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 I
 
 MEMORIALS OF COLUMB1 
 
 READ TO THK 
 
 Jttarnlano historical Borietn, 
 
 ROBERT DODGE, 
 
 3 April, 1851. 
 
 BALTIMORE: 
 
 PRINTED FOR TIIK S TV. 
 
 M D C C C L I . 
 
 EJIB-
 
 
 . -'V 
 
 < 
 
 MEMOEIALS OF COLUMBUS, 
 
 
 READ TO THE 
 
 f)i0toncal 
 
 ROBERT jDODGE, 
 
 3 April, 1851. 
 
 BALTIMORE: 
 PRINTED FOR THE SOCIETY. 
 
 M D C C C L I .
 
 ENTERED, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1851, by the 
 
 MARYLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States. 
 
 JOHN D. TOY, PRINTER.
 
 COLUMBUS. 
 
 AUTOGRAPH LETTERS AT GENOA. 
 
 Ax the meeting of the NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 
 held at its rooms, on the evening of the fifteenth day of January, 
 1850, I had the honor of presenting to the Society a copy of 
 one of the very few remaining autograph letters of Christopher 
 Columbus, in the original and beautiful Italian. 
 
 Upon the nineteenth day of January, 1848, during my stay at 
 Genoa, I had the opportunity of examining that city's proudest 
 treasury, its Custodia of the Memorials of Columbus, which 
 with Parmegiano's Portrait in the Royal Gallery at Naples, 
 compose some valuable relics of him, the results of whose 
 sublime achievement may well fill coming centuries for their 
 development. 
 
 During the brief space that the Custodien allowed me to hold 
 the letter in my hand, I succeeded in making a correct copy of 
 the original, which, as one of but three landmarks of his history 
 supplied by himself, and left for us, is justly regarded by his 
 countrymen with no ordinary veneration. Perhaps their famous 
 Emerald Vase or the ashes of St. John, do not meet with equal 
 regard. 
 
 I presented the copy that I thus had myself made, to the 
 Society, without any accompanying data, which might be useful 
 to demonstrate the originality and authenticity of the donation, 
 as well as its historical importance. 
 
 511683 
 
 LIB SETS
 
 Favorable opportunity has since, through the courtesy of Mr. 
 Brantz Mayer, of Baltimore, and from other sources, placed in 
 my hands some evidence thereof, which I now ask permission 
 succinctly to detail. 
 
 It may perhaps, be as well here to premise a short history of 
 the collection and preservation of the few autograph Memorials 
 of the Great Discoverer of the New World. 
 
 Of the Autograph Letters of Christopher Columbus, there are 
 but three as yet known to the world; the residue, though long 
 desired, have never yet been brought to light. 
 
 The priceless value of an autograph letter from the accom- 
 plished mind of Him, who was confessedly at the head of phy- 
 sical science, at that period of the awakening of the human in- 
 tellect; which speaks to us, at the vast distance of near three 
 centuries and a half, of his daily griefs, hopes, and plans of 
 beneficence; in that most mellifluent of human tongues, the 
 daily speech of his cotemporaries, Michael Angelo, Titian, 
 Corregio and Raphael, and whose harmonies were even as 
 Columbus wrote, flowing in immortal grace from the pens of 
 Ariosto and Machiavelli, must be manifest to all, and more 
 especially in this land the scene of his glory, now so rapidly 
 hasting foward in that grand career, predicted in the sublime 
 visions of his own prophecies. 
 
 We are told by the Decurions of Genoa, that the library of 
 the Count Michael Angelo Cambiasi, a former Senator of that 
 city, was, after his death, in July, 1816, advertised for sale. 
 Its catalogue contained as one of its Nos. the "Codice dei 
 Privilegii del Colombo." The Decurions of Genoa, anxious to 
 procure this treasure, had the public sale adjourned until the 
 King's answer had been received to their memorial on the 
 subject. The King of Sardinia, Victor Emanuel, earnestly 
 seconded their wishes, ordering the originals to be deposited in 
 the archives of the Court at Turin ; where an accurate copy 
 having been taken, at the solicitations of the Decurions of 
 Genoa, the originals were given up to them and the copy left at 
 Turin. The originals were received by Genoa,, on the 29th 
 day of January, 1821, and shortly after a beautiful monument or
 
 custodia, being a marble pillar surmounted by a bust of Colum- 
 bus, was erected as their honored depository, and placed in an 
 apartment in the beautiful marble palace of the Doges of Genoa. 
 
 A small door of gilded bronze in the centre, opens to still 
 another door of similar material, behind which, in their golden 
 receptacle are preserved these sacred relics. The closet is 
 secured by two keys, which are kept respectively as appurte- 
 nances of office, by the Senator and by the Cardinal Legate of 
 Genoa, during their terms of office. To see the relics, both 
 keys must be obtained on written application to these digni- 
 taries. 
 
 The reflecting stranger who has the happiness of visiting 
 "Geneva la Superba," as she is so well designated, and looks 
 with admiration on that beautiful palace, the seat of the pomps 
 of its long line of illustrious Doges, still so fresh and well pre- 
 served, despite French Vandalism; may now, as he walks 
 through its classic corridors, colonnades and porticos, well 
 hesitate to attribute the inspiration of the scene, to the thronging 
 memories of the great Doria, the deliverer of his country, the 
 Crusades, the capture of Constantinople, the rescue of the Holy 
 Sepulchre, or to these memorials of Genoa's greater Son, who 
 made her the mother of a New World. 
 
 The documents contained in this monument to Columbus, 
 consist of forty-four separate charters, warrants, orders and 
 grants of privileges, beautifully engrossed on vellum, by the art 
 of the copyist and illuminator of that age, and also the autograph 
 letters of Columbus, of which we purpose to speak. 
 
 These documents are enclosed in a bag of richly gilt and 
 embossed scarlet Spanish leather, with a silver lock; being the 
 "book of copies of his letters and of his pririleges" which in 
 1502, when he set off upon his fourth and last voyage, he en- 
 trusted to the care and guardianship of Signer Francesco di 
 Rivarolo, to forward to his intimate friend at Genoa, "the most 
 learned doctor," as he styles him, and "the ambassador" Signer 
 Nicolo Oderigo, for his safe keeping and preservation. 
 
