of the four kings of Taprobana. 
 In them is found in great abundance the stone called magnes, 
 which attracts the nature of iron by its force : so that, if a ship 
 approach that has iron nails, she is retained there and cannot get 
 farther, by I know not what hinderance, the source of which is 
 in that stone. For this reason wooden nails are exclusively used 
 to fasten ships in that trade." 
 
 The abundance of magnetic rocks and sands in the Eastern 
 seas is noticed in a later age by the Arab geographers. Cherif- 
 Edrisi, who wrote a number of geographical treatises, and con 
 structed a terrestrial globe in silver for King Eoger of Sicily 
 about the middle of the twelfth century, relates of El-Mandeb, 
 at the Red Sea straits called Bab-el-Mandeb (the Mandeb Gate) : 
 
 " It is a mountain surrounded on all sides by the sea, and 
 highest on the southern side. Its direction is northwest, and its 
 length twelve miles. Where it approaches the Abyssinian coast 
 it is broken into islets and reefs of considerable extent, so that 
 that part of the sea is not navigable. In the midst of these reefs 
 and isles, there is a range called Moorookein, not very much ele 
 vated above the level of the sea. It is a continuous mass of 
 magnetic rocks, and no vessel fastened with iron nails may ven 
 ture to pass near it, without risk of being drawn inshore and 
 retained there." 
 
 In his geographical works this author mentions repeatedly 
 the use of the magnet in navigation. A similar account of 
 masses of oxide of iron on the coasts of Arabia and India, is 
 given by Bailak, a native of Kipchak, near Cairo, who wrote also 
 an elaborate and most curious treatise on stones, called " Thesau 
 rus of Merchants for the Knowledge of Stones." He devotes a 
 considerable space to a description of the loadstone, its proper 
 ties and uses in navigation, and it is evident that he is not writ 
 ing of an art newly invented or received, but of an apparatus 
 generally known and used in the Levant. What he says of the 
 use of the magnetic fish, in the Indian seas, goes, with other 
 authorities cited, to show that this was the primitive form of sea- 
 compass all the world over : 
 
THE COMPASS. 49 
 
 " I was an eye-witness, during a voyage from Tripoli in Syria 
 to Alexandria, in the year 640, of the practice of the Syrian pilots 
 in making use of the loadstone. 
 
 " The night was so obscure that no star could be perceived so 
 as to enable the seamen to make out the four cardinal points. 
 But there was a vase filled with water placed in the interior of 
 the ship, on the surface of which floated a needle fixed in a 
 wooden or reedy float in the form of a cross, the needle having 
 first been rubbed with a loadstone just large enough to fill the 
 palm of the hand, or smaller. The needle thus magnetized, by 
 its two points looks north and south. Navigators in the Indian 
 Ocean, instead of the needle and its reed or wooden float, as with 
 us, make use of a magnetic iron fish, hollow, and so constructed 
 that when it is thrown into the water it swims, and it indicates by 
 its head and tail the two points south and north. The expla 
 nation of the fish floating, though of iron, is this : that all metallic 
 bodies, even the hardest and heaviest, when made into hollow 
 vessels, displace a larger quantity of water than their weight, and 
 not only swim on the surface, but can carry a weight as a coun 
 terpoise to the water displaced." 5 
 
 Bailak reminds us of a very common school experiment in 
 physics. After having exhibited the needle fixed on a pivot, 
 the operator places it on a disk of cork floating in a vase of water. 
 The disk is observed to turn slowly round and stop exactly when 
 the needle acquires the identical direction it had when on the 
 pivot. In this experiment it is an important point that the disk 
 turns only, in one sense or the other ; it does not advance either 
 toward the north or the south, whence the conclusion is that the 
 force acting on the needle is in reality not attractive but simply 
 directing. 
 
 The iron fish recalls the notion of the old Provencal and Le 
 vant sailors before mentioned, of a green frog, in their name of 
 the instrument, calamite, a notion beyond all doubt of Oriental 
 origin : the creature is known to the Burmese navigators as the 
 lizard. 
 
 The names by which the case or instrument containing the 
 needle is known, generally express the simple notion of a box or 
 inclosure. In the northern languages English, Dutch, Ger- 
 
 26 It is a pity Bailak did not let us know whether this principle, so clearly enunciated, 
 had been utilized in the construction of iron ships, in his day. 
 
50 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 man 5 Kussian, and the Scandinavian dialects there is but one 
 word, compass, or kompast, signifying the encompassing 'or 
 inclosing thing. The box is more distinctly expressed by the 
 Italian name bussola, equivalent to the modern word ~bossolo, a 
 box, whence, in Portuguese and Polish, ~bussola, and in French 
 loussole, and modern Greek mpousoulas. There is also in 
 Arabic a word applied to the compass one of its numerous 
 names in that language very much resembling in sound the 
 Italian name ; it is moossaleh, and in Arabic the initial m has 
 frequently a cold in the head, and is pronounced /b" This Arabic 
 word signifies a dart or point, which seems artistic and charac 
 teristic of the instrument, while the notion of a box would rep 
 resent the rude appreciation of a person ignorant of the essential 
 contents. It is possible that bussola is derived from the Arabic 
 word, and may not have been suggested by the low Latin ~buxis 
 or any other word signifying box. 
 
 It is also possible that the word originated in the Arabic 
 name for the ocean. Edrisi (El Edressi), an Arabian writer on 
 geography, of the twelfth century, says : 
 
 " The outer ocean, that in which the compass was necessary, 
 is called El Bahar el Bossul, the violent (boussale is the present 
 name for the compass), as distinguished from El Bahar El Muit." 
 
 The Italians or Amalfitans in their trade with the Saracens 
 must have become in a measure acquainted with the language of 
 the Arabs, hence perhaps the word bussola was first applied, in 
 Italian, to the compass. 
 
 The popular name of the compass in the Turkish marine is 
 pousola. But its most accepted designation in Arabic and in 
 the kindred dialects, the Turkish and Persian, is Tdbleh ndmeh, 
 signifying mirror of the south, and kibleh numd, indicator of 
 the south. Most likely this denomination came from the Chinese, 
 who hold that the magnetic needle points to the south, and call 
 it chi nan, indicator of the south. The south is most in honor 
 throughout Asia. In China the throne is always turned toward 
 the south, as is the principal facade of all public buildings. The 
 south is considered the front, the north the back, of the world. 
 The piety of the Mussulman supports this opinion. He turns 
 his face, in saying his prayers, toward the temple of Mecca, which 
 is, in general, situated southward from Mohammedan countries. 
 
 27 E. g., Mahomet, often pronounced Baphomet. 
 
THE COMPASS. 51 
 
 The Arab word Jcibleh, therefore, signifying that which should be 
 in front, or facing us, is applied to the southern part of the 
 heavens, means south, and to the southward. Perfectly synony 
 mous with it, is the Chinese word thsian, which is used in both 
 acceptations. 
 
 We have seen that, in the days of Boger Bacon, the use of the 
 compass was one of the arts supposed to have some connection 
 with an infernal agency. We have not, however, found in the 
 languages of Europe, which we have mentioned, 28 this idea of 
 necromancy expressed in the popular name of the instrument. 
 The Spanish alone has this merit. In that language, the name 
 by which the compass is known, is not allied with, or derived 
 from, its name in any other tongue : it conveys distinctly the 
 notion of sorcery or divination. Brujo means a man in pact 
 with the Evil One, a sorcerer. The verb brujulear is, to prac 
 tise divination. Brujula is the compass. Those who gave it 
 this name evidently considered it, in some degree, of preter 
 natural and magical origin ; hence we find the Spanish pilots 
 avoid the general term compass, brujula, preferring the more 
 specific and technical needle, la aguja. On the other hand, 
 among the followers of the Prophet, the compass is an essential 
 part of the material of devotion. The pious Mussulman in 
 prayer, as we have said, turns his face toward the temple of 
 Mecca, and carries the compass about him habitually with this 
 purpose. 
 
 In the writings of the Arabs, and of the Chinese from a very 
 early date, traces abound of their acquaintance with the variation 
 of the compass, though the discovery is one of the reputed glo 
 ries of Columbus, founded on an entry in the journal of his first 
 voyage under date of September 17, 1492. But, if he under 
 stood the phenomenon, he has not done himself justice, since 
 the journal records his conviction that the star had shifted, 
 not the needles. Fournier, on the other hand, in his " Hydro 
 graphy " (chapter x., of book xi.), attributes the earliest record 
 of the needle's declination to Sebastian Cabot. We feel no 
 doubt, however, that the pilots both of England and the Penin 
 sula had made the observation before the days of Columbus and 
 
 28 Guyot de Provins calls it Amani&re in the poem already cited. This was proba 
 bly a modification of Aimant. It was afterward known as la Mariniere,no doubt on 
 account of the services it renders mariners. 
 
52 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 Cabot. The publication of his journal has given Columbus the 
 preeminence in the European roll of fame. 
 
 But Kow-tsung-chy, author of a work of great erudition, a 
 medico-natural history, given to the world about the year 1110 
 of our era, gives the following notice of the loadstone, and of the 
 polarity and the declination of the magnetic needle : 
 
 " It is covered with small slightly-reddish spots, and its sur 
 face is studded with rough points. It attracts iron and adheres 
 to it, and on that account is called The stone that sniffs the iron. 
 When rubbed with the loadstone, an iron - pointed instrument 
 acquires the property of pointing to the south not, however, 
 absolutely due south, declining always toward the east. This 
 needle, on being passed through a reed so as to float on the sur 
 face of water, turns to the south, but always with a declination 
 toward the point Ping," (that is, east 5 6' south) " which is the 
 great central fire." 
 
 The Chinese, who regard the south as the principal pole, speak 
 of the declination of the magnetic needle at Peking as pretty 
 constantly 2 to 2 30' east, while European observers, reckoning 
 from the opposite pole of the needle, would call it west declina 
 tion. Nevertheless, the Chinese have not always taken into ac 
 count in their public works this variation of the compass. Thus, 
 the east and west walls of Peking, constructed under the second 
 emperor of the dynasty of Ming, are not due north and south, 
 but decline 2 30' from south to east. Hence it is evident that 
 the walls were oriented by the compass without allowing for dec 
 lination of the magnetic needle. 
 
 Nothing is more curious than the accidental vestiges, like so 
 many fossil traces, of the practical arts which are supposed to 
 be of modern and European invention, among the oldest records 
 of Central Asia often in the midst of poetic fictions and the ex 
 travagances of Eastern mythologies. In the earliest chapters of 
 Chinese annals, the magnet, its attractive force, its polarity, its 
 application, are thus revealed as the property of the various Tar 
 tar tribes in wandering over the trackless steppe. At the head of 
 the caravan went a car, on the box of which stood the figure of a 
 presiding genius, whose right arm, outstretched, contained a mag 
 net. However the car turned and returned, the hand of the gen 
 ius pointed ever to the south. Modern Chinese history attributes 
 the invention of this magnetic car to the great Emperor Wang- 
 
MAGNETIC CAR. 
 
 53 
 
 ti, who reigned about 2,700 years before Christ. But the pas 
 sage in the Wai-ki, the most ancient chronicle, cited as the 
 record of the invention by Wang-ti, has nothing to show that it 
 was then first invented, or that it had not previously been a well- 
 known resource of travelers. The chronicle sets forth simply 
 that Wang-ti, in a campaign against a formidable pretender to 
 the throne, at a time when the fogs were so dense as to throw 
 his troops into disorder, had such cars made in order that his 
 army might distinguish the four quarters, or cardinal points, so 
 that each division might occupy its proper position. This inter- 
 
 CHINESE MAGNETIC CAB. 
 
 esting passage of the Wai-ki is cited in the " Tung-Kian-Kang- 
 Mou," or " Grand Annals of China," which also borrows from an 
 other ancient chronicle an account of a diplomatic mission from 
 the Yue-chang-Chi. a nation occupying a part of the peninsula 
 of Malacca, to the Emperor Ching-Wang, 1,110 years before 
 Christ. 
 
 " The Yue-Chang-Chi, who are to the south of Kiao-Chi " 
 (Anam), " sent three envoys, separately, with presents to the em 
 peror, of white pheasants. They sent word, at the same time 
 that as the distance was very great, and the country intersected 
 
54 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 with lofty mountains and deep rivers, a single envoy might not 
 reach the court, and that they judged it best to send three. 
 
 " Chiou-Kung (uncle and prime-minister of the emperor) re 
 ceived the envoys and said : 'If the benefits of our prince's vir 
 tue had not been widely diffused, he would not have received 
 this homage ; if his mode of government and his laws were not 
 known and approved everywhere, our prince would not have 
 counted these nations among his vassals.' The envoys declared 
 the motive of their mission : ' The senate and the white-haired 
 old men of our country have come to the conclusion that, as 
 during three years, Heaven had sent neither furious winds nor 
 protracted rains ; that, as there had been no convulsions inland 
 or inroads of the sea, a holy person must have appeared in the 
 Central Kingdom (China). Hence they send us, to present the 
 homage of our people.' 
 
 " Chiou-Kung then conducted them to the temple of the an 
 cestors of the imperial family, and offered a solemn sacrifice be 
 fore the images of the ancient kings. The embassy, on return 
 ing to their own country, missed their way, whereupon Chiou- 
 Kung presented them with five traveling-cars, constructed to 
 show the south. The envoys of the Yue-Chang-Chi, traveling 
 by these cars, reached safely the sea-coast, which they followed as 
 far as the kingdoms of Fou-nan and Lin-y" (Gulf of Bengal), 
 " and reached home the year following. The cars which showed 
 the south were always driven in advance to show the way to 
 the company behind, and to let them know the position of the 
 four cardinal points." 
 
 "We also read that, when the emperor went out in state, the 
 procession was always headed by the magnetic car, which was 
 driven by the emperor's master of the horse. To familiarize 
 the people with the four cardinal points was considered one of 
 the most important ends of state progress ; and magnetic cars 
 were officially distributed to governors of provinces and the 
 great nobles. 
 
 But the magnetic car for long journeys was provided with 
 another ingenious contrivance destined to measure and report 
 the distance traversed. By a sort of clock-work set in motion 
 by the wheels of the car, at the end of every league a figure of a 
 man in wood, with, a wooden mallet, was made to start out and 
 give a smart tap on a drum, and a wheel made one revolution. 
 
CHINESE EEOOEDS DESTKOYED. 55 
 
 At the tenth revolution, another wooden manikin overhead rang 
 a bell. 
 
 Unhappily, in the year 223 before Christ, the Emperor Chi- 
 Wang-ti ordered all the historical monuments of legislation and 
 of the government and progress of the country to be collected 
 and burnt, with the view, not only of abolishing the ancient laws 
 and constitution, but of extinguishing the very memory of the 
 past. The application of this decree seems to have extended 
 beyond the writings to their authors and students for we find 
 that no less than five hundred men of letters who had concealed 
 themselves in the mountains were hunted out, and condemned, 
 together with their libraries and papers, to the flames. 
 
 The mischief was to a certain degree retrieved by this barba 
 rian's successor, who had all the books that had escaped the 
 flames carefully sought out, and surviving traditions committed 
 to writing. The works of Confucius (Kung-tze), and other re 
 puted sacred books, were recovered ; but alas ! the destruction 
 of records of art and science had been but too successful. Espe 
 cially scanty are the records of navigation. There are, however, 
 preserved allusions to voyages to the mouths of the Indus, in 
 which the vessels are said to have been directed by the magnetic 
 needle pointing to the south. The " You Kio Kou zu Kioung- 
 lin," or, " The Garden of Red Jasper for Youth to rejoice 
 in the Treasures of Antiquity," a sort of cyclopaedia, attributes 
 to Choo-Kung, who lived 1,100 years before our era, the con 
 struction of both magnetic cars and compasses. And the 
 " Grand Annals of China," entitled " Tung Kian Kang-mou," in 
 relating the wars of the great Emperor Wang-ti, already men 
 tioned, cite ancient authorities with which we are unacquainted, 
 to the effect that during his reign the compass, of which the 
 needle pointed to the south and the north, was in use, and that 
 by means of its indications of the quarters of the heavens, build 
 ings were oriented, and merchants and travelers performed their 
 journeys. These are the sole passages in which the use of the 
 compass as such is expressly mentioned .as in use at that remote 
 period, though it could not be doubted that, once the polarity of 
 the magnet known, as has been shown by the example of the 
 magnetic car, so ingenious a people would not fail in mechanical 
 appliances suited to the special circumstances and requirements 
 of each class of the community. Indeed, the magnetic rod in 
 
56 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 the arm of a wooden figure was in all probability an elaboration 
 of an original mechanism, which must have been simpler and on 
 a smaller scale, as in the form of a magnetized needle made to 
 float on water or to move freely on a pivot. There is, then, 
 every reason to believe that the use of the compass in China is 
 of an antiquity more remote than the reign of Wang-ti, which, 
 as we have said, was about 2,700 years before the Christian era. 
 
 The instrument chiefly in use at that early period appears 
 to have been the water-compass, which we have already seen 
 in use by the Northmen and the Arabs. In a vase filled with 
 water the needle was made to float, supported by two reeds. 
 
 The following passage, from a curious and voluminous collec 
 tion of facts and observations, of manners and usages, in North 
 and East Tartary, by Nicolaes "Witsen, the celebrated Burgo 
 master of Amsterdam, published about the middle of the last 
 century, shows that, down to a comparatively recent period, 
 the compass of this primitive type universal was still in use in 
 the Chinese waters. This extract, which has other statements 
 fitted to arrest attention, forms part of a chapter on the penin 
 sula of the Corea, the land forming the east coast of the great 
 inland water called the Yellow Sea, on the northwestern part of 
 which is the Gulf of Pe-che-li and the mouth of the Pei-ho, on 
 whose banks stands Peking : 
 
 " Het Buskruit, zoo wel als den Druk, is van voor duizend 
 jaer by hen, zoo zy zeggen, bekent geweest ; gelijk als mede 
 het compas, hoewel van andere gadaente als hier te lande, want 
 zy bedienen zich slechts van een klein houtje voor scherp en 
 achter stomp, 't geen in een tobbe waters werd geworpen, en dus 
 met de scherpe punt Zuyden wyst ; na alien schyn zal daer bin- 
 nen de Magnetische kracht verborgen zyn. Acht streeken winds 
 weten zy te onderscheiden. De compassen zyn ook van twee 
 houtjes, kruiswys over malkander gelegt, daervan een der ein- 
 den 't geen Zuyden wyst wat vooruit stecht." 
 
 " Gunpowder and printing have been known to them, so they 
 say, above a thousand years : the same of the compass, though 
 of a somewhat different form to ours. They use only a small 
 bit of wood, sharp in front and blunt behind ; this is placed in a 
 tub of water, and the sharp point points to the south, in all 
 probability from the magnetic force concealed therein. They dis 
 tinguish eight points or rhumbs of winds. They have also com- 
 
CHINESE COMPASS. 57 
 
 passes composed of two pieces of wood laid over each other cross 
 wise, of which one of the ends which shows the south projects." 
 
 But the compass without water, in which the magnetic needle 
 rest on a pivot, is also very ancient in China. The needle rarely 
 exceeds an inch in length and not a line in thickness. It is sus 
 pended with extreme delicacy and is singularly sensitive, that is, 
 it appears to move with the slightest movement of the box to 
 east or west, although in fact the magnet and the perfection 
 of the mechanism which contains it, consist in this, that the 
 needle is deprived of all movement, and remains constantly di- 
 re'cted to the same point of the heavens, whatever be the ra 
 pidity with which the box of the compass may be turned, or the 
 other objects which surround it. This regularity of their com 
 pass is the result of a Chinese invention. A band of thin cop 
 per is placed about the centre of the needle and fixed by the 
 edges' on the outside of a small hemispheric cup, reversed, of the 
 same metal. This cup admits a pivot of steel, which comes from 
 a cavity made in a circular bit of cork or very light wood, which 
 forms the box of the compass. The surface of the cup and that 
 of the pivot are perfectly polished, so as to avoid any sort of fric 
 tion. The edges of the cup are proportionably large, adding to 
 its weight, and act so that the cup tends to preserve the centre 
 of gravity in any and every situation of the compass. The cavity 
 in which the needle is thus suspended has a circular form, and 
 is only just sufficient to take the needle with the cup and pivot. 
 Over the cavity there is a thin piece of transparent talc, which 
 prevents the needle being affected by the outer air, while per 
 mitting the observation of its slightest movement. 
 
 The small needle of the Chinese compass has a great advan 
 tage-over those w r hich are used in Europe, with respect to the in 
 clination toward the horizon, which in the European compasses re 
 quires that one end should be heavier than the other to counter 
 balance the magnetic attraction. But this inclination differing 
 in different parts of the world, the needle can be absolutely cor 
 rect only in the place where the instrument was constructed. 
 In the short and light needles suspended in the fashion of the 
 Chinese, the weight which is below the point of suspension is 
 more than sufficient to overcome the magnetic force of the in 
 clination in every part of the globe. Thus these needles never 
 have any deviation in their horizontal position. 
 
58 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 The Chinese compass is, apart from the magnetic needle, 
 quite a work of art, representing a highly-elaborated system of 
 physics and astrology. In this sketch we can do no more than 
 give a rough notion of it; to enter into detailed explanation 
 would unduly tax the interest of our readers in Chinese habits 
 of thought and their antique learning, which however, at present 
 remote, will soon become one of the most interesting inquiries, 
 especially in A m erica, whither the magnetic charm of political 
 equality and personal freedom, together with the bounteous gifts 
 of Nature, attract an exodus from every clime, of the stamina and 
 the hope of the nations. 
 
 The surface of the compass, outside the space in which the 
 needle performs its function, is divided into a great number of 
 concentric divisions, which are intersected by an infinity of lines 
 in a direction from the centre to the circumference. The inner 
 circle contains the characters of the eight principal points, repre 
 sented by animals, as in the signs of the zodiac. The second has 
 four-and-twenty compartments, representing the four-and-twenty 
 winds. In the third and fourth circles, the same number of com 
 partments, with inscriptions having a moral and mystical import. 
 The fifth contains seventy-two compartments, twelve of which 
 remaining blank, the other sixty are filled with combinations of 
 the two cycles of twelve and of six. As a specimen of the whole, 
 we will give one of the series of cyclical signs : 
 
 Ou, 
 
 
 the 
 
 Horse 
 
 =. 
 
 South. 
 
 
 Wei, 
 
 a 
 
 Sheep 
 
 = 
 
 S.^W. 
 
 
 Chin, 
 
 u 
 
 Ape 
 
 
 
 S. |W. 
 
 Yeou, 
 
 
 u 
 
 Hen 
 
 = 
 
 West. 
 
 
 Siu, 
 
 a 
 
 Dog 
 
 = 
 
 W.iN. 
 
 
 Jlai, 
 
 a 
 
 Pig 
 
 = 
 
 W.f K 
 
 Tsu, 
 
 
 u 
 
 Eat 
 
 =: 
 
 North. 
 
 
 Tcheou, 
 
 M 
 
 Ox 
 
 
 
 N. E. 
 
 
 In, 
 
 
 
 Tiger 
 
 = 
 
 N.f E. 
 
 Mao, 
 
 
 
 
 Hare 
 
 
 
 East. 
 
 
 Chin, 
 
 it 
 
 Dragon 
 
 = 
 
 E.S. 
 
 
 Szu, 
 
 u 
 
 Serpent 
 
 = 
 
 E.-IS. 
 
 The sixth circle contains one hundred and twenty compart 
 ments. The seventh, again, only twenty-four. The eighth con 
 tains the sixty combinations before mentioned, with some slight 
 
CHINESE COMPASS. 59 
 
 variation. The ninth, tenth, and eleventh, are modified repe 
 titions of the preceding. The twelfth circle contains, in sixty 
 combinations, the names twelve times repeated of the five Chi 
 nese elements, combined with the five divisions of the year, the 
 five regions of the world, and the five principal colors. Thus : 
 
 Moo, "Wood, Spring, East, Green. 
 
 Ho, Fire, Summer, South, Ked. 
 
 Too, Earth, Mid-year, Midst, Yellow. 
 
 Kin, Metal, Autumn, West, White. 
 
 Chooi, Water, Winter, North, Black. 
 
 The thirtieth circle contains the three hundred and sixty 
 degrees of the twenty-eight celestial palaces (or the zodiac), con 
 tained in the fifteenth circle. 
 
 The fourteenth contains the symbols of the foregoing. 
 
 The fifteenth circle contains the twenty-eight palaces of the 
 Chinese ecliptic, which are : 
 
 In the South : 
 
 1. Tsing, the Well, containing less than 30 degrees. 
 
 2. Kouei, " Evil Genius, containing 2 " 
 
 3. Lieo, " Willow " 13 " 
 
 4. Sing, " Star, containing more than 6 " 
 
 5. Chang, " Bended Bow, " 17 
 
 6. T, " Light, containing less than 20 " 
 Y. Thin, Motion, " ' more " 18 " 
 
 In the West : 
 
 8. Khouei, the Seat [corporeal], containing 18 degrees. 
 
 9. Leoo, " Yacuum, more than 12 " 
 
 10. Wei, " Stomach, containing 15 " 
 
 11. Mao, " Pleiades, 11 " 
 
 12. Py, End, 16J- " 
 
 13. Tse, " Beak, 3J- " 
 
 14. Tzan, " Addition, " 9^ " 
 
 In the North : 
 
 15. Teoo, the Bushel, containing more than 22 degrees. 
 
 16. Neoo, " Ox, " T " 
 
 17. Neu, " Woman, " 11 " 
 
60 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 18. JJeUj " Vanity, containing less than 9 " 
 
 19. Ouei, " Danger, 16 " 
 
 20. Chy, " Edifice, " less than 18 
 
 21. Py, " Wall, " more than 9 
 
 22. Rio, the Horn, containing more than 12 degrees. 
 
 23. Rang, " Neck, " 9 
 
 24. 2% " Origin, " less than 16 " 
 
 25. F<mg, " House, " more than 5 " 
 
 26. Sin, " Heart, " 6 
 
 27. TF&, " Tail, " 18 
 
 28. J3, " Sieve, 9J- u 
 
 Such, then, was the knowledge possessed in the earliest ages 
 of what is generally termed a comparatively modern invention ; 
 such were the facilities possessed by the ancients for making 
 long voyages, for* crossing the wide ocean. "We see no reason to 
 doubt, therefore, that they were as eminent in navigation as 
 history allows them to have been in other arts. The astrolabe, 
 somewhat similar in construction to the armillary sphere, but 
 more simple, found favor with the astrologers of the East in their 
 observations of the stars ; as early as 1 50 B. c. we find it used 
 by the Egyptian astronomer Hipparchus. 
 
 Thus far we have shown a few of the, many " great modern 
 inventions " which were undoubtedly known to the ancients, 39 
 and may we not justly infer that others were equally well known 
 which are not mentioned in the writings which have reached us, 
 or mention of which has been misconstrued. Does not the wise 
 and ancient author of the book of Job accurately describe the 
 art of printing in the exclamation : " O that mine adversary had 
 written a book ! . . . O that my words were now written ! O 
 that they were printed in a book ! That they were graven with 
 an iron pen and lead in the rock forever ! " 
 
 Here are allusions to the arts of writing, printing, lithog 
 raphy, stereotyping, and book -making, of which Bilclad the 
 
 29 Diodorus especially admires, among the many arts and inventions of the Egyp 
 tians, their mode of rearing poultry by artificial heat ; his minute description of the 
 process would enable any ordinary mechanic to proceed on the same principle ; yet 
 the " invention of rearing poultry by artificial means " has been patented in our day ? 
 and extolled as one of the great proofs of progress in human intelligence. 
 
PRINTING TELEGRAPHING. 61 
 
 Shuliite asks no explanation ; we may therefore infer that Job 
 was speaking of matters well understood. 80 
 
 Addison tells us that Strada," " in one of his prolusions, gives 
 an account of a chimerical correspondence between two friends 
 by the help of a certain loadstone which had such virtue in it 
 that, if it touched two several needles, when one of the needles so 
 touched began to move, the other, though at never so great a dis 
 tance, moved at the same time, and in the same manner. 
 
 " He tells us that the two friends, being each of them pos 
 sessed of one of these needles, made a kind of dial-plate, inscrib 
 ing it with the four-and-twenty letters, in the same manner as 
 the hours of the day are marked upon the ordinary dial-plate. 
 They then fixed one of the needles on each of these plates in 
 such a manner that it could move round without impediment, so 
 as to touch any of the four-and-twenty letters. Upon their sepa 
 rating from one another into different countries, they agreed to 
 withdraw themselves punctually into their closets at a certain 
 hour of the day, and to converse with one another by means of 
 their invention. 
 
 " Accordingly, when they were some hundred miles asunder, 
 each of them shut himself up in his closet at the time appointed, 
 and immediately cast his eye upon the dial-plate. If he had a 
 mind to write any thing to his friend, he directed his needle to 
 every letter that formed the words which he had occasion for, 
 making a little pause at the end of every word or sentence, to 
 avoid confusion. The friend, in the mean while, saw his own 
 sympathic needle moving of itself to every letter which that of 
 his correspondent pointed at. By this means they talked to 
 gether across the whole continent, and conveyed their thoughts 
 to one another in an instant, over cities or mountains, seas or 
 deserts." 
 
 Allowing for slight incongruities and possible exaggerations 
 of one who, ignorant of the real nature of electricity, confounded 
 the properties of this phenomenon with those of the loadstone, 
 this anecdote embodies the whole system of telegraphing with 
 a dial- plate as it is now practised in some European countries. 
 It is far from improbable that friends in very early times may 
 
 30 Job seems, moreover, to have a realizing sense of the awful advantages possessed 
 by a reviewer over the unfortunate enemy who should have written a book, 
 
 31 A writer of the sixteenth century. 
 
62 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 have used electricity (the existence of which was known in the 
 time of Thales) as a means of correspondence, and that electric tele 
 graphing was known, if not universally, at least to the learned. 
 Yet, to this century is generally unhesitatingly ascribed the hon 
 or of discovering it. 
 
 We might multiply conjectures, and enumerate many intima 
 tions we possess some vague and shadowy, others amounting 
 almost to certainty that the discoveries in science which we 
 boast of as modern, are only rediscoveries or revivals of quasi 
 forgotten knowledge of the ancients ; though, owing to the de 
 struction which time and the vandalism of man have effected, 
 proofs may never be sufficient to place this question beyond 
 doubt. 
 
 But, however hotly the scientific knowledge of the ancients 
 may be contested, there is one field of learning in which they 
 are avowedly unsurpassed, nay, un equaled this is the wide 
 field of literature. 
 
 No modern lyric is more rich in metaphor or passionate in lan 
 guage than the Song of Solomon ; no poet has been more inspired 
 by the majesty of the Supreme Being, the beauties of the earth, 
 and the grandeur of the heavens ; none has more pathetically 
 described grief, or more nobly the duties of the righteous man in 
 prosperity or adversity, than he who wrote the wonderful book 
 of Job. The Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, in their adaptation to 
 the wants of our own age, prove that, in the weakness and wis 
 dom of human nature, at least, there is no new thing under the 
 sun. 
 
 The poems of Homer, even translated into a less musical and 
 perfect language, thrill the heart to hear, and fire the soul of 
 many a school-boy with his first admiration for great and noble 
 deeds. Less is known of this author than of many an inferior 
 genius ; of his birthplace and parentage we are alike ignorant ; 
 only, as we read those glorious pages, the dim vision of a blind 
 old man with flowing beard and majestic mien rises before us, 
 refuting the modern theory that they are not the inspiration 
 of one great genius, but the effusions of a dozen or more min 
 strels. The " Iliad" and " Odyssey," written more than two 
 thousand years ago, are said to have been the first epic poems ; 
 if so, epic poetry was perfect at its birth, so perfect that all sub 
 sequent epics, taking these two as their models, fall far short of 
 
HINDOO ETHICS. 63 
 
 them in excellence. "In great things," says Quintilian, "what 
 sublimity of expression ; and, in little, what a justness and 
 propriety diffusive and concise, pleasant and grave, admirable 
 both for his copiousness and brevity ! " 
 
 The wisdom of Moses, the jurist and historian, is apparent, 
 whether he composed or selected his admirable laws ; that which 
 often appears trivial to the thoughtless shows wonderful knowl 
 edge of what is injurious or beneficial to individuals and na 
 tions. 13 
 
 The more we study the literature and theology of that an 
 cient people, the Hindoos, the more we are impressed by the pro 
 found thought and wisdom displayed, the purity of the doctrines 
 enunciated, the high moral standard of excellence maintained, as 
 also the poetic language and imagery of their writings. 88 
 
 32 Take, for instance, the prohibition to eat swine's flesh, which so often causes a 
 smile. There is a note in the Talmud stating that the use of this meat is forbidden on 
 account of the small insect which infests it. Late events, the fearful ravages of the 
 trichinae in Germany, and even in some parts of the United States, have shown the 
 wisdom of this law, particularly as enacted for the inhabitants of a warm climate. 
 
 83 The general idea entertained of the religious belief and customs of the Hindoos 
 is but an erroneous one, thanks to the misinterpretations, perhaps not wholly uninten 
 tional, of the earliest modern writers on the subject ; they, as a rule, record only the 
 forms of superstitions which were erected upon the original pure foundation by a cor 
 rupt and ambitious priestcraft, and which mark the decadence of the Hindoo religion 
 and people. 
 
 Later writers, the researches of such men as Schlegel, Colebrook, William Jones, 
 Strange, and the remarkable work of M. Jacolliot, "La Bible dans 1'Inde," give us 
 a more just conception of this race, probably the parent of our own. 
 
 The original pure Hindoo religion recognized but one God (as did the sages of 
 Greece, in spite of its mythology). In the Yedas, the ancient sacred writings of the 
 Hindoos, which the learned declare to have been written more than three thousand 
 years before Christ, we find the Deity thus defined : " He who exists by Himself, 
 who is in all, because all is in Him." And, again, with surpassing majesty of thought ; 
 " The Ganges flows it is God ; the ocean roars it is God ; the wind blows it is 
 He; the cloud that thunders, the lightning that flashes it is He. As from all 
 eternity the universe existed in the spirit of Brahma, so to-day is all that exists his 
 image." Can we boast of any grandeur or more beautiful definition of Divine eter 
 nity and omnipresence ? 
 
 To those who imagine the Brahminical religion as instigating its votaries to put 
 faith in empty and absurd forms, rather than in worthy actions, let us quote a few 
 maxims from the teachings of Manou, the Hindoo philosopher and legislator, who can 
 not have written less than four thousand years ago : 
 
 " Of all things pure, purity hi the acquisition of riches is the best. He who preserves 
 purity in becoming rich, is really pure, and not he who is purified with earth and 
 water." (Will not the just and thoughtful applaud this maxim in the present age of 
 corruption ?) " As the body is purified by water, so is the spirit by truth." " Sound 
 
64: LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 Five hundred and fifty years before our era, in a land of 
 which Columbus possessed but a mythical knowledge, and re 
 garded as a realm of barbarous idolatry and wealth, Confucius 
 led men to admire and practise virtue for the sake of virtue only, 
 and laid the foundation for the high and enlightened moral civili 
 zation which still distinguishes his disciples. 84 
 
 doctrines and good works purify the soul. The intelligence is purified by knowledge." 
 " Science is useless to a man without judgment, as a mirror to a blind man." " The 
 man who only appreciates the means, according as they conduce to his success, soon 
 loses his perception of the just, and of sound doctrines." 
 
 Nor were the psychological ideas of the Hindoos less elevated than their morality 
 was pure. Chrishna taught : " The soul is the principle of life, which sovereign wis 
 dom employed to animate bodies ; matter is inert and perishable, the soul thinks and 
 acts, and is immortal." The profound philosophy of Greece, the theology of to-day, 
 has given us no better or more concise definition. The elevation of woman, indis 
 pensable to true civilization, was enjoined, her status and mission chivalrously defined, 
 in the Vedas : " He who despises woman, despises his mother." " There is no crime 
 more odious than to persecute women, and take advantage of their weakness to de 
 spoil them of their patrimony. When women are honored the divinities are content, but 
 where they are not honored all undertakings fail." " Women should be shielded with 
 fostering solicitude by their fathers, their brothers, their husbands, and the brothers 
 of their husbands, if they hope for prosperity." 
 
 34 That morality and a wise conception of the same belong especially to no sect, 
 time, or people, is evidenced by the fact that the Golden Rule of Christianity, beauti 
 ful and comprehensive, was thus laid down by Confucius five hundred years before 
 the birth of Christ: "What you do not like when done to yourself, do not do to 
 others." " In the way of the superior man there are four things, to none of which have 
 I as yet attained : To serve my father as I would require my son to serve me ; to 
 serve my elder brother as I would require my younger brother to serve me ; to serve 
 my prince as I would require my minister to serve me ; to set example in behaving 
 to a friend as I would require him to behave to me." (" Doctrine of the Just Mean," 
 chapter xiii.) The whole of this chapter is replete with wisdom, and is dictated by a 
 calm, elevated philosophy, teaching men that virtue consists in doing their duty con 
 scientiously in whatever situation they may be placed. " The superior man," we read, 
 " can find himself in no situation in which he is not himself. He does not murmur 
 against Heaven, nor grumble against men. Thus it is that the superior man is quiet 
 and calm, waiting for the appointments of Heaven, while the mean man walks in dan 
 gerous paths, looking for lucky occurrences." Resignation to Divine will and philo 
 sophic moderation are here forcibly enjoined. It is to be regretted that the translation 
 of Confucius (of which we here make use) by the Rev. James Legge, is made with 
 the avowed object of lessening the fame of the great philosopher, and the credit of his 
 followers, by placing in an unfavorable light the moral doctrines of this most enlight 
 ened Chinese school ; and it is to be feared that sectarian partiality may have allowed 
 itself, here and there, to misinterpret sentiments, particularly as these are expressed 
 in a language every word of which is susceptible of several interpretations. Never 
 theless, it has been impossible for the translator to conceal the wisdom and sublimity, 
 blended w'th sound practical sense, of the teachings inculcated on the Chinese by their 
 beloved master. The following, selected at random from the Analects, may serve as an 
 
ANCIENT LITERATURE. 65 
 
 Philosophy, the pure teachings of morality, have never since 
 flourished as in the days when Socrates taught the doctrine of 
 the immortality of the soul, which his disciple Plato developed 
 to a still higher spiritualism. The teachings of these and the 
 whole school of great philosophers who nourished long ago, con 
 tain all the requisites for making men good and nations pros 
 perous. 
 
 History was well understood by the ancients. Herodotus 
 is styled the father of that useful branch of literature, not, we 
 may reasonably suppose, because he was the first historian, but 
 because his writings are the first treating on that subject only 
 which have come down to us complete ; as also, no doubt, on ac 
 count of the inimitable style he employed in his narratives, sim 
 ple, picturesque, and vivid in description, which, as he recited 
 them beneath the 'blue skies of Greece during the excitement of 
 the Olympic games, brought the far-off countries through which 
 he had traveled, and their inhabitants, before the minds of his 
 enthusiastic listeners. If we reflect upon the fact that most of 
 the ancient historians found time, amid the toils and occupations 
 
 example of the system : " The superior man in every thing considers righteousness to 
 be essential. He performs it according to the rules of propriety. He brings it forth 
 in humility. He completes it in sincerity. This is indeed a superior man." " The 
 master said, * Alas ! there is no one that knows me ! ' Tsze-Kung said : 'What do you 
 mean by thus saying that no one knows you ? ' The master replied : ' I do not mur 
 mur against Heaven, I do not grumble against men. My studies lie low, my penetra 
 tion rises high. But there is Heaven that knows me.' " " I will not be concerned at 
 men's not knowing me, I will be concerned at my own want of ability." " The wise 
 man is correctly firm, not firm merely." " He who exercises government by means 
 of his virtue may be compared to the north polar star, which keeps its place, and all 
 the stars turn toward it." " Learning without thought is labor lost, thought without 
 learning is perilous." " The master said : * Yew, shall I teach you what knowledge 
 is ? When you know a thing, to hold that you know it, and when you do not know 
 a thing, to allow that you do not know it. This is knowledge.' " " They who know 
 the truth are not equal to those who love it, and they who love it, are not equal to 
 those who find delight in it." " Now the man of perfect virtue, wishing to be estab 
 lished himself, seeks also to establish others ; wishing to be enlarged himself, he seeks 
 also to enlarge others. To be able to judge of others by what is nigh in ourselves, this 
 may be called the art of virtue." " Let the will be set on the path of duty, let per 
 fect virtue be accorded with, let relaxation and enjoyment be found in the polite arts." 
 " In language it is simply required that it convey its meaning." " Fine words and 
 an insinuating appearance are seldom associated with virtue." 
 
 What exalted doctrines are these ! What wisdom and observation of human 
 nature are displayed, and withal what modesty ! " To this I have not attained," says 
 the sage of his golden rule; and, again, " A transmitter and not a maker, believing in 
 and loving the ancients, I may compare myself to our old P'ang." 
 
66 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 of the soldier or of the statesman, to leave such valuable records 
 to posterity ; that Xenophon, the Hebrew Josephus, Julius Caesar, 
 etc., were distinguished warriors as well as eminent writers, it 
 may be conceded that human intellect has not much advanced 
 since those times. " The treasury of remedies for the soul " was 
 inscribed over the entrance of the library of Osymandias at 
 Thebes three thousand years ago, and who to day will invent a 
 more apt and beautiful definition ? We pride ourselves on our 
 common-school system, yet find it recorded of Charondas, law 
 giver of Catania, who lived five hundred years before our era : 
 " He made another law, better than these, and neglected by the 
 older legislators for he enacted that all the sons of the cit 
 izens should be instructed in letters, the city paying the salaries 
 of the teachers. For he held that the poor, not being able to pay 
 their teachers from their own property, would be deprived of the 
 most valuable discipline." 
 
 The learning of the East was transferred to Europe, especial 
 ly to Spain, by the Arabs. The Caliph Almanzor, early in the 
 ninth century of our era, turned his attention from religious 
 learning and warlike exploits, to profane science. He culti 
 vated astronomy with ardor. His successor, Al-Mamoun, by means 
 of agents in Constantinople, Syria, and Egypt, caused many of 
 the great scientific works of Greece to be collected. These were 
 translated by his order, and his subjects enjoined to study them 
 with the assurance that the elect of God are they who best im 
 prove their mental faculties, and that teachers of wisdom are the 
 light of the world. A subordinate officer donated two hundred 
 thousand pieces of gold to found a school in Bagdad, and endowed 
 the same with an annual revenue of fifteen thousand dinars. The 
 learning of the Greeks and Arabs overspread the East. The Om- 
 miades of Spain caught the ardor; Bagdad and Cordova became 
 names synonymous with that of Athens in the days of her glory ; 
 great libraries were collected, both public and private. We read 
 of a doctor who declined an invitation to reside at the court of 
 Bokhara because the transportation of his library alone would re 
 quire four hundred camels. That of the Fatimites numbered one 
 hundred thousand manuscripts elegantly translated and beautifully 
 bound. Free access to these was given to the students of Cairo, 
 while in Spain the Omniiades possessed a library of six hundred 
 thousand volumes, forty-four of which were employed in thecata- 
 
LITERATUKE AND SCHOOLS OF SPAIN. 67 
 
 logue alone. Cordova, Malaga, Almeria, and Murcia, boasted of 
 more than three hundred writers, and nearly one hundred public 
 libraries were open in Andalusia. The writings of the Grecian 
 sages appeared in the Arabic, in which language only, many have 
 been preserved to us. The Caliph Al-Mamoun supplied costly in 
 struments for astronomical observation. Twice his mathematicians 
 correctly measured a degree of the earth's circle, and determined 
 that our globe was twenty-four thousand miles in circumference. 
 
 Such was the learning of the Arabs, a people who enlightened 
 Spain for hundreds of years, and were only driven from that 
 country immediately before Columbus sailed on his first voyage. 
 They cannot have failed during all those years to impart some of 
 their knowledge to the Spaniards, yet we are informed by histo 
 rians who have the air of believing their assertion, however im 
 probable it may appear when tested by reason, that the learned 
 men of Salamanca, convoked to hear Columbus propound his 
 " startling theory," treated with ridicule the idea of the earth's 
 being spherical. 
 
 What are the proofs we possess that the knowledge of the 
 ancients was incomplete? Imperfect globes, defective maps, 
 errors in the statements found in ancient MSS., as they have 
 reached us these are cited as evidence of the ignorance of the 
 past. It should be remembered that a desire to impress the 
 young with an idea of our own importance, has induced many to 
 select the defects of a particular age or country as proofs of its 
 real status ; the vainglorious author, finding among the ancients 
 two works, one containing correct views touching the form of 
 our earth, the other declaring it to be flat, would too often con 
 tent himself with holding up the latter as evidence of ancient 
 ignorance and modern progress. In what light may we not be 
 placed centuries hence? It will only be necessary for some 
 curious antiquary to deposit in one of the museums a few flint 
 arrow-heads collected from the fields, or one of the Pembina 
 carts 35 which for the last thirty years have annually borne the 
 merchants and merchandise of Prince Rupert's Land to the city 
 of St. Paul, for coming generations to declare that Americans in 
 the nineteenth century were ignorant of the use of metals ! 
 
 35 These carts, caravans of which often number as many as a hundred and fifty, 
 are manufactured entirely of wood and green hide; not a particle of metal enters their 
 composition ; even the linchpin is of wood. 
 
68 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 Is it not time that a more just, generous, and reasonable spirit 
 pervade the civilization of our age ? that, while we glory and de 
 light in the great deeds of our race and age, we do not consider 
 that great deeds belong to them alone ? that, while eagerly seek 
 ing after knowledge and enacting laws to impart it, we do not 
 imagine, and thereby prove gross ignorance, that knowledge is 
 our special inheritance, and that the people of the past were less 
 favored by their Creator than are we ? 
 
 The Hindoo philosopher Narada, reputed to have lived before 
 the Deluge, reasons thus : " Never resort to the argument, ' I do 
 not know this, therefore it is false.' We must study to know, 
 know to comprehend, and comprehend to judge." 
 
 This is the proper spirit ; heroes and scholars are not less 
 heroic or learned because others as great as they have preceded 
 them, nor will it dim the lustre of the present to be just to the 
 memory of the past. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE NORTHMEN IN AMEEICA. 
 
 WHILE the greater part of Europe was plunged in the intel 
 lectual darkness which pervaded the middle ages, while the 
 monk in his cloister toiled laboriously during a lifetime to per 
 petuate some one work of saintly or classic lore, and the masses 
 were ignorant, superstitious, the slaves of feudal lords and barons 
 scarcely less ignorant than themselves, a people flourished in the 
 
 LANDING OF THE NORTHMEN. 
 
 extreme north, with whom enterprise and freedom were neither 
 dead nor stagnant, who possessed scientific knowledge and ap 
 plied the same to practical purposes ; a people simple, fearless, 
 and energetic, republicans in practice if not in name, with whom 
 chieftains were the fathers and protectors of their followers, shar- 
 
70 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 ing their perils and respecting their rights ; a pagan people in 
 deed, worshipers of Odin and Thor, believers in the joys of 
 Walhalla, yet doers of deeds so noble as to be worthy the most 
 enlightened Christian : such were the Northmen ; such their sim 
 ple records, which bear every impress of truth, prove them to 
 have been. Issuing from an Asiatic hive, they early overran 
 Norway and Sweden ; their language, the old Danish or Donsk 
 tungci) is now only preserved in Iceland, which they colonized in 
 the year 875 ; in 985 they rediscovered and colonized Greenland ; 
 the same year the American Continent proper was discovered by 
 them, and, during the first years of the eleventh century, they 
 made thither frequent voyages, residing, for periods of several 
 years, at different times, in what is now called New England. 
 To this they were actuated by motives far different from those 
 of Columbus : they did not come in search of gold or slaves, but 
 to gather by industry the natural products of the land, carrying 
 on therewith a nourishing trade between the continent, Green 
 land, Iceland, and Norway. No absurd visions of untold wealth, 
 no dreams of Ophir, haunted their brain ; nor did they seek by 
 false representations to inveigle others into bearing all the bur 
 dens, while they should reap all the profits, of their expeditions ; 
 they were the worthy pioneers of European settlement on our 
 shores ; a hardy race, counting on their own labor to develop 
 the natural resources of the lands they discovered. 
 
 The voyages made by the Northmen to America are recorded 
 in the Sagas or ancient Icelandic records, manuscripts of un 
 doubted authenticity, and of a date far anterior to Columbus. 
 
 The settlement of Greenland by them undoubtedly took 
 place ; allusions to it and the colonies formed there are con 
 stantly occurring in Norse or Icelandic records. Letters and 
 learning flourished in Iceland when the rest of Europe was in 
 tellectually stagnant ; histories and annals are therefore copious. 
 The last bishop was appointed to Greenland in 1406, when the 
 colony consisted of two hundred and eighty settlements, all of 
 which evidently became extinct ; at what time after communica 
 tion with the parent-country ceased, or from what causes, is not 
 known, yet few acquainted with history will doubt their having 
 existed. Once in Greenland, this continent was nearer the set 
 tlers than their fatherland : it would have been difficult for them 
 not to discover it. Indeed, throughout Icelandic chronicles and 
 
GEOGRAPHY OF THE NORTHMEN". 71 
 
 history, there are constant allusions to this discovery. In a geo 
 graphical treatise called " Description of the Whole Earth," writ 
 ten toward the end of the thirteenth century, we read : " England 
 and Scotland are one island ; but each is a separate kingdom. 
 Ireland is a great island. Iceland is also a great island north of 
 Ireland. All these countries are situated in that part of the 
 world called Europe. Next to Denmark is lesser Sweden ; then is 
 QEland, then Gottland, then Helsingeland, then Yermeland, and 
 the two Kvendlands, which lie north of Biarmeland. From Biarme- 
 land stretches desert land toward the north, until Greenland be 
 gins. South of Greenland is Helluland ; next is Maryland, from 
 thence it is not far to Vinland the good, which some think goes 
 out to Africa." We thus see that the geographical knowledge 
 of the Scandinavians, not only with regard to Europe, but also 
 touching the position of the new continent, was correct. As to 
 their supposition that Yinland extended to Africa, it is an 
 avowed hypothesis, and, at any rate, but a small error, compared 
 to Columbus' s persistent declaration that the island of Cuba was 
 Asia. 
 
 Thanks to the eminent labors of Prof. Rafn, the Icelandic 
 histories of pre-Columbian discoveries in America have become 
 well known to the curious ; while, through the more accessible 
 works of Toulmin Smith, Beamish, and last, but not least, De 
 Costa, the general reader has been convinced of the fact, which 
 is now no longer disputed, that the Northmen were the first 
 modern discoverers of this continent. This fact is now so gen 
 erally conceded, and stands upon so sure a foundation of almost 
 contemporaneous documents, that argument is happily not 
 needed to establish the justness of the Northmen's claims ; it 
 will only be necessary for us to give a brief synopsis of these 
 early histories, and note here and there the contrast existing be 
 tween the spirit which animated the semi-pagan people on the 
 one hand, and the bigoted devotee Columbus on the other, to 
 prosecute their discoveries ; this contrast redounds by no means 
 to the credit of the latter. 
 
 We shall not here dwell upon the intellectual and commercial 
 activity which early characterized the Northmen, save to ob 
 serve that they were sufficient to render the discovery of Amer 
 ica by them a natural consequence of their ever-extending voy 
 ages and explorations. Between Norway and Iceland, Iceland 
 
72 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 
 
 and Ireland, there were communication and traffic ; the people of 
 the latter island were further advanced in civilization than their 
 neighbors the Britons. Tacitus tells us of Ireland that " the ap 
 proaches and harbors are better known " (than those of Britain), 
 " by reason of commerce and the merchants." The Northmen, 
 we have seen, possessed the magnetic compass ; they were particu 
 larly remarkable as a seafaring people. When they had reached 
 Iceland, the distance to Greenland was comparatively trifling ; a 
 passage thence to America, a natural sequence of their westward 
 course. In recording their voyages, we shall not attempt labo 
 riously to explain the identity of each place described by the 
 Northmen this has already been done by Rafn ; we shall only 
 quote the result of his labors. Slight possible flaws in his iden 
 tification have been pointed out by De Costa, but the main fact, 
 that the lands discovered were those portions of America extend 
 ing from Labrador to Florida, is admitted by all who have 
 studied the records, who agree that they describe with wonder 
 ful accuracy the aspect and products of that region, and that such 
 accuracy, it is scarcely needful to say, cannot be the result of 
 chance, nor the descriptions have been written for other lands. 
 Circumstantial evidence, scientific proof, of this are exhausted by 
 Kafn in his " Antiquitates Americanse." to which comprehen 
 sive work we refer the reader, should he still be disposed to 
 doubt that the following narratives are proofs of pre-Columbian 
 exploration and settlement in America. 
 
 Eric the Red had, in the spring of 986 A. D., emigrated to 
 Greenland from Iceland, and there formed a settlement. One 
 of his followers was Heriulf, whose son Biarne was absent on 
 a voyage to Norway at the time of his departure. Biarne had 
 always made a point of spending the winter with his father ; on 
 his return to Iceland, he determined that this winter should 
 form no exception to his rule, and that he would follow Heriulf 
 to the land whither he had traveled, a somewhat arduous under^ 
 taking, as he possessed no chart or directions save that the new 
 settlement lay to the westward. " He was," we read, " a prom 
 ising young man. In his earliest youth he had a desire to go 
 abroad, and he soon gathered property and reputation, and was 
 by turns a year abroad and a year with his father. Biarne was 
 soon in possession of a merchant-ship of his own." When 
 Biarne returned with his ship from his Norway expedition, he 
 
DISCOVERY OF AMERICA BY BIARNE. 73 
 
 would not unload, but said to his crew, " I will steer for Green 
 land if ye will go with me." They one and all agreed to go 
 with him. Biarne said, " Our voyage will be thought foolish, 
 as none of us have been on the Greenland sea before." 
 
 They set sail and encountered continuous northerly winds 
 which drove them southward ; the fog became so dense as to con 
 ceal the surrounding ocean. When the weather at length cleared 
 they found themselves in sight of a land plentifully wooded and 
 gently undulated ; this, however, Biarne concluded could not be 
 Greenland, as it varied greatly from the descriptions of that coun 
 try which had been given him. He therefore left it to the lar 
 board, and, sailing two days, saw another land, flat and woody ; 
 the wind was now southwest ; they passed a third land, moun 
 tainous and covered with glaciers ; this they coasted sufficiently to 
 find that it was an island, but did not go ashore. They now stood 
 out to sea, a strong southwest wind still prevailing, which brought 
 them, after four days' swift sailing, to Greenland, and to the very 
 cape where Heriulf had settled. This was the first discovery of 
 America by the Northmen. Like the discovery of the West 
 Indies by the pilot Sanchez, it was the result of chance, but the 
 chance was itself the result of hardy enterprise. Biarne started 
 from Iceland in search of Greenland, of which he only knew by 
 hearsay ; driven south, he discovered instead America. The nar 
 rative which records his voyage describes accurately the points 
 upon which he touched, which, it has been agreed, were : first, 
 Cape Cod ; second, Nova Scotia ; third, Newfoundland. Biarne's 
 impatience to rejoin his father before the winter set in, caused 
 him to neglect any exploration of the lands he thus accidentally 
 visited. For this he was censured by his countrymen ; they could 
 hardly understand his refraining from becoming acquainted with 
 the new country and its products. The spirit of discovery was 
 then rife with the Northmen. 
 
 Leif, son of Eric the Eed, bought Biarne's ship, equipped 
 and manned it with a crew of thirty men ; one of these was 
 Tyrker, " a man from the south," probably a German, who had 
 long been a retainer of Eric, and was much attached to Leif 
 from his boyhood. When all was ready, the latter besought 
 his father to become the commander of the expedition. Eric at 
 first declared himself to be too old for the undertaking, but 
 yielded finally to the solicitations of his son. As he rode down 
 
74 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 to the ship his horse stumbled and threw him, disabling his foot. 
 " It is destined," said he, " that I should never discover more 
 lands than this Greenland on which we live." He remained 
 therefore at home, and Leif commanded the ship. The above 
 incident, simply related, and Biarne's devotion and eagerness to 
 rejoin his father, give us a pleasant knowledge of the love and 
 respect which existed among the Northmen between father and 
 son, even when the latter had attained to manhood. Leif pur 
 chasing his ship from Biarne (the avowed though accidental dis 
 coverer of the lands), organizing, and defraying the expenses of 
 the expedition, then modestly desiring that his father, not him 
 self, should be its chief, contrasts strongly with Columbus, who 
 entirely concealed the source whence he derived his information, 
 resorted to fraud and false promises to obtain his equipment, 
 and finally insisted, as only the little-minded can insist, upon 
 being vested with sounding titles and surrounded by puerile ob 
 sequiousness. 
 
 Leif set sail in the year 1000 A. D. to revisit the lands seen 
 by Biarne ; he first reached the island which the latter had coast 
 ed. He said : " It shall not be said of us, as it was of Biarne, that 
 we did not come upon the land ; for I will give the country a 
 name, and call it Helluland" (hetta, a stone). They went on 
 board again, and put to sea, and reached another land. Sailing 
 toward it, they put out a boat, and landed. " This country was 
 flat and woody, surrounded by cliffs, and a low shore of white 
 sand; they called it Markland (Woodland)" Thence they 
 sailed two days, with a northeast wind, and came to an island 
 which lay eastward of the main-land, and entered a channel, 
 which separated the island from the main-land promontory. 
 Sailing westward, they came to a river, which flowed from a lake 
 into the sea; they entered the river, and thence the lake, in 
 which they cast anchor. This was evidently Mount-Hope Bay, 
 which they reached by Pocasset River and Seaconnet Passage. 
 On the shores they constructed huts, or booths, for temporary 
 shelter, but, upon determining to spend the winter there, they 
 enlarged their quarters and built houses. The place was called 
 Leifsbiider (Leif's Booths). 
 
 " The country appeared to them of so good a kind that it 
 would not be necessary to gather fodder for the cattle for winter. 
 There was no frost in winter, and the grass was not much with- 
 
DAY AND NIGHT. GRAPES. 75 
 
 ered. Day and night were more equal than in Greenland and 
 Iceland ; for, on the shortest day, the sun was in the sky be 
 tween Eyktarstadr and the Dagmalstadr." 3<J 
 
 When the houses were completed, Leif divided his men into 
 two companies, one of which kept watch at the settlement while 
 the other explored the surrounding country. He shared alike 
 with his men, accompanying them in their explorations one day, 
 and the next remaining at home. He enjoined them not to sepa 
 rate, nor to extend their travels too far. He is described in the 
 narrative as "a stout, strongman, and of manly appearance ; and 
 was besides a prudent and sagacious man in all respects." 
 
 One day the exploring party returned, and it was found that 
 Tyrker, the German, was missing ; Leif, much concerned, immedi 
 ately started with twelve men in search of him, but had not pro 
 ceeded far when they met him. " Leif soon perceived that his 
 foster-father was quite merry. Tyrker had a high forehead, 
 sharp eyes, with a small face, and was little in size, and: ugly ; 
 but was very dexterous in all feats. Leif said to him : * Why 
 art thou so late, my foster-father ; and why didst thou leave thy 
 comrades ? ' He spoke at first long in German, rolled his eyes 
 and knit his brows ; but they could not make out what he was 
 saying. After a while, and some delay, he said in Norse : ' I 
 did not go much farther than they, and yet I have something 
 altogether new to relate, for I have found vines and grapes.' 
 c Is that true, my foster-father ? ' said Leif. *' Yes, true it is,' 
 answered he, ' for I was born where there was no scarcity of 
 grapes.' ' Tyrker, far away from his fatherland, which he had 
 probably not seen since childhood, was evidently moved to strange 
 
 36 Rafn thus explains this passage : " In Vineland the sun rose, on the shortest day, 
 at the beginning of Dagmal, and set at the close of Eykt. As the ancient Northmen 
 divided the horizon into eight grand compartments, called dttir, so they also made a 
 corresponding octuple division of the solar day into aliquot parts, called eyktir, each 
 of which was consequently equal to three hours. Sladr signifies limit, or boundary, 
 and, when used in reference to the rising and setting of the sun, it denotes, in the 
 morning, the commencement, and, in the evening, the close of the Eykt. Dagmalstadr 
 is, therefore, half-past seven o'clock A. M., and Eyktarstadr half-past four p. M. The 
 sun therefore rose at half-past seven o'clock and set at half-past four on the shortest 
 day, which was consequently nine hours long. This circumstance gives for the lati 
 tude of the place 41 24' 10". The latitude of Seaconnet Point and of the south 
 point of Conannicut Island is 41 26', and of Point Judith 41 23', which three head- 
 lands bound the entrances to what is now called Mount-Hope Bay, and which was doubt 
 less called Hopsvatn by the ancient Northmen." 
 
76 
 
 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 emotion at the sight of vines such as grew around the home of 
 his earliest recollections. This episode and the simplicity with 
 which it is narrated, is, as Mr. De Costa justly claims, a stroke 
 of genuine nature, something that a writer, framing the account 
 of a fictitious voyage, would not dream of." It is well known 
 that grapes formerly grew wild in great abundance in the vicin 
 ity of Mount-Hope Bay, hence the names Martha? s Vineyard and 
 Vineyard Sound. 
 
 Henceforth, the occupation of Leif and his companions was 
 twofold felling and hewing timber, and gathering grapes. Leif 
 called the land Yineland. In the spring they sailed with a fair 
 
 GRAPES DISCOVERED BY THE NORTHMEN. 
 
 wind for Greenland. When, in sight of land, Leif steered to the 
 windward, his men inquired the reason ; he replied, " I mind my 
 helm, and tend to other things too. Do you see any thing ? " 
 They said they saw 'nothing remarkable. Leif replied that he 
 saw something which was either a ship or a rock ; on exami 
 nation, the crew pronounced it a rock. " But he saw so much 
 better than they, that he discovered men upon the rock. < Now 
 I will,' said Leif, ' that we hold to the wind, that we may come 
 up to them if they should need help ; and, if they should not be 
 friendly inclined, it is in our power to do as we please, and not 
 
THORER SAVED FROM SHIPWRECK. 77 
 
 theirs.' Now they sailed under the rock, lowered their sails, 
 cast anchor, and put out another small boat which they had with 
 them. Then Tyrker asked who their leader was. He said his 
 name was Thorer, and that he was a Northman. ' But what is 
 your name 3 ' said he. Leif told his name. ( Are you the son 
 of Eric the Eed of Brattahlid ? ' he asked. Leif said that was 
 so. ' Now I will,' said Leif, ' take ye and all on board my ship, 
 and as much of the goods as the ship will store.' They took up 
 this offer, and sailed away to Ericfiord with the cargo, and 
 thence to Brattahlid, where they unloaded the ship. Leif offered 
 Thorer and his wife Gudrid, and three others, lodging with him 
 self, and offered lodging elsewhere for the rest of the people, 
 both of Thorer's crew and his own. Leif took fifteen men from 
 the rock, and thereafter was called Leif the Fortunate. After 
 that time, Leif advanced greatly in wealth and consideration. 
 That winter sickness came among Thorer's people, and he him 
 self and a great part of his crew died." 
 
 Though Leif had explored a portion of the country, and 
 could not, therefore, share the reproach which Biarne had in 
 curred, there was an evident opinion among his countrymen that 
 further exploration should be made. 
 
 Leif had been baptized in Norway at the suggestion and so 
 licitation of King Olaf, about the year 999. In the following 
 year he first introduced Christianity into Greenland. Old Eric the 
 Red does not, however, seem to have taken kindly to the new 
 creed, for we find it recorded of him that, when the people called 
 his son Leif the Fortunate, he said ; " These two things went 
 against one another ; that Leif had saved the crew of the ship, 
 and delivered them from death, and that he had brought that 
 bad man into Greenland ; that is what he called the priest." We 
 read, however, that the old man was, after much urging, baptized. 
 He died soon after Leif's return from Yinland (1001) ; the latter, 
 therefore, assumed his father's place at the head of the Brattah 
 lid settlement, and it was his brother Thorwald who, in the 
 spring of 1002, sailed to prosecute his discoveries. For this pur 
 pose he lent Thorwald his vessel and gave him ample instructions. 
 It is likely that the Northmen made observations and charts 
 during their voyages, whiclf were sure guides to those who fol 
 lowed them ; their knowledge of the compass would enable them 
 to do this, and facts go far to prove that they availed themselves 
 
78 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 of the ability. Leif first readied Newfoundland, the most north 
 erly and last point seen by Biarne. He does not touch upon 
 other lands, as he most likely would have done had his instruc 
 tions been vague (as Biarne himself did when sailing for Green 
 land with nothing but description to guide him). He next visited 
 Markland (Nova Scotia), which was the second seen by Biarne, 
 and lastly Vinland,* which was in the vicinity of the first point 
 of land Biarne's expedition had sighted. These were evidently 
 the points he made for, and he found them without difficulty. 
 Now Thorwald, sailing by Leif's chart, makes immediately for 
 Leifsbiidir, touching at no intervening points (at least no men 
 tion is made of his having done so) till he reached the bay. 
 Here he staid two winters, making Leifsbiidir headquarters, and 
 sending thence exploring parties. One of these went south in 
 the ship's boat, how far we are not able to determine, as the de 
 tails of Thorwald' s expedition are more meagre than those of the 
 other narratives, owing no doubt to the death of the chief before 
 returning to Greenland. In the year 1004 Thorwald set out in 
 his large ship to explore northward, encountering bad weather 
 when opposite a cape (evidently the extreme point of Cape 
 Cod) ; and, the keel of his ship being damaged, he said to his 
 companions, " We will stick up the keel here upon the ness, 37 and 
 call the place Kialarness " (Keel Promontory), " which they did." 
 The ship being repaired, they sailed east to a point of land cov 
 ered with trees, said to be Point Alderton, below Boston. When 
 they had landed, Thorwald said : " Here it is beautiful ; and I 
 would willingly set up my abode here." 
 
 Soon after they were attacked by hostile Skrsellings (natives). 
 " Then," said Thorwald, " we shall put up our war-screens along 
 the gunwales, and defend ourselves as well as we can, but not 
 use our weapons much against them." 
 
 " They did so accordingly. The Skraellings shot at them for 
 a while, and then fled away as fast as. they could. Then Thor 
 wald asked if any one was wounded, and they said nobody was 
 hurt. He said: 'I have a wound under the arm. An arrow 
 flew between the gunwale and the shield, under my arm ; here 
 is the arrow, and it will be my death-wound. Now I advise you 
 to make ready with all speed to return ; but ye shall carry me to 
 the point which I thought would be so convenient for a dwelling. 
 
 * 7 The Northmen called all points of land, or promontories, ness. 
 
THE YULE-FEAST. 79 
 
 It may be that it was true what I said, that here would I dwell 
 for a while. Ye shall bury me there, and place a cross at my 
 head and one at my feet, and call the place Crossness.' " 
 
 Having obeyed these last instructions, his companions re 
 turned to Leifsbiidir, spent the winter in loading their ships, and 
 returned in the spring, " bringing heavy tidings to Leif." 
 
 Thorstein Ericson hearing the fate of his brother Thorwald, 
 determined to bring his body from Yinland to Greenland. He 
 equipped the same vessel and set sail, accompanied by his wife 
 Gudrid, but his expedition was unfortunate, and he returned to 
 Greenland without reaching any of the lands his brothers had 
 visited. He died that winter. 
 
 During the next summer (1006) two ships came from Iceland, 
 one of which was commanded by Thorfinn Karlsefne, a man of 
 wealth and illustrious birth, his ancestors being noble Danes, 
 .Norwegians, Swedes, Irish, and Scotch, some of them kings or 
 of royal descent ; the other was commanded by Biarne Grirnolf- 
 son and Thorhall Gamlason. Each ship had a crew of forty men. 
 
 " Leif and other people rode down to the ships, and friendly 
 exchanges were made. The captains requested Leif to take 
 whatever he desired of their goods. Leif, in return, entertained 
 them well, and invited the principal men of both ships to spend 
 the winter with him at Brattahlid. The merchants accepted his 
 invitation with thanks. Afterward their goods were moved to 
 Brattahlid, where they had every entertainment they could de 
 sire ; therefore their winter-quarters pleased them much. When 
 the Yule-feast began, Leif was silent and more depressed than 
 usual. Then Karlsefne said to Leif: c Are you sick, friend Leif? 
 you do not seem to be in your usual spirits. You have enter 
 tained us liberally, for which we desire to render you all the ser 
 vice in our power. Tell me what it is that ails you.' ' You 
 have received what I have been able to offer you ' said Leif, i in 
 the kindest manner, and there is no idea in my mind that you 
 have been wanting in courtesy ; but I am afraid lest, when you 
 go away, it may be said that you never saw a Yule-feast so 
 meanly celebrated as that which draws near, at which you will 
 be entertained by Leif of Brattahlid.' < That shall never be the 
 case, friend,' said Karlsefne; 6 we have ample stores in the ships ; 
 take of these what you wish, and make a feast as splendid as you 
 please.' Leif accepted the offer, and the Yule began ; and so 
 
80 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 well were Leifs plans made, that all were surprised that such a 
 rich feast could be prepared in so poor a country. After the 
 Yule-feast, Karlsefne began to treat with Leif as to the marriage 
 of Gudrid .... and in the end it turned out that Karlsefne mar 
 ried Gudrid (widow of Thorstein Ericson), and their wedding 
 was held at Brattahlid, this same winter. 
 
 " The conversation often turned, at Brattahlid, on the discov 
 ery of Yinland the Good, and they said that a voyage there had 
 great hope of gain. And, after this, Karlsefne and Snorre made 
 ready for going on a voyage there the following spring. Biarne 
 and Thorhall Gamlason, before mentioned, joined him with a 
 ship "(1007). 
 
 The first land this joint expedition reached after the isle of 
 Disco, which they called Biarney, or Bear Island, was evidently 
 some part of Labrador. They found on it great stones and many 
 foxes ; they named it Helluland it Hilda, or Stony-land the Great, 
 to distinguish it from Newfoundland, which Leif had first named 
 Helluland, and which they now called Helluland it Litla (the 
 Little). The description in the ancient narrative is said to an 
 swer perfectly to the aspect of that region. Sailing southward 
 a day and a night, they came to a land covered with woods, in 
 which were many wild animals. This was Nova Scotia, which 
 in 1501 will be called Tierra Yerde, or Greenland, on account 
 of these same forests, by Don Gaspar de Corte Heal, and which 
 Leif had already appropriately named Markland (Woodland). 
 They then came to an island supposed to be Sable Island, where 
 they killed a bear. Thence they reached Kialarness (Cape Cod), 
 and saw the keel which Thorwald had there set up. The shores 
 of this cape, long and barren wastes of sand, stretching along the 
 coast to an apparently endless extent, they named Furdus- 
 strandir (Wonderful Shores), " because they seemed so long pass 
 ing by." The coast then became indented with coves, and they 
 ran the ship into a bay, whither they directed their course. 
 " King Olaf had given Leif two Scots, a man named Haki, and 
 a woman named Hekia ; they were swifter of foot than wild 
 animals. These were in Karlsefne' s ship. And when they had 
 passed beyond Wonder-strand, they put these Scots ashore, and 
 told them to run over the land to the southwest, three days, and 
 discover the nature of the land, and then return. They had a 
 kind of garment that they called kiqfal, that was so made that a 
 
COKN. BUZZARD'S BAY. 81 
 
 hat was on top, and it was open at the sides, and no arms ; 
 fastened between the legs with a button and strap, otherwise 
 they were naked. When they returned, one had in his hand a 
 bunch of grapes, and the other an ear of corn. They went on 
 board, and afterward the course was obstructed by another bay. 
 Beyond this bay was an island, on each side of which was a 
 rapid current, that they called the Isle of Currents (Straumey)." 
 
 This island was probably Nantucket, which was evidently at 
 one time united with Martha's Vineyard. The name they gave 
 it shows that they possessed knowledge of the Gulf Stream. On 
 this island, we read : " There was so great a number of eider- 
 ducks there, that they could hardly step without treading on 
 their eggs. They called this place ' Stream Bay.' This was 
 Buzzard's Bay ; the eggs were probably those of the gull which 
 still frequents that part in great numbers. Here we are told 
 'they brought their ship to anchor, and prepared to stay. They 
 had with them all kinds of cattle. The situation of the place, 
 was pleasant, but they did not care for any thing except to ex 
 plore the - land. Here they wintered, without sufficient food. 
 The next summer (1008), failing to catch fish, they began to 
 want food. Then Thorhall the hunter disappeared. . . . 
 
 " They found Thorhall, whom they sought three days, on 
 the top of a rock, where he lay breathing, blowing through his 
 nose and mouth, and muttering. They asked why he had gone 
 there. He replied that this was nothing that concerned them. 
 They said that he should go home with them, which he did. 
 Afterward a whale was cast ashore in that place, and they as 
 sembled and cut it up, not knowing what kind of a whale it was, 
 they boiled it with water, and devoured it, and were taken 
 sick ; then Thorhall said : < JSTow you see that Thor is more 
 prompt to give aid than your Christ. This was cast ashore as a 
 reward for the hymn which I composed to my patron Thor, who 
 rarely forsakes me.' "When they knew this, they cast all the re 
 mains of the whale into the sea, and commended their affairs to 
 God. After which the air became milder, and opportunities 
 were given for fishing, and from that time there was an abun 
 dance of food, and there were beasts on the land, eggs in the 
 island, and fish in the sea." 
 
 It is somewhat amusing to find these newly-converted and 
 evidently sincere Christians, still believing in the efficacy of 
 
82 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 prayer to their ancient gods ; with them it seems to have been a 
 matter of supremacy of one god over the other. Thorhall was 
 evidently a most disagreeable personage, not altogether unde 
 serving of his fate. We read next : " They say that Thorhall 
 desired to go northward around < Wonder-strand,' to explore 
 Yinland, but Karlsefne wished to go along the south shore. 
 
 " Then Thorhall prepared himself at the island, but did not 
 have more than nine men in his whole company, and all the 
 others went in the company of Karlsefne. When Thorhall was 
 carrying water to his ship, he sang this verse : 
 
 1 People said when hither I 
 Came, that I the best 
 Drink would have, but the land 
 It justly becomes me to blame 
 I, a warrior, am now obliged 
 To bear the pail ; 
 Wine touches not my lips, 
 But I bow down to the spring.' 
 
 " And when they had made ready and were about to sail, 
 Thorhall sang : 
 
 ' Let us return 
 
 Thither where our countrymen rejoice, 
 Let the ship try 
 The smooth ways of the sea ; 
 While the strong heroes 
 Live on Wonder-strand, 
 And there boil whales, 
 Which is an honor to the land.' 
 
 "Afterward he sailed north, to go round Wonder-strand 
 and Kialarness, but, when he wished to sail westward, they were 
 met by a storm from the west and driven to Ireland, where they 
 were beaten, and made slaves. 
 
 " And, as merchants reported, there Thorhall died." 
 
 We see, by this incidental allusion to merchants and their 
 bringing news from Ireland, that the trade between the latter 
 and Iceland was then nourishing. 
 
 Karlsefne, with Biarne, Snorre, and the rest, sailed south till 
 they reached the same river, flowing from a lake into the sea, 
 which Leif had entered, and erected his booths. 
 
 They evidently passed to the west of these, toward Mount 
 Hope. They named the place Hop (to form a bay, to recede). 
 
MOUNT HOPE. 
 
 83 
 
 It is curious that the present name of the bay and hill is Mount 
 Hope, derived from the Indian word Haup. May not the latter 
 have been a vestige, remaining with the natives, of the language 
 of the Northmen 3 There is certainly no doubt that the descrip 
 tions in the narratives, both of Leif and Karlsefne, of the lake 
 and approaches to it accurately correspond to Mount-Hope Bay ; 
 indeed, this is a point no longer disputed. 
 
 In this region they found corn growing on the low land, 
 vines on the higher ; the rivers were full of fish. They put their 
 cattle out to pasture, and rested. 
 
 " When spring came (1009) they saw, one morning early, that 
 
 FIRST EUROPEANS TRADING WITH INDIANS. 
 
 a number of canoes rowed from the south round the ness ; so 
 many as if the sea were sown with coal ; poles were also swung 
 on each boat. Karlsefne and his people then raised up the shield, 
 and when they came together they began to trade, and those peo 
 ple would rather have red cloth ; for this they offered skins and 
 real furs. They would also buy swords and spears, but this 
 Karlsefne and Snorre forbade. For a whole fur-skin, the Skrsel- 
 lings took a piece of red cloth a span long, and bound it round 
 their heads. Thus their traffic went on for a time ; then the 
 cloth began to be scarce with Karlsefne and his people, and they 
 
84 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 cut it into small pieces which were not wider than a finger's 
 breadth, and yet the Sknellings gave as much as before, and more." 
 
 A bull, belonging to Karlsefne, happening to roar, disturbed 
 this peaceful trading with the Indians, who, frightened at the 
 sound, fled in dismay ; they soon returned making hostile demon 
 strations; hard pressed by superior numbers, the Northmen fled 
 to the rocks, where they could make a stand. Freydis, a daugh 
 ter of Eric, who with her husband accompanied the expedition, 
 indignant at the flight of her countrymen, defied the Indians, so 
 that, awe-struck at her conduct, and moreover routed by the 
 Northmen in the rocks, they fled to the woods. " Karlsefne and 
 his people now thought that they saw, although the land had 
 many good qualities, that they still would always be exposed 
 there to the fear of attacks from the original dwellers. They 
 decided, therefore, to go away, and return to their own land." 
 
 They therefore sailed to the Straumey, whence Karlsefne, 
 with one of the ships, sailed in quest of the malcontent Thor- 
 hall, the other ship and crew remaining behind. Rounding 
 Kialarness, Karlsefne proceeded northwest ; the land lay to his 
 left ; this was covered with thick forests, and mountains which 
 were supposed by them to form one range with those of Hop. 
 
 Karlsefne returned to Straumfiord after a fruitless search, and 
 there spent the winter of 1010. In the spring of that year they 
 all sailed for Greenland. At Markland they saw five natives. 
 They captured two boys whom they instructed in the Norse 
 tongue, and the Christian religion. Karlsefne reached Green 
 land safely with a rich cargo of timber, grapes, and furs. 
 
 Biarne Grimolfson, however, was driven out into the ocean, 
 and his ship was attacked by worms, which riddled it complete 
 ly. The heroic magnanimity of Biarne in this emergency, as 
 well as the fortitude displayed (with one exception) by the un 
 fortunates doomed to inevitable death, are best related in the 
 simple language of the Saga : 
 
 u Biarne Grimolfson was driven with his ship into the Irish 
 Ocean, and they came into a worm sea, and soon the ship began 
 to sink under them. They had a boat which was smeared with 
 sea-oil for the worms do not attack that. They went into the 
 boat, and then saw that it could not hold them all ; then said Bi 
 arne : c As the boat will not hold more than half of our men, it is 
 my counsel that lots should be drawn for those to go in the boat, 
 
BIARNE GIVES HIS LIFE. 
 
 85 
 
 for it shall not be according to rank.' This they all thought so 
 generous an offer that no one would oppose it. They then did 
 so, that lots were drawn ; and it fell to Biarne to go in the boat, 
 and half of the men with him, for the boat had not room for 
 more. But when they had gotten into the boat, an Icelandic 
 man that was in the ship, and had come with Biarne from Ice 
 land, said, ' Dost thou mean, Biarne, to leave me here ? ' Biarne 
 said, ' So it seems.' Then said the other, < Very different was the 
 promise to my father, when I went with thee from Iceland, than 
 thus to leave me, for thou saidst that we should both share the 
 same fate.' Biarne said : ' It shall not be thus ; go down into the 
 boat, and I will go up into the ship, since I see that thou art so 
 
 anxious to live.' Then Biarne went up into the ship, and this 
 man down into the boat, and after that they went on their voy 
 age until they came to Dublin, in Ireland, and there told these 
 things ; but it is most people's belief that Biarne and his com-' 
 panions were lost in the worm sea, for nothing was heard of them 
 after that time." 
 
 Other voyages were made, and it is evident that communica 
 tion was kept up with Yinland till intercourse between Green 
 land and Europe ceased, and the rigor of the climate or other 
 
86 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 causes had destroyed the vigorous Norse colony in the former. 
 As late as the year 1347 it is recorded in the " Annals of Iceland," 
 a sort of contemporaneous chronicle, that among the wrecks of 
 the year was " a Greenland ship which had been on a voyage to 
 Markland." We might also enlarge upon the tradition, which 
 very possibly has truth for its foundation, that the Irish, as early 
 as 7 the Northmen, visited and colonized the southern portion of 
 North America, and had there formed an extensive settlement. 
 The land south of Yinland was called by the Northmen, Huit- 
 ramannaland (White-man's Land), or Great Ireland. The Irish, 
 to whose maritime and commercial activity we have already al 
 luded, may very possibly have extended their voyages so far ; 
 but this cannot yet be stated as a fact, and still remains a mere 
 tradition. Not so the voyages of the Northmen to our conti 
 nent ; these have become a certainty. They also made extensive 
 explorations in the arctic regions, but of these we shall not here 
 speak, contenting ourselves with having recorded their more 
 important explorations along the coast of North America. 
 
 And, having read the narratives of these Norse voyagers, 
 how can we sufficiently admire their conduct and motives, es 
 pecially when contrasted with those of the much-lauded Colum 
 bus ? Thorwald asks " whether any one is hurt," before even al 
 luding to his own mortal wound ; and when he does so it is with 
 manly fortitude and resignation. Biarne Grimolfson gives his 
 life for a cowardly follower, and accepts certain death, that he 
 may be true to a promise given. Can one such act be found in 
 the far more recent life of Columbus, whose continual /becomes 
 monotonous, who ignores all save himself, whines and whimpers 
 at the slightest danger, real or apparent ? Leif Ericson himself 
 starts in search of a missing follower, and, finding him, greets 
 him kindly. When two of Columbus' s luckless crew lose them 
 selves, they are by his orders cast in irons and put on short ra 
 tions, to expiate their heinous offense. Attacked by hostile In 
 dians, Thorwald says, " We shall defend ourselves as well as we 
 .can, but not use our weapons much against them." Greeted by 
 peaceable Indians, Columbus orders the ship's gun fired in their 
 midst, in order " to abate their pride and make them not con 
 temn the Christians." 88 
 
 All the Norse leaders, Biarne Heriulfson, Leif and Thorwald 
 
 88 Fernando, " Historia del Amirante/'chapter xcili. 
 
HEROIC CHARACTER OF THE NORTHMEN. 87 
 
 Ericson, Karlsefne, Biarne Grimolfson, worked for the common 
 good, and were as much loved and respected by their followers 
 as Columbus was hated and despised by his. 
 
 "We have here given but a short sketch of the Northmen and 
 their achievements in America, because the field has already 
 been thoroughly explored. The evidence, climatic, geographical, 
 and astronomical, that the Sagas describe the Eastern coast of 
 North America, has been unanswerably set forth by Rafn, and 
 the matter placed beyond cavil. Historians of Columbus, how 
 ever, either utterly ignore, or slightingly allude to, the achieve 
 ments of these predecessors of their hero, on whom they have 
 determined to heap all the honors belonging to various men and 
 various ages. To this the candid and impartial will scarcely 
 consent. If the discovery by Columbus in 1492 of the islands 
 of San Salvador and San Domingo was the discovery of the Con 
 tinent of America, then the discovery and permanent coloniza 
 tion of Iceland and Greenland, six hundred years before by the 
 Scandinavians, was also the discovery of that continent ; the por 
 tion of main-land coasted by Columbus was avowedly but small, 
 and he professed to be in Asia. The Northmen, on the con 
 trary, visited all the eastern coast of America, from the extreme 
 North to Florida, formed settlements, and for centuries carried 
 on commerce with the products of what are now the most civil 
 ized, populous, and enlightened portions of America ; and the 
 American might well feel relief and pride at the knowledge 
 that the first of his race to touch upon his native shores were 
 the heroic Norsemen : 
 
 "Kings of the main, their leaders brave, 
 Their barks the dragons of the wave." 
 
CHAPTEE IY. 
 
 PRINCE MADOC AND THE ZENI BKOTHEKS. 
 
 IN treating of pre-Columbian visits to America, it would be 
 unjust wholly to omit mentioning the voyages said to have been 
 made to that continent by Prince Madoc, in the twelfth and the 
 Zeni brothers in the fourteenth century. Insufficiency of eviden ce 
 prevents these expeditions from taking a prominent place in the 
 domain of history, yet the traditionary accounts of them, ignored 
 by too partial historians of Columbus, go far to prove that the 
 voyage of the latter was no such startling undertaking as has 
 been represented ; that the realms which lay beyond the Atlantic 
 were not shrouded in all the mystery of the unknown ; nor the 
 ocean itself regarded with that superstitious terror recorded by 
 his eulogists, in order to enhance his courage and superiority 
 over his contemporaries. 
 
 Cambrian chroniclers speak confidently of a voyage made by 
 Prince Madoc in the year 1170, to a Western continent. This 
 land is said to have been fertile, and peopled by a race differing 
 in features and complexion from those of Europe. Subsequent 
 writers contend that this new land was no other than the Conti 
 nent of America. 38 
 
 What may be the amount of credit justly due to these state 
 ments is not now easy to determine ; yet it is evident that the 
 earlier of these accounts were not written for the purpose of de 
 frauding Columbus. Hakluyt, Humboldt, and others, have 
 given this subject more or less consideration. While it is still 
 shrouded in mystery, there can be little doubt that Madoc made 
 a voyage to distant lands. His name and family were not so ob 
 scure as to admit of his disappearing from the scenes of turmoil 
 
 89 The similarity between the name of Madoc and that of the Modoc tribe of In- 
 dians has been commented upon by some, who ascribe a Welsh descent to the latter. 
 
PRINCE MADOC. 89 
 
 and blood with which Wales was afflicted after the death of his 
 father, without attracting the notice of historians of his time, 
 nor is it probable that he remained concealed in his native land, 
 or that he fixed his abode in any portion of the earth with which 
 the isle of Britain had (intercourse. 
 
 Prince Madoc is the hero of one of Southey's ablest poems. 
 He prefaces it with the following history, which contains all that 
 is known at the present day of the Welsh navigator : 
 
 " The historical facts on which this poem is founded may be 
 related in a few words. On the death of Owen Gwyneth, King 
 of North Wales, A. D. 1169, his children disputed the succession. 
 Yorworth, the elder, was set aside without a struggle, as being 
 incapacitated by a blemish in his face. Hoel, though illegiti 
 mate, and born of an Irish mother, obtained possession of the 
 throne for a while, till he was defeated and slain by David, the 
 eldest son of the late king by a second wife. The conqueror, 
 who then succeeded without opposition, slew Yorworth, im 
 prisoned Rodri, and hunted others of his brethren into exile. 
 But Madoc, meantime, abandoned his barbarous country, and 
 sailed away to the west, in search of some better resting-place. 
 The land which he discovered pleased him ; he left there part of 
 his people, and went back to Wales for a fresh supply of adven 
 turers, with whom he again set sail, and was heard of no more. 
 Strong evidence has been adduced that he reached America." 
 
 The poem of Madoc, Mr. Southey informs us, drew upon him 
 the indignation of an American pamphleteer, who denounced 
 him, as having " meditated a most serious injury against the 
 reputation of the New World, by attributing its discovery and 
 colonization to a little vagabond Welsh prince this being a 
 most insidious attempt against the honor of America and the 
 reputation of Columbus." 
 
 To such lengths of blind partiality will men be carried, who 
 care less for the truth of history than for the fame of its crea 
 tures. Early historians were not thus scornful of Madoc and his 
 voyages ; witness Purchas, who writes : " I will not say but that 
 in these times of old, some ships might come some time by casu 
 alty into these parts, but rather forced by weather than directed 
 by skill ; and thus it is likely that some parts of America have 
 been peopled .... The most probable history (account) in this 
 kind is (in my mind), that of Madoc ap Owen Gwyneth, who, by 
 
90 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 reason of civil contentions, left his country of Wales, seeking 
 adventures by sea ; and, leaving the coast of Ireland north, came 
 to a land unknown, where he saw many strange things." ' 
 
 NICOLO and ANTONIO ZENO flourished in Yenice, during the 
 latter part of the fourteenth century (1380). They were active 
 members of a family of warriors, navigators, statesmen, diplo 
 mats, and historians ; few families have a prouder record than 
 the Zeni ; Nicolo and Antonio added to its fame by the adven 
 turous character of their voyages, especially by that in which it 
 is averred that the latter visited the Continent of America. 
 
 Purchas, in speaking of discoveries made in the northern 
 parts of the New "World, Greenland, New France, etc., says: 
 " The first knowledge that hath come to us of those parts was by 
 Nicholas and Antonio Zeno. . . . Master Nicholo Zeno, being 
 wealthy, and of a haughty spirit, desiring to see the fashions of 
 the world, built and furnished a ship at his own charge, passing 
 the Straits of Gibraltar, held on his course northward, with in 
 tent to see England and Flanders, but, a violent tempest assail 
 ing him, he was carried he knew not whither." 41 He finally 
 reached Friesland, according to the same old author, and was 
 there with his companions saved from death at the hands of the 
 natives, by Zichmui, who was a chief or ruler in that province. 
 This chief, appreciating the nautical skill of Nicolo, placed him 
 in command of his navy, and subjugated sundry islands. " After 
 divers notable exploits," Nicolo armed three vessels in which 
 he visited Engroneland (probably Iceland). Here he found a 
 monastery, and a church dedicated to St. Thomas ; this was 
 " hard by a hill, that cast out fire, like Vesuvius and Etna ; there 
 is a fountain of hot water with which they heat the church of the 
 monastery, and the friars' chambers ; it cometh also into the 
 kitchen so boiling hot that they use no other fire to dress their 
 meat." 
 