 In the TWO autograph letters, which are all that were pub- 
 lished accompanying the copy of these documents of Columbus,
 
 6 
 
 printed by order of the Decurions of Genoa, in 1823; (entitled 
 "Codice Diplomatico Colombo- Americano,") Columbus ad- 
 dresses both letters to Signor Nicolo Oderigo, the first dated 
 March 21st, 1502, just before he sailed upon his fourth and last 
 voyage of discovery ; and the second, dated the 27th of Decem- 
 ber, 1504, two months after his return; as will appear by the 
 copies of these letters annexed. 
 
 In the first of these letters, bearing date Seville, March 
 21, 1502, he says: "I gave the book of my Privileges to 
 Signor Francesco di Rivarolo, in order that he might forward 
 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 acknowledge 
 their receipt and to mention where they are deposited." 
 
 In the second of these letters, bearing date Seville, Decem- 
 ber 27, 1504, he says: "At that time, when I set off upon the 
 voyage from which I have just returned, I gave to Francesco 
 di Rivarolo, 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 assigned the tenth of my revenues, in diminution of 
 the duties upon corn and other provisions : no acknowledgment 
 of all this has reached me. Signor Francesco tells me, that all 
 arrived there in safety. If so, it was uncourteous in these gen- 
 tlemen of St. George not to have favored me with an answer, 
 nor have they thereby improved their affairs, which gives me 
 cause to say, that whoever serves the public, serves nobody." 
 
 The magistrate of St. George, at Genoa, on the 8th day of 
 December, 1502, writes him at great length, acknowledging 
 the receipt of a letter from him, in which he gives orders to his 
 son, Don Diego, that the tenth part of his annual revenues 
 should be paid to the city of Genoa, in diminution of the 
 duties on corn, wine and other provisions, for which they ren- 
 der suitable acknowledgments to the Admiral, replying in detail 
 to his said letter. 
 
 This letter of the magistrate of St. George, of Genoa, of 
 which we append a translation, therefore could not have been 
 received by the Admiral.
 
 These three letters form all the letters that are printed by the 
 Decurions of Genoa, in their publication of 1823, of auto- 
 graphs 6y, or addressed to the Admiral. 
 
 The manifest hiatus of meaning in this correspondence, 
 can only be explained by the production of that letter from 
 Columbus to the magistrates or Bank of St. George, mentioned 
 by himself in the second letter, and acknowledged on receipt, 
 and answered at length by the letter of the magistrate of 
 St. George. 
 
 It may be as well here to observe, that on examination of the 
 printed volume of the Decurions of Genoa, it appears from the 
 detailed history of the documents furnished on page 138, et seq. 
 that they print only the contents of the book of Privileges, and 
 book of copies of Letters, and such autograph letters as are 
 found therein, and attached to the leather case of the book, and 
 no others. 
 
 The letter of Columbus, of which I had the honor of pre- 
 senting a copy to the New York Historical Society, in Italian, 
 copied from the autograph, was by the Custodien, taken out of 
 the same depository, but was not attached to the book of 
 Privileges. 
 
 This letter bears date the 2d day of April, 1502, at Seville; 
 addressed to the Governors of the Bank of St. George, at 
 Genoa; gives directions to Don Diego to pay the one tithe of 
 his revenue to the Bank, in diminution of the taxes; informs 
 them of his having sent to Signor Nicolo Oderigo a copy of 
 his Privileges and Charters; and is thus, as will be seen by the 
 copy appended, the missing ktter, referred to by Columbus him- 
 self in his second letter, and fully acknowledged and answered 
 in detail by the magistrate of St. George, on the 8th day of 
 December following. 
 
 Condensing a few leading events of the life of the great 
 navigator, may throw more light upon this intrinsically inter- 
 esting letter. 
 
 Biographers have not as yet determined whether it was in 
 1446 or 1447, or earlier, that Columbus was born. Their 
 theories are indeed numerous. Dr. Robertson, in note 11 to
 
 8 
 
 page 62 of Vol. I. of his History of America, says: "The 
 time of Columbus' birth may be nearly ascertained by the fol- 
 lowing circumstances. It appears from the fragment of a letter 
 addressed by him to Ferdinand and Isabella, A. D. 1501, that 
 he had at that time been engaged forty years in a seafaring 
 life. In another letter he informs them that he went to sea at 
 the age of fourteen : whence it follows that he was born April, 
 A. D. 1447," and cites Ferdinand's Life C. Col. Mr. Pres- 
 cott, although not venturing in his text positively to state it, 
 in his History of Ferdinand and Isabella, Vol. II. page 115, 
 note 6, and Vol. III. page 242, note 16, sums up all the 
 authorities, and comes to the same result. It seems that 
 Mr. Irving's date of 1435, based on the hypotheses of Navarrete 
 and Bernaldez is conjectural, and opposed to the great weight 
 of authorities. The last writer appears unwilling to allow that 
 the infirmities of the declining years of the Admiral were not 
 the natural result of his numerous mental and bodily hard- 
 ships, and therefore adds ten years to his life. Spotorno and 
 others say 1446: the rest 1447. However, after much contro- 
 versy, it seems agreed that he was the son of the wool-carder, 
 Domenico Colombo, and his wife, Susanna, and that the place 
 of his nativity was in the present street of St. Andrew's Gate, 
 or Lane of Mulcento, in the Parish of St. Stephen, being the 
 suburbs of Genoa. 
 
 From the age of fourteen until the age of sixty, or 1506, 
 when he died at Valladolid, his habitual pursuit was navigation. 
 The facts and speculations of all the existing science of the 
 age were applied by him, in the study and practice of his 
 favorite occupation. 
 
 These memorials of him, and the still lingering historic remi- 
 niscence of his age, establish his character, to have been im- 
 measurably superior to his fellow men : that his mind, enriched 
 by a long experience in navigating the seas of Europe, and by 
 the contemplation of the phenomena of nature, and the laws of 
 the physical world, had risen to an unalterable conviction of the 
 truth of that ever memorable and grand conclusion, from those
 
 laws and phenomena, which shone upon his own mind with the 
 clearness and directness of a sunbeam. 
 
 How he, of whom his own age was not worthy, toiled and 
 wandered : how much privation and suffering, how many griefs 
 and sorrows he endured ; how many long years he begged his 
 way from door to door, and from court to court ; how his clear 
 reasoning was derided ; and how often baffled in the effort to 
 gain a hearing among the ignorant and selfish sovereigns of Eu- 
 rope ; how his great heart and hope outlived this all ; and how 
 at last, the gracious queen of Castile, lifted him up from the dust 
 of his abasement, and staking the jewels of her crown, set him 
 forth upon that voyage, which at once opened the area of a 
 world, and covered him and her with a more resplendent glory 
 than all human diadems ; is familiar to us all. 
 
 The great navigator, made in all, four voyages to this Conti- 
 nent, or, as it was then called, the Indies. 
 
 His first voyage began on the 3d* day of August, 1492, from 
 Palos; and he returned to Lisbon, on the 4th day of March, 1493. 
 
 His second voyage started from Cadiz, the 25th day of Sep- 
 tember, 1493 ; and he returned to Burgos, in Spain, on the 14th 
 of June, 1497. 
 
 On his third voyage, he sailed from San Lucar, on the 30th 
 day of May, 1498; the reins of power in Hispaniola, were then 
 in the hands of his vindictive enemies ; and the student of the 
 life of this really sublime hero and prophet of his age, reads with 
 weeping heart, how he was reviled, persecuted, disgraced, and 
 sent home a prisoner to Cadiz, in Spain, where he arrived a 
 captive in' chains, on the 20th day of November, 1500. 
 
 Two long and weary years, were then spent by him in repel- 
 ing the malicious falsehoods of his jealous foes, before the tribu- 
 nals and court of Spain, which had but two years before show- 
 ered upon the discoverer dominion and honors equal to royalty. 
 The truth, finally, as ever, when facing falsehood, triumphed. 
 The royal favor was restored, and on the 9th day of May, 1502, 
 
 * All these dates being prior to A. D. 1582, the epoch of the Gregorian Calen- 
 dar, or change to the New Style, eleven days are therefore to be added to bring 
 them to the modern reckoning, the present or New Style. 
 2
 
 10 
 
 with a still greater equipment, and still greater glory, though 
 his conscious satisfaction of victory over his enemies was sad- 
 dened by his experience of their malice, he set forth on his 
 fourth voyage to the Indies from the same port of Cadiz. 
 
 He returned home to San Lucar, in the month of September, 
 1504; the precise day of his arrival is not ascertained. 
 
 This fourth voyage was an addition to his glory ; as he there- 
 in first saw the main land of this Continent in voyaging along 
 the South American coasts. This was his last voyage. The 
 great Mariner returned no more. In less than two years after- 
 wards, and on the 20th day of May, 1506, at Valladolid, his 
 mighty heart surrendered to "the last enemy, which is death." 
 
 In a codicil to his will, which codicil was written by the tes- 
 tator himself at Segovia, August 15, 1505, and executed at 
 Valladolid, the 19th day of May, 1506, (the day before his 
 death,) Columbus declares that his will had been made and ex- 
 ecuted on the 1st day of April, 1502, and deposited in the keep- 
 ing of father Caspar Certosa, at Seville. Another codicil, called 
 the military codicil, written on the blank leaf of the Breviary, 
 presented to him by Pope Alexander VI., dated at Valladolid, 
 the 14th day of May, 1506, has also been published. This will 
 itself has never yet seen the light ; but a previous will, dated in 
 1498, has been, of late years, discovered and published. 
 
 Perhaps this may be charged to the wilfulness of that crowd 
 of selfish claimants, who started so many wild and dubious sto- 
 ries, and unfounded litigations for the succession to his wealth 
 and honors, and prosecuted their finally unsuccessful suits for 
 generations after his decease. In this will, he declares Genoa 
 to be his birth-place, and directs his son Don Diego, therefore 
 to honor and be serviceable to that city. The controversy was 
 created by a race of claimants from Cuccharo or Cogoletto, who 
 attempted to deprive Genoa of the honor of his birth-place, to fix 
 it at Cuccharo, and thereby to make out their own lineal descent 
 and title to the succession, to the honor and wealth of the great 
 Admiral of Genoa. The explicit declarations of his will, that 
 he was a native of Genoa, stood in their way ; and it is easy to 
 believe that to protract their pertinacious litigation, they found 
 it convenient to suppress the will.
 
 11 
 
 This epitome of the leading events of his life points clearly to 
 the character of this letter of the 2d day of April, 1502. It ap- 
 pears that the month of April, 1502, was selected by the Admi- 
 ral for making the final disposition of his earthly affairs. On 
 the 1st day of the month, at Seville, in Spain, where he was 
 occupied in the business of his last expedition, he executes his 
 will, the most solemn record of humanity, and therein speaks 
 with affection of his own distant and native Genoa. During the 
 month of March, he had given diligence to have all the chapters, 
 warrants and grants, from the crown and others to him, accu- 
 rately copied, authenticated by a public notary, and sent by the 
 trusty hand of intimate friendship, to his son, Don Diego, at Ge- 
 noa, there to be carefully deposited and preserved. After thus 
 honoring his native city, by its selection as the depository of his 
 most valuable muniments of title, he seeks to confer a more sub- 
 stantial favor upon his fellow-citizens. To diminish the burthen 
 of the taxes upon food, which bore heavily on the poor, he, by 
 this letter, voluntarily yields up to the city one tenth of all the 
 revenues he derived from this source ; and entrusts his son, Don 
 Diego, with the honorable office of executing his plan of benefi- 
 cence. The letter is therefore testamentary in its character; and 
 was more efficient than if he had included it in his will, which 
 became the prey of the avarice of litigants. 
 
 It is addressed, like the others, to Signor Nicolo Oderigo, his 
 intimate friend ; an accomplished fellow- citizen of Genoa, who 
 w T as one of its Senators, and had been honored by its embassy 
 to the Court of Spain, then the first power of the world. 
 
 Mr. Irving, in the second volume of his History of Columbus, 
 alludes generally to this subject; states the fact that Columbus 
 sent two letters to the Bank of St. George, assigning to it the 
 one-tenth of his revenues, to be employed in diminishing the 
 duties on corn and other provisions, but does not furnish any 
 copies of the autograph letters of the Admiral or the Bank, nor 
 any additional information.* A very material confirmation has 
 however, been furnished me. 
 
 * I am informed by Mr. Irving, that he has not visited Genoa, since the dis- 
 covery of these relics of Columbus, and therefore has had no opportunity of per- 
 sonal inspection.
 