 Nicolo returned to Friesland in 1395, and died there ; his 
 brother Antonio succeeded to his fortune and honors, and was 
 employed by Zichmui in an expedition to Estotiland. This coun 
 try we are told lay " to the west of Friesland ; the people there 
 possess some gold, sow corn, and make beer ; " farther south, 
 
 40 pilgrimage," pp. 725, 726. The story of Madoc has been carefully examined 
 by John Williams, LL. D. (London, 1791), to which the curious are referred. 
 
 41 Pilgrimage," p. 735. 
 
THE ZENI BEOTHERS. 91 
 
 they go naked. In one region they visited, the ground was 
 covered with the eggs of wild-fowl. The country was very ex 
 tensive, and was regarded as a new world. After this voyage 
 Antonio returned to Venice, where he died soon after, in 1405. 
 Such are the meagre data which have come down to us. 
 Scanty as are the details, they go far to corroborate the assertion 
 that Zeno touched upon the American Continent. Purchas says 
 of the regions above named (New France, etc.), " The best geog 
 raphers are beholden to these brothers for that little knowl 
 edge they have of these parts." 
 
CHAPTEE Y. 
 
 INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 THERE is an ancient Indian fable which reads : " This beau 
 tiful world we inhabit rests on the back of a mighty elephant ; 
 the elephant stands on the back of a monster turtle ; the turtle 
 rests upon a serpent ; the serpent on nothing." It well typifies 
 the many splendid histories of Columbus, eloquent in the praise 
 of their hero, proceeding often from the most eminent authors, 
 and resting upon a stupendous "weight of authority" which is 
 in itself nothing, or, worse than nothing, falsehood ; yet, so deep 
 ly rooted are these falsehoods in the minds of the multitude, and 
 so difficult are first impressions to erase, that many years will 
 elapse before the question, " Who discovered America ? " will not 
 be answered unhesitatingly with the name of Christopher Co 
 lumbus. Where one author, regarding truth as of more impor 
 tance than the reputation of any real or pretended hero, labors 
 to show matters pertaining to this discovery in their true light, 
 ten, nay, a hundred, will unreflectingly repeat the universally 
 accepted theory, and stamp it indelibly on the minds of another 
 generation. Great writers have immortalized, poets idealized, 
 and priests would canonize Columbus. In the vindication of 
 truth, the work is truly great, the laborers few, and the attempt 
 to prove that this saintly demi-god was neither great, noble, 
 heroic, nor even honest, appears but a thankless task. 
 
 " There is a certain meddlesome spirit," writes Washington 
 Irving, in his " Life of Columbus," " which, in the garb of 
 learned research, goes prying about the traces of history, casting 
 down its monuments, and marring and mutilating its fairest 
 trophies. Care should be taken to vindicate great names from 
 
TRUTH, THE AIM OF THE HISTORIAN. 93 
 
 such pernicious erudition. It defeats one of the most salutary 
 purposes of history, that of furnishing examples of what human 
 genius and laudable enterprise may accomplish." 4a 
 
 We, too, believe that one of the most laudable purposes of 
 history is to furnish examples of what human genius and enter 
 prise can accomplish, and far be it from us to pry with meddle 
 some spirit ; but, we would ask, Were genius and enterprise con 
 centrated in Columbus only ? If others were the authors of a 
 scheme which he imperfectly carried out, should not their names 
 be vindicated, their genius extolled? If the monuments ex 
 isting are false, should they not be overthrown, and the real ones 
 raised triumphantly to the pedestals from which they have been 
 so long and unjustly dethroned ? Above all, is not truth the 
 greatest and most worthy object of history ? 
 
 These questions, we believe, answer themselves. Before at 
 tempting to mar one of the fairest trophies of history, let us dis 
 cover by whom this trophy was raised ; in a word, let us exam 
 ine what constituted history, and especially Spanish- American 
 history, at the time of Columbus. Let us not be deterred from 
 rejecting a statement which is evidently untrue, because of the 
 " weight of authority " upon which it rests ; nor let us blindly 
 accept a false assertion because sanctioned by an Inquisitor; 
 neither will we denounce in general terms the authorities so 
 often quoted, but endeavor to show their defects and errors, that 
 the reader may himself judge how much is to be accepted as 
 truth, and how much as the result of priestly tyranny, personal 
 vanity, and interested deceit. 
 
 " The writing of history, so far as regards the New World," 
 Lord Kingsborough remarks, " was by the law of Spain restrict 
 ed to men in priestly orders." 
 
 To a small work on Mexico, by Boturini, are appended 
 
 1. The declaration of his faith. 
 
 2. The license of an Inquisitor. 
 
 3. The license of the judge of the Supreme Council of the 
 Indies. 
 
 4. The license of the Jesuit father. 
 
 5. The license of the Royal Council of the Indies. 
 
 6. The approbation of the qualificator of the Inquisition. 
 
 7. The license of the Royal Council of Castile. 
 
 49 Irving, "Life of Columbus," book i., chapter v. 
 
94: LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 Beyond all this, the person must be of sufficient influence to 
 obtain the favorable notice of the bodies thus represented. 
 
 Nor was this the end of the difficulty : the license of any one 
 of these officials could be revoked at pleasure ; and, when repub- 
 lished, the work had to be reexamined. 
 
 The penalty attached to the possession of a book not thus 
 licensed was death. 48 
 
 In 1524 Venetian merchants were arrested, by the Holy 
 Office, for selling Bibles with commentaries, by a writer of the 
 twelfth century, Eabbi Solomon Easchi ; and their release could 
 not be obtained by the Venetian ambassador, because it was al 
 leged that they were arrested for selling books against the Faith. 
 
 Such was the tyranny which weighed upon historical writers ; 
 and it is not difficult to perceive how all these censors would 
 deal partially with Columbus. By representing himself as the 
 chosen of God, the champion of the Christian religion, carry 
 ing the light of the Gospel to heathen nations, by performing the 
 smallest acts with affectation of religious ceremony, by inserting 
 scriptural and religious sentences in his most trivial letters, by 
 recounting miracles and interviews with God, by giving, in fact, 
 a religious coloring to all his acts, he became the protege of the 
 Church, which has continued through all after-centuries to re 
 gard him as one of her most zealous votaries, and is now stren 
 uously urged to place him among her saints. 
 
 Pope Alexander YI. (Koderigo Borgia) deeded the Conti 
 nent of America to Spain, solely on the statement of Columbus. 44 
 To attack the latter was, therefore, to attack the justice of the 
 pope's bull, and an indirect imputation on papal infallibility. 
 " The learned and excellent divine Guistiniani," who published, 
 we believe, the first polyglot edition of the Psalms, was bitterly 
 assailed, and his book condemned to be burned, 46 because, in a 
 note appended to the nineteenth Psalm, containing a sketch of 
 
 48 Wilson, " New History of the Conquest of Mexico," chapter, ii., p. 81 ; Lord 
 Kingsborough," vol. vii., p. 269. 
 
 44 Count Roselly de Lorgues, in his " Life of Columbus " (vol. i., chapter xi., p. 400), 
 speaking of this matter, says : " The pope has faith in Columbus. He yields full cre 
 dence to him and justifies his calculations. It is solely on Columbus that he depends ; 
 it is relying on Columbus that he engages in the vast partition of the unexplored world, 
 between the crowns of Spain and Portugal. Every thing the messenger of the cross pro 
 poses is granted in full, as a thing that is indicated by Providence." 
 
 46 Fernando, " Historia del Amirante," chapter ii. 
 
SPANISH HISTORY. 95 
 
 the life of Columbus (suggested by the words " In omnem ter~ 
 ram exivit sonus eorum, et in finis mundi verba eorum "), there 
 are some statements which are not considered sufficiently flatter 
 ing to that individual. An examination of this note will prove 
 to the reader how trivial an offense was sufficient to cause the 
 destruction of a valuable work. One of the chief enormities it 
 contains is the allegation that in his early life Columbus was a 
 mechanic; this, his son and historian regards as an unspeakable 
 insult. 
 
 Laical censors, owing their authority to the same royal favor 
 which protected Columbus, would naturally regard any history, 
 detrimental to fhe latter, as militating against the Queen of Cas 
 tile. Thus it was that in Spain it became necessary for all who 
 would write a history of the ISTew World, to extol Columbus 
 and the Church. 
 
 To ecclesiastical tyranny and popular prejudice may be 
 added the exaggerations and falsehoods of the chief actor of the 
 scene, whose statements are accepted as gospel truth, even when 
 at war with reason, common-sense, or known facts, and we shall 
 perceive how difficult it will be to wade through errors, partiality, 
 and injustice, and arrive at the truth regarding the character 
 and deeds of this Columbus and his contemporaries. We have 
 seen how history was compiled in his time. Subsequent Spanish 
 historians, finding, even in the facts recorded, much which would 
 militate against the honor of their country, as well as of the 
 individuals concerned, have endeavored to soften the cruelties 
 and enormities perpetrated ; while the modern American writer 
 identifies the glory of his country with that of Columbus, and 
 considers that to record any thing which is not highly in praise 
 of the latter, is to insult America. How far this spirit is 
 carried we may judge from the following passage in Washington 
 Irving : 
 
 "Herrera has been accused also of flattering his nation, ex 
 alting the deeds of his countrymen, and softening and concealing 
 their excesses. 
 
 "There is nothing very serious in this accusation. To illus 
 trate the glory of his nation is one of the noblest offices of the 
 historian ; and it is difficult to speak too highly of the extraordi 
 nary enterprises and splendid actions of the Spaniards in those 
 days. In softening their excesses he fell into an amiable and 
 
96 
 
 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 pardonable error, if indeed it be an error for a Spaniard to en 
 deavor to sink them in oblivion." 
 
 When we read such sentiments from the pen of one of Amer 
 ica's ablest writers, we confess that we lose some confidence in 
 his statements. If history were to become the medium through 
 which writers exaggerate the good and conceal the bad in their 
 respective countries and favorite heroes, how vainly should we 
 search for truth in the history of the same events, written in 
 nations variously interested! 
 
 The historian has a nobler mission. The good and great he 
 should indeed extol, that after-generations may be impelled 
 to like actions ; but that which is disgraceful, cruel, or dishon 
 orable, he should fearlessly condemn ; he thus becomes the faith 
 ful mirror in which good and bad are alike reflected, exerting 
 a salutary influence in his own country, believed and respected 
 in others. 
 
 Illustration of tortures inflicted upon obnoxious or heretical authors of the time of Columbus. The 
 instruments below the burning psalter represent the " Morning Star," or " Holy -water Sprin 
 kler" (so called derisively), with which the blood of heretics was drawn. (See Meyrick'a "De 
 scription of Ancient Arms and Armor at Goodrich Court," vol. ii., plates 92, 93.) 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 CONTEMPORARIES OF COLUMBUS. FERDINAND AND ISABELLA". 
 
 IF it is necessary to demonstrate the spirit in which his his 
 tory has hitherto been written, before attempting a truthful biog 
 raphy of Columbus, it is not less necessary, in order to form a 
 just estimate of his character, to become acquainted with those 
 of his contemporaries with whom he had more or less relation, 
 and who have been favored or injured, according as they were 
 favorable to him ; or as their character and achievements, supe 
 rior to his, would, unless willfully belittled, diminish greatly the 
 meed of praise which has been accorded to him. 
 
 The most prominent of these were Ferdinand of Aragon 
 and Isabella of Castile, who are so intricately connected with 
 the history of Columbus that it becomes necessary to elucidate 
 their character, that the reader may judge of their conduct with 
 regard to the latter. It has been too customary to lay the blame 
 of all the calamities which Columbus entailed upon himself, by 
 his deception and inhumanity, upon the " cold and calculating 
 Ferdinand," " who is represented as having persistently endeav 
 ored to frustrate his lofty designs. These charges become void 
 when we consider the marriage articles between Ferdinand and 
 Isabella, signed and sworn to January 7, 1469, in which Ferdi 
 nand promised faithfully to respect the laws of Castile ; to fix his 
 residence in that kingdom, and not to quit it without the con 
 sent of Isabella ; to alienate no property belonging^ to the crown ; 
 to prefer no foreigners to municipal offices (his subjects were 
 foreigners in Castile) ; to make no appointments, civil or military, 
 without her consent or approbation ; to resign to her, exclusive 
 ly, the right of nomination to ecclesiastical benefices, etc., etc. 47 
 
 They lived together, not like man and wife, whose estates 
 
 46 Irving, " Life of Columbus," book xviii., chapter iii. 
 
 47 Prescott, " Ferdinand and Isabella," chapter iii. 
 
98 
 
 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 were blended, and subject to the direction of the husband, but 
 like allied monarchs, with separate and independent claims to 
 sovereignty, each having their envoys, ministers, counselors, 
 secretaries, and treasurers, and were often removed from each 
 other while superintending their respective interests. 48 The sub 
 jects of Ferdinand were not allowed even to visit the western 
 
 FERDINAND 'OF ABAGON. (From an Old Engraving in the Burgundian Library.) 
 
 48 Irving, " Life of Columbus," book ii., chapter ii. Voltaire, " Essai sur les Moeurs." 
 Ferdinand complains thus of his consort : " The reason why you do not write, is not 
 because there is no paper to be had, or that you do not know how to write, but be 
 cause you do not love me, and because you are proud. You are living at Toledo, I 
 am living in small villages. . . . The affairs of the princess " (their daughter) "must 
 not be forgotten. For God's sake, remember her, as also her father, who kisses your 
 hands, and is your servant." We shall see how the unhappy daughter he alludes to 
 was remembered. 
 
DECEIT AND CRUELTY OF ISABELLA. 99 
 
 islands when discovered. He was subject to the Queen of Castile, 
 and perfectly unanswerable for any of her proceedings. Astute 
 and suspicious as he no doubt was, he may have mistrusted the 
 adventurer Christopher Columbus, but he was too jealously pre 
 vented from having any voice in the affairs of state for his sus 
 picions to have any effect. 
 
 Isabella, the patroness of Columbus, has been handed down 
 to posterity as of "glorious memory" the "sweet queen" Pres- 
 cott tells us " her honest soul abhorred any thing like artifice." 
 She is represented as the type of womanly gentleness, virtue, 
 and truth, coupled with masculine courage and intelligence ; but, 
 alas ! as we peruse her history, and see her character reflected in 
 the numerous dispatches she wrote, we perceive that the priest 
 hood, which raised her to the throne of Castile, has done much 
 toward embellishing her character, and endowing her with ficti 
 tious qualities. Transferred, at the early age of sixteen, to a 
 court which Prescott terms "a brothel, private morals too loose 
 to seek even the veil of hypocrisy ; " frequently betrothed to men 
 who, if not yielding to the wishes of those who treated for their 
 marriage with the future Queen of Castile, died in a manner as 
 mysterious as sudden; owing her throne itself to a scandalous 
 imputation against her brother's wife, and the brand of illegiti 
 macy affixed to her niece, her early life too soon made her famil 
 iar with the immorality and unscrupulous intrigue of the court 
 of Spain at that period. 
 
 The fearful fires of the Inquisition filled Spain with a ghastly 
 glare, and it was Isabella who applied the torch. She peti 
 tioned for the establishment of Torquemada as grand-inquisitor. 
 Whole towns and villages were depopulated, and their wealth 
 poured into the royal coffers. Living and dead were alike per 
 secuted ; bodies were exhumed and burned, while the crown 
 confiscated the wealth of the heirs. Isabella herself says : " I 
 have caused great calamities, and depopulated towns, lands, 
 provinces, and kingdoms ;" but this was all done, she protested, 
 from love of Christ and his Holy Mother ! Those were liars 
 and calumniators who said she had done so from love of money, 
 for she had never touched a maravedi proceeding from the confis 
 cated goods, but had employed the money in educating and 
 giving marriage-portions to the children of the condemned. It 
 would seem discourteous, if not unjust, to doubt so solemn a 
 
100 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 declaration ; but, as we peruse the state papers, we find orders 
 emanating from the queen which differ widely from the spirit 
 of the above profession. For instance, one Pecho of Xerez was 
 condemned for heresy ; his property, amounting to two hundred 
 thousand maravedis, was confiscated. The widow, whose portion 
 was twenty thousand maravedis, was reduced with her children to 
 the utmost destitution. As a special favor, Isabella granted them 
 thirty thousand maravedis, while the remaining hundred and sev 
 enty thousand she appropriated to herself. Such cases abound ; 
 and while so-called bounties, such as the above, are always record 
 ed, silence is preserved touching the many instances in which she 
 appropriated the whole of the confiscated property. So terrible 
 did her persecutions become, that the pope resolved to send a 
 legate to Spain to investigate the proceedings of the Inquisition. 
 Isabella strove to prevent this. 
 
 " She used corruption on a large scale, larger even, as she de 
 clared, than was agreeable to herself. The final result was, that 
 the courts of Spain and Rome came to an understanding respect 
 ing the person who was to be sent as legate. He received 
 rich donations in Spain, and his inquiry was reduced to a 
 mere form. It is characteristic of the queen, that the only condi 
 tion she made was that his Holiness should absolve her from 
 simony." 4fl 
 
 The Inquisition was thus firmly established. Yictims mul 
 tiplied ; two thousand men and women were burned, a greater 
 number condemned to living death in the dungeons of that ter 
 rible institution, homesteads were abandoned, and thousands fled 
 to neighboring countries. " The queen was implored to relent, 
 but she answered that it was better for the service of God and 
 herself to have the country depopulated, than to have it polluted 
 by heresy." 
 
 The archivero of Barcelona of that time has recorded a long 
 list of autos-da-fe, the victims were of all classes clergymen, 
 officers in the army, tailors, and cobblers, but there is a dispro 
 portionately large number of widows of merchants. Mr. Bergen- 
 roth, recording this fact, shrewdly inquires, "Were they really 
 more inclined to heresy, or were they only rich, and compara 
 tively defenseless 2 " 60 
 
 49 G. A. Bergenroth, "Introduction to Spanish State Papers," vol. i., 1485-1509. 
 "Idem 
 
ISABELLA AN UNNATURAL MOTHER. 1Q1 
 
 Such was the beneficent rule of this virtuous queen over her 
 own subjects. Her relations with foreign powers are equally to 
 her discredit. Her correspondence teems with the grossest insin 
 cerity and heartlessness. Her cruel neglect of her daughter shows 
 her to have been sadly deficient in that domestic virtue and 
 affection for which she has been so much praised ; a notable ex 
 ample of her deceptive policy and grasping avarice is found in 
 the negotiations which took place for the marriage of her daugh 
 ter. She established a marriage brokerage in England, where 
 she carried on the disgraceful business for many years, driving 
 bargains, or seeking to do so, upon the persons of her daughters, 
 conducting these negotiations more with an eye to filling her 
 coffers, than to her own honor or her daughters' integrity. Her 
 confidential agent at the court of England was Doctor de 
 Puebla, selected, it is said, " because he was so uncommonly 
 honest," but who, indeed, was a consummate knave, as is 
 abundantly proved, not only by his making himself the me 
 dium of the abominable falsehoods he was instructed to utter 
 by the queen, but by the following chapter of his history, con 
 tained in the Spanish archives under date of the 18th of July, 
 1488: 
 
 " The Spanish Merchants residing in London to Sanchez de Lmi- 
 dono and the Sub-prior of Santa Cruz. 
 
 " De Puebla had asked Henry to give a bishopric to him 
 and other good livings to his sons and relatives. On account of 
 the king having refused to do so, he had delayed the conclusion 
 of the treaty of marriage. When Henry was in his greatest 
 difficulties with Scotland and Perkin" (Warbeck), " De Puebla 
 had repeated his demands. Henry had answered that he was unfit 
 to become a bishop, because he was a cripple. De Puebla then 
 proposed that the bishopric should be given to a certain procurator 
 of Henry in Home, from whom he had got one thousand gold 
 crowns, for his promise to procure letters for him from the King 
 and Queen of Spain to the pope, recommending him for a cardi 
 nal's hat. Henry was in such great difficulties then, that he had 
 acceded to the proposals of De Puebla, and promised fifteen thou 
 sand crowns a year, besides, to one of his sons. As soon as De 
 Puebla had obtained what he wanted, he concluded the mar- 
 
102 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 riage, which was so advantageous to Henry, that, in consequence 
 of it, peace with Scotland was concluded, Perkin turned out of 
 Scotland, and the rebels punished. Some merchants from Genoa 
 had subjected themselves to a penalty in England ; they gave five 
 hundred crowns, and cloth, and silk, for the marriage, to De 
 Puebla, who settled their affair with Henry. 
 
 " De Puebla had sold two licenses of the king for importing 
 wine and woad, in Spanish vessels, to Spanish merchants, for two 
 hundred crowns. 
 
 " Francisco de Arvieto, of Orduna, had paid De Puebla one 
 hundred gold crowns for a pardon for perjury. 
 
 " Similar things are done almost daily by De Puebla. When 
 he took part in the negotiations with Flanders, he persuaded the 
 archduke to impose a duty of one gold florin on every piece of 
 English cloth, the consequences of which have been to cause pro 
 longed debates and great disasters. 
 
 " There is not a Spanish captain, or even a single sailor, who 
 is not obliged to pay more or less to De Puebla if he has any 
 thing to do in England. De Puebla often takes money from 
 both parties if he has to decide a lawsuit. He is a spy and 
 secret informer in all kinds of contraventions committed by sub 
 jects of any nation, only for the purpose of making money by 
 his information. He and his servants sell testimonials of all 
 kinds. 
 
 " De Puebla constantly complains that he is badly paid, and 
 he begs money from the king and the gentlemen of the court. 
 He lives meanly. He has been three years in a house of a 
 mason, who keeps dishonest women. He eats with them and 
 with all the apprentices at the same table, for twopence a day. 
 His landlord robs men who come to his house, and the ambas 
 sador protects him, in his dishonest trade, against the police. 
 
 " The consequence of all this is that the Spaniards are less 
 esteemed and worse treated in England than any other foreign 
 ers." 
 
 Elsewhere we read, " In a word, De Puebla was a liar, flat 
 terer, calumniator, beggar, spy, secret informer, enemy of truth, 
 full of lies." 
 
 The above are a few of the leading traits of character which 
 seem to have so endeared De Puebla to Isabella that she retained 
 
ISABELLA AND DE PUEBLA. 103 
 
 him in office after those who had been sent to England to inves 
 tigate his character and conduct had reported that "all the pa 
 per in England would not suffice to describe the character of that 
 man." 
 
 Her letters of instruction to him contain statements not only 
 false but disgusting, and, though avarice and .deceit are palpable 
 throughout her multifarious and protracted negotiations to mar 
 ry her daughter, now to this prince, now to that, and now to 
 some other, she affects to be making great sacrifices " for the love 
 of Christ and his Holy Mother." In 1490 she writes to De Pu- 
 ebla, calling him her " virtuous and intimate friend," urging him 
 to persuade the King of England to declare war on France ; simi 
 lar efforts were made to induce the King of Scots to join the co 
 alition against France, and Isabella offered him her daughter. 
 Princess Katherine, as an inducement the said princess was then 
 betrothed to Arthur, Prince of Wales ; but Isabella kept that 
 betrothal secret, that she might impose upon other parties. 
 
 Henry of England obtaining an inkling of the above trans 
 action, and not being quite satisfied, he was reassured by Isabella, 
 who informed him that the King of Scots was to be the only 
 dupe, and that it was to prevent the latter from aiding Warbeck, 
 the so-called Duke of York. The huckstering with regard to 
 the marriage of Isabella's children fills the reader of her dis 
 patches with disgust the manner in which the matter was 
 discussed being worse, if possible, than the object intended. 51 
 
 51 Honest De Puebla writes his affectionate mistress that he has examined the per 
 son of her intended son-in-law, first clothed, then naked, and lastly when sleeping, 
 and declares him possessed of admirable parts. 
 
 Isabella was not to be outdone, even by the despicable De Puebla, for we find her 
 subsequently seeking to drive a bargain upon the real or pretended virginity of her 
 widowed daughter, and for proof referring to Dona Elvira, "the first lady of the bed- 
 chamber." Fearing that the latter may not be believed, she would establish the fact 
 by a cloud of witnesses. 
 
 On the 16th of June, 1502, she writes the Duke of Estrada: "Be careful also to 
 get at the truth as regards the fact whether the Prince and Princess of Wales consum 
 mated the marriage, since nobody has told us about it. You must, moreover, use all 
 the flattering persuasion you can to prevent them from concealing it from you." On 
 the 12th of July of the same year, she continues to instruct the duke in this delicate 
 mission as follows : 
 
 " But now you must see of how great importance it is that there should be no delay 
 
 in making the agreement for the contract of marriage of the Princess of Wales, our 
 
 daughter, with the Prince of Wales who now is .... Therefore, since it is * already 
 
 known for a certainty that the said Princess of Wales? our daughter, ' remains as she was 
 
 8 
 
104: LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 DePuebla writes to Ferdinand and Isabella, July 18, 1488, as 
 follows : 
 
 " When speaking of the marriage, the king " (Henry YIL) 
 " broke out into a Te Deum laudamus" 
 
 " The English declared, with regard to the alliance, there was 
 not much to confer about, and began directly to speak of the 
 marriage. They were exceedingly civil, and said a great many 
 things in praise of Ferdinand and Isabella ; that being done, they 
 asked the Spaniards to name the sum for the marriage-portion. 
 
 " The Spanish ambassador replied that it would be more be 
 coming for the English to name the marriage-portion, because 
 they had first solicited the marriage, and their party is a son. 
 The English commissioners asked five times as much as they had 
 asked in Spain. 
 
 " The Spanish ambassador proposed to refer this amount to 
 Ferdinand and Isabella, who would act liberally in proportion 
 to the confidence shown them. 
 
 " The English commissioners said that such a proceeding 
 would be inconvenient for both parties, and that Ferdinand 
 and Isabella would not agree to it. 
 
 " The Spanish ambassador complained that the English were 
 unreasonable in their demands. Bearing in mind what happens 
 every day to the Kings of England, it is surprising that Ferdi 
 nand and Isabella should dare to give their daughter at all. This 
 was said with great courtesy, in order that they might not feel 
 displeasure or be enraged. 
 
 " The English commissioners abated one-third. 
 
 " The Spaniards proposed that, as there was sufficient time 
 for it, two or four persons should be selected as umpires. 
 
 here ' (for so Dona Elvira has written to ws), endeavor to have the said contract agreed 
 to immediately, without consulting us ; for any delay that might take place would be 
 dangerous. See also that the articles be made and signed, and sworn to at once, and, 
 if nothing more advantageous can be procured, let it be settled as was proposed. In 
 that case let it be declared that the King of England has already received from us one 
 hundred thousand scudos in gold, in part payment of the dowry, and let that be made 
 an obligatory article of the contract, with a view to restitution, in accordance with the 
 former directions given you. Let it be likewise stipulated that we shall pay the rest of 
 the dowry when the marriage is consummated, so please God ; that is, if you should not 
 be able to obtain more time. But, take heed, on no account to agree for us to pay what 
 still remains of the dowry until the marriage shall have been consummated . ... Be 
 very vigilant about this, and endeavor to have the contract made, without delay, and 
 without consulting us. Do not, however, let them see you have any suspicion of hin- 
 derance, or show so much eagerness that it may cause them to cool." 
 
MARRIAGE HUCKSTERAGE. 105 
 
 The English commissioners declined it, and gave their rea 
 sons. 
 
 " The Spaniards desired the English to name their lowest 
 price. 
 
 " The English abated one-half. 
 
 " The Spaniards said that this marriage would be so advanta 
 geous to the King of England that he ought to content himself 
 with what is generally given with princesses of Spain. 
 
 * " The English desired to have every thing defined, in order 
 to avoid disputes after the conclusion of the marriage. They 
 asked twice as much as they had asked in Spain. 
 
 " The Spanish ambassador offered one-fourth. 
 
 " The English asked why, as the money was not to come out 
 of the strong boxes of the king and queen, but out of the pock 
 ets of their subjects, they should not be more liberal. They 
 referred to old treaties with France, Burgundy, and Scotland, 
 proving by them that even higher marriage - portions were 
 given." 
 
 When the marriage is at length ^concluded, there is a large 
 amount of negotiation as to who shall pay the passage of the 
 Princess Katherine to England, and who shall clothe her. "We 
 read in one dispatch : 
 
 " Ferdinand and Isabella are to send the princess in a decent 
 manner, and at their own expense, to London. 
 
 " They are to dress their daughter suitably to her rank " 
 (Fionorifice\ " and to give her as many jewels, etc., for her personal 
 use as becomes her position." 
 
 In answer to which, Isabella writes De Puebla : 
 
 " King Henry asks them to bind themselves to give their 
 daughter ornaments and apparel, without deducting the amount 
 from the marriage-portion. Such a proceeding is against cus 
 tom. Husbands provide the dresses of their wives. They are 
 willing to buy as many dresses and ornaments for the Princess 
 Katherine as the English wish, provided the cost be deducted 
 from the marriage-portion, and, if not, they will give what they 
 think proper. . . . He is to inform himself what the dowry of 
 the queen would be in such a case, and to secure to the Princess 
 Katherine a somewhat larger dowry than other Queens of Eng 
 land have enjoyed." 
 
 Again Isabella insists that " one-half, or one-third, or at any 
 
106 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 rate the fourth part " (of the marriage-portion), " must be accepted 
 in ornaments and apparel for the person and household of the 
 infanta." 
 
 This daughter became a widow on the 2d of April, 1502. 
 The news does not seem to have reached Isabella until more 
 than a month after the death of the English prince. She loses 
 no time, but on the 10th of May, 1502, commissions the Duke 
 of Estrada to endeavor to conclude a marriage between her wid 
 owed daughter and the Prince of Wales, surviving brother, of 
 her late husband, with instructions as to dower, etc., etc. 
 
 This done, it is not till two days later that she writes, for 
 the eye of King Henry, the following letter of condolence to her 
 minister at London : " Have read with profound sorrow the 
 news of the death of Prince Arthur. The affliction caused by 
 all their former losses has been revived by it. But the will of 
 God must be obeyed." 
 
 Richard III. excited disgust by courting a widow beside the 
 bier of her late husband. Had Isabella chanced to be in Eng 
 land at the death of this son-in-law, it seems probable that nego 
 tiations for a second husband for her bereaved daughter would 
 have preceded the funeral of the first. 
 
 Again, her deceit is manifested by the following instruction 
 to Estrada, who is negotiating for this second marriage : "In 
 case that you hear any thing of the King of France, appear as if 
 you did not know it, until after the treaty of marriage is con 
 cluded." (The King of France had just declared war on Spain.) 
 " Afterward you must show to the King of England the relation 
 which we send you of the matters between us and the King of 
 France." 
 
 All this bargaining for a daughter's marriage, and the duplic 
 ity with which it is carried on, certainly evince that avarice, 
 meanness, and deceit, were attributes of Isabella's character. 
 But, should further proof seem necessary, it may be found in the 
 following extracts from a document in which Isabella commis 
 sions Estrada to raise an army in England : 
 
 " Queen Isabella of Spain to Ferdinand, Duke of Estrada, 
 
 October 3, 1503. 
 
 " If the King of England should not be inclined to afford us 
 further assistance, he must, at any rate, be pleased to give us the 
 
FALSEHOODS OF ISABELLA. 107 
 
 assistance which is obligatory upon him ; and, upon our forward 
 ing the money, send us troops. Tell him that you have the money, 
 and that we pray and require him to be willing, immediately, to 
 send two thousand English infantry, picked men and well armed 
 .... this being done, you shall endeavor to make them embark 
 instantly .... try your utmost to have the troops you shall thus 
 send, the best chosen, and the best armed, that it is possible to 
 obtain ; and get them to come as soon as ever they can. ... As 
 regards the pay that will have to be made to the said troops, en 
 deavor to let it be as little as possible .... (three ducats per 
 month are suggested). . . . Borrow the money that will be re 
 quired for the aforesaid pay r , agreeing for us to repay it in Eng 
 land, on the terms stipulated by you .... But, should you not 
 have ships at present, in which the said infantry can come as 
 above said, you must not give them any pay. Endeavor, how 
 ever, to find out how many troops are to come .... spread 
 abroad a report in England that there are many more troops go 
 ing to Spain ; because, as you will see, such tidings and rumors 
 will inspire France with fear, and will produce a favorable impres 
 sion in Italy. 
 
 " If you should see that it will not annoy the King of England 
 our brother, and the chief men of his kingdom, and that it can 
 do no harm, make use of the Princess of Wales, our daughter ; 
 that is to say, should you not be able to obtain the money neces 
 sary for the dispatch of the said troops ; .... in that case, you 
 shall say to her, by virtue of my letter of credence which I will 
 send, that you pray her to raise, upon her jewels and plate, the 
 money which may be necessary for the dispatch of the two thou 
 sand infantry." 
 
 This dispatch concerning the army might naturally be sup 
 posed to pertain to Ferdinand, but the reader will perceive that 
 it bears the name of Isabella alone ; it contains as much falsehood 
 and duplicity as could well be inclosed in so small a space. First, 
 her agent is instructed to tell the king he has the money ; second 
 ly, to borrow the money on the credit of Isabella ; thirdly, to ob 
 tain it by pawning the jewels and plate of Princess Katherine. 
 Nor can the meanness be overlooked with which she stipulates 
 for the best troops, best equipped, poorest paid, and most hastily 
 concentrated ; and then, if she should not be ready to transport 
 
108 LIFE OF COLUMBUL. 
 
 them, they are to receive no pay. Furthermore, her agent is 
 charged to circulate a false report with regard to the number of 
 troops'. Finally, let us consider the financial condition of the 
 Princess Katherine (who is to raise the necessary funds), from 
 her own account. She had always been kept in straitened cir 
 cumstances till, in 1502, she writes to her father thus : 
 
 " No woman, of whatever station in life, can have suffered 
 more than she has. None of the promises made to her on the 
 occasion of her marriage, have been kept. Repeats once more 
 that which has formed the principal part of all her letters, name 
 ly, the necessity of sending a suitable ambassador with sufficient 
 means of subsistence. The circumstance that the former ambas 
 sadors were not properly provided for, has been the cause of all 
 her sufferings .... Has never told him the whole extent of her 
 misery. Has been treated worse in England than any other 
 woman. . . . Has not more than five women in her service. 
 They have not received the smallest sum of money since they 
 were in England, and have spent all that they possessed. Can 
 not think of them without pangs of conscience. No money 
 could pay their services and sacrifices, which have continued dur 
 ing six years. Has been unable to pay a single penny to the 
 courier who takes this letter." 
 
 Alonzo de Escobal, of the household of Princess Katherine, 
 writes to Almazan (September 6, 1507) : " He would not mention 
 his great necessity if there were any other means to remedy it ; 
 begs him to remind the king in what poverty the servants of the 
 Princess of Wales live. Thinks he has a right to ask at least his 
 salary, is obliged to sell his clothes. Has seen the Princess of 
 Wales only three times since Dona Elvira has left her. Dona 
 went away in a horrible hour ; but such things are better suited 
 for conversation than for letters." 
 
 Again the Princess of Wales writes : 
 
 " That her necessities have risen to such a height, that she 
 knows not how she shall be able to sustain herself, now that 
 even her household goods have been sold." 
 
 Few will deny, after perusing the extracts we have given, 
 that Isabella is proved, by her own words and acts, to have been 
 an unloving wife, an unnatural mother, a cruel and despotic 
 sovereign, a deceitful and treacherous ally, an avaricious and un 
 scrupulous woman. It is easy to perceive how in spite of all this 
 
FERDINAND AND ISABELLA. 109 
 
 so much partiality has been shown her, often to the detriment 
 of her husband. Besides the favor of the Churcn, for which she 
 professed so much zeal, the chivalry of the Spaniards has always 
 made them remember she was a lady, and they have dealt cour 
 teously with her. Moreover, her marriage did not smother the 
 old rivalry and strife between the Corona and Coronilla. Isabella 
 represented the corona, or great crown of Castile, while Ferdi 
 nand merely represented the coronilla, or small crown of Ara- 
 gon. Castile never regarded him with favor, considering him an 
 intruder, who had much to gain and little to lose by his alliance, 
 and the opinion of Castile, as the leading and larger portion of 
 the kingdom, has been received as that of all Spain. It is diffi 
 cult for the most impartial historian not to be influenced by 
 such a judgment, unless he refer to the original papers and let 
 ters of the time, and with their assistance form an opinion of 
 his own. 
 
 That we may not appear wantonly to have inveighed against 
 a sovereign who has so long been considered a shining light, we 
 will not rest solely upon the views we may have derived from 
 our own investigation, but will quote the conclusions at which 
 Mr. Bergenroth, who spent many years in arduous study amid 
 the archives of Simancas, has at length arrived. His familiarity 
 with the state papers renders him abundantly competent to give 
 an opinion : 
 
 " Neither Ferdinand nor Isabella scrupled to tell direct un 
 truths, and make false promises, whenever they thought it expe 
 dient to their policy. But if any distinction is to be made, 
 certainly Queen Isabella excelled her husband in disregard to 
 veracity. It even seems to have been a matter of understanding 
 between them that, whenever any very flagrant falsehood was to 
 be uttered, she should be the one to do it. ... Ferdinand had 
 not the reputation, among princes of his time, of being a very 
 untruthful man. . . . The queen often spoke of her dress. 
 She dwelt much upon her simplicity, and laid great stress on the 
 circumstance that she had been obliged to receive the French 
 ambassadors twice in the same costume, while she spent large 
 sums to the glory of God, and the good of the world. This 
 kind of letters have often been published, and have not a little 
 contributed to exalt her as a pious character. But such persons 
 as had opportunities of seeing her, and of judging by their own 
 
110 
 
 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 observations, could not find words expressive enough to describe 
 the splendor of her attire. . . . Machada assured the King of 
 England that a single toilet of Queen Isabella amounted in value 
 to two hundred thousand scudi, and that he never saw her 
 twice, even on the same day, whether it were at an audience, a 
 bull-fight, or a ball, in the same costume ; we may, therefore, con- 
 
 ISABELLA OP CASTILE. (From an Authentic Engraving in the Burgundian Library.) 
 
 jecture that she carried on her person the greater portion of the 
 contents of the royal exchequer. . . . Neither Ferdinand nor 
 Isabella were scholars. They spoke and wrote Spanish well, but 
 seemed to have been unable to understand any other language. 
 With regard to their moral character, the queen has been ex 
 tolled as simple-hearted and pious, while a large amount of op 
 probrium has been cast upon the king. But it is very difficult, 
 
ISABELLA AND SAEMIENTO. HI 
 
 where two persons are so intimately united as Ferdinand and 
 Isabella, to decide what measure of praise or blame attaches to 
 the one or the other. They quarreled sometimes about their 
 private concerns. It could scarcely be otherwise, when we re 
 member that Ferdinand had four illegitimate children by differ 
 ent mothers. But in their aggressive foreign policy, and in their 
 measures of oppression at home, they were always agreed. . . . 
 She (Isabella) appears to have been very liable to mistake her 
 own interests for those of God, whose name she constantly had 
 on her lips, or to substitute self-gratification for real love of the 
 people. For instance, in her letter to Henry VIL, dated Sep 
 tember 15, 1496, she enlarged in the most touching terms on the 
 blessings of peace, and concluded by saying that, if it -were pos 
 sible to avoid thereby the calamities of war, she would not only 
 send one and more than one embassy to the King of France, 
 but that she would go to him in her own person, and ask him to 
 make peace, not sparing herself any trouble or pains whatever. 
 No words can be more becoming a great and pious queen. It is 
 to be regretted that, in the same letter, she urged the King of 
 England to declare war on France, and thereby to render the 
 bloodshed and slaughter more general even than it. was. . . . 
 Queen Isabella left behind her, or, more accurately speaking, 
 acquired after her death, the reputation of having been almost a 
 saint. But, unhappily, the sanctity of Isabella was only of a 
 spurious kind. Her subjects, who had suffered from her iron 
 rule, had formed a widely different idea of her. When, on Tues 
 day, the 17th of November, 1504, she died at Medina del Campo, 
 crowds assembled under the windows of her palace, but not to 
 bless her memory. From curious criminal proceedings instituted 
 some years later against Sarmiento, corregidor or mayor of Me 
 dina, we learn that he did not hesitate to declare that her soul 
 had gone direct to hell, for her cruel oppression of her subjects, 
 and that King Ferdinand was a thief and a robber. ISTor was 
 Sarmiento the only person who thought thus, as the witnesses 
 deposed that all the people around Medina and Yalladolid, that 
 is to say, where the queen was best known, had formed the same 
 judgment of her." 
 
 We will conclude with the following opinion, at which Mr. 
 Bergenroth arrives, and which appears pertinent and correct 
 
 " We are not reduced to depend upon public opinion, know- 
 
112 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 ing enough of her to judge for ourselves; and, to any one ac 
 quainted with the lawless times of her youthful years, it must be 
 obvious that, had she really been so pious, so meek, and self-sac 
 rificing a princess as her admirers would fain have us believe, 
 she would have been trodden under foot, instead of usurping, as 
 she did, the crown of her niece." 
 
 This brief investigation of the character of Isabella has ap 
 peared to us necessary. She has hitherto been regarded as of 
 an almost saintly nature ; the mere fact of such a woman having 
 tendered her gracious protection and friendship to Columbus, 
 would of itself speak highly in his favor. But, when we become 
 acquainted with the true character of Isabella, it is easy to under 
 stand how she cajoled him as long as his splendid falsehoods 
 promised to gratify her cupidity, and abandoned him when his 
 untruthfulness was discovered. 
 
 Ferdinand, who has been made the scape-goat, was, as we 
 have already shown, wholly unanswerable for the proceeding of 
 Isabella in this as in all matters pertaining to Castile. In spite 
 of this unanswerable evidence, Mr. Irving does not hesitate to 
 say: "Let the ingratitude of Ferdinand stand recorded in its 
 full extent, and endure throughout all time. The dark shadow 
 which it casts upon his brilliant renown will be a lesson to all 
 rulers, teaching them what is important to their own fame in. 
 their treatment of illustrious men." 
 
CHAPTEE YIL 
 
 CONTEMPORARIES OF COLTJMBTJS (CONTINUED) 
 
 AMERIGO VESPUCCI. 
 
 \ 
 
 THE leading incidents in the life of Vespucci are better 
 known than his character is rightly judged ; we will therefore 
 give but a rapid sketch of the former, and, in speaking of the lat 
 
 ter, dwell somewhat upon certain facts which, it appears to us, 
 go far toward rehabilitating the memory of this great man, who 
 has been so unjustly censured and condemned. 
 
114: LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 AMERIGO was the son of Nastagio Vespucci and Lisbetta 
 Mini his wife. The family was an old and honored one in the 
 fifteenth century ; before the time of Amerigo they had left the 
 little village of Peretola, whence they originated, and came to 
 Florence, where they resided in the stately mansion which was 
 afterward a hospital for the sick under the care of the Brothers 
 of St. John of God. In this house Amerigo was born, on the 9th 
 of March, 1451. Over the entrance is an inscription commemo 
 rating the faqt, also the achievements of the great man ; it reads 
 thus: 
 
 OB REPERTAM AMERICAM 
 
 BUI ET PATRIAE NOMINIS ILLUSTRATORI 
 
 AMPLIFICATOKI. ORBIS. TERRARUM. 
 
 IN HAG OLIM VESPUCCIA DOMO 
 
 A TANTO VIRO HABITATA 
 
 PATRES SANCTI IOANNI8 DE DEO CULTORES 
 GRATAE MEMORIAE CAUSSA." " 
 
 Amerigo passed his youth in study, under Giorgi Antonio 
 Yespucci, his uncle (a Dominican friar who instructed many of 
 the youth of Florence), and on reaching manhood he entered the 
 commercial career in the famous house of the Medici. As confi 
 dential agent of this house, he was in 1492 sent to Spain to su 
 perintend business transactions in that country. The trust 
 reposed in him by such eminent men as the Medici and Berardi 
 is a sufficient encomium upon the capacity and honesty of Yes 
 pucci ; and not the least proof of his integrity is the fact that the 
 suspicious King Ferdinand of Aragon (who regarded Columbus 
 as an impostor, or at best an unworthy adventurer) reposed such 
 confidence in him that he appointed him to assist in the discov 
 eries he desired to be made in the West. The antecedents of Yes 
 pucci seem far better to have qualified him for a serious under- 
 
 62 " To Amerieus Vespucius, a noble Florentine, 
 
 Who, by the discovery of America, 
 Rendered his own and his country's name illustrious, 
 
 The amplifier of the world, 
 Upon this ancient mansion of the Yespucci, 
 
 Inhabited by so great a man, 
 The Holy Fathers of St. John of God 
 
 Have erected this tablet, sacred to his memory. 
 
AMEEIGO YESPdCCI. 115 
 
 taking than those of Columbus. During his well-spent youth he 
 had made geography, cosmography, and astronomy, objects of 
 special study, while the nautical experience of the latter had 
 been gained during a long career of piracy. 
 
 The first voyage of Yespucci was at the instance of King 
 Ferdinand, in 1497, as is stated in his letter relating the events 
 which took place therein. 53 His detractors seek to cast odium 
 upon him, by declaring this letter an invention, and the voyage 
 a fiction. This charge may be refuted by reference to the letter 
 itself. From the description contained in it of the bay of Vene 
 zuela, that province received its name. He writes : 
 
 " We landed in a port where we found a village built over 
 the water, like Yenice. There were about forty-four houses, 
 shaped like bells, built upon very large piles, having entrances 
 by means of drawbridges, so that, by laying the bridges from 
 house to house, the inhabitants could pass through the whole. 
 When the people saw us they appeared to be afraid of us, and, to 
 protect themselves, suddenly raised all their bridges, and shut 
 themselves up in their houses. While we stood looking at them 
 and wondering at this proceeding, we saw coming toward us by 
 sea about two-and-twenty canoes, which are the boats they make 
 use of, and are carved out of a single tree. They came directly 
 toward our boats, appearing to be astonished at our figures and 
 dress, and keeping at a little distance from us. This being the 
 case, we made signals of friendship, to induce them to come 
 nearer us, endeavoring to reassure them by every token of kind 
 ness ; but, seeing that they did not come, we went toward them. 
 They would not wait for us, however, but fled to the land, mak 
 ing signs for us to wait, and giving us to understand that they 
 would soon return. They fled directly to a mountain, but did 
 not tarry there long, and, when they returned, brought with them 
 sixteen of their young girls, and, entering their canoes, came to 
 our boats and put four of them into each boat, at which we were 
 very much astonished, as your excellency may well imagine. 
 Then they mingled with their canoes among our boats, and we 
 considered their coming to speak to us in this manner to be a 
 token of friendship. Taking this for granted, we saw a great 
 crowd of people swimming toward us from the houses, without 
 any suspicion. At this juncture, some old women showed them- 
 
 63 F. A. de Yanhagen, " Analyse Critique de la Yie de Yespuce." 
 
116 
 
 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 selves at the doors of their houses, wailing and tearing their 
 hair, as if in great distress. From this we began to be suspicious, 
 and had immediate recourse to our weapons, when suddenly the 
 girls, who were in our boats, threw themselves into the sea, and 
 the canoes moved away, the people in them assailing us with 
 their bows and arrows. 
 
 VESPITCCI IN VENEZUELA. (Reduced from Hen-era's " History of the West Indies.") 
 
 At the time Vespucci's letter was published, no description 
 of the countries in question existed ; yet his minute accounts of 
 the appearance, religion, and customs of the inhabitants, as well 
 as of the vegetation, formation of the coast, etc., were corrobo 
 rated by subsequent visitors to that part of America between 
 Honduras and Chesapeake, which we are led to infer was the 
 
VESPUCCI AND OJEDA. 117 
 
 scene of his first voyage. He must, therefore, have either visited 
 the country, or possessed the gift of divination. 54 
 
 Other writers, equally virulent against the Florentine discov 
 erer, declare that he sailed in a subordinate capacity under Yin- 
 cent Yanez Pinzon, and Juan Solis. This is an ungenerous at 
 tempt to belittle a great man. Isabella had, at the urgent insti 
 gation of Columbus, passed a decree forbidding any voyages to 
 the islands recently discovered, except under the command of 
 the latter. This decree was revoked in 1494, in favor of all sub 
 jects of Castile, who were thenceforward authorized to prepare 
 expeditions at their own expense, or at that of the crown, for the 
 purpose of discovering Western lands for Castile. They were 
 obliged to depart from Cadiz, having presented themselves be 
 fore the officers of the crown to obtain a license. Amerigo be 
 ing an alien, employed by the King of Aragon, could not, there 
 fore, openly command an expedition, and it was probably nomi 
 nally conducted by Yincent Yanez and Juan Solis. These men 
 were skillful pilots. Yespucci was, however, their equal if not 
 superior in cosmographical knowledge ; and, although his letters, 
 contrasting in this point strongly with those of Columbus, are 
 singularly devoid of all personal allusion to himself of a lauda 
 tory character, they evidently emanate from a man of intellect 
 and science, carefully noting the appearance and habits of a new 
 country and people, for the purpose of reporting the particulars. 
 It is believed, therefore, that the expedition, by whomsoever 
 nominally conducted for the purpose of evading the national 
 edict, was really directed by Amerigo. 
 
 The second voyage of Yespucci was in 1499, and we have 
 reason to believe he was accompanied by Alonzo de Ojeda, from 
 whom, however, he became separated during the voyage, Ojeda's 
 return to Spain being previous to that of Yespucci. In this 
 voyage he touched upon the most easterly point of Brazil, and 
 coasted northwestward as far as the island of Curacao and the 
 gulf of Paria, where he writes he bought pearls of the natives 
 for a mere nothing. He then sailed for Hispaniola, where he 
 was to take on provisions and repair his ships. His crew were 
 maltreated by those who were in the island with Columbus, 
 "from envy I believe," he writes, but refrains from entering 
 into particulars. He returned to Spain on the 8th of September, 
 
 54 Varhagen, u Analyse critique," p. 94. 
 
118 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 1500. He was received, we are told, with great joy by all, par 
 ticularly by the king and queen. He brought fine pearls and 
 precious stones of great value, which were placed in the royal 
 gallery. His fame spread far and wide, and in his native city, 
 Florence, there was great exultation over his success so great 
 that public places were, by order of the signiory, illuminated 
 three nights, which was considered a great honor, accorded by 
 vote, with much solemnity, to the worthiest and greatest citizens 
 only." 
 
 While he was in Seville, reposing from the fatigues of these 
 two voyages, the King of Portugal sent thither agents who were 
 to persuade him to prosecute for that monarch the discovery of 
 Brazil, which Cabral had accidentally made in 1500. Yespucci 
 consented, and it was in the service of Portugal that he under 
 took his third voyage. He explored the coast of Brazil south 
 ward, and some authors state that, in adopting a southeastern 
 course, he discovered an island which was no other than Giorgio ; 
 this, however, is merely hypothetical. The details of this, as of 
 the other voyages, are to be found in the authentic letters of 
 Amerigo, which were published during his lifetime. On his re 
 turn to Lisbon, in September, 1502, so great was the satisfaction 
 of the King of Portugal at the manner in which he had con 
 ducted the enterprise, that in May, 1503, six caravels were placed 
 at his disposal, wherewith to search for a southwestern passage 
 to the Indies. In this he was not successful, and, after being sepa 
 rated from the other ships (one of which he afterward rejoined), 
 he again touched on Brazil, followed its coast southward till he 
 reached Cape Frio, where he took on a large quantity of Brazil 
 wood ; he also built a fortress and founded a small factory, and 
 returned to Lisbon on the 18th of June, 1504. Ferdinand of 
 Spain was now eager to regain his services. His rare knowledge 
 and experience rendered him equally valuable to each of the 
 rival monarchs. Ferdinand prevailed, and in 1505 Yespucci 
 returned to Spain. About this time he married a lady of Seville, 
 Maria Cerezo, by whom, however, he left no children. Amerigo 
 now occupied himself in fitting out ships for aii expedition 
 which was to go in search of the spice-lands of Asia. These 
 preparations, though commenced in 1505, were not completed 
 
 65 Bandini, " Vita di Amerigo Vespucci," cap. Hi., p. 45. 
 
APPOINTED PILOT MAJOR. 119 
 
 till 150T, from the fact, perhaps, of its having been stipulated 
 that the ships were to be new ones. 
 
 There is a possibility of Vespucci having made a fifth voyage 
 during this interval, which some writers believe was the cause of 
 the peculiar favors accorded him by the Spanish crown ; it is 
 as probable, however, if not more so, that the king, recognizing 
 his merit and learning, desired to profit by them. However this 
 may be, the office of Pilot-Major of Spain was created for him in 
 1508, and he was charged to examine and instruct all pilots in 
 the use of the astrolabe, to ascertain whether their practical knowl 
 edge equaled their theoretical ; also to revise maps, and to com 
 pose one of the new lands, to be regarded as standard. 68 
 
 56 The royal order, appointing Vespucci to this office, which was read and pub 
 lished in all the cities, villages, and hamlets of the kingdom, reads thus: . . . "We 
 command that all pilots of our kingdom and lordships, who now are, shall hencefor 
 ward be, or desire to be, pilots on the said route to the said islands and terra firma 
 which we hold in the Indies, and other parts of the ocean seas, shall be instructed 
 and possess all necessary knowledge of the use of the quadrant and astrolabe ; and 
 in order that they may unite practice with theory, and profit thereby in the said voy 
 ages which they may make to the said lands, they shall not be able to embark as pilots 
 in the said vessels, nor receive wages for pilotage, nor shall merchants be able to 
 negotiate with them as such, nor captains receive them on board their ships, without 
 their having been first examined by you, Amerigo Despuchi, our pilot-major, and receiv 
 ing from you a certificate of examination and approbation, certifying that they are pos 
 sessed each one of the knowledge aforesaid ; holding which certificate, we command 
 that they be held and received as expert pilots, wherever they shall show themselves- 
 for it is our will and pleasure that you should be examiner of the said pilots. And, 
 that those who do not possess the required knowledge, shall the more easily acquire 
 it, we command that you shall instruct, at your residence in Seville, all such as shall 
 be desirous of learning and remunerating you for your trouble. 
 
 " And as it might well happen that at first there should be a scarcity of examined 
 pilots, and that thereby vessels might be detained, and damage and loss ensue to the 
 people of the said islands and the merchants and others who trade therewith, we com 
 mand you, the said Amerigo, and give you license to choose from among the pilots 
 and mariners who have voyaged thither, the most able, that for one voyage or two, or 
 for a certain space of time they may supply the demand, while others are acquiring 
 the necessary knowledge, and on their return you shall assign to them a period in 
 which they may learn whatever they may be deficient in. And as it has been told us 
 that there are many different charts, by different captains, of the lands and islands of 
 the Indies belonging to us, and by our orders recently discovered, the which charts 
 differ greatly from each other, both in the route indicated and in the position of the 
 lands, which causes much inconvenience therefore, that there may be order in all 
 things, it is our will and pleasure that a standard chart shall be made ; and, that it 
 may be the more correc^, we command the officer of our Board of Trade in Seville to 
 call an assembly of our most able pilots, that shall at that time be in the country, and, 
 in presence of you, the said Amerigo Despuchi, our pilot-major, there shall be planned 
 9 
 
120 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 He led this comparatively tranquil life for four years, and 
 died the 22d of February, 1512. He left no wealth, having 
 seemingly lost sight of pecuniary interest in his desire to prose 
 cute voyages of discovery ; his papers he left to his nephew, Juan 
 Vespucci. A pension was granted his widow, which after her 
 death was made reversible to her sister. 
 
 In none of his writings does Vespucci claim for himself ad 
 vancement, honor, or emolument, nor does he seek to delude his 
 patrons with visions of untold wealth. His letters are the easy 
 effusions of a great mind filled with admiration at the fertile re 
 gions, balmy climate, and primitive races of the New World. 
 Ever modest, he merges himself in the greatness of his undertak 
 ing; and, if the civilized world with one accord gave his name to 
 the regions he was the first in modern times to visit, it was a 
 tribute which it deemed just, and paid unasked. Why, then, 
 should we be taught to consider this judgment unjust ? When 
 the Church, with its Inquisition, before whose severe censorship 
 all works of history (and more especially those relating to the new 
 lands) had to pass, was laboring with unremitting zeal for the ag 
 grandizement of Columbus, and the ignoring of all his contempo 
 raries, no opposition was raised in Spain to the naming of the con- 
 
 and drawn a chart of all the lands and islands of the Indies, which have hitherto been 
 discovered belonging to our kingdom ; and upon this consultation, subject to the ap 
 proval of you, our pilot-major, a standard chart shall be drawn, which shall be called 
 the Royal Chart, by the which all pilots must direct and govern themselves. This shall 
 remain in the possession of our said officers, and of you, our said pilot-major ; and no 
 pilot shall use any other cliart, without incurring a penalty of fifty doubloons, to be paid 
 to the Board of Trade of the Indies in the city of Seville. We also command all pilots 
 of our kingdoms and lordships that henceforward shall go to the said lands of the 
 Indies, discovered or to be discovered, that should they find new lands, islands, bays, 
 or ports, or any other thing worthy of note, they shall mark it upon the said Royal 
 Chart, and, returning to Castile, shall go and give an account thereof to you, our said 
 pilot-major, and to the officers of the Board of Trade in Seville, that all may be put 
 down in its place in the said Royal Chart, to the end that navigators may be the more 
 apt and learned in navigation. Moreover, we command that none of our pilots, who 
 shall henceforward navigate the ocean seas, shall be without their quadrant and astro 
 labe, and the appurtenances thereof, under penalty of being disqualified for service 
 for as long a time as it shall be our pleasure, and shall not be able to resume their 
 position without our special license, and without paying a fine of ten thousand mara- 
 vedis to the said Board of Trade of Seville. And it is our will and pleasure that in 
 virtue of the above, you, the said Amerigo Despuchi, shall use and exercise the said 
 functions of our pilot-major, and shall be able to do, and shall do, all things pertain 
 ing to that office, contained in this our letter, 1 ' etc. NAVARETTE, " Coleccion de los 
 viajes y Descubrimientos," etc., etc., vol. iii., p. 299. 
 
KEASONS FOE THE NAME AMEKIOA. 121 
 
 tinent after its first explorer. Moreover, we read that the name 
 was given by a royal mandate emanating from the crown of Cas 
 tile. Apiano," who wrote almost contemporaneous with Colum 
 bus and Yespucci, makes no mention of the former in his chapter 
 on America, but merely states that this " fourth part of the world 
 received its name from Amerigo Yespucci, discoverer of the same, 
 ... in 1497, by order of the King of Spain." Yiscount San- 
 tarern, in a life of Yespucci, which evinces extreme hostility to< 
 the latter, and unbounded partiality to the cause of Columbus, 
 seeks to account for the naming of the continent from the fact 
 that a "host of eminent geographers and historians who wrote 
 during the lifetime or immediately after the death of Columbus ', 
 ascribe the discovery of the New World to Amerigo, and name it 
 after him in their histories, geographies, and maps." He adds, 
 ""Which name Apian, Yadiamus, and Camers, have since widely 
 spread through Strasbourg, Friburg, and Yienna, while the pro 
 digious celebrity of the little book of Apian has propagated the 
 evil by innumerable editions published in Holland and else 
 where." He might have said in Spain, 68 in the language of 
 which country the work was published, having passed the severe 
 censorship of the Church, Crown, and Inquisition, to which, as 
 we have already stated, all works relating to the new lands were 
 subjected. If, therefore, we find in a book, bearing the impress 
 of the Inquisition, a statement militating against the claims of 
 Columbus, which we know the Inquisition sought to further to 
 the utmost, we may very reasonably infer that statement to have 
 been regarded as incontestable. We know that Columbus lived 
 upon friendly terms with Yespucci for more than seven years 
 after the latter had publicly laid claim to the discovery of the 
 continent. 59 Las Casas, moreover, writes : " I cannot but wonder 
 that Hernando Colon, a clear-sighted man, who, as I certainly 
 know, had in his hand Amerigo's account of his travels, should 
 not have remarked in them any deceit or injustice toward the 
 admiral." "We presume that Fernando, as well as his father, 
 was more competent to judge of the causes of their silence upon 
 
 57 An eminent geographer and astronomer. 
 
 68 The Spanish copy of Apiano, from which our extract is taken, was published 
 only fifteen years after the death of Columbus. 
 
 69 Herrera, relating events which happened in 1501, tells us, as of an old story, that 
 " Americus Vespuccius was, with Ojeda, still persisting in arrogating to himself the 
 honor of having discovered the continent." Columbus died in 1506. 
 
122 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 this subject than Las Casas, or any other of their extravagant 
 admirers ; and had there been the least pretext for refuting the 
 statements of Vespucci, or denying his achievements, it is not 
 likely they would have failed to do so ; yet in after-years the 
 votaries of Columbus raised the hue-and-cry of imposition against 
 Yespucci ; they tampered with his letters, changing dates, 60 sup 
 pressing or perverting facts, that there might be apparent incon 
 sistency in his narrative. The man thus assailed is proved to 
 have led a noble and useful life, earning and retaining the re 
 spect of all with whom he had relations, not excepting Columbus, 
 whom he is accused of having wronged, and who seems to have 
 quarreled with every man connected with him or the Western 
 lands, saving Amerigo Yespucci only. The following letter is 
 sufficient proof of the light in which Columbus regarded 
 Amerigo : 
 
 " To MY VERY DEAR SON DIEGO COLUMBUS : 
 
 " My dear son, Diego Mendez departed from this place on 
 Monday, the 3d of this month. After his departure I conversed 
 with Amerigo Yespucci, the bearer of this, who has been sum 
 moned to court upon matters of navigation. He has always 
 been desirous of pleasing me, and is a very worthy man. For 
 tune has been unpropitious to him, as to many others, and his 
 labors have not profited him as much as reason would seem to 
 require. He goes for me, and with a great desire to do some 
 thing which may redound to my advantage, if it is in his power. 
 I know not here what instructions to give him that will benefit 
 me, because I know not what is desired of him there. He goes 
 determined to do for me all that is possible. See what can be 
 done to advantage there, and labor for it, that he may know and 
 
 60 Vanhagen, who has done more than any one man toward demonstrating the 
 injustice which has been done Yespucci, and who has laboriously collected a vast 
 amount of evidence and facts, writes : " Herrera, the chronicler of the West Indies, 
 while borrowing nearly literally the Latin text of the ' Cosmographies Introductio ' 
 (Vespucci), with all the details, on this first voyage of Vespucci, and knowing that the 
 Florentine navigator had accompanied Ojeda in 1499, thought this must have been 
 the first voyage made by the "former. In this belief he changed the date (1497) to 
 1499, and when he saw that the Florentine navigator's account began to disagree 
 with the facts of which he had knowledge by other documents relating to Ojeda's first 
 voyage in 1499, he raised the cry of imposture, and accused Vespucci of having con 
 fused every thing on purpose, while it was he (Herrera) who was mistaken, and who by 
 this mistake was later to lead into error Charlevoix, Robertson, Tiraboschi, and even 
 Navarette and Humboldt." "Analyse Critique de la Vie de Vespuce," p. 94. 
 
VESPUCCI VINDICATED BY COLUMBUS. 123 
 
 speak of every thing and set things in motion. Let every thing 
 be done secretly, that no suspicion may arise. I have said to 
 him all that I can say touching this business, and I have in 
 formed him of the payments which have been made to me and 
 which are yet to make. This letter is for the adelantado" 
 (brother of Columbus) ; " also, that he may see wherein he can 
 profit and advise him " (Yespucci) " of it, let his majesty believe 
 that his ships were in the best and richest part of the Indies, 
 and, if any thing further is required than what has been said, I 
 will satisfy him by word of mouth, for it is impossible for me to 
 tell by writing. May the Lord have you in his holy keeping ! 
 " Done at Seville, February 5, 1505. 
 
 " Thy father, who loves thee better than himself, 
 
 " CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS." 
 
 If the noble character of Yespucci needed vindication from 
 the vile aspersions cast upon him by prejudiced or partial histo 
 rians, the above letter of Columbus should silence further cen 
 sure and complaint ; it bears full testimony to the honorable con 
 duct of the man, while the writer seems most desirous of profit 
 ing by his influence. "With slight inconsistency, which will not 
 surprise those who have perused the writings of Columbus, in 
 the second sentence of his letter he says, "who is called to court 
 on matters of navigation ; " a little farther on we read, " He goes 
 for me," which would lead us to suppose that Amerigo was called 
 to court expressly to further the interests of Columbus. The 
 first statement we know to have been the truth. Yespucci left 
 Portugal at the instance of the crown of Spain, to take charge 
 of an office which was subsequently erected into a department 
 of the administration, pertaining to pilotage, navigation, and 
 charts. He was to correct the errors carried into the latter by 
 the teachings and maps of Columbus and others. Columbus 
 had fallen into disgrace on account of his cruelty, the gross mis- 
 statements contained in his letters pertaining to his discoveries 
 in the West, and the inaccuracy of his charts ; the use of these, 
 we have seen, was subsequently prohibited, and a penalty im 
 posed upon the pilot who should sail by them. 61 We do not 
 
 61 Irving writes (book i., chapter iv.) : " When the passion for maritime discovery 
 was seeking aid to facilitate its enterprises, the knowledge and skill of an able cos- 
 mographer, like Columbus, would be properly appreciated, and the superior correct- 
 
LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 here propose to raise the veil of secrecy which Columbus in his 
 letter seeks to cast upon a matter public in its character, of 
 which it was his duty to speak and write frankly to the sovereign 
 who had employed him ; honesty does not thus shun the light. 
 All this deceit is very different from the conduct of Amerigo, 
 who in one of his letters thus excuses himself for not writing 
 more in detail : " Much more have I diligently noted down in a 
 pamphlet in which I have described this voyage, and which is 
 now in the hands of his majesty, who I hope will return it to 
 me shortly." 
 
 It is worthy of note that Yespucci was not summoned as a 
 witness by the heirs of. Columbus in their memorable lawsuit 
 against the crown. Friend as he was, we have reason to believe 
 he knew too much of the demerits of the claims set up, and 
 of matters pertaining thereto, which Columbus desired to have 
 kept secret. Those who write in the interest of Columbus, and 
 against Yespucci, have represented the latter as soliciting the 
 above letter for the purpose of introducing himself favorably at 
 court, and thence affect to believe that Yespucci was a very ob 
 scure and unimportant individual. If we could for a moment 
 believe that Amerigo either needed or desired the letter for 
 such a purpose, we are frank to admit that his condition was 
 low indeed ; it was written at a period when Columbus had sunk 
 to the greatest depth of degradation ; five years before (and his 
 condition had in all respects continued to grow more desperate 
 to the day of his death), he writes : " I have now reached that 
 point that there is no man so vile but thinks it his right to 
 insult me. ... If I were to build churches or hospitals, they 
 would call them caves for robbers." 
 
 The time and place of Columbus's nativity remain undeter 
 mined, there is no genuine portrait of him ; but about the coun 
 try, family, and person of Amerigo, there is no dispute ; his por 
 trait and statues are placed among the household gods, even in 
 the abodes of the humble in the Old World. As the children 
 of the United States recognize the portrait of Washington, so do 
 those of Italy that of the discoverer of America. 
 
 ness of his maps and charts would give him notoriety among men of science." From 
 the facts which we have recorded above, it is evident that the government of Castile 
 did not concur in the estimate of Mr. Irving touching the value of Columbus and his 
 charts. 
 
VESPUCCI WISE AND GOOD. 
 
 125 
 
 Yespucci injured none. He did not imagine or pretend to 
 imagine himself in Asia when in America, as did Columbus ; 
 though many have sought to make him participate in the error 
 of the latter, we have his own words to prove how just were his 
 ideas upon the subject. In one of his letters he says : " These 
 regions . . . which it is legitimate to call the New World; " and 
 again, elsewhere : " Most of the ancients say that beyond the 
 
 PORTEAIT OF VESPUCCI. (From an Original Painting from Life.) 
 
 equinoctial line toward the south there is no continent, but only 
 sea, which they called Atlantic, and those who say that there is 
 land say that it cannot be inhabited ; this opinion is erroneous, 
 as my last navigation has shown, for I have found in this conti 
 nent people and animals as in our Europe or Asia or Africa" 
 He thus makes distinct mention of the four quarters of the 
 globe, as they are now recognized. Here, then, is another plea 
 
126 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 in favor of the name America." Columbus, to the last, whether 
 through ignorance or willful deceit, persisted in declaring his dis 
 coveries to be India, Asia, the territories of the Grand-Khan. 
 How could his name be given to countries already well known ? 
 or how could he be said to discover Asia, India, which had occu 
 pied so large a space in the world's 'history for unnumbered ages ? 
 
 Amerigo's knowledge of astronomy and cosmography was 
 much more profound than that of Columbus, who, indeed, at 
 times appears ridiculously ignorant, and who, notwithstanding 
 his novel theory that the world is pear-shaped, is represented in 
 all works written upon the subject, from the child's picture- 
 book to the graver history, as revealing to a hitherto ignorant 
 civilization the " startling theory of the sphericity of the earth." 
 
 Yespucci does not seem to consider this doctrine of sphericity 
 in the light of a strange or novel teaching ; he draws the globe to 
 illustrate his travels over a quarter of its circumference, and to 
 show the relative position of the new lands with the old, but 
 makes no such explanation as one naturally would when speak 
 ing of a new and " startling " theory. 
 
 History says that Columbus was the favorite of Isabella, 
 though disliked by Ferdinand, while Amerigo was the latter's 
 favorite mariner. This being an almost universal opinion, the 
 same reasons which we have already cited as causing the com 
 parative unpopularity of Ferdinand and popularity of Isabella 
 may also be made to account for the ideas generally conceived 
 of their supposed respective favorites. The Spanish authors, 
 who so virulently attack Yespucci, wrote for the Church to which 
 Isabella was professedly devoted. Pope Alexander YL, a Span 
 iard, deeded the Continent of America to Castile ; the clergy 
 ever sought to glorify Columbus ; Isabella favored him until his 
 faithlessness and cruelty made it impolitic if not impossible lon 
 ger to protect him. Ferdinand, whose power as King of Aragon 
 was not. so great as that of Isabella of Castile, unwilling to trust 
 the adventurer Columbus, but judging nevertheless that an ex 
 pedition in search of these lands might be profitable, sought 
 
 62 Mr. Irving appends a note, relating to this matter, to his notice on Vespucci, in 
 which he says : " The first suggestion of the name appears to have been in the Latin 
 work already cited, published in St.-Diez, in Lorraine, in 1507, in which was inserted 
 the letter of Vespucci to King Ren6. The author, after speaking of the other three 
 parts of the world, Asia, Africa, and Europe, recommends that the fourth shall be 
 called Amerige or America, after Vespucci, whom he imagined its discoverer." 
 
VESPUCCI AND FERDINAND. 
 
 127 
 
 Amerigo, whose integrity inspired even the suspicious monarch 
 with confidence. But it was necessary that the expeditions should 
 be so quietly conducted as not to assume the aspect of rivaling 
 those of Castile. It is probable, moreover, that the sagacity of 
 Ferdinand, as well- as the wisdom of Yespucci, prompted them 
 to prosecute their discoveries in an unostentatious manner ; they 
 may have been strengthened in this wise resolve by having wit 
 nessed the sorry exhibition made up of a few naked savages 
 bearing parrots on their shoulders, with which Columbus sought 
 to challenge the admiration of the Spaniards, but which merely 
 
 ZENIT NOSTRO 
 
 VESPUCCI'S ILLUSTRATION OF THE SPHERICITY OF THE EARTH. 
 
 succeeded in -exciting derision, for at the time too many adven 
 turers, who had listened to his golden falsehoods, had returned 
 to their native land broken in health, ruined in fortune, sadder 
 and wiser men, to tell a tale of deluded hopes, want, disaster, and 
 despair. 
 
 We are constantly told that the weight of authority is on the 
 side of Columbus ; but how can the ardent seeker of truth, and 
 truth only, fail to be discouraged when he finds how partial is 
 the testimony in the case ? Las Casas informs us that in all that 
 relates to the discoveries in the New World the most worthy of 
 
128 
 
 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 credit is Peter Martyr of Anghieri; that whatever lie relates 
 respecting these discoveries was recorded in accordance with the 
 accounts given by the admiral himself. Columbus thus becomes 
 his own historian and eulogist, laying down the law by which 
 the claims of all others are to be judged. He would naturally 
 present his own side of the case, and, from what his writings 
 lead us to suppose, would not scruple to slander those whose 
 opinions or statements differed from his, or who had opposed 
 any of his measures. 
 
 TBTUMPH OF AMERIGO. 
 
 Here, then, is an impartial testimony ! To the glory of Co 
 lumbus, a nation's history is prostituted, her great men ignored, 
 her true benefactors assailed. Like the brazen image of Xebu- 
 chadnezzar, he is raised on high to be worshiped, and all who 
 will not bow the knee must perish. Yet all the efforts of his 
 enemies will not wrest the laurel from the brow of Amerigo. 
 America is the name given by the solemn verdict of a world to a 
 continent. It is a goodly name ; like the laws of the Medes and 
 Persians, it alters not ; it shall not pass away until the heavens 
 shall be wrapped together as a scroll, and the earth shall melt 
 with fervent heat, and the angel who stood upon the sea and upon 
 the earth shall proclaim that time shall be no longer ! 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 CONTEMPORARIES OF COLUMBUS (^CONTINUED). 
 PINZON CAB T CABRAL. 
 
 IT would be impossible fairly to judge Columbus and his 
 contemporaries without briefly noticing some of the most meri 
 torious and notable of the latter, who, though less renowned than 
 Yespucci, are well worthy a place beside him, and above Co 
 lumbus. 
 
 MARTIN ALONZO and VINCENT YANEZ PINZON were among 
 the most deserving and worse maligned of these. It appears to 
 have been the spirit of history to lessen the fame of the eminent 
 navigators contemporaneous with Columbus, that he may appear 
 preeminent. It seems sad to us that those who first visited the 
 shores of our continent should occupy so small a space in history ; 
 that while many ignore even the names of Cabot and Cabral, and 
 regard Yespucci as an impostor, Columbus should be styled by 
 every school-boy the discoverer of America ; it seems sad, we say, 
 yet these wrongs appear as just when compared with the ingrati 
 tude of which the Pinzons have been the victims the Pinzoiis, 
 the life-blood of the first expedition of this very Columbus, who 
 climbed to notoriety by means of their purse and good-will, and 
 of one of whom he afterward speaks with the little-mindedness 
 which characterized the man, as "one Pinzon," of whom he 
 seems to preserve but a vague recollection. 
 
 When Columbus entered Spain, friendless, penniless, leaving 
 behind him a history of piracy and crime which would cause all 
 who knew, to distrust him, he first arrived at Palos, a little town, 
 scarce more than a village, situated near the sea ; he begged at 
 the gates of the Convent de la Rabida for bread and lodging for 
 himself and child. The prior ministered to his wants, and to 
 this friar, Juan Perez by name, Columbus imparted the informa- 
 
130 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 tion he had received of there being certain lands to the west of 
 the Canaries. Juan Perez introduced the wayfarer to the Pin- 
 zons, the first family of the place, men noted for their courage 
 and nautical skill. Martin Alonzo, head of the family, listened 
 with interest to the tale of Columbus, the more so as he also, 
 during a visit to Rome, had heard rumors of the existence of 
 these lands ; 63 indeed, many seem to have suspected it, for among 
 the Spanish state papers is a letter from Don Pedro de Ayala, 
 dated 1498, in which he states that the merchants of Bristol had 
 for seven years been sending out ships for the discovery of the 
 island of Brazil, thus running back to a period more than a year 
 anterior to the first voyage of Columbus. 
 
 During his conversation with Martin Alonzo, Columbus 
 stated his desire to visit the court of Spain and solicit ships and 
 the funds necessary for an expedition to reach and conquer these 
 lands, but he was lacking wardrobe, money, and influence. Mar 
 tin Alonzo provided him with the first two necessaries, and Juan 
 Perez with the third, in the shape of a letter to Fernando de Ta- 
 lavera, confessor to the queen. After a lapse of several years, 
 through these influences, Columbus returned to Palos with an or 
 der from Queen Isabella on the inhabitants of the town for two 
 caravels equipped and manned, providing Columbus were to 
 defray the expense of a third ; this, of course, he would have been 
 unable to do, had not the Pinzons come to his aid, Vincent Ya- 
 nez laying down one million maravedis, which was the eighth 
 part of the expense Columbus had boasted he would defray. 64 The 
 ships were made ready, but so great was the repugnance of the 
 inhabitants of Palos to follow an unknown adventurer across the 
 seas in search of distant lands, that the first caravels were scuttled 
 and sunk. After they were replaced, Columbus found it impossi 
 ble to persuade the mariners to accompany him. Martin Alonzo, 
 who had been absent, now returned ; he and his brother each took 
 command of a vessel Martin Alonzo of the Pinta, Vincent 
 Yanez of the Nina. When the inhabitants of the town saw 
 these brave and honest men, whom they loved and respected, 
 putting their fortunes and their lives into the enterprise, they 
 took courage and came forward with alacrity. Thus Columbus 
 owed every thing, in this first expedition, to " the brave broth- 
 
 63 See Navarette, " Colecc. Dip.," vol. iii., p. 659. 
 
 64 See previous reference ; also Irving, " Life of Columbus," book ii., chap. ix. 
 
THE PINZONS. 131 
 
 ers Pinzon" as they have been most justly termed. When we 
 contrast the conduct of these men with that of Columbus, we are 
 filled with admiration. While the latter for years refused to un 
 dertake the expedition unless receiving the greatest honors or 
 emoluments, while sharing none of the expense, and while he 
 succeeded in excluding all competitors by obtaining subsequently 
 a revocation of the order allowing Spanish subjects to search for 
 lands at their own expense for the benefit of the crown, thus 
 narrowing the field of discovery, the Pinzons expend money and 
 influence, leave their home and the town where their fathers had 
 lived respected for generations, apparently without making any 
 conditions for reward. 65 With such conduct before us, how can 
 we for a moment entertain the idea that Columbus was actuated 
 by a desire to promote science, to benefit mankind, or by any 
 other motive than cupidity ? 
 
 On the 3d of August, 1492, the three ships sailed, the one 
 commanded by Columbus, the St. Mary, being the largest and 
 finest ; nevertheless, during the whole of the voyage, she was in 
 the rear, the Pinta leading, as testified by Columbus' s own jour 
 nal. Here, also, explodes another popular error founded on the 
 untruthfulness of Columbus, and those who have sung his praises. 
 It is said that the men mutinied, that the rest of the expedition de 
 sired to return to Spain, but were led on and encouraged by the 
 constancy of Columbus. Now, as we have stated above, the St. 
 Mary was always in the rear, the others having frequently to lay 
 by for her. It is scarcely probable that the Pinta and Nina would 
 have continued thus in advance, had their commanders wished 
 to turn back ; besides, according to the testimony of several wit 
 nesses in the celebrated lawsuit of Don Diego Columbus against 
 the crown, Columbus himself, after sailing some hundred leagues 
 without finding land, wished to return, but was persuaded by the 
 Pinzons to continue the voyage ! Although we do not vouch for 
 the truth of this testimony, it appears more probable than that 
 the Pinzons, who were so greatly interested in the success of the 
 expedition, should wish to abandon their projects. 
 
 65 In the testimony in the lawsuit, already alluded to, it is stated that Martin 
 Alonzo stipulated with Columbus for half the profits which should accrue to the lat 
 ter. This may be true, but Columbus's habitual unfaithfulness caused him to ignore 
 any such condition ; and, the expedition not being a lucrative* one, no claims were 
 preferred at the time by the Pinzons, so that the matter remains uncertain. 
 
132 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 Columbus, ignoring the ocean-current which drifted him 
 northward, was sailing out of the track which had been laid 
 down for him, when the Pinzons called his attention to this 
 northward tendency, and urged him to adopt a more southerly 
 course. He obstinately refused, alleging as a reason that it would 
 shake the confidence of his men, and tend to lessen his impor 
 tance, for him to appear uncertain as to where the land lay ; 
 nevertheless, as they did not find it, he finally consented to adopt 
 a more southerly course, and thus arrived at the island of His- 
 paniola, which but for this change of route he would never have 
 done. To whom, then, was the credit due, to Columbus or to 
 Pinzon ? 
 
 During the consultations with the Pinzons, as to a change of 
 route, we read that from time to time maps and charts were con 
 sulted, by which Columbus was sailing. One of these was no 
 doubt that of Alonzo Sanchez, the dead pilot, of whom we shall 
 speak elsewhere, and from whom it is more than probable Co 
 lumbus received nearly all his information regarding lands in the 
 West. 
 
 After reaching the Caribi islands, by the route indicated by 
 the Pinzons, Columbus declared he would have followed that 
 course from the beginning had he not been told that the land lay 
 from north to south across his track ; he thus demonstrated him 
 self that the voyage was based upon information received, and 
 in no wise upon his own studies, conjectures, or knowledge. A 
 reward of ten thousand maravedis annuity had been offered by 
 the king and queen to the man who should first discover land. 
 On board the Pinta, which, as we have said, was generally ahead 
 of the two other vessels, there was an old mariner, Roderigo de 
 Triana by name, who had long served under Martin Alonzo. 
 The latter was evidently much attached to him, so much so that 
 he wished him to obtain the above reward, and arranged in such 
 sort that he should have every opportunity for doing so. In due 
 time Roderigo declared land to be in sight, and the Pinta fired 
 her gun as a signal. Columbus, when it was ascertained that 
 the alarm was not a false one, stated that he had seen a light on 
 the previous evening, and had privately spoken of it to Peter 
 Gutierrez, groom of the chamber to the king. None of his crew 
 were aware of the fact or had seen the light, and Columbus had 
 made no demonstration ; moreover, his ship being at that time 
 
TKIANA DEFRAUDED BY COLUMBUS. 133 
 
 far in the rear, it is less than probable that such was the case. 
 Columbus, however, did not scruple to despoil the old mariner 
 of his well-earned reward, and we read in Herrera : " But their 
 majesties declared that the reward of ten thousand maravedis 
 annuity belonged to the admiral, and it was always paid him at 
 the shambles of Seville, because he saw a light amid darkness, 
 meaning the spiritual light that was then coming into those bar 
 barous people." 
 
 Roderigo de Triana, after this warning that he should put no 
 ^.onfidence in princes, disgusted at the injustice of the " admi 
 ral " and his sovereigns, left his country and turned Turk. 67 
 
 While at Hispaniola, Columbus lost his ship, and was taken 
 on board the Nina, commanded by Yincent Yanez. Martin 
 Alonzo sailed round the island, desiring to obtain a knowledge 
 of the country. Columbus, when excusing himself to Ferdinand 
 and Isabella for not bringing back as much gold as he had prom 
 ised, ascribed his failure to this so-called desertion on the part 
 of Pinzon, whom he declared to have been insubordinate. 
 Martin Alonzo, who had so nobly befriended Columbus in ad 
 versity, was thus maligned by him, and through his unjust accu 
 sation forbidden to appear at court ; his pride must have been 
 deeply wounded, but it is probable that the ingratitude of 
 Columbus touched him still more keenly. He died, it is said, 
 broken-hearted at Palos, shortly after his return. He deserved 
 a better fate. 
 
 Yincent Yanez soon after fitted out an expedition of four 
 fine ships at his own expense, 68 took with him two sons of 
 Martin Alonzo, and sailed west till he discovered Brazil, three 
 months before Cabral in May, 1500, accidentally reached its 
 shores. 
 
 Charles Y. raised the family of the Pinzons to nobility or 
 Mdalguia, and gave them an escutcheon, on which are seen four 
 caravels and the motto arrogated to Columbus : 
 
 " A Castilla y a Leon, 
 JsTuevo Mundo dio Pinzon." 
 
 66 Herrera, " West Indies," vol. L, chapter xii., Stevens's translation. 
 
 67 Navarette, " Colecc. Dip," vol. iii. 
 
 68 When'a private individual could do this, the absurdity of the statement con 
 tained in most works on the subject, that Isabella pawned her jewels to raise the 
 necessary funds for equipping the three little caravels forming the first expedition, 
 
134 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 This is substantially all that is recorded of the Pinzons : His 
 tory passes lightly over their names, but Fate seems to have 
 made all the reparation in her power ; for, while the family of 
 Columbus, which, so far as regards name or fame, began with 
 him, has long since become extinct, the worthy Pinzons still 
 flourish in their numerous descendants, who have perpetuated the 
 virtues as well as the name of their illustrious ancestors, and on 
 many of whose houses in the little towns of Palos and Moguer, 
 to which they have remained faithful, the escutcheon (the only 
 reward received by these noble and enterprising men from their 
 sovereign) is still emblazoned. 
 
 JOHN CABOT was possibly the first modern discoverer of 
 America ; of his birthplace we have no certain information, but 
 we know that he was by adoption, if not by birth, a citizen of 
 Yenice, for we find in the archives of that city an act dated 
 March 29, 1496, by which the senate unanimously grants deniza- 
 tion to Zuan Caboto, which act states that citizenship is granted 
 him " as usual within and without for fifteen years ; " we may, 
 therefore, infer that he was of Venetian birth, as it was not usual 
 to grant citizenship to foreigners residing in foreign countries, 
 while it had been customary to grant it to citizens proposing to 
 make a long sojourn abroad. Moreover, in the second license 
 granted him by Henry VII., he is styled " Kabotto Venician." 
 He had evidently, however, resided some time at Bristol in Eng 
 land, when the above act of citizenship was passed, and in 1497 
 Henry VII. granted him a license authorizing him and his heirs 
 and assigns to make search for islands, provinces, or regions in 
 the Eastern, Western, or Northern seas, and to occupy such ter 
 ritories as vassals of the English king, paying him one-fifth of 
 the profits on merchandise. With this charter John Cabot, in 
 1497, embarked with one vessel, and sailed west seven hundred 
 leagues. The particulars of this voyage and the impressions it 
 created at the time are interestingly preserved to us in a letter 
 by one Lorenzo Pasqualigo, Venetian merchant in London, to his 
 brother in Venice, which is found in the archives of that city. 
 
 Lorenzo writes : " The Venetian, our countryman, who went 
 with a ship from Bristol, in quest of new islands, is returned, and 
 says that seven hundred leagues hence he discovered land, the 
 
 and which, as we have seen, were provided solely at the expense of the Pinzons and 
 people of Palos, becomes apparent. 
 
JOHN CABOT. 135 
 
 territory of the Grand-Khan" (Gram Cam). "He coasted for 
 three hundred leagues, and landed ; saw no human beings, but 
 he has brought hither to the king certain snares which had been 
 set to catch game, and a needle for making nets ; he also found 
 some felled trees, wherefore he supposed there were inhabitants, 
 and returned to his ship in alarm. 
 
 " He was three months on the voyage, and on his return he 
 saw two islands to starboard, but would not land, time being 
 precious, as he was short of provisions. He says that the tides 
 are slack, and do not flow as they do here. The King of Eng 
 land is much pleased with this intelligence. 
 
 " The king has promised that in spring our countryman shall 
 have ten ships armed to his order, and at his request has conceded 
 to him all prisoners, except such as are confined for high-treason, 
 to man his fleet. The king has also given him money where 
 with to amuse himself till then, and he is now at Bristol with his 
 wife, who is also a Yenetian, and with his sons. His name is 
 Zuan Cabot, and he is styled the great admiral. Yast honor is 
 paid him ; he dresses in silk, and these English run after him 
 like mad people, so that he can enlist as many of them as he 
 pleases, and a number of our own rogues besides. The discov 
 erer of these places planted on his new-found land a large cross, 
 with one flag of England and another of St. Mark, by reason of 
 his being a Yenetian, so that our banner has floated very far 
 afield. 
 
 " LONDON,. August 23, 1497." 
 
 The promise of ten ships above alluded to is restricted in the 
 second license granted by the king on February 3, 1498, to six 
 English vessels, which Cabot has authority to impress, as also to 
 enlist companies of volunteers. According to Lorenzo, he would 
 not have much difficulty in doing this. Nevertheless it does not 
 appear that John Cabot made any voyage under this license, 
 nothing further of him being recorded ; neither the date nor place 
 of his death is known, and we are in equal ignorance as to his 
 age. It is generally supposed that Newfoundland was that upon 
 which he first touched in 1497, yet the description he gives of 
 the country and of the animals therein leads us to suppose that 
 Labrador must have been the main-land of which he speaks. We 
 know, however, that he coasted three hundred leagues south 
 ward, and most probably visited Newfoundland also. Columbus, 
 10 
 
136 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 on his own showing, only visited the continent four months 
 later. 
 
 Purchas says with some justice that these lands should rather 
 have been called Cabotta. However that may be, the merit of 
 priority seems to rest between Cabot and Amerigo Yespucci, as 
 they both touched the continent in the same year ; but, as the lat 
 ter prosecuted his discoveries in a more scientific spirit and to a 
 greater extent, the name which the land now bears may be re 
 garded as a just tribute. Mr. Irving, who, like many extrava 
 gant admirers of Columbus, would at all cost annihilate the 
 claims of Yespucci, admits, in his endeavors to do so, the justice 
 of those of Cabot, and confounding the son Sebastian, who took 
 part in the expedition with the father, John Cabot, writes : " In 
 fact, the European who first reached the main-land of the New 
 "World was most probably Sebastian Cabot, a native of Yenice, 
 sailing in the employ of England. In 1497 he coasted its shores 
 from Labrador to Florida." 
 
 SEBASTIAN CABOT was probably twenty years of age when he 
 accompanied his father on the voyage of 1497. Much might be 
 written of the character and achievements of this navigator. 
 The wisdom and moderation which governed most of his un 
 dertakings stand out in relief against the barbarous deeds of 
 many who attempted the discovery, conquest, and settlement of 
 America. 
 
 The English authorities claim that Sebastian was born at 
 Bristol, while the Yenetians are equally anxious to prove him 
 their compatriot by birth as well as parentage. The question, 
 however, still remains undetermined. In 1498 he sailed with 
 two ships, under the patent granted him jointly with his father, 
 for the purpose of discovering the northwest passage. He sailed 
 so far north that in the middle of July the daylight was almost 
 continuous, and the numerous icebergs compelled him to change 
 his course ; in so doing, he touched upon the Continent of Amer 
 ica, and perhaps upon Newfoundland. He sailed along the coast 
 of the continent until he reached the latitude of Gibraltar, when 
 he returned to England disappointed that the object of his 
 voyage had not been effected, and regarding his important dis 
 coveries as of so little moment that he allowed his patent to be 
 come void. Upon the death of Henry YIL, he was summoned 
 to Spain, to assist at the council for the New Indies ; and in 1518 
 
SEBASTIAN" CABOT. 137 
 
 he was appointed Pilot-Major of Spain by Charles Y., a circum 
 stance which manifests* in how great repute was his skill in navi 
 gation. 
 