 12 
 
 In Niles's National Register for June 15th, 1839, it is stated, 
 on the authority of the New York Gazette, that Captain Baker, 
 of the Baltimore Brig Helen McLeod, recently arrived from 
 Genoa, had furnished to the Editor of the Gazette a translation 
 of an autograph letter from the great discoverer of our Conti- 
 nent, which translation had been given to Captain Baker by 
 Mr. Robert Campbell, who at that period was United States 
 Consul at Genoa. This letter is dated 2d April, 1502, 
 addressed to the Bank of St. George, at Genoa. The Editor 
 remarks that it will be perused with interest as an original 
 from Christopher Columbus, never before published, and appends 
 (without, however, giving the Italian) a very fair rendering 
 into English of the identical letter, which I have translated and 
 inserted as No. 4 in the Appendix to this paper. As evidence 
 from an independent source and high character, this additional 
 testimony of the authenticity of the autograph is entitled to 
 great weight and respect.* 
 
 The letters speak for themselves, their contents require no 
 commentary; and least of all, can the gap of meaning between 
 the letters printed by the Decurions of Genoa, be supplied by 
 the cool assertion of D. Giovanni Batista Spotorno, in his 
 Memoir of Columbus, that the letter of the magistrate of St. 
 George refers, and is an answer to the first letter of Columbus, 
 bearing date at Seville, March 21st, 1502, which is addressed 
 to Nicolo Oderigo, upon a subject entirely distinct. 
 
 It may be pertinent to add that the Bank of St. George at 
 Genoa, whose banking house, girt with the Pisan chains, the 
 trophy of Genoa's ancient fame, is still a conspicuous monument 
 at the side of the Porto franco, arose about A. D. 1400, as a 
 means of providing the Republic with funds to repel the aggres- 
 sions of the exiled nobles, who then in great force threatened 
 its destruction. 
 
 The Republic pledged the whole revenues of the state, to a 
 company of merchants, called the Compera or Banco di San 
 
 * Mr. Robert Campbell was in office as United States Consul at Genoa, in Sep- 
 tember, 1839. See U. S. Official Register for 1839, p. 11.
 
 13 
 
 Georgio, for the payment of the advances of money required by 
 the exigencies of the State. The bank was for loans and 
 deposits. Its transactions were on a grand scale ; many of the 
 European States, and Spain in particular, were its debtors, and 
 its income exceeded ten millions of French livres. The admin- 
 istration of its concerns was committed to eight directors, and 
 it had jurisdiction over its own officers. The product of the 
 imposts, pledged by the State to the Bank, for the payment of 
 its loan and interest, when inadequate, was constantly increased. 
 
 At the time of its failure, its rents amounting to 3,400,000 
 Genoese Lire, or about seven hundred thousand dollars, the 
 property of its creditors was transferred to the account books of 
 France. 
 
 The Bank had all the nature and powers of the English East 
 India Company, being both a financial and trading corporation. 
 Its colonial administration and power extended to the Crimea, 
 Asia Minor, and over the Island of Corsica. 
 
 This great engine of the State, was managed with power 
 and integrity; its bills continued current throughout Europe, 
 until French Vandalism overran the territory of the Republic 
 and seized on Corsica; until the year 1750, when the Bank 
 failed ; the artery of life to Genoa ceased to furnish aliment 
 when the other powers of the venerable Republic were de- 
 stroyed. 
 
 The interest of the subject is my excuse for the length of this 
 paper, whose conclusion I now form by copies of the three 
 letters of Columbus, and of the letter of the Magistrate of St. 
 George to the Admiral.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 No. 1 
 
 "To THE AMBASSADOR SIGNOR NICOLO ODERIGO." 
 " Sir : 
 
 "It is impossible to describe the solicitude which 
 your departure has caused among us. I gave the book of my 
 Privileges to Signor Frco. di Rivarolo, in order that he might 
 forward 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 ac- 
 knowledge their receipt, and to mention where they are depo- 
 sited. Another copy shall be furnished and sent to you, in the 
 same manner, and by the said Sig. Franco. You will find 
 another letter in it, in which their highnesses have promised to 
 give me all that belongs to me, and to put Don Diego in posses- 
 sion of it, as you will see. 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 Girolamo 
 di Santo Stephano comes, he must wait forme, and not entangle 
 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 ty the king and queen until I arrive. 
 " May our Lord have you in his holy keeping. 
 "March 21, 1502, in Seville. 
 
 "At your commands, 
 
 S. 
 
 S. A. S 
 X. M. Y. 
 X/,0 FERENS."* 
 
 * It may explain this peculiar signature, which is so indicative of the fashion of 
 his age, to add, what I helieve comes originally from his son Ferdinand's Life of 
 the Admiral ; that Columbus, always, when trying his pen, before writing, wrote 
 these words : 
 
 " Jesu cum Maria, 
 
 Sit nobis in via."
 
 15 
 
 No. 2. 
 
 " To THE MOST LEARNED DOCTOR NlCOLO ODERIGO. 
 
 " Learned Sir: 
 
 " When I set off 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 possi- 
 bly a confidential person from you. At that time I likewise gave 
 to Francesco di Rivarolo, 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 assigned the tenth of my revenues, in diminution of the 
 duties upon corn and other provisions. No acknowledgment of 
 all this has reached me. Sig. Francesco tells me that all ar- 
 rived there in safety. If so, it was uncourteous hi those gentle- 
 men of St. George not to have favored me with an answer, nor 
 have they thereby improved their affairs ; which gives me cause 
 to say, that whoever serves the public, serves nobody. I gave 
 another book of my Privileges, like the above, in Cadiz, to 
 Franco Cattaneo, the bearer of this, in order that he might like- 
 wise forward it to you ; and that both of them might be placed 
 in security wherever you thought proper. Just before my de- 
 parture, I received a letter from the king and queen, my lords ; 
 a copy of which you will find there. You will see that it came 
 very opportunely ; nevertheless, Don Diego was not put in pos- 
 session, as had been there promised. 
 
 " While I was hi the Indies, I wrote to their highnesses an 
 account of my voyage, by three or four opportunities ; one of 
 my letters having come back to my hands, I send it to you in- 
 closed in this, with the supplement of my voyage in another 
 letter, in order that you may give it to Signer Gian Luigi, with 
 the other of advice ; to whom 1 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 engaged. I 
 arrived here very unwell, just before the queen, my mistress, 
 died, (who is now with God,) without my seeing her. Till now
 
 16 
 
 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 Cattaneo will explain 
 the rest more minutely to you. 
 
 " May our Lord preserve you in his care. 
 
 Seville, 27th December, 1504. 
 
 S. 
 "The Admiral of the Ocean, Viceroy, S. A. S. 
 
 and Governor General of the Indies, &c." X. M. Y. 
 
 X,. FERENS. 
 
 No. 3. 
 
 Copy of a Letter written by the magistrate of St. George* s to 
 
 Columbus. 
 "111. Vir, et clarissime, amantissimeque 
 
 Concivis, et Domine memorandisseme. 
 
 "The distinguished Juris Consult, Messer Nicolo di Oderigo, 
 on his return from the embassy to which he was appointed from 
 our illustrious Republic, to the most excellent and glorious 
 monarch, (of Spain,) delivered me a letter from your Excel- 
 lency, which gave me singular pleasure, from the affectionate 
 regard, so conformable to your disposition, which your Excel- 
 lency therein exhibited towards your native country, to which 
 you have shown most singular love and charity, in wishing it 
 to be partakers of the favors which it has pleased Divine 
 Providence to bestow upon your Excellency. Your aforesaid 
 country and people must feel what singular profit and advan- 
 tages they will derive from the orders you have given to Don 
 Diego, your son, that the tenth of your annual revenues should 
 be paid to this city, in diminution of the duties on corn, wine 
 and other provisions. Nothing could be more charitable, nor 
 more memorable than this, or will tend more to the remem- 
 brance of your glory, which, in other respects, is as great and 
 extraordinary, as according to history, any man in the world 
 has ever acquired, having by your own perseverance, energy and 
 prudence discovered so large a portion of this earth and globe of
 
 17 
 
 the lower world, which for so many centuries past had remained 
 unknown to the people of that which we inhabit. But this great 
 exercise of your extraordinary glory, is in truth much more 
 memorable and complete, as proceeding from the humanity and 
 benignity which it proves you possess towards the country of 
 your birth, on which account we praise, as it deserves, your 
 disposition, and pray to God to preserve you many years. We 
 shall always bear that affection towards your most illustrious son, 
 Don Diego, which he is entitled to, as being your son, and from 
 the splendor and glory of your actions of which this our common 
 country is proud of having its part. To Don Diego we have 
 expressed by letter, as we now do to your Excellency, our 
 readiness to do everything in our power for the honor and 
 advantage of your illustrious family. The above mentioned 
 Messer Nicolo has related to us many things respecting your 
 Favors and Privileges, of which he has brought copies here, 
 with which we were much gratified, and return you everlasting 
 thanks for those of which you had made us partakers. 
 "From Genoa, the 8th of December, MDII." 
 Here ends the publication by the Decurions of Genoa, in 
 1823. The following is a copy of the letter in the original Ital- 
 ian, and translation obtained by myself from the same deposi- 
 tory, in Genoa, January 19, 1848. 
 
 No. 4. 
 
 ALL! MOLTO NOBILI SlGNORI 
 
 DEL MOLTO MAGNIFICO UFFICIO 
 
 DI S. GIORGIO 
 
 A GENOVA. 
 
 Jil di dentro 
 
 Molto nobili Signori: 
 
 Benche il corpo cammini qua, il cuore sta li da continue. 
 
 Nostro Signore mi 'ha fatto la maggior, che dopo David abbia 
 
 fatto a nessuno. Le cose della mia impresa, gid risplend&no, e 
 
 piu risplenderebbero, se la oscurita" del Governo non le coprisse. 
 
 3
 
 18 
 
 10 torno alle Indie, in nome della Santissima Trinita, per tor- 
 nare subito ; e perche, Io son mortale, lascio, a D. Diego, mio 
 figlio, che di tutta la rendita, vi corresponda corti, per il decimo 
 del totale, di essa, ogni anno, per sempre, in sconto, del pro- 
 dotto, del grano, e vino, edaltre vettovaglie commestibile. 
 Se questo decimo sard molto, ricevetelo, e se no, ricevete la 
 volonta che io tengo. Vi prego, per grazia, che tengniate 
 riccomandato questo mio figlio. Messer Nicolo Oderigo sa 
 dei fatti miei piu che io stesso, e lui ho mandato la copia dei 
 miei privilegii, e carte ; perche li pongo in buona guardia, avrei 
 piacere, che li vedreste. 
 
 11 Re e la Regina, miei Signori, mi vogliono onora piti che 
 mai. La San. Trin. guardi le vostre nobili persone, e accresca 
 in molto magnifico uffizio. 
 
 Fatto in Seviglia le 2 di Aprile 1502. 
 
 L'Ammiraglio Maggure del Mare Oceano, e Vice Re, e 
 Governatore Generale delle Isole, e della Terra Ferma, del 
 Asia, e delle Indie, del Re, e della Regina, miei Signori, e suo 
 Capitano Generale del Mare, e del suo Consiglio. 
 
 S. 
 
 S. A. S. 
 X. M. Y. 
 X/i. FERENS. 
 Supplex. 
 
 Servus. Altissimi Salvatoris. 
 Xristi. Mariffi. Josephi. 
 Christo Ferens. 
 
 TRANSLATION. 
 
 To THE MOST NOBLE GENTLEMEN OF THE ILLUSTRIOUS BANK 
 
 or ST. GEORGE AT GENOA. 
 To the within 
 
 Most noble Gentlemen : 
 
 Although the body travels hither, the heart remains with you 
 for ever. Our Lord hath shown me greater grace than after 
 David hath he shown to any one. The affairs of my enterprise
 
 19 
 
 are now resplendent, and will be more so, if the darkness of 
 the government shall not overwhelm them. 
 
 I go again to the Indies, in the name of the Most Holy 
 Trinity, to return speedily : and forasmuch as I am mortal, I 
 leave in charge to Don Diego my son, that annually, for ever, 
 he shall account to you for the one-tenth of all my Income, in 
 order to reduce the taxes on corn, wine and other provisions. 
 If this Tenth shall be considerable, accept it ; and if not, ac- 
 cept the regard I entertain for you. I solicit your gracious 
 consideration for my son. Signer Nicolo Oderigo, knowing of 
 my affairs more than I do myself, I have sent him the copy of 
 my Privileges and Charters ; and as I thus place them in good 
 guardianship, have the kindness to examine, when you see 
 them. 
 
 The King and Queen, my Lords, treat me with more favor 
 daily than ever. May the Most Holy Trinity safely keep your 
 noble persons, and magnify you in your illustrious office. 
 
 Done at Seville, the 2d of April, 1502. 
 