 Having failed in his attempt to discover a northwest passage, 
 he turned his thoughts upon the possibility of there existing a 
 southwestern one, and went in search of the same in 1526. 
 During this voyage he arrived at Brazil, sailed up the river La 
 Plata, and discovered Paraguay. He remained about three 
 years in this country, and then returned to Spain, where he con 
 tinued to exercise his functions of pilot-major until 1548, when 
 he was recalled to England ; and a pension granted to him of 
 two hundred and fifty marks (166 13s. 4:d). He was afterward 
 requested to return to Spain, but declined. 
 
 He seems to have been much looked up to in England, and 
 to have been consulted on the most important questions. Hak- 
 luyt writes : " Our merchants perceived the commodities and 
 wares of England to be in small request about us and near unto 
 us ; and that those merchandises which strangers, in the time 
 and memory of our ancestors, did earnestly seek and desire, were 
 now neglected, and the price thereof abated, although they be 
 carried to their own parts ; and all foreign merchandises in great 
 account, and their prices wonderfully raised. . . . And, whereas 
 at the same time, Sebastian Cabota, a man in those days very 
 renowned, happened to be in London, they began first of all to 
 deal and consult diligently with him ; and, after much search and 
 conference together, it was at last concluded that three ships 
 should be prepared and furnished out for search and discovery 
 of the Northern part of the world, to open a way and passage for 
 our men, and for travel to new and unknown lands." ' 
 
 It was thus that through his influence was organized an expe 
 dition which, rounding the cape of Norway, was to discover a 
 northeast passage to China. This expedition, though of course 
 unsuccessful in its object, reached Archangel, and established 
 trading operations with the Russians, which resulted afterward 
 in the formation of the Russian Trading Company, one of Eng 
 land's greatest sources of wealth. 
 
 Charles Y. wrote urgently in 1553, requesting that Cabot 
 might return to Spain, where his services had been very valu 
 able ; but this he declined, and still continued in England. He 
 
 69 Hakluyt, " Yoyages," p. 280. 
 
138 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 had made the deviations of the compass a study, and had sought 
 to discover the point where they should cease. "We find him 
 demonstrating his opinions, and instructing the youthful King 
 Edward on this point. He has, therefore, been styled by some 
 the discoverer of the variations of the compass. It is more than 
 probable, however, that neither he nor Columbus is entitled to 
 this credit, but that the said variations have been noted and com 
 mented upon centuries before the birth of either. 
 
 In 1556 Sebastian organized another expedition of discovery, 
 of which Stephen Burrough was the commander. In the latter' s 
 journal we find the following : " The 27th of April, being Mon 
 day, the Right Worshipful Sebastian Caboto came aboard our 
 Pinnesse at Gravesende, accompanied with divers gentlemen 
 and gentlewomen, who, after that they had viewed our pinnesse, 
 and tasted of such cheere as we could make them aboard, they 
 went on shore, giving to our mariners right liberal rewards ; and 
 the Goode olde Gentleman, Master Caboto, gave the poor most 
 liberale almes ; wishing them to pray for the good fortune and pros 
 perous success of the Serchthrift, our pinnesse. And then, at the 
 sign of the Christopher, he and his friends banketted, and made me 
 and them that were in the company great cheere. And, for very 
 joy that he had to see the towardness of bur intended discovery, 
 he entered into the dance himself among the rest of the young 
 and lusty company ; which, being ended, he and his friends de 
 parted most gently, commending us to the Governance of 
 Almighty God." 
 
 On the death of Edward YL, he resigned his pension ; and 
 we find little more of this great man recorded in the history of 
 the country which he had so greatly served. All that we learn 
 of his character inspires us with respect. In Ramusio, he is de 
 scribed thus by one who had seen him : " I found him a most 
 gentle and courteous person, who treated me with great kind 
 ness, and showed me a great many things ; among the rest, a 
 great map of the world, on which the several voyages of the Por 
 tuguese and Spaniards were laid down." 
 
 Much has been said in extenuation of the cruelty of Colum 
 bus, about the spirit of the times being one of bigotry and intol 
 erance. We find no proof of any such spirit in the following 
 items of the regulations written by Sebastian for the governance 
 of Sir Hugh Willoughby's expedition in 1553. The good sense 
 
WISE INSTRUCTIONS BY CABOT. 139 
 
 therein displayed materially increases our admiration for the 
 man: 
 
 " 22d item : Not to disclose to any nation the state of our 
 religion, but to pass it over in silence, without any declaration 
 of it ; seeming to bear with such laws and rights as the place 
 hath where you shall arrive. 
 
 " 23d item : Forasmuch as our people and shippe may appear 
 unto them strange and wondrous, and theirs, also, to ours it is 
 to be considered how they may be used learning much of their 
 natures and dispositions by some one such person as you may 
 first either allure, or take to be brought aboard your ships ; and 
 there to learn, as you may without violence or force ; and no 
 woman to be tempted or intreated to incontinence or dishon- 
 estie. 
 
 " 26th item : Every nation and region is to be considered 
 advisedly ; and not to provoke them by any disdaine, laughing 
 contempt, or such like ; but to use them with prudent circum 
 spection, with all gentlenesse and curtesie. And not to tarry 
 long in one place, until you shall have attained the most worthy 
 place that may be found ; in such sort as you may return with 
 victuals sufficient prosperously." 70 
 
 During the last part of his life, and after his death, Sebastian 
 Cabot was the victim of great ingratitude on the part of the Eng 
 lish ; on which Mr. Biddle, his most able and exhaustive biog 
 rapher, thus touchingly comments : 
 
 " The English language would probably be spoken in no part 
 of America but for Sebastian Cabot. The commerce of England, 
 and her navy, are admitted to have been deeply, incalculably, 
 his debtors. Yet there is reason to fear that in his extreme age 
 the allowance, which had been solemnly granted to him for life, 
 was fraudulently broken in upon. His birthplace we have seen 
 denied. His fame has been obscured by English writers, and 
 every wild calumny against him adopted and circulated. All 
 his own maps and discoveries, { drawn and written by himself,' 
 which it was hoped might come out in print, ' because so worthy 
 monuments should not be buried in perpetual oblivion,' have 
 been buried in perpetual oblivion. He gave a continent to 
 England, yet no man can point to the few feet of earth she has 
 allowed him in return." 
 
 10 Hakluyt, " Voyages," p. 259. 
 
140 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 This ingratitude is in great measure traceable to the partiality 
 of which Columbus has ever been the object. Sebastian returned 
 to England from his discoveries at the time when the famous ne 
 gotiations were taking place for the marriage of Isabella's daugh 
 ter to the Prince of Wales. Henry YIL, crippled by internal 
 dissensions, and desirous of obtaining an alliance with Spain, 
 abandoned his plans of discovery at the suggestion of its sover 
 eign, as the regions in which they were to be prosecuted were 
 alleged to be within the limits of the grant of Pope Alexander to 
 Spain. 71 And it was evidently the intention of that country to 
 allow no rivals in the field ; policy, therefore, suggested to Henry 
 that his wisest course was to desist, and the achievements of 
 Sebastian were ignored. 
 
 History seems to have also resolved, with little reason and 
 less justice, to allow no rival to Columbus. And it is evident 
 that Sebastian Cabot is one of the many victims whose fame has 
 been sacrificed to increase that of the former. 
 
 PEDEO ALVAEEZ DE CABEAL, though little mentioned in most 
 histories of the discovery of America, was probably one of the 
 most intelligent and meritorious of the many adventurers who 
 early reached that continent. 
 
 He was born in Portugal, toward the close of the fifteenth 
 century. At that time the commerce of the East belonged, so far 
 as regarded Europe, entirely to Yenice. Portugal was thus ex 
 cluded, and, desirous of securing to herself this great source of 
 wealth, she sent out expeditions for the purpose of ascertaining 
 whether, by coasting along the shores of Africa, a route from 
 Portugal to India might not be discovered, by which to divert 
 for the benefit of Portugal a part at least of the commerce of 
 India. The feasibility of this plan had been demonstrated first 
 by Bartholemew Diaz and afterward by Yasco de Gama, who in 
 1497 rounded the Cape of Good Hope. The King of Portugal, 
 animated by this success, manned a fleet of thirteen ships with 
 fit and experienced men, and placed them under the command 
 
 71 On the 28th of March, 1496, Ferdinand and Isabella wrote to De Puebla, their 
 ambassador in London, thus : "You write that a person like Columbus has come to. 
 England for the purpose of persuading the king to enter into an undertaking similar 
 to that of the Indies. . . . Take care that the King of England be not deceived in this 
 or in any other matter. . . . Besides, they "(voyages of discovery) "cannot be executed 
 without prejudice to us, and to the King of Portugal." Spanish State Papers. 
 
CABRAL VISITS BRAZIL. 141 
 
 of Cabral. This fleet was, perhaps, one of the finest sent out at 
 that period. There were on board twelve hundred seamen and 
 soldiers, besides numerous Franciscan friars, who were to act as 
 missionaries in the new settlements to be founded. Cabral with 
 justice regarded the coasting voyage eifected by Yasco de Gama 
 as a tedious and dangerous one, and conceived the idea of the 
 present route by taking a southwesterly course till reaching the 
 latitude of the cape, thus crossing the ocean twice. It was dur 
 ing this westerly digression that, sailing from the Cape Yerde 
 Islands, he came in sight of Brazil, latitude 10 south, on the 3d 
 of May, 1500. 
 
 Coasting southward about seven degrees, he took possession 
 of the continent in the name of King Emmanuel, of Portugal. 
 Brazil remained thereafter a Portuguese possession, notwith 
 standing the Spaniard Yincent Yanez Pinzon had visited its 
 shores in the month of January previous. Cabral had with him 
 twenty men banished from Portugal, whom he had orders to 
 leave in the different regions he discovered, as he thought fit. 
 Two of these he left in Brazil ; one of them we read of as having 
 become expert in the language of the natives, and acting as in 
 terpreter. 
 
 Cabral now sent one of his ships back to Portugal with the 
 news of this discovery, and with the remaining twelve sailed for 
 India. While crossing the cape, he encountered severe storms, 
 in one of which he lost four vessels. With the diminished re 
 mains of his once splendid fleet he reached India, touching at 
 Mozambique and Calicut, at which latter he made some settle 
 ments and succeeded in establishing a factory ; he then returned 
 to Portugal, laden with the rich merchandise of the East. On 
 his arrival in his native land he was received coolly by the king, 
 owing to the losses he had sustained ; nevertheless these losses 
 were attributable to the dangers incurred during the voyage, 
 and not to any want of skill or foresight on the part of Cabral, 
 who from the evidence we have already cited had proved him 
 self an able seaman, far abler than the much-lauded Columbus, 
 who, let it be remembered, generally lost the vessel under his 
 own immediate command, even when the others escaped. Ca 
 bral' s own vessel weathered all storms. He also proved himself 
 the more intelligent of the two on another point. When Colum 
 bus landed in Cuba, he imagined himself within three days' jour- 
 
142 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 ney of China, and dispatched a messenger with a letter to the 
 Grand-Khan, to return in six days ! Cabral labored under no 
 such delusion, but, after taking possession of the new country in 
 his sovereign's name, immediately set sail for his original desti 
 nation (India), in an opposite direction. We find no mention 
 of Cabral after July, 1501, the date of his return to Portugal. He 
 has been allowed to sink into semi-oblivion ; nevertheless he was 
 incontestably an able man, and deserved more gratitude from his 
 sovereign, as well as more notice from posterity. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 COLUMBUS WHO AND WHAT WAS HE? 
 
 THE history of most famous men generally and most natu 
 rally begins with the date of their birth, and some particulars as 
 to their parentage and birthplace ; but the historian who attempts 
 to discover these particulars with regard to Columbus, under 
 takes a long and fruitless task. Yolumes might, indeed, be filled 
 with an enumeration of the views entertained or professed by 
 different authors on the subject, but so conflicting and various 
 are they that, after reading them, the conscientious author must 
 needs disregard them all. 
 
 Monferrat, Bogliasco, Chiavara, Oneglia, Quinto, Albisola, 
 Nervi, Pradello, Cogoleto, Savona, Ferrara, Piacenza, and Genoa, 
 have each in their turn been designated as the birthplace of 
 Columbus. 
 
 The diverse opinions of contemporary authors are quoted by 
 his son Fernando, who declares his inability to decide the ques 
 tion, and, after much apparent research, which amounts in reality 
 to nothing, he dismisses the subject as a matter of no impor 
 tance. 
 
 Herrera, after examining many authorities, among others the 
 above, does not scruple to affirm that he was born at Genoa, " as 
 all who write or treat of him do agree." 
 
 The reader may judge of the degree of credit to which the 
 statements of Herrera are entitled after reading the evidence in 
 this particular case, and observing the somewhat extraordinary 
 conclusion at which he arrives. 
 
 Indeed, the partiality and prejudice evinced by extravagant 
 eulogists of Columbus are very apparent in their attempts to de 
 termine the place of his nativity. One author (Salinero) declares 
 
LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 that whoever should deny Genoa the honor of giving birth to 
 this incomparable man ought to be regarded as a monster. 
 
 For our part, regarding Columbus as chiefly the creation of 
 an after-thought, we believe that his birthplace has become the 
 subject of invention, even as his exploits and learning have ex 
 isted principally in the imagination of his biographers. A most 
 ' accurate register of births was kept at Genoa, wherein very 
 humble and obscure families can be traced back to a period ante 
 rior to Columbus, yet nowhere is his name to be found. We 
 believe, therefore, that the honest wool-carder, Dominic Colon, 
 who, it is asserted by one kind author, was the father of our 
 hero, may be absolved from the charge ; especially as he pursued 
 the decidedly terrestrial vocation of wool-carding, while Fer 
 nando tells us, his father's ancestors always " traded by sea," a 
 mild term for piracy. 
 
 If the birthplace of " the admiral " is yet unknown, all at 
 tempts to discover whence or from whom he derived his name 
 have hitherto been still more fruitless. In vain have some, en 
 deavoring to cast the glamour of noble descent over this created 
 hero, sought his parentage among noble families bearing a name 
 somewhat similar to that of Columbus. In vain others, wishing 
 to make his individual greatness stand out in bolder relief, have 
 made him the son of poor and even ignoble parents. There 
 being no evidence, no real facts, each author has placed his hero 
 in that rank of life which he himself considered most likely to 
 give him prestige in the eyes of the world. 
 
 Perhaps, however, with the aid of an historian who certainly 
 would not intentionally seek to bring disrepute upon Columbus 
 (we speak of his son Fernando), we may be able to cast some 
 light upon this hitherto vexed question. 
 
 In the fifth chapter of Fernando's history of his father, we 
 find mentioned "a famous man of his name and family, called 
 Colon, renowned upon the sea, . . . insomuch that they made 
 use of his name to frighten children in the cradle. . . . This 
 man was called Colon the Younger." 
 
 Here is the unqualified statement of Fernando, that Chris 
 topher was of the name and family of the individual known as 
 Colon the Younger. He further states that in company of this 
 Colon, a pirate, his father sailed " for a long time ; " and de 
 scribes an encounter between these pirates and some Flanders 
 
FLANDERS GALLEYS. GRIEGO. 145 
 
 galleys, in which Christopher barely escaped to Lisbon with his 
 life. 
 
 In the archives of Yenice are the following particulars rela 
 tive to the same affair, which throw a clearer light upon u the 
 name and family " of the " great navigator " than his son is able 
 or willing to do. 
 
 By reference to the above authority, we learn that six or* 
 seven ships, commanded by one called Columbus the Younger, 
 and having on board the man now known as Christopher Colum 
 bus, lay off Cape .St. Yincent, watching for the arrival of four 
 Yenetian merchant-ships, termed Flanders galleys ; these they 
 attacked on the 21st of August, 1485, and, after much slaughter, 
 carried off an immense booty, stripping the officers and crew 
 even of their clothing. 
 
 This affair is formally communicated by the Yenetian senate 
 to their various ambassadors abroad. The first mention is found 
 in a dispatch, dated September 18, 1485, from the doge and 
 senate to the ambassador at Milan : 
 
 u The capture of the Flanders galleys by ships commanded 
 by a son of Columbus and Giovanni Griego." 
 
 Marin Sanuto, in his MS. "Lives of the Doges," preserved 
 in St. Mark's Library, recounting the capture, says : 
 
 " Our galleys fell in with Colombo, that is to say, Nicolo 
 Griego" 
 
 In a decree of the Yenetian senate, December 2, 1485, we 
 find: 
 
 " Our Flanders galleys captured by Colombo's son and Zorzi 
 Griego." 
 
 Again, in a document, dated April 9, I486, treating of the 
 capture of the galleys : 
 
 "Nicolo Griego, who is called Columbus junior (Colombo 
 Zovene)." 
 
 One fact is hereby established beyond a doubt, namely, that 
 the Columbus junior, Colombo's son, the Colon the Younger men 
 tioned by Fernando, was in fact named Nicolo Griego. We, 
 moreover, gather from the Yenetian documents that three pirates 
 Giovanni Griego, Nicolo Griego, and Zorzi Griego, occasionally 
 assumed the name of Columbus. That the family name of the 
 subject of this history was Griego, is therefore proved by the 
 statement of his son, who says that Columbus the Younger " was 
 
146 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 of his name and family ; " the said Columbus the Younger being 
 always spoken of, in the Yenetian state papers, as Nicolo Griego, 
 sometimes called Columbus the Younger. 
 
 Of the two other Griegos mentioned as having taken part 
 in the capture of the galleys, one was probably the father indi 
 cated in the allusion to Colombo's son, and the name Colon the 
 Younger ; the other was undoubtedly our Christopher, who, his 
 son tells us, sailed a long time with Colon the Younger (Nicolo 
 Griego), and assisted in the said capture of the galleys. He was 
 then of the name and family of Griego, and sometimes adopted 
 the alias of Columbus, as did his kinsmen ; under this alias, 
 thenceforth to become his name, he came to Spain. It was 
 probably not till he had formed the pious project of obtaining 
 the protection of the Church by representing himself as the 
 CHRIST-BEAKER, carrying the Gospel across the waters to heathen 
 nations, that he changed his name of Giovanni or Zorzi, to that 
 of Christopher, on the peculiar significance of which his son 
 dwells at such length in his first chapter (from which we shall 
 presently quote) naively avowing, however, that the particu 
 lars of his name and surname are not without some mystery ; 
 and elsewhere, speaking of the falseness of the statements made 
 by Giustiniani, touching Columbus's parentage and early pur 
 suits, he says: "If Giustiniani tells so many lies concerning 
 things well known " (his discoveries, etc.), " it is not likely that 
 he would tell the truth concerning the admiral's parents and 
 profession, all particulars concerning which are hidden" 
 
 "Whether the mystery which hung as a cloud over the many 
 years of Columbus's life previous to his relations with the Span 
 ish court, was known to the son, who, well aware how charitably 
 it covered a multitude of sins, was unwilling to remove it, or 
 whether, which is far from probable, he was really ignorant of 
 the facts which the Yenetian state papers reveal, 72 we shall not 
 here attempt to decide, nor can we be certain that Griego was 
 
 78 Fernando, who in his preface, in which he declares all former histories of his 
 father to be incorrect, promises unreserved frankness and sincerity, does not in his 
 work fulfill this promise. He was, for years after the death of his father, in daily in 
 tercourse with his uncles Bartholomew and Diego. Why did he not ask them touch 
 ing the name and family of this " incomparable " father, whom he modestly declares 
 to be " worthy of eternal memory ? " They were certainly competent to reveal the 
 particulars which are " hidden." He evidently knew the history of which he profess 
 es ignorance, and knew also that mystery was the safest shroud. 
 
AGE OF COLUMBUS. 147 
 
 the real name of any of the worthies who bore it. There is no 
 mention of their being Italians ; for aught we know they may 
 have been Greek pirates, known in Italy, where the people are 
 so apt to give significant titles by the name of their country 
 only. Certain it is that Griego was the name most univer 
 sally known, for we read " Nicolo Griego, sometimes called 
 Columbus ; " while, if the latter had been the name in most fre 
 quent use, it would be Columbo, sometimes called Nicolo Griego. 
 
 As to the date of Columbus' s birth, authors generally assert 
 that it was about the year 1445 or 1446. We think, however, that, 
 from motives easily discernible, they have abridged his career, 
 and that fifteen or twenty years earlier would have been a more 
 correct date. 
 
 The son, unable or unwilling to account for the period of his 
 life which preceded 1485, was naturally desirous to make that 
 period as short as possible, believing no doubt thirty years are 
 more easily bridged over than fifty. 
 
 It is very safe to suppose that Columbus was fifty years of 
 age, at least, at the time of the capture of the galleys, his ille 
 gitimate son Fernando (reported to be his younger son) pro 
 fessed to have witnessed the fitting out of the galleys, and to 
 have been old enough to judge of their strength, etc. 74 He 
 moreover, tells us that his father was a light-haired man, and 
 that at thirty his hair was quite white. This would be a physi 
 ological phenomenon, it being well known that light or sandy- 
 haired people do not usually become gray until very. late. 
 
 Ferdinand then tells us that his father was educated at Pavia, 
 but the details already revealed as to his real name and antece 
 dents render this improbable. 
 
 We are then told, on the same authority, that he early began 
 a seafaring life, and made some voyages " to the East and West, 
 of which, and many other things of those his first days, I " (Fer 
 nando) " have no perfect knowledge." 7B The delightful vagueness 
 
 73 In addition to the above array of names, we find other authors declaring that he 
 was known by, or confused with the names of, G-uillaume de Casseneuve, surnamed 
 Conlomp, Conhn, or Colon, whom history records as a pirate, while in English 
 works it has been surmised that Christopher Columbus and Christofre Colyns were 
 identical, not to mention the appellation of Christofer Tauber (dove) by which we find 
 him designated in German works. 
 
 74 See Fernando, " Historia del Amirante," chapter v. 
 
 75 It is singular that, while giving the details of his father's youth and education, 
 
148 
 
 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 of this allusion to voyages to the East and West is not much 
 elucidated by the letter of Columbus to the Spanish sovereigns, 
 in which he modestly extols his own knowledge in the following 
 terms : 
 
 "MosT SEKENE PKINCES : I went to sea very young, and have 
 continued it to this day, ... it is now forty years that I have 
 been sailing to all those parts at present frequented, ... and 
 our Lord has been favorable to this my inclination, and I have 
 received from Him the spirit of understanding. He has made 
 me very skillful in navigation ; knowing enough in astrology ; 
 
 COLUMBUS DBAW8 HIS MAP TTNDEE DlVINE INSPIBATION. CUBA IN ASIA. 
 
 and so in geometry and arithmetic. God has given me genius, 
 and hands apt to draw this globe ; and on it the cities, rivers, 
 islands, and all parts, in their proper places." 
 
 This modest panegyric of himself, in which the Almighty is 
 represented as having exempted him from the usual laborious 
 course of study by which the sciences he alludes to are ordinarily 
 acquired by less favored mortals, does not contain the details or 
 
 he should be thus ignorant of the events of his adult life ; but the good old adage is 
 here illustrated : " Where ignorance is bliss, 'twere folly to be wise." 
 
SLAVE-TRADE. 149 
 
 particulars of any one voyage, nor are such details to be found in 
 any authority of the period. It is not probable that a navigator 
 who had visited all the known parts of the world would have 
 been so utterly ignored by his contemporaries. 
 
 That he led a seafaring life we are ready to believe. His 
 son tells us his being addicted to sea-affairs was owing to the 
 pirate of his name and family (Nicolo Griego), Colon the Youn 
 ger. In the profession of piracy he most probably infested 
 those seas where the richest booty was to be captured, the chief 
 of which was the Mediterranean. We need not say that such a 
 life is not particularly inducive to study, and that its votaries 
 are not generally inclined to deep thought. For fifty years, 
 almost the natural period of man's life, Columbus could scarce 
 have entertained the slightest idea of making voyages of dis 
 covery, or of visiting the Indies ; what accident subsequently 
 induced him, in his latter years, to propose the project, we shall 
 presently state. 
 
 He speaks of a voyage, made for the King of Naples, to cap 
 ture a certain ship. This voyage is not improbable sovereigns 
 sometimes employed pirates in affairs of like nature but the 
 principal fact upon which he dwells in recounting it is, that he 
 " changed the points of the compass " and deceived his men : 
 " So at break of day we found ourselves near Cape Cartegna, all 
 aboard thinking we had certainly been sailing for Marseilles." 
 
 This boast furnishes a clew to the whole character of the man ; 
 falsehood and deceit are ever, we shall find, its most prominent 
 traits. 
 
 As to the voyage he professes to have made, " an hundred 
 leagues beyond Thule " (Iceland), " whose southern part is seven 
 ty-three degrees distant from the equinoctial," we have but his 
 own authority, while all the probabilities are against it. A pirate 
 would find little to induce him to such an undertaking, the booty 
 to be captured being much inferior to that abounding in the 
 Mediterranean. He does not give any reasons for such a voy 
 age, nor mention the ship he sailed in, or the port he sailed from ; 
 he gives nothing, in fact, but the most vague assertions. All con 
 temporary writers, state papers, etc., are silent upon the subject, 
 when less important matters are recorded. 
 
 For some years, it is unknown at what precise period, Colum 
 bus was engaged in the Guinea slave-trade in which he sub- 
 
150 
 
 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 sequently showed himself such an adept with regard to the 
 unfortunate Indians as well to deserve the compliment paid 
 him by Mr. Helps, who calls his proceedings and plans worthy 
 " of a practised slave-dealer." 
 
 That he was long addicted to piracy; that he was of the 
 name and family of one Mcolo Griego ; that he was past the 
 
 COLUMBUS. (From a Picture in the Bibliotheque Imperiale, Paris.) 
 
 prime of life in 1485, is, therefore, really all that can be gathered 
 of the history of Christopher Columbus previous to that date. 
 Those who propose to furnish this Griego with honest parents of 
 the name of Columbus in Genoa, or any other place, undertake 
 
 76 Helps, " History of Columbus," chap, x., p. 191. 
 
NO PORTRAIT OF COLUMBUS. 151 
 
 a task as bootless as that of tracing back the lineage of the nu 
 merous family of doves, which flourish in the Place St. Mark in 
 Venice, to the fugitive dove of Noah. 
 
 The reader has now seen how much the imagination of the 
 various biographers of " the admiral " has been taxed to supply 
 the circumstances of his birth and parentage. It is not, there 
 fore, extraordinary to find that, in that other important task of 
 describing the personal appearance of their hero, imagination has 
 also played its part. 
 
 The several likenesses of Columbus engraved in this work, 
 taken from his numerous histories and biographies, purport each 
 
 BUST OF COLUMBUS AT GENOA. 
 
 to be a copy " of the only original portrait of Columbus ; " and 
 from the resemblance they bear each other one would scarce sup 
 pose them to represent the same man. Indeed, it is admitted 
 that, although living in an age when portrait-painting was uni 
 versal, and when the features of most men of any note, and of 
 many persons of humble rank, were thus handed down to pos 
 terity, Columbus appears to have been too insignificant for any 
 
 country to have desired his likeness: those who have created the 
 11 
 
152 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 hero, liave also invented the portraits. This subject received a 
 thorough examination a few years ago, when a monument was 
 about to be erected in Genoa to the memory of the navigator. 
 
 " It was wished," says Spotorno, " and very properly, that a 
 likeness of the navigator should grace the monument. . . . There 
 are several portraits of him, but not one of. them resembles an 
 other. . . . No one can flatter himself that Spain can produce a 
 true portrait of Columbus. . . . What, therefore, are we to con 
 clude? "We must adopt the conclusion of Prof. Marsand ; after 
 observing the difference between the various supposed portraits 
 of Petrarch, not one resembling another, he says : ' Therefore 
 they are all false ; if they had been taken from life, they must 
 have preserved more or less the original features, as in the case 
 of Dante.' For these weighty reasons the sculptor, in execut 
 ing the bust, was bound to copy none of the portraits hitherto 
 published. 57 
 
 The pertinence of the above remarks, and the soundness of 
 the conclusions to which they may have led, must be manifest to 
 all who have studied these pretended portraits or their history. 
 We have seen many ; some published in Spain, some in Italy, 
 others in England and America, in none of which is it possible 
 to detect the least resemblance, except in those few that are 
 copies of a fictitious original. These reproductions are rarely 
 seen, save in England and America. The European publisher 
 seems to have preferred the status of inventor to that of copy 
 ist ; hence each created for himself a new and original portrait 
 of the navigator, as unlike the other " originals " as could well 
 be conceived. 
 
 Fernando, in symbolizing the person of his sire, makes no 
 allusion to any painted or sculptored semblance of him ; had 
 there been any, he surely would have said that they did or did 
 not resemble him. 
 
 In struggling on, without the aid of a painter, he says his 
 visage was long, his eyes were white, he had a hawk nose ; others 
 say his hair was red, and that he had a pimpled face." That which 
 has come down to us touching his person is not calculated to 
 make a favorable impression upon the mind of the physiologist. 
 
 The supernatural far more than the real has ever been the 
 mainstay of Columbus' s eulogists. Fernando, one of the first, and 
 
 17 Fernando, " Historia del Amirante," chapter iii. 
 
COLUMBUS AS THE CHRIST-BEARER. 
 
 153 
 
 M. De Lorgues, one of the last of his historians, may be said to 
 be the two extremes which meet and rival each other in their 
 mystic interpretations, and in ascribing miraculous and divine 
 attributes to their hero. 
 
 Fernando thus admirably accounts for the assumed name of 
 Christopher Columbus, and gives us an insight into the motives 
 which induced its bearer to adopt it : 
 
 COLUMBUS REPRESENTED AS THE CHBIST-BEARER. 
 
 " We may mention many names which were given by secret 
 impulse to denote the effect those persons were to produce, as 
 in his are foretold and expressed the wonder he performed. 
 For if we look upon the common surname of his ancestors, we 
 may say he was true Columbus, or Columba, forasmuch as he 
 conveyed the grace of the Holy Ghost into that New World, 
 
LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 which he discovered, show r ing those people, who knew him not, 
 which was God's Son, as the Holy Ghost did in the figure of a 
 dove at St. John's baptism ; and because he also carried the 
 olive-branch and oil of baptism over the waters of the ocean, 
 like Noah's dove, to denote the peace and union of those people 
 with the Church, after they had been shut up in the ark of dark 
 ness and confusion. And the surname of Colon, which he re 
 vived, was proper to him, which in Greek signifies a member^ 
 that his proper name being Christopher, it might be known he 
 was a member of Christ, by whom salvation was to be conveyed 
 to those people. 
 
 METHODS OF CONVERTING 
 
 INDIANS. (From Las Casals " Crudelitates Hispanorum in Indiis 
 patratae.") 
 
 "Moreover, if we would bring his name to the Latin pro 
 nunciation, that is, Christophorus Colonus, we may say that as 
 St. Christopher is reported to have borne that name because he 
 carried Christ over the deep waters with great danger to himself, 
 whence came the denomination of Christopher, and, as he con 
 veyed over the people whom no other could have been able to 
 carry, so the Admiral Christophorus Colonus, imploring the as 
 sistance of Christ in that dangerous passage, went over safe him 
 self and his company, that those Indian nations might become 
 
CANT AND CKUELTY. 155 
 
 citizens and inhabitants of the Church triumphant in heaven ; 
 for it is to be believed that many souls which the devil expected 
 to make a prey of, had they not passed through the water of 
 baptism, were by him made inhabitants and dwellers in the 
 eternal glory of heaven." 
 
 Whatever may be the deficiencies of Don Fernando as a 
 logical writer, he has an unfailing resource in his piety. In every 
 difficulty he can bring religion to his aid, and find a special 
 Providence, " some secret impulse," in matters which to minds 
 less favored have a somewhat ugly look. Columbus, he shows 
 us, was entitled to all his names and to all his changes (he is 
 wisely silent on the Griego question, as it would be difficult to 
 find a holy meaning in that word). Throughout the history of 
 this man, particularly as written by his son, fanaticism and hy 
 pocrisy are forever fathering the crimes of man upon the be 
 neficence and justice of Heaven, converting into special provi 
 dence and mysterious intention, deeds which, when related in 
 plain language, are denominated as infamous by every honorable 
 mind. 
 
 The peace which Columbus bore the hapless Indians was the 
 peace of the grave ; his olive-branch the scourge, the cruel tor 
 tures which drove them to that bourn ; while the souls thus res 
 cued from the hands of the devil were the descendants of count 
 less generations of souls which, according to the miserable logic 
 of Fernando, a beneficent God had left wholly in the power of 
 the arch-enemy of man. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 SOURCE WHENCE COLUMBUS DERIVED THE INFORMATION WHICH 
 INDUCED HIM TO UNDERTAKE HIS VOYAGES. 
 
 ALTHOUGH the history of Columbus after 1485 is not so per 
 fectly veiled in obscurity as it is up to that period, yet we shall find 
 it any thing but succinct or clear, owing chiefly to the systematic 
 attempt to mislead as to dates and facts ; which is most palpable 
 in Fernando's history, and in all other histories which have been 
 more or less influenced by it. An attempt is constantly made to 
 carry Ixick., as far as possible, the period at which Columbus first 
 formed the project of a Western voyage. 
 
 Fernando tells us that his father's coming to Lisbon was the 
 cause of his discovering the Indies ; also, that he came to Lisbon 
 after the piratical assault upon the Venetian merchant-ships; 
 which is proved, on the unimpeachable authority of the Venetian 
 state papers, to have taken place in 1485. Only seven years, 
 therefore, elapsed between his arrival in Lisbon "which was 
 the cause of his discovering the Indies " and his departure on 
 his first voyage in 1492. Fernando is careful, however, to sup 
 press the date of the engagement with the galleys, and writes 
 his history in such wise as to make it appear that a long interval 
 elapsed between the arrival of his father in Lisbon and his subse 
 quent arrival in Spain ; which, he tells us, took place in 1484. 
 We see at a glance that this date is false, for the capture of the 
 galleys took place in 1485, and Fernando recounts how his father, 
 saving himself with the aid of an oar, swam ashore ; came to Lis 
 bon ; married there ; subsequently went to Madeira, where he 
 resided some time ; returned to Portugal ; negotiated with the 
 king of that country ; and, finally, as his exorbitant conditions 
 were not acceptable to the Portuguese monarch, came to Spain 
 in 1484 & year previous to his first arrival in Lisbon ! He 
 
TOSCANELLA. A FOKGERY. 157 
 
 also gives what purports to be the copy of a letter, written by 
 Paul Toscanella, upon navigation and geography, to Ferdinand 
 Martinez, a servant of King John of Portugal, dated Florence, 
 June 25, 1474. 
 
 TOSCANELLA was a renowned Italian astronomer of the period. 
 He erected the famous solstitial gnomen at the cathedral in Flor 
 ence. The presence of the above letter from him among the 
 
 TOSCANELLA IN HIS STUDY. 
 
 papers of Columbus, or his son and historian, as well as the 
 manner in which the latter seeks to account for its possession, 
 and the use he appears desirous to make of it, must create dis 
 trust in the minds of such as shall give the matter a careful ex 
 amination. 
 
 Fernando tells us his father " got knowledge " of the above 
 letter, " and soon by means of Laurence Gerardi, a Florentine 
 residing at Lisbon, writ upon the subject to the said Mr.. Paul." 
 He does not, however, tell us at what time Girardi, acting as se 
 cret agent, opened correspondence with Toscanella or Columbus 
 upon the subject. The copies of the letters of Columbus to his 
 middle-man in Lisbon, or to Paul Toscanelli, which would be 
 invaluable in this place, are nowhere forthcoming ; but, in lieu 
 thereof, Fernando gives what he would have his readers believe 
 
158 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 to be tlie copy of a letter from, the learned Florentine to his 
 father. This is shorn of its date and destination, and, moreover, 
 contains expressions which stamp it as a forgery. 
 Fernando thus quotes, or professes to quote : 
 
 The Letter from Paul, a Physician of Florence, concerning the 
 Discovery of the Indies. 
 
 u To Christopher Colon Paul, the physician, wishes health. 
 
 " I perceive your noble and earnest desire to sail to those parts 
 where the spice is produced, and therefore, in answer to a letter of 
 yours, I send you the copy of another letter, which some days since 
 I writ to a friend of mine and servant to the King of Portugal, 
 before the wars of Castile in answer to another he writ to me, 
 by his highness' s order, upon the same account. And I send 
 you another sea-chart like that I sent him, which will satisfy 
 your demands. 
 
 The copy of that letter is this." 
 
 Then follows the letter from Toscanella to Martinez, with its 
 date 1474. 
 
 Above is all that is given of the pretended letter from Paul, 
 the physician, to Columbus ; and it is also the authority upon 
 which historians affirm that the latter had formed his project of 
 discovery as early as 1474. A careful analysis of the letter we 
 quote, and consideration of the facts regarding it, will, however, 
 raise suspicion, which amounts to certainty the further we inves 
 tigate the affair, that it was never written by Toscanella to Co 
 lumbus : 
 
 1. Ferdinand tells us his father first arrived in Lisbon after 
 the capture of the Flanders galleys (1485), and that his coming 
 to Lisbon was the cause of his discoveries. It is abundantly 
 proved that Columbus actually took part in this engagement ; he 
 was not therefore in Lisbon, and had not heen there wlien 'Tosca 
 nella wrote to Martinez. 
 
 2. It was not in keeping with Italian courtesy, and the 
 courtly character of Toscanella himself had Columbus, in fact, 
 ever made application to him for information and instruction 
 touching the Western passage to India to send the latter the 
 copy of a letter, written to another person, retaining the date, 
 destination, and sundry personal observations, that were un- 
 
TOSCANELLA. FORGED LETTER. 159 
 
 doubtedly pertinent as to Martinez, but certainly not in their 
 application to Columbus. 
 
 3. The purported letter of Toscanella to Columbus was evi 
 dently written by one who endeavored to prove too much. In 
 order that Columbus may appear to have entertained his ideas 
 of discovery in 1474, and for fear lest the reader should suppose 
 that the copy was sent some years after the original had been 
 written, Toscanella is made to say : 
 
 " I send you the copy of a letter which I writ some days 
 since, to a friend of mine, and servant of the King of Portugal, 
 before the wars of Castile" 
 
 Does it not appear peculiar that he should thus specify a let 
 ter as having been written before a great historic event, which 
 was only written some days since ? Where was the necessity of 
 such a declaration to Columbus, who upon receipt of the letter 
 would have inferred from its date at what period it was written ? 
 What have the wars of Castile to do with the letter ? clearly 
 nothing. The allusion to them can ha ye no reference to the 
 status of Martinez, as the fact that he was then in the service of 
 the King of Portugal is not only proved in Toscanella's letter 
 to him, dated June 25, 1474, but is corroborated in the pretend 
 ed letter to Columbus. The latter' s having been written long 
 after the death of Toscanella, and after the wars of Castile, may 
 account for its having occurred to the writer that it would help 
 his case to insert such a clause. 
 
 Then, too, the words " in answer to a letter of yours " have 
 the suspicious appearance of having been written by one who 
 was eager to prove that Columbus had written to Toscanella, 
 and feared that fact might be doubted. A correspondent might 
 indeed write, " In answer to your letter of such a date," but " In 
 answer to a letter of yours " would be somewhat superfluous in 
 formation, as he to whom the letter was addressed would be 
 fully advised in the premises. 
 
 Furthermore, Toscanella, in furnishing a stranger with the 
 copy of a letter which had been written by request of the King 
 of Portugal, and the original of which was preserved in the 
 archives of that country, would have betrayed the confidence of 
 the monarch and committed a gross indiscretion. Toscanella, 
 the companion of princes, the friend of the glorious Medici, 
 wise, learned, and experienced, would hardly provide a needy 
 
160 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 adventurer at the capital of Portugal with the means of driving 
 an unscrupulous and exorbitant bargain with the sovereign with 
 whom he corresponded upon the same subject. 
 
 Who and what Columbus was, we have already shown, a 
 nameless pirate (if, indeed, one bearing so many aliases may be 
 termed nameless). Had the learned Florentine known him, lie 
 would not, we believe, have corresponded with him, and, not 
 having known him, it is still less probable that he did so. The 
 testimony of Columbus is insufficient to remove suspicion, or 
 rather to disprove the forgery which the circumstances we have 
 cited render so apparent. 
 
 Many able writers, upon the sole authority of the words 
 some days since in this pretended letter from Toscanella to 
 Columbus, and of the letter to Martinez, dated 1474, affirm that 
 Columbus was that year in Lisbon. Among these may be cited 
 Mr. R. H. Major, of the British Museum, who, speaking of the 
 encounter with the galleys, doubts the fact of Columbus's having 
 been :present thereat and declares Fernando's relation to be 
 somewhat apocryphal, basing his doubts upon the letter from 
 Toscanella, "for it is certain," he says, <; that Columbus was in 
 Lisbon previous to 1474 (for in that year he has a letter ad 
 dressed to him in that city, in reply to one written by himself 
 from the same place " ). 78 
 
 Now, as it is by no means certain that Columbus was in Lis 
 bon, for there is nothing to prove it save the words " some days 
 since" in the evidently forged letter without a date, and as the 
 statement that Columbus was on board one of the pirate-ships 
 that attacked the galleys is made in an unqualified manner by 
 Fernando and confirmed by public documents, we think Mr. 
 Major and other authors rashly discard a plain and evidently 
 truthful statement for one that is merely hypothetical. 
 
 There could hardly have been any correspondence between 
 Toscanella and Columbus after 1485, as the aged and worthy Flor 
 entine, unfortunately for the glory of our hero, died in 1482 ; we 
 believe therefore that Columbus " got knowledge" of the letter 
 to Martinez at least ten years after it was written, and by means 
 unknown to us, but undoubtedly surreptitious, obtained a copy 
 thereof, probably about the year 1486. Fernando at a subse 
 quent period inserted it in his work, that he might lead his read- 
 
 7b Major, " Introduction to Letters of Columbus," p. xxxix. 
 
PIRATICAL ATTACK UPON MERCHANT-SHIPS. 
 
 ers to believe that the project of his father was coeval with the 
 said letter of 1474, thereby bridging over an awkward chasm. 
 Whether the forged preface, purporting to have been addressed 
 by Paul to Columbus, was the work of the latter or his son we 
 know not ; either was capable of such an act in such a cause. 
 Fernando had ample opportunities; he was a priest, engaged in 
 collecting a library, in recording and magnifying the glory of 
 his family, regardless of propriety or truth ; he was also a mem 
 ber of the same literary junta with Juan Yespucci, who succeed 
 ed to the department in navigation, created by or for Amerigo, 
 where it is to be presumed the originals or copies of all impor 
 tant papers relative to navigation were, kept, especially those 
 bearing upon the long-sought-for passage to India by the West. 
 It may be urged that his holy vocation would render him inca 
 pable of such a crime as forgery, but this clerical plea will scarce 
 avail, when we consider the character of the clergy in his time. 
 It was the age of Alexander YL, the notorious Borgia of assas 
 sination, forgery, and perjury, far more than of sanctity and 
 prayer ; and when the archbishop forges the papal bull granting 
 a dispensation to Ferdinand and Isabella from the penalties of 
 an incestuous marriage," why might not Fernando indulge in 
 the comparatively innocent occupation of manufacturing epistles 
 and falsifying dates to brighten the escutcheon of the Christ- 
 bearer ? 
 
 We are safe, in the case of the piratical assault, to follow the 
 narrative of Fernando, discarding and correcting as far as pos 
 sible all dates that are flagrantly inaccurate. He tells us that the 
 ships caught fire ; that the crews, to save themselves, leaped into 
 the water, where his father, being an expert swimmer, seized a 
 floating oar, and with its aid reached the shore. 
 
 Behold, then, our hero struggling onward, clinging to an oar, 
 behind him the burning galleys, before him the shores of Portu 
 gal ! These he reaches, is succored, and proceeds to Lisbon, ac 
 cording to his son, "to begin a new state of life ; " and as he did 
 nothing wrong, behaved well, and "was comely," he married 
 Dona Felipa Muniz de Perestrela. With respect to his begin 
 ning a new life, we know not precisely whether we are to infer 
 that he proposed to betake himself to a seafaring life, or to aban 
 don it. Was he about to give up a nefarious pursuit and lead 
 
 79 Prescott, "Ferdinand and Isabella," chapter in., p.. 121. 
 
162 
 
 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 the life of an honest man, or was he to continue piracy in a new 
 field, upon a grander scale ? 
 
 However this may be, his stay in Lisbon was short ; his wife's 
 father having left some possessions in Madeira, he and his wife 
 took up their abode in that island. 
 
 A year could hardly have elapsed before the event took place 
 which, it is evident, first attracted the attention of Columbus to 
 Western lands, and was as it were the turning-point in his life. 
 Modern authors affect to ignore or treat with contempt the story 
 of Columbus's having received his first information from a ship 
 wrecked pilot who died in his house ; but their answers to a state 
 ment which is to be found in almost all early writers (except 
 Fernando, who seems anxious to give any other reason for his 
 father's undertaking, and evinces a desire to lead us as far as 
 
 COLUMBUS ESCAPES FROM THE BURNING GALLEYS. 
 
 possible from this one, though he makes a vague allusion to it in 
 his eighth chapter, speaking of Oviedo's mention of it, which he 
 endeavors in a manner to nullify by diverting attention to an 
 opposite direction), are not what may be considered erudite or 
 convincing. 
 
 Spotorno says : u As to the idle tale which was current in 
 
THE DEAD PILOT. 163 
 
 Spain, that lie had taken the idea of the New World from a pilot 
 of whom a number of fables are told, I shall not stop to refute 
 it." 80 
 
 ' This summary dismissal of the subject is about the best and 
 most satisfactory answer to the story that we have found. Mr. 
 Irving naively shows us the reasons which have induced the eulo 
 gists of Columbus to discredit it. He frankly admits that " its 
 veracity would destroy all his " (Columbus' s) " merit as an original 
 discoverer." 81 The idle tale, so current in Spain, rests, however, 
 upon the very authorities the biographers of Columbus so often 
 quote. It is related by Oviedo, who was a contemporary of Co 
 lumbus, and had spent more than forty years in the royal service 
 of Spain, beginning with Ferdinand and Isabella, and who had 
 visited, and been appointed royal historiographer of, the Indies. 
 
 It is recounted, at length, in Gomara' s "History of the Indies," 
 which was published in the Spanish language, within the realm, 
 and sanctioned by the license of the Archbishop of Saragossa. 
 Gomara was himself a priest, and cannot therefore be supposed 
 to have written any falsehood detrimental to Columbus, espe 
 cially as he represents the latter as so saintly a character that he 
 asserts " rude crosses erected by him healed the sick and per 
 formed miracles many years after his death." 82 
 
 Garcilasso de la Yega also gives perfect credence to the his 
 tory of the pilot ; and Eden prefixes it to Locke's English transla 
 tion of Peter Martyr, " for the better understanding of the whole 
 work." 
 
 Alonzo de Ovalle, a Jesuit father, whose " Relation of the 
 Kingdom of Chili " was printed in Rome in 1649, does not agree 
 with Mr. Irving, that to give credence to the story of the pilot, 
 which he evidently regards as truthful, is to detract from the 
 glory of Columbus. 83 Indeed, most early authors considered the 
 fact as established, and argued for the greatness of Columbus in 
 spite of it. The deviation from truth has yearly widened as 
 authors became more extravagant and bigoted in their adulation, 
 so that it was finally discarded. 
 
 This is so important a matter that we cannot forbear giving 
 
 80 Spotorno, " Historia Memoria," p. 29. 
 
 81 Irving, " Appendix," No. xi. 
 
 82 Gomara, " Historia de las Indias," cap. xxxiii. 
 
 83 Churchill's "Voyages," vol. iii., p. 88. 
 
164 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 here the various accounts to he found in early writers, with the 
 still more convincing proof of the history having "been incorpo 
 rated in 1666, hy Captain Galardi, in the introduction to a work 
 which he dedicated to the legal representative of the family of 
 Columhus. 
 An Extract from " The Royal Commentaries of Peru" written 
 
 originally in Spanish ~by the Inca, Garcilasso de la Vega, and 
 
 rendered into English l>y Sir Paul Hycaut, in the Year 
 
 1688: 
 
 " Ahout the year 1484, a certain Pilot, Native of Ilelva in 
 the Cotmty of JViebla, called Alonso Sanchez, usually Traded in 
 a small Vessel from Spain to the Canaries ; and there Lading 
 the Commodities of that Countrey, sailed to the Maderas, and 
 thence freighted with Sugar and Conserves, returned home into 
 Spain this was his constant course and traffick, when, in one 
 of these Voyages meeting with a most violent Tempest, and not 
 able to bear sail, he was forced to put before the Wind for the 
 space of twenty- eight or twenty-nine days, not knowing where 
 or whither he went, for in all that time he was not able to take 
 an observation of the height of the Sun ; and so grievous was the 
 storm, that the Mariners could with no convenience either eat or 
 sleep : At length, after so many long and tedious days, the 
 Wind abating, they found themselves near an Island, which it 
 was, is not certainly known, but it is believed to have been San 
 Domingo, because that lyes just West from the Canaries, whence 
 a storm at East had driven the Ship, which is the more strange, 
 because the Easterly Winds seldom blow hard in those Seas, and 
 rather make fair weather, than tempestuous. But God, who is 
 all-sufficient, intending to bestow his mercies, can make causes 
 produce effects contrary to their nature ; as when he drew wa 
 ter from the Rock, and cured the blind with Clay; in like man 
 ner his immense goodness and compassion, designing to transmit 
 the light of the true Gospel into the new World, made use of 
 these unusual means to convert them from the Idolatry of Gen- 
 tilism, and from their foolish and dark superstitions, as shall be 
 related in the sequel of this History. 
 
 " The Master, landing on the shore, observed the height of the 
 Sun, and so noted particularly in writing what he had seen, and 
 what had happened in this Yoyage out, and home ; and, having 
 supplied himself with fresh water and wood, he put to Sea again ; 
 
ALONZO BE SANCHEZ. 165 
 
 but having not well observed his course thither, his way to re 
 turn was the more difficult, and made his Yoyage so long, that 
 he began to want both water and provisions, which being added 
 to their former sufferings, the people fell sick, and died in that 
 manner, that of seventeen persons which came out of Spain, 
 there remained but five only alive, when they arrived at Terce- 
 ras, of which the Master was one. These came all to lodge at 
 the House of that famous Genoese, called Christopher Colon, be 
 cause they knew him to be a great Seaman and Cosmographer, 
 and one who made Sea-carts to sail by; and for this reason he, 
 received them with much kindness, and treated them with all 
 things necessary, that so he might learn from them the particu 
 lars which occurred, and the discoveries they had made in this 
 laborious Yoyage: but in regard they brought a languishing 
 distemper with them, caused by their Sufferings at Sea, and of 
 which they could not be recovered by the kind usage of Colon, 
 they all happened to dye in his house, leaving their labours for 
 his inheritance ; the which he improved with such readiness of 
 mind, that he underwent more, and greater, than they, in regard 
 that they lasted longer; and at length he so well succeeded in 
 his enterprise, that he bestowed the New World, with all its 
 riches, upon /Spain, and therefore deservedly obtained this Motto 
 to be inscribed on his Armes : 
 
 ' To Castile, and to Leon, 
 The New World was given by Colon.' 
 
 " In this manner the New World was first discovered, for which 
 greatness /?am is beholding to that little village of Helva, which 
 produced such a Son, as gave Colon information of things not 
 seen, or known before ; the which secrets, like a prudent person, 
 he concealed, till under assurances of silence he first disclosed 
 them to such persons of authority about the Catholick Kings, as 
 were to be assistant and usefull to him in his design, which could 
 never have been laid, or chalked out by the art of Cosmography, 
 or the imagination of man, had not Alonso de Sanchez given the 
 first light and conjecture to this discovery; which Colon so 
 readily improved, that in seventy-eight days he made his Yoyage 
 to the Isle of Guanatiancio, though he was detained some days 
 at Gomera to take in Provisions." 
 
 Extract from "Eden's Preface to Peter Martyr's Decades :" 
 
166 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 " Certaine Preambles here followe, gathered ~by R. EDEN hereto- 
 fore, for the better Understanding of the whole Worke. 
 
 " Of the First Discovering of the West Indies. 
 
 " A Certayne Carauell sayling in tlie West Ocean, about the 
 coaastes of Spayne, hadd a forcible and continual! winde from the 
 East, whereby it was driuen to a land vnknowne, and not de 
 scribed in any Map or Garde of the Sea, and was driuen still 
 along by the coaste of the same for the space of many daies, vntil 
 it came to a hauen, where in a short time the most part of the 
 mariners, being long before very weake and feble by reason of 
 hunger and trauayle, dyed : so that only the Pilot, with three or 
 foure other, remayned aliue. And not only they that dyed, did not 
 enjoy the Indies whiche they first discouered to their misfortune, 
 but the residue also that liued had in maner as litle fruition of 
 the same : not leaning, or at the least not openly publishing any 
 memorie thereof, neyther of the place or what it was called, or in 
 what yeere it was founde : Albeit, the fault was not theirs, but 
 rather the malice of others, or the enuie of that, which we cal for 
 tune. I do not therefore marueile, that the auncient histories 
 affirme, that great things procede and increase of small and ob 
 scure beginninges, sith we haue seene the same verified in this 
 finding of the Indies, being so notable and newe a thing. We 
 neede not be curious to seeke the name of the Pilot, sith death 
 made a short ende of his doinges. Some will, that he came from 
 Andaluzia, and traded to the Ilandes of Canaria, and Hand of 
 Madera, when this large and mortall nauigation chauncecl vnto 
 him. Other say that hee was a Bysoanne and traded into Eng- 
 lande and France. Other also, that hee was a Portugall, and 
 that either he went or came from Mina or India : whiche 
 agreeth well with the name of the newe landes, as I haue sayd 
 before. Againe, some there be that say that he brought the 
 Carauell to Portugall, or the Ilande of Madera, or to some other of 
 the Ilandes called De los Azores. Yet doe none of them aifirme 
 anything, although they all aifirme that the Pilot dyed in the 
 house of Christopher Colon, with whom remayned all suche writ- 
 inges and annotations as he had made of his voyage in the said 
 Carauell, as well of such thinges as he observed both by land 
 and sea, as also of the eleuation of the pole in those lands which 
 he had discouered. " 
 
THE DEAD PILOT. 167 
 
 " What manner of man Christopher Colon (otJierwise called 
 
 Columbus) was, and how he came first to the knowledge 
 
 of the Indies. 
 
 " Christopher Colon was borne in Cugureo, or (as some say) in 
 Nerui, a village in the territory of Genua in Italie. Hee de 
 scended as some thinke, of the house of the Pelestreles of Placen- 
 tia in Lonibardie. He beganne of a chylde to bee a maryner ; 
 of whose arte they haue great exercise on the ryuer of Genua. 
 He traded many yeeres into Suria, and other parts of the East. 
 After this he became a maister in making cardes for the sea, 
 whereby he hadde great vantage. Hee came to Portugall to 
 know the reason and description of the South coasts of Affrica, 
 and the nauvigations of the Portugalles, thereby to make his 
 cardes more perfect to be solde. Hee maryed in Portugall, as 
 some say : or as many say, in the Hand of Madera, where he 
 dwelt at such time as the said Carauell arryued there, whose Pi 
 lot sojourned in his house, and dyed also there, bequathing to 
 Colon his carde of the description of such newe landes as he had 
 found, whereby Colon hadde the first knowledge of the Indies. 
 Some haue thought that Colon was well learned in the Latine 
 tongue and the science of Cosmographie : and that he was there 
 by first moued to seeke the lands of Antipodes, and the rich Hand 
 of CipangOj whereof JIarchus Paidus writeth. Also that he had 
 reade what Plato in his dialogues of Timeus and Cicias, writeth 
 of the great Ilande of Atlantide, and of a great lande in the west 
 Ocean vndiscouered, being bigger than Asia and Affrica. Fur 
 thermore that he had knowledge what Aristotle and Thephrastus 
 saye in their bookes of JVTaruayles, where they write that certayne 
 marchauntes of Carthage, sayling from the strayghtes of Gibral- 
 ter towarde the West and South, founde after many daies a great 
 Ilande not inhabited, yet replenished with all thinges requisite, 
 and hauing many nauigable riuers. In deede Colon was not 
 greatly learned : yet of good understanding. And when he had 
 knowledge of the sayde newe landes by the information of the 
 deade Pilotte, made relation thereof to certayne learned menne, 
 with whom he conferred as touching the lyke thinges mentioned 
 of olde authors. Hee communicated this secrete and conferred 
 chiefely with a Fryar named John Parez of Marchena, that 
 dwelt in the Monastery of Ri~bida. So that I verily beleeve, 
 
 that in manner all that he declared, and manie thinges more that 
 12 
 
168 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 hee left vnspoken, were written by the sayde Spanyish Pilotte 
 that dyed in his house. For I am purswaded, that if Colon by 
 science attained to the knowledge of the Indies, hee woulde long 
 before haue communicated this secrete to his own countrey- 
 menne the Genuenses, that trauayle all the worlde for gaynes, 
 and not have come into Spayne for this purpose. But doubtless 
 hee neuer thought of any suche thing, beefore he chaunced to bee 
 acquainted with the sayd Pylotte, who founde those landes by 
 fortune, according to the sayinge of Plinie, Quodars docere non 
 potuit, casus inuenit. That is, That arte coulde not teache, 
 chaunce founde. Albeit, the more Christian opinion is, to thinke 
 that GOD of his singular prouidence and infinitte goodnesse, at 
 the length with eyes of compassion as it were looking downe 
 from heauen vpon the Sonnes of Adam, so long kept vnder Sa- 
 than's captiuitie, intended even then (for causes to him onelie 
 knowne) to rayse those windes of mercy whereby that Carauell 
 (herein most lyke vnto the shyppe of Noe, whereby the remnant 
 of the whole worlde was saued, as by this Carauell this newe 
 worlde receyued the first hope of their saluation) was driueii to 
 these landes. But wee will nowe declare what great thinges fol 
 lowed of this small begynning, and ho we Colon followed this 
 matter, reuealed vnto him not without GODS prouidence." 
 
 " After the death of the Pilot and maryners of the Spanyishe 
 Carauell that discouered the Indies, Christopher Colon purposed 
 to seeke the same." 
 
 Extract from " Purchases Pilgrimage" edition of 1 625 : 
 " This history is thus related by Gomara and Joannes Mari 
 ana : a certain caravel sailing in the ocean, by a strong east wind 
 long continued was carried to a land unknown, which was not 
 expressed in the maps and charts. It was much longer in re 
 turning than in going ; and arriving, had none left alive but the 
 Pilot, and three or four mariners, the rest being dead of famine 
 and other extremities ; of which also the remnant perished in 
 few days, leaving to Columbus (then the pilot's host) their papers, 
 and some grounds of this discovery. The time, place, country, 
 and name of the man is uncertain. Some esteem this pilet an 
 Andalusian, and that he traded at Madeira, when this befell 
 him. Some, a Biscayan, and that his traffic was in England 
 and France. And some, a Portuguese, that traded to Mina 
 
GILAKDI Otf THE DEAD PILOT. 169 
 
 (India). Some say lie arrived in Portugal, others at Madeira, or 
 at one of the Azores : all agree that he died in the house of 
 Christopher Columbus. It is most likely at Madeira." 
 
 Were we to attempt to give extracts from all the old writers 
 who corroborate the story of the dead pilot, we might fill a vol 
 ume ; the above will, however, suffice, and we will conclude with 
 the following extract from a dedication to the Duke of Yeraguas, 
 the legal representative of the family of Columbus, dated 1666 ; 
 written by Captain Galardi, the duke's secretary, on the personal 
 history of Columbus ; put forth as the authorized family version, 
 founded on the documents of the house. 84 We believe it is time 
 that over-zealous historians, and the world at large, should cease 
 to be more jealous of the honor of Columbus than were his im 
 mediate descendants and heirs to his honors. 
 
 " To the Right Honorable LORD DON PEDRO NUNO COLON (Co 
 lumbus) and Portugal ; GRAND ADMIRAL OF THE INDIES, 
 Grandee of Spain, Duke of Yeraguas and de la Vega, 
 Marquis of Jamaica, Count of Gelves, Marquis of Villa 
 Mizar, Captain- General of the Naval Army, and Admiral 
 of the Low Countries, Camp-Master-General in the Army, 
 and Captain-General of the ROYAL, which is on the high- 
 seas. 
 " MY LORD : . . . . 
 
 " If I am unfortunate enough to be suspected of adulation, 
 I can bring in support of my apology the entire world, which 
 owes to your ancestors the finest, noblest, most opulent and 
 magnificent of its possessions. The annals of the foregoing cen 
 tury, as well as ours, will advance at my head, and it is thence 
 that I borrow my just defense, and it is there that what I ad 
 vance will be gloriously authorized. But it is too bad, my lord, 
 to dwell upon the bark when it is time to enter into the essence 
 and substance of the matter. 
 
 " I will here omit any detailed account of your remote ances 
 try. Suffice it to say that you drew your origin from Terraro 
 Colon (Columbus), lord of the castle of Cucaro, who rendered 
 very important services to his country, as had also done his illus- 
 
 84 This extract forms part of a " Dedicatory Letter to a Summary of European 
 Politics, specially of Spanish Affairs," during the century 1550-1650, published at 
 Madrid, 1666. 
 
170 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 trious progenitors Emery and Lanca. I go on to Dominic Colon 
 (Columbus) who gave birth to Christofle (Christopher), that 
 unique glory and the admiration of his age. But the wonderful 
 grandeur of an event so glorious demands some amplification, 
 and some pause in this relation of a family history which has 
 filled the universe with its praise and applause. Christopher 
 Columbus, whose courage was intrepid, and his industry equal to 
 the greatness of his soul, obligingly entertained in his house in 
 the island of Madeira, the pilot of a vessel which the violence of 
 a storm had carried off very far into the ocean, and in sight of 
 unknown lands. That man, who also had a nobly-constituted 
 nature, touched with the kind interest with which his host gen 
 erously endeavored to reestablish his strength, left him at his death 
 a striking testimony of his esteem and of gratitude proportioned 
 to that ingenuous benevolence which Columbus had displayed to 
 an unknown and unfortunate man. In fact, he left to Columbus 
 the very important legacy of his instructions concerning that 
 which had happened to him on a voyage so painful and difficult, 
 and gave him such sketches of the lands, and directions as to its 
 position and distance, as were possible. 
 
 " This was probably the essential cause and first impulse of 
 his persuasion that the earth had other limits, and that the sun 
 rose and set in another hemisphere. He opened his mind upon 
 this idea to Don Alonzo V., King of Portugal, who decried it as 
 wild and imaginary. Henry VII. of England added mockery 
 to reproach, and told him that he did not feed upon deceptive 
 notions, the ridiculous effect of a cracked and wounded brain. 
 Columbus took no offense ; he offered up this shame as a sacrifice 
 to the utility to posterity of his great idea, satisfied that it would 
 add to the praises of a just gratitude, the laudation of a patience 
 which was proof against injuries, insults, and contempt. Fer 
 dinand and Isabella were his last resource, to gain whom the 
 credit of the Cardinal Mendoza contributed very largely, facili 
 tating an audience which he had been demanding for seven con 
 secutive years, with so much ardor, and it was then that his rea 
 sons made a breach in the opinion of those great kings, who 
 promised to sustain this important undertaking. But as the 
 conquest of Granada had exhausted their finances, Luis de St. 
 Angel, secretary of Ferdinand, lent for the expedition the sum 
 of sixteen thousand ducats. 
 
GILARDI ON THE DEAD PILOT. 171 
 
 " This small amount of money, three vessels, and one hun 
 dred and twenty men, were the entire fleet, the army and the 
 treasure, to put an entire world under the glorious dominion of 
 Castile, with more than a thousand millions of souls. Colum 
 bus left Palos and carried on full sail toward the goal to which 
 his greatness of soul urged him. He had, however, less to en 
 counter from the boisterous ocean than from the opposition and 
 obstinacy of his crew, who clamored against his persisting in so 
 apparently imaginary and hopeless an enterprise. Before so 
 many evils, Columbus never faltered, and at length overcame in 
 a conflict in which the four elements were in concert with his 
 fellow-creatures to damp his energy and defeat his invincible 
 constancy. 
 
 " Toward the coast of Florida he came upon the Lucayan 
 Islands, and discovered at different times Hispaniola, Cuba, 
 Jamaica, and the Island San Juan, with a great part of that im 
 mense continent which stretches from the Straits of Magellan to 
 the promontory of Bogador, through a prodigious extent of seas 
 and coasts, fully five thousand leagues counted from the antarctic 
 to the arctic pole. 
 
 " On his return from his first voyage (he made four voyages 
 altogether), Ferdinand and Isabella, as a mark of their peculiar 
 esteem, heard him seated ; and, besides the confirmation of the 
 tenth part of their taxes in the Indies, declared him their he 
 reditary grand-admiral. Yet, however, during his lifetime and 
 after his death, his successful enterprise was applauded, it is quite 
 certain that the reward never equaled the greatness of the ser 
 vice nor the utility which it unceasingly renders to the state. 
 Indeed, Columbus might with much greater reason make that 
 touching reproach with which Ferdinand Cortez subsequently 
 moved the heart of Philip II., when, long unable to obtain an 
 audience of the king, driven to despair and reckless of his life, 
 he one day accosted that Solomon of his age, taking him by the 
 arm and stopping him short, in these words : 
 
 " ' Y. M. escuche un hombre que le ha ganado mas Keynos 
 que los que le dexaron su padre y sus aguelos.' 
 
 " ' Sire ! listen to a man who has gained for you more king 
 doms than those which were left you by your father and ances 
 tors.' 
 
 " Philip on this replied very obligingly : 
 
172 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 " c Teneis razon, padre ! ' 
 
 " 'Quite right, old friend ! ' 
 
 " And at the same time sent him away very well satisfied. 
 In like manner Columbus might well have maintained before 
 Ferdinand, without oifending the majesty of that august mon 
 arch, that he had acquired and facilitated the conquest of more 
 states than the king had received by hereditary succession from 
 his ancestors. Don Diego Columbus, his son, succeeded Chris 
 topher as Marquis of Jamaica and first Duke of Yeraguas, by a 
 special grace of Charles V., who did it only at the instance of 
 Don Ferdinand Henriquez, erecting into a duchy his land of 
 Medina del Eio Seco. Ferdinand, brother of Diego, left at his 
 death to the great Cathedral of Seville his library of thirteen 
 thousand volumes, and among them his own work, the life of 
 his incomparable father, which in a very elegant style he de 
 voted to posterity. 
 
 " Don Luis was the universal heir of Don Diego, and Don 
 Nuno Colon and Portugal received after him this grand inheri 
 tance as the second son of Don Alvaro de Portugal, Count of 
 Gelves, and Dona Leonara de Cordova, his wife, granddaughter 
 of Don George of Portugal, first Count of Gelves and Dona Isa 
 bel Colon (Columbus), third daughter of Don Diego Colon, 
 Duke of Yeraguas, Grand-Admiral of the Indies. Finally, Don 
 Alvaro Colon and Portugal was the successor of Don Nufio, as 
 you are of the former. . . . 
 
 " This, my lord, is a sketch of the glory of your illustrious 
 progenitors. A bolder hand will one day make the sketch com 
 plete, with all its colors and details proportioned to the glory and 
 finish of the subject. 
 
 " It is my own ambition, but for the present I must be con 
 tent to subscribe myself for my whole existence, my lord, your 
 very devoted and obedient servant, 
 
 (Signed) "P. FERDINAJSTD DE GALAEDI, 
 
 " Captain of cavalry in the service of his Catholic Majesty, and secretary to 
 the Duke of Veraguas," etc. 
 
 Upon what authority, we ask, do historians reject a statement 
 made in such unqualified terms, by quasi contemporary authors 
 who wrote in the praise of Columbus who were licensed by 
 the Church ? Above all, how can they suppose that Galardi s 
 
DEAD PILOT. 173 
 
 while extolling in most fulsome terms the greatness of Colum 
 bus to the representative of his family, would introduce into his 
 eulogy a falsehood detrimental to the glory of his hero ? The 
 very fact that he mentions the history of the dead pilot in such 
 a place, to such a person, proves, it appears to us, that it was 
 universally admitted. 
 
 It is but natural that Fernando should make no direct men 
 tion of it. He seems to have possessed certain distorted ideas of 
 greatness which caused him to become exceedingly indignant with 
 Justiniani for saying his father was a mechanic a sentiment 
 which comes with but bad grace from an ecclesiastic. When, 
 therefore, he devotes several lengthy chapters to show how Co 
 lumbus was led by a study of the ancients, his own reason, and 
 the letter from Toscanella, to perform his voyage, he evidently 
 seeks to lead us as far as possible from the true motive (the death 
 of the pilot and the papers he left in Columbus' s hands) which 
 would greatly simplify the proceeding, and has not so learned an 
 appearance as the reasons he gives ; these seem rather to have 
 been assigned to parry a fatal blow, for sailing by a chart already 
 laid down by one who had performed the voyage, was no very 
 extraordinary feat, as he no doubt felt. Yet, notwithstanding all 
 his efforts, there is much in his history which supports the state 
 ment. 
 
 Had Columbus really, by deep study, arrived at the conclu 
 sion that land must exist to the westward, would he have been as 
 positive of the exact situation of that land as he shows himself; 
 and as his son shows him to have been throughout ? He admits 
 of no hypothesis, but asserts that, by sailing a given distance in 
 a westerly direction, they shall reach certain lands which, he tells 
 us, he has l)een informed stretched from north to south across his 
 track. On one occasion he refuses to alter his course, " because," 
 says Fernando, " he thought it was lessening the reputation of 
 his undertaking to run from one place to another, seeking that 
 which he always asserted he well knew where to find." 
 
 This conduct is precisely the reverse of that which a discov 
 erer would pursue. The latter would run from place to place, 
 seeking that which he was to discover, and could not well know 
 where to find. Again, we are told by Fernando : 
 
 " He had always proposed to himself to find land according 
 to the place they were then in, since, as they well knew, he had 
 
174: LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 often told them lie never expected to find land till he was seven 
 hundred and fifty leagues to the westward of the Canaries, with 
 in which distance he had further said he should discover Hispa- 
 niola, which he then called Cipango ; and there is no doubt but 
 he had found it had not he known it was reported to lie in length 
 from north to south, for which reason he had not inclined more 
 to the south to run upon it." 
 
 Is this the language of a discoverer ? Is it not rather that 
 of one who had inherited the labors of Alonzo de Sanchez or 
 some other navigator, who is robbed of his well-earned fame? 
 Who reported the land to lie in length from north to south and 
 at the distance w r est from the Cana/ies of seven hundred and 
 fifty leagues ? Surely no one who had not seen it. The informa 
 tion touching the distance and position of the land is too specific 
 to have been derived from any but an eye-witness, and, having 
 received this information from such a source, he could not believe 
 that Hispaniola was Cipango (Japan). No intelligent man, above 
 all, no navigator or traveler who had visited India, China, or 
 Japan, or studied the geography of the period, could mistake the 
 island of Hispaniola for any of these countries. Toscanclla, in 
 his chart, laid down a western passage to Asia, but was too 
 learned a man to make a mistake of half the circumference of 
 the globe, as he would have done had he placed India and the 
 known portions of Asia seven hundred and fifty leagues west of 
 the Canaries. 
 
 Again, Pinzon wished Columbus to change his course, be 
 lieving (correctly) that land was near them to the southwest ; 
 but the admiral, writes Fernando, " knowing for certain it was 
 no land, he would not lose time to discover it, as all his men 
 would have had him ; forasmuch as he was not yet come to the 
 place where he expected, by his computation, to find land." 
 
 Columbus, on his own testimony, corroborates, in a great 
 measure, the statement that he sailed by the log-book of the un 
 fortunate mariner, " who happened to die in his house." In his 
 journal, September 25, 1492, we read : 
 
 " Martin Alonzo Pinzon conferred with the admiral on the 
 chart in which lands were laid down, as the ships were then in 
 their neighborhood and had been for three days in which the 
 admiral agreed ; but, as the ships had not seen them, it was con 
 sidered they had been drifted northward of them by the current. 
 
DEAD PILOT. 
 
 175 
 
 . . . The admiral directed the course to be altered to the south 
 west." 
 
 " October 3, 1492. The admiral considered the ships were 
 to the westward of the islands marked on the chart." 
 
 These statements, and the fact that he professed to know the 
 exact point where they should find land, prove this to have been 
 no voyage of discovery, and Columbus to have been erroneously 
 termed a discoverer. 
 
 That it was no study or scientific knowledge which imbued 
 him with the idea of his Western voyage, must be evident to all 
 
 THE SHIPWBECKED PILOT ENTEBS THE HOUSE OF COLFMBTTS. 
 
 who shall give the matter consideration, and shall read, with un 
 biassed judgment, the various histories which have been written 
 upon the subject from that of his son Fernando, which "Wash 
 ington Irving terms the "corner-stone of the history of the 
 American Continent," down to the brilliant but unreliable work 
 of Irving himself and the enthusiastic and ecstatic history by 
 M. de Lorgues, who will not rest content till Columbus be 
 numbered among the saints. 
 
 Without a knowledge of the history of the dead pilot, we 
 vainly endeavor to explain the many inconsistencies we have 
 
176 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 mentioned ; with that knowledge, all becomes clear, simple, and 
 probable. 
 
 Columbus, the needy adventurer, and but half-reformed pi 
 rate, receives into his house, on the lonely shores of Madeira, a 
 pilot and three sailors, sole survivors of a crew whose ship had 
 been driven westward by adverse winds, till it touched upon land 
 unknown to European navigators at that time. The pilot had 
 recorded exactly the latitude and longitude of these lands, the dis 
 tance he sailed, and the course he pursued. He and his compan 
 ions all happen to die in the house of Columbus, into whose hands 
 fall the papers of the deceased. Seeing in these documents 
 matter wherewith to make his fortune and acquire fame, at small 
 risk or peril, Columbus determines to profit by them, and profit 
 largely, too. His conditions are not those of a learned and honest 
 navigator exposing his views, which might be carried out by any 
 experienced seaman, but of one who, being possessed of certain 
 secret information, proposes to sell it at a high price. 
 
 Where, then, is the extraordinary courage so much extolled 
 by his biographers, as they represent him, guided only by his 
 own intuitive knowledge, or scientific research, sailing across 
 what was supposed to be a boundless ocean, and discovering a 
 land which he alone had divined ? Did it -require such wonderful 
 fortitude to undertake a voyage every league of which was laid 
 down by one who had already performed it ? 
 
 Columbus was as certain of his course, and of the distance be 
 tween the Canaries and the lands in question, as he was that he 
 was not sailing to Asia, but to certain islands where his ambition 
 and vanity would be gratified by the sounding titles of viceroy 
 and admiral. Yiceroy, indeed, over naked savages ! Admiral 
 of three fishing-smacks ! But there is much in a name, or at 
 least our hero thought so. 
 
 With these facts before us, Columbus as he is, and as histo 
 rians have made him reminds us of the Arabian fable, in which 
 we are told how a poor fisherman brought up in his net a small 
 casket. Upon his opening it, a great smoke emerges, which as 
 sumes the proportions of a gigantic human form a powerful genius 
 striking wonder, admiration, and terror, into the heart of the 
 fisherman. But soon the great genius dissolves into smoke, his 
 huge form subsides into the tiny casket which has hitherto 
 contained him; and the fisherman, no longer fearing or ad- 
 
OBLIVION" OR CONTEMPT. 177 
 
 miring, may fling the casket back into the waves whence he 
 drew it. 
 
 Columbus, in his own day, was but lightly esteemed, as he 
 and his historians admit. Yet the latter have surrounded him 
 with such a mist of fiction, with such incense of praise, that his 
 real character, being veiled or but partially revealed, he has ap 
 peared to many great and wonderful. Let the test of reason and 
 judgment, however, be applied ; let the reader of these histories 
 calmly scrutinize these statements, and pause to consider what 
 were the actions which are the theme of so much laudation, and 
 the mist is dispersed, the incense disappears, and the character of 
 Columbus shrinks into its really diminutive proportions. Well 
 would it be for him if his name could be cast into the sea of 
 oblivion, where his crimes and petty arrogance might never more 
 be the subject of horror and contempt ! 
 
CHAPTEE XI. 
 
 PREPARATIONS FOR THE FIRST VOYAGE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 THE pilot being dead, Columbus determined to trade upon the 
 papers he had left, with the aid of which he hoped to attain rank 
 and fortune. 
 
 According to Fernando, his father had obtained information 
 which induced him to " believe for certain that there were such 
 islands." Here is evidence that it was upon information received 
 that the latter based his operations, which might appear some 
 what inexplicable when we have been told, by Fernando, that 
 study and thought were the incentives to the discovery, did we 
 not bear in mind that it applies perfectly to the dead pilot. The 
 information received, which caused such certainty in the mind of 
 Columbus, was the waif of Alonzo de Sanchez ; and the former, 
 believing this knowledge and opinion to be " excellently well 
 founded," he resolved to put it in practice, and to sail westward 
 in search of these countries. 
 
 This he could not do without the protection of some monarch. 
 It was also necessary that the nautical skill and pecuniary ex 
 pense of the expedition should be provided by other parties. 
 He therefore proceeded to Portugal, to lay his plans before the 
 king of that country, " because he lived under him." 
 
 His terms, the same which he subsequently oifers in Castile, 
 are justly thought by the King of Portugal too exorbitant for 
 him to accede to. " The admiral," says Fernando, " being of a 
 noble and generous spirit, would capitulate to his great benefit 
 and c honor.' ): We fail to perceive a noble and generous spirit 
 in one who greedily exacts immense benefit and reward, while 
 totally dependent on others for the means wherewith to carry 
 out his scheme. It has required this assurance from Fernando, 
 and the corroboration it has received from subsequent historians, 
 
KING OF PORTUGAL. 179 
 
 to make the conduct of the admiral appear other than grasping, 
 and unworthy of true greatness. This, at any rate, was the opin 
 ion which the King of Portugal evidently entertained. He re 
 fused to accept the conditions; but, according to Fernando, 
 " resolved to send a caravel privately to attempt that which the 
 admiral had proposed to him ; " that, in the event of the coun 
 tries having been found, he might not be called upon to give the 
 immense rewards Columbus had claimed. This story rests upon 
 the unreliable testimony of the Columbos, and should therefore 
 be regarded with suspicion ; yet, had the king so acted, it would 
 have been but just. 
 
 If the name and history of the dead pilot are unknown to 
 fame, it is the fault of Columbus, who culminates a long life of 
 piracy by robbing, of the glory that belonged to him, a dead man; 
 whom he had received in double trust, who had died beneath his 
 roof! And, though he will be more wary in Spain, he had evi 
 dently revealed to the King of Portugal the source whence he 
 derived his information. That monarch may not have thought 
 it more dishonorable to revisit these lands on his own account, 
 than for Columbus to drive an unscrupulous bargain over the 
 spoils of a dead man ; he may rather have thought it a meritori 
 ous act to 
 
 ..." spoil the spoiler as we may, 
 And from the robber rend the prey." 
 
 It is this reported conduct on the part of the king that Fernando 
 assigns as a reason for his father's becoming disgusted with, and 
 leaving, Portugal ; " stealing away privately, lest the king should 
 stop him," and accept his conditions. There exists, however, a 
 document which leads us to suppose that Columbus feared to be 
 stopped by the alguazil rather than by the relenting monarch. 
 A Portuguese document plainly shows that he had become liable 
 to arrest for debt and crime. 85 This accounts for the extraordi 
 nary aversion he suddenly evinced for the kingdom of Portugal, 
 as also for his flight into Spain, where we next find him beg 
 ging, penniless, at the Convent de la Rabida, receiving from 
 Pinzon the money, and from Juan Perez, prior of the convent, 
 and former confessor of the queen, the letter wherewith to pre 
 sent himself at the Spanish court, whither he resolves to jour 
 ney, and there make the offers which the King of Portugal had 
 
 85 Navarrete, vol. ii., p. 10. 
 
180 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 refused. " But," says Fernando, " for fear lest the King (Queen ? ) 
 of Castile should not consent to his undertaking, and he might 
 be forced to propose it to some other prince, which would take 
 up much time, he sent a brother he had with him, called Bar 
 tholomew Colon, to England, to confer with the king of that 
 country." 
 
 Bartholomew is said to have fallen into the hands of pirates, 
 yet, nevertheless, reached England, and presented Henry VII. 
 with a map or chart, at the same time telling him of the offer 
 his brother Christopher made, to discover lands in the "West, for 
 the English kingdom. The king, we are told, readily accepted 
 the offer, and ordered Columbus to be sent for. All this, accord 
 ing to Fernando, took place in the year 1480 ! " But," contin 
 ues the latter, " God having reserved it for Castile, the admiral 
 had, at that time, gone on his voyage, and returned with success." 
 
 It may not be amiss, in order to prove further the deplorable 
 want of exactitude, with regard to dates, which pervades Fer- 
 nando's history, to call attention to the year 1480, set down by 
 him as that in which Bartholomew presented the king with the 
 map and the conditions offered by Christopher. It is more than 
 twelve years previous to his first voyage (1492). The action of 
 the king appears to have been prompt : " Having seen the map " 
 (he is represented as having seen it in 1480), " and what the ad 
 miral offered him, he readily accepted of it, and ordered him to 
 be sent for." Yet we are told, on the same authority, that, by 
 the time Bartholomew informed Columbus of a matter which was 
 of such vital importance to him, he had performed his first voy 
 age and returned ; at a time, too, when intimate relations, both 
 commercial and diplomatic, existed between England and Spain ; 
 and when, therefore, a period of twelve years was not necessary 
 for the transmission of a communication from one country to the 
 other. "We merely mention this to show how inconsistent Fer 
 nando proves himself throughout, for it is not possible that Bar 
 tholomew could have gone to England on any such errand in 
 1480, as Columbus did not visit Lisbon till 1485. Fernando 
 here, again, attempts to antedate the dead pilot. 
 
 Columbus did not, evidently, steal into Spain till 1487. "We 
 have already said that Pinzon provided him, on his first arrival, 
 with money sufficient to carry him to court. The reader will be 
 prepared to believe that his finances soon ran low; and we find 
 
AT PALOS. 
 
 181 
 
 that, on the 5th of May, 1487, a stranger, called Christopher 
 Columbus, came to Seville, asked for and received, by order of 
 the Bishop of Palencia, a sum of money equal to about thirty 
 dollars. 86 This is said to be the earliest authentic date, proving 
 his presence in Spain, which can be found. We may, therefore, 
 safely conclude that the space of time between his first arrival in 
 Lisbon, and his stealthy flight therefrom in March or April, 1487 5 
 was chiefly spent in Madeira, attending to the matter of the dead 
 pilot, and arranging for the successful use of his charts ; thence 
 
 CONFERENCE BETWEEN COLUMBUS AND JUAN PEREZ. 
 
 he returned to Lisbon, proffered his services, staid but a very 
 short time, to arrive in Spain in 1487. This is the only manner 
 in which the history of Columbus can be made consistent and 
 clear throughout, because it is evidently the only true version of 
 that history. 
 
 When Columbus arrived at the convent-gate at Palos, hun 
 gry and penniless, he was received and cared for by the charitable 
 monks. To the prior, Juan Perez, he spoke of his plans. This 
 worthy friar advised him to confer with the Pinzons, the most 
 influential family of the town, and experienced navigators. 
 
 86 Navarrete, u Colecc. Cip., M vol. ii., p. 11. 
 
182 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 Martin Alonzo Pinzon, having, during a recent sojourn in Rome, 
 heard rumors of Western lands, saw nothing improbable in the 
 recital of Columbus, and advised him to lay his plans before the 
 sovereigns. The latter informed him of his destitute circum 
 stances, which would not allow him to perform such a journey, 
 much less appear at court. Pinzon liberally advanced him the 
 necessary funds, while Juan Perez offered to care for his little 
 son, and furnished him with a letter of recommendation to his 
 successor as confessor to the queen. 87 
 
 All these circumstances, though far less shameful than many 
 others of his career, Fernando ungenerously fails to mention, 
 but accounts for Columbus having obtained audience with their 
 Majesties by his being " affable and of pleasant conversation ; " 
 and would make it appear that he contracted friendships at court 
 with such persons as were likely to favor his enterprise. The son 
 seems unwilling to let us perceive the destitute condition of his 
 father when he arrived in Spain ; and, above all, he would con 
 ceal the fact that the Pinzon s, whom Columbus so shamefully 
 requited, were the first to encourage and assist him. 
 
 With the letter from Juan Perez, Columbus arrived at Cor 
 dova, where the court was then held, and laid his plans, or as 
 much of them as he chose to reveal, before their Catholic Majes 
 ties, who commanded them to be submitted to the Prior of 
 Prado, and other cosmographers, who were so ignorant, we are 
 told, and so far behind this " unlettered admiral," in geographi 
 cal knowledge, that they condemned the scheme, for reasons both 
 various arid absurd, and reported that what Columbus proposed 
 was impracticable. For these reasons, according to Fernando 
 and other historians, and because the conditions of Columbus 
 were considered too exorbitant, their Majesties refused to accept 
 his proposition. Here is a gross slander upon the learned men 
 of that period. Let us bear in mind that the Arabs had for cen 
 turies enlightened Spain with their learning ; that the schools of 
 Cordova, of Salamanca, and other cities, possessed spheres, zodiacs, 
 etc., which had long aided to instruct thousands, giving them 
 just ideas of the heavens and the earth ; yet Fernando, and even 
 modern writers, would have us believe that the most learned of 
 these schools scoffed at the idea of antipodes, and of the sphe- 
 
 87 Navarrete, " Colecc. Dip.," vol. iii. ; Probanzas del Fiscal ; Irving, " Columbus," 
 book ii., chapter i. 
 
CONTRACT UNDER WHICH HE SAILS. 183 
 
 ricity of the globe, and were more ignorant than the unlettered 
 seaman who tells us the world is pear-shaped ! 
 
 The exorbitancy of Columbus' s claims seems to have been the 
 only reason for the refusal. The latter evidently exposed no 
 theory, but merely spoke of certain lands of which he had mys 
 terious knowledge, and which he proposes to conquer for their 
 Majesties. When called upon to be more explicit, he refuses 
 "so far to explain himself," as he had done in Portugal, lest he 
 should be deprived of his reward that is, he forbore mentioning 
 the history of the dead pilot; and, as he would not show more 
 plainly upon what he based his stupendous claims, the aifair 
 was allowed to drop. 
 
 Had Columbus based his project on theory, why need he have 
 refused to explain that theory 2 A scientific discussion would have 
 done little to convince men so obstinate in their error as histori 
 ans represent the savants of Salamanca to have been but the cir 
 cumstance of the dead pilot would have carried conviction into 
 the heart of the most unbelieving ; and that is why Columbus 
 refused to explain himself further, lest he should be deprived of 
 his reward. He evidently had information as to a specific spot, 
 not mere scientific data for argument. No doubt, in his attempt 
 to account on scientific principles for this information, he showed 
 himself as ignorant as he does in his writings, and may justly 
 have incurred the ridicule of the assembled scholars. 
 
 The reader will not be surprised that the sovereigns hesitated 
 in acceding to the claims of Columbus when he perceives how 
 advantageous to him they were. The following were the terms 
 agreed upon by their Catholic Majesties, on the 17th of April, 
 1492: 
 
 " First : Their highnesses, as sovereigns of the ocean, con 
 stitute Don Christopher Columbus their admiral in all those 
 islands and continents, that, by his industry, shall be discovered 
 or conquered in the said ocean, during his own life, and after his 
 death to his heirs and si^cessors, one by one forever, with all 
 the preeminences and prerogatives to that office pertaining ; and 
 in the same manner as Don Alonzo Henriquez, their Great-Ad 
 miral of Castile and his predecessors in said office had enjoyed 
 the same within their districts. 
 
 "Item: Their highnesses appoint the said Don Christopher 
 
 13 
 
184 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 Columbus their viceroy and governor-general of all the islands 
 and continents which (as has been said) he shall discover or con 
 quer in the said ocean, and that he choose three persons for the 
 government of each of. them, for each office; and that their 
 highnesses take and make choice of one of them, as shall be 
 most for their service, and so the lands will be the better gov 
 erned, which our Lord shall permit him to discover, or conquer, 
 for the service of their highnesses. 
 
 " Item : That all and whatsoever commodities, whether pearls, 
 precious stones, gold, silver, spice, or other things whatsoever ; 
 or merchandise of any kind, name, or manner whatever, they 
 may be, that shall be bought, exchanged, found, won, or had, 
 within the limits of the said admiralship, their highnesses, 
 from this time, grant to the said Don Christopher ; and it is their 
 will, that he have and enjoy the tenth part of it for himself, de 
 ducting the charges that shall be made toward the same, so that, 
 of what shall remain clear and free, he have and take the tenth 
 part for himself, and dispose of it at his own will, the other nine 
 parts remaining for their Majesties. 
 
 " Item : In case that on account of the said merchandise, 
 which he shall bring from the said islands, or lands, which shall 
 (as has been said) be .discovered or conquered, or of those that 
 shall be taken in exchange of them of other merchants, any law 
 suit should happen to arise, in the place where the said com 
 merce and trade shall be made and carried on, if by reason of 
 his said office of admiral it shall belong to him to take cogni 
 zance of such controversy, it may please their highnesses, that he 
 or his deputy, and no other judge, shall try the said cause, if it 
 appertains to the said office of admiral as the same has been en 
 joyed by the Admiral Don Alonzo Henriquez, or his predeces 
 sors in their districts, and according to justice. 
 