 The High admiral of the Oceanic Sea, and Vice Roy and 
 Governor General of the Islands, and of the Terra Ferma, of 
 Asia, and of the Indies, of the King and Queen, my Lords, 
 and their Captain General of the Sea, and of their Council. 
 
 S. 
 
 S. A. S. 
 X. M. Y. 
 Xp* FERENS. 
 
 EXPLANATION OF THIS SIGNATURE. 
 
 Supplex. 
 
 Servus. Altissimi Salvatoris. 
 
 Xristi. Mariae. Josephi. 
 
 Christo Ferens. 
 
 The Suppliant 
 
 Servant of the Most High Saviour 
 
 Christ, of Mary, of Joseph 
 
 Christo Ferens or 
 
 Christopher.
 
 MARTIN BEHAIM AND HIS GLOBE, 
 AT NUREMBERGH. 
 
 I TRUST that I may be allowed in connection with the 
 Memorials of Columbus, to add a brief detail and description of 
 a memento of his age, at Nurembergh in Bavaria; which during 
 my stay at that interesting city, by the courtesy of resident 
 friends, on the thirteenth day of September, 1847, it was my 
 good fortune to visit and inspect. I allude to the celebrated 
 Terrestrial Globe there, made by Martin Behaim, a native of 
 that ancient imperial city; a most eminent navigator and dis- 
 coverer, constructed by him in August, 1492, and left with his 
 family there, with whose descendants in their ancient mansion, 
 it still remains. 
 
 Apart from its originality and antiquity, it has attained a 
 greater interest; having through misrepresentation, been made 
 the prominent material for controversial detraction of the fame 
 of Columbus. In this brief and unassuming paper, I purpose 
 succinctly to detail the information afforded by others, of the 
 personal history of the maker of this globe, Martin Behaim ; 
 and a few extracts from the controversial authors, so far as may 
 be useful, in showing the importance of concluding with a sim- 
 ple and truthful description of this globe by an eye witness. 
 
 This spirit of detraction survived in 1786, when in April, 
 M. Otto, a French gentleman, then residing in the city of 
 New York, addressed to Dr. Franklin his able and ingenious 
 "Memoir on the Discovery of America," in which the claims 
 of Behaim to priority of discovery are presented with as much 
 force as they are susceptible of. In my extracts from the 
 memoir, it will be perceived that the statements of M. Otto, in
 
 21 
 
 his loose description of the globe, are contrary to the fact, and 
 show that he, like other writers on this subject, has failed to 
 examine the globe itself, although it is one of his chief argu- 
 ments. But all mementos of a man of science and practical 
 navigator, eminent for his own discoveries, and for the intimate 
 friendship of Columbus, kindred in spirit and pursuit, cannot 
 fail, however presented, to secure an abiding interest. 
 
 His name is variously given, Behain, Behem, Boehm, Behen 
 and Behenira, but the name now of the family at Nurembergh is 
 written "Behaim." 
 
 Martin Behaim was born at Nurembergh, in Bavaria, about 
 A. D. 1430, and died at Lisbon, A. D. 1506, the same year as 
 his great cotemporary Columbus. His ancestors were of an 
 ancient and honorable family of Nurembergh. His genius and 
 education were early inclined to diligent study of the master 
 subject of that age, geography, which, after the Crusades, had 
 opened the treasures of the east to the enterprise of awakening 
 Europe, for which oriental commerce, his own native Nurem- 
 bergh, was, until the passage of the Cape of Good Hope, in 1497, 
 one of the chief marts, became a subject of increased attraction, 
 by the marvellous histories of Marco Polo, Sir John Mandeville 
 and other travellers of the preceding age. About the year 
 1481, he is supposed to have entered the service of King 
 Alphonso V. of Portugal; no doubt attracted thither by the 
 fame of the then late Prince Henry's munificent patronage, and 
 the discoveries of the Portuguese, who had in 1471, crossed the 
 Equator in their voyages of discovery on the Coast of Africa. 
 Appointed by John II. the successor of Alphonso, to the 
 Council or Department for the Improvement of the Art of Navi- 
 gation, he is, by some authors, alleged then to have invented or 
 at least to have introduced the Astrolabe, the forerunner of the 
 Sextant, into nautical use. Without discussing his title to the 
 discovery of the Island of Fayal in 1460, in the service of 
 Isabella, Regent of Burgundy and Flanders, from whom he is 
 said to have obtained a grant of the Island, a matter of some 
 question ; it is more material to state that as Cosmographer for 
 the King, in 1484, he accompanied Diego Cano, on his voyage,
 
 22 
 
 which discovered the Western Coast of Africa, as far as the 
 Coast of Congo, and for his eminent service was, on his return 
 in 1485, knighted by the King John II.; the ruling policy of 
 whose reign was to extend the area of discovery, and by her 
 newly acquired colonies, to elevate Portugal to a great commer- 
 cial power, and fitting rival to Genoa and Venice. During this 
 voyage, Behaim is alleged by several authorities to have ex- 
 tended his course to the great South Western Sea, discovered 
 and followed the Coast of Brazil, Patagonia and the Straits 
 through which Magellan, whose name it bears, in 1519, passed 
 to the Pacific, in his memorable voyage, the first circumnaviga- 
 tion of the Globe. 
 
 As a curious subject, it may be worth while to state such 
 evidence as is urged ; prefacing that his own Globe is the best 
 refutation of a claim, which reaches us mainly from German 
 Authors, and was unheard of in Portugal, where Behaim long 
 lived, and was so widely known and honored; and is therefore 
 only capable of affording entertainment to the student of his age. 
 The chroniclers of Niirembergh, anxious to add new laurels 
 to their already distinguished fellow burgher, speak from the 
 archives of that ancient city, that "Martin Behem, traversing 
 the Atlantic Ocean for several years, examined the American 
 Islands, and discovered the Strait, which bears the name of 
 Magellan, before either Christopher Columbus, or Magellan 
 sailed those seas, and mathematically delineated on a geographi- 
 cal chart for the King of Lusitania, the situation of the Coast 
 around every part of that famous and renowned Strait." Ap- 
 parently this record must have been written after the year 1519; 
 the epoch of Magellan's voyage. It is asserted, that the archives 
 of Niirembergh contain letters from Behaim, dated in 1486, 
 confirming this record ; but it is at least singular that they have 
 never yet seen the light. To show that this story loses nothing 
 in its German progress but 
 