 " Item : That all ships which shall be fitted out for the said 
 trade and commerce, whensoever and as often as they shall be 
 fitted, shall be liable to the said Don Christopher Columbus, if 
 he shall think fit to lay out the eiglfch part of what shall be ex 
 pended in fitting them out, and that he accordingly have and re 
 ceive the eighth part of the profits of such ships." 
 
 Herrera, from whom the above terms are quoted, carefully 
 omits, however, the important preliminary articles which were 
 
CHARACTER OF CONTRACT. 185 
 
 drawn up, and upon which these terms were based. His reason 
 for this is obvious : In these preliminaries, preserved among the 
 state papers of Spain, Columbus wisely makes a provision by 
 which, in the event of its being discovered that he traded upon 
 knowledge received from the dead pilot, his claims might still ~be 
 protected. This preliminary document, written in April, 1492, 
 commences with the following significant clause : 
 
 " The favors which Christopher Columbus has asked from the 
 King and Queen of Spain, and which they grant him, in recom 
 pense for the discoveries which he has made in the ocean seas, 
 and as recompense for the voyage which he is about to undertake, 
 are the following." 88 
 
 No author, not even Fernando, with his manifest exaggeration 
 of his father's achievements and knowledge, pretends that Co 
 lumbus had been on a voyage of discovery previous to 1492 ; to 
 what, then, does the phrase " discoveries which he has made in 
 the ocean seas " allude ? It is distinctly stated that he has al 
 ready made discoveries ; this could not apply to scientific theory 
 and speculation, which yet remained to be proved, but it applies 
 perfectly to the very specific knowledge received from the pilot 
 Sanchez, upon which Columbus bases his claim of having already 
 discovered. 
 
 The phraseology of the contract, the excuse given by the 
 sovereigns for their refusal at first to accept it which was that, 
 being engaged in fighting the Moors, they could not enter upon 
 any other war just then the large number of armed men crowd 
 ed into the three small vessels which formed his first expedition 
 (for, though- Fernando says it was composed of ninety men, other 
 authors assert that " he was sent with one hundred and twenty 
 soldiers, besides seamen") the cannon with which they were 
 provided Columbus's repeated after-allusions to his conquest, 
 when insisting upon a share of the spoils and in the government 
 of the people all prove that he did not rest his claims entirely 
 upon discovery, but more upon conquest?* Under the clause 
 
 88 State papers, 1492 ; document 70. 
 
 89 When complaining that a judge had been sent out by Isabella to investigate his 
 conduct, he writes : " I ought to be judged as a captain, sent from Spain to the Indies, 
 to conquer a nation numerous and warlike . . . where, by the Divine will, I have 
 subdued another world to the dominion of the king and queen, our sovereigns. . . . 
 I ought to be judged by cavaliers who had themselves won the meed of victory ; by 
 gentlemen, indeed, and not by lawyers." He seems here to have forgotten that, of this 
 
186 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 " or conquer" his prerogatives are as completely protected as 
 they could be by all the discoveries that it was possible for him 
 to make or imagine ; besides which, they could not be prejudiced, 
 should the lands have been previously discovered by a hundred 
 dead or living navigators ; that is, if the contract were legal. 
 He professed to the sovereigns of Spain that he was undertaking 
 an embassy from them to the grand-khan, as he clearly states 
 in his journal, which he pompously opens as follows : 
 
 " In nomine D. N. Jesu Christi : 
 
 " Whereas, most Christian, most high, most excellent, and 
 most powerful princes, King and Queen of the Spains, and of the 
 islands of the sea, our sovereigns, in the present year 1492, 
 after your highnesses had put an end to the war with the Moors, 
 who ruled in Europe, and had concluded that warfare in the 
 great city of Granada, where, on the 2d of January of this pres 
 ent year, I saw the royal banners of your highnesses placed by 
 force of arms upon the towers of Alhambra, which is the fortress 
 of that city, and beheld the Moorish king sally forth from the 
 gates of the city, and kiss the royal hands of your highnesses, 
 and of my lord the prince; and immediately, in that same 
 month, in consequence of the information which I had given 
 your highnesses of the lands of India, and of a prince who is 
 called the Grand-Khan which is to say, in our language, King 
 of kings how that many times he and his predecessors had sent 
 to Rome, to entreat for doctors of our holy faith to instruct him 
 in the same, and that the Holy Father had never provided for 
 them, and that so many people were lost believing in idolatries, 
 and imbibing doctrines of perdition ; therefore, your highnesses, 
 as Catholic Christians and princes, lovers and promoters of the 
 holy Christian faith, and enemies of the sect of Mohammed, and 
 of all idolatries and heresies, determined to send me, Christopher 
 Columbus, to the said parts of India, to see the said princes, and 
 the people, and the lands, and discover the nature and disposition 
 of them all, and the means to be taken for the conversion of 
 them to our holy faith ; and ordered that I should not go by 
 land to the East, by which it is the custom to go, but by a voyage 
 
 numerous and warlike people, he once wrote : " So loving, so tractable, so peaceable 
 are these people that, I swear to your Majesties, there is not in the world a better 
 nation," etc., etc. 
 
EXTRACT FROM COLUMBUS'S LOG-BOOK. 1ST 
 
 to the "West, by which course, unto the present time, we do not 
 know for certain that any one hath passed. 
 
 "Your hfghn esses, therefore, after having expelled all the 
 Jews from your kingdoms and territories, commanded me, in the 
 same month of January, to proceed with a sufficient armament 
 to the said parts of India ; and, for this purpose, bestowed great 
 favors upon me, ennobling me, that thenceforward I might style 
 myself Don, appointing me high-admiral of the ocean sea, and 
 perpetual viceroy and governor of all the islands and continents 
 I should discover and acquire, and which henceforward may be 
 discovered and gained in the ocean sea ; and that my eldest son 
 should succeed me, and so on, from generation to generation, 
 forever. 
 
 " I departed, therefore, from the city of Granada, on Saturday, 
 the 12th of May, of the same year, 1492, to Palos, a seaport, 
 where I armed three ships well calculated for such service, and 
 sailed from that port well furnished with provisions, and with 
 many seamen, on Friday, 3d of August, of the same year, half 
 an hour before sunrise ; and took the route for the Canary Isl 
 ands of your highnesses, to steer my course thence, and navigate 
 until I should arrive at the Indies, and deliver the embassy of 
 your highnesses to those princes, and accomplish that which 
 you had commanded." 
 
 This short extract is a sample of the writings of Columbus, 
 for it contains two manifest falsehoods. We know that it was 
 not he who armed the vessels for the expedition, as he boasts to 
 have done ; nor are we to suppose that he believed the countries 
 he was in search of to be the rich and well-known regions of 
 India in Asia, which it had hitherto been customary to reach 
 eastward by land. The dead pilot had well informed him of the 
 nature of the lands and people, but by the pretense of sailing to 
 Asia, the trade with which was the subject of so much rivalry, 
 he, in the language of his son, " sought to tempt their Catholic 
 Majesties," and induce them to grant the extraordinarily advan 
 tageous terms he craved. 
 
 When his solicitations had been refused at the Spanish court, 
 he returned to Palos, that he might confer with those who had 
 befriended him. Fernando tells us, he made up his mind to 
 offer his services to France ; but we believe this pretense of his 
 
188 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 having laid his plans before all the powers of Europe, is merely 
 made to increase the importance of Columbus. "We are con 
 firmed in this belief by the incongruity of Fernando's narrative. 
 In his eleventh and twelfth chapters, he tells us his father was 
 not informed that Henry VII. had acceded to the proposals made 
 by Bartholomew Columbus till after his return from his first 
 voyage ; that he stole away from Portugal because the king of 
 that country did not accept his terms, and had deceived him. In 
 his fourteenth chapter, we read that he was "very desirous that 
 Spain should reap the benefit of his undertaking, . . . because 
 he had long resided there, while following his project, and be 
 cause he had got children there ; which was the cause why he 
 rejected the offers made him by other princes, as he declares 
 in a letter he writ their highnesses, in these words : ' That I 
 might serve your highnesses, I refused to take up with France, 
 England, and Portugal.' ' : 
 
 It is possible, as Columbus was nowise scrupulously vera 
 cious, that he may have written in such terms to the Spanish 
 sovereigns, thinking that, should they believe other sovereigns 
 competed with them, they would be the more readily persuaded 
 to grant his requests ; but the fact that he did refuse to serve the 
 nations above mentioned is by no means thereby established. 
 
 According to Fernando's own showing, his father only knew 
 that the King of England would accept his offer after he had re 
 turned from his first voyage; he could scarcely, therefore, be said 
 to refuse that which had not been tendered him. That he traded 
 with France is a statement made and supported only by Colum 
 bus and his son. 
 
 He appears to have returned to Palos, where he urged his 
 case upon his friends Juan Perez and the Pinzons, the former 
 thinking he might possibly retain some of his old influence over 
 the queen, whose confessor he had once been, borrowed a mule 
 and departed at midnight for the royal camp of Santa Fe, before 
 Granada, where it is probable his persuasions induced the queen 
 to accede to Columbus's demands, giving an order on the town 
 of Palos for two caravels, a third to be fitted out, at the expense 
 of Columbus. 
 
 Fernando tells us it was one Luis de Santangel, who remon 
 strated with the queen upon her refusal, and that the latter, in 
 her repentance, offered to pledge her jewels in order to defray 
 
WEALTH OF SPAIN". 
 
 189 
 
 the expense of the expedition. This story is as absurd as many 
 others coined by Fernando to embellish the history of his father. 
 The coffers of Spain were then well filled. The treasury of the 
 queen had received an extraordinary increase from her per 
 fidious conduct toward the Moors of Malaga, from whom she 
 had obtained millions, holding out the hope of ransom, who, 
 when they had given all the treasure they possessed, were sold 
 
 JTTAN PEREZ ON HIS WAT TO COTTBT. 
 
 into slavery. The ostentatious luxury of Castile was the won 
 der of neighboring nations. Artisans could indulge their^ wives 
 and daughters in a rivalry of display with nobles, at a cost far 
 exceeding that of the contemplated expedition. It would seem 
 extraordinary, therefore, that the expense of providing three 
 small vessels, should have rested so heavily upon the royal cof 
 fers, that her Majesty should be obliged to resort to some Hebrew 
 gentlemen to whom she might pawn her jewels. But had this 
 
190 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 been so, had the queen been as destitute as she is represented, 
 it is evident that the expedition in question cost her little or 
 nothing, and that she never had any necessity for pawning her 
 property. The expense necessary for it was levied upon the little 
 town of Palos, as a punishment for some offense against the 
 crown, as appears from the following royal order, with which 
 Columbus returned to that town : 
 
 " Requisition upon the Municipality of Palos. 
 
 " In consequence of the offense which we received at your 
 hands, you were condemned by our council to render us the ser 
 vice of two caravels, armed at your own expense, for the space 
 of twelve months, whenever and wherever it should be our 
 pleasure to demand the service. 
 
 "April 30, 1492." 
 
 Many private individuals of moderate means would have 
 been able, in any event, to furnish the outlay. The Pinzons pro 
 vided Columbus, who possessed not a maravedi, with the eighth 
 part of the expense which he had boasted he would defray ; and 
 thus, without outlay from the crown, a poor fishing-town, and 
 two private gentlemen, equipped the fleet of three little vessels, 
 which the Queen of Spain is represented as unable to do, unless 
 she pawned her jewels. 
 
 Columbus, on arriving at Palos with his orders, did not meet 
 with an enthusiastic reception from the inhabitants ; they were 
 unwilling to follow an unknown adventurer on a long voyage. 
 Two of the ships, when provided, were secretly scuttled. The 
 delay and difficulty increased, and threatened seriously to im 
 pede the undertaking, when the Pinzons, those brave brothers, 
 seeing how matters stood, and having part of their fortune em 
 barked in the enterprise, came forward and offered each to take 
 command of a caravel. The men of Palos, by whom the Pin 
 zons were held in great esteem and respect, now came forward 
 willingly. Two small caravels, the Pinta and the Nina, were 
 commanded respectively by Martin Alonzo and Yin cent Yanez 
 Pinzon ; the St. Mary, the somewhat larger vessel equipped at 
 the expense of the Pinzons, was under the command of the 
 thenceforth " Admiral Don Christopher Columbus," his right to 
 which title, like all new-born nobility, neither he nor his son 
 
TITLE OF ADMIEAL. 191 
 
 will ever forget. As men are born poets and artists, so it would 
 appear Columbus was born admiral. The opening chapter of 
 Fernando's history makes the title ascendj on the Chinese prin 
 ciple beyond his birth, and thenceforth every incident of his life 
 is referred to " the admiral ; " when speaking of his early life, 
 of his piracy, it is " the admiral / " when recounting his solicita 
 tions for the title at the Spanish court, it is " the admiral " who 
 solicits. 
 
 This prospective enjoyment of a ponderous title is amusing 
 in view of the ultimate grandeur of his command : three small 
 vessels, ordinary fishing-smacks, of from thirty to sixty tons bur 
 den, two of them without decks, and for the best of these he is 
 indebted to the man whom he will afterward gratefully term 
 " one Pinzon.'"' 
 
CHAPTEE XII. 
 
 THE FIRST VOYAGE O COLUMBUS. 
 
 WITH this fleet Columbus set sail from the little port of Pa- 
 Jos, on Friday, August 3, 1492, for the Canaries. 
 
 During the transit the rudder of the Pinta gave way, which 
 
 "Suddenly an immense sea-fish (some call it Galena) was before them, and upon the body of this, 
 holding itself immovable as a rock, the pilots moor their ships, and these most sacred men, cele 
 brating the holy sacrifice of Mass, with previous confession, distribute the Paschal Lamb to all 
 their companions, that is, the sacred communion. . . . What a sight do you imagine this to have 
 been I What joy to these pious and simple men, seeking God with all their mind and strength ; 
 when in so immense a beast they saw the pledges offered to their divine Father. '%-(PHILOPONO, 
 " Christophorus Colombus," 1621.) Such is the character of the histories which have given Colum 
 bus his fame, such the incidents they record ! 
 
 accident Columbus attributed to the malice of those who fitted 
 out the vessel. Fernando, still more unjust, ascribes the acci 
 dent to the " malice of Pinzon," who commanded her, which is 
 
GOMERA. TEKERIFFE. 193 
 
 not only ungenerous, but absurd, when we bear in mind that 
 Pinzon, more than Columbus or the sovereigns of Castile, had 
 aided in fitting out the fleet for which " the admiral " had so 
 long solicited in vain. 
 
 Columbus, although unable to aiford Pinzon any assistance 
 in repairing his damaged rudder, yet, flushed with his new-born 
 honors, must needs come alongside, " as was the custom for com 
 manders at sea." Martin Alonzo, however, stood in little need 
 of assistance ; his ingenuity enabled him promptly to repair the 
 damage ; but the imperfect rudder was unable to withstand the 
 heavy sea they encountered, and again broke loose. It was there 
 fore considered advisable to seek another vessel at the Canaries. 
 Columbus for this purpose put in at the island of Gomera. Here 
 he found no ship available, but was told that the Lady Beatrix 
 Bobadilla was expected shortly with a vessel of forty tons bur 
 den ; he, therefore, deeming such a vessel suitable for his under 
 taking, determined to wait for and impress it into his service, to 
 replace the damaged Pinta. 
 
 The Lady Beatrix, sailing earlier than was expected, Colum 
 bus was balked in his design upon her ship ; he therefore re 
 joined the Pinta at the Grand Canary, and ordered her repaired, 
 
 There is a trifling incident, during the transit from one island 
 to another, which may prove how persistently facts are distorted 
 by historians to magnify the glory of Columbus. 
 
 Fernando tells us that the Peak of Teneriffe in eruption was 
 discerned by the seamen, and they admired thereat. This simple 
 statement has been exaggerated by subsequent writers, till Mr. 
 Irving, whose narrative is taken principally from that of Fer 
 nando, tells us that the men were terrified until reassured by 
 Columbus. 
 
 There is certainly but little necessity for coloring Fernando's 
 history of his father : that Mr. Irving did not think so is, how- 
 ever 3 rendered manifest by his converting the " men admired " 
 into the men "were terrified" Putting this exaggeration pf 
 Fernando's statement aside, it is absurd to suppose that sailors 
 who had navigated the Mediterranean, as did most Spanish sea 
 men at that time, and who were therefore familiar with the vol 
 canoes of Etna and Vesuvius, should have been so terrified at 
 beholding a phenomenon of like nature. 
 
 The Pinta being repaired, the three little vessels once more 
 
19-i LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 put to sea, touching at Gomera for provisions, and finally losing 
 sight of land on the 9th of September, 1492. 
 
 It is needless to follow them in the narrative of Fernando, or 
 in Irving's still more highly colored one. The most prominent 
 feature of both is the glorification of Columbus ; for this purpose 
 they twist and turn circumstances which are detrimental to their 
 object till they make them redound to the glory of their hero. 
 Yet what was his real object ? 
 
 " What sought he thus afar ? 
 
 Bright jewels of the mine, 
 The wealth of seas, the spoils of war, 
 The enslavement of his kind." 
 
 The sailors are represented as weeping at the slightest squall, 
 trembling in abject terror during a calm, complaining of favor 
 able winds, while Columbus reassures and encourages them. 
 
 We are told that the fleet's crew mutinied and was fain to 
 turn back, till overawed by the determination and courage of 
 " the admiral ; " that they had even gone so far as to have re 
 solved to throw Columbus overboard, and account for his dis 
 appearance by declaring that he fell into the sea while making 
 observations. 
 
 We are not told how Columbus (upon whose authority the 
 story was circulated) was informed of these sinister intentions. 
 It would seem improbable that the conspirators should have 
 made him their confidant, unless indeed they conspired and di 
 vulged the conspiracy from an amiable desire to contribute their 
 mite to the aureole with which his biographers have encircled 
 the head of Columbus. It needs but little reflection to perceive 
 the improbability of this story. Sailors, even when really 
 alarmed and in imminent danger, never act in the childish man 
 ner described, but are too absorbed, in their efforts to weather 
 the storm, to weep or tremble ; and human nature has not 
 changed materially since the days of our hero. 
 
 The impossibility of a mutiny is evident, Columbus's own 
 log-book showing that Martin Alonzo and Yincent Yanez kept 
 their vessels ahead during the whole voyage (and were obliged 
 constantly to " He by for the admiral ") ; this they would scarce 
 have done had they desired to turn back. 
 
 Martin Alonzo first observed that the current had drifted 
 them northward of the islands laid down in the chart of the dead 
 
FALSE BECKONING. 195 
 
 pilot. To this he drew the attention of Columbus ; the latter, 
 with characteristic false pride, refused to alter his course, lest he 
 should appear more ignorant than Pinzon, and lessen his own 
 importance. 
 
 At this, the men on board his ship may indeed have mur 
 mured. They knew, as did Columbus, that they were bound for 
 a given point, and when they heard their commander refuse to 
 sail toward that point, when borne too far north of it by the 
 ocean-current, of which he was ignorant, for the paltry reason 
 that his mistake had been discovered by another, it is but natural 
 they should have felt indignant. 
 
 In his desire to appear the sole navigator of the expedition, 
 Columbus gives himself undue credit for deceit : he alleges that 
 he kept one log-book for himself, containing a true reckoning, 
 another containing a false, for the purpose of deceiving his crew, 
 in which he diminished the distances made each day, that they 
 might not lose courage at the vast distance they had sailed. ~No 
 doubt our hero would have relished this deception, but it is to 
 be feared that in this case we must take the will for the deed, as 
 there is too much contradictory evidence to any such proceeding. 
 Both the Pinzons were skillful navigators, each of them com 
 manded a caravel, and they were generally ahead. They natu 
 rally made frequent observations ; the pilots also could not have 
 been so easily deceived. Should we, therefore, give credence to 
 this story, we must make the Pinzons, the pilots, and officers, par 
 ties to the fraud, an imputation for which there is no basis save 
 the statement of Columbus. Besides, if the latter had thus de 
 ceived his crew, it would have rendered another of his state 
 ments futile. On leaving the Canaries he declared that, when 
 they had sailed seven hundred and fifty leagues west, they should 
 reach land. The false reckoning and its diminished distances, in 
 leading the men to believe they were farther from their des 
 tination than they really were, and that the voyage would be 
 prolonged beyond their expectations, would therefore have de 
 feated his avowed object. For these reasons we believe this de 
 ception to have existed only in the imagination of Columbus, 
 who in vanity would make it appear that he alone in that first 
 expedition possessed the courage necessary for so arduous an un 
 dertaking, and sufficient knowledge to make correct calculations. 
 He contradicts the latter inference, however, by his own state- 
 
196 
 
 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 ment, contained in his journal for September 17, 1492, in which 
 he writes that he ordered the pilots to make an observation of 
 the heavens. The idea that skillful pilots and captains could be 
 deceived by false reckonings is too absurd for belief. 
 
 When Columbus finally consented to adopt the more south 
 erly course recommended by the Pinzons, the signs of land mul 
 tiplied, whereupon he declared that he had always proposed to 
 find land just there. Fernando relates that he made the crew an 
 impressive speech to this effect, when signs of land became so 
 numerous as to be incontestable, calling upon all to remember 
 how he had commanded, upon leaving the Canaries, that, after 
 
 10 So SO 40 
 
 KOUTE PtTBStTEI) BY COLtTMBUS ON HIS FlRST VOYAGE. 
 
 sailing seven hundred leagues westward, they should lie by from 
 midnight till morning lest they should run upon land unawares. 
 This harangue must have lost its intended effect of inspiring the 
 hearers with an exalted idea of the speaker's infallibility, when 
 they remembered that but for the Pinzons he would have drifted 
 far north of the islands to which he professed to be sailing, and 
 of the location of which he was so certain. 
 
 " He now desired the men to keep a lookout for land, prom 
 ising him who should first descry it a doublet of velvet in addi 
 tion to the thirty crowns a year to be awarded by the sovereigns 
 to the first discoverer." 
 
TRIANA DEFRAUDED BY COLUMBUS. 197 
 
 This promise lie was very certain not to be called upon to 
 fulfill, as lie had evidently fully determined to defraud whomso 
 ever should rightfully earn either reward. 
 
 At ten o'clock of that same night, which was that of October 
 11, 1492, " the admiral" thought he saw a light ashore, but said 
 it was so blind he could not affirm it to be land ; he therefore pri 
 vately called Peter Gutierrez, groom of the chamber to the 
 king, who saw it. He then called Roderigo Sanchez de Segovia, 
 who, probably " through malice, and a desire to rob Columbus 
 of his well-earned fame," could not see it. 
 
 Be this as it may, Columbus made no demonstration ; his 
 crew knew nothing of what he alleges to have transpired. At 
 two o'clock the next morning, the Pinta, "being far ahead," 
 fired a gun, in signal of land, which was first discovered by one 
 Juan Rodrigues Bermejo, generally called Roderigo de Triana. 
 This mariner, who so justly earned the reward, was, however, de 
 frauded, and the pension granted to Columbus because he had 
 seen a light in darkness, signifying the spiritual light he was to 
 spread in these dark regions. 
 
 This spiritual light seen by Columbus at ten o'clock in the 
 evening is evidently but an invention for the purpose of increas 
 ing his revenue at the expense of a poor sailor. The story rests 
 solely upon the testimony of Columbus. Peter Gutierrez, who 
 was so privately called, and who is said to have seen the light, 
 was one of the unlucky crew left in the island of Hispaniola and 
 massacred before the return of Columbus. It was, therefore, 
 safe to make him a witness, as he could affirm or refute nothing. 
 According to his own showing, Columbus was in the rear of the 
 Pinta, we will suppose two leagues, which is a reasonable esti 
 mate, as it is stated that the Pinta was far ahead ; add four hours' 
 sailing before the wind, at the rate of, say, ten miles an hour, and 
 the two leagues the Pinta was distant from land when she fired 
 tliie gun, and we have a distance of over fifty miles from the 
 point at which Columbus invented his spiritual light, and the low, 
 flat shore of the island of San Salvador. The vessels of Colum 
 bus were small ; the globular form of the earth would render a 
 torch in the hands of a man upon shore invisible to those on 
 board Columbus' s craft even at half the distance they were from 
 land on the evening of October llth. Irving, who perceived the 
 inconsistency, very justly observes : "Had Columbus seen a light 
 
198 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 ahead, four hours' swift sailing would have brought him high and 
 dry upon the shore ; while, on the other hand, had he seen a 
 light in any other direction, it is scarcely probable he would 
 have sailed from it." Besides which, he says nothing till after 
 the signal from the Pinta, when he claims the reward which, in 
 common justice, belonged to Roderigo de Triana, and which was 
 paid Columbus yearly at the shambles of Seville ; an indication, 
 it would seem, of the ignominious means by which he obtained 
 it. The whole fraud is too palpable to leave a doubt as to its 
 perpetration. Indeed, his son seems to have had some misgiv 
 ings as to the apparent probability of the story ; so he once more 
 brings in the superhuman, and causes his father to perceive a 
 spiritual light from a point at which no real light could have 
 been distinguished by mortal vision, as all who have carefully 
 observed the swell of the ocean will bear witness. 90 
 
 90 Navarrete, in one of his observations (vol. in., p. 612) on the testimony in the 
 lawsuit between Diego Columbus and the crown, notes the impossibility of Columbus 
 having seen a light. He writes : " The admiral says that ' this island' (Guanahani, or 
 San Salvador) ' is very flat, without any mountain? How then can he pretend to have 
 seen, at ten o'clock at night, at a distance of fourteen leagues, a light which rose and 
 fell on a flat shore destitute of elevations ?" A note is here inserted by Navarrete, to 
 the following effect : " Calculating by the table of tangents of the horizon according to 
 the altitude of the point from which they advanced, and supposing the vision of the 
 observer to be elevated twelve feet (Burgos) above the level of the sea (which is as 
 much as can be supposed, when the smallness of the caravels is borne in mind), the 
 result is, that the land must have had an elevation of twenty-two hundred and 
 fifty-four feet above the level of the sea, for its summit or highest point to have been 
 visible at fourteen leagues' distance." He continues : " How is it that the men of the 
 Pinta, which was in advance, did not see it " (the light) " even as they discovered land at 
 two in the morning ? Why did he not shorten sail and lie-to when, at ten at night, 
 he was certain he was near land as was done when the Pinta sighted it as prudence 
 and reason would have required, when we consider the swift sailing of the ships ? 
 Why does he say that at first he saw the light so confusedly that he dared not affirm 
 it to be land, as it would appear to few an indication thereof, and that he, nevertheless, 
 afterward held it for certain, yet took none of the precautions which such certainty 
 of opinion would have required ? Might this not have been the binnacle or some other 
 light of the Pinta which was ahead, or of the Nina, which would have been visible at 
 another point of the compass (for he does not inform us in which direction he saw the 
 light) ? and it might very well have been alternately visible and invisible according as 
 the ship rose and fell. Those who think that the light seen by Columbus was Wat- 
 ling's Island, in the neighborhood of which he must have passed at ten o'clock at 
 night, have not considered or traced his route, and seen that, according to this suppo 
 sition, the rate of sailing and the situation of that island, he had, at the hour indi 
 cated, crossed its meridian, leaving it southeast when he was navigating west." 
 
 All this considered, Navarrete concludes that credence should be given to the 
 many witnesses who testified that it was Juan Rodriguez Bermejo (Roderigo de Triana), 
 
NATIVES SEIZED. 190 
 
 After the signal from the Pinta, the fleet lay by till daylight, 
 when the whole expedition landed. After weeping abundantly 
 and kissing the ground, with other demonstrations equally ab 
 surd, Columbus named the island San Salvador, taking possession 
 for Castile. And then, bidding all swear allegiance to him as 
 Viceroy of India, and the crew, we are generally told by histori 
 ans, fawning and kissing the feet of Columbus, beg his forgive 
 ness for all their misdeeds ; which servile scene is as improbable 
 as the story of the mutiny is evidently false. 
 
 The natives flocked to the shore, and Columbus, believing 
 himself in India, named them Indians, which name the aborigines 
 of America still bear, in commemoration of his ignorance or du 
 plicity. They admire and wonder at the white men greatly. 
 " The admiral especially," says Irving, " attracted the attention 
 of the natives, his commanding height, his air of authority, his 
 scarlet dress, together with the attention paid him by his com 
 panions, all pointed him out as the man." We presume that, 
 with the naked savage of the forest, the scarlet dress was alone 
 sufficient to excite admiration, the other imposing qualities are, 
 we believe, gratuitous embellishments on the part of Irving. 
 
 The friendliness of the Indians is amply dwelt upon by Co 
 lumbus and his son, as also their innocence and childlike harm- 
 lessness. Seven of them, however, Columbus captured and car 
 ried off to act as interpreters ; and here we remark the extraordi 
 nary gift of language with which Columbus or the Indians (most 
 probably the former, who may have added the gift of tongues to 
 his other miraculous attainments) are favored. 
 
 Immediately on landing in the midst of a race totally differ 
 ent from any he had hitherto seen, speaking a language which 
 bore not the slightest resemblance in formation to those of 
 Europe, he nevertheless converses with them, is directed by 
 them to lands where gold is found, hears from them of neighbor 
 ing warlike people ; in fact, obtains with ease all the information 
 he requires. In other words, we are amazed at the falsehoods 
 
 a sailor on board the Pinta, who first sighted land, and whom the generous and noble- 
 minded admiral was mean enough to deprive of his just reward ; but refrains from 
 one word of censure of Columbus, and merely says, he supposes that the granting of 
 the pension to the latter was but "one of those favoritisms so frequent in courts, as 
 after the death of Pinzon the influence of the admiral increased and spread." Such is 
 the blind partiality with which historians record one of the basest acts of a base 
 
200 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 of Columbus, who, finding the lands, though fertile, devoid of 
 those Asiatic treasures which were the object of the voyage, and 
 which Spain prized so highly, and fearing to lose the royal pat 
 ronage, must needs represent them as rich in mines ; pretending, 
 that he may be the more readily believed, to have received infor 
 mation to that effect from the natives. 
 
 Bent, above all, upon the acquisition of treasure, he forbade 
 all trade with the natives, save for gold, of which he could pro 
 cure but small quantities, but hears or pretends to hear of abun 
 dance in other parts. It is probable the little gold found in the 
 island was the particles in the rivers and sands, which the In 
 dians converted into small ornaments. He confesses that San 
 Salvador contained no riches, and proceeds to another island, 
 which he named St. Mary of the Conception. Here one of the 
 Indians who had been captured at San Salvador escaped to a 
 canoe of natives, who paddled ashore and fled to the woods ; the 
 canoe was seized by the Spaniards and carried off as a prize. 
 " Such," to quote Mr. Irving, " were the gentle and sage precau 
 tions continually taken by Columbus to give the natives a favor 
 able impression of the Spaniards." 
 
 Next to St. Mary of the Conception, Columbus visits Fer- 
 nandina, which he declares the most fertile of all the islands. 
 Here he professes to inhale the odors of the rich spices of Asia, 
 which he is, however, unable to find, but is told by the ever- 
 accommodating natives that they abound to the southwest. 
 
 Here also the veracious admiral informs us nightingales are 
 so numerous as in their flight to darken the sky ! 
 
 The Jiamacs and cotton aprons of the natives, indications of 
 the real wealth of the island, are disregarded or but lightly 
 dwelt upon, Columbus being eager to find the gold he was in 
 search of. 
 
 Fernandina they leave for Isabella, called by the natives 
 Saometto ; hence they proceed to Cuba, which Columbus named 
 Juanna; this he explored, to what effect we may judge, when 
 we read in his own letter to Santangel, which is preserved 
 in the archives of Spain, that here are men with tails 91 (else 
 where he writes of men with dogs' heads) ; that the island is 
 
 91 " One of the provinces is called Cavan. Men having tails are born there." 
 Columbus's letter to the Escribano de Racion of the islands of the Indies, February 
 15, 1493. 
 
MISSION TO THE GRAND KHAN. 201 
 
 larger than England and Scotland, that it abounds in spices, 
 mines, etc. 
 
 He declared that he had reached the Continent of Asia, and 
 Irving relates an incident which here occurred, with so little ap 
 parent consciousness of its reflecting discredit upon Columbus 
 that we will give it in his own words : 
 
 " He imagined that he must be on the borders of Cathay, 
 and about one hundred leagues from the capital of the grand 
 khan. Anxious to delay as little as possible in the territory of 
 this inferior prince, he determined not to await the arrival of 
 messengers, but to dispatch two envoys to seek the neighboring 
 monarch at his residence. 
 
 " For this mission he chose two Spaniards, Roderigo de 
 Jerez, and Luis de Torres; the latter a converted Jew, who 
 knew Hebrew and Chaldaic, and even something of Arabic, one 
 or the other of which languages Columbus supposed might be 
 known to this Oriental prince. 
 
 " Two Indians were sent with them as guides, one a native 
 of Guanahani, and the other an inhabitant of the hamlet on the 
 bank of the river. The ambassadors were furnished with strings 
 of beads and other trinkets for their traveling expenses. In 
 structions were given them to inform the king that Columbus 
 had been sent by the Castilian sovereigns a bearer of letters 
 and a present, which he was to deliver personally, for the pur 
 pose of establishing an amicable intercourse between these pow 
 ers. They were likewise instructed to inform themselves accu 
 rately about the situation and distances of certain provinces, 
 ports, and rivers, which the admiral specified by name from the 
 descriptions which he had of the coast of Asia. . . . 
 
 "With these provisions and instructions the ambassadors 
 departed, six days being allowed them to go and return. Many, 
 at the present day, will smile at this embassy to a naked savage 
 chieftain in the interior of Cuba, in mistake for an Asiatic mon 
 arch." 
 
 It is not probable that Columbus imagined himself in Cathay. 
 His son denies that such was the case, declaring that he never 
 mistook the New World for Asia, 92 but that he had sailed, aspro- 
 
 92 While censuring one Mr. Roderick, Archdeacon of Seville, who with his followers 
 "blamed the admiral" for calling those parts Indies which are not Indies, Fernando 
 tells us his father did not give them that name because he really thought them to be 
 
202 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 fessed ambassador to the grand-khan we know from his own 
 statement, already quoted, in which he declares this embassy to 
 be the object of his voyage. The following is the missive which 
 he had undertaken to deliver to the Asiatic prince: 
 
 " Ferdinand and Isabella to King 
 
 " Have heard that he and his subjects entertain great love 
 for them and for Spain ; are, moreover, informed that he and his 
 subjects very much wish to hear from Spain ; send, therefore, 
 their admiral, Christopher Columbus, who will tell him that they 
 are in good health and perfect prosperity. 
 
 " GKANADA, April 30, 1492." 
 
 COLUMBUS, IN CUBA, SENDS AN EMBASSJT TO AN ASIATIC PBINCB. 
 
 He evidently made some pretense of carrying out this mis 
 sion. When his messenger returned, instead of glowing ac- 
 
 the Indies, but " because he knew all men were sensible of the riches and wealth of 
 India ; and therefore by that name he thought to tempt their Catholic Majesties, who 
 were doubtful of his undertaking, telling them he went to discover the Indies by way 
 of the West." " Historia del. Amirante," chapter vi. 
 
 Herrera corroborates this statement thus : " There was no other ground for calling 
 this New World by the name of Indies, than the design of the Admiral Christopher 
 Columbus to excite the princes he was treating with the more." 
 
THE PEOPLE OF HAYTI. 203 
 
 counts of flourishing populous towns, and a civilized, luxurious 
 people, they speak of towns composed of five huts, of naked 
 though kindly savages, from whom they receive little gold trin 
 kets, and three of whom accompany them on their return. All 
 of which, if we are to believe his biographers, did not dissuade 
 Columbus from the idea that he was in those opulent regions de 
 scribed by Marco Palo in gorgeous and glowing colors. 
 
 The vessels now left Cuba in search of the supposed Babeque, 
 during which search* Martin Alonzo became separated from the 
 other caravels. At this, Columbus was greatly disconcerted ; he 
 seems to have been very dependent upon Pinzon, and, upon the 
 departure of the latter, becomes pusillanimously discouraged, alleg 
 ing for every failure in what he had promised or represented, that, 
 had Pinzon remained with him, it would have been otherwise. 
 
 Many authors can hardly find sufficient vent for their indig 
 nation at what they term this desertion on the part of Pinzon ; 
 but the latter, who had been one of the chief promoters of the 
 scheme, can hardly have been expected to take no other part in 
 the exploration save that of following Columbus, to whom he 
 certainly owed nothing, but who may be said to have owed him 
 nearly every thing in the accomplishment of his enterprise. 
 
 It was on the 7th of December that Columbus first landed on 
 the beautiful island of Hayti, which was thenceforward to be the 
 chief scene of his inhumanity and crime. 
 
 Here were signs of greater civilization ; the ground was cul 
 tivated. The people, however, who fled in affright, were naked, 
 like the inhabitants of the other islands. 
 
 The Spaniards captured a young and handsome woman, whose 
 sole apparel was a small gold ornament in the nose ; this, small 
 as it was, served to awaken the covetous greed of Columbus. He 
 took possession of the island, planting, in sign thereof, a huge 
 wooden cross ; the same, perhaps, to which Gomara ascribes such 
 miraculous healing powers in after-years. 
 
 Peter Martyr gives a touching and it is believed substantially 
 truthful description of the inhabitants of this lovely island, show 
 ing that they had little need of missionaries ; above all, such 
 wolves in sheep's clothing as Columbus. 
 
 " It is certain," he writes, " that the land among these people 
 is as common as the sun and water ; and, that c mine and thine,' 
 the seeds of all misery, have no place with them. They are con- 
 
LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 tent with so little that, in so large a country, they have rather 
 superfluity than scarceness ; so that they seem to live in the 
 golden world, without toil, living in open gardens, not in 
 trenched with dikes, divided with hedges, or defended with 
 walls. 
 
 "They deal truly one with another, without laws, without 
 books, and without judges. 
 
 " They take him for an evil and mischievous man who taketh 
 pleasure in doing hurt to another ; and, albeit they delight not 
 in superfluities, yet they make provision for the increase of such 
 roots whereof they make bread, content with such simple diet, 
 whereby health is preserved and disease avoided." 9S 
 
 When we read the above, and remember how all this happi 
 ness and virtue was converted into misery and crime upon the 
 advent of the Christian, we might almost fancy the following a 
 "leaf from the log-book" of Columbus, so admirably does it 
 portray the case : 
 
 " A purple island on our lee . 
 
 Of coral-growth to-day we made, 
 And down the simple natives ran, 
 
 Half in surprise and half afraid. 
 'Poor heathen souls! ' our chaplain cried, 
 
 And all his mission zeal awoke ; 
 A boat was lowered, he shot the reefs, 
 
 And singled out a chief and spoke : 
 
 " ' We come ' he said, ' across the seas, 
 
 From a great land, that soars sublime, 
 Rich in a faith direct from God 
 
 And in the garnered spoils of time ; 
 There man is great and woman fair, 
 
 And all in life and death are free, 
 And wealth and culture make the earth 
 
 What God designed his earth to be.' 
 
 " ' Religion there has lost its taint, 
 
 No superstition clouds the mind ; 
 We either worship God or saint, 
 
 Or both are in one creed combined. 
 All mysteries are narrowed down 
 
 We have no doubt of right or wrong 
 Mere questions about bread and wine, 
 
 And burning candles all day long I 
 
 93 Peter Martyr, " Decade I.," book iii. 
 
LEAF FROM A LOG. 205 
 
 '"Science has made us wise as gods, 
 
 Has made us strong and potent too, 
 Happy as well, I need not add, 
 
 Since there is naught we cannot do. 
 Each word our land is great in words 
 
 By courier through the empire flies, 
 We ride on horses and on mules, 
 
 And that must make us good and wise. 
 
 " ' Our rich are favorites of Heaven ; 
 
 Each seeks the other to outvie, 
 By trying to create a want, 
 
 Or wants created, to supply. 
 Their virtues make them shining lights, 
 
 Their vices public service aid ; 
 Luxurious living scatters wealth, 
 
 And wanton waste is good for trade.' 
 
 " i These men are blest ! ' the savage cried, 
 
 ' Favored of Fortune o'er and o'er ; 
 But all your people are not rich ? ' 
 
 ' Well, no, of course, we have our poor : 
 Their toil is hard, their food is scant, 
 
 But then they clearly understand 
 That God designed them to be thus, 
 
 And not to perish from the land. 
 
 " ' No doubt some hunger day by day, 
 
 Some toil on toil incessant heap ; 
 But they have all one day of rest, 
 
 Besides the rest they get in sleep ! 
 And they are taught that work exalts, 
 
 That toil the lot of man will leaven, 
 And, failing happiness on earth, 
 
 They can make sure of it in heaven. 
 
 " ' And then ' ' No more! ' the savage cried, 
 
 ' Hence ! to your favored nation go, 
 Leave us our skies, our shores, our sea, 
 
 The simple freedom that we know, 
 Leave us long days of happy ease, 
 
 Not toilsome weariness of breath ; 
 Leave us a life that is a life, 
 
 And not endurance niched from death.' " 94 
 
 94 This poem, entitled " A Leaf from a Log," appeared in an English periodical of 
 recent date. We have slightly altered the fourth verse, in order to render it appli 
 cable to the epoch of Columbus. 
 
206 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 When the natives had overcome their instinctive fear, their 
 reception of the Spaniards was most kindly. A delegation of 
 the latter was sent to explore the interior, and returned full of 
 praises of the hospitality they had received; still, there were 
 no signs of gold in abundance. Columbus, indeed, heard reports 
 of banners of wrought gold, of pearls and precious stones, but, 
 beyond a few trinkets from the natives, he can procure nothing. 
 He understands, however, that, in another region, there is abun 
 dance. He receives some masks, with eyes and ears of gold, and 
 some plates of gold, which are "very thin." 
 
 On the 24th of December, while lying off the coast of His- 
 paniola (which was the name he gave Hayti), " it pleased the 
 Lord, seeing me gone to bed," writes Columbus, " and we being 
 in a dead calm and the sea as still as water in a dish all the 
 men went to bed, leaving the helm to a grumete (apprentice). 
 Thus it came to pass that the current easily carried away the 
 ship upon one of those shoals which, though it was night, made 
 such a roaring noise that they might be heard and discovered a 
 league off." 
 
 Here the vessel struck ; several of the crew lowered a boat and 
 fled to the other caravel. Columbus, perceiving imminent dan 
 ger, as the tide was ebbing, ordered the masts to be cut down, 
 but this tardy precaution was in vain. The St. Martha, the best 
 and largest of the caravels, was completely wrecked. Yincent 
 Yanez Pinzon refused to receive the fugitive crew on board the 
 Nina. They therefore returned to the wreck, and Columbus 
 bade them seek the king of that part of the country, and inform 
 him of the disaster, telling him the vessel had been lost in an at 
 tempt to visit and serve him, and begging his assistance. This 
 he did, that he might make the chief feel in a measure responsi 
 ble, and secure his aid, with that of his followers, to transport 
 the goods from the wreck ashore. There was no necessity for 
 this lie, as the well-disposed, kindly natives would have probably 
 tendered all the assistance in their power to the strangers they 
 had so hospitably received without it, but Columbus could never 
 persuade himself to adopt a straightforward course where a 
 crooked one was possible. 
 
 To his appeal the good Guacanagari responded, not only by 
 sending all the canoes and men he could muster to transport the 
 
LA NAVIDAD. 207 
 
 freight ashore, but himself standing guard while this was being 
 done, that all might be safely delivered to the Spaniards, 
 
 The sheer carelessness and incapacity of Columbus, in thus 
 losing his vessel in a dead calm, are fully demonstrated. "We do 
 not wonder he had need of the skill and superior knowledge of 
 Martin Alonzo Pinzon. In his relation of the accident, he again 
 shows the inconsistency which characterizes him. We are first 
 told that the current carried the ship to the shoal ; then that the 
 sea was ebbing from the shoal, so that the ship could not move. 
 Thus did the elements combine and change at his will, that he 
 might appear blameless in the disaster. 
 
 The hospitality and the gentle nature of the savages, who 
 are the subjects of the many eulogiums pronounced by Colum 
 bus, Peter Martyr, and others, together with the loss of his ves 
 sel, which would render it almost impossible for the whole crew 
 to return to Spain, determined him to form a colony at the 
 spot where he had landed, which he called La Navidad. Here 
 a fortress was built from the remains of the wreck, " strong 
 enough," says Columbus, "to subjugate the whole island." 
 
 He also writes in his letter to Santangel, that La Navidad is 
 conveniently situated for commerce with the grand-khan, and 
 with the continent ; and also offers great facilities for the export 
 of slaves, showing thus early what were his designs upon the 
 simple natives he so much extolled. 95 
 
 His preparations being complete, and some forty men having 
 been selected to remain in the island, in charge of the fortress, 
 under Peter Gutierrez and Diego de Arana, orders were given 
 them by Columbus to collect as much gold as possible against 
 his return. He then determined no longer to delay his depart 
 ure for Spain ; he feared that Pinzon would arrive there before 
 him, and complain of him or speak against the enterprise. Like 
 all guilty consciences, he feared an informer; and, though Pinzon 
 
 95 " Has taken possession of all the islands in the name of Ferdinand and Isabella 
 who can dispose of them as absolutely as of the kingdom of Castile. Has taken 
 possession of a place in the island of' Hispaniola, which is very well situated for com 
 merce with the continent and with the grand-khan. He baptized the town Navidad. 
 Has fortified it. ... Has made the king his best friend, so that he is very proud of 
 the settlement. But even should the natives change their minds, they would be un 
 able to do any harm to the garrison. . . . The garrison would suffice to destroy the 
 whole island. . . . Slaves might be exported to any extent which might be wanted." 
 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS to the Escribano de Ration, February 15, 1493. 
 
208 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 would not be likely to represent as a failure an enterprise in 
 which he had so much involved, he may have had it in his power 
 to expose many evil or absurd doings on the part of Columbus. 
 This the latter resolved he should have no opportunity of doing. 
 He therefore bade farewell to Guacanagari, and, to inspire the 
 natives with awe for the war-implements of the Spaniards, Fer 
 nando tells us his father shot a bullet at the ship, which passed 
 right through it and fell into the water. What ship was thus 
 treated we are not told ; the material of the wrecked St. Martha 
 had been employed in building the fortress, and it is improbable 
 that Columbus would have thus riddled a hole in the Nina, his 
 only remaining ship. Fernando tells us also that his father 
 showed the natives swords and rapiers, and other arms, out of 
 which statement Mr. Irving's brilliant and vivid imagination 
 conjures up a princely entertainment of tournaments and mock 
 fights, which it is scarcely probable the crew of the little cara 
 vels would have been competent to enact. 
 
 Columbus now set sail on his return -voyage. Before leaving 
 Hispaniola he was hailed by the Pinta, and, though excessively 
 indignant with Pinzon, we are told that he restrained his wrath, 
 knowing that, should an open quarrel take place, the greater por 
 tion of the crew would side with Pinzon. He pretended that 
 Pinzon had traded for much gold, which he appropriated to him 
 self and crew. How Columbus acquired this information re 
 mains a mystery ; the crew of the Pinta would hardly have re 
 vealed a secret so profitable to themselves, still less would 
 Pinzon himself have made the confession. 
 
 Although Columbus had himself seized more than a dozen 
 natives to carry to Spain, he insisted that four which Pinzon had 
 on board should be sent back to their native land. Petty spite 
 and envy, together with that base ingratitude, common to all 
 little minds, which causes them, when under deep obligations 
 (as was Columbus to Pinzon), to seek some excuse for quarrel, 
 that they may appear justified in forgetting past favors, seem to 
 have actuated his conduct toward Martin Alonzo. 
 
 Several days were spent among the islands. Columbus saw 
 three mermaids, 98 and two islands opposite each other, the one 
 inhabited solely by women of a warlike nature, the other solely 
 by men ; the latter, he recounts, visit the former once a year to 
 
 96 See Columbus's journal ; " Herrera, West Indies," decade i., book ii., chapter i. 
 
HEN WITH TAILS AND DOGS' HEADS. 
 
 209 
 
 perpetuate the race : the male offspring is sent to the males, and 
 the female portion is retained by the Amazonian natives of the 
 first isle. 
 
 Irving, speaking of Columbus' s repeated descriptions of these 
 islands, and of many other falsehoods of which he was guilty 
 such as reporting encounters with mermaids, men with tails, 
 dogs' heads, one eye, together with his assertions that the small 
 
 THINGS SEEN BY COLUMBUS ON HIS FIRST VOYAGE. (Grouped from De Bry.) 
 
 island of San Salvador contained a harbor capable of holding all 
 the ships in Christendom, besides other embellishments, such as 
 hearing the song of the nightingale, unknown in the Western 
 Hemisphere indulgently states that he was constantly deluding 
 himself into the belief that his best hopes were realized, that he 
 was in Asia. It would certainly appear, however, from the testi 
 mony of his son, already quoted, Herrera, and others, that Co- 
 lurnbus was the deluder, not the deluded, and that these fables 
 
210 
 
 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 were invented by him as seeming corroborations of Iris state 
 ment that he bad been in those regions described by Marco 
 Polo. We do not see how one who pretends to have seen what 
 never existed, can be called self-deluded. By this mild expedient 
 all extravagant tales of travel and adventure need no longer be 
 regarded as false. Sindbad the sailor, Baron Munchhausen, Gulli 
 ver, might merely have been self-deluded men, who believed im 
 plicitly in the truth of their own stories ; at any rate, the same 
 credence should be vouchsafed to them as to the creator of 
 fables of mermaids, tailed and one-eyed men, Amazons, men 
 with dogs' heads, etc., etc. 
 
 While coasting round Hispaniola, the Spaniards encountered 
 a. warlike tribe of natives, differing wholly from the gentle creat 
 ures they had hitherto dealt with. The first skirmish here took 
 place between the Indians and Christians. The former were 
 routed. Their chief, after sending Columbus the wampum-belt of 
 peace, visited him, and on returning to his home sent him a coro 
 net of gold for a present. Columbus continued to sail west for 
 some time, in search of the island of the Caribs, but finally re 
 solved to return with all haste to Spain. A favorable wind aris 
 ing, the prows of the two caravels were therefore turned eastward. 
 
CHAPTEK XIII. 
 
 HOMEWAED VOYAGE. 
 
 FKOM the outset of this voyage, Columbus, according to most 
 historians, encountered the most terrible storms that ever tossed 
 helpless mariner upon the huge billows of the deep; other 
 storms have raged, and will rage, but none so awful they would 
 have us believe as those which assailed our hero on his home 
 ward voyage. 
 
 Even after the vessels had emerged from the tract swept by 
 the trade-winds, the storm continued, and Columbus sought to 
 propitiate Heaven by holy vows. First, he and his crew cast 
 lots, which of them should make a pilgrimage to our Lady of 
 Guadaloupe. The lots consisted of as many beans as there were 
 men on one of the beans a cross had been marked; he who 
 drew this one performed the pilgrimage. The admiral drew 
 first, and the lot fell to him. Twice more were lots cast, and 
 once again the lot falls to Columbus, but, the storm not abating, 
 the whole crew made a vow that they would go barefoot in their 
 shirts to a shrine dedicated to the Virgin, at the first land they 
 should reach. 
 
 Columbus, during this voyage, "sought to confuse the pilots 
 in their reckoning, so that he alone might possess a clear knowl 
 edge of the route," a proceeding which elicits any thing but cen 
 sure from his biographers. 
 
 The Pinta, scudding before the strong south wind which pre 
 vailed, became separated from the other vessel, and was soon lost 
 sight of altogether. The waves ran high, and the Nina, accord 
 ing to Fernando and others, was in imminent danger for want 
 of ballast, so that Columbus ordered the empty water-casks to be 
 filled with sea- water. 
 
212 
 
 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 The various accounts of the terrible weather which prevailed 
 are very apochryphal, inconsistency and contradiction being con 
 stantly apparent ; thus, while the son and the majority of histo 
 rians report that the ship was too light, and had to be ballasted 
 as above, Columbus, in his letter to Santangel, speaking of this 
 same storm, makes no mention of any such expedient, but says, 
 on the contrary, that the ship had to be lightened by throwing 
 the cargo overboard. It is difficult to decide which account is 
 truthful, or whether either of them is to be believed. 
 
 "We are next told of Columbus's expedient, when in imminent 
 danger, for making the world acquainted with his discovery. 
 
 ARREST OF THE CREW ABOUT TO PERFORM THEIB PIOFS Vow IN THE IBLATTD OF ST. MARY. 
 
 He wrote, according to his own statement, a detailed account of 
 the voyage, describing the situation of the islands, their re 
 sources, etc., sealed and addressed it to the king, wrapped it in a 
 waxed cloth, placed the whole in the centre of a cake of wax, and, 
 passing the package through the bung-hole of an empty cask, 
 which he stopped up, cast it into the sea. This story is, to say 
 the least, improbable ; and its improbability, together with the 
 inconsistency of the reports as to the ballast, leads us to believe 
 that this terrific storm was magnified and exaggerated, to make 
 Columbus appear the greater in nautical skill, ingenuity, and 
 pious endurance 
 
COLUMBUS'S CREW ARRESTED. 213 
 
 The Nina finally readied the island of St. Mary (one of the 
 Azores), where a detachment of the crew was sent ashore, minus 
 all clothing save their shirts, to accomplish the pious vow above 
 recorded. 
 
 The governor of the island, Castaneda, had known Columbus 
 in his former days of piracy, and, upon perceiving this motley 
 crew parading the streets in such unseemly guise, and learning 
 under whom they sailed, he may not improbably have imag 
 ined a piratical enterprise. He had the whole detachment 
 arrested, and their boat seized. Upon Columbus indignantly 
 remonstrating, and declaring that he was sailing in the service of 
 the crown of Spain, the governor, at first incredulous, finally 
 sent officers on board to examine the papers of the quondam 
 pirate. Rather to his surprise, the assertions of Columbus were 
 found to be correct, whereupon the men were released, the boat 
 restored, the crew supplied with provisions, and Columbus him 
 self treated with all courtesy and kindness. These are the bare 
 facts in the case, which Fernando and his successors do not fail 
 so to embellish as to make the proceeding rather magnify the 
 glory of Columbus than otherwise. 
 
 The former relates that the King of Portugal had ordered 
 the arrest of the " admiral," that Spain might be deprived of his 
 services. We read, moreover, that, upon the governor's refusal 
 to release his men and boat, " the admiral " made a solemn 
 vow, which he called his whole crew to witness, that he would 
 not depart thence " till he had taken one hundred Portuguese, to 
 carry them into Castile, and destroyed all the island." 
 
 All this is related in such high-flown language as to inspire 
 the reader with an exalted idea of the diomified defiance of " the 
 
 O 
 
 admiral." But, when we remember that forty men of this small 
 expedition had been left in Hispaniola ; that the Pinta, the larger 
 of the two remaining vessels, was on her way to Spain, separated 
 from Columbus ; and when we read, in the same chapter " 
 which records his vow to take prisoners and devastate an island, 
 that he had but three able seamen left on board, and that he 
 was without a boat, his threat savors much of the Bombastes 
 Furioso. 
 
 As to the pretended orders from the King of Portugal to 
 arrest Columbus, had any such been issued, the commissions and 
 
 97 Fernando, " Historia del Amirante," chapter xxxix. 
 
214 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 papers of the admiral would have had little power to induce the 
 governor to disobey them. 
 
 The arrest was made by Castaneda on his own authority, he 
 having been acquainted with Columbus's piratical antecedents, 88 
 but, on learning that the latter was " leading a new life," he re 
 leased his men without further ado. 
 
 We, moreover, learn from Fernando how "the admiral" in 
 formed the people of St. Mary that he was Viceroy of the Indies, 
 which he had discovered, whereat they are reported to have been 
 greatly elated. 
 
 That Columbus was absurdly boastful, we are ready to be 
 lieve. Like all parvenus, he could not remain silent as to his rank 
 and achievements, lest perchance they should be ignored ; but 
 we are less ready to believe that the Portuguese of St. Mary 
 rejoiced so exceedingly because an adventurer in the employ of a 
 rival power had visited certain lands, of what importance soever 
 they might be. 
 
 Columbus, after a short sojourn at St. Mary, resumed his 
 homeward voyage. Another storm arose, another vow was made, 
 and lots are cast to determine who shall go barefooted, in his 
 shirt (a costume which seems to have been a favorite with our 
 hero), on a pilgrimage to the Yirgin of Huelva, and spend the 
 night upon his knees before the shrine ; again the lot falls upon 
 Columbus, " God showing thereby," says his son, " that his offer- 
 ing was more acceptable than those of the others." 
 
 Las Casas gives a somewhat different explanation ; he says : 
 " Thus again was expressed the disapproval of his proceedings by 
 Providence ; and that these repeated visitations were sent, in 
 punishment, for his having torn from their home the unfortunate 
 natives who were on board the Nina." 
 
 Did we believe in the miraculous, we should consider the lat 
 ter explanation by far the more valid of the two ; but it was evi 
 dently a trick of Columbus, whereby he might increase his pious 
 reputation, and gain credit with the Church. It was not difficult, 
 we presume,. for him to draw out what he already held, and the 
 frequent repetition of the farce makes it evident that he had the 
 marked bean in his hand, and thus manoeuvred, that he might 
 appear miraculously to draw it every time, in testimony that his 
 offering was the most acceptable. 
 
 98 A. B. Becher, " Landfall of Columbus," p. 268. 
 
BOASTFUL CONDUCT OF COLUMBUS. 215 
 
 The tempest was still at its height when the vessel sighted 
 land, which proved to be the rock of Lisbon. Here Columbus 
 was obliged to put in, because of the fury of the storm ; and, not 
 content with enlarging to the people upon the unheard-of wealth 
 of the countries he had discovered, he spread, or caused to be 
 spread, abroad a report that the JSTina was loaded down with 
 gold. And then he wrote to the King of Portugal, informing 
 him of his discoveries, and demanding permission to go on to Lis 
 bon, averring that he would be more safe, as the report concern 
 ing the gold might tempt the people, where he then was, to 
 rob him. 
 
 COLTTMBTTS BEFORE THE SHBINE OF THE VlBGIN. 
 
 "We are not surprised, knowing the boastful, false pride of the 
 man, to find him contemptibly elated at being thus able to flaunt 
 his discovery in the face of a prince who had refused to engage 
 in it ; but the arrogance and boastfulness of the pirate, become 
 admiral, exceed all belief. 
 
 When an officer summoned him to give an account of him 
 self, he replied, that the king's admirals were not obliged to 
 obey such summons, and it was with difficulty he was persuaded 
 to show his papers ; but upon his doing so, if we believe his son, 
 
 these very Portuguese, toward whom he is bearing himself thus 
 15 
 
216 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 haughtily, come in all humility with fifes and drums to receive 
 him. The people of Portugal rejoice with exceeding great joy 
 that their rival Spain has acquired new territory, and, according 
 to this admiral, endless riches. They might indeed have envied, 
 but it was not in human nature to rejoice. The whole of this 
 enthusiasm was evidently invented by Columbus and his son, 
 and but too greedily caught up and exaggerated by subsequent 
 writers. 
 
 Irving, after the brilliant account he gives of the reception 
 of Columbus in Portugal, and of the honors paid him there, 
 somewhat inconsistently adds : 
 
 " His rational exultation was construed into an insulting 
 triumph, and they accused him of assuming a boastful tone 
 when talking with the king of his discoveries, as if he would re 
 venge himself upon the monarch for having rejected his propo 
 sition. . . . 
 
 " The Portuguese historians, in general, charge Columbus with 
 having conducted himself loftily with the king. . . . Faria y 
 Souza, in c Europa Portuguesa, 5 goes so far as to say that Colum 
 bus entered into the port of Rastello merely to make Portugal 
 sensible, by the sight of the trophies of his discovery, how much 
 she had lost by not accepting his propositions." 
 
 Knowing what we do of the character of Columbus, far from 
 considering this view of the case exaggerated, we should have 
 been surprised had he not so conducted himself. What surprises 
 us is, that historians should represent the King of Portugal as 
 humbling himself to the utmost, notwithstanding all this flaunt 
 ing arrogance. He invited (we read) Columbus to see him ; the 
 latter (always magnifying his own importance, and always a 
 coward) feared that his assassination was intended, but finally 
 condescended so far as to visit the monarch. The latter (accord 
 ing to the universally-repeated story) bade him sit in his pres 
 ence, don his cap, and of course, that the importance of the 
 affair may be complete, insinuated that this great conquest be 
 longed by right to Portugal, etc., etc. The most prominent man 
 of the kingdom was assigned as the host of Columbus ; the 
 queen earnestly entreats him not to pass her by without visiting 
 her ; in short, this ,ci-devant pirate (should we believe his son 
 and other biographers) is, at the court of the monarch who had 
 refused his services on account of his exorbitant claims, and 
 
HIS CONDUCT CENSURABLE. 
 
 21T 
 
 from whose dominions he had ignominiously fled, a second Mor- 
 decai, the man "whom the king delighteth to honor!" 
 
 Allowing this extremely improbable relation to be true, and 
 Columbus to have received these honors, it was wanting in good 
 taste and delicacy for him to accept them ; his reporting his dis 
 coveries to another and rival monarch, before doing so to the 
 sovereigns who had employed him, was itself an act deserving 
 the severest censure, and which no desire to excite the envy and 
 regret of Portugal can justify or palliate. 
 
 EABO DB JUNCO. 
 
CHAPTEE XIY. 
 
 AND RECEPTION AT BARCELONA. 
 
 COLUMBUS remained in Lisbon ten days ; and finally, on Fri 
 day, the 15th of March, 1493, arrived at the port of Palos, seven 
 months and eleven days having elapsed since his departure 
 therefrom, August 3, 1492. 
 
 Here, on the same day, Martin Alonzo Pinzon anchored be 
 fore his native town. He had sent the sovereigns word of his 
 return, but they had already received a dispatch from Columbus, 
 at Lisbon, in which he had basely enlarged upon what he termed 
 the " insubordination of Pinzon." The latter, therefore, received 
 a prohibition to appear at court, which so deeply wounded his 
 pride, and so bitterly reminded him of the ingratitude of men, 
 that he returned to his home, sick at heart and in body. He 
 shortly after died, it is said, of a broken heart, caused by the 
 manner in which the sovereigns rewarded him for having 
 bravely embarked in the enterprise at its unpromising outset, 
 and at the jreturn Columbus gave him for having protected him 
 in adversity, supplied him with the funds without which he was 
 powerless to carry out his scheme, and finally accompanied him 
 to encourage an unwilling crew. Thus died a man both good 
 and brave, a victim to the ingratitude of one who possessed 
 neither of these qualities. 
 
 Time and history will each year show the name of Pinzon 
 in a fairer light, while, should justice and truth obtain, that of 
 Columbus will each year lose more and more of its borrowed 
 lustre. 
 
 Leaving his broken-hearted benefactor to die, " the admiral " 
 started from Palos to present himself to the sovereigns at Bar 
 celona. He was a month in reaching his destination ; " being 
 
JOURNEY TO BARCELONA. 219 
 
 obliged," says his son, " to stay some little, by the way, though 
 but never so little," to gratify the curiosity of the people in the 
 cities through which he passed. We presume it required little 
 persuasion to induce the admiral to make all the parade in his 
 power. 
 
 Fernando, in his life of his father," would have his readers 
 believe that there was much joy in Barcelona upon the arrival 
 of the latter. His statement is indorsed by Herrera, but Mr. 
 Irving gives a still more glowing account of the transaction. 
 
 CHBISTOPHEB COLTJMBTTS. (From Herrera's " West Indies. 1 ') 
 
 For various reasons we believe, however, that no such dem 
 onstration took place as that described by Fernando. These 
 reasons are obvious. 
 
 We will follow the gradual growth in the description of this 
 pageant, as it passes from pen to pen, of the authors who vie 
 with each other in covering Columbus with glory. 
 
 99 " Historia del Amirante," chapter xlii. 
 
220 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 The first account seems to have been written by Peter 
 Martyr, a contemporary, who, in his correspondence with many 
 distinguished persons of the day, noted most of the passing inci 
 dents and events of the Spanish court. 
 
 He thus relates the affair to Fernando de Talavera, Arch 
 bishop of Granada, under date of February 1, 1494 : 
 
 " The king and queen, on the return of Columbus to Barce 
 lona, from his honorable enterprise, appointed him admiral of 
 the ocean sea, and caused him, on account of his illustrious 
 deeds, to be seated in their presence ; an honor and a favor, as 
 you know, the highest with our sovereigns. They have dis 
 patched him again to those regions, furnished with a fleet of 
 eighteen ships. There is a prospect of great discoveries in the 
 antarctic antipodes." . 
 
 This is all that Peter Martyr, the distinguished letter-writer, 
 says of a reception which Irving leads us to believe was the talk 
 of every tongue, the admiration of a world. 
 
 The next writer in chronological order, who speaks of the 
 arrival of Columbus in Barcelona, is his son Fernando. With 
 him the account given by Peter Martyr grows somewhat ; he 
 says : " Thus holding on his way, he got to Barcelona about the 
 middle of April, having before sent their Highnesses an account 
 of the happy success of his voyage, which was extraordinary 
 pleasing to them, and they ordered him a most solemn reception, 
 as to a man who had done them such singular service. All the 
 court and city went out to meet him ; and their Catholic Majes 
 ties sat in public with great state, on rich chairs, under a canopy 
 of cloth-of-gold, and, when he went to kiss their hands, they 
 stood up to him as to a great lord, made a difficulty to give him 
 their hands, and caused him to sit down." 
 
 Herrera copies substantially from the above, but enlarges 
 in his turn ; and, passing over numerous other authors, we come 
 to Mr. Irving' s admirably-written but delusive history of Colum 
 bus, and find the following : 
 
 " The fame of his discovery had resounded throughout the 
 nation, and, as his route lay through several of the finest and 
 most populous provinces of Spain, his journey appeared like the 
 progress of a sovereign. Wherever he passed, the surrounding 
 country poured forth its inhabitants, who lined the road and 
 villages. In the large towns, the streets, windows, and balco- 
 
TEIUMPHAL ENTRY INTO BARCELONA. 221 
 
 nies, were filled with eager spectators, who rent the air with ac 
 clamations. ... It was about the middle of April that Colum 
 bus arrived at Barcelona, where every preparation had been 
 made to give him a solemn and magnificent reception. 
 
 " The beauty and serenity of the weather in that genial sea 
 son and favored climate contributed to give splendor to this 
 memorable ceremony. As he drew near the place, many of the 
 more youthful courtiers and hidalgos of gallant bearing, together 
 with a vast concourse of the people, came forth to meet and wel 
 come him. His entrance into this noble city has been compared 
 to one of those triumphs which the Romans were accustomed to 
 decree to conquerors. First, were paraded the Indians, painted 
 according to their savage fashion, and decorated * with their na 
 tional ornaments of gold. After these were borne various kinds 
 of live parrots, together with stuffed birds and animals of un 
 known species, and rare plants, supposed to be of precious quali 
 ties ; while great care was taken to make a conspicuous display 
 of Indian ornaments, bracelets, and other decorations of gold, 
 which might give an idea of the wealth of the newly-discovered 
 regions. After this followed Columbus on horseback, surrounded 
 by a brilliant cavalcade of Spanish chivalry. The streets were 
 almost impassable from the countless multitude ; the windows 
 and balconies were crowded with the fair ; the very roofs were 
 covered with spectators. It seemed as if the public eye could 
 not be sated with gazing on the trophies of an unknown world, 
 or on the remarkable man by whom it had been discovered. 
 There was a solemnity in this event, that mingled a solemn feel 
 ing with the public joy. It was looked upon as a vast and sig 
 nal dispensation of Providence, as a reward for the piety of the 
 monarchs. ... To receive him with suitable pomp and distinc 
 tion, the sovereigns had ordered their throne to be placed in 
 public, under a rich canopy of brocade of gold, in a vast and 
 splendid saloon. Here the king and queen awaited his arrival, 
 seated in state, with the Prince Juan beside them ; and attended 
 by the dignitaries of their court, and the principal nobility of 
 Castile, Valencia, Catalonia, and Aragon, all impatient to behold 
 the man who had conferred such incalculable benefit upon the 
 nation. At length Columbus entered the hall, surrounded by a 
 brilliant crowd of cavaliers. ... As Columbus approached, the 
 sovereigns arose, as if receiving a prince of the highest rank. 
 
222 / LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 / 
 his knees he recpested to kiss their hands ; but there 
 
 10 hesitation on the part of their majesties to permit 
 of vassalage. Raising him in the most gracious man- 
 they ordered him to seat himself in their presence : a rare 
 in this proud and punctilious court. At the request of 
 r majesties, Columbus noXv gave an account of the most 
 iking events in his voyage, and a description of the islands 
 which he had discovered, . . . The words of Columbus were 
 listened to with the most profound emotion by the sovereigns. 
 When' he had finished, -they sank on their knees, and, raising 
 their clasped hands to heaven, their eyes filled with tears of joy 
 and gratitude, they poured forth thanks and praises to God for 
 so great aj^ovidence : all present followed their example, a 
 deep and solemn enthusiasm pervaded that splendid assembly, 
 and prevented all common acclamations of triumph. The an 
 them of Te Deum laudamus, chanted by the choir of the royal 
 (/ chapel, with the melodious responses of the minstrels, rose up 
 from tjae midst in a full body of sacred harmony, bearing up, as 
 it wjefe, the feelings and thoughts of the auditors to heaven. . . . 
 Such was the solemn and pious manner in which the brilliant 
 court of Spain celebrated this subliipe event ; offering up a 
 grateful tribute of melodious praise, and giving glory to God for 
 the discovery of another world." / 
 
 Such events, in which display and pomp play the greater 
 part, are generally most graphically Described by contemporaries 
 and eye-witnesses, who have the scene yet present to their 
 minds ; and these descriptions rather dwindle and weaken as 
 they pass from one historian to another. 
 
 How much more distinctly does Froissart bring before us tour 
 naments, procession^ and ceremonies of his time, than the sub 
 sequent historians wno recount them ; how many details we find 
 in his chronicles which conjure up the scene with startling real 
 ity, and which we look for in vain elsewhere : and this is owing, 
 not so much to his superior powers of description, as to the fact 
 that he was himself a spectator or participant in what he de 
 scribed. But with this receptTm^t^Barcelona the revers^fakes 
 place ; the description increases in detail and coloring as it comes 
 down to us, because the imagination, and not the facts, play the 
 greater part : imagination, from a simple, unadorned statement 
 of a prosaic or unimportant fact, will create a wondrous scene. 
 
TRIUMPHAL ENTRY. 223 
 
 For the writer of fiction and romance this is a glorious gift, 
 but a most dangerous one for the historian, who, when pos 
 sessed of it, will too often represent facts as he would have Had 
 them, rather than as they were. Thus it is that out of the 
 words of Peter Martyr (" caused him to be seated in their pres 
 ence") a scene is created which, were we to believe Mr. Irving, 
 was the grandest pageant history records. " Behold how great 
 a matter a little fire kindleth ! " 
 
 Again, had all Spain gone forth to receive Columbus with 
 acclamations, would Martyr, when writing, a year after the, oc 
 currence took place, to Fernando de Talavera, confessor to the 
 queen, Archbishop of Granada, and member of the royal hofnse- 
 hold, speak to him of the return of Columbus as of something of 
 which he did not think it likely he would be informed ? "Would 
 not the ready pen and fluent language of Peter Martyr have 
 made the most of such a scene particularly when we consider 
 that he is represented as having ]>een intimate with Columbus, 
 and is declared by Las Casas to^e the highest authority on mat 
 ters relating to the discovery of the Indies, as he received his 
 information from Columbus himself? 
 
 ISTor are we without further evidence that the description of 
 the reception prepared for Columbus at Barcelona is a gratui 
 tous embellishment on the part of modern historians. 
 
 That eminent tourist, antiquarian, and scholar, the late 
 George Sumner, gives the following curious item, which 
 corroborates our view of the case : 
 
 " From the brilliant description given by Irving and Pres- 
 cott of the arrival of Columbus at Barcelona, and of his recep-/ 
 tion there by the Catholic sovereigns, it seemed to me as prob 
 able that some contemporary account of the arrival and recep 
 tion, as well as of the sojourn of Columbus, might be found at 
 Barcelona ; and, while there, in the spring of 1844, I searched 
 the admirably-arranged archives of Aragon, and also/those of 
 the city of Barcelona, for such notice, but without aiiy success. 
 I could not so much as find a mention of the name/of Columbus. 
 The 'Dietaria,' or day-book of Barcelona, notice/ the arrival of 
 ambassadors, the movements of the king ancU'tjueen, and even 
 records incidents of as trifling note as those which in our 
 day serve to fill the columns of a couft journal ; yet not a 
 word appears in regard to Columbus/v. In the c Dietaria ' of 
 
224 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 Barcelona, under date of 15th of November 1492, is the follow 
 ing entry : i The king, queen, and primogenito, entered to-day 
 the city, and lodged in the palace of the Bishop of Urgil in the 
 Calle Ancha.' This is followed by a description of the festivities 
 which ensued : ' 1493, 4th February, king and queen went to 
 Alserat. 14th, king and queen returned to Barcelona.' " 
 
 Thus is another popular error exploded upon which sensa 
 tional historians have drawn so largely for their most striking 
 chapters. Few of our readers will perhaps thank us for thus 
 stripping Truth of the gay garments wherewith she has been 
 decked for their greater delectation and amusement, but the 
 truth, naked and prosaic, appears to have been that Columbus 
 was received by the king and queen at the Calle Ancha, and 
 allowed to sit in their presence while he gave the history of 
 his voyage. 
 
 He assured their majesties that those whom he had left in 
 the island could not fail to collect a ton of gold before his re 
 turn. He dwelt upon the riches he professed to have heard of 
 from the natives, and talked largely of being soon able to raise 
 such an army as should release the Holy Sepulchre from the 
 grasp of the infidel. Wealth, he declared, was to be gathered 
 without cost and without labor. The riches of Asia were at 
 the command of Spain. Upon these representations (how false 
 we need not repeat) of the glowing success of his 'expedition, 
 the title of admiral was confirmed to him by royal edict, as well 
 as the privileges enumerated at length in the act granting him 
 that rank. 
 
 An order, dated Barcelona, 30th of May, 1493, after the 
 usual wordy preamble, reads as follows : 
 
 " To honor and promote you and your descendants and 
 lineage in perpetuity, we have thought proper, and it is our de 
 sire, and we give you authority to bear on your shield of arms, 
 a castle and a lion, which we give you for arms ; that is to say, 
 the castle or, on a field vert, in the dexter quarter ; and in the 
 sinister quarter, a lion purpura, rampant, on a field argent; 
 and in the dexter base quarter, some islands or, in waves of the 
 sea, and in the sinister base quarter the arms which you are 
 accustomed to bear ; which above said arms shall be acknowl 
 edged as yours, and those of your descendants in perpetuity 
 hereafter." 
 
ARMORIAL FICTIONS. 
 
 225 
 
 "We have read much of the motto 
 " A Oastilla y a Leon 
 Nuevo mundo dio Colon " 
 
 and of its being awarded to Columbus by the sovereigns, that he 
 might bear it on his arms as some recompense for his mighty 
 deeds ; we find it, moreover, inscribed on the existing coat-of- 
 arms of the family, by Captain Galardi, in the fulsome dedica 
 
 tion from which we have already quoted, and from which we 
 take the above engraving. It is therefore with some surprise 
 that we find no mention of any such motto, not only in the 
 above act granting the coat-of-arms, nor in any of the authentic 
 documents in which the transactions between our hero and the 
 crown are recorded. Nor is it once alluded to by Columbus ; 
 vanity would undoubtedly have prompted him to dwell largely, 
 in the latter part of his life, when he had fallen into disgrace, 
 
226 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 and was vainly seeking to secure some prestige at court, upon so 
 striking and public an acknowledgment on the part of the 
 sovereigns. 
 
 One of the early historians speaks of the coat-ot-arms, as 
 above, and says : " To this he " (Columbus) " afterward added 
 the motto 
 
 ' To Castile and to Leon 
 A ne\v world gave Colon.' " 
 
 Fernando does not even pretend that the device existed in the 
 lifetime of his father, but speaks of it as having been placed on a 
 magnificent tomb erected to his memory at Seville. ~No such in 
 scription or tomb is there to be found, and as the reputation of 
 Columbus has increased, or rather its glory been wholly created, 
 since his death, we may safely presume, had such an inscription 
 existed when Fernando wrote the history of his father, it would 
 have been preserved to our time. Of this, however, we will 
 speak more at length in due season (see Chapter XXYIIL). 
 
 That the motto in question was never granted . Columbus as 
 the legend of his coat-of-arms, is certain ; whether it was the 
 invention of Christopher, or Fernando Columbus, we cannot 
 determine ; but that it emanated from the fertile brain of one or 
 the other is evident, for, had it been granted him officially, there 
 would either be some mention of it in the act granting him a 
 coat-of-arms, or, if it were afterward added, some formal state 
 ment to that effect would exist ; but such a statement is not to 
 be found. 
 
 With his too evident desire to mystify in all matters where 
 the truth might belittle Columbus, Irving, speaking of the coat- 
 of-arms, vaguely adds: "To this was afterward added the 
 motto, < A Castilla,' " etc. 
 
 He does not say it was granted by the sovereigns, but such 
 would be the inference of every reader unacquainted with the 
 truth. 
 
 The item of the grant which authorized Columbus to bear 
 his own arms on the lower sinister quarter of the escutcheon 
 was somewhat superfluous, though none of his biographers men 
 tion the fact. A coat-of-arms was an ensign of nobility, and 
 Columbus' s most zealous advocate, - Spotorno, admits that he 
 must have been of ignoble birth, very rationally adding that, had 
 it been otherwise, "he" (Columbus) "would most certainly have 
 
ARMS OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 227 
 
 boasted of the fact to the haughty Spanish nobles," who could 
 never consider the pirate admiral their compeer. 100 It is evident 
 that he possessed no arms, as the quarter allotted to them was 
 filled with several anchors ; this goes far to prove that the much- 
 talked-of coat-of-arms was granted rather from necessity than 
 as a reward. The, Admiral of Spain could not be other than 
 noble; none were noble who bore no escutcheon; when, there 
 fore, the rank of admiral, which gave him a place among the 
 high-born of Spain, was confirmed to Columbus, the insignia of 
 nobility was of necessity added. 
 
 100 Spotorno, " Int.," pp. xciii., xciv. 
 
 THE MANATI, AS REPRESENTED IN PHILOPONO. See Appendix. 
 
CHAPTER XY. 
 
 SECOND VOYAGE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 THE golden falsehoods of Columbus fired the cupidity not 
 only of the sovereigns, but of many of the Spanish hidalgos ; 
 with all haste a dispatch was sent to the Pope (Alexander VI.), 
 requesting a grant of the lands discovered, which was imme 
 diately granted. The promptitude with which the sovereign 
 pontiff deeded a continent of unknown limits to Spain, can only 
 be accounted for by the fact that he was himself a Spaniard by 
 birth, and that, in her zeal for the Church and vigorous prosecu 
 tion of the Inquisition, Isabella might be termed the right arm 
 of the Church. 
 
 No sooner was the papal grant received, than a fleet of seven 
 teen, according to some eighteen vessels, according to others 
 was forthwith equipped ; and so many of high and low degree 
 were anxious to form part of the expedition, that this time it 
 was not a question of compelling an unwilling crew to undertake 
 the voyage, but of inducing equally unwilling citizens to remain 
 behind. 
 
 On the 25th of September the fleet, well freighted with all 
 the necessaries for colonization, and with about fifteen hundred 
 Spaniards of all ranks, eager for the wealth Columbus had prom 
 ised, left the port of Cadiz. They proceeded to the Canary 
 Islands, on leaving which, Columbus gave to the captain of each 
 ship sealed instructions containing directions as to the route he 
 was to pursue ; these, however, were only to be opened in case 
 the ships became separated from Columbus by adverse weather ; 
 "for," says Fernando, "he did not wish the route to be known, 
 unless there was great need" another evidence that he regarded 
 the enterprise as a secret which had fortunately come into his 
 
SAN DOMINGO CANNIBAL SLAVES. 229 
 
 possession for his own advancement, and not as the means of 
 benefiting humanity or the kingdom of Spain. 
 
 Remembering the current which the unfortunate Pinzon had 
 been the first to discover on the previous voyage, this time 
 Columbus pursued a straight course, and, after twenty days' 
 sailing, arrived, on the 3d of November, at an island which he 
 named San Domingo, after the day of the week, which was Sun 
 day. No inhabitants were seen. Another island was passed, 
 and named Mari-galante, after the admiral's ship ; the next, 
 G-uadalupe, after a monastery in Spain ; this island was large, 
 and on the shore they found a village, or settlement, the inhab 
 itants of which had fled, leaving only children. Among various 
 things which Columbus reports as having been found in 'this vil 
 lage, he speaks of an iron pan. Fernando, probably aware at 
 the period in which he wrote his history that iron utensils were 
 unknown among the natives, makes more explanation than the 
 case would seem to require, unless he considered his father's 
 reputation for veracity in peril. He conjectures that it might 
 have been stone that resembled iron, that it might have come 
 from the settlement at Hispaniola, or from the wrecked ships ; 
 he seems, in fact, most eager to prove his father truthful a false 
 hood notwithstanding. 
 
 It is a matter of wonder to the reader of the history of Colum 
 bus, that he did not, upon arriving at the islands, at once pro 
 ceed to the relief of the colony he had left at Navidad ; but the 
 reason soon becomes apparent when we read that at Guadalupe 
 the admiral sent a boat ashore on the 5th of November, " to take 
 somebody to inform him of his whereabouts, and which way 
 Hispaniola lay." 101 A youth and six women were accordingly 
 taken, and from them Columbus professes to learn that they are 
 prisoners of a race of cannibals, who enslaved the women and 
 devoured the men they captured in war. 
 
 This is the first time the grave charge of cannibalism is pre 
 ferred against the natives of the New World, a charge which in 
 vestigation and the laws of Nature alike show to be false. The 
 Indians in those islands, on the showing of Columbus himself, 102 
 
 101 " Historia del Amirante," chapter xlvii. 
 
 102 In the bull of Pope Alexander VI., deeding the lands to Spain, which is affirmed 
 to have been granted solely on the testimony of Columbus, the inhabitants of the islands 
 are described as "numerous, live peaceably, and, as it is affirmed, go naked, and feed 
 not upon jfosA." 
 
230 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 lived chiefly upon the nutritious roots which grow in their fer 
 tile homes, a diet which they varied with the fish which were 
 found in such abundance in their rivers and along their shores. 
 Nothing in the temperature of that region, or the temperament 
 of the natives, would lead them to such a practice. 
 
 What, then, were the reasons which induced Columbus to 
 prefer against them so monstrous a charge ? 
 
 They are obvious. His enterprise, unless the means of en 
 riching Spain, would avail him nothing in the eyes of that king 
 dom or its sovereigns ; the gold he had promised so largely was 
 only forthcoming in the smallest quantities ; the spices of Asia 
 were not to be found at all ; he then turned his thoughts toward 
 the gentle natives, who the reminiscences of his experience in 
 the Guinea-trade present in his mind suggested themselves as 
 a source of wealth. It was his intention to enslave them from 
 the first, as is manifest in his letter to Santangel, written on his 
 return from his first voyage, and in which he speaks of the facili 
 ties which the port of Navidad offers for the export of slaves. 
 He may have spoken of this to Queen Isabella, who, to do her 
 justice, was unwilling, at the outset, when she expected to 
 acquire wealth of a different nature from these islands, to treat 
 her new subjects thus outrageously. 
 
 Columbus, still bent upon the establishment of slavery, 
 sought some excuse, therefore, and the most plausible was, to 
 represent his victims as monsters, feeding upon human flesh, 
 whom to enslave was to civilize. The story, moreover, would 
 appear as a corroborative proof that he was in Asia, as many 
 fables were then current reporting the existence of man-eaters in 
 the extreme east of the continent ; he would thus accomplish a 
 double object. 
 
 Accordingly, on his return to the islands on his second voy 
 age, he prefers the charge ; and the document he dispatched to 
 the sovereigns during his second sojourn in Hispaniola, with the 
 comments they made on his propositions, show alike his motive 
 and the objections he strove to subvert. 
 
 The first part of this document relates to the necessary pro 
 vision for the colony, and contains excuses for not sending gold, 
 together with a request for permission to build a fortress, and to 
 all this the sovereigns affix approbatory remarks. In the seventh 
 paragraph Columbus boldly launches into a proposal to enslave 
 
SLAVES IN EXCHANGE FOR CATTLE. 931 
 
 the Indians ; he tells their highnesses he sends therewith some 
 cannibals as slaves, to be converted, and taught the Spanish 
 language, that they may act as interpreters. He omits no argu 
 ment that might tend to hide the venu of his proposition ; he 
 affirms that the Indians of the other islands will greatly rejoice at 
 the capture of their enemies. But the sovereigns are not thus to 
 be blinded, and to this paragraph, adverting to the proposed con 
 version of the Indians to the Christian faith, they affix this 
 comment f " This is well, and so it must be done, but let the 
 admiral see whether it could not be managed there, that they 
 should be brought to our holy Catholic faith, and the same 
 with the Indians of the islands where he is." 
 
 In the next paragraph, Columbus systematizes his project. 
 After enlarging on the benefits which will accrue to the souls of 
 these monstrous devourers of human flesh, by their enslavement, 
 he shows that the islands being in need of cattle and other do 
 mestic animals, a regular system of barter might be established, 
 and ships coming to the colony laden with oxen, mules, etc., 
 might return to Spain with a cargo of human live-stock, always 
 from the cannibal portion of the population. 
 
 " These cattle," he writes, " might be sold at moderate 
 prices, for the benefit of the bearers, and the latter might be paid 
 with slaves taken from among the Caribs, who are a wild people, 
 fit for any work ; well proportioned, and very intelligent ; and 
 who, when they have got rid of the cruel habits to which they 
 have become accustomed, will be better than any other slaves." 
 
 In his eagerness to show the value of this live-stock, he for 
 gets, or is unaware that, in praising their intelligence, he fur 
 nishes a powerful argument against the truth of his imputation 
 that they ate human flesh, for, wherever the disgusting practice 
 has been found to exist, it has always been among human beings 
 of the lowest order of intellect, scarce removed from brutes. 
 " When they lose sight of their country," continues the admiral, 
 " they will forget their cruel practices." This was evidently said 
 in order that, when the gentle harmlessness of the poor slaves 
 should surprise the Spaniards, they should believe they had only 
 become thus gentle and harmless since they left their island- 
 homes. He further adds, as a tempting suggestion to the sov 
 ereigns : " Their highnesses might fix duties on the slaves that 
 
 might be taken over, upon their arrival in Spain." 
 16 
 
232 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 Never was the establishment of slavery more deliberately 
 planned and proposed. Ferdinand and Isabella at once per 
 ceived the enormity of the proposition, and to this paragraph 
 they answer : " As regards this matter it is suspended for the 
 present, until there come some other way of doing it " (convert 
 ing the heathen there), "and let the admiral write what he thinks 
 of this." A comment which disappointed but did not discourage 
 Columbus. He knew the character of his royal mistress too 
 well not to be assured that, when the natives should prove to be 
 the only means of procuring wealth in the islands, she would 
 herself consider their enslavement necessary for the salvation of 
 their souls; and, in effect, though she will never consent to 
 their exportation, yet by her order of 1503 she will compel 
 them to work, as slaves only are compelled. 
 
 But to return to Columbus. From the six women and boy 
 he captured, he asked information as to his whereabouts ; not, 
 according to his son, that he did not know the exact situation of 
 Hispaniola, but merely because he wanted to hear what they 
 had to say about it. He was now anxious to leave G-uada- 
 lupe, but, nine of the men having gone ashore without his per 
 mission, he sent Alonzo de Ojeda and forty men to seek them. 
 These returned, after a fruitless search, with marvelous accounts 
 of the vegetable productions they had seen ; and moreover 
 affirmed, according to Columbus, that in traversing six leagues 
 they crossed twenty rivers, an exaggeration which is so apparent 
 to Fernando that he seeks to palliate his father's statement by 
 suggesting that they might have crossed the same river several 
 times. The truants found their way back to the ship, and so 
 greatly was our humane admiral incensed at their having lost 
 their way, that he ordered them put in irons, and their allow 
 ance of food retrenched ! 
 
 They now set sail, and passed several islands, where they 
 found coral and other curious productions. " Though the admi 
 ral," says his son, " was very desirous to know every thing, yet 
 he resolved to hold on his course to Hispaniola ; but, the 
 weather being bad, he came to anchor on Thursday, the 13th of 
 November, in an island, where Tie ordered some Indians to l)e 
 taTcen, to know whereabouts he was" 
 
 He did not finally arrive at Hispaniola till the 21st of No 
 vember ; thus, notwithstanding his anxiety to visit his colony, 
 
INDIANS CAPTUEED TO DIRECT COLUMBUS. 
 
 233 
 
 and his perfect knowledge of its situation, he was nearly a month 
 from the time he arrived at San Domingo before he reached the 
 same ; he would not stop to examine the productions of the va 
 rious islands, yet was continually stopping to capture Indians, 
 of whom to inquire his latitude and longitude, of which, says 
 the son, he was well aware. Such conduct would have been ab 
 surd. "We will believe that Columbus was anxious to rejoin 
 those he had left, but the means employed show him to have 
 been totally ignorant of the location of the island. 
 
 With the assistance of the natives, he at length succeeded in 
 reaching it. He found the fortress, which, he had assured the 
 
 INDIAN WIDOWS DECORATING THE GRAVES OF THEIB SLAUGHTERED HUSBANDS WITH THETB 
 HAIR. (From De Bry's " America.") 
 
 sovereigns, was strong enough to keep the whole island in sub 
 jection, destroyed, and the entire colony massacred. 
 
 The good Guacanagari averred their destruction to be the 
 work of a neighboring tribe, that of the powerful Cazique Cao- 
 nabo ; but he and all the Indians with one accord proclaimed the 
 Spaniards to have made themselves objects of fear and hatred 
 throughout the island by their insolence and licentiousness ; they 
 also reported them as having quarreled among themselves, and 
 dispersed, plundering native villages in small bands, so that 
 
234 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 their destruction was regarded as an act of self-defense by the 
 Indians. 
 
 Thus ominously did the first colony of Spaniards in the 
 Western Hemisphere inaugurate their relations with the natives. 
 Their fate was a terrible one, a violent death in a far-off land, 
 where cries for assistance could reach no friendly ear, and would 
 only bring around them their enemies in greater numbers ; ene 
 mies so numerous that their little band dissolved before them 
 like snow beneath a summer sun. But, terrible as was their 
 death, they had brought it upon themselves ; their enemies were 
 the once friendly natives, whom they cruelly wronged, and who 
 avenged the injuries heaped upon them by the stranger who in 
 vaded their homes, and made them desolate. 
 
CHAPTEK XYI. 
 
 SETTLEMENTS IN HISPANIOLA. 
 
 COLUMBUS was apparently not so much concerned at the loss 
 of his men as he was eager to find the gold which he hoped they 
 had collected. He had left orders that, in case they were attacked, 
 
 CnRiSTOPHEK COLUMBUS. (From De Bry's " America.") 
 
 they should throw all the treasure they might have amassed into 
 a certain well. This was now carefully searched, but to no pur 
 pose not a particle of gold was found. Columbus, being thor- 
 
236 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 oughly disgusted, his opinion of the port of Navidad underwent 
 a most radical change. Where before he saw a splendid harbor, 
 whose situation afforded every advantage for the establishment 
 of a flourishing colony and the building of an opulent city, he 
 now perceives only flat, unhealthy ground, where to remain 
 would be to perish. This fickleness is apparent throughout Co 
 lumbus' s transactions ; he never attempted to represent matters 
 as they were, but rather to make such statements as should se 
 cure favor for his projects. Hence, in the first place, he grossly 
 exaggerates the advantages of Navidad as a seaport (particularly 
 when he dwells upon its convenience for trade with Asia) ; and, 
 in the next, he as grossly magnifies the disadvantages of the 
 same place, that his abandonment of it might appear the more 
 reasonable. 
 
 The site he next chose for a settlement was on the north side 
 of the island. Here he resolved to build a town, as the situa 
 tion, he declared, was unexceptionable. He therefore caused the 
 ships to be unloaded, and proceeded to lay out a town, which he 
 named Isabella. 
 
 Already the fatal effects of his falsehoods became manifest : 
 here were hundreds of Spain's noblest sons, who had left civ 
 ilized life and luxurious homes, allured by the tales of gold and 
 Asiatic treasure to be gathered at will in a land as fair as Eden. 
 
 Upon landing at Isabella, provisions began to fail ; the Span 
 iards were without a roof to protect them from the heavy and 
 unwholesome night-mists which pervade those countries. Change 
 of climate, scantiness of food, and exposure, brought sickness 
 and death, while the gold was nowhere visible. The land was, 
 indeed, fertile ; and in a few years might be capable of sustain 
 ing thousands ; but it was uncultivated, and the roots which 
 served the simple natives as food were insufficient in quantity to 
 sustain the large colony Columbus had brought out, even if 
 the dainty palates of Castilian nobles could have accustomed 
 themselves to such rude fare. Want and exposure spread sick 
 ness among all, particularly among the high-born. The first 
 steps taken by Columbus toward building the new city were by 
 no means calculated to alleviate the sufferings of his followers. 
 He proceeded to build a church, a magazine, and a house for him 
 self* a triad which illustrates the ruling traits of his character 
 
 103 Herrera, " Decade I.," chapter xl. 
 
SPANIARDS SICK AND OPPRESSED. 
 
 237 
 
 hypocrisy, avarice, and selfishness. The latter is particularly 
 
 apparent, in that he built shelter for himself before taking steps 
 to secure greater comfort for hundreds higher born and gentler 
 bred than he, who were dying from the etiects of the hardships 
 they endured, whom, sick and famishing, he compelled to labor 
 in the erection of this very house. What wonder that, amid 
 
 Ho\J8E OF COLTJMBTTS IN EUIN8. 
 
 such a scene of disappointment, want, and sickness, murmurs 
 became audible and discontent apparent I Historians are unani 
 mous in their expressions of contempt for these Spaniards who 
 expected to find in the ISTew World the comforts of the regions 
 they had left, and wealth beyond measure at their disposal be 
 sides. They represent Columbus as the much-injured victim of 
 these visionaries, who reproached him with having allured them 
 by inspiring false hopes ; but these historians forget how rightly 
 these reproaches were addressed to Columbus. He had not pre 
 pared his colonists for the hardships they were to endure. If 
 they had indulged in golden visions, as delightful as illusive, Co 
 lumbus was the magician who had conjured up such visions. He 
 
238 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 had declared the wealth of the islands to be so great that, in a 
 short time, sufficient could be procured to raise an army and free 
 the Holy Sepulchre. The few men he had left were to have col 
 lected at least a ton of gold before his return, and this without 
 labor or expense save that of a few worthless bawbles which 
 they gave the natives in exchange for the precious metal. 
 
 Nor did he represent the country as a new one. Asia, with 
 its rich civilization, was within a few days' journey ; the land 
 was so beautiful, the natives so gentle, that paradise itself could 
 scarce have been a more delightful sojourn. Such was the tale 
 by which he secured the wealth of Spain the flower of her 
 nobility for his enterprise. And what was the reality ? They 
 reach the western shore to find their countrymen massacred ; 
 the lands, though a valuable acquisition to the crown, could only 
 be made such by labor ; the farmer and the mechanic, rude sons 
 of the soil, and the poor inured to hardships not noble cavaliers 
 should have been the first to people them. So would it have 
 been, but for the base manner in which Columbus deceived the 
 sovereigns of Spain and their subjects. Had he represented the 
 necessity of labor ; had he not been eager to increase his impor 
 tance and wealth by borrowing from the tales of Marco Polo, 
 that he might appear to have visited the countries of Asia, which 
 Spain and Portugal so longed to reach ; had he not, we say, 
 practised the grossest deception (we have shown how impossible 
 it was that he could have been deceived), a very different crew 
 would have emigrated with him smaller in numbers, of the 
 lower ranks, looking forward to a life of trial and the sufferings 
 of this unhappy multitude would never have existed. 
 
 When the building of the town was fairly under way, twelve 
 ships were dispatched to Spain, and with them Antonio de Tor 
 res, the bearer of the dispatches before mentioned, in which 
 Columbus develops his system of slave-trade. These ships set 
 sail on the 2d of February, 1494. Many a sad eye watched 
 them wistfully as they disappeared ; many a sad heart sank into 
 deeper gloom, as the last white sail vanished beneath the horizon. 
 
 As the unhappy Spaniards awakened from their dreams of 
 splendor to the reality of a country in which was found neither 
 food nor shelter, dissatisfaction daily increased ; hatred for the 
 pirate-admiral, who had so craftily allured them to destruction, 
 became more and more apparent ; nor were the harsh measures 
 
REBELLION" OF BERtfAL DIAZ. 239 
 
 and tyrannical conduct of Columbus calculated to conciliate. At 
 this early stage, bitter complaints are made against him ; his dis 
 respect of the Spanish gentlemen, his cruelty to the lower class 
 es, the small pretenses upon which he reduced the rations of all 
 ranks all create ever-increasing indignation ; and the disaffec 
 tion, with which he now commenced to be regarded, will hence 
 forth continue throughout his career. 
 
 This disaffection soon became more serious, and, at last, un 
 able longer to restrain their indignation, many of the Spaniards 
 organized a resistance against the tyranny of Columbus. Bernal 
 Diaz de Pisa, who was controller of the expedition, and had 
 occupied a position of some mark at court, headed the disaffect 
 ed. The fact that a man of such standing protested against the 
 conduct of Columbus, should cause unprejudiced writers to reflect 
 whether such conduct could have been wholly blameless. This 
 aspect of the case never seems, however, to present itself to the 
 biographers of our hero. They record the falsehoods fabricated 
 by him ; they recount the disappointment and disaster which 
 these falsehoods engendered ; yet, when speaking of the just 
 indignation of the deceived, they term it mutiny rebellion, 
 which could scarcely be punished too severely. Bernal Diaz 
 wrote a detailed account of the misrepresentations perpetrated 
 by Columbus ; this was discovered, and we are called upon to 
 admire the leniency of the latter, who merely confined Diaz on 
 board a ship, to be sent to Spain for trial. The gentle narrators 
 seem to think death itself would hardly have been too severe a 
 penalty for so heinous an offense. It was, indeed, unheard-of 
 audacity for any to presume so far as to assert that " the admi 
 ral" had exaggerated. Fernando writes : "Many had gone on 
 that voyage upon the belief that, as soon as they landed, they 
 might load themselves with gold, and so return, rich, home." 
 
 Such was indeed the case. But the falsehoods of Columbus 
 had engendered that belief a fact which seems to have escaped 
 the notice of most writers upon this subject. 
 
 This rebellion being quelled, Alonzo de Ojeda, with a com 
 pany of men, was sent to the district of Cibao to verify the report 
 of there being gold-mines in that vicinity. He returned with 
 such favorable accounts, that Columbus went thither and founded 
 the fort of San Tomas, and established mining operations. 
 
 His progress through the country on this expedition was 
 
20 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 characteristic : his band was sickly, weary, and disheartened ; 
 yet he must needs enter every Indian hamlet with trumpets 
 sounding and banners flying, so irrepressible were his vanity and 
 delight in exhibiting his newly-acquired rank. 
 
 During this journey, the Spaniards beheld, for the first time, 
 that glorious plain which they named the Yega Eeal, and which 
 was to become the theatre of so many tragic scenes. The expe 
 dition to Cibao, prompted by Columbus' s impatience to acquire 
 treasure, was premature, and a gross error on his part. The in 
 fant town of Isabella should have presented a somewhat more 
 prosperous appearance before he attempted further settlement ; 
 the colony should have become somewhat acclimated, its health 
 restored, before mining operations were commenced in the sterile 
 mountains of Cibao. The consequence of this premature jour 
 ney was, that but little advantage accrued to the Spaniards from 
 mining which was commenced under such adverse circumstances. 
 
 The fort of San Tomas being built, it was garrisoned with 
 fifty men, under Don Pedro Margarite, a gentleman who pos 
 sessed the confidence of both the sovereigns, and whom Colum 
 bus himself professed greatly to esteem. The latter then set out 
 on his return to Isabella ; he found that colony languishing and 
 perishing fast, for lack of provisions and the unhealthiness of the 
 situation. He seems to have been singularly infelicitous in his 
 selection of locations ; for this same town of Isabella, though 
 Columbus, in his letters to the sovereigns, had dwelt largely 
 upon the advantages of its situation, was afterward abandoned, 
 and, when deserted, became an object of dread and horror, not 
 only on account of its extreme unhealthiness, but also of the ter 
 rible cruelties and crimes which had been perpetrated against 
 the Spaniards within its walls. So great was the horror with 
 which it was regarded, that cries and groans were reported to 
 resound through its deserted streets, while visions of headless 
 cavaliers appeared to the superstitious. 
 
 To quell the discontent which was daily increasing, and was 
 wellnigh turned into desperation, Columbus sent four hundred 
 of the least sickly of the colonists to the interior ; Ojeda was to 
 replace Margarite in the superintendence of the mines of Cibao 
 and in the command of Fort San Tomas, while the latter was to 
 lead the four hundred men on a raid through the country. We 
 are told that Columbus enjoined justice toward the natives, and 
 
EAID UPON THE NATIVES. 
 
 241 
 
 forbade violence ; but, when we read that he instructed Marga- 
 rite to conduct his expedition with the twofold object of over 
 awing the natives and of feeding his men, without drawing on 
 the colony for supplies, while they were to use every means in 
 their power to take the cazique Caonabo prisoner, we are well 
 assured Columbus never proposed the raid to be effected without 
 violence. 
 
 SPANISH CRUELTIES. (From De Bry's Las Casas.) 
 
CHAPTEE XVII. 
 
 FURTHER EXPLORATIONS. CUBA DECLARED TO BE ASIA. 
 
 HAVING as he supposed insured the tranquillity of the colony, 
 Columbus now intrusted its government to his brother Diego aa 
 president, with Bishop Boyle, who had been appointed by the 
 Pope apostolic nuncio to those regions, and others as council 
 ors, and sailed on a further voyage of discovery on the 24th of 
 April, 1494. 
 
 During this voyage he discovered the island of Jamaica, and 
 many smaller ones, but its most important feature was his coast 
 ing the island of Cuba under the impression that it was (or 
 rather with a determination to represent it as) the Continent of 
 Asia. Here his interpreter fails him, we are told ; the Cuban 
 dialects differing from those of the other islands. 
 
 Historians consider this as some excuse or palliation for the 
 fables which our hero pretended to have heard from the natives, 
 such as the existence of men with tails, who wore clothes to hide 
 their deformity; and of a mighty monarch, entitled saint, who 
 never spoke, but gave forth his commands in signs ; and others 
 equally absurd. It is said, so eager was Columbus to believe 
 himself in Asia, that he readily misinterpreted signs, and re 
 garded them as corroboration of his opinion that he was in the 
 territory of the grand-khan. It is evident, however, that these 
 stories were invented by him, that he might appear to be in 
 those regions which Sir John Mandeville, Polo, and others, 
 had described, and near the dominion of the fabled and saintly 
 Prince Prester John. 
 
 That he knew he was not in Asia is evident from the extraor 
 dinary measures he took to convince the world he had reached 
 that continent. 
 
SUBORNATION OF PERJURY BY COLUMBUS. 243 
 
 Had he been assured of that fact, he would have trusted to 
 further investigation to establish its verity ; on the other hand, 
 if he knew he was practising a fraud, he would endeavor to pro 
 cure as much testimony as possible to insure that fraud's gain 
 ing credence. 
 
 Which was the case, the reader may judge from the follow 
 ing passage in Irving' s " History of Columbus," which scarcely 
 needs comment : 
 
 " The admiral was determined, however, that the fact should 
 not rest merely on his own assertion, having had recent proofs 
 of a disposition to gainsay his statements and depreciate his 
 discoveries. He sent round, therefore, a public notary, Fernand 
 Perez de Luna, to each of the vessels, accompanied by four wit 
 nesses, who demanded formally of every person on board, from 
 the captain to the ship-boy, whether he had any doubt that the 
 land before him was a continent, the beginning and the end 
 of the Indies, by which any one might return overland to 
 Spain, and, by pursuing the coast of which, they could soon 
 arrive among civilized people. If any one entertained a doubt, 
 he was called upon to express it, that it might be removed. 104 
 On board the vessels were several experienced navigators, and 
 men well versed in the geographical knowledge of the times. 
 They examined their maps and charts, and the reckonings and 
 journals of the voyage, and after deliberating maturely declared 
 under oath that they had no doubt upon the subject. . . . Lest 
 they should subsequently, out of malice or caprice, contradict 
 the opinion thus solemnly avowed, it was proclaimed by the 
 notary that whoever should offend in such a manner, if an 
 officer, should pay a penalty of ten thousand maravedis / if a 
 ship-boy or person of the like rank, he should receive a hundred 
 lashes and have his tongue cut out. A formal statement was 
 afterward drawn up by the notary, including the depositions and 
 names of every individual." 
 
 Here Columbus, not content with speaking and writing a 
 falsehood, is guilty of subornation of perjury. He manufactures 
 perjury wholesale, which felony he would perpetuate by the 
 barbarous means of scourging and cutting out the tongues of 
 those who should speak the truth. Thus, by a system unknown 
 
 104 Had there been any such hesitation, what followed renders it probable that any 
 doubt expressed would have been very forcibly removed. 
 
244: LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 to Thales and Ptolemy, original if not scientific, did the much- 
 lauded ncivigator and astronomer, the pious and humane " admi 
 ral," determine the latitude and longitude of the island of Cuba. 105 
 We have given this incident in the language of Irving, that 
 it may be seen how the extreme partiality of an author will 
 so blind him to justice that he can record a deed as shameful 
 as the above without pronouncing one word of censure upon its 
 author. 
 
 COLUMBUS EXACTS AN OATH FROM HIS CKEW THAT CUBA is ASIA. 
 
 Having thus secured his reputation, Columbus turned once 
 more toward Hispaniola. At the island of Saona, an eclipse 
 took place, in observing which he made a mistake of more than 
 eighteen degrees. 109 
 
 Near the island of San Juan, whither he was going to cap 
 ture some natives, he fell into a lethargy, which deprived him 
 of sense and memory, an attack which Las Casas declares to 
 have been sent as a " punishment to the admiral for the cruel 
 manner in which he sought to propagate Christianity." We 
 
 105 The documents containing the particulars of this forced perjury are to be 
 found in Navarrete, "Colecc. Dip.," vol. i., p. 162. 
 
 106 Irving, " Columbus," book vii., chapter vii. 
 
BARTHOLOMEW COLUMBUS ARRIVED. 
 
 245 
 
 should rather say, for the cruel manner in which he sought to 
 enrich himself. 
 
 On arriving at Isabella, and recovering from his illness, he 
 learned that his brother Bartholomew, whose voyage to Eng 
 land we have alluded to, had arrived. 
 
 On this brother, who afterward so ably seconded his meas 
 ures of cruelty and oppression, he immediately conferred the 
 rank of adelantado, or lieutenant-governor, a stretch of authority 
 which the sovereigns resented, as they only had a right to con 
 fer titles. 
 
 SPANISH CBITELTIES. -(From De Bry's Las Caeas.) 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 DISORDERS IN THE ISLAND. MARGARITE AND BISHOP BOYLE RE 
 TURN TO SPAIN, BEARING COMPLAINTS AGAINST COLUMBUS. 
 
 THE island had grown more and more disorderly during Co- 
 lumbus's absence ; all hope of peaceful relations between the 
 Spaniards and natives had forever disappeared as no doubt he 
 intended should be the case for, while the Indians remained 
 peaceable and friendly, there was no excuse for enslaving them. 
 The expedition of Margarite had roused them to hostility. As 
 the Spaniards marched through the country, they seized all they 
 could lay hands* on. Their avarice, licentiousness, and brutality, 
 exceeded all bounds ; the principal caziques, with the exception 
 of the faithful Guacanagari, joined in a league to expel the ty 
 rants who thus violated the hospitality which had been so gen 
 erously tendered them. Don Pedro Margarite, placed at the 
 head of a hungry band, who were charged to march through the 
 country and maintain themselves as best they could, found it im 
 possible to enforce discipline. He saw with dismay the grow 
 ing disorder throughout the colony, and felt that it should be 
 remedied as speedily as possible, and the sovereigns made ac 
 quainted with the true state of things, that they might enforce 
 measures for the proper government of the island. 
 
 This appears to have been the motive which induced Mar 
 garite, Bishop Boyle, and several Castilian nobles, to return to 
 Spain in the ships which had brought out Bartholomew Co 
 lumbus. 
 
 Bishop Boyle seems to have had peculiar reasons for hasten 
 ing to Europe. He had been constituted, by the Pope, apostolic 
 vicar and head of the Church in the Western lands. In this ca 
 pacity he had remonstrated with Columbus on his cruel govern- 
 
BISHOP BOYLE STARVED OUT. 247 
 
 ment, the latter paying no heed to ecclesiastical censure (by 
 which it will be seen how sincere was his profession of love for 
 the Church). Bishop Boyle excommunicated him ; whereupon 
 he refused to furnish the Pope's vicar and his attendants with 
 any provisions, and they were literally starved out of the island, 
 or, in the mild words of one author, Columbus's strong advocate, 
 " Father Boyle was forced to take his departure the first oppor 
 tunity, carrying with him heavy complaints against the justice 
 of the admiral," m with some reason, we should judge. His 
 action, however, excites great indignation among historians, as 
 also that of Margarite. Irving says the latter " and Boyle had 
 hastened to Spain to make false representations of the miseries 
 of the island." 
 
 Now, these miseries, according to Irving himself, could 
 scarcely be exaggerated. Sickness and death still prevailed ; 
 nobles were compelled to work hard, and fare scantily. They 
 rightly considered themselves deceived, and their indignation 
 against the perpetrator of the deception was excusable nay, 
 justifiable. 
 
 We can readily imagine, however, the dismay with which Co 
 lumbus heard of these departures. So long as his accounts of 
 the islands were the only ones to reach the sovereigns, he could 
 ever invent a plausible tale to win their approval. Margarite, 
 however, with no inducements to misrepresent facts, would ex 
 pose the falsehoods of which he had been guilty, and our hero 
 was not unnaturally alarmed. 
 
 He turned his attention, however, to the unhappy Indians. 
 Hearing that a body of the latter was advancing on Isabella, he 
 attacked them, taking five hundred prisoners, to be sent as 
 slaves to Spain. Henceforth he will no more speak of enslaving 
 cannibals only, as he finds prisoners of war more available. 
 
 The capture of Caonabo was now his great object. To effect 
 it, he employed the dauntless Alonzo de Ojeda. The expedi 
 tion, no doubt, offered more peril than he himself was willing to 
 encounter. He it was, however, who instructed Ojeda how to 
 proceed ; and the baseness and treachery of those instructions 
 are well worthy of their author. 
 
 Ojeda appeared in the dominion of the cazique, declaring 
 that he came on a friendly mission from Columbus. Caonabo, 
 
 107 Spotorno, " Historia Memoria," p. 86. 
 17 
 
248 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 who admired the bravery of Ojeda, received him courteously. 
 The latter carried with him a set of fetters, highly wrought and 
 polished. These, he told the chief, were ornaments, and induced 
 him to don them as such, and to mount a horse, an animal of 
 which the Indians stood greatly in awe. Alonzo persuaded 
 Caonabo that all this was done to honor him. The latter was 
 delighted to exhibit himself thus mounted and accoutred before 
 his tribe, but Alonzo suddenly wheeled round with his little 
 band of horsemen, and fled rapidly with the captured chief. 
 The victim of this fraud ever, we are told, evinced the greatest 
 contempt for Columbus, refusing to rise in his presence, while 
 he did so deferentially whenever Ojeda appeared, thus evincing, 
 he said, his respect for the one who had dared to execute what 
 the other had only basely planned. 
 
 Soon after these events, Antonio de Torres returned from 
 Spain, with four ships, bearing the provisions of which the fam 
 ishing colony stood so much in need. He brought back with 
 him Columbus's dispatches to the sovereigns, and the comments 
 which the latter affixed thereto, in which they approved, as we 
 have seen, all his proposals, except those relating to the enslave 
 ment of the Indians. 
 
 This approbation was very grateful to Columbus, but his de 
 light must have been considerably embittered by the knowledge 
 that they approved of his acts as he had represented them ; and 
 that, when Margarite and Boyle should have reached Spain, and 
 informed them of the tyranny he practised, their praise would 
 change to censure. 
 
 Thenceforth, indeed, the falsehoods of Columbus are dis 
 covered. He had shown how miserably incapable he was to gov 
 ern, and the sovereigns lost confidence in him more and more ; 
 nor did his quarrels with every one with whom he had dealings 
 serve to restore him to favor a fact which cannot surprise us. 
 A governor or other official of the present day, who should 
 incur the enmity of all his colleagues, collectively and succes 
 sively, would not be regarded with much confidence. The pub 
 lic would be apt to suppose that, where all were so unanimous in 
 disapproving, there must have been some matter for disapproval. 
 
 Columbus commenced with his benefactor Pinzon, continued 
 with Margarite, for whom he had first professed great esteem ; 
 -with Bishop Boyle, the representative of the Church to which 
 
FIVE HUNDRED INDIANS TO BE SOLD AS SLAVES. 249 
 
 he professed such devotion ; and thenceforth he disagreed with 
 every one who took part with him in the affairs of the island. 
 . The ships with which Torres had returned were immediately 
 sent back to Spain with all the gold Columbus had been able to 
 collect. This, however, was but a small quantity ; and, as he 
 feared Isabella's displeasure when she should receive no pecu 
 niary profit from his enterprise, after his large promises, he sent 
 over the five hundred Indians, to be sold as slaves, hoping that, 
 when he declared them to be prisoners of war, her scruples 
 would be allayed. 
 
 He must indeed have possessed great confidence that the 
 sovereigns, when they found the Indians likely to be the only 
 source of wealth to be derived from their new possessions, would 
 consent to their enslavement ; or else great hardihood, when he 
 dared send back five hundred of the harmless natives of His- 
 paniola, in the very ships which had brought out the prohibition 
 of king and queen against the enslavement even of those he de 
 clared to be cannibals. 
 
 "When these ships had departed, hearing that the natives 
 were collecting in large numbers in the Yega Real, Columbus 
 sallied out to attack them. It is not said that they were 
 either interfering with or molesting the Spaniards, but, as they 
 did not answer his purpose, and procured him neither gold 
 nor slaves, he suddenly divined hostile intentions on their part, 
 and, the better to convert this heathen people to Christianity 
 such was his avowed object he marched an army of Chris 
 tians (?) with their horses and dogs into their midst. " He had 
 with him," says Irving, " twenty bloodhounds, fearless and 
 ferocious; when once they seized their prey, nothing could 
 compel them to relinquish their hold." The horses, urged on by 
 their cruel riders, bore down upon the unarmed and defenseless 
 people, striking them to the earth, and trampling upon them ; 
 the horsemen dealt blows on all sides, with spear or lance, and 
 the blows were not returned ; none of these butchered and ter 
 rified Indians made the least resistance, while the bloodhounds, 
 scarce more savage than their masters, sprang upon the naked 
 bodies of the prostrate and the fleeing, dragging them to the 
 earth and tearing out their bowels ; those who escaped the 
 slaughter were sold into slavery worse than death. 108 
 
 ^ " Columbus," book viii., chapter vi. 
 
250 
 
 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 Leaving the hideous and ghastly scene of butchery, and as 
 suming the air of a conqueror, Columbus now traversed the 
 island, and proceeded to extort an immense revenue from the 
 unoffending inhabitants. Ever greedy for gold, he required 
 every person, above the age of fourteen years, to pay the amount 
 of that metal which would fill a Flemish hawk-bell (about fif 
 teen dollars) every three months ; the chiefs paid a much larger 
 quantity. In vain the poor islanders, crushed by this imposi 
 tion, remonstrated ; in vain the chiefs, in lieu thereof, offered to 
 cultivate for him a breadth of land stretching across the island 
 
 SLAUGHTER nr THE VEGA EEAL, 
 
 from sea to sea enough, according to Las Casas, to furnish all 
 Castile with bread for ten years : Columbus was inexorable ; gold 
 he must have, if it cost the life-blood of every Indian in the 
 island to procure it ! Herrera, in the following passage, fur 
 nishes an example of the tenderness with which the biographers 
 of this man dealt with his worst crimes : " Columbus," he writes, 
 " like a discreet man, being sensible that the wealth he sent 
 must be his support, he pressed for gold, though in other respects 
 he was a good Christian and feared God" which may be rightly 
 interpreted thus : Columbus was cruel, avaricious, dishonest, 
 
TERRIBLE OPPRESSION OF THE NATIVES. 
 
 251 
 
 but in other respects, and except where he failed, he was a good 
 Christian ! 
 
 The unfortunate Indians, reduced by Columbus and his 
 brothers to the most abject slavery history has recorded, filled 
 with despair, and seeing no prospect of relief from the op 
 pression which had so suddenly and terribly fallen upon them, 
 fled from their homes, which were homes no longer ; from the 
 haunts of the Christian to the mountains and caves ; but Colum 
 bus relentlessly pursued them, and would have compelled them 
 
 ENSLAVEMENT OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 to return, but they sought refuge in the wildest, most inaccessi 
 ble parts of the island ; famished mothers, with starving children 
 clinging around them or clasped in their arms, hid themselves 
 in the mountain recesses, or, faint and broken-hearted, died by 
 the wayside. The men dared neither hunt nor fish to appease the 
 wants of their perishing families, lest Columbus and his blood 
 hounds should be upon them. Thousands perished ; others, van 
 quished by hunger, delivered themselves up to their task-masters 
 and returned to die in the mines and fields under the cruel lash 
 of the Spaniard. 
 
 Not even the faithful Guacanagari was exempted from trib 
 ute ; he found, indeed, that the day in which he had assisted the 
 
252 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 shipwrecked Columbus, lie Lad taken a serpent into his bosom. 
 He and his followers were as cruelly oppressed as those Indians 
 who had been hostile to the Spaniards. 
 
 This method of exacting tribute and labor, inaugurated by 
 Columbus, may be considered the origin of the cruel system of 
 repartimientos which afterward prevailed in the West Indies. 
 
 Columbus had not been mistaken in his apprehensions of 
 the effect the reports of Margarite and Boyle would have at the 
 court of Spain. The story of the tyranny and cruelty practised 
 by their admiral, alarmed the sovereigns, and they determined 
 to investigate the matter ; but, actuated no doubt by a desire to 
 spare Columbus any unnecessary humiliation, they sent, as com 
 missioner for this investigation, Juan Aguado, for whom the 
 former professed the strongest friendship ; they rightly supposed 
 this friendliness between the two would prevent the latter from 
 believing accusations blindly, but would cause him to be certain 
 they were well founded before giving them credence. Upon his 
 arrival, his investigations more than corroborated the state 
 ments of Margarite ; on all sides, from noble and commoner, 
 Spaniard and native, rose bitter complaints against the inhuman 
 admiral and viceroy. 
 
 Historians, commenting upon this fact, say that an unfortu 
 nate man always finds accusers. They forget that, if ever Colum 
 bus was prosperous, these were the days of his prosperity. The 
 last dispatches from the Spanish sovereigns had contained ap 
 proval and praise, nevertheless all with one accord rose to de 
 nounce him ; such unanimity would have been impossible, had 
 he been faultless. 
 
 The result of Aguado's investigation was such, that in pure 
 justice he strove to redress some of the existing wrongs; by 
 this action he not only incurred the undying enmity of Colum 
 bus, but is vilified by historians, though the unfortunate man's 
 only crime seems to have been that, when sent out to make in 
 vestigations, he performed his mission conscientiously. The fact 
 that his corroboration, as an impartial and disinterested party, 
 of the accusations so universally made, \& a strong evidence of 
 Columbus' s guilt, seems to escape notice. He does not appear to 
 have abused his authority ; he collected all the evidence and in 
 formation required, and then proposed to return to Spain and 
 make his report. 
 
FLEET DESTROYED BY HURRICANE. 
 
 253 
 
 Columbus was now seriously alarmed, and resolved to return 
 thither also, and make what defense he might. A tremendous 
 hurricane, however, swept over the island and destroyed the en 
 tire fleet, which lay at anchor, with the exception of the Nifla ; 
 the latter had to be repaired, and another vessel was built out of 
 the wrecks ; this retarded the departure alike of Columbus and 
 Aguado. 
 
 During the delay, Columbus was informed of the discovery 
 of other gold-mines, more productive than those of Cibao, in a 
 beautiful region of the interior ; they were discovered by a 
 young Spaniard who had fled, having, as he supposed, murdered 
 a comrade. On his reappearance with tidings of gold, Columbus, 
 we are told, not only pardoned but looked upon him with great 
 favor, 109 and proceeded to explore the new region, being desirous 
 of abandoning Isabella, which he now considered as objection 
 able as Navidad. 
 
 109 Irving, " Columbus," book viii., chapter x. The gold he declared potent to 
 save from the pangs of purgatory, he thus proved to be equally potent in averting 
 the gallows and the penitentiary. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 RETURN OF COLUMBUS TO SPAIN. HIS THIRD VOYAGE. 
 
 HAVING- sent his brother to examine the situation of the 
 mines, who returned with favorable reports, and the vessels 
 being now ready to sail, Columbus embarked in one and Aguado 
 in the other ; as many of the Spaniards as could, availed them 
 selves of this opportunity of returning to their native land. 
 The voyage was a long and disastrous one ; the crew were half 
 famished and in sorry plight when, on the llth of June, 1496, 
 they entered the bay of Cadiz, from which they had departed 
 with such glowing hopes. " Never did a more miserable and 
 disappointed crew return from a land of promise," says Irving. 
 He forgets to add, whose misrepresentations were the cause of all 
 this misery and disappointment. 
 
 A month elapsed before Columbus received a summons to 
 appear at court, and his guilty conscience made him greatly 
 fear for his reception there; his abject humility, as he pro 
 ceeded to Burgos, contrasted as strikingly with his vaunting 
 return from his first voyage, as did the splendid promises he 
 had then made, with the miserable reality which had now be 
 come apparent. 
 
 Clad in the garb of a monk, with cringing humility apparent 
 in mien and gesture, he appeared before the sovereigns. They 
 received him more graciously than he had expected ; some his 
 torians declare that no allusion whatever was made to the accu 
 sation of Margarite and Boyle ; others go, so far as to say that 
 the sovereigns loaded him with benefits and praise ; all agree, 
 however, while making these assertions, that his fortunes are 
 henceforth under a cloud, that the nation ridiculed him, and 
 
COLUMBUS IN BAD ODOR GOLD IN BARS. 255 
 
 that the confidence of Ferdinand and Isabella was shaken. 
 Bossi admits that it was intimated to him that he had best 
 moderate the rigor of his rule in the islands ; it is probable, 
 therefore, that he received some censure. 
 
 In vain, to recover what prestige he ever possessed, did he 
 announce that he had discovered that land of Ophir whence 
 Solomon procured his gold ; in vain did he dwell upon the ad 
 vantages to be derived from his visit to Cuba, which, he averred, 
 was the eastern extremity of Asia. His disheartened compan 
 ions told a different tale. He- met on all sides with derision, 
 which the recollection of the pompous boasting he had indulged 
 in on his return from his first voyage only served to increase ; 
 he became the butt of well-earned ridicule an example of how 
 falsehood and fraud will oftentimes turn to plague the inventor. 
 
 Though Isabella may have refrained from publicly disgracing 
 the admiral, her actions show plainly what credit she gave his 
 statements. 
 
 For a year and a half, he daily represented the necessity of 
 sending out ships and provisions to Hispaniola. At the end of 
 that time, two caravels were sent, under one Coronal; but he 
 himself could not procure the squadron he solicited, with which 
 to prosecute his discoveries lack of funds was the excuse with 
 which he was put off from day to day and month to month. 
 Yet this excuse can hardly be considered valid, for, at that very 
 period, a magnificent fleet of upward of a hundred vessels (we 
 believe, a hundred and twenty), having on board twenty thou 
 sand persons, convoyed the Princess Juana to Flanders, for her 
 marriage with the Archduke of Austria. 
 
 While Columbus was importuning for a fleet, Pedro Nino, 
 who had left Cadiz for Hispaniola immediately after the arrival 
 of the former in that port, returned to Spain, and circulated a 
 report that he had on board much gold, in bars, the fainting 
 hopes of Columbus revived. He was instructed by the crown 
 to defray the expenses of his expedition out of this gold, and 
 an appropriation of six million maravedis, which he had just 
 with difficulty procured, was transferred to another channel. 
 "What, then, was his mortification, when he discovered that 
 Nino had returned with a cargo of Indians to be sold as slaves 
 alluding to their sale for gold, and to their present imprison 
 ment, he termed them gold in lars satirically implying by 
 
256 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 this jest that they were likely to be the only gold derived from 
 the islands. 
 
 If the boasting lies of Columbus had been derided before, 
 how much greater did the derision now become ! If he had been 
 hitherto unable to procure vessels, how much less willing were 
 the sovereigns now to make an outlay which, to all appearance, 
 would profit them nothing ! 
 
 A certain pride, however, forbade them wholly to abandon 
 an enterprise in which they had embarked ; and, to silence the 
 importunities of Columbus, they ordered that such vessels as 
 were necessary for the expedition should be pressed into the 
 service, with their masters and pilots, and such remuneration to 
 be offered the owners as the officers of the crown should think 
 fit ; their object being evidently to transfer the burden of the 
 expenses from the crown to its subjects. 
 
 About this time, Columbus made his will, of which we shall 
 require to speak more at length hereafter. He also succeeded 
 in obtaining a revocation of a royal order which had been ful 
 minated in 1495, by which subjects of Castile were allowed to 
 make voyages of discovery at their own expense for the crown, 
 a permission which he declared was in direct conflict with his 
 interests, and supplicated and "begged as a favor that it should 
 be withdrawn. 110 
 
 Six vessels were at length with difficulty procured. Colum 
 bus received permission to take out three hundred and thirty 
 persons in royal pay, to colonize the islands ; but so effectually 
 had the Spaniards, who had already returned thence, succeeded 
 in demonstrating the falseness of his representations, that it was 
 found impossible to obtain the desired recruits. He then made 
 a proposition, which proves alike his unprincipled character and 
 the extremities to which he was reduced. He petitioned that 
 malefactors might be released from their prisons, and expiate 
 their offenses by a sojourn of two years or less in the new lands. 
 To this proposition Isabella agreed, to her lasting dishonor; and, 
 in so doing, effectually contradicts all who dwell upon her kindly 
 disposition toward the unhappy Indians : such an element could 
 hardly work for the good of their souls. The conversion in 
 trusted to such hands must surely result in demoralizing, rather 
 than elevating them. She and the pious admiral well knew that 
 Navarrete, "Colecc. Dip.," vol. ii., p. 224. 
 
THIEVES AND MURDERERS. 357 
 
 lawless criminals, whom society had deemed unsafe in Spain, 
 would be a hundred-fold worse when far removed from restraint, 
 and turned loose upon the unhappy natives. 111 
 
 Though he had thus procured ships and crew, Columbus still 
 had great difficulty in obtaining supplies difficulty which his 
 quarrelsome disposition increased, if it did not create. Juan 
 Rodriguez de Fonseca, Bishop of Badajoz, had been appointed 
 head, or superintendent, of the affairs of the Indies. He is one 
 of the multitude who have been vilified by historians because he 
 conscientiously performed the duties of his office, instead of be 
 coming the creature of Columbus. Indeed it is a fact, which the 
 careful reader cannot fail to observe, that, in order to make a 
 great and noble man of the latter, his biographers are obliged to 
 vilify every one of his contemporaries with whom he had any 
 dealings of importance. 
 
 Fonseca, fortunately for the crown, opposed the extravagant 
 demands of the admiral. The quarrel between them originated 
 in his somewhat reasonable remonstrance against the appoint 
 ment of twenty esquires to wait solely on the latter on his sec 
 ond departure for the primitive regions of the West. Notwith 
 standing the railings of Columbus and his partisans, there is 
 every evidence of Fonseca's having been an efficient officer and 
 meritorious man. Had it been otherwise, he would not, as he 
 did, have retained the confidence of the Spanish sovereigns, and 
 remained at the head of Indian affairs for upward of thirty 
 years, despite the accusations and complaints of the admiral. 
 And here is another contradiction of that sensational fiction 
 which so popularly represents Isabella as constantly sympathiz 
 ing with and befriending Columbus, while thwarted by her hus- 
 
 11 The act, or order, which authorizes this exportation of criminals, is thus 
 worded : " . . . We will and ordain that all and every person, men and women, our 
 subjects and natives, who may have committed, up to the day of the publication of 
 this our letter, any murders and offenses, and other crimes, of whatever nature and 
 quality they may be " (heresy and others are excepted), " who shall go and serve in 
 person in the island of Hispaniola, and shall serve in it at their own expense, and in 
 those things which the said admiral shall command and specify to them on our part ; 
 namely, those who have incurred the punishment of death, for two years, and those 
 who have incurred any other punishment, although it may be the loss of a limb, for 
 one year ; shall receive a pardon for every crime and misdeed, of whatsoever nature, 
 quality, or gravity it may be, which they may have done or committed up to the day 
 of the publication of this our letter, excepting the cases above mentioned, . . . and 
 we reestablish the said delinquents in their former good fame, and in the state in 
 which they were, before they had done and committed the aforesaid crimes." 
 
258 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 band and officials. It requires but a moment's reflection for the 
 absurdity of this view, which is so universally entertained, to 
 become apparent. She was sovereign of Castile. Her husband's 
 power in that kingdom was merely nominal. His influence, 
 therefore, would have been ineffectual in injuring Columbus, had 
 she desired to patronize him ; and, though her authority was not 
 absolute, yet it would have sufficed to remove Fonseca, who is 
 said to have been the bitter enemy of her so-called protege. Had 
 she been as desirous of favoring the latter as is represented, she 
 would therefore have replaced the bishop by some one more 
 friendly to his interests. 
 
 It is most probable that the queen, now thoroughly under 
 standing the grasping character of her admiral, was only too 
 glad to intrust the superintendence of his expenditure to one on 
 whom she could rely, to check his extravagance and expose his 
 frauds. The ill repute of Fonseca, like the fame of Columbus, 
 has been chiefly the work of modern times. Irving himself, 
 who brands him as vile and despicable, confesses that contem 
 porary historians do not speak unfavorably of the bishop ; and, 
 though he accounts for the fact by supposing that prudence re 
 strained them from expressing their true opinion, this is a gratui 
 tous supposition on his part. 
 
 The amiable manner in which our admiral comported him 
 self toward those with whom he came in contact is illustrated by 
 his treatment of one Ximeno de Breviesca, the treasurer of Fon 
 seca. Ximeno had some business with him just before his de 
 parture on this third voyage, and, having occasion to protest, or 
 possibly only to transmit Fonseca's protestation against some 
 of his demands, Columbus knocked him down, kicked and buf 
 feted him in a most brutal manner. As one more example of how 
 his most inexcusable acts receive the sanction of his biographers, 
 we will again quote Mr. Irving, who seems to regard such con 
 duct as far from blamable. " He struck the despicable minion 
 to the ground, and spurned him repeatedly with his foot," says 
 Mr. Irving, relating the above event, " venting in this unguarded 
 paroxysm the accumulated griefs which had long rankled in his 
 mind." / 
 
 De Lorgues thus records this somewhat equivocally saint-like 
 act: 
 
 " The patriarch of the ocean made a step toward his insulter, 
 
BRUTAL ASSAULT BY THE ADMIRAL UPON XIMENO. 259 
 
 and with his fist dealt a blow on his impudent face. The mis 
 erable wretch fell down stunned. The admiral limited him 
 self to giving a few kicks to this vile snarler, who fled in the 
 midst of hootings, concealing, under his humiliation and forced 
 tears, his secret joy ; for from that moment his fortune was 
 made." 
 
 But De Lorgues denies that the above act was a " mark of 
 ungovernable temper," and declares that, in perpetrating it, 
 " Columbus did not yield to hastiness, or to the excitement of 
 self-love," while it is evident that he desires us to admire the le 
 niency of his hero, who limited himself to giving a few kicks to 
 his prostrate victim. 113 
 
 This outburst and insult to a public officer, which exposed 
 the brutal vindictiveness of the man in all its violence, went far, 
 as may be supposed, to confirm all the reports of his cruelties 
 and insolence toward the Spaniards in Hispaniola. The sov 
 ereigns, when they heard of this outrage, committed within 
 their own realm, must have readily conceived how the perpe 
 trator would act when far removed from their supervision, and 
 vested with supreme authority. 
 
 Leaving the remembrance of this last act, and the impression 
 it must inevitably produce, to perform their work in Spain, Co 
 lumbus set sail on the 30th of May, 1498, on his third voyage, in 
 the name of the Holy Trinity. 
 
 At the Canary Islands he divided his fleet, and sent three 
 vessels direct to Hispaniola, while he with the three others pro 
 ceeded to the Cape Verde Islands, thence to sail due west under 
 the equinoctial line, " it being his intention," says Fernando, " to 
 discover the continent." Thus we perceive at once that, when 
 in the island of Cuba he extorted the oath from his men that 
 they were in Asia, he was perfectly aware of the perjury which 
 he forced them to commit ; for, had he then supposed he had 
 discovered the continent, he would not now have declared that 
 he was going to discover it. 
 
 His voyage lasted two months, part of which his vessels lay 
 motionless in the scorching region of the calm latitudes ; and, 
 though he desired to pursue a southwesterly course, the condi 
 tion of his ships forced him to make for Hispaniola. 
 
 On -the 31st of July of this year, 1498, a sailor gave the cry 
 
 112 De Lorgues, " Christophe Colomb," livre ii., chapter ix. 
 
260 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 of land, and, shortly after, three mountains appeared, which, as 
 the ships neared them, proved to be united at their bases. This 
 circumstance Columbus interprets as a miracle, intending to show 
 how acceptable were all his acts to the Almighty. He had sailed 
 with his gang of thieves and murderers in the name of the Holy 
 Trinity, and three mountains, symbolizing that Trinity, are the 
 first land he descries. He gave the island (for such it was) the 
 name of La Trinidad, which it bears to this day. He then 
 rounded Cape Galera, which brought him to the southern side 
 of the island ; and it was while his vessels were taking in water 
 at Point Alcatraz, the low lands of the Orinoco being visible 
 from that point, that, according to all historians, he, on the 1st 
 of August, 1498, beheld for the first time the Continent of 
 America, which, in the preceding year, Amerigo Vespucci had 
 visited, and coasted from the gulf of Honduras to Chesapeake 
 Bay. 113 He was not, however, aware that the land before him 
 was the continent, but imagined it to be another island. 
 
 The absurd story he tells of the sea rising like a high moun 
 tain, threatening to submerge the ships, is said by over-indulgent 
 writers to have been the effect produced on his ardent imagina 
 tion by the outpouring of the waters of the Orinoco into the 
 ocean. To us it illustrates his character : the truth only would 
 not, he feared, produce wonder enough. In his efforts to give 
 supernatural semblance to all that occurred, he dealt largely in 
 the marvelous. His age was one teeming with navigators, yet 
 none of his contemporaries record such storms, such calms, such 
 heat, such mutinous crews, such huge sea-monsters, as those 
 which he imagined or invented. 
 
 Having escaped from this huge mountain of waters, he 
 emerged from the northern strait which divides Trinidad from 
 the continent, and which he named Boca del Drago, as he had 
 already named the southern strait which formed the same di 
 vision Boca del Sierpe. 
 
 Still in ignorance that the land before him was the continent, 
 he coasted Paria in search of some outlet to the sea beyond. 
 The natives received him kindly, and appeared more civilized 
 than those he had found in the islands. Many of the women 
 wore pearls, and he obtained a quantity of costly ones in ex- 
 
 118 Cabot had also preceded Columbus, and reached North America on the 24th 
 of June, 1497. 
 
THE EARTH NOT SPHERICAL EARTHLY PARADISE. 261 
 
 change for the merest trifles. At length, not finding the desired 
 outlet, he concluded that this was the continent. 
 
 The description of this voyage, which he gives in a letter to 
 the sovereigns, and the speculations in which he indulges to 
 rouse their flagging interest, is certainly a valuable production as 
 regards originality, and as a proof of the ignorance and absurdity 
 of the man. Here he gives forth that truly novel theory that 
 the earth is pear-shaped. 
 
 " I have always read," he writes, in a letter to their Catholic 
 Majesties on his return from this voyage, " that the world, com- 
 prising the land and the water, was spherical, as is testified by 
 the investigations of Ptolemy and others, who have proved it by 
 the eclipses of the moon, and other observations made from east 
 to west, as well as by the elevation of the pole from north to 
 south. 114 But I have now seen so much irregularity, as I have 
 already described, that I have come to another conclusion re 
 specting the earth namely, that it is not round, as they de- 
 cribe, but of the form of a pear, which is very round, except 
 where the stalk grows, at which part it is most prominent." 
 
 This opinion he bases upon the mildness of the climate in 
 the "Western Hemisphere near the equinoctial, as compared with 
 the equatorial regions of Africa. This mildness he attributes to 
 a gradual rise, or prominence, like a great mountain or upper 
 portion of a pear. On the top of this mountain, or excrescence, 
 which is nearest the sky, he declares the earthly paradise to be 
 situated, w r hich he proposes to add to the other possessions of 
 their majesties. 116 There are not wanting men of intellect who, 
 
 114 It is hereby rendered apparent that the theory of the earth's sphericity, which 
 so many authors describe him as revealing to startled and incredulous contempora 
 ries, was in his time, and had been for ages before it, generally accepted, and, in 
 order to be novel, he is obliged to refute that theory. 
 
 115 " .... I do not suppose that the earthly paradise is in the form of a rugged 
 mountain, as the descriptions of it have made it appear, but, that it is on the summit 
 of the spot which I have described as being in the form of the stalk of a pear, the 
 approach to it from a distance must be by a constant and gradual ascent. . . . There 
 are great indications of this being the terrestrial paradise, for its site coincides with 
 the opinion of the holy and wise theologians whom I have mentioned ; and, more 
 over, other evidences agree with the supposition. . . . But the more I reason on the 
 subject, the more satisfied I become that the terrestrial paradise is situated in the 
 spot I have described. . . . May it please the Lord to grant your highnesses a long 
 life, and health and peace to follow out so noble an investigation ! " Columbus 's Let 
 ter to the Sovereigns, describing his Third Voyage, 1498. 
 
LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 with more or less honesty, have defended this theory as plausi 
 ble. We somewhat doubt that honesty, we confess, when we 
 find that enthusiastic advocate for the canonization of Columbus, 
 M. de Lorgues, asserting that in the above absurd speculation 
 Columbus shows a knowledge of, if he did not discover, the in 
 flation of the equator ; we fail to see in it the faintest suspicion 
 of equatorial inflation round the whole globe, which only di 
 verges from a perfect sphere in so far as to become a slightly 
 flattened one. He declares a prominence or excrescence to exist 
 on one side of the globe, which is perfectly round on all other 
 sides. He distinctly contrasts the region he speaks of with those 
 of Africa, also situated on the equator. He also declares this 
 excrescence to be nearer the sky than other parts of the globe. 
 This totally defeats the idea of uniform inflation around its 
 circumference, which evidently never for a moment entered the 
 mind of Columbus. 
 
 In this letter, in which he describes in glowing colors the 
 country, people, and productions of the continent, he forbears to 
 speak of the pearls for which he had bartered with the natives, 
 having, no doubt, a desire to keep them for himself as per 
 quisites. This silence will hereafter bring him into trouble, as 
 his men were well aware of the pearls being in his possession, 
 and proclaimed the fact on their arrival in Hispaniola. 
 
 He now determined to return to that island. He had an in 
 firmity of the eyes, which nearly deprived him of sight, and suf 
 fered from a disease which is reported to have been gout, though 
 how that fatal consequence of ease and high living could attack 
 one leading such a life as his requires explanation. 
 
 He made for Isabella, but arrived instead at San Domingo, 
 the new colony on the south side, an inexactitude of calculation 
 which is among the least perpetrated by " the admiral." 
 
 On his arrival he was met by the adelantado. Bartholomew 
 Columbus, who gave him a woful account of the condition of 
 the island. The lands were uncultivated, the people sick and 
 dying, while the authority of his brothers, and even his own, 
 was being questioned. 
 
CHAPTEE XX. 
 
 REBELLION OF ROLDAN. CRUELTIES OF COLUMBUS. MURDER OF 
 
 MOXICA. 
 
 THE particulars of this rebellion form one of the most dis 
 graceful pages in the history of Columbus ; it illustrates alike 
 his treachery, cowardice, and inability to rule, save by the gross 
 est tyranny. 
 
 After his departure for Spain, his brother Bartholomew, 
 whom he left in charge of the government, adopted forthwith 
 the severest measures, constantly traveling from one part of the 
 island to another, allowing the unfortunate Spaniards neither 
 rest nor quiet, sternly exacting from the still more unfortunate 
 natives enormous tribute ; the latter revolted, but were speedily 
 vanquished, their leaders put to cruel deaths, and a still heavier 
 tribute imposed upon the masses. 
 
 Francisco Roldan had been appointed by Columbus alcalde, 
 mayor or chief-justice of the island. It is difficult to form a 
 just estimate of this man from the perusal of the histories of 
 Columbus ; nevertheless, as Fernando, who writes in his father's 
 interest, says that he (Roldan) " acted from a pretense to further 
 the public good," and, as through all his proceedings enough is 
 apparent to prove that this was at least one of his motives, if 
 not the principal, and as, moreover, he constituted himself the 
 friend and protector of the Indians, we may infer that he was 
 really far more meritorious than the generality of those who 
 obtained office through the aid of Columbus. It soon became 
 apparent, however, that he did not intend to become the blind 
 partisan of the latter by disregarding the duties of his office. A 
 
 manly frankness characterizes his dealings with Columbus and 
 18 
 
264 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 his brothers which commands respect. Incensed alike by the 
 cruelties practised toward the Indians and the hardships imposed 
 upon the Spaniards by the harsh and restless spirit of the ade 
 lantado^ and discouraged at the deplorable condition of the 
 island, he requested that a certain ship which the adelantado 
 had built might be fitted out to convey him and some other 
 cavaliers to Spain, there to lay their grievances before the sov 
 ereigns. His request was denied, upon the pretense that the ship 
 was in want of tackle. This can hardly have been true, for it 
 had but just returned with a heavy cargo of cotton, etc., from 
 the district of Xaragua, ruled by Anacaona, widow of Caonabo, 
 and Behechio, his brother, where it had been to collect tribute. 
 Koldan was not deceived by the excuse ; he represented to his 
 friends that the tyrannical measures of the adelantado were un 
 lawful, inasmuch as he had received his rank from the admiral, 
 who had no right to confer titles, and declared that, in virtue 
 of his office, he had determined to release the oppressed natives 
 from the excessive tribute imposed upon them. His friends, 
 who appear to have been the best men in the island, 116 agreed to 
 sustain him in these measures. He received particularly ready 
 assistance from Adrian de Moxica, a gentleman of wealth and 
 standing, whose kinsman, Hernando de Guevara, had become 
 enamored of and desired to wed a daughter of Queen Anaca 
 ona, and therefore ardently sought to further the interests of her 
 people. 
 
 Koldan and his followers, determined no longer to recognize 
 the authority of the adelantado^ left Isabella. So great was the 
 unpopularity or conscious guilt of the latter, that he dared not 
 resent this proceeding, but sent a safe-conduct to Koldan, peti 
 tioning for an interview. Koldan reiterated his demand for a 
 vessel, which was again refused upon the same grounds. He 
 then not unnaturally inferred, what was probably the case, name 
 ly, that the adelantado was by no means desirous that an account 
 of his proceedings should reach Spain. He strove to divest 
 Koldan of his office; the latter very justly objected that their 
 majesties alone to whom the islands belonged or their accred 
 ited representative could remove him ; and declared, moreover, 
 
 118 Fernando tells us that the few Spaniards who remained with the adelantado, 
 were bribed to do RO by the promise of two slaves apiece, to be given them if they 
 did not go over to Roldan. ffistoria del Amiranie, chapter Ixxv. 
 
EOLDAN DEMANDS THE INDIANS' RELEASE. 265 
 
 that the sovereigns did not wish the Indians to suffer as they 
 did, nor the Spaniards to be so oppressed. 117 
 
 He prepared to leave the city with his followers. The ode- 
 lantado refused them provision. He therefore forced open the 
 magazines in the king's name, took what he required, and pro 
 ceeded to Xaragua, releasing the Indians on his way from trib 
 ute, and assuring them that all their Catholic Majesties required 
 of them was that they should be good subjects. 118 
 
 When Columbus returned to Hispaniola, and was made ac 
 quainted with these events, his first act was to proclaim Roldan 
 and his followers rebels ; but he seems to have hesitated in be 
 coming openly hostile to him : he sent one Carvajal to offer him 
 a safe-conduct and pardon for the past, if he would return to his 
 allegiance. 
 
 Six hundred Indians, who had been made prisoners because 
 their cazique had failed to pay tribute, were at that time confined 
 on board five ships, to be sent to Spain as slaves, the ships only 
 waiting till Columbus should be able to write that affairs in the 
 island were quiet, before sailing. Roldan therefore made an 
 swer to Columbus's envoy that he desired and required no par 
 don, having committed no offense, but he merely requested that 
 these Indians, whom he had taken under his protection, should 
 be set at liberty ; that he was acting legally, and that it was Co 
 lumbus who, by enslaving them, disobeyed the royal commands. 
 The latter refused to liberate the Indians, but sent them out im 
 mediately to Spain, dwelling, in his letter to the sovereigns, 
 upon the advantages that would accrue to their treasury from 
 the sale of four thousand yearly, at the same time reporting 
 Roldan's insubordination. 
 
 Fear, however, or the conviction that his own cause was weak, 
 induced him still to endeavor to come to an understanding with 
 the latter, who, thus urged, drew up articles, and promised, on 
 condition of Columbus signing them, to cease hostilities. This 
 Columbus refused to do, saying that, were he to sign, he would 
 bring himself, his brothers, and justice, into disrepute. 119 As 
 Roldan, however, remained inexorable, Columbus, notwithstand 
 ing the above declaration, acceded to all his requests, which 
 were, in substance, that two good ships should be fitted out, in 
 
 117 " Historia del Amirante," chapters Ixxv., Ixxvi. 
 
 118 Idem., chapter Ixxvi. 119 Idem., chapter Ixxx. 
 
266 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 which he and such of his followers as wished to do so, might re 
 turn to Spain, with an assurance that neither the admiral nor 
 his friends should molest them. That those returning to Spain 
 should receive certificates of good conduct, it was stipulated that 
 the conditions precedent should be performed within ten days 
 after the signing of the contract, or the agreement was to become 
 void, Roldan, on his part, pledging himself to depart within 
 fifty days after receiving the vessels. 
 
 Throughout all these proceedings, Columbus had been the 
 suitor, Roldan the sued, which appears inconsistent with the re 
 ports of his bad behavior. Had he really been so blamable, 
 Columbus would not have been so desirous to come to terms with 
 him, but would have trusted to the royal power for bringing him 
 to subjection. He knew that Roldan, in his protection of the 
 Indians, and his remonstrances against the tyranny of himself 
 and his brothers, was essentially in the right, and would be so 
 regarded by the crown when the truth should be learned. 
 
 The agreement was signed November, 1498. It was not till 
 the following April that two ships were furnished Roldan. He 
 and his followers refused to embark, not so much because they 
 had not arrived within the prescribed time, as because they were 
 worm-eaten and insufficiently furnished with provisions, two 
 somewhat awkward impediments to a long sea-voyage ; he 
 therefore declared his intention of seeking redress from the 
 crown. This alarmed Columbus. He sent, in haste, another 
 safe-conduct, and requested Eoldan to come and treat with him. 
 The latter accepted his invitation, and, fearlessly going on board 
 the admiral's fleet, obtained the following terms : 
 
 All his followers who desired, should return to Spain by the 
 first ships ; 
 
 That those remaining behind should receive lands and 
 houses ; 
 
 That a proclamation should be made, that Roldan and his fol 
 lowers had been forced to act as they had by the fault of bad men ; 
 
 That Roldan should be reappointed perpetual chief-justice, 
 with power to appoint all subordinate justices. 
 
 Thus did the admiral reward the man whom he had accused 
 of rebellion, attempted murder, treason, and robbery, by con- 
 ferring^upon him the highest office at his disposal. 
 
 If he were indeed guilty of the crimes imputed to him, noth- 
 
DUPLICITY AND COWARDICE OF COLUMBUS. 267 
 
 ing can excuse the dastardly conduct of Columbus in thus pro 
 moting him ; if, on the other hand, he had only justly taken up 
 arms against the tyranny and incompetency to rule of Columbus 
 and his brothers, their cruelty and duplicity stand revealed. 
 These transactions, therefore, whatever view we may take of 
 them whether we regard Roldan, as do the majority of histo 
 rians, as a lawless rebel, or, what is more probable, as one who 
 fearlessly and perseveringly stood up for the rights of his coun 
 trymen and the oppressed Indians the part played by Colum 
 bus is alike despicable and revolting. 
 
 Not only did he give this so-called rebel office and justifica 
 tion, but conferred on him lands and other favors. When he, 
 however, asked to visit these lands (a not unnatural request, it 
 would seem), we are told that the admiral reluctantly consented. 
 
 On his way to Xaragua, Roldan appointed one of his friends 
 alcalde, or justice. This appointment, though of no material im 
 portance, yet furnishes another proof of how modern authors 
 have strayed still farther from the truth in their attempts to make 
 Columbus immaculate, than contemporary writers. Mr. Irving 
 says Columbus was justly indignant at this appointment, Roldan 
 having no power to appoint associate justices. Fernando Colum 
 bus, who, as has been shown, does not always adhere strictly to 
 the truth, and who may justly be supposed to represent his 
 father in as favorable a light as possible, and not to palliate the 
 faults of his father's enemies, allows that in the matter of this 
 appointment Roldan was right. He says the latter " appointed 
 Riquielme alcalde, it ~being a part of his grant to appoint other 
 alcaldes." 12 
 
 How, then, can it be asserted that Columbus was justly indig 
 nant at an officer's properly exercising the functions of his office ? 
 
 Two ships finally set sail for Spain in October, 1499, bearing 
 thither many of Roldan's adherents, whom Columbus had pre 
 sented with slaves and certificates of their good character and 
 conduct on the island. These, however, he privately contra 
 dicted by secreting on board of one of the very ships, in the keep 
 ing of one of his confidants, a letter to the sovereigns, wherein 
 he accused Roldan of the most heinous crimes, begged them not 
 to give credence to the certificates of good character, as the men 
 to whom he had furnished them were murderers, rebels, and 
 
 120 " Historia del Amirante," chapter Ixxxiii. 
 
268 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 thieves, whom he advised their majesties to have seized imme 
 diately on their arrival, stripped of their possessions, and severely 
 punished. It is difficult to imagine conduct at once more treach 
 erous, despicable, and pusillanimous, than this. 121 
 
 He also requested that a judge should be sent to administer 
 justice in the island, said judge to be paid by him, and whose 
 duties were to be so specified that they should not interfere with 
 his prerogatives. 122 Such a justice, powerful to do the will of 
 Columbus, but powerless against him, would have been a sorry 
 acquisition for Hispaniola. 
 
 It was in this year, 1499, that Amerigo Vespucci, on his 
 return from his second voyage, provisions falling short, put in at 
 Hispaniola upon the suggestion of Alonza de Ojeda. Columbus 
 immediately sent Roldan to express his indignation at their hav 
 ing landed without his permission. The latter found a party of 
 the ship's crew busily engaged in making cassava-bread in an 
 Indian village, thus demonstrating the innocence and necessity 
 of their visit. 
 
 Alonzo de Ojeda was the nominal commander of the expedi 
 tion, as the grant, allowing citizens to prosecute discoveries at 
 their own expense for the crown, only extended to subjects of 
 Castile. Yespucci was an Italian, in the service of the King of 
 Aragon. It was Ojeda, therefore, who showed Roldan the 
 papers authorizing the expedition, duly signed by Fonseca, head 
 of the affairs of the Indies. This was unanswerable ; but Ojeda, 
 with more generosity than judgment, is said to have declared 
 himself the patron of the many Spaniards, who, remembering his 
 impulsive bravery, flocked around him, telling him their griev 
 ances representing that they had received no pay since their 
 arrival in the island, though the crown provided for their remu 
 neration. 
 
 Ojeda promised to redress their wrongs, and to compel 
 Columbus to pay them ; at the same time bidding them put no 
 faith in the promises of the latter, as he would only fulfill them 
 so long as necessity compelled him to do so. 123 
 
 He, moreover, informed them of what was soon to become 
 apparent namely, that the admiral was far from being in favor 
 
 121 Irving, book xii., chapter v 
 
 112 Letter of Columbus to DoBa Juana de la Torres. Irving, book tii., chapter T. 
 
 123 " Historia del Amirante," chapter Ixxxiv. 
 
GUEVARA, OJEDA, MOXICA. 269 
 
 at the court of Spain, where only unfavorable reports of him had 
 been received. He predicted, not without reason, as will be 
 seen, the speedy and total downfall of the tyrant. 
 
 Holdan met the expedition, at the head of which Ojeda had 
 placed himself. The latter remembering, perhaps, that he had 
 been sent upon a voyage of discovery, and not to enforce justice, 
 retired to his ship, and, after some further skirmishing and par 
 leying, set sail for Spain. 
 
 We have mentioned the young Fernando de Guevara, who 
 was desirous of wedding the daughter of Anacaona. That a 
 young Spanish cavalier should become the lawful husband of an 
 Indian maiden would be a dangerous blow to the policy of Co 
 lumbus, which was to degrade and enslave the natives. He fore 
 saw this would become impossible when these unfortunates 
 should acquire allies among the Spaniards united to them by the 
 strong ties of blood. Guevara was, therefore, forbidden to marry 
 the young princess, and ordered to leave the island in Ojeda's 
 ships. When we remember that Columbus had instructed Rol- 
 dan to drive Ojeda from the island as a pirate, his presumption 
 in sending a passenger for transport on board an enemy's ship, 
 while a monstrous wrong to Guevara, was strictly in keeping 
 with his general line of conduct. Finding that Ojeda had al 
 ready departed, and feeling the injustice and cruelty with which 
 he was treated, Guevara resolved to persevere, and to marry the 
 Indian princess. He therefore secreted himself in the house of 
 her mother, and sent for a priest to baptize his bride. He was 
 discovered and driven out by the authorities, but with touching 
 persistency returned once more, when he was made prisoner and 
 conducted to the fortress of San Domingo, there to await the 
 punishment of so heinous a crime as that of loving faithfully and 
 honestly an Indian maiden. This persistent and lawful attach 
 ment, in the face of tyranny and persecution, is termed by Co 
 lumbus a rebellion; and because Adrian de Moxica, kinsman to 
 the unfortunate youth, remonstrated against his imprisonment, 
 he was accused of "joining in the rebellion." After requesting 
 the release of Guevara, and being refused, he set out with six 
 or seven followers, to endeavor, it is said, to liberate him. Co 
 lumbus, hearing of this, with his accustomed treachery came 
 upon the little band unawares in the night, and made them pris 
 oners. 
 
270 
 
 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 On all sides, we are told, murmurs of disaffection and hatred 
 were heard against the admiral. He was aware of the utter de 
 testation in which he was held, but hoped, by inspiring terror, 
 to prevent an outburst against himself. Adrian de Moxica was 
 in his power. He determined to put him to death, and thus in 
 timidate all who should thereafter dare to oppose his wishes, or 
 remonstrate against his tyranny. Without legal authority, and 
 
 COLTTMBITS KICKS MOXICA FROM THE BATTLEMENTS. 
 
 with scarce the form of a trial, Moxica was condemned to instant 
 death. He requested to be allowed to confess a demand which 
 was grudgingly granted by the saintlike Christopher. So great 
 was his thirst for vengeance, that even this pious delay was more 
 than he could brook. A priest being summoned, Moxica, in 
 those last moments we read in an old work " confessing, de 
 laying, and then beginning again, accused Columbus of having 
 caused the troubles, whereupon he, indignant at his audacity, 
 spurned him from the battlements." Some writers represent 
 Moxica as delaying death as long as possible by prolonging his 
 confession, at which Columbus, becoming indignant, ordered 
 him to be thrown from the battlements. But from all we can 
 
MOXICA KICKED FROM THE BATTLEMENTS. 
 
 271 
 
 gather, he met his fate fearlessly, and, in that last solemn mo 
 ment, accused Columbus of the crimes which had brought misery 
 upon the island. The latter, furious at being unable to conquer 
 the spirit of his victim even in death, in an outburst of passion, 
 similar to that he gave vent to in Cadiz toward Fonseca's treas 
 urer, kicked the manacled prisoner from the high walls of the 
 fortress into the fosse below. 
 
 Such is the atrocious act which historians record, yet seem 
 blind to the horror it must inspire in all humane breasts ; they 
 expend their choicest pathos, and would move their readers to 
 
 SPANIARDS EXECUTED BY BARTHOLOMEW COLUMBUS. 
 
 tears, when relating the misfortunes (self-created) of Columbus, 
 yet recount the awful murder of Moxica in terms seemingly un 
 conscious that it should stir up any other feeling than that of 
 admiration for the murderer. 
 
 Irving writes : " Columbus, losing all patience, in his mingled 
 indignation and scorn, ordered the dastardly wretch to be flung 
 headlong from the battlements." 
 
 Does it not surprise the reader that an author can use such 
 language in describing such a scene, and thus make himself not 
 merely the apologist, but the approver of brutal cruelty ? 
 
272 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 De Lorgues, wlio seems not Very unjustly to consider this 
 act as militating somewhat against the canonization of Colum 
 bus, which he so strenuously advocates, denies his perpetration 
 of it, and lays it to the charge of Roldan, a violation of truth too 
 daring for any former historian to have attempted, as even the 
 eulogists and most ardent admirers of Columbus admit his part 
 in this atrocious crime. Mufioz circumstantially relates how 
 Roldan left to the admiral the judgment of Moxica ; how the 
 admiral, in the dead of night, made the latter prisoner, con 
 ducted him to the fortress of Concepcion, and had him exe 
 cuted. 124 
 
 The murder of Moxica was but a commencement of the sum 
 mary proceedings of Columbus. He and his brother set out 
 upon an expedition through the island, taking with them a 
 priest. Wherever they came upon a disaffected Spaniard, he 
 was seized, the priest confessed him, and he was hanged forth 
 with ; this was done, we read, " that the Indians might be again 
 brought to pay their tributes, to the end that their majesties 
 might have wherewith to defray the expenses they were at, and 
 the admirals enemies might give over railing." 126 
 
 From PHILOPONO. (Nova Typis, etc.) 
 
 The Indians were submissive, dreading the admiral, and so desirous to please him that they 
 readily became Christians only to oblige him."" Historia del Amirante," chapter Ixxxiv. 
 
 124 Muiioz, " Historia del Nuevo Mundo," libro vi., p. 338. 
 
 125 Herrera, " West Indies," Decade I., book iv., chapter i. 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 DISPLEASURE OF THE SOVEREIGNS AGAINST COLUMBUS. THEY SEND 
 
 OUT BOBADILLA TO INVESTIGATE HIS CONDUCT. ACTION OF BO- 
 
 BADILLA. 
 
 WHILE Columbus thus outraged decency and humanity in 
 the island of Hispaniola, his downfall was impending on the 
 other side of the ocean. The king and queen, considering the 
 many complaints made against him, as also the evident misrule 
 prevailing in their "Western possessions, the persistent export of 
 slaves against their express command, and his repeated false 
 hoods and exaggerations, wisely resolved that his rule in Hispa 
 niola, as in all the other newly-found lands, should cease. They 
 appointed Francisco de Bobadilla to examine into the complaints 
 made against him, also into the rebellion of which he accused 
 Roldan. He was, in their name, to take possession of all for 
 tresses, ships, and other property of the crown, to assume the 
 rank and title of judge, and governor of the island. 
 
 As his biographers reach this period of Columbus's history, 
 language, of whatever country, seems scarce to contain adequate 
 terms in which to express their sympathizing pity for the martyr 
 hero. The ingratitude of human nature in general, and princely 
 nature in particular, is dwelt upon in strong, if not exactly origi 
 nal or novel terms. 
 
 He, however, who considers the facts calmly and dispassion 
 ately, will readily agree with us, that the sovereigns did not deal 
 harshly with Columbus. They acted with all the consideration 
 he could expect, and with far more leniency than he deserved. 
 They had long doubted his efficiency as a ruler, and the disorders 
 prevailing in Hispaniola, and his utter unpopularity, confirmed 
 this doubt. They regretted the foolish haste with which they 
 
274 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 had intrusted him with many of their subjects. His enterprise, 
 which he had promised should so largely enrich them, had cost 
 much and paid nothing ; ships returned to Spain from the distant 
 islands far more heavily laden with complaints against Colum 
 bus than with the gold he had promised. His veracity and hon 
 esty appeared in a doubtful light, when no substantial corrobora- 
 tion was forthcoming of the wondrous tales he had circulated of 
 a land so rich in gold that it could be no other than that of 
 Ophir. Moreover, hundreds of unfortunates who had gone out 
 under promises of royal pay, and whose salaries Columbus had 
 withheld, congregated around the palace, loudly petitioning for 
 pay, and exhibiting their poverty and misery wherever the king 
 and queen showed themselves, exclaiming, when they saw the 
 sons of Columbus (Fernando and Diego) in royal service, "Be 
 hold the sons of the Admiral of Mosquito-land, the discoverer 
 of false and deceitful countries, to be the ruin and burial-place 
 of Spanish hidalgos ! " " Which made us," observes Fernando, 
 in his history, " cautious of appearing before them." 
 
 This accumulated evidence against Columbus determined the 
 sovereigns to send out some one who should make them truthful 
 reports as to the troubles prevailing in their new possessions. 
 They chose, as we have stated, their commander, Francisco de 
 Bobadilla, and on March 21, 1499, signed a commission, ordering 
 him to " inquire what persons had risen against justice," and to 
 proceed against them according to law. Two months later they 
 seem to have fully resolved that Columbus should be superseded ; 
 and, on the 21st of May, two other commissions were furnished 
 Bobadilla. The first gave the government of the Indies to the 
 commander, Francisco de Bobadilla, and contains the following 
 comprehensive and conclusive clause : 
 
 " It is our will that if the commander, Francisco de Boba 
 dilla, should think it necessary for our service and the purpose 
 of justice, that any cavalier or other persons, who are at present 
 in those islands or may arrive there should leave them, and 
 not return and reside in them, and that should come and present 
 themselves before us, he may command, in our name, and oblige 
 them to depart. And whomsoever he thus commands, we hereby 
 order that immediately, without waiting to inquire or consult 
 us, or to receive from us any other letter or command, and with 
 out interposing appeal or supplication, they obey whatever he 
 
BOBADILLA SENT TO HISPANIOLA HIS POWERS. 275 
 
 shall say and order, under the penalties he shall impose on our 
 part." 126 
 
 All possibility of disobedience and resistance, or excuse there 
 for, seems to be here forestalled, but to little eifect, as the conduct 
 of Columbus will prove. 
 
 The second letter-patent, or commission, commanded Colum 
 bus and his brothers to deliver up to Bobadilla all fortresses, 
 ships, arms, etc., " under penalty of incurring the punishment to 
 which those are subject who refuse to surrender fortresses and 
 other trusts when commanded by the sovereigns." m 
 
 Nor were these comprehensive commissions all. Foreseeing, 
 no doubt, the reluctance with which Columbus would resign a 
 position for which he was so unfit, x the sovereigns addressed a 
 letter to him, which they intrusted to Bobadilla. It ran thus : 
 
 " To CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, out Admiral of the Ocean Sea : 
 
 " We have ordered the commander, Francisco de Bobadilla, 
 to acquaint you with some things from us ; therefore we desire 
 you to give him entire credit, and to obey him. 
 
 " GIVEN AT MADRID, May 21, 1499." 
 
 These commissions, we have seen, were signed in 1499, with 
 ill-timed consideration. The sovereigns, however, still refrained 
 from dispatching Bobadilla. Had they done so immediately, 
 Moxica might have escaped his awful fate ; and many others, 
 who were put to death without trial, might have been spared. 
 
 It was not till the arrival of the ships containing Roldan's 
 followers, and the slaves presented to them by Columbus, that 
 the indignation of the queen was thoroughly aroused. " What 
 right," she is said angrily to have exclaimed, " has my admiral 
 to enslave my subjects ? " She immediately ordered a proclama 
 tion to be made, that those slaves which had been given away 
 by Columbus and brought to Spain, should be immediately de 
 livered to Bobadilla (whom she determined to send out without 
 further delay), and restored to liberty in their native land. Ac 
 cording to Herrera and others, the penalty imposed upon those 
 not delivering up the said slaves, was death. 
 
 Invested, then, with the remarkably full and unconditional 
 
 126 Navarette, "Collee. Dip.," vol. ii., p. 266. 
 
 127 Idem., p. 267. 
 
276 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 authority as contained in the four letters-patent already men 
 tioned, and provided, besides, with numerous blank letters, 
 signed by the sovereigns, to be filled up as he thought proper. 
 Bobadilla left Spain in July, 1500, to arrive in Hispaniola on the 
 23d of August of that year. 
 
 It becomes us carefully to examine this episode in the history 
 of Columbus. Bobadilla has been energetically denounced. Fer 
 nando is foremost among those who accuse him of obstinacy, arro 
 gance, and vindictiveness, and most historians have followed his 
 example. But Fernando, we must remember, was the son 'of 
 Columbus ; and most of his biographers are his admirers and 
 apologists, quand meme ; their opinions, therefore, should be 
 received with extreme caution. There are, however, historians 
 who give Bobadilla credit for ability and integrity, while those 
 most bitter against him have never impugned his incontestable 
 personal incorruptibility. He was intrusted with as high powers 
 as a sovereign could confer upon a subject and agent, yet he did 
 not abuse that power ; and there is no evidence that the extraor 
 dinary trust reposed in him was ever used in a manner deroga 
 tory to his own honor, or detrimental to the interests of the 
 crown. Regarded from a humane and moral point of view, his 
 conduct was praiseworthy, while legally it was not only just and 
 equitable, but the only course he could possibly have pursued in 
 justice to the sovereigns, and in the discharge of his duties. 
 
 As the little fleet was sighted off the harbor of San Domingo, 
 a canoe was sent out to inquire after a son of Columbus who was 
 expected. This messenger was informed by Bobadilla that he 
 had come out as commissioner to investigate charges touching 
 the late rebellion. The master of the ships asked news of the 
 island, and was told that seven of the Spaniards, into whose con 
 duct Bobadilla came to inquire, were already hanged, and that 
 five others, among them young Guevara, awaited a similar fate. 
 
 As soon as the report was spread that a commissioner had 
 arrived to investigate the charges made against the so-called reb 
 els, there was much commotion in the island, but of a different 
 character from what might have been expected had Columbus 
 been in the right. His brothers and adherents evinced manifest 
 uneasiness, while the accused rejoiced that at length justice, and 
 not despotism and personal spite, was to decide their fate. 
 
 Bobadilla remained on board his ship during the day sue- 
 
GIBBET SCENES THE COLUMBOS DISLOYAL. 277 
 
 ceeding liis arrival ; crowds of Spaniards visited him bearing but 
 one tale, that of the oppressions and wrongs they had suffered at 
 the hands of Columbus. These complaints, bitter and innu : 
 merable as they were, do not seem to have influenced Bobadilla, 
 except in so far as to determine him to assume jurisdiction over 
 the so-called rebels at once, and so retard or prevent, as justice 
 might demand, the executions then pending. In this resolution 
 he was strengthened by the sickening sight which met his eye 
 as he entered the river; on either bank, the dead body of a 
 Spaniard swung ghastly from a gibbet ; these executions had 
 apparently been recent Columbus had anticipated his arrival 
 and defeated the humane intentions of the sovereigns, in so far 
 as these victims were concerned. 
 
 He landed the next morning, attended mass, and, after that 
 ceremony (being informed that Columbus and his brother, the 
 adelantadoy were absent), in the presence of Don Diego, who 
 was in command of the fortress, of Roderigo Peroz, the servants 
 of the admiral, and the large concourse assembled, ordered his 
 commission (authorizing him to investigate the rebellion, and 
 commanding Columbus, and all others in authority, to aid him 
 in discharging his duties) to be read. 
 
 This, it will be remembered, was the simplest and least com 
 prehensive of his letters-patent. He commenced, however, by 
 reading it, thinking first to ascertain the causes of the trouble, 
 and then, if necessary, investigate the conduct of Columbus and 
 his brothers, and, if it proved blameworthy, to remove them. He 
 therefore demanded that the persons of the prisoners should be 
 surrendered to him, and the written accusations against them to 
 be given into his keeping, requiring, at the same time, their ac 
 cusers to appear before him. 
 
 The daily impending execution of the prisoners, by order of 
 Columbus, rendered it necessary that their persons should be 
 placed in safety, at least till they had been tried. The action of 
 Bobadilla was, therefore, strictly lawful. Few, with any knowl 
 edge of law, or any feelings of justice, will fail to perceive that 
 he could not have acted otherwise. 
 
 Don Diego, however, refused to deliver the prisoners, refused 
 to recognize the authority of Bobadilla, and alleged that Colum- 
 bus's power was superior to any the former could have been in 
 vested with. 
 
278 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 Bobadilla regarded this as perhaps a natural and excusable 
 caution under the circumstances ; he imagined that, of course, 
 when Diego should learn how full were his powers, he would no 
 longer hesitate to obey the dictates of his sovereigns. He, there 
 fore, the next morning, before the assembled multitude, read the 
 second commission, which created him governor of the island, 
 and ordered that he should be implicitly obeyed, without demur 
 or appeal. He then took the accustomed oath of office, and 
 again demanded the surrender of the prisoners. But he soon 
 learned that he was to encounter nothing but opposition and de 
 fiance from Columbus and his brothers. It would naturally be 
 supposed that, when a judge arrived whose mission was to try, 
 and to treat, according to their deserts, those whom he had ac 
 cused of rebellion and heinous crimes, Columbus and his broth 
 ers would gladly have welcomed that judge, and assisted him to 
 the utmost. 
 
 That they persisted from the first in regarding Bobadilla as 
 an enemy may be thus explained : They knew that their con 
 duct would not bear investigation ; that, if it was once brought 
 to light, their power was ended, and they themselves would per 
 haps suffer the penalty of their crimes, while the innocence of 
 those they accused would be revealed. Columbus had indeed 
 petitioned for a judge, but for one subservient to him in his 
 pay whose justice should be what he willed. Bobadilla, coming 
 with power superior to his own, received from the sovereigns, 
 was not what he bargained for. 
 
 Diego Columbus would no more regard the second commis 
 sion than he had done the first, and still refused to deliver the 
 prisoners. 
 
 Bobadilla now perceived something more serious and offen 
 sive than caution in this obstinate resistance. He recognized how 
 wisely ho had been intrusted with a letter expressly ordering 
 Columbus and his brothers to deliver up to him all fortresses, 
 etc., and discovered that the sovereigns had foreseen the opposi 
 tion he was to encounter. He therefore ordered this letter, a 
 death-blow to the authority of Columbus, to be read; as well as 
 another, dated May 30th, ordering him to pay the arrears due to 
 those persons in royal service, whom Columbus had neglected or 
 refused to remunerate. This proclamation was received with 
 much applause. It is much to the credit of Bobadilla, and a proof 
 
EOYAL OKDER DISOBEYED. 279 
 
 of the moderation with which he proceeded, that he had not 
 sooner read what was to render him and his mission popular. 
 
 Let us observe the wording of the first of these documents. 
 It reads thus : 
 
 " Don Ferdinand and Dona Isabella, by the grace of God, 
 etc. ... to you Don Christopher Columbus, our admiral of the 
 ocean, and to you the brothers of the said admiral, in whose power 
 are fortresses, houses, ships, etc., we send for our governor of the 
 islands, the commander Francisco de Bobadilla. ... we order 
 you to deliver the said fortresses, houses, etc., to the said com 
 mander, or the persons he shall appoint, and to give him com 
 plete power over the said fortresses, etc., all of which we com 
 mand you to do under pain of incurring those penalties which 
 those persons incur who refuse to deliver fortresses, or other 
 things, when ordered to do so by their sovereigns." 
 
 This would appear explicit and peremptory enough. Don 
 Diego, however, still refused to deliver either fortress or prison 
 ers. Bobadilla then repaired to the fortress, 'and, when the al 
 calde who kept it appeared on the battlements, ordered the letter 
 to be read to him, and the seals and signatures of the sovereigns 
 to be held up to his view. The alcalde, however, having doubt 
 less received his orders from Diego, refused to admit Bobadilla, 
 who then appealed to the people and demanded their assistance, 
 but urged that no violence should be employed save in case of 
 resistance. 
 
 The fortress was easily taken, being no better constructed 
 than most other public works erected by Columbus. The pris 
 oners were discovered loaded with irons. Bobadilla delivered 
 them to an alguazil. 
 
 Irving terms this conduct arrogant and precipitate, but the 
 accusation is totally unfounded. Had the prisoners been deliv 
 ered up to him, and his first commission been obeyed, Bobadilla 
 would have proceeded first to the examination of the charges 
 against them ; then, if necessary, to that of the conduct of Colum 
 bus. The refusal to obey at the outset created the necessity of 
 enforcing his authority by reading the other letters, which had 
 been provided him to meet just such an emergency, and without 
 the aid of which he was powerless, in view, of Diego Columbus' s 
 insubordination, to perform the duties of his mission. 
 
 He might with justice have imprisoned Don Diego and the 
 19 
 
280 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 alcalde who held the fortress, on the charge of treason, as they 
 refused to obey the commands of their sovereigns. This he did 
 not do, and if he afterward imprisons the three Columbos, it was 
 not till still weightier evidence had convicted them of greater 
 crimes, and rendered it necessary. 
 
 To relieve in a measure the extreme misery into which the 
 Spaniards in Hispaniola had fallen, partly from the non-pay 
 ment of their salaries, which had been withheld by Columbus, 
 partly from the wretched state of the colony, Bobadilla now 
 published a license allowing all to search for gold for twenty 
 years, paying only one-eleventh instead of one-third, as they had 
 done till now, to the government. This proceeding, though cer 
 tainly humane and wise, excited the indignation of Columbus, 
 whose tenth of the revenues would, he feared, be thus materially 
 diminished ; he, therefore, immediately on hearing of it, pub 
 lished a proclamation, in which he declared Bobadilla to have no 
 power or authority, and forbade any to obey him. 
 
 The latter sent an alcalde, bearing a copy of the letters- 
 patent, to acquaint him in due form with his appointment as 
 governor, but forebore as yet sending the peremptory note ad 
 dressed to Columbus only, bidding the latter obey him. But, in 
 the face of all the letters of the sovereigns, which proclaimed 
 that there was to be no appeal to them from any proceeding 
 which Bobadilla might think fit, Columbus still resisted ; pub 
 lished and proclaimed that Bobadilla's powers were not valid 
 that his own were greater. He declared, however, afterward, 
 that he wrote to Bobadilla, assuring him that he would soon leave 
 the island entirely to his government. This he only did, how 
 ever, he confesses in his letter to the nurse of Prince John (Dofia 
 Juana de la Torres), which contains his own defense of his con 
 duct in these proceedings, to gain time, that their highnesses 
 might perhaps change their minds. This statement clearly 
 proves his guilt. Had he, indeed, believed that Bobadilla was 
 as he had publicly proclaimed throughout the island acting 
 without due authority, he would not have desired delay in order 
 that the sovereigns might change their minds ; who, if they had 
 no part in the proceedings of Bobadilla, and were unaware of 
 his conduct, could not have altered a policy which they had 
 never enjoined. The direct opposition to the royal commands 
 (which directed that their agent was to be obeyed without appeal 
 
TKEASON OF COLUMBUS JUSTICE OF BOBADILLA. 281 
 
 or delay), perpetrated by Columbus, rendered him clearly guilty 
 of no less a crime than treason ; and he and his brothers " in 
 curred those penalties which those persons incur who refuse to 
 deliver fortresses or other things, when ordered to do so by their 
 sovereigns." 128 
 
 It is absurd for historians to declare, as they constantly do, 
 that Bobadilla overstepped his authority, and that Isabella never 
 intended him to supersede Columbus, but merely to punish those 
 who had rebelled against the latter. If this had been the case, 
 why was he provided with those commissions in which Colum 
 bus and his brothers were expressly ordered to deliver to him all 
 things pertaining to the crown ? 
 
 Why should a letter have been written addressed solely to 
 Columbus, commanding his obedience to and belief in Boba 
 dilla? 
 
 The continued and insolent resistance he encountered con 
 vinced the new governor that consideration and delicacy were 
 thrown away upon such a man as Columbus. He therefore sent 
 to him Velasquez, deputy-treasurer, and a Franciscan friar, bear 
 ing the last-named letter. This document made Columbus fear 
 the consequences of persisting in his insubordination ; and, as it 
 was accompanied by a summons from Bobadilla to appear before 
 him, he, with a show of humility, set out for San Domingo. But 
 rumors, which appear not without foundation, reached Bobadilla, 
 that this humility was only feigned that he was in reality at 
 tempting to rouse the native inhabitants of the Yega to aid him 
 in opposing the new governor. 129 
 
 Considering that the conduct of Columbus and his brother 
 Diego had been, up to this time, in their refusal to obey the 
 royal mandates, of so treasonable a nature as to render the re 
 ported attempt at rebellion probable, and justly holding that 
 they deserved imprisonment for what was well proved against 
 them, as well as for their resistance of the sovereign will as 
 
 128 See ante, extract from royal mandate. 
 
 159 " It is also said that the new governor sent letters to the king, written with the 
 Admiralles hande, in strange and unknown sypherings, to his brother, the Lieutenant, 
 being absent, willing him to be in a readiness, with a power of armed men to come 
 and aid him, if the Governor shquld proffer him any violence. Whereof the Gov 
 ernor having knowledge (as he sayth), being also advertised that the Lieutenant was 
 goue to his brother before the men, which he had prepared there in a readiness, ap. 
 prehended them both unawares, before the multitude came together." Peter Marfyr, 
 "Decade I.," book vii. 
 
282 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 vested in him, Bobadilla had fhem both imprisoned and put 
 in irons on board a caravel which was shortly to return to 
 Spain. 
 
 "With unpardonable unfairness, Irving, alluding to the im 
 prisonment of Don Diego, says : 
 
 " The admiral's brother, Don Diego, was seized, thrown in 
 irons, and confined on board a caravel, without any reason being 
 assigned for Ms imprisonment" and does not hesitate to write 
 thus after enumerating all the successive efforts of Bobadilla to 
 obtain obedience to the orders of the sovereigns, whose letters 
 he had publicly read and exhibited ; after recording Diego's re 
 peated refusal to recognize the royal authority ; and after, in the 
 very paragraph in which the above sentence occurs, recording 
 the rumor, as he terms it, of Columbus seeking to excite the na 
 tives to rebellion. 
 
 There is certainly no more flagrant act of treason and diso 
 bedience to royal commands extant than the insubordination of 
 Diego indeed, of all the Columbos ; yet, while he records these 
 acts of insubordination and rebellion, Mr. Irving still has the 
 courage to write that Diego was imprisoned without any reason 
 being assigned for his imprisonment. 
 