 " Vires acquirit eundo," 
 
 allow me to add a few more of the alleged authorities. Hart- 
 man Schedel, a chronicler of Niirembergh, writing about the
 
 time of Behaim, after describing the outfit of the celebrated ex- 
 pedition in 1484, by John II., under Behaim and Diego Cano, 
 for discovery on the West Coast of Africa, already mentioned, 
 says of Behaim, that he "was a man very well acquainted with 
 the situation of the globe ; blessed with a constitution able to 
 bear the fatigues of the sea, and who by actual experiments and 
 long sailing, had made himself perfect master of the longitudes 
 and latitudes of Ptolemy in the West. These two," (Behaim 
 and Cano,) "by the bounty of heaven, coasting along the South- 
 ern Ocean, and having crossed the Equator, got into the other 
 hemisphere ; where, facing to the Eastward, their shadows pro- 
 jected towards the South, and right hand. Thus by their indus- 
 try, they may be said to have opened to us another world, 
 hitherto unknown, and for many years attempted by none but 
 the Genoese, and by them in vain." 
 
 This assertion of the chronicler, who might with his learned 
 tomes well sleep in his native dust; has, we are told, been 
 quoted and enlarged beyond his limits, which must be confessed 
 are somewhat vague, by two famous men of their time : Eneas 
 Sylvius, afterwards Pope Pius II., and Cellarius, but neither 
 show any wish to verify their oracles. With them, the case on 
 authorities, set up to mantain Behaim's priority of discovery of 
 America, closes. Is it not a little singular, that such a claim 
 should have survived till the close of the last century? 
 
 Another theory, the natural sequent of the former, and gathered 
 about the memory of Behaim, cobweb-like, will, by your per- 
 mission, detain us a moment, before passing to the conclusion 
 of the whole matter, the description of Behaim's Terrestrial 
 Globe in Nurembergh. A once celebrated astronomer, Riccioli, 
 an Italian, who surely might be presumed to have possessed 
 better means of knowledge, is brought into the field to say that 
 "Christopher Columbus never thought of an expedition to the 
 West Indies until some time before, while in the Island of Ma- 
 deira, where amusing himself in forming and delineating geo- 
 graphical charts, he obtained information from Martin Boehm, 
 or as the Spaniards say, from Alphonsus Sanchez de Huelva," 
 (the father-in-law of Behaim,) " a pilot, who by mere chance
 
 24 
 
 had fallen in with the island afterward called Dominica," and 
 "let Boehm and Columbus have each their praise, they were 
 both excellent navigators ; but Columbus would never have 
 thought of his expedition to America had not Boehm gone there 
 before him. His name is not so much celebrated as that of 
 Columbus, Americus or Magellan, although he is superior to 
 them all." 
 
 It is also frequently asserted, with indeed some show of pro- 
 bability, that Magellan made great use of the practical and sci- 
 entific knowledge and charts of Behaim : some say, that when 
 Magellan, in 1519, in the audience chamber of Emanuel, king 
 of Portugal, proposed his grand idea of voyaging westerly to 
 the Indies of the east, by which in his memorable voyage he so 
 signally accomplished the hopes of Columbus and his age, he 
 there saw a chart of the coasts of America, drawn by Behaim, 
 which at once made plain his path before him; and others say 
 that Magellan carried either these charts, or this very terrestrial 
 globe with him as his companion. It is enough to say that our 
 sequel will show that this globe would not have been of much 
 service to Magellan. 
 
 In 1486, Martin Behaim married, at the island of Fayal, the 
 daughter of Alphonsus Sanchez de Huelva, (the name is some- 
 times given as Job de Huerta) of that island, likewise eminent 
 as an experienced navigator. Christopher Columbus had pre- 
 viously married the daughter of Bartholomew Palestrello, of the 
 island of Madeira, where Columbus spent much time in study 
 and preparation of charts ; and all authorities agree that from the 
 year 1486 till the year 1489, these two eminent men, Columbus 
 and Behaim, of kindred tastes and pursuits, were in intimate in- 
 tercourse and friendship ; but no evidence other than the above 
 quoted assertions of chroniclers exists, of what aid if any, that 
 Martin Behaim during this period rendered to the theory of 
 Columbus. 
 
 In 1491 Behaim returned home to Niirembergh; and there, at 
 the request of the principal magistrates of the city, he com- 
 menced, and in August, 1492, completed his celebrated terres- 
 trial globe.
 
 25 
 
 In 1493 he returned to Portugal and Fayal, and after one 
 short and adventurous voyage, died in Lisbon, in 1506. I will 
 close my extracts with but two sentences from the memoir of M. 
 Otto. Speaking of his having made his terrestrial globe, he says : 
 " The track of his discoveries may there be seen under the name 
 of 'Western Lands,' and from their situation it cannot be 
 doubted that they are the present coasts of Brazil, and the envi- 
 rons of the Straits of Magellan. This globe was made in the 
 same year, that Columbus set out on his expedition, from whence 
 it is not possible that Behaim could have profited by the works 
 of this navigator, who besides went a much more northerly 
 course." 
 
 This prefatory summary of his life, and the theories that have 
 been attached to his fame, will find its best apology for a length 
 which may seem tedious, in the interest which it may throw 
 about the final and chief monument of his life, his terrestrial 
 globe. No other person has, as far as I am informed, given in 
 print a description of this globe : and it is much to be regretted 
 that Mr. Irving did not close hjs digest of the chief events in the 
 life eg " Martin Behem," in the Appendix to the 3d volume of 
 his history of Columbus, by something more than a mere allu- 
 sion, arising probably from his lack of opportunity of inspection.* 
 It may well happen that the Augsburg rail road may bring 
 many a traveller to quiet Nurembergh, whose appreciation would 
 be highly gratified by a sight of the globe ; but it is not in the 
 catalogue of the lions of the town, which the valet is prepared to 
 show the traveller ; who, unless favored by personal friends resi- 
 dent there, may very likely depart from Nurembergh, without 
 even the knowledge of its existence and preservation. 
 
 In the New York Literary World for the twenty-second day of 
 January, 1848, 1 find an article entitled "Nurembergh;" whose 
 preparation, beguiled some weary hours of my quarantine at 
 Malta, in the previous November; containing a sketch of the pre- 
 sent state and appearance of that city, and among other matters 
 a description of Behaim's terrestrial globe. 
 