 As for Christopher Columbus, the charges against him were 
 manifold. It was alleged that he ill-treated and abused the na 
 tives, refusing to let them be baptized, that they might continue 
 slaves ; 18 that, acting as a kind of pawnbroker and money-lend 
 er, he had traded upon the necessities of the Spaniards he had 
 inveigled and impoverished, giving them barely wherewithal to 
 keep them from starvation, then enforcing his collections through 
 a royal gamashee. 1 * 1 
 
 Nor was this all. The queen called him to account for dis 
 honesty in office, thus : 
 
 " The said admiral having farmed out the offices of alguazil 
 and notary in the island of Hispaniola, for a certain period, we 
 command that the moneys and the revenues derived from the 
 said offices be divided into ten parts, nine for us and one for the 
 admiral, deducting first the expenses and indemnifications of the 
 aforesaid offices." 13a 
 
 la * Irving, " Columbus," book xiii., chapter iv. 
 
 131 Navarette, vol. ii., p. 222. 
 
 132 Navarette, " Collec. Dip." vol. ii., p. 308. Columbus complained of this order, 
 
COLUMBUS IN" IRONS HIS GRACELESS COOK. 283 
 
 Peter Martyr thus sums up the accusations made against 
 Columbus by the Spaniards in the island : 
 
 " They accuse the admiral and his brother to be unjust men, 
 cruel enemies, and shedders of the Spanish blood, declaring that 
 upon every light occasion they would rack them, hang them, 
 and head them, and that they took pleasure therein ; and that 
 they departed from them as from cruel tyrants and wild beasts, 
 rejoicing in blood, also the kings' enemies ; affirming, likewise, 
 that they well perceived their intent to be none otfier than to 
 usurp the 4 empire of the islands, which thing (they said) they 
 suspected by a thousand conjectures, and especially in that they 
 would permit none to resort to the gold-mines, but only such as 
 were their familiars." 133 
 
 All the above charges appear to have been substantiated ; the 
 proceedings were evidently had in all due form. Charlevoix re 
 lates that the suit against Columbus was conducted in writing 
 that written charges were sent to him, to which he replied in the 
 same way. This was undoubtedly the case, as Bobadilla appears 
 to have been an able judge and a discreet lawyer ; and the alle 
 gation of many historians that he imprisoned Columbus without 
 due cause or investigation, is contradicted in their own accounts 
 of the proceedings ; witness Irving and others. 
 
 The result of the investigation was, as we have seen, the 
 imprisonment of Columbus. It was his own cook, we are told, 
 who riveted the fetters, " with as much readiness and alacrity,-'' 
 quoth Las .Casas, "as though he were serving him with the 
 choicest viands." 
 
 This little incident is not without import. Columbus might 
 perhaps have been unpopular with the multitude, and yet a 
 good man ; but when we find his own domestics, who owed 
 place and living to him, and who would naturally be supposed 
 to regret his downfall, rejoicing instead, we cannot but believe 
 the man to have been thoroughly contemptible ; the " graceless 
 cook " riveting the fetters militates far more, we take it, against 
 the personal character of Columbus, than of his culinary menial. 
 
 and urged his right to fill the offices with his servants, requiring them to perform the 
 duties (poorly, we apprehend) while he pocketed the proceeds ; yet we are continually 
 called upon to admire the exalted and glorious opinions he entertained of his office. 
 133 Peter Martyr, Decade I., book vii. 
 
CHAPTEE XXII. 
 
 COLIJMBUS'S DEFENSE OF HIS CONDUCT REVIEWED. 
 
 IT would be useless to attempt a further refutation of the 
 tirades launched against the new governor by the numerous and 
 partial biographers of Columbus, who at this period of his his- 
 
 COLUMBCS. (From Mufloz, u Historia del Nuevo Mundo.") 
 
 tory, couple the name of Bobadilla with every opprobrious epi 
 thet propriety will allow ; and the more modern the historian, 
 
COLUMBUS MAKES A LAME DEFENSE. 285 
 
 and, therefore, the farther removed from the scene and time of 
 action, the more virulent his attacks, as also his sympathy for his 
 hero Christopher. We have stated what was the course pur 
 sued by Bobadilla ; and even when the simple facts are related, 
 without comment or explanation, it is plain to all that it was a 
 just and equitable one. The true merits of the case can, how 
 ever, be easily decided and established by leaving historians, 
 whether partial or impartial, and proceeding at once to the 
 fountain-head, viz., to what Columbus himself has to say. He 
 certainly, more than any of his historians, was interested in 
 proving his innocence, and we may reasonably suppose that he 
 omitted no plea which could, in the slightest degree, exculpate 
 him, and refrained from no charge against Bobadilla wherein 
 there was the slightest semblance of truth. 
 
 Fortunately for us, this defense, written by Columbus to the 
 nurse of Prince Juan, no doubt with the intention that it should 
 be shown to the sovereigns, still exists ; it was written during 
 his voyage to Spain, or after his arrival there. 
 
 The lame and bungling explanation of his conduct, the ridic 
 ulous character of the charges he prefers against Bobadilla, and 
 above all, the admissions he (no doubt unintentionally) makes in 
 his letter, may furnish some facts which, though mixed with 
 much falsehood, may enable the reader to judge of the relative 
 merits of the accuser and the accused. 
 
 We quote the passages from this letter which relate especial 
 ly to the question before us, and call the attention of the reader, 
 now and then, to the absurdity, falsehood, or self-inculpation, they 
 contain ; for, though an unbiased, intelligent mind would at 
 once perceive all this, historians have so persistently declared 
 Bobadilla wrong, and Columbus right, that an unbiased judg 
 ment will not easily be formed. 
 
 Columbus writes : "... In the mean time Bobadilla arrived. 
 . . . The day after his arrival he created himself governor." 
 
 Here is a specimen of our hero's veracity. Bobadilla did not 
 create himself governor, but assumed that title and office in virtue 
 of the full and comprehensive letters-patent from Isabella, who 
 had clothed him with all the power in the premises the crown 
 could devolve upon an agent, besides commanding Columbus in 
 a special letter addressed to that worthy to obey him. We see, 
 
286 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 therefore, the insolence of the falsehood that Bobadilla created 
 himself governor. 
 
 Columbus, too, would have it appear that his conduct was 
 most precipitate. TJie day after his arrival he created himself 
 governor. It will be remembered that Bobadilla did not assume 
 the government until the brother of Columbus had repeatedly 
 refused to deliver to him the prisoners he had been sent to try. 
 This treasonable effrontery and disregard of royal orders created 
 the necessity for Bobadilla to act as judge and governor, and act 
 immediately, for those of the prisoners who were not already 
 hanged were liable to execution at any moment, in violation 
 alike of law, justice, and the royal command. There was cer 
 tainly no undue haste on the part of Bobadilla. An oppression, 
 worse than that visited upon the people of God in Egypt, per 
 vaded the island robbery, murder, and manslaughter, were prac 
 tised by Columbus, who now raised himself in open rebellion 
 against the crown as personated by Bobadilla. 
 
 The ghastly dead swung from the gibbets ; the blood of Span 
 iards and of Indians, like that of Abel, cried to Heaven from the 
 ground. Had he not moved promptly in the discharge of his 
 duty, he would have deserved the odium of mankind, as well as 
 the displeasure of his sovereigns ; as it was, he resolved, even in 
 San Domingo, to magnify the law and make it honorable ; and, 
 having used the mildest measures, and assumed the least of the 
 authorities vested in him without success, he naturally produced 
 his higher authority and proceeded to more vigorous measures, 
 and seems thereby to deserve the commendation of all who 
 prize humanity and justice. 
 
 The letter continues thus : 
 
 ". . . . He" (Bobadilla) "published exemptions from the 
 payment of the gold and of the tithes, and, in fine, announced 
 a general franchise for the space of twenty years." 
 
 This action will be commended by the humane. Bobadilla 
 did much to relieve both natives and colonists from the cruel 
 tyranny and extortion practised by Columbus. 
 
 " Having brought with him a considerable number of blank 
 letters, signed by their highnesses, he filled up some of them to 
 the alcalde (Koldan) and his consorts full of favors and commen 
 dations ; but he never sent either letter or message to me, nor 
 has he done so to this day." 
 
FALSEHOOD AND TREASON OF COLUMBUS. 287 
 
 The possession of the blank letters signed by the sovereigns, 
 constitutes most conclusive evidence of the confidence they re 
 posed in Bobadilla. They seem to have furnished them that he 
 might silence any unanticipated cavil on the part of Columbus, 
 and be able to impress that lawless usurper with the necessity 
 of respecting and obeying the man thus accredited by his mas 
 ters. As to the charge made by Columbus that the new gov 
 ernor never sent him " either letter or message," its deliberate 
 falsity is exposed by his own son Fernando, who says, in his 
 history, that Bobadilla " required the admiral to repair to him 
 without delay, because it was convenient for their majesties' 
 service he should do so ; and, to lack his summons, on the 7th 
 of September sent him the king's letter by Friar Juan de la 
 Sera, which was to this effect." 
 
 Then follows the letter addressed to Columbus which we 
 have already quoted. Yet, in the face of these facts, Columbus 
 unblushingly asserts that Bobadilla sent him neither letter nor 
 message. He then continues : 
 
 " . . . . No sooner was I informed of his having granted 
 these exemptions .... I made verbal and written declaration 
 that his powers were incompetent to do so, as mine were the 
 strongest." 
 
 When we reflect that these verbal and written declarations 
 were made by Columbus, when fully advised of the ample pow 
 ers vested in Bobadilla, and of the royal command that he and 
 his brothers should obey him, and deliver up all fortresses to 
 him, it will not be necessary to argue the question of veracity or 
 treason as regards the action and assertion of Columbus. He 
 certainly spoke as a liar, and acted as a traitor. The pretended 
 motives which he declares to have prompted his misconduct are, 
 therefore, but aggravations of his crime. 
 
 " . . . . He ordered inquisition to be made respecting me, 
 with reference to imputed misdeeds, such as were never invented 
 in hell." 
 
 With this statement fresh from his pen, he will not hesitate 
 to affirm, a little farther on : " Upon my oath I declare to you I 
 have no idea why I am imprisoned." He was as well aware of 
 the character of his crimes and the charges preferred against 
 him, as was Guido Faux, or any other criminal that has suffered 
 the penalty of the law. 
 
288 LIFE OF COLUMBUS 
 
 " .... In saying that the commander " (Bobadilla) " could 
 not grant exemptions, I did what was proper." 
 
 He fails, however, to demonstrate how, when overtly disre 
 garding and opposing the commands of his sovereigns, he was 
 doing what was proper. 
 
 " If their highnesses were to give orders for a general inquiry 
 here, I assure you it would discover such things as to make it 
 wonderful the island is not swallowed up. I think you will 
 remember, madam, that, when I was driven by a storm into 
 Lisbon, I was falsely accused of going to the king, in order to 
 deliver up the Indies to him." 
 
 When he enlarges upon the iniquities of the island, and won 
 ders it was not swallowed up, he should have remembered that 
 he had brought it into its present state of degradation and 
 misery. His allusion to the charge of treason preferred after his 
 visit to Portugal, is traveling from the case in hand, where his 
 guilt is evident, to one where it appears more doubtful. 
 
 " However ignorant I may be, nobody can suppose me to 
 be so ignorant as not to know that, if the Indies were mine, I 
 should not be able to keep possession of them without the aid 
 of a prince. Such being the case, where should I find greater 
 support, and more certainty of not being entirely driven from 
 them, than in the king and queen, our lords, who, from nothing, 
 have raised me to such high honors ? " 
 
 Notwithstanding his asseveration that he knows nothing of 
 the charges made against him, he here seems to be defending 
 himself against one of them, which was that he had made war 
 upon the government, for the purpose of ultimately gaining pos 
 session of the new lands. 
 
 That Isabella had raised him from nothing to a position far 
 above his deserts, all will agree ; but it is not so easy to discover 
 the pertinence of his allusion to the great support she was giving 
 him in Hispaniola, and security against being ultimately driven 
 from it, as she had, in a solemn and formal manner, after years 
 of deliberation, removed him from office, and subsequently for 
 bade his returning to Hispaniola. 
 
 " . . . . What I have now unwillingly stated is to refute a 
 malicious calumny which I would not willingly recall even in 
 my dreams, as the behavior of Bobadilla would maliciously give 
 another coloring to it ; but I shall be able to prove that his ig- 
 
FALSEHOODS OF COLUMBUS. 289 
 
 norance, extreme cowardice, and inordinate cupidity, have been 
 the cause of all that has happened." 
 
 This charge bears falsehood upon its face. Are we to believe 
 that the advent of Bobadilla in the island, in 1500, caused all 
 the avarice, cruelty, falsehood, and murder, perpetrated by Co 
 lumbus during the seven years preceding that advent which had 
 converted his "paradise" into a hell, complaints of which had 
 caused Bobadilla to be sent out ? 
 
 " . . . . He neither spoke to me himself nor permitted any 
 one else to speak to me, until now; and, upon my oath, I declare 
 to you that "I have no idea why I am imprisoned." 
 
 This, as we have shown, is a most barefaced falsehood. He first 
 says Bobadilla caused investigation to be made touching crimes 
 imputed to him, the like of which were never invented in hell. 
 He attempts to defend himself against some of these charges, 
 and then swears he knows not why he is imprisoned. 
 
 " .... I have already mentioned that, with six hundred 
 thousand maravedis, I should have paid everybody, without in 
 jury to any person, and that I possessed more than four mill 
 ions of tithes, without touching the gold." 
 
 This allusion to his abundant resources does not come with a 
 good grace when we remember the distress and suffering he had 
 caused in the island (many dying of starvation) by withhold 
 ing the pay of those who had labored for him, as well as for 
 the crown. No wonder that Bobadilla, when he found this ac 
 cumulation of gold and tithes, upon taking up his abode in 
 the government-house, devoted a portion to the payment of 
 what was so justly due the many unfortunate who had been 
 defrauded. 
 
 ".'... Would to God that their highnesses had sent Boba 
 dilla, or any other person, two years ago, because I should now 
 be free from this scandal and infamy, nor should I have been de 
 prived of my honor ! " 
 
 He no doubt would have had fewer crimes to answer for, such 
 as the murder of Moxica, the secretion of the pearls from the 
 sovereigns, etc. 
 
 " .... I aver that great numbers of men have been in the 
 islands who did not deserve baptism in the eyes of God or man." 
 
 One would think Columbus, in very shame, would have re 
 frained from such an assertion, when he remembered that he 
 
290 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 himself had requested the prisons to be thrown open and the 
 convicts let loose upon the island. 
 
 " . . . . "When he " (Bobadilla) " heard of my approach, he 
 caused Don Diego to be loaded with irons, and thrown into a 
 caravel ; he acted in the same manner toward myself and toward 
 the adelantado when he arrived." 
 
 Bobadilla could not have done otherwise than imprison Co 
 lumbus and his brothers, and it ill becomes them to complain of 
 his severity. He neither executed them, as they had caused others 
 to be executed for lesser crimes than those of which they stood 
 convicted, neither did he kick them from the battlements of a 
 fortress, but sent them to Spain, where their power for evil would 
 be lessened. 
 
 " .... I have been yet more concerned respecting the affair 
 of the pearls that I have not brought them to their highnesses ; 
 .... if I have not written respecting this " (the pearls) " to 
 their highnesses, it is because I wished first to render an equally 
 favorable account of the gold." 
 
 Here, again, we find him defending himself against one of the 
 charges of which he professes to be ignorant. His excuse is a 
 poor one : accused and convicted of having withheld the pearls, 
 and the knowledge of their being in his possession, from the 
 sovereigns, he replies that he was silent on this topic because he 
 wished to have equally favorable accounts of the gold. It is 
 evident he contemplated extorting further favors and honors 
 from the sovereigns on the strength of these pearls. In this 
 intention he was, however, frustrated by the arrival of Bobadilla, 
 to whom this charge against him was brought with many others, 
 and who, upon investigation, found it to be just, as indeed he 
 here confesses it to be, and makes but a lame defense of his evi 
 dent fraud. 
 
 u . . . . I am judged in Spain as a governor who had been 
 sent to a province or city, under regular government, where the 
 laws could be executed without fear of endangering the public 
 weal. In this I receive enormous wrong. ... I ought to be 
 judged as a captain sent from Spain to the Indies, to conquer a 
 nation numerous and warlike." 
 
 Here we have proof, upon his own testimony, that he has 
 uttered falsehoods from the commencement of his undertaking 
 down to the period of which we write. In 1492, he would have 
 
COLUMBUS AS A WARRIOR. 291 
 
 the world believe that he had discovered an island, and that it 
 was inhabited by a naked and inoffensive people, possessing 
 neither arms, nor a knowledge of their use a people so entirely 
 powerless that a garrison of forty men would be sufficient to de 
 stroy the whole island. 134 
 
 " But supposing," he says in a letter to Raphael Sanchez, on 
 his return from his first voyage, speaking of the friendliness of 
 the natives, " their feelings should become changed, and they 
 should wish to injure those who have remained in the fortress, 
 they could not do so, for they have no arms ; they go naked, 
 and are, moreover, too cowardly." Now, however, he would 
 have the world believe he was sent to conquer a people already 
 known to be numerous and warlike / he would be thought, not a 
 discoverer, but a conqueror. He does not seem to perceive that 
 when he admits the laws cannot be executed for fear of endan 
 gering the public weal, he speaks poorly for his own powers of 
 governing, which had been inadequate, during seven years' des 
 potic rule, to establish law and order among a people, according 
 to his first description, innocent and defenseless ; he loses sight 
 of all self-inculpation this incongruity and contradiction may con 
 tain, in his desire to assume the new character of warrior, and 
 suck a warrior. He continues : 
 
 " . . . . Where, by the divine will, I have subdued another 
 world to the dominion of the king and queen, our lords, by which 
 Spain, which was looked upon as poor, has become very rich." 
 
 "We may here remark that, owing to his misconduct, the 
 "Western islands had been the cause of far more expense than 
 profit to the Spanish realm. 
 
 " I ought to be judged as a captain who for so many years 
 have borne arms without quitting them for an instant. I ought 
 to be judged by cavaliers who have themselves won the meed of 
 victory by gentlemen, indeed, and not by lawyers." 
 
 It would be difficult to find a tribunal that would not con 
 demn Columbus, even upon his own testimony. "We do not, 
 therefore, wonder that he would, by all means, avoid lawyers ; 
 no man of common-sense, certainly no lawyer, could be igno 
 rant of his guilt ; he had requested a judge to be sent out, learned 
 in the law, to aid him in trying others, but in his own case he 
 would be sole judge. 
 
 134 See letter to Santangel. 
 
292 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 " Under any other judgment I sustain great injury, because 
 in the Indies there is neither civil right nor judgment-seat." 
 
 If there were no organized tribunals, why were Moxica and 
 so many other Spaniards executed, without trial, in violation of 
 law ? Why were they not sent to Spain for trial, as Columbus 
 petitioned for himself? In this confession of there existing 
 neither civil right nor judgment-seat in Hispaniola, and in his 
 declaration that he should receive enormous wrong if tried 
 there, he plainly admits the enormous wrong perpetrated against 
 those he had executed, or, more properly speaking, murdered, 
 and he deserved no better fate than his victims. 
 
 He knew that, if those unfortunates had been sent to Spain, 
 his downfall would have been speedy ; they would have lived, 
 and he no longer would have had human life at his disposal. 
 
 " . . . . The tidings of the gold which I said I would give, 
 are, that on Christmas-day, being greatly afflicted and tormented 
 by wicked Christians and the Indians, at the moment of aban 
 doning all, to save, if possible, my life, our Lord comforted me 
 miraculously, saying to me, 'Take courage; do not abandon 
 thyself to sadness and fear, I will provide for all. The seven 
 years of the term of gold are not yet passed, and in this, as in 
 the rest, I will redress thee.' " 
 
 These are the tidings for which Columbus waited before 
 writing to the sovereigns about the pearls ; they are eminently 
 satisfactory. Imagine a steward or administrator, instead of 
 giving an exact account of his stewardship, recounting a vision in 
 which he is assured that all will be right, and that God will re 
 dress him ! The blasphemy with which Columbus, whenever 
 hard pushed for a defense, brings the Almighty to his aid, and in 
 vents a speech, which he puts in the mouth of the Deity, wherein 
 his innocence is declared and his enemies threaten ed^with pun 
 ishment, is revolting in the extreme ; and the enormity of the 
 crimes he thus seeks to cover with divine sanction must render 
 his hypocrisy still more odious in the eyes of the truly reverent. 
 
 ". . . . See, now, what discernment was shown by Bobadilla, 
 when he gave up every thing for nothing, and four millions of 
 tithes without any reason, and even without being asked to do 
 so, and without first giving notice to their highnesses." 
 
 This is an adroit attempt to turn royalty against Bobadilla, 
 by appealing to the cupidity of the sovereigns, but it also de- 
 
BOBADILLA GROSSLY SLANDERED. 293 
 
 monstrates an insolent officiousness on the part of the writer, 
 who would seem to ignore the absolute authority vested in Bo- 
 badilla by the crown. 
 
 " .... If their highnesses shall give orders for me to be 
 judged by others, which I fervently hope will not be the case, 
 and impeach me respecting the affairs of the Indies, I humbly 
 supplicate them to send out, at my expense, two conscientious 
 and respectable persons, which will now be easily met with, 
 since gold to the amount of five marks may be found in the 
 space of four hours." 
 
 Columbus seems to have an idea of impeachment for treason, 
 notwithstanding his oath of ignorance in the premises ; there 
 fore he wishes his judges to be in his pay ; and, moreover, he 
 would have them men whom the abundance of gold would tempt 
 to the island. How unlikely it was that such men would be hon 
 est judges ! It is needless to say, his proposition gives us a view 
 of his notions concerning a court of justice, the purity and compe 
 tency of a tribunal ; " he too would have judges dependent upon 
 his will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount 
 and payment of their salaries." Such being the case, we cannot 
 but wonder that historians, who would appear impartial, should 
 have failed to condemn his corrupt views. 
 
 " . . . . The governor " (Bobadilla), " on his arrival in San 
 Domingo, took up his abode in my house ; . . . . even a pirate 
 does not behave in this manner toward the merchant that he 
 plunders." 
 
 This accusation has at first a semblance of truth, as the 
 reader may suppose it to have been the private residence of Co 
 lumbus into which Bobadilla intruded ; such was not the case 
 it was the " government-house " in which Columbus had resided 
 at the capital of the island, and in which all succeeding govern 
 ors were expected to take up their abode during their term of 
 office. In time Bobadilla was succeeded by Ovando, yet we do 
 not find the former complaining that the latter took up his 
 abode " in his house ; " such a complaint would have been as 
 preposterous as for a retiring President of the United States to 
 remonstrate against his successors inhabiting the White House. 
 
 " . . . . That which grieved me most was the seizure of my 
 papers, of which I have never been able to recover one ; and 
 those which would have been most useful to me in proving my 
 
294: LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 innocence, are precisely those which he has kept most carefully 
 concealed." 
 
 The seizure of papers is a usual proceeding in case of sus 
 picion of most crimes, more especially of treason ; but, though 
 these papers might very well be used to prove his guilt, they 
 could hardly have proved the innocence of Columbus. The very 
 fact that in them he had foreseen accusation, and attempted to 
 defend himself, would seem to furnish prima-facie evidence of 
 his guilt, and would have gone far to prove him culpable before 
 any legal tribunal. No wonder he feared lawyers. Let us re 
 member, also, how Columbus declares, upon oath, that he is 
 ignorant of the cause of his imprisonment ; how, then, could he 
 know the precise papers which would have proved his innocence, 
 and the precise crime to which they related ? In his despicable 
 attempts to blacken Bobadilla, and in his efforts to establish his 
 innocence, he entangles himself in contradictory statements, and 
 furnishes conclusive evidence of his own guilt. 
 
 Such is the lame defense he makes. A perusal of this letter, 
 with its absurdities, contradictions, and falsehoods, will alone be 
 sufficient to convince the impartial that his word is not to be 
 depended upon. It therefore goes far to weaken confidence in 
 the histories which have hitherto been written of the man, for 
 most authors, when making an assertion which they imagine 
 liable to disbelief, either from the improbability or from the 
 strong evidence against it, consider the statement that for this 
 they have the word of Columbus himself, sufficient to remove 
 all doubt. 
 
 "With the above letter before him, the reader will be apt to 
 think the fact of Columbus' s making an assertion sufficient to 
 render its veracity suspicious. We, therefore, without further 
 attempt to prove the incorrectness (to use a mild term) with 
 which authors have represented Columbus as a martyr, Bobadilla 
 as a tyrant and usurper, have contented ourselves with placing 
 Columbus's own account of the affair and defense of his con 
 duct, as contained in this letter to Prince Juan's nurse, before 
 him. It answers a twofold purpose, and not only proves the 
 guilt of Columbus, regarding the charges brought against him, 
 for which he was imprisoned by Bobadilla, but also the utter 
 falsity of his word, and the caution with which a statement made 
 by him, or upon his authority, should be received. 
 
CHAPTEE XXIII. 
 
 COLUMBUS SENT TO SPAIN IN DISGRACE. BOBADILLA REPLACED BY 
 
 OVANDO. 
 
 IT is certain that the imprisonment of Columbus was re 
 garded as a happy event by all the inhabitants of the island. 
 Horns were blown in the vicinity of the ship on board which he 
 was confined ; lampoons and caricatures were posted in the 
 streets, and the multitude gave way to heart-felt and almost wild 
 rejoicing at being at last freed from the despotic rule of this in 
 solent parvenu. Bobadilla had public opinion decidedly on his 
 side, as he had law and equity. The testimony he had collected 
 against the three brothers was carefully arranged and sent with 
 them to Spain. 
 
 The ships which bore Columbus away from the scenes of his 
 chief crimes, set sail in October, 1500, and, after a short voyage, 
 landed him in Cadiz. 
 
 Historians unanimously declare that, on his arrival in Spain, 
 the sovereigns ordered his immediate release, and professed the 
 greatest indignation at the conduct of Bobadilla. It is evident, 
 however, that, if they professed to be displeased, their displeas 
 ure was but feigned, and that they were in reality by no means 
 ill pleased that the pirate whom they had so unwisely intrust 
 ed with power, and who had shown himself so utterly incapa 
 ble and unworthy, should be deposed. There were, however, 
 weighty reasons why Isabella should also be pleased at this depo 
 sition having been effected in such a manner as to admit of her 
 denying entire participation in it. It was upon the testimony 
 of Columbus, that Alexander YI. had deeded to Spain the islands, 
 etc., he professed to have discovered. If it were not unkind, it 
 would have been impolitic, therefore, publicly to denounce the 
 man by whose perjury she hoped to have obtained a continent. 
 20 
 
296 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 She appears to have been conscious that, to some extent, she 
 was at the mercy of this man, whose power consisted in the very 
 crimes and frauds of which she knew him to have been guilty, 
 for he had shown her that there was no treachery too base, no 
 perjury too great, for him to perpetrate and commit. 
 
 Isabella's policy, during her whole reign, may be chiefly if 
 not solely expressed by the word " craft." No wonder, then, 
 that she, her object accomplished the rule of Columbus brought 
 to a close in her new possessions, and he himself in Spain, with 
 poor prospect of organizing a successful rebellion, whereby to 
 usurp their government should have dealt in fair promises, in 
 delusive hopes, which she took care to put far in the prospective ; 
 no wonder, even, that she consented so far to sacrifice Bobadilla 
 to the pride and malice of Columbus, as to promise his speedy 
 removal, though even Fernando Columbus seems well to have 
 divined what would have been the fate of that honest official, 
 had he lived to reach Spain. Commenting upon the shipwreck 
 and drowning of Bobadilla, Roldan, and others engaged in the 
 so-called rebellion, he writes : 
 
 " I am satisfied it was the hand of God ; for, had they arrived 
 in Spain, they had never been punished as their crimes de 
 served, but rather have been favored and preferred." 
 
 Such being the case, it was easy and politic to dally with 
 Columbus ; and, while determined never to reinstate him in a 
 power he had abused so shamefully, to make large promises. 
 But, although Isabella refrained from punishing Columbus as his 
 frauds and crimes deserved, and though she held out to him de 
 lusive hopes, which she never meant him to realize, it is evident 
 that she did not altogether refrain from testifying to him her 
 displeasure at his conduct. According to Charlevoix, she thus 
 addressed him : 
 
 " Common report accuses you of acting with a degree of 
 severity quite unsuitable for an infant colony, and likely to excite 
 rebellion there ; but the matter as to which I find it hardest to 
 give you my pardon, is your conduct in reducing to slavery a 
 number of Indians who had done nothing to deserve such a fate ; 
 this was contrary to my express orders. As your ill-fortune 
 willed it, just at the time when I heard of this breach of my in 
 structions, everybody was complaining of you, and no one spoke 
 a word in your favor. And I felt obliged to send to the Indies 
 
COLCJMBUS EEPROVED. BOBADILLA RECALLED. 297 
 
 a commissioner to investigate matters, and give me a true re 
 port ; and, if necessary, to put limits to the authority which you 
 were accused of overstepping. If you were found guilty of the 
 charges, he was to relieve you of the government, and to send 
 you to Spain, to give an account of your stewardship. ... I 
 cannot promise to reinstate you in your government; people are 
 too much inflamed against you, and must have time to cool. As 
 to your rank of admiral, I never intended to deprive you of it. 
 But you must bide your time, and trust in me." 
 
 It was plain, therefore, that Columbus, though retaining his 
 rank of admiral which was somewhat of -a sinecure, in which 
 there might be some honor, but in which there \vas certainly 
 little profit was obliged to give up all present hope of returning 
 in triumph to Hispaniola, and, vested with supreme power, there 
 to wreak a terrible vengeance upon all who had opposed him. 
 
 And, although it may be alleged that the above is but an 
 imaginary speech, which proves nothing, there is substantial and 
 convincing testimony that it is a fair resume of Isabella's policy 
 toward Columbus. In a letter from the sovereigns to the latter, 
 in answer to his solicitations for money, we read : 
 
 " Respecting the ten thousand pieces of money which you 
 speak of, it is determined not to grant them this voyage, until 
 we are better informed." 
 
 This letter is dated March 14, 1502. 
 
 "When Columbus was eventually allowed to depart on his 
 fourth voyage, he was forbidden to touch at Hispaniola, save on 
 his return, and then only in case of extreme necessity. 
 
 The removal of Bobadilla was, however, to take place. Kico- 
 las de Ovando, commander of Lares, was sent out to succeed 
 him, in February, 1502, with the finest fleet which ha.d as yet 
 been sent to the new lands. 
 
 Ovando is said to have been " a wise and judicious man." 
 Most contemporaries speak highly of his character and abilities. 
 Nevertheless, his rule in the islands was characterized by many 
 atrocious acts of cruelty, w r hich can be laid to no one's charge 
 but his. It is evident, therefore, that, though perhaps competent 
 to govern his own race, he was incapable of judiciously govern 
 ing the Indians. 
 
 On his arrival in Hispaniola, he was received with great 
 respect by Bobadilla, toward whom he conducted himself with 
 
298 
 
 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 marked deference, more than he would have been likely to ex 
 hibit had the latter been in very deep disgrace with the sov 
 ereigns. 
 
 The short rule of Bobadilla had been attended with advan 
 tageous results to the crown, while the crushing tribute imposed 
 by Columbus discouraged many from seeking gold. Immedi 
 ately upon Bobadilla's reducing the royal tax, upon all precious 
 metal found, from one-third to one-eleventh, it appears that the 
 amount realized by the sovereigns was increased fourfold ; 13E 
 and, though some authors allege that this was owing to cruel 
 exactions and oppressions on his part, there appears to be no 
 truth in this assertion, as the official acts of Bobadilla were with 
 a view of alleviating and ameliorating the condition of both 
 Spaniards and natives. Columbus's chief accusation against Bo 
 badilla was that he was too lenient ; that he " granted exemp 
 tion from tithes," and " befriended all save the crown." 
 
 His success in amassing gold was due to his very leniency. 
 Ovando pursued a totally different course ; but of him, save where 
 he is brought in contact with Columbus, we shall say very little, 
 this being essentially a history of the latter. 
 
 136 Helps, " History of Columbus," p. 209. 
 
 AN ALCATRAZ. 
 
CHAPTEE XXIY. 
 
 SOJOURN OF COLUMBUS IN SPAIN PREVIOUS TO HIS FOURTH VOYAGE. 
 HIS WILL. NEGOTIATIONS ATTEMPTED WITH GENOA. 
 
 FOR nearly two years Columbus remained in Spain. He had 
 been liberated, indeed, from durance vile, by order of the sover 
 eigns, but they exhibited none of that haste to reinstate him in 
 power which would have been a natural consequence of their be 
 lieving him guiltless. Nor was their failure so to do owing to the 
 silence and reserve of Columbus ; he was constantly importuning 
 them, either in person or by letter, for a recognition of what he 
 termed his rights ; with so little success, however, that he is at 
 one time fain to give up, and, fearing that all hope of power and 
 wealth to be acquired from his so-called discoveries was at an end, 
 he bethought himself of again assuming the cloak of extreme 
 religious enthusiasm, which he had lately allowed to fall some 
 what into disuse. He hoped thus to bring himself into the no 
 tice, perhaps obtain the support and assistance, of the Church 
 above all, of the papal chair. 
 
 He therefore now remembered that, on starting for the isl 
 ands, in 1492, he had promised the sovereigns and the Church 
 (made a solemn vow, in fact) that, at the expiration of seven 
 years from that date, he would furnish fifty thousand foot-sol 
 diers, and five thousand horse, for the purpose of making war on 
 the infidel, and reclaiming the Holy Sepulchre. The seven years 
 had more than expired, the islands he professed to have discov 
 ered had increased the expenditure instead of the revenue of the 
 crown, while he himself was as penniless and powerless as when, 
 on his arrival at Palos, he was indebted to the Pinzons for the 
 very clothing in which he presented himself at court. Feeling 
 the wretched contrast between his promise and performance, he 
 
300 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 clings to the liope that affected religious zeal will reinstate him 
 somewhat -in the good graces of his bigoted queen, and assure 
 him the support of the Church. In this last he seems to have 
 been successful. The priesthood have been the creators of his 
 fame ; and now, hoping that time will have obliterated the mem 
 ory of his crimes, coolly propose to place him among the saints. 
 He strongly urged that an expedition should be immediately set 
 on foot to reclaim the Sepulchre ; he assured the sovereigns that 
 he had been divinely chosen, from his very birth, to perform two 
 great missions : the first, to carry Christianity across the seas to 
 the heathen of the "Western lands ; the second, to recover the 
 Sepulchre of the Saviour. He writes upon this subject a letter 
 in which hypocrisy, cant, and blasphemy, vie with each other for 
 preeminence ; but this pious proposition only absorbs him while 
 all hope of his being again allowed to voyage westward is seem 
 ingly at an end. Soon, however, the excitement which prevailed, 
 owing to the riches which were flowing into Portugal from the 
 East Indies, by the route discovered by Yasco de Gama, embold 
 ened our hero. He begged to be allowed to lay the wealth of 
 those Indies at the feet of Spain, by giving her a safer and 
 shorter passage to them than that enjoyed by Portugal. He 
 boldly asserted, not hypothetically, but as an established cer 
 tainty, that there existed a strait between the lands he had 
 discovered, which would permit ships to sail into the Eastern 
 Ocean, and reach China, Japan, and India. He appears for the 
 moment to have dropped the pretense of having already reached 
 those lands, and, moreover, failed to demonstrate wherefore, if 
 such a strait existed, and he was aware of its existence, he had 
 not, ere this, made the Spanish kingdom mistress of its advan 
 tages. This inconsistency is, however, one of the minor ones 
 of which he is guilty. 
 
 This strait he placed between the southern shore of Cuba, 
 which he still professes to regard as main-land, and the north 
 ern shores of the South American Continent, which shows either 
 his utter insincerity, or that he had done very little toward ex 
 ploring the latter. 
 
 The cupidity of the sovereigns was excited, as the wily ad 
 miral believed it would be ; his departure, too, on a fourth voy 
 age, would rid them of an importunate suppliant. Orders were 
 therefore given, in 1501, for an expedition to be fitted out, 
 
ISABELLLA AND COLUMBUS APPRECIATE EACH OTHER. 301 
 
 though we perceive that but little faith was placed in him, 
 for, notwithstanding the glorious promises he made, and the 
 eagerness with which Spain would be supposed to embrace an 
 opportunity of diverting a valuable commerce from her hated 
 rival Portugal, several months elapsed before a fleet of four 
 small vessels, the largest of seventy, the smallest of fifty, tons 
 burden, were placed at his command. Their united crew com 
 prised one hundred and fifty men. 
 
 The meanness of this outfit plainly shows that it was the man 
 Columbus, more than his enterprise, who was held in abhorrence, 
 for a fine fleet of thirty-six sail and a brilliant retinue had been 
 accorded to Ovando. 
 
 Columbus, in obtaining this fleet, obtained what he professed 
 solely to desire, namely, the means of discovering his strait and 
 enriching Spain, especially the queen his mistress. But other 
 thoughts are lurking in his brain; his conduct shows plainly 
 that he fully understood the character of Isabella and her rela 
 tions with him. Both of these crafty worthies, indeed, evidently 
 understood each other neither believed the statements nor re 
 spected the motives of the other. Isabella humored Columbus, 
 to a certain extent, because she believed him capable of, and able 
 to do her, some mischief, were his vindictiveness to be openly 
 excited. Columbus, on the other hand, rightly judged that, 
 though he was allowed to go unpunished, he had little to expect 
 but promises from his " munificent patroness." 
 
 Therefore we find him, while professing the humblest alle 
 giance to the queen, engaged, with his accustomed craft and dis 
 simulation, in a scheme by which he hoped to interest other 
 powers in securing to him what the crown of Spain had prom 
 ised him in an unguarded moment, or from motives of policy, 
 namely, the viceroyalty of the Western islands to him and his 
 heirs forever, the tenth of the revenues arising therefrom, and 
 the admiralty of the Western ocean. 
 
 We must remember, before taxing Spain with ingratitude, 
 that, even at the period of which we write, when Europe was 
 but just commencing a struggle against feudal and sovereign des 
 potism, the people were more powerful, and the sovereign less 
 so, in this kingdom than in any other. All have read of the 
 famous oath of allegiance pronounced by the Cortes on the acces 
 sion of a sovereign, whereby they promised to support the new 
 
302 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 monarch, on condition that he preserve the rights and respect 
 the privileges (fueros) of the nation and people, ending with the 
 emphatic si no, no (if not, not), which conveyed both a warning 
 and a threat. 
 
 Such was the power already vested in the representatives of 
 the people by the then potent Spanish nation. It was, there 
 fore, without the range of the sovereign prerogative to grant in 
 perpetuity the offices of admiral and viceroy to representatives 
 and heirs of a foreigner, without regard to their possible merits 
 or demerits. Isabella, who had not mounted the throne as a 
 legitimate sovereign, but as a usurper who bargained for her 
 place by the restriction of her rights, might, with the consent of 
 the Cortes, confer on Columbus the title above named for life, 
 but there her power ended. 
 
 This, as we have said, Columbus appears to have understood, 
 and we therefore find him secretly engaged, or attempting to 
 engage, in a correspondence with the powerful republic of 
 Genoa, with a view to inducing the latter to aid him in 'ousting 
 Spain from the Western islands, and in usurping their govern 
 ment for himself. His proceedings in this matter are carried on 
 with such secrecy as to leave no doubt of their treasonable in 
 tent, nor does Mr. Irving venture to pass over this episode with 
 out mentioning that suspicions of this treason were prevalent 
 in Spain. He admits that " the sovereigns may have entertained 
 doubts as to the innocence and loyalty of Columbus." He further 
 reports that " there was a rumor prevalent that Columbus, irri 
 tated at the suppression of his dignities by the court of Spain, 
 intended to transfer his newly-discovered countries into the 
 hands of his native republic, Genoa, or some other power ; " and 
 states that, during the time he passed in Spain previous to his 
 fourth voyage, he took measures to " secure his fame, and pre 
 serve the claims of his family, by placing them under the guar 
 dianship of his native city," and by way of inducement, we sup 
 pose, to that city to undertake the guardianship, we shall find 
 him writing a codicil, May 4, 1506, on the blank leaf of a 
 breviary, " according to military usage/' in which he declares 
 the republic of Genoa his successor to the admiralty, should his 
 male line become extinct ! 
 
 The treason of such a bequest is so palpable as scarce to need 
 comment. Columbus, the once pauper pirate, coolly makes over 
 
A MENDICANT BEQUEATHS MILLIONS. 303 
 
 to a foreign power one of the offices of the Spanish crown ; yet 
 not one of his biographers appears to perceive the monstrous 
 absurdity of such a proposition ! 
 
 He had not, however, waited till his disgrace was incontes 
 table, before commencing his treasonable practices. Previous to 
 his third voyage, he had solicited and obtained permission from 
 the crown to make his will, perpetuating his fortune and honors 
 by entail (mayorazgo). This authorization, granted by the sov 
 ereigns, appears to restrict him to his "legitimate children," 
 especially Diego, " notwithstanding your other children be ag 
 grieved." It would seem, at any rate, that bequests to Genoa 
 were not within its scope. 
 
 In virtue of this permit, he proceeded to make a will, by 
 which he affects to dispose of millions of treasure, and of honors 
 that should render him and his descendants famous throughout 
 the land. If we cast a glance backward to the preparations for 
 his third voyage, pending which this will was written, we shall 
 perceive that Columbus was then, as always, poor ; that his dis 
 coveries (if we give them that name) had become unpopular, 
 himself odious so unpopular, so odious, that none could be 
 found voluntarily to follow him to his " earthly paradise." And 
 in order to people it, and aid him in bearing Christianity to the 
 benighted heathen, the dungeons were at his request thrown 
 open, and the vilest criminals they contained might expiate their 
 crimes by a short sojourn in those islands, whose civilization (?) 
 they were to effect. The ships, crews, and cargoes, for his third 
 expedition, were all impressed into the royal service. Thence 
 forth his condition became steadily more wretched and degraded, 
 till we shall find him writing to Dona Juana de la Torres : 
 
 " I have now reached that point that there is no man so vile 
 but thinks it his right to insult me." 
 
 And to the sovereigns : 
 
 "I am, indeed, in as ruined a condition as I have related. 
 Hitherto I have wept for others : may Heaven now have mercy 
 upon me, and may the earth weep for me ! With regard to tem 
 poral things, I have not even a Uanca for an offering. . . . All 
 that was left to me. as well as to my brothers, has been taken away 
 and sold, even to the frock I wore. ... I did not come on this 
 voyage " (his last) " to gain for myself honor or wealth ; this is a 
 certain fact, for at that time all hope of such a thing was dead." 
 
304 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 The tone of his will was, however, very different from this 
 cringing whine. We can merely make extracts, as it is an ex 
 ceedingly lengthy document : like all his compositions, it con 
 tains many incongruities. Defining the order of inheritance in 
 his family, he says : 
 
 " If God should dispose of him " (his brother Bartholomew) 
 " without heirs, he is to be succeeded by his sons." Great care 
 is to be taken " where the glory of God, or my own, or that of 
 my family, is concerned. . . . For the greater glory of the Al 
 mighty, and that it may be the root and basis of my lineage, and 
 a memento of the services I have rendered their highnesses, that, 
 'being born in Genoa, I came over to serve them in Castile. 
 ... I pray their highnesses that this, my privilege, be held 
 valid. . . . 
 
 r- 
 
 A 
 
 " Don Diego, my son, or any other who may inherit my 
 name, in coming into possession of the inheritance, shall sign 
 with the signature I now make use of, which is an JT, with an 
 8. over it, and an M, with a Koman A over it, and over that an 
 &, and then a Greek T, with an over it, with its lines and 
 points, as is my custom, as may be seen by my signature, of 
 which there are many, and it will be seen by the present one." 136 
 
 The authenticity of this will, or certain parts of it, has been 
 
 36 This decidedly eccentric, if not affected, signature has been variously inter 
 preted, the author having vouchsafed no explanation. Some suppose the ciphers 
 above the signature (which all admit to be Christ-bearer, in Greek and Latin charac 
 ters) to read " Servidor SusAltezas Sacras, Crisfo, Maria, Ysabel" (or possibly Joseph), 
 ' Servant of their Sacred Highnesses, Christ, Mary, Isabel." M. Delorgues interprets 
 them " Servus Supplex Alti&simi Salvatoms, Chrutus, Maria, Joseph, the Suppliant Ser 
 vant of the Most High Saviour, Christ, Mary, Joseph." Spotorno supposes the ciphers 
 should be read from the bottom, upward, connecting the lower with the upper, and 
 reading thus : " Salva me, Christus, Maria, Jcseplms." The matter is not of any material 
 importance ; it only serves to show how religious affectation and a desire to mystify 
 pervaded the most trivial acts of the self-styled Christ-bearer. 
 
"THE ADMIKAL." NEGKO COUNT. 3Q5 
 
 matter of much doubt; the above is one of the alleged for 
 geries. It is maintained that few men would enter thus elabo 
 rately into the description of a signature which they declare 
 must be already well known. There seems to be some reason in 
 this objection, yet, as there is no accounting for the vagaries and 
 vanities of Columbus, the passage may, after all, be genuine. 
 
 " He " (the heir) " shall only write ' the Admiral,' whatever 
 other titles the king may have conferred on him. This is under 
 stood as respects his signature, but not the enumeration of his 
 titles, which he can make at full length, if agreeable ; only the 
 signature is to be ' the Admiral.' ' 
 
 " Such," says Mr. Irving, " was the noble pride with which 
 he valued this title of his real greatness." The same author 
 writes : " His soul was elevated by the contemplation of his 
 great and glorious office, when he considered himself under di 
 vine inspiration, imparting the will of Heaven, and fulfilling the 
 high and holy purpose for which he had been predestined." 
 
 It is strange that, with this noble stimulus, Columbus should 
 have fallen miserably short of what might be reasonably ex 
 pected from an uninspired mortal. If he had been truly great, 
 he would not have been so intoxicated by a few paltry titles. 
 "He called me Don!" he exclaims with ecstatic delight; yet 
 titles were cheap in Spain. A negro named Juan de Yalladolid, 
 called the negro count (conde negro), was, in 1474, appointed by 
 Ferdinand and Isabella to the office of mayoral of the negroes. 
 The appointment is made in the most flattering terms. 137 
 
 " I also," continues Columbus in his will, " enjoin Don Die 
 go, or any one that may inherit the estate, to have and maintain, 
 in the city of Genoa, one person of our lineage to reside there 
 
 137 p or t h e man y goo^ loyal, and signal services which you have done us, and do 
 each day, and because we know your sufficiency, ability, and good disposition, we con 
 stitute you mayoral and judge of all the negroes and mulattoes, free or slaves, which 
 are in the very loyal and noble city of Seville and throughout the whole archbishopric 
 thereof, and that the said negroes and mulattoes may not hold any festivals, nor 
 pleadings among themselves, except before you, Juan de Yalladolid, negro, our judge 
 and mayoral of the said negroes and mulattoes ; and we command that you, and 
 you only, should take cognizance of the disputes, pleadings, marriages, and other 
 things which may take place among them, forasmuch as you are a person sufficient 
 for that office, and deserving of your power, and you know the laws and ordinances 
 which ought to be kept, and we are informed that you are of noble lineage among 
 the said negroes." ORTEZ DE ZuSiGA, " Annales Ecclesiasticos y Seculares de Sevilla," 
 p. 374. 
 
306 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 with his wife, and appoint him a sufficient revenue to enable 
 him to live decently, as a person closely connected with the 
 family, of which he is to be the root and basis in that city, from 
 which great good may accrue to him, inasmuch as I was born 
 there and came from thence" 
 
 It is not surprising that those claiming other birthplaces for 
 Columbus than Genoa, should regard the sentence we italicize as 
 a forged interpolation : 1. He declares that the person to be 
 supported in Genoa was to form the root and basis of his family 
 there. This could scarcely be, were Columbus and his progeni 
 tors natives of the place. 2. It is somewhat strange, if Colum 
 bus in this will several times declared that he was a native of 
 Genoa, that his son should not state the fact when treating of his 
 birth and early years. He came into possession of his father's 
 papers, and, had he found therein any such declaration of birth 
 place, it seems likely he would have inserted it in its proper 
 place in his history of his father. 
 
 It is not improbable that these passages have been forged by 
 the champions of Columbus to palliate, in a measure, the trea 
 son to Spain which is so apparent in his bequests and proposi 
 tions to Genoa; but neither is it improbable that Columbus 
 claimed to have been born there, in order that that city might 
 consider he had some claim upon her, and be induced to aid him 
 in his schemes for gaining possession of the islands with which 
 he promised to enrich her. 
 
 Be this as it may, and whether the passages be forgeries, or 
 whether Columbus really in his will professed to have been born 
 in Genoa, it is certain that his most intimate friends, his family 
 even, were kept ignorant of his having made such an assertion, 
 and that he desired Spain to be utterly ignorant of all his trans 
 actions with Genoa. 
 
 " The said Diego," continues the will, " or whoever shall in 
 herit the estate, must remit in bills, or in any other way, what 
 ever he may be enabled to save out of the revenue of the estate, 
 and direct purchase to be made in his name, or that of his heirs, 
 in a stock in the Bank of St. George, which gives an interest of 
 six per cent., and is secure money ; and this shall be devoted to 
 the purposes I am about to explain : 
 
 " Item : As it becomes every man of rank and property to 
 eerve God, either personally, or by means of his wealth, and as 
 
COLUMBUS WILL SERVE GOD WITH MONEY. 307 
 
 all moneys deposited with St. George are quite safe, and Genoa 
 is a noble city, and powerful by sea, and as, at the time that I 
 undertook to set out upon the discovery of the Indies, it was 
 with the intention of supplicating the king and queen our lords 
 that whatever money should be derived from the said Indies 
 should be invested in the conquest of Jerusalem, and as I did so 
 supplicate them, if they do this it will be well ; if not, at all 
 events, the said Diego, or such person as may succeed him in 
 this trust, to collect together all the money he can, and accom 
 pany the king our lord, should he go to the conquest of Jerusa 
 lem, or else go there himself, with all the force he can command ; 
 and, in pursuing this intention, it will please the Lord to assist 
 toward the accomplishment of the plan ; and, should he not be 
 able to effect the conquest of the whole, no doubt he will achieve 
 it in part. Let him, therefore, collect and make a fund of all his 
 wealth in St. George of Genoa, and let it multiply there till such 
 time as it may appear to him that something of consequence 
 may be effected as respects the project on Jerusalem, for I be 
 lieve that, when their highnesses shall see that this is contem 
 plated, they will wish to realize it themselves, or will afford him, 
 as their servant and vassal, the means of doing it for them. 
 
 "Item: I charge my son Diego, and my descendants, espe 
 cially whoever may inherit this estate, which consists, as afore 
 said, of the tenth of whatsoever may be had or found in the 
 Indies, and the eighth part of the lands and rents, all which, 
 together with my rights and emoluments as admiral, viceroy, 
 and governor, amount to more than twenty-five per cent., I say 
 that I require of him to employ all this revenue, as well as his 
 person and all the means in his power, in well and faithfully 
 serving and supporting their highnesses, or their successors, even 
 to the loss of life and property." 
 
 The extreme loyalty of this last injunction is entirely nulli 
 fied and contradicted by the preceding one, in which the heir is 
 directed to employ all the revenue he can save out of .the estate 
 in the purchase of stock in the Bank of St. George of Genoa, 
 and by the following, in which he commands 
 
 " . . . . the said Diego, or whoever may possess the said 
 estate, to labor and strive for the honor, welfare, and aggrandize 
 ment of the city of Genoa, and to make use of all his power and 
 means in defending and enhancing the good and credit of that re- 
 
308 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 public, in all things not contrary to the service of God, or the 
 high dignity of the king and queen our lords and their successors." 
 
 The unlucky recipient of so many injunctions would have 
 been puzzled to obey them all. He is enjoined to serve God 
 and mammon Spain and Genoa to give to each of these pow 
 ers all his energies, resources, and devotion, but it was in the 
 nature of the author of this will to promise fidelity to all, while 
 he would practise it toward none. 
 
 Besides the above public bequests, we find each of Colum- 
 bus's family provided with a million or so. A church is to be 
 built at Hispaniola, a theological seminary endowed, monuments 
 erected, etc., etc. This ostentatious disposal of untold riches is 
 plentifully interlarded with pious injunctions for the advance 
 ment of the interests of the Church, and of the Spanish sover 
 eigns, but Genoa and the Bank of St. George figure principally. 
 
 This will was written, as we have said, previous to his de 
 parture on his third voyage, about the year 1497. In the year 
 1502, the period of his history at which we have now arrived, he 
 made another will. This, however, was suppressed, for reasons 
 to which Spotorno thus alludes : 
 
 " The motives of this we know not, but it would not be very 
 rash to suppose that Columbus had poured out in it the bitter 
 ness of his heart against the court." 
 
 In other words, that, seeing he possessed nothing, present or 
 prospective, he denounced his sovereign for not making him 
 rich and honorable, in spite of his crimes. 
 
 Besides these wills he wrote two codicils. In the last of 
 these he alludes to the testament of 1502, thereby working the 
 invalidity of the document from which we have so largely quoted, 
 and which was so full of promise to Genoa. 
 
 Having perused this and the codicil which creates Genoa 
 admiral in Spain, we can entertain little doubt that the suspi 
 cion with which their author was regarded in the latter country 
 was well founded. But there is still further evidence against 
 him. He had himself assured the sovereigns that he knew it 
 would be impossible for him to maintain himself in power in the 
 Indies, even were he desirous of usurping it, without the aid of 
 some prince. Spain manifestly forsaking him, he hoped to 
 find in Genoa the protecting power which should render his 
 design feasible. 
 
ATTEMPTED NEGOTIATIONS WITH GENOA. 309 
 
 lie appears to have become acquainted, during his sojourn 
 near the court, with Nicolas de Oderigo, ambassador from Genoa 
 to that court. He may have induced Oderigo to believe that it 
 was really in his power to enrich the republic, and that he (its 
 ambassador) would receive honor and advancement for being the 
 one to propose to his country the means of increasing her power 
 and wealth. 
 
 This hypothesis is supported by letters written by Columbus 
 to the Genoese ambassador. The first of these reads : 
 
 " To the Ambassador , SIGNOR NICOLO ODERIGO. 
 
 " SIR : It is impossible to describe the solitude which your 
 departure has caused among us. I gave the book of my privi 
 leges to Signor Francisco di Rivarola, in order that he might for 
 ward it to you, along with a copy of the missive letters. I beg 
 of you, as a particular favor, to write to Don Diego to acknowl 
 edge their receipt, and to mention where they are deposited. 
 Another copy will be finished and sent to you in the same man 
 ner, and by the same Signor Francisco. You will find another 
 letter in it, in which their highnesses promise to give me all that 
 belongs to me, and to put Don Diego in possession of it. I am 
 writing to Signor Gian Luigi, and to the Signora Caterina, and 
 the letter will accompany this. 
 
 " I shall depart, in the name of the Holy Trinity, with the 
 first favorable weather, with a considerable equipment. If Giro- 
 lamo da Santa Stefano comes, he must wait for me, and not en 
 tangle himself with any one, for they will get from him whatever 
 they can, and then leave him in the lurch. Let him come here, 
 and he will be received by the king and queen until I arrive. 
 May our Lord have you in his holy keeping ! 
 
 5- A 
 
 "March 21, 1502, IN SEVILLE, at your commands." 
 
310 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 This letter, as we have seen, asserts that he sends to Genoa 
 copies of all the grants which had been made him by the Span 
 ish sovereigns. What was his object in sending these docu 
 ments to a foreign land ? It will be argued that it was to insure 
 their preservation. This reason falls to the ground. We find 
 every one of the said privileges, and documents relating thereto, 
 preserved in the archives of Spain, where Columbus well knew 
 they would be deposited in perfect security. 
 
 His real object was to dazzle Genoa with a representation of 
 the immense advantage likely to accrue to her from an alliance 
 with him. Genoa, however, was too wary to fall into the trap, 
 however temptingly baited. She may have known how false Co 
 lumbus had been to every one of his promises ; how much disap 
 pointment and how little profit he had entailed upon Spain. 
 She may have even been aware that the considerable equipment 
 with which he informs Oderigo he was about to sail, consisted 
 of four small vessels. At any rate, this powerful republic did 
 not intend, by taking up the cudgels for this pauper pirate in 
 disgrace, to draw upon herself the open enmity of Spain. Co- 
 lumbus's propositions, enticing though he endeavored to make 
 them, seem to have fallen upon deaf ears ; for, on his return from 
 his fourth voyage, we find him writing as follows : 
 
 " To the Most Learned Doctor, NICOLO ODERIGO. 
 
 " LEARNED SIR : When I set oif upon the voyage from which 
 I have just returned, I spoke to you fully. I have no doubt you 
 retained a complete recollection of every thing. I expected, upon 
 my arrival, to have found here letters, and possibly a confiden 
 tial person from you. At that time, I likewise gave to Francisco 
 do Kivarola a book of copies of my letters, and another of my 
 privileges, in a bag of colored Spanish leather with a silver lock, 
 and two letters for the Bank of St. George, to which I assign 
 the tenth of my revenues in diminution of the duties upon corn 
 and other provisions. No acknowledgment of all this has 
 reached me. Signor Francisco tells me that all arrived there in 
 safety. If so, it was uncourteous in these gentlemen of St. 
 George not to have favored me with an answer. Nor have they 
 thereby improved their affairs, which gives one cause to say that 
 whoever serves the public, serves nobody. I gave another book 
 of my privileges, like the above, in Cadiz, to Franco Cataneo, the 
 
ATTEMPTED NEGOTIATIONS WITH GENOA. 3H 
 
 bearer of this, in order that he might likewise forward it 
 to you, and that both of them might be securely deposited 
 wherever you thought proper. Just before my departure, I re 
 ceived a letter from the king and queen, my lords, a copy of 
 which you will find there. You will see that it came very op 
 portunely. Nevertheless, Don Diego was not put in possession, 
 as had been promised. While I was in the Indies, I wrote to their 
 highnesses an account of my voyage by three or four opportuni 
 ties. One of my letters having come back to my hands, I send 
 it to you inclosed in this, with the supplement of my voyage in 
 another letter, in order that you may give it to Signor Gian Luigi 
 with the other advice, to whom I write that you will be the 
 reader and interpreter of it. I would wish to have ostensible 
 letters, speaking cautiously of the matter in which we are en 
 gaged. I arrived here very unwell, just before the queen, my 
 mistress, died (who is now with God), without my seeing her. 
 Till now, I cannot say how my affairs will finish. I believe her 
 highness has provided " well for them in her last will, and the 
 king, my master, is very well disposed. Franco Cataneo will 
 explain the rest more minutely to you. 
 
 " May our Lord preserve you in his cnre ! 
 
 5- A >?. 
 
 " Admiral of the Ocean, Viceroy and 
 
 " Governor- General of the Indies, etc. 
 " SEVILLE, December 27, 1504." 
 
 It would be difficult to account for the extreme caution and 
 secrecy here enjoined, if nothing treasonable were contemplated. 
 Genoa well understood the matter; she knew that Columbus 
 was unable to maintain himself, much less diminish duties on 
 corn, etc. That he foresaw the light in which his proceedings 
 would be regarded is evident from his desire to have it appear 
 that his devotion to Genoa, and not his disgrace in Spain, 
 
312 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 caused his defection from the latter. He therefore writes that 
 Isabella has remembered him in her will, and that Ferdinand is 
 very well disposed toward him. It were needless to comment 
 upon the inveracity of both these statements. This defection, 
 which culminates in his proposals to Genoa, had evidently been 
 contemplated from the commencement of his relations with 
 Spain. Good Las Casas, who, throughout his work on the cruel 
 ties of the Spaniards in the Indies, prudently abstains from 
 mentioning names, writes : 
 
 " The Spaniards first set sail to America, not for the honor 
 of God, or as persons moved or incited thereunto by fervent 
 zeal for the true faith, nor to promote the salvation of their 
 neighbors, nor to serve the king, as they falsely boast and pre 
 tend to do, but, in truth, only stimulated and goaded on by 
 insatiable avarice and ambition, that they might forever domi 
 neer, command, and tyrannize over the West Indians, whose 
 kingdoms they hoped to divide and distribute among them 
 selves ; which, to deal candidly, is no more nor less than inten 
 tionally, by all these indirect ways, to disappoint and expel the 
 Kings of Castile out of these dominions and territories, that they 
 themselves, having usurped the supreme and regal empire, might 
 first challenge it as their right, and then possess and enjoy it." 
 
 This usurpation Columbus first tried to accomplish himself, 
 with the aid of his brothers. Finding this impossible, he seeks to 
 make Genoa his ally, with what ultimate success we have shown. 
 
 But to return to his preparations for his fourth voyage. In 
 February, 1502, he wrote a letter to the Pope Alexander YIL, 
 in which he apologized for not having repaired to Home as he 
 had intended, to give the Holy Father an account of his voyages. 
 He dwells upon his pious intentions toward the Holy Sepulchre, 
 and asserts that he has been prevented from raising his prom 
 ised army, by the arts of the devil. He is, however, about to 
 start on a fourth voyage, and on his return he will at once visit 
 his holiness, and then present him with a copy of his accounts 
 of his voyages, which is to be in the style of " Caesar's Commen 
 taries," and much more to the same purpose. 188 It is somewhat 
 unjust for him to attribute the non-realization of his promises 
 to the wiles of the devil, as he, and he alone, by his falsehood 
 and crimes, had caused his enterprise to be despised, which, had 
 
 138 Navarrcte, " Colecc. Dip.," vol. ii., p. 311. 
 
COLUMBUS, THE POPE, GENOA. 313 
 
 * 
 
 it been appreciated to its full extent, the riches emanating there 
 from would have been insufficient to accomplish one tithe of 
 what he had promised. 
 
 The modesty with which he informs his holiness that his 
 narrative is written in the style of " Caesar's Commentaries," is 
 matter for admiration. The "unlettered admiral" would be 
 considered as excelling even in the world of letters. It is to be 
 regretted that his son Fernando, into whose hands this narrative 
 no doubt eventually fell, with the rest of his father's papers (if, 
 indeed, such a narrative ever existed), should have regarded its 
 destruction as more advantageous to the glory of its author than 
 its preservation. 
 
 It is not difficult to divine the purpose for which the above 
 letter, full of pious professions and promises, was written. Co 
 lumbus, by it, endeavored to predispose the Church, especially 
 the papal chair, in his favor ; such support would be very neces 
 sary should matters with Genoa shape to his liking. 
 
 Such were the crafty manoeuvres by which he sought to 
 secure the assistance of Genoa, and the sanction of the Church, 
 for his projected rebellion against, or defection from, Spain ; yet 
 he did not allow them to interfere with his petitions to Isabella, 
 whom he had not ceased to importune for reinstatement in 
 power. She, while refusing his request, was nevertheless wea 
 ried with its repetition, together with that of his other numerous 
 demands. Her letter to him, dated March 4, 1502, betrays some 
 thing of this feeling. After refusing him money, she says : 
 
 " As to the other contents of your memorials and letters, 
 respecting yourself and your sons and brothers, as you know 
 that we are on the eve of a journey, and you on your departure, 
 it cannot be attended to until we are permanently settled in 
 some place, which if you were desirous to wait for, you w r ould 
 miss the voyage you are now going to undertake ; wherefore it 
 is better that, being provided with eveiy thing necessary for 
 your voyage, you should depart immediately, leaving to your 
 son the care of soliciting whatever is contained in the aforesaid 
 memorial." 
 
 That he " depart immediately " from Spain, and grant her 
 weary ears a respite from the petitions which, while she does not 
 peremptorily refuse, she nevertheless cannot and will not grant, 
 this seems to have been the only present desire of the queen. 
 
CHAPTER XXY. 
 
 FOURTH VOYAGE OF COLTTMBTJS. 
 
 HAVING, as he hoped, left his affairs in as promising condi 
 tion as his disgrace at the Spanish court would allow, and 
 secured Genoa and the Church as allies, Columbus at length 
 set sail on the 9th of May, 1502, on his fourth and last voyage, 
 with the considerable equipment already mentioned. He was 
 accompanied by his natural son and subsequent historian Fer 
 nando, and by his brother Bartholomew. He sailed from Cadiz, 
 by way of Morocco and the Canaries. At this stage of his his 
 tory there occurs once more one of the many little inconsisten 
 cies to which we have already alluded as characterizing too 
 many biographers of Columbus. According to the latter, the 
 whole voyage from Cadiz to the Carib Islands only occupied 
 twenty days four days from Spain to the Canaries, and sixteen 
 from the Canaries to the Western islands. 
 
 He writes to the sovereigns : 
 
 " My passage from Cadiz to the Canaries occupied four days, 
 and thence to the Indies, from which I wrote, sixteen days. My 
 intention was to expedite my voyage as much as possible while I 
 had good vessels, good crews and stores. ... Up to the period 
 of my reaching these shores I experienced most excellent weather" 
 
 Mr. Irving and others, however, would have it that it took 
 him sixteen days (from the 9th of May to the 25th) to reach the 
 Canaries, and twenty days (from the 25th of May to the 15th of 
 June) to reach the Carib Islands, a total which more than 
 doubles the time stated by Columbus himself. The reason for 
 this we shall soon perceive. On reaching the islands, Columbus, 
 after touching at one or two, made direct for San Domingo, 
 and requested permission to enter the harbor. 
 
COLUMBUS EEFUSED ADMITTANCE TO THE HARBOR. 315 
 
 We have already stated that the sovereigns had expressly 
 forbidden him to touch at Hispaniola on his outward voyage, 
 and only permitted him to do so on his return in case of neces 
 sity, and then merely for a short stay. 189 His excuse for now 
 violating the royal command was, that one of his vessels sailed 
 badly, could carry no canvas, thereby delaying the squadron. 
 He therefore proposed to exchange it for one which Ovando 
 had brought out. 
 
 The boldness of this pretext he has himself made evident in 
 the passage we have quoted from his letter, and is manifest to 
 his biographers, for, by admitting that he performed the whole 
 voyage in twenty days (a remarkably quick trip), he shows that 
 his squadron could not have been much delayed. Apparently 
 for this reason, and to cover another of his falsehoods, and make 
 his excuse appear more plausible, historians double the length of 
 time consumed in his voyage. 
 
 Ovando, who had, no doubt, received his orders, refused to 
 admit Columbus into the harbor of San Domingo, stating, as 
 his reason for doing so, that it was against the desire of their 
 highnesses. JSTor could he consent to the proposed exchange of 
 vessels ; the fleet he had brought out was that day setting sail, 
 laden with a richer' cargo than had ever before left the Western 
 islands, and bearing Bobadilla, Eoldan, and many others, back 
 to Spain. Admitting that Columbus really had a bad- sailing 
 vessel, he could scarcely be expected to exchange one of the 
 outgoing ships for this bad sailer, and thereby retard the prog 
 ress of a fleet which was far more important than that of 
 Columbus. 
 
 The sympathy and pathos expressed by Columbus's historians 
 as they record the refusal he received at San Domingo, would be 
 very touching if well founded. But even regarding Columbus, 
 as they do, in the light of a noble and glorious martyr, few will 
 be prepared to state that his landing in Hispaniola would have 
 been judicious or safe. The island was swarming with his ene 
 mies, who might have taken it into their heads to execute upon 
 him justice as summary as that which he had inflicted upon 
 Moxica and scores of others ; therefore his best friends would 
 have advised him to stay away. 
 
 The refusal to exchange ships was, as we have already said, 
 
 139 Navarrete " Colecc. Dip.," vol. i., p. 425. 
 
316 LITE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 an imperative duty. O van do could not stay bis fleet or endan 
 ger any of its cargo. It set sail the day of Columbus' s arrival. 
 The weather was at the time fair and still, but a sudden and violent 
 storm arose, by which the greater part of the fleet was destroyed. 
 Bobadilla, Roldan, and a host of others, perished ; among them 
 a captive Indian chief. 
 
 A story is to be found in most histories of Columbus, which 
 represents him as foretelling this storm, and magnanimously 
 urging Ovando to delay the departure of his vessels, but without 
 being heeded. Tracing this assertion from one narrator to an 
 other, it appears that Fernando is its fountain-head, and the only 
 authority for the prophecy. Columbus, in his relation of his fourth 
 voyage, speaks of the storm, but makes no allusion to his having 
 in any way predicted it ; and he most assuredly would not have 
 failed to hold forth this further proof of the divine aid and 
 inspiration which he so constantly professed to receive, had 
 there been the least possible ground for his doing so. The 
 prophecy is, therefore, probably a gratuitous embellishment of 
 Fernanda's, who is peculiarly desirous' that his readers should, 
 at this period, perceive supreme intervention in his father's 
 favor. 
 
 Thus we have seen that he regards the deaths of Bobadilla 
 and Roldan as special acts of the Deity, who is thus made to 
 take upon himself the punishment of the admiral's enemies ; and 
 by the same special providence, we are assured, the only ship 
 of the great fleet which reached Spain in safety, was the poorest 
 and weakest of all, but it had on board four thousand pieces of 
 gold belonging to Columbus. The latter also safely weathered 
 the storm which had been fatal to his enemies. Upon these 
 miracles, as he terms them, M. de Lorgues builds a considerable 
 portion of his claims for Columbus' s canonization. Those who 
 in their journey through life have observed the inscrutable ways 
 of Divine Providence, and noted how often the wicked are al 
 lowed to prosper in worldly matters, while the good are as often 
 buffeted by misfortune, will not perceive in the death of the 
 unfortuate Spaniards, nor in the salvation of Columbus and his 
 ill-gotten gains, any manifestation of the sanctity of the latter, 
 or the baseness of the former. 
 
 His three vessels, separated by the storm, having rejoined 
 him, and finding it impossible to obtain admittance to San 
 
CANOE CAPTURED BY COLUMBUS. 317 
 
 Domingo, Columbus, after a short sojourn in a sheltered part 
 of the coast, set sail for Jamaica on the 14th of July, 1502. 
 His crew felt bitterly their having been sent out under a man 
 whose status was such that they were refused admittance into a 
 port belonging to their own country, and to which even a foreign 
 vessel would have been hospitably welcomed. 
 
 The stormy weather continued. During sixty days, only sev 
 enty leagues were made, owing to adverse winds and currents. 
 At last the little island of Guanaja was reached. Columbus 
 named it Isla de Pinos (Island of Pines), on account of the abun 
 dance of those trees. 
 
 A large canoe was seen approaching this island, laden with 
 various products. It is described as being eight feet wide, very 
 long. Part of it was covered with a rounded thatching of palm- 
 leaves, after the manner of Venetian gondolas. It was most 
 probably one of those partially-covered canoes which still navi 
 gate some of the inland rivers of South America, and are called 
 champanes. The people it contained are described as far supe 
 rior to any yet met with ; the women wore long draperies of 
 woven cotton ; broad cinctures of the same material encircled the 
 men about the loins. Their wares, too, indicated an approach to 
 civilization. "Woven cloth of cotton, earthen-ware utensils, al 
 monds, cocoa (which the Spaniards then saw for the first time, 
 and which has since furnished Spain with its national beverage), 
 copper axes, crucibles in which this metal was melted these 
 constituted their chief cargo. 
 
 The accounts of Columbus's treatment of these natives are 
 conflicting. Mr. Irving and most modern historians relate that 
 the people exhibited no fear, and came willingly alongside the 
 vessels, where they gladly exchanged their wares for hawk's 
 bells and other baubles ; that Columbus treated them with gen 
 tleness, and detained only one old man as a guide. 
 
 Fernando, who was on the spot, and who, great as is his de 
 sire to conceal his father's misdeeds, sometimes accidentally gives 
 us an insight into the truth, makes it appear that Columbus did 
 not deal so gently with these people as Irving and others would 
 have it supposed. He says : " At that time they seemed to be, in 
 a manner, beside themselves, being brought prisoners out of their 
 canoe aboard the ship, among such strange and fierce people as 
 
318 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 we are to them." " These people are supposed to have come 
 from Yucatan to trade "among the islands. Had Columbus 
 sailed in the direction whence they came, he would probably 
 have reached the rich countries of Mexico, and thus have gained 
 for Spain some material profit ; but he was bent (or feigned to 
 be so) upon finding his strait or passage to India, and proceeded 
 in an opposite direction. 
 
 A southerly course brought him to the shores ot the conti 
 nent, which he coasted in an easterly direction. The storm, 
 we read, still remained unabated ; rain, wind, and current, com- 
 
 MA88 CELEBBATED ON THE CONTINENT. 
 
 bined to baffle and perturb the now bedridden admiral. On the 
 14th of August, he, being unable to stir, ordered his brother 
 
 140 " Historia del Amirante," chapter xci. The same authority also makes it evi 
 dent that they were somewhat violently induced to come on board the Spanish ships, 
 for, speaking of their superior modesty over the other tribes, he says : " It falling out 
 that, on getting them aboard, some were taken by the clouts they had before their 
 privities, they would immediately clap their hands to cover them ; and the women 
 would hide their faces, and wrap themselves up, as we said the Moorish women do at 
 Granada." In fact, it is evident that the crew of the canoe were roughly seized, with 
 their wares, Columbus keeping what part of these he saw fit, and giving in return a 
 few worthless baubles. " And the admiral blessed God that it had pleased Him at 
 once to give him samples of the commodities of that country, without exposing his 
 men to any danger." 
 
CANNIBALS. LENGTHY STORM. 319 
 
 Bartholomew to go on shore and have mass celebrated by the 
 Franciscan friar who accompanied the expedition. This was done. 
 
 On the 17th of the same month land was again sighted, and 
 possession taken for Spain by the erection of a huge cross. 
 Here a great number of natives were assembled, who offered the 
 Spaniards cassava-bread, fowls, and vegetables, which they had 
 with them in great abundance. Notwithstanding these evi 
 dences to the contrary, Columbus, having, no doubt, the ulti 
 mate enslavement of the poor wretches in view, declared them 
 cannibals. " This was evident," he says, " from the brutality of 
 their countenances." Anthropophagi would, we fear, be numer 
 ous even in civilized communities, were the above ear-marks in 
 fallible evidence of cannibalistic propensities. 
 
 One portion of the coast was named Costa de la Oreja, from 
 the hideous manner in which the inhabitants of that country 
 bored their ears. 
 
 Still opposed by wind and tide, Columbus now coasted Hon 
 duras. It is to be remarked that this continuous storm, severe as 
 it no doubt was, is described by Columbus with much of that 
 colored exaggeration which characterizes all his writings, after 
 the manner of some story-tellers who never think the truth 
 alone wonderful enough. He writes: "Eighty-eight days did 
 this fearful tempest continue, during which I was at sea, and 
 saw neither sun nor stars ; my ships lay exposed, my sails torn, 
 and anchors, rigging, cables, boats, and a great quantity of pro 
 visions, lost. My people were very weak and humble in spirit, 
 many of them promising to lead a religious life, and all making 
 vows and promising to perform pilgrimages, while some of them 
 would frequently go to their messmates to make confession. 
 Other tempests have been experienced, but never of so long 
 duration, or so fearful as this." 
 
 At length, however, the vessels reached a prominent head 
 land, whence the coast stretched south. The current, which 
 had impeded their progress, divided upon this point and ran 
 southward, assisting instead of opposing them. Columbus, there 
 fore, named this Cape Gracias d Dios (Thanks to God), a name 
 it still retains, though few of the places he baptized are now 
 known by the appellations he gave them. 
 
 Thence he proceeded along the Mosquito coast. Arriving at 
 a large river, the men put off to fill their casks with fresh water, 
 
320 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 when a wave overwhelmed one boat, which was lost with all its 
 crew. The river was therefore named Rio del Desastro (of the 
 Disaster). 
 
 The village of Cariari was the next point of any importance 
 reached. Here the natives assumed the defensive upon the ap 
 proach of the Spaniards, but, not being attacked, and the latter 
 having made pacific demonstrations, they gained confidence. 
 
 An aged man appeared with two young girls. These, he 
 intimated, were to be hostages for the Spaniards who might 
 wish to land. The latter profited by this generous assurance, 
 and went on shore to procure water. 
 
 We have various and conflicting accounts touching the char 
 acter and conduct of these girls. Fernando and his father espe 
 cially disagree in their description of them. The former writes : 
 
 " Those people showed more friendly than others had done, 
 and in the girls appeared an undauntedness ; for, though the 
 Christians were such strangers to them, they expressed no manner 
 of concern, but always looked pleasant and modest, which made 
 the admiral treat them well, clothed, fed, and set them ashore 
 again, where the fifty men were ; and the old man that had deliv 
 ered them received them again with much satisfaction." 141 
 
 Columbus, however, thus describes the same scene : 
 
 " When I arrived, they sent me immediately two girls very 
 showily dressed ; the eldest could not be more than eleven years 
 of age, and the other seven, and both exhibited so much immod 
 esty that more could not be expected from public women. They 
 carried concealed about them a magic powder. When they 
 came, I gave them some articles to deck themselves out with, 
 and directly sent them back to the shore." 14a 
 
 When Fernando wrote his statement, he was no doubt igno 
 rant of his father's version, and, not considering that "the ad 
 miral's " character or veracity could be impugned by the truth, 
 he made a correct statement. 
 
 It is matter for congratulation that several documents writ 
 ten by Columbus were never perused by Fernando; we are thus 
 enabled to bring many falsehoods of each to light. 
 
 Friendly as were the people of Cariari, they, like all the tribes 
 visited by Columbus, had more reason to mourn than rejoice at 
 
 .HI " Historia del Amirante," chapter xci. 
 142 Letter of Columbus to the sovereigns, July 7, 1503. 
 
CKUELTY OF COLUMBUS. 321 
 
 the visitation. Seven of them were seized and two retained, 
 while the rest were allowed to return to their people ; but the 
 friends of the two prisoners took their capture greatly to heart. 
 Heavily laden with products of their land (among other things, 
 two small hogs), they offer all, and more, if the Spaniards will 
 only restore their friends to liberty; but Columbus was inexo 
 rable; he wanted guides (did this scientific navigator and discov 
 erer), having set down the poor old Indian of Guanaja at 
 Cape Gracias a Dios. Thus he from time to time seized a hap 
 less native, used him as guide till his knowledge of the country 
 was exhausted, then set him down in a strange land, whence 
 there was little probability of his reaching his far-away home. 
 But the magnanimous, gentle, humane admiral, while refusing 
 to deliver the Cariarians to their kinsmen, accepted the pres 
 ents, notably the hogs, one of which afterward procured him 
 sport cruel enough to gratify even his brutal tastes. Let us ob 
 serve the gusto with which he recounts the torture inflicted upon 
 two dumb brutes, merely for amusement, and we shall be as 
 sured, if any doubt lingers in our minds, that cruelty was with 
 him a passion. 
 
 "I had, at that time," he writes, "two pigs and an Irish dog, 
 who was always in great dread of them. An archer had 
 wounded an animal like an ape, except that it was larger, and 
 had a face like a man's ; the arrow had pierced it from the neck 
 to the tail, which made it so fierce that they were obliged to dis 
 able it by cutting off one of its arms and a leg. One of the pigs 
 grew wild on seeing this, and fled ; upon which / ordered the 
 legare (as the inhabitants call him) to be thrown to the pig, and 
 though the animal was nearly dead, and the arrow had passed 
 quite through his body, yet he threw his tail round the snout of 
 the pig, and then, holding him firmly, seized him by the nape of 
 the neck with his remaining hand, as if he were engaged with an 
 enemy. This action was so novel and extraordinary that I have 
 thought it worth while to describe it here." 
 
 The cowardly superstition, which was one of the manly attri 
 butes of our hero, is also manifested during his stay at Cariari. 
 A smoke which the natives created, and which the wind blew 
 toward him, was, he declared, a necromantic spell they sought to 
 cast upon him. It was probably the smoking of tobacco through 
 pipes as he had already seen it smoked in the leaf. 
 
322 IFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 Details of this voyage are not wanting, as both Columbus 
 and Fernando are very minute in their recitals. We shall not, 
 however, be equally so, and follow him through all the mishaps 
 and disasters of this his last expedition, but content ourselves 
 with noting its more important features. 
 
 From time to time he procured gold from the natives, who 
 were, as a rule, friendly. Here, he traded for large plates of gold 
 which were worn suspended from the neck ; there, he would in 
 crease the respect of the harmless natives by discharging a can 
 non among them. 143 Now, he comes upon five large settlements 
 
 INDIANS SMOKING. (From Philopono, "Nova Typis," etc., 1621.) 
 
 or towns, as he called them, one of which, Yeragua, subsequently 
 gave its name to the adjacent country. Here he was told there 
 existed extensive gold-mines, but would not stay, being still bent 
 upon finding the strait. He was, Mr. Irving tells us, under one 
 of his frequent delusions. That he should be deluded and hon 
 est was possible, but when we find him constantly professing to 
 
 " Therefore, to abate their pride and make them not contemn the Christians, 
 the admiral caused a shot to be made at a company of them that was got together 
 upon a hillock, and the ball, falling in the midst of them, made them sensible there 
 was a thunder-bolt as well as thunder, so that for the future they durst not appear 
 even behind the mountains." ("Historia del Amirante," chapter xciii.) 
 
APPEARANCE OF A WATER-SPOUT. 323 
 
 hear from the natives that he is within a short distance (ten days' 
 journey on foot) of Cathay the dominions of the grand-khan 
 that he is in the land of Ophir when he assures the sovereigns, 
 upon the authority of these same savages, that a little beyond a 
 place called Ciguare, which he visits, will be found the Ganges, 
 his honesty is somewhat to be impugned. 
 
 It is diverting also to remark that he has been taught by sad 
 experience that it will not do to lie too barefacedly. He there 
 fore places himself under cover of the Indians, and indulges in 
 a little taunt at the sovereigns, in which his ill-concealed malice 
 and anger are momentarily exposed. 
 
 " When I discovered the Indies," he writes to their majesties, 
 " I said that they composed the richest lordship in the world ; I 
 spoke of gold, and pearls, and precious stones, of spices, and the 
 traffic that might be carried on in them ; and, because all these 
 things were not forthcoming at once, I was abused. This pun 
 ishment causes me to refrain from relating any thing but what 
 the natives tell me." 
 
 Owing to the bad weather, the crazed and worm-eaten condi 
 tion of his ships, as also, no doubt, to the fact that, though he 
 had made the search for the strait a pretense for returning to 
 Hispaniola, he did not himself believe in its existence, he at last 
 abandoned it as fruitless, and made for Yeragua. Not willing, 
 however, to own that he has proclaimed the existence of a strait 
 where none existed, his crew were again made to mutiny, and 
 it was, we are told, in compliance with their urgent entreaties 
 that he consented to return. 
 
 He sailed for Yeragua, but the wind, veering as he changed 
 his course, still remained contrary; the elements conspired 
 against him a frightful storm prevailed. The ships were in 
 imminent danger, when the awfalness of the situation culmi 
 nated in a huge water-spout, which appeared to be making tow 
 ard them. Columbus proceeded, in a somewhat novel manner, 
 to avert this new peril, by which he excites the enthusiastic 
 admiration of his would-be canonizer, M. de Lorgues, whose 
 description of the scene and of the sailor-like bearing of the 
 admiral, we cannot resist inserting : 
 
 " It was one of those water-spouts which seamen call fronks, 
 which were then so little known, and which have since sub 
 merged so many vessels. ... At the cries of distress which 
 
LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 reached his heart, the great man became suddenly reanimated. 
 In face of the impending ruin he rises with his wonted vigor, in 
 order to survey and weigh the peril. lie also perceives the for 
 midable thing that is approaching. The sea appeared to be 
 sucked up toward the heavens. For this unknown phenomenon 
 he saw no remedy. Art was useless and navigation powerless ; 
 besides, there was no steering any longer. 
 
 " Immediately Columbus, the adorer of the "Word, suspected, 
 in this terrific display of the brute forces of Nature, some satanic 
 manoeuvre. He could not exorcise the powers of the air, accord 
 ing to the rites of the Church, fearing to usurp the authority 
 of the priesthood ; but he called to mind that he was the chief 
 of a Christian expedition, and that his object w r as a holy one ; 
 and he desired, in his way, to compel the spirit of darkness to 
 yield the passage to him. He had blessed wax-candles immedi 
 ately lighted and put in the lanterns ; then he girded himself 
 with his sword over the cord of St. Francis, and, taking the 
 book of the gospels, standing in the face of the water-spout, which 
 was coming near, accosted it w r ith the sublime declaration which 
 commences the gospel of the well-beloved disciple of Jesus, St. 
 John, the adoptive son of the blessed Virgin. 
 
 " Trying to raise his voice above the howling of the tempest, 
 the messenger of salvation declared to Typhon that in the be 
 ginning was the "Word ; that the Word was with God, and that 
 the Word was God; that all things have been made by him, 
 and that without him was not any thing made that was made ; 
 that in him was life, and that the life was the light of men ; 
 that the light shineth in darkness, and that the darkness did not 
 comprehend it ; that the world was made by him, and that the 
 world knew him not; that he came to his own and his own 
 received him not ; but that he has given to those who believe in 
 his name, and who are not born of the flesh, or of blood, or of 
 the will of man, the power to become the children of God ; and 
 that the WOKD WAS MADE FLESH, and that he dwelt among us. 
 
 " Then, in the name of the divine Word, Jesus Christ, whose 
 words calmed the winds and appeased the billows, Christopher 
 Columbus commands the water-spout to spare those who, becom 
 ing children of God, go to carry the cross to the extremities of 
 the earth, and navigate in the name of the thrice Holy Trinity. 
 Then, drawing his sword with a full and ardent faith, he traces 
 
DEFEAT OF THE WATER-SPOUT. 
 
 325 
 
 in the air, with the steel, the sign of the cross, and describes a 
 circle around him with the sword, as if he had really severed or 
 intercepted the water-spout. And, in fact O prodigy! the 
 water-spout, which was coming straight toward the caravels, ap 
 pearing to be pushed obliquely, passed between the half-sub- 
 inerged caravels, and went off, bellowing, to lose itself in the 
 immensity of the Atlantic. 
 
 " This sudden retreat of a destructive phenomenon appeared 
 to Columbus himself as a new favor from the Divine Majesty. 
 
 COLUMBUS VANQUISHES THE WATER-SPOUT. 
 
 The same piety which prompted him to have recourse to God to 
 be preserved, prevented him from having any doubt that he was 
 indebted to Him for his preservation in this extremity." : 
 
 Irving, who seeks throughout to give a wise and scholarly 
 character to his hero, perceiving how fatal to such a reputation 
 was the manner in which Columbus thought to influence a phe 
 nomenon of Nature, would lead us to suppose that it was the 
 
 i De Lorgues, " Christophe Colombo," vol. ii., liv. iv., chapter ii. 
 
326 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 ignorant sailors (those convenient scape-goats who are forever 
 made to fill the breaches in Columbus' s biographies) who frantic 
 ally repeated passages from St. John. M. de Lorgues is justly 
 indignant at this new attempt to rob Columbus of his " well- 
 earned fame." He says : 
 
 " It is vain for Mr. Irving to try to hide under the plural 
 form the spontaneous initiative of Columbus, and to keep out of 
 sight his individual action. The event itself intrinsically pro 
 tests against such a disfigurement of history, and opposes to it 
 both moral and physical impossibilities. How could the cara 
 vels, separated from each other by the terrible commotion of the 
 elements, scarcely able to see each other across the watery va 
 pors and the globules of foam filling the air, and still less hear 
 ing each other, how could they, we say, settle on a plan of 
 combating the water-spout, agree about the choice of an evan 
 gelist, and fix on a passage deemed proper for warding off the 
 peril ? Not to mention other reasons, Irving does not seem to 
 have considered that none of the pilots would, of themselves, 
 have conceived an expedient so singularly foreign to nautical 
 science, 146 and, at the same time, so bold in a spiritual point of 
 view." 148 
 
 "Whether owing to the admiral's impressive and appro 
 priate exhortation, or in pursuance of its natural course, the 
 water-spout passed without harming the little caravels. The 
 storm had, however, separated one of them from the rest, and it 
 was only after encountering great peril, and losing her boat, that 
 she was enabled to rejoin the squadron, which was in sorry con 
 dition provisions exhausted or rotten when, on the 17th of 
 December, it found welcome refuge in a port. Here, we are 
 told, the natives lived in houses built in the tops of trees, like 
 the nests of birds. Fernando, who seems to have entered fully 
 into his father's spirit of invention, states that the practice was 
 caused by the number of griffins which abound in that place. 
 Mr. Irving, while drawing principally upon Fernando for his 
 account of this voyage, wisely omits this absurdity, or travesties 
 it into some appearance of truth by telling us the houses were 
 thus built to escape from the wild beasts, etc., that abound in 
 that region. 
 
 145 In this we fully concur. 
 
 146 De Lorgue, " Christophe Colombe," vol. ii., liv. iv., chapter ii. 
 
WAR BETWEEN SPANIARDS AND NATIVES. 327 
 
 Leaving this port after much buffeting against adverse winds 
 and waves, the caravels entered another, where the stock of wood, 
 water, and provisions, was replenished, and whence they started 
 on the 3d of January, 1503, and shortly reached a river near 
 Yeragua, which Columbus named Belen (Bethlehem). 
 
 Bartholomew, with the assistance of the friendly natives, 
 especially of their chief Quibian, explored the country and found 
 it rich in gold ; it was, therefore, determined to form a settle 
 ment on the banks of the Belen, where Bartholomew should be 
 left with eighty men to amass gold, while Columbus returned to 
 Spain. The settlement was made, but the licentious and covet 
 ous conduct of the Spaniards, here as elsewhere, made enemies 
 of the friendly-disposed Indians. Hostilities soon commenced, 
 and the chief Quibian was, with all his family, treacherously 
 captured by Bartholomew, while all the gold (his possessing 
 which constituted his chief offense) found in his house was, of 
 course, seized. The chief succeeded in effecting his escape by 
 plunging, bound as he was, into the sea ; his family, wives, and 
 children were, however, taken on board Columbus' s vessel, and 
 confined in the hold. This capture aroused the 'indignation of 
 Quibian, who, with his followers, now thirsted for vengeance. 
 The colony was attacked. Columbus had already crossed the 
 shallow bar at the entrance of the river, leaving one caravel for 
 the use of the settlement, and was anchored at sea ready to sail 
 at the first fair wind. He sent a boat up the river to procure 
 supplies of wood and water. This boat was attacked when far 
 inland, and destroyed by the outraged natives, and of the eight 
 men composing its crew only one reached the settlement to tell 
 the tale. Columbus, outside the river, remained alike ignorant 
 of the loss of the boat and crew, and of the hostile disposition 
 of the natives, who he hoped would have been frightened into 
 submission by the fate of their chief's family. The latter, im 
 mured in the loathsome hold of the wretched caravel, now 
 resolved upon one brave and desperate attempt to recover free 
 dom. Piling up the stones which served as ballast to the ship, 
 they climbed upon them, and succeeded in springing open the 
 hatches, notwithstanding several sailors lay sleeping upon them, 
 and a number, plunging into the sea, escaped. Some, however, 
 were secured ere they could leap overboard ; these unfortunates 
 
 were all found dead the next day, having themselves ended their 
 22 
 
328 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 lives rather than submit to be the slaves of their cruel and un 
 grateful captors. 
 
 Columbus was seriously alarmed at the effect the reappear 
 ance of the prisoners would have upon their countrymen ; lie 
 feared that the recital of what they had endured would rouse 
 again the hatred and hostility of the tribes. He was, however, 
 unable to reenter the river and learn the condition of the colony, 
 or the fate of the -men he had sent inland, on account of the 
 heavy surge at the mouth of the Belen. 
 
 It was at this period, when, by his mismanagement, affairs 
 
 PQETENDED INTERVIEW OF COLUMBCS WITH THE DEITY. 
 
 had reached a most disagreeable crisis, that one of Columbus' s 
 visions and convenient conversations with the Deity took place, 
 if we are to believe himself, who thus describes the scene : 
 " All hope of escape was gone. I toiled up to the highest 
 part of the ship, and, with a quivering voice and fast-falling 
 tears, I called upon your highnesses' war-captains from each 
 point of the compass 147 to come to my succor, but there was no 
 
 147 An appeal likely to be promptly responded to. 
 
THE DEITY CONVERSES WITH COLUMBUS. 329 
 
 reply. At length, groaning with exhaustion, I fell asleep and 
 heard a compassionate voice address me thus : 
 
 " ' O fool, and slow to believe and to serve thy God, the God 
 of all ! "What did He do more for Moses, or for David his ser 
 vant, than He has done for thee 3 From thine infancy, He has 
 kept thee under his constant and watchful care. When He saw 
 thee arrived at an age which suited his designs respecting thee, He 
 brought wonderful renown to thy name throughout all the land. 
 He gave thee for thine own the Indies, which form so rich a por 
 tion of the world, and thou hast divided them as it pleased thee, for 
 He gave thee power to do so. He gave thee, also, the keys of those 
 barriers of the ocean sea which were closed with such mighty 
 chains ; and thou wast obeyed through many lands, and gained 
 an honorable fame throughout Christendom. "What more did 
 the Most High do for the people of Israel when He brought 
 them out of Egypt, or for David, who from a shepherd He made 
 to be king in Judea ? Turn to Him, and acknowledge thine 
 error. His mercy is infinite ; thine old age shall not prevent 
 thee from accomplishing any great undertaking. He holds 
 under his sway the greatest possessions. Abraham had ex 
 ceeded a hundred years of age when he begat Isaac, nor was 
 Sarah young. Thou criest out for uncertain help; answer 
 who has afflicted thee so much, and so often God or the 
 World ? The privileges promised by God, He never fails in 
 bestowing, nor does He ever declare, after a service has been 
 rendered Him, that such was not agreeable with his intention, 
 or that He had regarded the matter in another light; nor does 
 He inflict suffering, in order to give effect to the manifestations 
 of his power. His acts answer to his words, and it is his custom 
 to perform all his promises with interest. Thus I have told 
 thee what the Creator has done for thee, and what He does for 
 all men. Even now He partially shows thee the reward of 
 so many toils, and dangers incurred by thee in the service of 
 others.'" 
 
 There is, we cannot too often repeat, something revolting in 
 this maudlin defense of Columbus, put by him in the mouth of 
 the Almighty, whom, in his blasphemous effrontery, he causes 
 to threaten all who do not believe in and cherish him. He 
 even, behind the screen of Divinity, hazards a thrust at Isa 
 bella, and reveals, for a moment, the sharp claws which he usu- 
 
330 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 ally concealed beneath his smooth and cringing sycophancy. If 
 this be madness, yet there is method in it. 
 
 Matters did not much improve in spite of Columbus's very 
 sensible appeal to her majesty's war-captains. Doubt and 
 apprehension every day increased, till a hardy pilot, Pedro 
 Ledesma by name, volunteered to swim ashore and investigate. 
 This he did, and discovered the colonists beleaguered by ever- 
 increasing numbers of natives, and in despair at being left in 
 that land at the mercy of the much-injured Indians. He also 
 learned the fate of the boat and crew, and, upon reporting these 
 facts to Columbus, the latter concluded to abandon the settle 
 ment. The caravel which had been left in the river had been 
 allowed to become utterly unseaworthy, and was abandoned ; all 
 the men, therefore, embarked in the three remaining vessels. 
 
 It appears that Columbus regarded the gold-mines of Ye- 
 ragua as the only real benefit likely to accrue to Spain from his 
 enterprises. He now took such precautions as to render it, he 
 hoped, impossible for any but himself to return to them. He, 
 therefore confiscated the charts of the pilots and mariners, and 
 boastingly writes to the sovereigns : " Let them answer and say 
 if they know where Yeragua is situated. I assert that they can 
 give no other account than that they went to lands where there 
 was an abundance of gold, and this they can certify surely 
 enough; but they do not know the way to return thither for 
 such a purpose ; they would be obliged to go on a voyage of 
 discovery as much as if they had never been there before. 148 
 
 He evidently hoped to get some hold on Isabella, and wished 
 to make her believe that she was at his mercy, so far as regarded 
 the possession of the gold-mines. 
 
 Adverse weather pertinaciously clings to Columbus, and, as 
 he proceeded along the coast westward, he was obliged to aban 
 don another of his vessels at Puerto Bello. The condition of the 
 remaining two was not such as to warrant much trifling, yet 
 Columbus sailed among the Mulata Islands, where once more 
 he apparently considering the territories of the grand-khan as 
 
 148 One of the witnesses in the lawsuit between Diego Columbus and the crown, 
 Pedro Mateos of Higuey, testified that he had accompanied Columbus on his fourth 
 voyage, and that he " wrote a book in which he had laid down all the mountains and 
 rivers of the said province (Veragua), and the admiral afterward took it away from 
 him." (Navarrete, " Colecc. Dip.," vol. iii., p. 584.) 
 
STKANDED IN JAMAICA. 331 
 
 somewhat ubiquitous declared that he has reached one of the 
 provinces belonging to that prince. 
 
 What led him to suppose, or pretend to suppose this, it is 
 difficult to imagine, unless he hoped to inspire his disgusted 
 crew with a little confidence in and respect for him. 
 
 These gyrations he seems to have performed with a view to 
 confusing the pilots after taking away their charts ; but regard 
 for his own safety now made him adopt a northerly course and 
 steer for Hispaniola direct. 
 
 The two caravels were about this time driven violently against 
 each other; the bow of one and the stern of the other were 
 shattered, and three anchors lost. The current bore the vessels 
 westward, till they reached the island of Cuba, where cassava- 
 bread was provided by the natives, and they again set sail for 
 Hispaniola, but reached instead Jamaica, where, on the 23d of 
 June, 1503, at a place which he called Santa Gloria, he ran the 
 dilapidated remains of his "considerable equipment" hard 
 aground, and he and his worn-out crew landed on the island, 
 whence they could not again depart till, by some means, other 
 vessels should be procured. 
 
 It may not be amiss here to call the attention of the reader 
 to the fact that Columbus, notwithstanding all the nautical skill 
 he might be supposed to have acquired during his long life, was 
 singularly unfortunate with all the ships intrusted to him. "We 
 do not wonder that seamen objected to sail under him. Ob 
 stinate and arrogant, he would take no advice, yet was obviously 
 incapable of directing a vessel. His carelessness cost him a ves 
 sel at Belen, another at Puerto Bello ; the collision which shat 
 tered the other two seems an accident which some skill and cau 
 tion might have prevented; but such details were apparently 
 beneath the notice of this ^ extraordinary man." 
 
 Sheds were built on board the two stranded caravels, and a 
 forced and permanent stay prepared for. Diego Mendez, who 
 appears to have been the most able and energetic man of the 
 expedition, made friendly treaties with the natives at different 
 points, wherein it was agreed that they should every day bring, 
 to certain specified places, provisions in exchange for European 
 trinkets. This satisfactory arrangement effected, Columbus be 
 came desirous of communicating with Hispaniola. No means, 
 however, of doing this existed, save native canoes ; the distance 
 
332 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 was forty leagues ; few would dare sucli an undertaking. Men 
 dez, however, came again to the rescue. He possessed an excel 
 lent canoe, for which he had bartered with a chief who had 
 shown him great friendship. This chief had also assigned him 
 six Indians to manage the canoe. In this frail bark he now pro 
 posed to brave the wide sea and strong currents which divide 
 Jamaica from Hispaniola. Taking with him one Spanish com 
 rade and his six Indians, and having made his canoe as strong 
 against wind and wave as was possible, besides providing it with 
 sails, he pronounced himself ready to start on his perilous voy 
 age. Columbus intrusted him with a letter to Ovando, solicit- 
 
 o 
 
 ing a ship and provisions. lie also sent by him a letter to the 
 sovereigns, relating the events of this his fourth voyage, from 
 which we have had occasion to make several quotations. This 
 letter is a strange medley of arrogance and humility, boastful- 
 ness and begging. Here we find him declaring that he is in 
 the land whence Solomon procured his gold. 149 There he im 
 plores their highnesses to pardon his bitter complaints, which are 
 called forth by his ruined condition, and laments, with maudlin 
 pathos, over his misfortunes, declaring that he had made this 
 voyage without any hope of profit or emolument. 
 
 With this missive Diego Mendez departed. If ever man did 
 his duty bravely and efficiently, Mendez so did his. It was 
 owing to him that the Spaniards were rescued from starvation 
 owing to him that they now had some hope of departure from 
 their island-prison. Unfortunately, however, he was captured, 
 soon after his departure, by hostile Indians, from whom he with 
 difficulty escaped. Regaining possession of his canoe, he re 
 turned to the harbor and stranded ships, and, nothing daunted, 
 proposed again to attempt the undertaking, if a body of armed 
 men could escort him as far as his boat should remain in sight. 
 
 Two canoes were manned for the voyage, each containing 
 six Spaniards and ten natives. One was commanded by Men 
 dez, the other by Fiesco. The latter received orders from Co 
 lumbus to return to Jamaica and report as soon as the canoes 
 
 149 " Josephus thinks that this gold was found in Aurea. If it were so, I contend 
 that these mines of the Aurea are identical with those of Veragua, which, as I have 
 said before, extends westward twenty days' journey, at an equal distance from the pole 
 and the line. Solomon bought all of it gold, precious stones, and silver but your 
 majesties need only send to seek them, to have them at your pleasure." 
 
VOYAGE OF MENDEZ. 
 
 333 
 
 should reach Hispaniola. Mendez was first to interview Ovando 
 and urge the immediate dispatch of a vessel to the relief of Co 
 lumbus ; then to proceed immediately to Spain and deliver to 
 the sovereigns the important letter aforementioned. 
 
 Bartholomew, with a body of men, followed the canoes along 
 the coast, watched them till they had entirely disappeared, and 
 then returned to Santa Gloria. 
 
 INDIAN HAMMOCK 
 
CHAPTEE XXYI. 
 
 SOJOUKX OF COLUMBUS IN JAMAICA. VOYAGE OF DIEGO MENDEZ. 
 
 ALTHOUGH the forced sojourn of the Spaniards in Jamaica 
 commenced under as favorable auspices as could be expected, the 
 common misfortune, into which all had alike fallen, does not 
 
 COLUMBUS USHERED TO HIS EEPAST WHILE STRANDED AT JAMAICA. 
 
 appear to have abated the arrogance of Columbus, or the dis 
 trust and hatred with which he was regarded. 
 
 It is even said that, though in such miserable plight, he in 
 sisted upon the observance of all the etiquette which he consid 
 ered due to the rank of viceroy, that he caused himself to be 
 
SHABBY GRANDEUR OF COLUMBUS. 335 
 
 ushered into the thatch-sheds, to his frugal meals of Indian fare, 
 by "gentlemen esquires," bearing fldbella^ while all rose at his 
 approach. 150 The Franciscan garb, which, in mock humility, he 
 had assumed, must have accorded well with this ridiculous vani 
 ty. Such absurdities are characteristic of Columbus, who was as 
 tenacious of fictitious as he was incapable of inspiring real 
 respect. 
 
 His conduct was such that, ere long, suppressed murmurs 
 swelled into open rebellion, if indeed disaffection under such 
 circumstances can be termed rebellion. It is impossible to 
 judge rightly of the difficulties and disagreements occurring in 
 Jamaica at this period, as the only account we have of them is 
 from the pen of Fernando Columbus. . From him all other 
 authors have borrowed more or less. It is evident, however, 
 that the majority of the men were hostile to Columbus; that 
 only the sickly and feeble remained on his side. Fernando, 
 who is not what may be termed an impartial historian, and who 
 does not scruple to distort facts, or indeed invent them, when 
 his father's reputation is at stake, nevertheless allows quasi 
 admissions of the universal feeling of distrust entertained tow 
 ard Columbus, to escape him. He writes thus : 
 
 " Francis de Porras came upon the quarter-deck of the ad 
 miral's ship, and said to him, ' My lord, what is the meaning 
 that you will not go into Spain, and will keep us all here per 
 ishing ? ' The admiral, hearing these unusual, insolent words, 
 and suspecting what the matter might be, very calmly answered 
 he did not see which way they could go till those that.were gone 
 in the canoes sent a ship ; that no man was more desirous to 
 be gone than he, as well for his own private interests as for the 
 good of them all, for whom he was accountable ; but that, if he 
 had any thing to propose, he would again call together the cap 
 tains and principal men to consult, as had been done several 
 times before. Porras replied that it was no time to talk, but 
 that he should embark quickly or stay there by himself; and, so 
 turning his back, added, in a loud voice, * I am going to Spain 
 with those that will follow me.' At which time, all his follow 
 ers who were present began to cry out, c We will go with you ! 
 AVe will go with you !' and, running about, possessed them- 
 
 150 lie was served at table as a grandee. "All hail!" was said to him on state 
 occasions. (HELPS, " Life of Columbus," p. 124.) 
 
336 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 selves of the forecastle, poop, and round-tops, all in confusion, 
 and crying, ' Let them die ! ' others, ' For Spain, for Spain ! ' and 
 others, ' What shall we do, captain ? ' Though the admiral was 
 then in bed, so lame of the gout that he could not stand, yet he 
 could not forbear rising and stumbling out at this noise. But 
 two or three worthy persons, his servants, laid hold of and with 
 labor laid him in his bed, that the mutineers might not murder 
 him. Then they ran to his brother, who was courageously come 
 out with a half-pike in his hand, and, wresting it out of his 
 hands, put him with his brother, desiring Captain Porras to go 
 about his business, and not do some mischief they might all 
 suffer for; that he might be satisfied they did not oppose 
 his going, but if he .should kill the admiral, he could not 
 expect but to be severely punished, without hopes of any bene 
 fit. The tumult being somewhat appeased, the conspirators took 
 ten canoes that were by the ship's side, and which the admiral 
 had bought all about the island, and went aboard them as joy 
 fully as if they had been in some port of Spain. Upon this, 
 many more, who had no hand in the plot, in despair to see 
 themselves, as they thought, forsaken, taking what they could 
 along with them, went aboard the canoes with them, to the 
 great sorrow and affliction of those few faithful servants who 
 remained with the admiral, and of all the sick, who thought 
 themselves lost forever, and without hopes of ever getting off. 
 And it is certain that, had the people been well, not twenty men 
 had remained with the admiral." 161 
 
 As we have said, the above is the source whence subsequent 
 authors have drawn for their versions of this episode, and the 
 only contemporaneous one which has come down to us. As 
 one author, the most impartial who has hitherto written upon 
 Columbus, shrewdly observes, " It is possible Porras might have 
 had something to say ; " and, considering the numerous prece 
 dents existing, we deem it safe to believe that Columbus was 
 here, as in his other misfortunes, more the victim of his own self 
 ish and arrogant passions, than of the evil dispositions of other 
 men. 
 
 The Spaniards, under Porras, were not successful in their 
 attempt to reach Hispaniola. They returned to Jamaica, where 
 they lived, for some time, as best they could. 
 
 151 " Historia del Amirante," chapter ciL 
 
AN ECLIPSE AND ITS EFFECT. 337 
 
 The Indians had, in the mean time, become wearied of the 
 contributions under which they were laid, and provisions began 
 to fail. It was then that Columbus had recourse to that won 
 derful stratagem which excites the admiration of his biographers, 
 as being a proof of his great astronomical knowledge. Knowing 
 that an eclipse of the moon was to take place on a certain night, 
 he summoned the leading chiefs to a conference, at which he 
 informed them that his God protected him in all things, as they 
 might see, for Mendez and his followers, who had departed at 
 his command, had arrived safely at their destination 152 (we need 
 not comment upon this falsehood ; the reader will have perceived 
 its grossness, for, at the time, Columbus had received no news 
 of Mendez), while Porras, who had attempted the same journey, 
 in opposition to his wishes, had been unsuccessful. He told 
 them his God was angry with them (the Indians) for not fur 
 nishing the white men with food, and, in testimony of this 
 divine anger, the moon, of which he (Columbus) was the off 
 spring, 158 would that night lose its brightness. 
 
 This prediction is not so wonderful as writers would lead us 
 to suppose. Eclipses were predicted and the time of their ap 
 pearance recorded then, as now, both in almanacs and in more 
 comprehensive " tables of eclipses," which were predicted sev 
 eral years in advance. It was from this source that Columbus 
 learned the approach of this particular eclipse. He, as we have 
 seen, made a mistake of more than eighteen degrees when cal 
 culating one for himself. Such a miscalculation is too great a 
 one for a good astronomer to be guilty of. Mr. Irving declares 
 it to have been owing to the incorrectness of his tables of eclipse, 
 thereby admitting the existence of the latter, but, when relating 
 the stratagem with the Indians, he gives all the credit to Colum 
 bus' s own skill and learning. 
 
 "We think, at best, that this much-lauded device was but a 
 sorry one, and for once agree with M. de Lorgues that such gross 
 juggling was an unworthy way of working on the credulity of 
 
 152 Irving, " Columbus," book xvi., chapter iii. 
 
 153 Most historians content themselves with asserting that Columbus declared the 
 eclipse to be a sign of the anger of God, and do not mention the relationship to the 
 moon claimed by him. Ogilby records this additional absurdity, which appears to us 
 so worthy of Columbus, and withal so probable to have emanated from him, that we 
 consider it a fit adjunct to the whole farce it pertains to (see Ogilby's " America," 
 chapter iii.. section iii.). 
 
338 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 the savages, and of bringing forward the sacred name of God. 
 Gross and unworthy as it was, it is, however, evident that Co 
 lumbus perpetrated it, and the plan seems to have worked well. 
 The Indians professed penitence, and Columbus consented to 
 intercede for them, and, when the shadow passed from the face 
 of the planet, reappeared and informed them that its restored 
 light was the result of his intercession. Thenceforth there was 
 no scarcity of supplies. 
 
 It becomes us here to make some brief mention of the mem 
 orable voyage made by Diego Mendez to Hispaniola. This 
 devoted man served Columbus faithfully and well, at the risk of 
 his own life, but he later learned, by bitter experience, that self 
 ish ingratitude was to be the only reward for these services. 
 
 Great must have been the hardships experienced by men 
 sailing in open canoes across a wide track of ocean. Mendez 
 appears to have organized an effective and safe routine. The 
 Spaniards and Indian crew were divided into two bands, one of 
 which watched and labored while the other slept. 
 
 The burning rays of the tropical sun poured down from a 
 cloudless sky upon the uncovered canoes ; the heat was intensi 
 fied by the reflection from the water. Soon the Indian rowers 
 became exhausted, water and provisions failed ; the brave band 
 endured unspeakable agonies. On the second night, one of the 
 Indians, overcome by labor, heat, and agonizing thirst, died ; 
 the parched lips and powerless strokes of his companions pre 
 mised a like fate for them. The last drop of water had been 
 drunk, and despair had almost seized even the strong heart of 
 Mendez, when the light of the rising moon revealed a small isl 
 and. Thither they eagerly steered, the lagging oarsmen inspired 
 with new vigor. The island (Navassa) proved to be a mass of 
 rock, entirely destitute of vegetation ; rain-water, however, 
 abounded in the hollows and crevices. Several of the unfortu 
 nate Indians drank so eagerly and freely that they died on the 
 spot. The more reasonable of the worn-out party, after assuag 
 ing their thirst, made a fire of drift-wood, and roasting the 
 shell-fish, which they found in abundance, made a hearty meal, 
 which restored them to their wonted vigor. The following day 
 was spent on the island resting. In the evening the canoes 
 again set sail, and, on the following morning, four days after 
 
MENDEZ REACHES HISPANIOLA. 339 
 
 their departure from Jamaica, landed at Cape Tiburn, in His- 
 paniola. " Here," says Diego Mendez, in his narrative, " I 
 brought the canoe up to a very beautiful part of the coast, to 
 which many of the natives soon came and brought with them 
 many articles of food, so that I remained there two days to take 
 rest." 
 
 These two days expired, he set out, taking with him six 
 native Indians, for San Domingo, a coasting voyage of some 
 thirty leagues. Fiesco would have returned to Jamaica, as had 
 been agreed, but his companions and the exhausted Indians 
 would not hear of a second time exposing themselves to the ter 
 rible hardships they had endured, so the sea-bound prisoners of 
 Jamaica were kept in suspense. 
 
 On reaching San Domingo, Mendez was informed that 
 Ovando was in Xaragua, a province fifty leagues distant. For 
 this place he bravely set out on foot and alone, and reached his 
 destination in safety, after achieving, as Mr. Irving justly says, 
 " one of the most perilous expeditions ever undertaken by a 
 devoted follower for the safety of his commander." 
 
 For seven months he remained in Xaragua, but no ship was 
 sent to the relief of Columbus. Ovando has been virulently 
 assailed for this culpable neglect. We may be permitted to 
 doubt, however, whether he did not thereby act according to 
 the wishes, if not in obedience to the direct orders, of the sover 
 eigns. It is probable, indeed Irving hints as much, that Colum- 
 bus's would-be negotiations with Genoa were better known than 
 that worthy would have liked, and that, tidings of these having 
 reached Ovando, he considered the fortuitous imprisonment at 
 Jamaica an easy solution of the difficult problem, What to do 
 with Columbus ? He learned from Mendez that the Spaniards 
 were not likely to lack food, and therefore considered that haste 
 was unnecessary. 
 
 When eight months had elapsed since the departure of Men 
 dez, a ship was sent to Jamaica, bearing a present from Ovando 
 to the colony of a barrel of wine and two flitches of bacon, but 
 there appears to have been no intention of permitting Colum 
 bus, as yet, to return into the world. 
 
 ' Escobar, who commanded the vessel, reached Jamaica in 
 March, 1504. He came alongside the stranded caravels in a 
 boat (his vessel remaining out at sea), and, having delivered the 
 
340 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 wine and bacon, rowed off to a short distance, whence he in 
 formed Columbus that there were no vessels then in Hispaniola 
 of sufficient size to bring him away with all his followers ; that, 
 as soon as one arrived, the governor would send it to his relief. 
 
 Columbus, though feeling, as his son informs us, nothing but 
 enmity at heart, dissimulated as usual, and wrote a most friendly 
 letter to Ovando, declaring his satisfaction that he should have 
 the management of affairs, and defending himself (as lie gener 
 ally did when feeling guilty) from a charge which had not been 
 made against him, namely, that his designs in returning to His 
 paniola were not of a loyal character. 154 
 
 With this missive, Escobar departed, leaving the disap 
 pointed Spaniards again to lament, with some cause, let us 
 admit, having joined their fortunes with those of a man so 
 despised and distrusted by their sovereigns, as circumstances 
 showed Columbus to be. 
 
 The disaffected rallied around the brothers Porras, and were 
 loud in their complaints. Some, in distant parts, w^ould not 
 even believe that a ship had arrived and departed, but imagined 
 this to be but another of the numerous falsehoods with which 
 Columbus had cajoled and flattered them. It was in vain that 
 the latter sent part of the bacon and wine as tangible proofs of 
 his veracity. " The worthlessness of a man's word," says Irving, 
 " may always be known by the extravagant means he uses to 
 enforce it." Fully subscribing to this sentiment, we feel that 
 the rebels were justified in disbelieving Columbus, maugre his 
 bacon in an island where the commodity was scarce; at any 
 rate, they resolved to separate themselves from one whose bad 
 odor in Spain entailed upon his luckless followers such evil con 
 sequences, and who was, in himself, so little worthy of devotion 
 or self-sacrifice. 
 
 A fight ensued, in which several of the disaffected were killed. 
 Pedro de Ledesma, the pilot, who, by swimming ashore at Be- 
 len, had saved the lives of Bartholomew and his companions, was 
 now covered with wounds, inflicted by that same Bartholomew, 
 any one of which would have been sufficient to kill an ordinary 
 man. Such, however, was the vigor of his constitution, that he 
 recovered, to the astonishment of all. Porras was made pris 
 oner, and Bartholomew returned to the ships, having had the 
 
 164 Navarrete, " Colecc. Dip.," vol. ii., p. 486. 
 
DEVOTION OF MENDEZ. 
 
 341 
 
 best of the fight. The rebels offered to capitulate, and were, we 
 are told, generously pardoned by Columbus. It is probable 
 that he, too, was of the opinion that Porras, if heard, might have 
 something to say, and was therefore quite willing to come to 
 terms. He, however, detained Porras prisoner, in order to have 
 some hold on his followers. 
 
 At length two ships appeared, to the relief alike of Colum 
 bus and his enemies. One had been bought and fitted out by 
 the faithful Mendez, the other was provided by Ovando. 
 
 Mendez had thus nobly and indefatigably labored for the 
 accomplishment of his difficult mission. What reward, will be 
 asked, was given by the noble, the great-hearted Columbus for 
 such services ? He promised him the office of alguazil of His- 
 paniola. This post was, nevertheless, given by Diego Colum 
 bus, who had joined in the promise made by his father, to Bar 
 tholomew, and all the solicitations of Mendez were powerless to 
 procure any recognition of his devotion He died poor. 
 
 The king seems to have better appreciated the heroic deed 
 than he for whom it was performed. He granted Mendez a 
 coat-of-arms, upon which a canoe was engraved, in memory of 
 his perilous voyage. 
 
 /-'./.< "vr^ 
 
 A 
 
 FLYING-FISH. 
 
CHAPTEK XXVII. 
 
 DELIVERY OF COLUMBUS AND HIS COMPANIONS. HIS RETURN TO 
 SPAIN. HIS DEATH. 
 
 JUST a year had elapsed since the two shattered caravels had 
 stranded at Santa Gloria, when these two vessels reached Ja 
 maica in June, 1504. On the 28th all embarked and joyfully 
 bade farewell to the island which had so long been their prison. 
 The transit to Hispaniola was a tempestuous one. The vessel 
 was detained some days at the island Beata, whence Columbus 
 wrote a letter, full of gratitude and professions of submission, to 
 Ovando. 155 His conduct was soon to show the insincerity of 
 these professions ; even while he made them, he felt nothing but 
 enmity at heart toward the governor. 
 
 Upon his landing, on the 13th of August, at San Domingo, 
 Ovando received him with kindness and hospitality, installing 
 him in the government-house, and, during the whole of his stay, 
 treating him with urbanity and politeness. This is admitted by 
 even the advocates of Columbus. They would have it believed, 
 however, that Ovando's kindness was hypocritical, and cite as 
 proof of this that he proceeded to inform himself as to the par 
 ticulars of the late mutiny of Porras. This had taken place, be 
 it remembered, within his jurisdiction, but, as he did not blindly 
 accept, as convincing proof of the guilt of the mutineers, the 
 testimony of Columbus, the latter waxed wroth, and, notwith 
 standing the letters he had written to Ovando, recognizing -his 
 authority and promising submission to it, he now openly and 
 offensively declared that he was viceroy, and had, therefore, 
 greater power than Ovando. He professed the utmost indigna 
 tion that the latter should dare to question, or attempt to ascer- 
 
 155 Navarrete, " Colecc. Dip.," vol. ii., p. 487. 
 
COLUMBUS KETUKNS TO SPAIN. 343 
 
 tain, whether the six men who had been killed in Jamaica had 
 deserved their fate. Six human lives, he held, were as nothing 
 compared to his rank and dignity. 
 
 Ovando seems to have regarded this bluster with the amused 
 indulgence accorded to a spoiled and petulant child. He still 
 treated Columbus with polite consideration, but calmly pro 
 ceeded to the duties of his office. Investigation was made, the 
 result of which apparently went far to justify the mutiny ; for 
 Porras, though sent to Spain, was never punished. 
 
 Thoroughly disgusted with the state of affairs in San Do 
 mingo, and convinced that an attempt to reinstate himself in 
 power must be futile, Columbus now determined to return, with 
 all speed, to Spain. Two ships were placed at his disposal, and, 
 after a month's sojourn in Hispaniola, he set sail. A storm, 
 arising soon after his departure, carried away the mast of his 
 ship. He sent it back to port, and embarked on the second, 
 commanded by his brother Bartholomew. This homeward voy 
 age was one continued storm, 158 and his ship was in sorry plight 
 when, on the 7th of November, 1504, it landed him at San Lu- 
 car de la Barrameda. He was completely bedridden, and had 
 himself transferred immediately to Seville. 
 
 Here he no doubt learned the fruitlessness of his attempt to 
 excite the ambition of Genoa. She refrained from any espousal 
 of his cause. The Genoese evidently tacitly, if not openly, re 
 fused to have any dealings with him. This refusal has been 
 wrongly attributed, by some writers, to his low birth. 1 " 
 
 There is a letter to be found in Navarrete, bearing the date 
 
 156 The miraculous and extraordinary are made, as ever, to form a part of this 
 voyage. Fernando, in his relation of it, will not content himself with reporting a 
 terrific storm, such as might have been encountered by an ordinary mortal, but, in 
 order that this " incomparable man " may be made to display his ingenuity, we read : 
 
 " The weather being fair, and we very still, the mast flew into four pieces, but the 
 courage of the lieutenant (Bartholomew), and the admiral's ingenuity, though he could 
 not rise out of his bed for the gout, fonnd a remedy for this misfortune, making 
 a jury-mast of a yard, and strengthening the middle of it with ropes, and some planks 
 they took from the poop and stern." (" Historia del Amirante," chapter cviii.) 
 
 157 Ogilby, who makes Genoa the birthplace of Columbus, says that Peter Bezarus, 
 a countryman of Columbus, " gives unquestionable proofs of his mean extract, and, 
 among other things, that the commonwealth of Genoa refused to receive the great 
 legacy which Columbus left them in his will, because they fondly thought it a dero 
 gation to their honor, being so great a republic, to take any thing of bequest from a 
 fisher's son." (OGILBY, "America," chapter iii.) 
 
 23 
 
34:4: LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 of 1502, which purports to have been written by a "magistrate 
 of St. George " to Columbus, complimenting the latter in high 
 terms, but discussing none of the plans he had proposed. The 
 authenticity of this document may, however, be doubted, as we 
 find Columbus in 1504 complaining to Oderigo that no notice 
 has been taken of his proposals. 
 
 This hope dashed to the ground, he became, once more, 
 urgent in his appeals to the crown for a restitution of his digni 
 ties. We are told that he thought more of his titles and offices 
 than of the pecuniary privileges which had been accorded to 
 him. The reason for this is very evident : though his demands 
 for money were constant and exorbitant, yet he was aware that 
 the expenses of his enterprises had hitherto far exceeded his 
 profits, and he, no doubt, appreciated the impossibility of becom 
 ing rich by claiming the fulfillment of his bond in that quarter. 
 
 The crown was now awakened to the fact that it had no 
 power to grant the titles of viceroy and admiral in perpetuity ; 
 and the sovereigns, far from regretting .this, or desiring to over 
 step their prerogative, were rejoiced at this loop-hole through 
 which they were enabled to escape from the consequences of 
 their foolish concessions. 
 
 For these titles, Columbus, with the tenacity of age and the 
 puerility of childhood, solicited, but solicited in vain. The 
 queen, who had been in a critical condition at the time of his 
 arrival, expired a few days after, on the 26th of November, 1504. 
 Henceforth it was to Ferdinand alone that Columbus addressed 
 his demands ; but Ferdinand met them, as Isabella had clone, 
 with tacit refusal. 
 
 He was, at this time, wretchedly poor living by borrowing 
 and confesses that he " most times has not wherewithal to pay 
 his bill " at the tavern where he lodges. 
 
 He wrote to Ferdinand, inveighing against Ovando, assuring 
 that monarch that the latter was derelict in the performance of 
 his duties, careless of the treasure, and, above all, unpopular in 
 the island. It is strange that Columbus, who had been so ex 
 ceedingly hateful to the people of that same island, should bring 
 forward unpopularity as a proof of unworthiness, and still more 
 strange that he did not perceive that, in admitting unpopularity 
 to be a just cause tor the removal of an officer, he fully justified 
 the proceedings of Bobadilla toward himself. 
 
FRUITLESS APPEALS. 345 
 
 His letters were not noticed ; the Spanish court was weary 
 of this " nudo-nocchier promettitor di regni" (pauper-pilot prom- 
 iser of realms). He had failed in all he had promised, and, 
 while tenacious that others should fulfill their promises, he had 
 not fulfilled one of his. He had not visited the grand-khan ; he 
 had not brought tons of gold to Spain ; he had not opened the 
 commerce of the East to that kingdom ; he had not even dis 
 covered the strait, of the existence of which he had been so con 
 fident that he had been allowed, though in disgrace, to make a 
 fourth voyage in search of it. Yet these, by his own proposi 
 tion, were the services for which the privileges he claimed were 
 to be the guerdon ; all this, which he had agreed to accomplish, 
 and had not accomplished, was the basis of his contract. It is, 
 therefore, unjust to accuse the sovereigns of ingratitude in not 
 performing their part of it, when he had not performed his, even 
 could they legally have accorded to him the titles in question, 
 which we have shown they could not. 
 
 When written appeals failed, he proceeded *in person to 
 court, then held in Segovia. Once he attempted the journey, 
 but infirmity compelled him to abandon it. At length, in the 
 month of May, 1505, he reached his destination. 
 
 The king received him courteously, but we may imagine 
 that, when the infirm, impecunious, and aged man before him 
 sought to excite his interest and secure his favor by promising to 
 undertake another voyage, wherein all former ones should be 
 surpassed in services rendered, the sensible monarch must have 
 with difficulty refrained from smiling. 
 
 If Columbus, twelve years previous, had been unable to per 
 form what he had promised, how absurd would it have been to 
 expect him now, when bedridden and fast failing of old age, to 
 undertake voyages or render services! Ferdinand contented 
 himself with recommending to Columbus that he should rest 
 and nurse his infirmities. 
 
 He took no notice of his vindictive accusations against 
 Ovando; he even offered him titles which might compensate 
 him for those which the queen had, without authority, granted 
 him. These Columbus refused. The king then proposed to 
 leave the matter to arbitration, allowing Columbus to choose 
 the arbiter. He selected Diego de Deza, formerly Bishop of 
 Palencia, but since promoted to the archbishopric of Seville. 
 
346 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 This prelate was, we are told, the old and tried friend of Colum 
 bus. Of him the latter thus writes : " He was the cause that 
 their highnesses obtained possession of the Indies, who induced 
 me to remain in Castile when I was on the road to leave it." 
 And again : 
 
 " If the Bishop of Palencia has arrived, or should arrive, tell 
 him how much I have been gratified by his prosperity ; and 
 that, if I come, I shall lodge with his Grace, even though he 
 should not invite me ; for we must return to our ancient frater 
 nal affection." 
 
 Yet so evidently conscious was he of the illegality of his 
 claims that, having chosen this friendly arbiter, he would only 
 consent to submit to him the question of revenue, not that of 
 titles and hereditary offices. 
 
 This, of course, defeated the whole plan of arbitration, for it 
 was precisely the titles, and only the titles, which were matters 
 for arbitrament; the question of revenue could be settled by 
 any accountant. The matter, therefore, which might have now 
 been arranged with some possible advantage to Columbus, was 
 deferred. Unwilling to come to any but his own terms, and 
 these being impossible to accede to, he was again an unheeded 
 solicitor. It is about this time that we find him interesting 
 Yespucci in his behalf, and eager to profit by the good standing 
 of the latter at court (see chapter on Yespucci). 
 
 But the wretched old man was clinging to the vanities of the 
 world when on the very verge of the tomb. His malady, 
 aggravated by age, had increased rapidly, and his career was 
 near its close. When conscious that his end was approaching, 
 he sought to atone for the crimes of his life by strict religious 
 discipline ; he still wore the Franciscan garb token of hu 
 mility ; he sought to propitiate Heaven by redoubling in prayer 
 and fasting. 
 
 In the month of May, 1506, he made the codicils which we 
 have mentioned, and, on the 20th of that month, breathed his 
 last. 
 
 Well, perhaps, would it have been for him, had his name 
 been allowed to sink into oblivion. Well, certainly, would it 
 have been for justice, had not a fictitious glory been created for 
 him at the expense of truly good and great men, out of the 
 ruins of whose good names his renown had sprung up. 
 
CHAPTER XXYIII. 
 
 BTJEIAL OF COLUMBUS. HIS KEPUTED TOMBS AND MONUMENTS. 
 
 THE falsehoods which have been promulgated concerning 
 Columbus do not end at his death. We are told that, upon its 
 occurrence, Ferdinand allowed his conscience to direct him, and, 
 with tardy justice, ordered a magnificent tomb to be erected at 
 Seville to his memory, bearing the following inscription : 
 
 "A Castilla y a Leon 
 Nuevo mundo dio Colon." 
 
 Such an act on the part of the king would have been a tacit 
 admission that he had culpably neglected a great man who had 
 thus benefited Spain. That he gave no such orders, that no 
 monument was erected, is now an ascertained fact. 
 
 Mr. George Sumner, to whom we are indebted elsewhere, 
 comes again to our assistance and that of truth. He quotes the 
 inscription on the tomb of Fernando Columbus (the biographer, 
 who died some thirty years after his father) in the cathedral at 
 Seville, and reports the above inscription as forming a part of it. 
 He continues : 
 
 " Throughout all Spain I know of no other inscription to the 
 memory of Columbus. At Yalladolid, where he died, and where 
 his body lay for some years, there is none that I could discover, 
 neither is there any trace of any at the Cartuja, near Seville, 
 to which his body was afterward transferred, and in which his 
 brother was buried." 
 
 Thus the inscription existed only on the grave of Fernando, 
 illegitimate son of Columbus, who, having embraced an ecclesi 
 astical career and devoted himself to letters, left his library to 
 the Carthusian monks, on condition, we are told, of their placing 
 
348 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 over his grave, in the Cathedral of Seville, the above inscription. 
 He died, as we have said, more than thirty years after Columbus. 
 
 It is a noticeable fact that the Government of Spain has ever 
 abstained from any spontaneous recognition of Columbus and 
 the claims set up for him by historians. 
 
 It is alleged that his remains were removed from the convent 
 of the Franciscans, at Valladolid, to the Carthusian monastery 
 near Seville, in 1513, and that, in 1536, they were transported to 
 San Domingo, in Hispaniola. Be this as it may, we know that 
 when Spain, in 1795, ceded the island of Hispaniola to France, 
 she made no reservation of the ashes of Columbus, nor did she 
 contemplate their removal, as she naturally would have done, 
 had she regarded them in the light of national relics. 
 
 It was the officious zeal of the Admiral Aristozabal, who 
 was sent to aid in surrendering the island to the French, which 
 first imagined these remains to be of importance to Spain. So 
 little, evidently, was thought of them, that this same Aristoza 
 bal was only " informed " that they were deposited in the island 
 upon his arrival there. The information, however, stirs up his 
 patriotism ; he will not permit them to repose on French soil, 
 and desires that their re-retranslation shall be of an official char 
 acter, and accompanied with that kind of pomp and display 
 which would have been so grateful to the living Columbus. The 
 governor of the island entered into this project, though he con 
 fessed he had received no instructions from the Spanish Govern 
 ment concerning the matter; but "as he had not time, without 
 great inconvenience," to consult the sovereign on the matter, he 
 and Aristozabal, with the eagerly-proffered cooperation of the 
 clergy, decided to act on their own responsibility, and transfer 
 these sacred remains to Havana, in Cuba. This was done, we 
 are told, with almost royal honors. But, however important the 
 bones of Columbus had become to Spain in 1795, they evidently 
 had not been much revered during the two hundred and fifty 
 years previous, and, when all is told, and the pompous pageant 
 which transported them to Havana described, it is by no means 
 certain that the bones and mould scraped up with such care were 
 the veritable ashes of Columbus. 158 If they were, why had they 
 
 158 M. De Lorgues, speaking of the disappearance of the TRUE CROSS (set np by 
 Columbus, which had worked so many miracles), says : " It is not strange that, in a 
 country ruined and terrified, it was not known what had become of the TRUE CROSS, 
 
FICTITIOUS HONORS, MONUMENTS, ETC. 349 
 
 been thus neglected ? why had the slab or panel which closed the 
 niche in the altar in which they are said to have lain, remained 
 uninscribed ? This attempt at honoring (when driven from the 
 island) remains w T hich had been allowed to repose unmarked for 
 more than two hundred and fifty years of residence and posses 
 sion, is too spasmodic and tardy to be regarded as the sponta 
 neous admission, on the part of Spain, that she was under obli 
 gations to the man Columbus, or to his memory, and, though 
 the above unauthorized acts of the governor and admiral are 
 said to have afterward received the sanction of the crown, it is 
 easy to perceive that this sanction was given, rather than, by dis 
 approval, to give greater notoriety to an unpleasant matter. 
 
 Thus the last stone of the structure is overturned. It seemed 
 to authors necessary, in order fitly to close their romances en 
 titled histories of Columbus, and their record of the persecutions 
 of which they represent him to have been the victim, to invent 
 a sort of poetic justice, by which Ferdinand is made to order the 
 erection of a superb monument with a pompous inscription, and, 
 stung by remorse, in this act to confess his ingratitude and in 
 justice. But, unfortunately for romance, though more fortu 
 nately for justice, this statement is a fiction ; the fiction has been 
 proved, and we are obliged to fear that the " cold and calculat 
 ing Ferdinand " descended to his grave, complacently conscious 
 of having treated Columbus as well as, if not better than, he 
 deserved. 
 
 Fortunate would it have been for the honor of these United 
 States, had their representatives, in this matter, acted as wisely 
 as did Spain. Then the brazen doors at the national Capitol, so 
 creditable, as works of art, to those who designed and cast them, 
 would have illustrated some worthier theme ; nor would the na 
 tion one day regret that Congress had felt it necessary to import 
 brass from Bavaria, and to expend the public treasure in caus 
 ing the bronze of Munich to symbolize a fiction. Here is 
 wrought, with artistic skill, the fabled " triumphal entry into 
 Barcelona," "full of the glory of success and waving banners. 
 
 .... when at San Domingo the exact burial-place of Columbus himself was forgot 
 ten." ("Christophe Colombe," vol. ii., livre iv., chapter viii.) 
 
 It may be that these relic-hunters unconsciously gathered the remains, of some 
 victim of " the admiral," which, if conscious of the label upon the box which con. 
 tained them, would indignantly start from their cerement. 
 
350 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 All the halo of rose- color seems now to light the future of the 
 great discoverer." 1B9 Yet this triumph is but a creation, as we 
 have shown, of imaginative brains the pageant never took 
 place, and the arrival of Columbus at Barcelona was unnoticed 
 by the chroniclers of that city, who recorded events of trivial 
 i mportance. 
 
 Anon, we see Columbus aroused to " stern indignation at the 
 capture of an Indian girl," which must cause those to smile who 
 remember how often he " ordered some Indians to be taken," 
 and who have marked his systematized efforts to establish a 
 slave-trade. 
 
 Nor can we pass over the injustice with which such men as 
 Yespucci and Pinzon are made to play the satellite to the pau 
 per pirate. 
 
 A wiser lesson might have been learned from Yenice. In 
 the grand hall, in the palace of the doges, many successive pan 
 els are filled with the portraits of doges who had reflected honor 
 upon the " mistress of the seas," and had aided in making Yen- 
 ice glorious. Over one, however, a dark veil is cast, and we 
 read : " They did not place his portrait in the hall of the great 
 council, but in the place where it should have been is the in 
 scription : ' Hio est locus Marini Faliero decapitati pro crimini- 
 bus* (This is the place of Marino Faliero, decapitated for his 
 crimes)." 16 
 
 O Yenice ! O "Washington ! How diverse are your stand 
 ards of legal and moral ethics ! For the same crime, one 
 mounts the scaffold, another is placed among the gods. 
 
 E"or does this brazen fiction " trammel up the consequences." 
 The district in which the nation has reared its temple is humili 
 ated by an effort to perpetuate the alias under which the pirati 
 cal Griego disappeared from the gaze of an injured people, while 
 states and municipalities will obscure the name of America by 
 planting t\\\ parasite from sea to sea. 
 
 When Europe, and Asia, and Africa, shall ask America how 
 long she will continue thus to honor the man, who after having 
 basely robbed the dead, falsely styled himself a discoverer, and 
 enslaved his fellow, what answer shall she make f 
 
 159 See official description, also chapter xiv. of this volume. 
 180 Hariri Sanuto, " Cronica," vol. xxii., p. 639. 
 
CHAPTEH XXIX. 
 
 CHAKACTEK OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 THE character of Columbus, as portrayed by his actions, does 
 not belie the impression given by his son's description of his per 
 sonal appearance. Hypocrisy is largely predominant ; to this 
 revolting trait, to the shame of humanity be it said, he owes 
 
 SLATE-ATTCTION. 
 
 most of his fame, for the Church, charmed with the devotion he 
 professed, has chanted his praises, and crushed any historian who 
 would not join in them, as long as her power was sufficient. In 
 our own day M. Roselly de Lorgues writes an enthusiastic and 
 
352 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 ecstatic panegyric, in which he relieves himself of his overbur 
 dening admiration by exclaiming, in huge capitals, " COLUMBUS 
 WAS A SAINT ! " And even American writers would warn off, as 
 from sacred precincts, the profane who, creeping around the idol, 
 would spy its feet of clay. 
 
 This blind partiality is, as we have said, in great -measure due 
 to Columbus's professions of religious zeal. This " great navi 
 gator," who had spent all his life at sea, cannot, on entering 
 upon his self-styled " holy mission," even speak in the language 
 of seamen ; he discards all nautical parlance, substituting religious 
 terms "I sailed so many leagues between vespers and com 
 plines." He sailed in the name of the Blessed Yirgin, the Holy 
 Trinity, and Jesus Christ. He commanded his ship, appropriate 
 ly (?) " clad in an humble garb, resembling in form and color the 
 habit of a Franciscan monk, simply girded with a cord, and suf 
 fered his beard to grow like the brethren of that order." Three 
 times out of four, when lots are cast to decide who shall perform 
 certain penance, by the skillful manipulation of a marked bean 
 he causes the lot to fall miraculously to him, " to show," his son 
 modestly observes, " that his offerings were more acceptable to 
 God than those of others." 
 
 All this religious affectation disgusts the truly reverent mind. 
 Above all, when we find what atrocious acts were committed 
 under its protection, and how widely the actions of Columbus 
 differed from his professions when he had attained his end, and 
 was far from all who could bring him to ac3ount. 
 
 On reaching the island of San Salvador, his first act was, we 
 are told, to fall on his face and kiss the sand ; his next, to take 
 possession for Castile ; his third, to make all swear allegiance to 
 him as Yiceroy of India. This done, he proceeded at leisure to 
 capture the unoffending natives, and bear them into slavery. 
 Years later, when his cruel government had driven Spaniards 
 and natives alike to desperation, so that they sent across the 
 ocean piteous appeals to be relieved from so merciless a tyrant, 
 we find him accused of refusing to permit the baptism of these 
 unfortunate Indians, for the welfare of whose souls he had pro 
 fessed such solicitude, because by embracing Christianity they 
 exempted themselves from slavery, and could no longer minister 
 to his love of gain. 
 
 His son tells us : " He was so strict in religious matters, that, 
 
HYPOCEISY OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 353 
 
 for fasting and saying the divine offices, he might be thought 
 professed in some religious order. So great was his aversion to 
 swearing and cursing, that I protest I never heard him swear 
 any other oath than by San Fernando, and when in the greatest 
 passion with anybody he would vent his spleen by saying, ' God 
 take you, for doing so and so.' When he was to write, his way 
 of trying his pen was by writing the words < Jesus cum Maria 
 fit nobis in via" and that in such a character as might very well 
 serve to get his bread." 
 
 The praises here given are somewhat equivocal. He does 
 not say \i\$ father's life and acts were such as to render him a 
 
 COLUMBUS TBIES nis PEN. 
 
 bright example of goodness, but that, for praying and fasting, 
 he might be thought to belong to some holy order. In matters 
 pertaining to religion both father and son seem to have de 
 pended more upon the form than the substance ; for reality and 
 practical piety they substituted show and profession, and were 
 far from conceiving the ideal of the poet who wrote : 
 
 " He prayeth best who loveth best 
 All creatures great and small, 
 For the good God who loveth us, 
 Hath made and loved them all." 
 
354 
 
 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 x/. / 
 
 < ^v* J-P- 
 
 m/ *tu 
 
 - A ,-S 
 
 ) 
 
 FAC SIMILE OF THE HANDwniTiNG AND SIGNATURE OF COLUMBUS. (From his MS9. deposited at Genoa.) 161 
 161 The above specimen of this exquisite handwriting would seem to suggest that copy 
 ists were at a premium. 
 
PROFANITY OF COLUMBUS. 355 
 
 To try one's pen with the words recorded by Fernando hardly 
 suits the inspiration of genuine reverence, while the gentle oath, 
 uttered with due vehemence, must have fully answered its pur 
 pose, and is vigorous enough to meet the requirements of the 
 modern Anglo-Saxon. 
 
 From some such original as Columbus, Moliere must have 
 draw his inimitable " Tartufe," who is disturbed by the sin of 
 having caught a flea while at prayers, and dispatched him with 
 anger; who advertises his wearing a hair shirt, and, withal, 
 would rob his dupe of home, fortune, and honor. Does not the 
 following seem strangely applicable to our hero ? 
 
 " The profession of hypocrite has marvelous advantages. 
 How many thus redeem the scandal of youth, and, sagely mak 
 ing a buckler and cloak of religion, indulge their favorite sins 
 with impunity ! "When found out, they are far from losing credit. 
 A penitent air, a sigh of mortification, two turns of the eyes, and 
 all goes on as before ! " 
 
 'No character in history has more truly, or, as regards pos 
 terity, more successfully made a cloak of religion wherewith to 
 hide an ungodly life, than did Christopher Columbus. But hy 
 pocrisy availed him less in his own day. He himself, as we 
 have shown, bears witness to the depth of ignominy into which 
 he had fallen in the estimation of his fellow-men. Throughout 
 his history, by whomsoever recounted, distrust and aversion are 
 traceable in those of every rank and degree who had dealings 
 with him, from the sovereigns to the " graceless cook." 
 
 Apparently no depravity could be attributed to him which 
 was too gross for belief, and it was but natural and fitting that 
 his ostentatious devotion and pious punctilio should augment 
 the odium in which he was held, while the manner in which he 
 represented himself as the chosen of God, THE CHRIST-BEAKEK, 
 and the familiar terms in which he speaks of the Deity, are re 
 volting in their blasphemy and hypocrisy. 
 
 But the feature of his life which chiefly troubles his would-be 
 canonizers is his private moral character, in which are many ugly 
 flaws which they are anxious to conceal or explain. Among 
 these is his open and notorious illicit amour with Beatrix Enri- 
 quez of Cordova, which continued during a series of years. Of 
 this there can be little doubt, notwithstanding the illogical and 
 unsuccessful attempts of Messrs. De Lorgues and Cadoret to 
 
356 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 establish a marriage ; 1M nor was it worth their while to attempt a 
 refutation of a so universally-accepted statement, even had they 
 been more fortunate in their mode of treating the subject. Co 
 lumbus stands unanswerably convicted of many atrocious deeds 
 beside which his illicit amours sink into insignificance. "Why 
 labor, then, to acquit him of an offense, while all the world is 
 supposed to know that he was guilty of crimes f ]STor is it less 
 absurd to allege that his being guilty of such an offense would 
 have called down upon him the indignation and censure of the 
 Church, and the displeasure of Isabella. Was it for the Church, 
 at whose head was the licentious and intriguing Borgia (Alex 
 ander VI.), to reprove one of its minor devotees for such peca- 
 dillos ? Was it for Ferdinand, with his various mistresses 
 and illegitimate children, or for his wife? Such an episode 
 may rather have been supposed to his credit, and it is worse 
 than futile to attempt to square his actions by any high moral 
 standard. 
 
 One of the arguments brought forward by M. Cadoret to 
 prove that Beatrix was the wife, not the mistress, of Columbus, 
 and which he appears to consider convincing, is, that neither Bo- 
 badilla, Ovando, nor Fonseca, ever accused him of illicit connec 
 tions, and that they, as his enemies, would surely have done so 
 had there been foundation for such an accusation. 
 
 Not to repeat what we said above about the morals of the 
 times, Bobadilla, Ovando, and Fonseca are reported, even by 
 their enemies and detractors, to have been gentlemen by birth 
 and breeding. The first two were sent to Hispaniola to exam 
 ine into Columbia's conduct as governor, not into his private 
 character. The third had the direction of financial matters con 
 cerning the islands, and his relations with Columbus did not 
 extend beyond the functions of his office. The duties of all 
 three only extended to his official career, and we may presume 
 they neither troubled themselves about, nor would have had the 
 indelicacy to force upon the public and crown, the details of his 
 private life. 
 
 The fact that Columbus on his death-bed recommended Bea 
 trix to the care of his son Diego, and his seeming remorse at hav- 
 
 188 A Life of Columbus, by the Abb6 Cadoret appeared in 1869, and is, we be- 
 Here, the latest effort that has been made to prove a marriage between Beatrix and 
 Columbus. 
 
COLUMBUS AND BEATRIX. 357 
 
 ing neglected her, is also dwelt upon by M. Cadoret as proof of 
 his marriage to her. 
 
 "Neglect," he says, "when capable of stirring the con 
 science, must necessarily have been practised toward a legiti 
 mate wife." 163 Thus we are taught that the man who leads an 
 unfortunate woman to shame and ruin, begets children by her, 
 and then abandons her to poverty and disgrace, need feel neither 
 remorse nor qualms of conscience. The brutality of such a senti 
 ment need scarcely be dwelt upon, particularly as emanating 
 from an avowed disciple of Him who said : " Neither do I con 
 demn thee ; go and sin no more." 
 
 The denial of Columbus's illicit connection with Beatrix is 
 of recent date, and has been set on foot by that school of the 
 ologians who desire his canonization. Heretofore his most ar 
 dent admirers, even ministers of the Church, have admitted it. 
 Spotorno, considering it futile to deny, seeks to make it redound 
 to the advantage of his hero. " In yielding to his passions," he 
 writes, " our navigator showed that he was but a man. In 
 avowing his fault he exhibited the sincerity of his religious 
 faith." Father Spotorno did not foresee, when he wrote the 
 above, that a school should arise among his brethren, whose 
 object should be to prove that "our navigator " was more than a 
 man 
 
 Irving, that warmest and most eloquent advocate of Colum 
 bus, writes : 
 
 " Though Columbus had now relinquished all expectations of 
 patronage from the Castilian sovereigns, he was unwilling to 
 break off all connection with Spain. A tie of a tender nature 
 still bound him to that country. During his first visit to Cor 
 dova, he had conceived a passion for a lady of that city, 
 named Beatrix Enriquez. This attachment has been given as 
 an additional cause of his lingering so long in Spain, and bear 
 ing with the delays he experienced. Like most of the particu 
 lars of this part of his life, his connection with this lady is 
 wrapped in obscurity. It does not appear to have been sanc 
 tioned by marriage." m 
 
 Major, of the British Museum, asserts that, "but for an at 
 tachment which he (Columbus) had formed at Cordova, which 
 
 163 Cadoret, " Vie de Christophe Colombe," appendice, p. 402. 
 
 164 Irving, " Columbus," book ii., chapter vi. 
 
358 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 made him reluctant to leave Spain, he would, in all probability, 
 have repaired to France. 1 " 
 
 A thorough knowledge of the -'character of Columbus, as 
 portrayed in his acts, and an observance of the motives which 
 actuated him after the commencement of his voyages, render 
 some such explanation as that given by Irving and Major neces 
 sary to account for his remaining in Spain. It goes far to throw 
 light on dark places. We have already seen how the difficulties 
 said to have been raised in opposition to his schemes have been 
 grossly exaggerated, if not invented. The pecuniary outlay 
 necessary for the execution of his project was eventually sup 
 plied by private individuals and by the little town of Palos, 
 without difficulty. The delay, then, was not cau'sed by any of 
 the reasons generally given. How much more probable that 
 Columbus, the unprincipled pirate, should have preferred for a 
 time a life of easy dalliance at Cordova with Beatrix, supported 
 by his friends Juan Perez and Pinzon ! When wearied of it he 
 closed his negotiations and proceeded on his voyage. 
 
 There is much reason to believe that Columbus's private 
 morals were impure. His sickness and distemper, so often men 
 tioned, but so lightly dwelt upon by his biographers, were 
 attended by such symptoms as to have led some to suppose that 
 he was afflicted, not by the gout, but by that dreadful scourge 
 which licentiousness has entailed upon man. 166 
 
 165 Major, " Select Letters of Columbus," introduction, p. 52. 
 
 166 Yoltaire may have spoken, and probably did speak, figuratively, when he said : 
 " So man is not born wicked. How comes it, then, that so many are infected with the 
 pestilence of wickedness ? It is because they who bear rule over them, having caught 
 the distemper, communicate it to others ; as a woman, having the distemper which 
 Christopher Columbus brought from America, has spread the venom all over Europe." 
 But, however pertinent or impertinent to Columbus the above obscure allusion to him 
 may have been, the great French philosopher was certainly mistaken in his assertion 
 that the disease in question was of modern origin, or that it was brought to Europe 
 from America. Mr. Prescott, in a foot-note, refers the curious on this subject to a 
 work entitled "Lettere sulla Storia de' Mali Venerei, di Domenico Thiene, Venezia. 
 1823." "In this work," he says, "the author has assembled all the early notices of 
 the disease of any authority, and discussed their import with great integrity and 
 judgment. The following positions may be considered as established by his re 
 searches : 1. That neither Columbus nor his son, in their copious narratives and 
 correspondence, allude, in any way, to the existence of such a disease in the New 
 World. I must add," continues Mr. Prescott, " that an examination of the original 
 document published by Navarrete since the date of Dr. Thiene's work, fully confirms 
 this statement. 2. That among the frequent notices of the disease, during the 
 
SELF-AGGRANDIZEMENT HIS OBJECT. 359 
 
 It is strange that historians should persist in representing 
 Columbus to have been inspired by lofty and religious enthu 
 siasm when undertaking hil voyage of so-called discovery. In 
 view of the facts, can it really be supposed that it was devotion 
 
 twenty-five years immediately following the discovery of America, there is not a 
 single intimation of its having been brought from that country ; but, on the con 
 trary, a uniform derivation of it from some other source, generally France. 3. That 
 the disorder was known and circumstantially described previous to the expedition 
 of Charles VIII., and, of course, could not have been introduced by the Spaniards 
 in that way, as vulgarly supposed. 4. That various contemporary authors trace its 
 existence, in a variety of countries, as far back as 1493 and the beginning of 1494, 
 showing a rapidity and extent of diffusion perfectly irreconcilable with its importation 
 by Columbus in 1493. 5. Lastly, that it was not till after the close 'of Ferdinand and 
 Isabella's reigns that the first work appeared, affecting to trace the origin of the dis 
 ease to America." 
 
 If the conclusions at which Mr. Prescott and Dr. Thiene have arrived, be correct, 
 it is not certain that the authorities cited by them sustain their verdict. Fernando 
 Columbus, who is represented as silent upon this subject, says (" Historia del Ami- 
 rante," chapter Ixxiv.): "The admiral being come to San Domingo .... found 
 that abundance of those he had left were dead, and, of those that remained, above one 
 hundred and sixty were sick of the French pox." 
 
 In chapter Ixi. he also states that " it had pleased His Divine Majesty .... to send 
 such scarcity of provisions and such violent diseases among them " (the natives) " that 
 they were reduced to one-third of what they had been at first, to make it appear more 
 plain that such miraculous victories, and the subduing of nations, are his right, and 
 not the effect of our power or conduct." 
 
 This loathsome visitation, in which Fernando professes to see the divine hand, 
 appears to have formed a portion of the blessings borne by Columbus, certainly from 
 Spain to Hispaniola, or from Hispaniola to Spain, probably both; and one of the re 
 sults of his voyage was the conversion of Europe into a charnel-house, or vale of 
 Hinnom, and the reduction of the population of the island to one-third of its former 
 numbers. 
 
 Upon this subject it may be well to consult the history of the period. Peter Martyr, 
 alluding to the case noticed by Fernando at San Domingo, says : " Such as desired to be 
 cured of the troublesome disease of the pox," used a decoction of guaiacan-wood, which 
 remedy, he informs us, was soon employed in the treatment of patients in Europe, " to 
 draw the unhappy disease out of the bones and marrow." So efficacious did the wood 
 and bark of this tree prove, that the pious Spaniards, after having tested its virtues, 
 named it " the holy tree." Herrera would have us regard this disease as of American 
 origin. Alluding to the case mentioned by Fernando and Peter Martyr, he says : 
 " Provisions now growing very scarce, many of the Spaniards fell sick ; but, what was 
 worse, by having to do with the Indian women, they contracted a distemper common 
 enough among the natives, but altogether unknown to them (the Spaniards), which occa 
 sioned them to break out in blotches all over their bodies, of which many died, and 
 others, thinking to be cured by change of air, returned to Spain, and spread the dis 
 temper there. However, it pleased God that the same place afforded the remedy as 
 gave the evil, for, some time after, an Indian woman, wife to a Spaniard, showed the 
 use of the wood called guaiacan, which relieved them. This is the disease now com 
 monly known by the name of the French pox." (Herrera, Decade I., book v., chapter v.) 
 24 
 
360 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 to tlie Church, to Christianity, which made him haunt and im 
 portune the court of Spain for years ? Was he, in truth, actu 
 ated by a noble desire to benefit a benighted portion of human- 
 ty, or does he not rather appear to have been stimulated by 
 
 In Ramusio's great work we find the following: "Your majesty may be assured that 
 this sickness comes from the Indies, and is very common among the Indians ; but it is 
 not as virulent in those parts as among us, so that the Indians cure themselves easily 
 in those islands with the wood (guaiacan), and in terra firma with herbs, or things 
 they know of, for they are great herbalists. 27ie first time that this sickness was seen in 
 Spain was after Don Christopher Columbus had discovered the Indies and returned 
 to these parts ; and some Christians that came with him, who had accompanied him 
 on his discovery, and those also who had gone with him on his second voyage, of 
 whom there were many, brought over this sickness, and by them it was communicated 
 to other persons. And in the year 1495, when the great captain, Don Gonsalvo Fer- 
 rando, of Cordoba, passed into Italy with troops to support the King of Naples, Don 
 Ferdinand the Younger, against the King of France, by command of the Catholic 
 sovereigns, Don Ferdinand and Dona Isabella of immortal memory, ancestors of your 
 majesty, the sickness was brought over by some Spaniards, and that was the first 
 time it was seen in Italy ; and, as this was the time when the French, with the afore 
 said King Charles, came into Italy, the Italians called the sickness French sickness, 
 and the French called it Naples sickness, because they had never known it till this 
 war, after which it was disseminated throughout Christendom, and passed into 
 Africa." (RAMUSIO, tome iii., p. 65.) 
 
 Army surgeons, and those familiar with the rapid spread of this disease, especially 
 when aided by camp-followers, will not, we think, regard the time intervening between 
 the return of Columbus and the developments above noted as too brief for compass 
 ing the wide-spread ruin generally recorded of this period. 
 
 Captain Jonathan Carver, in his account of travel in the Northwest, notices the 
 successful manner in which the Indians residing in regions remote from civilization, 
 treat this disease, displaying a skill evidently not acquired from contact with the 
 white race. 
 
 The disease in question is undoubtedly of far earlier origin than the advent of 
 Columbus in the Western islands. Its presence may be traced to the most ancient 
 times, in writings both sacred and profane. 
 
 " His bones are full of the sin of his youth, which shall lie down with him in the 
 dust," saith Job. 
 
 The Hindoo sacred writings, probably older than Job, contain evident allusions 
 to this malady, among others the following : " Every man who has contracted disease 
 from the use or abuse of women, shall be impure while it continues, and for ten days 
 and ten nights after his restoration. . . . The mat of his bed is defiled, and must be 
 burned. . . . The horse, the camel, the elephant, on which he may ride on pilgrim 
 ages, shall be impure, and shall be washed in water wherein is dissolved a sprig of 
 cousa." 
 
 We read in Herodotus that, after the Scythians had overrun Asia, and were 
 advancing upon Egypt, Psammetichus met them in Palestine, and, by presents and 
 entreaties, prevailed upon them to return to their homes; that the Scythians, on 
 their homeward march, came to Ascalon ; that the greater part of their body passed 
 through without molesting it, but that some remained behind and plundered the tem 
 ple of the Celestial Venus ; that " upon the Scythians who plundered this temple, 
 
AYAEICE AND AMBITION OF COLCJMBUS. 361 
 
 avarice, petty ambition, and vanity ? A perusal of the condi 
 tions lie laid down suffices to convince us that the latter was the 
 case. He affects love for Christ, for the Blessed Virgin. He 
 would be the bearer of the Gospel to heathen nations, would 
 
 and, indeed, upon all their posterity, the deity entailed a fearful punishment they 
 were afflicted with the female disease. The Scythians themselves confess that their 
 countrymen suffered this malady in consequence of the above crime." It seems 
 probable that the Scythians in question, not only plundered the temple of the god 
 dess, but received from her priestesses, whose lives were not the most chaste, the 
 disease which thereafter afflicted them and their posterity. The fifteenth chapter of 
 Leviticus contains instructions for cleanliness, evidently looking to this disease. 
 The ordinance of circumcision is an ancient one, and was instituted to check its rav 
 ages. Herod of Judea died of it. Many references to ancient history might be 
 made, tending to establish an antiquity much higher than that of the Spaniards in 
 Hispaniola. In Europe its presence is traced as early at least as 1347. Jane I., 
 Queen of the two Sicilies, ordered, in that year, that a public brothel be set up at 
 Avignon, that the " wenches who played there " should be examined every Saturday 
 by the abbess and a surgeon, " and if any of them had contracted any illness by 
 their whoring, they should 'not be suffered to prostitute themselves, lest the youth 
 who conversed with them should catch their distemper." Thus it appears that, more 
 than a hundred years previous to the siege of Naples, in 1495, the date of the dissemina 
 tion of the venereal disease, as fixed by many authors, we find regulations for preventing 
 its spread. It seems probable that the inhabitants of Hispaniola may, like those of 
 the Old World, have engendered this scourge, but it did not originate with them. It 
 is true that, shortly after the return of Columbus from his first voyage, Europe be 
 came one vast lazar-house. But this was owing, not to the introduction of a new 
 disease, but to the increased virulence of one already known, consequent upon sexual 
 intercourse between persons of diverse races, white and dark. The disease, which 
 before had been curable when contracted between members of the Caucasian family, 
 when communicated by the Spaniards to the islanders of Hispaniola, and in a few 
 days returned by the latter with interest, became, to the inhabitants of Europe, a new 
 disease, which baffled the skill of the physician. Thus was inaugurated an " irrepres 
 sible conflict" or war of races, by which some of the Western islands were nearly 
 depopulated. Many are the conjectures and explanations as to the origin of. this 
 virus. Some attempt to account for it by the use of water from poisoned wells ; 
 others, to lime mixed with the blood of diseased patients at the hospital of St. Laza 
 rus. Phioravanti says that, in 1466, during the war between Alfonso V. of Arragon, 
 and John, Duke of Anjou, provisions becoming scarce in both camps, the purveyors 
 privately cut up the bodies of the slain, and dressed and sold them to the men for 
 food ; that, shortly, those who thus ate, broke out in ulcers, and, in a word, had the 
 venereal disease. The French named this the Neapolitan disease, because they had 
 contracted it in the kingdom of Naples. The Spanish and Italians called it the 
 French disease, which name it bears to this day in Africa and the Turkish Empire. 
 Some writers pronounce this scourge to be a special judgment from God, as the pun 
 ishment of the wickedness of kings, priests, or people, as their peculiar notions sug 
 gest. 
 
 It is more reasonable, however, to suppose that, since the world began, the same 
 disease has been a punishment for the transgression of the same laws (see Sanger on 
 prostitution, and Ricord on venereal, for matter not here noticed). 
 
362 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 reclaim the Holy Sepulchre, annihilate the infidel, provided the 
 sovereigns will pay him well with offices, titles, riches, and hon 
 ors without all these he refuses to become the messenger of 
 Christ to the New World. " He would not abate one tittle of 
 his princely exactions." The heathen might die unconverted, 
 and their souls be eternally damned, unless he obtain all he 
 asked, and his demands were most exorbitant. "We cannot won 
 der that, when the sovereigns heard this remarkably disinterested 
 offer, it " caused them to smile " in mingled pity and contempt 
 at the arrogance of the " pauper pilot," who proposed to raise a 
 vast army at his own (or rather the sovereigns') expense, yet 
 had not a maravedi wherewith to purchase a decent doublet to 
 appear in their presence. 
 
 And if religion had little to do with his undertaking, science 
 had still less. Notwithstanding his boasted learning in all that 
 pertains to geography, astronomy, navigation, the form and size 
 of our planet (and he and his biographers certainly set up high 
 claims), he stands before the world as a deliberate falsifier of the 
 learning of his age, in order that he may appear wise at the 
 expense of the truth of history ; and, nevertheless, succeeds in 
 writing himself down most ignorant in the very sciences wherein 
 he claims superhuman knowledge. We have seen his theory as 
 to the earth's shape elsewhere. He writes : 
 
 " I affirm that the globe is not spherical." 
 
 And, to crown all his learned affirmations, he says : 
 
 " The world is but small. Out of seven divisions, the dry 
 part occupies six, and the seventh is entirely covered by water. 
 Experience has shown it, and I have written it with quotations 
 from the Holy Scripture." m 
 
 His theories on the compass are unique : 
 
 "This morning," writes Fernando, "the Dutch compasses, 
 varied, as they used to do, a point, and those of Genoa, that 
 used to agree with them, varied but a very little ; but after 
 ward, sailing east, vary more, which is a sign we are one hun 
 dred leagues or more west of the Azores. . . . 
 
 " The Dutch needles varied a point, those of Genoa cutting 
 the north-pole." 
 
 These variations Columbus attributes to the " several sorts of 
 loadstone the needles are made by, for, till they come just to 
 
 167 Letter to the sovereigns, July 7, 1503. 
 
HIS THEORY OF THE COMPASS. 363 
 
 that longitude, they all varied a point, and there some held it ; 
 and those of Genoa cut the north star." 
 
 "I believe," continues this learned navigator, ''the star 
 (pole) has the quality of the four quarters, as has the needle, 
 which, if touched to the east side, points to the east, and so of the 
 west and south; and, therefore, he that makes the compass 
 covers the loadstone with a cloth, all but the north part of it, 
 viz., that which has the virtue to make steel point north." ] 
 
 It would be difficult to imagine any thing more ambiguous 
 and absurd than this affected science and real ignorance. This 
 ignorance, which is so palpable to us, has not been so ignored 
 by learned men as most biographers of Columbus would lead us 
 to suppose. Las Casas calls him " an unlettered admiral." 
 Humboldt says he was " a wholly unlettered seaman," and that 
 " he was but little familiar with mathematics ; " that he " made 
 false observations in the neighborhood of the Azores," and re 
 gards him as " in absolute want of a knowledge of natural his 
 tory." M. de Lorgues, a member of the Imperial Academy of 
 Sciences, is " astonished at the ignorance of Columbus," and we 
 have, on the same authority, that "several navigators of his 
 time were regarded as his superiors in public opinion." 
 
 It is amusing to observe how ingeniously the admirers of 
 Columbus pass over some circumstances, conceal or distort 
 others, that all things may work together to prove the greatness 
 of their hero. Witness the case of the two eclipses. The one 
 he rightly predicts to the Indians is regarded as proof of his 
 wonderful scientific knowledge ; the miscalculation of eighteen 
 degrees he makes in computing the other, is ascribed to his 
 incorrect " tables of eclipse." 
 
 His biographers would have the world believe that his career 
 of piracy was rendered reputable by reason of the alleged preva 
 lence of that crime that it was a fashion into which Christian 
 nations had fallen and lead us to infer that it was a popular if 
 not a commendable vocation. The error of such a conclusion is 
 apparent. Rienzi (the last of the tribunes) and the good people 
 of his time were opposed to piracy, as Gibbon, in his " Decline 
 and Fall of the Roman Empire," bears witness in the following 
 relation : 
 
 "Martin Ursini had pillaged a shipwrecked vessel at the 
 
 lea Historia del Amirante," chapter Ixiii. 
 
364: LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 mouth of the Tiber. His name, the purple of the two cardinals 
 (his uncles), a recent marriage, and a mortal disease, were dis 
 regarded by the inexorable tribune who had chosen his victim. 
 The public officers dragged him from his palace and nuptial 
 bed. His trial was short and satisfactory. The bell of the Capi 
 tol convened the people. Stripped of his mantle, on his knees, 
 and his hands bound behind his back, he heard the sentence of 
 death, and, after a short confession, Ursini was led aw r ay to the 
 gallows. After such an example, none, who were conscious of 
 guilt, could hope for impunity, and the flight of the wicked, the 
 licentious, and the idle, soon purified the city and territory of 
 Rome. . . . At this time," the historian tells us, "Rome was still 
 the metropolis of the Christian world." 
 
 If such were the punishment incurred by one who had plun 
 dered an abandoned vessel, what should have been visited upon 
 the plunderer of the Flanders galleys, the slaughterer of their 
 crews, who had been guilty of many former piratical crimes ? 
 
 How can we expect to read the truth regarding a man whose 
 faults, ignorance, and crimes, are thus dealt with ? After encoun 
 tering many of these inconsistencies (and they abound in the 
 various histories of the man) we naturally lose confidence in all 
 the statements, particularly of a laudatory character, which these 
 too partial historians have made. 
 
 "What did Columbus originate, save fiction ? Certainly not 
 the idea of a western passage to India, for Fernando tells us 
 that " the second motive that encouraged the admiral .... was 
 the great authority of learned men who said that it was possible 
 to sail from the western coast of Africa and Spain, westward, to 
 the eastern bounds of India, 169 and much more to the same pur 
 pose. 
 
 The form and size of the earth, the proportions of land and 
 water of which it is composed, were earlier known and better 
 understood by others than by himself; nor did he, we have 
 shown, discover the variations of the magnetic needle. Most 
 assuredly he did not discover America, or the islands adjacent 
 thereto, as we have already made manifest by relating the cir 
 cumstances which put him in possession of the fact that lands 
 lay at such a distance to the west. 
 
 Gain was his great object, love of gold, not science or reli- 
 
 189 " Historia del Amirante," chapter vii. 
 
COLUMBUS WOULD PURCHASE PARADISE. 365 
 
 gion, his motive power. Gold was his god ; to acquire riches 
 he became a pirate and a slave-dealer, and the same desire 
 prompted him to profess religion, attend mass, and repeat all the 
 canonical hours these were but baits wherewith he sought to 
 catch the precious metal. He affects to believe that with gold 
 he may purchase even the kingdom of heaven. He writes to 
 the sovereigns : 
 
 " Gold is the most precious of all commodities ; gold consti 
 tutes treasure, and he who possesses it has all he needs in this 
 world, as also the means of rescuing souls from purgatory and 
 restoring them to the enjoyments of paradise." 
 
 We do not wonder at the crimes of the man who propounds 
 such a doctrine. Inordinate love of gold will surely steel the 
 heart to all the noble impulses of humanity, but we must won 
 der that such a man should be admired and lauded ; above all, 
 that he should become a candidate for canonization. 
 
 His whole conduct relative to his " great and glorious under 
 taking " was deceit : he traded upon information received from 
 one who could no longer assert his claims, and extorted the 
 most extravagant rewards as the price of revealing such informa 
 tion. 
 
 The eulogists of Columbus, perceiving how obstinately he 
 persisted in asserting that he had visited Asia, and desiring to 
 prove him honest, even if ignorant, say that he died in the per 
 suasion that he really had reached Asiatic India. His son, how 
 ever, never supposed such to be the case, but that, "because he 
 knew all men were sensible of the riches and wealth of India, 
 therefore by that name he sought to tempt their Catholic majes 
 ties, by telling them he went to discover India by way of the 
 West." This statement is apparently truthful. Columbus pro 
 fessed to be sailing to Asia to pour its wealth into the coffers of 
 Spain ; and what merchandise did he take with him to exchange 
 for the precious wares of the richest lands of the earth ? Glass 
 beads ! Hawk-bells ! Trifles it would be an insult to offer any 
 but the most primitive races. It must be evident to every re 
 flective mind that such worthless baubles were never intended to 
 be the medium of trade and barter with the enlightened mer 
 chants of the East. The idea is preposterous, and the fact that 
 Columbus supplied himself with them shows plainly that he had 
 not only been informed of the location of the islands he pro- 
 
366 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 fessed to discover, but also of the nature of tlieir inhabitants. He 
 availed himself of the protection and treasure of Spain and the 
 Pinzons, avowedly that he might sail to India by a western pas 
 sage, an idea which had been popular with the Portuguese for 
 many years, but with the real object of reaching lands in the 
 West, of the existence and situation of which he had perfect 
 knowledge. 
 
 He would have been more than ordinarily ignorant not to 
 have known that the latitude and longitude of the Canaries, or 
 Fortunate Islands, as well as of the port in India to which he 
 professed to be sailing, had been determined many centuries, 
 and that, therefore, seven hundred and fifty leagues west of the 
 former could not bring him to India beyond the Ganges. That 
 he desired others to think this is, however, evident, from the 
 shameful oath he required his men to take in the island of Cu 
 ba. Moreover, in his letter to his son Diego, in which he urges 
 the latter to profit by the influence of Amerigo Vespucci at 
 court, after enjoining secrecy, he says, "Let his majesty be 
 lieve that his ships were in the richest and best parts of the 
 Indies." This information, which appears to us fully to reveal 
 the systematic deceit of Columbus, has been considerably soft 
 ened by the English translators of his letter. They render 
 " crea su majestad, let his majesty believe " (crea being the im 
 perative of the verb), by the words "his majesty believes" 
 which renders the phrase more ambiguous, and the fraud en 
 joined not so palpable. 
 
 The deceitful and treacherous acts of Columbus pervade his 
 whole career. His contemporaries rarely gave credence to his 
 statements, and he himself did not expect to be believed by those 
 who knew him well, as is made manifest by the swinish evidence 
 of his veracity which he thought necessary to send his men in 
 Jamaica. Nor is this incredulity to be wondered at when we 
 reflect upon 'the absurdity of many of his assertions. He laid 
 claim to supernatural powers, and professed to believe in sorcery : 
 
 " In Cariari and the neighboring country, there are great en 
 chanters of a very fearful character." 
 
 His son tells us the Porrases persuaded their followers in 
 Jamaica that " the coming of the caravel with news of Diego 
 Mendez might make no impression on them. They intimated 
 to them that it was no true caravel, but a phantom made by art- 
 
COLUMBUS A MAGICIAN. 
 
 367 
 
 magic, the admiral being very skillful in that art. 170 "We need 
 not dwell upon the lack of dignity which Columbus' s claim to 
 such a knowledge makes evident. 
 
 The two prevailing traits of his character, hypocrisy and de 
 ceit, rarely, if ever, exist without their accompanying vices, 
 cowardice and cruelty ; and he is no exception to the rule, as 
 the shocking cruelty with which he murdered Moxico and en 
 slaved the Indians, the perfidy which he displayed in the capture 
 of the chief Caonabo, with many other of his acts, will prove, 
 while his quailing before Eoldan conferring upon him office, 
 
 CONVEESION OF THE HEATHEN. (From De Biy's Las Casas.) 
 
 lands, slaves, and other property, giving him certificates of good 
 character and conduct, while secretly traducing him to the sover 
 eignsleaves no doubt of his cowardice. 
 
 Humanity stands appalled at his frightful manifestations of 
 cruelty, even as they are faintly portrayed by his too partial 
 biographers. That delight in blood and thirst for gain which led 
 him to embrace the life of a pirate and slave-catcher for the first 
 fifty or sixty years of his life, did not abandon him when he as 
 sumed the mission of Christ-bearer. 
 
 " Historia del Amirante," chapter cvi. 
 
368 
 
 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 If we need proof of this let us picture to ourselves, for a 
 moment, those beautiful islands, their glowing vegetation and 
 balmy climate, as first seen by Columbus. The peaceful and 
 innocent inhabitants received him with childlike wonder and 
 noble hospitality, imagining, alas ! that those white-winged ships 
 bore messengers from the skies. They eagerly tendered gifts, 
 among which were the little ornaments of gold which were to be 
 the cause of all their misery ; for no sooner did the eyes of Co 
 lumbus rest upon them, than he formed extravagant ideas of the 
 riches he was to acquire without labor. Let us turn our eyes, 
 
 CONVERSION OF THE HEATHEN. (From De Bry's Las Casas.) 
 
 then, upon these same beautiful islands when this blood-thirsty 
 pirate, who blasphemously assumed the name of "Christ- 
 bearer," had sown desolation among them ; when the shrieks of 
 the tortured, the groans of the captives who labor unceasingly, 
 the cries of women and maidens whom husbands and fathers 
 dare no longer protect, resound within their once peaceful shores ; 
 when he whom they had supposed a messenger from heaven, 
 has brought among them the miseries of hell ; and, as we mark 
 the contrast, and remember how all this cruelty is wrought in 
 the name of religion, the man Columbus inspires us with such 
 horror and disgust that we are amazed there should exist histo- 
 
NATIVES SORELY OPPRESSED. 
 
 369 
 
 rians who cry out with pity and indignation when he is sent 
 from the scenes of his crimes in chains, yet find neither pity nor 
 indignation for his thousand victims whose chains had been their 
 least sufferings. 
 
 Let us remember, too, that, of the people whom he thus tor 
 tured and enslaved, Columbus had once written : 
 
 " So loving, so tractable, so peaceful are these people that I 
 swear to your majesties there is not in the world a better na- 
 
 "Now (the captive cazique) being bound to the post, in order to his execution, a certain holy monk, 
 of the Franciscan order, discoursed with him concerning God and the articles of our faith, . . . 
 promising him eternal glory and repose if he truly believed them, or otherwise everlasting tor 
 ments. After that Hathney had been silently pensive some time, he asked the monk whether 
 the Spaniards also were admitted to heaven, and he answering that the gates of heaven were 
 open to all that were good and godly, the cazique replied, without further consideration, that he 
 would rather go to hell than heaven, for fear he should associate in the same mansion with so san 
 guinary a nation." (LAS CASAS, " Crudelitates Hispanorum.") 
 
 tion. They love their neighbors as themselves, their discourse is 
 ever sweet and gentle, and, though it is true they are naked, yet 
 their manners are decorous and praiseworthy." 
 
 There are natures whose faults we admit, but whose noble 
 qualities outbalance those faults whose very failings seem to 
 render them more attractive, as being rather noble excesses than 
 defects. Truly great and noble men are often assailed by the 
 
370 
 
 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 public, and condemned by party-spirit ; but we always find that 
 those who were nearest them, seeing them daily in familiar in 
 tercourse, were devoted and admiring, alike through prosperity 
 and adversity. Thus the weeping followers of the great Napo 
 leon are proud to share his dreary exile on the lonely rock of 
 St. Helena; but how different is the case with Columbus! 
 Those who knew him the most intimately, despised him the 
 most openly and cordially. We do not find that he stood nobly 
 by one friend, or indeed that he ever entertained such a noble 
 feeling as friendship. When he had obtained all that was possi 
 ble from those who befriended him, they were requited by gross 
 ingratitude or forgetfulness. Pinzon, who was the first to pro 
 tect him, he repaid so cruelly as to cause that noble man to 
 die broken-hearted. Diego Mendez, who saved his life in Ja 
 maica, received, as reward, promises that were never fulfilled. 
 The long list of those who associated with him in the islands 
 is but a long list of quarrels. We look in vain through his 
 life for any trait or action that would endear him to the hearts 
 of men, for one deed that may be regarded as the impulse of 
 a great and noble mind or generous heart ; we find nothing 
 but low cunning, arrogance, avarice, religious cant, deceit, and 
 cruelty. 
 
 THE HEATHEN CONTESTED. (From Philopono, " Nova Typis," etc., 1621.) 
 
CHAPTEE XXX. 
 
 LAWSUIT OF THE HEIRS OF COLUMBUS WITH THE CROWN. 
 
 As we have so repeatedly declared that not only did Colum 
 bus forfeit his right to the titles of viceroy, admiral, etc., by his 
 own misconduct, but that the sovereigns were powerless to con 
 fer upon him such rank and titles in perpetuity, it may be well 
 to note the events which took place touching his claim after 
 his death. 
 
 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. (From an Italian Work.) 
 
 The importance of his negotiations and controversies with 
 the sovereigns has been, very much magnified ; these controversies 
 were the legitimate fruits of the ill-advised and illegal bargain 
 ing we have already recorded as taking place between Isabella 
 and Columbus. The latter appears to have been as ignorant in 
 law as in other matters; he had a wholesome dread of lawyers, 
 and seems to have believed that, whatever he should succeed in 
 
372 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 inserting in his contract with the queen, would be valid. He 
 was confident that the sovereigns had power, not only to put 
 value upon base metal, but, as an old book hath it, " to give 
 estimation to a mean person, by conferring upon him a mark of 
 honor and dignity." in 
 
 Had his wisdom predominated over his avarice, he would 
 have asked such reasonable compensation and reward as his 
 services might merit, and the crown might legally promise. 
 Such a contract could have been enforced by the courts of law, 
 but such was not the character of the one in question. There 
 can be little doubt that Columbus too late discovered the invalid 
 character of his claim. "We have seen how unwilling he was to 
 have any but himself declare its import ; he would not even sub 
 mit the question to his tried friend, the Bishop of Palencia. 
 The lameness of the subterfuge with which, after consenting to 
 arbitration and selecting the arbiter, he finally declared that it 
 was only the question of revenue 172 he was willing to submit to 
 the decision of the latter, leaves little doubt as to the merits of 
 the case, particularly when we find Ferdinand, though w r ell 
 aware of the friendship existing between the bishop and Colum 
 bus, cheerfully consenting to abide by his decision. 
 
 It is difficult to ascertain upon what basis Columbus expected 
 the question of revenue to be decided. It depended upon the 
 validity of the original contract ; if that were void, no rents were 
 due but it is vain to seek logic, law, or reason, in his demands ; 
 no attention was paid to them during his lifetime, no deference 
 shown to his opinions ; new instructions were sent to Ovando, 
 of which he was kept in ignorance. At one time, his claims 
 were referred to the council for the discharge of the queen's 
 conscience. This junta seems to have consulted, but no action 
 was taken ; it could hardly discharge the conscience of .the de- 
 
 171 Brydall, " Law of Nobility and Gentry," 1675, p. 58. 
 
 172 Las Casas would excuse or explain the conduct of Columbus in this wise : " By 
 which I understand that he did not think it necessary to put the latter point " (his titles) 
 " in dispute, his right to it being clearly manifest." We fear that the logic of the Bishop 
 of Chiapa is here somewhat on a par with that of Columbus, when we reflect that he 
 comes to this conclusion well knowing that the latter had for years annoyed the 
 court, by incessant application in person and by letter, for the recognition of his so- 
 called rights, and that the crown had as constantly refused to reinstate him. In other 
 words, we are called upon to believe that Columbus regarded a matter as beyond dis 
 pute which had been repeatedly decided against him, which decision he sought to 
 
DIEGO COLUMBUS SUES THE CROWN. 373 
 
 funct sovereign by reversing her judgment, and placing in power 
 a man who had rebelled against her authority. 
 
 But, not only does it appear that Colunibus's claims were 
 unjustifiable the contract on which they were based illegal 
 it is also evident that, admitting it to be just and valid, he had 
 failed to perform what had been stipulated as its basis; had 
 acted upon false pretenses; had traded upon knowledge received 
 from the dead pilot ; and had, moreover, so misconducted him 
 self, that to intrust him with power or government would be 
 a gross injustice to the people over whom he should be placed. 
 
 Notwithstanding these facts, after his death, his son Diego 
 presented himself as heir-apparent to the honors from which his 
 father had been deposed, and for two years preferred his claims 
 without avail. In 1508, he resolved to enter upon a proceeding 
 from which his father shrank, and declared to be " a controversy 
 with the wind ; " namely, to endeavor to establish his claim by 
 law. 
 