 * I am in this favored by the confirmation of Mr. Irving himself, that he had 
 never visited Nurembergh, or seen this globe. 
 4
 
 26 
 
 I ask your permission, to extract therefrom such brief state- 
 ment of facts as may be. material to our present purpose. 
 
 "There is one other object of interest which is worth notice, 
 before bidding adieu to Niirembergh. The family of Behaim 
 here, possess a globe made by their ancestor, Martin Behaim, 
 in the year 1492, while Columbus was yet at sea. It is in the 
 mansion adjoining the Lindauer gallery. It is said to be the 
 earliest in existence ; and tradition says that its artist was an 
 early patron, by his wealth and influence of the enterprise of Co- 
 lumbus. It is in perfect preservation, although dingy enough 
 by the lapse of centuries. About two feet in diameter, it is 
 suspended in a brass circle marked with the courses of the 
 winds, with the names, and after the notions of classical geo- 
 graphers. The Equinoctial and Zodiac are defined, but there 
 is an utter absence of latitude and longitude. America, North 
 or South, is not there; the ocean flows over that side of the 
 earth which afterwards belonged to the Western World ; and 
 the fancy of the artist has depicted some whales spouting in the 
 locality of the United States; and some Spanish Caravals are 
 sailing in unknown directions over Mexico. A few mermaids 
 are combing their locks somewhere near modern Greenland, and 
 in old German, he has inscribed underneath, the intelligence 
 that many of these peculiar animals are to be met with there- 
 abouts. The configuration of Europe is certainly singular ; a 
 certain wavy line answers for all coasts ; England is about the 
 size of Malta; Germany of modern Russia; Spain about double 
 the size of France ; the Mediterranean dwindles to a small lake; 
 a vast region protrudes into the sea beyond the Indies, and is 
 described as the domain of the famous Kaiser Prester John, in 
 the words, ' hier wohnt der sehr beruhmter Kaiser Prester 
 Johan.' The Antilles are small obscure islands, near the west 
 coast of Africa. The Red Sea is a huge ocean, colored red; 
 and Palestine is of the size of modern Turkey. The geographer 
 evidently proportions the countries according to their relative 
 importance. The whole surface is studded with droll figures, 
 as specimens of the inhabitants, productions and distinctive fea- 
 tures of the countries, with continual inscriptions in German, of
 
 27 
 
 fheir names, character, discovery, etc. ; forming a diligent ab- 
 stract of the works of the travellers and geographers whose 
 names are quoted as authorities, and thus giving a very com- 
 plete idea and resume of the state of geographical knowledge of 
 the time. 
 
 "This rarity, although amusing enough to us, is evidently 
 the work of a man of much reading; and it certainly has an 
 additional interest as showing the state of geographical know- 
 ledge existing in Europe at that period, when the great dis- 
 coverer of a Western World had at last set forth on the voyage 
 of achievement of the long settled purposes and convictions of 
 his mind. Looking at this relic, one readily sees what vast 
 obstacles were in his path ; the causes of the deeply settled un- 
 belief which met him on every appeal for assistance to his 
 project, and how strangely it must have sounded to their ears, 
 when he reasoned of the actual existence of a mighty continent 
 in that waste of waters, which their fancy peopled with mer- 
 maids and other denizens of the deep. The Globe bears the 
 autograph of the maker, and the date of its construction or 
 completion, August, 1492, and is of course above all price to 
 the family who still possess it. A few years since the French 
 Academy of Sciences, caused a beautiful fac-simile in papier 
 mache to be made of it, and one of the copies was presented to 
 the family. The two globes stand together, and are open to 
 examination of any one on application to the family." 
 
 In conclusion, I may be pardoned for adding a few words 
 a mere historic glimpse of Behaim's native city Niirembergh ; 
 being an extract from the same review article, in a notice of 
 the antiquity of families there. 
 
 The princes of Nurembergh were a burgher aristocracy in 
 their origin ; wealthy merchants, who either for a timely loan, 
 or for some equally important ministry to the necessities of the 
 great lord or neighboring kings, were raised to the rank of the 
 noblesse, and the chronicles of the city are filled with records of 
 numerous charters of freedoms and privileges of commerce 
 granted to the city itself on similar considerations. The oldest 
 of such charters still existing in the city archives, dated in
 
 28 
 
 twelve hundred and nineteen,* the gift or concession of the 
 Emperor Frederick II., creates it a free city of the Empire, 
 exempting it from taxes or service to other feudal lords, pro- 
 viding imperial courts of justice, and endowing it with rights of 
 markets, fairs, coinage and many other commercial privileges. 
 With this and many other similar and subsequent charters, the 
 city grew rich and prosperous, its artisans were famous, its 
 markets crowded with their own fabrics, and with the luxuries 
 of the East; for according to its chronicles, the North and West 
 of Europe were supplied by the merchant princes of Niirem- 
 bergh. Instead of being as now a comparatively inferior city 
 of some forty thousand inhabitants, its archives tell us of the 
 days when a great portion of the commerce of Northern Europe 
 and the Indian trade were in its hands ; when there were more 
 than one hundred thousand busy citizens here, when the mer- 
 chants of Northern and Central Europe came in great numbers 
 to its fairs and markets, and its burgher noblesse were the 
 friends and equals of princes. All this has long since changed. 
 The discovery of the passage of the Cape of Good Hope 
 naturally diverted a large portion of its commerce, and it fell 
 into a decline from which it has not yet fully recovered. So 
 when the stranger now walks its quiet streets, he must in a 
 great degree, content himself with the vestiges of its past great- 
 ness and its departed commercial pre-eminence, though he must 
 feel a certain sadness in seeing the immortal arts of Diirer, 
 Visscher and Kraft, degenerated in the hands of their modern 
 successors, to the manufacture of German toys, and to find the 
 once northern Venice now-a-days famous mainly for bijouterie. 
 
 This date is but fifteen years after the capture, plunder and occupation of 
 Constantinople, by the Fourth Crusade. Its diadem was given to Baldwin, 
 Count of Flanders, Henry II., and their successors, till A. D. 1260, when the 
 Greek Empire was for a brief period restored. The Fourth Crusade as is well 
 known, opened the wealth of the East to Europe, and its treasures we are told, 
 began even then to ascend the Danube ; whose waters have within the last thirty 
 years, by the enterprise of the Hungarian Count Sczecheny, again become the 
 pathway of oriental commerce, with Vienna and Western Europe.
 
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