 He therefore summoned King Ferdinand to appear before 
 the Council of the Indies, and show cause why he, the said Die 
 go, should not be inducted into the offices and honors from which 
 his father had been ejected. We have not been able to learn 
 that this body possessed judicial powers we believe it did not ; 
 certainly it could not legally try the most important suit " the 
 world has ever witnessed," as too partial historians are wont to 
 term it. The crown, however, appears to have waived the ques 
 tion of jurisdiction, and to have consented to plead to the merits 
 of the case, even before an inferior commission. 
 
 The royal plea appears to have been in itself sufficient to 
 determine the case against Columbus in any court of law or 
 equity. It was as follows : 
 
 1. That, if the contract of 1492 purported to grant to Colum 
 bus, or his heirs, the viceroyalty and admiralty in perpetuity, 
 such grant was void, being hostile to the best interests of the 
 state, and in violation of a solemn statute enacted and promul 
 gated at Toledo in 1480, wherein it was ordained that no office 
 involving the administration of justice should be granted in per 
 petuity ; therefore, that these powers and privileges could only 
 be granted to Columbus during his lifetime, and had been most 
 justly taken from him during that period on account of his cru 
 elty and disloyalty. 
 
374 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 2. That such grants were contrary to, and in excess of, the 
 inherent prerogative of the crown, and subversive of the rights 
 of the Cortes and people, of which the latter could not be di 
 vested. 178 
 
 This royal plea appears to strike at the root of the matter, 
 and to have been unanswerable. In it the acts of the crown are 
 subjected to the solemn test of the law, and Ferdinand declares 
 the act of the late queen to be void in the eye of the law. 
 
 To this Diego made replication that " the contract was bind 
 ing," but cited neither law nor precedent by which to sustain his 
 replication, for the reason, we suppose, that none existed. " As 
 to the allegation that his father had been deprived of his vice- 
 royalty for his demerits, it was false, and his being sent from the 
 islands by Bobadilla was audacious." Such is his extremely legal 
 and forcible response, a somewhat " audacious " one, as it will 
 be remembered that Bobadilla had performed no acts for which 
 he had not royal authority, and that his conduct had been tacitly 
 approved by Isabella, as she neither reinstated Columbus in 
 power, nor consented that he should return to Hispaniola. 
 
 It needs no very expert lawyer to perceive that such a repli 
 cation could not have the least weight in a legal decision, as it 
 was not sustained by judicial authority ; while the plea of the 
 crown was unanswerable, because founded upon the supreme law 
 of the land. 
 
 Another question, however, was agitating the public mind, 
 and seemed to strike at the rights of Spain. It was very gener 
 ally asserted that Columbus had not been the first to discover 
 these lands : contemporary writers not only claimed this honor 
 for living navigators, but actively revived the memory of the dead 
 pilot. These assertions, if proved correct, would have made 
 manifest the fact that Spain had obtained the lands by fraud, 
 and that Alexander YI. had granted the deed, and drawn the 
 famous line of demarcation on the false testimony of Columbus. 
 
 The crown, perfectly secure against the claims of Diego, on 
 the strength of the above plea, wisely considered it to her inter 
 ests that the latter should make out a case, which, while securing 
 to Spain all the advantages accruing from the falsehoods and 
 
 173 Ferdinand had, moreover, been required to take the royal oath which forbade 
 him to nominate a foreigner to office. 
 
 174 Spotorno, " Historia Memoria," p. 29 ; Irving, Appendix No. 2. 
 
TESTIMONY IN THE CASE. 375 
 
 treachery of Columbus, could not materially benefit his heirs. 
 For this, Ferdinand considered the present a fit opportunity, 
 and, while largely interested in Columbus's being proclaimed the 
 original discoverer, he asserts that he was not, in order to enable 
 Diego to prove that he was. 
 
 About one hundred witnesses were examined. The final 
 decision was in favor of Columbus, the testimony being, accord 
 ing to most historians, "overwhelmingly in his favor." We 
 may, however, be permitted to doubt the truth of this assertion, 
 notwithstanding the ultimate decision, which was, as we have 
 said, in accordance with the real wishes of Ferdinand. 
 
 We have not, like Mr. Irving, had the advantage of examin 
 ing the original documents of this suit. It may, however, be 
 presumed that Navarrete, whose " Coleccion Diplornatica " of all 
 papers relating to the discoveries, was made with the avowed 
 object of still further establishing the glory of Columbus, has 
 given a tolerably complete resume of the testimony, and that, 
 if any hiatus exists, it is not the result of the omission of 
 any thing favorable to the cause of the latter. This testimony 
 we have carefully examined, and cannot agree with those histo 
 rians who declare it to be " overwhelmingly in favor of Colum 
 bus." Notwithstanding their assertion, and the ultimate decision 
 by the Council of the Indies in favor of his son, we rather re 
 gard it as proving how small a part of the glory or merits of the 
 enterprise he was entitled to. No history written in the Eng 
 lish langunge has heretofore considered it necessary to give this 
 testimony to the public the eulogists of Columbus wisely con 
 sidered it could not but be detrimental to his cause in the eyes 
 of an intelligent reader. They have, therefore, contented them 
 selves with recording their perusal of it, and declaring it to be 
 overwhelmingly in favor of their hero. 
 
 While the testimony taken by the fiscal (an officer who ap 
 pears to have occupied a position combining the duties of an 
 attorney-general and solicitor of the treasury) is pertinent, am 
 ple, and circumstantial, much of it tending to completely over 
 turn the popular belief with regard to Columbus, the testi 
 mony on the part of Diego is as vague, irrelevant, and imperti 
 nent, as are his interrogatories. The witnesses examined for the 
 crown are also men of some status, testifying to what they have 
 
 seen and know ; while those examined for Diego are, with one or 
 25 
 
376 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 two exceptions, ignorant men, who generally testify to what they 
 have heard said. The important parts, indeed nearly the whole 
 of this testimony, has been disregarded, either by accident or 
 design, by the mass of historians, which leads us to suppose that 
 their partiality is not altogether unwitting. 
 
 We have said the crown was most desirous (even at the sac 
 rifice of being apparently defeated by a subject) to have the 
 claims of Columbus, as prior discoverer, established. There is 
 one circumstance connected with this lawsuit which strongly 
 supports our statement. Yespucci, the learned cosmographer 
 and navigator, the one man who could best have shattered Co 
 lumbus's pretensions to having been the first to visit terra firma, 
 was not summoned as a witness, when sailors before the mast, 
 and ignorant men, were made to testify. The malign ers of 
 Yespucci seek to prove by this that he was little thought of ; 
 that the idea of his being the first to reach America was too pre 
 posterous to have been entertained ; for, say they, had he been the 
 discoverer, had the voyages he relates in his letters been really 
 made, the crown, so largely interested in disproving Columbus's 
 claims, would have called him as a witness. This reasoning is, 
 however, erroneous; it assumes the crown to have been, in 
 truth, interested in, and desirous of, annihilating the claims of 
 Columbus. This was evidently not the case, for Amerigo was 
 not examined, and the omission to do so was not owing to 
 his being considered of too little importance, or to the knowl 
 edge or belief that he had not visited terra firma before Colum 
 bus ; for he was, at that time, filling a most important office in 
 recognition of the services he had rendered during his voyages: 
 he had been appointed, not only surveyor-general of coasts in 
 the new lands, but inspector and corrector of charts ; all for 
 mer charts had been abolished (Columbus's among the number), 
 and a penalty imposed upon pilots sailing by any others than 
 those made or authorized by Yespucci. This amply proves, not 
 only the esteem in which his maritime knowledge and experi 
 ence were held, but also that the counsel for the crown would 
 not have overlooked him, had the latter been in truth anxious 
 to overthrow the claims of Columbus ; and that the forgetful- 
 ness was, therefore, intentional. 
 
 In view of these facts, and as a sample of the pertinence and 
 validity of the testimony in favor of Columbus, we may cite 
 
ABILITY OF MARTIN ALONZO PINZON. 377 
 
 that of Francisco Morales, styled by Irving " one of the best 
 and most creditable of all the pilots," who, notwithstanding 
 what we have already stated as to charts of the new lands, and 
 Vespucci's supervision of them, testified that he had seen a sea- 
 chart, made by Columbus, of the coast of Paria, and " he 'believed 
 all governed themselves by it." 
 
 The testimony taken by \hsfiscal is extremely interesting 
 it gives us an insight into the opinions entertained of Columbus 
 and other voyagers by the pe'ople who sailed with them; it 
 brings forward, in bold relief, the noble qualities of that gener 
 ous victim of Columbus' s ingratitude and avarice, Martin Alonzo 
 Pinzon ; it is from this source that we learn to what an extent 
 Columbus was indebted to him ; we find here a corroboration of 
 the story of the dead pilot, and proof that Columbus sailed by a 
 chart in which a certain route was laid down, not on a voyage of 
 discovery, the results of which were vague and uncertain ; we 
 also learn how unjustly the mariner, Roderigo de Triana, who 
 first sighted land, was deprived of his reward. 
 
 All this is related in the most circumstantial manner by the 
 various witnesses, who, as they relate minute occurrences, repeat 
 portions of conversation, give a life-like and truthful coloring to 
 their testimony, while the witnesses for Diego, with a few ex 
 ceptions, merely affirm or deny in general terms, as his inter 
 ests demand. As examples of interest, we may take the follow 
 ing: 
 
 Fourteenth interrogatory for the crown, which requires the 
 witnesses to affirm or deny " whether they know that, after go 
 ing to court, the admiral returned to Palos, where he found 
 none who would give him ships, nor crews who would accom 
 pany him, and that the said Martin Alonzo, to serve their high 
 nesses, gave him his -two ships, and determined to go with him, 
 with his relations and friends, because the said admiral promised 
 him the half of all the privileges that their highnesses had prom 
 ised if land were found, and had shown him the said privileges." 
 
 Eight witnesses testify to a knowledge of the above facts. 
 A fair sample of all the testimony is that of Diego Penton, who 
 testifies that " he knows the above, because he saw and was pres 
 ent ; but whether Martin Alonzo gave his ships, because the ad 
 miral showed his privileges, this witness knows not, for he saw 
 them go on the voyage, and knows that the said Martin Alonzo 
 
378 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 Pinzon went with the said admiral, and this he knows, that, but 
 for him, the said admiral had not gone then to discover." 
 
 The fifteenth interrogatory requires the witnesses to testify 
 whether they know that on the voyage the admiral, not finding 
 land where he had expected, asked Martin Alonzo what they 
 should do. 
 
 Twelve witnesses testify more or less minutely to the points 
 made in this interrogatory. Francisco Yallejo says that, "being 
 two hundred leagues, more or less, distant from land, after leav 
 ing the Canaries, the Admiral Don Cristobal Colon spoke with 
 all the captains, and with the said Martin Alonzo, and said to 
 them, 'What shall we do?' This was on the 6th of October, 
 of the year '92, and said : ' Captains, what shall we do, for my 
 people complain bitterly ? What do you advise ? ' And that 
 then Yincent Yanez said : ' Let us go forward, sir, two thousand 
 leagues, and, if then we find not what we are in search of, we 
 may return.' Then said Martin Alonzo Pinzon, who went as 
 chief captain : 'How, sir? We have but just left the town of 
 Palos, and already you are discouraged ! Forward, sir ! God 
 will give us victory ! God forbid that we should return with 
 such shame ! ' Then answered the said admiral, Don Christo 
 pher Columbus, c May good fortune attend you ! ' And thus, 
 through the said Martin Alonzo Pinzon, they went forward." 
 
 The seventeenth interrogatory requires the witness to testify 
 " whether the said admiral asked Martin Alonzo whether they 
 were pursuing a right course, and that the said Martin Alonzo 
 said no; that he had many times told him that they were not 
 going right, but that they should tack to the southwest, and 
 would then find the land ; and that the said admiral answered, 
 6 Let us do so ! ' and that they then changed the course, by the 
 advice of Martin Alonzo Pinzon, who was a man very learned 
 in matters pertaining to the sea." 
 
 Of ten witnesses who testify to the above, the most succinct 
 is Francis Garcia Yallejo, who says that " he was present and 
 heard Martin Alonzo Pinzon say to the said admiral on this voy 
 age, ' Sir, in my opinion, we should steer to the southwest ; we 
 shall then find land ' that the said Admiral Don Christopher 
 Columbus answered : ' Let it be so, Martin Alonzo ; let us do 
 so ' and that then, by the advice of Martin Alonzo, they 
 changed the course to the southwest ; and he knows it was by 
 
CASE DETERMINED AGAINST THE CROWN. 379 
 
 the advice and industry ,of the said Martin Alonzo, because he 
 was a man very learned in sea-matters ; and all this he knows 
 because he was present." 
 
 Again, it is proved by answers to the eighteenth interroga 
 tory that, three or four days after the said change of course di 
 rected by Martin Alonzo, the island of Guanahani was reached. 
 To this fifteen witnesses testify. 
 
 Nor do we fail to find, in the testimony of this lawsuit, evi 
 dence of the petty spite to which Columbus could descend. It 
 is therein asserted that, Martin Alonzo having given his name 
 to a river in Hispaniola, " the admiral changed the name of 
 the said river and port, because the said Martin Alonzo had 
 discovered it, and that there might remain no remembrance 
 of him ; nor would he allow any of his crew to call the port 
 Martin Alonzo, but Puerto de Gracio, that there might be 
 no memorial of Martin Alonzo, discoverer of the island of His 
 paniola." 
 
 The extracts we have given are samples of the general char 
 acter of the testimony, as the reader may ascertain by a perusal 
 of the whole, as contained in Navarrete. 
 
 The Council of the Indies, however, decided the case in favor 
 of Diego ; but were the results such as would have accrued had 
 the decision been given by a court of law powerful against, as well 
 as for, the crown ? In other words, were they such as to lead us to 
 suppose the decision had been given, in spite of the prestige and 
 power of the sovereign, by a court able to enforce the execution of 
 its decrees ? They were not. The Council of the Indies decided 
 that Columbus was the first discoverer. This legalized and set 
 at rest the claim of Spain to the lands said to have been dis 
 covered, but the plaintiff was in no wise benefited by the deci 
 sion in his favor he still continued penniless, still importuned 
 humbly and in vain ; he was neither recognized viceroy, nor did 
 he touch any of the revenue, nor enter into any of the offices 
 which would have been his, maugre any resistance on the part 
 of Ferdinand, had his lawsuit been a valid one. 
 
 It was to a totally different cause that he owed the final rec 
 ognition of his claims he married into the family of Alva. The 
 members of this proud house were powerful as proud, and, 
 through their influence, the much-coveted titles of viceroy and 
 admiral were accorded to the husband of their kinswoman ; but 
 
380 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 these titles were shorn of any thing approaching the power they 
 would seem to imply. 
 
 O van do was recalled, and Diego and his wife, his half- 
 brother Fernando, and his uncles Bartholomew and Diego, set 
 sail for the new lands in 1509. The prestige of the lady's high 
 birth and influential friends surrounded them with a numerous 
 retinue, composed largely of young damsels, who, possessed of 
 more rank than fortune, were about to seek rich husbands in the 
 Western islands. 
 
 Diego appears to have inherited his father's quarrelsome and 
 tyrannous disposition. His administration, restricted as was 
 his power, soon became oppressive and odious, so that, within a 
 few months of his arrival, a tribunal (entitled the Eoyal Audi 
 ence) was established, to which appeals from the government 
 might be taken. 
 
 Diego, autocratic and unreasonable, resented this as an 
 infringement upon his rights. He became involved in law 
 suit after lawsuit with the fiscal, so that Herrera declares 
 "he might truly say he was heir to the troubles of his fath 
 er," to which may be added that he was no less an heir to 
 those vices of his father of which the troubles were a natural 
 consequence. 
 
 At length the difficulties became so serious that Diego asked 
 leave to appear at court and defend himself. His request was 
 granted, and in 1515 he returned to Spain, where he remained 
 five years, at the end of which time he was again allowed to re 
 turn to the islands ; but he had not been long at the head of 
 affairs when he was charged with a design to usurp the gov 
 ernment and throw off allegiance to Spain a charge which 
 appears to have been sufficiently well founded for the Council 
 of the Indies to consider it necessary, not only severely to repri 
 mand him, but also to command him, under penalty of forfeiting 
 all his privileges, to place matters of government as they were 
 under Ovando. This order was to be proclaimed and enforced 
 by officers of the crown, in the island, even though Diego should 
 refuse to regard it. The latter was ordered home to give an 
 account of his stewardship. Regarding the recall as peremptory, 
 he obeyed, and remained in Spain, where, till his death, in 
 1526, he wearied the court with requests similar to those of his 
 father, and for like reasons as fruitless. 
 
TIME, IN THE MAIN, JUST. 381 
 
 His infant son Luis, aged six years, was declared Admiral of 
 the Indies. This lad, on reaching the age of reason, appears to 
 have had more good sense and a truer perception of the state of 
 affairs, and the legitimate extent of his claims, than his progeni 
 tors. He wisely gave up all pretensions to viceroy alty and rev 
 enue, and remained in Spain, receiving in lieu of these the title 
 of Duke of Yeragua and Marquis of Jamaica, with a pension 
 of a thousand doubloons of gold. He died leaving no legiti 
 mate issue, and henceforth the Columbos are engaged in litiga 
 tion among themselves, till, in 1608, the Council of the Indies 
 declared the male line to be extinct, and ^N"uno or Nugno Gelves 
 de Portogallo, grandson of Isabella, third daughter of Diego, son 
 of Christopher Columbus, was invested with the titles and pen 
 sion aforesaid. 
 
 Thus, Time, which is, in the main, just, settled at last the 
 question which had so vexed the pirate admiral during his brief 
 day, in a manner somewhat compatible with its merits. Had 
 Columbus, in the inception, stipulated for possibilities, the valid 
 ity of his contract would probably never have been questioned ; 
 he would not have sunk to the depth of misery and degradation 
 in which death overtook him, nor would an enthusiastic throng 
 of eulogists have been called upon to place him among the noble 
 army of martyrs. Yet, as he deceitfully took advantage of the 
 information received or purloined from the unfortunate pilot 
 who died in his house at Madeira ; as he took to himself all the 
 merit and honors of the enterprise, recognizing and acknowl 
 edging neither the source of his knowledge nor the assist 
 ance he received from contemporaries, he was, we think, as de 
 serving of his fate as he is undeserving of the plaudits of pos 
 terity. 
 
 For three hundred years his fame has steadily increased. It 
 has reached its culmination ; and already, from more than one 
 quarter, reaction in favor of truth has made itself felt. 
 
 Though the writer was, perhaps, the first in the field, and 
 may have more thoroughly and exhaustively than another ex 
 amined into the case of Columbus versus his contemporaries, 
 with a view of seeing some justice done to the latter, yet he has 
 not been quite alone other and powerful blows have been 
 struck at the idol which the imagination and superstition of gen 
 erations, with the assistance of ecclesiastical power, have erect- 
 
382 
 
 LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 ed. The field is a fresh and fruitful one. Coming research will 
 every year, the author is convinced, confirm the statements and 
 justify the reasoning contained in this work, which is the im 
 perfect fruit of several years' study and research devoted to the 
 subject. 
 
 PORTRAIT OF COLUMBUS. (From a German Work.) 
 
APPENDIX, 
 
 A RECAPITULATION of the works consulted by the author in the prepara 
 tion of this volume would unnecessarily swell its proportions ; it may suffice 
 to say that he has, during a period of more than seven years, had access to 
 many of the best libraries of Western Europe, especially the Bibliotheque 
 Imp6riale, Paris ; the British Museum, London ; Bibliotheque Royale, Brus 
 sels ; together with the valuable collections at Venice, Naples, Milan, Turin, 
 Florence, etc., etc. 
 
 In the preparation of that portion of Chapter II. which treats of the mar 
 iner's compass, the author was aided by an Oriental scholar of great erudi 
 tion, whose name he has not authority to mention, but whose learning and 
 valuable assistance are held in grateful remembrance. 
 
 THE ILLUSTBATIONS. 
 
 It was the intention of the author, at one time, to have published this 
 work in London. To this end the illustrations (with the exception of those 
 on pages 250 and 270) were made in Belgium (some designed, others copied, 
 and all engraved) by the late Wm. Brown, of Brussels. Some of those copied 
 would seem, from the peculiarity of their subjects, or of the works from 
 which they have been taken, to deserve some slight mention or explanation. 
 
 The cuts upon pages 69, 76, 83-89, are chiefly copies from earlier works 
 upon the Northmen. 
 
 On page 96 is illustrated the account given by Fernando Columbus (in his 
 " Historia del Amirante," chapter ii.) of the destruction of a polyglot edition 
 of the Psalter, published at Genoa in 1516. Among other reasons alleged for 
 the destruction of the writings of Giustiniani, besides that of calling Colum 
 bus a mechanic, Fernando charges him with telling " thirteen lies ; " though, 
 in a majority of the cases cited by him, the truth appears to have been on 
 the side of the author of the Psalter. For instance, says Fernando: "He" 
 (Giustiniani) "charges that the admiral took, by force of arms, on his first 
 voyage, a canoe or Indian boat he saw, whereas it appears that he had no war 
 the first voyage with any Indians, and continued in peace and amity with them 
 till the day of his departure from Hispaniola" 
 
 After the above statement, made avowedly in the vindication of sacred 
 truth, it is refreshing to turn to the self-constituted vindicator's thirty-sixth 
 
384 APPENDIX. 
 
 chapter, the heading of which reads : " Of the first skirmish between the 
 Christians and Indians, which happened about the gulf of Samana, in His- 
 pianola," and which forms a part of his account of the first voyage. The 
 skirmish in question took place on Sunday, and appears to have been one of 
 the Sabhath-day diversions of the pious admiral. 
 
 Fernando writes: "On Sunday, the 13th of January, being near the 
 cape called Enamorado, the admiral sent the boat ashore, where our men 
 found some Indians, with fierce countenances, on the shore, with bows and 
 arrows, who seemed to be ready to engage, but, at the same time, were in a 
 consternation. However, having some conference with them, they bought 
 two of their bows and arrows, and with much difficulty prevailed to have 
 one of them go aboard the Admiral." A party of men were sent on shore. 
 " When our men landed, the Indian that had been aboard made the others 
 lay down their bows and arrows, and a great cudgel they carry instead of a 
 sword ; for, as has been said, they have no iron at all. When they came to 
 the boat, the Christians stepped ashore, and, having begun to trade for bows 
 and arrows by order of the admiral, the Indians, who had already sold two, 
 not only refused to sell any more, but, with scorn, made as if they would 
 seize the Christians, and ran to their bows and arrows where they had left 
 them, taking up with them ropes to bind our men. They, being upon their 
 guard, seeing them come in that fury, though they were but seven, fell cou 
 rageously upon them, and cut one with a sword on the buttock, and shot an 
 other with an arrow in the breast. The Indians, astonished at the resolution 
 of our men, and the wounds our weapons made, fled most of them, leaving 
 their bows and arrows ; and many of them had been killed, had not the pilot 
 of the caravel, who commanded the boat, protected them. The admiral was 
 not at all displeased at this skirmish, imagining these were the Caribs all 
 the other Indians so much dreaded, or that at least they bordered on them, 
 they being a bold and resolute people, as appeared by their aspect, arms, 
 and actions ; and he hoped that the islanders, hearing how seven Christians 
 had behaved themselves against fifty-five fierce Indians of that country, 
 would the more respect and honor our men that were left behind at 
 Nativity." 
 
 Thus it is evident that it was he, Fernando, and not Giustiniani, who in 
 this case spoke falsely. 
 
 The seventh lie charged by Fernando is, that he stated that the admiral 
 " returned by way of the Canary Islands, which is not the proper way for 
 those vessels to return ; " yet he did so return, as appears by the following 
 extract : 
 
 " God gives victory to all those who walk in his paths, as is clear in this 
 case. I have now found and seen the islands of which so many fables have 
 been told. Next to God, I am most indebted to the King and Queen of 
 Spain. The discovery is so great that the whole of Christendom ought to 
 keep festivals and praise the Holy Trinity. An immense number of people 
 will be converted to the Christian faith. Moreover, great material gains will 
 be obtained. On the 2d they had frost and hail-storms in the Canary Isl 
 ands. Calavera, on the Canary Islands, 15th February (1493). 
 
APPENDIX. 385 
 
 "P. S. Encountered such a storm on the Spanish seas, that I was 
 obliged to lighten the ships by throwing the cargo overboard. Have been for 
 tunate enough to gain the port of Lisbon. Will write to the King and Queen 
 of Castile. March 14 (1493)." (Christopher Columbus to the Escribano de 
 Radon of the Islands of the Indies.} 
 
 The eighth lie is made chiefly to grow out of the statement of Giustiniani 
 that the admiral sent a messenger to the Spanish sovereigns, informing them 
 of his discoveries and return, while "he himself was the messenger," says 
 Fernando ("Historia del Amirante," chapter ii.). But, in chapter xl. of 
 the same work, we read: "He" (the admiral') "came to an anchor in the 
 river of Lisbon upon Monday, the 4th of March, and presently sent away an 
 express to their Catholic Majesties with the news of his arrival." 
 
 The tenth lie charged by Fernando is, that Giustiniani stated that the 
 admiral "arrived in Hispaniola in twenty days, which is a very short time to 
 reach the nearest island, and he performed it not in two months," etc., etc. 
 
 Columbus, in a letter to the sovereigns, writes as follows : "My passage 
 from Cadiz to the Canaries occupied four days, and thence to the Indies, from 
 which I wrote, sixteen days." 
 
 Fernando continues : 
 
 " So that, by his negligence and heedlessness in being well informed, and 
 writing the truth of these particulars, which are so plain, we may easily dis 
 cern what inquiry he made into that which was so obscure, wherein he con 
 tradicts himself, as has been made to appear. But, laying aside this contro 
 versy, wherewith, I believe, I have by this time tired the reader, we will 
 only add that, considering the many mistakes and falsehoods found in the 
 said Giustiniani's history and Psalter, the Senate of Genoa has laid a penalty 
 upon any person that shall read or keep it ; and has caused it to be carefully 
 sought out in all places it has been sent to, that it may, by public decree, be 
 destroyed and utterly extinguished. I will return to our main design, con 
 cluding with this assertion, that the admiral was a man of learning and great 
 experience ; that he did not employ his time in handicraft or mechanic exer 
 cises, but in such as became the grandeur and renown of his wonderful ex 
 ploits ; and will conclude this chapter with some words taken out of a letter 
 he wrote himself to Prince John of Castile's nurse, which are these : ' I am not 
 the first admiral of my family ; let them give me what name they please ; for, 
 when all is done, David, that most prudent king, was first a shepherd, and 
 afterward chosen King of Jerusalem, and I am servant of that same Lord who 
 raised him to such dignity.' " 
 
 As the reader may wish to know more of the obnoxious writings of Gius 
 tiniani, we make the following extracts from his note in the Psalter to the 
 fourth verse of the nineteenth psalm, referred to on pages 94 and 95 of this 
 work: 
 
 "Now, as Columbus often declared himself to be chosen of God, that 
 through him should be fulfilled this prophecy, I have thought it not inappro 
 priate to insert here some account of his life. Christopher, surnamed Colum 
 bus, of the state of Genoa, born of low parentage, it was who, in our time, 
 by his industry, explored, in a few months, more of land and ocean than al- 
 
386 APPENDIX. 
 
 most all the rest of mortals in all by-gone ages. This wonderful fact rests not 
 on the testimony of soine vessels, but has been investigated and proved by 
 the passing and repassing of whole fleets and armies. Columbus, in his boy 
 ish years having been taught just the lowest rudiments of learning, as he 
 grew up, devoted himself to navigation (i. e., piracy}. Afterward, his brother 
 having gone to Portugal, and set up at Lisbon in the business of drawing 
 maps for the use of mariners, representing the seas, coasts, and harbors, Co 
 lumbus in this way Teamed from him the configuration of the coasts and the 
 position of the islands, which his brother had probably ascertained from 
 many persons who were in the habit of going every year from Portugal, by 
 royal authority, to explore the unknown lands of Ethiopia, and the remote 
 shores of the ocean between the south and west, he being often in conversa 
 tion with them. ... As soon as Columbus was sufficiently exactly made 
 aware of these things " (here we have a glimpse of the history of the dead pilot), 
 "he at length made known to certain grandees of the court of Spain what he 
 had in contemplation, stipulating, however, that suitable provision should be 
 made by the king, and to be prompt in doing it, before the Portuguese should 
 make their preparations to go amony these new peoples, and penetrate fresh 
 regions hitherto unknown. The intelligence of this scheme was promptly 
 communicated to the king, who, both from jealousy of the Portuguese and 
 from ambition of this sort of honor of new discoveries, and of the glories 
 which would accrue to him and his successors from this enterprise, was 
 allured into the negotiation with Columbus ; and, after it had lasted a long 
 time, he commanded two vessels to be equipped'. With these Columbus, set 
 ting out, steered to the Fortunate Islands ; thence he took his departure, 
 navigating a very little oft' the west line to the left, between southwest and 
 west ; when farther out, however, farther from southwest, and almost due 
 west. When the voyage had continued a great many days, and, by their 
 reckoning, they had already made four thousand miles (say twenty-five hun 
 dred English) in a direct line, the rest of the company lost hope, and desired 
 to turn back ; but he persisted in the enterprise, and, as far as he could 
 judge, he undertook to promise that they were not more than one day's 
 navigation from some continental lands or islands. His words did not fail to 
 be realized. ..." Here follows a more or less correct account of the islands 
 discovered and their inhabitants, of Columbus's return to Spain and departure 
 on his second voyage, when, continues Giustiniani, "Spain now sent out into 
 a hitherto innocent world the poison of its vices, pride, and debauchery; not 
 content with their triumph in this our continent, sailed away in quest of 
 hitherto pure and harmless nations, and the woods which could barely 
 satisfy our greed, being, as it were, exhausted by incessant hunting ; sent 
 forth into the most remote regions that wild-boar, among those whose appe 
 tites had till now been without excitement. But there also sailed those 
 who could heal, by the art of JEsculapius, the people of the diseases that 
 were to come upon them the prey of lust and avarice (see note ICG). 
 They also carried out seeds and shoots of trees ; but wheat, as was after 
 ward ascertained, wherever sown, grew first to a great height immediately, 
 and shortly afterward withered and vanished away, as if Nature condemned 
 
APPENDIX. 38T 
 
 the use of new kinds of food, and commanded them to be content with their 
 roots." 
 
 These extracts may serve to give an idea of some of the earlier written 
 histories of Columbus. 
 
 To return to the illustration on page 96, it may be well to add that the 
 scenes represented on either side of the burning Psalter are copied from 
 curious carved representations of tortures of the period of Columbus, which 
 are preserved at the Musee of the Porte de Halle, at Brussels, Belgium. 
 
 AMEKIGO VESPUCCI. 
 
 The portrait of Amerigo Vespucci on page 125 is, beyond question, a cor 
 rect one ; the fact that all the efforts, bearing a master's touch, whether 
 sculptured, cast, painted, or engraved, purporting to represent him, are criti 
 cally identical, would seem to vouch for its truthfulness, on the same princi 
 ple as the non-similarity of all purported likenesses of Columbus would seem 
 to prove their falsity. The late Mr. Brown, as well as the school to which 
 he belonged, regarded it as authentic. It is believed that there is now in the 
 United States an original portrait of this great man, painted from life by an 
 Italian artist ; that this portrait was until recently carefully preserved and 
 much prized by the descendants of Vespucci, of which there is an unwritten 
 history. 
 
 PORTRAIT IN THE BIBLIOTH^QUE IMP^RIALE. 
 
 On page 150 is one of the many pretended portraits of the so-called 
 Christopher Columbus ; it is from an engraving in the Bibliotheque Impe>iale, 
 Paris, and is declared by many to be genuine. 
 
 From such study of his character as we have been able to make, we in 
 cline to the belief that this creation is more just to the subject than any we 
 have consulted. Here " the great navigator " is clad and adorned, so far as 
 we may judge, in an appropriate manner; beneath is appended a fac-simile 
 of that remarkable signature by which he wrote himself down " THE CHEIST- 
 BEAEEE." Though a hundred would not exaggerate the list of these pre 
 tended portraits, we have in this work reproduced but eight, believing that 
 as these, though dissimilar in appearance, are all declared to be genuine, the 
 reader may as rightly judge from them as from the hundred we do not 
 reproduce. "We shall only notice, in their order, such of those comprised in 
 this work-as have been the subject of special mention or controversy. 
 
 THE CHEIST-BEARER. 
 
 The apparently somewhat irreverent illustration on page 153 is a portrait 
 of Columbus in his self-styled character of "Christ-bearer," copied from an 
 old religious work wherein Columbus is greatly glorified. In this scene the 
 pious artist seems to have symbolized, as clearly as possible, the name, 
 person, pretended character, attributes, and mission, of our hero. A statue 
 similar in design adorns one of the streets of Brussels. 
 
 The DOVE, typifying the HOLT GHOST, as it appeared at the baptism of 
 
388 APPENDIX. 
 
 Sti John, is especially significant in connection with the subject of the 
 engraving, who, when changing his name on abandoning his piratical career, 
 appears to have thought that he might as well assume one which should in 
 every way typify his pretended mission ; and from the sacred symbol of the 
 dooe, called in Latin COLTJMBA, and undergoing but slight variation in dif 
 ferent languages, our hero not only took his name, but would lay claim to 
 Divine ordination. "He also carried the olive-branch and oil of baptism over 
 the waters of the ocean, LIKE NOAH'S DOVE." (See FEENANDO, " llistoria del 
 Amirante," chapter i.) 
 
 BUST OF COLUMBUS AT GENOA (PAGE 151). 
 
 Thinking it might be of interest to the reader to know how the portraits, 
 as well as the character, of Columbus are invented, we copy the following 
 satisfactory and dogmatical mode of treating the subject by Spotorno ; the 
 italics are ours: 
 
 "Girolamo Benzone, who, although he never saw Columbus, speaks of 
 him with such minuteness, that it is evident he either copied some authentic 
 account, or derived his information from the viva-voce details of Spaniards 
 who had sailed with Columbus, gives the following account : ' He was a man 
 of reasonably good stature, of strong and active body, sound judgment, lofty 
 understanding, and agreeable aspect ; he had sparkling eyes, red hair, aqui 
 line nose, and rather large mouth ; above all, he was a friend to justice, but 
 passionate when provoked.' 
 
 "These particulars, which I communicated to the sculptor, directed his 
 hand and mind ; and his production has succeeded in obtaining distinguished 
 praise from the connoisseurs of the fine arts. Every one possessed of a grain 
 of understanding, after seeing this head, which expresses the living and true 
 lineaments of the hero, will throw aside every other portrait ; and especially 
 that engraved on wood given in the ' Eulogies ' of Giovio, in which the dis 
 coverer of America is represented with a hood and prelate's gown,. as if he 
 had been a conventual friar, or a hermit of St. Augustin." (SPOTOENO, "In 
 troduction," pages cli., clii.) 
 
 MEN WITH DOGS' HEADS, ETC. 
 
 The illustration on page 210 represents the men with dogs' heads, tails, 
 the lions, tigers, and griffins, which Columbus professed to have seen in the 
 "Western Hemisphere. 
 
 COLUMBUS AND HIS EGG (PAGE 225). 
 
 The curious contend that the story of the egg, illustrations of which have 
 adorned so many works of art and letters, is symbolized on the shield or 
 arms of the Columbos, as represented on page 225. Ridiculous as this affair 
 certainly is, it has been made to appear, perhaps with some propriety, as one 
 of the crowning efforts of the genius of the "great navigator;" it certainly is 
 not more absurd than many of his well-authenticated exploits, and may, on 
 the whole, tend to elevate and adorn the character of this great man ; the 
 
APPENDIX. 389 
 
 fact that it was, like the log-book of Alonzo Sanchez, purloined from the 
 dead, would seem to vindicate its fitness as an embellishment to the character 
 of Columbus, while its antiquity at his birth will admirably accord with the 
 studied confusion of dates found in most works which treat of him. His 
 would-be canonizers, however, reject this story as trivial and absurd, and 
 M. De Lorgues thus relegates the anecdote to its true source : 
 
 "It was with this solemn banquet (supposed to have leen given ~by Cardi 
 nal Mendoza) that some have connected the anecdote of the egg, that insipid 
 story to which the memory of Columbus probably owes its greatest popular 
 ity in Europe. 
 
 " One of the party, it is said, having asked him whether, if he had not 
 discovered the Indies, some other person would not have done so, as his only 
 response the admiral ordered an egg to be brought him, and. proposed that it 
 should be made to stand on one end on the table. One after the other of the 
 guests tried in vain ; then he took it, and, breaking it a little on one extremity, 
 made it stand on the flattened one. Such, in substance, is the story as it is 
 told. Washington Irving hesitates not to give it credit. To surpass him, no 
 doubt, M. de Lamartine has this farce acted at the very table of King Ferdinand. 
 
 " "We will not waste our time in demonstrating the absurdity of this tale, 
 by its utter improbability. In the first place, it is without sense or wit ; it 
 proves nothing, it explains nothing. No consequence to the point can be in 
 ferred from it. It is no more an answer than it is an allusion ; and presents, 
 on the whole, but a gross piece of trickery. It was not by breaking an egg 
 at the end, when the question was how to maintain it by its own equilibrium, 
 that the admiral showed the cause of the discovery. It was not by this low 
 artifice, this want of delicacy, that he would show his superiority of genius 
 and of perseverance. Would Columbus have explained the favors with which 
 Providence had loaded him, and justified the truth of his theory, by a jug 
 gler's trick? and, still more, by a clumsy trick, not to say an unfair one? 
 The circumstances of time and place tend no less to contradict this silly 
 story. Who would have dared, whether at the table of the sovereigns or at 
 that of the grand-cardinal, to propose so impertinent a question to the Vice 
 roy of the Indies? Who would have ventured a question that would be as 
 disobliging as it would be disrespectful ? And how could the admiral have 
 forgotten the rules of etiquette (supposing the ' unlettered seaman'' could 
 forget what he never knew} to the point of giving orders to his august host, 
 and ask that an egg be brought him? Was this sport compatible with the 
 number and the dignity of the guests ? None of the Spanish historians have 
 mentioned such a circumstance. The Milanese Girolamo Benzoni, the only 
 old historian who relates this miserable story, was, no doubt, unable to dis 
 tinguish his former recollections from each other. At any rate, the anecdote 
 of the egg is most positively of Italian origin ; we recognize it as such, and 
 we have every reason to believe that Columbus must have heard it from the 
 lips of his own mother. With some probability it has been attributed to the 
 celebrated architect Brunelleschi, by whom the church of Santa Maria del 
 Fiore raises its cupola into the sky of Florence. Here the fact does not seem 
 improbable, however trifling it may appear. Around a joyous table at a 
 
390 APPENDIX. 
 
 tavern, Florentine artists may come to these bantering questions, to these 
 jugglings, where jesting holds the place of reason, and where one can avail 
 himself of ' pill and poll,' rather than of logic. At such a table we can easily 
 conceive such a trivial trick to be played, but not elsewhere. Before us Vol 
 taire has said that the story of the egg was related of Brunelleschi ('Essai 
 sur les Moeurs,' chapter cxlix.). Upon this point we are entirely of his 
 opinion." (DE LORGUES, vol. i., book i., chapter xi.) 
 
 It is curious to discover, however, that this trick, or mode of argument, 
 did not originate even with Brunelleschi. The story of the egg is infinitely 
 less witty, and seems to lose all point by the side of the following anecdote, 
 which refers to a knight of the time of the Crusades : It was at Cardiff Castle, 
 in "Wales, according to an old Welsh chronicle, that Sir Foulk Fitzwarren 
 was speaking of toils encountered and hardships endured in warring with the 
 Saracens, and his knights murmured, and each one said he could have done 
 as much as their chief had done. "But," said Sir Foulk, "these were noth 
 ing to one feat I accomplished." "What was that?" quoth they all. "I 
 jumped," answered the knight, "from the ground to the top of yonder 
 tower of my castle, which you know to be the tallest tower in these parts." 
 So they laughed scornfully, and gainsayed his words. "If," said the knight, 
 " you will dine with me at noonday to-morrow, I will do it once again." So 
 every one of the knights came to the feast; and, when they had well eaten 
 and drunken, "Now come," said Sir Foulk, "with me, and you shall see me 
 jump from the ground to the top of the castle-tower." They proceeded to 
 the foot of the stairs, and Sir Foulk jumped to the top of the first step, then 
 on to another, and so on until upon the topmost step. " Oh ! " said the 
 knights, "we could do that ourselves." "So you could," said Sir Foulk, 
 u now I have taught you the way to do it." 
 
 Thus it is that not only history, but gossip and trivial anecdote repeat 
 themselves ; verily, there is no new thing under the sun ! As usual, in such 
 cases as the one we speak of, the imitation falls far short of the original in 
 pith and point. 
 
 THE MANATI. 
 
 The fish or animal in the illustration, taken from Philopono, which appears 
 on page 227 of this work, is less apocryphal than this curious representation 
 of it would lead us to suppose. The latter furnishes an instance of how diffi 
 cult it is to delineate correctly from mere written description, or rather, per 
 haps, a proof of how largely the imagination was drawn upon in writing the 
 history of the period and lands of which we treat. As the following quaint 
 and interesting passage, however, from Peter Martyr, has apparently fur 
 nished the matter for a description of the manati (a specimen of which is now 
 to be seen in Central Park, New York) in a late magazine for the instruction 
 of youth, and, as the modern author, with the creature before him, has not 
 found it necessary to deviate materially from the description given by the 
 Italian scholar, we have thought the original might interest the curious: 
 
 " The king of this region, named Caramatexius, taketh great pleasure in 
 fishing. Into his nets chanced a young fish, of the kind of those monsters 
 
APPENDIX. 391 
 
 of the sea which the inhabitors called manati. . . . This fish is four-footed, 
 and in shape like unto a tortoise, although she be not covered with a shell, 
 but with scales, and those of such hardness that no arrow can hurt her. Her 
 scales are beset and defended with a thousand knobs, her back is plain, and her 
 head utterly like the head of an ox. She liveth both in the water and on the 
 land, is slow of moving, of condition meek, gentle, loving to mankind, and 
 of marvelous sense of memory, as are the elephant and the dolphin. The 
 king nourished this fish certain days at home with the bread of the country, 
 made of yucca and panycke, and with such other roots as men are accus 
 tomed to eat, for, when she was yet young, he cast her into a pool or 
 lake near unto his palace, there to be fed with the hand. This lake also re- 
 ceiveth waters and casteth not the same forth again ; it was in time past 
 called Guarabo, but is now called the Lake of Manati, after the name of this 
 fish, which wandered safely in the same for the space of twenty-five years, 
 and grew exceeding big. Whatsoever is written of the dolphins of Baian 
 or Arion are much inferior to the doings of this fish, which, for her gentle 
 nature, they named Matum, that is, gentle or noble ; therefore, whensoever 
 any of the king's familiars, especially such as are known to her, resort to the 
 banks of the lake and call ' Matum ! Matum ! ' then she (as mindful of such 
 benefits as she hath received of men) lifteth up her head and cometh to the 
 place whither she is called, and there receiveth meat at the hands of such as 
 feed her. If any desire to pass over the lake, and make signs and tokens of 
 their intent, she boweth herself to them, thereby, as it were, gently inviting 
 them to mount upon her, and conveyeth them safely over. It hath been seen 
 that this monstrous fish hath at one time safely carried over ten men, singing 
 and playing. But if, by chance, when she lifted up her head, she espied any 
 of the Christian men, she would immediately plunge down again into the 
 water, and refuse to obey, because she had once received injury at the hands 
 of a certain wanton young man among the Christians, who had cast a sharp 
 dart at her, although she were not hurt by reason of the hardness of her 
 skin being rough, and full of scales and knobs, as we have said ; yet did she 
 bear in memory the injury she sustained, with so gentle a revenge, requiting 
 the ingratitude of him which had dealt with her so ungently. From that 
 day, whensoever she was called by any of her familiars, she first looked cir 
 cumspectly about her, lest any were present appareled after the manner of 
 the Christians ; she would oftentimes play and wrestle upon the bank with 
 the king's chamberlains, and especially with a young man whom the king 
 favored well, being also accustomed to feed her. She would be sometimes as 
 pleasant and full of play as it had been a monkey or marmoset, and was of 
 long time a great comfort and solace to the whole island, for no small confluence, 
 as well of the Christians as of the inhabitants, had daily concourse to behold 
 so strange a miracle of Nature, the contemplation of which was no less 
 pleasant than wonderful. They say that the meat of this kind of fish is of 
 good taste, and that many are engendered in the seas thereabout. But, at 
 length, this pleasant playfellow was lost, and carried into the sea by the great 
 river Attibunicus, one of the four which divide the island, for at that time there 
 chanced so terrible a tempest of wind and rain, with such floods ensuing, 
 
392 APPENDIX. 
 
 -that the like hath not been heard of. By reason of this tempest, the river 
 Attibunicus so overflowed the banks that it filled the whole vale, and mixed 
 itself with all the other lakes, at which time, also, this gentle Matum and 
 pleasant companion, following the vehement course and fall of the floods, was 
 thereby restored to his old mother and native waters, and, since that time, 
 never seen again." (PETEB MAETYE, decade in., chapter viii.) 
 
 PORTRAIT OF COLUMBUS (PAGE 235). 
 
 The portrait of Columbus which appears on page 235 is a faithful copy 
 of De Bry's. While we believe, with Spotorno, that this portrait and its 
 history are forgeries, yet it appears to possess as high claims to authenticity 
 as any of the myriad of these creations with which the curious are familiar. 
 Spotorno comments justly upon the false claims of this portrait, though the 
 conclusions at which he ultimately arrives are somewhat original, if not quite 
 logical (see this Appendix, notice of cut on page 151). Of De Bry he writes : 
 
 " We have no wish to conceal the fact that Theodore De Bry pretended 
 that he possessed a portrait of the hero, the same that was to be seen in an 
 apartment of the Council of the Indies, from which place, having been stolen, 
 and carried to the Netherlands for sale, it came finally into the hands of De 
 Bry, who gave an engraving of it in his 'America.' This print has been 
 copied in the * Eulogium of Columbus,' by the Marquis Durazzo, printed by 
 Bodini, ^Hd in the 'Life of Bossi,' published at Milan. There are numerous 
 reasons for impugning the authenticity of De Bry's portrait. A man who 
 feels no remorse at stealing, and is not even ashamed to avow himself a thief, 
 will be ready enough to tell a lie for the purpose of extorting a few ducats 
 from a credulous amateur. The history of the Spanish painters gives no 
 countenance to this thief s story. But what is more, on comparing De Bry's 
 engraving with Fernando's description, it will be seen that they entirely dis 
 agree. And Baron Yernazza, having compared that of De Bry with the one 
 published by Bullart, and that given by Munoz, as well as the Cuccaro por 
 trait, finds an essential discrepancy in the whole of them." (SPOTOENO, "In 
 troduction," pages cxlv., cxlviii.) 
 
 Of the many ridiculous stories told of these portraits, there is none less 
 worthy of belief than that portion of De Bry's which represents his to be a 
 copy of one for which Columbus sat at the instance of Ferdinand and Isa 
 bella. Had this been so, the vanity of Fernando Columbus would have 
 caused him to enlarge upon it in his history, while Christopher would have 
 added, no doubt, to his recapitulation of the royal honors conferred upon 
 him, when exclaiming, "He called me Don," by continuing, " and asked me 
 to sit for my portrait that he might possess a memorial of his dear friend." 
 At any rate, his silence and that of his son on the subject may be regarded 
 as proof positive that the story of De Bry is an invention ; to enhance the 
 value of this invention he tells us that Columbus was an extraordinary ge 
 nius, and most excellent man upright, " pure, and noble-minded, and an 
 earnest friend of peace and. justice." This last assertion will enable those 
 
APPENDIX. 393 
 
 who are competent to judge of the character of Columbus, to determine the 
 value of the statements touching his portrait. 
 
 SPANISH CRUELTIES. 
 
 The numerous illustrations of the cruelties perpetrated on the natives of 
 the Western Hemisphere would seem to explain themselves ; they are taken 
 chiefly from the work on Spanish cruelties in the New "World, by Las Casas, 
 illustrated by De Bry. 
 
 "We may quote one or two descriptions of the scenes represented ; the 
 following, on the cut on page 245, is from the work of the venerable pre 
 late: 
 
 "They erected certain gibbets, large, but low made, so that their feet 
 almost reached the ground, every one of which was so arranged as to bear 
 thirteen persons, in honor and reverence (as they blasphemously and deri 
 sively said) of our Redeemer and his twelve apostles, under which they made 
 a fire to burn them to ashes while hanging on them ; but those they intended 
 to preserve alive they dismissed, having cut their hands half off, leaving them 
 still hanging by the skin to carry these as letters missive to those that fly 
 from them and lie skulking in the mountains, as a warning of their fate. 
 
 " The lords, and persons of noble extraction, were usually exposed to this 
 kind of death : they ordered gridirons to be placed and supported with wooden 
 forks, and, putting a small fire under them, these miserable wretches by de 
 grees, with loud shrieks and exquisite torments, at last expired. I once saw 
 four or five of these chiefs laid on these gridirons, but the shrill clamors 
 which were heard there being offensive to the captain, by hindering his 
 repose, he commanded them to be strangled with a halter. The executioner 
 (whose name and parents at Seville are not unknown to me) prohibited the 
 doing of it, but stuffed gags into their mouths to prevent the hearing of the 
 noise (he himself making the fire) till they died, when they had been roasted 
 as long as he thought convenient. I was an eye-witness of these and an 
 innumerable number of other cruelties." 
 
 The following passage in Herrera is illustrated on page 253 : The Indians are 
 carrying bread to the Spaniards, the latter " always using to carry their dogs 
 along with them, while the Indians were busy carrying the bread to the 
 caravel's boat ; the cazique went about with a wand in his hand, hastening his 
 people, and a Spaniard standing by, who held a dog in a chain ; the dog, 
 observing the cazique in motion, and the wand in his hand, offered several 
 times to fly at him, so that the Spaniard could scarce hold him, and said to 
 another, ' What if we should let him on ? ' No sooner had he spoke, than the 
 other, in jest, said, * At him ! ' thinking he could have held him ; the dog, 
 hearing the word, flew out with all his force, and breaking loose from the 
 Spaniard, seized the cazique by the belly, tore out his bowels, and left him 
 dead, the Spaniards going away to their caravel." (HEEEEEA, decade i., book 
 v., chapter ii.) 
 
 Thus did the Spaniards amuse themselves! 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 LAWS, SACRED AND PROFANE. 
 
 Las Casas tells us of the more lawful (?) and decorous manner of murder 
 ing the Indians for the sake of their supposed wealth. He says.: 
 
 " These wicked Spaniards, like thieves, came to any place by stealth, 
 half a mile off of any city, town, or village, and there in the night published 
 and proclaimed the edict among themselves, after this manner : ' You caziqnes 
 and Indians of this continent, the inhabitants of such a place ' (which they 
 named), ' we declare (or be it known to you all) that there is but one God, one 
 pope, and one King of Castile, who is lord of these countries. Appear forth with 
 out delay, and take the oath of allegiance to the Spanish king, as his vassals.' 
 So about the fourth watch of the night, or three in the morning, while these 
 poor innocents were overwhelmed with heavy sleep, they ran violently on that 
 place they named, set fire to the hovels, which were all thatched, and so, 
 without notice, burned men, women, and children, and killed whom they 
 pleased upon the spot ; but those they reserved as captives were compelled, 
 through torments, to confess where they had hid the gold, when they found 
 little or none at their houses, and when the fire was extinguished, they came 
 hastily in quest of the gold." 
 
 Later in the course of Spanish villainies, pious divines elaborated and 
 rendered this proceeding more formal, as will appear from the subjoined 
 copy. This paper was read to the Indians by the chaplains of the army, in 
 order to justify, if not to sanctify, the slaughter about to be enacted, of per 
 sons who understood not a word of this remarkable production : 
 
 "MANIFESTO. 
 
 "I, servant of the high and mighty Kings of Castile and Leon, civilizers 
 of barbarous nations, their messenger and captain, notify and make known 
 to you, in the best way I can, that God our Lord, one and eternal, created 
 the heavens and earth, and one man and one woman, from whom you, and 
 we, and all the people of the earth, were and are descendants, procreated, 
 and all those who shall come after us ; but the vast number of generations 
 which have proceeded from them in the course of more than five thousand 
 years that have elapsed since the creation of the world, made it necessary 
 that some of the human race should disperse in one direction, and some in 
 another, and that they should divide themselves into many kingdoms and 
 provinces, as they could not sustain and preserve themselves in one alone. 
 All these people were given in charge, by God our Lord, to one person, 
 named Saint Peter, who was thus made lord and superior of all the people 
 of the earth, and head of the whole human lineage ; whom all should obey, 
 wherever they might live, and whatever might be their law, sect, or belief: 
 he gave him also the whole world for his service and jurisdiction; and 
 though he desired that he should establish his chair in Rome, as a place most 
 convenient for governing the world, yet he permitted that he might establish 
 his chair in any other part of the world, and judge and govern all the 
 nations, Christians, Moors, Jews, Gentiles, and whatever other sect or belief 
 
APPENDIX. 395 
 
 might be. This person was denominated Pope, that is to say, Admirable, 
 Supreme, Father, and Guardian, because he is father and governor of all man 
 kind. This holy father was obeyed and honored as lord, king, and superior of 
 the universe, by those who lived in his time, and, in like manner, have been 
 obeyed and honored all those who have been elected to the pontificate ; and 
 thus it has continued until the present day, and will continue until the end 
 of the world. 
 
 " One of these pontiffs, of whom I have spoken as lord of the world, made 
 a donation of these islands and continents of the ocean sea, and all that they 
 contain, to the Catholic Kings of Castile, who, at that time, were Ferdinand 
 and Isabella, of glorious memory, and to their successors, our sovereigns, ac 
 cording to the tenor of certain papers, drawn up for the purpose (which you 
 may see if you desire). Thus his Majesty is king and sovereign of these isl 
 ands and continents by virtue of the said donation, and as king and sover 
 eign, certain islands, and almost all, to whom this has been notified, have 
 received his Majesty, and have obeyed and served, and do actually serve him. 
 And, moreover, like good subjects, and with good- will, and without any 
 resistance or delay, the moment they were informed of the foregoing, they 
 obeyed all the religious men sent among them to preach and teach our holy 
 faith ; and these of their free and cheerful will, without any condition or 
 reward, became Christians and continue so to be. And his Majesty received 
 them kindly and benignantly, and ordered that they should be treated like 
 his other subjects and vassals. You also are required and obliged to do the 
 same. Therefore, in the best manner I can, I pray and entreat you, that you 
 consider well what I have said, and that you take whatever time is reason 
 able to understand and deliberate upon it, and that you recognize the Church 
 for sovereign and superior of the universal world, and the supreme pontiff, 
 called Pope, in her name, and his Majesty, in his place, as superior and 
 sovereign king of the islands and terra firma by virtue of the said donation; 
 and that you consent that these religious fathers declare and preach to you 
 the foregoing ; and if you shall so do, you will do well, and will do that to 
 which you are bounden and obliged ; and his Majesty, and I, in his name, 
 will receive you with all due love and charity, and will leave you your wives 
 and children free from servitude, that you may freely do with them and with 
 yourselves whatever you please and think proper, as have done the inhabit 
 ants of the other islands. And, besides this, his Majesty will give you many 
 privileges and exemptions, and grant you many favors. If you do not do 
 this, or wickedly and intentionally delay to do so, I certify to you that by the 
 aid of God I will forcibly invade and make war upon you in all parts and 
 modes that I can, and will subdue you to the yoke and obedience of the 
 Church and of his Majesty; and I will take your wives and children, and 
 make slaves of them, and sell them as such, and dispose of them as his Ma 
 jesty may command : and I will take your effects, and will do you all the 
 harm and injury in my power, as vassals who will not obey or receive their 
 sovereign, and who resist and oppose him. And I protest that the deaths 
 and disasters, which may in this manner be occasioned, will be the fault of 
 yourselves, and not of his Majesty, nor of me, nor of those cavaliers who 
 
396 APPENDIX. 
 
 accompany me. And of what I here tell you and require of you, I call upon 
 the notary here present to give me his signed testimonial." 
 
 It would be scarce possible more appropriately to close this brief mention 
 of the inhumanity practised toward the wretched inhabitants of the New 
 World by the Spaniards, than by quoting the following heart-rending de 
 scription : 
 
 " The vast numbers employed in these mines are bound in fetters, and 
 compelled to work day and night without intermission, and without the least 
 hope of escape, for they set over them soldiers who speak a foreign language, 
 so that there is no possibility of conciliating them by persuasion, or the kind 
 feelings which result from familiar converse. ... No attention is paid to 
 their persons ; they have not even a piece of rag to cover themselves ; and so 
 wretched is their condition that every one who witnesses it deplores the 
 excessive misery they endure. 
 
 "No rest, no intermission from toil, are given either to the sick or 
 maimed: neither the weakness of age nor women's infirmities are regarded; 
 all are driven to their work with the lash, till at last, overcome with the 
 intolerable weight of their afflictions, they die in the midst of their toil. So 
 that these unhappy creatures always expect worse to come than what they 
 endure at the present, and long for death as far preferable to life." 
 
 TOBACCO, SMOKING, CHEWING, SNUFF. (See illustration, page 322.) 
 
 Eoderigo de Jerez, and Luis de Torres, as agents or ambassadors of 
 Columbus to the grand-khan (see pages 201, 202), on their return from that 
 ridiculous mission, among other things reported that they saw the natives 
 going about with brands of fire in their .hands, together with a dried herb, 
 which they rolled up in a leaf. Setting one end on fire, putting the other in 
 their mouths, they drew in and puffed out the smoke ; these rolls the natives 
 called " tabaco," substantially the name by which the plant or weed is now 
 known. The smoke was conveyed to the mouth through what they believed 
 to be a charred stick. Las Casas tells us that the Indians, on being questioned 
 as to this habit, informed him that it took away fatigue, and caused them 
 to forget their troubles, and that he had known Spaniards in Hispaniola 
 addicted to the same habit, who, when reproved, replied that it was not in 
 their power to abandon it. He continues: "I do not know what savor or 
 profit they found in them " (tabacos). 
 
 Fernando says : " The cazique and chief men never ceased putting a dry 
 herb into their mouths and chewing it, and sometimes they took a sort of 
 powder they carried with that herb, which looks very odd." ("Ilistoria del 
 Amirante," chapter xcvi.) 
 
 Navaretto says : " Thus was the first lesson given to Europeans of this 
 extraordinary habit, which has become universal ; hence the origin of the 
 much-prized and far-famed Havanas." 
 
 We copy the following from " The Landfall of Columbus," by Captain A. 
 B. Becher, R. N., F. R. A. S., etc., etc., etc., London, 1856 : 
 
APPENDIX. 397 
 
 k 'IIere," says Becher, alludiDg to the first time Spaniards witnessed the 
 practice, " as Las Casas observes, is the origin of smoking tobacco, a practice 
 which, however extensive it may be in other countries (and common 
 enough it no doubt is there), has become so general in this, that, to the dis 
 credit of parents, it is even followed by children ! The eternal cigar is seen 
 in the mouth of old and young, even in that of the ragged urchin who swag 
 gers along, not only astonishing those who see him at his early hardihood, 
 but leaving them to wonder how he came by it, considering the price which 
 must have been paid for it. As already observed, it is profitable to the state, 
 if it is indulged in at the cost of the pocket, the health, and the personal 
 comfort of society. 
 
 " The following, from an official source, is a statement of the amount of 
 duty derived from tobacco in the United Kingdom for the last three years : 
 
 1853 4,560,827 
 
 1854 4,761,776 
 
 1855 4,704,663." 
 
 Between September 1, 1862, and June 30, 1872, the United States col 
 lected the sum of $200,213,837 from tobacco, and for the year ending June, 
 1873, $34,386,303.09. 
 
 It is therefore apparent that, if this discovery has not profited the in 
 dividual, it has swelled the revenue of states. To Spain it was of far greater 
 value than all the gold derived from the mines of which Columbus gave such 
 extravagant accounts. 
 
 It would seem that this plant might furnish a theme for those who write 
 upon the wealth of nations. 
 
 The illustrations on pages 148 and 328 of this work might appear to some 
 irreverent, yet it has not been the desire of the author to perpetrate any 
 irreverence ; he has considered that the disgusting and blasphemous manner 
 in which Columbus shielded himself behind the Deity, and declared himself 
 divinely justified in the commission of his most revolting crimes, cannot 
 be too forcibly or palpably presented to the eye of the reader ; and, if these 
 engravings should shock the latter, how much more will he abhor the in 
 ventor of their subjects! We feel confident that he will exonerate us from 
 any imputation of irreverence when he shall carefully examine the statements 
 of Columbus which these engravings were intended to illustrate. We have 
 not " carried the war up to the manifesto" 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Abraham, 28. 
 
 Age of the human race, 3. 
 
 Alexander, his fleet, etc., 30, 47. 
 
 Alexander VI., Pope, 94, 126, 228, 356. 
 
 Alexandria, 29. 
 
 Alexandrian Library, 14. 
 
 Amalfi, a pilot of, 31. 
 
 America, ruins of Central, 16 ; similarity 
 of latter to Egyptian, 18 ; metal used 
 by the ancients of, 18 ; known to the 
 ancients, 26 ; described by the North 
 men, 71 ; discovered by the North 
 men, 73, 87 ; called Vineland by 
 Northmen, 76; probably discovered 
 by Madoc, 89 ; also by the Zeni 
 brothers, 91 ; the name bestowed by 
 royal decree, 121. 
 
 Ancients, the, their architectural knowl 
 edge, 1 ; their advancement in sci 
 ence, 2, 5, 13, 21; their knowledge 
 of geography, 25 ; their knowledge 
 of the New World, 26 ; their exten 
 sive commerce, 28, 29 ; their ship 
 building, 30 ; their use of the chain- 
 cable, compass, etc., 31, 52; their 
 knowledge of printing, 60 ; their re 
 markable literature, 62 ; injustice 
 done their attainments, 67. 
 
 Arabia Felix, 29. 
 
 Arabs, their learning, 66, 182. 
 
 Archimedes, 30. 
 
 Architecture of the ancients, 1, 2. 
 
 Aristotle, quoted, 45, 47, 167. 
 
 Arthur, Prince of Wales, 103. 
 
 Asia, its ruined cities, 2. 
 
 Astrolabe used by the ancients, 60. 
 
 Astronomy among the ancients, 2, 21. 
 
 Atlantis, island of, 27. 
 
 Aztecs, their ancient civilization, 15, 17, 19. 
 
 Baal, worship of, 3. 
 Baalbec, ruins of, 1. 
 Babel, Tower of, 2, 4. 
 Babylon, ruina of, 2, 4 ; study of astrono 
 my in, 3. 
 Bacon, Roger, 35, 37, 38. 
 
 Barcelona, 218, 219. 
 Beamish, quoted, 71. 
 Beatrix Enriquez, Columbus's mistress, 
 
 355, 356. 
 
 Biarn, a Norse navigator, 72, 84, 86. 
 Bobadilla, Francisco, 273, 275, 277, 284, 
 
 287, 297, 316. 
 
 Borgia, Roderigo, Pope, 94, 126, 228, 356. 
 Boturini, quoted, 93. 
 Boyle, Bishop, pope's nuncio, 242, 245, 
 
 252. 
 
 Brahman religion, 63. 
 Brazil, 117, 118. 
 
 Bronze doors of United States Capitol, 349. 
 Brunette, 35. 
 
 Cabot, John, account of, 134 ; his expe 
 dition to America, 134 ; much honor 
 paid him, 135. 
 
 Cabot, Sebastian, said to have discovered 
 variations of the magnetic needle, 51, 
 138; accompanies his father, etc., 
 136; appointed pilot-major of Spain, 
 137; discovers Paraguay, 137; his 
 subsequent life, 138; the value of his 
 discoveries, 139. 
 
 Cable-chain (see chain- cable). 
 
 Cabral, Pedro Alvarez de, 140, 141. 
 
 Cadmus, 14. 
 
 Caesar, Julius, quoted, 31, 66. 
 
 Cannibalism, Indians of North America 
 accused of, 319. 
 
 Canonization of Columbus proposed, 94, 
 316. 
 
 Cape-Cod, landing-place of Northmen, 73. 
 
 Capitol of the United States, bronze doors 
 of, 349, 350. 
 
 Carthage, 29. 
 
 Central America, ruins of, 18. 
 
 Chain-cable known to the ancients, 31. 
 
 Charlevoix, quoted, 283, 296. 
 
 Charts, standard, made by Vespucius, 
 119; of Columbus very inaccurate, 
 123 ; of Alonzo Sanchez, 132, 165, 
 168, 174; Columbus draws by in 
 spiration, 148. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 399 
 
 China, Columbus takes Cuba to be, 201. 
 
 Chinese, ancient, understood the magnet, 
 46, 52, 54, 56, 58. 
 
 magnetic car, 53. 
 
 destroyed all their historical relics, 
 
 55. 
 
 Chrishna, quoted, 64. 
 
 Christ-bearer, a title assumed by Colum 
 bus, 146, 153. 
 
 Church, the, condemning books, 95 ; falsi 
 fying history, 95, 99, 120, 272.- 
 
 Civilization of the New World, very an 
 cient, 19. 
 
 Claudian, the poet, describes the compass, 
 40. 
 
 Coat-of-arms of Columbus, 225. 
 
 Colon, Columbus's family name, 144. 
 
 Colon (or Cdlumbus), Bartholomew, 180, 
 245, 263, 304, 314, 327, 333, 340, 341, 
 343, 380. 
 
 Colon (or Columbus), Diego, 304, 305, 311, 
 341, 373, 380. 
 
 Columbus, Fernando, quoted, 86, 94, 144, 
 146, 153, 178, 220, 267, 287, 320; 
 forged letters and documents to glo 
 rify his father, 161 ; indignant at 
 Justiniani for mentioning his father's 
 early life, 173 ; inscription on his 
 tomb, 347. 
 
 Columbus, Christopher, his reputed dis 
 covery of the magnetic needle, 51 ; 
 his egotism and selfishness, 86, 131, 
 334; the false histories regarding 
 him, 92, 95, 143, 177, 192, 194; his 
 pretended championship of the Chris 
 tian religion, 94, 146, 153; an allu 
 sion to his early life considered an 
 insult, 95, 173; regarded by King 
 Ferdinand as an impostor, 99, 126; 
 his nautical experience gained by 
 piracy, 115; he is ignored by a 
 contemporary historian, 121 ; aware 
 of Amerigo Vespucci's claims of dis 
 covering the continent, 121; letter 
 of Columbus to his son Diego, 122 ; 
 falls into disgrace through his cru 
 elty, etc., 123 ; and reaches a low 
 stage of degradation, 124, 303 ; the 
 time and place of his nativity un 
 known, 124, 143, 147, 167, 306, 343; 
 his ridiculous ideas regarding the 
 shape of. the earth, 126, 183 ; his 
 own historian and eulogist, 128; en 
 ters Spain penniless and with a bad 
 reputation, 129, 179, 182 ; persuades 
 the Pinzons to join him, 130 ; sailing 
 of his expedition, 131, 187, 192.; de 
 parts from the correct course, and is 
 set right by the Pinzons, 132, 174, 
 195; basely robs an old sailor of a 
 promised reward, 132, 197; accuses 
 
 his patron Pinzon of desertion, 133 ; 
 203, 218; his name and ances 
 try, as stated by his son, 144; his 
 family name is Griego, 145 ; engaged 
 in a piratical adventure, 145, 161 ; 
 the mystery that hangs over his early 
 life, 146, 167; speculations as to his 
 age, 147 ; boasts of receiving knowl 
 edge by inspiration, 148, 328 ; he con 
 fesses to falsehood and fraud, 149; 
 his piracy and connection with the 
 slave-trade, 149 ; his pretended por 
 traits, 151, 219, 235, 284, 371, 382; 
 his adoption of the name Christopher 
 Columbus, 153 ; further items of his 
 history as related by his son, 156 ; 
 pretended letter of Tuscanella, the 
 astronomer, to him, 158; his escape 
 from the burning galleys on an oar, 
 161 ; his marriage, 161 ; removes to 
 Madeira, 162 ; his idea of a New 
 World gained from a dead pilot's 
 papers, 162, 165, 168, 170, 173, 176, 
 179 ; Sanchez dies in his house, 165, 
 166; declared hereditary grand-ad 
 miral by Ferdinand and Isabella, 171, 
 183 ; his sen receives titles of no 
 bility, 172 ; proceeds to Portugal to 
 offer terms to the king, 178 ; he flees 
 from Portugal to avoid arrest for 
 debt and crime, 179 ; attempts to sell 
 his purported discovery to the King 
 of England, 180 ; is entertained and 
 aided by the prior, Juan Perez, 129, 
 167, 179, 181 ; the terms proposed by 
 their majesties to Columbus, 183 ; 
 returns to Palos, and secures the aid 
 of Perez and the Pinzons, 188; his 
 first expedition sails, 192 ; miracle 
 of the great fish, 192; minor inci 
 dents of his trip, 193-195; further 
 evidences of his vanity, deceit, and 
 fraud, 195 ; Columbus pretended to 
 have discovered land, 197; landing 
 of the expedition, 199; his fruitless 
 search for gold, 200 ; visits other isl 
 ands, 200; imagines himself in China, 
 201 ; sends a message to the grand- 
 khan, 202 ; poetical leaf from a log, 
 204 ; loses one of his ships by care 
 lessness and incapacity, 206, 331 ; 
 establishes a garrison at La Navidad, 
 207 ; sets sail on his return, 208, 
 210; his lying accounts of wonders 
 seen on his voyage, 209 ; vows to 
 make a pilgrimage to the shrine of 
 the Virgin, 211 ; makes a record of 
 his discoveries, in a storm, 212; his 
 crew arrested while paying their vows, 
 213 ; Columbus pays vows to the Vir 
 gin, 215; his pretended reception in 
 
400 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Portugal, 216; arrives in Spain, 218; 
 amusingly fanciful account of his re 
 ception, 221 ; his arrival and recep 
 tion not recorded in the state ar 
 chives, 223 ; receives title of admiral, 
 and a coat-of-arms, 224; starts on 
 his second voyage, 228 ; arrives at 
 San Domingo, 229 ; his intention to 
 establish slavery in the West Indies, 
 230; finds his colony at Hispaniola 
 massacred, 233 ; attempts to lay out 
 a town, 236 ; the deceptions he prac 
 tised on the colonists, 238 ; they mu 
 tiny against Columbus, 239 ; he builds 
 Fort San Tomas, 240; sends an ex 
 pedition against the natives, 240 ; dis 
 covers Jamaica, 242 ; guilty of sub 
 ornation of perjury, 243 ; appoints 
 his brother Bartholomew to office, 
 245 ; Bishop Boyle remonstrates 
 against his cruel government, 246 ; ex 
 communicates him from the Church, 
 247; and goes to Spain with com 
 plaints against him, 247 ; captures 
 the cazique Caonabo, by a mere 
 stratagem, 248 ; sends five hundred 
 Indians slaves to Spain, etc., 249 ; ex 
 acts a tribute of gold from the na 
 tives, 250; the sovereigns send a 
 commissioner to investigate him, 252 ; 
 he returns to Spain, 254 ; his decep 
 tion and mendacity exposed, 255 ; 
 again takes out an expedition, 256 ; 
 assaults the treasurer of Bishop Fon- 
 seca, 258 ; sets sail on his third voy 
 age, 259 ; first sees the Continent of 
 America, 260; proceeds to Hispani 
 ola, 262; the rebellion of Koldan, 
 264 ; Columbus endeavors to concil 
 iate him, 265; Roldan forces from 
 him terms, 266 ; more proofs of Co- 
 lumbus's duplicity, 267 ; his treatment 
 of Guevara, 269 ; the murder of 
 Moxica, 270 ; executes vengeance on 
 the disaffected, 272; Bobadilla sent 
 to Hispaniola, 273 ; supersedes Co 
 lumbus, 275, 277 ; the latter obstructs 
 him, 279, 280 ; Bobadilla arrests him 
 and Diego, 281 ; his defense of his 
 own conduct, 285 ; he leaves for 
 Spain, a prisoner, 295 ; he is practi 
 cally deposed from power, 297 ; re 
 mains in Spain two years, 299 ; pre 
 tends to plan a discovery of straits, 
 300, 318 ; his will, 303, 308 ; his des 
 perate situation, 303 ; his signature, 
 304 ; sends his papers to Oderigo, 
 309, 310, 343 ; endeavors to wheedle 
 the pope, 312 ; his fourth voyage, 
 314; is refused permission to land 
 at San Domingo, 315 ; meets very 
 
 stormy weather, 319; a specimen of 
 his brutal tastes, 321 ; subdues a 
 water-spout "by incantations, 324; 
 founds another settlement, 327 ; but 
 ; i pi in has trouble with the Indians, 
 327 ; the Deity appears to him in a vi 
 sion, 328 ; gets up a " corner " on gold 
 mines, 330 ; mutiny is raised against 
 him, 335 ; he predicts an eclipse of 
 the moon, 337, 363 ; remains wait 
 ing at Jamaica eight months, 339 ; 
 bloodshed between his followers, 340; 
 arrives at San Domingo, 342 ; returns 
 to Spain, 343 ; requests a restitution 
 of his titles, 344 ; Ferdinand refuses 
 his request, 345 ; his death, 346 ; his 
 reputed monument and inscription, 
 347 ; his remains, 348 ; his charac 
 ter generally described, 351 ; his 
 manuscript, 354 ; his licentiousness, 
 355 ; his " distempers, 1 ' 358 ; his ig 
 norance of geography and navigation, 
 362 ; his cruelty and cowardice, 367 ; 
 his son Diego enters suit against the 
 crown, 373 ; Columbus's heirs gain 
 the suit, 375 ; his descendants, 381. 
 
 Commerce among the ancients, 28. 
 
 Compass, the mariner's, known to the an 
 cients, 31, 66 ; described by Brunet- 
 to, 39 ; origin of the name, 49 ; sup. 
 posed to be allied with sorcery, 51. 
 
 Confucius, 55 ; quoted, 64. 
 
 Cortez, Ferdinand, 171. 
 
 Cuba discovered, 200. 
 
 Danish language, 70. 
 Dante, 35, 37. 
 
 De Costa, B. F., quoted, 71, 76. 
 De Puebla, Dr., agent of Isabella, 101, 
 102, 140. 
 
 Earth, the sphericity of the, known to the 
 ancients, 24 ; the Indian fable regard 
 ing, 92 ; the shape of, as imagined by 
 Columbus, 126. 
 
 Egg story of Columbus and the (see Ap 
 pendix), 388. 
 
 Egypt, its ruins, 14. 
 
 Egyptians, their pyramids, 7 ; their sci 
 ence and learning, 13, 22 ; knew the 
 use of the magnet, 44 ; poultry-rais 
 ing by artificial means* 60. 
 
 Electricity understood by the ancients, 
 46. 
 
 Eric the Eed, 72, 77. 
 
 Falsifying of history by the Church, 96, 
 99, 120, 122, 272. 
 
 Ferdinand of Aragon, his character, 97, 
 109, 112; restrictions on his con 
 duct, 98, 99; his libertinism, 111; 
 
INDEX. 
 
 401 
 
 Irving's estimate of him, 112 ; regards 
 Columbus as an impostor, 99, 114, 
 126 ; aided Vespucci to make dis 
 coveries, 114; reengages him to his 
 service, 118 ; bestows Amerigo Ves 
 pucci's name on the new-found con 
 tinent, 121 ; Columbus addresses him 
 as surviving sovereign, 344. 
 
 Florence, inscription at Vespucci's birth 
 place, 114 ; rejoicings at Vespucci's 
 success, 118. 
 
 Fonseca, Bishop, 257, 268. 
 
 Galen, quoted, 47. 
 
 Galileo, his knowledge of astronomy, 24, 25. 
 
 Genoa, claimed as Columbus's birthplace, 
 143, 306. 
 
 Geography, knowledge of, by ancients, 25. 
 
 Gira, or Giri, alleged inventor of the com 
 pass, 32. 
 
 Gish, plains of, 11. 
 
 Golden rule, taught by Confucius, 64. 
 
 Greece, 15, 23. 
 
 Greenland, 70, 77. 
 
 Griego, Nicolo, probable name of Colum 
 bus, 145. 
 
 Guistiniani, quoted, 94. 
 
 Gunpowder, discovery of, 38, 56 ; known 
 to ancients, 56., 
 
 Hakluyt, quoted, 88, 137, 139. 
 
 Hanno, his voyage, 29. 
 
 Hayti discovered, 203. 
 
 Henry VII.. 101, 134, 136, 140, 170, 180, 
 188. 
 
 Herculaneum, 27. 
 
 Hercules, the magnet named for him, 44, 
 47. 
 
 Heretics, the tortures inflicted on them, 96. 
 
 Herodotus, 4, 65. 
 
 Herrera, quoted, 95, 121, 122, 133, 184, 
 202, 208, 250, 275. 
 
 Hindoos, their knowledge of astronomy, 
 21 ; do. of the magnet, 42 ; their re 
 ligion, literature, etc., 63. 
 
 Hipparchus, the Egyptian astronomer, 60. 
 
 History, knowledge of, among the an 
 cients, 65 ; its true purposes and 
 objects, 93, 96. 
 
 Homar, grandeur of, 62. 
 
 Horace, quoted, 36. 
 
 Human race, older than biblical accounts, 
 3. 
 
 sacrifices, not practised by the Az 
 tecs, 19. 
 
 Humboldt, quoted, 88. 
 
 Iceland, 90. 
 
 Icelandic language, 70. 
 
 India, the cradle of astronomy, 22. 
 
 Indians, of America, their first trading 
 
 with white men, 83 ; they attack the 
 Northmen, 84 ; Amerigo Vespucci'e 
 description of them, 115; method 
 used to convert them to Christ, 154. 
 367-370; their character described 
 by Columbus, 186, 320; their con 
 duct at his landing, 199 ; Peter Mar 
 tyr's account of their happy condi 
 tion, 203 ; they kindly receive Co 
 lumbus, 206, 320; a warlike tribe 
 attacks him, 210 ; a number are 
 taken to Spain by Columbus, 221 ; he 
 professes to find cannibals among 
 them, 229, 319 ; he proposes to en 
 slave them, 231 ; they murder the 
 colony at La Navidad, 233 ; Spanish 
 cruelties against them, 241 - 245 ; 
 shocking cruelties by Columbus, 249, 
 272 ; their sufferings, 251 ; enslave 
 ment of Indians, 255, 265, 351 ; a 
 party meets Columbus in a canoe, 
 317 ; he wheedles them by an eclipse 
 of the moon, 338. 
 
 Indian trade, first, 83. 
 
 Inquisition, the, and Galileo, 25 ; it grants 
 license for books, 93 ; tortures in 
 flicted on heretical authors by, 96 ; 
 aided by Isabella, 99 ; its terrible 
 cruelties in Spain, 100. 
 
 Ireland, 72, 82. 
 
 Irish said to have visited America, 86. 
 
 Irving, Washington, quoted, 92, 95, 98, 
 112, 123, 130, 136, 163, 175, 193, 197, 
 199, 216, 220, 243, 247, 258, 279, 
 282, 302, 305, 317, 357. 
 
 Isabella, Queen of Spain, her character, 
 97, 101, 111 ; her marriage to Ferdi 
 nand, 97 ; false eulogies on her " vir 
 tues," 99 ; aids the Inquisition in its 
 cruel work, 99 ; confiscates the es 
 tates of condemned heretics, 100 ; re 
 tains De Puebla, a knave, as her 
 agent, 103 ; bargains for the sale of 
 her daughter, 103 ; haggles about 
 passage-money of the latter to Eng 
 land, 105; her shameless menda 
 city, 106-109 ; an unnatural moth 
 er, 108; deception regarding the 
 cost of her attire, 109 ; her portrait, 
 110 ; her double dealing and hy 
 pocrisy, 111 ; her decree against voy- ' 
 ages of discovery, 117 ; makes Co 
 lumbus her favorite, 126 ; declares 
 him hereditary grand-admiral, 171, 
 224 ; the terms proposed by her to 
 Columbus, 183 ; Isabella is induced 
 by Perez and others to fit out Colum 
 bus, 188 ; the falsehood about pawn 
 ing her jewels, 189 ; the sovereigns 
 receive Columbus on his return, 220, 
 221 ; they reject his proposal to en- 
 
402 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 slave Indians, 232 ; determine to in 
 vestigate Columbus's government, 
 252 ; Isabella sends out a colony of 
 convicts with him, 256; the sover 
 eigns revoke Columbus's power, 273 ; 
 she orders the enslaved Indians to be 
 freed, 275; her policy encouraging 
 Columbus, 29 6 ; gives him a signifi 
 cant hint, 313 ; her death, 344. 
 Italy, her ancient architecture, 15. 
 
 Jamaica discovered, 242. 
 
 Job, mentions printing, 60. 
 
 Josephus, his account of the ancients, 2, 
 
 66. 
 Justiuiani's "Psalter" condemned to be 
 
 burned, 94-96. 
 
 Karlsefne, a Northman, 79, 84. 
 Katherine, Princess, complains of her pov 
 erty, 108. 
 Kingsborough, Lord, quoted, 93. 
 
 Las Casas, quoted, 121, 154, 214, 223, 
 
 244, 283, 312. 
 
 Leif, son of Eric the Red, 74, 77, 79, 86. 
 Libraries among the Arabs, 66. 
 Literature among the ancients, 62. 
 Lithography mentioned by Job, 60. 
 Loadstone (see Magnet). 
 Lot, 28. 
 Love, symbolized by the magnet, 42. 
 
 Madoc, Prince, 88. 
 
 Magnetic needle, known to the ancients, 31 ; 
 known to Friar Bacon, 39 ; described 
 by Claudian, 40 ; how termed in dif 
 ferent tongues, 42, 43 ; its use in the 
 year 640, 49 ; known to the Chinese 
 2700 B. c., 52-54. 
 
 Magnifying lens known to ancients, 5 ; 
 one constructed by Friar Bacon, 38. 
 
 Manou, quoted, 63. 
 
 Marco Polo, quoted, 203. 
 
 Marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella, 98. 
 
 huckstering between royal families, 
 
 104. 
 
 Martyr, Peter, quoted, 128, 203, 220, 223, 
 281, 283. 
 
 Measurement, ancient standard of, 9, 11. 
 
 Medici, house of, 114. 
 
 Mendez, Diego,' 331, 338, 341. 
 
 Mexico, 16. 
 
 Moses, 14, 63. 
 
 Mount Hope, a Norske name, 83. 
 
 Moxica, a Spaniard, murdered by Colum 
 bus, 270, 271. 
 
 Navigation, decree concerning, in Spain, 
 
 119. 
 practised by the ancients, 25, 30. 
 
 Nebuchadnezzar's palace, 4. 
 
 Newfoundland, 73, 78, 135. 
 
 Nineveh, ruins of, 2, 14. 
 
 Noah's ark, 30. 
 
 Northmen, not the first to discover Amer 
 ica, 19, 69 ; their early use of the 
 compass, 33, 40 ; they land in Amer 
 ica, 69, 73 ; their motives in coming 
 to America, 70 ; their geographical 
 knowledge, 71 ; name America Vine- 
 land, 76 ; introduce Christianity into 
 Greenland, 77 ; other expeditions, 78- 
 80 ; their character and acts, 86, 87. 
 
 Norway, 70. 
 
 Nova- Scotia, landing-place of the North 
 men, 73-80. 
 
 Oderigo, Nicolo de, 309, 310. 
 Odometer, used by ancient Chinese, 54. 
 Ojeda, Alonzo de, 238, 247, 268. 
 Ovando, Nicolas de, 297-301, 315, 339, 
 
 341, 342, 380. 
 Oxford, England, 35, 36. 
 
 Palmyra (Tadmor), ruins of, 5. 
 
 Palos, Spanish seaport, 187, 188, 190, 
 218. 
 
 Papal infallibility, 94. 
 
 Paschal chronicle, 4. 
 
 Perez, Juan, 129, 130, 167, 179, 181, 188. 
 
 Persians, their religion, 3. 
 
 Petrarch, 37. 
 
 Pharaoh Necho, 25-29. 
 
 Philip II., 171. 
 
 Phoanicians, the, extent of their com 
 merce, 19-28 ; they used the com 
 pass, 44. 
 
 Piuzon, Martin Alonzo. and Vincent Ya- 
 nez, 117, 129 ; Columbus engages 
 their attention, 130 ; they aid him in 
 his expedition, 130, 182-190; are 
 entitled to the credit of its success, 
 131 ; accused of desertion by Colum 
 bus, 133, 203, 218 ; are raised to the 
 rank of nobility, 133. 
 
 Piracy practised by Columbus, 145, 149. 
 
 Plato, refers to the New World, 26 ; his 
 teachings, 65. 
 
 Polar Star, four thousand years ago, 13. 
 
 Pompeii, 27. 
 
 Pope, places full faith in Columbus, 94. 
 
 Pope Alexander VI., 94. 
 
 Porras, Francis de, 335, 341, 342. 
 
 Pork, eating of, forbidden, 63. 
 
 Portugal, King of, 118, 140, 178. 
 
 Prescott's "Spanish Conquest," 15, 99. 
 
 Printing, mentioned by Job, 60. 
 
 Ptolemy, Claudius, 23, 25, 46. 
 
 Public-school system, known five hundred 
 years B. c., 66. 
 
 Publishing books in Spain, 93, 95. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 403 
 
 Purchas, quoted, 89, 90, 168. 
 
 Pyramids, ruins of, 6 , their object, 7 ; 
 
 explored by Caliph al Mamoun, 9, 10. 
 Pythagoras, understood the solar system, 
 
 23. 
 
 Rafn, Professor, -71. 
 
 Religion, crimes committed in its name, 
 
 155. 
 
 Roldan, Francisco, his rebellion, 263, 316. 
 Romance tongue, 37. 
 Rome, ruins of, 15. 
 Ruins of ancient cities, 2, 4, 5, 15. 
 
 in Central America, 16. 
 
 : in Mexico, similar to Egyptian, 19. 
 
 Saint Ambrose, quoted, 48. 
 
 Saint Paul, 30. 
 
 Saint Peter, 4. 
 
 San Domingo, discovered, 229. 
 
 San Salvador, discovered, 199. 
 
 Sanchez, Alonzo, a pilot, 132, 162, 164, 
 166, 168, 176, 179, 185. 
 
 Sesostris, 30. 
 
 Slave-trade, Columbus engaged in, 149. 
 
 seeks to restore it in the West In 
 dies, 230. 
 
 Smith, J. Toulmin, quoted, 71. 
 
 Smyth, Professor C. Piazzi, royal astron 
 omer, etc., 7, 8, and note, 9. 
 
 Socrates, 65. 
 
 Solis, Juan, 117. 
 
 Solomon, his song, 62. 
 
 Southey, quoted, 89. 
 
 Spain, court of, loose morals, 99 ; royal 
 decree concerning navigators, 119; 
 objects to English explorations, 140 ; 
 Arabs aided its learning and science, 
 182. 
 
 Spaniards, etc., did not discover America, 
 19 ; their ancient libraries, 67 ; their 
 laws concerning histories, 93. 
 
 Sphinx, the, 6. 
 
 Strabo, 15. 
 
 Strada, quoted, 61. 
 
 Suit, by Diego Columbus, against the 
 crown, 373. 
 
 Sweden, 70. 
 
 Syphilis, its origin, etc., 358. 
 
 Tacitus, quoted, 72. ! 
 
 Tadmor (Palmyra), ruins of, 2. 
 
 Talmud, quoted, 63. 
 
 Telegraphing known to the ancients, 62. 
 
 Telescope, invented by Roger Bacon, 38. 
 
 Thebes, ruins of, 5. 
 
 Thorhall, a Northman, 80-82. 
 
 Thorwald, a Northman, 77-86. 
 Time, measurement of, in the Pyramids, 12. 
 Torquemada, grand-inquisitor, 99. 
 Tortures inflicted on heretical authors, 96. 
 Toscanella, the astronomer, 157, 174. 
 Trading with Indians, by Northmen, 83. 
 Trichina spiralis, known to the ancients 
 
 63. 
 
 Truth the great object of history, 93. 
 Tyre, 28. 
 
 Yedas, quoted, 63. 
 
 Venereal (see Syphilis). 
 
 Venezuela, discovered by Vespucci, 115. 
 
 Venice, Zeni brothers' expedition from, 
 90 ; merchants of, arrested, etc. 
 
 Vespucci, Amerigo, 113 ; his nativity, etc., 
 114; enters a commercial life, 114; 
 King Ferdinand confides in his abili 
 ty, 114, 126; his first voyage, 115; 
 Venezuela and its natives described 
 by him, 115 ; a man of intellect and 
 science, 117, 126 ; his second voyage 
 in 1499, 117 ; his crew maltreated by 
 Columbus's crew, 117; enters the 
 service of the King of Portugal, 118 ; 
 his subsequent voyages and explora 
 tions, 118, 268 ; reenters the service 
 of Spain, 118, 123; oflSce of pilot- 
 major conferred on him, 119 ; com 
 manded to make a standard chart, 
 119 ; his death, 120; his modesty re 
 garding his own claims, 120; Amer 
 ica named after him, 121 ; his dis 
 coveries belittled after his death, 122 ; 
 Columbus's opinion regarding him, 
 122 ; the honor done to his memory 
 ' in Italy, 124; his portrait, 125 ; not 
 called as a witness in the suit of Co 
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 Vineland, America so named by North 
 men, 76. 
 
 Virginity of a princess, correspondence 
 touching the, 103. 
 
 Volney, his'" Ruins" quoted, 6. 
 
 Weights and measures, ancient, 11. 
 Welsh exploration of America, 88. 
 Western Hemisphere known to the an 
 cients, 26. 
 
 Xenophou, 66. 
 Yucatan, mines in, 17. 
 
 Zeni brothers, Nicolo and Antonio, ex- 
 plorers, etc., 88-90. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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