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diff --git a/42059-0.txt b/42059-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..00c50ac --- /dev/null +++ b/42059-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,25414 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42059 *** + + By Justin Winsor. + + NARRATIVE AND CRITICAL HISTORY OF AMERICA. + With Bibliographical and Descriptive Essays on its + Historical Sources and Authorities. Profusely + illustrated with portraits, maps, facsimiles, etc. + Edited by JUSTIN WINSOR, Librarian of Harvard + University, with the coöperation of a Committee + from the Massachusetts Historical Society, and with + the aid of other learned Societies. In eight royal + 8vo volumes. Each volume, _net_, $5.50; sheep, + _net_, $6.50; half morocco, _net_, $7.50. + (_Sold only by subscription for the entire set._) + + READER'S HANDBOOK OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. + 16mo, $1.25. + + WAS SHAKESPEARE SHAPLEIGH? + 16mo, rubricated parchment paper, 75 cents. + + CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. + With portrait and maps. 8vo. + + HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & COMPANY, + BOSTON AND NEW YORK. + + + + +[Illustration: BEHAIM, 1492.] + +[Illustration: AMERICA, 1892.] + + + + + CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS + + AND HOW HE RECEIVED AND + IMPARTED THE SPIRIT + OF DISCOVERY + + BY + JUSTIN WINSOR + + + They that go down to the sea in ships, + that do business in great waters, these + see the works of the Lord and his + wonders in the deep.--_Psalms_, cvii. 23, 24 + + + BOSTON AND NEW YORK + HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY + The Riverside Press, Cambridge + 1891 + + + + + + Copyright, 1891, + BY JUSTIN WINSOR. + + _All rights reserved._ + + + _The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A._ + Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton & Co. + + + + + To FRANCIS PARKMAN, LL.D., + + THE HISTORIAN OF NEW FRANCE. + + +DEAR PARKMAN:-- + +You and I have not followed the maritime peoples of western Europe in +planting and defending their flags on the American shores without +observing the strange fortunes of the Italians, in that they have +provided pioneers for those Atlantic nations without having once secured +in the New World a foothold for themselves. + +When Venice gave her Cabot to England and Florence bestowed Verrazano +upon France, these explorers established the territorial claims of their +respective and foster motherlands, leading to those contrasts and +conflicts which it has been your fortune to illustrate as no one else +has. + +When Genoa gave Columbus to Spain and Florence accredited her Vespucius +to Portugal, these adjacent powers, whom the Bull of Demarcation would +have kept asunder in the new hemisphere, established their rival races +in middle and southern America, neighboring as in the Old World; but +their contrasts and conflicts have never had so worthy a historian as +you have been for those of the north. + +The beginnings of their commingled history I have tried to relate in the +present work, and I turn naturally to associate in it the name of the +brilliant historian of FRANCE AND ENGLAND IN NORTH AMERICA with that of +your obliged friend, + +[Illustration: Justin Winsor] + + CAMBRIDGE, _June, 1890_. + + + + + +CONTENTS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. + + + PAGE + CHAPTER I. + + SOURCES, AND THE GATHERERS OF THEM 1 + + ILLUSTRATIONS: Manuscript of Columbus, 2; the Genoa Custodia, 5; + Columbus's Letter to the Bank of St. George, 6; Columbus's + Annotations on the _Imago Mundi_, 8; First Page, Columbus's + First Letter, Latin edition (1493), 16; Archivo de Simancas, 24. + + + CHAPTER II. + + BIOGRAPHERS AND PORTRAITISTS 30 + + ILLUSTRATIONS: Page of the Giustiniani Psalter, 31; Notes of + Ferdinand Columbus on his Books, 42; Las Casas, 48; Roselly de + Lorgues, 53; St. Christopher, a Vignette on La Cosa's Map (1500), + 62; Earliest Engraved Likeness of Columbus in Jovius, 63; the + Florence Columbus, 65; the Yañez Columbus, 66; a Reproduction of + the Capriolo Cut of Columbus, 67; De Bry's Engraving of Columbus, + 68; the Bust on the Tomb at Havana, 69. + + + CHAPTER III. + + THE ANCESTRY AND HOME OF COLUMBUS 71 + + + CHAPTER IV. + + THE UNCERTAINTIES OF THE EARLY LIFE OF COLUMBUS 79 + + ILLUSTRATIONS: Drawing ascribed to Columbus, 80; Benincasa's Map + (1476), 81; Ship of the Fifteenth Century, 82. + + + CHAPTER V. + + THE ALLUREMENTS OF PORTUGAL 85 + + ILLUSTRATIONS: Part of the Laurentian Portolano, 87; Map of + Andrea Bianco, 89; Prince Henry, the Navigator, 93; Astrolabes + of Regiomontanus, 95, 96; Sketch Map of African Discovery, 98; + Fra Mauro's World-Map, 99; Tomb of Prince Henry at Batalha, + 100; Statue of Prince Henry at Belem, 101. + + CHAPTER VI. + + COLUMBUS IN PORTUGAL 103 + + ILLUSTRATIONS: Toscanelli's Map restored, 110; Map of Eastern + Asia, with Old and New Names, 113; Catalan Map of Eastern Asia + (1375), 114; Marco Polo, 115; Albertus Magnus, 120; the Laon + Globe, 123; Oceanic Currents, 130; Tables of Regiomontanus + (1474-1506), 132; Map of the African Coast (1478), 133; Martin + Behaim, 134. + + + CHAPTER VII. + + WAS COLUMBUS IN THE NORTH? 135 + + ILLUSTRATIONS: Map of Olaus Magnus (1539), 136; Map of Claudius + Clavus (1427), 141; Bordone's Map (1528), 142; Map of Sigurd + Stephanus (1570), 145. + + CHAPTER VIII. + + COLUMBUS LEAVES PORTUGAL FOR SPAIN 149 + + ILLUSTRATIONS: Portuguese Mappemonde (1490), 152; Père Juan + Perez de Marchena, 155; University of Salamanca, 162; Monument + to Columbus at Genoa, 163; Ptolemy's Map of Spain (1482), 165; + Cathedral of Seville, 171; Cathedral of Cordoba, 172. + + + CHAPTER IX. + + THE FINAL AGREEMENT AND THE FIRST VOYAGE, 1492 178 + + ILLUSTRATIONS: Behaim's Globe (1492), 186, 187; Doppelmayer's + Reproduction of this Globe, 188, 189; the actual America in + Relation to Behaim's Geography, 190; Ships of Columbus's Time, + 192, 193; Map of the Canary Islands, 194; Map of the Routes of + Columbus, 196; of his track in 1492, 197; Map of the Agonic + Line, 199; Lapis Polaris Magnes, 200; Map of Polar Regions by + Mercator (1509), 202; Map of the Landfall of Columbus, 210; + Columbus's Armor, 211; Maps of the Bahamas (1601 and modern), + 212, 213. + + + CHAPTER X. + + AMONG THE ISLANDS AND THE RETURN VOYAGE 218 + + ILLUSTRATION: Indian Beds, 222. + + + CHAPTER XI. + + COLUMBUS IN SPAIN AGAIN; MARCH TO SEPTEMBER, 1493 243 + + ILLUSTRATIONS: The Arms of Columbus, 250; Pope Alexander VI., + 253; Crossbow-Maker, 258; Clock-Maker, 260. + + + CHAPTER XII. + + THE SECOND VOYAGE, 1493-1494 264 + + ILLUSTRATIONS: Map of Guadaloupe, Marie Galante, and Dominica, + 267; Cannibal Islands, 269. + + + CHAPTER XIII. + + THE SECOND VOYAGE, CONTINUED, 1494 284 + + ILLUSTRATION: Mass on Shore, 298. + + + CHAPTER XIV. + + THE SECOND VOYAGE, CONTINUED, 1494-1496 303 + + ILLUSTRATIONS: Map of + the Native Divisions of Española, 306; Map of Spanish + Settlements in Española, 321. + + + CHAPTER XV. + + IN SPAIN, 1496-1498. DA GAMA, VESPUCIUS, CABOT 325 + + LLUSTRATIONS: Ferdinand of Aragon, 328; Bartholomew Columbus, 329; + Vasco Da Gama, 334; Map of South Africa (1513), 335; Earliest + Representation of South American Natives, 336. + + + CHAPTER XVI. + + THE THIRD VOYAGE, 1498-1500 347 + + ILLUSTRATIONS: Map of the Gulf of Paria, 353; Pre-Columbian + Mappemonde, restored, 357; Ramusio's Map of Española, 369; + La Cosa's Map (1500), 380, 381; Ribero's Map of the Antilles + (1529), 383; Wytfliet's Cuba, 384, 385. + + + CHAPTER XVII. + + THE DEGRADATION AND DISHEARTENMENT OF COLUMBUS (1500) 388 + + ILLUSTRATION: Santo Domingo, 391. + + + CHAPTER XVIII. + + COLUMBUS AGAIN IN SPAIN, 1500-1502 407 + + ILLUSTRATIONS: First Page of the _Mundus Novus_, 411; Map of + the Straits of Belle Isle, 413; Manuscript of Gaspar Cortereal, + 414; of Miguel Cortereal, 416; the Cantino Map, 419. + + + CHAPTER XIX. + + THE FOURTH VOYAGE, 1502-1504 437 + + ILLUSTRATIONS: Bellin's Map of Honduras, 443; of Veragua, 446. + + + CHAPTER XX. + + COLUMBUS'S LAST YEARS. DEATH AND CHARACTER 477 + + ILLUSTRATIONS: House where Columbus died, 490; Cathedral at Santo + Domingo, 493; Statue of Columbus at Santo Domingo, 495. + + + CHAPTER XXI. + + THE DESCENT OF COLUMBUS'S HONORS 513 + + ILLUSTRATIONS: Pope Julius II., 517; Charles the Fifth, 519; + Ruins of Diego Colon's House, 521. + + + APPENDIX. + + THE GEOGRAPHICAL RESULTS 529 + + ILLUSTRATIONS: Ptolemy, 530; Map by Donis (1482), 531; Ruysch's + Map (1508), 532; the so-called Admiral's Map (1513), 534; + Münster's Map (1532), 535; Title-Page of the _Globus Mundi_, + 352; of Eden's _Treatyse of the Newe India_, 537; Vespucius, + 539; Title of the _Cosmographiæ Introductio_, 541; Map in + Ptolemy (1513), 544, 545; the Tross Gores, 547; the Hauslab + Globe, 548; the Nordenskiöld Gores, 549; Map by Apianus (1520), + 550; Schöner's Globe (1515), 551; Frisius's Map (1522), 552; + Peter Martyr's Map (1511), 557; Ponce de Leon, 558; his tracks + on the Florida Coast, 559; Ayllon's Map, 561; Balboa, 563; + Grijalva, 566; Globe in Schöner's _Opusculum_, 567; Garay's + Map of the Gulf of Mexico, 568; Cortes's Map of the Gulf of + Mexico, 569; the Maiollo Map (1527), 570; the Lenox Globe, 571; + Schöner's Globe (1520), 572; Magellan, 573; Magellan's Straits + by Pizafetta, 575; Modern Map of the Straits, 576; Freire's Map + (1546), 578; Sylvanus's Map in Ptolemy (1511), 579; Stobnieza's + Map, 580; the Alleged Da Vinci Sketch-Map, 582; Reisch's Map + (1515), 583; Pomponius Mela's World-Map, 584; Vadianus, 585; + Apianus, 586; Schöner, 588; Rosenthal or Nuremberg Gores, 590; + the Martyr-Oviedo Map (1534), 592, 593; the Verrazano Map, 594; + Sketch of Agnese's Map (1536), 595; Münster's Map (1540), 596, + 597; Michael Lok's Map (1582), 598; John White's Map, 599; + Robert Thorne's Map (1527), 600; Sebastian Münster, 602; + House and Library of Ferdinand Columbus, 604; Spanish Map (1527), + 605; the Nancy Globe, 606, 607; Map of Orontius Finæus (1532), + 608; the same, reduced to Mercator's projection, 609; Cortes, + 610; Castillo's California, 611; Extract from an old Portolano + of the northeast Coast of North America, 613; Homem's Map (1558), + 614; Ziegler's Schondia, 615; Ruscelli's Map (1544), 616; Carta + Marina (1548), 617; Myritius's Map (1590), 618; Zaltière's Map + (1566), 619; Porcacchi's Map (1572), 620; Mercator's Globe + (1538), 622, 623; Münster's America (1545), 624; Mercator's + Gores (1541), reduced to a plane projection, 625; Sebastian + Cabot's Mappemonde (1544), 626; Medina's Map (1544), 628, 629; + Wytfliet's America (1597), 630, 631; the Cross-Staff, 632; the + Zeni Map, 634, 635; the Map in the Warsaw Codex (1467), 636, + 637; Mercator's America (1569), 638; Portrait of Mercator, + 639; of Ortelius, 640; Map by Ortelius (1570), 641; Sebastian + Cabot, 642; Frobisher, 643; Frobisher's Chart (1578), 644; + Francis Drake, 645; Gilbert's Map (1576), 647; the Back-Staff, + 648; Luke Fox's Map of the Arctic Regions (1635), 651; + Hennepin's Map of Jesso, 653; Domina Farrer's Map (1651), 654, + 655; Buache's Theory of North American Geography (1752), 656; + Map of Bering's Straits, 657; Map of the Northwest Passage, 659. + + INDEX 661 + + + + + +CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +SOURCES, AND THE GATHERERS OF THEM. + + +In considering the sources of information, which are original, as +distinct from those which are derivative, we must place first in +importance the writings of Columbus himself. We may place next the +documentary proofs belonging to private and public archives. + +[Sidenote: His prolixity.] + +Harrisse points out that Columbus, in his time, acquired such a popular +reputation for prolixity that a court fool of Charles the Fifth linked +the discoverer of the Indies with Ptolemy as twins in the art of +blotting. He wrote as easily as people of rapid impulses usually do, +when they are not restrained by habits of orderly deliberation. He has +left us a mass of jumbled thoughts and experiences, which, +unfortunately, often perplex the historian, while they of necessity aid +him. + +[Sidenote: His writings.] + +Ninety-seven distinct pieces of writing by the hand of Columbus either +exist or are known to have existed. Of such, whether memoirs, relations, +or letters, sixty-four are preserved in their entirety. These include +twenty-four which are wholly or in part in his own hand. All of them +have been printed entire, except one which is in the Biblioteca +Colombina, in Seville, the _Libro de las Proficias_, written apparently +between 1501 and 1504, of which only part is in Columbus's own hand. A +second document, a memoir addressed to Ferdinand and Isabella, before +June, 1497, is now in the collection of the Marquis of San Roman at +Madrid, and was printed for the first time by Harrisse in his +_Christophe Colomb_. A third and fourth are in the public archives in +Madrid, being letters addressed to the Spanish monarchs: one without +date in 1496 or 1497, or perhaps earlier, in 1493, and the other +February 6, 1502; and both have been printed and given in facsimile in +the _Cartas de Indias_, a collection published by the Spanish government +in 1877. The majority of the existing private papers of Columbus are +preserved in Spain, in the hands of the present representative of +Columbus, the Duke of Veragua, and these have all been printed in the +great collection of Navarrete. They consist, as enumerated by Harrisse +in his _Columbus and the Bank of Saint George_, of the following pieces: +a single letter addressed about the year 1500 to Ferdinand and Isabella; +four letters addressed to Father Gaspar Gorricio,--one from San Lucar, +April 4, 1502; a second from the Grand Canaria, May, 1502; a third from +Jamaica, July 7, 1503; and the last from Seville, January 4, 1505;--a +memorial addressed to his son, Diego, written either in December, 1504, +or in January, 1505; and eleven letters addressed also to Diego, all +from Seville, late in 1504 or early in 1505. + +[Illustration: MANUSCRIPT OF COLUMBUS. + +[From a MS. in the Biblioteca Colombina, given in Harrisse's _Notes +on Columbus_.]] + +[Sidenote: All in Spanish.] + +Without exception, the letters of Columbus of which we have knowledge +were written in Spanish. Harrisse has conjectured that his stay in Spain +made him a better master of that language than the poor advantages of +his early life had made him of his mother tongue. + +[Sidenote: His privileges.] + +Columbus was more careful of the documentary proofs of his titles and +privileges, granted in consequence of his discoveries, than of his own +writings. He had more solicitude to protect, by such records, the +pecuniary and titular rights of his descendants than to preserve those +personal papers which, in the eyes of the historian, are far more +valuable. These attested evidences of his rights were for a while +inclosed in an iron chest, kept at his tomb in the monastery of Las +Cuevas, near Seville, and they remained down to 1609 in the custody of +the Carthusian friars of that convent. At this date, Nuño de Portugallo +having been declared the heir to the estate and titles of Columbus, the +papers were transferred to his keeping; and in the end, by legal +decision, they passed to that Duke of Veragua who was the grandfather of +the present duke, who in due time inherited these public memorials, and +now preserves them in Madrid. + +[Sidenote: _Codex Diplomaticus._] + +In 1502 there were copies made in book form, known as the _Codex +Diplomaticus_, of these and other pertinent documents, raising the +number from thirty-six to forty-four. These copies were attested at +Seville, by order of the Admiral, who then aimed to place them so that +the record of his deeds and rights should not be lost. Two copies seem +to have been sent by him through different channels to Nicoló Oderigo, +the Genoese ambassador in Madrid; and in 1670 both of these copies came +from a descendant of that ambassador as a gift to the Republic of Genoa. +Both of these later disappeared from its archives. A third copy was sent +to Alonso Sanchez de Carvajal, the factor of Columbus in Española, and +this copy is not now known. A fourth copy was deposited in the monastery +of Las Cuevas, near Seville, to be later sent to Father Gorricio. It is +very likely this last copy which is mentioned by Edward Everett in a +note to his oration at Plymouth (Boston, 1825, p. 64), where, referring +to the two copies sent to Oderigo as the only ones made by the order of +Columbus, as then understood, he adds: "Whether the two manuscripts thus +mentioned be the only ones in existence may admit of doubt. When I was +in Florence, in 1818, a small folio manuscript was brought to me, +written on parchment, apparently two or three centuries old, in binding +once very rich, but now worn, containing a series of documents in Latin +and Spanish, with the following title on the first blank page: 'Treslado +de las Bullas del Papa Alexandro VI., de la concession de las Indias y +los titulos, privilegios y cedulas reales, que se dieron a Christoval +Colon.' I was led by this title to purchase the book." After referring +to the _Codice_, then just published, he adds: "I was surprised to find +my manuscript, as far as it goes, nearly identical in its contents with +that of Genoa, supposed to be one of the only two in existence. My +manuscript consists of almost eighty closely written folio pages, which +coincide precisely with the text of the first thirty-seven documents, +contained in two hundred and forty pages of the Genoese volume." + +Caleb Cushing says of the Everett manuscript, which he had examined +before he wrote of it in the _North American Review_, October, 1825, +that, "so far as it goes, it is a much more perfect one than the Oderigo +manuscript, as several passages which Spotorno was unable to decipher in +the latter are very plain and legible in the former, which indeed is in +most complete preservation." I am sorry to learn from Dr. William +Everett that this manuscript is not at present easily accessible. + +Of the two copies named above as having disappeared from the archives of +Genoa, Harrisse at a late day found one in the archives of the Ministry +of Foreign Affairs in Paris. It had been taken to Paris in 1811, when +Napoleon I. caused the archives of Genoa to be sent to that city, and it +was not returned when the chief part of the documents was recovered by +Genoa in 1815. The other copy was in 1816 among the papers of Count +Cambiaso, and was bought by the Sardinian government, and given to the +city of Genoa, where it is now deposited in a marble _custodia_, which, +surmounted by a bust of Columbus, stands at present in the main hall of +the palace of the municipality. This "custodia" is a pillar, in which a +door of gilded bronze closes the receptacle that contains the relics, +which are themselves inclosed in a bag of Spanish leather, richly +embossed. A copy of this last document was made and placed in the +archives at Turin. + +[Sidenote: Their publication by Spotorno.] + +These papers, as selected by Columbus for preservation, were edited by +Father Spotorno at Genoa, in 1823, in a volume called _Codice +diplomatico Colombo-Americano_, and published by authority of the state. +There was an English edition at London, in 1823; and a Spanish at +Havana, in 1867. Spotorno was reprinted, with additional matter, at +Genoa, in 1857, as _La Tavola di Bronzo, il pallio di seta, ed il Codice +Colomboamericano, nuovamente illustrati per cura di Giuseppe Banchero_. + +[Illustration: THE GENOA CUSTODIA.] + +[Sidenote: Letters to the Bank of St. George.] + +This Spotorno volume included two additional letters of Columbus, not +yet mentioned, and addressed, March 21, 1502, and December 27, 1504, to +Oderigo. They were found pasted in the duplicate copy of the papers +given to Genoa, and are now preserved in a glass case, in the same +custodia. A third letter, April 2, 1502, addressed to the governors of +the bank of St. George, was omitted by Spotorno; but it is given by +Harrisse in his _Columbus and the Bank of Saint George_ (New York, +1888). This last was one of two letters, which Columbus sent, as he +says, to the bank, but the other has not been found. The history of the +one preserved is traced by Harrisse in the work last mentioned, and +there are lithographic and photographic reproductions of it. Harrisse's +work just referred to was undertaken to prove the forgery of a +manuscript which has within a few years been offered for sale, either as +a duplicate of the one at Genoa, or as the original. When represented as +the original, the one at Genoa is pronounced a facsimile of it. Harrisse +seems to have proved the forgery of the one which is seeking a +purchaser. + +[Illustration: COLUMBUS'S LETTER, APRIL 2, 1502, ADDRESSED TO THE BANK + OF ST. GEORGE IN GENOA. + +[Reduced in size by photographic process.]] + +[Sidenote: Marginalia.] + +[Sidenote: Toscanelli's letter.] + +Some manuscript marginalia found in three different books, used by +Columbus and preserved in the Biblioteca Colombina at Seville, are also +remnants of the autographs of Columbus. These marginal notes are in +copies of Æneas Sylvius's _Historia Rerum ubique gestarum_ (Venice, +1477) of a Latin version of Marco Polo (Antwerp, 1485?), and of Pierre +d'Ailly's _De Imagine Mundi_ (perhaps 1490), though there is some +suspicion that these last-mentioned notes may be those of Bartholomew, +and not of Christopher, Columbus. These books have been particularly +described in José Silverio Jorrin's _Varios Autografos ineditos de +Cristóbal Colon_, published at Havana in 1888. In May, 1860, José Maria +Fernandez y Velasco, the librarian of the Biblioteca Colombina, +discovered a Latin text of the letter of Toscanelli, written by Columbus +in this same copy of Æneas Sylvius. He believed it a Latin version of a +letter originally written in Italian; but it was left for Harrisse to +discover that the Latin was the original draft. A facsimile of this +script is in Harrisse's _Fernando Colon_ (Seville, 1871), and specimens +of the marginalia were first given by Harrisse in his _Notes on +Columbus_, whence they are reproduced in part in the _Narrative and +Critical History of America_ (vol. ii.). + +[Sidenote: Harrisse's memorial of Columbus.] + +It is understood that, under the auspices of the Italian government, +Harrisse is now engaged in collating the texts and preparing a national +memorial issue of the writings of Columbus, somewhat in accordance with +a proposition which he made to the Minister of Public Instruction at +Rome in his _Le Quatrième Centenaire de la Découverte du Nouveau Monde_ +(Genoa, 1887). + +[Sidenote: Columbus's printed works.] + +There are references to printed works of Columbus which I have not seen, +as a _Declaracion de Tabla Navigatoria_, annexed to a treatise, _Del Uso +de la Carta de Navegar_, by Dr. Grajales: a _Tratado de las Cinco Zonas +Habitables_, which Humboldt found it very difficult to find. + +[Illustration: ANNOTATIONS BY COLUMBUS ON THE _IMAGO MUNDI_. + +[From Harrisse's _Notes on Columbus_.]] + +[Sidenote: His lost writings.] + +Of the manuscripts of Columbus which are lost, there are traces still to +be discovered. One letter, which he dated off the Canaries, February 15, +1493, and which must have contained some account of his first voyage, +is only known to us from an intimation of Marino Sanuto that it was +included in the _Chronica Delphinea_. It is probably from an imperfect +copy of this last in the library at Brescia, that the letter in question +was given in the book's third part (A. D. 1457-1500), which is now +missing. We know also, from a letter still preserved (December 27, +1504), that there must be a letter somewhere, if not destroyed, sent by +him respecting his fourth voyage, to Messer Gian Luigi Fieschi, as is +supposed, the same who led the famous conspiracy against the house of +Doria. Other letters, Columbus tells us, were sent at times to the +Signora Madonna Catalina, who was in some way related to Fieschi. + +In 1780, Francesco Pesaro, examining the papers of the Council of Ten, +at Venice, read there a memoir of Columbus, setting forth his maritime +project; or at least Pesaro was so understood by Marin, who gives the +story at a later day in the seventh volume of his history of Venetian +commerce. As Harrisse remarks, this paper, if it could be discovered, +would prove the most interesting of all Columbian documents, since it +would probably be found to fall within a period, from 1473 to 1487, when +we have little or nothing authentic respecting Columbus's life. Indeed, +it might happily elucidate a stage in the development of the Admiral's +cosmographical views of which we know nothing. + +We have the letter which Columbus addressed to Alexander VI., in +February, 1502, as preserved in a copy made by his son Ferdinand; but no +historical student has ever seen the Commentary, which he is said to +have written after the manner of Cæsar, recounting the haps and mishaps +of the first voyage, and which he is thought to have sent to the ruling +Pontiff. This act of duty, if done after his return from his last +voyage, must have been made to Julius the Second, not to Alexander. + +[Sidenote: Journal of his first voyage.] + +Irving and others seem to have considered that this Cæsarian performance +was in fact, the well-known journal of the first voyage; but there is a +good deal of difficulty in identifying that which we only know in an +abridged form, as made by Las Casas, with the narrative sent or intended +to be sent to the Pope. + +Ferdinand, or the writer of the _Historie_, later to be mentioned, +it seems clear, had Columbus's journal before him, though he excuses +himself from quoting much from it, in order to avoid wearying the +reader. + +The original "journal" seems to have been in 1554 still in the +possession of Luis Colon. It had not, accordingly, at that date been put +among the treasures of the Biblioteca Colombina. Thus it may have +fallen, with Luis's other papers, to his nephew and heir, Diego Colon y +Pravia, who in 1578 entrusted them to Luis de Cardona. Here we lose +sight of them. + +[Sidenote: Abridged by Las Casas.] + +Las Casas's abridgment in his own handwriting, however, has come down to +us, and some entries in it would seem to indicate that Las Casas +abridged a copy, and not the original. It was, up to 1886, in the +library of the Duke of Orsuna, in Madrid, and was at that date bought by +the Spanish government. While it was in the possession of Orsuna, it was +printed by Varnhagen, in his _Verdadera Guanahani_ (1864). It was +clearly used by Las Casas in his own _Historia_, and was also in the +hands of Ferdinand, when he wrote, or outlined, perhaps, what now passes +for the life of his father, and Ferdinand's statements can sometimes +correct or qualify the text in Las Casas. There is some reason to +suppose that Herrera may have used the original. Las Casas tells us that +in some parts, and particularly in describing the landfall and the +events immediately succeeding, he did not vary the words of the +original. This Las Casas abridgment was in the archives of the Duke del +Infantado, when Navarrete discovered its importance, and edited it as +early as 1791, though it was not given to the public till Navarrete +published his _Coleccion_ in 1825. When this journal is read, even as we +have it, it is hard to imagine that Columbus could have intended so +disjointed a performance to be an imitation of the method of Cæsar's +_Commentaries_. + +The American public was early given an opportunity to judge of this, and +of its importance. It was by the instigation of George Ticknor that +Samuel Kettell made a translation of the text as given by Navarrete, and +published it in Boston in 1827, as a _Personal Narrative of the first +Voyage of Columbus to America, from a Manuscript recently discovered in +Spain_. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: Descriptions of his first voyage.] + +We also know that Columbus wrote other concise accounts of his +discovery. On his return voyage, during a gale, on February 14, 1493, +fearing his ship would founder, he prepared a statement on parchment, +which was incased in wax, put in a barrel, and thrown overboard, to take +the chance of washing ashore. A similar account, protected in like +manner, he placed on his vessel's poop, to be washed off in case of +disaster. Neither of these came, as far as is known, to the notice of +anybody. They very likely simply duplicated the letters which he wrote +on the voyage, intended to be dispatched to their destination on +reaching port. The dates and places of these letters are not +reconcilable with his journal. He was apparently approaching the Azores, +when, on February 15, he dated a letter "off the Canaries," directed to +Luis de Santangel. So false a record as "the Canaries" has never been +satisfactorily explained. It may be imagined, perhaps, that the letter +had been written when Columbus supposed he would make those islands +instead of the Azores, and that the place of writing was not changed. It +is quite enough, however, to rest satisfied with the fact that Columbus +was always careless, and easily erred in such things, as Navarrete has +shown. The postscript which is added is dated March 14, which seems +hardly probable, or even possible, so that March 4 has been suggested. +He professes to write it on the day of his entering the Tagus, and this +was March 4. It is possible that he altered the date when he reached +Palos, as is Major's opinion. Columbus calls this a second letter. +Perhaps a former letter was the one which, as already stated, we have +lost in the missing part of the _Chronica Delphinea_. + +[Sidenote: Letter to Santangel.] + +[Sidenote: Letter to Sanchez.] + +The original of this letter to Santangel, the treasurer of Aragon, and +intended for the eyes of Ferdinand and Isabella, was in Spanish, and is +known in what is thought to be a contemporary copy, found by Navarrete +at Simancas; and it is printed by him in his _Coleccion_, and is given +by Kettell in English, to make no other mention of places where it is +accessible. Harrisse denies that this Simancas manuscript represents the +original, as Navarrete had contended. A letter dated off the island of +Santa Maria, the southernmost of the Azores, three days after the letter +to Santangel, February 18, essentially the same, and addressed to +Gabriel Sanchez, was found in what seemed to be an early copy, among the +papers of the Colegio Mayor de Cuenca. This text was printed by +Varnhagen at Valencia, in 1858, as _Primera Epistola del Almirante Don +Cristóbal Colon_, and it is claimed by him that it probably much more +nearly represents the original of Columbus's own drafting. + +[Sidenote: Printed editions.] + +There was placed in 1852 in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana at Milan, from the +library of Baron Pietro Custodi, a printed edition of this Spanish +letter, issued in 1493, perhaps somewhere in Spain or Portugal, for +Barcelona and Lisbon have been named. Harrisse conjectures that Sanchez +gave his copy to some printer in Barcelona. Others have contended that +it was not printed in Spain at all. No other copy of this edition has +ever been discovered. It was edited by Cesare Correnti at Milan in 1863, +in a volume called _Lettere autografe di Cristoforo Colombo, nuovamente +stampate_, and was again issued in facsimile in 1866 at Milan, under the +care of Girolamo d'Adda, as _Lettera in lingua Spagnuola diretta da +Cristoforo Colombo a Luis de Sant-Angel_. Major and Becher, among +others, have given versions of it to the English reader, and Harrisse +gives it side by side with a French version in his _Christophe Colomb_ +(i. 420), and with an English one in his _Notes on Columbus_. + +This text in Spanish print had been thought the only avenue of approach +to the actual manuscript draft of Columbus, till very recently two other +editions, slightly varying, are said to have been discovered, one or +both of which are held by some, but on no satisfactory showing, to have +preceded in issue, probably by a short interval, the Ambrosian copy. + +One of these newly alleged editions is on four leaves in quarto, and +represents the letter as dated on February 15 and March 14, and its cut +of type has been held to be evidence of having been printed at Burgos, +or possibly at Salamanca. That this and the Ambrosian letter were +printed one from the other, or independently from some unknown anterior +edition, has been held to be clear from the fact that they correspond +throughout in the division of lines and pages. It is not easily +determined which was the earlier of the two, since there are errors in +each corrected in the other. This unique four-leaf quarto was a few +months since offered for sale in London, by Ellis and Elvey, who have +published (1889) an English translation of it, with annotations by Julia +E. S. Rae. It is now understood to be in the possession of a New York +collector. It is but fair to say that suspicions of its genuineness have +been entertained; indeed, there can be scarce a doubt that it is a +modern fabrication. + +The other of these newly discovered editions is in folio of two leaves, +and was the last discovered, and was very recently held by Maisonneuve +of Paris at 65,000 francs, and has since been offered by Quaritch in +London for £1,600. It is said to have been discovered in Spain, and to +have been printed at Barcelona; and this last fact is thought to be +apparent from the Catalan form of some of the Spanish, which has +disappeared in the Ambrosian text. It also gives the dates February 15 +and March 14. A facsimile edition has been issued under the title _La +Lettre de Christophe Colomb, annonçant la Découverte du Nouveau Monde_. + +Caleb Cushing, in the _North American Review_ in October, 1825, refers +to newspaper stories then current of a recent sale of a copy of the +Spanish text in London, for £33 12_s._ to the Duke of Buckingham. It +cannot now be traced. + +[Sidenote: Catalan text.] + +Harrisse finds in Ferdinand's catalogue of the Biblioteca Colombina what +was probably a Catalan text of this Spanish letter; but it has +disappeared from the collection. + +[Sidenote: Letter found by Bergenroth.] + +Bergenroth found at Simancas, some years ago, the text of another letter +by Columbus, with the identical dates already given, and addressed to a +friend; but it conveyed nothing not known in the printed Spanish texts. +He, however, gave a full abstract of it in the _Calendar of State Papers +relating to England and Spain_. + +[Sidenote: Columbus gives papers to Bernaldez.] + +Columbus is known, after his return from the second voyage, to have been +the guest of Andrès Bernaldez, the Cura de los Palacios, and he is also +known to have placed papers in this friend's hands; and so it has been +held probable by Muñoz that another Spanish text of Columbus's first +account is embodied in Bernaldez's _Historia de los Reyes Católicos_. +The manuscript of this work, which gives thirteen chapters to Columbus, +long remained unprinted in the royal library at Madrid, and Irving, +Prescott, and Humboldt all used it in that form. It was finally printed +at Granada in 1856, as edited by Miguel Lafuente y Alcántara, and was +reprinted at Seville in 1870. Harrisse, in his _Notes on Columbus_, +gives an English version of this section on the Columbus voyage. + +[Sidenote: Varieties of the Spanish text.] + +These, then, are all the varieties of the Spanish text of Columbus's +first announcement of his discovery which are at present known. When the +Ambrosian text was thought to be the only printed form of it, Varnhagen, +in his _Carta de Cristóbal Colon enviada de Lisboa á Barcelona en Marzo +de 1493_ (Vienna, 1869; and Paris, 1870), collated the different texts +to try to reconstruct a possible original text, as Columbus wrote it. In +the opinion of Major no one of these texts can be considered an accurate +transcript of the original. + +[Sidenote: Origin of the Latin text.] + +There is a difference of opinion among these critics as to the origin of +the Latin text which scholars generally cite as this first letter of +Columbus. Major thinks this Latin text was not taken from the Spanish, +though similar to it; while Varnhagen thinks that the particular Spanish +text found in the Colegio Mayor de Cuenca was the original of the Latin +version. + +[Sidenote: Transient fame of the discovery.] + +There is nothing more striking in the history of the years immediately +following the discovery of America than the transient character of the +fame which Columbus acquired by it. It was another and later generation +that fixed his name in the world's regard. + +[Sidenote: English mentions of it.] + +Harrisse points out how some of the standard chroniclers of the world's +history, like Ferrebouc, Regnault, Galliot du Pré, and Fabian, failed +during the early half of the sixteenth century to make any note of the +acts of Columbus; and he could find no earlier mention among the German +chroniclers than that of Heinrich Steinhowel, some time after 1531. +There was even great reticence among the chroniclers of the Low +Countries; and in England we need to look into the dispatches sent +thence by the Spanish ambassadors to find the merest mention of Columbus +so early as 1498. Perhaps the reference to him made eleven years later +(1509), in an English version of Brandt's _Shyppe of Fools_, and another +still ten years later in a little native comedy called _The New +Interlude_, may have been not wholly unintelligible. It was not till +about 1550 that, so far as England is concerned, Columbus really became +a historical character, in Edward Hall's _Chronicle_. + +Speaking of the fewness of the autographs of Columbus which are +preserved, Harrisse adds: "The fact is that Columbus was very far from +being in his lifetime the important personage he now is; and his +writings, which then commanded neither respect nor attention, were +probably thrown into the waste-basket as soon as received." + +[Sidenote: Editions of the Latin text.] + +Nevertheless, substantial proof seems to exist in the several editions +of the Latin version of this first letter, which were issued in the +months immediately following the return of Columbus from his first +voyage, as well as in the popular versification of its text by Dati in +two editions, both in October, 1493, besides another at Florence in +1495, to show that for a brief interval, at least, the news was more or +less engrossing to the public mind in certain confined areas of Europe. +Before the discovery of the printed editions of the Spanish text, there +existed an impression that either the interest in Spain was less than in +Italy, or some effort was made by the Spanish government to prevent a +wide dissemination of the details of the news. + +The two Genoese ambassadors who left Barcelona some time after the +return of Columbus, perhaps in August, 1493, may possibly have taken to +Italy with them some Spanish edition of the letter. The news, however, +had in some form reached Rome in season to be the subject of a papal +bull on May 3d. We know that Aliander or Leander de Cosco, who made the +Latin version, very likely from the Sanchez copy, finished it probably +at Barcelona, on the 29th of April, not on the 25th as is sometimes +said. Cosco sent it at once to Rome to be printed, and his manuscript +possibly conveyed the first tidings, to Italy,--such is Harrisse's +theory,--where it reached first the hands of the Bishop of Monte Peloso, +who added to it a Latin epigram. It was he who is supposed to have +committed it to the printer in Rome, and in that city, during the rest +of 1493, four editions at least of Cosco's Latin appeared. Two of these +editions are supposed to be printed by Plannck, a famous Roman printer; +one is known to have come from the press of Franck Silber. All but one +were little quartos, of the familiar old style, of three or four +black-letter leaves; while the exception was a small octavo with +woodcuts. It is Harrisse's opinion that this pictorial edition was +really printed at Basle. In Paris, during the same time or shortly +after, there were three editions of a similar appearance, all from one +press. The latest of all, brought to light but recently, seems to have +been printed by a distinguished Flemish printer, Thierry Martens, +probably at Antwerp. It is not improbable that other editions printed in +all these or other cities may yet be found. It is noteworthy that +nothing was issued in Germany, as far as we know, before a German +version of the letter appeared at Strassburg in 1497. + +[Illustration: FIRST PAGE, COLUMBUS'S FIRST LETTER, LATIN EDITION, 1493. + +[From the Barlow copy, now in the Boston Public Library.]] + +The text in all these Latin editions is intended to be the same. But a +very few copies of any edition, and only a single copy of two or three +of them, are known. The Lenox, the Carter-Brown, and the Ives libraries +in this country are the chief ones possessing any of them, and the +collections of the late Henry C. Murphy and Samuel L. M. Barlow also +possessed a copy or two, the edition owned by Barlow passing in +February, 1890, to the Boston Public Library. This scarcity and the +rivalry of collectors would probably, in case any one of them should be +brought upon the market, raise the price to fifteen hundred dollars or +more. The student is not so restricted as this might imply, for in +several cases there have been modern facsimiles and reprints, and there +is an early reprint by Veradus, annexed to his poem (1494) on the +capture of Granada. The text usually quoted by the older writers, +however, is that embodied in the _Bellum Christianorum Principum_ of +Robertus Monarchus (Basle, 1533). + +[Sidenote: Order of publication.] + +In these original small quartos and octavos, there is just enough +uncertainty and obscurity as to dates and printers, to lure +bibliographers and critics of typography into research and controversy; +and hardly any two of them agree in assigning the same order of +publication to these several issues. The present writer has in the +second volume of the _Narrative and Critical History of America_ grouped +the varied views, so far as they had in 1885 been made known. The +bibliography to which Harrisse refers as being at the end of his work on +Columbus was crowded out of its place and has not appeared; but he +enters into a long examination of the question of priority in the second +chapter of his last volume. The earliest English translation of this +Latin text appeared in the _Edinburgh Review_ in 1816, and other issues +have been variously made since that date. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: Additional sources respecting the first voyage.] + +We get some details of this first voyage in Oviedo, which we do not find +in the journal, and Vicente Yañez Pinzon and Hernan Perez Matheos, who +were companions of Columbus, are said to be the source of this +additional matter. The testimony in the lawsuit of 1515, particularly +that of Garcia Hernandez, who was in the "Pinta," and of a sailor named +Francisco Garcia Vallejo, adds other details. + +[Sidenote: Second voyage.] + +There is no existing account by Columbus himself of his experiences +during his second voyage, and of that cruise along the Cuban coast in +which he supposed himself to have come in sight of the Golden +Chersonesus. The _Historie_ tells us that during this cruise he kept a +journal, _Libro del Segundo Viage_, till he was prostrated by sickness, +and this itinerary is cited both in the _Historie_ and by Las Casas. We +also get at second-hand from Columbus, what was derived from him in +conversation after his return to Spain, in the account of these +explorations which Bernaldez has embodied in his _Reyes Católicos_. +Irving says that he found these descriptions of Bernaldez by far the +most useful of the sources for this period, as giving him the details +for a picturesque narrative. On disembarking at Cadiz in June, 1495, +Columbus sent to his sovereigns two dispatches, neither of which is now +known. + +[Sidenote: Columbus's letters.] + +It was in the collection of the Duke of Veragua that Navarrete +discovered fifteen autograph letters of Columbus, four of them addressed +to his friend, the Father Gaspar Gorricio, and the rest to his son +Diego. Navarrete speaks of them when found as in a very deplorable and +in parts almost unreadable condition, and severely taxing, for +deciphering them, the practiced skill of Tomas Gonzalez, which had been +acquired in the care which he had bestowed on the archives of Simancas. +It is known that two letters addressed to Gorricio in 1498, and four in +1501, beside a single letter addressed in the last year to Diego Colon, +which were in the iron chest at Las Cuevas, are not now in the archives +of the Duke of Veragua; and it is further known that during the great +lawsuit of Columbus's heirs, Cristoval de Cardona tampered with that +chest, and was brought to account for the act in 1580. Whatever he +removed may possibly some day be found, as Harrisse thinks, among the +notarial records of Valencia. + +[Sidenote: Third voyage.] + +Two letters of Columbus respecting his third voyage are only known in +early copies; one in Las Casas's hand belonged to the Duke of Orsuna, +and the other addressed to the nurse of Prince Juan is in the Custodia +collection at Genoa. Both are printed by Navarrete. + +[Sidenote: Fourth voyage.] + +Columbus, in a letter dated December 27, 1504, mentions a relation of +his fourth voyage with a supplement, which he had sent from Seville to +Oderigo; but it is not known. We are without trace also of other +letters, which he wrote at Dominica and at other points during this +voyage. We do know, however, a letter addressed by Columbus to Ferdinand +and Isabella, giving some account of his voyage to July 7, 1503. The +lost Spanish original is represented in an early copy, which is printed +by Navarrete. Though no contemporary Spanish edition is known, an +Italian version was issued at Venice in 1505, as _Copia de la Lettera +per Colombo mandata_. This was reprinted with comments by Morelli, at +Bassano, in 1810, and the title which this librarian gave it of _Lettera +Rarissima_ has clung to it, in most of the citations which refer to it. + +Peter Martyr, writing in January, 1494, mentions just having received a +letter from Columbus, but it is not known to exist. + +[Sidenote: Las Casas uses Columbus's papers.] + +Las Casas is said to have once possessed a treatise by Columbus on the +information obtained from Portuguese and Spanish pilots, concerning +western lands; and he also refers to _Libros de Memorias del Almirante_. +He is also known by his own statements to have had numerous autograph +letters of Columbus. What has become of them is not known. If they were +left in the monastery of San Gregorio at Valladolid, where Las Casas +used them, they have disappeared with papers of the convent, since they +were not among the archives of the suppressed convents, as Harrisse +tells us, which were entrusted in 1850 to the Academy of History at +Madrid. + +[Sidenote: Work on the Arctic pole.] + +In his letter to Doña Juana, Columbus says that he has deposited a work +in the Convent de la Mejorada, in which he has predicted the discovery +of the Arctic pole. It has not been found. + +[Sidenote: Missing letters.] + +Harrisse also tells us of the unsuccessful search which he has made for +an alleged letter of Columbus, said in Gunther and Schultz's handbook of +autographs (Leipzig, 1856) to have been bought in England by the Duke of +Buckingham; and it was learned from Tross, the Paris bookseller, that +about 1850 some autograph letters of Columbus, seen by him, were sent to +England for sale. + +[Sidenote: Columbus's maps.] + +After his return from his first voyage, Columbus prepared a map and an +accompanying table of longitudes and latitudes for the new discoveries. +They are known to have been the subject of correspondence between him +and the queen. + +There are various other references to maps which Columbus had +constructed, to embody his views or show his discoveries. Not one, +certainly to be attributed to him, is known, though Ojeda, Niño, and +others are recorded as having used, in their explorations, maps made by +Columbus. Peter Martyr's language does not indicate that Columbus ever +completed any chart, though he had, with the help of his brother +Bartholomew, begun one. The map in the Ptolemy of 1513 is said by +Santarem to have been drawn by Columbus, or to have been based on his +memoranda, but the explanation on the map seems rather to imply that +information derived from an admiral in the service of Portugal was used +in correcting it, and since Harrisse has brought to light what is +usually called the Cantino map, there is strong ground for supposing +that the two had one prototype. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: Italian notarial records.] + +Let us pass from records by Columbus to those about him. We owe to an +ancient custom of Italy that so much has been preserved, to throw in the +aggregate no small amount of light on the domestic life of the family in +which Columbus was the oldest born. During the fourteen years in which +his father lived at Savona, every little business act and legal +transaction was attested before notaries, whose records have been +preserved filed in _filzas_ in the archives of the town. + +These _filzas_ were simply a file of documents tied together by a string +passed through each, and a _filza_ generally embraced a year's +accumulation. The photographic facsimile which Harrisse gives in his +_Columbus and the Bank of Saint George_, of the letter of Columbus +preserved by the bank, shows how the sheet was folded once lengthwise, +and then the hole was made midway in each fold. + +We learn in this way that, as early as 1470 and later, Columbus stood +security for his father. We find him in 1472 the witness of another's +will. As under the Justinian procedure the notary's declaration +sufficed, such documents in Italy are not rendered additionally +interesting by the autograph of the witness, as they would be in +England. This notarial resource is no new discovery. As early as 1602, +thirteen documents drawn from similar depositaries were printed at +Genoa, in some annotations by Giulio Salinerio upon Cornelius Tacitus. +Other similar papers were discovered by the archivists of Savona, Gian +Tommaso and Giambattista Belloro, in 1810 (reprinted, 1821) and 1839 +respectively, and proving the general correctness of the earlier +accounts of Columbus's younger days given in Gallo, Senarega, and +Giustiniani. It is to be regretted that the original entries of some of +these notarial acts are not now to be found, but patient search may yet +discover them, and even do something more to elucidate the life of the +Columbus family in Savona. + +[Sidenote: Savona.] + +There has been brought into prominence and published lately a memoir of +the illustrious natives of Savona, written by a lawyer, Giovanni +Vincenzo Verzellino, who died in that town in 1638. This document was +printed at Savona in 1885, under the editorial care of Andrea Astengo; +but Harrisse has given greater currency to its elucidations for our +purpose in his _Christophe Colomb et Savone_ (Genoa, 1877). + +[Sidenote: Genoa notarial records.] + +Harrisse is not unwisely confident that the nineteen documents--if no +more have been added--throwing light on minor points of the obscure +parts of the life of Columbus and his kindred, which during recent years +have been discovered in the notarial files of Genoa by the Marquis +Marcello Staglieno, may be only the precursors of others yet to be +unearthed, and that the pages of the _Giornale Ligustico_ may continue +to record such discoveries as it has in the past. + +[Sidenote: Records of the Bank of St. George.] + +The records of the Bank of Saint George in Genoa have yielded something, +but not much. In the state archives of Genoa, preserved since 1817 in +the Palazzetto, we might hope to find some report of the great +discovery, of which the Genoese ambassadors, Francesco Marchesio and +Gian Antonio Grimaldi, were informed, just as they were taking leave of +Ferdinand and Isabella for returning to Italy; but nothing of that kind +has yet been brought to light there; nor was it ever there, unless the +account which Senarega gives in the narrative printed in Muratori was +borrowed thence. We may hope, but probably in vain, to have these public +archives determine if Columbus really offered to serve his native +country in a voyage of discovery. The inquirer is more fortunate if he +explores what there is left of the archives of the old abbey of St. +Stephen, which, since the suppression of the convents in 1797, have been +a part of the public papers, for he can find in them some help in +solving some pertinent questions. + +[Sidenote: Vatican archives.] + +[Sidenote: Hidden manuscripts.] + +[Sidenote: Letters about Columbus.] + +Harrisse tells us in 1887 that he had been waiting two years for +permission to search the archives of the Vatican. What may yet be +revealed in that repository, the world waits anxiously to learn. It may +be that some one shall yet discover there the communication in which +Ferdinand and Isabella announced to the Pope the consummation of the +hopes of Columbus. It may be that the diplomatic correspondence covering +the claims of Spain by virtue of the discovery of Columbus, and leading +to the bull of demarcation of May, 1493, may yet be found, accompanied +by maps, of the highest interest in interpreting the relations of the +new geography. There is no assurance that the end of manuscript +disclosures has yet come. Some new bit of documentary proof has been +found at times in places quite unexpected. The number of Italian +observers in those days of maritime excitement living in the seaports +and trading places of Spain and Portugal, kept their home friends alert +in expectation by reason of such appetizing news. Such are the letters +sent to Italy by Hanibal Januarius, and by Luca, the Florentine +engineer, concerning the first voyage. There are similar transient +summaries of the second voyage. Some have been found in the papers of +Macchiavelli, and others had been arranged by Zorzi for a new edition of +his documentary collection. These have all been recovered of recent +years, and Harrisse himself, Gargiolli, Guerrini, and others, have been +instrumental in their publication. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: Spanish archives.] + +[Sidenote: Simancas and Seville.] + +[Sidenote: Simancas.] + +It was thirty-seven years after the death of Columbus before, under an +order of Charles the Fifth, February 19, 1543, the archives of Spain +were placed in some sort of order and security at Simancas. The great +masses of papers filed by the crown secretaries and the Councils of the +Indies and of Seville, were gradually gathered there, but not until many +had been lost. Others apparently disappeared at a later day, for we are +now aware that many to which Herrera refers cannot be found. New efforts +to secure the preservation and systematize the accumulation of +manuscripts were made by order of Philip the Second in 1567, but it +would seem without all the success that might have been desired. Towards +the end of the last century, it was the wish of Charles the Third that +all the public papers relating to the New World should be selected from +Simancas and all other places of deposit and carried to Seville. The act +was accomplished in 1788, when they were placed in a new building which +had been provided for them. Thus it is that to-day the student of +Columbus must rather search Seville than Simancas for new documents, +though a few papers of some interest in connection with the contests of +his heirs with the crown of Castile may still exist at Simancas. Thirty +years ago, if not now, as Bergenroth tells us, there was little comfort +for the student of history in working at Simancas. The papers are +preserved in an old castle, formerly belonging to the admirals of +Castile, which had been confiscated and devoted to the uses of such a +repository. The one large room which was assigned for the accommodation +of readers had a northern aspect, and as no fires were allowed, the +note-taker found not infrequently in winter the ink partially congealed +in his pen. There was no imaginable warmth even in the landscape as seen +from the windows, since, amid a treeless waste, the whistle of cold +blasts in winter and a blinding African heat in summer characterize the +climate of this part of Old Castile. + +Of the early career of Columbus, it is very certain that something may +be gained at Simancas, for when Bergenroth, sent by the English +government, made search there to illustrate the relations of Spain with +England, and published his results, with the assistance of Gayangos, in +1862-1879, as a _Calendar of Letters, Despatches, and State Papers +relating to Negotiations between England and Spain_, one of the earliest +entries of his first printed volume, under 1485, was a complaint of +Ferdinand and Isabella against a Columbus--some have supposed it our +Christopher--for his participancy in the piratical service of the +French. + +[Illustration: ARCHIVO DE SIMANCAS. + +[From Parcerisa and Quadrado's _España_.]] + +[Sidenote: Seville.] + +Harrisse complains that we have as yet but scant knowledge of what the +archives of the Indies at Seville may contain, but they probably throw +light rather upon the successors of Columbus than upon the career of the +Admiral himself. + +[Sidenote: Seville notarial records.] + +The notarial archives of Seville are of recent construction, the +gathering of scattered material having been first ordered so late as +1869. The partial examination which has since been made of them has +revealed some slight evidences of the life of some of Columbus's +kindred, and it is quite possible some future inquirer will be rewarded +for his diligent search among them. + +It is also not unlikely that something of interest may be brought to +light respecting the descendants of Columbus who have lived in Seville, +like the Counts of Gelves; but little can be expected regarding the life +of the Admiral himself. + +[Sidenote: Santa Maria de las Cuevas.] + +The personal fame of Columbus is much more intimately connected with the +monastery of Santa Maria de las Cuevas. Here his remains were +transported in 1509; and at a later time, his brother and son, each +Diego by name, were laid beside him, as was his grandson Luis. Here in +an iron chest the family muniments and jewels were kept, as has been +said. It is affirmed that all the documents which might have grown out +of these transactions of duty and precaution, and which might +incidentally have yielded some biographical information, are nowhere to +be found in the records of the monastery. A century ago or so, when +Muñoz was working in these records, there seems to have been enough to +repay his exertions, as we know by his citations made between 1781 and +1792. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: Portuguese archives. Torre do Tombo.] + +The national archives of the Torre do Tombo, at Lisbon, begun so far +back as 1390, are well known to have been explored by Santarem, then +their keeper, primarily for traces of the career of Vespucius; but so +intelligent an antiquary could not have forgotten, as a secondary aim, +the acts of Columbus. The search yielded him, however, nothing in this +last direction; nor was Varnhagen more fortunate. Harrisse had hopes to +discover there the correspondence of Columbus with John the Second, in +1488; but the search was futile in this respect, though it yielded not +a little respecting the Perestrello family, out of which Columbus took +his wife, the mother of the heir of his titles. There is even hope that +the notarial acts of Lisbon might serve a similar purpose to those which +have been so fruitful in Genoa and Savona. There are documents of great +interest which may be yet obscurely hidden away, somewhere in Portugal, +like the letter from the mouth of the Tagus, which Columbus on his +return in March, 1493, addressed to the Portuguese king, and the +diplomatic correspondence of John the Second and Ferdinand of Aragon, +which the project of a second voyage occasioned, as well as the +preliminaries of the treaty of Tordesillas. + +[Sidenote: Santo Domingo archives.] + +[Sidenote: Lawsuit papers.] + +There may be yet some hope from the archives of Santo Domingo itself, +and from those of its Cathedral, to trace in some of their lines the +descendants of the Admiral through his son Diego. The mishaps of nature +and war have, however, much impaired the records. Of Columbus himself +there is scarce a chance to learn anything here. The papers of the +famous lawsuit of Diego Colon with the crown seem to have escaped the +attention of all the historians before the time of Muñoz and Navarrete. +The direct line of male descendants of the Admiral ended in 1578, when +his great-grandson, Diego Colon y Pravia, died on the 27th January, a +childless man. Then began another contest for the heritage and titles, +and it lasted for thirty years, till in 1608 the Council of the Indies +judged the rights to descend by a turn back to Diego's aunt Isabel, and +thence to her grandson, Nuño de Portugallo, Count of Gelves. The +excluded heirs, represented by the children of a sister of Diego, +Francisca, who had married Diego Ortegon, were naturally not content; +and out of the contest which followed we get a large mass of printed +statements and counter statements, which used with caution, offer a +study perhaps of some of the transmitted traits of Columbus. Harrisse +names and describes nineteen of these documentary memorials, the last of +which bears date in 1792. The most important of them all, however, is +one printed at Madrid in 1606, known as _Memorial del Pleyto_, in which +we find the descent of the true and spurious lines, and learn something +too much of the scandalous life of Luis, the grandson of the Admiral, to +say nothing of the illegitimate taints of various other branches. +Harrisse finds assistance in working out some of the lines of the +Admiral's descendants, in Antonio Caetano de Sousa's _Historia +Genealogica da Casa Real Portugueza_ (Lisbon, 1735-49, in 14 vols.). + +[Sidenote: The Muñoz collection.] + +The most important collection of documents gathered by individual +efforts in Spain, to illustrate the early history of the New World, was +that made by Juan Bautista Muñoz, in pursuance of royal orders issued to +him in 1781 and 1788, to examine all Spanish archives, for the purpose +of collecting material for a comprehensive History of the Indies. Muñoz +has given in the introduction of his history a clear statement of the +condition of the different depositories of archives in Spain, as he +found them towards the end of the last century, when a royal order +opened them all to his search. A first volume of Muñoz's elaborate and +judicious work was issued in 1793, and Muñoz died in 1799, without +venturing on a second volume to carry the story beyond 1500, where he +had left it. He was attacked for his views, and there was more or less +of a pamphlet war over the book before death took him from the strife; +but he left a fragment of the second volume in manuscript, and of this +there is a copy in the Lenox Library in New York. Another copy was sold +in the Brinley sale. The Muñoz collection of copies came in part, at +least, at some time after the collector's death into the hands of +Antonio de Uguina, who placed them at the disposal of Irving; and +Ternaux seems also to have used them. They were finally deposited by the +Spanish government in the Academy of History at Madrid. Here Alfred +Demersey saw them in 1862-63, and described them in the _Bulletin_ of +the French Geographical Society in June, 1864, and it is on this +description as well as on one in Fuster's _Biblioteca Valenciana_, that +Harrisse depends, not having himself examined the documents. + +[Sidenote: The Navarrete collection.] + +Martin Fernandez de Navarrete was guided in his career as a collector of +documents, when Charles the Fourth made an order, October 15, 1789, that +there should be such a work begun to constitute the nucleus of a library +and museum. The troublous times which succeeded interrupted the work, +and it was not till 1825 that Navarrete brought out the first volume of +his _Coleccion de los Viages y Descubrimientos que hicieron por Mar los +Españoles desde_ _Fines del Siglo XV._, a publication which a fifth +volume completed in 1837, when he was over seventy years of age. + +Any life of Columbus written from documentary sources must reflect much +light from this collection of Navarrete, of which the first two volumes +are entirely given to the career of the Admiral, and indeed bear the +distinctive title of _Relaciones, Cartas y otros Documentos_, relating +to him. + +[Sidenote: The researches of Navarrete.] + +Navarrete was engaged thirty years on his work in the archives of Spain, +and was aided part of the time by Muñoz the historian, and by Gonzales +the keeper of the archives at Simancas. His researches extended to all +the public repositories, and to such private ones as could be thought to +illustrate the period of discovery. Navarrete has told the story of his +searches in the various archives of Spain, in the introduction to his +_Coleccion_, and how it was while searching for the evidences of the +alleged voyage of Maldonado on the Pacific coast of North America, in +1588, that he stumbled upon Las Casas's copies of the relations of +Columbus, for his first and third voyages, then hid away in the archives +of the Duc del Infantado; and he was happy to have first brought them to +the attention of Muñoz. + +There are some advantages for the student in the use of the French +edition of Navarrete's _Relations des Quatre Voyages entrepris par +Colomb_, since the version was revised by Navarrete himself, and it is +elucidated, not so much as one would wish, with notes by Rémusat, Balbi, +Cuvier, Jomard, Letronne, St. Martin, Walckenaer, and others. It was +published at Paris in three volumes in 1828. The work contains +Navarrete's accounts of Spanish pre-Columbian voyages, of the later +literature on Columbus, and of the voyages of discovery made by other +efforts of the Spaniards, beside the documentary material respecting +Columbus and his voyages, the result of his continued labors. Caleb +Cushing, in his _Reminiscences of Spain_ in 1833, while commending the +general purposes of Navarrete, complains of his attempts to divert the +indignation of posterity from the selfish conduct of Ferdinand, and to +vindicate him from the charge of injustice towards Columbus. This plea +does not find to-day the same sympathy in students that it did sixty +years ago. + +[Sidenote: Madrid Academy of History.] + +Father Antonio de Aspa of the monastery of the Mejorada, formed a +collection of documents relating to the discovery of the New World, and +it was in this collection, now preserved in the Academy of History at +Madrid, that Navarrete discovered that curious narration of the second +voyage of Columbus by Dr. Chanca, which had been sent to the chapter of +the Cathedral, and which Navarrete included in his collection. It is +thought that Bernaldez had used this Chanca narrative in his _Reyes +Católicos_. + +[Sidenote: _Coleccion de Documentos Ineditos._] + +Navarrete's name is also connected, as one of its editors, with the +extensive _Coleccion de Documentos Ineditos para la Historia de España_, +the publication of which was begun in Madrid in 1847, two years before +Navarrete's death. This collection yields something in elucidation of +the story to be here told; but not much, except that in it, at a late +day, the _Historia_ of Las Casas was first printed. + +In 1864, there was still another series begun at Madrid, _Coleccion de +Documentos Ineditos relativos al Descubrimiento, Conquista y +Colonizacion de las Posesiones Españolas en América y Oceania_, under +the editing of Joaquin Pacheco and Francisco de Cárdenas, who have not +always satisfied students by the way in which they have done their work. +Beyond the papers which Navarrete had earlier given, and which are here +reprinted, there is not much in this collection to repay the student of +Columbus, except some long accounts of the Repartimiento in Española. + +[Sidenote: Cartas de Indias.] + +The latest documentary contribution is the large folio, with an appendix +of facsimile writings of Columbus, Vespucius, and others, published at +Madrid in 1877, by the government, and called _Cartas de Indias_, in +which it has been hinted some use has been made of the matter +accumulated by Navarrete for additional volumes of his _Coleccion_. + +[Illustration: PART OF A PAGE IN THE GIUSTINIANI PSALTER, SHOWING THE +BEGINNING OF THE EARLIEST PRINTED LIFE OF COLUMBUS. + +[From the copy in Harvard College Library.]] + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +BIOGRAPHERS AND PORTRAITISTS. + + +[Sidenote: Contemporary notices.] + +[Sidenote: Giustiniani.] + +We may most readily divide by the nationalities of the writers our +enumeration of those who have used the material which has been +considered in the previous chapter. We begin, naturally, with the +Italians, the countrymen of Columbus. We may look first to three +Genoese, and it has been shown that while they used documents apparently +now lost, they took nothing from them which we cannot get from other +sources; and they all borrowed from common originals, or from each +other. Two of these writers are Antonio Gallo, the official chronicler +of the Genoese Republic, on the first and second voyages of Columbus, +and so presumably writing before the third was made, and Bartholomew +Senarega on the affairs of Genoa, both of which recitals were published +by Muratori, in his great Italian collection. The third is Giustiniani, +the Bishop of Nebbio, who, publishing in 1516, at Genoa, a polyglot +Psalter, added, as one of his elucidations of the nineteenth psalm, on +the plea that Columbus had often boasted he was chosen to fulfill its +prophecy, a brief life of Columbus, in which the story of the humble +origin of the navigator has in the past been supposed to have first been +told. The other accounts, it now appears, had given that condition an +equal prominence. Giustiniani was but a child when Columbus left Genoa, +and could not have known him; and taking, very likely, much from +hearsay, he might have made some errors, which were repeated or only +partly corrected in his Annals of Genoa, published in 1537, the year +following his own death. It is not found, however, that the sketch is in +any essential particular far from correct, and it has been confirmed by +recent investigations. The English of it is given in Harrisse's _Notes +on Columbus_ (pp. 74-79). The statements of the Psalter respecting +Columbus were reckoned with other things so false that the Senate of +Genoa prohibited its perusal and allowed no one to possess it,--at least +so it is claimed in the _Historie_ of 1571; but no one has ever found +such a decree, nor is it mentioned by any who would have been likely to +revert to it, had it ever existed. + +[Sidenote: Bergomas.] + +The account in the _Collectanea_ of Battista Fulgoso (sometimes written +Fregoso), printed at Milan in 1509, is of scarcely any original value, +though of interest as the work of another Genoese. Allegetto degli +Allegetti, whose _Ephemerides_ is also published in Muratori, deserves +scarcely more credit, though he seems to have got his information from +the letters of Italian merchants living in Spain, who communicated +current news to their home correspondents. Bergomas, who had published a +chronicle as early as 1483, made additions to his work from time to +time, and in an edition printed at Venice, in 1503, he paraphrased +Columbus's own account of his first voyage, which was reprinted in the +subsequent edition of 1506. In this latter year Maffei de Volterra +published a commentary at Rome, of much the same importance. Such was +the filtering process by which Italy, through her own writers, acquired +contemporary knowledge of her adventurous son. + +The method was scarcely improved in the condensation of Jovius (1551), +or in the traveler's tales of Benzoni (1565). + +[Sidenote: Casoni, 1708.] + +[Sidenote: Bossi.] + +Harrisse affirms that it is not till we come down to the Annals of +Genoa, published by Filippo Casoni, in 1708, that we get any new +material in an Italian writer, and on a few points this last writer has +adduced documentary evidence, not earlier made known. It is only when we +pass into the present century that we find any of the countrymen of +Columbus undertaking in a sustained way to tell the whole story of +Columbus's life. Léon had noted that at some time in Spain, without +giving place and date, Columbus had printed a little tract, _Declaration +de Tabla Navigatoria_; but no one before Luigi Bossi had undertaken to +investigate the writings of Columbus. He is precursor of all the modern +biographers of Columbus, and his book was published at Milan, in 1818. +He claimed in his appendix to have added rare and unpublished documents, +but Harrisse points out how they had all been printed earlier. + +Bossi expresses opinions respecting the Spanish nation that are by no +means acceptable to that people, and Navarrete not infrequently takes +the Italian writer to task for this as for his many errors of statement, +and for the confidence which he places even in the pictorial designs of +De Bry as historical records. + +There is nothing more striking in the history of American discovery than +the fact that the Italian people furnished to Spain Columbus, to England +Cabot, and to France Verrazano; and that the three leading powers of +Europe, following as maritime explorers in the lead of Portugal, who +could not dispense with Vespucius, another Italian, pushed their rights +through men whom they had borrowed from the central region of the +Mediterranean, while Italy in its own name never possessed a rood of +American soil. The adopted country of each of these Italians gave more +or less of its own impress to its foster child. No one of these men was +so impressible as Columbus, and no country so much as Spain was likely +at this time to exercise an influence on the character of an alien. +Humboldt has remarked that Columbus got his theological fervor in +Andalusia and Granada, and we can scarcely imagine Columbus in the garb +of a Franciscan walking the streets of free and commercial Genoa as he +did those of Seville, when he returned from his second voyage. + +The latest of the considerable popular Italian lives of Columbus is G. +B. Lemoyne's _Colombo e la Scoperta dell' America_, issued at Turin, in +1873. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: Portuguese writers.] + +We may pass now to the historians of that country to which Columbus +betook himself on leaving Italy; but about all to be found at first hand +is in the chronicle of João II. of Portugal, as prepared by Ruy de Pina, +the archivist of the Torre do Tombo. At the time of the voyage of +Columbus Ruy was over fifty, while Garcia de Resende was a young man +then living at the Portuguese court, who in his _Choronica_, published +in 1596, did little more than borrow from his elder, Ruy; and Resende in +turn furnished to João de Barros the staple of the latter's narrative in +his _Decada da Asia_, printed at Lisbon, in 1752. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: Spanish writers.] + +[Sidenote: Peter Martyr.] + +We find more of value when we summon the Spanish writers. Although Peter +Martyr d'Anghiera was an Italian, Muñoz reckons him a Spaniard, since he +was naturalized in Spain. He was a man of thirty years, when, coming +from Rome, he settled in Spain, a few years before Columbus attracted +much notice. Martyr had been borne thither on a reputation of his own, +which had commended his busy young nature to the attention of the +Spanish court. He took orders and entered upon a prosperous career, +proceeding by steps, which successively made him the chaplain of Queen +Isabella, a prior of the Cathedral of Granada, and ultimately the +official chronicler of the Indies. Very soon after his arrival in Spain, +he had disclosed a quick eye for the changeful life about him, and he +began in 1488 the writing of those letters which, to the number of over +eight hundred, exist to attest his active interest in the events of his +day. These events he continued to observe till 1525. We have no more +vivid source of the contemporary history, particularly as it concerned +the maritime enterprise of the peninsular peoples. He wrote fluently, +and, as he tells us, sometimes while waiting for dinner, and necessarily +with haste. He jotted down first and unconfirmed reports, and let them +stand. He got news by hearsay, and confounded events. He had candor and +sincerity enough, however, not to prize his own works above their true +value. He knew Columbus, and, his letters readily reflect what interest +there was in the exploits of Columbus, immediately on his return from +his first voyage; but the earlier preparations of the navigator for that +voyage, with the problematical characteristics of the undertaking, do +not seem to have made any impression upon Peter Martyr, and it is not +till May of 1493, when the discovery had been made, and later in +September, that he chronicles the divulged existence of the newly +discovered islands. The three letters in which this wonderful +intelligence was first communicated are printed by Harrisse in English, +in his _Notes on Columbus_. Las Casas tells us how Peter Martyr got his +accounts of the first discoveries directly from the lips of Columbus +himself and from those who accompanied him; but he does not fail to tell +us also of the dangers of too implicitly trusting to all that Peter +says. From May 14, 1493, to June 5, 1497, in twelve separate letters, we +read what this observer has to say of the great navigator who had +suddenly and temporarily stepped into the glare of notice. These and +other letters of Peter Martyr have not escaped some serious criticism. +There are contradictions and anachronisms in them that have forcibly +helped Ranke, Hallam, Gerigk, and others to count the text which we have +as more or less changed from what must have been the text, if honestly +written by Martyr. They have imagined that some editor, willful or +careless, has thrown this luckless accompaniment upon them. The letters, +however, claimed the confidence of Prescott, and have, as regards the +parts touching the new discoveries, seldom failed to impress with their +importance those who have used them. It is the opinion of the last +examiner of them, J. H. Mariéjol, in his _Peter Martyr d'Anghera_ +(Paris, 1887), that to read them attentively is the best refutation of +the skeptics. Martyr ceased to refer to the affairs of the New World +after 1499, and those of his earlier letters which illustrate the early +voyage have appeared in a French version, made by Gaffarel and Louvot +(Paris, 1885). + +The representations of Columbus easily convinced Martyr that there +opened a subject worthy of his pen, and he set about composing a special +treatise on the discoveries in the New World, and, under the title of +_De Orbe Novo_, it occupied his attention from October, 1494, to the day +of his death. For the earlier years he had, if we may believe him, not a +little help from Columbus himself; and it would seem from his one +hundred and thirty-five epistles that he was not altogether prepared to +go with Columbus, in accounting the new islands as lying off the coast +of Asia. He is particularly valuable to us in treating of Columbus's +conflicts with the natives of Española, and Las Casas found him as +helpful as we do. + +These _Decades_, as the treatise is usually called, formed enlarged +bulletins, which, in several copies, were transmitted by him to some of +his noble friends in Italy, to keep them conversant with the passing +events. + +[Sidenote: Trivigiano.] + +A certain Angelo Trivigiano, into whose hands a copy of some of the +early sections fell, translated them into easy, not to say vulgar, +Italian, and sent them to Venice, in four different copies, a few months +after they were written; and in this way the first seven books of the +first decade fell into the hands of a Venetian printer, who, in April, +1504, brought out a little book of sixteen leaves in the dialect of that +region, known in bibliography as the _Libretto de Tutta la Navigation +de Re de Spagna de le Isole et Terreni novamente trovati_. This +publication is known to us in a single copy lacking a title, in the +Biblioteca Marciana. Here we have the first account of the new +discoveries, written upon report, and supplementing the narrative of +Columbus himself. We also find in this little narrative some personal +details about Columbus, not contained in the same portions when embodied +in the larger _De Orbe Novo_ of Martyr, and it may be a question if +somebody who acted as editor to the Venetian version may not have added +them to the translation. The story of the new discoveries attracted +enough notice to make Zorzi or Montalboddo--if one or the other were its +editor--include this Venetian version of Martyr bodily in the collection +of voyages which, as _Paesi novamente retrovati_, was published at +Vicentia somewhere about November, 1507. It is, perhaps, a measure of +the interest felt in the undertakings of Columbus, not easily understood +at this day, that it took fourteen years for a scant recital of such +events to work themselves into the context of so composite a record of +discovery as the _Paesi_ proved to be; and still more remarkable it may +be accounted that the story could be told with but few actual references +to the hero of the transactions, "Columbus, the Genoese." It is not only +the compiler who is so reticent, but it is the author whence he borrowed +what he had to say, Martyr himself, the observer and acquaintance of +Columbus, who buries the discoverer under the event. With such an +augury, it is not so strange that at about the same time in the little +town of St. Dié, in the Vosges, a sequestered teacher could suggest a +name derived from that of a follower of Columbus, Americus Vespucius, +for that part of the new lands then brought into prominence. If the +documentary proofs of Columbus's priority had given to the Admiral's +name the same prominence which the event received, the result might not, +in the end, have been so discouraging to justice. + +Martyr, unfortunately, with all his advantages, and with his access to +the archives of the Indies, did not burden his recital with documents. +He was even less observant of the lighter traits that interest those +eager for news than might have been expected, for the busy chaplain was +a gossip by nature: he liked to retail hearsays and rumors; he enlivened +his letters with personal characteristics; but in speaking of Columbus +he is singularly reticent upon all that might picture the man to us as +he lived. + +[Sidenote: Oviedo.] + +[Sidenote: Ramusio.] + +When, in 1534, these portions of Martyr's _Decades_ were combined with a +summary of Oviedo, in a fresh publication, there were some curious +personal details added to Martyr's narrative; but as Ramusio is supposed +to have edited the compilation, these particulars are usually accredited +to that author. It is not known whence this Italian compiler could have +got them, and there is no confirmation of them elsewhere to be found. If +these additions, as is supposed, were a foreign graft upon Martyr's +recitals, the staple of his narrative still remains not altogether free +from some suspicions that, as a writer himself, he was not wholly frank +and trustworthy. At least a certain confusion in his method leads some +of the critics to discover something like imposture in what they charge +as a habit of antedating a letter so as to appear prophetic; while his +defenders find in these same evidences of incongruity a sign of +spontaneity that argues freshness and sincerity. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: Bernaldez.] + +The confidence which we may readily place in what is said of Columbus in +the chronicle of Ferdinand and Isabella, written by Andrès Bernaldez, is +prompted by his acquaintance with Columbus, and by his being the +recipient of some of the navigator's own writings from his own hands. He +is also known to have had access to what Chanca and other companions of +Columbus had written. This country curate, who lived in the neighborhood +of Seville, was also the chaplain of the Archbishop of Seville, a +personal friend of the Admiral, and from him Bernaldez received some +help. He does not add much, however, to what is given us by Peter +Martyr, though in respect to the second voyage and to a few personal +details Bernaldez is of some confirmatory value. The manuscript of his +narrative remained unprinted in the royal library at Madrid till about +thirty-five years ago; but nearly all the leading writers have made use +of it in copies which have been furnished. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: Oviedo.] + +In coming to Oviedo, we encounter a chronicler who, as a writer, +possesses an art far from skillful. Muñoz laments that his learning was +not equal to his diligence. He finds him of little service for the times +of Columbus, and largely because he was neglectful of documents and +pursued uncritical combinations of tales and truths. With all his +vagaries he is a helpful guide. "It is not," says Harrisse, "that Oviedo +shows so much critical sagacity, as it is that he collates all the +sources available to him, and gives the reader the clues to a final +judgment." He is generally deemed honest, though Las Casas thought him +otherwise. The author of the _Historie_ looks upon him as an enemy of +Columbus, and would make it appear that he listened to the tales of the +Pinzons, who were enemies of the Admiral. His administrative services in +the Indies show that he could be faithful to a trust, even at the risk +of popularity. This gives a presumption in favor of his historic +fairness. He was intelligent if not learned, and a power of happy +judgments served him in good stead, even with a somewhat loose method of +taking things as he heard them. He further inspires us with a certain +amount of confidence, because he is not always a hero-worshiper, and he +does not hesitate to tell a story, which seems to have been in +circulation, to the effect that Columbus got his geographical ideas from +an old pilot. Oviedo, however, refrains from setting the tale down as a +fact, as some of the later writers, using little of Oviedo's caution, +and borrowing from him, did. His opportunities of knowing the truth were +certainly exceptional, though it does not appear that he ever had direct +communication with the Admiral himself. He was but a lad of fifteen when +we find him jotting down notes of what he saw and heard, as a page in +attendance upon Don Juan, the son of the Spanish sovereigns, when, at +Barcelona, he saw them receive Columbus after his first voyage. During +five years, between 1497 and 1502, he was in Italy. With that exception +he was living within the Spanish court up to 1514, when he was sent to +the New World, and passed there the greater part of his remaining life. +While he had been at court in his earlier years, the sons of Columbus, +Diego and Ferdinand, were his companions in the pages' anteroom, and he +could hardly have failed to profit by their acquaintance. We know that +from the younger son he did derive not a little information. When he +went to America, some of Columbus's companions and followers were still +living,--Pinzon, Ponce de Leon, and Diego Velasquez,--and all these +could hardly have failed to help him in his note-taking. He also tells +us that he sought some of the Italian compatriots of the Admiral, though +Harrisse judges that what he got from them was not altogether +trustworthy. Oviedo rose naturally in due time into the position of +chronicler of the Indies, and tried his skill at first in a descriptive +account of the New World. A command of Charles the Fifth, with all the +facilities which such an order implied, though doubtless in some degree +embarrassed by many of the documentary proofs being preserved rather in +Spain than in the Indies, finally set him to work on a _Historia General +de las Indias_, the opening portions of which, and those covering the +career of Columbus, were printed at Seville in 1535. It is the work of a +consistent though not blinded admirer of the Discoverer, and while we +might wish he had helped us to more of the proofs of his narrative, his +recital is, on the whole, one to be signally grateful for. + +Gomara, in the early part of his history, mixed up what he took from +Oviedo with what else came in his way, with an avidity that rejected +little. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: _Historie_ ascribed to Ferdinand Columbus.] + +But it is to a biography of Columbus, written by his youngest son, +Ferdinand, as was universally believed up to 1871, that all the +historians of the Admiral have been mainly indebted for the personal +details and other circumstances which lend vividness to his story. As +the book has to-day a good many able defenders, notwithstanding the +discredit which Harrisse has sought to place upon it, it is worth while +to trace the devious paths of its transmission, and to measure the +burden of confidence placed upon it from the days of Ferdinand to our +own. + +The rumor goes that some of the statements in the Psalter note of 1516, +particularly one respecting the low origin of the Admiral, disturbed the +pride of Ferdinand to such a degree that this son of Columbus undertook +to leave behind him a detailed account of his father's career, such as +the Admiral, though urged to do it, had never found time to write. +Ferdinand was his youngest son, and was born only three or four years +before his father left Palos. There are two dates given for his birth, +each apparently on good authority, but these are a year apart. + +[Sidenote: Career of Ferdinand Columbus.] + +The language of Columbus's will, as well as the explicit statements of +Oviedo and Las Casas, leaves no reasonable ground for doubting his +illegitimacy. Bastardy was no bar to heirship in Spain, if a testator +chose to make a natural son his heir, as Columbus did, in giving +Ferdinand the right to his titles after the failure of heirs to Diego, +his legitimate son. Columbus's influence early found him a place as a +page at court, and during the Admiral's fourth voyage, in 1502-1504, the +boy accompanied his father, and once or twice at a later day he again +visited the Indies. When Columbus died, this son inherited many of his +papers; but if his own avowal be believed, he had neglected occasions in +his father's lifetime to question the Admiral respecting his early life, +not having, as he says, at that time learned to have interest in such +matters. His subsequent education at court, however, implanted in his +mind a good deal of the scholar's taste, and as a courtier in attendance +upon Charles the Fifth he had seasons of travel, visiting pretty much +every part of Western Europe, during which he had opportunities to pick +up in many places a large collection of books. He often noted in them +the place and date of purchase, so that it is not difficult to learn in +this way something of his wanderings. + +The income of Ferdinand was large, or the equivalent of what Harrisse +calls to-day 180,000 francs, which was derived from territorial rights +in San Domingo, coming to him from the Admiral, increased by slave labor +in the mines, assigned to him by King Ferdinand, which at one time +included the service of four hundred Indians, and enlarged by pensions +bestowed by Charles the Fifth. + +It has been said sometimes that he was in orders; but Harrisse, his +chief biographer, could find no proof of it. Oviedo describes him in +1535 as a person of "much nobility of character, of an affable turn and +of a sweet conversation." + +[Sidenote: Biblioteca Colombina.] + +When he died at Seville, July 12, 1539, he had amassed a collection of +books, variously estimated in contemporary accounts at from twelve to +twenty thousand volumes. Harrisse, in his _Grandeur et Décadence de la +Colombine_ (2d ed., Paris, 1885), represents Ferdinand as having +searched from 1510 to 1537 all the principal book marts of Europe. He +left these books by will to his minor nephew, Luis Colon, son of Diego, +but there was a considerable delay before Luis renounced the legacy, +with the conditions attached. Legal proceedings, which accompanied the +transactions of its executors, so delayed the consummation of the +alternative injunction of the will that the chapter of the Cathedral of +Seville, which, was to receive the library in case Don Luis declined it, +did not get possession of it till 1552. + +The care of it which ensued seems to have been of a varied nature. Forty +years later a scholar bitterly complains that it was inaccessible. It is +known that by royal command certain books and papers were given up to +enrich the national archives, which, however, no longer contain them. +When, in 1684, the monks awoke to a sense of their responsibility and +had a new inventory of the books made, it was found that the collection +had been reduced to four or five thousand volumes. After the librarian +who then had charge of it died in 1709, the collection again fell into +neglect. There are sad stories of roistering children let loose in its +halls to make havoc of its treasures. There was no responsible care +again taken of it till a new librarian was chosen, in 1832, who +discovered what any one might have learned before, that the money which +Ferdinand left for the care and increase of the library had never been +applied to it, and that the principal, even, had disappeared. Other +means of increasing it were availed of, and the loss of the original +inestimable bibliographical treasures was forgotten in the crowd of +modern books which were placed upon its shelves. Amid all this new +growth, it does not appear just how many of the books which descended +from Ferdinand still remain in it. Something of the old carelessness--to +give it no worse name--has despoiled it, even as late as 1884 and 1885, +when large numbers of the priceless treasures still remaining found a +way to the Quay Voltaire and other marts for old books in Paris, while +others were disposed of in London, Amsterdam, and even in Spain. This +outrage was promptly exposed by Harrisse in the _Revue Critique_, and in +two monographs, _Grandeur et Décadence_, etc., already named, and in his +_Colombine et Clément Marot_ (Paris, 1886); and the story has been +further recapitulated in the accounts of Ferdinand and his library, +which Harrisse has also given in his _Excerpta Colombiana: Bibliographie +de Quatre Cents Pièces Gothiques_ _Francaises, Italiennes et Latines du +Commencement du XVI Siecle_ (Paris, 1887), an account of book rarities +found in that library. + +[Illustration: SPECIMENS OF THE NOTES OF FERDINAND COLUMBUS ON HIS +BOOKS. + +[From Harrisse's _Grandeur el Décadence de la Colombine_ (Paris, +1885).]] + +[Sidenote: Perez de Oliva.] + +We are fortunate, nevertheless, in having a manuscript catalogue of it +in Ferdinand's own hand, though not a complete one, for he died while he +was making it. This library, as well as what we know of his writings and +of the reputation which he bore among his contemporaries, many of whom +speak of him and of his library with approbation, shows us that a habit, +careless of inquiry in his boyhood, gave place in his riper years to +study and respect for learning. He is said by the inscription on his +tomb to have composed an extensive work on the New World and his +father's finding of it, but it has disappeared. Neither in his library +nor in his catalogue do we find any trace of the life of his father +which he is credited with having prepared. None of his friends, some of +them writers on the New World, make any mention of such a book. There is +in the catalogue a note, however, of a life of Columbus written about +1525, of which the manuscript is credited to Ferdinand Perez de Oliva, a +man of some repute, who died in 1530. Whether this writing bore any +significant relation to the life which is associated with the owner of +the library is apparently beyond discovery. It can scarcely be supposed +that it could have been written other than with Ferdinand's cognizance. +That there was an account of the Admiral's career, quoted in Las Casas +and attributed to Ferdinand Columbus, and that it existed before 1559, +seems to be nearly certain. A manuscript of the end of the sixteenth +century, by Gonzalo Argote de Molina, mentions a report that Ferdinand +had written a life of his father. Harrisse tells us that he has seen a +printed book catalogue, apparently of the time of Muñoz or Navarette, in +which a Spanish life of Columbus by Ferdinand Columbus is entered; but +the fact stands without any explanation or verification. Spotorno, in +1823, in an introduction to his collection of documents about Columbus, +says that the manuscript of what has passed for Ferdinand's memoir of +his father was taken from Spain to Genoa by Luis Colon, the Duke of +Veragua, son of Diego and grandson of Christopher Columbus. It is not +known that Luis ever had any personal relations with Ferdinand, who died +while Luis was still in Santo Domingo. + +[Sidenote: Character of the _Historie_.] + +It is said that it was in 1568 that Luis took the manuscript to Genoa, +but in that year he is known to have been living elsewhere. He had been +arrested in Spain in 1558 for having three wives, when he was exiled to +Oran, in Africa, for ten years, and he died in 1572. Spotorno adds that +the manuscript afterwards fell into the hands of a patrician, Marini, +from whom Alfonzo de Ullua received it, and translated it into Italian. +It is shown, however, that Marini was not living at this time. The +original Spanish, if that was the tongue of the manuscript, then +disappeared, and the world has only known it in this Italian _Historie_, +published in 1571. Whether the copy brought to Italy had been in any way +changed from its original condition, or whether the version then made +public fairly represented it, there does not seem any way of determining +to the satisfaction of everybody. At all events, the world thought it +had got something of value and of authority, and in sundry editions and +retranslations, with more or less editing and augmentation, it has +passed down to our time--the last edition appearing in +1867--unquestioned for its service to the biographers of Columbus. Muñoz +hardly knew what to make of some of "its unaccountable errors," and +conjectured that the Italian version had been made from "a corrupt and +false copy;" and coupling with it the "miserable" Spanish rendering in +Barcia's _Historiadores_, Muñoz adds that "a number of falsities and +absurdities is discernible in both." Humboldt had indeed expressed +wonder at the ignorance of the book in nautical matters, considering the +reputation which Ferdinand held in such affairs. It began the Admiral's +story in detail when he was said to be fifty-six years of age. It has +never been clear to all minds that Ferdinand's asseveration of a +youthful want of curiosity respecting the Admiral's early life was +sufficient to account for so much reticence respecting that formative +period. It has been, accordingly, sometimes suspected that a desire to +ignore the family's early insignificance rather than ignorance had most +to do with this absence of information. This seems to be Irving's +inference from the facts. + +[Sidenote: Attacked by Harrisse.] + +In 1871, Henry Harrisse, who in 1866 had written of the book, "It is +generally accepted with some latitude," made the first assault on its +integrity, in his _Fernando Colon_, published in Seville, in +Spanish, which was followed the next year by his _Fernand Colomb_, in +the original French text as it had been written, and published at Paris. +Harrisse's view was reënforced in the _Additions_ to his _Bibliotheca +Americana Vetustissima_, and he again reverted to the subject in the +first volume of his _Christophe Colomb_, in 1884. In the interim the +entire text of Las Casas's _Historia_ had been published for the first +time, rendering a comparison of the two books more easy. Harrisse +availed himself of this facility of examination, and made no abatement +of his confident disbelief. That Las Casas borrowed from the _Historie_, +or rather that the two books had a common source, Harrisse thinks +satisfactorily shown. He further throws out the hint that this source, +or prototype, may have been one of the lost essays of Ferdinand, in +which he had followed the career of his father; or indeed, in some way, +the account written by Oliva may have formed the basis of the book. He +further implies that, in the transformation to the Italian edition of +1571, there were engrafted upon the narrative many contradictions and +anachronisms, which seriously impair its value. Hence, as he contends, +it is a shame to impose its authorship in that foreign shape upon +Ferdinand. He also denies in the main the story of its transmission as +told by Spotorno. + +So much of this book as is authentic, and may be found to be +corroborated by other evidence, may very likely be due to the manuscript +of Oliva, transported to Italy, and used as the work of Ferdinand +Columbus, to give it larger interest than the name of Oliva would carry; +while, to gratify prejudices and increase its attractions, the various +interpolations were made, which Harrisse thinks--and with much +reason--could not have proceeded from one so near to Columbus, so well +informed, and so kindly in disposition as we know his son Ferdinand to +have been. + +[Sidenote: Defended by Stevens and others.] + +So iconoclastic an outburst was sure to elicit vindicators of the +world's faith as it had long been held. In counter publications, +Harrisse and D'Avezac, the latter an eminent French authority on +questions of this period, fought out their battle, not without some +sharpness. Henry Stevens, an old antagonist of Harrisse, assailed the +new views with his accustomed confidence and rasping assertion. Oscar +Peschel, the German historian, and Count Circourt, the French student, +gave their opposing opinions; and the issue has been joined by others, +particularly within a few years by Prospero Peragallo, the pastor of an +Italian church in Lisbon, who has pressed defensive views with some +force in his _L'Autenticità delle Historie di Fernando Colombo_ (1884), +and later in his _Cristoforo Colombo et sua Famiglia_ (1888). It is held +by some of these later advocates of the book that parts of the original +Spanish text can be identified in Las Casas. The controversy has thus +had two stages. The first was marked by the strenuousness of D'Avezac +fifteen years ago. The second sprang from the renewed propositions of +Harrisse in his _Christophe Colomb_, ten years later. Sundry critics +have summed up the opposing arguments with more or less tendency to +oppose the iconoclast, and chief among them are two German scholars: +Professor Max Büdinger, in his _Acten zur Columbus' Geschichte_ (Wien, +1886), and his _Zur Columbus Literatur_ (Wien, 1889); and Professor +Eugen Gelcich, in the _Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde zu +Berlin_ (1887). + +Harrisse's views cannot be said to have conquered a position; but his +own scrutiny and that which he has engendered in others have done good +work in keeping the _Historie_ constantly subject to critical caution. +Dr. Shea still says of it: "It is based on the same documents of +Christopher Columbus which Las Casas used. It is a work of authority." + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: Las Casas.] + +Reference has already been made to the tardy publication of the +narrative of Las Casas. Columbus had been dead something over twenty +years, when this good man set about the task of describing in this work +what he had seen and heard respecting the New World,--or at least this +is the generally accredited interval, making him begin the work in 1527; +and yet it is best to remember that Helps could not find any positive +evidence of his being at work on the manuscript before 1552. Las Casas +did not live to finish the task, though he labored upon it down to 1561, +when he was eighty-seven years old. He died five years later. Irving, +who made great use of Las Casas, professed to consult him with that +caution which he deemed necessary in respect to a writer given to +prejudice and overheated zeal. For the period of Columbus's public life +(1492-1506), no other one of his contemporaries gives us so much of +documentary proof. Of the thirty-one papers, falling within this +interval, which he transcribed into his pages nearly in their +entirety,--throwing out some preserved in the archives of the Duke of +Veragua, and others found at Simancas or Seville,--there remain +seventeen, that would be lost to us but for this faithful chronicler. +How did he command this rich resource? As a native of Seville, Las Casas +had come there to be consecrated as bishop in 1544, and again in 1547, +after he had quitted the New World forever. At this time the family +papers of Columbus, then held for Luis Colon, a minor, were locked up in +a strong box in the custody of the monks of the neighboring monastery of +Las Cuevas. There is no evidence, however, that the chest was opened for +the inspection of the chronicler. He also professes to use original +letters sent by Columbus to Ferdinand and Isabella, which he must have +found in the archives at Valladolid before 1545, or at Simancas after +that date. Again he speaks of citing as in his own collection attested +copies of some of Columbus's letters. + +In 1550, and during his later years, Las Casas lived in the monastery of +San Gregorio, at Valladolid, leaving it only for visits to Toledo or +Madrid, unless it was for briefer visits to Simancas, not far off. Some +of the documents, which he might have found in that repository, are not +at present in those archives. It was there that he might have found +numerous letters which he cites, but which are not otherwise known. From +the use Las Casas makes of them, it would seem that they were of more +importance in showing the discontent and querulousness of Columbus than +as adding to details of his career. Again it appears clear that Las +Casas got documents in some way from the royal archives. We know the +journal of Columbus on his first voyage only from the abridgment which +Las Casas made of it, and much the same is true of the record of his +third voyage. + +In some portion, at least, of his citations from the letters of +Columbus, there may be reason to think that Las Casas took them at +second hand, and Harrisse, with his belief in the derivative character +of the _Historie_ of Ferdinand Columbus, very easily conjectures that +this primal source may have been the manuscript upon which the compiler +of the _Historie_ was equally dependent. One kind of reasoning which +Harrisse uses is this: If Las Casas had used the original Latin of the +correspondence with Toscanelli, instead of the text of this supposed +Spanish prototype, it would not appear in so bad a state as it does in +Las Casas's book. + +[Illustration: LAS CASAS.] + +If this missing prototype of the _Historie_ was among Ferdinand's books +in his library, which had been removed from his house in 1544 to the +convent of San Pablo in Seville, and was not removed to the cathedral +till 1552, it may also have happened that along with it he used there +the _De Imagine Mundi_ of Pierre d'Ailly, Columbus's own copy of which +was, and still is, preserved in the Biblioteca Colombina, and shows the +Admiral's own manuscript annotations. + +It was in the chapel of San Pablo that Las Casas had been consecrated as +bishop in 1544, and his associations with the monks could have given +easy access to what they held in custody,--too easy, perhaps, if +Harrisse's supposition is correct, that they let him take away the map +which Toscanelli sent to Columbus, and which would account for its not +being in the library now. + +[Sidenote: His opportunities.] + +We know, also, that Las Casas had use of the famous letter respecting +his third voyage, which the Admiral addressed to the nurse of the Infant +Don Juan, and which was first laid before modern students when Spotorno +printed it, in 1823. We further understand that the account of the +fourth voyage, which students now call, in its Italian form, the +_Lettera Rarissima_, was also at his disposal, as were many letters of +Bartholomew, the brother of Columbus, though they apparently only +elucidate the African voyage of Diaz. + +In addition to these manuscript sources, Las Casas shows that, as a +student, he was familiar with and appreciated the decades of Peter +Martyr, and had read the accounts of Columbus in Garcia de Resende, +Barros, and Castañeda,--to say nothing of what he may have derived from +the supposable prototype of the _Historie_. It is certain that his +personal acquaintance brought him into relations with the Admiral +himself,--for he accompanied him on his fourth voyage,--with the +Admiral's brother, son, and son's wife; and moreover his own father and +uncle had sailed with Columbus. There were, among his other +acquaintances, the Archbishop of Seville, Pinzon, and other of the +contemporary navigators. It has been claimed by some, not accurately, we +suspect, that Las Casas had also accompanied Columbus on his third +voyage. Notwithstanding all these opportunities of acquiring a thorough +intimacy with the story of Columbus, it is contended by Harrisse that +the aid afforded by Las Casas disappoints one; and that all essential +data with which his narrative is supplied can be found elsewhere, +nearer the primal source. + +[Sidenote: Character of his writings.] + +This condition arises, as he thinks, from the fact that the one +engrossing purpose of Las Casas--his aim to emancipate the Indians from +a cruel domination--constantly stood in the way of a critical +consideration of the other aspects of the early Spanish contact with the +New World. It was while at the University of Salamanca that the father +of Las Casas gave the son an Indian slave, one of those whom Columbus +had sent home; and it was taken from the young student when Isabella +decreed the undoing of Columbus's kidnapping exploits. It was this event +which set Las Casas to thinking on the miseries of the poor natives, +which Columbus had planned, and which enables us to discover, in the +example of Las Casas, that the customs of the time are not altogether an +unanswerable defense of the time's inhumanity and greed. + +As is well known, all but the most recent writers on Spanish-American +history have been forced to use this work of Las Casas in manuscript +copies, as a license to print such an exposure of Spanish cruelty could +not be obtained till 1875, when the _Historia_ was first printed at +Madrid. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: Herrera.] + +Herrera, so far as his record concerns Columbus, simply gives us what he +takes from Las Casas. He was born about the time that the older writer +was probably making his investigations. Herrera did not publish his +results, which are slavishly chronological in their method, till half a +century later (1601-15). Though then the official historiographer of the +Indies, with all the chances for close investigation which that +situation afforded him, Herrera failed in all ways to make the record of +his _Historia_ that comprehensive and genuine source of the story of +Columbus which the reader might naturally look for. The continued +obscuration of Las Casas by reason of the long delay in printing his +manuscript served to give Herrera, through many generations, a +prominence as an authoritative source which he could not otherwise have +had. Irving, when he worked at the subject, soon discovered that Las +Casas stood behind the story as Herrera told it, and accordingly the +American writer resorted by preference to such a copy of the manuscript +of Las Casas as he could get. There is a manifest tendency in Herrera to +turn Las Casas's qualified statements into absolute ones. + +[Sidenote: Later Spanish writers.] + +The personal contributions of the later writers, Muñoz and Navarrete, +have been already considered, in speaking of the diversified mass of +documentary proofs which accompany or gave rise to their narratives. + +The _Colon en España_ of Tomas Rodriguez Pinilla (Madrid, 1884) is in +effect a life of the Admiral; but it ignores much of the recent critical +and controversial literature, and deals mainly with the old established +outline of events. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: German writers.] + +[Sidenote: Humboldt.] + +Among the Germans there was nothing published of any importance till the +critical studies of Forster, Peschel, and Ruge, in recent days. De Bry +had, indeed, by his translations of Benzoni (1594) and Herrera (1623), +familiarized the Germans with the main facts of the career of Columbus. +During the present century, Humboldt, in his _Examen Critique de +l'Histoire et de la Geographie du Nouveau Continent_, has borrowed the +language of France to show the scope of his critical and learned +inquiries into the early history of the Spanish contact in America, and +has left it to another hand to give a German rendering to his labors. +With this work by Humboldt, brought out in its completer shape in +1836-39, and using most happily all that had been done by Muñoz and +Navarrete to make clear both the acts and environments of the Admiral, +the intelligence of our own time may indeed be said to have first +clearly apprehended, under the light of a critical spirit, in which +Irving was deficient, the true significance of the great deeds that gave +America to Europe. Humboldt has strikingly grouped the lives of +Toscanelli and Las Casas, from the birth of the Florentine physician in +1397 to the death of the Apostle to the Indians in 1566, as covering the +beginning and end of the great discoveries of the fifteenth and +sixteenth centuries. + +[Sidenote: Henry Harrisse.] + +It is also to be remarked that this service of broadly, and at the same +time critically, surveying the field was the work of a German writing in +French; while it is to an American citizen writing in French that we +owe, in more recent years, such a minute collation and examination of +every original source of information as set the labors of Henry +Harrisse, for thoroughness and discrimination, in advance of any +critical labor that has ever before been given to the career and +character of Christopher Columbus. Without the aid of his researches, as +embodied in his _Christophe Colomb_ (Paris, 1884), it would have been +quite impossible for the present writer to have reached conclusions on a +good many mooted points in the history of the Admiral and of his +reputation. Of almost equal usefulness have been the various subsidiary +books and tracts which Harrisse has devoted to similar fields. + +Harrisse's books constitute a good example of the constant change of +opinion and revision of the relations of facts which are going on +incessantly in the mind of a vigilant student in recondite fields of +research. The progress of the correction of error respecting Columbus is +illustrated continually in his series of books on the great navigator, +beginning with the _Notes on Columbus_ (N. Y., 1866), which have been +intermittently published by him during the last twenty-five years. + +Harrisse himself is a good deal addicted to hypotheses; but they fare +hard at his hands if advanced by others. + +[Sidenote: French writers.] + +[Sidenote: Attempted canonization of Columbus.] + +[Illustration: ROSELLY DE LORGUES.] + +The only other significant essays which have been made in French have +been a series of biographies of Columbus, emphasizing his missionary +spirit, which have been aimed to prepare the way for the canonization of +the great navigator, in recognition of his instrumentality in carrying +the cross to the New World. That, in the spirit which characterized the +age of discovery, the voyage of Columbus was, at least in profession, +held to be one conducted primarily for that end does not, certainly, +admit of dispute. Columbus himself, in his letter to Sanchez, speaks of +the rejoicing of Christ at seeing the future redemption of souls. He +made a first offering of the foreign gold by converting a mass of it +into a cup to hold the sacred host, and he spent a wordy enthusiasm in +promises of a new crusade to wrest the Holy Sepulchre from the Moslems. +Ferdinand and Isabella dwelt upon the propagandist spirit of the +enterprise they had sanctioned, in their appeals to the Pontiff to +confirm their worldly gain in its results. Ferdinand, the son of the +Admiral, referring to the family name of Colombo, speaks of his father +as like Noah's dove, carrying the olive branch and oil of baptism over +the ocean. Professions, however, were easy; faith is always exuberant +under success, and the world, and even the Catholic world, learned, as +the ages went on, to look upon the spirit that put the poor heathen +beyond the pale of humanity as not particularly sanctifying a pioneer of +devastation. + +[Sidenote: Roselly de Lorgues.] + +It is the world's misfortune when a great opportunity loses any of its +dignity; and it is no great satisfaction to look upon a person of +Columbus's environments and find him but a creature of questionable +grace. So his canonization has not, with all the endeavors which have +been made, been brought about. The most conspicuous of the advocates of +it, with a crowd of imitators about him, has been Antoine François Félix +Valalette, Comte Roselly de Lorgues, who began in 1844 to devote his +energies to this end. He has published several books on Columbus, part +of them biographical, and all of them, including his _Christoph Colomb_ +of 1864, mere disguised supplications to the Pope to order a deserved +sanctification. As contributions to the historical study of the life of +Columbus, they are of no importance whatever. Every act and saying of +the Admiral capable of subserving the purpose in view are simply made +the salient points of a career assumed to be holy. Columbus was in fact +of a piece, in this respect, with the age in which he lived. The +official and officious religious profession of the time belonged to a +period which invented the Inquisition and extirpated a race in order to +send them to heaven. None knew this better than those, like Las Casas, +who mated their faith with charity of act. Columbus and Las Casas had +little in common. + +The _Histoire Posthume de Colomb_, which Roselly de Lorgues finally +published in 1885, is recognized even by Catholic writers as a work of +great violence and indiscretion, in its denunciations of all who fail to +see the saintly character of Columbus. Its inordinate intemperance gave +a great advantage to Cesario Fernandez Duro in his examination of De +Lorgues's position, made in his _Colon y la Historia Postuma_. + +Columbus was certainly a mundane verity. De Lorgues tells us that if we +cannot believe in the supernatural we cannot understand this worldly +man. The writers who have followed him, like Charles Buet in his +_Christophe Colomb_ (Paris, 1886), have taken this position. The +Catholic body has so far summoned enough advocates of historic truth to +prevent the result which these enthusiasts have kept in view, +notwithstanding the seeming acquiescence of Pius IX. The most popular of +the idealizing lives of Columbus is probably that by Auguste, Marquis de +Belloy, which is tricked out with a display of engravings as idealized +as the text, and has been reproduced in English at Philadelphia (1878, +1889). It is simply an ordinary rendering of the common and conventional +stories of the last four centuries. The most eminent Catholic historical +student of the United States, Dr. John Gilmary Shea, in a paper on this +century's estimates of Columbus, in the _American Catholic Quarterly +Review_ (1887), while referring to the "imposing array of members of the +hierarchy" who have urged the beatification of Columbus, added, "But +calm official scrutiny of the question was required before permission +could be given to introduce the cause;" and this permission has not yet +been given, and the evidence in its favor has not yet been officially +produced. + +France has taken the lead in these movements for canonization, +ostensibly for the reason that she needed to make some reparation for +snatching the honor of naming the New World from Columbus, through the +printing-presses of Saint Dié and Strassburg. A sketch of the literature +which has followed this movement is given in Baron van Brocken's _Des +Vicissitudes Posthumes de Christophe Colomb, et de sa Beatification +Possible_ (Leipzig et Paris, 1865). + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: English writers.] + +[Sidenote: Robertson.] + +Of the writers in English, the labors of Hakluyt and Purchas only +incidentally touched the career of Columbus; and it was not till Stevens +issued his garbled version of Herrera in 1725, that the English public +got the record of the Spanish historian, garnished with something that +did not represent the original. This book of Stevens is responsible for +not a little in English opinion respecting the Spanish age of discovery, +which needs in these later days to be qualified. Some of the early +collections of voyages, like those of Churchill, Pinkerton, and Kerr, +included the story of the _Historie_ of 1571. It was not till Robertson, +in 1777, published the beginning of a contemplated _History of America_ +that the English reader had for the first time a scholarly and justified +narrative, which indeed for a long time remained the ordinary source of +the English view of Columbus. It was, however, but an outline sketch, +not a sixth or seventh part in extent of what Irving, when he was +considering the subject, thought necessary for a reasonable presentation +of the subject. Robertson's footnotes show that his main dependence for +the story of Columbus was upon the pages of the _Historie_ of 1571, +Peter Martyr, Oviedo, and Herrera. He was debarred the help to be +derived from what we now use, as conveying Columbus's own record of his +story. Lord Grantham, then the British ambassador at Madrid, did all the +service he could, and his secretary of legation worked asssiduously in +complying with the wishes which Robertson preferred; but no solicitation +could at that day render easily accessible the archives at Simancas. +Still, Robertson got from one source or another more than it was +pleasant to the Spanish authorities to see in print, and they later +contrived to prevent a publication of his work in Spanish. + +[Sidenote: Jeremy Belknap.] + +The earliest considerable recounting of the story of Columbus in America +was by Dr. Jeremy Belknap, who, having delivered a commemorative +discourse in Boston in 1792, before the Massachusetts Historical +Society, afterward augmented his text when it became a part of his +well-known _American Biography_, a work of respectable standing for the +time, but little remembered to-day. + +[Sidenote: Washington Irving.] + +It was in 1827 that Washington Irving published his _Life of Columbus_, +and he produced a book that has long remained for the English reader a +standard biography. Irving's canons of historical criticism were not, +however, such as the fearless and discriminating student to-day would +approve. He commended Herrera for "the amiable and pardonable error of +softening excesses," as if a historian sat in a confessional to deal out +exculpations. The learning which probes long established pretenses and +grateful deceits was not acceptable to Irving. "There is a certain +meddlesome spirit," he says, "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 such pernicious erudition." + +Under such conditions as Irving summoned, there was little chance that a +world's exemplar would be pushed from his pedestal, no matter what the +evidence. The _vera pro gratis_ in personal characterization must not +assail the traditional hero. And such was Irving's notion of the upright +intelligence of a historian. + +Mr. Alexander H. Everett, who was then the minister of the United States +at Madrid, saw a chance of making a readable book out of the journal of +Columbus as preserved by Las Casas, and recommended the task of +translating it to Irving, then in Europe. This proposition carried the +willing writer to Madrid, where he found comfortable quarters, with +quick sympathy of intercourse, under the roof of a Boston scholar then +living there, Obadiah Rich. The first two volumes of the documentary +work of Navarrete coming out opportunely, Irving was not long in +determining that, with its wealth of material, there was a better +opportunity for a newly studied life of Columbus than for the proposed +task. So Irving settled down in Madrid to the larger endeavor, and soon +found that he could have other assistance and encouragement from +Navarrete himself, from the Duke of Veragua, and from the then possessor +of the papers of Muñoz. The subject grew under his hands. "I had no +idea," he says, "of what a complete labyrinth I had entangled myself +in." He regretted that the third volume of Navarrete's book was not far +enough advanced to be serviceable; but he worked as best he could, and +found many more facilities than Robertson's helper had discovered. He +went to the Biblioteca Colombina, and he even brought the annotations of +Columbus in the copy of Pierre d'Ailly, there preserved, to the +attention of its custodians for the first time; almost feeling himself +the discoverer of the book, though it was known to him that Las Casas, +at least, had had the advantage of using these minutes of Columbus. +Irving knew that his pains were not unavailing, at any rate, for the +English reader. "I have woven into my book," he says, "many curious +particulars not hitherto known concerning Columbus; and I think I have +thrown light upon some points of his character which have not been +brought out by his former biographers." One of the things that pleased +the new biographer most was his discovery, as he felt, in the account by +Bernaldez, that Columbus was born ten years earlier than had been +usually reckoned; and he supposed that this increase of the age of the +discoverer at the time of his voyage added much greater force to the +characteristics of his career. Irving's book readily made a mark. +Jeffrey thought that its fame would be enduring, and at a time when no +one looked for new light from Italy, he considered that Irving had done +best in working, almost exclusively, the Spanish field, where alone "it +was obvious" material could be found. + +When Alexander H. Everett, pardonably, as a godfather to the work, +undertook in January, 1829, to say in the _North American Review_ that +Irving's book was a delight of readers, he anticipated the judgment of +posterity; but when he added that it was, by its perfection, the despair +of critics, he was forgetful of a method of critical research that is +not prone to be dazed by the prestige of demigods. + +In the interval between the first and second editions of the book, +Irving paid a visit to Palos and the convent of La Rabida, and he got +elsewhere some new light in the papers of the lawsuit of Columbus's +heirs. The new edition which soon followed profited by all these +circumstances. + +[Sidenote: Prescott.] + +Irving's occupation of the field rendered it both easy and gracious for +Prescott, when, ten years later (1837), he published his _Ferdinand and +Isabella_, to say that his predecessor had stripped the story of +Columbus of the charm of novelty; but he was not quite sure, however, in +the privacy of his correspondence, that Irving, by attempting to +continue the course of Columbus's life in detail after the striking +crisis of the discovery, had made so imposing a drama as he would have +done by condensing the story of his later years. In this Prescott shared +something of the spirit of Irving, in composing history to be read as a +pastime, rather than as a study of completed truth. Prescott's own +treatment of the subject is scant, as he confined his detailed record to +the actions incident to the inception and perfection of the enterprise +of the Admiral, to the doings in Spain or at court. He was, at the same +time, far more independent than Irving had been, in his views of the +individual character round which so much revolves, and the reader is not +wholly blinded to the unwholesome deceit and overweening selfishness of +Columbus. + +[Sidenote: Arthur Helps.] + +Within twenty years Arthur Helps approached the subject from the point +of view of one who was determined, as he thought no one of the writers +on the subject of the Spanish Conquest had been, to trace the origin of, +and responsibility for, the devastating methods of Spanish colonial +government; "not conquest only, but the result of conquest, the mode of +colonial government which ultimately prevailed, the extirpation of +native races, the introduction of other races, the growth of slavery, +and the settlement of the _encomiendas_, on which all Indian society +depended." It is not to Helps, therefore, that we are to look for any +extended biography of Columbus; and when he finds him in chains, sent +back to Spain, he says of the prisoner, "He did not know how many +wretched beings would have to traverse those seas, in bonds much worse +than his; nor did he foresee, I trust, that some of his doings would +further all this coming misery." It does not appear from his footnotes +that Helps depended upon other than the obvious authorities, though he +says that he examined the Muñoz collection, then as now in the Royal +Academy of History at Madrid. + +[Sidenote: R. H. Major.] + +The last scholarly summary of Columbus's career previous to the views +incident to the criticism of Harrisse on the _Historie_ of 1571 was that +which was given by R. H. Major, in the second edition of his _Select +Letters of Columbus_ (London, 1870). + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: Aaron Goodrich.] + +There have been two treatments of the subject by Americans within the +last twenty years, which are characteristic. The _Life and Achievements +of the So-called Christopher Columbus_ (New York, 1874), by Aaron +Goodrich, mixes that unreasoning trust and querulous conceit which is so +often thrown into the scale when the merits of the discoverers of the +alleged Vinland are contrasted with those of the imagined Indies. With a +craze of petulancy, he is not able to see anything that cannot be +twisted into defamation, and his book is as absurdly constant in +derogation as the hallucinations of De Lorgues are in the other +direction. + +[Sidenote: H. H. Bancroft.] + +When Hubert Howe Bancroft opened the story of his Pacific States in his +_History of Central America_ (San Francisco, 1882), he rehearsed the +story of Columbus, but did not attempt to follow it critically except as +he tracked the Admiral along the coasts of Honduras, Nicaragua, and +Costa Rica. This writer's estimate of the character of Columbus conveys +a representation of what the Admiral really was, juster than national +pride, religious sympathy, or kindly adulation has usually permitted. It +is unfortunately, not altogether chaste in its literary presentation. +His characterization of Irving and Prescott in their endeavors to draw +the character of Columbus has more merit in its insight than skill in +its drafting. + +[Sidenote: Winsor.] + +[Sidenote: Bibliography of Columbus.] + +The brief sketch of the career of Columbus, and the examination of the +events that culminated in his maritime risks and developments, as it was +included in the _Narrative and Critical History of America_ (vol. ii., +Boston, 1885), gave the present writer an opportunity to study the +sources and trace the bibliographical threads that run through an +extended and diversified literature, in a way, it may be, not earlier +presented to the English reader. If any one desires to compass all the +elucidations and guides which a thorough student of the career and fame +of Columbus would wish to consider, the apparatus thus referred to, and +the footnotes in Harrisse's _Christophe Colomb_ and in his other germane +publications, would probably most essentially shorten his labors. +Harrisse, who has prepared, but not yet published, lists of the books +devoted to Columbus _exclusively_, says that they number about six +hundred titles. The literature which treats of him incidentally is of a +vast extent. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: Varied estimates of Columbus.] + +In concluding this summary of the commentaries upon the life of +Columbus, the thought comes back that his career has been singularly +subject to the gauging of opinionated chroniclers. The figure of the +man, as he lives to-day in the mind of the general reader, in whatever +country, comports in the main with the characterizations of Irving, De +Lorgues, or Goodrich. These last two have entered upon their works with +a determined purpose, the Frenchman of making a saint, and the American +a scamp, of the great discoverer of America. They each, in their twists, +pervert and emphasize every trait and every incident to favor their +views. Their narratives are each without any background of that mixture +of incongruity, inconsistency, and fatality from which no human being is +wholly free. Their books are absolutely worthless as historical records. +That of Goodrich has probably done little to make proselytes. That of De +Lorgues has infected a large body of tributary devotees of the Catholic +Church. + +The work of Irving is much above any such level; but it has done more +harm because its charms are insidious. He recognized at least that human +life is composite; but he had as much of a predetermination as they, and +his purpose was to create a hero. He glorified what was heroic, +palliated what was unheroic, and minimized the doubtful aspects of +Columbus's character. His book is, therefore, dangerously seductive to +the popular sense. The genuine Columbus evaporates under the warmth of +the writer's genius, and we have nothing left but a refinement of his +clay. The _Life of Columbus_ was a sudden product of success, and it has +kept its hold on the public very constantly; but it has lost ground in +these later years among scholarly inquirers. They have, by their +collation of its narrative with the original sources, discovered its +flaccid character. They have outgrown the witcheries of its graceful +style. They have learned to put at their value the repetitionary changes +of stock sentiment, which swell the body of the text, sometimes, +provokingly. + +[Sidenote: Portraits of Columbus.] + +[Sidenote: Columbus's person.] + +Out of the variety of testimony respecting the person of the adult +Columbus, it is not easy to draw a picture that his contemporaries would +surely recognize. Likeness we have none that can be proved beyond a +question the result of any sitting, or even of any acquaintance. If we +were called upon to picture him as he stood on San Salvador, we might +figure a man of impressive stature with lofty, not to say austere, +bearing, his face longer by something more than its breadth, his cheek +bones high, his nose aquiline, his eyes a light gray, his complexion +fair with freckles spotting a ruddy glow, his hair once light, but then +turned to gray. His favorite garb seems to have been the frock of a +Franciscan monk. Such a figure would not conflict with the descriptions +which those who knew him, and those who had questioned his associates, +have transmitted to us, as we read them in the pages ascribed to +Ferdinand, his son; in those of the Spanish historian, Oviedo; of the +priest Las Casas; and in the later recitals of Gomara and Benzoni, and +of the official chronicler of the Spanish Indies, Antonio Herrera. The +oldest description of all is one made in 1501, in the unauthorized +version of the first decade of Peter Martyr, emanating, very likely, +from the translator Trivigiano, who had then recently come in contact +with Columbus. + +[Sidenote: La Cosa's St. Christopher.] + +Turning from these descriptions to the pictures that have been put forth +as likenesses, we find not a little difficulty in reconciling the two. +There is nothing that unmistakably goes back to the lifetime of Columbus +except the figure of St. Christopher, which makes a vignette in colors +on the mappemonde, which was drawn in 1500, by one of Columbus's pilots, +Juan de la Cosa, and is now preserved in Madrid. It has been fondly +claimed that Cosa transferred the features of his master to the +lineaments of the saint; but the assertion is wholly without proof. + +[Illustration: ST. CHRISTOPHER. + +[The vignette of La Cosa's map.]] + + +[Sidenote: Jovius's gallery.] + +[Illustration: JOVIUS'S COLUMBUS, THE EARLIEST ENGRAVED LIKENESS.] + +Paolo Giovio, or, as better known in the Latin form, Paulus Jovius, was +old enough in 1492 to have, in later life, remembered the thrill of +expectation which ran for the moment through parts of Europe, when the +letter of Columbus describing his voyage was published in Italy, where +Jovius was then a schoolboy. He was but an infant, or perhaps not born +when Columbus left Italy. So the interest of Jovius in the Discoverer +could hardly have arisen from any other associations than those easily +suggestive to one who, like Jovius, was a student of his own times. +Columbus had been dead ten years when Jovius, as a historian, attracted +the notice of Pope Leo X., and entered upon such a career of prosperity +that he could build a villa on Lake Como, and adorn it with a gallery of +portraits of those who had made his age famous. That he included a +likeness of Columbus among his heroes there seems to be no doubt. +Whether the likeness was painted from life, and by whom, or modeled +after an ideal, more or less accordant with the reports of those who may +have known the Genoese, is entirely beyond our knowledge. As a +historian Jovius professed the right to distort the truth for any +purpose that suited him, and his conceptions of the truth of portraiture +may quite as well have been equally loose. Just a year before his own +death, Jovius gave a sketch of Columbus's career in his _Elogia Virorum +Illustrium_, published at Florence in 1551; but it was not till +twenty-four years later, in 1575, that a new edition of the book gave +wood-cuts of the portraits in the gallery of the Como villa, to +illustrate the sketches, and that of Columbus appeared among them. This +engraving, then, is the oldest likeness of Columbus presenting any +claims to consideration. It found place also, within a year or two, in +what purported to be a collection of portraits from the Jovian gallery; +and the engraver of them was Tobias Stimmer, a Swiss designer, who +stands in the biographical dictionaries of artists as born in 1534, and +of course could not have assisted his skill by any knowledge of +Columbus, on his own part. This picture, to which a large part of the +very various likenesses called those of Columbus can be traced, is done +in the bold, easy handling common in the wood-cuts of that day, and with +a precision of skill that might well make one believe that it preserves +a dashing verisimilitude to the original picture. It represents a +full-face, shaven, curly-haired man, with a thoughtful and somewhat sad +countenance, his hands gathering about the waist a priest's robe, of +which the hood has fallen about his neck. If there is any picture to be +judged authentic, this is best entitled to that estimation. + +[Sidenote: The Florence picture.] + +Connection with the Como gallery is held to be so significant of the +authenticity of any portrait of Columbus that it is claimed for two +other pictures, which are near enough alike to have followed the same +prototype, and which are not, except in garb, very unlike the Jovian +wood-cut. As copies of the Como original in features, they may easily +have varied in apparel. One of these is a picture preserved in the +gallery at Florence,--a well-moulded, intellectual head, full-faced, +above a closely buttoned tunic, or frock, seen within drapery that falls +off the shoulders. It is not claimed to be the Como portrait, but it may +have been painted from it, perhaps by Christofano dell' Altissimo, some +time before 1568. A copy of it was made for Thomas Jefferson, which, +having hung for a while at Monticello, came at last to Boston, and +passed into the gallery of the Massachusetts Historical Society. + +[Illustration: THE FLORENCE COLUMBUS.] + +[Sidenote: The Yanez picture.] + +The picture resembling this, and which may have had equal claims of +association with the Jovian gallery, is one now preserved in Madrid, and +the oldest canvas representing Columbus that is known in Spain. It takes +the name of the Yanez portrait from that of the owner of it, from whom +it was bought in Granada, in 1763. Representing, when brought to notice, +a garment trimmed with fur, there has been disclosed upon it, and +underlying this later paint, an original, close-fitting tunic, much like +the Florence picture; while a further removal of the superposed pigment +has revealed an inscription, supposed to authenticate it as Columbus, +the discoverer of the New World. It is said that the Duke of Veragua +holds it to be the most authentic likeness of his ancestor. + +[Illustration: THE YANEZ COLUMBUS.] + +[Sidenote: De Bry's picture.] + +[Illustration: COLUMBUS. + +[A reproduction of the so-called Capriolo cut given in Giuseppe +Banchero's _La Tavola di Bronzo_, (Genoa, 1857), and based on the +Jovian type.]] + +Another conspicuous portrait is that given by De Bry in the larger +series of his Collection of Early Voyages. De Bry claims that it was +painted by order of King Ferdinand, and that it was purloined from the +offices of the Council of the Indies in Spain, and brought to the +Netherlands, and in this way fell into the hands of that engraver and +editor. It bears little resemblance to the pictures already mentioned; +nor does it appear to conform to the descriptions of Columbus's person. +It has a more rugged and shorter face, with a profusion of closely waved +hair falling beneath an ugly, angular cap. De Bry engraved it, or rather +published it, in 1595, twenty years after the Jovian wood-cut appeared, +and we know of no engraving intervening. No one of the generation that +was old enough to have known the navigator could then have survived, +and the picture has no other voucher than the professions of the +engraver of it. + +[Illustration: DE BRY'S COLUMBUS.] + +[Sidenote: Other portraits.] + +[Sidenote: Havana monument.] + +[Sidenote: Peschiera's bust.] + +These are but a few of the many pictures that have been made to pass, +first and last, for Columbus, and the only ones meriting serious study +for their claims. The American public was long taught to regard the +effigy of Columbus as that of a bedizened courtier, because Prescott +selected for an engraving to adorn his _Ferdinand and Isabella_ a +picture of such a person, which is ascribed to Parmigiano, and is +preserved in the Museo Borbonico, at Naples. Its claims long ago ceased +to be considered. The traveler in Cuba sees in the Cathedral at Havana a +monumental effigy, of which there is no evidence of authenticity worthy +of consideration. The traveler in Italy can see in Genoa, placed on the +cabinet which was made to hold the manuscript titles of Columbus, a +bust by Peschiera. It has the negative merit of having no relation to +any of the alleged portraits; but represents the sculptor's conception +of the man, guided by the scant descriptions of him given to us by his +contemporaries. + +[Illustration: THE BUST OF COLUMBUS ON THE TOMB AT HAVANA.] + +If the reader desires to see how extensive the field of research is, +for one who can spend the time in tracing all the clues connected with +all the representations which pass for Columbus, he can make a +beginning, at least, under the guidance of the essay on the portraits +which the present writer contributed to the _Narrative and Critical +History of America_, vol. ii. + +When Columbus, in 1502, ordered a tenth of his income to be paid +annually to the Bank of St. George, in Genoa, for the purpose of +reducing the tax upon corn, wine, and other provisions, the generous +act, if it had been carried out, would have entitled him to such a +recognition as a public benefactor as the bank was accustomed to bestow. +The main hall of the palace of this institution commemorates such +patriotic efforts by showing a sitting statue for the largest +benefactors; a standing figure for lesser gifts, while still lower +gradations of charitable help are indicated in busts, or in mere +inscriptions on a mural tablet. It has been thought that posterity, +curious to see the great Admiral as his contemporaries saw him, suffers +with the state of Genoa, in not having such an effigy, by the neglect or +inattention which followed upon the announced purpose of Columbus. We +certainly find there to-day no such visible proof of his munificence or +aspect. Harrisse, while referring to this deprivation, takes occasion, +in his _Bank of St. George_ (p. 108), to say that he does not "believe +that the portrait of Columbus was ever drawn, carved, or painted from +the life." He contends that portrait-painting was not common in Spain, +in Columbus's day, and that we have no trace of the painters, whose work +constitutes the beginning of the art, in any record, or authentic +effigy, to show that the person of the Admiral was ever made the subject +of the art. The same writer indicates that the interval during which +Columbus was popular enough to be painted extended over only six weeks +in April and May, 1493. He finds that much greater heroes, as the world +then determined, like Boabdil and Cordova, were not thus honored, and +holds that the portraits of Ferdinand and Isabella, which editions of +Prescott have made familiar, are really fancy pictures of the close of +the sixteenth century. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE ANCESTRY AND HOME OF COLUMBUS. + + +[Sidenote: The name Colombo.] + +No one has mastered so thoroughly as Harrisse the intricacies of the +Columbus genealogy. A pride in the name of Colombo has been shared by +all who have borne it or have had relationship with it, and there has +been a not unworthy competition among many branches of the common stock +to establish the evidences of their descent in connection, more or less +intimate, with the greatest name that has signalized the family history. + +This reduplication of families, as well as the constant recurrence of +the same fore-names, particularly common in Italian families, has +rendered it difficult to construct the genealogical tree of the Admiral, +and has given ground for drafts of his pedigree, acceptable to some, and +disputed by other claimants of kinship. + +[Sidenote: The French Colombos.] + +There was a Gascon-French subject of Louis XI., Guillaume de Casanove, +sometimes called Coulomp, Coullon, Colon, in the Italian accounts +Colombo, and Latinized as Columbus, who is said to have commanded a +fleet of seven sail, which, in October, 1474, captured two galleys +belonging to Ferdinand, king of Sicily. When Leibnitz published, for the +first time, some of the diplomatic correspondence which ensued, he +interjected the fore-name Christophorus in the references to the +Columbus of this narrative. This was in his _Codex Juris Gentium +Diplomaticus_, published at Hannover in 1693. Leibnitz was soon +undeceived by Nicolas Thoynard, who explained that the corsair in +question was Guillaume de Casanove, vice-admiral of France, and Leibnitz +disavowed the imputation upon the Genoese navigator in a subsequent +volume. Though there is some difference of opinion respecting the +identity of Casanove and the capturer of the galleys, there can no +longer be any doubt, in the light of pertinent investigations, that the +French Colombos were of no immediate kin to the family of Genoa and +Savona, as is abundantly set forth by Harrisse in his _Les Colombo de +France et d'Italie_ (Paris, 1874). Since the French Coullon, or Coulomp, +was sometimes in the waters neighboring to Genoa, it is not unlikely +that some confusion may arise in separating the Italian from the French +Colombos; and it has been pointed out that a certain entry of wreckage +in the registry of Genoa, which Spotorno associates with Christopher +Columbus, may more probably be connected with this Gascon navigator. + +Bossi, the earliest biographer in recent times, considers that a Colombo +named in a letter to the Duke of Milan as being in a naval fight off +Cyprus, between Genoese and Venetian vessels, in 1476, was the +discoverer of the New World. Harrisse, in his _Les Colombo_, has printed +this letter, and from it it does not appear that the commander of the +Genoese fleet is known by name, and that the only mention of a Colombo +is that a fleet commanded by one of that name was somewhere encountered. +There is no indication, however, that this commander was Christopher +Columbus. The presumption is that he was the roving Casanove. + +Leibnitz was doubtless misled by the assertion of the _Historie_ of +1571, which allows that Christopher Columbus had sailed under the orders +of an admiral of his name and family, and, particularly, was in that +naval combat off Lisbon, when, his vessel getting on fire, he swam with +the aid of an oar to the Portuguese shore. The doubtful character of +this episode will be considered later; but it is more to the purpose +here that this same book, in citing a letter, of which we are supposed +to have the complete text as preserved by Columbus himself, makes +Columbus say that he was not the only admiral which his family had +produced. This is a clear reference, it is supposed, to this +vice-admiral of France. It is enough to say that the genuine text of +this letter to the nurse of Don Juan does not contain this controverted +passage, and the defenders of the truth of the _Historie_, like +D'Avezac, are forced to imagine there must have been another letter, not +now known. + +[Sidenote: The younger French admiral.] + +Beside the elder admiral of France, the name of Colombo Junior belonged +to another of these French sea-rovers in the fifteenth century, who has +been held to be a nephew, or at least a relative, of the elder. He has +also sometimes been confounded with the Genoese Columbus. + +[Sidenote: Genealogy.] + +[Sidenote: Pretenders.] + +To determine the exact relationship between the various French and +Italian Colombos and Coulons of the fifteenth century would be +hazardous. It is enough to say that no evidence that stands a critical +test remains to connect these famous mariners with the line of +Christopher Columbus. The genealogical tables which Spotorno presents, +upon which Caleb Cushing enlightened American readers at the time in the +_North American Review_, and in which the French family is made to issue +from an alleged great-grandfather of Christopher Columbus, are affirmed +by Harrisse, with much reason, to have been made up not far from 1583, +to support the claims of Bernardo and Baldassare (Balthazar) Colombo, as +pretenders to the rights and titles of the discoverer of the New World. + + * * * * * + +Ferdinand is made in his own name to say of his father, "I think it +better that all the honor be derived to us from his person than to go +about to inquire whether his father was a merchant or a man of quality, +that kept his hawks and hounds." Other biographers, however, have +pursued the inquiry diligently. + +[Sidenote: Columbus's family line.] + +In one of the sections of his book on _Christopher Columbus and the Bank +of Saint George_, Harrisse has shown how the notarial records of Savona +and Genoa have been worked, to develop the early history of the +Admiral's family from documentary proofs. These evidences are distinct +from the narratives of those who had known him, or who at a later day +had told his story, as Gallo, the writer of the _Historie_, and Oviedo +did. Reference has already been made to the prevalence of Colombo as a +patronymic in Genoa and the neighboring country at that time. Harrisse +in his _Christophe Colomb_ has enumerated two hundred of this name in +Liguria alone, in those days, who seem to have had no kinship to the +family of the Admiral. There appear to have been in Genoa, moreover, +four Colombos, and in Liguria, outside of Genoa, six others who bore the +name of Christopher's father, Domenico; but the searchers have not yet +found a single other Christoforo. These facts show the discrimination +which those who of late years have been investigating the history of the +Admiral's family have been obliged to exercise. There are sixty notarial +acts of one kind and another, out of which these investigators have +constructed a pedigree, which must stand till present knowledge is +increased or overthrown. + +[Sidenote: His grandfather.] + +What we know in the main is this: Giovanni Colombo, the grandfather of +the Admiral, lived probably in Quinto al Mare, and was of a stock that +seemingly had been earlier settled in the valley of Fontanabuona, a +region east of Genoa. This is a parentage of the father of Columbus +quite different from that shown in the genealogical chart made by +Napione in 1805 and later; and Harrisse tells us that the notarial acts +which were given then as the authority for such other line of descent +cannot now be found, and that there are grave doubts of their +authenticity. + +[Sidenote: His father.] + +It was this Giovanni's son, Domenico, who came from Quinto (where he +left a brother, Antonio) at least as early as 1439, and perhaps earlier, +and settled himself in the wool-weaver's quarter, so called, in Genoa, +where in due time he owned a house. Thence he seems to have removed to +Savona, where various notarial acts recognize him at a later period as a +Genoese, resident in Savona. + +The essential thing remaining to be proved is that the Domenico Colombo +of these notarial acts was the Domenico who was the father of +Christopher Columbus. For this purpose we must take the testimony of +those who knew the genuine Colombos, as Oviedo and Gallo did; and from +their statements we learn that the father of Christopher was a weaver +named Domenico, who lived in Genoa, and had sons, Christoforo, +Bartolomeo, and Giacomo. These, then, are the test conditions, and +finding them every one answered in the Savona-Genoa family, the proof +seems incontestable, even to the further fact that at the end of the +fifteenth century all three brothers had for some years lived under the +Spanish crown. + +It is too much to say that this concatenation of identities may not +possibly be overturned, perhaps by discrediting the documents, not +indeed untried already by Peragallo and others, but it is safe to accept +it under present conditions of knowledge; though we have to trust on +some points to the statements of those who have seen what no longer can +be found. Domenico Colombo, who had removed to Savona in 1470, did not, +apparently, prosper there. He and his son Christopher pursued their +trade as weavers, as the notarial records show. Lamartine, in his _Life +of Columbus_, speaking of the wool-carding of the time, calls it "a +business now low, but then respectable and almost noble,"--an +idealization quite of a kind with the spirit that pervades Lamartine's +book, and a spirit in which it has been a fashion to write of Columbus +and other heroes. The calling was doubtless, then as now, simply +respectable. The father added some experience, it would seem, in keeping +a house of entertainment. The joint profit, however, of these two +occupations did not suffice to keep him free from debt, out of which his +son Christopher is known to have helped him in some measure. Domenico +sold and bought small landed properties, but did not pay for one of them +at least. There were fifteen years of this precarious life passed in +Savona, during which he lost his wife, when, putting his youngest son to +an apprenticeship, he returned in 1484, or perhaps a little earlier, to +Genoa, to try other chances. His fortune here was no better. Insolvency +still followed him. When we lose sight of him, in 1494, the old man may, +it is hoped, have heard rumors of the transient prosperity of his son, +and perhaps have read in the fresh little quartos of Plaanck the +marvelous tale of the great discovery. He lived we know not how much +longer, but probably died before the winter of 1499-1500, when the heirs +of Corrado de Cuneo, who had never received due payment for an estate +which Domenico had bought in Savona, got judgment against Christopher +and his brother Diego, the sons of Domenico, then of course beyond reach +in foreign lands. + +[Sidenote: Domenico's house in Genoa.] + +Within a few years the Marquis Marcello Staglieno, a learned antiquary +in Genoa, who has succeeded in throwing much new light on the early life +of Columbus from the notarial records of that city, has identified a +house in the Vico Dritto Ponticello, No. 37, as the one in which +Domenico Colombo lived during the younger years of Christopher's life. +The municipality bought this estate in June, 1887, and placed over its +door an inscription recording the associations of the spot. Harrisse +thinks it not unlikely that the great navigator was even born here. The +discovery of his father's ownership of the house seems to have been made +by carefully tracing back the title of the land to the time when +Domenico owned it. This was rendered surer by tracing the titles of the +adjoining estates back to the time of Nicolas Paravania and Antonio +Bondi, who, according to the notarial act of 1477, recording Domenico's +wife's assent to the sale of the property, lived as Domenico's next +neighbors. + +[Sidenote: Columbus born.] + +If Christopher Columbus was born in this house, that event took place, +as notarial records, brought to bear by the Marquis Staglieno, make +evident, between October 29, 1446, and October 29, 1451; and if some +degree of inference be allowed, Harrisse thinks he can narrow the range +to the twelve months between March 15, 1446, and March 20, 1447. This is +the period within which, by deduction from other statements, some of the +modern authorities, like Muñoz, Bossi, and Spotorno, among the Italians, +D'Avezac among the French, and Major in England, have placed the event +of Columbus's birth without the aid of attested documents. This +conclusion has been reached by taking an avowal of Columbus that he had +led twenty-three years a sailor's life at the time of his first voyage, +and was fourteen years old when he began a seaman's career. The question +which complicates the decision is: When did Columbus consider his +sailor's life to have ended? If in 1492, as Peschel contends, it would +carry his birth back no farther than 1455-56, according as fractions are +managed; and Peschel accepts this date, because he believes the +unconfirmed statement of Columbus in a letter of July 7, 1503, that he +was twenty-eight when he entered the service of Spain in 1484. + +[Sidenote: 1445-1447.] + +But if 1484 is accepted as the termination of that twenty-three years of +sea life, as Muñoz and the others already mentioned say, then we get the +result which most nearly accords with the notarial records, and we can +place the birth of Columbus somewhere in the years 1445-47, according as +the fractions are considered. This again is confirmed by another of the +varied statements of Columbus, that in 1501 it was forty years since, at +fourteen, he first took to the sea. + +[Sidenote: 1435-1437.] + +There has been one other deduction used, through which Navarrete, +Humboldt, Irving, Roselly de Lorgues, Napione, and others, who copy +them, determine that his birth must have taken place, by a similar +fractional allowance of margin, in 1435-37. This is based upon the +explicit statement of Andrès Bernaldez, in his book on the Catholic +monarchs of Spain, that Columbus at his death was about seventy years +old. So there is a twenty years' range for those who may be influenced +by one line of argument or another in determining the date of the +Admiral's birth. Many writers have discussed the arguments; but the +weight of authority seems, on the whole, to rest upon the records which +are used by Harrisse. + +[Sidenote: His mother, brothers, and sister.] + +The mother of Columbus was Susanna, a daughter of Giacomo de +Fontanarossa, and Domenico married her in the Bisagno country, a region +lying east of Genoa. She was certainly dead in 1489, and had, perhaps, +died as early as 1482, in Savona. Beside Christoforo, this alliance with +Domenico Colombo produced four other children, who were probably born in +one and the same house. They were Giovanni-Pellegrino, who, in 1501, had +been dead ten years, and was unmarried; Bartolomeo, who was never +married, and who will be encountered later as Bartholomew; and Giacomo, +who when he went to Spain became known as Diego Colon, but who is called +Jacobus in all Latin narratives. There was also a daughter, +Bianchinetta, who married a cheesemonger named Bavarello, and had one +child. + +[Sidenote: His uncle and cousins.] + +Antonio, the brother of Domenico, seems to have had three sons, +Giovanni, Matteo, and Amighetto. They were thus cousins of the Admiral, +and they were so far cognizant of his fame in 1496 as to combine in a +declaration before a notary that they united in sending one of their +number, Giovanni, on a voyage to Spain to visit their famous kinsman, +the Admiral of the Indies; their object being, most probably, to profit, +if they could, by basking in his favor. + +[Sidenote: Born in Genoa.] + +[Sidenote: Claim for Savona,] + +[Sidenote: and other places.] + +If the evidences thus set forth of his family history be accepted, there +is no question that Columbus, as he himself always said, and finally in +his will declared, and as Ferdinand knew, although it is not affirmed in +the _Historie_, was born in Genoa. Among the early writers, if we except +Galindez de Carvajal, who claimed him for Savona, there seems to have +been little or no doubt that he was born in Genoa. Peter Martyr and Las +Casas affirm it. Bernaldez believed it. Giustiniani asserts it. But when +Oviedo, not many years after Columbus's death, wrote, it was become so +doubtful where Columbus was born that he mentions five or six towns +which claimed the honor of being his birthplace. The claim for Savona +has always remained, after Genoa, that which has received the best +recognition. The grounds of such a belief, however, have been pretty +well disproved in Harrisse's _Christophe Colomb et Savone_ (Genoa, +1887), and it has been shown, as it would seem conclusively, that, prior +to Domenico Colombo's settling in Savona in 1470-71, he had lived in +Genoa, where his children, taking into account their known or computed +ages, must have been born. It seems useless to rehearse the arguments +which strenuous advocates have, at one time or another, offered in +support of the pretensions of many other Italian towns and villages to +have furnished the great discoverer to the world,--Plaisance, Cuccaro, +Cogoleto, Pradello, Nervi, Albissola, Bogliasco, Cosseria, Finale, +Oneglia, Quinto, Novare, Chiavari, Milan, Modena. The pretensions of +some of them were so urgent that in 1812 the Academy of History at Genoa +thought it worth while to present the proofs as respects their city in a +formal way. The claims of Cuccaro were used in support of a suit by +Balthazar Colombo, to obtain possession of the Admiral's legal rights. +The claim of Cogoleto seems to have been mixed up with the supposed +birth of the corsairs, Colombos, in that town, who for a long while were +confounded with the Admiral. There is left in favor of any of them, +after their claims are critically examined, nothing but local pride and +enthusiasm. + +The latest claimant for the honor is the town of Calvi, in Corsica, and +this cause has been particularly embraced by the French. So late as +1882, President Grévy, of the French Republic, undertook to give a +national sanction to these claims by approving the erection there of a +statue of Columbus. The assumption is based upon a tradition that the +great discoverer was a native of that place. The principal elucidator of +that claim, the Abbé Martin Casanova de Pioggiola, seems to have a +comfortable notion that tradition is the strongest kind of historical +proof, though it is not certain that he would think so with respect to +the twenty and more other places on the Italian coast where similar +traditions exist or are said to be current. Harrisse seems to have +thought the claim worth refuting in his _Christophe Colomb et La Corse_ +(Paris, 1888), to say nothing of other examinations of the subject in +the _Revue de Paris_ and the _Revue Critique_, and of two very recent +refutations, one by the Abbé Casabianca in his _Le Berceau de Christophe +Colomb et la Corse_ (Paris, 1889), and the last word of Harrisse in the +_Revue Historique_ (1890, p. 182). + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE UNCERTAINTIES OF THE EARLY LIFE OF COLUMBUS. + + +The condition of knowledge respecting Columbus's early life was such, +when Prescott wrote, that few would dispute his conclusion that it is +hopeless to unravel the entanglement of events, associated with the +opening of his career. The critical discernment of Harrisse and other +recent investigators has since then done something to make the confusion +even more apparent by unsettling convictions too hastily assumed. A +bunch of bewildering statements, in despite of all that present +scholarship can do, is left to such experts as may be possessed in the +future of more determinate knowledge. It may well be doubted if absolute +clarification of the record is ever to be possible. + +[Sidenote: His education.] + +[Illustration: DRAWING ASCRIBED TO COLUMBUS.] + +The student naturally inquires of the contemporaries of Columbus as to +the quality and extent of his early education, and he derives most from +Las Casas and the _Historie_ of 1571. It has of late been ascertained +that the woolcombers of Genoa established local schools for the +education of their children, and the young Christopher may have had his +share of their instruction, in addition to whatever he picked up at his +trade, which continued, as long as he remained in Italy, that of his +father. We know from the manuscripts which have come down to us that +Columbus acquired the manual dexterity of a good penman; and if some +existing drawings are not apocryphal, he had a deft hand, too, in making +a spirited sketch with a few strokes. His drawing of maps, which we are +also told about, implies that he had fulfilled Ptolemy's definition of +that art of the cosmographer which could represent the cartographic +outlines of countries with supposable correctness. He could do it with +such skill that he practiced it at one time, as is said, for the gaining +of a livelihood. We know, trusting the _Historie_, that he was for a +brief period at the University of Pavia, perhaps not far from 1460, +where he sought to understand the mysteries of cosmography, astrology, +and geometry. + +[Sidenote: At Pavia.] + +Bossi has enumerated the professors in these departments at that time, +from whose teaching Columbus may possibly have profited. Harrisse with +his accustomed distrust, throws great doubt on the whole narrative of +his university experiences, and thinks Pavia at this time offered no +peculiar advantages for an aspiring seaman, to be compared with the +practical instruction which Genoa in its commercial eminence could at +the same time have offered to any sea-smitten boy. It was at Genoa at +this very time (1461), that Benincasa was producing his famous +sea-charts. + +[Illustration: ANDREAS BENINCASA, 1476. + +[From St. Martin's _Atlas_.]] + +[Sidenote: Goes to sea.] + +After his possible, if not probable, sojourn at Pavia, made transient, +it has been suggested but not proved, by the failing fortunes of his +father, Christopher returned to Genoa, and then after an uncertain +interval entered on his seafaring career. If what passes for his own +statement be taken he was at this turn of his life not more than +fourteen years old. The attractions of the sea at that period of the +fifteenth century were great for adventurous youths. There was a spice +of piracy in even the soberest ventures of commerce. The ships of one +Christian state preyed on another. Private ventures were buccaneerish, +and the hand of the Catalonian and of the Moslem were turned against +all. The news which sped from one end of the Mediterranean to the other +was of fight and plunder, here and everywhere. Occasionally it was mixed +with rumors of the voyages beyond the Straits of Hercules, which told of +the Portuguese and their hazards on the African coast towards the +equator. + +[Sidenote: Prince Henry, the Navigator.] + +Not far from the time when our vigorous young Genoese wool-comber may be +supposed to have embarked on some of these venturesome exploits of the +great inland sea, there might have come jumping from port to port, +westerly along the Mediterranean shores, the story of the death of that +great maritime spirit of Portugal, Prince Henry, the Navigator, and of +the latest feats of his captains in the great ocean of the west. + +[Illustration: SHIP, FIFTEENTH CENTURY. + +[From the _Isolario_, 1547.]] + +[Sidenote: Anjou's expedition.] + +It has been usual to associate the earliest maritime career of our +dashing Genoese with an expedition fitted out in Genoa by John of Anjou, +Duke of Calabria, to recover possession of the kingdom of Naples for his +father, Duke René, Count of Provence. This is known to have been +undertaken in 1459-61. The pride of Genoa encouraged the service of the +attacking fleet, and many a citizen cast in his lot with that naval +armament, and embarked with his own subsidiary command. There is mention +of a certain doughty captain, Colombo by name, as leading one part of +this expeditionary force. He was very likely one of those French +corsairs of that name, already mentioned, and likely to have been a man +of importance in the Franco-Genoese train. He has, indeed, been +sometimes made a kinsman of the wool-comber's son. There is little +likelihood of his having been our Christopher himself, then, as we may +easily picture him, a red-haired youth, or in life's early prime, with a +ruddy complexion,--a type of the Italian which one to-day is not without +the chance of encountering in the north of Italy, preserving, it may be, +some of that northern blood which had produced the Vikings. + +The _Historie_ of 1571 gives what purports to be a letter of Columbus +describing some of the events of this campaign. It was addressed to the +Spanish monarchs in 1495. If Anjou was connected with any service in +which Columbus took part, it is easy to make it manifest that it could +not have happened later than 1461, because the reverses of that year +drove the unfortunate René into permanent retirement. The rebuttal of +this testimony depends largely upon the date of Columbus's birth; and if +that is placed in 1446, as seems well established, Columbus, the Genoese +mariner, could hardly have commanded a galley in it at fourteen; and it +is still more improbable if, as D'Avezac says, Columbus was in the +expedition when it set out in 1459, since the boy Christopher was then +but twelve. As Harrisse puts it, the letter of Columbus quoted in the +_Historie_ is apocryphal, or the correct date of Columbus's birth is not +1446. + +It is, however, not to be forgotten that Columbus himself testifies to +the tender age at which he began his sea-service, when, in 1501, he +recalled some of his early experiences; but, unfortunately, Columbus was +chronically given to looseness of statement, and the testimony of his +contemporaries is often the better authority. In 1501, his mind, +moreover, was verging on irresponsibility. He had a talent for deceit, +and sometimes boasted of it, or at least counted it a merit. + +Much investigation has wonderfully confirmed the accuracy of that +earliest sketch of his career contained in the Giustiniani Psalter in +1516; and it is learned from that narrative that Columbus had +attained an adult age when he first went to sea,--and this was one of +the statements which the _Historie_ of 1571 sought to discredit. If the +notarial records of Savona are correct in calling Columbus a wool-comber +in 1472, and he was of the Savona family, and born in 1446, he was then +twenty-six years old, and of the adult age that is claimed by the +Psalter and by other early writers, who either knew or mentioned him, +when he began his seafaring life. In that case he could have had no part +in the Anjou-René expedition, whose whole story, even with the +expositions of Harrisse and Max Büdinger, is shrouded in uncertainties +of time and place. That after 1473 he disappears from every notarial +record that can be found in Genoa shows, in Harrisse's opinion, that it +was not till then that he took to the sea as a profession. + +We cannot say that the information which we have of this early seafaring +life of Columbus, whenever beginning, is deserving of much credit, and +it is difficult to place whatever it includes in chronological order. + +We may infer from one of his statements that he had, at some time, been +at Scio observing the making of mastic. Certain reports which most +likely concern his namesakes, the French corsairs, are sometimes +associated with him as leading an attack on Spanish galleys somewhere in +the service of Louis XI., or as cruising near Cyprus. + +So everything is misty about these early days; but the imagination of +some of his biographers gives us abundant precision for the daily life +of the school-boy, apprentice, cabin boy, mariner, and corsair, even to +the receiving of a wound which we know troubled him in his later years. +Such a story of details is the filling up of a scant outline with the +colors of an unfaithful limner. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE ALLUREMENTS OF PORTUGAL. + + +[Sidenote: 1473.] + +[Sidenote: Maritime enterprise in Portugal.] + +Columbus, disappearing from Italy in 1473, is next found in Portugal, +and it is a natural inquiry why an active, adventurous spirit, having +tested the exhilaration of the sea, should have made his way to that +outpost of maritime ambition, bordering on the great waters, that had +for many ages attracted and puzzled the discoverer and cosmographer. It +is hardly to be doubted that the fame of the Portuguese voyaging out +upon the vasty deep, or following the western coast of Africa, had for +some time been a not unusual topic of talk among the seamen of the +Mediterranean. It may be only less probable that an intercourse of +seafaring Mediterranean people with the Arabs of the Levant had brought +rumors of voyages in the ocean that washed the eastern shores of Africa. +These stories from the Orient might well have induced some to speculate +that such voyages were but the complements of those of the Portuguese in +their efforts to solve the problem of the circumnavigation of the great +African continent. It is not, then, surprising that a doughty mariner +like Columbus, in life's prime, should have desired to be in the thick +of such discussions, and to no other European region could he have +turned as a wanderer with the same satisfaction as to Portugal. + +Let us see how the great maritime questions stood in Portugal in 1473, +and from what antecedents they had arisen. + +[Sidenote: Portuguese seamanship.] + +[Sidenote: Explorations on the Sea of Darkness.] + +[Sidenote: Marino Sanuto, 1306.] + +The Portuguese, at this time, had the reputation of being the most +expert seamen in Europe, or at least they divided it with the Catalans +and Majorcans. Their fame lasted, and at a later day was repeated by +Acosta. These hardy mariners had pushed boldly out, as early as we have +any records, into the enticing and yet forbidding Sea of Darkness, not +often perhaps willingly out of sight of land; but storms not +infrequently gave them the experience of sea and sky, and nothing else. +The great ocean was an untried waste for cartography. A few straggling +beliefs in islands lying westward had come down from the ancients, and +the fantastic notions of floating islands and steady lands, upon which +the imagination of the Middle Ages thrived, were still rife, when we +find in the map of Marino Sanuto, in 1306, what may well be considered +the beginning of Atlantic cartography. + +[Sidenote: The Canaries.] + +There is no occasion to make it evident that the Islands of the West +found by the Phoenicians, the Fortunate Islands of Sertorius, and the +Hesperides of Pliny were the Canaries of later times, brought to light +after thirteen centuries of oblivion; but these islands stand in the +planisphere of Sanuto at the beginning of the fourteenth century, to be +casually visited by the Spaniards and others for a hundred years and +more before the Norman, Jean de Béthencourt, in the beginning of the +fifteenth century (1402), settled himself on one of them. Here his +kinspeople ruled, till finally the rival claims of sovereignty by Spain +and Portugal ended in the rights of Spain being established, with +compensating exclusive rights to Portugal on the African coast. + +[Sidenote: The Genoese in Portugal.] + +But it was by Genoese in the service of Portugal, the fame of whose +exploits may not have been unknown to Columbus, that the most important +discoveries of ocean islands had been made. + +[Sidenote: Madeira.] + +It was in the early part of the fourteenth century that the Madeira +group had been discovered. In the Laurentian portolano of 1351, +preserved at Florence, it is unmistakably laid down and properly named, +and that atlas has been considered, for several reasons, the work of +Genoese, and as probably recording the voyage by the Genoese Pezagno for +the Portuguese king,--at least Major holds that to be demonstrable. The +real right of the Portuguese to these islands, rests, however, on their +rediscovery by Prince Henry's captains at a still later period, in +1418-20, when Madeira, seen as a cloud in the horizon from Porto Santo, +was approached in a boat from the smaller island. + +[Sidenote: Azores.] + +[Sidenote: Maps.] + +It is also from the Laurentian portolano of 1351 that we know how, at +some anterior time, the greater group of the Azores had been found by +Portuguese vessels under Genoese commanders. We find these islands also +in the Catalan map of 1373, and in that of Pizigani of the same period +(1367, 1373). + +[Illustration: PART OF THE LAURENTIAN PORTOLANO. + +[From Major's _Prince Henry_.]] + +[Sidenote: Robert Machin.] + +It was in the reign of Edward III. of England that one Robert Machin, +flying from England to avoid pursuit for stealing a wife, accidentally +reached the island of Madeira. Here disaster overtook Machin's company, +but some of his crew reached Africa in a boat and were made captives by +the Moors. In 1416, the Spaniards sent an expedition to redeem Christian +captives held by these same Moors, and, while bringing them away, the +Spanish ship was overcome by a Portuguese navigator, Zarco, and among +his prisoners was one Morales, who had heard, as was reported, of the +experiences of Machin. + +[Sidenote: Porto Santo and Madeira rediscovered.] + +Zarco, a little later, being sent by Prince Henry of Portugal to the +coast of Guinea, was driven out to sea, and discovered the island of +Porto Santo; and subsequently, under the prompting of Morales, he +rediscovered Madeira, then uninhabited. This was in 1418 or 1419, and +though there are some divergences in the different forms of the story, +and though romance and anachronism somewhat obscure its truth, the main +circumstances are fairly discernible. + +[Sidenote: The Perestrello family.] + +This discovery was the beginning of the revelations which the navigators +of Prince Henry were to make. A few years later (1425) he dispatched +colonists to occupy the two islands, and among them was a gentleman of +the household, Bartolomeo Perestrello, whose name, in a descendant, we +shall again encounter when, near the close of the century, we follow +Columbus himself to this same island of Porto Santo. + +[Sidenote: Maps.] + +It is conjectured that the position of the Azores was laid down on a map +which, brought to Portugal from Venice in 1428, instigated Prince Henry +to order his seamen to rediscover those islands. That they are laid down +on Valsequa's Catalan map of 1439 is held to indicate the accomplishment +of the prince's purpose, probably in 1432, though it took twenty years +to bring the entire group within the knowledge of the Portuguese. + +[Sidenote: Bianco's map, 1436.] + +[Sidenote: Other maps.] + +The well-known map of Andrea Bianco in 1436, preserved in the Biblioteca +Marciana at Venice, records also the extent of supposition at that date +respecting the island-studded waste of the Atlantic. Between this date +and the period of the arrival of Columbus in Portugal, the best known +names of the map makers of the Atlantic are those of Valsequa (1439), +Leardo (1448, 1452, 1458), Pareto (1455), and Fra Mauro (1459). This +last there will be occasion to mention later. + +[Sidenote: Flores.] + +In 1452, Pedro de Valasco, in sailing about Fayal westerly, seeing and +following a flight of birds, had discovered the island of Flores. From +what Columbus says in the journal of his first voyage, forty years +later, this tracking of the flight of birds was not an unusual way, in +these early exploring days, of finding new islands. + +[Illustration: MAP OF ANDREA BIANCO. + +[From _Allgem. Geog. Ephemeriden_, Weimar, 1807.]] + + +Thus it was that down to a period a very little later than the middle of +the fifteenth century the Portuguese had been accustoming themselves to +these hazards of the open ocean. Without knowing it they had, in the +discovery of Flores, actually reached the farthest land westerly, which +could in the better knowledge of later years be looked upon as the +remotest outpost of the Old World. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: The African route to India.] + +There was, as they thought, a much larger cosmographical problem lying +to the south,--a route to India by a supposable African cape. + +For centuries the Orient had been the dream of the philosopher and the +goal of the merchant. Everything in the East was thought to be on a +larger scale than in Europe,--metals were more abundant, pearls were +rarer, spices were richer, plants were nobler, animals were statelier. +Everything but man was more lordly. He had been fed there so luxuriously +that he was believed to have dwindled in character. Europe was the world +of active intelligence, the inheritor of Greek and Roman power, and its +typical man belonged naturally with the grander externals of the East. +There was a fitness in bringing the better man and the better nature +into such relations that the one should sustain and enjoy the other. + +[Sidenote: China.] + +The earliest historical record of the peoples of Western Asia with China +goes back, according to Yule, to the second century before Christ. Three +hundred years later we find the first trace of Roman intercourse (A. D. +166). With India, China had some trade by sea as early as the fourth +century, and with Babylonia possibly in the fifth century. There were +Christian Nestorian missionaries there as early as the eighth century, +and some of their teachings had been found there by Western travelers in +the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The communication of Ceylon +with China was revived in the thirteenth century. + +[Sidenote: Cathay.] + +[Sidenote: Marco Polo.] + +It was in the twelfth century, under the Mongol dynasty, that China +became first generally known in Europe, under the name of Cathay, and +then for the first time the Western nations received travelers' stories +of the kingdom of the great Khan. Two Franciscans, one an Italian, Plano +Carpini, the other a Fleming, Rubruquis, sent on missions for the +Church, returned to Europe respectively in 1247 and 1255. It was not, +however, till Marco Polo returned from his visit to Kublai Khan, in the +latter part of the thirteenth century, that a new enlargement of the +ideas of Europe respecting the far Orient took place. The influence of +his marvelous tales continued down to the days of Columbus, and +when the great discoverer came on the scene it was to find the public +mind occupied with the hopes of reaching these Eastern realms by way of +the south. The experimental and accidental voyagings of the Portuguese +on the Atlantic were held to be but preliminary to a steadier +progression down the coast of Africa. + +[Sidenote: The African route and the ancients.] + +[Sidenote: The African cape.] + +Whether the ancients had succeeded in circumnavigating Africa is a +question never likely to be definitely settled, and opposing views, as +weighed by Bunbury in his _History of Ancient Geography_, are too evenly +balanced to allow either side readily to make conquest of judicial +minds. It is certain that Hipparchus had denied the possibility of it, +and had supposed the Indian Ocean a land-bound sea, Africa extending at +the south so as to connect with a southern prolongation of eastern Asia. +This view had been adopted by Ptolemy, whose opinions were dominating at +this time the Western mind. Nevertheless, that Africa ended in a +southern cape seems to have been conceived of by those who doubted the +authority of Ptolemy early enough for Sanuto, in 1306, to portray such a +cape in his planisphere. If Sanuto really knew of its existence the +source of his knowledge is a subject for curious speculation. Not +unlikely an African cape may have been surmised by the Venetian sailors, +who, frequenting the Mediterranean coasts of Asia Minor, came in contact +with the Arabs. These last may have cherished the traditions of maritime +explorers on the east coast of Africa, who may have already discovered +the great southern cape, perhaps without passing it. + +[Sidenote: African coast discovery, 1393.] + +Navarrete records that as early as 1393 a company had been formed in +Andalusia and Biscay for promoting discoveries down the coast of Africa. +It was an effort to secure in the end such a route to Asia as might +enable the people of the Iberian peninsula to share with those of the +Italian the trade with the East, which the latter had long conducted +wholly or in part overland from the Levant. The port of Barcelona had +indeed a share in this opulent commerce; but its product for Spain was +insignificant in comparison with that for Italy. + +[Sidenote: +Prince Henry, the Navigator.] + +The guiding spirit in this new habit of exploration was that scion of +the royal family of Portugal who became famous eventually as Prince +Henry the Navigator, and whose biography has been laid before the +English reader within twenty years, abundantly elucidated by the +careful hand of Richard H. Major. The Prince had assisted King João +in the attack on the Moors at Ceuta, in 1415, and this success had +opened to the Prince the prospect of possessing the Guinea coast, and of +ultimately finding and passing the anticipated cape at the southern end +of Africa. + +[Sidenote: Cape Bojador.] + +This was the mission to which the Prince early in the fifteenth century +gave himself. His ships began to crawl down the western Barbary coast, +and each season added to the extent of their explorations, but Cape +Bojador for a while blocked their way, just as it had stayed other hardy +adventurers even before the birth of Henry. "We may wonder," says Helps, +"that he never took personal command of any of his expeditions, but he +may have thought that he served the cause better by remaining at home, +and forming a centre whence the electric energy of enterprise was +communicated to many discoverers and then again collected from them." + +[Sidenote: Sagres.] + +Meanwhile, Prince Henry had received from his father the government of +Algaroe, and he selected the secluded promontory of Sagres, jutting into +the sea at the southwestern extremity of Portugal, as his home, going +here in 1418, or possibly somewhat later. Whether he so organized his +efforts as to establish here a school of navigation is in dispute, but +it is probably merely a question of what constitutes a school. There +seems no doubt that he built an observatory and drew about him skillful +men in the nautical arts, including a somewhat famous Majorcan, Jayme. +He and his staff of workers took seamanship as they found it, with its +cylindrical charts, and so developed it that it became in the hands of +the Portuguese the evidence of the highest skill then attainable. + +[Sidenote: Art of seamanship.] + +Seamanship as then practiced has become an interesting study. Under the +guidance of Humboldt, in his remarkable work, the _Examen Critique_, in +which he couples a consideration of the nautical astronomy with the +needs of this age of discovery, we find an easy path among the +intricacies of the art. These complications have, in special aspects, +been further elucidated by Navarrete, Margry, and a recent German +writer, Professor Ernst Mayer. + +[Sidenote: Lully's _Arte de Navegar_.] + +It was just at the end of the thirteenth century (1295) that the _Arte +de Navegar_ of Raymond Lully, or Lullius, gave mariners a handbook, +which, so far as is made apparent, was not superseded by a better even +in the time of Columbus. + +[Illustration: PRINCE HENRY THE NAVIGATOR. + +[From a Chronicle in the National Library at Paris.]] + + +[Sidenote: Sacrobosco.] + +Another nautical text-book at this time was a treatise by John Holywood, +a Yorkshire man, who needs to be a little dressed up when we think of +him as the Latinized Sacrobosco. His _Sphera Mundi_ was not put into +type till 1472, just before Columbus's arrival in Portugal,--a work +which is mainly paraphrased from Ptolemy's _Almagest_. It was one of the +books which, by law, the royal cosmographer of Spain, at a later day, +was directed to expound in his courses of instruction. + +[Sidenote: The loadstone.] + +The loadstone was known in western and northern Europe as early as the +eleventh century, and for two or three centuries there are found in +books occasional references to the magnet. We are in much doubt, +however, as to the prevalence of its use in navigation. If we are to +believe some writers on the subject, it was known to the Norsemen as +early as the seventh century. Its use in the Levant, derived, doubtless, +from the peoples navigating the Indian Ocean, goes back to an antiquity +not easily to be limited. + +[Sidenote: Magnetic needle.] + +By the year 1200, a knowledge of the magnetic needle, coming from China +through the Arabs, had become common enough in Europe to be mentioned in +literature, and in another century its use did not escape record by the +chroniclers of maritime progress. In the fourteenth century, the +adventurous spirit of the Catalans and the Normans stretched the scope +of their observations from the Hebrides on the north to the west coast +of tropical Africa on the south, and to the westward, two fifths across +the Atlantic to the neighborhood of the Azores,--voyages made safely +under the direction of the magnet. + +[Sidenote: Observations for latitude.] + +[Sidenote: The astrolabe.] + +There was not much difficulty in computing latitude either by the +altitude of the polar star or by using tables of the sun's declination, +which the astronomers of the time were equal to calculating. The +astrolabe used for gauging the altitude was a simple instrument, which +had been long in use among the Mediterranean seamen, and had been +described by Raymond Lullius in the latter part of the thirteenth +century. Before Columbus's time it had been somewhat improved by +Johannes Müller of Königsberg, who became better known from the Latin +form of his native town as Regiomontanus. He had, perhaps, the best +reputation in his day as a nautical astronomer, and Humboldt has +explained the importance of his labors in the help which he afforded in +an age of discovery. + +[Sidenote: Dead reckoning.] + +It is quite certain that the navigators of Prince Henry, and even +Columbus, practiced no artificial method for ascertaining the speed of +their ships. With vessels of the model of those days, no great rapidity +was possible, and the utmost a ship could do under favorable +circumstances was not usually beyond four miles an hour. The hourglass +gave them the time, and afforded the multiple according as the eye +adjusted the apparent number of miles which the ship was making hour by +hour. This was the method by which Columbus, in 1492, calculated the +distances, which he recorded day by day in his journal. Of course the +practiced seaman made allowances for drift in the ocean currents, and +met with more or less intelligence the various deterrent elements in +beating to windward. + +[Sidenote: The seaman's log.] + +Humboldt, with his keen insight into all such problems concerning their +relations to oceanic discoveries, tells us in his _Cosmos_ how he has +made the history of the log a subject of special investigation in the +sixth volume of his _Examen Critique de l'Histoire de la Géographie_, +which, unfortunately, the world has never seen; but he gives, +apparently, the results in his later _Cosmos_. + +[Illustration: THE ASTROLABE OF REGIOMONTANUS.] + +It is perhaps surprising that the Mediterranean peoples had not +perceived a method, somewhat clumsy as it was, which had been in use by +the Romans in the time of the republic. Though the habit of throwing the +log is still, in our day, kept up on ocean steamers, I find that +experienced commanders quite as willingly depend on the report of their +engineers as to the number of revolutions which the wheel or screw has +made in the twenty-four hours. In this they were anticipated by these +republicans of Rome who attached wheels of four feet diameter to the +sides of their ships and let the passage of the water turn them. Their +revolutions were then recorded by a device which threw a pebble into a +tally-pot for each revolution. + +[Illustration: REGIOMONTANUS'S ASTROLABE, 1468. + +[After an original in the museum at Nuremberg, shown in E. Mayer's _Die +Hilfsmittel der Schiffahrtskunde_.]] + +From that time, so far as Humboldt could ascertain, down to a period +later than Columbus, and certainly after the revival of long ocean +voyages by the Catalans, Portuguese, and Normans, there seems to have +been no skill beyond that of the eyes in measuring the speed of vessels. +After the days of Columbus, it is only when we come to the voyages of +Magellan that we find any mention of such a device as a log, which +consisted, as his chronicler explains, of some arrangements of +cog-wheels and chains carried on the poop. + +[Sidenote: Prince Henry's character.] + +Such were in brief the elements of seamanship in which Prince Henry the +Navigator caused his sailors to be instructed, and which more or less +governed the instrumentalities employed in his career of discovery. He +was a man who, as his motto tells us, wished, and was able, to do well. +He was shadowed with few infirmities of spirit. He joined with the pluck +of his half-English blood--for he was the grandson of John of Gaunt--a +training for endurance derived in his country's prolonged contests with +the Moor. He was the staple and lofty exemplar of this great age of +discovery. He was more so than Columbus, and rendered the adventitious +career of the Genoese possible. He knew how to manage men, and stuck +devotedly to his work. He respected his helpers too much to drug them +with deceit, and there is a straightforward honesty of purpose in his +endeavors. He was a trainer of men, and they grew courageous under his +instruction. To sail into the supposed burning zone beyond Cape Bojador, +and to face the destruction of life which was believed to be inevitable, +required a courage quite as conspicuous as to cleave the floating +verdure of the Sargasso Sea, on a western passage. It must be confessed +that he shared with Columbus those proclivities which in the instigators +of African slavery so easily slipped into cruelty. They each believed +there was a merit, if a heathen's soul be at stake, in not letting +commiseration get the better of piety. + +[Sidenote: Cape Bojador passed, 1434.] + +It was not till 1434 that Prince Henry's captains finally passed Cape +Bojador. It was a strenuous and daring effort in the face of conceded +danger, and under the impulse of the Prince's earnest urging. Gil Eannes +returned from this accomplished act a hero in the eyes of his master. +Had it ever been passed before? Not apparently in any way to affect the +importance of this Portuguese enterprise. We can go back indeed, to the +expedition of Hanno the Carthaginian, and in the commentaries of Carl +Müller and Vivien de St. Martin track that navigator outside the Pillars +of Hercules, and follow him southerly possibly to Cape Verde or its +vicinity; and this, if Major's arguments are to be accepted, is the only +antecedent venture beyond Cape Bojador, though there have been claims +set up for the Genoese, the Catalans, and the Dieppese. That the map of +Marino Sanuto in 1306, and the so-called Laurentian portolano of 1351, +both of which establish a vague southerly limit to Africa, rather give +expression to a theory than chronicle the experience of navigators is +the opinion of Major. It is of course possible that some indefinite +knowledge of oriental tracking of the eastern coast of Africa, and +developing its terminal shape southerly, may have passed, as already +intimated, with other nautical knowledge, by the Red Sea to the +Mediterranean peoples. To attempt to settle the question of any +circumnavigation of Africa before the days of Diaz and Da Gama, by the +evidence of earlier maps, makes us confront very closely geographical +theories on the one hand, and on the other a possible actual knowledge +filtered through the Arabs. All this renders it imprudent to assume any +tone of certainty in the matter. + +[Illustration: SKETCH MAP OF AFRICAN DISCOVERY.] + +The captains of Prince Henry now began, season by season, to make a +steady advance. The Pope had granted to the Portuguese monarchy the +exclusive right to discovered lands on this unexplored route to India, +and had enjoined all others not to interfere. + +[Sidenote: Cape Blanco passed, 1441.] + +In 1441 the Prince's ships passed beyond Cape Blanco, and in succeeding +years they still pushed on little by little, bringing home in 1442 some +negroes for slaves, the first which were seen in Europe, as Helps +supposes, though this is a matter of some doubt. + +[Sidenote: Cape Verde reached, 1445.] + +Cape Verde had been reached by Diniz Dyàz (Fernandez) in 1445, and the +discovery that the coast beyond had a general easterly trend did much to +encourage the Portuguese, with the illusory hope that the way to India +was at last opened. They had by this time passed beyond the countries of +the Moors, and were coasting along a country inhabited by negroes. + +[Sidenote: Cadamosto, 1445.] + +[Sidenote: Cape Verde Islands.] + +In 1455, the Venetian Cadamosto, a man who proved that he could write +intelligently of what he saw, was induced by Prince Henry to conduct a +new expedition, which was led to the Gambia; so that Europeans saw for +the first time the constellation of the Southern Cross. In the following +year, still patronized by Prince Henry, who fitted out one of his +vessels, Cadamosto discovered the Cape Verde Islands, or at least his +narrative would indicate that he did. By comparison of documents, +however, Major has made it pretty clear that Cadamosto arrogated to +himself a glory which belonged to another, and that the true discoverer +of the Cape Verde Islands was Diogo Gomez, in 1460. It was on this +second voyage that Cadamosto passed Cape Roxo, and reached the Rio +Grande. + +[Illustration: FRA MAURO'S WORLD, 1439.] + +[Sidenote: Fra Mauro's maps, 1457.] + +[Illustration: TOMB OF PRINCE HENRY AT BATALHA. + +[From Major's _Prince Henry_.]] + +[Sidenote: Prince Henry dies, 1460.] + +In 1457, Prince Henry sent, by order of his nephew and sovereign, +Alfonso V., the maps of his captains to Venice, to have them combined in +a large mappemonde; and Fra Mauro was entrusted with the making of it, +in which he was assisted by Andrea Bianco, a famous cartographer of the +time. This great map came to Portugal the year before the Prince died, +and it stands as his final record, left behind him at his death, +November 13, 1460, to attest his constancy and leadership. The +pecuniary sacrifices which he had so greatly incurred in his +enterprises had fatally embarrassed his estate. His death was not as +Columbus's was, an obscuration that no one noted; his life was prolonged +in the school of seamanship which he had created. + +[Illustration: STATUE OF PRINCE HENRY AT BELEM. + +[From Major's _Prince Henry_.]] + +The Prince's enthusiasm in his belief that there was a great southern +point of Africa had been imparted to all his followers. Fra Mauro gave +it credence in his map by an indication that an Indian junk from the +East had rounded the cape with the sun in 1420. In this Mauro map the +easterly trend of the coast beyond Cape Verde is adequately shown, but +it is made only as the northern shore of a deep gulf indenting the +continent. The more southern parts are simply forced into a shape to +suit and fill out the circular dimensions of the map. + +[Sidenote: Sierra Leone, Gold Coast.] + +[Sidenote: La Mina.] + +Within a few years after Henry's death--though some place it +earlier--the explorations had been pushed to Sierra Leone and beyond +Cape Mezurada. When the revenues of the Gold Coast were farmed out in +1469, it was agreed that discovery should be pushed a hundred leagues +farther south annually; and by 1474, when the contract expired, Fernam +Gomez, who had taken it, had already found the gold dust region of La +Mina, which Columbus, in 1492, was counseled by Spain to avoid while +searching for his western lands. + +This, then, was the condition of Portuguese seamanship and of its +exploits when Columbus, some time, probably, in 1473, reached Portugal. +He found that country so content with the rich product of the Guinea +coast that it was some years later before the Portuguese began to push +still farther to the south. The desire to extend the Christian faith to +heathen, often on the lips of the discoverers of the fifteenth century, +was never so powerful but that gold and pearls made them forget it. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +COLUMBUS IN PORTUGAL. + + +[Sidenote: Date of his arrival.] + +[Sidenote: 1470.] + +It has been held by Navarrete, Irving, and other writers of the older +school that Columbus first arrived in Portugal in 1470; and his coming +has commonly been connected with a naval battle near Lisbon, in which he +escaped from a burning ship by swimming to land with the aid of an oar. +It is easily proved, however, that notarial entries in Italy show him to +have been in that country on August 7, 1473. We may, indeed, by some +stretch of inference, allow the old date to be sustained, by supposing +that he really was domiciled in Lisbon as early as 1470, but made +occasional visits to his motherland for the next three or four years. + +[Sidenote: Supposed naval battle.] + +The naval battle, in its details, is borrowed by the _Historie_ of 1571 +from the _Rerum Venitiarum ab Urbe Condita_ of Sabellicus. This author +makes Christopher Columbus a son of the younger corsair Colombo, who +commanded in the fight, which could not have happened either in 1470, +the year usually given, or in 1473-74, the time better determined for +Columbus's arrival in Portugal, since this particular action is known to +have taken place on August 22, 1485. Those who defend the _Historie_, +like D'Avezac, claim that its account simply confounds the battle of +1485 with an earlier one, and that the story of the oar must be accepted +as an incident of this supposable anterior fight. The action in 1485 +took place when the French corsair, Casaneuve or Colombo, intercepted +some richly laden Venetian galleys between Lisbon and Cape St. Vincent. +History makes no mention of any earlier action of similar import which +could have been the occasion of the escape by swimming; and to sustain +the _Historie_ by supposing such is a simple, perhaps allowable, +hypothesis. + +[Sidenote: Probable +arrival in 1473-1474.] + +Rawdon Brown, in the introduction to his volumes of the _Calendar of +State Papers in the Archives of Venice_, has connected Columbus +with this naval combat, but, as he later acknowledged to Harrisse, +solely on the authority of the _Historie_. Irving has rejected the +story. There seems no occasion to doubt its inconsistencies and +anachronisms, and, once discarded, we are thrown back upon the +notarial evidence in Italy, by which we may venture to accept the date +of 1473-74 as that of the entrance of Columbus into Portugal. Irving, +though he discards the associated incidents, accepts the earlier date. +Nevertheless, the date of 1473-74 is not taken without some hazard. As +it has been of late ascertained that when Columbus left Portugal it was +not for good, as was supposed, so it may yet be discovered that it was +from some earlier adventure that the buoyancy of an oar took him to the +land. + +[Sidenote: Italians as maritime discoverers.] + +This coming of an Italian to Portugal to throw in his lot with a foreign +people leads the considerate observer to reflect on the strange +vicissitudes which caused Italy to furnish to the western nations so +many conspicuous leaders in the great explorations of the fifteenth and +sixteenth centuries, without profiting in the slightest degree through +territorial return. Cadamosto and Cabot, the Venetians, Columbus, the +Genoese, Vespucius and Verrazano, the Florentines, are, on the whole, +the most important of the great captains of discovery in this virgin age +of maritime exploration through the dark waters of the Atlantic; and yet +Spain and Portugal, France and England, were those who profited by their +genius and labors. + +It is a singular fact that, during the years which Columbus spent in +Portugal, there is not a single act of his life that can be credited +with an exact date, and few can be placed beyond cavil by undisputed +documentary evidence. + +[Sidenote: Occupation in Portugal.] + +It is the usual story, given by his earliest Italian biographers, Gallo +and his copiers, that Columbus had found his brother Bartholomew already +domiciled in Portugal, and earning a living by making charts and selling +books, and that Christopher naturally fell, for a while, into similar +occupations. He was not, we are also told, unmindful of his father's +distresses in Italy, when he disposed of his small earnings. We likewise +know the names of a few of his fellow Genoese settled in Lisbon in +traffic, because he speaks of their kindnesses to him, and the help +which they had given him (1482) in what would appear to have been +commercial ventures. + +It seems not unlikely that he had not been long in the country when the +incident occurred at Lisbon which led to his marriage, which is thus +recorded in the _Historie_. + +[Sidenote: His marriage.] + +During his customary attendance upon divine worship in the Convent of +All Saints, his devotion was observed by one of the pensioners of the +monastery, who sought him with such expressions of affection that he +easily yielded to her charms. This woman, Felipa Moñiz by name, is said +to have been a daughter, by his wife Caterina Visconti, of Bartolomeo +Perestrello, a gentleman of Italian origin, who is associated with the +colonization of Madeira and Porto Santo. From anything which Columbus +himself says and is preserved to us, we know nothing more than that he +desired in his will that masses should be said for the repose of her +soul; for she was then long dead, and, as Diego tells us, was buried in +Lisbon. We learn her name for the first time from Diego's will, in 1509, +and this is absolutely all the documentary evidence which we have +concerning her. Oviedo and the writers who wrote before the publication +of the _Historie_ had only said that Columbus had married in Portugal, +without further particulars. + +[Sidenote: The Perestrellos.] + +But the _Historie_, with Las Casas following it, does not wholly satisfy +our curiosity, neither does Oviedo, later, nor Gomara and Benzoni, who +copy from Oviedo. There arises a question of the identity of this +Bartolomeo Perestrello, among three of the name of three succeeding +generations. Somewhere about 1420, or later, the eldest of this line was +made the first governor of Porto Santo, after the island had been +discovered by one of the expeditions which had been down the African +coast. It is of him the story goes that, taking some rabbits thither, +their progeny so quickly possessed the island that its settlers deserted +it! Such genealogical information as can be acquired of this earliest +Perestrello is against the supposition of his being the father of Felipa +Moñiz, but rather indicates that by a second wife, Isabel Moñiz by name, +he had the second Bartolomeo, who in turn became the father of our +Felipa Moñiz. The testimony of Las Casas seems to favor this view. If +this is the Bartolomeo who, having attained his majority, was assigned +to the captaincy of Porto Santo in 1473, it could hardly be that a +daughter would have been old enough to marry in 1474-75. + +The first Bartolomeo, if he was the father-in-law of Columbus, seems to +have died in 1457, and was succeeded in 1458, in command of the island +of Porto Santo, by another son-in-law, Pedro Correa da Cunha, who +married a daughter of his first marriage,--or at least that is one +version of this genealogical complication,--and who was later succeeded +in 1473 by the second Bartolomeo. + +The Count Bernardo Pallastrelli, a modern member of the family, has of +late years, in his _Il Suocero e la Moglie di Cristoforo Colombo_ (2d +ed., Piacenza, 1876), attempted to identify the kindred of the wife of +Columbus. He has examined the views of Harrisse, who is on the whole +inclined to believe that the wife of Columbus was a daughter of one +Vasco Gill Moñiz, whose sister had married the Perestrello of the +_Historie_ story. The successive wills of Diego Columbus, it may be +observed, call her in one (1509) Philippa Moñiz, and in the other (1523) +Philippa Muñiz, without the addition of Perestrello. The genealogical +table of the count's monograph, on the other hand, makes Felipa to be +the child of Isabella Moñiz, who was the second wife of Bartolomeo +Pallastrelli, the son of Felipo, who came to Portugal some time after +1371, from Plaisance, in Italy. Bartolomeo had been one of the household +of Prince Henry, and had been charged by him with founding a colony at +Porto Santo, in 1425, over which island he was long afterward (1446) +made governor. We must leave it as a question involved in much doubt. + +[Sidenote: Columbus's son Diego born.] + +The issue of this marriage was one son, Diego, but there is no distinct +evidence as to the date of his birth. Sundry incidents go to show that +it was somewhere between 1475 and 1479. Columbus's marriage to Doña +Felipa had probably taken place at Lisbon, and not before 1474 at the +earliest, a date not difficult to reconcile with the year (1473-74) now +held to be that of his arrival in Portugal. It is supposed that it was +while Columbus was living at Porto Santo, where his wife had some +property, that Diego was born, though Harrisse doubts if any evidence +can be adduced to support such a statement beyond a sort of conjecture +on Las Casas's part, derived from something he thought he remembered +Diego to have told him. + +[Sidenote: Perestrello's MSS.] + +The story of Columbus's marriage, as given in the _Historie_ +and followed by Oviedo, couples with it the belief that it was among the +papers of his dead father-in-law, Perestrello, that Columbus found +documents and maps which prompted him to the conception of a western +passage to Asia. In that case, this may perhaps have been the motive +which induced him to draw from Paolo Toscanelli that famous letter, +which is usually held to have had an important influence on the mind of +Columbus. + +[Sidenote: Story of a sailor dying in Columbus's house.] + +The fact of such relationship of Columbus with Perestrello is called in +question, and so is another incident often related by the biographers of +Columbus. This is that an old seaman who had returned from an +adventurous voyage westward had found shelter in the house of Columbus, +and had died there, but not before he had disclosed to him a discovery +he had made of land to the west. This story is not told in any writer +that is now known before Gomara (1552), and we are warned by Benzoni +that in Gomara's hands this pilot story was simply an invention "to +diminish the immortal fame of Christopher Columbus, as there were many +who could not endure that a foreigner and Italian should have acquired +so much honor and so much glory, not only for the Spanish kingdom, but +also for the other nations of the world." + +[Sidenote: Pomponius Mela, Strabo, etc.] + +[Sidenote: Manilius, Solinus, Ptolemy.] + +It is certain, however, that under the impulse of the young art of +printing men's minds had at this time become more alive than they had +been for centuries to the search for cosmographical views. The old +geographers, just at this time, were one by one finding their way into +print, mainly in Italy, while the intercourse of that country with +Portugal was quickened by the attractions of the Portuguese discoveries. +While Columbus was still in Italy, the great popularity of Pomponius +Mela began with the first edition in Latin, which was printed at Milan +in 1471, followed soon by other editions in Venice. The _De Situ Orbis_ +of Strabo had already been given to the world in Latin as early as 1469, +and during the next few years this text was several times reprinted at +Rome and Venice. The teaching of the sphericity of the earth in the +astronomical poem of Manilius, long a favorite with the monks of the +Middle Ages, who repeated it in their labored script, appeared in type +at Nuremberg at the same time. The _Polyhistor_ of Solinus did not long +delay to follow. A Latin version of Ptolemy had existed since 1409, but +it was later than the rest in appearing in print, and bears the date of +1475. These were the newer issues of the Italian and German presses, +which were attracting the notice of the learned in this country of the +new activities when Columbus came among them, and they were having their +palpable effect. + +[Sidenote: Toscanelli's theory.] + +[Sidenote: His letter to Columbus.] + +Just when we know not, but some time earlier than this, Alfonso V. of +Portugal had sought, through the medium of the monk Fernando Martinez +(Fernam Martins), to know precisely what was meant by the bruit of +Toscanelli's theory of a westward way to India. To an inquiry thus +vouched Toscanelli had replied to Fernando Martinez (June 25, 1474), +some days before a similar inquiry addressed to Toscanelli reached +Florence, from Columbus himself, and through the agency of an aged +Florentine merchant settled in Lisbon. It seems probable that no +knowledge of Martinez's correspondence with Toscanelli had come to the +notice of Columbus; and that the message which the Genoese sent to the +Florentine was due simply to the same current rumors of Toscanelli's +views which had attracted the attention of the king. So in replying to +Columbus Toscanelli simply shortened his task by inclosing, with a brief +introduction, a copy of the letter, which he says he had sent "some days +before" to Martinez. This letter outlined a plan of western discovery; +but it is difficult to establish beyond doubt the exact position which +the letter of Toscanelli should hold in the growth of Columbus's views. +If Columbus reached Portugal as late as 1473-74, as seems likely, it is +rendered less certain that Columbus had grasped his idea anterior to the +spread of Toscanelli's theory. In any event, the letter of the +Florentine physician would strengthen the growing notions of the +Genoese. + +As Toscanelli was at this time a man of seventy-seven, and as a belief +in the sphericity of the earth was then not unprevalent, and as the +theory of a westward way to the East was a necessary concomitant of such +views in the minds of thinking men, it can hardly be denied that the +latent faith in a westward passage only needed a vigilant mind to +develop the theory, and an adventurous spirit to prove its correctness. +The development had been found in Toscanelli and the proof was waiting +for Columbus,--both Italians; but Humboldt points out how the +Florentine very likely thought he was communicating with a Portuguese, +when he wrote to Columbus. + +This letter has been known since 1571 in the Italian text as given in +the _Historie_, which, as it turns out, was inexact and overladen with +additions. At least such is the inference when we compare this Italian +text with a Latin text, supposed to be the original tongue of the +letter, which has been discovered of late years in the handwriting of +Columbus himself, on the flyleaf of an Æneas Sylvius (1477), once +belonging to Columbus, and still preserved in the Biblioteca Colombina +at Seville. The letter which is given in the _Historie_ is accompanied +by an antescript, which says that the copy had been sent to Columbus at +his request, and that it had been originally addressed to Martinez, some +time "before the wars of Castile." How much later than the date June 25, +1474, this copy was sent to Columbus, and when it was received by him, +there is no sure means of determining, and it may yet be in itself one +of the factors for limiting the range of months during which Columbus +must have arrived in Portugal. + +[Sidenote: Toscanelli's visions of the East.] + +The extravagances of the letter of Toscanelli, in his opulent +descriptions of a marvelous Asiatic region, were safely made in that age +without incurring the charge of credulity. Travelers could tell tales +then that were as secure from detection as the revealed arcana of the +Zuñi have been in our own days. Two hundred towns, whose marble bridges +spanned a single river, and whose commerce could incite the cupidity of +the world, was a tale easily to stir numerous circles of listeners in +the maritime towns of the Mediterranean, wherever wandering mongers of +marvels came and went. There were such travelers whose recitals +Toscanelli had read, and others whose tales he had heard from their own +lips, and these last were pretty sure to augment the wonders of the +elder talebearers. + +Columbus had felt this influence with the rest, and the tales lost +nothing of their vividness in coming to him freshened, as it were, by +the curious mind of the Florentine physician. The map which accompanied +Toscanelli's letter, and which depicted his notions of the Asiatic coast +lying over against that of Spain, is lost to us, but various attempts +have been made to restore it, as is done in the sketch annexed. It will +be a precious memorial, if ever recovered, worthy of study as a reflex, +in more concise representation than is found in the text of the letter, +of the ideas which one of the most learned cosmographers of his day had +imbibed from mingled demonstrations of science and imagination. + +[Illustration: TOSCANELLI'S MAP AS RESTORED IN _DAS AUSLAND_.] + +[Sidenote: The passage westward.] + +It is said that in our own day, in the first stages of a belief in the +practicability of an Atlantic telegraphic cable, it was seriously +claimed that the vast stretch of its extension could be broken by a +halfway station on Jacquet Island, one of those relics of the Middle +Ages, which has disappeared from our ocean charts only in recent years. + +[Sidenote: Antillia.] + +Just in the same way all the beliefs which men had had in the island of +Antillia, and in the existence of many another visionary bit of land, +came to the assistance of these theoretical discoverers in planning the +chances of a desperate voyage far out into a sea of gorgons and chimeras +dire. Toscanelli's map sought to direct the course of any one who dared +to make the passage, in a way that, in case of disaster to his ships, a +secure harbor could be found in Antillia, and in such other havens as no +lack of islands would supply. + +Ferdinand claimed to have found in his father's papers some statements +which he had drawn from Aristotle of Carthaginian voyages to Antillia, +on the strength of which the Portuguese had laid that island down in +their charts in the latitude of Lisbon, as one occupied by their people +in 714, when Spain was conquered by the Moors. Even so recently as the +time of Prince Henry it had been visited by Portuguese ships, if records +were to be believed. It also stands in the Bianco map of 1436. + +[Sidenote: Fabulous islands of the Atlantic.] + +There are few more curious investigations than those which concern these +fantastic and fabulous islands of the Sea of Darkness. They are +connected with views which were an inheritance in part from the classic +times, with involved notions of the abodes of the blessed and of +demoniacal spirits. In part they were the aërial creation of popular +mythologies, going back to a remoteness of which it is impossible to +trace the beginning, and which got a variable color from the popular +fancies of succeeding generations. The whole subject is curiously +without the field of geography, though entering into all surveys of +mediæval knowledge of the earth, and depending very largely for its +elucidation on the maps of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, +whose mythical traces are not beyond recognition in some of the best +maps which have instructed a generation still living. + +[Sidenote: St. Brandan.] + +To place the island of the Irish St. Brandan--whose coming there with +his monks is spoken of as taking place in the sixth century--in the +catalogue of insular entities is to place geography in such a marvelous +guise as would have satisfied the monk Philoponus and the rest of the +credulous fictionmongers who hang about the skirts of the historic +field. But the belief in it long prevailed, and the apparition sometimes +came to sailors' eyes as late as the last century. + +[Sidenote: Antillia, or the Seven Cities.] + +The great island of Antillia, or the Seven Cities, already referred to, +was recognized, so far as we know, for the first time in the Weimar map +of 1424, and is known in legends as the resort of some Spanish bishops, +flying from the victorious Moors, in the eighth century. It never quite +died out from the recognition of curious minds, and was even thought to +have been seen by the Portuguese, not far from the time when Columbus +was born. Peter Martyr also, after Columbus had returned from his first +voyage, had a fancy that what the Admiral had discovered was really the +great island of Antillia, and its attendant groups of smaller isles, and +the fancy was perpetuated when Wytfliet and Ortelius popularized the +name of Antilles for the West Indian Archipelago. + +[Sidenote: Brazil Island.] + +Another fleeting insular vision of this pseudo-geographical realm was a +smaller body of floating land, very inconstant in position, which is +always given some form of the name that, in later times, got a constant +shape in the word Brazil. We can trace it back into the portolanos of +the middle of the fourteenth century; and it had not disappeared as a +survival twenty or thirty years ago in the admiralty charts of Great +Britain. The English were sending out expeditions from Bristol in search +of it even while Columbus was seeking countenance for his western +schemes; and Cabot, at a little later day, was instrumental in other +searches. + +[Sidenote: Travelers in the Orient.] + +Foremost among the travelers who had excited the interest of Toscanelli, +and whose names he possibly brought for the first time to the attention +of Columbus, were Marco Polo, Sir John Mandeville, and Nicolas de Conti. + +[Illustration: MODERN EASTERN ASIA, WITH THE OLD AND NEW NAMES. + +[From Yule's _Cathay_.]] + +[Sidenote: Marco Polo,] + +It is a question to be resolved only by critical study as to what was +the language in which Marco Polo first dictated, in a Genoese prison in +1298, the original narrative of his experiences in Cathay. The inquiry +has engaged the attention of all his editors, and has invited the +critical sagacity of D'Avezac. There seems little doubt that it was +written down in French. + +[Illustration: EASTERN ASIA, CATALAN MAP, 1375. + +[From Yule's _Cathay_, vol. i.]] + +[Illustration: MARCO POLO. + +[From an original at Rome.]] + +There are no references by Columbus himself to the Asiatic travels of +Marco Polo, but his acquaintance with the marvelous book of the Venetian +observer may safely be assumed. The multiplication of texts of the +_Milione_ following upon his first dictation, and upon the subsequent +revision in 1307, may not, indeed, have caused it to be widely known in +various manuscript forms, be it in Latin or Italian. Nor is it likely +that Columbus could have read the earliest edition which was put in +type, for it was in German in 1477; but there is the interesting +possibility that this work of the Nuremberg press may have been known to +Martin Behaim, a Nuremberger then in Lisbon, and likely enough to have +been a familiar of Columbus. The fact that there is in the Biblioteca +Colombina at Seville a copy of the first Latin printed edition (1485) +with notes, which seem to be in Columbus's handwriting, may be taken as +evidence, that at least in the later years of his study the inspiration +which Marco Polo could well have been to him was not wanting; and the +story may even be true as told in Navarrete, that Columbus had a copy +of this famous book at his side during his first voyage, in 1492. + +At the time when Humboldt doubted the knowledge of Columbus in respect +to Marco Polo, this treasure of the Colombina was not known, and these +later developments have shown how such a question was not to be settled +as Humboldt supposed, by the fact that Columbus quoted Æneas Sylvius +upon Cipango, and did not quote Marco Polo. + +[Sidenote: Sir John Mandeville.] + +Neither does Columbus refer to the journey and strange stories of Sir +John Mandeville, whose recitals came to a generation which was beginning +to forget the stories of Marco Polo, and which, by fostering a passion +for the marvelous, had readily become open to the English knight's +bewildering fancies. The same negation of evidence, however, that +satisfied Humboldt as respects Marco Polo will hardly suffice to +establish Columbus's ignorance of the marvels which did more, perhaps, +than the narratives of any other traveler to awaken Europe to the +wonders of the Orient. Bernaldez, in fact, tells us that Columbus was a +reader of Mandeville, whose recital was first printed in French at Lyons +in 1480, within a few years after Columbus's arrival in Portugal. + +[Sidenote: Nicolo di Conti.] + +It was to Florence, in Toscanelli's time, not far from 1420, that Nicolo +di Conti, a Venetian, came, after his long sojourn of a quarter of a +century in the far East. In Conti's new marvels, the Florentine scholar +saw a rejuvenation of the wonders of Marco Polo. It was from Conti, +doubtless, that Toscanelli got some of that confidence in a western +voyage which, in his epistle to Columbus, he speaks of as derived from a +returned traveler. + +Pope Eugene IV., not far from the time of the birth of Columbus, +compelled Conti to relate his experiences to Poggio Bracciolini. This +scribe made what he could out of the monstrous tales, and translated the +stories into Latin. In this condition Columbus may have known the +narrative at a later day. The information which Conti gave was eagerly +availed of by the cosmographers of the time, and Colonel Yule, the +modern English writer on ancient Cathay, thinks that Fra Mauro got for +his map more from Conti than that traveler ventured to disclose to +Poggio. + +[Sidenote: Toscanelli's death, 1482.] + +Toscanelli, at the time of writing this letter to Columbus, had long +enjoyed a reputation as a student of terrestrial and celestial +phenomena. He had received, in 1463, the dedication by Regiomontanus of +his treatise on the quadrature of the circle. He was, as has been said, +an old man of seventy-seven when Columbus opened his correspondence with +him. It was not his fate to live long enough to see his physical views +substantiated by Diaz and Columbus, for he died in 1482. + +[Sidenote: Columbus confers with others.] + +In two of the contemporary writers, Bartholomew Columbus is credited +with having incited his brother Christopher to the views which he +developed regarding a western passage, and these two were Antonio Gallo +and Giustiniani, the commentator of the Psalms. It has been of late +contended by H. Grothe, in his _Leonardo da Vinci_ (Berlin, 1874), that +it was at this time, too, when that eminent artist conducted a +correspondence with Columbus about a western way to Asia. But there is +little need of particularizing other advocates of a belief which had +within the range of credible history never ceased to have exponents. The +conception was in no respect the merit of Columbus, except as he grasped +a tradition, which others did not, and it is strange, that Navarrete in +quoting the testimony of Ferdinand and Isabella, of August 8, 1497, to +the credit of the discovery of Columbus, as his own proper work, does +not see that it was the venturesome, and as was then thought foolhardy, +deed to prove the conception which those monarchs commended, and not the +conception itself. + +[Sidenote: Columbus writes out reasons for his belief.] + +We learn from the _Historie_ that its writer had found among the papers +of Columbus the evidence of the grounds of his belief in the western +passage, as under varying impressions it had been formulated in his +mind. These reasons divide easily into three groups: First, those based +on deductions drawn from scientific research, and as expressed in the +beliefs of Ptolemy, Marinus, Strabo, and Pliny; second, views which the +authority of eminent writers had rendered weightier, quoting as such the +works of Aristotle, Seneca, Strabo, Pliny, Solinus, Marco Polo, +Mandeville, Pierre d'Ailly, and Toscanelli; and third, the stories of +sailors as to lands and indications of lands westerly. + +From these views, instigated or confirmed by such opinions, Columbus +gradually arranged his opinions, in not one of which did he prove to be +right, except as regards the sphericity of the earth; and the last was a +belief which had been the common property of learned men, and at +intervals occupying even the popular mind, from a very early date. + +[Sidenote: Sphericity of the earth.] + +[Sidenote: Transmission of the belief in it.] + +The conception among the Greeks of a plane earth, which was taught in +the Homeric and Hesiodic poems, began to give place to a crude notion of +a spherical form at a period that no one can definitely determine, +though we find it taught by the Pythagoreans in Italy in the sixth +century before Christ. The spherical view and its demonstration passed +down through long generations of Greeks, under the sanction of Plato and +their other highest thinkers. In the fourth century before Christ, +Aristotle and others, by watching the moon's shadow in an eclipse, and +by observing the rising and setting of the heavenly bodies in different +latitudes, had proved the roundness of the earth to their satisfaction; +Eratosthenes first measured a degree of latitude in the third century; +Hipparchus, in the second century, was the earliest to establish +geographical positions; and in the second century of the Christian era +Ptolemy had formulated for succeeding times the general scope of the +transmitted belief. During all these centuries it was perhaps rather a +possession of the learned. We infer from Aristotle that the view was a +novelty in his time; but in the third century before Christ it began to +engage popular attention in the poem of Aratus, and at about 200 B. C. +Crates is said to have given palpable manifestation of the theory in a +globe, ten feet in diameter, which he constructed. + +The belief passed to Italy and the Latins, and was sung by Hyginus and +Manilius in the time of Augustus. We find it also in the minds of Pliny, +Cicero, Virgil, and Ovid. So the belief became the heirloom of the +learned throughout the classic times, and it was directly coupled in the +minds of Aristotle, Eratosthenes, Strabo, Seneca, and others with a +conviction, more or less pronounced, of an easy western voyage from +Spain to India. + +[Sidenote: Seneca's _Medea_.] + +[Sidenote: Cosmas.] + +[Sidenote: Bacon, Albertus Magnus, Pierre d'Ailly.] + +No one of the ancient expressions of this belief seems to have clung +more in the memory of Columbus than that in the _Medea_ of Seneca; and +it is an interesting confirmation that in a copy of the book which +belonged to his son Ferdinand, and which is now preserved in Seville, +the passage is scored by the son's hand, while in a marginal note he has +attested the fact that its prophecy of a western passage had been made +good by his father in 1492. Though the opinion was opposed by St. +Chrysostom in the fourth century, it was taught by St. Augustine and +Isidore in the fifth. Cosmas in the sixth century was unable to +understand how, if the earth was a sphere, those at the antipodes could +see Christ at his coming. That settled the question in his mind. The +Venerable Bede, however, in the eighth century, was not constrained by +any such arguments, and taught the spherical theory. Jourdain, a modern +French authority, has found distinct evidence that all through the +Middle Ages the belief in the western way was kept alive by the study of +Aristotle; and we know how the Arabs perpetuated the teachings of that +philosopher, which in turn were percolated through the Levant to +Mediterranean peoples. It is a striking fact that at a time when Spain +was bending all her energies to drive the Moor from the Iberian +peninsula, that country was also engaged in pursuing those discoveries +along the western way to India which were almost a direct result of the +Arab preservation of the cosmographical learning of Aristotle and +Ptolemy. A belief in an earth-ball had the testimony of Dante in the +twelfth century, and it was the well-known faith of Albertus Magnus, +Roger Bacon, and the schoolmen, in the thirteenth. It continued to be +held by the philosophers, who kept alive these more recent names, and +came to Columbus because of the use of Bacon which Pierre d'Ailly had +made. + +The belief in the sphericity of the earth carried with it of necessity +another,--that the east was to be found in the west. Superstition, +ignorance, and fear might magnify the obstacles to a passage through +that drear Sea of Darkness, but in Columbus's time, in some learned +minds at least, there was no distrust as to the accomplishment of such a +voyage beyond the chance of obstacles in the way. + +[Illustration: ALBERTUS MAGNUS. + +[From Reusner's _Icones_.]] + +[Sidenote: The belief opposed by the Church.] + +It is true that in this interval of very many centuries there had been +lapses into unbelief. There were long periods, indeed, when no one dared +to teach the doctrine. Whenever and wherever the Epicureans supplanted +the Pythagoreans, the belief fell with the disciples of Pythagoras. +There had been, during the days of St. Chrysostom and other of the +fathers, a decision of the Church against it. There were doubtless, as +Humboldt says, conservers, during all this time, of the traditions of +antiquity, since the monasteries and colleges--even in an age when to be +unlearned was more pardonable than to be pagan--were of themselves quite +a world apart from the dullness of the masses of the people. + +[Sidenote: Pierre D'Ailly's _Imago Mundi_.] + +[Sidenote: Roger Bacon's _Opus Majus_.] + +A hundred years before Columbus, the inheritor of much of this +conservation was the Bishop of Cambray, that Pierre d'Ailly whose _Imago +Mundi_ (1410) was so often on the lips of Columbus, and out of which it +is more than likely that Columbus drank of the knowledge of Aristotle, +Strabo, and Seneca, and to a degree greater perhaps than he was aware of +he took thence the wisdom of Roger Bacon. It was through the _Opus +Majus_ (1267) of this English philosopher that western Europe found +accessible the stories of the "silver walls and golden towers" of +Quinsay as described by Rubruquis, the wandering missionary, who in the +thirteenth century excited the cupidity of the Mediterranean merchants +by his accounts of the inexhaustible treasures of eastern Asia, and +which the reader of to-day may find in the collections of Samuel +Purchas. + +Pierre d'Ailly's position in regard to cosmographical knowledge was +hardly a dominant one. He seems to know nothing of Marco Polo, Bacon's +contemporary, and he never speaks of Cathay, even when he urges the +views which he has borrowed from Roger Bacon, of the extension of Asia +towards Western Europe. + +Any acquaintance with the _Imago Mundi_ during these days of Columbus in +Portugal came probably through report, though possibly he may have met +with manuscripts of the work; for it was not till after he had gone to +Spain that D'Ailly could have been read in any printed edition, the +first being issued in 1490. + +[Sidenote: Rotundity and gravitation.] + +The theory of the rotundity of the earth carried with it one objection, +which in the time of Columbus was sure sooner or later to be seized +upon. If, going west, the ship sank with the declivity of the earth's +contour, how was she going to mount such an elevation on her return +voyage?--a doubt not so unreasonable in an age which had hardly more +than the vaguest notion of the laws of gravitation, though some, like +Vespucius, were not without a certain prescience of the fact. + +[Sidenote: Size of the earth.] + +By the middle of the third century before Christ, Eratosthenes, +accepting sphericity, had by astronomical methods studied the extent of +the earth's circumference, and, according to the interpretation of his +results by modern scholars, he came surprisingly near to the actual +size, when he exceeded the truth by perhaps a twelfth part. The +calculations of Eratosthenes commended themselves to Hipparchus, Strabo, +and Pliny. A century later than Eratosthenes, a new calculation, made by +Posidonius of Rhodes, reduced the magnitude to a globe of about four +fifths its proper size. It was palpably certain to the observant +philosophers, from the beginning of their observations on the size of +the earth, that the portion known to commerce and curiosity was but a +small part of what might yet be known. The unknown, however, is always a +terror. Going north from temperate Europe increased the cold, going +south augmented the heat; and it was no bold thought for the naturalist +to conclude that a north existed in which the cold was unbearable, and a +south in which the heat was too great for life. Views like these stayed +the impulse for exploration even down to the century of Columbus, and +magnified the horrors which so long balked the exploration of the +Portuguese on the African coast. There had been intervals, however, when +men in the Indian Ocean had dared to pass the equator. + +[Sidenote: Unknown regions.] + +[Sidenote: Strabo and Marinus on the size of the earth.] + +Therefore it was before the age of Columbus that, east and west along +the temperate belt, men's minds groped to find new conditions beyond the +range of known habitable regions. Strabo, in the first century before +Christ, made this habitable zone stretch over 120 degrees, or a third of +the circumference of the earth. The corresponding extension of Marinus +of Tyre in the second century after Christ stretched over 225 degrees. +This geographer did not define the land's border on the ocean at the +east, but it was not unusual with the cosmographers who followed him to +carry the farthest limits of Asia to what is actually the meridian of +the Sandwich Islands. On the west Marinus pushed the Fortunate Islands +(Canaries) two degrees and a half beyond Cape Finisterre, failing to +comprehend their real position, which for the westernmost, Ferro, is +something like nine degrees beyond the farther limits of the main land. + +[Sidenote: Ptolemy's view.] + +The belt of the known world running in the direction of the equator was, +in the conception of Ptolemy, the contemporary of Marinus, about +seventy-nine degrees wide, sixteen of these being south of the +equatorial line. This was a contraction from the previous estimate of +Marinus, who had made it over eighty-seven degrees. + +[Sidenote: Toscanelli's view.] + +Toscanelli reduced the globe to a circumference of about 18,000 miles, +losing about 6,000 miles; and the untracked ocean, lying west of Lisbon, +was about one third of this distance. In other words, the known world +occupied about 240 of the 360 degrees constituting the equatorial +length. Few of the various computations of this time gave such scant +dimensions to the unknown proportion of the line. The Laon globe, which +was made ten or twelve years later than Toscanelli's time, was equally +scant. Behaim, who figured out the relations of the known to the unknown +circuit, during the summer before Columbus sailed on his first voyage, +reduced what was known to not much more than a third of the whole. It +was the fashion, too, with an easy reliance on their genuineness, to +refer to the visions of Esdras in support of a belief in the small +part--a sixth--of the surface of the globe covered by the ocean. + +[Illustration: LAON GLOBE. + +[After D'Avezac.]] + +[Sidenote: Views of Columbus.] + +The problem lay in Columbus's mind thus: he accepted the theory of the +division of the circumference of the earth into twenty-four hours, as it +had come down from Marinus of Tyre, when this ancient astronomer +supposed that from the eastern verge of Asia to the western extremity of +Europe there was a space of fifteen hours. The discovery of the Azores +had pushed the known limit a single hour farther towards the setting +sun, making sixteen hours, or two thirds of the circumference of 360 +degrees. There were left eight hours, or one hundred and twenty degrees, +to represent the space between the Azores and Asia. This calculation in +reality brought the Asiatic coast forward to the meridian of California, +obliterating the width of the Pacific at that latitude, and reducing by +so much the size of the globe as Columbus measured it, on the assumption +that Marinus was correct. This, however, he denied. If the _Historie_ +reports Columbus exactly, he contended that the testimony of Marco Polo +and Mandeville carried the verge of Asia so far east that the land +distance was more than fifteen hours across; and by as much as this +increased the distance, by so much more was the Asiatic shore pushed +nearer the coasts of Europe. "We can thus determine," he says, "that +India is even neighboring to Spain and Africa." + +[Sidenote: Length of a degree.] + +The calculation of course depended on what was the length of a degree, +and on this point there was some difference of opinion. Toscanelli had +so reduced a degree's length that China was brought forward on his +planisphere till its coast line cut the meridian of the present +Newfoundland. + +[Sidenote: Quinsay.] + +We can well imagine how this undue contraction of the size of the globe, +as the belief lay in the mind of Columbus, and as he expressed it later +(July 7, 1503), did much to push him forward, and was a helpful illusion +in inducing others to venture upon the voyage with him. The courage +required to sail out of some Iberian port due west a hundred and twenty +degrees in order to strike the regions about the great Chinese city of +Quinsay, or Kanfu, Hangtscheufu, and Kingszu, as it has been later +called, was more easily summoned than if the actual distance of two +hundred and thirty-one degrees had been recognized, or even the two +hundred and four degrees necessary in reality to reach Cipango, or +Japan. The views of Toscanelli, as we have seen, reduced the duration of +risk westward to so small a figure as fifty-two degrees. So it had not +been an unusual belief, more or less prominent for many generations, +that with a fair wind it required no great run westward to reach Cathay, +if one dared to undertake it. If there were no insurmountable obstacles +in the Sea of Darkness, it would not be difficult to reach earlier that +multitude of islands which was supposed to fringe the coast of China. + +[Sidenote: Asiatic islands.] + +[Sidenote: Cipango.] + +[Sidenote: Spanish and Portuguese explorations.] + +It was a common belief, moreover, that somewhere in this void lay the +great island of Cipango,--the goal of Columbus's voyage. Sometimes +nearer and sometimes farther it lay from the Asiatic coast. Pinzon saw +in Rome in 1491 a map which carried it well away from that coast; and if +one could find somewhere in the English archives the sea-chart with +which Bartholomew Columbus enforced the views of his brother, to gain +the support of the English king, it is supposed that it would reveal a +somewhat similar location of the coveted island. Here, then, was a +space, larger or smaller, as men differently believed, interjacent along +this known zone between the ascertained extreme east in Asia and the +accepted most distant west at Cape St. Vincent in Spain, as was thought +in Strabo's time, or at the Canaries, as was comprehended in the days of +Ptolemy. What there was in this unknown space between Spain and Cathay +was the problem which balked the philosophers quite as much as that +other uncertainty, which concerned what might possibly be found in the +southern hemisphere, could one dare to enter the torrid heats of the +supposed equatorial ocean, or in the northern wastes, could one venture +to sail beyond the Arctic Circle. These curious quests of the +inquisitive and learned minds of the early centuries of the Christian +era were the prototypes of the actual explorations which it was given in +the fifteenth century to the Spaniards and Portuguese respectively to +undertake. The commercial rivalry which had in the past kept Genoa and +Venice watchful of each other's advantage had by their maritime ventures +in the Atlantic passed to these two peninsular nations, and England was +not long behind them in starting in her race for maritime supremacy. + +[Sidenote: Sea of Darkness.] + +It was in human nature that these unknown regions should become those +either of enchantment or dismay, according to personal proclivities. It +is not necessary to seek far for any reason for this. An unknown stretch +of waters was just the place for the resorts of the Gorgons and to find +the Islands of the Blest, and to nurture other creations of the literary +and spiritual instincts, seeking to give a habitation to fancies. It is +equally in human nature that what the intellect has habilitated in this +way the fears, desires, and superstitions of men in due time turn to +their own use. It was easy, under the stress of all this complexity of +belief and anticipation, for this supposable interjacent oceanic void to +teem in men's imaginations with regions of almost every imaginable +character; and when, in the days of the Roman republic, the Canaries +were reached, there was no doubt but the ancient Islands of the Blest +had been found, only in turn to pass out of cognizance, and once more to +fall into the abyss of the Unknown. + +[Sidenote: Story of Atlantis.] + +[Sidenote: Land of the Meropes.] + +[Sidenote: Saturnian continent.] + +There are, however, three legends which have come down to us from the +classic times, which the discovery of America revived with new interest +in the speculative excursions of the curiously learned, and it is one of +the proofs of the narrow range of Columbus's acquaintance with original +classic writers that these legends were not pressed by him in support of +his views. The most persistent of these in presenting a question for the +physical geographer is the story of Atlantis, traced to a tale told by +Plato of a tradition of an island in the Atlantic which eight thousand +years ago had existed in the west, opposite the Pillars of Hercules; and +which, in a great inundation, had sunken beneath the sea, leaving in mid +ocean large mud shoals to impede navigation and add to the terrors of a +vast unknown deep. There have been those since the time of Gomara who +have believed that the land which Columbus found dry and inhabited was a +resurrected Atlantis, and geographers even of the seventeenth century +have mapped out its provinces within the usual outline of the American +continents. Others have held, and some still hold, that the Atlantic +islands are but peaks of this submerged continent. There is no evidence +to show that these fancies of the philosopher ever disturbed even the +most erratic moments of Columbus, nor could he have pored over the +printed Latin of Plato, if it came in his way, till its first edition +appeared in 1483, during his stay in Portugal. Neither do we find that +he makes any references to that other creation, the land of the Meropes, +as figured in the passages cited by Ælian some seven hundred years after +Theopompus had conjured up the vision in the fourth century before +Christ. Equally ignorant was Columbus, it would appear, of the great +Saturnian continent, lying five days west from Britain, which makes a +story in Plutarch's _Morals_. + +[Sidenote: Earlier voyages on the Atlantic.] + +[Sidenote: Phoenicians.] + +[Sidenote: Carthaginians.] + +[Sidenote: Romans.] + +We deal with a different problem when we pass from these theories and +imaginings of western lands to such records as exist of what seem like +attempts in the earliest days to attain by actual exploration the secret +of this interjacent void. The Phoenicians had passed the Straits of +Gibraltar and found Gades (Cadiz), and very likely attempted to course +the Atlantic, about 1100 years before the birth of Christ. Perhaps they +went to Cornwall for tin. It may have been by no means impossible for +them to have passed among the Azores and even to have reached the +American islands and main, as a statement in Diodorus Siculus has been +interpreted to signify. Then five hundred years later or more we observe +the Carthaginians pursuing their adventurous way outside the Pillars of +Hercules, going down the African coast under Hanno to try the equatorial +horrors, or running westerly under Hamilko to wonder at the Sargasso +sea. Later, the Phoenicians seem to have made some lodgment in the +islands off the coasts of northwestern Africa. The Romans in the fourth +century before Christ pushed their way out into the Atlantic under +Pytheas and Euthymenes, the one daring to go as far as Thule--whatever +that was--in the north, and the other to Senegal in the south. It was in +the same century that Rome had the strange sight of some unknown +barbarians, of a race not recognizable, who were taken upon the shores +of the German Ocean, where they had been cast away. Later writers have +imagined--for no stronger word can be used--that these weird beings were +North American Indians, or rather more probably Eskimos. About the same +time, Sertorius, a Roman commander in Spain, learned, as already +mentioned, of some salubrious islands lying westward from Africa, and +gave Horace an opportunity, in the evil days of the civil war, to +picture them as a refuge. + +When the Romans ruled the world, commerce lost much of the hazard and +enterprise which had earlier instigated international rivalry. The +interest in the western ocean subsided into merely speculative concern; +and wild fancy was brought into play in depicting its horrors, its +demons and shoals, with the intermingling of sky and water. + +[Sidenote: Knowledge of such early attempts.] + +[Sidenote: Maps XVth cent.] + +[Sidenote: Genoese voyages, 1291.] + +It is by no means certain that Columbus knew anything of this ancient +lore of the early Mediterranean people. There is little or nothing in +the early maps of the fifteenth century to indicate that such knowledge +was current among those who made or contributed to the making of such of +these maps as have come down to us. The work of some of the more famous +chart makers Columbus could hardly have failed to see, or heard +discussed in the maritime circles of Portugal; and indeed it was to his +own countrymen, Marino Sanuto, Pizignani, Bianco, and Fra Mauro, that +Portuguese navigators were most indebted for the broad cartographical +treatment of their own discoveries. At the same time there was no dearth +of legends of the venturesome Genoese, with fortunes not always +reassuring. There was a story, for instance, of some of these latter +people, who in 1291 had sailed west from the Pillars of Hercules and had +never returned. Such was a legend that might not have escaped Columbus's +attention even in his own country, associating with it the names of the +luckless Tedisio Doria and Ugolino Vivaldi in their efforts to find a +western way to India. Harrisse, however, who has gone over all the +evidence of such a purpose, fails to be satisfied. + +These stories of ocean hazards hung naturally about the seaports of +Portugal. + +[Sidenote: Antillia.] + +Galvano tells us of such a tale concerning a Portuguese ship, driven +west, in 1447, to an island with seven cities, where its sailors found +the people speaking Portuguese, who said they had deserted their country +on the death of King Roderigo. This is the legend of Antillia, already +referred to. + +[Sidenote: Islands seen.] + +Columbus recalled, when afterwards at the Canaries on his first voyage, +how it was during his sojourn in Portugal that some one from Madeira +presented to the Portuguese king a petition for a vessel to go in quest +of land, occasionally seen to the westward from that island. Similar +stories were not unknown to him of like apparitions being familiar in +the Azores. A story which he had also heard of one Antonio Leme having +seen three islands one hundred leagues west of the Azores had been set +down to a credulous eye, which had been deceived by floating fields of +vegetation. + +[Sidenote: The Basques.] + +There was no obstacle in the passing of similar reports around the Bay +of Biscay from the coasts of the Basques, and the story might be heard +of Jean de Echaide, who had found stores of stockfish off a land far +oceanward,--an exploit supposed to be commemorated in the island of +Stokafixia, which stands far away to the westward in the Bianco map of +1436. All these tales of the early visits of the Basques to what +imaginative minds have supposed parts of the American coasts derive much +of their perennial charm from associations with a remarkable people. +There is indeed nothing improbable in a hardy daring which could have +borne the Basques to the Newfoundland shores at almost any date earlier +than the time of Columbus. + +[Sidenote: Newfoundland banks possibly visited.] + +Fructuoso, writing as late as 1590, claimed that a Portuguese navigator, +João Vaz Cortereal, had sailed to the codfish coast of Newfoundland as +early as 1464, but Barrow seems to be the only writer of recent times +who has believed the tale, and Biddle and Harrisse find no evidence to +sustain it. + +[Sidenote: Tartary supposed to be seen.] + +There is a statement recorded by Columbus, if we may trust the account +of the _Historie_, that a sailor at Santa Maria had told him how, being +driven westerly in a voyage to Ireland, he had seen land, which he then +thought to be Tartary. Some similar experiences were also told to +Columbus by Pieter de Velasco, of Galicia; and this land, according to +the account, would seem to have been the same sought at a later day by +the Cortereals (1500). + +[Sidenote: Dubious pre-Columbian voyages.] + +It is not easy to deal historically with long-held traditions. The +furbishers of transmitted lore easily make it reflect what they bring to +it. To find illustrations in any inquiry is not so difficult if you +select what you wish, and discard all else, and the result of this +discriminating accretion often looks very plausible. Historical truth is +reached by balancing everything, and not by assimilating that which +easily suits. Almost all these discussions of pre-Columbian voyagings to +America afford illustrations of this perverted method. Events in which +there is no inherent untruth are not left with the natural defense of +probability, but are proved by deductions and inferences which could +just as well be applied to prove many things else, and are indeed +applied in a new way by every new upstart in such inquiries. The story +of each discoverer before Columbus has been upheld by the stock +intimation of white-bearded men, whose advent is somehow +mysteriously discovered to have left traces among the aborigines of every +section of the coast. + + * * * * * + +[Illustration: OCEANIC CURRENTS. + +[From Reclus's _Amérique Boréale_.]] + +[Sidenote: Traces of a western land in drift.] + +There was another class of evidence which, as the _Historie_ informs us, +served some purpose in bringing conviction to the mind of Columbus. Such +were the phenomenal washing ashore on European coasts of unknown pines +and other trees, sculptured logs, huge bamboos, whose joints could be +made into vessels to hold nine bottles of wine, and dead bodies with +strange, broad faces. Even canoes, with living men in them of wonderful +aspects, had at times been reported as thrown upon the Atlantic islands. +Such events had not been unnoticed ever since the Canaries and the +Azores had been inhabited by a continental race, and conjectures had +been rife long before the time of Columbus that westerly winds had +brought these estrays from a distant land,--a belief more +comprehensible at that time than any dependence upon the unsuspected +fact that it was the oceanic currents, rather, which impelled these +migratory objects. + +[Sidenote: Gulf Stream.] + +It required the experiences of later Spanish navigators along the Bahama +Channel, and those of the French and English farther north upon the +Banks of Newfoundland, before it became clear that the currents of the +Atlantic, grazing the Cape of Good Hope and whirling in the Gulf of +Mexico, sprayed in a curling fringe in the North Atlantic. This in a +measure became patent to Sir Humphrey Gilbert sixty or seventy years +after the death of Columbus. + +If science had then been equal to the microscopic tasks which at this +day it imposes on itself, the question of western lands might have been +studied with an interest beyond what attached to the trunks of trees, +carved timbers, edible nuts, and seeds of alien plants, which the Gulf +Stream is still bringing to the shores of Europe. It might have found in +the dust settling upon the throngs of men in the Old World, the shells +of animalcules, differing from those known to the observing eye in +Europe, which, indeed, had been carried in the upper currents of air +from the banks of the Orinoco. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: Influence of Portuguese discoveries upon Columbus.] + +[Sidenote: _Ephemerides_ of Regiomontanus.] + +Once in Portugal, Columbus was brought in close contact with that eager +spirit of exploration which had survived the example of Prince Henry and +his navigators. If Las Casas was well informed, these Portuguese +discoveries were not without great influence upon the Genoese's +receptive mind. He was now where he could hear the fresh stories of +their extending acquaintance with the African coast. His wife's sister, +by the accepted accounts, had married Pedro Correa, a navigator not +without fame in those days, and a companion in maritime inquiry upon +whom Columbus could naturally depend,--unless, as Harrisse decides, he +was no navigator at all. Columbus was also at hand to observe the +growing skill in the arts of navigation which gave the Portuguese their +preëminence. He had not been long in Lisbon when Regiomontanus gave a +new power in astronomical calculations of positions at sea by publishing +his _Ephemerides_, for the interval from 1475 to 1506, upon which +Columbus was yet to depend in his eventful voyage. + +[Sidenote: Martin Behaim.] + +The most famous of the pupils of this German mathematician was himself +in Lisbon during the years of Columbus's sojourn. We have no distinct +evidence that Martin Behaim, a Nuremberger, passed any courtesies with +the Genoese adventurer, but it is not improbable that he did. His +position was one that would attract Columbus, who might never have been +sought by Behaim. The Nuremberger's standing was, indeed, such as to +gain the attention of the Court, and he was thought not unworthy to be +joined with the two royal physicians, Roderigo and Josef, on a +commission to improve the astrolabe. Their perfected results mark an +epoch in the art of seamanship in that age. + +[Illustration: SAMPLES OF THE TABLES OF REGIOMONTANUS, 1474-1506.] + +[Illustration: THE AFRICAN COAST, 1478. + +[From Nordenskiöld's _Facsimile Atlas_.]] + +[Sidenote: Guinea coast, 1482.] + +[Sidenote: The Congo reached, 1484.] + +It was a new sensation when news came that at last the Portuguese had +crossed the equator, in pushing along the African coast. In January, +1482, they had said their first mass on the Guinea coast, and the castle +of San Jorge da Mina was soon built under the new impulse to enterprise +which came with the accession of João II. In 1484 they reached the +Congo, under the guidance of Diogo Cam, and Martin Behaim was of his +company. + +[Illustration: MARTIN BEHAIM.] + +These voyages were not without strong allurements to the Genoese sailor. +He is thought to have been a participant in some of the later cruises. +The _Historie_ claims that he began to reason, from his new experiences, +that if land could be discovered to the south there was much the same +chance of like discoveries in the west. But there were experiences of +other kinds which, in the interim, if we believe the story, he underwent +in the north. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +WAS COLUMBUS IN THE NORTH? + + +[Sidenote: Columbus supposed to have sailed beyond Iceland, 1477.] + +There is, in the minds of some inquirers into the early discovery of +America, no more pivotal incident attaching to the career of Columbus +than an alleged voyage made to the vicinity of what is supposed to have +been Iceland, in the assigned year of 1477. The incident is surrounded +with the confusion that belongs to everything dependent on Columbus's +own statements, or on what is put forth as such. + +Our chief knowledge of his voyage is in the doubtful Italian rendering +of the _Historie_ of 1571, where, citing a memoir by Columbus himself on +the five habitable zones, the translator or adapter of that book makes +the Admiral say that "in February, 1477, he sailed a hundred leagues +beyond the island Tile, which lies under the seventy-third parallel, and +not under the sixty-third, as some say." The only evidence that he saw +Tile, in sailing beyond it, is in what he further says, that he was able +to ascertain that the tide rose and fell twenty-six fathoms, which +observation necessitates the seeing of some land, whether Tile or not. + +[Sidenote: Inconsistencies in the statement.] + +There is no land at all in the northern Atlantic under 73°. Iceland +stretches from 64° to 67°; Jan Mayen is too small for Columbus's further +description of the island, and is at 71°, and Spitzbergen is at 76°. +What Columbus says of the English of Bristol trading at this island +points to Iceland; and it is easy, if one will, to imagine a misprint of +the figures, an error of calculation, a carelessness of statement, or +even the disappearance, through some cataclysm, of the island, as has +been suggested. + +[Illustration: MAP OF OLAUS MAGNUS, 1539. + +[From Dr. Brenner's Essay.]] + +Humboldt in his _Cosmos_ quotes Columbus as saying of this voyage near +Thule that "the sea was not at that time covered with ice," and he +credits that statement to the same _Tratado de las Cinco Zonas +Habitables_ of Columbus, and urges in proof that Finn Magnusen had found +in ancient historical sources that in February, 1477, ice had not set in +on the southern coast of that island. + +[Sidenote: Thyle.] + +Speaking of "Tile," the same narrative adds that "it is west of the +western verge of Ptolemy [that is, Ptolemy's world map], and larger than +England." This expression of its size could point only to Iceland, of +all islands in the northern seas. + +There are elements in the story, however, not easily reconcilable with +what might be expected of an experienced mariner; and if the story is +true in its main purpose, there is little more in the details than the +careless inexactness, which characterizes a good many of the +well-authenticated asseverations of Columbus. + +[Sidenote: The Zeni's Frisland.] + +Again the narrative says, "It is true that Ptolemy's Thule is where that +geographer placed it, but that it is now called Frislande." Does this +mean that the Zeni story had been a matter of common talk forty years +after the voyage to their Frisland had been made, and eighty-four years +before a later scion of the family published the remarkable narrative in +Venice, in 1558? It is possible that the maker of the _Historie_ of +1571, in the way in which it was given to the world, had interpolated +this reference to the Frisland of the Zeni to help sustain the credit of +his own or the other book. + +A voyage undertaken by Columbus to such high latitudes is rendered in +all respects doubtful, to say the least, from the fact that in 1492 +Columbus detailed for the eyes of his sovereigns the unusual advantages +of the harbors of the new islands which he had discovered, and added +that he was entitled to express such an opinion, because his exploration +had extended from Guinea on the south to England on the north. It was an +occasion when he desired to make his acquaintance seem as wide as the +facts would warrant, and yet he does not profess to have been farther +north than England. A hundred leagues, moreover, beyond Iceland might +well have carried him to the upper Greenland coast, but he makes no +mention of other land being seen in those high latitudes. + +[Sidenote: Thyle and Iceland.] + +Thyle and Iceland are made different islands in the Ptolemy of 1486, +which, if it does not prove that Iceland was not then the same as Thyle +in the mind of geographers, shows that geographical confusion still +prevailed at the north. It may be further remarked that Muñoz and others +have found no time in Columbus's career to which this voyage to the +north could so easily pertain as to a period anterior to his going to +Portugal, and consequently some years before the 1477 of the _Historie_. + +[Sidenote: The English in Iceland.] + +[Sidenote: Kolno.] + +[Sidenote: The Zeni.] + +A voyage to Iceland was certainly no new thing. The English traded +there, and a large commerce was maintained with it by Bristol, and had +been for many years. A story grew up at a later day, and found +expression in Gomara and Wytfliet, that in 1476, the year before this +alleged voyage of Columbus, a Danish expedition, under the command of +the Pole Kolno, or Skolno, had found in these northern regions an +entrance to the straits of Anian, which figure so constantly in later +maps, and which opened a passage to the Indies; but there seems to be no +reason to believe that it had any definite foundation, and it could +hardly have been known to Columbus. It is also easy to conjecture that +Columbus had been impelled to join some English trading vessel from +Bristol, through mere nautical curiosity, and even been urged by reports +which may have reached him of the northern explorations of the Zeni, +long before the accounts were printed. But if he knew anything, he +either treasured it up as a proof of his theories, not yet to be +divulged,--why is not clear,--or, what is vastly more probable, it never +occurred to him to associate any of these dim regions with the coasts of +Marco Polo's Cathay. + +[Sidenote: Madoc.] + +There was no lack of stories, even at this time, of venturesome voyages +west along the latitude of England and to the northwest, and of these +tales Columbus may possibly have heard. Such was the story which had +been obscurely recorded, that Madoc, a Welsh chieftain, in the later +years of the twelfth century had carried a colony westerly. Nor can it +be positively asserted that the Estotiland and Drogeo of the Zeni +narrative, then lying in the cabinet of an Italian family unknown, had +ever come to his knowledge. + +There are stories in the _Historie_ of reports which had reached him, +that mariners sailing for Ireland had been driven west, and had sighted +land which had been supposed to be Tartary, which at a later day was +thought to be the Baccalaos of the Cortereals. + +[Sidenote: Bresil, or Brazil, Island.] + +The island of Bresil had been floating about the Atlantic, usually in +the latitude of Ireland, since the days when the maker of the Catalan +planisphere, in 1375, placed it in that sea, and current stories of its +existence resulted, at a later day (1480), in the sending from Bristol +of an expedition of search, as has already been said. + +[Sidenote: Did Columbus land on Thule?] + +Finn Magnusen among the Scandinavian writers, and De Costa and others +among Americans, have thought it probable that Columbus landed at +Hualfiord, in Iceland. Columbus, however, does not give sufficient +ground for any such inference. He says he went beyond Thule, not to it, +whatever Thule was, and we only know by his observations on the tides, +that he approached dry land. + +[Sidenote: Bishop Magnus in Iceland.] + +Laing, in his introduction to the _Heimskringla_, says confidently that +Columbus "came to Iceland from Bristol, in 1477, on purpose to gain +nautical information,"--an inference merely,--"and must have heard of +the written accounts of the Norse discoveries recorded in" the _Codex +Flatoyensis_. Laing says again that as Bishop Magnus is known to have +been in Iceland in the spring of 1477, "it is presumed Columbus must +have met and conversed with him"! + +A great deal turns on this purely imaginary conversation, and the +possibilities of its scope. + +[Sidenote: The Norse in Iceland.] + +[Sidenote: Eric the Red.] + +[Sidenote: Greenland.] + +The listening Columbus might, indeed, have heard of Irish monks and +their followers, who had been found in Iceland by the first Norse +visitors, six hundred years before, if perchance the traditions of them +had been preserved, and these may even have included the somewhat vague +stories of visits to a country somewhere, which they called Ireland the +Great. Possibly, too, there were stories told at the firesides of the +adventures of a sea-rover, Gunnbiorn by name, who had been driven +westerly from Iceland and had seen a strange land, which after some +years was visited by Eric the Red; and there might have been wondrous +stories told of this same land, which Eric had called Greenland, in +order to lure settlers, where there is some reason to believe yet +earlier wanderers had found a home. + +[Sidenote: _Heimskringla._] + +[Sidenote: Position of Greenland.] + +[Sidenote: Thought to be a part of Europe.] + +There mightpossibly have been shown to Columbus an old manuscript +chronicle of the kings of Norway, which they called the _Heimskringla_, +and which had been written by Snorre Sturlason in the thirteenth +century; and if he had turned the leaves with any curiosity, he could +have read, or have had translated for him, accounts of the Norse +colonization of Greenland in the ninth century. Where, then, was this +Greenland? Could it possibly have had any connection with that Cathay of +Marco Polo, so real in the vision of Columbus, and which was supposed to +lie above India in the higher latitudes? As a student of contemporary +cartography, Columbus would have answered such a question readily, had +it been suggested; for he would have known that Greenland had been +represented in all the maps, since it was first recognized at all, as +merely an extended peninsula of Scandinavia, made by a southward twist +to enfold a northern sea, in which Iceland lay. One certainly cannot +venture to say how far Columbus may have had an acquaintance with the +cartographical repertories, more or less well stocked, as they doubtless +were, in the great commercial centres of maritime Europe, but the +knowledge which we to-day have in detail could hardly have been +otherwise than a common possession among students of geography then. We +comprehend now how, as far back as 1427, a map of Claudius Clavus showed +Greenland as this peninsular adjunct to the northwest of Europe,--a view +enforced also in a map of 1447, in the Pitti palace, and in one which +Nordenskiöld recently found in a Codex of Ptolemy at Warsaw, dated in +1467. A few years later, and certainly before Columbus could have gone +on this voyage, we find a map which it is more probable he could have +known, and that is the engraved one of Nicholas Donis, drawn presumably +in 1471, and later included in the edition of Ptolemy published at Ulm +in 1482. The same European connection is here maintained. Again it is +represented in the map of Henricus Martellus (1489-90), in a way that +produced a succession of maps, which till long after the death of +Columbus continued to make this Norse colony a territorial appendage of +Scandinavian Europe, betraying not the slightest symptom of a belief +that Eric the Red had strayed beyond the circle of European connections. + + + + +[Illustration: CLAUDIUS CLAVUS, 1427. + +[From Nordenskiöld's _Studien_.]] + +[Illustration: BORDONE, 1528. + +[Greenland is the Northernmost Peninsula of N. W. Europe.]] + +[Sidenote: Made a Part of Asia.] + +It is only when we get down to the later years of Columbus's life that +we find, on a Portuguese chart of 1503, a glimmer of the truth, and this +only transiently, though the conception of the mariners, upon which this +map was based, probably associated Greenland with the Asiatic main, as +Ruysch certainly did, by a bold effort to reconcile the Norse traditions +with the new views of his time, when he produced the first engraved map +of the discoveries of Columbus and Cabot in the Roman Ptolemy of 1508. + +[Sidenote: Again made a part of Europe.] + +It is thus beyond dispute that if Columbus entertained any views as to +the geographical relations of Greenland, which had been practically lost +to Europe since communication with it ceased, earlier in the fifteenth +century, they were simply those of a peninsula of northern Europe, which +could have no connection with any country lying beyond the Atlantic; for +it was not till after his death that any general conception of it +associated with the Asiatic main arose. It is quite certain, however, +that as the conception began to prevail, after the discovery of the +South Sea by Balboa, in 1513, that an interjacent new world had really +been found, there was a tendency, as shown in the map of Thorne (1527), +representing current views in Spain, and in those of Finæus (1531), +Ziegler (1532), Mercator (1538), and Bordone (1528-1547), to relegate +the position of Greenland to a peninsular connection with Europe. + +There is a curious instance of the evolution of the correct idea in the +Ptolemy of 1525, and repeated in the same plate as used in the editions +of 1535 and 1545. The map was originally engraved to show "Gronlandia" +as a European peninsula, but apparently, at a later stage, the word +Gronlandia was cut in the corner beside the sketch of an elephant, and +farther west, as if to indicate its transoceanic and Asiatic situation, +though there was no attempt to draw in a coast line. + +[Sidenote: Later diverse views.] + +Later in the century there was a strife of opinion between the +geographers of the north, as represented in the Olaus Magnus map of +1567, who disconnected the country from Europe, and those of the south, +who still united Greenland with Scandinavia, as was done in the Zeno map +of 1558. By this time, however, the southern geographers had begun to +doubt, and after 1540 we find Labrador and Greenland put in close +proximity in many of their maps; and in this the editors of the Ptolemy +of 1561 agreed, when they altered their reëngraved map--as the plate +shows--in a way to disconnect Greenland from Scandinavia. + +It is not necessary to trace the cartographical history of Greenland to +a later day. It is manifest that it was long after Columbus's death when +the question was raised of its having any other connection than with +Europe, and Columbus could have learned in Iceland nothing to suggest to +him that the land of Eric the Red had any connection with the western +shores of Asia, of which he was dreaming. + +[Sidenote: Discovery of Vinland.] + +If any of the learned men in Iceland had referred Columbus once more to +the _Heimskringla_, it would have been to the brief entry which it shows +in the records as the leading Norse historian made it, of the story of +the discovery of Vinland. There he would have read, "Leif also found +Vinland the Good," and he could have read nothing more. There was +nothing in this to excite the most vivid imagination as to place or +direction. + +[Sidenote: Scandinavian views of Vinland.] + +[Sidenote: Stephanius's map, 1570.] + +It was not till a time long after the period of Columbus that, so far as +we know, any cartographical records of the discoveries associated with +the Vinland voyages were made in the north; and not till the discoveries +of Columbus and his successors were a common inheritance in Europe did +some of the northern geographers, in 1570, undertake to reconcile the +tales of the sagas with the new beliefs. The testimony of these later +maps is presumably the transmitted view then held in the north from the +interpretation of the Norse sagas in the light of later knowledge. This +testimony is that the "America" of the Spaniards, including Terra +Florida and the "Albania" of the English, was a territory south of the +Norse region and beyond a separating water, very likely that of Davis' +Straits. The map of Sigurd Stephanius of this date (1570) puts Vinland +north of the Straits of Belle Isle, and makes it end at the south in a +"wild sea," which separates it [B of map] from "America." Torfæus quotes +Torlacius as saying that this map of Stephanius's was drawn from ancient +Icelandic records. If this cartographical record has its apparent value, +it is not likely that Columbus could have seen in it anything more than +a manifestation of that vague boreal region which was far remote from +the thoughts which possessed him, in seeking a way to India over +against Spain. + +[Illustration: SIGURD STEPHANIUS, 1570.] + +[Sidenote: Dubious sagas.] + +Beside the scant historic record respecting Vinland which has been cited +from the _Heimskringla_, it is further possible that Columbus may have +seen that series of sagas which had come down in oral shape to the +twelfth century. At this period put into writing, two hundred years +after the events of the Vinland voyages, there are none of the +manuscript copies of these sagas now existing which go back of the +fourteenth century. This rendering of the old sagas into script came at +a time when, in addition to the inevitable transformations of long oral +tradition, there was superadded the romancing spirit then rife in the +north, and which had come to them from the south of Europe. The result +of this blending of confused tradition with the romancing of the period +of the written preservation has thrown, even among the Scandinavians +themselves, a shade of doubt, more or less intense at times, which +envelops the saga record with much that is indistinguishable from myth, +leaving little but the general drift of the story to be held of the +nature of a historic record. The Icelandic editor of Egel's saga, +published at Reikjavik in 1856, acknowledges this unavoidable reflex of +the times when the sagas were reduced to writing, and the most +experienced of the recent writers on Greenland, Henrik Rink, has allowed +the untrustworthiness of the sagas except for their general scope. + +[Sidenote: Codex Flatoyensis.] + +[Sidenote: Leif Erikson.] + +Less than a hundred years before the alleged visit of Columbus to Thule, +there had been a compilation of some of the early sagas, and this _Codex +Flatoyensis_ is the only authority which we have for any details of the +Vinland voyages. It is possible that the manuscript now known is but one +copy of several or many which may have been made at an early period, not +preceding, however, the twelfth century, when writing was introduced. +This particular manuscript was discovered in an Icelandic monastery in +the seventeenth century, and there is no evidence of its being known +before. Of course it is possible that copies may have been in the hands +of learned Icelanders at the time of Columbus's supposed voyage to the +north, and he may have heard of it, or have had parts of it read to him. +The collection is recognized by Scandinavian writers as being the most +confused and incongruous of similar records; and it is out of such +romancing, traditionary, and conflicting recitals that the story of the +Norse voyages to Vinland is made, if it is made at all. The sagas say +that it was sixteen winters after the settlement of Greenland that Leif +went to Norway, and in the next year he sailed to Vinland. These are the +data from which the year A. D. 1000 has been deduced as that of the +beginning of the Vinland voyages. The principal events are to be traced +in the saga of Eric the Red, which, in the judgment of Rask, a leading +Norse authority, is "somewhat fabulous, written long after the event, +and taken from tradition." + +[Sidenote: Peringskiöld's edition of the sagas.] + +Such, then, was the record which, if it ever came to the notice of +Columbus, was little suited to make upon him any impression to be +associated in his mind with the Asia of his dreams. Humboldt, discussing +the chances of Columbus's gaining any knowledge of the story, thinks +that when the Spanish Crown was contesting with the heirs of the Admiral +his rights of discovery, the citing of these northern experiences of +Columbus would have been in the Crown's favor, if there had been any +conception at that time that the Norse discoveries, even if known to +general Europe, had any relation to the geographical problems then under +discussion. Similar views have been expressed by Wheaton and Prescott, +and there is no evidence that up to the time of Columbus an acquaintance +with the Vinland story had ever entered into the body of historical +knowledge possessed by Europeans in general. The scant references in the +manuscripts of Adam of Bremen (A. D. 1073), of Ordericus Vitalis (A. D. +1140), and of Saxo Grammaticus (A. D. 1200), were not likely to be +widely comprehended, even if they were at all known, and a close +scrutiny of the literature of the subject does not seem to indicate that +there was any considerable means of propagating a knowledge of the sagas +before Peringskiöld printed them in 1697, two hundred years after the +time of Columbus. This editor inserted them in an edition of the +_Heimskringla_ and concealed the patchwork. This deception caused it +afterwards to be supposed that the accounts in the _Heimskringla_ had +been interpolated by some later reviser of the chronicle; but the truth +regarding Peringskiöld's action was ultimately known. + +[Sidenote: Probabilities.] + +Basing, then, their investigation on a narrative confessedly confused +and unauthentic, modern writers have sought to determine with precision +the fact of Norse visits to British America, and to identify the +localities. The fact that every investigator finds geographical +correspondences where he likes, and quite independently of all others, +is testimony of itself to the confused condition of the story. The soil +of the United States and Nova Scotia contiguous to the Atlantic may now +safely be said to have been examined by competent critics sufficiently +to affirm that no archæological trace of the presence of the Norse here +is discernible. As to such a forbidding coast as that of Labrador, there +has been as yet no such familiarity with it by trained archæologists as +to render it reasonably certain that some trace may not be found there, +and on this account George Bancroft allows the possibility that the +Norse may have reached that coast. There remains, then, no evidence +beyond a strong probability that the Norse from Greenland crossed Davis' +Straits and followed south the American coast. That indisputable +archæological proofs may yet be found to establish the fact of their +southern course and sojourn is certainly possible. Meanwhile we must be +content that there is no testimony satisfactory to a careful historical +student, that this course and such sojourn ever took place. A belief in +it must rest on the probabilities of the case. + +Many writers upon the Norseman discovery would do well to remember the +advice of Ampère to present as doubtful what is true, sooner than to +give as true what is doubtful. + +"Ignorance," says Muñoz, in speaking of the treacherous grounds of +unsupported narrative, "is generally accompanied by vanity and +temerity." + +[Sidenote: Did Columbus hear of the saga stories?] + +It is an obvious and alluring supposition that this story should have +been presented to Columbus, whatever the effect may have been on his +mind. Lowell in a poem pardonably pictures him as saying:-- + +"I brooded on the wise Athenian's tale Of happy Atlantis; and heard +Björne's keel Crunch the gray pebbles of the Vinland shore, For I +believed the poets." + +But the belief is only a proposition. Rafn and other extreme advocates +of the Norse discovery have made as much as they could of the +supposition of Columbus's cognizance of the Norse voyages. Laing seems +confident that this contact must have happened. The question, however, +must remain unsettled; and whether Columbus landed in Iceland or not, +and whether the bruit of the Norse expeditions struck his ears elsewhere +or not, the fact of his never mentioning them, when he summoned every +supposable evidence to induce acceptance of his views, seems to be +enough to show at least that to a mind possessed as his was of the +scheme of finding India by the west the stories of such northern +wandering offered no suggestion applicable to his purpose. It is, +moreover, inconceivable that Columbus should have taken a course +southwest from the Canaries, if he had been prompted in any way by +tidings of land in the northwest. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +COLUMBUS LEAVES PORTUGAL FOR SPAIN. + + +[Sidenote: Columbus's obscure record, 1473-1487.] + +It is a rather striking fact, as Harrisse puts it, that we cannot place +with an exact date any event in Columbus's life from August 7, 1473, +when a document shows him to have been in Savona, Italy, till he +received at Cordoba, Spain, from the treasurer of the Catholic +sovereigns, his first gratuity on May 5, 1487, as is shown by the entry +in the books, "given this day 3,000 maravedis," about $18, "to Cristobal +Colomo, a stranger." The events of this period of about fourteen years +were those which made possible his later career. The incidents connected +with this time have become the shuttlecocks which have been driven +backward and forward in their chronological bearings, by all who have +undertaken to study the details of this part of Columbus's life. It is +nearly as true now as it was when Prescott wrote, that "the +discrepancies among the earliest authorities are such as to render +hopeless any attempt to settle with precision the chronology of +Columbus's movements previous to his first voyage." + +[Sidenote: His motives for leaving Portugal.] + +[Sidenote: Chief sources of our knowledge.] + +The motives which induced him to abandon Portugal, where he had married, +and where he had apparently found not a little to reconcile him to his +exile, are not obscure ones as detailed in the ordinary accounts of his +life. All these narratives are in the main based, first, on the +_Historie_ (1571); secondly, on the great historical work of Joam de +Barros, pertaining to the discoveries of the Portuguese in the East +Indies, first published in 1552, and still holding probably the loftiest +position in the historical literature of that country; and, finally, on +the lives of João II., then monarch of Portugal, by Ruy de Pina and by +Vasconcellos. The latter borrowing in the main from the former, was +exclusively used by Irving. Las Casas apparently depended on Barros as +well as on the _Historie_. It is necessary to reconcile their +statements, as well as it can be done, to get even an inductive view of +the events concerned. + +The treatment of the subject by Irving would make it certain that it was +a new confidence in the ability to make long voyages, inspired by the +improvements of the astrolabe as directed by Behaim, that first gave +Columbus the assurance to ask for royal patronage of the maritime scheme +which had been developing in his mind. + +[Sidenote: Columbus and Behaim.] + +Just what constituted the acquaintance of Columbus with Behaim is not +clearly established. Herrera speaks of them as friends. Humboldt thinks +some intimacy between them may have existed, but finds no decisive proof +of it. Behaim had spent much of his life in Lisbon and in the Azores, +and there are some striking correspondences in their careers, if we +accept the usual accounts. They were born and died in the same year. +Each lived for a while on an Atlantic island, the Nuremberger at Fayal, +and the Genoese at Porto Santo; and each married the daughter of the +governor of his respective island. They pursued their nautical studies +at the same time in Lisbon, and the same physicians who reported to the +Portuguese king upon Columbus's scheme of westward sailing were engaged +with Behaim in perfecting the sea astrolabe. + +[Sidenote: Columbus and the king of Portugal.] + +The account of the audience with the king which we find in the +_Historie_ is to the effect that Columbus finally succeeded in inducing +João to believe in the practicability of a western passage to Asia; but +that the monarch could not be brought to assent to all the titular and +pecuniary rewards which Columbus contended for as emoluments of success, +and that a commission, to whom the monarch referred the project, +pronounced the views of Columbus simply chimerical. Barros represents +that the advances of Columbus were altogether too arrogant and fantastic +ever to have gained the consideration of the king, who easily disposed +of the Genoese's pretentious importunities by throwing the burden of +denial upon a commission. This body consisted of the two physicians of +the royal household, already mentioned, Roderigo and Josef, to whom was +added Cazadilla, the Bishop of Ceuta. + +Vasconcellos's addition to this story, which he derived almost entirely +from Ruy de Pina, Resende, and Barros, is that there was subsequently +another reference to a royal council, in which the subject was discussed +in arguments, of which that historian preserves some reports. This +discussion went farther than was perhaps intended, since Cazadilla +proceeded to discourage all attempts at exploration even by the African +route, as imperiling the safety of the state, because of the money which +was required; and because it kept at too great a distance for an +emergency a considerable force in ships and men. In fact the drift of +the debate seems to have ignored the main projects as of little moment +and as too visionary, and the energy of the hour was centered in a +rallying speech made by the Count of Villa Real, who endeavored to save +the interests of African exploration. The count's speech quite +accomplished its purpose, if we can trust the reports, since it +reassured the rather drooping energies of the king, and induced some +active measures to reach the extremity of Africa. + +[Sidenote: Diaz's African voyage, 1486.] + +[Sidenote: Passes the Cape.] + +[Illustration: PORTUGUESE MAPPEMONDE, 1490. + +[Sketched from the original MS. in the British Museum.]] + +In August, 1486, Bartholomew Diaz, the most eminent of a line of +Portuguese navigators, had departed on the African route, with two +consorts. As he neared the latitude of the looked-for Cape, he was +driven south, and forced away from the land, by a storm. When he was +enabled to return on his track he struck the coast, really to the +eastward of the true cape, though he did not at the time know it. This +was in May, 1487. His crew being unwilling to proceed farther, he +finally turned westerly, and in due time discovered what he had done. +The first passage of the Cape was thus made while sailing west, just as, +possibly, the mariners of the Indian seas may have done. In December he +was back in Lisbon with the exhilarating news, and it was probably +conveyed to Columbus, who was then in Spain, by his brother Bartholomew, +the companion of Diaz in this eventful voyage, as Las Casas discovered +by an entry made by Bartholomew himself in a copy of D'Ailly's _Imago +Mundi_. Thirty years before, as we have seen, Fra Mauro had prefigured +the Cape in his map, but it was now to be put on the charts as a +geographical discovery; and by 1490, or thereabouts, succeeding +Portuguese navigators had pushed up the west coast of Africa to a point +shown in a map preserved in the British Museum, but not far enough to +connect with what was supposed with some certainty to be the limit +reached during the voyages of the Arabian navigators, while sailing +south from the Red Sea. There was apparently not a clear conception in +the minds of the Portuguese, at this time, just how far from the Cape +the entrance of the Arabian waters really was. It is possible that +intelligence may have thus early come from the Indian Ocean, by way of +the Mediterranean, that the Oriental sailors knew of the great African +cape by approaching it from the east. + +[Sidenote: Portuguese missionaries to Egypt.] + +Such knowledge, if held to be visionary, was, however, established with +some certainty in men's minds before Da Gama actually effected the +passage of the Cape. This confirmation had doubtless come through some +missionaries of the Portuguese king, who in 1490 sent such a positive +message from Cairo. + +But while the new exertions along the African coast, thus inadvertently +instigated by Columbus, were making, what was becoming of his own +westward scheme? + +[Sidenote: The Portuguese send out an expedition to forestall Columbus.] + +The story goes that it was by the advice of Cazadilla that the +Portuguese king lent himself to an unworthy device. This was a project +to test the views of Columbus, and profit by them without paying him his +price. An outline of his intended voyage had been secured from him in +the investigation already mentioned. A caravel, under pretense of a +voyage to the Cape de Verde Islands, was now dispatched to search for +the Cipango of Marco Polo, in the position which Columbus had given it +in his chart. The mercenary craft started out, and buffeted with head +seas and angry winds long enough to emasculate what little courage the +crew possessed. Without the prop of conviction they deserted their +purpose and returned. Once in port, they began to berate the Genoese for +his foolhardy scheme. In this way they sought to vindicate their own +timidity. This disclosed to Columbus the trick which had been played +upon him. Such is the story as the _Historie_ tells it, and which has +been adopted by Herrera and others. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: Columbus leaves Portugal, 1484.] + +At this point there is too much uncertainty respecting the movements of +Columbus for even his credulous biographers to fill out the tale. It +seems to be agreed that in the latter part of 1484 he left Portugal with +a secrecy which was supposed to be necessary to escape the vigilance of +the government spies. There is beside some reason for believing that it +was also well for him to shun arrest for debts, which had been incurred +in the distractions of his affairs. + +[Sidenote: Supposed visit of Columbus to Genoa.] + +There is no other authority than Ramusio for believing with Muñoz that +Columbus had already laid his project before the government of Genoa by +letter, and that he now went to reënforce it in person. That power was +sorely pressed with misfortunes at this time, and is said to have +declined to entertain his proposals. It may be the applicant was +dismissed contemptuously, as is sometimes said. It is not, however, as +Harrisse has pointed out, till we come down to Cassoni, in his _Annals +of Genoa_, published in 1708, that we find a single Genoese authority +crediting the story of this visit to Genoa. Harrisse, with his skeptical +tendency, does not believe the statement. + +[Sidenote: Supposed visit to Venice.] + +Eagerness to fill the gaps in his itinerary has sometimes induced the +supposition that Columbus made an equally unsuccessful offer to Venice; +but the statement is not found except in modern writers, with no other +citations to sustain it than the recollections of some one who had seen +at some time in the archives a memorial to this effect made by Columbus. +Some writers make him at this time also visit his father and provide for +his comfort,--a belief not altogether consonant with the supposition of +Columbus's escape from Portugal as a debtor. + +[Sidenote: The death of his wife.] + +[Sidenote: Shown to be uncertain.] + +Irving and the biographers in general find in the death of Columbus's +wife a severing of the ties which bound him to Portugal; but if there is +any truth in the tumultuous letter which Columbus wrote to Doña Juana de +la Torre in 1500, he left behind him in Portugal, when he fled into +Spain, a wife and children. If there is the necessary veracity in the +_Historie_, this wife had died before he abandoned the country. That he +had other children at this time than Diego is only known through this +sad, ejaculatory epistle. If he left a wife in Portugal, as his own +words aver, Harrisse seems justified in saying that he deserted her, and +in the same letter Columbus himself says that he never saw her again. + +[Sidenote: Convent of Rabida.] + +Ever since a physician of Palos, Garcia Fernandez, gave his testimony in +the lawsuit through which, after Columbus's death, his son defended his +titles against the Crown, the picturesque story of the convent of +Rabida, and the appearance at its gate of a forlorn traveler accompanied +by a little boy, and the supplication for bread and water for the child, +has stood in the lives of Columbus as the opening scene of his career in +Spain. + +This Franciscan convent, dedicated to Santa Maria de Rabida, stood on a +height within sight of the sea, very near the town of Palos, and after +having fallen into a ruin it was restored by the Duke of Montpensier in +1855. A recent traveler has found this restoration "modernized, +whitewashed, and forlorn," while the refurnishing of the interior is +described as "paltry and vulgar," even in the cell of its friar, where +the visitor now finds a portrait of Columbus and pictures of scenes in +his career. + +[Illustration: PÈRE JUAN PEREZ DE MARCHENA. + +[As given by Roselly de Lorgues.]] + +[Sidenote: Friar Marchena.] + +This friar, Juan Perez de Marchena, was at the time of the supposed +visit of Columbus the prior of the convent, and being casually attracted +by the scene at the gate, where the porter was refreshing the vagrant +travelers, and by the foreign accent of the stranger, he entered into +talk with the elder of them and learned his name. Columbus also told him +that he was bound to Huelva to find the home of one Muliar, a Spaniard +who had married the youngest sister of his wife. The story goes further +that the friar was not uninformed in the cosmographical lore of the +time, had not been unobservant of the maritime intelligence which had +naturally been rife in the neighboring seaport of Palos, and had kept +watch of the recent progress in geographical science. He was +accordingly able to appreciate the interest which Columbus manifested in +such subjects, as he unfolded his own notions of still greater +discoveries which might be made at the west. Keeping the wanderer and +his little child a few days, Marchena invited to the convent, to join +with them in discussion, the most learned man whom the neighborhood +afforded, the physician of Palos,--the very one from whose testimony our +information comes. Their talks were not without reënforcements from the +experiences of some of the mariners of that seaport, particularly one +Pedro de Velasco, who told of manifestation of land which he had himself +seen, without absolute contact, thirty years before, when his ship had +been blown a long distance to the northwest of Ireland. + +[Sidenote: Columbus goes to Cordoba.] + +The friendship formed in the convent kept Columbus there amid congenial +sympathizers, and it was not till some time in the winter of 1485-86, +and when he heard that the Spanish sovereigns were at Cordoba, gathering +a force to attack the Moors in Granada, that, leaving behind his boy to +be instructed in the convent, Columbus started for that city. He went +not without confidence and elation, as he bore a letter of credentials +which the friar had given him to a friend, Fernando de Talavera, the +prior of the monastery of Prado, and confessor of Queen Isabella. + +[Sidenote: Doubts about the visits to Rabida.] + +This story has almost always been placed in the opening of the career of +Columbus in Spain. It has often in sympathizing hands pointed a moral in +contrasting the abject condition of those days with the proud expectancy +under which, some years later, he sailed out of the neighboring harbor +of Palos, within eyeshot of the monks of Rabida. Irving, however, as he +analyzed the reports of the famous trial already referred to, was quite +sure that the events of two visits to Rabida had been unwittingly run +into one in testimony given after so long an interval of years. It does +indeed seem that we must either apply this evidence of 1513 and 1515 to +a later visit, or else we must determine that there was great similarity +in some of the incidents of the two visits. + +The date of 1491, to which Harrisse pushes the incidents forward, +depends in part on the evidence of one Rodriguez Cobezudo that in 1513 +it was about twenty-two years since he had lent a mule to Juan Perez de +Marchena, when he went to Santa Fé from Rabida to interpose for +Columbus. The testimony of Garcia Fernandez is that this visit of +Marchena took place after Columbus had once been rebuffed at court, and +the words of the witness indicate that it was on that visit when Juan +Perez asked Columbus who he was and whence he came; showing, perhaps, +that it was the first time Perez had seen Columbus. Accordingly this, as +well as the mule story, points to 1491. But that the circumstances of +the visit which Garcia Fernandez recounts may have belonged to an +earlier visit, in part confounded after fifteen years with a later one, +may yet be not beyond a possibility. It is to be remembered that the +_Historie_ speaks of two visits, one later than that of 1484. It is not +easy to see that all the testimony which Harrisse introduced to make the +visit of 1491 the first and only visit of Columbus to the convent is +sufficient to do more than render the case probable. + +[Sidenote: 1486. Enters the service of Spain.] + +We determine the exact date of the entering of Columbus into the service +of Spain to be January 20, 1486, from a record of his in his journal on +shipboard under January 14, 1493, where he says that on the 20th of the +same month he would have been in their Highnesses' service just seven +years. We find almost as a matter of course other statements of his +which give somewhat different dates by deduction. Two statements of +Columbus agreeing would be a little suspicious. Certain payments on the +part of the Crowns of Castile and Aragon do not seem to have begun, +however, till the next year, or at least we have no earlier record of +such than one on May 5, 1487, and from that date on they were made at +not great intervals, till an interruption came, as will be later shown. + +[Sidenote: Changes his name to Colon.] + +In Spain the Christoforo Colombo of Genoa chose to call himself +Cristoval Colon, and the _Historie_ tells us that he sought merely to +make his descendants distinct of name from their remote kin. He argued +that the Roman name was Colonus, which readily was transformed to a +Spanish equivalent. Inasmuch as the Duke of Medina-Celi, who kept +Columbus in his house for two years during the early years of his +Spanish residence, calls him Colomo in 1493, and Oviedo calls him Colom, +it is a question if he chose the form of Colon before he became famous +by his voyage. + +[Sidenote: The Genoese in Spain.] + +The Genoese had been for a long period a privileged people in Spain, +dating such acceptance back to the time of St. Ferdinand. Navarrete has +instanced numerous confirmations of these early favors by successive +monarchs down to the time of Columbus. But neither this prestige of his +birthright nor the letter of Friar Perez had been sufficient to secure +in the busy camp at Cordoba any recognition of this otherwise unheralded +and humble suitor. The power of the sovereigns was overtaxed already in +the engrossing preparations which the Court and army were making for a +vigorous campaign against the Moors. The exigencies of the war carried +the sovereigns, sometimes together and at other times apart, from point +to point. Siege after siege was conducted, and Talavera, whose devotion +had been counted upon by Columbus, had too much to occupy his attention, +to give ear to propositions which at best he deemed chimerical. + +[Sidenote: Columbus in Cordoba.] + +We know in a vague way that while the Court was thus withdrawn from +Cordoba the disheartened wanderer remained in that city, supporting +himself, according to Bernaldez, in drafting charts and in selling +printed books, which Harrisse suspects may have been publications, such +as were then current, containing calendars and astronomical predictions, +like the _Lunarios_ of Granollach and Andrès de Li. + +[Sidenote: Makes acquaintances.] + +It was probably at this time, too, that he made the acquaintance of +Alonso de Quintanilla, the comptroller of the finances of Castile. He +attained some terms of friendship with Antonio Geraldini, the papal +nuncio, and his brother, Alexander Geraldini, the tutor of the royal +children. It is claimed that all these friends became interested in his +projects, and were advocates of them. + +[Sidenote: Writes out the proofs of a western land.] + +We are told by Las Casas that Columbus at one time gathered and placed +in order all the varied manifestations, as he conceived them, of some +such transatlantic region as his theory demanded; and it seems probable +that this task was done during a period of weary waiting in Cordoba. We +know nothing, however, of the manuscript except as Las Casas and the +_Historie_ have used its material, and through them some of the details +have been gleaned in the preceding chapter. + +[Sidenote: Mendoza.] + +These accessions of friends, aided doubtless by some such systemization +of the knowledge to be brought to the question as this lost manuscript +implies, opened the way to an acquaintance with Pedro Gonzales de +Mendoza, Archbishop of Toledo and Grand Cardinal of Spain. This prelate, +from the confidence which the sovereigns placed in him, was known in +Martyr's phrase as "the third king of Spain," and it could but be seen +by Columbus that his sympathies were essential to the success of plans +so far reaching as his own. The cardinal was gracious in his +intercourse, and by no means inaccessible to such a suitor as Columbus; +but he was educated in the exclusive spirit of the prevailing theology, +and he had a keen scent for anything that might be supposed heterodox. +It proved necessary for the thought of a spherical earth to rest some +time in his mind, till his ruminations could bring him to a perception +of the truths of science. + +[Sidenote: Gets the ear of Ferdinand for Columbus.] + +According to the reports which Oviedo gives us, the seed which Columbus +sowed, in his various talks with the cardinal, in due time germinated, +and the constant mentor of the sovereigns was at last brought to prepare +the way, so that Columbus could have a royal audience. Thus it was that +Columbus finally got the ear of Ferdinand, at Salamanca, whither the +monarchs had come for a winter's sojourn after the turmoils of a +summer's campaign against the Moors. + +[Sidenote: Characters of the sovereigns of Spain.] + +We cannot proceed farther in this narrative without understanding, in +the light of all the early and late evidence which we have, what kind of +beings these sovereigns of Aragon and Castile were, with whom Columbus +was to have so much intercourse in the years to come. Ferdinand and +Isabella, the wearers of the crowns of Aragon and Castile, were linked +in common interests, and their joint reign had augured a powerful, +because united, Spain. The student of their characters, as he works +among the documents of the time, cannot avoid the recognition of +qualities little calculated to satisfy demands for nobleness and +devotion which the world has learned to associate with royal +obligations. It may be possibly too much to say that habitually, but not +too much to assert that often, these Spanish monarchs were more ready at +perfidy and deceit than even an allowance for the teachings of their +time would permit. Often the student will find himself forced to grant +that the queen was more culpable in these respects than the king. An +anxious inquirer into the queen's ways is not quite sure that she was +able to distinguish between her own interests and those of God. The +documentary researches of Bergenroth have decidedly lowered her in the +judgments of those who have studied that investigator's results. We need +to plead the times for her, and we need to push the plea very far. + +[Sidenote: Isabella.] + +"Perhaps," says Helps, speaking of Isabella, "there is hardly any great +personage whose name and authority are found in connection with so much +that is strikingly evil, all of it done, or rather assented to, upon the +highest and purest motives." To palliate on such grounds is to believe +in the irresponsibility of motives, which should transcend times and +occasions. + +She is not, however, without loyal adulators of her own time and race. + +We read in Oviedo of her splendid soul. Peter Martyr found commendations +of ordinary humanity not enough for her. Those nearest her person spoke +as admiringly. It is the fortune, however, of a historical student, who +lies beyond the influence of personal favor, to read in archives her +most secret professions, and to gauge the innermost wishes of a soul +which was carefully posed before her contemporaries. It is mirrored +to-day in a thousand revealing lenses that were not to be seen by her +contemporaries. Irving and Prescott simply fall into the adulation of +her servitors, and make her confessors responsible for her acquiescence +in the expulsion of the Jews and in the horrors of the Inquisition. + +[Sidenote: Ferdinand.] + +The king, perhaps, was good enough for a king as such personages went in +the fifteenth century; but his smiles and remorseless coldness were +mixed as few could mix them, even in those days. If the Pope regarded +him from Italy, that Holy Father called him pious. The modern student +finds him a bigot. His subjects thought him great and glorious, but they +did not see his dispatches, nor know his sometimes baleful domination in +his cabinet. The French would not trust him. The English watched his +ambition. The Moors knew him as their conqueror. The Jews fled before +his evil eye. The miserable saw him in his inquisitors. All this +pleased the Pope, and the papal will made him in preferred phrase His +Most Catholic Majesty,--a phrase that rings in diplomatic formalities +to-day. + +Every purpose upon which he had set his heart was apt to blind him to +aught else, and at times very conveniently so. We may allow that it is +precisely this single mind which makes a conspicuous name in history; +but conspicuousness and justness do not always march with a locked step. + +He had, of course, virtues that shone when the sun shone. He could be +equable. He knew how to work steadily, to eat moderately, and to dress +simply. He was enterprising in his actions, as the Moors and heretics +found out. He did not extort money; he only extorted agonized +confessions. He said masses, and prayed equally well for God's +benediction on evil as on good things. He made promises, and then got +the papal dispensation to break them. He juggled in state policy as his +mind changed, and he worked his craft very readily. Machiavelli would +have liked this in him, and indeed he was a good scholar of an existing +school, which counted the act of outwitting better than the arts of +honesty; and perhaps the world is not loftier in the purposes of +statecraft to-day. He got people to admire him, but few to love him. + +[Sidenote: Columbus's views considered by Talavera and others.] + +[Sidenote: At Salamanca.] + +The result of an audience with the king was that the projects of +Columbus were committed to Talavera, to be laid by him before such a +body of wise men as the prior could gather in council. Las Casas says +that the consideration of the plans was entrusted to "certain persons of +the Court," and he enumerates Cardinal Mendoza, Diego de Deza, Alonso de +Cardenas, and Juan Cabrero, the royal chamberlain. The meeting was +seemingly held in the winter of 1486-87. The Catholic writers accuse +Irving, and apparently with right, of an unwarranted assumption of the +importance of what he calls the Council at Salamanca, and they find he +has no authority for it, except a writer one hundred and twenty years +after the event, who mentions the matter but incidentally. This source +was Remesal's _Historia de Chyapa_ (Madrid, 1619), an account of one of +the Mexican provinces. There seems no reason to suppose that at best it +was anything more than some informal conference of Talavera with a few +councilors, and in no way associated with the prestige of the university +at Salamanca. The registers of the university, which begin back of the +assigned date for such Council, have been examined in vain for any +reference to it. + +[Illustration: UNIVERSITY OF SALAMANCA. + +[_España_, p. 132]] + + +[Illustration: MONUMENT TO COLUMBUS ERECTED AT GENOA, 1862.] + +The "Junta of Salamanca" has passed into history as a convocation of +considerable extent and importance, and a representation of it is made +to adorn one of the bas-reliefs of the Admiral's monument at Genoa. We +have, however, absolutely no documentary records of it. Of whatever +moment it may have been, if the problem as Columbus would have presented +it had been discussed, the reports, if preserved, could have thrown +much light upon the relations which the cosmographical views of its +principal character bore to the opinions then prevailing in learned +circles of Spain. We know what the _Historie_, Bernaldez, and Las Casas +tell us of Columbus's advocacy, but we must regret the loss of his own +language and his own way of explaining himself to these learned men. +Such a paper would serve a purpose of showing how, in this period of +courageous and ardent insistence on a physical truth, he stood manfully +for the light that was in him; and it would afford a needed foil to +those pitiful aberrations of intellect which, in the years following, +took possession of him, and which were so constantly reiterated with +painful and maundering wailing. + +[Sidenote: Find favor with Deza.] + +Discarding, then, the array of argument which Irving borrows from +Remesal, and barely associating a little conference, in which Columbus +is a central figure, with that St. Stephen's convent whose wondrous +petrifactions of creamy and reticulated stone still hold the admiring +traveler, we must accept nothing more about its meetings than the scant +testimony which has come down to us. It is pleasant to think how it was +here that the active interest which Diego de Deza, a Dominican friar, +finally took in the cause of Columbus may have had its beginning; but +the extent of our positive knowledge regarding the meeting is the +deposition of Rodriguez de Maldonado, who simply says that several +learned men and mariners, hearing the arguments of Columbus, decided +they could not be true, or at least a majority so decided, and that this +testimony against Columbus had no effect to convince him of his errors. +This is all that the "Junta of Salamanca" meant. A minority of unknown +size favored the advocate. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: 1487. The Court at Cordoba.] + +[Sidenote: Malaga surrenders, 1487.] + +When the spring of 1487 came, and the court departed to Cordoba, and +began to make preparations for the campaign against Malaga, there was no +hope that the considerations which had begun in the learned sessions at +Salamanca would be followed up. Columbus seems to have journeyed after +the Court in its migrations: sometimes lured by pittances doled out to +him by the royal treasurer; sometimes getting pecuniary assistance from +his new friend, Diego de Deza; selling now and then a map that he had +made, it may be; and accepting hospitality where he could get it, from +such as Alonso de Quintanilla. In these wandering days, he was for a +while, at least, in attendance on the Court, then surrounded with +military parade, before the Moorish stronghold at Malaga. The town +surrendered on August 18, 1487, and the Court then returned to Cordoba. + +[Illustration: SPAIN, 1482. + +[From the _Ptolemy_ of 1482.]] + +[Sidenote: 1487. Intimacy of Columbus with Beatrix Enriquez.] + +[Sidenote: Ferdinand Columbus born, 1488.] + +It was in the autumn of 1487, at Cordoba, that Columbus fell into such +an intimacy as spousehood only can sanction with a person of good +condition as to birth, but poor in the world's goods. Whether this +relation had the sanction of the Church or not has been a subject of +much inquiry and opinion. The class of French writers, who are aiming to +secure the canonization of Columbus, have found it essential to clear +the moral character of Columbus from every taint, and they confidently +assert, and doubtless think they show, that nothing but conjugal right +is manifest in this connection,--a question which the Church will in due +time have to decide, if it ever brings itself to the recognition of the +saintly character of the great discoverer. Even the ardent supporters of +the cause of beatification are forced to admit that there is no record +of such a marriage. No contemporary recognition of such a relation is +evinced by any family ceremonies of baptism or the like, and there is no +mention of a wife in all the transactions of the crowning endeavors of +his life. As viceroy, at a later day, he constantly appears with no +attendant vice-queen. She is absolutely out of sight until Columbus +makes a significant reference to her in his last will, when he +recommends this Beatrix Enriquez to his lawful son Diego; saying that +she is a person to whom the testator had been under great obligations, +and that his conscience is burdened respecting her, for a reason which +he does not then think fitting to explain. This testamentary behest and +acknowledgment, in connection with other manifestations, and the absence +of proof to the contrary, has caused the belief to be general among his +biographers, early and late, that the fruit of this intimacy, Ferdinand +Columbus, was an illegitimate offspring. He was born, as near as can be +made out, on the 15th of August, 1488. The mother very likely received +for a while some consolation from her lover, but Columbus did not +apparently carry her to Seville, when he went there himself; and the +support which he gave her was not altogether regularly afforded, and was +never of the quality which he asked Diego to grant to her when he died. +She unquestionably survived the making of Diego's will in 1523, and then +she fades into oblivion. Her son, Ferdinand, if he is the author of the +_Historie_, makes no mention of a marriage to his mother, though he is +careful to record the one which was indisputably legal, and whose fruit +was Diego, the Admiral's successor. The lawful son was directed by +Columbus, when starting on his third voyage, to pay to Beatrix ten +thousand maravedis a year; but he seems to have neglected to do so for +the last three or four years of her life. Diego finally ordered these +arrears to be paid to her heirs. Las Casas distinctly speaks of +Ferdinand as a natural son, and Las Casas had the best of opportunities +for knowing whereof he wrote. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: Columbus sends his brother to England.] + +[Sidenote: Relations of England to the views of Columbus.] + +While all this suspense and amorous intrigue were perplexing the ardent +theorist, he is supposed to have dispatched his brother Bartholomew to +England to disclose his projects to Henry VII. Hakluyt, in his _Westerne +Planting_, tells us that it "made much for the title of the kings of +England" to the New World that Henry VII. gave a ready acceptance to the +theory of Columbus as set forth somewhat tardily by his brother +Bartholomew, when escaping from the detention of the pirates, he was at +last able, on February 13, 1488, to offer in England his sea-card, +embodying Christopher's theories, for the royal consideration. + +[Sidenote: The Cabots in England.] + +William Castell, in his _Short Discovery of America_, says that Henry +VII. "unhappily refused to be at any charge in the discovery, supposing +the learned Columbus to build castles in the air." It is a common story +that Henry finally brought himself to accede to the importunities of +Bartholomew, but only at a late day, and after Christopher had effected +his conquest of the Spanish Court. Columbus himself is credited with +saying that Henry actually wrote him a letter of acceptance. This +epistle was very likely a fruition of the new impulses to oceanic +discovery which the presence, a little later, of the Venetian Cabots, +was making current among the English sailors; for John Cabot and his +sons, one of whom, Sebastian, being at that time a youth of sixteen or +seventeen, had, according to the best testimony, established a home in +Bristol, not far from 1490. + +If the report of the Spanish envoy in England to his sovereigns is +correct as to dates, it was near this time that the Bristol merchants +were renewing their quests oceanward for the islands of Brazil and the +Seven Cities. We have seen that these islands with others had for some +time appeared on the conjectural charts of the Atlantic, and very likely +they had appeared on the sea-card shown by Bartholomew Columbus to Henry +VII. These efforts may perhaps have been in a measure instigated by that +fact. At all events, any hazards of further western exploration could be +met with greater heart if such stations of progress could be found in +mid ocean. Of the report of all this which Bartholomew may have made to +his brother we know absolutely nothing, and he seems not to have +returned to Spain till after a sojourn in France which ended in 1494. + +[Sidenote: Columbus invited back to Portugal.] + +It was believed by Irving that Columbus, having opened a correspondence +with the Portuguese king respecting a return to the service of that +country, had received from that monarch an epistle, dated March 20, +1488, in which he was permitted to come back, with the offer of +protection against any suit of civil or criminal nature, and that this +had been declined. We are left to conjecture of what suits of either +kind he could have been apprehensive. + +Humboldt commends the sagacity of Navarrete in discerning that it was +not so much the persuasion of Diego de Deza which kept Columbus at this +time from accepting such royal offers, as the illicit connection which +he had formed in Cordoba with Doña Beatrix Enriquez, who before the +summer was over had given birth to a son. + +On the other hand, that the permission was not neglected seems proved by +a memorandum made by Columbus's own hand in a copy of Pierre d'Ailly's +_Imago Mundi_, preserved in the Biblioteca Colombina at Seville, where, +under date of December, 1488, "at Lisbon," he speaks of the return of +Diaz from his voyage to the Cape of Good Hope. This proof is indeed +subject to the qualification that Las Casas has considered the +handwriting of the note to be that of Bartholomew Columbus, but Harrisse +has no question of its identity with the chirography of Columbus. This +last critic ventures the conjecture that it was in some way to settle +the estate of his wife that Columbus at this time visited Portugal. + +[Sidenote: Spanish subsidies withheld.] + +Columbus had ceased to receive the Spanish subsidies in June, 1488, or +at least we know no record of any later largess. Ferdinand was born to +him in August. It was very likely subsequent to this last event +that Columbus crossed the Spanish frontier into Portugal, if Harrisse's +view of his crossing at all be accepted. His stay was without doubt a +short one, and from 1489 to 1492 there is every indication that he never +left the Spanish kingdom. + +[Sidenote: Duke of Medina-Celi harbors Columbus.] + +We know on the testimony of a letter of Luis de la Cerda, the Duke of +Medina-Celi, given in Navarrete, that for two years after the arrival of +Columbus from Portugal he had been a guest under the duke's roof in +Cogulludo, and it seems to Harrisse probable that this gracious help on +the part of the duke was bestowed after the return to Spain. All that we +know with certainty of its date is that it occurred before the first +voyage, the duke himself mentioning it in a letter of March 19, 1493. + +[Sidenote: 1489. Columbus ordered to Cordoba.] + +It was not till May, 1489, when the court was again at Cordoba, +according to Diego Ortiz de Zuñiga, in his work on Seville, that the +sovereigns were gracious enough to order Columbus to appear there, when +they furnished him lodgings. They also, perhaps, at the same time, +issued a general order, dated at Cordoba May 12, in which all cities and +towns were directed to furnish suitable accommodations to Columbus and +his attendants, inasmuch as he was journeying in the royal service. + +[Sidenote: Columbus at the siege of Baza.] + +[Sidenote: Friars from the Holy Sepulchre.] + +The year 1489 was a hazardous but fruitful one. The sovereigns were +pushing vigorously their conquest of the Moor. Isabella herself attended +the army, and may have appeared in the beleaguering lines about Baza, in +one of those suits of armor which are still shown to travelers. Zuñiga +says that Columbus arrayed himself among the combatants, and was +doubtless acquainted with the mission of two friars who had been +guardians of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem. These priests arrived +during the siege, bringing a message from the Grand Soldan of Egypt, in +which that potentate threatened to destroy all Christians within his +grasp, unless the war against Granada should be stopped. The point of +driving the Moors from Spain was too nearly reached for such a threat to +be effective, and Isabella decreed the annual payment of a thousand +ducats to support the faithful custodians of the Sepulchre, and sent a +veil embroidered with her own hand to decorate the shrine. Irving traces +to this circumstance the impulse, which Columbus frequently in later +days showed, to devote the anticipated wealth of the Indies to a crusade +in Palestine, to recover and protect the Holy Sepulchre. + +[Sidenote: Boabdil surrenders, December 22, 1489.] + +[Sidenote: Columbus's views again considered.] + +The campaign closed with the surrender on December 22 of the fortress of +Baza, when Spain received from Muley Boabdil, the elder of the rival +Moorish kings, all the territory which he claimed to have in his power. +In February, 1490, Ferdinand and Isabella entered Seville in triumph, +and a season of hilarity and splendor followed, signalized in the spring +by the celebration with great jubilation of the marriage of the Princess +Isabella with Don Alonzo, the heir to the crown of Portugal. These +engrossing scenes were little suited to give Columbus a chance to press +his projects on the Court. He soon found nothing could be done to get +the farther attention of the monarchs till some respites occurred in the +preparations for their final campaign against the younger Moorish king. +It was at this time, as Irving and others have conjectured, that the +consideration of the project of a western passage, which had been +dropped when events moved the Court from Salamanca, was again taken up +by such investigators as Talavera had summoned, and again the result was +an adverse decision. This determination was communicated by Talavera +himself to the sovereign, and it was accompanied by the opinion that it +did not become great princes to engage in such chimerical undertakings. + +[Sidenote: Deza impressed.] + +[Sidenote: Delays.] + +It is supposed, however, that the decision was not reached without some +reservation in the minds of certain of the reviewers, and that +especially this was the case with Diego de Deza, who showed that the +stress of the arguments advanced by Columbus had not been without +result. This friar was tutor to Prince Juan, and it was not difficult +for him to modify the emphatic denial of the judges. It was the pride of +those who later erected the tombstone of Deza, in the cathedral at +Seville, to inscribe upon it that he was the generous and faithful +patron of Columbus. A temporizing policy was, therefore, adopted by the +monarchs, and Columbus was informed that for the present the perils and +expenses of the war called for an undivided attention, and that further +consideration of his project must be deferred till the war was over. It +was at Cordoba that this decision reached Columbus. + +[Sidenote: Columbus goes to Seville; but is repelled.] + +In his eagerness of hope he suspected that the judgment had received +some adverse color in passing through Talavera's mind, and so he +hastened to Seville, but only to meet the same chilling repulse from the +monarchs themselves. With dashed expectations he left the city, feeling +that the instrumentality of Talavera, as Peter Martyr tells us, had +turned the sovereigns against him. + +[Illustration: CATHEDRAL OF SEVILLE. + +[From Parcerisa and Quadrado's _España_.]] + +[Illustration: CATHEDRAL OF CORDOBA. + +[From Parcerisa and Quadrado's _España_.]] + +[Sidenote: Seeks the grandees of Spain.] + +[Sidenote: Medina-Sidonia and Medina-Celi.] + +Columbus now sought to engage the attention of some of the powerful +grandees of Spain, who, though subjects, were almost autocratic in their +own regions, serving the Crown not so much as vassals as sympathetic +helpers in its wars. They were depended upon to recruit the armies from +their own trains and dependents; money came from their chests, +provisions from their estates, and ships from their own marine; their +landed patrimonies, indeed, covered long stretches of the coast, whose +harbors sheltered their considerable navies. Such were the dukes of +Medina-Sidonia and Medina-Celi. Columbus found in them, however, the +same wariness which he had experienced at the greater court. There was a +willingness to listen; they found some lures in the great hopes of +Eastern wealth which animated Columbus, but in the end there was the +same disappointment. One of them, the Duke of Medina-Celi, at last +adroitly parried the importunities of Columbus, by averring that the +project deserved the royal patronage rather than his meaner aid. He, +however, told the suitor, if a farther application should be made to the +Crown at some more opportune moment, he would labor with the queen in +its behalf. The duke kept his word, and we get much of what we know of +his interest in Columbus from the information given by one of the duke's +household to Las Casas. This differs so far as to make the duke, perhaps +as Harrisse thinks in the spring of 1491, actually fit out some caravels +for the use of Columbus; but when seeking a royal license, he was +informed that the queen had determined to embark in the enterprise +herself. Such a decision seems to carry this part of the story, at +least, forward to a time when Columbus was summoned from Rabida. + +[Sidenote: Columbus at Rabida.] + +A consultation which now took place at the convent of Rabida affords +particulars which the historians have found difficulty, as already +stated, in keeping distinct from those of an earlier visit, if there was +such. Columbus, according to the usual story, visited the convent +apparently in October or November, 1491, with the purpose of reclaiming +his son Diego, and taking him to Cordoba, where he might be left with +Ferdinand in the charge of the latter's mother. Columbus himself +intended to pass to France, to see if a letter, which had been received +from the king of France, might possibly open the way to the fulfillment +of his great hopes. It is represented that it was this expressed +intention of abandoning Spain which aroused the patriotism of Marchena, +who undertook to prevent the sacrifice. + +[Sidenote: Marchena encourages him.] + +[Sidenote: Talks with Pinzon.] + +We derive what we know of his method of prevention from the testimony of +Garcia Fernandez, the physician of Palos, who has been cited in respect +to the alleged earlier visit. This witness says that he was summoned to +Rabida to confer with Columbus. It is also made a part of the story that +the head of a family of famous navigators in Palos, Martin Alonso +Pinzon, was likewise drawn into the little company assembled by the +friar to consider the new situation. Pinzon readily gave his adherence +to the views of Columbus. It is claimed, however, that the presence of +Pinzon is disproved by documents showing him to have been in Rome at +this time. + +[Sidenote: Cousin's alleged voyage, 1488,] + +[Sidenote: and Pinzon's supposed connection with it.] + +An alleged voyage of Jean Cousin, in 1488, two years and more before +this, from Dieppe to the coast of Brazil, is here brought in by certain +French writers, like Estancelin and Gaffarel, as throwing some light on +the intercourse of Columbus and Pinzon, later if not now. It must be +acknowledged that few other than French writers have credited the voyage +at all. Major, who gave the story careful examination, utterly +discredits it. It is a part of the story that one Pinzon, a Castilian, +accompanied Cousin as a pilot, and this man is identified by these +French writers as the navigator who is now represented as yielding a +ready credence to the views of Columbus, and for the reason that he knew +more than he openly professed. They find in the later intercourse of +Columbus and this Pinzon certain evidence of the estimation in which +Columbus seemed to hold the practiced judgment, if not the knowledge, of +Pinzon. This they think conspicuous in the yielding which Columbus made +to Pinzon's opinion during Columbus's first voyage, in changing his +course to the southwest, which is taken to have been due to a knowledge +of Pinzon's former experience in passing those seas in 1488. They trace +to it the confidence of Pinzon in separating from the Admiral on the +coast of Cuba, and in his seeking to anticipate Columbus by an earlier +arrival at Palos, on the return, as the reader will later learn. Thus it +is ingeniously claimed that the pilot of Cousin and colleague of +Columbus were one and the same person. It has hardly convinced other +students than the French. When the Pinzon of the "Pinta" at a later day +was striving to discredit the leadership of Columbus, in the famous +suit of the Admiral's heirs, he could hardly, for any reason which the +French writers aver, have neglected so important a piece of evidence as +the fact of the Cousin voyage and his connection with it, if there had +been any truth in it. + +[Sidenote: Pinzon aids Columbus,] + +So we must be content, it is pretty clear, in charging Pinzon's +conversion to the views of Columbus at Rabida upon the efficacy of +Columbus's arguments. This success of Columbus brought some substantial +fruit in the promise which Pinzon now made to bear the expenses of a +renewed suit to Ferdinand and Isabella. + +[Sidenote: and Rodriguez goes to Santa Fé, with a letter to the queen.] + +[Sidenote: Marchena follows.] + +[Sidenote: The queen invites Columbus once more.] + +A conclusion to the deliberation of this little circle in the convent +was soon reached. Columbus threw his cause into the hands of his +friends, and agreed to rest quietly in the convent while they pressed +his claims. Perez wrote a letter of supplication to the Queen, and it +was dispatched by a respectable navigator of the neighborhood, Sebastian +Rodriguez. He found the Queen in the city of Santa Fé, which had grown +up in the military surroundings before the city of Granada, whose siege +the Spanish armies were then pressing. The epistle was opportune, for it +reënforced one which she had already received from the Duke of +Medina-Celi, who had been faithful to his promise to Columbus, and who, +judging from a letter which he wrote at a later day, March 19, 1493, +took to himself not a little credit that he had thus been instrumental, +as he thought, in preventing Columbus throwing himself into the service +of France. The result was that the pilot took back to Rabida an +intimation to Marchena that his presence would be welcome at Santa Fé. +So mounting his mule, after midnight, fourteen days after Rodriguez had +departed, the friar followed the pilot's tracks, which took him through +some of the regions already conquered from the Moors, and, reaching the +Court, presented himself before the Queen. Perez is said to have found a +seconder in Luis de Santangel, a fiscal officer of Aragon, and in the +Marchioness of Moya, one of the ladies of the household. The friar is +thought to have urged his petition so strongly that the Queen, who had +all along been more open to the representations of Columbus than +Ferdinand had been, finally determined to listen once more to the +Genoese's appeals. + +[Sidenote: Columbus reaches Santa Fé, December, 1491.] + +[Sidenote: Quintanilla and Mendoza.] + +Learning of the poor plight of Columbus, she ordered a gratuity to be +sent to him, to restore his wardrobe and to furnish himself with the +conveniences of the journey. Perez, having borne back the happy news, +again returned to the Court, with Columbus under his protection. Thus +once more buoyed in hope, and suitably arrayed for appearing at Court, +Columbus, on his mule, early in December, 1491, rode into the camp at +Santa Fé, where he was received and provided with lodgings by the +accountant-general. This officer was one whom he had occasion happily to +remember, Alonso de Quintanilla, through whose offices it was, in the +end, that the Grand Cardinal of Spain, Mendoza, was at this time brought +into sympathy with the Genoese aspirant. + +[Sidenote: Boabdil the younger submits.] + +[Sidenote: The Moorish wars end.] + +Military events were still too imposing, however, for any immediate +attention to his projects, and he looked on with admiration and a +reserved expectancy, while the grand parade of the final submission of +Boabdil the younger, the last of the Moorish kings, took place, and a +long procession of the magnificence of Spain moved forward from the +beleaguering camp to receive the keys of the Alhambra. Wars succeeding +wars for nearly eight centuries had now come to an end. The Christian +banner of Spain floated over the Moorish palace. The kingdom was alive +in all its provinces. Congratulation and jubilation, with glitter and +vauntings, pervaded the air. + +[Sidenote: Talavera and Columbus.] + +Few observed the humble Genoese who stood waiting the sovereigns' +pleasure during all this tumult of joy; but he was not forgotten. They +remembered, as he did, the promise given him at Seville. The war was +over, and the time was come. Talavera had by this time gone so far +towards an appreciation of Columbus's views that Peter Martyr tells him, +at a later day, that the project would not have succeeded without him. +He was directed to confer with the expectant dreamer, and Cardinal +Mendoza became prominent in the negotiations. + +Columbus's position was thus changed. He had been a suitor. He was now +sought. He had been persuaded from his purposed visit to France, in +order that he might by his plans rehabilitate Spain with a new glory, +complemental to her martial pride. This view as presented by Perez to +Isabella had been accepted, and Columbus was summoned to present his +case. + +[Sidenote: The mistake of Columbus.] + +Here, when he seemed at last to be on the verge of success, the poor +man, unused to good fortune, and mistaking its token, repeated the +mistake which had driven him an outcast from Portugal. His arrogant +spirit led him to magnify his importance before he had proved it; and he +failed in the modesty which marks a conquering spirit. + +True science places no gratulations higher than those of its own +conscience. Copernicus was at this moment delving into the secrets of +nature like a nobleman of the universe. So he stands for all time in +lofty contrast to the plebeian nature and sordid cravings of his +contemporary. + +[Sidenote: His pretensions.] + +When, at the very outset of the negotiations, Talavera found this +uplifted suitor making demands that belonged rather to proved success +than to a contingent one, there was little prospect of accommodation, +unless one side or the other should abandon its position. If Columbus's +own words count for anything, he was conscious of being a +laughing-stock, while he was making claims for office and emoluments +that would mortgage the power of a kingdom. A dramatic instinct has in +many minds saved Columbus from the critical estimate of such +presumption. Irving and the French canonizers dwell on what strikes them +as constancy of purpose and loftiness of spirit. They marvel that +poverty, neglect, ridicule, contumely, and disappointment had not +dwarfed his spirit. This is the vulgar liking for the hero who is +without heroism, and the martyr who makes a trade of it. The honest +historian has another purpose. He tries to gauge pretense by wisdom. +Columbus was indeed to succeed; but his success was an error in +geography, and a failure in policy and in morals. The Crown was yet to +succumb; but its submission was to entail miseries upon Columbus and his +line, and a reproach upon Spain. The outcome to Columbus and to Spain is +the direst comment of all. + +Columbus would not abate one jot of his pretensions, and an end was put +to the negotiations. Making up his mind to carry his suit to France, he +left Cordoba on his mule, in the beginning of February, 1492. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE FINAL AGREEMENT AND THE FIRST VOYAGE, 1492. + + +[Sidenote: Columbus leaves the Court.] + +Columbus, a disheartened wanderer, with his back turned on the Spanish +Court, his mule plodding the road to Cordoba, offered a sad picture to +the few adherents whom he had left behind. They had grown to have his +grasp of confidence, but lacked his spirit to clothe an experimental +service with all the certainties of an accomplished fact. + +[Sidenote: The Queen relents.] + +The sight of the departing theorist abandoning the country, and going to +seek countenance at rival courts, stirred the Spanish pride. He and his +friends had, in mutual counsels, pictured the realms of the Indies made +tributary to the Spanish fame. It was this conception of a chance so +near fruition, and now vanishing, that moved Luis de Santangel and +Alonso de Quintanilla to determine on one last effort. They immediately +sought the Queen. In an audience the two advocates presented the case +anew, appealing to the royal ambition, to the opportunity of spreading +her holy religion, to the occasions of replenishing her treasure-chests, +emptied by the war, and to every other impulse, whether of pride or +patriotism. The trivial cost and risk were contrasted with the glowing +possibilities. They repeated the offer of Columbus to share an eighth of +the expense. They pictured her caravels, fitted out at a cost of not +more than 3,000,000 crowns, bearing the banner of Spain to these regions +of opulence. The vision, once fixed in the royal eye, spread under their +warmth of description, into succeeding glimpses of increasing splendor. +Finally the warmth and glory of an almost realized expectancy filled the +Queen's cabinet. + +The conquest was made. The royal companion, the Marchioness of Moya, saw +and encouraged the kindling enthusiasm of Isabella; but a shade came +over the Queen's face. The others knew it was the thought of Ferdinand's +aloofness. The warrior of Aragon, with new conquests to regulate, with +a treasury drained almost to the last penny, would have little heart for +an undertaking in which his enthusiasm, if existing at all, had always +been dull as compared with hers. She solved the difficulty in a flash. +The voyage shall be the venture of Castile alone, and it shall be +undertaken. + +[Sidenote: Columbus brought back.] + +Orders were at once given for a messenger to overtake Columbus. A +horseman came up with him at the bridge of Pinòs, two leagues from +Granada. There was a moment's hesitancy, as thoughts of cruelly +protracted and suspended feelings in the past came over him. His +decision, however, was not stayed. He turned his mule, and journeyed +back to the city. Columbus was sought once more, and in a way to give +him the vantage which his imperious demands could easily use. + +The interview with the Queen which followed removed all doubt of his +complete ascendency. Ferdinand in turn yielded to the persuasions of his +chamberlain, Juan Cabrero, and to the supplications of Isabella; but he +succumbed without faith, if the story which is told of him in relation +to the demand for similar concessions made twenty years later by Ponce +de Leon is to be believed. "Ah," said Ferdinand, to the discoverer of +Florida, "it is one thing to give a stretch of power when no one +anticipates the exercise of it; but we have learned something since +then; you will succeed, and it is another thing to give such power to +you." This story goes a great way to explain the later efforts of the +Crown to counteract the power which was, in the flush of excitement, +unwittingly given to the new Admiral. + +[Sidenote: The Queen's jewels.] + +The ensuing days were devoted to the arrangement of details. The usual +story, derived from the _Historie_, is that the Queen offered to pawn +her jewels, as her treasury of Castile could hardly furnish the small +sum required; but Harrisse is led to believe that the exigencies of the +war had already required this sacrifice of the Queen, though the +documentary evidence is wanting. Santangel, however, interposed. As +treasurer of the ecclesiastical revenues in Aragon, he was able to show +that while Isabella was foremost in promoting the enterprise, Ferdinand +could join her in a loan from these coffers; and so it was that the +necessary funds were, in reality, paid in the end from the revenues of +Aragon. This is the common story, enlarged by later writers upon the +narrative in Las Casas; but Harrisse finds no warrant for it, and judges +the advance of funds to have been by Santangel from his private +revenues, and in the interests of Castile only. And this seems to be +proved by the invariable exclusion of Ferdinand's subjects from +participating in the advantages of trade in the new lands, unless an +exception was made for some signal service. This rule, indeed, +prevailed, even after Ferdinand began to reign alone. + +[Sidenote: Aims of the expedition.] + +[Sidenote: End of the world approaching.] + +There is something quite as amusing as edifying in the ostensible +purposes of all this endeavor. To tap the resources of the luxuriant +East might be gratifying, but it was holy to conceive that the energies +of the undertaking were going to fill the treasury out of which a new +crusade for the rescue of the Holy Sepulchre could be sustained. The +pearls and spices of the Orient, the gold and precious jewels of its +mines, might conduce to the gorgeous and luxurious display of the +throne, but there was a noble condescension in giving Columbus a +gracious letter to the Great Khan, and in hoping to seduce his subjects +to the sway of a religion that allowed to the heathen no rights but +conversion. There was at least a century and a half of such holy +endeavors left for the ministrants of the church, as was believed, since +the seven thousand years of the earth's duration was within one hundred +and fifty-five years of its close, as the calculations of King Alonso +showed. Columbus had been further drawn to these conclusions from his +study of that conglomerating cardinal, Pierre d'Ailly, whose works, in a +full edition, had been at this time only a few months in the book +stalls. Humboldt has gone into an examination of the data to show that +Columbus's calculation was singularly inexact; but the labor of +verification seems hardly necessary, except as a curious study of +absurdities. Columbus's career has too many such to detain us on any +one. + +[Sidenote: 1492. April 17. Agreement with Columbus.] + +On April 17, 1492, the King and Queen signed at Santa Fé and delivered +to Columbus a passport to all persons in unknown parts, commending the +Admiral to their friendship. This paper is preserved in Barcelona. On +the same day the monarchs agreed to the conditions of a document which +was drawn by the royal secretary, Juan de Coloma, and is preserved +among the papers of the Duke of Veragua. It was printed from that copy +by Navarrete, and is again printed by Bergenroth as found at Barcelona. +As formulated in English by Irving, its purport is as follows:-- + + +1. That Columbus should have for himself during his life, and for his +heirs and successors forever, the office of Admiral in all the lands and +continents which he might discover or acquire in the ocean, with similar +honors and prerogatives to those enjoyed by the high admiral of Castile +in his district. + +2. That he should be viceroy and governor-general over all the said +lands and continents, with the privilege of nominating three candidates +for the government of each island or province, one of whom should be +selected by the sovereigns. + +3. That he should be entitled to reserve for himself one tenth of all +pearls, precious stones, gold, silver, spices, and all other articles of +merchandises, in whatever manner found, bought, bartered, or gained +within his admiralty, the costs being first deducted. + +4. That he or his lieutenant should be the sole judge in all causes or +disputes arising out of traffic between those countries and Spain, +provided the high admiral of Castile had similar jurisdiction in his +district. + +5. That he might then and at all after times contribute an eighth part +of the expense in fitting out vessels to sail on this enterprise, and +receive an eighth part of the profits. + + +[Sidenote: 1492. April 30. Colummbus allowed to use the prefix Don.] + +These capitulations were followed on the 30th of April by a commission +which the sovereigns signed at Granada, in which it was further granted +that the Admiral and his heirs should use the prefix Don. + +[Sidenote: Arranges his domestic affairs.] + +It is supposed he now gave some heed to his domestic concerns. We know +nothing, however, of any provision for the lonely Beatrix, but it is +said that he placed his boy Ferdinand, then but four years of age, at +school in Cordoba near his mother. He left his lawful son, Diego, well +provided for through an appointment by the Queen, on May 8, which made +him page to Prince Juan, the heir apparent. + +[Sidenote: 1492. May. Reaches Palos.] + +Columbus himself tells us that he then left Granada on the 12th of May, +1492, and went direct to Palos; stopping, however, on the way at Rabida, +to exchange congratulations with its friar, Juan Perez, if indeed he did +not lodge at the convent during his stay in the seaport. + +[Sidenote: Palos described.] + +Palos to-day consists of a double street of lowly, whitened houses, in a +depression among the hills. The guides point out the ruins of a larger +house, which was the home of the Pinzons. The Moorish mosque, converted +into St. George's church in Columbus's day, still stands on the hill, +just outside the village, with an image of St. George and the dragon +over its high altar, just as Columbus saw it, while above the church are +existing ruins of an old Moorish castle. + +[Sidenote: Ships fitted out.] + +The story which Las Casas has told of the fitting out of the vessels +does not agree in some leading particulars with that which Navarrete +holds to be more safely drawn from the documents which he has published. +The fact seems to be that two of the vessels of Columbus were not +constructed by the Duke of Medina-Sidonia, and later bought by the +Queen, as Las Casas says; but, it happening that the town of Palos, in +consequence of some offense to the royal dignity, had been mulcted in +the service of two armed caravels for twelve months, the opportunity was +now taken by royal order, dated April 30, 1492, of assigning this +service of crews and vessels to Columbus's fateful expedition. + +[Sidenote: The Pinzons aid him.] + +The royal command had also provided that Columbus might add a third +vessel, which he did with the aid, it is supposed, of the Pinzons, +though there is no documentary proof to show whence he acquired the +necessary means. Las Casas and Herrera, however, favor the supposition, +and it is of course sustained in the evidence adduced in the famous +trial which was intended to magnify the service of the Pinzons. It was +also directed that the seamen of the little fleet should receive the +usual wages of those serving in armed vessels, and be paid four months +in advance. All maritime towns were enjoined to furnish supplies at a +reasonable price. All criminal processes against anybody engaged for the +voyage were to be suspended, and this suspension was to last for two +months after the return. + +[Sidenote: 1492. May 23. Demands two ships of Palos.] + +[Sidenote: 1492. June 20. Vessels and crews impressed.] + +[Sidenote: The Pinzons.] + +It was on the 23d of May that, accompanied by Juan Perez, Columbus met +the people of Palos assembled in the church of St. George, while a +notary read the royal commands laid upon the town. It took a little time +for the simple people to divine the full extent of such an order,--its +consignment of fellow-creatures to the dreaded evils of the great +unknown ocean. The reluctance to enter upon the undertaking proved so +great, except among a few prisoners taken from the jails, that it became +necessary to report the obstacle to the Court, when a new peremptory +order was issued on June 20 to impress the vessels and crews. Juan de +Peñalosa, an officer of the royal household, appeared in Palos to +enforce this demand. Even such imperative measures availed little, and +it was not till Martin Alonso Pinzon came forward, and either by an +agreement to divide with Columbus the profits, or through some other +understanding,--for the testimony on the point is doubtful, and Las +Casas disbelieves any such division of profits,--exerted his influence, +in which he was aided by his brother, also a navigator, Vicente Yañez +Pinzon. There is a story traceable to a son of the elder Pinzon, who +testified in the Columbus lawsuit that Martin Alonso had at one time +become convinced of the existence of western lands from some documents +and charts which he had seen at Rome. The story, like that of his +companionship with Cousin, already referred to, has in it, however, many +elements of suspicion. + +This help of the Pinzons proved opportune and did much to save the +cause, for it had up to this time seemed impossible to get vessels or +crews. The standing of these navigators as men and their promise to +embark personally put a new complexion on the undertaking, and within a +month the armament was made up. Harrisse has examined the evidence in +the matter to see if there is any proof that the Pinzons contributed +more than their personal influence, but there is no apparent ground for +believing they did, unless they stood behind Columbus in his share of +the expenses, which are computed at 500,000 maravedis, while those of +the Queen, arranged through Santangel, are reckoned at 1,140,000 of that +money. The fleet consisted, as Peter Martyr tells us, of two open +caravels, "Nina" and "Pinta"--the latter, with its crew, being pressed +into the service,--decked only at the extremities, where high prows and +poops gave quarters for the crews and their officers. A large-decked +vessel of the register known as a carack, and renamed by Columbus the +"Santa Maria," which proved "a dull sailer and unfit for discovery," was +taken by Columbus as his flagship. There is some confusion in the +testimony relating to the name of this ship. The _Historie_ alone calls +her by this name. Las Casas simply styles her "The Captain." One of the +pilots speaks of her as the "Mari Galante." Her owner was one Juan de la +Cosa, apparently not the same person as the navigator and cosmographer +later to be met, and he had command of her, while Pero Alonso Nino and +Sancho Ruis served as pilots. + +[Sidenote: Character of the ships.] + +Captain G. V. Fox has made an estimate of her dimensions from her +reputed tonnage by the scale of that time, and thinks she was +sixty-three feet over all in length, fifty-one feet along her keel, +twenty feet beam, and ten and a half in depth. + +[Sidenote: The crews.] + +The two Pinzons were assigned to the command of the other +caravels,--Martin Alonso to the "Pinta," the larger of the two, with a +third brother of his as pilot, and Vicente Yañez to the "Nina." Many +obstacles and the natural repugnances of sailors to embark in so +hazardous a service still delayed the preparations, but by the beginning +of August the arrangements were complete, and a hundred and twenty +persons, as Peter Martyr and Oviedo tell us, but perhaps the _Historie_ +and Las Casas are more correct in saying ninety in all, were ready to be +committed to what many of them felt were most desperate fortunes. Duro +has of late published in his _Colón y Pinzon_ what purports to be a list +of their names. It shows in Tallerte de Lajes a native of England who +has been thought to be one named in his vernacular Arthur Lake; and +Guillemio Ires, called of Galway, has sometimes been fancied to have +borne in his own land the name perhaps of Rice, Herries, or Harris. +There was no lack of the formal assignments usual in such important +undertakings. There was a notary to record the proceedings and a +historian to array the story; an interpreter to be prepared with Latin, +Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Coptic, and Armenian, in the hopes that one of +these tongues might serve in intercourse with the great Asiatic +potentates, and a metallurgist to pronounce upon precious ores. They +were not without a physician and a surgeon. It does not appear if their +hazards should require the last solemn rites that there was any priest +to shrive them; but Columbus determined to start with all the solemnity +that a confession and the communion could impart, and this service was +performed by Juan Perez, both for him and for his entire company. + +[Sidenote: Sailing directions from the Crown.] + +The directions of the Crown also provided that Columbus should avoid the +Guinea coast and all other possessions of the Portuguese, which seems to +be little more than a striking manifestation of a certain kind of +incredulity respecting what Columbus, after all, meant by sailing west. +Indeed, there was necessarily more or less vagueness in everybody's mind +as to what a western passage would reveal, or how far a westerly course +might of necessity be swung one way or the other. + +[Sidenote: Islands first to be sought.] + +The _Historie_ tells us distinctly that Columbus hoped to find some +intermediate land before reaching India, to be used, as the modern +phrase goes, as a sort of base of operations. This hope rested on the +belief, then common, that there was more land than sea on the earth, and +consequently that no wide stretch of ocean could exist without +interlying lands. + +There was, moreover, no confidence that such things as floating islands +might not be encountered. Pliny and Seneca had described them, and +Columbus was inclined to believe that St. Brandan and the Seven Cities, +and such isles as the dwellers at the Azores had claimed to see in the +offing, might be of this character. + +There seems, in fact, to be ground for believing that Columbus thought +his course to the Asiatic shores could hardly fail to bring him in view +of other regions or islands lying in the western ocean. Muñoz holds that +"the glory of such discoveries inflamed him still more, perhaps, than +his chief design." + +[Sidenote: Asiatic archipelago.] + +That a vast archipelago would, be the first land encountered was not +without confident believers. The Catalan map of 1374 had shown such +islands in vast numbers, amounting to 7,548 in all; Marco Polo had made +them 12,700, or was thought to do so; and Behaim was yet to cite the +latter on his globe. + +[Sidenote: Behaim's globe.] + +It was, indeed, at this very season that Behaim, having returned from +Lisbon to his home in Nuremberg, had imparted to the burghers of that +inland town those great cosmographical conceptions, which he was +accustomed to hear discussed in the Atlantic seaports. Such views were +exemplified in a large globe which Behaim had spent the summer in +constructing in Nuremberg. It was made of pasteboard covered with +parchment, and is twenty-one inches in diameter. + +[Illustration: BEHAIM'S GLOBE, 1492. + +_Note._ The curved sides of these cuts divide the Globe in the mid +Atlantic.] + +[Illustration: BEHAIM'S GLOBE, 1492. + +[Taken from Ernest Mayer's _Die Hilfsmittel der Schiffahrtkunde_ (Wein, +1879).]] + +[Illustration: DOPPELMAYER'S ENGRAVING OF BEHAIM'S GLOBE, MUCH REDUCED.] + +[Sidenote: Laon globe.] + +It shows the equator, the tropics, the polar circle, in a latitudinal +way; but the first meridian, passing through Madeira, is the only one of +the longitudinal sectors which it represents. Behaim had in this work +the help of Holtzschner, and the globe has come down to our day, +preserved in the town hall at Nuremberg, one of the sights and honors of +that city. It shares the credit, however, with another, called the Laon +globe, as the only well-authenticated geographical spheres which date +back of the discovery of America. This Laon globe is much smaller, being +only six inches in diameter; and though it is dated 1493, it is thought +to have been made a few years earlier,--as D'Avezac thinks, in 1486. + +[Illustration: THE ACTUAL AMERICA IN RELATION TO BEHAIM'S GEOGRAPHY.] + +Clements K. Markham, in a recent edition of Robert Hues' _Tractatus de +Globis_, cites Nordenskiöld as considering Behaim's globe, without +comparison, the most important geographical document since the atlas of +Ptolemy, in A. D. 150. "He points out that it is the first which +unreservedly adopts the existence of antipodes; the first which clearly +shows that there is a passage from Europe to India; the first which +attempts to deal with the discoveries of Marco Polo. It is an exact +representation of geographical knowledge immediately previous to the +first voyage of Columbus." + +The Behaim globe has become familiar by many published drawings. + +[Sidenote: Toscanelli's map.] + +It has been claimed that Columbus probably took with him, on his voyage, +the map which he had received from Toscanelli, with its delineation of +the interjacent and island-studded ocean, which washed alike the shores +of Europe and Asia, and that it was the subject of study by him and +Pinzon at a time when Columbus refers in his journal to the use they +made of a chart. + +That Toscanelli's map long survived the voyage is known, and Las Casas +used it. Humboldt has not the same confidence which Sprengel had, that +at this time it crossed the sea in the "Santa Maria;" and he is inclined +rather to suppose that the details of Toscanelli's chart, added to all +others which Columbus had gathered from the maps of Bianco and +Benincasa--for it is not possible he could have seen the work of Behaim, +unless indeed, in fragmentary preconceptions--must have served him +better as laid down on a chart of his own drafting. There is good reason +to suppose that, more than once, with the skill which he is known to +have possessed, he must have made such charts, to enforce and +demonstrate his belief, which, though in the main like that of +Toscanelli, were in matters of distance quite different. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: 1492, August 3, Columbus sails.] + +So, everything being ready, on the third of August, 1492, a half hour +before sunrise, he unmoored his little fleet in the stream and, +spreading his sails, the vessels passed out of the little river +roadstead of Palos, gazed after, perhaps, in the increasing light, as +the little crafts reached the ocean, by the friar of Rabida, from its +distant promontory of rock. + +[Illustration: SHIPS OF COLUMBUS'S TIME. + +(From Medina's _Arte de Navegar_, 1545.)] + +[Sidenote: On Friday.] + +The day was Friday, and the advocates of Columbus's canonization have +not failed to see a purpose in its choice, as the day of our Redemption, +and as that of the deliverance of the Holy Sepulchre by Geoffrey de +Bouillon, and of the rendition of Granada, with the fall of the Moslem +power in Spain. We must resort to the books of such advocates, if we +would enliven the picture with a multitude of rites and devotional +feelings that they gather in the meshes of the story of the departure. +They supply to the embarkation a variety of detail that their holy +purposes readily imagine, and place Columbus at last on his poop, with +the standard of the Cross, the image of the Saviour nailed to the holy +wood, waving in the early breezes that heralded the day. The +embellishments may be pleasing, but they are not of the strictest +authenticity. + +[Illustration: SHIP, 1486.] + +[Sidenote: Keeps a journal.] + +In order that his performance of an embassy to the princes of the East +might be duly chronicled, Columbus determined, as his journal says, to +keep an account of the voyage by the west, "by which course," he says, +"unto the present time, we do not know, _for certain_, that any one has +passed." It was his purpose to write down, as he proceeded, everything +he saw and all that he did, and to make a chart of his discoveries, and +to show the directions of his track. + +[Illustration: [From Bethencourt's _Canarian_, London, 1872.]] + +[Sidenote: The "Pinta" disabled.] + +Nothing occurred during those early August days to mar his run to the +Canaries, except the apprehension which he felt that an accident, +happening to the rudder of the "Pinta,"--a steering gear now for some +time in use, in place of the old lateral paddles,--was a trick of two +men, her owners, Gomez Rascon and Christopher Quintero, to impede a +voyage in which they had no heart. The Admiral knew the disposition of +these men well enough not to be surprised at the mishap, but he tried to +feel secure in the prompt energy of Pinzon, who commanded the "Pinta." + +[Sidenote: Reaches the Canaries.] + +As he passed (August 24-25, 1492) the peak of Teneriffe, it was the time +of an eruption, of which he makes bare mention in his journal. It is to +the corresponding passages of the _Historie_, that we owe the somewhat +sensational stories of the terrors of the sailors, some of whom +certainly must long have been accustomed to like displays in the +volcanoes of the Mediterranean. + +[Sidenote: 1492. September 6, leaves Gomera.] + +At the Gran Canaria the "Nina" was left to have her lateen sails changed +to square ones; and the "Pinta," it being found impossible to find a +better vessel to take her place, was also left to be overhauled for her +leaks, and to have her rudder again repaired, while Columbus visited +Gomera, another of the islands. The fleet was reunited at Gomera on +September 2. Here he fell in with some residents of Ferro, the +westernmost of the group, who repeated the old stories of land +occasionally seen from its heights, lying towards the setting sun. +Having taking on board wood, water, and provisions, Columbus finally +sailed from Gomera on the morning of Thursday, September 6. He seems to +have soon spoken a vessel from Ferro, and from this he learned that +three Portuguese caravels were lying in wait for him in the neighborhood +of that island, with a purpose as he thought of visiting in some way +upon him, for having gone over to the interests of Spain, the +indignation of the Portuguese king. He escaped encountering them. + +[Sidenote: Sunday, September 9, 1492.] + +[Sidenote: Falsifies his reckoning.] + +Up to Sunday, September 9, they had experienced so much calm weather, +that their progress had been slow. This tediousness soon raised an +apprehension in the mind of Columbus that the voyage might prove too +long for the constancy of his men. He accordingly determined to falsify +his reckoning. This deceit was a large confession of his own timidity in +dealing with his crew, and it marked the beginning of a long struggle +with deceived and mutinous subordinates, which forms so large a part of +the record of his subsequent career. + +[Illustration: ROUTES OF COLUMBUS'S FOUR VOYAGES. + +[Taken from the map in Blanchero's _La Tavola di Bronzo_ (Geneva, +1857).]] + +[Illustration: COLUMBUS'S TRACK IN 1492.] The result of Monday's sail, +which he knew to be sixty leagues, he noted as forty-eight, so that the +distance from home might appear less than it was. He continued to +practice this deceit. + +[Sidenote: His dead reckoning.] + +The distances given by Columbus are those of dead reckoning beyond any +question. Lieutenant Murdock, of the United States navy, who has +commented on this voyage, makes his league the equivalent of three +modern nautical miles, and his mile about three quarters of our present +estimate for that distance. Navarrete says that Columbus reckoned in +Italian miles, which are a quarter less than a Spanish mile. The Admiral +had expected to make land after sailing about seven hundred leagues from +Ferro; and in ordering his vessels in case of separation to proceed +westward, he warned them when they sailed that distance to come to the +wind at night, and only to proceed by day. + +The log as at present understood in navigation had not yet been devised. +Columbus depended in judging of his speed on the eye alone, basing his +calculations on the passage of objects or bubbles past the ship, while +the running out of his hour glasses afforded the multiple for long +distances. + +[Sidenote: 1492. September 13.] + +[Sidenote: Reaches point of no variation of the needle.] + +[Sidenote: Knowledge of the magnet.] + +On Thursday, the 13th of September, he notes that the ships were +encountering adverse currents. He was now three degrees west of Flores, +and the needle of the compass pointed as it had never been observed +before, directly to the true north. His observation of this fact marks a +significant point in the history of navigation. The polarity of the +magnet, an ancient possession of the Chinese, had been known perhaps for +three hundred years, when this new spirit of discovery awoke in the +fifteenth century. The Indian Ocean and its traditions were to impart, +perhaps through the Arabs, perhaps through the returning Crusaders, a +knowledge of the magnet to the dwellers on the shores of the +Mediterranean, and to the hardier mariners who pushed beyond the Pillars +of Hercules, so that the new route to that same Indian Ocean was made +possible in the fifteenth century. The way was prepared for it +gradually. The Catalans from the port of Barcelona pushed out into the +great Sea of Darkness under the direction of their needles, as early at +least as the twelfth century. The pilots of Genoa and Venice, the hardy +Majorcans and the adventurous Moors, were followers of almost equal +temerity. + +[Illustration: [From the _United States Coast Survey Report_, 1880, No. +84.]] + +[Sidenote: Variation of the needle.] + +A knowledge of the variation of the needle came more slowly to be known +to the mariners of the Mediterranean. It had been observed by Peregrini +as early as 1269, but that knowledge of it which rendered it greatly +serviceable in voyages does not seem to be plainly indicated in any of +the charts of these transition centuries, till we find it laid down on +the maps of Andrea Bianco in 1436. + +[Illustration: [From Hirth's _Bilderbuch_, vol. iii.]] + +It was no new thing then when Columbus, as he sailed westward, marked +the variation, proceeding from the northeast more and more westerly; but +it was a revelation when he came to a position where the magnetic north +and the north star stood in conjunction, as they did on this 13th of +September, 1492. + +[Sidenote: Columbus's misconception of the line of no variation.] + +[Sidenote: Sebastian Cabot's observations of its help in determining +longitude.] + +As he still moved westerly the magnetic line was found to move farther +and farther away from the pole as it had before the 13th approached it. +To an observer of Columbus's quick perceptions, there was a ready guess +to possess his mind. This inference was that this line of no variation +was a meridian line, and that divergences from it east and west might +have a regularity which would be found to furnish a method of +ascertaining longitude far easier and surer than tables or water clocks. +We know that four years later he tried to sail his ship on observations +of this kind. The same idea seems to have occurred to Sebastian Cabot, +when a little afterwards he approached and passed in a higher latitude, +what he supposed to be the meridian of no variation. Humboldt is +inclined to believe that the possibility of such a method of +ascertaining longitude was that uncommunicable secret, which Sebastian +Cabot many years later hinted at on his death-bed. + +The claim was made near a century later by Livio Sanuto in his +_Geographia_, published at Venice, in 1588, that Sebastian Cabot had +been the first to observe this variation, and had explained it to Edward +VI., and that he had on a chart placed the line of no variation at a +point one hundred and ten miles west of the island of Flores in the +Azores. + +[Sidenote: Various views.] + +These observations of Columbus and Cabot were not wholly accepted during +the sixteenth century. Robert Hues, in 1592, a hundred years later, +tells us that Medina, the Spanish grand pilot, was not disinclined to +believe that mariners saw more in it than really existed and that they +found it a convenient way to excuse their own blunders. Nonius was +credited with saying that it simply meant that worn-out magnets were +used, which had lost their power to point correctly to the pole. Others +had contended that it was through insufficient application of the +loadstone to the iron that it was so devious in its work. + +[Illustration: PART OF MERCATOR'S POLAR REGIONS, 1569. + +[From R. Mercator's Atlas of 1595.]] + +[Sidenote: Better understood.] + +What was thought possible by the early navigators possessed the minds of +all seamen in varying experiments for two centuries and a half. Though +not reaching such satisfactory results as were hoped for, the +expectation did not prove so chimerical as was sometimes imagined when +it was discovered that the lines of variation were neither parallel, nor +straight, nor constant. The line of no variation which Columbus found +near the Azores has moved westward with erratic inclinations, until +to-day it is not far from a straight line from Carolina to Guiana. +Science, beginning with its crude efforts at the hands of Alonzo de +Santa Cruz, in 1530, has so mapped the surface of the globe with +observations of its multifarious freaks of variation, and the changes +are so slow, that a magnetic chart is not a bad guide to-day for +ascertaining the longitude in any latitude for a few years neighboring +to the date of its records. So science has come round in some measure to +the dreams of Columbus and Cabot. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: Columbus remarks on changes of temperature and aberrations of +stars.] + +But this was not the only development which came from this ominous day +in the mid Atlantic in that September of 1492. The fancy of Columbus was +easily excited, and notions of a change of climate, and even aberrations +of the stars were easily imagined by him amid the strange phenomena of +that untracked waste. + +While Columbus was suspecting that the north star was somewhat willfully +shifting from the magnetic pole, now to a distance of 5° and then of +10°, the calculations of modern astronomers have gauged the polar +distance existing in 1492 at 3° 28´, as against the 1° 20´ of to-day. +The confusion of Columbus was very like his confounding an old world +with a new, inasmuch as he supposed it was the pole star and not the +needle which was shifting. + +[Sidenote: Imagines a protuberance on the earth.] + +He argued from what he saw, or thought he saw, that the line of no +variation marked the beginning of a protuberance of the earth, up which +he ascended as he sailed westerly, and that this was the reason of the +cooler weather which he experienced. He never got over some notions of +this kind, and believed he found confirmation of them in his later +voyages. + +[Sidenote: The magnetic pole.] + +Even as early as the reign of Edward III. of England, Nicholas of Lynn, +a voyager to the northern seas, is thought to have definitely fixed the +magnetic pole in the Arctic regions, transmitting his views to Cnoyen, +the master of the later Mercator, in respect to the four circumpolar +islands, which in the sixteenth century made so constant a surrounding +of the northern pole. + +[Sidenote: 1492. September 14.] + +[Sidenote: September 15.] + +[Sidenote: September 16.] + +[Sidenote: Sargasso Sea.] + +The next day (September 14), after these magnetic observations, a water +wagtail was seen from the "Nina,"--a bird which Columbus thought +unaccustomed to fly over twenty-five leagues from land, and the ships +were now, according to their reckoning, not far from two hundred leagues +from the Canaries. On Saturday, they saw a distant bolt of fire fall +into the sea. On Sunday, they had a drizzling rain, followed by pleasant +weather, which reminded Columbus of the nightingales, gladdening the +climate of Andalusia in April. They found around the ships much green +floatage of weeds, which led them to think some islands must be near. +Navarrete thinks there was some truth in this, inasmuch as the charts of +the early part of this century represent breakers as having been seen in +1802, near the spot where Columbus can be computed to have been at this +time. Columbus was in fact within that extensive _prairie_ of floating +seaweed which is known as the Sargasso Sea, whose principal longitudinal +axis is found in modern times to lie along the parallel of 41° 30´, and +the best calculations which can be made from the rather uncertain data +of Columbus's journal seem to point to about the same position. + +There is nothing in all these accounts, as we have them abridged by Las +Casas, to indicate any great surprise, and certainly nothing of the +overwhelming fear which, the _Historie_ tells us, the sailors +experienced when they found their ships among these floating masses of +weeds, raising apprehension of a perpetual entanglement in their +swashing folds. + +[Sidenote: 1492. September 17.] + +[Sidenote: September 18.] + +The next day (September 17) the currents became favorable, and the weeds +still floated about them. The variation of the needle now became so +great that the seamen were dismayed, as the journal says, and the +observation being repeated Columbus practiced another deceit and made it +appear that there had been really no variation, but only a shifting of +the polar star! The weeds were now judged to be river weeds, and a live +crab was found among them,--a sure sign of near land, as Columbus +believed, or affected to believe. They killed a tunny and saw others. +They again observed a water wagtail, "which does not sleep at sea." Each +ship pushed on for the advance, for it was thought the goal was near. +The next day the "Pinta" shot ahead and saw great flocks of birds +towards the west. Columbus conceived that the sea was growing fresher. +Heavy clouds hung on the northern horizon, a sure sign of land, it was +supposed. + +[Sidenote: 1492. September 19.] + +On the next day two pelicans came on board, and Columbus records that +these birds are not accustomed to go twenty leagues from land. So he +sounded with a line of two hundred fathoms to be sure he was not +approaching land; but no bottom was found. A drizzling rain also +betokened land, which they could not stop to find, but would search for +on their return, as the journal says. The pilots now compared their +reckonings. Columbus said they were 400 leagues, while the "Pinta's" +record showed 420, and the "Nina's" 440. + +[Sidenote: 1492. September 20.] + +[Sidenote: September 22. Changes his course.] + +[Sidenote: Head wind.] + +[Sidenote: September 25.] + +On September 20, other pelicans came on board; and the ships were again +among the weeds. Columbus was determined to ascertain if these indicated +shoal water and sounded, but could not reach bottom. The men caught a +bird with feet like a gull; but they were convinced it was a river bird. +Then singing land-birds, as was fancied, hovered about as it darkened, +but they disappeared before morning. Then a pelican was observed flying +to the southwest, and as "these birds sleep on shore, and go to sea in +the morning," the men encouraged themselves with the belief that they +could not be far from land. The next day a whale could but be another +indication of land; and the weeds covered the sea all about. On +Saturday, they steered west by northwest, and got clear of the weeds. +This change of course so far to the north, which had begun on the +previous day, was occasioned by a head wind, and Columbus says that he +welcomed it, because it had the effect of convincing the sailors that +westerly winds to return by were not impossible. On Sunday (September +23), they found the wind still varying; but they made more westering +than before,--weeds, crabs, and birds still about them. Now there was +smooth water, which again depressed the seamen; then the sea arose, +mysteriously, for there was no wind to cause it. They still kept their +course westerly and continued it till the night of September 25. + +[Sidenote: Appearances of land.] + +[Sidenote: Again changes his course.] + +[Sidenote: September 26.] + +[Sidenote: 1492. September 27.] + +[Sidenote: September 30.] + +[Sidenote: October 1.] + +[Sidenote: October 3.] + +[Sidenote: October 6.] + +[Sidenote: October 7.] + +[Sidenote: Shifts his course to follow some birds.] + +Columbus at this time conferred with Pinzon, as to a chart which they +carried, which showed some islands, near where they now supposed the +ships to be. That they had not seen land, they believed was either due +to currents which had carried them too far north, or else their +reckoning was not correct. At sunset Pinzon hailed the Admiral, and said +he saw land, claiming the reward. The two crews were confident that such +was the case, and under the lead of their commanders they all kneeled +and repeated the _Gloria in Excelsis_. The land appeared to lie +southwest, and everybody saw the apparition. Columbus changed the +fleet's course to reach it; and as the vessels went on, in the smooth +sea, the men had the heart, under their expectation, to bathe in its +amber glories. On Wednesday, they were undeceived, and found that the +clouds had played them a trick. On the 27th their course lay more +directly west. So they went on, and still remarked upon all the birds +they saw and weed-drift which they pierced. Some of the fowl they +thought to be such as were common at the Cape de Verde Islands, and were +not supposed to go far to sea. On the 30th September, they still +observed the needles of their compasses to vary, but the journal records +that it was the pole star which moved, and not the needle. On October 1, +Columbus says they were 707 leagues from Ferro; but he had made his crew +believe they were only 584. As they went on, little new for the next few +days is recorded in the journal; but on October 3, they thought they saw +among the weeds something like fruits. By the 6th, Pinzon began to urge +a southwesterly course, in order to find the islands, which the signs +seemed to indicate in that direction. Still the Admiral would not swerve +from his purpose, and kept his course westerly. On Sunday, the "Nina" +fired a bombard and hoisted a flag as a signal that she saw land, but it +proved a delusion. Observing towards evening a flock of birds flying to +the southwest, the Admiral yielded to Pinzon's belief, and shifted his +course to follow the birds. He records as a further reason for it that +it was by following the flight of birds that the Portuguese had been so +successful in discovering islands in other seas. + +[Sidenote: Cipango.] + +Columbus now found himself two hundred miles and more farther than the +three thousand miles west of Spain, where he supposed Cipango to lie, +and he was 25-1/2° north of the equator, according to his astrolabe. The +true distance of Cipango or Japan was sixty-eight hundred miles still +farther, or beyond both North America and the Pacific. How much beyond +that island, in its supposed geographical position, Columbus expected to +find the Asiatic main we can only conjecture from the restorations which +modern scholars have made of Toscanelli's map, which makes the island +about 10° east of Asia, and from Behaim's globe, which makes it 20°. It +should be borne in mind that the knowledge of its position came from +Marco Polo, and he does not distinctly say how far it was from the +Asiatic coast. In a general way, as to these distances from Spain to +China, Toscanelli and Behaim agreed, and there is no reason to believe +that the views of Columbus were in any noteworthy degree different. + +[Sidenote: Relations of Pinzon to the change of course.] + +In the trial, years afterwards, when the Fiscal contested the rights of +Diego Colon, it was put in evidence by one Vallejo, a seaman, that +Pinzon was induced to urge the direction to be changed to the southwest, +because he had in the preceding evening observed a flight of parrots in +that direction, which could have only been seeking land. It was the main +purpose of the evidence in this part of the trial to show that Pinzon +had all along forced Columbus forward against his will. + +How pregnant this change of course in the vessels of Columbus was has +not escaped the observation of Humboldt and many others. A day or two +further on his westerly way, and the Gulf Stream would, perhaps, +insensibly have borne the little fleet up the Atlantic coast of the +future United States, so that the banner of Castile might have been +planted at Carolina. + +[Sidenote: October 7.] + +[Sidenote: October 8-10.] + +On the 7th of October, Columbus was pretty nearly in latitude 25° +50',--that of one of the Bahama Islands. Just where he was by longitude +there is much more doubt, probably between 65° and 66°. On the next day +the land birds flying along the course of the ships seemed to confirm +their hopes. On the 10th the journal records that the men began to lose +patience; but the Admiral reassured them by reminding them of the +profits in store for them, and of the folly of seeking to return, when +they had already gone so far. + +[Sidenote: Story of a mutiny.] + +It is possible that, in this entry, Columbus conceals the story which +later came out in the recital of Oviedo, with more detail than in the +_Historie_ and Las Casas, that the rebellion of his crew was threatening +enough to oblige him to promise to turn back if land was not discovered +in three days. Most commentators, however, are inclined to think that +this story of a mutinous revolt was merely engrafted from hearsay or +other source by Oviedo upon the more genuine recital, and that the +conspiracy to throw the Admiral into the sea has no substantial basis in +contemporary report. Irving, who has a dramatic tendency throughout his +whole account of the voyage to heighten his recital with touches of the +imagination, nevertheless allows this, and thinks that Oviedo was misled +by listening to a pilot, who was a personal enemy of the Admiral. + +The elucidations of the voyage which were drawn out in the famous suit +of Diego with the Crown in 1513 and 1515, afford no ground for any +belief in this story of the mutiny and the concession of Columbus to it. + +It is not, however, difficult to conceive the recurrent fears of his men +and the incessant anxiety of Columbus to quiet them. From what Peter +Martyr tells us,--and he may have got it directly from Columbus's +lips,--the task was not an easy one to preserve subordination and to +instill confidence. He represents that Columbus was forced to resort in +turn to argument, persuasion, and enticements, and to picture the +misfortunes of the royal displeasure. + +[Sidenote: 1492. October 11.] + +The next day, notwithstanding a heavier sea than they had before +encountered, certain signs sufficed to lift them out of their +despondency. These were floating logs, or pieces of wood, one of them +apparently carved by hand, bits of cane, a green rush, a stalk of rose +berries, and other drifting tokens. + +[Sidenote: 1492. October 11. Steer west.] + +[Sidenote: Columbus sees a light.] + +Their southwesterly course had now brought them down to about the +twenty-fourth parallel, when after sunset on the 11th they shifted their +course to due west, while the crew of the Admiral's ship united, with +more fervor than usual, in the _Salve Regina_. At about ten o'clock +Columbus, peering into the night, thought he saw--if we may believe +him--a moving light, and pointing out the direction to Pero Gutierrez, +this companion saw it too; but another, Rodrigo Sanchez, situated +apparently on another part of the vessel, was not able to see it. It was +not brought to the attention of any others. The Admiral says that the +light seemed to be moving up and down, and he claimed to have got other +glimpses of its glimmer at a later moment. He ordered the _Salve_ to be +chanted, and directed a vigilant watch to be set on the forecastle. To +sharpen their vision he promised a silken jacket, beside the income of +ten thousand maravedis which the King and Queen had offered to the +fortunate man who should first descry the coveted land. + +This light has been the occasion of much comment, and nothing will ever, +it is likely, be settled about it, further than that the Admiral, with +an inconsiderate rivalry of a common sailor who later saw the actual +land, and with an ungenerous assurance ill-befitting a commander, +pocketed a reward which belonged to another. If Oviedo, with his +prejudices, is to be believed, Columbus was not even the first who +claimed to have seen this dubious light. There is a common story that +the poor sailor, who was defrauded, later turned Mohammedan, and went to +live among that juster people. There is a sort of retributive justice in +the fact that the pension of the Crown was made a charge upon the +shambles of Seville, and thence Columbus received it till he died. + +Whether the light is to be considered a reality or a fiction will depend +much on the theory each may hold regarding the position of the landfall. +When Columbus claimed to have discovered it, he was twelve or fourteen +leagues away from the island where, four hours later, land was +indubitably found. Was the light on a canoe? Was it on some small, +outlying island, as has been suggested? Was it a torch carried from hut +to hut, as Herrera avers? Was it on either of the other vessels? Was it +on the low island on which, the next morning, he landed? There was no +elevation on that island sufficient to show even a strong light at a +distance of ten leagues. Was it a fancy or a deceit? No one can say. +It is very difficult for Navarrete, and even for Irving, to rest +satisfied with what, after all, may have been only an illusion of a +fevered mind, making a record of the incident in the excitement of a +wonderful hour, when his intelligence was not as circumspect as it might +have been. + +[Illustration: THE LANDFALL OF COLUMBUS, 1492. + +[After Ruge.]] + +[Sidenote: 1492, October 12, land discovered.] + +[Sidenote: Guanahani.] + +Four hours after the light was seen, at two o'clock in the morning, when +the moon, near its third quarter, was in the east, the "Pinta" keeping +ahead, one of her sailors, Rodrigo de Triana, descried the land, two +leagues away, and a gun communicated the joyful intelligence to the +other ships. The fleet took in sail, and each vessel, under backed +sheets, was pointed to the wind. Thus they waited for daybreak. It was a +proud moment of painful suspense for Columbus; and brimming hopes, +perhaps fears of disappointment, must have accompanied that hour of +wavering enchantment. It was Friday, October 12, of the old chronology, +and the little fleet had been thirty-three days on its way from the +Canaries, and we must add ten days more, to complete the period since +they left Palos. The land before them was seen, as the day dawned, to be +a small island, "called in the Indian tongue" Guanahani. Some naked +natives were descried. The Admiral and the commanders of the other +vessels prepared to land. Columbus took the royal standard and the +others each a banner of the green cross, which bore the initials of the +sovereign with a cross between, a crown surmounting every letter. Thus, +with the emblems of their power, and accompanied by Rodrigo de Escoveda +and Rodrigo Sanchez and some seamen, the boat rowed to the shore. They +immediately took formal possession of the land, and the notary recorded +it. + +[Illustration: COLUMBUS'S ARMOR.] + +[Illustration: BAHAMA ISLANDS +ANTONIO DE HERRERA +1601. + +[From Major's _Select Letters of Columbus_, 2d Edition.]] + +[Illustration: BAHAMA ISLANDS +MODERN + +[From Major's _Select Letters of Columbus_, 2d Edition.]] + +[Sidenote: Columbus lands and utters a prayer.] + +The words of the prayer usually given as uttered by Columbus on taking +possession of San Salvador, when he named the island, cannot be traced +farther back than a collection of _Tablas Chronologicas_, got together +at Valencia in 1689, by a Jesuit father, Claudio Clemente. Harrisse +finds no authority for the statement of the French canonizers that +Columbus established a form of prayer which was long in vogue, for such +occupations of new lands. + +Las Casas, from whom we have the best account of the ceremonies of the +landing, does not mention it; but we find pictured in his pages the +grave impressiveness of the hour; the form of Columbus, with a crimson +robe over his armor, central and grand; and the humbleness of his +followers in their contrition for the hours of their faint-heartedness. + +[Sidenote: The island described.] + +Columbus now enters in his journal his impressions of the island and its +inhabitants. He says of the land that it bore green trees, was watered +by many streams, and produced divers fruits. In another place he speaks +of the island as flat, without lofty eminence, surrounded by reefs, with +a lake in the interior. + +The courses and distances of his sailing both before and on leaving the +island, as well as this description, are the best means we have of +identifying the spot of this portentous landfall. The early maps may +help in a subsidiary way, but with little precision. + +[Sidenote: Identification of the landfall.] + +There is just enough uncertainty and contradiction respecting the data +and arguments applied in the solution of this question, to render it +probable that men will never quite agree which of the Bahamas it was +upon which these startled and exultant Europeans first stepped. Though +Las Casas reports the journal of Columbus unabridged for a period after +the landfall, he unfortunately condenses it for some time previous. +There is apparently no chance of finding geographical conditions that in +every respect will agree with this record of Columbus, and we must +content ourselves with what offers the fewest disagreements. An obvious +method, if we could depend on Columbus's dead reckoning, would be to see +for what island the actual distance from the Canaries would be nearest +to his computed run; but currents and errors of the eye necessarily +throw this sort of computation out of the question, and Capt. G. A. Fox, +who has tried it, finds that Cat Island is three hundred and seventeen, +the Grand Turk six hundred and twenty-four nautical miles, and the other +supposable points at intermediate distances out of the way as compared +with his computation of the distance run by Columbus, three thousand +four hundred and fifty-eight of such miles. + +[Sidenote: The Bahamas.] + +[Sidenote: San Salvador, or Cat Island.] + +[Sidenote: Other islands.] + +[Sidenote: Methods of identification.] + +[Sidenote: Acklin Island.] + +The reader will remember the Bahama group as a range of islands, islets, +and rocks, said to be some three thousand in number, running southeast +from a point part way up the Florida coast, and approaching at the other +end the coast of Hispaniola. In the latitude of the lower point of +Florida, and five degrees east of it, is the island of San Salvador or +Cat Island, which is the most northerly of those claimed to have been +the landfall of Columbus. Proceeding down the group, we encounter +Watling's, Samana, Acklin (with the Plana Cays), Mariguana, and the +Grand Turk,--all of which have their advocates. The three methods of +identification which have been followed are, first, by plotting the +outward track; second, by plotting the track between the landfall and +Cuba, both forward and backward; third, by applying the descriptions, +particularly Columbus's, of the island first seen. In this last test, +Harrisse prefers to apply the description of Las Casas, which is +borrowed in part from that of the _Historie_, and he reconciles +Columbus's apparent discrepancy when he says in one place that the +island was "pretty large," and in another "small," by supposing that he +may have applied these opposite terms, the lesser to the Plana Cays, as +first seen, and the other to the Crooked Group, or Acklin Island, lying +just westerly, on which he may have landed. Harrisse is the only one who +makes this identification; and he finds some confirmation in later maps, +which show thereabout an island, Triango or Triangulo, a name said by +Las Casas to have been applied to Guanahani at a later day. There is no +known map earlier than 1540 bearing this alternative name of Triango. + +[Sidenote: San Salvador.] + +San Salvador seems to have been the island selected by the earliest of +modern inquirers, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and it +has had the support of Irving and Humboldt in later times. Captain +Alexander Slidell Mackenzie of the United States navy worked out the +problem for Irving. It is much larger than any of the other islands, and +could hardly have been called by Columbus in any alternative way a +"small" island, while it does not answer Columbus's description of +being level, having on it an eminence of four hundred feet, and no +interior lagoon, as his Guanahani demands. The French canonizers stand +by the old traditions, and find it meet to say that "the English +Protestants not finding the name San Salvador fine enough have +substituted for it that of Cat, and in their hydrographical atlases the +Island of the Holy Saviour is nobly called Cat Island." + +[Sidenote: Watling's Island.] + +The weight of modern testimony seems to favor Watling's island, and it +so far answers to Columbus's description that about one third of its +interior is water, corresponding to his "large lagoon." Muñoz first +suggested it in 1793; but the arguments in its favor were first spread +out by Captain Becher of the royal navy in 1856, and he seems to have +induced Oscar Peschel in 1858 to adopt the same views in his history of +the range of modern discovery. Major, the map custodian of the British +Museum, who had previously followed Navarrete in favoring the Grand +Turk, again addressed himself to the problem in 1870, and fell into line +with the adherents of Watling's. No other considerable advocacy of this +island, if we except the testimony of Gerard Stein in 1883, in a book on +voyages of discovery, appeared till Lieut. J. B. Murdoch, an officer of +the American navy, made a very careful examination of the subject in the +_Proceedings of the United States Naval Institute_ in 1884, which is +accepted by Charles A. Schott in the _Bulletin of the United States +Coast Survey_. Murdoch was the first to plot in a backward way the track +between Guanahani and Cuba, and he finds more points of resemblance in +Columbus's description with Watling's than with any other. The latest +adherent is the eminent geographer, Clements R. Markham, in the bulletin +of the Italian Geographical Society in 1889. Perhaps no cartographical +argument has been so effective as that of Major in comparing modern +charts with the map of Herrera, in which the latter lays Guanahani down. + +[Sidenote: Samana.] + +[Sidenote: Grand Turk Island.] + +An elaborate attempt to identify Samana as the landfall was made by the +late Capt. Gustavus Vasa Fox, in an appendix to the _Report of the +United States Coast Survey_ for 1880. Varnhagen, in 1864, selected +Mariguana, and defended his choice in a paper. This island fails to +satisfy the physical conditions in being without interior water. Such a +qualification, however, belongs to the Grand Turk Island, which was +advocated first by Navarrete in 1826, whose views have since been +supported by George Gibbs, and for a while by Major. + +It is rather curious to note that Caleb Cushing, who undertook to +examine this question in the _North American Review_, under the guidance +of Navarrete's theory, tried the same backward method which has been +later applied to the problem, but with quite different results from +those reached by more recent investigators. He says, "By setting out +from Nipe [which is the point where Columbus struck Cuba] and proceeding +in a retrograde direction along his course, we may surely trace his +path, and shall be convinced that Guanahani is no other than Turk's +Island." + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +AMONG THE ISLANDS AND THE RETURN VOYAGE. + + +[Sidenote: The natives of Guanahani.] + +We learn that, after these ceremonies on the shore, the natives began +fearlessly to gather about the strangers. Columbus, by causing red caps, +strings of beads, and other trinkets to be distributed among them, made +an easy conquest of their friendship. Later the men swam out to the ship +to exchange their balls of thread, their javelins, and parrots for +whatever they could get in return. + +The description which Columbus gives us in his journal of the appearance +and condition of these new people is the earliest, of course, in our +knowledge of them. His record is interesting for the effect which the +creatures had upon him, and for the statement of their condition before +the Spaniards had set an impress upon their unfortunate race. + +They struck Columbus as, on the whole, a very poor people, going naked, +and, judging from a single girl whom he saw, this nudity was the +practice of the women. They all seemed young, not over thirty, well +made, with fine shapes and faces. Their hair was coarse, and combed +short over the forehead; but hung long behind. The bodies of many were +differently colored with pigments of many hues, though of some only the +face, the eyes, or the nose were painted. Columbus was satisfied that +they had no knowledge of edged weapons, because they grasped his sword +by the blade and cut themselves. Their javelins were sticks pointed with +fishbones. When he observed scars on their bodies, they managed to +explain to him that enemies, whom the Admiral supposed to come from the +continent, sometimes invaded their island, and that such wounds were +received in defending themselves. They appeared to him to have no +religion, which satisfied him that the task of converting them to +Christianity would not be difficult. They learned readily to pronounce +such words as were repeated to them. + +[Sidenote: 1492. October 13.] + +[Sidenote: Affinities of the Lucayans.] + +On the next day after landing, Saturday, Columbus describes again the +throng that came to the shore, and was struck with their broad +foreheads. He deemed it a natural coincidence, being in the latitude of +the Canaries, that the natives had the complexion prevalent among the +natives of those islands. In this he anticipated the conclusions of the +anthropologists, who have found in the skulls preserved in caves both in +the Bahamas and in the Canaries, such striking similarities as have led +to the supposition that ocean currents may have borne across the sea +some of the old Guanche stock of the Canaries, itself very likely the +remnant of the people of the European river-drift. + +Professor W. K. Brooks, of the Johns Hopkins University, who has +recently published in the _Popular Science Monthly_ (November, 1889) a +study of the bones of the Lucayans as found in caves in the Bahamas, +reports that these relics indicate a muscular, heavy people, about the +size of the average European, with protuberant square jaws, sloping +eyes, and very round skulls, but artificially flattened on the +forehead,--a result singularly confirming Columbus's description of +broader heads than he had ever seen. + +[Sidenote: Hammocks.] + +"The Ceboynas," says a recent writer on these Indians, "gave us the +hammock, and this one Lucayan word is their only monument," for a +population larger than inhabits these islands to-day were in twelve +years swept from the surface of the earth by a system devised by +Columbus. + +[Sidenote: Canoes.] + +The Admiral also describes their canoes, made in a wonderful manner of a +single tree-trunk, and large enough to hold forty or forty-five men, +though some were so small as to carry a single person only. Their oars +are shaped like the wooden shovels with which bakers slip their loaves +into ovens. If a canoe upsets, it is righted as they swim. + +[Sidenote: Gold among them.] + +Columbus was attracted by bits of gold dangling at the nose of some +among them. By signs he soon learned that a greater abundance of this +metal could be found on an island to the south; but they seemed unable +to direct him with any precision how to reach that island, or at least +it was not easy so to interpret any of their signs. "Poor wretches!" +exclaims Helps, "if they had possessed the slightest gift of prophecy, +they would have thrown these baubles into the deepest sea." + +[Sidenote: Columbus traffics with them.] + +They pointed in all directions, but towards the east as the way to other +lands; and implied that those enemies who came from the northwest often +passed to the south after gold. He found that broken dishes and bits of +glass served as well for traffic with them as more valuable articles, +and balls of threads of cotton, grown on the island, seemed their most +merchantable commodity. + +[Sidenote: 1492. October 14, sails towards Cipango.] + +With this rude foretaste, Columbus determined to push on for the richer +Cipango. On the next day he coasted along the island in his boats, +discovering two or three villages, where the inhabitants were friendly. +They seemed to think that the strangers had come from heaven,--at least +Columbus so interpreted their prostrations and uplifted hands. Columbus, +fearful of the reefs parallel to the shore, kept outside of them, and as +he moved along, saw a point of land which a ditch might convert into an +island. He thought this would afford a good site for a fort, if there +was need of one. + +[Sidenote: 1492. October 14.] + +[Sidenote: Columbus proposes to enslave the natives.] + +[Sidenote: 1492. October 15.] + +[Sidenote: 1492. October 16.] + +It was on this Sunday that Columbus, in what he thought doubtless the +spirit of the day in dealing with heathens, gives us his first +intimation of the desirability of using force to make these poor +creatures serve their new masters. On returning to the ships and setting +sail, he soon found that he was in an archipelago. He had seized some +natives, who were now on board. These repeated to him the names of more +than a hundred islands. He describes those within sight as level, +fertile, and populous, and he determined to steer for what seemed the +largest. He stood off and on during the night of the 14th, and by noon +of the 15th he had reached this other island, which he found at the +easterly end to run five leagues north and south, and to extend east and +west a distance of ten leagues. Lured by a still larger island farther +west he pushed on, and skirting the shore reached its western extremity. +He cast anchor there at sunset, and named the island Santa Maria de la +Concepcion. The natives on board told him that the people here wore gold +bracelets. Columbus thought this story might be a device of his +prisoners to obtain opportunities to escape. On the next day, he +repeated the forms of landing and taking possession. Two of the +prisoners contrived to escape. One of them jumped overboard and was +rescued by a native canoe. The Spaniards overtook the canoe, but not +till its occupants had escaped. A single man, coming off in another +canoe, was seized and taken on board; but Columbus thought him a good +messenger of amity, and loading him with presents, "not worth four +maravedis," he put him ashore. Columbus watched the liberated savage, +and judged from the wonder of the crowds which surrounded him that his +ruse of friendship had been well played. + +[Sidenote: Columbus sees a large island.] + +Another large island appeared westerly about nine leagues, famous for +its gold ornaments, as his prisoners again declared. It is significant +that in his journal, since he discovered the bits of gold at San +Salvador, Columbus has not a word to say of reclaiming the benighted +heathen; but he constantly repeats his hope "with the help of our Lord," +of finding gold. On the way thither he had picked up a second single man +in a canoe, who had apparently followed him from San Salvador. He +determined to bestow some favors upon him and let him go, as he had done +with the other. + +[Sidenote: 1492. October 16.] + +This new island, which he reached October 16, and called Fernandina, he +found to be about twenty-eight leagues long, with a safer shore than the +others. He anchored near a village, where the man whom he had set free +had already come, bringing good reports of the stranger, and so the +Spaniards got a kind reception. Great numbers of natives came off in +canoes, to whom the men gave trinkets and molasses. He took on board +some water, the natives assisting the crew. Getting an impression that +the island contained a mine of gold, he resolved to follow the coast, +and find Samaot, where the gold was said to be. Columbus thought he saw +some improvement in the natives over those he had seen before, remarking +upon the cotton cloth with which they partly covered their persons. He +was surprised to find that distinct branches of the same tree bore +different leaves. A single tree, as he says, will show as many as five +or six varieties, not done by grafting, but a natural growth. He +wondered at the brilliant fish, and found no land creatures but parrots +and lizards, though a boy of the company told him that he had seen a +snake. On Wednesday he started to sail around the island. In a little +haven, where they tarried awhile, they first entered the native houses. + +[Sidenote: Hammocks.] + +They found everything in them neat, with nets extended between posts, +which they called _hamacs_,--a name soon adopted by sailors for +swinging-beds. The houses were shaped like tents, with high chimneys, +but not more than twelve or fifteen together. Dogs were running about +them, but they could not bark. Columbus endeavored to buy a bit of gold, +cut or stamped, which was hanging from a man's nose; but the savage +refused his offers. + +[Illustration: INDIAN BEDS.] + +[Sidenote: 1492. October 19.] + +The ships continued their course about the island, the weather not +altogether favorable; but on October 19 they veered away to another +island to the west of Fernandina, which Columbus named Isabella, after +his Queen. This he pronounced the most beautiful he had seen; and he +remarks on the interior region of it being higher than in the other +islands, and the source of streams. The breezes from the shore brought +him odors, and when he landed he became conscious that his botanical +knowledge did not aid him in selecting such dyestuffs, medicines, and +spices as would command high prices in Spain. He saw a hideous reptile, +and the canonizers, after their amusing fashion, tell us that "to see +and attack him were the same thing for Columbus, for he considered it of +importance to accustom Spanish intrepidity to such warfare." + +[Sidenote: To find gold Columbus's main object.] + +[Sidenote: 1492. October 21.] + +The reptile proved inoffensive. The signs of his prisoners were +interpreted to repeat here the welcome tale of gold. He understood them +to refer to a king decked with gold. "I do not, however," he adds, "give +much credit to these accounts, for I understand the natives but +imperfectly." "I am proceeding solely in quest of gold and spices," he +says again. + +[Sidenote: Cuba heard of.] + +[Sidenote: 1492. October 24. Isabella.] + +On Sunday they went ashore, and found a house from which the occupants +had recently departed. The foliage was enchanting. Flocks of parrots +obscured the sky. Specimens were gathered of wonderful trees. They +killed a snake in a lake. They cajoled some timid natives with beads, +and got their help in filling their water cask. They heard of a very +large island named Colba, which had ships and sailors, as the natives +were thought to say. They had little doubt that these stories referred +to Cipango. They hoped the native king would bring them gold in the +night; but this not happening, and being cheered by the accounts of +Colba, they made up their minds that it would be a waste of time to +search longer for this backward king, and so resolved to run for the big +island. + +[Sidenote: October 26.] + +Starting from Isabella at midnight on October 24, and passing other +smaller islands, they finally, on Sunday, October 26, entered a river +near the easterly end of Cuba. + +[Sidenote: Cuba.] + +The track of Columbus from San Salvador to Cuba has been as variously +disputed as the landfall; indeed, the divergent views of the landfall +necessitate such later variations. + +[Sidenote: Pearls.] + +They landed within the river's mouth, and discovered deserted houses, +which from the implements within they supposed to be the houses of +fishermen. Columbus observed that the grass grew down to the water's +edge; and he reasoned therefrom that the sea could never be rough. He +now observed mountains, and likened them to those of Sicily. He finally +supposed his prisoners to affirm by their signs that the island was too +large for a canoe to sail round it in twenty days. There were the old +stories of gold; but the mention of pearls appears now for the first +time in the journal, which in this place, however, we have only in Las +Casas's abridgment. + +[Sidenote: Columbus supposes himself at Mangi.] + +When the natives pointed to the interior and said, "Cubanacan," meaning, +it is supposed, an inland region, Columbus imagined it was a reference +to Kublai Khan; and the Cuban name of Mangon he was very ready to +associate with the Mangi of Mandeville. + +As he still coasted westerly he found river and village, and made more +use of his prisoners than had before been possible. They seem by this +time to have settled into an acquiescent spirit. He wondered in one +place at statues which looked like women. He was not quite sure whether +the natives kept them for the love of the beautiful, or for worship. + +[Sidenote: Columbus supposes himself on the coast of Cathay.] + +He found domesticated fowl; and saw a skull, which he supposed was a +cow's, which was probably that of the sea-calf, a denizen of these +waters. He thought the temperature cooler than in the other islands, and +ascribed the change to the mountains. He observed on one of these +eminences a protuberance that looked like a mosque. Such interpretation +as the Spaniards could make of their prisoners' signs convinced them +that if they sailed farther west they would find some potentate, and so +they pushed on. Bad weather, however, delayed them, and they again +opened communication with the natives. They could hear nothing of gold, +but saw a silver trinket; and learned, as they thought, that news of +their coming had been carried to the distant king. Columbus felt +convinced that the people of these regions were banded enemies of the +Great Khan, and that he had at last struck the continent of Cathay, and +was skirting the shores of the Zartun and Quinsay of Marco Polo. Taking +an observation, Columbus found himself to be in 21° north latitude, and +as near as he could reckon, he was 1142 leagues west of Ferro. He really +was 1105. + +[Sidenote: 1492. November 2-5.] + +[Sidenote: Cuba explored.] + +[Sidenote: Tobacco.] + +[Sidenote: Potatoes.] + +From Friday, November 2, to Monday, November 5, two Spaniards, whom +Columbus had sent into the interior, accompanied by some Indians, had +made their way unmolested in their search for a king. They had been +entertained here and there with ceremony, and apparently worshiped as +celestial comers. The evidences of the early Spanish voyagers give +pretty constant testimony that the whites were supposed to have come +from the skies. Columbus had given to his envoys samples of cinnamon, +pepper, and other spices, which were shown to the people. In reply, his +messengers learned that such things grew to the southeast of them. +Columbus later, in his first letter, speaks of cinnamon as one of the +spices which they found, but it turned out to be the bark of a sort of +laurel. Las Casas, in mentioning this expedition, says that the +Spaniards found the natives smoking small tubes of dried leaves, filled +with other leaves, which they called _tobacos_. Sir Arthur Helps aptly +remarks on this trivial discovery by the Spaniards of a great financial +resource of modern statesmen, since tobacco has in the end proved more +productive to the Spanish crown than the gold which Columbus sought. The +Spaniards found no large villages; but they perceived great stores of +fine cotton of a long staple. They found the people eating what we must +recognize as potatoes. The absence of gold gave Columbus an opportunity +to wish more fervently than before for the conversion of some of these +people. + +[Sidenote: One-eyed and dog-faced men.] + +[Sidenote: Cannibals.] + +While this party was absent, Columbus found a quiet beach, and careened +his ships, one at a time. In melting his tar, the wood which he used +gave out a powerful odor, and he pronounced it the mastic gum, which +Europe had always got from Chios. As this work was going on, the +Spaniards got from the natives, as best they could, many intimations of +larger wealth and commerce to the southeast. Other strange stories were +told of men with one eye, and faces like dogs, and of cruel, +bloodthirsty man-eaters, who fought to appease their appetite on the +flesh of the slain. + +[Sidenote: 1492. November 12.] + +[Sidenote: Babeque.] + +It was not till the 12th of November that Columbus left this hospitable +haven, at daybreak, in search of a place called Babeque, "where gold was +collected at night by torch-light upon the shore, and afterward hammered +into bars." He the more readily retraced his track, that the coast to +the westward seemed to trend northerly, and he dreaded a colder climate. +He must leave for another time the sight of men with tails, who +inhabited a province in that direction, as he was informed. + +Again the historian recognizes how a chance turned the Spaniards away +from a greater goal. If Columbus had gone on westerly and discovered the +insular character of Cuba, he might have sought the main of Mexico and +Yucatan, and anticipated the wonders of the conquest of Cortez. He +never was undeceived in believing that Cuba was the Asiatic main. + +[Sidenote: Columbus captures some natives.] + +Columbus sailed back over his course with an inordinate idea of the +riches of the country which he was leaving. He thought the people +docile; that their simple belief in a God was easily to be enlarged into +the true faith, whereby Spain might gain vassals and the church a +people. He managed to entice on board, and took away, six men, seven +women, and three children, condoning the act of kidnapping--the +canonizers call it "retaining on board"--by a purpose to teach them the +Spanish language, and open a readier avenue to their benighted souls. He +allowed the men to have women to share their durance, as such ways, he +says, had proved useful on the coast of Guinea. + +The Admiral says in his first letter, referring to his captives, "that +we immediately understood each other, either by words or signs." This +was his message to expectant Europe. His journal is far from conveying +that impression. + +[Sidenote: 1492. November 14.] + +The ships now steered east-by-south, passing mountainous lands, which on +November 14 he tried to approach. After a while he discovered a harbor, +which he could enter, and found it filled with lofty wooded islands, +some pointed and some flat at the top. He was quite sure he had now got +among the islands which are made to swarm on the Asiatic coast in the +early accounts and maps. He now speaks of his practice in all his +landings to set up and leave a cross. He observed, also, a promontory in +the bay fit for a fortress, and caught a strange fish resembling a hog. +He was at this time embayed in the King's Garden, as the archipelago is +called. + +[Sidenote: Pinzon deserts.] + +[Sidenote: 1492. November 23.] + +Shortly after this, when they had been baffled in their courses, Martin +Alonso Pinzon, incited, as the record says, by his cupidity to find the +stores of gold to which some of his Indian captives had directed him, +disregarded the Admiral's signals, and sailed away in the "Pinta." The +flagship kept a light for him all night, at the mast-head; but in the +morning the caravel was out of sight. The Admiral takes occasion in his +journal to remark that this was not the first act of Pinzon's +insubordination. On Friday, November 23, the vessels approached a +headland, which the Indians called Bohio. + +[Sidenote: 1492. November 24.] + +The prisoners here began to manifest fear, for it was a spot where the +one-eyed people and the cannibals dwelt; but on Saturday, November 24, +the ships were forced back into the gulf with the many islands, where +Columbus found a desirable roadstead, which he had not before +discovered. + +[Sidenote: 1492. November 25.] + +On Sunday, exploring in a boat, he found in a stream "certain stones +which shone with spots of a golden hue; and recollecting that gold was +found in the river Tagus near the sea, he entertained no doubt that this +was the metal, and directed that a collection of the stones should be +made to carry to the King and Queen." It becomes noticeable, as Columbus +goes on, that every new place surpasses all others; the atmosphere is +better; the trees are more marvelous. He now found pines fit for masts, +and secured some for the "Nina." + +As he coasted the next day along what he believed to be a continental +coast, he tried in his journal to account for the absence of towns in so +beautiful a country. That there were inhabitants he knew, for he found +traces of them on going ashore. He had discovered that all the natives +had a great dread of a people whom they called Caniba or Canima, and he +argued that the towns were kept back from the coast to avoid the chances +of the maritime attacks of this fierce people. There was no doubt in the +mind of Columbus that these inroads were conducted by subjects of the +Great Khan. + +While he was still stretching his course along this coast, observing its +harbors, seeing more signs of habitation, and attempting to hold +intercourse with the frightened natives, now anchoring in some haven, +and now running up adjacent rivers in a galley, he found time to jot +down in this journal for the future perusal of his sovereigns some of +his suspicions, prophecies, and determinations. He complains of the +difficulty of understanding his prisoners, and seems conscious of his +frequent misconceptions of their meaning. He says he has lost confidence +in them, and somewhat innocently imagines that they would escape if they +could! Then he speaks of a determination to acquire their language, +which he supposes to be the same through all the region. "In this way," +he adds, "we can learn the riches of the country, and make endeavors to +convert these people to our religion, for they are without even the +faith of an idolater." He descants upon the salubrity of the air; not +one of his crew had had any illness, "except an old man, all his life a +sufferer from the stone." There is at times a somewhat amusing innocence +in his conclusions, as when finding a cake of wax in one of the houses, +which Las Casas thinks was brought from Yucatan, he "was of the opinion +that where wax was found there must be a great many other valuable +commodities." + +[Sidenote: 1492. December 4.] + +[Sidenote: Leaves Cuba or Juana.] + +[Sidenote: Bohio. Española.] + +[Sidenote: Tortuga.] + +The ships were now detained in their harbor for several days, during +which the men made excursions, and found a populous country; they +succeeded at times in getting into communication with the natives. +Finally, on December 4, he left the Puerto Santo, as he called it, and +coasting along easterly he reached the next day the extreme eastern end +of what we now know to be Cuba, or Juana as he had named it, after +Prince Juan. Cruising about, he seems to have had an apprehension that +the land he had been following might not after all be the main, for he +appears to have looked around the southerly side of this end of Cuba and +to have seen the southwesterly trend of its coast. He observed, the same +day, land in the southeast, which his Indians called Bohio, and this was +subsequently named Española. Las Casas explains that Columbus here +mistook the Indian word meaning house for the name of the island, which +was really in their tongue called Haiti. It is significant of the +difficulty in identifying the bays and headlands of the journal, that at +this point Las Casas puts on one side, and Navarrete on the opposite +side, of the passage dividing Cuba from Española, one of the capes which +Columbus indicates. Changing his course for this lofty island, he +dispatched the "Nina" to search its shore and find a harbor. That night +the Admiral's ship beat about, waiting for daylight. When it came, he +took his observations of the coast, and espying an island separated by a +wide channel from the other land, he named this island Tortuga. Finding +his way into a harbor--the present St. Nicholas--he declares that a +thousand caracks could sail about in it. Here he saw, as before, large +canoes, and many natives, who fled on his approach. The Spaniards soon +began as they went on to observe lofty and extensive mountains, "the +whole country appearing like Castile." They saw another reminder of +Spain as they were rowing about a harbor, which they entered, and which +was opposite Tortuga, when a skate leaped into their boat, and the +Admiral records it as a first instance in which they had seen a fish +similar to those of the Spanish waters. He says, too, that he heard on +the shore nightingales "and other Spanish birds," mistaking of course +their identity. He saw myrtles and other trees "like those of Castile." +There was another obvious reference to the old country in the name of +Española, which he now bestowed upon the island. He could find few of +the inhabitants, and conjectured that their towns were back from the +coast. The men, however, captured a handsome young woman who wore a bit +of gold at her nose; and having bestowed upon her gifts, let her go. +Soon after, the Admiral sent a party to a town of a thousand houses, +thinking the luck of the woman would embolden the people to have a +parley. The inhabitants fled in fear at first; but growing bolder came +in great crowds, and brought presents of parrots. + +[Sidenote: Columbus finds his latitude.] + +It was here that Columbus took his latitude and found it to be +17°,--while in fact it was 20°. The journal gives numerous instances +during all these explorations of the bestowing of names upon headlands +and harbors, few of which have remained to this day. It was a common +custom to make such use of a Saint's name on his natal day. + +[Sidenote: Saints' names.] + +Dr. Shea in a paper which he published in 1876, in the first volume of +the _American Catholic Quarterly_, has emphasized the help which the +Roman nomenclature of Saints' days, given to rivers and headlands, +affords to the geographical student in tracking the early explorers +along the coasts of the New World. This method of tracing the progress +of maritime discovery suggested itself early to Oviedo, and has been +appealed to by Henry C. Murphy and other modern authorities on this +subject. + +[Sidenote: 1492. December 14.] + +[Sidenote: Tortuga.] + +Finally, on Friday, December 14, they sailed out of the harbor toward +Tortuga. He found this island to be under extensive cultivation like a +plain of Cordoba. The wind not holding for him to take the course which +he wished to run, Columbus returned to his last harbor, the Puerto de la +Concepcion. Again on Saturday he left it, and standing across to Tortuga +once more, he went towards the shore and proceeded up a stream in his +boats. The inhabitants fled as he approached, and burning fires in +Tortuga as well as in Española seemed to be signals that the Spaniards +were moving. + +[Sidenote: Babeque.] + +During the night, proceeding along the channel between the two islands, +the Admiral met and took on board a solitary Indian in his canoe. The +usual gifts were put upon him, and when the ships anchored near a +village, he was sent ashore with the customary effect. The beach soon +swarmed with people, gathered with their king, and some came on board. +The Spaniards got from them without difficulty the bits of gold which +they wore at their ears and noses. One of the captive Indians who talked +with the king told this "youth of twenty-one," that the Spaniards had +come from heaven and were going to Babeque to find gold; and the king +told the Admiral's messenger, who delivered to him a present, that if he +sailed in a certain course two days he would arrive there. This is the +last we hear of Babeque, a place Columbus never found, at least under +that name. Humboldt remarks that Columbus mentions the name of Babeque +more than fourteen times in his journal, but it cannot certainly be +identified with Española, as the _Historie_ of 1571 declares it to be. +D'Avezac has since shared Humboldt's view. Las Casas hesitatingly +thought it might have referred to Jamaica. + +Then the journal describes the country, saying that the land is lofty, +but that the highest mountains are arable, and that the trees are so +luxuriant that they become black rather than green. The journal further +describes this new people as stout and courageous, very different from +the timid islanders of other parts, and without religion. With his usual +habit of contradiction, Columbus goes on immediately to speak of their +pusillanimity, saying that three Spaniards were more than a match for a +thousand of them. He prefigures their fate in calling them "well-fitted +to be governed and set to work to till the land and do whatsoever is +necessary." + +[Sidenote: 1492. December 17.] + +[Sidenote: Cannibals.] + +It was on Monday, December 17, while lying off Española, that the +Spaniards got for the first time something more than rumor respecting +the people of Caniba or the cannibals. These new evidences were certain +arrows which the natives showed to them, and which they said had +belonged to those man-eaters. They were pieces of cane, tipped with +sticks which had been hardened by fire. + +[Sidenote: Cacique.] + +"They were exhibited by two Indians who had lost some flesh from their +bodies, eaten out by the cannibals. This the Admiral did not believe." +It was now, too, that the Spaniards found gold in larger quantities than +they had seen it before. They saw some beaten into thin plates. The +cacique--here this word appears for the first time--cut a plate as big +as his hand into pieces and bartered them, promising to have more to +exchange the next day. He gave the Spaniards to understand that there +was more gold in Tortuga than in Española. It is to be remarked, also, +in the Admiral's account, that while "Our Lord" is not recorded as +indicating to him any method of converting the poor heathen, it was "Our +Lord" who was now about to direct the Admiral to Babeque. + +[Sidenote: 1492. December 18.] + +The next day, December 18, the Admiral lay at anchor, both because wind +failed him, and because he would be able to see the gold which the +cacique had promised to bring. It also gave him an opportunity to deck +his ships and fire his guns in honor of the Annunciation of the Blessed +Virgin. + +In due time the king appeared, borne on a sort of litter by his men, and +boarding the ship, that chieftain found Columbus at table in his cabin. +The cacique was placed beside the Admiral, and similar viands and drinks +were placed before him, of which he partook. Two of his dusky followers, +sitting at his feet, followed their master in the act. Columbus, +observing that the hangings of his bed had attracted the attention of +the savage, gave them to him, and added to the present some amber beads +from his own neck, some red shoes, and a flask of orange-flower water. +"This day," says the record, "little gold was obtained; but an old man +indicated that at a distance of a hundred leagues or more were some +islands, where much gold could be found, and in some it was so plentiful +that it was collected and bolted with sieves, then melted and beaten +into divers forms. One of the islands was said to be all gold, and the +Admiral determined to go in the direction which this man pointed." + +[Sidenote: 1492. December 20.] + +[Sidenote: St. Thomas Island.] + +That night they tried in vain to stand out beyond Tortuga, but on the +20th of December, the record places the ships in a harbor between a +little island, which Columbus called St. Thomas, and the main island. +During the following day, December 21, he surveyed the roadstead, and +going about the region in his boats, he had a number of interviews with +the natives, which ended with an interchange of gifts and courtesies. + +[Sidenote: 1492. December 22.] + +On Saturday, December 22, they encountered some people, sent by a +neighboring cacique, whom the Admiral's own Indians could not readily +understand, the first of this kind mentioned in the journal. Writing in +regard to a party which Columbus at this time sent to visit a large town +not far off, he speaks of having his secretary accompany them, in order +to repress the Spaniards' greediness,--an estimate of his followers +which the Admiral had not before suffered himself to record, if we can +trust the Las Casas manuscript. The results of this foray were three fat +geese and some bits of gold. As he entered the adventure in his journal, +he dwelt on the hope of gold being on the island in abundance, and if +only the spot could be found, it might be got for little or nothing. +"Our Lord, in whose hands are all things, be my help," he cries. "Our +Lord, in his mercy, direct me where I may find the gold mine." + +[Sidenote: Cibao.] + +The Admiral now learns the name of another chief officer, Nitayno, whose +precise position was not apparent, but Las Casas tells us later that +this word was the title of one nearest in rank to the cacique. When an +Indian spoke of a place named Cibao, far to the east, where the king had +banners made of plates of gold, the Admiral, in his eager confidence, +had no hesitation in identifying it with Cipango and its gorgeous +prince. It proved to be the place where in the end the best mines were +found. + +[Sidenote: 1492. December 23.] + +In speaking of the next day, Sunday, December 23, Las Casas tells us +that Columbus was not in the habit of sailing on Sunday, not because he +was superstitious, but because he was pious; but that he did not omit +the opportunity at this time of coursing the coast, "in order to display +the symbols of Redemption." + +[Sidenote: Columbus shipwrecked.] + +Christmas found them in distress. The night before, everything looking +favorable, and the vessel sailing along quietly, Columbus had gone to +bed, being much in need of rest. The helmsman put a boy at the tiller +and went to sleep. The rest of the crew were not slow to do the same. +The vessel was in this condition, with no one but the boy awake, when, +carried out of her course by the current, she struck a sand bank. The +cry of the boy awakened the Admiral, and he was the first to discover +the danger of their situation. He ordered out a boat's crew to carry an +anchor astern, but, bewildered or frightened, the men pulled for the +"Nina." The crew of that caravel warned them off, to do their duty, and +sent their own boat to assist. Help, however, availed nothing. The +"Santa Maria" had careened, and her seams were opening. Her mast had +been cut away, but she failed to right herself. The Admiral now +abandoned her and rowed to the "Nina" with his men. Communicating with +the cacique in the morning, that chieftain sent many canoes to assist in +unloading the ship, so that in a short time everything of value was +saved. This assistance gave occasion for mutual confidences between the +Spaniards and the natives. "They are a loving, uncovetous people," he +enters in his journal. One wonders, with the later experience of his new +friends, if the cacique could have said as much in return. The Admiral +began to be convinced that "the Lord had permitted the shipwreck in +order that he might choose this place for a settlement." The canonizers +go further and say, "the shipwreck made him an engineer." + +Irving, whose heedless embellishments of the story of these times may +amuse the pastime reader, but hardly satisfy the student, was not blind +to the misfortunes of what Columbus at the time called the divine +interposition. "This shipwreck," Irving says, "shackled and limited all +Columbus's future discoveries. It linked his fortunes for the remainder +of his life to this island, which was doomed to be to him a source of +cares and troubles, to involve him in a thousand perplexities, and to +becloud his declining years with humiliation and disappointment." + +[Sidenote: Fort built.] + +The saving of his stores and the loss of his ship had indeed already +suggested what some of his men had asked for, that they might be left +there, while the Admiral returned to Spain with the tidings of the +discovery, if--as the uncomfortable thought sprung up in his mind--he +had not already been anticipated by the recreant commander of the +"Pinta." Accordingly Columbus ordered the construction of a fort, with +tower and ditch, and arrangements were soon made to provide bread and +wine for more than a year, beside seed for the next planting-time. The +ship's long-boat could be left; and a calker, carpenter, cooper, +engineer, tailor, and surgeon could be found among his company, to be of +the party who were to remain and "search for the gold mine." He says +that he expected they would collect a ton of gold in the interval of his +absence; "for I have before protested to your Highnesses," he adds as he +makes an entry for his sovereigns to read, "that the profits shall go to +making a conquest of Jerusalem." + +[Sidenote: Garrison of La Navidad.] + +We know the names of those who agreed to stay on the island. Navarrete +discovered the list in a proclamation made in 1507 to pay what was due +them to their next of kin. This list gives forty names, though some +accounts of the voyage say they numbered a few less. The company +included the Irishman and Englishman already mentioned. + +[Sidenote: 1492. December 27.] + +[Sidenote: December 30.] + +[Sidenote: December 31.] + +On the 27th of December, Columbus got the first tidings of the "Pinta" +since she deserted him; and he sent a Spaniard, with Indians to handle +the canoe, to a harbor at the end of the island, where he supposed +Pinzon's ship to be. Columbus was now perfecting his plans for the fort, +and tried to make out if Guacanagari, the king, was not trying to +conceal from him the situation of the mines. On Sunday, December 30, the +Spanish and native leaders vied with each other in graciousness. The +savage put his crown upon the Admiral. Columbus took off his necklace +and scarlet cloak and placed them on the king. He clothed the savage's +naked feet with buskins and decked the dusky hand with a silver ring. On +Monday, work was resumed in preparing for their return to Spain, for, +with the "Pinta" gone--for the canoe sent to find her had returned +unsuccessful--and the "Nina" alone remaining, it was necessary to +diminish the risk attending the enterprise. + +[Sidenote: 1493. January 2.] + +On January 2, 1493, there was to be leave-taking of the cacique. To +impart to him and to his people a dread of Spanish power, in the +interests of those to be left, he made an exhibition of the force of his +bombards, by sending a shot clean through the hull of the dismantled +wreck. It is curious to observe how Irving, with a somewhat cheap +melodramatic instinct, makes this shot tear through a beautiful grove +like a bolt from heaven! + +The king made some return by ordering an effigy of Columbus to be +finished in gold, in ten days,--as at least so Columbus understood +one of his Indians to announce the cacique's purpose. + +[Sidenote: 1493. January 4.] + +[Sidenote: January 6.] + +Having commissioned Diego de Arana as commander and Pedro Gutierrez and +Roderigo de Escoveda to act as his lieutenants of the fort and its +thirty-nine men, Columbus now embarked, but not before he had addressed +all sorts of good advice to those he was to leave behind,--advice that +did no good, if the subsequent events are clearly divined. It was not, +however, till Friday, January 4, 1493, that the wind permitted him to +stand out of the harbor of the Villa de Navidad, as he had named the +fort and settlement from the fact of his shipwreck there on the day of +the nativity. Two days later they met the "Pinta," and Pinzon, her +commander, soon boarded the Admiral to explain his absence, "saying he +had left against his will." The Admiral doubted such professions; but +did not think it prudent to show active resentment, as Las Casas tells +us. The fact apparently was that Pinzon had not found the gold he went +in search of and so he had returned to meet his commander. He had been +coasting the island for over twenty days, and had been seen by the +natives, who made the report to the Admiral already mentioned. Some +Indians whom he had taken captive were subsequently released by the +Admiral, for the usual ulterior purpose. It is curious to observe how an +act of kidnapping which emulated the Admiral's, if done by Pinzon, is +called by the canonizers, "joining violence to rapine." + +[Sidenote: Jamaica.] + +At this time Columbus records his first intelligence respecting an +island, Yamaye, south of Cuba, which seems to have been Jamaica, where, +as he learned, gold was to be found in grains of the size of beans, +while in Española the grains were nearly the size of kernels of wheat. +He was also informed of an island to the east, inhabited by women only. +He also understood that the people of the continent to the south were +clothed, and did not go naked like those of the islands. + +Both vessels now having made a harbor, and the "Nina" beginning to leak, +a day was spent in calking her seams. Columbus was not without +apprehension that the two brothers, Martin Alonso Pinzon of the "Pinta," +and Vicente Jañez Pinzon who had commanded the "Nina," might now with +their adherents combine for mischief. He was accordingly all the more +anxious to hasten his departure, without further following the coast of +Española. Going up a river to replenish his water, he found on taking +the casks on board that the crevices of the hoops had gathered fine bits +of gold from the stream. This led him to count the neighboring streams, +which he supposed might also contain gold. + +[Sidenote: Columbus sees mermaids.] + +It was not only gold which he saw. Three mermaids stood high out of the +water, with not very comely faces to be sure, but similar to those of +human beings; and he recalled having seen the like on the pepper coast +in Guinea. The commentators suppose they may have been sea-calves +indistinctly seen. + +[Sidenote: 1493. January 10. The ships sail for Spain.] + +[Sidenote: January 12. Caribs.] + +The two ships started once more on the 10th, sometimes lying to at night +for fear of shoals, making and naming cape after cape. On the 12th, +entering a harbor, Columbus discovered an Indian, whom he took for a +Carib, as he had learned to call the cannibals which he so often heard +of. His own Indians did not wholly understand this strange savage. When +they sent him ashore the Spaniards found fifty-five Indians armed with +bows and wooden swords. They were prevailed upon at first to hold +communication; but soon showed a less friendly spirit, and Columbus for +the first time records a fight, in which several of the natives were +wounded. An island to the eastward was now supposed to be the Carib +region, and he desired to capture some of its natives. Navarrete +supposes that Porto Rico is here referred to. He also observed, as his +vessels went easterly, that he was encountering some of the same sort of +seaweed which he had sailed through when steering west, and it occurred +to him that perhaps these islands stretched easterly, so as really to be +not far distant from the Canaries. It may be observed that this +propinquity of the new islands to those of the Atlantic, longer known, +was not wholly eradicated from the maps till well into the earlier years +of the sixteenth century. + +[Sidenote: Caribs and Amazons.] + +They had secured some additional Indians near where they had had their +fight, and one of them now directed Columbus towards the island of the +Caribs. The leaks of the vessels increasing and his crews desponding, +Columbus soon thought it more prudent to shift his course for Spain +direct, supposing at the same time that it would take him near Matinino, +where the tribe of women lived. He had gotten the story somehow, very +likely by a credulous adaptation of Marco Polo, that the Caribs visited +this island once a year and reclaimed the male offspring, leaving the +female young to keep up the tribe. + +In following the Admiral along these coasts of Cuba and Española, no +attempt has here been made to identify all his bays and rivers. +Navarrete and the other commentators have done so, but not always with +agreement. + +[Sidenote: 1493. January 16.] + +On the 16th, they had their last look at a distant cape of Española, and +were then in the broad ocean, with seaweed and tunnies and pelicans to +break its monotony. The "Pinta," having an unsound mast, lagged behind, +and so the "Nina" had to slacken sail. + +[Sidenote: Homeward voyage.] + +Columbus now followed a course which for a long time, owing to defects +in the methods of ascertaining longitude, was the mariner's readiest +recourse to reach his port. This was to run up his latitudes to that of +his destination, and then follow the parallel till he sighted a familiar +landmark. + +[Sidenote: 1493. February 10.] + +[Sidenote: February 13.] + +[Sidenote: A gale.] + +By February 10, when they began to compare reckonings, Columbus placed +his position in the latitude of Flores, while the others thought they +were on a more southern course, and a hundred and fifty leagues nearer +Spain. By the 12th it was apparent that a gale was coming on. The next +day, February 13, the storm increased. During the following night both +vessels took in all sail and scudded before the wind. They lost sight of +each other's lights, and never joined company. The "Pinta" with her weak +mast was blown away to the north. The Admiral's ship could bear the gale +better, but as his ballast was insufficient, he had to fill his water +casks with sea-water. Sensible of their peril, his crew made vows, to be +kept if they were saved. They drew lots to determine who should carry a +wax taper of five pounds to St. Mary of Guadalupe, and the penance fell +to the Admiral. A sailor by another lot was doomed to make a pilgrimage +to St. Mary of Lorette in the papal territory. A third lot was drawn for +a night watch at St. Clara de Mogues, and it fell upon Columbus. Then +they all vowed to pay their devotions at the nearest church of Our Lady +if only they got ashore alive. + +[Sidenote: A narrative of his voyage thrown overboard.] + +There was one thought which more than another troubled Columbus at this +moment, and this was that in case his ship foundered, the world might +never know of his success, for he was apprehensive that the "Pinta" had +already foundered. Not to alarm the crew, he kept from them the fact +that a cask which they had seen him throw overboard contained an account +of his voyage, written on parchment, rolled in a waxed cloth. He trusted +to the chance of some one finding it. He placed a similar cask on the +poop, to be washed off in case the ship went down. He does not mention +this in the journal. + +[Sidenote: 1493. January 15.] + +[Sidenote: January 16. Land seen.] + +[Sidenote: At the Azores.] + +[Sidenote: 1493. February 18.] + +After sunset on the 15th there were signs of clearing in the west, and +the waves began to fall. The next morning at sunrise there was land +ahead. Now came the test of their reckoning. Some thought it the rock of +Cintra near Lisbon; others said Madeira; Columbus decided they were near +the Azores. The land was soon made out to be an island; but a head wind +thwarted them. Other land was next seen astern. While they were saying +their _Salve_ in the evening, some of the crew discerned a light to +leeward, which might have been on the island first seen. Then later they +saw another island, but night and the clouds obscured it too much to be +recognized. The journal is blank for the 17th of February, except that +under the next day, the 18th, Columbus records that after sunset of the +17th they sailed round an island to find an anchorage; but being +unsuccessful in the search they beat out to sea again. In the morning of +the 18th they stood in, discovered an anchorage, sent a boat ashore, and +found it was St. Mary's of the Azores. Columbus was right! + +[Sidenote: 1493. February 21.] + +After sunset he received some provisions, which Juan de Casteñeda, the +Portuguese governor of the island, had sent to him. Meanwhile three +Spaniards whom Columbus sent ashore had failed to return, not a little +to his disturbance, for he was aware that there might be among the +Portuguese some jealousy of his success. To fulfill one of the vows made +during the gale, he now sent one half his crew ashore in penitential +garments to a hermitage near the shore, intending on their return to go +himself with the other half. The record then reads: "The men being at +their devotion, they were attacked by Casteñeda with horse and foot, +and made prisoners." Not being able to see the hermitage from his +anchorage, and not suspecting this event, but still anxious, he made +sail and proceeded till he got a view of the spot. Now he saw the +horsemen, and how presently they dismounted, and with arms in their +hands, entering a boat, approached the ship. Then followed a parley, in +which Columbus thought he discovered a purpose of the Portuguese to +capture him, and they on their part discovered it to be not quite safe +to board the Admiral. To enforce his dignity and authority as a +representative of the sovereigns of Castile, he held up to the boats his +commission with its royal insignia; and reminded them that his +instructions had been to treat all Portuguese ships with respect, since +a spirit of amity existed between the two Crowns. It behooved the +Portuguese, as he told them, to be wary lest by any hostile act they +brought upon themselves the indignation of those higher in authority. +The lofty bearing of Casteñeda continuing, Columbus began to fear that +hostilities might possibly have broken out between Spain and Portugal. +So the interview ended with little satisfaction to either, and the +Admiral returned to his old anchorage. The next day, to work off the lee +shore, they sailed for St. Michael's, and the weather continuing stormy +he found himself crippled in having but three experienced seamen among +the crew which remained to him. So not seeing St. Michael's they again +bore away, on Thursday the 21st, for St. Mary's, and again reached their +former anchorage. + +The storms of these latter days here induced Columbus in his journal to +recall how placid the sea had been among those other new-found islands, +and how likely it was the terrestrial] paradise was in that region, as +theologians and learned philosophers had supposed. From these thoughts +he was aroused by a boat from shore with a notary on board, and +Columbus, after completing his entertainment of the visitors, was asked +to show his royal commission. He records his belief that this was done +to give the Portuguese an opportunity of retreating from their +belligerent attitude. At all events it had that effect, and the +Spaniards who had been restrained were at once released. It is surmised +that the conduct of Casteñeda was in conformity with instructions from +Lisbon, to detain Columbus should he find his way to any dependency of +the Portuguese crown. + +[Sidenote: 1493. February 24.] + +[Sidenote: February 25.] + +[Sidenote: Rock of Cintra seen.] + +[Sidenote: In the Tagus.] + +[Sidenote: Sends letter to the king of Portugal.] + +On Sunday, the 24th, the ship again put out to sea; on Wednesday, they +encountered another gale; and on the following Sunday, they were again +in such peril that they made new vows. At daylight the next day, some +land which they had seen in the night, not without gloomy apprehension +of being driven upon it, proved to be the rock of Cintra. The mouth of +the Tagus was before them, and the people of the adjacent town, +observing the peril of the strange ship, offered prayers for its safety. +The entrance of the river was safely made and the multitude welcomed +them. Up the Tagus they went to Rastelo, and anchored at about three +o'clock in the afternoon. Here Columbus learned that the wintry +roughness which he had recently experienced was but a part of the +general severity of the season. From this place he dispatched a +messenger to Spain to convey the news of his arrival to his sovereigns, +and at the same time he sent a letter to the king of Portugal, then +sojourning nine leagues away. He explained in it how he had asked the +hospitality of a Portuguese port, because the Spanish sovereigns had +directed him to do so, if he needed supplies. He further informed the +king that he had come from the "Indies," which he had reached by sailing +west. He hoped he would be allowed to bring his caravel to Lisbon, to be +more secure; for rumors of a lading of gold might incite reckless +persons, in so lonely a place as he then lay, to deeds of violence. + +[Sidenote: Name of India.] + +The _Historie_ says that Columbus had determined beforehand to call +whatever land he should discover, India, because he thought India was a +name to suggest riches, and to invite encouragement for his project. + +While this letter to the Portuguese king was in transit, the attempt was +made by certain officers of the Portuguese navy in the port of Rastelo +to induce Columbus to leave his ship and give an account of himself; but +he would make no compromise of the dignity of a Castilian admiral. When +his resentment was known and his commission was shown, the Portuguese +officers changed their policy to one of courtesy. + +The next day, and on the one following, the news of his arrival being +spread about, a vast multitude came in boats from all parts to see him +and his Indians. + +[Sidenote: 1493. March 8.] + +[Sidenote: Columbus visits the king.] + +On the third day, a royal messenger brought an invitation from the king +to come and visit the court, which Columbus, not without apprehension, +accepted. The king's steward had been sent to accompany him and provide +for his entertainment on the way. On the night of the following day, he +reached Val do Paraiso, where the king was. This spot was nine leagues +from Lisbon, and it was supposed that his reception was not held in that +city because a pest was raging there. A royal greeting was given to him. +The king affected to believe that the voyage of Columbus was made to +regions which the Portuguese had been allowed to occupy by a convention +agreed upon with Spain in 1479. The Admiral undeceived him, and showed +the king that his ships had not been near Guinea. + +We have another account of this interview at Val do Paraiso, in the +pages of the Portuguese historian, Barros, tinged, doubtless, with +something of pique and prejudice, because the profit of the voyage had +not been for the benefit of Portugal. That historian charges Columbus +with extravagance, and even insolence, in his language to the king. He +says that Columbus chided the monarch for the faithlessness that had +lost him such an empire. He is represented as launching these rebukes so +vehemently that the attending nobles were provoked to a degree which +prompted whispers of assassination. That Columbus found his first harbor +in the Tagus has given other of the older Portuguese writers, like Faria +y Sousa, in his _Europa Portuguesa_, and Vasconcelles and Resende, in +their lives of João II., occasion to represent that his entering it was +not so much induced by stress of weather as to seek a triumph over the +Portuguese king in the first flush of the news. It is also said that the +resolution was formed by the king to avail himself of the knowledge of +two Portuguese who were found among Columbus's men. With their aid he +proposed to send an armed expedition to take possession of the new-found +regions before Columbus could fit out a fleet for a second voyage. +Francisco de Almeida was even selected, according to the report, to +command this force. We hear, however, nothing more of it, and the Bull +of Demarcation put an end to all such rivalries. + +If, on the contrary, we may believe Columbus himself, in a letter which +he subsequently wrote, he did not escape being suspected in Spain of +having thus put himself in the power of the Portuguese in order to +surrender the Indies to them. + +[Sidenote: 1493. March 11. Columbus leaves the court.] + +[Sidenote: Sails from the Tagus.] + +[Sidenote: Reaches Palos, March 15, 1493.] + +Spending Sunday at court, Columbus departed on Monday, March 11, having +first dispatched messages to the King and Queen of Spain. An escort of +knights was provided for him, and taking the monastery of Villafranca on +his way, he kissed the hand of the Portuguese queen, who was there +lodging, and journeying on, arrived at his caravel on Tuesday night. The +next day he put to sea, and on Thursday morning was off Cape St. +Vincent. The next morning they were off the island of Saltes, and +crossing bar with the flood, he anchored on March 15, 1493, not far from +noon, where he had unmoored the "Santa Maria" over seven months before. + +"I made the passage thither in seventy-one days," he says in his +published letter; "and back in forty-eight, during thirteen of which +number I was driven about by storms." + +[Sidenote: The "Pinta's" experiences.] + +The "Pinta," which had parted company with the Admiral on the 14th of +February, had been driven by the gale into Bayona, a port of Gallicia, +in the northwest corner of Spain, whence Pinzon, its commander, had +dispatched a messenger to give information of his arrival and of his +intended visit to the Court. A royal order peremptorily stayed, however, +his projected visit, and left the first announcement of the news to be +proclaimed by Columbus himself. This is the story which later writers +have borrowed from the _Historie_. + +[Sidenote: She reaches Palos.] + +[Sidenote: Death of Pinzon.] + +Oviedo tells us that the "Pinta" put to sea again from the Gallician +harbor, and entered the port of Palos on the same day with Columbus, but +her commander, fearing arrest or other unpleasantness, kept himself +concealed till Columbus had started for Barcelona. Not many days later +Pinzon died in his own house in Palos. Las Casas would have us believe +that his death arose from mortification at the displeasure of his +sovereigns; but Harrisse points out that when Charles V. bestowed a +coat-armor on the family, he recognized his merit as the discoverer of +Española. There is little trustworthy information on the matter, and +Muñoz, whose lack of knowledge prompts inferences on his part, +represents that it was Pinzon's request to explain his desertion of +Columbus, which was neglected by the Court, and impressed him with the +royal displeasure. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +COLUMBUS IN SPAIN AGAIN; MARCH TO SEPTEMBER, 1493. + + +Peter Martyr tells us of the common ignorance and dread pervading the +ordinary ranks of society, before and during the absence of Columbus, in +respect to all that part of the earth's circumference which the sun +looked upon beyond Gades, till it again cast its rays upon the Golden +Chersonesus. During this absence from the known and habitable regions of +the globe, that orb was thought to sweep over the ominous and foreboding +Sea of Darkness. No one could tell how wide that sea was. The learned +disagreed in their estimates. A conception, far under the actual +condition, had played no small part in making the voyage of Columbus +possible. Men possessed legends of its mysteries. Fables of its many +islands were repeated; but no one then living was credibly thought to +have tested its glooms except by sailing a little beyond the outermost +of the Azores. + +[Sidenote: Palos aroused at the return of Columbus.] + +It calls for no stretch of the imagination to picture the public +sentiment in little Palos during the months of anxiety which many +households had endured since that August morning, when in its dim light +Columbus, the Pinzons, and all their companions had been wafted gently +out to sea by the current and the breeze. The winter had been unusually +savage and weird. The navigators to the Atlantic islands had reported +rough passages, and the ocean had broken wildly for long intervals along +the rocks and sands of the peninsular shores. It is a natural movement +of the mind to wrap the absent in the gloom of the present hour; and +while Columbus had been passing along the gentle waters of the new +archipelago, his actual experiences had been in strange contrast to the +turmoil of the sea as it washed the European shores. He had indeed +suffered on his return voyage the full tumultuousness of the elements, +and we can hardly fail to recognize the disquiet of mind and falling of +heart which those savage gales must have given to the kin and friends +of the untraceable wanderers. + +The stories, then, which we have of the thanksgiving and jubilation of +the people of Palos, when the "Nina" was descried passing the bar of the +river, fall readily among the accepted truths of history. We can imagine +how despondency vanished amid the acclaims of exultation; how multitudes +hung upon the words of strange revelations; how the gaping populace +wondered at the bedecked Indians; and how throngs of people opened a way +that Columbus might lead the votive procession to the church. The +canonizers of course read between the lines of the records that it was +to the Church of Rabida that Columbus with his men now betook +themselves. It matters little. + +There was much to mar the delight of some in the households. Comforting +reports must be told of those who were left at La Navidad. No one had +died, unless the gale had submerged the "Pinta" and her crew. She had +not been seen since the "Nina" parted with her in the gale. + +The story of her rescue has already been told. She entered the river +before the rejoicings of the day were over, and relieved the remaining +anxiety. + +[Sidenote: The Court at Barcelona.] + +The Spanish Court was known to be at this time at Barcelona, the Catalan +port on the Mediterranean. Columbus's first impulse was to proceed +thither in his caravel; but his recent hazards made him prudent, and so +dispatching a messenger to the Court, he proceeded to Seville to wait +their majesties' commands. Of the native prisoners which he had brought +away, one had died at sea, three were too sick to follow him, and were +left at Palos, while six accompanied him on his journey. + +[Sidenote: 1493. March 30. Columbus summoned to Court.] + +The messenger with such startling news had sped quickly; and Columbus +did not wait long for a response to his letter. The document (March 30) +showed that the event had made a deep impression on the Court. The new +domain of the west dwarfed for a while the conquests from the Moors. +There was great eagerness to complete the title, and gather its wealth. +Columbus was accordingly instructed to set in motion at once measures +for a new expedition, and then to appear at Court and explain to the +monarchs what action on their part was needful. The demand was promptly +answered; and having organized the necessary arrangements in Seville for +the preparation of a fleet, he departed for Barcelona to make homage to +his sovereigns. His Indians accompanied him. Porters bore his various +wonders from the new islands. His story had preceded him, and town after +town vied with each other in welcoming him, and passing him on to new +amazements and honors. + +[Sidenote: 1493. April. In Barcelona.] + +[Sidenote: Received by the sovereigns.] + +By the middle of April he approached Barcelona, and was met by throngs +of people, who conducted him into the city. His Indians, arrayed in +effective if not accustomed ornament of gold, led the line. Bearers of +all the marvels of the Indies followed, with their forty parrots and +other strange birds of liveliest plumage, with the skins of unknown +animals, with priceless plants that would now supplant the eastern +spices, and with the precious ornaments of the dusky kings and princes +whom he had met. Next, on horseback, came Columbus himself, conspicuous +amid the mounted chivalry of Spain. Thus the procession marched on, +through crowded streets, amid the shouts of lookers-on, to the alcazar +of the Moorish kings in the Calle Ancha, at this time the residence of +the Bishop of Urgil, where it is supposed Ferdinand and Isabella had +caused their thrones to be set up, with a canopy of brocaded gold +drooping about them. Here the monarchs awaited the coming of Columbus. + +[Sidenote: King Ferdinand.] + +[Sidenote: Queen Isabella.] + +Ferdinand, as the accounts picture him, was a man whose moderate stature +was helped by his erectness and robes to a decided dignity of carriage. +His expression in the ruddy glow of his complexion, clearness of eye, +and loftiness of brow, grew gracious in any pleasurable excitement. The +Queen was a very suitable companion, grave and graceful in her demeanor. +Her blue eyes and auburn tresses comported with her outwardly benign +air, and one looked sharply to see anything of her firmness and courage +in the prevailing sweetness of her manner. The heir apparent, Prince +Juan, was seated by their side. The dignitaries of the Court were +grouped about. + +[Sidenote: Columbus before the Court.] + +Las Casas tells us how commanding Columbus looked when he entered the +room, surrounded by a brilliant company of cavaliers. When he approached +the royal dais, both monarchs rose to receive him standing; and when he +stooped to kiss their hands, they gently and graciously lifted him, and +made him sit as they did. They then asked to be told of what he had +seen. + +As Columbus proceeded in his narrative, he pointed out the visible +objects of his speech,--the Indians, the birds, the skins, the barbaric +ornaments, and the stores of gold. We are told of the prayer of the +sovereigns at the close, in which all joined; and of the chanted _Te +Deum_ from the choir of the royal chapel, which bore the thoughts of +every one, says the narrator, on the wings of melody to celestial +delights. This ceremony ended, Columbus was conducted like a royal guest +to the lodgings which had been provided for him. + +It has been a question if the details of this reception, which are put +by Irving in imaginative fullness, and are commonly told on such a +thread of incidents as have been related, are warranted by the scant +accounts which are furnished us in the _Historie_, in Las Casas, and in +Peter Martyr, particularly since the incident does not seem to have made +enough of an impression at the time to have been noticed at all in the +_Dietaria_ of the city, a record of events embodying those of far +inferior interest as we would now value them. Mr. George Sumner +carefully scanned this record many years ago, and could find not the +slightest reference to the festivities. He fancies that the incidents in +the mind of the recorder may have lost their significance through an +Aragonese jealousy of the supremacy of Leon and Castile. + +It is certainly true that in Peter Martyr, the contemporary observer of +this supposed pageantry, there is nothing to warrant the exuberance of +later writers. Martyr simply says that Columbus was allowed to sit in +the sovereigns' presence. + +Whatever the fact as to details, it seems quite evident that this season +at Barcelona made the only unalloyed days of happiness, freed of +anxiety, which Columbus ever experienced. He was observed of all, and +everybody was complacent to him. His will was apparently law to King and +subject. Las Casas tells us that he passed among the admiring throngs +with his face wreathed with smiles of content. An equal complacency of +delight and expectation settled upon all with whom he talked of the +wonders of the land which he had found. They dreamed as he did of +entering into golden cities with their hundred bridges, that might +cause new exultations, to which the present were as nothing. It was a +fatal lure to the proud Spanish nature, and no one was doomed to expiate +the folly of the delusion more poignantly than Columbus himself. + +[Sidenote: Spread of the news.] + +Now that India had been found by the west, as was believed, and +Barcelona was very likely palpitating with the thought, the news spread +in every direction. What were the discoveries of the Phoenicians to +this? What questions of ethnology, language, species, migrations, +phenomena of all sorts, in man and in the natural world, were pressing +upon the mind, as the results were considered? Were not these parrots +which Columbus had exhibited such as Pliny tells us are in Asia? + +The great event had fallen in the midst of geographical development, and +was understood at last. Marco Polo and the others had told their marvels +of the east. The navigators of Prince Henry had found new wonders on the +sea. Regiomontanus, Behaim, and Toscanelli had not communed in vain with +cosmographical problems. Even errors had been stepping-stones; as when +the belief in the easterly over-extension of Asia had pictured it near +enough in the west to convince men that the hazard of the Sea of +Darkness was not so great after all. + +[Sidenote: Peter Martyr records the event.] + +Spain was then the centre of much activity of mind. "I am here," records +Peter Martyr, "at the source of this welcome intelligence from the new +found lands, and as the historian of such events, I may hope to go down +to posterity as their recorder." We must remember this profession when +we try to account for his meagre record of the reception at Barcelona. + +That part of the letter of Peter Martyr, dated at Barcelona, on the ides +of May, 1493, which conveyed to his correspondent the first tidings of +Columbus's return, is in these words, as translated by Harrisse: "A +certain Christopher Colonus, a Ligurian, returned from the antipodes. He +had obtained for that purpose three ships from my sovereigns, with much +difficulty, because the ideas which he expressed were considered +extravagant. He came back and brought specimens of many precious things, +especially gold, which those regions naturally produce." Martyr also +tells us that when Pomponius Laetus got such news, he could scarcely +refrain "from tears of joy at so unlooked-for an event." "What more +delicious food for an ingenious mind!" said Martyr to him in return. "To +talk with people who have seen all this is elevating to the mind." The +confidence of Martyr, however, in the belief of Columbus that the true +Indies had been found was not marked. He speaks of the islands as +adjacent to, and not themselves, the East. + +[Sidenote: The news in England.] + +Sebastian Cabot remembered the time when these marvelous tidings reached +the court of Henry VII. in London, and he tells us that it was accounted +a "thing more divine than human." + +[Sidenote: Columbus's first letter.] + +A letter which Columbus had written and early dispatched to Barcelona, +nearly in duplicate, to the treasurers of the two crowns was promptly +translated into Latin, and was sent to Italy to be issued in numerous +editions, to be copied in turn by the Paris and Antwerp printers, and a +little more sluggishly by those of Germany. + +[Sidenote: Influence of the event.] + +There is, however, singularly little commenting on these events that +passed into print and has come down to us; and we may well doubt if the +effect on the public mind, beyond certain learned circles, was at all +commensurate with what we may now imagine the recognition of so +important an event ought to have been. Nordenskiöld, studying the +cartography and literature of the early discoveries in America in his +_Facsimile Atlas_, is forced to the conclusion that "scarcely any +discovery of importance was ever received with so much indifference, +even in circles where sufficient genius and statesmanship ought to have +prevailed to appreciate the changes they foreshadowed in the development +of the economical and political conditions of mankind." + +[Sidenote: 1493. June 19. Carjaval's oration.] + +It happened on June 19, 1493, but a few weeks after the Pope had made +his first public recognition of the discovery, that the Spanish +ambassador at the Papal Court, Bernardin de Carjaval, referred in an +oration to "the unknown lands, lately found, lying towards the Indies;" +and at about the same time there was but a mere reference to the event +in the _Los Tratados_ of Doctor Alonso Ortis, published at Seville. + +[Sidenote: Columbus in favor.] + +While this strange bruit was thus spreading more or less, we get some +glimpses of the personal life of Columbus during these days of his +sojourn in Barcelona. We hear of him riding through the streets on +horseback, on one side of the King, with Prince Juan on the other. + +[Sidenote: Reward for first seeing land.] + +We find record of his being awarded the pension of thirty crowns, as the +first discoverer of land, by virtue of the mysterious light, and Irving +thinks that we may condone this theft from the brave sailor who +unquestionably saw land the first, by remembering that "Columbus's whole +ambition was involved." It seems to others that his whole character was +involved. + +[Sidenote: Story of the egg.] + +We find him a guest at a banquet given by Cardinal Mendoza, and the +well-known story of his making an egg stand upright, by chipping one end +of it, is associated with this merriment of the table. An impertinent +question of a shallow courtier had induced Columbus to show a table full +of guests that it was easy enough to do anything when the way was +pointed out. The story, except as belonging to a traditional stock of +anecdotes, dating far back of Columbus, always ready for an application, +has no authority earlier than Benzoni, and loses its point in the +destruction of the end on which the aim was to make it stand. This has +been so palpable to some of the repeaters of the story that they have +supposed that the feat was accomplished, not by cracking the end of the +egg, but by using a quick motion which broke the sack which holds the +yolk, so that that weightier substance settled at one end, and balanced +the egg in an upright position. + +So passed the time with the new-made hero, in drinking, as Irving +expresses it, "the honeyed draught of popularity before enmity and +detraction had time to drug it with bitterness." + +[Sidenote: 1493. May 20. Receives a coat of arms.] + +We find the sovereigns bestowing upon him, on the 20th of May, a coat of +arms, which shows a castle and a lion in the upper quarters, and in +those below, a group of golden islands in a sea of waves, on the one +hand, and the arms to which his family had been entitled, on the other. +Humboldt speaks of this archipelago as the first map of America, but he +apparently knew only Oviedo's description of the arms, for the latter +places the islands in a gulf formed by a mainland, and in this fashion +they are grouped in a blazon of the arms which is preserved at the +Ministry of Foreign Affairs at Paris--a duplicate being at Genoa. +Harrisse says that this design is the original water-color, made under +Columbus's eye in 1502. In this picture,--which is the earliest blazonry +which has come down to us,--the other lower quarter has the five golden +anchors on a blue ground, which it is claimed was adjudged to Columbus +as the distinctive badge of an Admiral of Spain. The personal arms are +relegated to a minor overlying shield at the lower point of the +escutcheon. Oviedo also says that trees and other objects should be +figured on the mainland. + +[Illustration: THE ARMS OF COLUMBUS. + +[From Oviedo's _Cosmica_.]] + +The lion and castle of the original grant were simply reminders of the +arms of Leon and Castile; but Columbus seems, of his own motion, so far +as Harrisse can discover, to have changed the blazonry of those objects +in the drawing of 1502 to agree with those of the royal arms. It was by +the same arrogant license, apparently, that he introduced later the +continental shore of the archipelago; and Harrisse can find no record +that the anchors were ever by any authority added to his blazon, nor +that the professed family arms, borne in connection, had any warrant +whatever. + +The earliest engraved copy of the arms is in the _Historia General_ of +Oviedo in 1535, where a profile helmet supports a crest made of a globe +topped by a cross. In Oviedo's _Coronica_ of 1547, the helmet is shown +in front view. There seems to have been some wide discrepancies in the +heraldic excursions of these early writers. Las Casas, for instance, +puts the golden lion in a silver field,--when heraldry abhors a +conjunction of metals, as much as nature abhors a vacuum. The discussion +of the family arms which were added by Columbus to the escutcheon made a +significant part of the arguments in the suit, many years later, of +Baldassare (Balthazar) Colombo to possess the Admiral's dignities; and +as Harrisse points out, the emblem of those Italian Colombos of any +pretensions to nobility was invariably a dove of some kind,--a device +quite distinct from those designated by Columbus. This assumption of +family arms by Columbus is held by Harrisse to be simply a concession to +the prejudices of his period, and to the exigencies of his new position. + +The arms have been changed under the dukes of Veragua to show +silver-capped waves in the sea, while a globe surmounted by a cross is +placed in the midst of a gulf containing only five islands. + +[Sidenote: His alleged motto.] + +There is another later accompaniment of the arms, of which the origin +has escaped all search. It is far more familiar than the escutcheon, on +which it plays the part of a motto. It sometimes represents that +Columbus found for the allied crowns a new world, and at other times +that he gave one to them. + + Por Castilla é por Leon + Nuevo Mundo halló Colon. + + A Castilla, y a Leon + Nuevo Mundo dió Colon. + +Oviedo is the earliest to mention this distich in 1535. It is given in +the _Historie_, not as a motto of the arms, but as an inscription placed +by the king on the tomb of Columbus some years after his death. If this +is true, it does away with the claims of Gomara that Columbus himself +added it to his arms. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: Diplomacy of the Bull of Demarcation.] + +But diplomacy had its part to play in these events. As the Christian +world at that time recognized the rights of the Holy Father to confirm +any trespass on the possessions of the heathen, there was a prompt +effort on the part of Ferdinand to bring the matter to the attention of +the Pope. As early as 1438, bulls of Martin V. and Eugene IV. had +permitted the Spaniards to sail west and the Portuguese south; and a +confirmation of the same had been made by Pope Nicholas the Fifth. In +1479, the rival crowns of Portugal and Spain had agreed to respect their +mutual rights under these papal decisions. + +The messengers whom Ferdinand sent to Rome were instructed to intimate +that the actual possession which had been made in their behalf of these +new regions did not require papal sanction, as they had met there no +Christian occupants; but that as dutiful children of the church it would +be grateful to receive such a benediction on their energies for the +faith as a confirmatory bull would imply. Ferdinand had too much of +wiliness in his own nature, and the practice of it was too much a part +of the epoch, wholly to trust a man so notoriously perverse and +obstinate as Alexander VI. was. Though Muñoz calls Alexander the friend +of Ferdinand, and though the Pope was by birth an Aragonese, experience +had shown that there was no certainty of his support in a matter +affecting the interest of Spain. + +[Sidenote: 1493. May 3. The Bull issued.] + +A folio printed leaf in Gothic characters, of which the single copy sold +in London in 1854 is said to be the only one known to bibliographers, +made public to the world the famous Bull of Demarcation of Alexander +VI., bearing date May 3, 1493. If one would believe Hakluyt, the Pope +had been induced to do this act by his own option, rather than at the +intercession of the Spanish monarchs. Under it, and a second bull of the +day following, Spain was entitled to possess, "on condition of planting +the Catholic faith," all lands not already occupied by Christian powers, +west of a meridian drawn one hundred leagues west of the Azores and Cape +de Verde Islands, evidently on the supposition that these two groups +were in the same longitude, the fact being that the most westerly of the +southern, and the most easterly of the northern, group possessed nearly +the same meridian. Though Portugal was not mentioned in describing this +line, it was understood that there was reserved to her the same +privilege easterly. + +[Illustration: POPE ALEXANDER VI. + +[A bust in the Berlin Museum.]] + +There was not as yet any consideration given to the division which this +great circle meridian was likely to make on the other side of the globe, +where Portugal was yet to be most interested. The Cape of Good Hope had +not then been doubled, and the present effect of the division was to +confine the Portuguese to an exploration of the western African coast +and to adjacent islands. It will be observed that in the placing of this +line the magnetic phenomena which Columbus had observed on his recent +voyage were not forgotten, if the coincidence can be so interpreted. +Humboldt suggests that it can. + +[Sidenote: Line of no variation.] + +To make a physical limit serve a political one was an obvious recourse +at a time when the line of no variation was thought to be unique and of +a true north and south direction; but within a century the observers +found three other lines, as Acosta tells us in his _Historia Natural de +las Indias_, in 1589; and there proved to be a persistent migration of +these lines, all little suited to terrestrial demarcations. Roselly de +Lorgues and the canonizers, however, having given to Columbus the +planning of the line in his cell at Rabida, think, with a surprising +prescience on his part, and with a very convenient obliviousness on +their part, that he had chosen "precisely the only point of our planet +which science would choose in our day,--a mysterious demarcation made by +its omnipotent Creator," in sovereign disregard, unfortunately, of the +laws of his own universe! + +[Sidenote: Suspicious movements in Portugal.] + +Meanwhile there were movements in Portugal which Ferdinand had not +failed to notice. An ambassador had come from its king, asking +permission to buy certain articles of prohibited exportation for use on +an African expedition which the Portuguese were fitting out. Ferdinand +suspected that the true purpose of this armament was to seize the new +islands, under a pretense as dishonorable as that which covered the +ostensible voyage to the Cape de Verde Islands, by whose exposure +Columbus had been driven into Spain. The Spanish monarch was alert +enough to get quite beforehand with his royal brother. Before the +ambassador of which mention has been made had come to the Spanish Court, +Ferdinand had dispatched Lope de Herrera to Lisbon, armed with a +conciliatory and a denunciatory letter, to use one or the other, as he +might find the conditions demanded. The Portuguese historian Resende +tells us that João, in order to give a wrong scent, had openly bestowed +largesses on some and had secretly suborned other members of Ferdinand's +cabinet, so that he did not lack for knowledge of the Spanish intentions +from the latter members. He and his ambassadors were accordingly found +by Ferdinand to be inexplicably prepared at every new turn of the +negotiations. + +In this way João had been informed of the double mission of Herrera, and +could avoid the issue with him, while he sent his own ambassadors to +Spain, to promise that, pending their negotiations, no vessel should +sail on any voyage of discovery for sixty days. They were also to +propose that instead of the papal line, one should be drawn due west +from the Canaries, giving all new discoveries north to the Spaniards, +and all south to the Portuguese. This new move Ferdinand turned to his +own advantage, for it gave him the opportunity to enter upon a course of +diplomacy which he could extend long enough to allow Columbus to get off +with a new armament. He then sent a fresh embassy, with instructions to +move slowly and protract the discussion, but to resort, when compelled, +to a proposition for arbitration. João was foiled and he knew it. "These +ambassadors," he said, "have no feet to hurry and no head to propound." +The Spanish game was the best played, and the Portuguese king grew +fretful under it, and intimated sometimes a purpose to proceed to +violence, but he was restrained by a better wisdom. We depend mainly +upon the Portuguese historians for understanding these complications, +and it is to be hoped that some time the archives of the Vatican may +reveal the substance of these tripartite negotiations of the papal court +and the two crowns. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: 1493. May. Honors of Columbus confirmed.] + +[Sidenote: May 28. Columbus leaves Barcelona.] + +[Sidenote: June. In Seville.] + +[Sidenote: Fonseca.] + +Before Columbus had left Barcelona, a large gratuity had been awarded to +him by his sovereigns; an order had been issued commanding free lodgings +to be given to him and his followers, wherever he went, and the original +stipulations as to honors and authority, made by the sovereigns at Santa +Fé, had been confirmed (May 28). A royal seal was now confided to his +keeping, to be set to letters patent, and to commissions that it might +be found necessary to issue. It might be used even in appointing a +deputy, to act in the absence of Columbus. His appointments were to hold +during the royal pleasure. His own power was defined at the same time, +and in particular to hold command over the entire expedition, and to +conduct its future government and explorations. He left Barcelona, after +leavetakings, on May 28; and his instructions, as printed by Navarrete, +were signed the next day. It is not unlikely they were based on +suggestions of Columbus made in a letter, without date, which has +recently been printed in the _Cartas de Indias_ (1877). Early in June, +he was in Seville, and soon after he was joined by Juan Rodriguez de +Fonseca, archdeacon of Seville, who, as representative of the Crown, had +been made the chief director of the preparations. It is claimed by +Harrisse that this priest has been painted by the biographers of +Columbus much blacker than he really was, on the strength of the +objurgations which the _Historie_ bestows upon him. Las Casas calls him +worldly; and he deserves the epithet if a dominating career of thirty +years in controlling the affairs of the Indies is any evidence of +fitness in such matters. His position placed him where he had purposes +to thwart as well as projects to foster, and the record of this age of +discovery is not without many proofs of selfish and dishonorable +motives, which Fonseca might be called upon to repress. That his +discrimination was not always clear-sighted may be expected; that he was +sometimes perfidious may be true, but he was dealing mainly with those +who could be perfidious also. That he abused his authority might also go +without dispute; but so did Columbus and the rest. In the game of +diamond-cut-diamond, it is not always just to single out a single victim +for condemnation, as is done by Irving and the canonizers. + +It was while at Seville, engaged in this work of preparation, that +Fonseca sought to check the demands of Columbus as respects the number +of his personal servitors. That these demands were immoderate, the +character of Columbus, never cautious under incitement, warrants us in +believing; and that the official guardian of the royal treasury should +have views of his own is not to be wondered at. The story goes that the +sovereigns forced Fonseca to yield, and that this was the offense of +Columbus which could neither be forgotten nor forgiven by Fonseca, and +for which severities were visited upon him and his heirs in the years to +come. Irving is confident that Fonseca has escaped the condemnation +which Spanish writers would willingly have put upon him, for fear of the +ecclesiastical censors of the press. + +[Sidenote: Council for the Indies.] + +The measures which were now taken in accordance with the instructions +given to Columbus, already referred to, to regulate the commerce of the +Indies, with a custom house at Cadiz and a corresponding one in Española +under the control of the Admiral, ripened in time into what was known as +the Council for the Indies. It had been early determined (May 23) to +control all emigration to the new regions, and no one was allowed to +trade thither except under license from the monarchs, Columbus, or +Fonseca. + +[Sidenote: New fleet equipped.] + +A royal order had put all ships and appurtenances in the ports of +Andalusia at the demand of Fonseca and Columbus, for a reasonable +compensation, and compelled all persons required for the service to +embark in it on suitable pay. Two thirds of the ecclesiastical tithes, +the sequestered property of banished Jews, and other resources were set +apart to meet these expenses, and the treasurer was authorized to +contract a loan, if necessary. To eke out the resources, this last was +resorted to, and 5,000,000 maravedis were borrowed from the Duke of +Medina-Sidonia. All the transactions relating to the procuring and +dispensing of moneys had been confided to a treasurer, Francisco Pinelo; +with the aid of an accountant, Juan de Soria. Everything was hurriedly +gathered for the armament, for it was of the utmost importance that the +preparations should move faster than the watching diplomacy. + +Artillery which had been in use on shipboard for more than a century and +a half was speedily amassed. The arquebuse, however, had not altogether +been supplanted by the matchlock, and was yet preferred in some hands +for its lightness. Military stores which had been left over from the +Moorish war and were now housed in the Alhambra, at this time converted +into an arsenal, were opportunely drawn upon. + +[Sidenote: Beradi and Vespucius.] + +The labor of an intermediary in much of this preparation fell upon +Juonato Beradi, a Florentine merchant then settled in Seville, and it is +interesting to know that Americus Vespucius, then a mature man of two +and forty, was engaged under Beradi in this work of preparation. + +[Sidenote: 1493. June 20.] + +From the fact that certain horsemen and agriculturists were ordered to +be in Seville on June 20, and to hold themselves in readiness to embark, +it may be inferred that the sailing of some portion of the fleet may at +that time have been expected at a date not much later. + +[Illustration: CROSSBOW-MAKER. + +[From Jost Amman's _Beschreibung_, 1586.]] + +[Sidenote: Isabella's interest.] + +[Sidenote: Indians baptized.] + +The interest of Isabella in the new expedition was almost wholly on its +emotional and intellectual side. She had been greatly engrossed with the +spiritual welfare of the Indians whom Columbus had taken to Barcelona. +Their baptism had taken place with great state and ceremony, the King, +Queen, and Prince Juan officiating as sponsors. It was intended that +they should reëmbark with the new expedition. Prince Juan, however, +picked out one of these Indians for his personal service, and when the +fellow died, two years later, it was a source of gratification, as +Herrera tells us, that at last one of his race had entered the gates of +heaven! Only four of the six ever reached their native country. We know +nothing of the fate of those left sick at Palos. + +[Sidenote: Father Buil.] + +The Pope, to further all methods for the extension of the faith, had +commissioned (June 24) a Benedictine monk, Bernardo Buil (Boyle), of +Catalonia, to be his apostolic vicar in the new world, and this priest +was to be accompanied by eleven brothers of the order. The Queen +intrusted to them the sacred vessels and vestments from her own altar. +The instructions which Columbus received were to deal lovingly with the +poor natives. We shall see how faithful he was to the behest. + +Isabella's musings were not, however, all so piously confined. She wrote +to Columbus from Segovia in August, requiring him to make provisions for +bringing back to Spain specimens of the peculiar birds of the new +regions, as indications of untried climates and seasons. + +[Sidenote: Astronomy and navigation.] + +Again, in writing to Columbus, September 5, she urged him not to rely +wholly on his own great knowledge, but to take such a skillful +astronomer on his voyage as Fray Antonio de Marchena,--the same whom +Columbus later spoke of as being one of the two persons who had never +made him a laughing-stock. Muñoz says the office of astronomer was not +filled. + +Dealing with the question of longitude was a matter in which there was +at this time little insight, and no general agreement. Columbus, as we +have seen, suspected the variation of the needle might afford the basis +of a system; but he grew to apprehend, as he tells us in the narrative +of his fourth voyage, that the astronomical method was the only +infallible one, but whether his preference was for the opposition of +planets, the occultations of stars, the changes in the moon's +declination, or the comparisons of Jupiter's altitude with the lunar +position,--all of which were in some form in vogue,--does not appear. +The method by conveyance of time, so well known now in the use of +chronometers, seems to have later been suggested by Alonso de Santa +Cruz,--too late for the recognition of Columbus; but the instrumentality +of water-clocks, sand-clocks, and other crude devices, like the timing +of burning wicks, was too uncertain to obtain even transient sanction. + +[Sidenote: Astrolabe.] + +The astrolabe, for all the improvements of Behaim, was still an awkward +instrument for ascertaining latitude, especially on a rolling or +pitching ship, and we know that Vasco da Gama went on shore at the Cape +de Verde Islands to take observations when the motion of the sea balked +him on shipboard. + +[Illustration: THE CLOCK-MAKER. + +[From Jost Amman's _Beschreibung_, Frankfort.]] + + +[Sidenote: Cross-staff and Jackstaff.] + +Whether the cross-staff or Jackstaff, a seaboard implement somewhat more +convenient than the astrolabe, was known to Columbus is not very +clear,--probably it was not; but the navigators that soon followed him +found it more manageable on rolling ships than the older instruments. It +was simply a stick, along which, after one end of it was placed at the +eye, a scaled crossbar was pushed until its two ends touched, the lower, +the horizon, and the upper, the heavenly body whose altitude was to be +taken. A scale on the stick then showed, at the point where the bar was +left, the degree of latitude. + +[Sidenote: Errors in latitude.] + +The best of such aids, however, did not conduce to great accuracy, and +the early maps, in comparison with modern, show sometimes several +degrees of error in scaling from the equator. An error once committed +was readily copied, and different cartographical records put in service +by the professional map makers came sometimes by a process of averages +to show some surprising diversities, with positive errors of +considerable extent. The island of Cuba, for instance, early found place +in the charts seven and eight degrees too far north, with dependent +islands in equally wrong positions. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: Seventeen vessels ready.] + +As the preparations went on, a fleet of seventeen vessels, large and +small, three of which were called transports, had, according to the best +estimates, finally been put in readiness. Scillacio tells us that some +of the smallest had been constructed of light draft, especially for +exploring service. Horses and domestic animals of all kinds were at last +gathered on board. Every kind of seed and agricultural implement, stores +of commodities for barter with the Indians, and all the appurtenances of +active life were accumulated. Muñoz remarks that it is evident that +sugar cane, rice, and vines had not been discovered or noted by Columbus +on his first voyage, or we would not have found them among the +commodities provided for the second. + +[Sidenote: Ojeda.] + +[Sidenote: Their companies.] + +In making up the company of the adventurers, there was little need of +active measures to induce recruits. Many an Hidalgo and cavalier took +service at their own cost. Galvano, who must have received the reports +by tradition, says that such was the "desire of travel that the men were +ready to leap into the sea to swim, if it had been possible, into these +new found parts." Traffic, adventure, luxury, feats of arms,--all were +inducements that lured one individual or another. Some there were to +make names for themselves in their new fields. Such was Alonso de Ojeda, +a daring youth, expert in all activities, who had served his ambition in +the Moorish wars, and had been particularly favored by the Duke of +Medina-Celi, the friend of Columbus. + +[Sidenote: Las Casas, Ponce de Leon, La Cosa, etc.] + +We find others whose names we shall again encounter. The younger brother +of Columbus, Diego Colon, had come to Spain, attracted by the success of +Christopher. The father and uncle of Las Casas, from whose conversations +with the Admiral that historian could profit in the future, Juan Ponce +de Leon, the later discoverer of Florida, Juan de la Cosa, whose map is +the first we have of the New World, and Dr. Chanca, a physician of +Seville, who was pensioned by the Crown, and to whom we owe one of the +narratives of the voyage, were also of the company. + +[Sidenote: 1,500 souls embark.] + +The thousand persons to which the expedition had at first been limited +became, under the pressure of eager cavaliers, nearer 1,200, and this +number was eventually increased by stowaways and other hangers-on, till +the number embarked was not much short of 1,500. This is Oviedo's +statement. Bernaldez and Peter Martyr make the number 1,200, or +thereabouts. Perhaps these were the ordinary hands, and the 300 more +were officers and the like, for the statements do not render it certain +how the enumerations are made. So far as we know their names, but a +single companion of Columbus in his first voyage was now with him. The +twenty horsemen, already mentioned are supposed to be the only mounted +soldiers that embarked. Columbus says, in a letter addressed to their +majesties, that "the number of colonists who desire to go thither +amounts to two thousand," which would indicate that a large number were +denied. The letter is undated, and may not be of a date near the +sailing; if it is, it probably indicates to some degree the number of +persons who were denied embarkation. As the day approached for the +departure there was some uneasiness over a report of a Portuguese +caravel sailing westward from Madeira, and it was proposed to send some +of the fleet in advance to overtake the vessel; but after some +diplomatic fence between Ferdinand and João, the disquiet ended, or at +least nothing was done on either side. + +At one time Columbus had hoped to embark on the 15th of August; but it +was six weeks later before everything was ready. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +THE SECOND VOYAGE. + +1493-1494. + + +[Sidenote: The embarkation.] + +The last day in port was a season of solemnity and gratulation. Coma, a +Spaniard, who, if not an eyewitness, got his description from observers, +thus describes the scene in a letter to Scillacio in Pavia: "The +religious rites usual on such occasions were performed by the sailors; +the last embraces were given; the ships were hung with brilliant cloths; +streamers were wound in the rigging; and the royal standard flapped +everywhere at the sterns of the vessels. The pipers and harpers held in +mute astonishment the Nereids and even the Sirens with their sweet +modulations. The shores reëchoed the clang of trumpets and the braying +of clarions. The discharge of cannon rolled over the water. Some +Venetian galleys chancing to enter the harbor joined in the jubilation, +and the cheers of united nations went up with prayers for blessings on +the venturing crews." + +[Sidenote: 1493. September 25. The fleet sails.] + +Night followed, calm or broken, restful or wearisome, as the case might +be, for one or another, and when the day dawned (September 25, 1493) the +note of preparation was everywhere heard. It was the same on the three +great caracks, on the lesser caravels, and on the light craft, which had +been especially fitted for exploration. The eager and curious mass of +beings which crowded their decks were certainly a motley show. There +were cavalier and priest, hidalgo and artisan, soldier and sailor. The +ambitious thoughts which animated them were as various as their habits. +There were those of the adventurer, with no purpose whatever but +pastime, be it easy or severe. There was the greed of the speculator, +counting the values of trinkets against stores of gold. + +[Sidenote: Columbus's character.] + +There was the brooding of the administrators, with unsolved problems of +new communities in their heads. There were ears that already caught the +songs of salvation from native throats. There was Columbus himself, +combining all ambitions in one, looking around this harbor of Cadiz +studded with his lordly fleet, spreading its creaking sails, lifting its +dripping anchors. It was his to contrast it with the scene at Palos a +little over a year before. This needy Genoese vested with the +viceroyalty of a new world was more of an adventurer than any. He was a +speculator who overstepped them all in audacious visions and golden +expectancies. He was an administrator over a new government, untried and +undivined. To his ears the hymns of the Church soared with a militant +warning, dooming the heathen of the Indies, and appalling the Moslem +hordes that imperiled the Holy Sepulchre. + +[Sidenote: 1493. October 1. Canaries.] + +Under the eye of this one commanding spirit, the vessels fell into a +common course, and were wafted out upon the great ocean under the lead +of the escorting galleys of the Venetians. The responsibility of the +captain-general of the great armament had begun. He had been instructed +to steer widely clear of the Portuguese coast, and he bore away in the +lead directly to the southwest. On the seventh day (October 1) they +reached the Gran Canaria, where they tarried to repair a leaky ship. On +the 5th they anchored at Gomera. Two days were required here to complete +some parts of their equipment, for the islands had already become the +centre of great industries and produced largely. "They have enterprising +merchants who carry their commerce to many shores," wrote Coma to +Scillacio. + +There were wood and water to be taken on board. A variety of domestic +animals, calves, goats, sheep, and swine; some fowls, and the seed of +many orchard and garden fruits, oranges, lemons, melons, and the like, +were gathered from the inhabitants and stowed away in the remaining +spaces of the ships. + +[Sidenote: 1493. October 13. At sea.] + +On the 7th the fleet sailed, but it was not till the 13th that the +gentle winds had taken them beyond Ferro and the unbounded sea was about +the great Admiral. He bore away much more southerly than in his first +voyage, so as to strike, if he could, the islands that were so +constantly spoken of, the previous year, as lying southeasterly from +Española. + +[Sidenote: St. Elmo's light.] + +His ultimate port was, of course, the harbor of La Navidad, and he had +issued sealed instructions to all his commanders, to guide any one who +should part company with the fleet. The winds were favorable, but the +dull sailing of the Admiral's ship restrained the rest. In ten days they +had overshot the longitude of the Sargossa Sea without seeing it, +leaving its floating weeds to the north. In a few days more they +experienced heavy tempests. They gathered confidence from an old belief, +when they saw St. Elmo waving his lambent flames about the upper +rigging, while they greeted his presence with their prayers and songs. + +"The fact is certain," says Coma, "that two lights shone through the +darkness of the night on the topmast of the Admiral's ship. Forthwith +the tempest began to abate, the sea to remit its fury, the waves their +violence, and the surface of the waves became as smooth as polished +marble." This sudden gale of four hours' duration came on St. Simon's +eve. + +The same authority represents that the protracted voyage had caused +their water to run low, for the Admiral, confident of his nearness to +land, and partly to reassure the timid, had caused it to be served +unstintingly. "You might compare him to Moses," adds Coma, "encouraging +the thirsty armies of the Israelites in the dry wastes of the +wilderness." + +[Sidenote: 1493. November 2.] + +[Sidenote: November 3.] + +[Sidenote: Dominica Island.] + +[Sidenote: Marigalante.] + +[Sidenote: 1493. November 3. Guadaloupe.] + +On Saturday, November 2, the leaders compared reckonings. Some thought +they had come 780 leagues from Ferro; others, 800. There were anxiety +and weariness on board. The constant fatigue of bailing out the leaky +ships had had its disheartening effect. Columbus, with a practiced eye, +saw signs of land in the color of the water and the shifting winds, and +he signaled every vessel to take in sail. It was a waiting night. The +first light of Sunday glinted on the top of a lofty mountain ahead, +descried by a watch at the Admiral's masthead. As the island was +approached, the Admiral named it, in remembrance of the holy day, +Dominica. The usual service with the _Salve Regina_ was chanted +throughout the fleet, which moved on steadily, bringing island after +island into view. Columbus could find no good anchorage at Dominica, and +leaving one vessel to continue the search, he passed on to another +island, which he named from his ship, Marigalante. Here he landed, set +up the royal banner in token of possession of the group,--for he had +seen six islands,--and sought for inhabitants. He could find none, nor +any signs of occupation. There was nothing but a tangle of wood in every +direction, a sparkling mass of leafage, trembling in luxurious beauty +and giving off odors of spice. Some of the men tasted an unknown fruit, +and suffered an immediate inflammation about the face, which it required +remedies to assuage. The next morning Columbus was attracted by the +lofty volcanic peak of another island, and, sailing up to it, he could +see cascades on the sides of this eminence. + +[Illustration: GUADALOUPE, MARIE GALANTE, AND DOMINICA. + +[From Henrique's _Les Colonies Françoises_, Paris, 1889.]] + +"Among those who viewed this marvelous phenomena at a distance from the +ships," says Coma, "it was at first a subject of dispute whether it were +light reflected from masses of compact snow, or the broad surface of a +smooth-worn road. At last the opinion prevailed that it was a vast +river." + +[Sidenote: November 4.] + +Columbus remembered that he had promised the monks of Our Lady of +Guadaloupe, in Estremadura, to place some token of them in this strange +world, and so he gave this island the name of Guadaloupe. Landing the +next day, a week of wonders followed. + +[Sidenote: Cannibals.] + +The exploring parties found the first village abandoned; but this had +been done so hastily that some young children had been left behind. +These they decked with hawks' bells, to win their returning parents. One +place showed a public square surrounded by rectangular houses, made of +logs and intertwined branches, and thatched with palms. They went +through the houses and noted what they saw. They observed at the +entrance of one some serpents carved in wood. They found netted +hammocks, beside calabashes, pottery, and even skulls used for utensils +of household service. They discovered cloth made of cotton; bows and +bone-tipped arrows, said sometimes to be pointed with human shin-bones; +domesticated fowl very like geese; tame parrots; and pineapples, whose +flavor enchanted them. They found what might possibly be relics of +Europe, washed hither by the equatorial currents as they set from the +African coasts,--an iron pot, as they thought it (we know this from the +_Historie_), and the stern-timber of a vessel, which they could have +less easily mistaken. They found something to horrify them in human +bones, the remains of a feast, as they were ready enough to believe, for +they were seeking confirmation of the stories of cannibals which +Columbus had heard on his first voyage. They learned that boys were +fattened like capons. + +[Illustration: [From Philoponus's _Nota Typis Transacta Navigatio_.]] + +The next day they captured a youth and some women, but the men eluded +them. Columbus was now fully convinced that he had at last discovered +the cannibals, and when it was found that one of his captains and eight +men had not returned to their ship, he was under great apprehensions. He +sent exploring parties into the woods. They hallooed and fired their +arquebuses, but to no avail. As they threaded their way through the +thickets, they came upon some villages, but the inhabitants fled, +leaving their meals half cooked; and they were convinced they saw human +flesh on the spit and in the pots. While this party was absent, some +women belonging to the neighboring islands, captives of this savage +people, came off to the ships and sought protection. Columbus decked +them with rings and bells, and forced them ashore, while they begged to +remain. The islanders stripped off their ornaments, and allowed them to +return for more. These women said that the chief of the island and most +of the warriors were absent on a predatory expedition. + +[Sidenote: Ojeda's expedition.] + +The party searching for the lost men returned without success, when +Alonso de Ojeda offered to lead forty men into the interior for a more +thorough search. This party was as unsuccessful as the other. Ojeda +reported he had crossed twenty-six streams in going inland, and that the +country was found everywhere abounding in odorous trees, strange and +delicious fruits, and brilliant birds. + +While this second party was gone, the crews took aboard a supply of +water, and on Ojeda's return Columbus resolved to proceed, and was on +the point of sailing, when the absent men appeared on the shore and +signaled to be taken off. They had got lost in a tangled and pathless +forest, and all efforts to climb high enough in trees to see the stars +and determine their course had been hopeless. Finally striking the sea, +they had followed the shore till they opportunely espied the fleet. They +brought with them some women and boys, but reported they had seen no +men. + +[Sidenote: Cannibals.] + +Among the accounts of these early experiences of the Spaniards with the +native people, the story of cannibalism is a constant theme. To +circulate such stories enhanced the wonder with which Europe was to be +impressed. + +[Sidenote: Caribs.] + +The cruelty of the custom was not altogether unwelcome to warrant a +retaliatory mercilessness. Historians have not wholly decided that this +is enough to account for the most positive statements about man-eating +tribes. Fears and prejudices might do much to raise such a belief, or at +least to magnify the habits. Irving remarks that the preservation of +parts of the human body, among the natives of Española, was looked upon +as a votive service to ancestors, and it may have needed only prejudice +to convert such a custom into cannibalism when found with the Caribs. +The adventurousness of the nature of this fierce people and their +wanderings in wars naturally served to sharpen their intellects beyond +the passive unobservance of the pacific tribes on which they preyed; so +they became more readily, for this reason, the possessors of any passion +or vice that the European instinct craved to fasten somewhere upon a +strange people. + +[Sidenote: Caribs and Lucayans.] + +The contiguity of these two races, the fierce Carib and the timid tribes +of the more northern islands, has long puzzled the ethnologist. Irving +indulged in some rambling notions of the origin of the Carib, derived +from observations of the early students of the obscure relations of the +American peoples. Larger inquiry and more scientific observation has +since Irving's time been given to the subject, still without bringing +the question to recognizable bearings. The craniology of the Caribs is +scantily known, and there is much yet to be divulged. The race in its +purity has long been extinct. Lucien de Rosny, in an anthropological +study of the Antilles published by the French Society of Ethnology in +1886, has amassed considerable data for future deductions. It is a +question with some modern examiners if the distinction between these +insular peoples was not one of accident and surroundings rather than of +blood. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: 1493. November 10. Columbus leaves Guadaloupe.] + +When Columbus sailed from Guadaloupe on November 10, he steered +northwest for Española, though his captives told him that the mainland +lay to the south. He passed various islands, but did not cast anchor +till the 14th, when he reached the island named by him Santa Cruz, and +found it still a region of Caribs. It was here the Spaniards had their +first fight with this fierce people in trying to capture a canoe filled +with them. The white men rammed and overturned the hollowed log; but +the Indians fought in the water so courageously that some of the Spanish +bucklers were pierced with the native poisoned arrows, and one of the +Spaniards, later, died of such a wound inflicted by one of the savage +women. All the Caribs, however, were finally captured and placed in +irons on board ship. One was so badly wounded that recovery was not +thought possible, and he was thrown overboard. The fellow struck for the +shore, and was killed by the Spanish arrows. The accounts describe their +ferocious aspect, their coarse hair, their eyes circled with red paint, +and the muscular parts of their limbs artificially extended by tight +bands below and above. + +[Sidenote: Porto Rico.] + +Proceeding thence and passing a group of wild and craggy islets, which +he named after St. Ursula and her Eleven Thousand Virgins, Columbus at +last reached the island now called Porto Rico, which his captives +pointed out to him as their home and the usual field of the Carib +incursions. The island struck the strangers by its size, its beautiful +woods and many harbors, in one of which, at its west end, they finally +anchored. There was a village close by, which, by their accounts, was +trim, and not without some pretensions to skill in laying out, with its +seaside terraces. The inhabitants, however, had fled. Two days later, +the fleet weighed anchor and steered for La Navidad. + +[Sidenote: 1493. November 22. Española.] + +It was the 22d of November when the explorers made a level shore, which +they later discovered to be the eastern end of Española. They passed +gently along the northern coast, and at an attractive spot sent a boat +ashore with the body of the Biscayan sailor who had died of the poisoned +arrow, while two of the light caravels hovered near the beach to protect +the burying party. Coming to the spot where Columbus had had his armed +conflict with the natives the year before, and where one of the Indians +who had been baptized at Barcelona was taken, this fellow, loaded with +presents and decked in person, was sent on shore for the influence he +might exert on his people. This supposable neophyte does not again +appear in history. Only one of these native converts now remained, and +the accounts say that he lived faithfully with the Spaniards. Five of +the seven who embarked had died on the voyage. + +[Sidenote: 1493. November 25.] + +[Sidenote: 1493. November 27. Off La Navidad.] + +On the 25th, while the fleet was at anchor at Monte Christo, where +Columbus had found gold in the river during his first voyage, the +sailors discovered some decomposed bodies, one of them showing a beard, +which raised apprehensions of the fate of the men left at La Navidad. +The neighboring natives came aboard for traffic with so much readiness, +however, that it did much to allay suspicion. It was the 27th when, +after dark, Columbus cast anchor opposite the fort, about a league from +land. It was too late to see anything more than the outline of the +hills. Expecting a response from the fort, he fired two cannons; but +there was no sound except the echoes. The Spaniards looked in vain for +lights on the shore. The darkness was mysterious and painful. Before +midnight a canoe was heard approaching, and a native twice asked for the +Admiral. A boat was lowered from one of the vessels, and towed the canoe +to the flag-ship. The natives were not willing to board her till +Columbus himself appeared at the waist, and by the light of a lantern +revealed his countenance to them. This reassured them. Their leader +brought presents--some accounts say ewers of gold, others say masks +ornamented with gold--from the cacique, Guacanagari, whose friendly +assistance had been counted upon so much to befriend the little garrison +at La Navidad. + +[Sidenote: Its garrison killed.] + +These formalities over, Columbus inquired for Diego de Arana and his +men. The young Lucayan, now Columbus's only interpreter, did the best he +could with a dialect not his own to make a connected story out of the +replies, which was in effect that sickness and dissension, together with +the withdrawal of some to other parts of the island, had reduced the +ranks of the garrison, when the fort as well as the neighboring village +of Guacanagari was suddenly attacked by a mountain chieftain, Caonabo, +who burned both fort and village. Those of the Spaniards who were not +driven into the sea to perish had been put to death. In this fight the +friendly cacique had been wounded. The visitors said that this +chieftain's hurt had prevented his coming with them to greet the +Admiral; but that he would come in the morning. Coma, in his account of +this midnight interview, is not so explicit, and leaves the reader to +infer that Columbus did not get quite so clear an apprehension of the +fate of his colony. + +When the dawn came, the harbor appeared desolate. Not a canoe was seen +where so many sped about in the previous year. A boat was sent ashore, +and found every sign that the fort had been sacked as well as destroyed. +Fragments of clothing and bits of merchandise were scattered amid its +blackened ruins. There were Indians lurking behind distant trees, but no +one approached, and as the cacique had not kept the word which he had +sent of coming himself in the morning, suspicions began to arise that +the story of its destruction had not been honestly given. The new-comers +passed a disturbed night with increasing mistrust, and the next morning +Columbus landed and saw all for himself. He traveled farther away from +the shore than those who landed on the preceding day, and gained some +confirmation of the story in finding the village of the cacique a mass +of blackened ruins. Cannon were again discharged, in the hopes that +their reverberating echoes might reach the ears of those who were said +to have abandoned the fort before the massacre. The well and ditch were +cleaned out to see if any treasure had been cast into it, as Columbus +had directed in case of disaster. Nothing was found, and this seemed to +confirm the tale of the suddenness of the attack. Columbus and his men +went still farther inland to a village; but its inmates had hurriedly +fled, so that many articles of European make, stockings and a Moorish +robe among them, had been left behind, spoils doubtless of the fort. +Returning nearer the fort, they discovered the bodies of eleven men +buried, with the grass growing above them, and enough remained of their +clothing to show they were Europeans. This is Dr. Chanca's statement, +who says the men had not been dead two months. Coma says that the bodies +were unburied, and had lain for nearly three months in the open air; and +that they were now given Christian burial. + +[Sidenote: Guacanagari and Caonabo.] + +Later in the day, a few of the natives were lured by friendly signs to +come near enough to talk with the Lucayan interpreter. The story in much +of its details was gradually drawn out, and Columbus finally possessed +himself of a pretty clear conception of the course of the disastrous +events. It was a tale of cruelty, avarice, and sensuality towards the +natives on the part of the Spaniards, and of jealousy and brawls among +themselves. No word of their governor had been sufficient to restrain +their outbursts of passionate encounter, and no sense of insecurity +could deter them from the most foolhardy risks while away from the +fort's protection. Those who had been appointed to succeed Arana, if +there were an occasion, revolted against him, and, being unsuccessful in +overthrowing him, they went off with their adherents in search of the +mines of Cibao. This carried them beyond the protection of Guacanagari, +and into the territory of his enemy, Caonabo, a wandering Carib who had +offered himself to the interior natives as their chieftain, and who had +acquired a great ascendency in the island. This leader, who had learned +of the dissensions among the Spaniards, was no sooner informed of the +coming of these renegades within his reach than he caused them to be +seized and killed. This emboldened him to join forces with another +cacique, a neighbor of Guacanagari, and to attempt to drive the +Spaniards from the island, since they had become a standing menace to +his power, as he reasoned. The confederates marched stealthily, and +stole into the vicinity of the fort in the night. Arana had but ten men +within the stockade, and they kept no watch. Other Spaniards were +quartered in the adjacent village. The onset was sudden and effective, +and the dismal ruins of the fort and village were thought to confirm the +story. + +[Sidenote: Doña Catalina.] + +Other confirmations followed. A caravel was sent to explore easterly, +and was soon boarded by two Indians from the shore, who invited the +captain, Maldonado, to visit the cacique, who lay ill at a neighboring +village. The captain went, and found Guacanagari laid up with a bandaged +leg. The savage told a story which agreed with the one just related, and +on its being repeated to Columbus, the Admiral himself, with an imposing +train, went to see the cacique. Guacanagari seemed anxious, in repeating +the story, to convince the Admiral of his own loyalty to the Spaniards, +and pointed to his wounds and to those of some of his people as proof. +There was the usual interchange of presents, hawks' bells for gold, and +similar reckonings. Before leaving, Columbus asked to have his surgeon +examine the wound, which the cacique said had been occasioned by a stone +striking the leg. To get more light, the chieftain went out-of-doors, +leaning upon the Admiral's arm. When the bandage was removed, there was +no external sign of hurt; but the cacique winced if the flesh was +touched. Father Boyle, who was in the Admiral's train, thought the wound +a pretense, and the story fabricated to conceal the perfidy of the +cacique, and urged Columbus to make an instant example of the traitor. +The Admiral was not so confident as the priest, and at all events he +thought a course of pacification and procrastination was the better +policy. The interview did not end, according to Coma, without some +strange manifestations on the part of the cacique, which led the +Spaniards for a moment to fear that a trial of arms was to come. The +chief was not indisposed to try his legs enough to return with the +Admiral to his ship that very evening. Here he saw the Carib prisoners, +and the accounts tell us how he shuddered at the sight of them. He +wondered at the horses and other strange creatures which were shown to +him. Coma tells us that the Indians thought that the horses were fed on +human flesh. The women who had been rescued from the Caribs attracted, +perhaps, even more the attention of the savage, and particularly a lofty +creature among them, whom the Spaniards had named Doña Catalina. +Guacanagari was observed to talk with her more confidingly than he did +with the others. + +Father Boyle urged upon the Admiral that a duress similar to that of +Catalina was none too good for the perfidious cacique, as the priest +persisted in calling the savage, but Columbus hesitated. There was, +however, little left of that mutual confidence which had characterized +the relations of the Admiral and the chieftain during the trying days of +the shipwreck, the year before. When the Admiral offered to hang a cross +on the neck of his visitor, and the cacique understood it to be the +Christian emblem, he shrank from the visible contact of a faith of which +the past months had revealed its character. With this manifestation they +parted, and the cacique was set ashore. Coma seems to unite the +incidents of this interview on the ship with those of the meeting +ashore. + +[Sidenote: The cacique and Catalina.] + +There comes in here, according to the received accounts, a little +passage of Indian intrigue and gallantry. A messenger appeared the next +day to inquire when the Admiral sailed, and later another to barter +gold. This last held some talk with the Indian women, and particularly +with Catalina. About midnight a light appeared on the shore, and +Catalina and her companions, while the ship's company, except a watch, +were sleeping, let themselves down the vessel's side, and struck out +for the shore. The watch discovered the escape, but not in time to +prevent the women having a considerable start. Boats pursued, but the +swimmers touched the beach first. Four of them, however, were caught, +but Catalina and the others escaped. + +When, the next morning, Columbus sent a demand for the fugitives, it was +found that Guacanagari had moved his household and all his effects into +the interior of the island. The story got its fitting climax in the +suspicious minds of the Spaniards, when they supposed that the fugitive +beauty was with him. Here was only a fresh instance of the savage's +perfidy. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: Columbus abandons La Navidad.] + +Columbus had before this made up his mind that the vicinity of his +hapless fort was not a good site for the town which he intended to +build. The ground was low, moist, and unhealthy. There were no building +stones near at hand. There was need of haste in a decision. The men were +weary of their confinement on shipboard. The horses and other animals +suffered from a like restraint. Accordingly expeditions were sent to +explore the coast, and it soon became evident that they must move beyond +the limits of Guacanagari's territory, if they would find the conditions +demanded. Melchior Maldonado, in command of one of these expeditions, +had gone eastward until he coasted the country of another cacique. This +chief at first showed hostility, but was won at last by amicable signs. +From him they learned that Guacanagari had gone to the mountains. From +another they got the story of the massacre of the fort, almost entirely +accordant with what they had already discovered. + +[Sidenote: Isabella founded.] + +[Sidenote: Cibao gold mines.] + +Not one of the reports from these minor explorations was satisfactory, +and December 7, the entire fleet weighed anchor to proceed farther east. +Stress of weather caused them to put into a harbor, which on examination +seemed favorable for their building project. The roadstead was wide. A +rocky point offered a site for a citadel. There were two rivers winding +close by in an attractive country, and capable of running mills. Nature, +as they saw it, was variegated and alluring. Flowers and fruits were in +abundance. "Garden seeds came up in five days after they were sown," +says Coma of their trial of the soil, "and the gardens were speedily +clothed in green, producing plentifully onions and pumpkins, radishes +and beets." "Vegetables," wrote Dr. Chanca, "attain a more luxuriant +growth here in eight days than they would in Spain in twenty." It was +also learned that the gold mines of the Cibao mountains were inland from +the spot, at no great distance. + +The disembarkation began. Days of busy exertion followed. Horses, +livestock, provisions, munitions, and the varied merchandise were the +centre of a lively scene about their encampment. This they established +near a sheet of water. Artificers, herdsmen, cavaliers, priests, +laborers, and placemen made up the motley groups which were seen on all +sides. + +[Sidenote: Sickness in the colony.] + +In later years, the Spaniards regulated all the formalities and +prescribed with precision the proceedings in the laying out of towns in +the New World, but Columbus had no such directions. The planting of a +settlement was a novel and untried method. It was a natural thought to +commemorate in the new Christian city the great patroness of his +undertaking, and the settlement bore from the first the name of +Isabella. His engineers laid out square and street. A site for the +church was marked, another for a public storehouse, another for the +house of the Admiral,--all of stone. The ruins of these three buildings +are the most conspicuous relics in the present solitary waste. The great +mass of tenements, which were stretched along the streets back from the +public square, where the main edifice stood, were as hastily run up as +possible, to cover in the colony. It was time enough for solider +structures later to take their places. Parties were occupied in clearing +fields and setting out orchards. There were landing piers to be made at +the shore. So everybody tasked bodily strength in rival endeavors. The +natural results followed in so incongruous a crowd. Those not accustomed +to labor broke down from its hardships. The seekers for pleasure, not +finding it in the common toil, rushed into excesses, and imperiled all. +The little lake, so attractive to the inexperienced, was soon, with its +night vapors, the source of disease. Few knew how to protect themselves +from the insidious malaria. Discomfort induced discouragement, and the +mental firmness so necessary in facing strange and exacting +circumstances gave way. + +[Sidenote: Columbus sick.] + +Forebodings added greater energy to the disease. It was not long before +the colony was a camp of hospitals, about one half the people being +incapacitated for labor. In the midst of all this downheartedness +Columbus himself succumbed, and for some weeks was unable to direct the +trying state of affairs, except as he could do so in the intervals of +his lassitude. + +But as the weeks went on a better condition was apparent. Work took a +more steady aspect. The ships had discharged their burdens. They lay +ready for the return voyage. + +[Sidenote: Sends Ojeda to seek the Cibao mines.] + +Columbus had depended on the exertions of the little colony at La +Navidad to amass a store of gold and other precious commodities with +which to laden the returning vessels. He knew the disappointment which +would arise if they should carry little else than the dismal tale of +disaster. Nothing lay upon his mind more weightily than this +mortification and misfortune. There was nothing to be done but to seek +the mines of Cibao, for the chance of sending more encouraging reports. +Gold had indeed been brought in to the settlement, but only scantily; +and its quantity was not suited to make real the gorgeous dreams of the +East with which Spain was too familiar. + +So an expedition to Cibao was organized, and Ojeda was placed in +command. The force assigned to him was but fifteen men in all, but each +was well armed and courageous. They expected perils, for they had to +invade the territory of Caonabo, the destroyer of La Navidad. + +[Sidenote: 1494. January. First mass.] + +The march began early in January, 1494; perhaps just after they had +celebrated their first solemn mass in a temporary chapel on January 6. +For two days their progress was slow and toilsome, through forests +without a sign of human life, for the savage denizens had moved back +from the vicinity of the Spaniards. The men encamped, the second night, +on the top of a mountain, and when the dawn broke they looked down on +its further side over a broad valley, with its scattered villages. They +boldly descended, and met nothing but hospitality from the villagers. +Their course now lay towards and up the opposite slope of the valley. +They pushed on without an obstacle. + +[Sidenote: Gold found.] + +[Sidenote: Gorvalan's expedition.] + +The rude inhabitants of the mountains were as friendly as those of the +valley. They did not see nor did they hear anything of the great +Caonabo. Every stream they passed glittered with particles of gold in +its sand. The natives had an expert way of separating the metal, and the +Spaniards flattered them for their skill. Occasionally a nugget was +found. Ojeda picked up a lump which weighed nine ounces, and Peter +Martyr looked upon it wonderingly when it reached Spain. If all this was +found on the surface, what must be the wealth in the bowels of these +astounding mountains? The obvious answer was what Ojeda hastened back to +make to Columbus. A similar story was got from a young cavalier, +Gorvalan, who had been dispatched in another direction with another +force. There was in all this the foundation of miracles for the glib +tongue and lively imagination. One of these exuberant stories reached +Coma, and Scillacio makes him say that "the most splendid thing of all +(which I should be ashamed to commit to writing, if I had not received +it from a trustworthy source) is that, a rock adjacent to a mountain +being struck with a club, a large quantity of gold burst out, and +particles of gold of indescribable brightness glittered all around the +spot. Ojeda was loaded down by means of this outburst." It was stories +like these which prepared the way for the future reaction in Spain. + +[Sidenote: Columbus writes to the sovereigns.] + +There was material now to give spirit to the dispatch to his sovereigns, +and Columbus sat down to write it. It has come down to us, and is +printed in Navarrete's collection, just as it was perused by the King +and Queen, who entered in the margins their comments and orders. +Columbus refers at the beginning to letters already written to their +Highnesses, and mentions others addressed to Father Buele and to the +treasurer, but they are not known. Then, speaking of the expeditions of +Ojeda and Gorvalan, he begs the sovereigns to satisfy themselves of the +hopeful prospects for gold by questioning Gorvalan, who was to return +with the ships. He advises their Highnesses to return thanks to God for +all this. Those personages write in the margin, "Their Highnesses return +thanks to God!" He then explains his embarrassment from the sickness of +his men,--the "greater part of all," as he adds,--and says that the +Indians are very familiar, rambling about the settlement both day and +night, necessitating a constant watch. As he makes excuses and gives his +reasons for not doing this or that, the compliant monarchs as +constantly write against the paragraphs, "He has done well." Columbus +says he is building stone bulwarks for defense, and when this is done he +shall provide for accumulating gold. "Exactly as should be done," chime +in the monarchs. He then asks for fresh provisions to be sent to him, +and tells how much they have done in planting. "Fonseca has been ordered +to send further seeds," is the comment. He complains that the wine casks +had been badly coopered at Seville, and that the wine had all run out, +so that wine was their prime necessity. He urges that calves, heifers, +asses, working mares, be sent to them; and that above all, to prevent +discouragement, the supplies should arrive at Isabella by May, and that +particularly medicines should come, as their stock was exhausted. He +then refers to the cannibals whom he would send back, and asks that they +may be made acquainted with the true faith and taught the Spanish +tongue. "His suggestions are good," is the marginal royal comment. + +[Sidenote: Columbus proposes a trade in slaves.] + +Now comes the vital point of his dispatch. We want cattle, he says. They +can be paid for in Carib slaves. Let yearly caravels conduct this trade. +It will be easy, with the boats which are building, to capture a plenty +of these savages. Duties can be levied on these importations of slaves. +On this point he urges a reply. The monarchs see the fatality of the +step, and, according to the marginal comment, suspend judgment and ask +the Admiral's further thoughts. "A more distinct suggestion for the +establishment of a slave trade was never proposed," is the modern +comment of Arthur Helps. Columbus then adds that he has bought for the +use of the colony certain of the vessels which brought them out, and +these would be retained at Isabella, and used in making further +discoveries. The comment is that Fonseca will pay the owners. He then +intimates that more care should be exercised in the selection of +placemen sent to the colony, for the enterprise had suffered already +from unfitness in such matters. The monarchs promise amends. He +complains that the Granada lancemen, who offered themselves in Seville +mounted on fine horses, had subsequently exchanged these animals to +their own personal advantage for inferior horses. He says the footmen +made similar exchanges to fill their own pockets. + +[Sidenote: 1404. January 30. Signs his letter.] + +[Sidenote: Gold, the Christians' God!] + +[Sidenote: 1494. February 2. The fleet returns to Spain.] + +[Sidenote: Chanca's narrative.] + +So, dating this memorial on January 30, 1494, the man who was ambitious +to become the first slave-driver of the New World laid down his quill, +praising God, as he asked his sovereigns to do. The poor creatures who +wandered in and about among the cabins of the Spaniards were fast +forming their own comments, which were quite as astute as those of the +Admiral's royal masters. Holding up a piece of gold, the natives learned +to say,--and Columbus had given them their first lesson in such +philosophy,--"Behold the Christians' God!" Benzoni, the first traveler +who came among them with his eyes open, and daring to record the truth, +heard them say this. Intrusting his memorial to Antonio de Torres, and +putting him in command of the twelve ships that were to return to Spain, +Columbus saw the fleet sail away on February 2, 1494. There would seem +to have been committed to some one on the ships two other accounts of +the results of this second voyage up to this time, which have come down +to us. One of these is a narrative by Dr. Chanca, the physician of the +colony, whom Columbus, in his memorial to the monarchs, credits with +doing good service in his profession at a sacrifice of the larger +emoluments which the practice of it had brought to him in Seville. The +narrative of Chanca had been sent by him to the cathedral chapter of +Seville. The original is thought to be lost; but Navarrete used a +transcript which belonged to a collection formed by Father Antonio de +Aspa, a monk of the monastery of the Mejorada, where Columbus is known +to have deposited some of his papers. Major has given us an English +translation of it in his _Select Letters of Columbus_. Major's text will +also be found in the late James Lenox's English version of the other +account, which he gave to scholars in 1859. + +[Sidenote: Coma's narrative.] + +There is a curious misconception in this last document, which represents +that Columbus had reached these new regions by the African route of the +Portuguese,--a confusion doubtless arising from the imperfect knowledge +which the Italian translator, Nicholas Scillacio, had of the current +geographical developments. A Spaniard, Guglielmo Coma, seems to have +written about the new discoveries in some letters, apparently revived in +some way from somebody's personal observation, which Scillacio put into +a Latin dress, and published at Pavia, or possibly at Pisa. This little +tract is of the utmost rarity, and Mr. Lenox, considering the suggestion +of Ronchini, that the blunder of Scillacio may have caused the +destruction of the edition, replies by calling attention to the fact +that it is scarcely rarer than many other of the contemporary tracts of +Columbus's voyage, about which there exists no such reason. + +[Sidenote: Verde's letters.] + +We get also some reports by Torres himself on the affairs of the colony +in various letters of a Florentine merchant, Simone Verde, to whom he +had communicated them. These letters have been recently (1875) found in +the archives of Florence, and have been made better known still later by +Harrisse. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +THE SECOND VOYAGE, CONTINUED. + +1494. + + +[Sidenote: Life in Isabella.] + +The departure of the fleet made conspicuous at last a threatening +faction of those whose terms of service had prevented their taking +passage in the ships. This organized discontent was the natural result +of a depressing feeling that all the dreams of ease and plenty which had +sustained them in their embarkation were but delusions. Life in Isabella +had made many of them painfully conscious of the lack of that success +and comfort which had been counted upon. The failure of what in these +later days is known as the commissariat was not surprising. With all our +modern experience in fitting out great expeditions, we know how often +the fate of such enterprises is put in jeopardy by rascally contractors. +Their arts, however, are not new ones. Fonseca was not so wary, Columbus +was not so exacting, that such arts could not be practiced in Seville, +as to-day in London and New York. This jobbery, added to the scant +experience of honest endeavor, inevitably brought misfortune and +suffering through spoiled provisions and wasted supplies. + +[Sidenote: Mutinous factions.] + +The faction, taking advantage of this condition, had two persons for +leaders, whose official position gave the body a vantage-ground. Bernal +Diaz de Pisa was the comptroller of the colony, and his office permitted +him to have an oversight of the Admiral's accounts. It is said that +before this time he had put himself in antagonism to authority by +questioning some of the doings of the Admiral. He began now to talk to +the people of the Admiral's deceptive and exaggerating descriptions +intended for effect in Spain, and no doubt represented them to be at +least as false as they were. Diaz drew pictures that produced a +prevailing gloom beyond what the facts warranted, for deceit is a game +of varying extremes. + +[Sidenote: Their schemes discovered.] + +He was helped on by the assayer of the colony, Fermin Cado, who spoke as +an authority on the poor quality of the gold, and on the Indian habit of +amassing it in their families, so that the moderate extent of it which +the natives had offered was not the accretions of a day, but the result +of the labor of generations. With leaders acting in concert, it had been +planned to seize the remaining ships, and to return to Spain. This done, +the mutineers expected to justify their conduct by charges against the +Admiral, and a statement of them had already been drawn up by Bernal +Diaz. The mutiny, however, was discovered, and Columbus had the first of +his many experiences in suppressing a revolt. Bernal Diaz was imprisoned +on one of the ships, and was carried to Spain for trial. Other leaders +were punished in one way and another. To prevent the chances of success +in future schemes of revolt, all munitions and implements of war were +placed together in one of the ships, under a supervision which Columbus +thought he could trust. + +The prompt action of the Admiral had not been taken without some +question of his authority, or at least it was held that he had been +injudicious in the exercise of it. The event left a rankling passion +among many of the colonists against what was called Columbus's +vindictiveness and presumptuous zeal. With it all was the feeling that a +foreigner was oppressing them, and was weaving about them the meshes of +his arbitrary ambition. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: Columbus goes to the gold mines.] + +[Sidenote: Diego Colon.] + +Columbus now determined to go himself to the gold regions of the +interior. He arranged that Diego, his brother,--another +foreigner!--should have the command in his absence. Las Casas pictures +for us this younger of the Colombos, and calls him gentle, unobtrusive, +and kindly. He allows to him a priest's devotion, but does not consider +him quite worldly enough in his dealings with men to secure himself +against ungenerous wiles. + +[Sidenote: 1494. March 12.] + +It was the 12th of March when Columbus set out on his march. He +conducted a military contingent of about 400 well-armed men, including +what lancers he could mount. In his train followed an array of workmen, +miners, artificers, and porters, with their burdens of merchandise and +implements. A mass of the natives hovered about the procession. + +[Sidenote: Columbus makes a road.] + +[Sidenote: The Vega Real.] + +Their progress was as martial as it could be made. Banners were +flaunted. Drums and trumpets were sounded. Their armor was made to +glisten. Crossing the low land, they came to a defile in the mountain. +There was nothing before them but a tortuous native trail winding upward +among the rocks and through tangled forest. It was ill suited for the +passage of a heavily burdened force. Some of the younger cavaliers +sprang to the front, and gathering around them woodmen and pioneers, +they opened the way; and thus a road was constructed through the pass, +the first made in the New World. This work of the proud cavaliers was +called _El puerto de los Hidalgos_. The summit of the mountain afforded +afresh the grateful view of the luxuriant valley which had delighted +Ojeda,--royally rich as it was in every aspect, and deserving the name +which Columbus now gave it of the Vega Real. + +[Sidenote: Erects a cross.] + +Here, on the summit of Santo Cerro, the tradition of the island goes +that Columbus caused that cross to be erected which the traveler to-day +looks upon in one of the side chapels of the cathedral at Santo Domingo. +It stood long enough to perform many miracles, as the believers tell us, +and was miraculously saved in an earthquake. De Lorgues does not dare to +connect the actual erection with the holy trophy of the cathedral. +Descending to the lowlands, the little army and its followers attracted +the notice of the amazed natives by clangor and parade. This display was +made more astounding whenever the horses were set to prancing, as they +approached and passed a native hamlet. Las Casas tells us that the first +horseman who dismounted was thought by the natives to have parceled out +a single creature into convenient parts. The Indians, timid at first, +were enticed by a show of trinkets, and played upon by the interpreters. +Thus they gradually were won over to repay all kindnesses with food and +drink, while they rendered many other kindly services. The army came to +a large stream, and Columbus called it the River of Reeds. It was the +same which, the year before, knowing it only where it emptied into the +sea, he had called the River of Gold, because he had been struck with +the shining particles which he found among its sands. Here they +encamped. The men bathed. They found everything about them like the +dales of Paradise, if we may believe their rehearsals. The landscape was +very different from that which Bernal Diaz was to tell of, if only once +he got the ears of the Court in Seville. + +[Sidenote: Cibao mountains.] + +The river was so wide and deep that the men could not ford it, so they +made rafts to take over everything but the horses. These swam the +current. Then the force passed on, but was confronted at last by the +rugged slopes of the Cibao mountains. The soldiers clambered up the +defile painfully and slowly. The pioneers had done what they could to +smooth the way, but the ascent was wearying. They could occasionally +turn from their toil to look back over this luxuriant valley which they +were leaving, and lose their vision in its vast extent. Las Casas +describes it as eighty leagues one way, and twenty or thirty the other. + +[Sidenote: Fort St. Thomas.] + +It was a scene of bewildering beauty that they left behind; it was one +of sterile heights, scraggy pines, and rocky precipices which they +entered. The leaders computed that they were eighteen leagues from +Isabella, and as Columbus thought he saw signs of gold, amber, lapis +lazuli, copper, and one knows not what else of wealth, all about him, he +was content to establish his fortified position hereabouts, without +pushing farther. He looked around, and found at the foot of one of the +declivities of the interior of this mountainous region a fertile plain, +with a running river, gurgling over beds of jasper and marble, and in +the midst of it a little eminence, which he could easily fortify, as the +river nearly surrounded it like a natural ditch. Here he built his fort. +Recent travelers say that an overgrowth of trees now covers traces of +its foundations. The fortress was, as he believed, so near the gold that +one could see it with his eyes and touch it with his hands, and so, as +Las Casas tells us, he named it St. Thomas. + +The Indians had already learned to recognize the Christian's god. They +found the golden deity in bits in the streams. They took the idol +tenderly to his militant people. For their part, the poor natives much +preferred rings and hawks' bells, and so a basis of traffic was easily +found. In this way Columbus got some gold, but he more readily got +stories of other spots, whither the natives pointed vaguely, where +nuggets, which would dwarf all these bits, could be found. Columbus +began to wonder why he never reached the best places. + +[Sidenote: Country examined.] + +[Sidenote: Columbus returns to Isabella.] + +The Spaniards soon got to know the region better. Juan de Luxan, who had +been sent out with a party to see what he could find, reported that the +region was mountainous and in its upper parts sterile, to be sure, but +that there were delicious valleys, and plenty of land to cultivate, and +pasturing enough for herds. When he came back with these reports, the +men put a good deal of heart in the work which they were bestowing on +the citadel of St. Thomas, so that it was soon done. Pedro Margarite was +placed in command with fifty-six men, and then Columbus started to +return to Isabella. + +[Sidenote: Natives of the valley.] + +When the Admiral reached the valley, he met a train of supplies going +forward to St. Thomas, and as there were difficulties of fording and +other obstacles, he spent some time in examining the country and marking +out lines of communication. This brought him into contact with the +villages of the valley, and he grew better informed of the kind of +people among whom his colonists were to live. He did not, however, +discern that under a usually pacific demeanor there was no lack of +vigorous determination in this people, which it might not be so wise to +irritate to the point of vengeance. He found, too, that they had a +religion, perhaps prompting to some virtues he little suspected in his +own, and that they jealously guarded their idols. He discovered that +experience had given them no near acquaintance with the medicinal +properties of the native herbs and trees. They associated myths with +places, and would tell you that the sun and moon were but creatures of +their island which had escaped from one of their caverns, and that +mankind had sprung from the crannies of their rocky places. The +bounteousness of nature, causing little care for the future, had spread +among them a love of hospitality, and Columbus found himself welcome +everywhere, and continued to be so till he and his abused their +privileges. + +[Sidenote: 1494. March 29. Columbus in Isabella.] + +On the 29th of March, Columbus was back in Isabella, to find that the +plantings of January were already yielding fruits, and the colony, in +its agricultural aspects, at least, was promising, for the small areas +that had already been cultivated. But the tidings from the new fort in +the mountains which had just come in by messenger were not so cheering, +for it seemed to be the story of La Navidad repeated. The license and +exactions of the garrison had stirred up the neighboring natives, and +Pedro Margarite, in his message, showed his anxiety lest Caonabo should +be able to mass the savages, exasperated by their wrongs, in an attack +upon the post. Columbus sent a small reinforcement to St. Thomas, and +dispatched a force to make a better road thither, in order to facilitate +any future operations. + +[Sidenote: Condition of the town.] + +The Admiral's more immediate attention was demanded by the condition of +Isabella. Intermittent fever and various other disturbances incident to +a new turning of a reeking soil were making sad ravages in the colony. +The work of building suffered in consequence. The sick engrossed the +attention of men withdrawn from their active labors, or they were left +to suffer from the want of such kindly aid. The humidity of the climate +and a prodigal waste had brought provisions so low that an allowance +even of the unwholesome stock which remained was made necessary. In +order to provide against impending famine, men were taken from the +public works and put to labor on a mill, in order that they might get +flour. No respect was paid to persons, and cavalier and priest were +forced into the common service. The Admiral was obliged to meet the +necessities by compulsory measures, for even an obvious need did not +prevent the indifferent from shirking, and the priest and hidalgo from +asserting their privileged rights. Any authority that enforced sacrifice +galled the proud spirits, and the indignity of labor caused a +mortification and despair that soon thinned the ranks of the best blood +of the colony. Dying voices cursed the delusion which had brought them +to the New World, the victims, as they claimed, of the avarice and +deceit of a hated alien to their race. + +[Sidenote: Ojeda sent to St. Thomas.] + +Supineness in the commander would have brought everything in the colony +to a disastrous close. A steady progression of some sort might be +remedial. The Admiral's active mind determined on the diversion of +further exploration with such a force as could be equipped. He mustered +a little army, consisting of 250 men armed with crossbows, 100 with +matchlocks, 16 mounted lancemen, and 20 officers. Ojeda was put at their +head, with orders to lead them to St. Thomas, which post he was to +govern while Margarite took the expeditionary party and scoured the +country. Navarrete has preserved for us the instructions which Columbus +imparted. They counseled a considerate regard for the natives, who must, +however, be made to furnish all necessaries at fair prices. Above all, +every Spaniard must be prevented from engaging in private trade, since +the profits of such bartering were reserved to the Crown, and it did not +help Columbus in his dealings with the refractory colonists to have it +known that a foreign interloper, like himself, shared this profit with +the Crown. Margarite was also told that he must capture, by force or +stratagem, the cacique Caonabo and his brothers. + +[Sidenote: 1494. April 9.] + +When Ojeda, who had started on April 9, reached the Vega Real, he +learned that three Spaniards, returning from St. Thomas, had been robbed +by a party of Indians, people of a neighboring cacique. Ojeda seized the +offenders, the ears of one of whom he cut off, and then capturing the +cacique himself and some of his family, he sent the whole party to +Isabella. Columbus took prompt revenge, or made the show of doing so; +but just as the sentence of execution was to be inflicted, he yielded to +the importunities of another cacique, and thought to keep by it his +reputation for clemency. Presently another horseman came in from St. +Thomas, who, on his way, had rescued, single-handed and with the aid of +the terror which his animal inspired, another party of five Spaniards, +whom he had found in the hands of the same tribe. + +[Sidenote: Diego and the junto.] + +Such easy conquests convinced Columbus that only proper prudence was +demanded to maintain the Spanish supremacy with even a diminished force. +He had not forgotten the fears of the Portuguese which were harassing +the Spanish Court when he left Seville, and, to anticipate them, he was +anxious to make a more thorough examination of Cuba, which was a part of +the neighboring main of Cathay, as he was ready to suppose. He therefore +commissioned a sort of junto to rule, while in person he should conduct +such an expedition by water. His brother Diego was placed in command +during his absence, and he gave him four counselors, Father Boyle, Pedro +Fernandez Coronel, Alonso Sanchez Carvajal, and Juan de Luxan. He took +three caravels, the smallest of his little fleet, as better suited to +explore, and left the two large ones behind. + +[Sidenote: 1494. April 24. Columbus sails for Cuba.] + +It was April 24 when Columbus sailed from Isabella, and at once he ran +westerly. He stopped at his old fort, La Navidad, but found that +Guacanagari avoided him, and no time could be lost in discovering why. +On the 29th, he left Española behind and struck across to the Cuban +shore. Here, following the southern side of that island, he anchored +first in a harbor where there were preparations for a native feast; but +the people fled when he landed, and the not overfed Spaniards enjoyed +the repast that was abandoned. The Lucayan interpreter, who was of the +party, managed after a while to allure a single Indian, more confident +than the rest, to approach; and when this Cuban learned from one of a +similar race the peaceful purposes of the Spaniards, he went and told +others, and so in a little while Columbus was able to hold a parley with +a considerable group. He caused reparation to be made for the food which +his men had taken, and then exchanged farewells with the astounded folk. + +[Sidenote: 1494. May 1. On the Cuban coast.] + +On May 1, he raised anchor, and coasted still westerly, keeping near the +shore. The country grew more populous. The amenities of his intercourse +with the feast-makers had doubtless been made known along the coast, and +as a result he was easily kept supplied with fresh fruits by the +natives. Their canoes constantly put off from the shore as the ships +glided by. He next anchored in the harbor which was probably that known +to-day as St. Jago de Cuba, where he received the same hospitality, and +dispensed the same store of trinkets in return. + +[Sidenote: 1494. May 3. Steers for Jamaica.] + +Here, as elsewhere along the route, the Lucayan had learned from the +natives that a great island lay away to the south, which was the source +of what gold they had. The information was too frequently repeated to be +casual, and so, on May 3, Columbus boldly stood off shore, and brought +his ships to a course due south. + +[Sidenote: Natives of Jamaica.] + +[Sidenote: A dog set upon them.] + +[Sidenote: Santiago or Jamaica.] + +[Sidenote: Character of natives.] + +It was not long before thin blue films appeared on the horizon. They +deepened and grew into peaks. It was two days before the ships were near +enough to their massive forms to see the signs of habitations everywhere +scattered along the shore. The vessels stood in close to the land. A +native flotilla hovered about, at first with menaces, but their +occupants were soon won to friendliness by kindly signs. Not so, +however, in the harbor, where, on the next day, he sought shelter and +an opportunity to careen a leaky ship. Here the shore swarmed with +painted men, and some canoes with feathered warriors advanced to oppose +a landing. They hurled their javelins without effect, and filled the air +with their screams and whoops. Columbus then sent in his boats nearer +the shore than his ships could go, and under cover of a discharge from +his bombards a party landed, and with their crossbows put the Indians to +flight. Bernaldez tells that a dog was let loose upon the savages, and +this is the earliest mention of that canine warfare which the Spaniards +later made so sanguinary. Columbus now landed and took possession of the +island under the name of Santiago, but the name did not supplant the +native Jamaica. The warning lesson had its effect, and the next day some +envoys of the cacique of the region made offers of amity, which were +readily accepted. For three days this friendly intercourse was kept up, +with the customary exchange of gifts. The Spaniards could but observe a +marked difference in the character of this new people. They were more +martial and better sailors than any they had seen since they left the +Carib islands. The enormous mahogany-trees of the islands furnished them +with trunks, out of which they constructed the largest canoes. Columbus +saw one which was ninety-six feet long and eight broad. There was also +in these people a degree of merriment such as the Spaniards had not +noticed before, more docility and quick apprehension, and Peter Martyr +gathered from those with whom he had talked that in almost all ways they +seemed a manlier and experter race. Their cloth, utensils, and +implements were of a character not differing from others the explorers +had seen, but of better handiwork. + +As soon as he floated his ship, Columbus again stretched his course to +the west, finding no further show of resistance. The native dugout +sallied forth to trade from every little inlet which was passed. +Finally, a youth came off and begged to be taken to the Spaniards' home, +and the _Historie_ tells us that it was not without a scene of distress +that he bade his kinsfolk good-by, in spite of all their endeavors to +reclaim him. Columbus was struck with the courage and confidence of the +youth, and ordered special kindnesses to be shown to him. We hear +nothing more of the lad. + +[Sidenote: Columbus returns to Cuba.] + +[Sidenote: 1494. May 18.] + +[Sidenote: The Queen's Gardens.] + +Reaching now the extreme westerly end of Jamaica, and finding the wind +setting right for Cuba, Columbus shifted his course thither, and bore +away to the north. On the 18th of May, he was once more on its coast. +The people were everywhere friendly. They told him that Cuba was an +island, but of such extent that they had never seen the end of it. This +did not convince Columbus that it was other than the mainland. So he +went on towards the west, in full confidence that he would come to +Cathay, or at least, such seemed his expectation. He presently rounded a +point, and saw before him a large archipelago. He was now at that point +where the Cabo de la Cruz on the south and this archipelago in the +northwest embay a broad gulf. The islands seemed almost without number, +and they studded the sea with verdant spots. He called them the Queen's +Gardens. He could get better seaway by standing further south, and so +pass beyond the islands; but suspecting that they were the very islands +which lay in masses along the coast of Cathay, as Marco Polo and +Mandeville had said, he was prompted to risk the intricacies of their +navigation; so he clung to the shore, and felt that without doubt he was +verging on the territories of the Great Khan. He began soon to apprehend +his risks. The channels were devious. The shoals perplexed him. There +was often no room to wear ship, and the boats had to tow the caravels at +intervals to clearer water. They could not proceed at all without +throwing the lead. The wind was capricious, and whirled round the +compass with the sun. Sudden tempests threatened danger. + +With all this anxiety, there was much to beguile. Every aspect of nature +was like the descriptions of the East in the travelers' tales. The +Spaniards looked for inhabitants, but none were to be seen. At last they +espied a village on one of the islands, but on landing (May 22), not a +soul could be found,--only the spoils of the sea which a fishing people +would be likely to gather. Another day, they met a canoe from which some +natives were fishing. The men came on board without trepidation and gave +the Spaniards what fish they wanted. They had a wonderful way of +catching fish. They used a live fish much as a falcon is used in +catching its quarry. This fish would fasten itself to its prey by +suckers growing about the head. The native fishermen let it out with a +line attached to its tail, and pulled in both the catcher and the caught +when the prey had been seized. These people also told the same story of +the interminable extent westerly of the Cuban coast. + +[Sidenote: 1494. June 3.] + +[Sidenote: Men with tails.] + +Columbus now passed out from among these islands and steered towards a +mountainous region, where he again landed and opened intercourse with a +pacific tribe on June 3. An old cacique repeated the same story of the +illimitable land, and referred to the province of Mangon as lying +farther west. This name was enough to rekindle the imagination of the +Admiral. Was not Mangi the richest of the provinces that Sir John +Mandeville had spoken of? He learned also that a people with tails lived +there, just as that veracious narrator had described, and they wore long +garments to conceal that appendage. What a sight a procession of these +Asiatics would make in another reception at the Spanish Court! + +[Sidenote: Gulf of Xagua.] + +[Sidenote: White-robed men.] + +There was nothing now to impede the progress of the caravels, and on the +vessels went in their westward course. Every day the crews got fresh +fruits from the friendly canoes. They paid nothing for the balmy odors +from the land. They next came to the Gulf of Xagua, and passing this +they again sailed into shallow waters, whitened with the floating sand, +which the waves kept in suspension. The course of the ships was tortuous +among the bars, and they felt relieved when at last they found a place +where their anchors would hold. To make sure that a way through this +labyrinth could be found, Columbus sent his smallest caravel ahead, and +then following her guidance, the little fleet, with great difficulty, +and not without much danger at times, came out into clearer water. +Later, he saw a deep bay on his right, and tacking across the opening he +lay his course for some distant mountains. Here he anchored to replenish +his water-casks. An archer straying into the forest came back on the +run, saying that he had seen white-robed people. Here, then, thought +Columbus, were the people who were concealing their tails! He sent out +two parties to reconnoitre. They found nothing but a tangled wilderness. +It has been suggested that the timorous and credulous archer had got +half a sight of a flock of white cranes feeding in a savanna. Such is +the interpretation of this story by Irving, and Humboldt tells us there +is enough in his experience with the habits of these birds to make it +certain that the interpretation is warranted. + +[Sidenote: Columbus believes he sees the Golden Chersonesus,] + +Still the Admiral went on westerly, opening communication occasionally +with the shore, but to little advantage in gathering information, for +the expedition had gone beyond the range of dialects where the Lucayan +interpreter could be of service. The shore people continued to point +west, and the most that could be made of their signs was that a powerful +king reigned in that direction, and that he wore white robes. This is +the story as Bernaldez gives it; and Columbus very likely thought it a +premonition of Prester John. The coast still stretched to the setting +sun, if Columbus divined the native signs aright, but no one could tell +how far. The sea again became shallow, and the keels of the caravels +stirred up the bottom. The accounts speak of wonderful crowds of +tortoises covering the water, pigeons darkening the sky, and gaudy +butterflies sweeping about in clouds. The shore was too low for +habitation; but they saw smoke and other signs of life in the high lands +of the interior. When the coast line began to trend to the +southwest,--it was Marco Polo who said it would,--there could be little +doubt that the Golden Chersonesus of the ancients, which we know to-day +as the Malacca peninsula, must be beyond. + +[Sidenote: by which he would return to Spain.] + +What next? was the thought which passed through the fevered brain of the +Admiral. He had an answer in his mind, and it would make a new sensation +for his poor colony at Isabella to hear of him in Spain. Passing the +Golden Chersonesus, had he not the alternative of steering homeward by +way of Ceylon and the Cape of Good Hope, and so astound the Portuguese +more than he did when he entered the Tagus? Or, abandoning the Indian +Ocean and entering the Red Sea, could he not proceed to its northern +extremity, and there, deserting his ships, join a caravan passing +through Jerusalem and Jaffa, and so embark again on the Mediterranean +and sail into Barcelona, a more wonderful explorer than before? + +These were the sublimating thoughts that now buoyed the Admiral, as he +looked along the far-stretching coast,--or at least his friend Bernaldez +got this impression from his intercourse with Columbus after his return +to Spain. + +[Sidenote: His crew rebel.] + +If the compliant spirit of his crew had not been exhausted, he would +perhaps have gone on, and would have been forced by developments to a +revision of his geographical faith. His vessels, unfortunately, were +strained in all their seams. Their leaks had spoiled his provisions. +Incessant labor had begun to tell upon the health of the crew. They much +preferred the chances of a return to Isabella, with all its hazards, +than a sight of Jaffa and the Mediterranean, with the untold dangers of +getting there. + +The Admiral, however, still pursued his course for a few days more to a +point, as Humboldt holds, opposite the St. Philip Keys, when, finding +the coast trending sharply to the southwest, and his crew becoming +clamorous, he determined to go no farther. + +[Sidenote: 1494. June 12. He turns back.] + +It was now the 12th of June, 1494, and if we had nothing but the +_Historie_ to guide us, we should be ignorant of the singular turn which +affairs took. Whoever wrote that book had, by the time it was written, +become conscious that obliviousness was sometimes necessary to preserve +the reputation of the Admiral. The strange document which interests us, +however, has not been lost, and we can read it in Navarrete. + +[Sidenote: Enforces an oath upon his men] + +It is not difficult to understand the disquietude of Columbus's mind. He +had determined to find Cathay as a counterpoise to the troubled +conditions at Isabella, both to assuage the gloomy forebodings of the +colonists and to reassure the public mind in Spain, which might receive, +as he knew, a shock by the reports which Torres's fleet had carried to +Europe. He had been forced by a mutinous crew to a determination to turn +back, but his discontented companions might be complacent enough to +express an opinion, if not complacent enough to run farther hazards. So +Columbus committed himself to the last resort of deluded minds, when +dealing with geographical or historical problems,--that of seeking to +establish the truth by building monuments, placing inscriptions, and +certifications under oath. He caused the eighty men who constituted the +crew of his little squadron--and we find their name in Duro's _Colón y +Pinzón_--to swear before a notary that it was possible to go from Cuba +to Spain by land, across Asia. + +[Sidenote: that Cuba is a continent.] + +It was solemnly affirmed by this official that if any should swerve +from this belief, the miserable skeptic, if an officer, should be fined +10,000 maravedis; and if a sailor, he should receive a hundred lashes +and have his tongue pulled out. Such were the scarcely heroic measures +that Columbus thought it necessary to employ if he would dispel any +belief that all these islands of the Indies were but an ocean +archipelago after all, and that the width of the unknown void between +Europe and Asia, which he was so confident he had traversed, was yet +undetermined. To make Cuba a continent by affidavit was easy; to make it +appear the identical kingdom of the Great Khan, he hoped would follow. +During his first voyage, so far as he could make out an intelligible +statement from what the natives indicated, he was of the opinion that +Cuba was an island. It is to be feared that he had now reached a state +of mind in which he did not dare to think it an island. + +If we believe the _Historie_,--or some passages in it, at +least,--written, as we know, after the geography of the New World was +fairly understood, and if we accept the evidence of the copyist, +Herrera, Columbus never really supposed he was in Asia. If this is true, +he took marvelous pains to deceive others by appearing to be deceived +himself, as this notarial exhibition and his solemn asseveration to the +Pope in 1502 show. The writers just cited say that he simply juggled the +world by giving the name India to these regions, as better suited to +allure emigration. Such testimony, if accepted, establishes the +fraudulent character of these notarial proceedings. It is fair to say, +however, that he wrote to Peter Martyr, just after the return of the +caravels to Isabella, expressing a confident belief in his having come +near to the region of the Ganges; and divesting the testimony of all the +jugglery with which others have invested it, there seems little doubt +that in this belief, at least, Columbus was sincere. + + * * * * * + +[Illustration: MASS ON SHORE. + +[From Philoponus's _Nova Typis Transacta Navigatio_.]] + +[Sidenote: 1494. June 13.] + +[Sidenote: 1494. June 30.] + +[Sidenote: 1494. July 7.] + +On the next day, Columbus, standing to the southeast, reached a large +island, the present Isle of Pines, which he called Evangelista. In +endeavoring to skirt it on the south, he was entangled once more in a +way that made him abandon the hope of a directer passage to Española +that way, and to resolve to follow the coast back as he had come. He +lost ten days in these uncertain efforts, which, with his provisions +rapidly diminishing, did not conduce to reassure his crew. On June +30, trying to follow the intricacies of the channels which had perplexed +him before, the Admiral's ship got a severe thump on the bottom, which +for a while threatened disaster. She was pulled through, however, by +main force, and after a while was speeding east in clear water. They had +now sailed beyond those marshy reaches of the coast, where they were cut +off from intercourse with the shore, and hoped soon to find a harbor, +where food and rest might restore the strength of the crew. Their daily +allowance had been reduced to a pound of mouldy bread and a swallow or +two of wine. It was the 7th of July when they anchored in an acceptable +harbor. Here they landed, and interchanged the customary pledges of +amity with a cacique who presented himself on the shore. Men having been +sent to cut down some trees, a large cross was made, and erected in a +grove, and on this spot, with a crowd of natives looking on, the +Spaniard celebrated high mass. A venerable Indian, who watched all the +ceremonials with close attention, divining their religious nature, made +known to the Admiral, through the Lucayan interpreter, something of the +sustaining belief of his own people, in words that were impressive. +Columbus's confidence in the incapacity of the native mind for such high +conceptions as this poor Indian manifested received a grateful shock +when the old man, grave in his manner and unconscious in his dignity, +pictured the opposite rewards of the good and bad in another world. Then +turning to the Admiral, he reminded him that wrong upon the unoffending +was no passport to the blessings of the future. The historian who tells +us this story, and recounts how it impressed the Admiral, does not say +that its warnings troubled him much in the times to come, when the +unoffending were grievously wronged. Perhaps there was something of this +forgetful spirit in the taking of a young Indian away from his friends, +as the chroniclers say he did, in this very harbor. + +[Sidenote: 1494. July 16.] + +[Sidenote: 1494. July 18.] + +[Sidenote: On the coast of Jamaica.] + +On July 16, Columbus left the harbor, and steering off shore to escape +the intricate channels of the Queen's Gardens which he was now +re-approaching, he soon found searoom, and bore away toward Española. A +gale coming on, the caravels were forced in shore, and discovered an +anchorage under Cabo de Cruz. Here they remained for three days, but +the wind still blowing from the east, Columbus thought it a good +opportunity to complete the circuit of Jamaica. He accordingly stood +across towards that island. He was a month in beating to the eastward +along its southern coast, for the winds were very capricious. Every +night he anchored under the land, and the natives supplied him with +provisions. At one place, a cacique presented himself in much feathered +finery, accompanied by his wife and relatives, with a retinue bedizened +in the native fashion, and doing homage to the Admiral. It was shown how +effective the Lucayan's pictures of Spanish glory and prowess had been, +when the cacique proposed to put himself and all his train in the +Admiral's charge for passage to the great country of the Spanish King. +The offer was rather embarrassing to the Admiral, with his provisions +running low, and his ships not of the largest. He relieved himself by +promising to conform to the wishes of the cacique at a more opportune +moment. + +[Sidenote: 1494. August 19.] + +[Sidenote: Española.] + +[Sidenote: 1494. August 23.] + +[Sidenote: Alto Velo.] + +By the 19th of August, Columbus had passed the easternmost extremity of +Jamaica, and on the next day he was skirting the long peninsula which +juts from the southwestern angle of Española. He was not, however, +aware of his position till on the 23d a cacique came off to the +caravels, and addressed Columbus by his title, with some words of +Castilian interlarded in his speech. It was now made clear that the +ships had nearly reached their goal, and nothing was left but to follow +the circuit of the island. It was no easy task to do so with a wornout +crew and crazy ships. The little fleet was separated in a gale, and when +Columbus made the lofty rocky island which is now known as Alto Velo, +resembling as it does in outline a tall ship under sail, he ran under +its lee, and sent a boat ashore, with orders for the men to scale its +heights, to learn if the missing caravels were anywhere to be seen. This +endeavor was without result, but it was not long before the fleet was +reunited. Further on, the Admiral learned from the natives that some of +the Spaniards had been in that part of the island, coming from the other +side. Finding thus through the native reports that all was quiet at +Isabella, he landed nine men to push across the island and report his +coming. Somewhat further to the east, a storm impending, he found a +harbor, where the weather forced him to remain for eight days. The +Admiral's vessel had succeeded in entering a roadstead, but the others +lay outside, buffeting the storm,--naturally a source of constant +anxiety to him. + +[Sidenote: Columbus observes eclipse of the moon.] + +It was while in this suspense that Columbus took advantage of an eclipse +of the moon, to ascertain his longitude. His calculations made him five +hours and a half west of Seville,--an hour and a quarter too much, +making an error of eighteen degrees. This mistake was quite as likely +owing to the rudeness of his method as to the pardonable errors of the +lunar tables of Regiomontanus (Venice, 1492), then in use. These tables +followed methods which had more or less controlled calculations from the +time of Hipparchus. + +The error of Columbus is not surprising. Even a century later, when +Robert Hues published his treatise on the Molineaux globe (1592), the +difficulties were in large part uncontrollable. "The most certain of all +for this purpose," says this mathematician, "is confessed by all writers +to be by eclipses of the moon. But now these eclipses happen but seldom, +but are more seldom seen, yet most seldom and in very few places +observed by the skillful artists in this science. So that there are but +few longitudes of places designed out by this means. But this is an +uncertain and ticklish way, and subject to many difficulties. Others +have gone other ways to work, as, namely, by observing the space of the +equinoctial hours betwixt the meridians of two places, which they +conceive may be taken by the help of sundials, or clocks, or +hourglasses, either with water or sand or the like. But all these +conceits, long since devised, having been more strictly and accurately +examined, have been disallowed and rejected by all learned men--at least +those of riper judgments--as being altogether unable to perform that +which is required of them. I shall not stand here to discover the errors +and uncertainties of these instruments. Away with all such trifling, +cheating rascals!" + +[Sidenote: 1494. September 24.] + +[Sidenote: Columbus reaches Isabella.] + +The weather moderating, Columbus stood out of the channel of Saona on +September 24, and meeting the other caravels, which had weathered the +storm, he still steered to the east. They reached the farthest end of +Española opposite Porto Rico, and ran out to the island of Mona, in the +channel between the two larger islands. Shortly after leaving Mona, +Columbus, worn with the anxieties of a five months' voyage, in which his +nervous excitement and high hopes had sustained him wonderfully, began +to feel the reaction. His near approach to Isabella accelerated this +recoil, till his whole system suddenly succumbed. He lay in a stupor, +knowing little, remembering nothing, his eyes dim and vitality oozing. +Under other command, the little fleet sorrowfully, but gladly, entered +the harbor of Isabella. + +Our most effective source for the history of this striking cruise is the +work of Bernaldez, already referred to. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +THE SECOND VOYAGE, CONTINUED. + +1494-1496. + + +[Sidenote: 1494. September 29. Columbus in Isabella.] + +It was the 29th of September, 1494, when the "Nina," with the senseless +Admiral on board, and her frail consorts stood into the harbor of +Isabella. Taken ashore, the sick man found no restorative like the +presence of his brother Bartholomew, who had reached Isabella during the +Admiral's absence. + +[Sidenote: Finds Bartholomew Columbus there.] + +[Sidenote: Bartholomew's career in England.] + +Several years had elapsed since the two congenial brothers had parted. +We have seen that this brother had probably been with Bartholomew Diaz +when he discovered the African cape. It is supposed, from the +inscriptions on it, that the map delivered by Bartholomew to Henry VII. +had shown the results of Diaz's discoveries. This chart had been taken +to England, when Bartholomew had gone thither, to engage the interest of +Henry VII. in Columbus's behalf. There is some obscurity about the +movements of Bartholomew at this time, but there is thought by some to +be reason to believe that he finally got sufficient encouragement from +that Tudor prince to start for Spain with offers for his brother. The +_Historie_ tells us that the propositions of Bartholomew were speedily +accepted by Henry, and this statement prevails in the earlier English +writers, like Hakluyt and Bacon; but Oviedo says the scheme was derided, +and Geraldini says it was declined. Bartholomew reached Paris just at +the time when word had come there of Columbus's return from his first +voyage. His kinship to the Admiral, and his own expositions of the +geographical problem then attracting so much attention, drew him within +the influence of the French court, and Charles VIII. is said to have +furnished him the means--as Bartholomew was then low in purse--to +pursue his way to Spain. + +[Sidenote: In Spain.] + +He was, however, too late to see the Admiral, who had already departed +from Cadiz on this second voyage. Finding that it had been arranged for +his brother's sons to be pages at Court, he sought them, and in company +with them he presented himself before the Spanish monarchs at +Valladolid. These sovereigns were about fitting out a supply fleet for +Española, and Bartholomew was put in command of an advance section of +it. Sailing from Cadiz on April 30, 1494, with three caravels, he +reached Isabella on St. John's Day, after the Admiral had left for his +western cruise. + +[Sidenote: His character.] + +[Sidenote: Created Adelantado.] + +If it was prudent for Columbus to bring another foreigner to his aid, he +found in Bartholomew a fitter and more courageous spirit than Diego +possessed. The Admiral was pretty sure now to have an active and +fearless deputy, sterner, indeed, in his habitual bearing than Columbus, +and with a hardihood both of spirit and body that fitted him for +command. These qualities were not suited to pacify the haughty hidalgos, +but they were merits which rendered him able to confront the discontent +of all settlers, and gave him the temper to stand in no fear of them. He +brought to the government of an ill-assorted community a good deal that +the Admiral lacked. He was soberer in his imagination; not so prone to +let his wishes figure the future; more practiced, if we may believe Las +Casas, in the arts of composition, and able to speak and write much more +directly and comprehensibly than his brother. He managed men better, and +business proceeded more regularly under his control, and he contrived to +save what was possible from the wreck of disorder into which his +brother's unfitness for command had thrown the colony. This is the man +whom Las Casas enables us to understand, through the traits of character +which he depicts. Columbus was now to create this brother his +representative, in certain ways, with the title of Adelantado. + +It was also no small satisfaction to the Admiral, in his present +weakness, to learn of the well-being of his children, and of the +continued favor with which he was held at Court, little anticipating the +resentment of Ferdinand that an office of the rank of Adelantado should +be created by any delegated authority. + +[Sidenote: Papal Bull of Extension.] + +Columbus had pursued his recent explorations in some measure to +forestall what he feared the Portuguese might be led to attempt in the +same direction, for he had not been unaware of the disturbance in the +court at Lisbon which the papal line of demarcation had created. He was +glad now to learn from his brother that his own fleet had hardly got to +sea from Cadiz, in September, 1493, when the Pope, by another bull on +the 26th of that month, had declared that all countries of the eastern +Indies which the Spaniards might find, in case they were not already in +Christian hands, should be included in the grant made to Spain. This +Bull of Extension, as it was called, was a new thorn in the side of +Portugal, and time would reveal its effect. Alexander had resisted all +importunities to recede from his position, taken in May. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: Events in Española during the absence of Columbus.] + +Let us look now at what had happened in Española during the absence of +Columbus; but in the first place, we must mark out the native division +of the island with whose history Columbus's career is so associated. +Just back of Isabella, and about the Vega Real, whose bewildering +beauties of grove and savanna have excited the admiration of modern +visitors, lay the territory tributary to a cacique named Guarionex, +which was bounded south by the Cibao gold mountains. South of these +interior ridges and extending to the southern shore of the island lay +the region (Maguana) of the most warlike of all the native princes, +Caonabo, whose wife, Anacaona, was a sister of Behechio, who governed +Xaragua, as the larger part of the southern coast, westward of Caonabo's +domain, including the long southwestern peninsula, was called. The +northeastern part of the island (Marien) was subject to Guacanagari, the +cacique neighboring to La Navidad. The eastern end (Higuay) of the +island was under the domination of a chief named Cotabanana. + +It will be remembered that before starting for Cuba the Admiral had +equipped an expedition, which, when it arrived at St. Thomas, was to be +consigned to the charge of Pedro Margarite. This officer had +instructions to explore the mountains of Cibao, and map out its +resources. He was not to harass the natives by impositions, but he was +to make them fear his power. It was also his business to avoid reducing +the colony's supplies by making the natives support this exploring +force. If he could not get this support by fair means, he was to use +foul means. Such instructions were hazardous enough; but Margarite was +not the man to soften their application. He had even failed to grasp the +spirit of the instructions which had been given by Columbus to ensnare +Caonabo, which were "as thoroughly base and treacherous as could well be +imagined," says Helps, and the reader can see them in Navarrete. + +[Illustration: NATIVE DIVISIONS OF ESPAÑOLA. + +[From Charlevoix's _L'Isle Espagnole_, Amsterdam, 1733.]] + +This commander had spent his time mainly among the luxurious scenes of +the Vega Real, despoiling its tribes of their provisions, and +squandering the energies of his men in sensual diversions. The natives, +who ought to have been his helpers, became irritated at his extortions +and indignant at the invasion of their household happiness. The +condition in the tribes which this riotous conduct had induced looked so +threatening that Diego Columbus, as president of the council, wrote to +Margarite in remonstrance, and reminded him of the Admiral's +instructions to explore the mountains. + +[Sidenote: Factions.] + +The haughty Spaniard, taking umbrage at what he deemed an interference +with his independent command, readily lent himself to the faction +inimical to Columbus. With his aid and with that of Father Boyle, a +brother Catalonian, who had proved false to his office as a member of +the ruling council and even finally disregardful of the royal wishes +that he should remain in the colony, an uneasy party was soon banded +together in Isabella. The modern French canonizers, in order to +reconcile the choice by the Pope of this recusant priest, claim that his +Holiness, or the king for him, confounded a Benedictine and Franciscan +priest of the same name, and that the Benedictine was an unlucky +changeling--perhaps even purposely--for the true monk of the +Franciscans. + +In the face of Diego, this cabal found little difficulty in planning to +leave the island for Spain in the ships which had come with Bartholomew +Columbus. Diego had no power to meet with compulsion the defiance of +these mutineers, and was subjected to the sore mortification of seeing +the rebels sail out of the harbor for Spain. There was left to Diego, +however, some satisfaction in feeling that such dangerous ringleaders +were gone; but it was not unaccompanied with anxiety to know what effect +their representations would have at Court. A like anxiety now became +poignant in the Admiral's mind, on his return. + +The stories which Diego and Bartholomew were compelled to tell Columbus +of the sequel of this violent abandonment of the colony were sad ones. +The license which Pedro Margarite had permitted became more extended, +when the little armed force of the colony found itself without military +restraint. It soon disbanded in large part, and lawless squads of +soldiers were scattered throughout the country, wherever passion or +avarice could find anything to prey upon. The long-suffering Indians +soon reached the limits of endurance. A few acts of vengeance encouraged +them to commit others, and everywhere small parties of the Spaniards +were cut off as they wandered about for food and lustful conquests. The +inhabitants of villages turned upon such stragglers as abused their +hospitalities. Houses where they sheltered themselves were fired. +Detached posts were besieged. + +[Sidenote: Caonabo and Fort St. Thomas.] + +While this condition prevailed, Caonabo planned to surprise Fort St. +Thomas. Ojeda, here in control with fifty men, commanded about the only +remnant of the Spanish forces which acknowledged the discipline of a +competent leader. The vigilant Ojeda did not fail to get intelligence of +Caonabo's intentions. He made new vows to the Virgin, before an old +Flemish picture of Our Lady which hung in his chamber in the fort, and +which never failed to encourage him, wherever he tarried or wherever he +strayed. Every man was under arms, and every eye was alert, when their +commander, as great in spirit as he was diminutive in stature, marshaled +his fifty men along his ramparts, as Caonabo with his horde of naked +warriors advanced to surprise him. The outraged cacique was too late. No +unclothed natives dared to come within range of the Spanish crossbows +and arquebuses. Ojeda met every artful and stealthy approach by a sally +that dropped the bravest of Caonabo's warriors. + +The cacique next tried to starve the Spaniards out. His parties infested +every path, and if a foraging force came out, or one of succor +endeavored to get in, multitudes of the natives foiled the endeavor. +Famine was impending in the fort. The procrastinations of the arts of +beleaguering always help the white man behind his ramparts, when the +savage is his enemy. The native force dwindled under the delays, and +Caonabo at last abandoned the siege. + +[Sidenote: Caonabo's league.] + +The native leader now gave himself to a larger enterprise. His spies +told him of the weakened condition of Isabella, and he resolved to form +a league of the principal caciques of the island to attack that +settlement. Wherever the Spaniards had penetrated, they had turned the +friendliest feelings into hatred, and in remote parts of the island the +reports of the Spanish ravages served, almost as much as the experience +of them, to embitter the savage. It was no small success for Caonabo to +make the other caciques believe that the supernatural character of the +Spaniards would not protect them if a combined attack should be +arranged. He persuaded all of them but Guacanagari, for that earliest +friend of Columbus remained firm in his devotion to the Spaniards. The +Admiral's confidence in him had not been misplaced. He was subjected to +attacks by the other chieftains, but his constancy survived them all. In +these incursions of his neighbors, his wives were killed and captured, +and among them the dauntless Catalina, as is affirmed; but his zeal for +his white neighbors did not abate. + +[Sidenote: Columbus and Guacanagari.] + +When Guacanagari heard that Columbus had returned, he repaired to +Isabella, and from this faithful ally the Admiral learned of the plans +which were only waiting further developments for precipitate action. + +[Sidenote: Fort Conception.] + +Columbus, thus forewarned, was eager to break any confederacy of the +Indians before it could gather strength. He had hardly a leader +disengaged whom he could send on the warpath. It was scarcely politic +to place Bartholomew in any such command over the few remaining Spanish +cavaliers whose spirit was so necessary to any military adventure. He +sent a party, however, to relieve a small garrison near the villages of +Guatiguana, a tributary chief to the great cacique Guarionex; but the +party resorted to the old excesses, and came near defeating the purposes +of Columbus. Guatiguana was prevailed upon, however, to come to the +Spanish settlement, and Columbus, to seal his agreement of amity with +him, persuaded him to let the Lucayan interpreter marry his daughter. To +this diplomatic arrangement the Admiral added the more powerful argument +of a fort, called La Concepcion, which he later built where it could +command the Vega Real. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: Torres's ships arrive.] + +It was not long before four ships, with Antonio Torres in command, +arrived from Spain, bringing a new store of provisions, another +physician, and more medicines, and, what was much needed, artificers and +numerous gardeners. There was some hope now that the soil could be made +to do its part in the support of the colony. + +[Sidenote: 1494. June 7. Treaty of Tordesillas.] + +To the Admiral came a letter, dated August 16, from Ferdinand and +Isabella, giving him notice that all the difficulties with Portugal had +been amicably adjusted. The court of Lisbon, finding that Pope Alexander +was not inclined to recede from his position, and Spain not courting any +difference that would lead to hostilities, both countries had easily +been brought to an agreement, which was made at Tordesillas, June 7, +1494, to move the line of demarcation so much farther as to fall 370 +leagues west of the Cape de Verde Islands. Each country then bound +itself to respect its granted rights under the bull thus modified. The +historical study of this diplomatic controversy over the papal division +of the world is much embarrassed by the lack of documentary records of +the correspondence carried on by Spain, Portugal, and the Pope. + +[Sidenote: The sovereign's letter to Columbus,] + +This letter of August 16 must have been very gratifying to Columbus. +Their Majesties told him that one of the principal reasons of their +rejoicing in his discoveries was that they felt it all due to his genius +and perseverance, and that the events had justified his foreknowledge +and their expectations. So now, in their desire to define the new line +of demarcation, and in the hope that it might be found to run through +some ocean island, where a monument could be erected, they turned to him +for assistance, and they expected that if he could not return to assist +in these final negotiations, he would dispatch to them some one who was +competent to deal with the geographical problem. + +[Sidenote: and to the colonists.] + +Torres had also brought a general letter of counsel to the colonists, +commanding them to obey all the wishes and to bow to the authority of +the Admiral. Whatever his lack of responsibility, in some measure at +least, for the undoubted commercial failure of the colony, its want of a +product in any degree commensurate both with expectation and outlay +could not fail, as he well understood, to have a strong effect both on +the spirit of the people and on the constancy of his royal patrons, who +might, under the urging of Margarite and his abettors, have already +swerved from his support. + +[Sidenote: 1495. February 24. The fleet returns to Spain.] + +[Sidenote: Carrying slaves.] + +[Sidenote: Columbus and slavery.] + +Reasons of this kind made it imperative that the newly arrived ships +should be returned without delay, and with such reassuring messages and +returns as could be furnished. The fleet departed on February 24, 1495. +Himself still prostrate, and needing his brother Bartholomew to act +during this season of his incapacity, there was no one he could spare so +well to meet the wishes of the sovereigns as his other brother. So armed +with maps and instructions, and with the further mission of protecting +the Admiral's interest at Court, Diego embarked in one of the caravels. +All the gold which had been collected was consigned to Diego's care, but +it was only a sorry show, after all. There had been a variety of new +fruits and spices, and samples of baser metals gathered, and these +helped to complete the lading. There was one resource left. He had +intimated his readiness to avail himself of it in the communication of +his views to the sovereigns, which Torres had already conveyed to them. +He now gave the plan the full force of an experiment, and packed into +the little caravels full five hundred of the unhappy natives, to be sold +as slaves. "The very ship," says Helps, "which brought that admirable +reply from Ferdinand and Isabella to Columbus, begging him to seek some +other way to Christianity than through slavery, even for wild +man-devouring Caribs, should go back full of slaves taken from among the +mild islanders of Hispaniola." The act was a long step in the miserable +degradation which Columbus put upon those poor creatures whose existence +he had made known to the world. Almost in the same breath, as in his +letter to Santangel, he had suggested the future of a slave traffic out +of that very existence. It is an obvious plea in his defense that the +example of the church and of kings had made such heartless conduct a +common resort to meet the financial burdens of conquest. The Portuguese +had done it in Africa; the Spaniards had done it in Spain. The +contemporary history of that age may be said to ring with the wails and +moans of such negro and Moorish victims. A Holy Religion had +unblushingly been made the sponsor for such a crime. Theologians had +proved that the Word of God could ordain misery in this world, if only +the recompense came--or be supposed to come--in a passport to the +Christian's heaven. + +The merit which Columbus arrogated to himself was that he was superior +to the cosmographical knowledge of his time. It was the merit of Las +Casas that he threw upon the reeking passions of the enslaver the light +of a religion that was above sophistry and purer than cupidity. The +existence of Las Casas is the arraignment of Columbus. + +It may be indeed asking too much of weak humanity to be good in all +things, and therein rests the pitiful plea for Columbus, the originator +of American slavery. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: Attacked by bloodhounds.] + +Events soon became ominous. A savage host began to gather in the Vega +Real, and all that Columbus, now recovering his strength, could marshal +in his defense was about two hundred foot and twenty horse, but they +were cased in steel, and the natives were naked. In this respect, the +fight was unequal, and the more so that the Spaniards were now able to +take into the field a pack of twenty implacable bloodhounds. The bare +bodies of the Indians had no protection against their insatiate thirst. + +[Sidenote: 1495. March 27. Columbus marches,] + +[Sidenote: and fights in the Vega Real.] + +It was the 27th of March, 1495, when Columbus, at the head of this +little army, marched forth from Isabella, to confront a force of the +natives, which, if we choose to believe the figures that are given by +Las Casas, amounted to 100,000 men, massed under the command of +Manicaotex. The whites climbed the Pass of the Hidalgos, where Columbus +had opened the way the year before, and descended into that lovely +valley, no longer a hospitable paradise. As they approached the hostile +horde, details were sent to make the attacks various and simultaneous. +The Indians were surprised at the flashes of the arquebuses from every +quarter of the woody covert, and the clang of their enemies' drums and +the bray of their trumpets drowned the savage yells. The native army had +already begun to stagger in their wonder and perplexity, when Ojeda, +seizing the opportune moment, dashed with his mounted lancemen right +into the centre of the dusky mass. The bloodhounds rushed to their +sanguinary work on his flanks. The task was soon done. The woods were +filled with flying and shrieking savages. The league of the caciques was +broken, and it was only left for the conquerors to gather up their +prisoners. Guacanagari, who had followed the white army with a train of +his subjects, looked on with the same wonder which struck the Indians +who were beaten. + +[Sidenote: 1495. April 25.] + +There was no opportunity for him to fight at all. The rout had been +complete. This notable conflict taking place on April 25, 1495, is a +central point in a somewhat bewildering tangle of events, as our +authorities relate them, so that it is not easy in all cases to +establish their sequence. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: Caonabo captured by Ojeda.] + +The question of dealing with Caonabo was still the most important of +all. It was solved by the cunning and dash of Ojeda. Presenting his plan +to the Admiral, he was commanded to carry it out. Taking ten men whom he +could trust, Ojeda boldly sought the village where Caonabo was +quartered, and with as much intrepidity as cunning put himself in the +power of that cacique. The chieftain was not without chivalry, and the +confidence and audacity of Ojeda won him. Hospitality was extended, and +the confidences of a mutual respect soon ensued. Ojeda proposed that +Caonabo should accompany him to Isabella, to make a compact of +friendship with the Viceroy. All then would be peaceful. Caonabo, who +had often wondered at the talking of the great bell in the chapel at +Isabella, as he had heard it when skulking about the settlement, eagerly +sprang to the lure, when Ojeda promised that he should have the bell. +Ojeda, congratulating himself on the success of his bait, was +disconcerted when he found that the cacique intended that a large force +of armed followers should make the visit with him. To prevent this, +Ojeda resorted to a stratagem, which is related by Las Casas, who says +it was often spoken of when that priest first came to the island, six +years later. Muñoz was not brought to believe the tale; but Helps sees +no obstacle to giving it credence. + +The Spaniards and the Indians were all on the march together, and had +encamped by a river. Ojeda produced a set of burnished steel manacles, +and told the cacique that they were ornaments such as the King of Spain +wore on solemn occasions, and that he had been commanded to give them to +the most distinguished native prince. He first proposed a bath in the +river. The swim over, Caonabo was prevailed upon to be put behind Ojeda +astride the same horse. Then the shining baubles were adjusted, +apparently without exciting suspicion, amid the elation of the savage at +his high seat upon the wondrous beast. A few sweeping gallops of the +horse, guided by Ojeda, and followed by the other mounted spearmen, +scattered the amazed crowd of the cacique's attendants. Then at a +convenient gap in the circle Ojeda spurred his steed, and the whole +mounted party dashed into the forest and away. The party drew up only +when they had got beyond pursuit, in order to bind the cacique faster in +his seat. So in due time, this little cavalcade galloped into Isabella +with its manacled prisoner. + +[Sidenote: Meets Columbus.] + +The meeting of Columbus and his captive was one of very different +emotions in the two,--the Admiral rejoicing that his most active foe was +in his power, and the cacique abating nothing of the defiance which +belonged to his freedom. Las Casas tells us that, as Caonabo lay in his +shackles in an outer apartment of the Admiral's house, the people came +and looked at him. He also relates that the bold Ojeda was the only one +toward whom the prisoner manifested any respect, acknowledging in this +way his admiration for his audacity. He would maintain only an +indifferent haughtiness toward the Admiral, who had not, as he said, the +courage to do himself what he left to the bravery of his lieutenant. + +[Sidenote: Ojeda attacks the Indians.] + +Ojeda presently returned to his command at St. Thomas, only to find that +a brother of Caonabo had gathered the Indians for an assault. Dauntless +audacity again saved him. He had brought with him some new men, and so, +leaving a garrison in the fort, he sallied forth with his horsemen and +with as many foot as he could muster and attacked the approaching host. +A charge of the glittering horse, with the flashing of sabres, broke the +dusky line. The savages fled, leaving their commander a prisoner in +Ojeda's hands. + +Columbus followed up these triumphs by a march through the country. +Every opposition needed scarce more than a dash of Ojeda's cavalry to +break it. The Vega was once more quiet with a sullen submission. The +confederated caciques all sued for peace, except Behechio, who ruled the +southwestern corner of the island. The whites had not yet invaded his +territory, and he retired morosely, taking with him his sister, +Anacaona, the wife of the imprisoned Caonabo. + +[Sidenote: Repartimientos and encomiendas.] + +The battle and the succeeding collapse had settled the fate of the poor +natives. The policy of subjecting men by violence to pay the tribute of +their lives and property to Spanish cupidity was begun in earnest, and +it was shortly after made to include the labor on the Spanish farms, +which, under the names of repartimientos and encomiendas, demoralized +the lives of master and slave. When prisoners were gathered +in such numbers that to guard them was a burden, there could be but +little delay in forcing the issue of the slave trade upon the Crown as a +part of an established policy. To the mind of Columbus, there was now +some chance of repelling the accusations of Margarite and Father Boyle +by palpable returns of olive flesh and shining metal. A scheme of +enforced contribution of gold was accordingly planned. Each native above +the age of fourteen was required to pay every three months, into the +Spanish coffers, his share of gold, measured by the capacity of a hawk's +bell for the common person, and by that of a calabash for the cacique. +In the regions distant from the gold deposits, cotton was accepted as a +substitute, twenty-five pounds for each person. A copper medal was put +on the neck of every Indian for each payment, and new exactions were +levied upon those who failed to show the medals. The amount of this +tribute was more than the poor natives could find, and Guarionex tried +to have it commuted for grain; but the golden greed of Columbus was +inexorable. He preferred to reduce the requirements rather than vary the +kind. A half of a hawk's bell of gold was better than stores of grain. +"It is a curious circumstance," says Irving, "that the miseries of the +poor natives should thus be measured out, as it were, by the very +baubles which first fascinated them." + +[Sidenote: Forts built.] + +To make this payment sure, it was necessary to establish other armed +posts through the country; and there were speedily built that of +Magdalena in the Vega, one called Esperanza in Cibao, another named +Catalina, beside La Concepcion, which has already been mentioned. + +[Sidenote: The natives debased.] + +The change which ensued in the lives of the natives was pitiable. The +labor of sifting the sands of the streams for gold, which they had +heretofore made a mere pastime to secure bits to pound into ornaments, +became a depressing task. To work fields under a tropical sun, where +they had basked for sportive rest, converted their native joyousness +into despair. They sang their grief in melancholy songs, as Peter Martyr +tells us. Gradually they withdrew from their old haunts, and by hiding +in the mountains, they sought to avoid the exactions, and to force the +Spaniards, thus no longer supplied by native labor with food, to abandon +their posts and retire to Isabella, if not to leave the island. + +[Sidenote: Guacanagari disappears.] + +Scant fare for themselves and the misery of dank lurking-places were +preferable to the heavy burdens of the taskmasters. They died in their +retreats rather than return to their miserable labors. Even the +long-tried friend of the Spaniards, Guacanagari, was made no exception. +He and his people suffered every exaction with the rest of their +countrymen. The cacique himself is said eventually to have buried +himself in despair in the mountain fastnesses, and so passed from the +sight of men. + +The Spaniards were not so easily to be thwarted. They hunted the poor +creatures like game, and, under the goading of lashes, such as survived +were in time returned to their slavery. So thoroughly was every instinct +of vengeance rooted out of the naturally timid nature of the Indians +that a Spaniard might, as Las Casas tells us, march solemnly like an +army through the most solitary parts of the island and receive tribute +at every demand. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: Columbus's interests in Spain.] + +It is time to watch the effect of the representations of Margarite and +Father Boyle at the Spanish Court. Columbus had been doubtless impelled, +in these schemes of cruel exaction, by the fear of their influence, and +with the hope of meeting their sneers at his ill success with +substantial tribute to the Crown. The charges against Columbus and his +policy and against his misrepresentation had all the immediate effect of +accusations which are supported by one-sided witnesses. Every sentiment +of jealousy and pride was played upon, and every circumstance of +palliation and modification was ignored. The suspicious reservation +which had more or less characterized the bearing of Ferdinand towards +the transactions of the hero could become a background to the newer +emotions. Fonseca and the comptroller Juan de Soria are charged with an +easy acceptance of every insinuation against the Viceroy. The canonizers +cannot execrate Fonseca enough. They make him alternately the creature +and beguiler of the King. His subserviency, his trading in bishoprics, +and his alleged hatred of Columbus are features of all their portraits +of him. + +[Sidenote: Aguado sent to Española.] + +The case against the Admiral was thus successfully argued. Testimony +like that of the receiver of the Crown taxes in rebuttal of charges +seemed to weigh little. Movements having been instituted at once (April +7, 1495) to succor the colony by the immediate dispatch of supplies, it +was two days later agreed with Beradi--the same with whom Vespucius had +been associated, as we have seen--to furnish twelve ships for Española. +The resolution was then taken to send an agent to investigate the +affairs of the colony. If he should find the Admiral still absent,--for +the length of his cruise to Cuba had already, at that time, begun to +excite apprehension of his safety,--this same agent was to superintend +the distribution of the supplies which he was to take. At this juncture, +in April, 1495, Torres, arriving with his fleet, reported the Admiral's +safe return, and submitted the notarial document, in which Columbus had +made it clear to his own satisfaction that the Golden Chersonesus was in +sight. Whether that freak of geographical prescience threw about his +expedition a temporary splendor, and again wakened the gratitude of the +sovereigns, as Irving says it did, may be left to the imagination; but +the fact remains that the sovereigns did not swerve from their purpose +to send an inquisitor to the colony, and the same Juan Aguado who had +come back with credentials from the Admiral himself was selected for the +mission. + +[Sidenote: 1495. April 10. All Spaniards allowed to explore.] + +[Sidenote: Nameless voyagers.] + +There were some recent orders of the Crown which Aguado was to break to +the Admiral, from which Columbus could not fail to discover that the +exclusiveness of his powers was seriously impaired. On the 10th of +April, 1495, it had been ordered that any native-born Spaniard could +invade the seas which had been sacredly apportioned to Columbus, that +such navigator might discover what he could, and even settle, if he +liked, in Española. This order was a ground of serious complaint by +Columbus at a later day, for the reason that this license was availed of +by unworthy interlopers. He declares that after the way had been shown +even the very tailors turned explorers. It seems tolerably certain that +this irresponsible voyaging, which continued till Columbus induced the +monarchs to rescind the order in June, 1497, worked developments in the +current cartography of the new regions which it is difficult to trace to +their distinct sources. Gomara intimates that during this period there +were nameless voyagers, of whose exploits we have no record by which to +identify them, and Navarrete and Humboldt find evidences of +explorations which cannot otherwise be accounted for. + +[Sidenote: Enemies of Columbus.] + +How far this condition of affairs was brought about by the importunities +of the enemies of Columbus is not clear. The surviving Pinzons are said +to have been in part those who influenced the monarchs, but doubtless a +share of profits, which the Crown required from all such private +speculation, was quite as strong an incentive as any importunities of +eager mariners. The burdens of the official expeditions were onerous for +an exhausted treasury, and any resource to replenish its coffers was not +very narrowly scrutinized in the light of the pledges which Columbus had +exacted from a Crown that was beginning to understand the impolicy of +such concessions. + +[Sidenote: Fonseca and Diego Colon.] + +There was also at this time a passage of words between Fonseca and Diego +Colon that was not without irritating elements. The Admiral's brother +had brought some gold with him, which he claimed as his own. Fonseca +withheld it, but in the end obeyed the sovereign's order and released +it. It was no time to add to the complications of the Crown's relations +with the distant Viceroy. + +[Sidenote: Royal letter to Columbus.] + +Aguado bore a royal letter, which commanded Columbus to reduce the +dependents of the colony to five hundred, as a necessary retrenchment. +There had previously been a thousand. Directions were also given to +control the apportionment of rations. A new metallurgist and +master-miner, Pablo Belvis, was sent out, and extraordinary privileges +in the working of the mines were given to him. Muñoz says that he +introduced there the quicksilver process of separating the gold from the +sand. A number of new priests were collected to take the place of those +who had returned, or who desired to come back. + +[Sidenote: Columbus and slavery.] + +Such were the companions and instructions that Aguado was commissioned +to bear to Columbus. There was still another movement in the policy of +the Crown that offered the Viceroy little ground for reassurance. The +prisoners which he had sent by the ships raised a serious question. It +was determined that any transaction looking to the making slaves of them +had not been authorized; but the desire of Columbus so to treat them had +at first been met by a royal order directing their sale in the marts of +Andalusia. A few days later, under the influence of Isabella, this +order had been suspended, till an inquiry could be made into the cause +of the capture of the Indians, and until the theologians could decide +upon the justifiableness of such a sale. If we may believe Bernaldez, +who pictures their misery, they were subsequently sold in Seville. +Muñoz, however, says that he could not find that the trouble which +harassed the theologians was ever decided. Such hesitancy was calculated +to present a cruel dilemma to the Viceroy, since the only way in which +the clamor of the Court for gold could be promptly appeased came near +being prohibited by what Columbus must have called the misapplied mercy +of the Queen. He failed to see, as Muñoz suggests, why vassals of the +Crown, entering upon acts of resistance, should not be subjected to +every sort of cruelty. Humboldt wonders at any hesitancy when the grand +inquisitor, Torquemada, was burning heretics so fiercely at this time +that such expiations of the poor Moors and Jews numbered 8,800 between +1481 and 1498! + +[Sidenote: 1495. October. Aguado at Isabella.] + +Aguado, with four caravels, and Diego Columbus accompanying him, having +sailed from Cadiz late in August, 1495, reached the harbor of Isabella +some time in October. The new commissioner found the Admiral absent, +occupied with affairs in other parts of the island. Aguado soon made +known his authority. It was embraced in a brief missive, dated April 9, +1495, and as Irving translates it, it read: "Cavaliers, esquires, and +other persons, who by our orders are in the Indies, we send to you Juan +Aguado, our groom of the chambers, who will speak to you on our part. We +command you to give him faith and credit." The efficacy of such an order +depended on the royal purpose that was behind it, and on the will of the +commissioner, which might or might not conform to that purpose. It has +been a plea of Irving and others that Aguado, elated by a transient +authority, transcended the intentions of the monarchs. It is not easy to +find a definite determination of such a question. It appears that when +the instrument was proclaimed by trumpet, the general opinion did not +interpret the order as a suspension of the Viceroy's powers. The +Adelantado, who was governing in Columbus's absence, saw the new +commissioner order arrests, countermand directions, and in various ways +assume the functions of a governor. Bartholomew was in no condition to +do more than mildly remonstrate. It was clearly not safe for him to +provoke the great body of the discontented colonists, who professed now +to find a champion sent to them by royal order. + +[Sidenote: Meets Columbus.] + +Columbus heard of Aguado's arrival, and at once returned to Isabella. +Aguado, who had started to find him with an escort of horse, missed him +on the road, and this delayed their meeting a little. When the +conference came, Columbus, with a dignified and courteous air, bowed to +a superior authority. It has passed into history that Aguado was +disappointed at this quiet submission, and had hoped for an altercation, +which might warrant some peremptory force. It is also said that later he +endeavored to make it appear how Columbus had not been so complacent as +was becoming. + +It was soon apparent that this displacement of the Admiral was restoring +even the natives to hope, and their caciques were not slow in presenting +complaints, not certainly without reason, to the ascendant power, and +against the merciless extortions of the Admiral. + +[Sidenote: Accuses Columbus.] + +The budget of accusations which Aguado had accumulated was now full +enough, and he ordered the vessels to make ready to carry him back to +Spain. The situation for Columbus was a serious one. He had in all this +trial experienced the results of the intrigues of Margarite and Father +Boyle. He knew of the damaging persuasiveness of the Pinzons. He had not +much to expect from the advocacy of Diego. There was nothing for him to +do but to face in person the charges as reënforced by Aguado. He +resolved to return in the ships. "It is not one of the least singular +traits in his history," says Irving, "that after having been so many +years in persuading mankind that there was a new world to be discovered, +he had almost an equal trouble in proving to them the advantage of the +discovery." He himself never did prove it. + +[Sidenote: Ships wrecked in the harbor.] + +The ships were ready. They lay at anchor in the roadstead. A cloud of +vapor and dust was seen in the east. It was borne headlong before a +hurricane such as the Spaniards had never seen, and the natives could +not remember its equal. It cut a track through the forests. It lashed +the sea until its expanse seethed and writhed and sent its harried +waters tossing in a seeming fright. The uplifted surges broke the +natural barriers and started inland. The ships shuddered at their +anchorage; cables snapped; three caravels sunk, and the rest were dashed +on the beach. The tumult lasted for three hours, and then the sun shone +upon the havoc. + +[Illustration: SPANISH SETTLEMENTS IN ESPAÑOLA. + +[From Charlevoix's _L'Isle Espagnole_ (Amsterdam, 1733).]] + +There was but one vessel left in the harbor, and she was shattered. It +was the "Nina," which had borne Columbus in his western cruise. As soon +as the little colony recovered its senses, men were set to work +repairing the solitary caravel, and constructing another out of the +remnants of the wrecks. + +[Sidenote: Miguel Diaz finds gold.] + +[Sidenote: Hayna mines.] + +[Sidenote: Solomon's Ophir.] + +While this was going on, a young Spaniard, Miguel Diaz by name, +presented himself in Isabella. He had been in the service of the +Adelantado, and was not unrecognized. He was one who had some time +before wounded another Spaniard in a duel, and, supposing that the wound +was mortal, he had, with a few friends, fled into the woods and wandered +away till he came to the banks of the Ozema, a river on the southern +coast of the island, at the mouth of which the city of Santo Domingo now +stands. Here, as he said, he had attracted the attention of a female +cacique, there reigning, and had become her lover. She confided to him +the fact that there were rich gold mines in her territory, and to make +him more content in her company, she suggested that perhaps the Admiral, +if he knew of the mines, would abandon the low site of Isabella, and +find a better one on the Ozema. Acting on this suggestion, Diaz, with +some guides, returned to the neighborhood of Isabella, and lingered in +concealment till he learned that his antagonist had survived his wound. +Then, making bold, he entered the town, as we have seen. His story was a +welcome one, and the Adelantado was dispatched with a force to verify +the adventurer's statement. In due time, the party returned, and +reported that at a river named Hayna they had found such stores of gold +that Cibao was poor in comparison. The explorers had seen the metal in +all the streams; they observed it in the hillsides. They had discovered +two deep excavations, which looked as if the mines had been worked at +some time by a more enterprising people, since of these great holes the +natives could give no account. Once more the Admiral's imagination was +fired. He felt sure that he had come upon the Ophir of Solomon. These +ancient mines must have yielded the gold which covered the great Temple. +Had the Admiral not discovered already the course of the ships which +sought it? Did they not come from the Persian gulf, round the Golden +Chersonesus, and so easterly, as he himself had in the reverse way +tracked the very course? Here was a new splendor for the Court of Spain. +If the name of India was redolent of spices, that of Ophir could but be +resplendent with gold! That was a message worth taking to Europe. + +The two caravels were now ready. The Adelantado was left in command, +with Diego to succeed in case of his death. Francisco Roldan was +commissioned as chief magistrate, and the Fathers Juan Berzognon and +Roman Pane remained behind to pursue missionary labors among the +natives. Instructions were left that the valley of the Ozema should be +occupied, and a fort built in it. Diaz, with his queenly Catalina, had +become important. + +[Sidenote: 1496. March 10. Columbus and Aguado sail for Spain, carrying +Caonabo.] + +There was a motley company of about two hundred and fifty persons, +largely discontents and vagabonds, crowded into the two ships. Columbus +was in one, and Aguado in the other. So they started on their +adventurous and wearying voyage on March 10, 1496. They carried about +thirty Indians in confinement, and among them the manacled Caonabo, with +some of his relatives. Columbus told Bernaldez that he took the +chieftain over to impress him with Spanish power, and that he intended +to send him back and release him in the end. His release came otherwise. +There is some disagreement of testimony on the point, some alleging that +he was drowned during the hurricane in the harbor, but the better +opinion seems to be that he died on the voyage, of a broken spirit. At +any rate, he never reached Spain, and we hear of him only once while on +shipboard. + +[Sidenote: 1496. April 6.] + +We have seen that on his return voyage in 1492 Columbus had pushed north +before turning east. It does not appear how much he had learned of the +experience of Torres's easterly passages. Perhaps it was only to make a +new trial that he now steered directly east. He met the trade winds and +the calms of the tropics, and had been almost a month at sea when, on +April 6, he found himself still neighboring to the islands of the +Caribs. His crew needed rest and provisions, and he bore away to seek +them. He anchored for a while at Marigalante, and then passed on to +Guadaloupe. + +[Sidenote: At Guadaloupe.] + +[Sidenote: 1496. June.] + +[Sidenote: 1496. June 11. Cadiz.] + +He had some difficulty in landing, as a wild, screaming mass of natives +was gathered on the beach in a hostile manner. A discharge of the +Spanish arquebuses cleared the way, and later a party scouring the woods +captured some of the courageous women of the tribe. These were all +released, however, except a strong, powerful woman, who, with a +daughter, refused to be left, for the reason, as the story goes, that +she had conceived a passion for Caonabo. By the 20th, the ships again +set sail; but the same easterly trades baffled them, and another month +was passed without much progress. By the beginning of June, provisions +were so reduced that there were fears of famine, and it began to be +considered whether the voyagers might not emulate the Caribs and eat the +Indians. Columbus interfered, on the plea that the poor creatures were +Christian enough to be protected from such a fate; but as it turned out, +they were not Christian enough to be saved from the slave-block in +Andalusia. The alert senses of Columbus had convinced him that land +could not be far distant, and he was confirmed in this by his reckoning. +These opinions of Columbus were questioned, however, and it was not at +all clear in the minds of some, even of the experienced pilots who were +on board, that they were so near the latitude of Cape St. Vincent as the +Admiral affirmed. Some of these navigators put the ships as far north as +the Bay of Biscay, others even as far as the English Channel. Columbus +one night ordered sail to be taken in. They were too near the land to +proceed. In the morning, they saw land in the neighborhood of Cape St. +Vincent. On June 11, they entered the harbor of Cadiz. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +IN SPAIN, 1496-1498. + +DA GAMA, VESPUCIUS, CABOT. + + +[Sidenote: 1496. Columbus arrives at Cadiz,] + +"The wretched men crawled forth," as Irving tells us of their +debarkation, "emaciated by the diseases of the colony and the hardships +of the voyage, who carried in their yellow countenances, says an old +writer, a mockery of that gold which had been the object of their +search, and who had nothing to relate of the New World but tales of +sickness, poverty, and disappointment." This is the key to the contrasts +in the present reception of the adventurers with that which greeted +Columbus on his return to Palos. + +When Columbus landed at Cadiz, he was clothed with the robe and girdled +with the cord of the Franciscans. His face was unshaven. Whether this +was in penance, or an assumption of piety to serve as a lure, is not +clear. Oviedo says it was to express his humility; and his humbled pride +needed some such expression. + +[Sidenote: and learns the condition of the public mind.] + +He found in the harbor three caravels just about starting for Española +with tardy supplies. It had been intended to send some in January; but +the ships which started with them suffered wreck on the neighboring +coasts. He had only to ask Pedro Alonso Niño, the commander of this +little fleet, for his dispatches, to find the condition of feeling which +he was to encounter in Spain. They gave him a sense, more than ever +before, of the urgent necessity of making the colony tributary to the +treasury of the Crown. It was clear that discord and unproductiveness +were not much longer to be endured. So he wrote a letter to the +Adelantado, which was to go by the ships, urging expedition in quieting +the life of the colonists, and in bringing the resources of the island +under such control that it could be made to yield a steady flow of +treasure. + +[Sidenote: 1496. June 17. Columbus writes to Bartholomew.] + +To this end, the new mines of Hayna must be further explored, and the +working of them started with diligence. A port of shipment should be +found in their neighborhood, he adds. With such instructions to +Bartholomew, the caravels sailed on June 17, 1496. It must have been +with some trepidation that Columbus forwarded to the Court the tidings +of his arrival. If the two dispatches which he sent could have been +preserved, we might better understand his mental condition. + +[Sidenote: Invited to Court.] + +As soon as the messages of Columbus reached their Majesties, then at +Almazan, they sent, July 12, 1496, a letter inviting him to Court, and +reassuring him in his despondency by expressions of kindness. So he +started to join the Court in a somewhat better frame of mind. He led +some of his bedecked Indians in his train, not forgetting "in the towns" +to make a cacique among them wear conspicuously a golden necklace. + +Bernaldez tells us that it was in this wily fashion that Columbus made +his journey into the country of Castile,--"the which collar," that +writer adds, "I have seen and held in these hands;" and he goes on to +describe the other precious ornaments of the natives, which Columbus +took care that the gaping crowds should see on this wandering mission. + +It is one of the anachronisms of the _Historie_ of 1571 that it places +the Court at this time at Burgos, and makes it there to celebrate the +marriage of the crown prince with Margaret of Austria. The author of +that book speaks of seeing the festivities himself, then in attendance +as a page upon Don Juan. It was a singular lapse of memory in Ferdinand +Columbus--if this statement is his--to make two events like the arrival +of his father at Court, with all the incidental parade as described in +the book, and the ceremonies of that wedding festival identical in time. +The wedding was in fact nine months later, in April, 1497. + +[Sidenote: Received by the sovereigns.] + +[Sidenote: Makes new demands.] + +Columbus's reception, wherever it was, seems to have been gracious, and +he made the most of the amenities of the occasion to picture, in his old +exaggerating way, the wealth of the Ophir mines. He was encouraged by +the effect which his enthusiasm had produced to ask to be supplied with +another fleet, partly to send additional supplies to Española, but +mainly to enable him to discover that continental land farther +south, of which he had so constantly heard reports. + +It was easy for the monarchs to give fair promises, and quite as easy to +forget them, for a while at least, in the busy scenes which their +political ambitions were producing. Belligerent relations with France +necessitated a vigilant watch about the Pyrenees. There were fleets to +be maintained to resist, both in the Mediterranean and on the Atlantic +coast, attacks which might unexpectedly fall. An imposing armada was +preparing to go to Flanders to carry thither the Princess Juana to her +espousal with Philip of Austria. The same fleet was to bring back +Philip's sister Margaret to become the bride of Prince Juan, in those +ceremonials to which reference has already been made. + +[Sidenote: 1496. Autumn. A new expedition ordered.] + +These events were too engrossing for the monarchs to give much attention +to the wishes of Columbus, and it was not till the autumn of 1496 that +an appropriation was made to equip another little squadron for him. The +hopes it raised were soon dashed, for having some occasion to need money +promptly, at a crisis of the contest which the King was waging with +France, the money which had been intended for Columbus was diverted to +the new exigency. What was worse in the eyes of Columbus, it was to be +paid out of some gold which it was supposed that Niño had brought back +from the mines of Hayna. This officer on arriving at Cadiz had sent to +the Court some boastful messages about his golden lading, which were not +confirmed when in December the sober dispatch of the Adelantado, which +Niño had kept back, came to be read. The nearest approach to gold which +the caravels brought was another crowd of dusky slaves, and the +dispatches of Bartholomew pictured the colony in the same conditions of +destitution as before. There was no stimulant in such reports either for +the Admiral or for the Court, and the New World was again dismissed from +the minds of all, or consigned to their derision. + +[Sidenote: 1497. Spring. Columbus's rights reaffirmed.] + +[Sidenote: New powers.] + +[Illustration: FERDINAND OF ARAGON. + +[From an ancient medallion given in Buckingham Smith's _Coleccion_.]] + +When the spring months of 1497 arrived, there were new hopes. The +wedding of Prince Juan at Burgos was over, and the Queen was left more +at liberty to think of her patronage of the new discoveries. The King +was growing more and more apathetic, and some of the leading spirits of +the Court were inimical, either actively or reservedly. By the Queen's +influence, the old rights bestowed upon Columbus were reaffirmed (April +23, 1497), and he was offered a large landed estate in Española, with a +new territorial title; but he was wise enough to see that to accept it +would complicate his affairs beyond their present entanglement. He was +solicitous, however, to remove some of his present pecuniary +embarrassments, and it was arranged that he should be relieved from +bearing an eighth of the cost of the ventures of the last three years, +and that he should surrender all rights to the profits; while for the +three years to come he should have an eighth of the gross income, and a +further tenth of the net proceeds. Later, the original agreement was to +be restored. His brother Bartholomew was created Adelantado, giving thus +the royal sanction to the earlier act of the Admiral. + +[Sidenote: Fonseca allowed to grant licenses.] + +In the letters patent made out previous to Columbus's second voyage, the +Crown distinctly reserved the right to grant other licenses, and +invested Fonseca with the power to do so, allowing to Columbus nothing +more than one eighth of the tonnage; and in the ordinance of June 2, +1497, in which they now revoked all previous licenses, the revocation +was confined to such things as were repugnant to the rights of Columbus. +It was also agreed that the Crown should maintain for him a body of +three hundred and thirty gentlemen, soldiers, and helpers, to accompany +him on his new expedition, and this number could be increased, if the +profits of the colony warranted the expenditure. Power was given to him +to grant land to such as would cultivate the soil for four years; but +all brazil-wood and metals were to be reserved for the Crown. + +[Illustration: BARTHOLOMEW COLUMBUS. + +[From Barcia's _Herrera_.]] + +All this seemed to indicate that the complaints which had been made +against the oppressive sternness of the Admiral's rule had not as yet +broken down the barriers of the Queen's protection. Indeed, we find up +to this time no record of any serious question at Court of his +authority, and Irving thinks nothing indicates any symptom of the royal +discontent except the reiterated injunctions, in the orders given to him +respecting the natives and the colonists, that leniency should govern +his conduct so far as was safe. + +[Sidenote: 1498. February 22. Makes a will.] + +Permission being given to him to entail his estates, he marked out in a +testamentary document (February 22, 1498) the succession of his +heirs,--male heirs, with Ferdinand's rights protected, if Diego's line +ran out; then male heirs of his brothers; and if all male heirs failed, +then the estates were to descend by the female line. The title Admiral +was made the paramount honor, and to be the perpetual distinction of his +representatives. The entail was to furnish forever a tenth of its +revenues to charitable uses. Genoa was placed particularly under the +patronage of his succeeding representatives, with injunctions always to +do that city service, as far as the interests of the Church and the +Spanish Crown would permit. Investments were to be made from time to +time in the bank of St. George at Genoa, to accumulate against the +opportune moment when the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre seemed +feasible, either to help to that end any state expedition or to fit out +a private one. He enjoined upon his heirs a constant, unwavering +devotion to the Papal Church and to the Spanish Crown. At every season +of confession, his representative was commanded to lay open his heart to +the confessor, who must be prompted by a perusal of the will to ask the +crucial questions. + +It was in the same document that Columbus prescribed the signature of +his representatives in succeeding generations, following a formula which +he always used himself. + +[Sidenote: Columbus's signature.] + + .S. + .S.A.S. + X M Y + [Greek: Chr~o] FERENS. + +The interpretation of this has been various: _Servus Supplex Altissimi +Salvatoris, Christus, Maria, Yoseph, Christo ferens_, is one solution; +_Servidor sus Altezas sacras, Christo, Maria Ysabel_, is another; and +these are not all. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: Unpopularity of Columbus.] + +The complacency of the Queen was soothing; her appointment of his son +Ferdinand as her page (February 18, 1498) was gratifying, but it could +not wholly compensate Columbus for the condition of the public mind, of +which he was in every way forcibly reminded. There were both the whisper +of detraction spreading abroad, and the outspoken objurgation. The +physical debility of his returned companions was made a strong contrast +to his reiterated stories of Paradise. Fortunes wrecked, labor wasted, +and lives lost had found but a pitiable compensation in a few cargoes of +miserable slaves. The people had heard of his enchanting landscapes, but +they had found his aloes and mastic of no value. Hidalgoes said there +was nothing of the luxury they had been told to expect. The gorgeous +cities of the Great Khan had not been found. Such were the kind of +taunts to which he was subjected. + +[Sidenote: His sojourn with Bernaldez.] + +Columbus, during this period of his sojourn in Spain, spent a +considerable interval under the roof of Andres Bernaldez, and we get in +his history of the Spanish kings the advantage of the talks which the +two friends had together. + +The Admiral is known to have left with Bernaldez various documents which +were given to him in the presence of Juan de Fonseca. From the way in +which Bernaldez speaks of these papers, they would seem to have been +accounts of the voyage of Columbus then already made, and it was upon +these documents that Bernaldez says he based his own narratives. + +[Sidenote: Bernaldez's opinions.] + +This ecclesiastic had known Columbus at an earlier day, when the Genoese +was a vender of books in Andalusia, as he says; in characterizing him, +he calls his friend in another place a man of an ingenious turn, but not +of much learning, and he leaves one to infer that the book-vender was +not much suspected of great familiarity with his wares. + +We get as clearly from Bernaldez as from any other source the measure of +the disappointment which the public shared as respects the conspicuous +failure of these voyages of Columbus in their pecuniary relations. + +[Sidenote: Scant returns of gold.] + +The results are summed up by that historian to show that the cost of the +voyages had been so great and the returns so small that it came to be +believed that there was in the new regions no gold to speak of. Taking +the first voyage,--and the second was hardly better, considering the +larger opportunities,--Harrisse has collated, for instance, all the +references to what gold Columbus may have gathered; and though there are +some contradictory reports, the weight of testimony seems to confine the +amount to an inconsiderable sum, which consisted in the main of personal +ornaments. There are legends of the gold brought to Spain from this +voyage being used to gild palaces and churches, to make altar ornaments +for the cathedral at Toledo, to serve as gifts of homage to the Pope, +but we may safely say that no reputable authority supports any such +statements. + +Notwithstanding this seeming royal content of which the signs have been +given, there was, by virtue of a discontented and irritated public +sentiment, a course open to Columbus in these efforts to fit out his new +expedition which was far from easy. There was so much disinclination in +the merchants to furnish ships that it required a royal order to seize +them before the small fleet could be gathered. + +[Sidenote: Difficulties in fitting out the new expedition.] + +[Sidenote: Criminals enlisted.] + +The enlistments to man the ships and make up the contingent destined for +the colony were more difficult still. The alacrity with which everybody +bounded to the summons on his second voyage had entirely gone, and it +was only by the foolish device which Columbus decided upon of opening +the doors of the prisons and of giving pardon to criminals at large, +that he was enabled to help on the registration of his company. + +[Sidenote: 1498. Two caravels sail.] + +Finding that all went slowly, and knowing that the colony at Española +must be suffering from want of supplies, the Queen was induced to order +two caravels of the fleet to sail at once, early in 1498, under the +command of Pedro Fernandez Coronel. This was only possible because the +Queen took some money which she had laid aside as a part of a dower +which was intended for her daughter Isabella, then betrothed to +Emmanuel, the King of Portugal. + +[Sidenote: Fonseca's lack of heart.] + +So much was gratifying; but the main object of the new expedition was to +make new discoveries, and there were many harassing delays yet in store +for Columbus before he could depart with the rest of his fleet. These +delays, as we shall see, enabled another people, under the lead of +another Italian, to precede him and make the first discovery of the +mainland. The Queen was cordial, but an affliction came to distract her, +in the death of Prince Juan. Fonseca, who was now in charge of the +fitting out of the caravels, seems to have lacked heart in the +enterprise; but it serves the purpose of Columbus's adulatory +biographers to give that agent of the Crown the character of a +determined enemy of Columbus. + +[Sidenote: Columbus's altercation with Fonseca's accountant.] + +Even the prisons did not disgorge their vermin, as he had wished, and +his company gathered very slowly, and never became full. Las Casas tells +us that troubles followed him even to the dock. The accountant of +Fonseca, one Ximeno de Breviesca, got into an altercation with the +Admiral, who knocked him down and exhibited other marks of passion. Las +Casas further tells us that this violence, through the representations +of it which Fonseca made, produced a greater effect on the monarchs than +all the allegations of the Admiral's cruelty and vindictiveness which +his accusers from Española had constantly brought forward, and that it +was the immediate cause of the change of royal sentiment towards him, +which soon afterwards appeared. Columbus seems to have discovered the +mistake he had made very promptly, and wrote to the monarchs to +counteract its effect. It was therefore with this new anxiety upon his +mind that he for the third time committed himself to his career of +adventure and exploration. The canonizers would have it that their +sainted hero found it necessary to prove by his energy in personal +violence that age had not impaired his manhood for the trials before +him! + + * * * * * + +Before following Columbus on this voyage, the reader must take a glance +at the conditions of discovery elsewhere, for these other events were +intimately connected with the significance of Columbus's own voyagings. + +[Sidenote: Da Gama's passage of the African cape.] + +The problem which the Portuguese had undertaken to solve was, as has +been seen, the passage to India by the Stormy Cape of Africa. Even +before Columbus had sailed on his first voyage, word had come in 1490 +to encourage King João II. His emissaries in Cairo had learned from the +Arab sailors that the passage of the cape was practicable on the side of +the Indian Ocean. The success of his Spanish rivals under Columbus in +due time encouraged the Portuguese king still more, or at least piqued +him to new efforts. + +[Illustration: VASCO DA GAMA. + +[From Stanley's _Da Gama_.]] + +[Sidenote: Reaches Calicut May 20, 1498.] + +Vasco da Gama was finally put in command of a fleet specially equipped. +It was now some years since his pilot, Pero de Alemquer, had carried +Diaz well off the cape. On Sunday, July 8, 1497, Da Gama sailed from +below Lisbon, and on November 22 he passed with full sheets the +formidable cape. It was not, however, till December 17 that he reached +the point where Diaz had turned back. His further progress does not +concern us here. Suffice it to say that he cast anchor at Calicut May +20, 1498, and India was reached ten days before Columbus started a third +time to verify his own beliefs, but really to find them errors. + +Towards the end of August, or perhaps early in September, of the next +year (1499), Da Gama arrived at Lisbon on his return voyage, +anticipated, indeed, by one of his caravels, which, separated from the +commander in April or May, had pushed ahead and reached home on the 10th +of July. Portugal at once resounded with jubilation. The fleet had +returned crippled with disabled crews, and half the vessels had +disappeared; but the solution of a great problem had been reached. + +The voyage of Da Gama, opening a trade eagerly pursued and eagerly met, +offered, as we shall see, a great contrast to the small immediate +results which came from the futile efforts of Columbus to find a western +way to the same regions. + +[Illustration: SOUTHERN PART OF AFRICA. + +[From the Ptolemy of 1513.]] + +[Sidenote: Supposed voyage of Vespucius.] + +There have been students of these early explorers who have contended +that, while Columbus was harassed in Spain with these delays in +preparing for his third voyage, the Florentine Vespucius, whom we have +encountered already as helping Berardi in the equipment of Columbus's +fleets, had, in a voyage of which we have some confused chronology, +already in 1497 discovered and coursed the northern shores of the +mainland south of the Caribbean Sea. + +[Illustration: EARLIEST REPRESENTATION OF SOUTH AMERICAN NATIVES, +1497-1504. + +[From Stevens's reproduction in his _American Bibliographer_.]] + +Bernaldez tells us that, during the interval between the second and +third voyages of Columbus, the Admiral "accorded permission to other +captains to make discoveries at the west, who went and discovered +various islands." Whether we can connect this statement with any such +voyage as is now to be considered is a matter of dispute. + +[Sidenote: Who discovered South America?] + +This question of the first discovery of the mainland of South +America,--we shall see that North America's mainland had already been +discovered,--whether by Columbus or Vespucius, is one which has long +vexed the historian and still does perplex him, though the general +consensus of opinion at the present day is in favor of Columbus, while +pursuing the voyage through which we are soon to follow him. The +question is much complicated by the uncertainties and confusion of the +narratives which are our only guides. The discovery, if not claimed by +Vespucius, has been vigorously claimed for him. Its particulars are also +made a part of the doubt which has clouded the recitals concerning the +voyage of Pinzon and Solis to the Honduras coast, which are usually +placed later; but by Oviedo and Gomara this voyage is said to have +preceded that of Columbus. + +[Sidenote: Claimed for Vespucius.] + +The claim for Vespucius is at the best but an enforced method of +clarifying the published texts concerning the voyages, in the hopes of +finding something like consistency in their dates. Any commentator who +undertakes to get at the truth must necessarily give himself up to some +sort of conjecture, not only as respects the varied inconsistencies of +the narrative, but also as regards the manifold blunders of the printer +of the little book which records the voyages. Muñoz had it in mind, it +is understood, to prove that Vespucius could not have been on the coast +at the date of his alleged discovery; but in the opinions of some the +documents do not prove all that Muñoz, Navarrete, and Humboldt have +claimed, while the advocacy of Varnhagen in favor of Vespucius does not +allow that writer to see what he apparently does not desire to see. The +most, perhaps, that we can say is that the proof against the view of +Varnhagen, who is in favor of such a voyage in 1497, is not wholly +substantiated. The fact seems to be, so far as can be made out, that +Vespucius passed from one commander's employ to another's, at a date +when Ojeda, in 1499, had not completed his voyage, and when Pinzon +started. So supposing a return to Spain in order for Vespucius to +restart with Pinzon, it is also supposable that the year 1499 itself may +have seen him under two different leaders. If this is the correct view, +it of course carries forward the date to a time later than the +discovery of the mainland by Columbus. It is nothing but plausible +conjecture, after all; but something of the nature of conjecture is +necessary to dissipate the confusion. The belief of this sharing of +service is the best working hypothesis yet devised upon the question. + +If Vespucius was thus with Pinzon, and this latter navigator did, as +Oviedo claims, precede Columbus to the mainland, there is no proof of it +to prevent a marked difference of opinion among all the writers, in that +some ignore the Florentine navigator entirely, and others confidently +construct the story of his discovery, which has in turn taken root and +been widely believed. + +[Sidenote: Alleged voyage of 1497.] + +A voyage of 1497 does not find mention in any of the contemporary +Portuguese chroniclers. This absence of reference is serious evidence +against it. It seems to be certain that within twenty years of their +publication, there were doubts raised of the veracity of the narratives +attributed to Vespucius, and Sebastian Cabot tells us in 1505 that he +does not believe them in respect to this one voyage at any rate, and Las +Casas is about as well convinced as Cabot was that the story was +unfounded. Las Casas's papers passed probably to Herrera, who, under the +influence of them, it would seem, formulated a distinct allegation that +Vespucius had falsified the dates, converting 1499 into 1497. To destroy +all the claims associated with Pinzon and Solis, Herrera carried their +voyage forward to 1506. It was in 1601 that this historian made these +points, and so far as he regulated the opinions of Europe for a century +and a half, including those of England as derived through Robertson, +Vespucius lived in the world's regard with a clouded reputation. The +attempt of Bandini in the middle of the last century to lift the shadow +was not very fortunate, but better success followed later, when Canovai +delivered an address which then and afterwards, when it was reinforced +by other publications of his, was something like a gage thrown to the +old-time defamatory spirit. This denunciatory view was vigorously +worked, with Navarrete's help, by Santarem in the _Coleccion_ of that +Spanish scholar, whence Irving in turn got his opinions. Santarem +professed to have made most extensive examinations of Portuguese and +French manuscripts without finding a trace of the Florentine. + +Undaunted by all such negative testimony, the Portuguese Varnhagen, as +early as 1839, began a series of publications aimed at rehabilitating +the fame of Vespucius, against the views of all the later writers, +Humboldt, Navarrete, Santarem, and the rest. Humboldt claimed to adduce +evidence to show that Vespucius was all the while in Europe. Varnhagen +finally brought himself to the belief that in this disputed voyage of +1497 Vespucius, acting under the orders of Vicente Yañez Pinzon and Juan +Diaz de Solis, really reached the main at Honduras, whence he followed +the curvatures of the coast northerly till he reached the capes of +Chesapeake. Thence he steered easterly, passed the Bermudas, and arrived +at Seville. If this is so, he circumnavigated the archipelago of the +Antilles, and disproved the continental connection of Cuba. Varnhagen +even goes so far as to maintain that Vespucius had not been deceived +into supposing the coast was that of Asia, but that he divined the +truth. Varnhagen stands, however, alone in this estimate of the +evidence. + +Valentini, in our day, has even supposed that the incomplete Cuba of the +Ruysch map of 1508 was really the Yucatan shore, which Vespucius had +skirted. + +The claim which some French zealots in maritime discovery have attempted +to sustain, of Norman adventurers being on the Brazil coast in 1497-98, +is hardly worth consideration. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: The English expedition under Cabot.] + +We turn now to other problems. The Bull of Demarcation was far from +being acceptable as an ultimate decision in England, and the spirit of +her people towards it is well shown in the _Westerne Planting_ of +Hakluyt. This chronicler mistrusts that its "certain secret +causes"--which words he had found in the papal bull, probably by using +an inaccurate version--were no other than "the feare and jelousie that +King Henry of England, with whom Bartholomew Columbus had been to deal +in this enterprise, and who even now was ready to send him into Spain to +call his brother Christopher to England, should put a foot into this +action;" and so the Pope, "fearing that either the King of Portugal +might be reconciled to Columbus, or that he might be drawn into England, +thought secretly by his unlawful division to defraud England and +Portugal of that benefit." So England and Portugal had something like a +common cause, and the record of how they worked that cause is told in +the stories of Cabot first, and of Cortereal later. We will examine at +this point the Cabot story only. + +[Sidenote: Newfoundland fisheries.] + +Bristol had long been the seat of the English commerce with Iceland, and +one of the commodities received in return for English goods was the +stockfish, which Cabot was to recognize on the Newfoundland banks. These +stories of the codfish noticed by Cabot recalled in the mind of Galvano +in 1555, and again more forcibly to Hakluyt a half century later, when +Germany was now found to be not far from the latitude of Baccalaos, that +there was a tale of some strange men, in the time of Frederick +Barbarossa (A. D. 1153), being driven to Lubec in a canoe. + +It is by no means beyond possibility that the Basque and other fishermen +of Europe may have already strayed to these fishing grounds of +Newfoundland, at some period anterior to this voyage of Cabot, and even +traces of their frequenting the coast in Bradore Bay have been pointed +out, but without convincing as yet the careful student. + +[Sidenote: John Cabot.] + +A Venetian named Zuan Caboto, settling in England, and thenceforward +calling himself John Cabot, being a man of experience in travel, and +having seen at one time at Mecca the caravans returning from the east, +was impressed, as Columbus had been, with a belief in the roundness of +the earth. It is not unlikely that this belief had taken for him a +compelling nature from the stories which had come to England of the +successful voyage of the Spaniards. Indeed, Ramusio distinctly tells us +that it was the bruit of Columbus's first voyage which gave to Cabot "a +great flame of desire to attempt some notable thing." + +[Sidenote: 1496. March 5. Cabot's patent.] + +[Sidenote: 1497. May. Cabot sails.] + +When Cabot had received for himself and his three sons--one of whom was +Sebastian Cabot--a patent (March 5, 1496) from Henry VII. to discover +and trade with unknown countries beyond the seas, the envoy of Ferdinand +and Isabella at the English court was promptly instructed to protest +against any infringement of the rights of Spain in the western regions. +Whether this protest was accountable for the delay in sailing, or not, +does not appear, for Cabot did not set sail from Bristol till May, +1497. + +[Sidenote: Ruysch with Cabot.] + +It is inferred from what Beneventanus says in his _Ptolemy_ of 1508 that +Ruysch, who gives us the earliest engraved map of Cabot's discoveries, +was a companion of Cabot in this initial voyage. When that editor says +that he learned from Ruysch of his experiences in sailing from the south +of England to a point in 53 degrees of north latitude, and thence due +west, it may be referred to such participancy in this expedition from +Bristol. We know from a conversation which is reported in +Ramusio--unless there is some mistake in it--that Cabot apprehended the +nature of what we call great circle sailing, and claimed that his course +to the northwest would open India by a shorter route than the westerly +run of Columbus. + +[Sidenote: 1497. June 24. Cabot sees land.] + +[Sidenote: Date of the voyage, 1494 or 1497?] + +When Cabot had ventured westerly 700 leagues, he found land, June 24, +1497. There has been some confidence at different times, early and late, +that the date of this first Cabot voyage was in reality three years +before this. The belief arose from the date of 1494 being given in what +seem to have been early copies of a map ascribed to Sebastian Cabot, +whence the date 1494 was copied by Hakluyt in 1589, though eleven years +later he changed it to 1497. It is sufficient to say that few of the +critics of our day, except D'Avezac, hold to this date of 1494. Major +supposes that the map of 1544, now in the Paris library and ascribed to +Cabot, was a re-drawn draft from the lost Spanish original, in which the +date in Roman letters, VII, may have been so carelessly made in joining +the arms of the V that it was read IIII; and some such inference was +apparently in the mind of Henry Stevens when he published his little +tract on Sebastian Cabot in 1870. + +The country which Cabot thus first saw was supposed by him to be a part +of Asia, and to be occupied, though no inhabitants were seen. + +[Sidenote: Cabot's landfall.] + +Cabot was for over three hundred years considered as having made his +landfall on the coast of Labrador, or at least we find no record that +the legend of the map of 1544, placing it at Cape Breton, had impressed +itself authoritatively upon the minds of Cabot's contemporaries and +successors. Biddle and Humboldt, in the early part of the present +century, accepted the Labrador landfall with little question. So it +happened that when, in 1843, the Cabot mappemonde of 1544 was +discovered, and it was found to place the landfall at the island of Cape +Breton, a certain definiteness, where there had been so much vagueness, +afforded the student some relief; but as the novelty of the sensation +wore off, confidence was again lost, inasmuch as the various +uncertainties of the document give much ground for the rejection of all +parts of its testimony at variance with better vouched beliefs. It is +quite possible that more satisfactory proofs can be adduced of another +region for the landfall, but none such have yet been presented to +scholars. + +It is commonly held now that, sighting land at Cape Breton, Cabot +coursed northerly, passed the present Prince Edward Island, and then +sailed out of the Strait of Belle Isle,--or at least this is as +reasonable a route to make out of the scant record as any, though there +is nothing like a commonly received opinion on his track. There is some +ground for thinking that he could not have entered the Gulf of St. +Lawrence at all. He landed nowhere and saw no inhabitants. If he struck +the mainland, it was probably the coasts of New Brunswick or Labrador +bordering on the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The two islands which he observed +on his right may have been headlands of Newfoundland, seeming to be +isolated. + +[Sidenote: 1497. August. Cabot returns.] + +He reached Bristol in August, having been absent about three months. +Raimondo de Soncino, under date of the 24th of that month, wrote to +Italy of Cabot's return, and a fortnight earlier (August 10) we find +record of a gratuity of ten pounds given to Cabot in recognition of this +service. It proved to be an expedition which was to create a greater +sensation of its kind than the English had before known. Bristol had +nurtured for some years a race of hardy seamen. They had risked the +dangers of the great unknown ocean in efforts to find the fabulous +island of Brazil, and they had pushed adventurously westward at times, +but always to return without success. The intercourse of England with +the northern nations and with Iceland may have given them tidings of +Greenland; but there is no reason to believe that they ever supposed +that country to be other than an extended peninsula of Europe, enfolding +the North Atlantic. + +[Sidenote: Cabot in England.] + +Cabot's telling of a new land, his supposing it the empire of the Great +Khan, his tales of the wonderful fishing ground thereabouts, where the +water was so dense with fish that his vessels were impeded, and his +expectation of finding the land of spices if he went southward from the +region of his landfall, were all stories calculated to incite wonder and +speculation. It was not strange, then, that England found she had her +new sea-hero, as Spain had hers in Columbus; that the king gave him +money and a pension; and that, conscious of a certain dignity, Cabot +went about the city, drawing the attention of the curious by reason of +the fine silks in which he arrayed himself. + +[Sidenote: Spain jealous of England.] + +Cabot had no sooner returned than Pedro de Ayala, the Spanish envoy in +London, again entered a protest, and gave notice to the English king +that the land which had been discovered belonged to his master. There is +some evidence that Spain kept close watch on the country at the north +through succeeding years, and even intended settlement. + +[Sidenote: Cabot in Seville?] + +This Spanish ambassador wrote home from London, July 25, 1498, that +after his first voyage, Cabot had been in Seville and Lisbon. This +renders somewhat probable the suspicion that he may have had conferences +with La Cosa and Columbus. + +[Sidenote: Cabot's charts.] + +That John Cabot, on returning from his first voyage, produced a chart +which he had made, and that on this and on a solid globe, also of his +construction, he had laid down what he considered to be the region he +had reached, now admit of no doubt. Foreign residents at the English +court reported such facts to the courts of Italy and of Spain. In the +map of La Cosa (1500), we find what is considered a reflex of this Cabot +chart, in the words running along a stretch of the northeast coast of +Asia, which announce the waters adjacent as those visited by the +English, and a neighboring headland as the Cape of the English. Even La +Cosa's use of the Cabot map was lost sight of before long, and this +record of La Cosa remained unknown till Humboldt discovered the map in +Paris, in 1832, in the library of Baron Walckenaer, whence it passed in +1853 into the royal museum at Madrid. The views of Cabot respecting this +region seem to have been soon obscured by the more current charts +showing the voyages of the Cortereals, when the Cape of the English +readily disappeared in the "Cabo de Portogesi," a forerunner, very +likely, of what we know to-day as Cape Race. + +[Sidenote: 1497-98. February. The second Cabot voyage.] + +Such an appetizing tale as that of the first Cabot expedition was not +likely to rest without a sequel. On the 3d of February, 1497-98, nearly +four months before Columbus sailed on his third voyage, the English king +granted a new patent to John Cabot, giving him the right to man six +ships if he could, and in May he was at sea. Though his sons were not +mentioned in the patent, it is supposed that Sebastian Cabot accompanied +his father. One vessel putting back to Ireland, five others went on, +carrying John Cabot westward somewhere and to oblivion, for we never +hear of him again. Stevens ventures the suggestion that John Cabot may +have died on the voyage of 1498, whereby Sebastian came into command, +and so into a prominence in his own recollections of the voyage, which +may account for the obscuration of his father's participancy in the +enterprise. One of the ships would seem to have been commanded by +Lanslot Thirkill, of London. + +What we know of this second voyage are mentions in later years, vague in +character, and apparently traceable to what Sebastian had said of it, +and not always clearly, for there is an evident commingling of events of +this and of the earlier voyage. We get what we know mainly from Peter +Martyr, who tells us that Cabot called the region Baccalaos, and from +Ramusio, who reports at second hand Sebastian's account, made forty +years after the event. From such indefinite sources we can make out that +the little fleet steered northwesterly, and got into water packed with +ice, and found itself in a latitude where there was little night. Thence +turning south they ran down to 36° north latitude. The crews landed here +and there, and saw people dressed in skins, who used copper implements. +When they reached England we do not know, but it was after October, +1498. + +[Sidenote: Extent of this voyage.] + +The question of this voyage having extended down the Atlantic seaboard +of the present United States to the region of Florida, as has been +urged, seems to be set at rest in Stevens's opinion, from the fact that, +had Cabot gone so far, he would scarcely have acquiesced in the claims +of Ponce de Leon, Ayllon, and Gomez to have first tracked parts of this +coast, when Sebastian Cabot as pilot major of Spain (1518), and as +president of the Congress of Badajoz (1524), had to adjudicate on such +pretensions. There are some objections to this view, in that the results +of _unofficial_ explorers as shown in the Portuguese map of Cantino--if +that proposition is tenable--and the rival English discoverers, of whom +Cabot had been one, might easily have been held to be beyond the Spanish +jurisdiction. It is not difficult to demonstrate in these matters the +Spanish constant unrecognition of other national explorations. + +It has also sometimes been held that the wild character of the coast +along which Cabot sailed must have convinced him that he was bordering +some continental region intervening between him and the true coast of +Asia; that with the "great displeasure" he had felt in finding the land +running north, Cabot, in fact, must have comprehended the geographical +problem of America long before it was comprehended by the Spaniards. The +testimony of the La Cosa and Ruysch maps is not favorable to such a +belief. + +[Sidenote: England rests her claim on it.] + +It seems pretty certain that the success of the Cabot voyage in any +worldly gain was not sufficient to move the English again for a long +period. Still, the political effect was to raise a claim for England to +a region not then known to be a new continent, but of an appreciable +acquisition, and England never afterwards failed to rest her rights upon +this claim of discovery; and even her successors, the American people, +have not been without cause to rest valuable privileges upon the same. +The geographical effect was seen in the earliest map which we possess of +the new lands as discovered by Spain and England, the great oxhide map +of Juan de la Cosa, the companion of Columbus on his second voyage, and +the cartographer of his discoveries, which has already been mentioned, +and of which a further description will be given later. + +[Sidenote: Scant knowledge of the Cabot voyages.] + +Why is it that we know no more of these voyages of the Cabots? There +seems to be some ground for the suspicion that the "maps and discourses" +which Sebastian Cabot left behind him in the hands of William +Worthington may have fallen, through the subornation by Spain of the +latter, into the hands of the rivals of England at a period just after +the publication (1582) of Hakluyt's _Divers Voyages_, wherein the +possession of them by Worthington was made known; at least, Biddle has +advanced such a theory, and it has some support in what may be +conjectured of the history of the famous Cabot map of 1544, only brought +to light three hundred years later. + +[Sidenote: The Cabot mappemonde.] + +Here was a map evidently based in part on such information as was known +in Spain. It was engraved, as seems likely, though purporting to be the +work of Cabot, in the Low Countries, and was issued without name of +publisher or place, as if to elude responsibility. Notwithstanding it +was an engraved map, implying many copies, it entirely disappeared, and +would not have been known to exist except that there are references to +such a map as having hung in the gallery at Whitehall, as used by +Ortelius before 1570, and as noted by Sanuto in 1588. So thorough a +suppression would seem to imply an effort on the part of the Spanish +authorities to prevent the world's profiting by the publication of +maritime knowledge which in some clandestine way had escaped from the +Spanish hydrographical office. That this suppression was in effect +nearly successful may be inferred from the fact that but a single copy +of the map has come down to us, the one now in the great library at +Paris, which was found in Germany by Von Martius in 1843. + +[Sidenote: Writers on Cabot.] + +There has been a good deal done of late years--beginning with Biddle's +_Sebastian Cabot_ in 1831, a noteworthy book, showing how much the +critical spirit can do to unravel confusion, and ending with the chapter +on Cabot by the late Dr. Charles Deane in the _Narrative and Critical +History of America_, and with the _Jean et Sébastien Cabot_ of Harrisse +(Paris, 1882)--to clear up the great obscurity regarding the two voyages +of John Cabot in 1497 and 1498, an obscurity so dense that for two +hundred years after the events there was no suspicion among writers that +there had been more than a single voyage. It would appear that this +obscurity had mainly arisen from the way in which Sebastian Cabot +himself spoke of his explorations, or rather from the way in which he is +reported to have spoken. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +THE THIRD VOYAGE. + +1498-1500. + + +[Sidenote: Sources. Columbus's letters and journal.] + +In following the events of the third voyage, we have to depend mainly on +two letters written by Columbus himself. One is addressed to the Spanish +monarchs, and is preserved in a copy made by Las Casas. What Peter +Martyr tells us seems to have been borrowed from this letter. The other +is addressed to the "nurse" of Prince Juan, of which there are copies in +the Columbus Custodia at Genoa, and in the Muñoz collection of the Royal +Academy of History at Madrid. They are both printed in Navarrete and +elsewhere, and Major in his _Select Letters of Columbus_ gives English +versions. + +There are also some evidences that the account of this voyage given in +the _Itinerarium Portugalensium_ was based on Columbus's journal, which +Las Casas is known to have had, and to have used in his _Historia_, +adding thereto some details which he got from a recital by Bernaldo de +Ibarra, one of Columbus's companions,--indeed, his secretary. The map +which accompanied these accounts by Columbus is lost. We only know its +existence through the use of it made by Ojeda and others. + +Las Casas interspersed among the details which he recorded from +Columbus's journal some particulars which he got from Alonso de Vallejo. +One of the pilots, Hernan Perez Matheos, enabled Oviedo to add still +something more to the other sources; and then we have additional light +from the mouths of various witnesses in the Columbus lawsuit. There is a +little at second hand, but of small importance, in a letter of Simon +Verde printed by Harrisse. + +[Sidenote: Columbus's son Diego.] + +Before setting sail, Columbus prepared some directions for his son +Diego, of which we have only recently had notes, such appearing in the +bulletin of the Italian Geographical Society for December, 1889. He +commands in these injunctions that Diego shall have an affectionate +regard for the mother of his half-brother Ferdinand, adds some rules for +the guidance of his bearing towards his sovereigns and his fellow-men, +and recommends him to resort to Father Gaspar Gorricio whenever he might +feel in need of advice. + +[Sidenote: 1498. May 30. Columbus sails.] + +[Sidenote: Rumors of a southern continent.] + +Columbus lifted anchor in the port of San Lucar de Barrameda on May 30, +1498. He was physically far from being in a good condition for so +adventurous an undertaking. He had hoped, he says to his sovereigns, "to +find repose in Spain; whereas on the contrary I have experienced nothing +but opposition and vexation." His six vessels stood off to the +southwest, to avoid a French--some say a Portuguese--fleet which was +said to be cruising near Cape St. Vincent. His plan was a definite one, +to keep in a southerly course till he reached the equatorial regions, +and then to proceed west. By this course, he hoped to strike in that +direction the continental mass of which he had intimation both from the +reports of the natives in Española and from the trend which he had found +in his last voyage the Cuban coast to have. Herrera tells us that the +Portuguese king professed to have some knowledge of a continent in this +direction, and we may connect it, if we choose, with the stories +respecting Behaim and others, who had already sailed thitherward, as +some reports go; but it is hard to comprehend that any belief of that +kind was other than a guess at a compensating scheme of geography beyond +the Atlantic, to correspond with the balance of Africa against Europe in +the eastern hemisphere. It is barely possible, though there is no +positive evidence of it, that the reports from England of the Cabot +discoveries at the north may have given a hint of like prolongation to +the south. But a more impelling instinct was the prevalent one of his +time, which accompanied what Michelet calls that terrible malady +breaking out in this age of Europe, the hunger and thirst for gold and +other precious things, and which associated the possession of them with +the warmer regions of the globe. + +"To the south," said Peter Martyr. "He who would find riches must avoid +the cold north!" + +[Sidenote: Jayme Ferrer.] + +Navarrete preserves a letter which was written to Columbus by Jayme +Ferrer, a lapidary of distinction. This jeweler confirmed the prevalent +notion, and said that in all his intercourse with distant marts, whence +Europe derived its gold and jewels, he had learned from their vendors +how such objects of commerce usually came in greatest abundance from +near the equator, while black races were those that predominated near +such sources. Therefore, as Ferrer told Columbus, steer south and find a +black race, if you would get at such opulent abundance. The Admiral +remembered he had heard in Española of blacks that had come from the +south to that island in the past, and he had taken to Spain some of the +metal which had been given to him as of the kind with which their +javelins had been pointed. The Spanish assayers had found it a +composition of gold, copper, and silver. + +[Sidenote: Columbus steers southerly.] + +[Sidenote: 1498. June 16. At Gomera.] + +So it was with expectations like these that Columbus now worked his way +south. He touched for wood and water at Porto Santo and Madeira, and +thence proceeded to Gomera. Here, on June 16, he found a French cruiser +with two Spanish prizes, but the three ships eluded his grasp and got to +sea. He sent three caravels in pursuit, and the Spanish prisoners rising +on the crew of one of the prizes, she was easily captured and brought +into port. + +[Sidenote: Sends three ships direct to Española.] + +The Spanish fleet sailed again on June 21. The Admiral had detailed +three of his ships to proceed direct to Española to find the new port on +its southern side near the mines of Hayna. Their respective captains +were to command the little squadron successively a week at a time. These +men were: Alonso Sanchez de Carvajal, a man of good reputation; Pedro de +Arona, a brother of Beatrix de Henriquez, who had borne Ferdinand to the +Admiral; and Juan Antonio Colombo, a Genoese and distant kinsman of the +Admiral. + +[Sidenote: Columbus at the Cape de Verde Islands.] + +Parting with these vessels off Ferro, Columbus, with the three +others,--one of which, the flagship, being decked, of a hundred tons +burthen, and requiring three fathoms of water,--steered for the Cape de +Verde Islands. His stay here was not inspiring. A depressing climate of +vapor and an arid landscape told upon his health and upon that of his +crew. Encountering difficulties in getting fresh provisions and cattle, +he sailed again on July 5, standing to the southwest. + +[Sidenote: 1498. July 15.] + +[Sidenote: Calms and torrid heats.] + +[Sidenote: 1498. July 31. Trinidad seen.] + +[Sidenote: August 1.] + +Calms and the currents among the islands baffled him, however, and it +was the 7th before the high peak of Del Fuego sank astern. By the 15th +of July he had reached the latitude of 5° north. He was now within the +verge of the equatorial calms. The air soon burned everything +distressingly; the rigging oozed with the running tar; the seams of the +vessels opened; provisions grew putrid, and the wine casks shrank and +leaked. The fiery ordeal called for all the constancy of the crew, and +the Admiral himself needed all the fortitude he could command to bear a +brave face amid the twinges of gout which were prostrating him. He +changed his course to see if he could not run out of the intolerable +heat, and after a tedious interval, with no cessation of the humid and +enervating air, the ships gradually drew into a fresher atmosphere. A +breeze rippled the water, and the sun shone the more refreshing for its +clearness. He now steered due west, hoping to find land before his water +and provisions failed. He did not discover land as soon as he expected, +and so bore away to the north, thinking to see some of the Carib +Islands. On July 31 relief came, none too soon, for their water was +nearly exhausted. A mariner, about midday, peering about from the +masthead, saw three peaks just rising above the horizon. The cry of land +was like a benison. The _Salve Regina_ was intoned in every part of the +ship. Columbus now headed the fleet for the land. As the ships went on +and the three peaks grew into a triple mountain, he gave the island the +name of Trinidad, a reminder in its peak of the Trinity, which he had +determined at the start to commemorate by bestowing that appellation on +the first land he saw. He coasted the shore of this island for some +distance before he could find a harbor to careen his ships and replenish +his water casks. On August 1 he anchored to get water, and was surprised +at the fresh luxuriance of the country. He could see habitations in the +interior, but nowhere along the shore were any signs of occupation. His +men, while filling the casks, discovered footprints and other traces of +human life, but those who made them kept out of sight. + +[Sidenote: First sees the South American coast.] + +He was now on the southern side of the island, and in that channel which +separates Trinidad from the low country about the mouths of the Orinoco. +Before long he could see the opposite coast stretching away for twenty +leagues, but he did not suspect it to be other than an island, which he +named La Isla Santa. + +It was indeed strange but not surprising that Columbus found an island +of a new continent, and supposed it the mainland of the Old World, as +happened during his earlier voyages; and equally striking it was that +now when he had actually seen the mainland of a new world he did not +know it. + +[Sidenote: 1498. August 2.] + +By the 2d of August the Admiral had approached that narrow channel where +the southwest corner of Trinidad comes nearest to the mainland, and here +he anchored. A large canoe, containing five and twenty Indians, put off +towards his ships, but finally its occupants lay upon their paddles a +bowshot away. Columbus describes them as comely in shape, naked but for +breech-cloths, and wearing variegated scarfs about their heads. They +were lighter in skin than any Indians he had seen before. This fact was +not very promising in view of the belief that precious products would be +found in a country inhabited by blacks. The men had bucklers, too, a +defense he had never seen before among these new tribes. He tried to +lure them on board by showing trinkets, and by improvising some music +and dances among his crew. The last expedient was evidently looked upon +as a challenge, and was met by a flight of arrows. Two crossbows were +discharged in return, and the canoe fled. The natives seemed to have +less fear of the smaller caravels, and approached near enough for the +captain of one of them to throw some presents to them, a cap, and a +mantle, and the like; but when the Indians saw that a boat was sent to +the Admiral's ship, they again fled. + +While here at anchor, the crew were permitted to go ashore and refresh +themselves. They found much delight in the cool air of the morning and +evening, coming after their experiences of the torrid suffocation of the +calm latitudes. Nature had appeared to them never so fresh. + +[Sidenote: The Gulf Stream.] + +[Sidenote: Boca del Sierpe.] + +[Sidenote: Gulf of Paria.] + +[Sidenote: Boca del Drago.] + +Columbus grew uneasy in his insecure anchorage, for he had discovered as +yet no roadstead. He saw the current flowing by with a strength that +alarmed him. The waters seemed to tumble in commotion as they were +jammed together in the narrow pass before him. It was his first +experience of that African current which, setting across the ocean, +plunges hereabouts into the Caribbean Sea, and, sweeping around the +great gulf, passes north in what we know as the Gulf Stream. Columbus +was as yet ignorant, too, of the great masses of water which the many +mouths of the Orinoco discharge along this shore; and when at night a +great roaring billow of water came across the channel,--very likely an +unusual volume of the river water poured out of a sudden,--and he found +his own ship lifting at her anchor and one of his caravels snapping her +cable, he felt himself in the face of new dangers, and of forces of +nature to which he was not accustomed. To a seaman's senses not used to +such phenomena, the situation of the ships was alarming. Before him was +the surging flow of the current through the narrow pass, which he had +already named the Mouth of the Serpent (Boca del Sierpe). To attempt its +passage was almost foolhardy. To return along the coast stemming such a +current seemed nearly impossible. He then sent his boats to examine the +pass, and they found more water than was supposed, and on the assurances +of the pilot, and the wind favoring, he headed his ships for the boiling +eddies, passed safely through, and soon reached the placid water beyond. +The shore of Trinidad stretched northerly, and he turned to follow it, +but somebody getting a taste of the water found it to be fresh. Here was +a new surprise. He had not yet comprehended that he was within a +land-locked gulf, where the rush of the Orinoco sweetens the tide +throughout. As he approached the northwestern limit of Trinidad, he +found that a lofty cape jutted out opposite a similar headland to the +west, and that between them lay a second surging channel, beset with +rocks and seeming to be more dangerous than the last. So he gave it a +more ferocious name, the Mouth of the Dragon (Boca del Drago). To follow +the opposite coast presented an alternative that did not require so much +risk, and, still ignorant of the way in which his fleet was embayed in +this marvelous water, he ran across on Sunday, August 5, to the opposite +shore. He now coasted it to find a better opening to the north, for he +had supposed this slender peninsula to be another island. The water grew +fresher as he went on. The shore attracted him, with its harbors and +salubrious, restful air, but he was anxious to get into the open sea. +He saw no inhabitants. The liveliest creatures which he observed were +the chattering monkeys. At length, the country becoming more level, he +ran into the mouth of a river and cast anchor. It was perhaps here that +the Spaniards first set foot on the continent. The accounts are somewhat +confused, and need some license in reconciling them. They had, possibly, +landed earlier. + +[Illustration: GULF OF PARIA.] + +[Sidenote: Paria.] + +A canoe with three natives now came out to the caravel nearest shore. +The Spanish captain secured the men by a clever trick. After a parley, +he gave them to understand he would go on shore in their boat, and +jumping violently on its gunwale, he overturned it. The occupants were +easily captured in the water. Being taken on board the flagship, the +inevitable hawks' bells captivated them, and they were set on shore to +delight their fellows. Other parleys and interchanges of gifts followed. +Columbus now ascertained, as well as he could by signs, that the word +"Paria," which he heard, was the name of the country. The Indians +pointed westerly, and indicated that men were much more numerous that +way. The Spaniards were struck with the tall stature of the men, and +noted the absence of braids in their hair. It was curious to see them +smell of everything that was new to them,--a piece of brass, for +instance. It seemed to be their sense of inquiry and recognition. It is +not certain if Columbus participated in this intercourse on shore. He +was suffering from a severe eruption of the eyes, and one of the +witnesses said that the formal taking possession of the country was done +by deputy on that account. This statement is contradicted by others. + +[Sidenote: The natives.] + +As he went on, the country became even more attractive, with its limpid +streams, its open and luxuriant woods, its clambering vines, all +enlivened with the flitting of brilliant birds. So he called the place +The Gardens. The natives appeared to him to partake of the excellence of +the country. They were, as he thought, manlier in bearing, shapelier in +frame, with greater intelligence in their eyes, than any he had earlier +discovered. Their arts were evidently superior to anything he had yet +seen. Their canoes were handier, lighter, and had covered pavilions in +the waist. There were strings of pearls upon the women which raised in +the Spaniards an increased sense of cupidity. The men found oysters +clinging to the boughs that drooped along the shore. Columbus recalled +how he had read in Pliny of the habit of the pearl oyster to open the +mouth to catch the dew, which was converted within into pearls. The +people were as hospitable as they were gracious, and gave the strangers +feasts as they passed from cabin to cabin. They pointed beyond the +hills, and signified that another coast lay there, where a greater store +of pearls could be found. + +[Sidenote: 1498. August 10.] + +To leave this paradise was necessary, and on August 10 the ships went +further on, soon to find the water growing still fresher and more +shallow. At last, thinking it dangerous to push his flagship into such +shoals, Columbus sent his lightest caravel ahead, and waited her coming +back. On the next day she returned, and reported that there was an inner +bay beyond the islands which were seen, into which large volumes of +fresh water poured, as if a huge continent were drained. Here were +conditions for examination under more favorable circumstances, and on +August 11 Columbus turned his prow toward the Dragon's Mouth. His +stewards declared the provisions growing bad, and even the large stores +intended for the colony were beginning to spoil. It was necessary to +reach his destination. Columbus's own health was sinking. His gout had +little cessation. His eyes had almost closed with a weariness that he +had before experienced on the Cuban cruise, and he could but think of +the way in which he had been taken prostrate into Isabella on returning +from that expedition. + +[Sidenote: Passes the Boca del Drago.] + +[Sidenote: Tobago and Grenada.] + +[Sidenote: Cubagua and Margarita.] + +Near the Dragon's Mouth he found a harbor in which to prepare for the +passage of the tumultuous strait. There seemed no escape from the trial. +The passage lay before him, wide enough in itself, but two islands +parted its currents and forced the boiling waters into narrower +confines. Columbus studied their motion, and finally made up his mind +that the turmoil of the waters might after all come from the meeting of +the tide and the fresh currents seeking the open sea, and not from rocks +or shoals. At all events, the passage must be made. The wind veering +round to the right quarter, he set sail and entered the boisterous +currents. As long as the wind lasted there was a good chance of keeping +his steering way. Unfortunately, the wind died away, and so he trusted +to luck and the sweeping currents. They carried him safely beyond. Once +without, he was brought within sight of two islands to the northeast. +They were apparently those we to-day call Tobago and Grenada. It was now +the 15th of August, and Columbus turned westward to track the coast. He +came to the islands of Cubagua and Margarita, and surprised some native +canoes fishing for pearls. + +[Sidenote: Pearls.] + +His crews soon got into parley with the natives, and breaking up some +Valentia ware into bits, the Spaniards bartered them so successfully +that they secured three pounds, as Columbus tells us, of the coveted +jewels. He had satisfied himself that here was a new field for the +wealth which could alone restore his credit in Spain; but he could not +tarry. As he wore ship, he left behind a mountainous reach of the coast +that stretched westerly, and he would fain think that India lay that +way, as it had from Cuba. At that island and here, he had touched, as he +thought, the confines of Asia, two protuberant peninsulas, or perhaps +masses of the continent, separated by a strait, which possibly lay ahead +of him. + +[Sidenote: Columbus's geographical delusions.] + +There was much that had been novel in all these experiences. Columbus +felt that the New World was throwing wider open the gates of its sublime +secrets. Lying on his couch, almost helpless from the cruel agonies of +the gout, and sightless from the malady of his eyes, the active mind of +the Admiral worked at the old problems anew. We know it all from the +letter which a few weeks later he drafted for the perusal of his +sovereigns, and from his reports to Peter Martyr, which that chronicler +has preserved for us. We know from this letter that his thoughts were +still dwelling on the Mount Sopora of Solomon, "which mountain your +Highnesses now possess in the island of Española,"--a convenient +stepping-stone to other credulous fancies, as we shall see. The +sweetness and volume of the water which had met him in the Gulf of Paria +were significant to him of a great watershed behind. He reverted to the +statement in Esdras of the vast preponderance on the globe of land, six +parts to one of water, and thought he saw a confirmation of it in the +immense flow that argued a corresponding expansion of land. He recalled +all that he recollected of Aristotle and the other sages. He went back +to his experiences in mid-ocean, when he was startled at the coincidence +of the needle and the pole star. He remembered how he had found all the +conditions of temperature and the other physical aspects to be changed +as he passed that line, and it seemed as if he was sweeping into regions +more ethereal. He had found the same difference when he passed, a few +weeks before, out of the baleful heats of the tropical calms. He grew to +think that this line of no variation of magnetism with corresponding +marvels of nature marked but the beginning of a new section of the earth +that no one had dreamed of. St. Augustine, St. Basil, and St. Ambrose +had placed the Garden of Eden far in the Old World's east, apart from +the common vicinage of men, high up above the baser parts of the earth, +in a region bathed in the purest ether, and so high that the deluge had +not reached it. All the stories of the Middle Ages, absorbed in the +speculative philosophy of his own time, had pointed to the distant east +as the seat of Paradise, and was he not now coming to it by the western +passage? If the scant riches of the soil could not restore the +enthusiasm which his earlier discoveries aroused in the dull spirits of +Europe, would not a glimpse of the ecstatic pleasures of Eden open their +eyes anew? He had endeavored to make his contemporaries feel that the +earth was round, and he had proved it, as he thought, by almost +touching, in a westward passage, the Golden Chersonesus. It is +significant that the later _Historie_ of 1571 omits this vagary of +Paradise. The world had moved, and geographical discovery had made some +records in the interim, awkward for the biographer of Columbus. + +[Illustration: PRE-COLUMBIAN MAPPEMONDE, PRESERVED AT RAVENNA, RESTORED +BY GRAVIER AFTER D'AVEZAC IN _BULLETIN DE LA SOCIÉTÉ NORMANDE_, 1888.] + +[Sidenote: Paradise found.] + +There was a newer belief linked with this hope of Paradise. All this +wondrous life and salubrity which Columbus saw and felt, if it had not +been able to restore his health, could only come from his progress up a +swelling apex of the earth, which buttressed the Garden of Eden. It was +clear to his mind that instead of being round the earth was pear-shaped, +and that this great eminence, up which he had been going, was constantly +lifting him into purer air. The great fountain which watered the +spacious garden of the early race had discharged its currents down these +ethereal slopes, and sweetened all this gulf that had held him so close +within its embaying girth. If such were the wonders of these outposts of +the celestial life, what must be the products to be seen as one +journeyed up, along the courses of such celestial streams? As he steered +for Española, he found the currents still helped him, or he imagined +they did. Was it not that he was slipping easily down this wonderful +declivity? + +[Sidenote: Columbus and Vespucius.] + +That he had again discovered the mainland he was convinced by such +speculations. He had no conception of the physical truth. The vagaries +of his time found in him the creature of their most rampant +hallucinations. This aberration was a potent cause in depriving him of +the chance to place his own name on this goal of his ambition. It +accounts much for the greater impression which Americus Vespucius, with +his clearer instincts, was soon to make on the expectant and learned +world. The voyage of that Florentine merchant, one of those trespassers +that Columbus complained of, was, before the Admiral should see Spain +again, to instigate the publication of a narrative, which took from its +true discoverer the rightful baptism of the world he had unwittingly +found. The wild imaginings of Columbus, gathered from every resource of +the superstitious past, moulded by him into beliefs that appealed but +little to the soberer intelligence of his time, made known in +tumultuous writings, and presently to be expressed with every symptom +of mental wandering in more elaborate treatises, offered to his time an +obvious contrast to the steadier head of Vespucius. The latter's far +more graphic description gained for him, as we shall see, the position +of a recognized authority. While Columbus was puzzling over the +aberration of the pole star and misshaping the earth, Vespucius was +comprehending the law of gravitation upon our floating sphere, and +ultimately representing it in the diagram which illustrated his +narrative. We shall need to return on a later page to these causes which +led to the naming of America. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: 1498. August 19. Columbus sees Española.] + +[Sidenote: His observations of nature.] + +[Sidenote: Meets the Adelantado.] + +For four days Columbus had sailed away to the northwest, coming to the +wind every night as a precaution, before he sighted Española on August +19, being then, as he made out, about fifty leagues west of the spot +where he supposed the port had been established for the mines of Hayna. +He thought that he had been steering nearer that point, but the currents +had probably carried him unconsciously west by night, as they were at +that moment doing with the relief ships that he had parted with off +Ferro. As Columbus speculated on this steady flow of waters with that +keenness of observation upon natural phenomena which attracted the +admiration of Humboldt, and which is really striking, if we separate it +from his turbulent fancies, he accounted by its attrition for the +predominating shape of the islands which he had seen, which had their +greatest length in the direction of the current. He knew that its force +would, perhaps, long delay him in his efforts to work eastward, and so +he opened communication with the shore in hopes to find a messenger by +whom to dispatch a letter to the Adelantado. This was easily done, and +the letter reached its destination, whereupon Bartholomew started out in +a caravel to meet the little fleet. It was with some misgiving that +Columbus resumed his course, for he had seen a crossbow in the hands of +a native. It was not an article of commerce, and it might signify +another disaster like that of La Navidad. He was accordingly relieved +when he shortly afterwards saw a Spanish caravel approaching, and, +hailing the vessel, found that the Adelantado had come to greet him. + +There was much interchange of news and thought to occupy the two in +their first conference; and Columbus's anxiety to know the condition of +the colony elicited a wearisome story, little calculated to make any +better record in Spain than the reports of his own rule in the island. + +[Sidenote: Events in Española during the absence of Columbus.] + +[Sidenote: Santo Domingo founded.] + +[Sidenote: Columbus and slavery.] + +The chief points of it were these: Bartholomew had early carried out the +Admiral's behests to occupy the Hayna country. He had built there a +fortress which he had named St. Cristoval, but the workmen, finding +particles of gold in the stones and sands which they used, had nicknamed +it the Golden Tower. While this was doing, there was difficulty in +supporting the workmen. Provisions were scarce, and the Indians were not +inclined to part with what they had. The Adelantado could go to the Vega +and exact the quarterly tribute under compulsion; but that hardly +sufficed to keep famine from the door at St. Cristoval. Nothing had as +yet been done to plant the ground near the fort, nor had herds been +moved there. The settlement of Isabella was too far away for support. +Meanwhile Niño had arrived with his caravels, but he had not brought all +the expected help, for the passage had spoiled much of the lading. It +was by Niño that Bartholomew received that dispatch from his brother +which he had written in the harbor of Cadiz when, on his arrival from +his second voyage, he had discerned the condition of public opinion. It +was at this time, too, that he repeated to Bartholomew the decision of +the theologians, that to be taken in war, or to be guilty of slaying any +of their Majesties' liege subjects, was quite enough to render the +Indians fit subjects for the slave-block. The Admiral's directions, +therefore, were to be sure that this test kept up the supply of slaves; +and as there was nobody to dispute the judgment of his deputy, Niño had +taken back to Spain those three hundred, which were, as we have seen, so +readily converted into reputed gold on his arrival. + +[Sidenote: Santo Domingo named.] + +Bartholomew had selected the site for a new town near the mouth of the +Ozema, convenient for the shipment of the Hayna treasure, and, naming it +at first the New Isabella, it soon received the more permanent +appellation of Santo Domingo, which it still bears. + +[Sidenote: Xaragua conquered.] + +[Sidenote: Behechio and Anacaona.] + +Bartholomew had a pleasing story to tell of the way in which he had +brought Behechio and his province of Xaragua into subjection. This +territory was the region westward from about the point where Columbus +had touched the island a few days before. Anacaona, the wife of +Caonabo,--now indeed his widow,--had taken refuge with Behechio, her +brother, after the fall of her husband. She is represented as a woman of +fine appearance, and more delicate and susceptible in her thoughts than +was usual among her people; and perhaps Bartholomew told his brother +what has since been surmised by Spanish writers, that she had managed to +get word to him of her friendly sentiments for celestial visitors. +Bartholomew found, as he was marching thither with such forces as he +could spare for the expedition, that the cacique who met him in battle +array was easily disposed, for some reason or other, perhaps through +Anacaona's influence, to dismiss his armed warriors, and to escort his +visitor through his country with great parade of hospitality. When they +reached the cacique's chief town, a sort of fête was prepared in the +Adelantado's honor, and a mock battle, not without sacrifice of life, +was fought for his delectation. Peter Martyr tells us that when the +comely young Indian maidens advanced with their palm branches and +saluted the Adelantado, it seemed as if the beautiful dryads of the +olden tales had slipped out of the vernal woods. Then Anacaona appeared +on a litter, with no apparel but garlands, the most beautiful dryad of +them all. Everybody feasted, and Bartholomew, to ingratiate himself with +his host, eat and praised their rarest delicacy, the guana lizard, which +had been offered to them many times before, but which they never as yet +had tasted. It became after this a fashion with the Spaniards to dote on +lizard flesh. Everything within the next two or three days served to +cement this new friendship, when the Adelantado put it to a test, as +indeed had been his purpose from the beginning. He told the cacique of +the great power of his master and of the Spanish sovereigns; of their +gracious regard for all their distant subjects, and of the poor +recompense of a tribute which was expected for their protection. "Gold!" +exclaimed the cacique, "we have no gold here." "Oh, whatever you have, +cotton, hemp, cassava bread,--anything will be acceptable." So the +details were arranged. The cacique was gratified at being let off so +easy, and the Spaniards went their way. + +[Sidenote: Native conspiracy.] + +This and the subsequent visit of Bartholomew to Xaragua to receive the +tribute were about the only cheery incidents in the dreary retrospect to +which the Admiral listened. The rest was trouble and despair. A line of +military posts had been built connecting the two Spanish settlements, +and the manning of them, with their dependent villages, enabled the +Adelantado to scatter a part of the too numerous colony at Isabella, so +that it might be relieved of so many mouths to feed. This done, there +was a conspiracy of the natives to be crushed. Two of the priests had +made some converts in the Vega, and had built a chapel for the use of +the neophytes. One of the Spaniards had outraged a wife of the cacique. +Either for this cause, or for the audacious propagandism of the priests, +some natives broke into the Spanish chapel, destroyed its shrine, and +buried some of its holy vessels in a field. Plants grew up there in the +form of a cross, say the veracious narrators. This, nevertheless, did +not satisfy the Spaniards. They seized such Indians as they considered +to have been engaged in the desecration, and gave them the fire and +fagots, as they would have done to Moor or Jew. The horrible punishment +aroused the cacique Guarionex with a new fury. He leagued the +neighboring caciques into a conspiracy. Their combined forces were +threatening Fort Conception when the Adelantado arrived with succor. By +an adroit movement, Bartholomew ensnared by night every one of the +leaders in their villages, and executed two of them. The others he +ostentatiously pardoned, and he could tell Columbus of the great renown +he got for his clemency. + +[Sidenote: Roldan's revolt.] + +There was nothing in all the bad tidings which Bartholomew had to +rehearse quite so disheartening as the revolt of Roldan, the chief judge +of the island,--a man who had been lifted from obscurity to a position +of such importance that Columbus had placed the administration of +justice in his hands. The reports of the unpopularity of Columbus in +Spain, and the growing antipathy in Isabella to the rule of Bartholomew +as a foreigner, had served to consolidate the growing number of the +discontented, and Roldan saw the opportunity of easily raising himself +in the popular estimate by organizing the latent spirit of rebellion. It +was even planned to assassinate the Adelantado, under cover of a tumult, +which was to be raised at an execution ordered by him; but as the +Adelantado had pardoned the offender, the occasion slipped by. +Bartholomew's absence in Xaragua gave another opportunity. He had sent +back from that country a caravel loaded with cotton, as a tribute, and +Diego, then in command at Isabella, after unlading the vessel, drew her +up on the beach. The story was busily circulated that this act was done +simply to prevent any one seizing the ship and carrying to Spain +intelligence of the misery to which the rule of the Columbuses was +subjecting the people. The populace made an issue on that act, and asked +that the vessel be sent to Cadiz for supplies. Diego objected, and to +divert the minds of the rebellious, as well as to remove Roldan from +their counsels, he sent him with a force into the Vega, to overawe some +caciques who had been dilatory in their tribute. This mission, however, +only helped Roldan to consolidate his faction, and gave him the chance +to encourage the caciques to join resistance. + +[Sidenote: The mutineers in the Vega Real.] + +[Sidenote: At Isabella.] + +Roldan had seventy well-armed men in his party when he returned to +Isabella to confront Bartholomew, who had by this time got back from +Xaragua. The Adelantado was not so easily frightened as Roldan had +hoped, and finding it not safe to risk an open revolt, this mutinous +leader withdrew to the Vega with the expectation of surprising Fort +Conception. That post, however, as well as an outlying fortified house, +was under loyal command, and Roldan was for a while thwarted. +Bartholomew was not at all sure of any of the principal Spaniards, but +how far the disaffection had gone he was unable to determine. Although +he knew that certain leading men were friendly to Roldan, he was not +prepared to be passive. His safety depended on resolution, and so he +marched at once to the Vega. Roldan was in the neighborhood, and was +invited to a parley. It led to nothing. The mutineers, making up their +minds to fly to the delightful pleasures of Xaragua, suddenly marched +back to Isabella, plundered the arsenal and storehouses, and tried to +launch the caravel. The vessel was too firmly imbedded to move, and +Roldan was forced to undertake the journey to Xaragua by land. To leave +the Adelantado behind was a sure way to bring an enemy in his rear, and +he accordingly thought it safer to reduce the garrison at Conception, +and perhaps capture the Adelantado. + +[Sidenote: Coronel arrives.] + +This movement failed; but it resulted in Roldan's ingratiating himself +with the tributary caciques, and intercepting the garrison's supplies. +It was at this juncture, when everything looked desperate for +Bartholomew, shut up in the Vega fort, that news reached him of the +arrival (February 3, 1498) at the new port of Santo Domingo of the +advance section of the Admiral's fleet, sent thither, as we have seen, +by the Queen's assiduity, under the command of Pedro Fernandez Coronel. + +Bartholomew could tell the Admiral of the good effect which the +intelligence received through Coronel had on the colony. His own title +of Adelantado, it was learned, was legitimated by the act of the +sovereigns; and Columbus himself had been powerful enough to secure +confirmation of his old honors, and to obtain new pledges for the +future. The mutineers soon saw that the aspects of their revolt were +changed. They could not, it would seem, place that dependence on the +unpopularity of the Admiral at Court which had been a good part of their +encouragement. + +[Sidenote: Bartholomew's new honors.] + +Proceeding to Santo Domingo, Bartholomew proclaimed his new honors, and, +anxious to pacificate the island before the arrival of Columbus, he +dispatched Coronel to communicate with Roldan, who had sulkily followed +the Adelantado in his march from the Vega. Roldan refused all +intercourse, and, shielding himself behind a pass in the mountains, he +warned off the pacificator. He would yield to no one but the Admiral. + +[Sidenote: The rebels go to Xaragua.] + +There was nothing for the Adelantado to do but to outlaw the rebels, +who, in turn, sped away to what Irving calls the "soft witcheries" of +the Xaragua dryads. The archrebel was thus well out of the way for a +time; but his influence still worked among the Indians of the Vega, and +Bartholomew had not long left Conception before the garrison was made +aware of a native conspiracy to surprise it. + +[Sidenote: Guarionex's revolt.] + +Word was sent to Santo Domingo, and the Adelantado was promptly on the +march for relief. Guarionex, who had headed the revolt again, fled to +the mountains of Ciguay, where a mountain cacique, Mayobanex, the same +who had conducted the attack on the Spaniards at the Gulf of Samana +during the first voyage, received the fugitive chief of the valley. + +It was into these mountain fastnesses that the Adelantado now pursued +the fugitives, with a force of ninety foot, a few horse, and some +auxiliary Indians. He boldly thridded the defiles, and crossed the +streams, under the showers of lances and arrows. As the native hordes +fled before him, he fired their villages in the hope of forcing the +Ciguayans to surrender their guest; but the mountain leaders could not +be prevailed upon to wrong the rights of hospitality. When no longer +able to resist in arms, Mayobanex and Guarionex fled to the hills. + +The Adelantado now sent all of his men back to the Vega to look after +the crops, except about thirty, and with these he scoured the region. He +would not have had success by mere persistency, but he got it by +artifice and treachery. Both Mayobanex and Guarionex were betrayed in +their hiding-places and captured. Clemency was shown to their families +and adherents, and they were released; but both caciques remained in +their bonds as hostages for the maintenance of the quiet which was now +at last in some measure secured. + +[Sidenote: 1498. August 30. Columbus arrives.] + +Such was the condition of affairs when Columbus arrived and heard the +story of these two troubled years and more during which he had been +absent. + + * * * * * + +It was the 30th of August when Columbus and his brother landed at Santo +Domingo. There had not been much to encourage the Admiral in this story +of the antecedent events. No portrayal of riot, dissolution, rapine, +intrigue, and idleness could surpass what he saw and heard of the +bedraggled and impoverished settlement at Isabella. The stores which he +had brought would be helpful in restoring confidence and health; but it +was a source of anxiety to him that nothing had been heard of the three +caravels from which he had parted off Ferro. + +[Sidenote: Roldan and the belated ships.] + +These vessels appeared not long afterwards, bringing a new perplexity. +Forced by currents which their crews did not understand, they had been +carried westerly, and had wandered about in the unknown seas in search +of Española. A few days before reaching Santo Domingo, the ships had +anchored off the territory of Behechio, where Roldan and his followers +already were. The mutineers observed the approach of the caravels, not +quite sure of their character, thinking possibly that they had been +dispatched against their band; but Roldan boldly went on board, and, +ascertaining their condition, he had the address to represent that he +was stationed in that region to collect the tribute, and was in need of +stores, arms, and munitions. The commander of the vessel at once sent on +shore what he demanded; and while this was going on, Roldan's men +ingratiated themselves with the company on board the caravels, and +readily enlisted a part of them in the revolt. The new-comers, being +some of the emancipated convicts which Columbus had so unwisely +registered among his crews, were not difficult to entice to a life of +pleasure. By the time Roldan had secured his supplies and was ready to +announce his true character, it was not certain how far the captains of +the vessels could trust their crews. The chief of these commanders +undertook, when the worst was known, to bring the revolters back to +their loyalty; but he argued in vain. The wind being easterly, and to +work up against it to Santo Domingo being a slow process, it was decided +that one of the captains, Colombo, should conduct about forty armed men +by land to the new town. When he landed them, the insidious work of the +mutineers became apparent. Only eight of his party stood to his command, +and over forty marched over to the rebels, each with his arms. The +overland march was necessarily given up, and the three caravels, to +prevent further desertions, hoisted sail and departed. Carvajal remained +behind to urge Roldan to duty; but the most he could do was to exact a +promise that he would submit to the Admiral if pardoned, but not to the +Adelantado. + +[Sidenote: 1498. September 12.] + +The report which Carvajal made to Columbus, when shortly afterwards he +joined his companions in Santo Domingo, coming by land, was not very +assuring. Columbus was too conscious of the prevalence of discontent, +and he had been made painfully aware of the uncertainty of convict +loyalty. He then made up his mind that all such men were a menace, and +that they were best got rid of. Accordingly he announced that five ships +were ready to sail for Spain and would take any who should desire to go, +and that the passage would be free. + +[Sidenote: Roldan and Ballester.] + +[Sidenote: 1498. October 18. The ships sail for Spain.] + +Learning from Carvajal that Roldan was likely soon to lead his men near +Fort Conception, Columbus notified Miguel Ballester, its commander, to +be on his guard. He also directed him to seek an interview with the +rebel leader, in order to lure him back to duty by offer of pardon from +the Admiral. As soon as Ballester heard of Roldan's arrival in the +neighborhood, he went out to meet him. Roldan, however, was in no mood +to succumb. His force had grown, and some of the leading Spaniards had +been drawn towards him. So he defied the Admiral in his speeches, and +sent him word that if he had any further communications to make to him +they should be sent by Carvajal, for he would treat with no other. +Columbus, on receiving this message, and not knowing how far the +conspiracy had extended among those about him, ordered out the military +force of the settlement. There were not more than seventy men to +respond; nor did he feel much confidence in half of these. There being +little chance of any turn of affairs for the better with which he could +regale the sovereigns, Columbus ordered the waiting ships to sail, and +on October 18 they put to sea. + +[Sidenote: Columbus and slavery.] + +The ships carried two letters which Columbus had written to the +monarchs. In the one he spoke of his new discoveries, and of the views +which had developed in his mind from the new phenomena, as has already +been represented, and promised that the Adelantado should soon be +dispatched with three caravels to make further explorations. In the +other he repeated the story of events since he had landed at Santo +Domingo. He urged that Roldan might be recalled to Spain for +examination, or that he might be committed to the custody of Carvajal +and Ballester to determine the foundation of his grievances. At the same +time he requested that a further license be given, to last two years, +for the capture and transmission of slaves. It was not unlikely that the +case of Roldan and his abettors was represented with equal confidence in +other letters, for there were many hands among the passengers to which +they could be confided. + +[Sidenote: Columbus seeks to quiet the colony.] + +[Sidenote: 1498. October 20.] + +The ships gone, the Admiral gave himself to the difficult task of +pacificating the colony. The vigorous rule of the Adelantado had made +enemies who were to be propitiated, though Las Casas tells us that the +rule had been strict no farther than that it had been necessarily +imperative in emergencies. Columbus wrote on October 20 an expostulatory +letter to Roldan. To send it by Carvajal, as was necessary, if Roldan +was to receive it, would be to intrust negotiations to a person who was +already committed in some sort to the rebel's plan, or at least some of +the Admiral's leading councilors believed such to be the case, +apparently too hastily. Columbus did not share that distrust, and +Carvajal was sent. This letter crossed one from the leading rebels, in +which they demanded from Columbus release from his service, and +expressed their determination to maintain independence. + +[Sidenote: Conferences with Roldan.] + +[Sidenote: 1498. November 6. Roldan's terms.] + +When Carvajal reached Bonao, where the rebels were gathered,--and +Ballester had accompanied him,--their joint persuasions had some effect +on Roldan and others, principal rebels; but the followers, as a mass, +objected to the leaders entering into any conference except under a +written guaranty of safety for them and those that should accompany +them. This message was accordingly returned to Columbus, and Ballester +at the same time wrote to him that the revolt was fast making head; that +the garrisons were disaffected, and losing by desertion; and that the +common people could not be trusted to stand by the Admiral if it came to +war. He advised, therefore, a speedy reconciliation or agreement of some +sort. The guaranty was sent, and Roldan soon presented himself to the +Admiral. The demands of the rebel and the prerogatives of the Admiral +were, it proved, too widely apart for any accommodation. So Roldan, +having possessed himself of the state of feeling in Santo Domingo, +returned to his followers, promising to submit definite terms in +writing. These were sent under date of November 6, 1498, with a demand +for an answer before the 11th. The terms were inadmissible. To disarm +charges of exaction, Columbus made public proclamation of a readiness to +grant pardon to all who should return to allegiance within thirty days, +and to such he would give free transportation to Spain. Carvajal carried +this paper to Roldan, and was accompanied by Columbus's major-domo, +Diego de Salamanca, in the hopes that the two might yet arrange some +terms, mutually acceptable. + +[Illustration: ESPAÑOLA, RAMUSIO, 1555.] + +[Sidenote: Columbus agrees to them.] + +The messenger found Roldan advanced from Bonao, and besieging Ballester +in Conception. The revolt had gone too far, apparently, to be stayed, +but the persuasion of the mediators at last prevailed, and terms were +arranged. These provided full pardon and certificates of good conduct; +free passage from Xaragua, to which point two caravels should be sent; +the full complement of slaves which other returning colonists had; +liberty for such as had them to take their native wives, and restoration +of sequestered property. Roldan and his companions signed this agreement +on November 16, and agreed to wait eight days for the signature of the +Admiral. Columbus signed it on the 21st, and further granted +indulgences of one kind or another to such as chose to remain in +Española. + +[Sidenote: Delays in carrying out the agreement.] + +[Sidenote: New agreement.] + +[Sidenote: Signed September 28, 1499.] + +Under the agreement, the ships were to be ready in fifty days, but +Columbus, in the disorganized state of the colony, found it impossible +to avoid delays, and his self-congratulations that he had got rid of the +turbulent horde were far from warranted. While under this impression, +and absent with the Adelantado, inspecting the posts throughout the +island, and deciding how best he could restore the regularities of life +and business, the arrangements which he had made for carrying out the +agreement with Roldan had sorely miscarried. Nearly double the time +assigned to the preparation of the caravels had elapsed, when the +vessels at last left Santo Domingo for Xaragua. A storm disabling one of +them, there were still further delays; and when all were ready, the +procrastination in their outfit offered new grounds for dispute, and it +was found necessary to revise the agreement. Carvajal was still the +mediator. Roldan met the Admiral on a caravel, which had sailed toward +Xaragua. The terms which Roldan now proposed were that he should be +permitted to send some of his friends, fifteen in number, if he desired +so many, to Spain; that those who remained should have grants of land; +that proclamation should be made of the baseless character of the +charges against him and his accomplices; and that he himself should be +restored to his office of Alcalde Mayor. Columbus, who had received a +letter from Fonseca in the meanwhile, showing that there was little +chance of relief from Spain, saw the hopelessness of his situation, and +sufficiently humbled himself to accept the terms. When they were +submitted to the body of the mutineers, this assembly added another +clause giving them the right to enforce the agreement by compulsion in +case the Admiral failed to carry it out. This, also, was agreed to in +despair; while the Admiral endeavored to relieve the mortification of +the act by inserting a clause enforcing obedience to the commands of the +sovereigns, of himself, and of his regularly appointed justices. This +agreement was ratified at Santo Domingo, September 28, 1499. + +[Sidenote: Roldan reinstated.] + +[Sidenote: Repartimientos.] + +[Sidenote: Columbus and slavery.] + +It was not a pleasant task for Columbus to brook the presence of Roldan +and his victorious faction in Santo Domingo. The reinstated alcalde had +no occasion to be very complaisant after he had seen the Admiral cringe +before him. Columbus endeavored, in making the grants of lands, to +separate the restored rebels as much as he could, in order to avoid the +risks of other mutinous combinations. He agreed with the caciques that +they should be relieved from the ordinary tribute of treasure if they +would furnish these new grantees with laborers for their farms. Thus at +the hands of Columbus arose the beginning of that system of +_repartimientos_, with all its miseries for the poor natives, which +ended in their extermination. The apologists of Columbus consider that +the exigencies of his situation forced him into these fiendish +enactments, and that he is not to be held responsible for them as of his +free will. They forget the expressions of his first letter to Santangel, +which prefigured all the misery which fell upon myriads of these poor +creatures. The record, unfortunately, shows that it was Columbus who +invariably led opinion in all these oppressions, and not he who followed +it. His artfulness never sprang to a new device so exultingly as when it +was a method of increasing the revenue at the cost of the natives. When +we read, in the letter written to his sovereigns during this absence, of +his always impressing on the natives, in his intercourse with them, "the +courtesy and nobleness of all Christians," we shudder at the hollowness +of the profession. + +[Sidenote: Roldan's demands.] + +The personal demands of Roldan under the capitulation were also to be +met. They included restoration of lands which he called his own, new +lands to be granted, the stocking of them from the public herds; and +Columbus met them, at least, until the grants should be confirmed at +Court. This was not all. Roldan visited Bonao, and made one of his late +lieutenants an assistant alcalde,--an assumption of the power of +appointment at which Columbus was offended, as some tell us; but if the +_Historie_ is to be depended on, the appointment invited no unfavorable +comment from Columbus. When it was found that this new officer was +building a structure ostensibly for farm purposes, but of a character +more like a fortress, suitable for some new mutiny to rally in, Columbus +at last rose on his dignity and forbade it. + +[Sidenote: 1499. October. Caravels sent to Spain.] + +[Sidenote: Columbus sends Ballester to support his cause in Spain.] + +In October, 1499, the Admiral dispatched two caravels to Spain. It did +not seem safe for him to embark in them, though he felt his presence was +needed at Court to counteract the mischief of his enemies and Roldan's +friends. Some of the latter went in the ships. The most he could do was +to trust his cause to Miguel Ballester and Garcia de Barrantes, who +embarked as his representatives. They bore his letters to the monarchs. +In these he enumerated the compulsions under which he had signed the +capitulation with Roldan, and begged their Majesties to treat it as +given under coercion, and to bring the rebels to trial. He then +mentioned what other assistants he needed in governing the colony, such +as a learned judge and some discreet councilors. He ended with asking +that his son, Diego, might be spared from Court to assist him. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: Royal infringements of Columbus's privileges.] + +[Sidenote: 1499. Ojeda's voyage.] + +While Columbus was making these requests, he was ignorant of the way in +which the Spanish Court had already made serious trespasses upon his +prerogatives as Admiral of the Indies. He had said in his letter to the +sovereigns, "Your Majesties will determine on what is to be done," in +consequence of these new discoveries at Paria. He was soon to become +painfully conscious of what was done. The real hero of Columbus's second +voyage, Alonso de Ojeda, comes again on the scene. He was in Spain when +the accounts which Columbus had transmitted to Court of his discoveries +about the Gulf of Paria reached Seville. Such glowing descriptions fired +his ambition, and learning from Columbus's other letters and from the +reports by those who had returned of the critical condition of affairs +in Española, he anticipated the truth when he supposed that the Admiral +could not so smother the disquiet of his colony as to venture to leave +it for further explorations. He saw, too, the maps which Columbus had +sent back and the pearls which he had gathered. He acknowledged all this +in a deposition taken at Santo Domingo in 1513. So he proposed to +Fonseca that he might be allowed to undertake a private voyage, and +profit, for himself and for the Crown, by the resources of the country, +inasmuch as it must be a long time before Columbus himself could do so. +Fonseca readily commended the plan and gave him a license, stipulating +that he should avoid any Portuguese possession and any lands that +Columbus had discovered before 1495. It was the purpose, by giving this +date, to throw open the Paria region. + +[Sidenote: Vespucius with Ojeda.] + +[Sidenote: Juan de la Cosa.] + +[Sidenote: 1499. May 20. Ojeda sails.] + +[Sidenote: At Venezuela.] + +The ships were fitted out at Seville in the early part of 1499, and some +men, famous in these years, made part of the company which sailed on +them. There was Americus Vespucius, who was seemingly now for the first +time to embark for the New World, since it is likely that out of this +very expedition the alleged voyage of his in 1497 has been made to +appear by some perversion of chronology. There was Juan de la Cosa, a +famous hydrographer, who was the companion of Columbus in his second +Cuban cruise. Irving says that he was with Columbus in his first voyage; +but it is thought that it was another of the same name who appears in +the registers of that expedition. Several of those who had returned from +Española after the Paria cruise of Columbus were also enlisted, and +among them Bartholomew Roldan, the pilot of that earlier fleet. The +expedition of Ojeda sailed May 20, 1499. They made land 200 leagues east +of the Orinoco, and then, guided by Columbus's charts, the ships +followed his track through the Serpent's and the Dragon's Mouths. Thence +passing Margarita, they sailed on towards the mountains which Columbus +had seen, and finally entered a gulf, where they saw some pile dwellings +of the natives. They accordingly named the basin Venezuela, in reference +to the great sea-built city of the Adriatic. It is noteworthy that +Ojeda, in reporting to their Majesties an account of this voyage, says +that he met in this neighborhood some English vessels, an expedition +which may have been instigated by Cabot's success. It is to be observed, +at the same time, that this is the only authority which we have for such +an early visit of the English to this vicinity, and the statement is not +credited by Biddle, Helps, and other recent writers. Ojeda turned +eastward not long after, having run short of provisions. He then +approached the prohibited Española, and hoped to elude notice while +foraging at its western end. + +[Sidenote: 1499. September 5. Ojeda touches at Española.] + +It was while here that Ojeda's caravels were seen and tidings of their +presence were transmitted to Santo Domingo. Ignorance of what he had to +deal with in these intruders was one of the reasons which made it out of +the question for Columbus to return to Spain in the ships which he had +dispatched in October. Ojeda had appeared on the coast on September 5, +1499, and as succeeding reports came to Columbus, it was divulged that +Ojeda was in command, and that he was cutting dyewoods thereabouts. + +[Sidenote: Columbus sends Roldan to warn Ojeda off.] + +Now was the time to heal the dissensions of Roldan, and to give him a +chance to recover his reputation. So the Admiral selected his late +bitter enemy to manage the expedition which he thought it necessary to +dispatch to the spot. Roldan sailed in command of two caravels on +September 29, and, approaching unobserved the place where Ojeda's ships +were at anchor, he landed with twenty-five men, and sent out scouts. +They soon reported that Ojeda was some distance away from his ships at +an Indian village, making cassava bread. Ojeda heard of the approach, +but not in time to prevent Roldan getting between him and his ships. The +intruder met him boldly, said he was on an exploring expedition, and had +put in for supplies, and that if Roldan would come on board his ships, +he would show his license signed by Fonseca. When Roldan went on board, +he saw the document. He also learned from those he talked with in the +ships--and there were among them some whom he knew, and some who had +been in Española--that the Admiral's name was in disgrace at Court, and +there was imminent danger of his being deprived of his command at +Española. Moreover, the Queen, who had befriended him against all +others, was ill beyond recovery. Ojeda promising to sail round to Santo +Domingo and explain his conduct to the Admiral, Roldan left him, and +carried back the intelligence to Columbus. + +The Viceroy waited patiently for Ojeda's vessels to appear, and to hear +the explanation of what he deemed a flagrant violation of his rights. +Ojeda, having got rid of Roldan, had accomplished all that he intended +by the promise. When he set sail, it was to pass round the coast +easterly to the shore of Xaragua, where he anchored, and opened +communication with the Spanish settlers, remnants of Roldan's party, who +had not been quite satisfied to find their reinstated leader acting as +an emissary of Columbus. Ojeda, with impetuous sympathy, listened to +their complaints, and had agreed to be their leader in marching to Santo +Domingo to demand some redresses, when Roldan, sent by Columbus to watch +him, once more appeared. Ojeda declined a conference, and kept on his +ship. + +[Sidenote: 1500. June. Ojeda reaches Cadiz.] + +Roldan had harbored a deserter from one of Ojeda's fleet, and as he +refusedto give him up, Ojeda watched his opportunity and seized two of +Roldan's men to hold as hostages. So the two wary adventurers watched +each other for an advantage. After a while, Ojeda, in his ships, stood +down the coast. Roldan followed along the shore. Coming up to where the +ships were anchored, Roldan induced Ojeda to send a boat ashore, when, +by an artifice, he captured the boat and its crew. This game of +stratagems ended with an agreement on Ojeda's part to leave the island, +while Roldan restored the captive boat. The prisoners were exchanged. +Ojeda bore off shore, and though Roldan heard of his landing again at a +distant point, he was gone when the pursuers reached the spot. Las Casas +says that Ojeda made for some islands, where he completed his lading of +slaves, and set sail for Spain, arriving at Cadiz in June, 1500. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: Niño's voyage to the pearl coast.] + +[Sidenote: Guerra aids him.] + +While Columbus was congratulating himself on being well rid of this +dangerous visitor, he was not at all aware of the uncontrollable +eagerness which the joyous reports of pearls had engendered in the +adventurous spirits of the Spanish seaports. Among such impatient +sailors was the pilot, Pedro Alonso Niño, who had accompanied Columbus +on his first voyage, and had also but recently returned from the Paria +coast, having been likewise with the Admiral on his third voyage. He +found Fonseca as willing, if only the Crown could have its share, as +Ojeda had found him, and just as forgetful of the vested rights of +Columbus. So the license was granted only a few days after that given to +Ojeda, and of similar import. Niño, being a poor man, sought the aid of +Luis Guerra in fitting out a small caravel of only fifty tons; and in +consideration of this assistance, Guerra's brother, Cristoval, was +placed in command, with a crew, all told, of thirty-three souls. They +sailed from Palos early in June, 1499, and were only fifteen days behind +Ojeda on the coast. They had some encounters and some festivities with +the natives; but they studiously attended to their main object of +bartering for pearls, and when they reached Spain on their return in +April, 1500, and laid out the shares for the Crown, for Guerra, and for +the crew, of the rich stores of pearls which they had gathered, men +said, "Here at last is one voyage to the new islands from which some +adequate return is got." And so the first commensurate product of the +Indies, instead of saving the credit of Columbus, filled the pockets of +an interloping adventurer. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: V. Y. Pinzon's voyage.] + +[Sidenote: 1499. December.] + +[Sidenote: Pinzon crosses the equator.] + +[Sidenote: The southern sky.] + +But a more considerable undertaking of the same illegitimate character +was that of Vicente Yañez Pinzon, the companion of Columbus on his first +voyage. Leaguing with him a number of the seamen of the Admiral, +including some of his pilots on his last voyage, Pinzon fitted out at +Palos four caravels, which sailed near the beginning of December, 1499, +not far from the time when Columbus was thinking, because of the flight +of Ojeda, that an end was at last coming to these intrusions within his +prescribed seas. Pinzon was not so much influenced by greed as by +something of that spirit which had led him to embark with Columbus in +1492, the genuine eagerness of the explorer. He was destined to do what +Columbus had been prevented from doing by the intense heat and by the +demoralized condition of his crew,--strike the New World in the +equatorial latitudes. So he stood boldly southwest, and crossed the +equator, the first to do it west of the line of demarcation. Here were +new constellations as well as a new continent for the transatlantic +discoverer. The north star had sunk out of sight. Thus it was that the +southern heavens brought a new difficulty to navigation, as well as +unwonted stellar groups to the curious observer. The sailor of the +northern seas had long been accustomed to the fixity of the polar star +in making his observations for latitude. The southern heavens were +without any conspicuous star in the neighborhood of the pole: and in +order to determine such questions, the star at the foot of the Southern +Cross was soon selected, but it necessitated an allowance of 30° in all +observations. + +[Sidenote: 1500. January 20. Sees Cape Consolation.] + +[Sidenote: Coasts north.] + +It was on January 20, 1500, or thereabouts, that Pinzon saw a cape which +he called Consolation, and which very likely was the modern Cape St. +Augustine,--though the identification is not established to the +satisfaction of all,--which would make Pinzon the first European to see +the most easterly limit of the great southern continent. A belief like +this requires us, necessarily, to reject Varnhagen's view that as early +as the previous June (1499) Ojeda had made his landfall just as far to +the east. Pinzon took possession of the country, and then, sailing +north, passed the mouth of the Amazon, and found that even out of sight +of land he could replenish his water-casks from the flow of fresh +waters, which the great river poured into the ocean. It did not occur to +his practical mind, as it had under similar circumstances to Columbus, +that he was drinking the waters of Paradise! + +[Sidenote: 1500. June. Pinzon at Española.] + +[Sidenote: Reaches Palos, September, 1500.] + +Reaching the Gulf of Paria, Pinzon passed out into the Caribbean Sea, +and touched at Española in the latter part of June, 1500. Proceeding +thence to the Lucayan Islands, two of his caravels were swallowed up in +a gale, and the other two disabled. The remaining ships crossed to +Española to refit, whence sailing once more, they reached Palos in +September, 1500. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: 1500. January. Diego de Lepe's voyage.] + +Meanwhile, following Pinzon, Diego de Lepe, sailing also from Palos with +two caravels in January, 1500, tracked the coast from below Cape St. +Augustine northward. He was the first to double this cape, as he showed +in the map which he made for Fonseca, and doing so he saw the coast +stretching ahead to the southwest. From this time South America presents +on the charts this established trend of the coast. Humboldt thinks that +Diego touched at Española before returning to Spain in June, 1500. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: Portuguese explorations by the African route.] + +We must now return to the further exploration of the Portuguese by the +African route, for we have reached a period when, by accident and +because of the revised line of demarcation, the Portuguese pursuing that +route acquired at the same time a right on the American coast which they +have since maintained in Brazil, as against what seems to have been a +little earlier discovery of that coast by Pinzon, in the voyage already +mentioned. + +[Sidenote: 1500. March 9.] + +[Sidenote: Cabral discovers the Brazil coast.] + +[Sidenote: 1500. May 1.] + +In the year following the return to Lisbon of Da Gama with the marvelous +story of the African route to India, the Portuguese government were +prompted naturally enough to establish more firmly their commercial +relations with Calicut. They accordingly fitted out three ships to make +trial once more of the voyage. The command was given to Pedro Alvarez +Cabral, and there were placed under him Diaz, who had first rounded the +stormy cape, and Coelho, who had accompanied Da Gama. The expedition +sailed on March 9, 1500. Leaving the Cape de Verde Islands, Cabral +shaped his course more westerly than Da Gama had done, but for what +reason is not satisfactorily ascertained. Perhaps it was to avoid the +calms off the coast of Guinea; perhaps to avoid breasting a storm; and +indeed it may have been only to see if any land lay thitherward easterly +of the great line of demarcation. Whatever the motive, the fleet was +brought on April 22 opposite an eminence, which received then the name +of Monte Pascoal, and is to-day, as then it became by right of +discovery, within the Portuguese limits of South America, the Land of +the True Cross, as he named it, Vera Cruz; later, however, to be changed +to Santa Cruz. The coast was examined, and in the bay of Porto Seguro, +on May 1, formal possession of the country was taken for the crown of +Portugal. Cabral sent a caravel back with the news, expressed in a +letter drawn up by Pedro Vaz de Caminha. This letter, which is dated on +the day possession was taken, was first made known by Muñoz, who +discovered it in the archives at Lisbon. It was not till July 29 that +the Portuguese king, in a letter which is printed by Navarrete, notified +the Spanish monarchs of Cabral's discovery, and this letter was printed +in Rome, October 23, 1500. + +It seems to have been the apprehension of the Portuguese, if we may +trust this letter, that the new coast lay directly in the route to the +Cape of Good Hope, though on the right hand. + +[Sidenote: Cabral at Calicut, September 13, 1500.] + +Leaving two banished criminals to seek their chances of life in the +country, and to ascertain its products, Cabral set sail on May 22, and +proceeded to the Cape of Good Hope. Fearful gales were encountered and +four vessels were lost, and his subordinate, Diaz, found an ocean grave +off the stormy cape of his own finding. But Calicut was at last reached, +September 13. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: Date of Cabral's discovery.] + +[Sidenote: His landfall.] + +There is a day or two difference in the dates assigned by different +authorities for this discovery of Cabral. Ramusio, quoting a pilot of +the fleet fourteen months after the event, says April 24, and leading +Portuguese historians have followed him; but the letter which Cabral +sent back to Portugal, as already related, says April 22. The question +would be a trifling one, as Humboldt suggests, except that it bears upon +the question of just where this fortuitous landfall was made, involving +estimates of distance sailed before Cabral entered the harbor of Porto +Seguro. It is probable that this was at a point a hundred and seventy +leagues south of the spot reached earlier (January, 1500) by Pinzon and +De Lepe. Yet on this point there are some differences of opinion, which +are recapitulated by Humboldt. + +[Sidenote: Cabral and Pinzon.] + +The most impartial critics, however, agree with Humboldt in giving +Pinzon the lead, if not to the extent of the forty-eight days before +Cabral left Lisbon, as Humboldt contends. + +If Barros is correct in his deductions, it was not known on board of +Cabral's fleet that Columbus had already discovered in the Paria region +what he supposed an extension of the Asiatic main. The first conclusion +of the Portuguese naturally was that they had stumbled either on a new +group of islands, or perhaps on some outlying members of the group of +the Antilles. Of course nothing was known at the time of the discoveries +of Pinzon and Lepe. + +[Sidenote: The results of the African route.] + +It has often been remarked that if Columbus had not sailed in 1492, +Cabral would have revealed America in 1500. It is a striking fact that +the Portuguese had pursued their quest for India with an intelligence +and prescience which geographical truth confirmed. The Spaniards went +their way in error, and it took them nearly thirty years to find a route +that could bring them where they could defend at the antipodes their +rights under the Bull of Demarcation. Columbus sought India and found +America without knowing it. Cabral, bound for the Cape of Good Hope, +stumbled upon Brazil, and preëmpted the share of Portugal in the New +World as Da Gama has already secured it in Asia. Thus the African route +revealed both Cathay and America. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: The Columbus lawsuit.] + +[Sidenote: La Cosa's map, 1500.] + +For these voyages commingling with those of Columbus along the spaces of +the Caribbean Sea, we get the best information, all things considered, +from the testimonies of the participants in them, which were rendered in +the famous lawsuit which the Crown waged against the heirs of Columbus. +The well-known map of Juan de la Cosa posts us best on the +cartographical results of these same voyages up to the summer of 1500. + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration: SKETCH OF LA COSA'S MAP.] + +La Cosa was, as Las Casas called him, the best of the pilots then +living, and there is a story of his arrogating to himself a superiority +to Columbus, even. + +As La Cosa returned to Spain with Ojeda in June, 1500, and sailed again +in October with Bastidas, this famous map was apparently made in that +interval, since it purports in an inscription to have been drafted in +1500. In posting the geographical knowledge which he had acquired up to +that date, La Cosa drew upon his own experiences in the voyages which he +had already made with Columbus (1493-96), and with Ojeda (1499-1500). It +is to be regretted that we have from his pencil no later draft, for his +experience in these seas was long and intimate, since he accompanied +Bastidas in 1500-2, led expeditions of his own in 1504-6 and 1507-8, and +went again with Ojeda in 1509. + +La Cosa, indeed, does not seem to have improved his map on any +subsequent date, and that he puts down Cape St. Augustine so accurately +is another proof of that headland being seen by Pinzon or Lepe in 1500, +and that news of its discovery had reached the map makers. + +[Sidenote: Objections to La Cosa's map.] + +The objections to La Cosa's map as a source of historical information +have been that (1) he gives an incorrect shape to Cuba, and makes it an +island eight years before Ocampo sailed around it; and that (2) he gives +an unrecognizable coast northward from where the Gulf of Mexico should +be. Henry Stevens, in his _Historical and Geographical Notes_, +undertakes to answer these objections. + +[Sidenote: Insularity of Cuba.] + +First, Stevens reverts to the belief of La Cosa that he did not imagine +Cuba to be an island, because no one ever knew of an island 335 leagues +long, as Columbus and he, sailing along its southern side, had found it +to be, taking the distance they had gone rather than the true limits. +Stevens depends much on the belief of Columbus that the bay of islands +which he fancied himself within, when he turned back, was the Gulf of +Ganges,--supposing that Peter Martyr quoted Columbus, when he wrote to +that effect in August, 1495. If Varnhagen is correct in his routes of +Vespucius, that navigator, in 1497, making the circuit of the Gulf of +Mexico, had established the insularity of Cuba. Few modern scholars, it +is fair to say, accept Varnhagen's theories. It became a question, after +Humboldt had made the La Cosa chart public in 1833, how its maker had +got the information of the insularity of Cuba. Humboldt was convinced +that though a "complacent witness" to Columbus's ridiculous notarial +transaction during his second voyage, La Cosa had dared to tell the +truth, even at the small risk of having his tongue pulled out. + +[Illustration: RIBERO'S ANTILLES, 1529.] + +The Admiral's belief, bolstered after his own fashion by suborning his +crew, was far from being accepted by all. + +Peter Martyr not long afterward voiced the hesitancy which was growing. +It was beginning to be believed that the earth was larger than Columbus +thought, and that his discoveries had not taken him as far as Cathay. +Every new report veered the vane on this old gossiper's steeple, and he +went on believing one day and disbelieving the next. + +[Illustration: WYTFLIET'S CUBA.] + +We may perhaps question now if the official promulgation of the Cuban +circumnavigation by Sebastian Ocampo in 1508 was much more than the +Spanish acknowledgment of its insularity, when they could no longer deny +it. Henry Stevens has claimed to put La Cosa's island of Cuba in accord +with Columbus, or at least partly so. He finds this western limit of +Cuba on the La Cosa map drawn with "a dash of green paint," which he +holds to be a color used to define unknown coasts. He studied the map in +Jomard's colored facsimile, and trusted it, not having examined the +original to this end,--though he had apparently seen it in the Paris +auction-room in 1853, when, as a competitor, he had run up the +price which the Spanish government paid for it. He says that the same +green emblem of unknown lands is also placed upon the coast of Asia, +where a peninsular Cuba would have joined it. He seems to forget that he +should have found, to support his theory, a gap rather than a supposable +coast, and should rather have pointed to the vignette of St. Christopher +as affording that gap. + +[Illustration: WYTFLIET'S CUBA.] + +Ruysch in 1507 marked in his map this unknown western limit with a +conventional scroll, while he made his north coast not unlike the +Asiatic coast of Mauro (1457) and Behaim (1492), and with no gap. +Stevens also interprets the St. Dié map of 1508-13 as showing this +peninsular Cuba in what is there placed as the main, with a duplicated +insular Cuba in what is called Isabella. The warrant for this +supposition is the transfer under disguises of the La Cosa and Ruysch +names of their Cuba to the continental coast of the St. Dié map, leaving +the "Isabella" entirely devoid of names. + +Stevens ventures the opinion that La Cosa may have been on the first +voyage of Columbus as well as on the second, and his reason for this is +that the north coast of Cuba, which Columbus then coasted, is so +correctly drawn; but this opinion ignores the probability, indeed the +certainty, that this approximate accuracy could just as well be reached +by copying from Columbus's map of that first voyage. + +It should be borne in mind, however, that Varnhagen, who had faith in +the 1497 voyage of Vespucius as having settled the insular character of +Cuba, interprets this St. Dié map quite differently, as showing a +rudimentary Gulf of Mexico and the Mississippi mouth instead of the Gulf +of Ganges. + +[Sidenote: La Cosa's coast of Asia.] + +Second, Stevens grasps the obvious interpretation that La Cosa simply +drew in for this northern coast that of Asia as he conceived it. This +hardly needs elucidation. But his opinion is not so well grounded that +the northern part of this Asiatic coast, where La Cosa intended to +improve on the notions which had come from Marco Polo and the rest, is +simply the _northern_ coast of the Gulf of St. Lawrence as laid down by +the explorations of Cabot. If it be taken as giving from Cabot's +recitals the trend of the coasts found by him, it seems to show that +that navigator knew nothing of the southern entrance of that gulf. This +adds further to the uncertainty of what is called the Cabot mappemonde +of 1544. That La Cosa intended the coasts of the Cabots' discoveries to +belong to inland waters Stevens thinks is implied by the sea thereabouts +being called _Mar_ instead of _Mar oceanus_. It is difficult to see the +force of these supplemental views of Stevens, and to look upon the +drawing of La Cosa in this northern region as other than Asia modified +vaguely by the salient points of the outer coast lines as glimpsed by +Cabot. + +If the Spanish envoy in England carried out his intention of sending a +copy of Cabot's chart to Spain, it could hardly have escaped falling +into the hands of La Cosa. We have already mentioned the chance of John +Cabot having visited the peninsula in the interval between his two +voyages. + +[Sidenote: Columbus and the Cabot voyages.] + +The chief ground for believing that Columbus ever heard of the voyages +of the Cabots--for there is no plain statement that he did--is that we +know how La Cosa had knowledge of them; and that upon his map the +vignette of St. Christopher bearing the infant Christ may possibly have +been, as it has sometimes been held to be, a direct reference to La +Cosa's commander, who may be supposed in that case to have been +acquainted with the compliment paid him, and consequently with the map's +record of the Cabots. + +[Sidenote: The Cantino map.] + +Whether La Cosa understood the natives better than Columbus, or whether +he had information of which we have no record, it is certain that within +two years rumor or fact brought it to the knowledge of the Portuguese +that the westerly end of Cuba lay contiguous to a continental shore, +stretching to the north, in much the position of the eastern seaboard of +the United States. This is manifest from the Cantino map, which was sent +from Lisbon to Italy before November, 1502, and which prefigured the +so-called Admiral's map of the Ptolemy of 1513. There will be occasion +to discuss later the over-confident dictum of Stevens that this supposed +North American coast was simply a duplicated Cuba, turned north and +south, and stretching from a warm region, as the Spaniards knew it, well +up into the frozen north. Cosa's map seems to have exerted little or no +influence on the earliest printed maps of the New World, and in this it +differs from the Cantino map. + +[Sidenote: Minor expeditions.] + +We know not what unexpected developments may further have sprung from +obscure and furtive explorations, which were now beginning to be common, +and of which the record is often nothing more than an inference. Stories +of gold and pearls were great incentives. The age was full of a spirit +of private adventure. The voyages of Ojeda, Niño, and Pinzon were but +the more conspicuous. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +THE DEGRADATION AND DISHEARTENMENT OF COLUMBUS. + +1500. + + +Columbus, writing to the Spanish sovereigns from Española, said, in +reference to the lifelong opposition which he had encountered:-- + +[Sidenote: Opponents of Columbus.] + +"May it please the Lord to forgive those who have calumniated and still +calumniate this excellent enterprise of mine, and oppose and have +opposed its advancement, without considering how much glory and +greatness will accrue from it to your Highnesses throughout all the +world. They cannot state anything in disparagement of it except its +expense, and that I have not immediately sent back the ships loaded with +gold." + +[Sidenote: Charges against Columbus.] + +Was this an honest statement? Columbus knew perfectly well that there +had been much else than disappointment at the scant pecuniary returns. +He knew that there was a widespread dissatisfaction at his personal +mismanagement of the colony; at his alleged arrogance and cupidity as a +foreigner; at his nepotism; at his inordinate exaltation of promise, and +at his errant faith that brooked no dispute. He knew also that his +enthusiasm had captivated the Queen, and that as long as she could be +held captive he could appeal to her not in vain. If there had been any +honesty in the Queen's professions in respect to the selling of slaves, +he knew that he had outraged them. Even when he was writing this letter, +it came over him that there was a fearful hazard for him both in the +persistency of this denunciation of others against him and in the +heedless arrogance of such perverseness on his own part. + +"I know," he says, "that water dropping on a stone will at length make a +hole." We shall see before long that foreboding cavity. + +[Sidenote: Columbus and Roldan.] + +[Sidenote: Guevara.] + +[Sidenote: Anacaona's daughter.] + +[Sidenote: Adrian do Moxica.] + +The defection of Roldan turned so completely into servility is but one +of the strange contrasts of the wonderful course of vicissitudes in the +life of Columbus. There presently came a new trial for him and for +Roldan. A young well-born Spaniard, Fernando de Guevara, had appeared in +Española recently, and by his dissolute life he had created such +scandals in Santo Domingo that Columbus had ordered him to leave the +island. He had been sent to Xaragua to embark in one of Ojeda's ships; +but that adventurer had left the coast when the outlaw reached the port. +While waiting another opportunity to embark, Guevara was kept in that +part of the island under Roldan's eye. This implied no such restraint as +to deny him access to the society of Anacaona, with whose daughter, +Higuamota, who seems to have inherited something of her mother's +commanding beauty and mental qualities, he fell in love, and found his +passion requited. He sought companionship also with one of the +lieutenants of Roldan, who had been a leader in his late revolt, Adrian +de Moxica, then living not far away, who had for him the additional +attachment of kinship, for the two were cousins. Las Casas tells us that +Roldan had himself a passion for the young Indian beauty, and it may +have been for this as well as for his desire to obey the Admiral that he +commanded the young cavalier to go to a more distant province. The +ardent lover had sought to prepare his way for a speedy marriage by +trying to procure a priest to baptize the maiden. This caused more +urgent commands from Roldan, which were ostentatiously obeyed, only to +be eluded by a clandestine return, when he was screened with some +associates in the house of Anacaona. This queenly woman seems to have +favored his suit with her daughter. He was once more ordered away, when +he began to bear himself defiantly, but soon changed his method to +suppliancy. Roldan was appeased by this. Guevara, however, only made it +the cloak for revenge, and with some of his friends formed a plot to +kill Roldan. This leaked out, and the youth and his accomplices were +arrested and sent to Santo Domingo. This action aroused Roldan's old +confederate, Moxica, and, indignant at the way in which the renegade +rebel had dared to turn upon his former associates, Moxica resolved upon +revenge. + +[Sidenote: Moxica's plot.] + +[Sidenote: Moxica taken.] + +To carry it out he started on a tour through the country where the late +mutineers were settled, and readily engaged their sympathies. Among +those who joined in his plot was Pedro Riquelme, whom Roldan had made +assistant alcalde. The old spirit of revolt was rampant. The +confederates were ready for any excess, either upon Roldan or upon the +Admiral. Columbus was at Conception in the midst of the aroused +district, when a deserter from the plotters informed him of their plan. +With a small party the Admiral at once sped in the night to the +unguarded quarters of the leaders, and Moxica and several of his chief +advisers were suddenly captured and carried to the fort. The execution +of the ringleader was at once ordered. Impatient at the way in which the +condemned man dallied in his confessions to a priest, Columbus ordered +him pushed headlong from the battlements. The French canonists screen +Columbus for this act by making Roldan the perpetrator of it. The other +confederates were ironed in confinement at Conception, except Riquelme, +who was taken later and conveyed to Santo Domingo. + +The revolt was thus summarily crushed. Those who had escaped fled to +Xaragua, whither the Adelantado and Roldan pursued them without mercy. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: Columbus and his colony.] + +Columbus had perhaps never got his colony under better control than +existed after this vigorous exhibition of his authority. Such a show of +prompt and audacious energy was needed to restore the moral supremacy +which his recusancy under the threats of Roldan had lost. The fair +weather was not to last long. + +[Sidenote: 1500. August 23. Bobadilla arrives.] + +Early in the morning of August 23, 1500, two caravels were descried off +the harbor of Santo Domingo. The Admiral's brother Diego was in +authority, Columbus being still at Conception, and Bartholomew absent +with Roldan. Diego sent out a canoe to learn the purpose of the +visitors. It returned, and brought word that a commissioner was come to +inquire into the late rebellion of Roldan. Diego's messengers had at the +same time informed the newcomer of the most recent defection of Moxica, +and that there were still other executions to take place, particularly +those of Riquelme and Guevara, who were confined in the town. As the +ships entered the river, the gibbets on either bank, with their dangling +Spaniards, showed the commissioner that there were other troublous times +to inquire into than those named in his warrant. While the commissioner +remained on board his ship, receiving the court of those who early +sought to propitiate him, and while he was getting his first information +of the condition of the island, mainly from those who had something to +gain by the excess of their denunciations, it is necessary to go back a +little in time, and ascertain who this important personage was, and what +was the mission on which he had been sent. + +[Illustration: VILLE DE S^T. DOMINGUE. + +SANTO DOMINGO. 1754.] + +[Sidenote: Growth of the royal dissatisfaction with Columbus.] + +The arrangements for sending him had been made slowly. They were even +outlined when Ojeda had started on his voyage, for he had, in his +interviews with Roldan, blindly indicated that some astonishment of this +sort was in store. Evidently Fonseca had not allowed Ojeda to depart +without some intimations. + +[Sidenote: Charges against Columbus.] + +Notwithstanding Columbus professed to believe that nothing but the lack +of pecuniary return for the great outlays of his expeditions could be +alleged against them, he was well aware, and he had constantly acted as +if well aware, of the great array of accusations which had been made +against him in Spain, with a principal purpose of undermining the +indulgent regard of the Queen for him. He had known it with sorrow +during his last visit to Spain, and had found, as we have seen, that he +could not secure men to accompany him and put themselves under his +control unless he unshackled criminals in the jails. He little thought +that such utter disregard of the morals and self-respect of those whom +he had settled in the New World would, by a sort of retributive justice, +open the way, however unjustly, to put the displaced gyves on himself, +amid the exultant feelings of these same criminals. Such reiterated +criminations were like the water-drops that wear the stone, and he had, +as we have noted, felt the certainty of direful results. + +[Sidenote: His exaggerations of the wealth of the Indies.] + +[Sidenote: Columbus deceives the Crown.] + +[Sidenote: Columbus's sons hooted at in the Alhambra.] + +How much the disappointment at the lack of gold had to do with +increasing the force of these charges, it is not difficult to imagine. +Columbus was certainly not responsible for that; but he was responsible +for the inordinate growth of the belief in the profuse wealth of the +new-found Indies. His constantly repeated stories of the wonderful +richness of the region had done their work. His professions of a purpose +to enrich the world with noble benefactions, and to spend his treasure +on the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre, were the vain boastings of a man +who thought thereby to enroll his name among the benefactors of the +Church. He did not perceive that the populace would wonder whence these +resources were to come, unless it was by defrauding the Crown of its +share, and by amassing gold while they could not get any. There is +something ludicrous in the excuse which he later gave for concealing +from the sovereigns his accumulation of pearls. He felt it sufficient to +say that he thought he would wait till he could make as good a show of +gold! There were some things that even fifteenth-century Christians held +to be more sacred than wresting Jerusalem from the Moslem, and these +were money in hand when they had earned it, and food to eat when their +misfortunes had beggared their lives. It was not an uncalled-for strain +on their loyalty to the Crown, when the notion prevailed that the +sovereigns and their favorite were gathering riches out of their +despair. There was little to be wondered at, in the crowd of these +hungry and debilitated victims, wandering about the courts of the +Alhambra, under the royal windows, and clamoring for their pay. There +was nothing to be surprised at in the hootings that followed the +Admiral's sons, pages of the Queen, if they passed within sight of these +embittered throngs. + +[Sidenote: Ferdinand's confessed blunder.] + +It was quite evident that Ferdinand, who had never warmed to the +Admiral's enthusiasm, had long been conscious that in the exclusive and +extended powers which had been given to Columbus a serious +administrative blunder had been made. He said as much at a later day to +Ponce de Leon. + +The Queen had been faithful, but the recurrent charges had given of late +a wrench to her constancy. Was it not certain that something must be +wrong, or these accusations would not go on increasing? Had not the +great discoverer fulfilled his mission when he unveiled a new world? Was +it quite sure that the ability to govern it went along with the genius +to find it? These were the questions which Isabella began to put to +herself. + +[Sidenote: Isabella begins to doubt.] + +[Sidenote: Columbus to be superseded.] + +[Sidenote: Witnesses against Columbus.] + +She was not a person to hesitate at anything, when conviction came. She +had shown this in the treatment of the Jews, of the Moors, and of other +heretics. The conviction that Columbus was not equal to his trust was +now coming to her. The news of the serious outbreak of Roldan's +conspiracy brought the matter to a test, and in the spring of 1499 the +purpose to send out some one with almost unlimited powers for any +emergency was decided upon. Still the details were not worked out, and +there were occurrences in the internal and external affairs of Spain +that required the prior attention of the sovereigns. Very likely the +news of Columbus's success in finding a new source of wealth in the +pearls of Paria may have had something to do with the delay. When the +ships which carried to Spain a crowd of Roldan's followers arrived, the +question took a fresh interest. Columbus's friends, Ballester and +Barrantes, now found their testimony could make little headway against +the crowd of embittered witnesses on the other side. Isabella, besides, +was forced to see in the slaves that Columbus had sent by the same ships +something of an obstinate opposition to her own wishes. Las Casas tells +us that so great was the Queen's displeasure that it was only the +remembrance of Columbus's services that saved him from prompt disgrace. +To be sure, the slaves had been sent in part by virtue of the +capitulation which Columbus had made with the rebels, but should the +Viceroy of the Indies be forced to such capitulations? Had he kept the +colony in a condition worthy of her queenly patronage, when it could be +reported to her that the daughters of caciques were found among these +natives bearing their hybrid babes? "What authority had my viceroy to +give my vassals to such ends?" she asked. + +[Sidenote: Columbus and the slave trade.] + +[Sidenote: Bobadilla appointed commissioner.] + +There were two things in recent letters of Columbus which damaged his +cause just at this juncture. One was his petition for a new lease of the +slave trade. This Isabella answered by ordering all slaves which he had +sent home to be sought out and returned. Her agents found a few. The +other was the request of Columbus for a judge to examine the dispute +between himself and Roldan. This Ferdinand answered by appointing the +commissioner whose arrival at Santo Domingo we have chronicled. He +was Francisco de Bobadilla, an officer of the royal household. + +Before disclosing what Bobadilla did in Santo Domingo, it is best to try +to find out what he was expected to do. + +[Sidenote: His character.] + +There is no person connected with the career of Columbus--hardly +excepting Fonseca--more generally defamed than this man, who was, +nevertheless, if we may believe Oviedo, a very honest and a very +religious man. The historians of Columbus need to mete out to Bobadilla +what very few have done, the same measure of palliation which they are +more willing to bestow on Columbus. With this parallel justice, it may +be that he will not bear with discredit a comparison with Columbus +himself, in all that makes a man's actions excusable under provocation +and responsibility. An indecency of haste may come from an excess of +zeal quite as well as from an unbridled virulence. + +It may be in some ways a question if the conditions this man was sent to +correct were the result of the weakness or inadaptability of Columbus, +or merely the outcome of circumstances, enough beyond his control to +allow of excuses. There is, however, no question that the Spanish +government had duties to perform towards itself and its subjects which +made it properly disinclined to jeopardize the interests which accompany +such duties. + +[Sidenote: Bobadilla's powers.] + +Bobadilla was, to be sure, invested with dangerous powers, but not with +more dangerous ones than Columbus himself had possessed. When two such +personations of unbridled authority come in antagonism, the possessor of +the greater authority is sure to confirm himself by commensurate +exactions upon the other. Bobadilla's commission was an implied warrant +to that end. He might have been more prudent of his own state, and +should have remembered that a trust of the nature of that with which he +was invested was sure to be made accountable to those who imparted to +him the power, and perhaps at a time when they chose to abandon their +own instructions. He ought to have known that such an abandonment comes +very easy to all governments in emergencies. He might have been more +considerate of the man whom Spain had so recently flattered. He should +not have forgotten, if almost everybody else had, that the Admiral had +given a new world to Spain. + +[Sidenote: Columbus and the criminals.] + +He should not have been unmindful, if almost every one else was, that +this new world was a delusion now, but might dissolve into a beatific +vision. But all this was rather more than human nature was capable of in +an age like that. It is to be said of Bobadilla that when he summoned +Columbus to Santo Domingo and prejudged him guilty, he had shown no more +disregard of a rival power, which he was sent to regulate, than Columbus +had manifested for a deluded colony, when he selfishly infected it with +the poison of the prisons. It must not, indeed, be forgotten that the +strongest support of the new envoy came from the very elements of vice +which Columbus had implanted in the island. He grew to understand this, +and later he was forced to give a condemnation of his own act when he +urged the sending of such as are honorably known, "that the country may +be peopled with honest men." + +[Sidenote: Bobadilla's character.] + +[Sidenote: Did he exceed his powers?] + +Las Casas tells us of Bobadilla that his probity and disinterestedness +were such that no one could attack them. If it be left for posterity to +decide between the word of Las Casas and Columbus, in estimates of +virtue and honesty, there is no question of the result. When Bobadilla +was selected to be sent to Española, there was every reason to choose +the most upright of persons. There was every reason, also, to instruct +him with a care that should consider every probable attendant +circumstance. After this was done, the discretion of the man was to +determine all. We can read in the records the formal instructions; but +there were beside, as is expressly stated, verbal directions which can +only be surmised. Bobadilla was accused of exceeding the wishes of the +Queen. Are we sure that he did? It is no sign of it that the monarchs +subsequently found it politic to disclaim the act of their agent. Such a +desertion of a subordinate was not unusual in those times, nor indeed +would it be now. + +If Isabella, "for the love of Christ and the Virgin Mary," could +depopulate towns, as she said she did, by the ravages of the +inquisition, and fill her coffers by the attendant sequestrations, it is +not difficult to conceive that, with a similar and convenient conviction +of duty, she would give no narrow range to her vindictiveness and +religious zeal when she came to deal with an Admiral whom she had +created, and who was not very deferential to her wishes. + +[Sidenote: Bobadilla's powers.] + +A synopsis of the powers confided to Bobadilla in writing needs to be +presented. They begin with a letter of March 21, 1499, referring to +reports of the Roldan insurrection, and directing him, if on inquiry he +finds any persons culpable, to arrest them and sequestrate their +effects, and to call upon the Admiral for assistance in carrying out +these orders. Two months later, May 21, a circular letter was framed and +addressed to the magistrates of the islands, which seems to have been +intended to accredit Bobadilla to them, if the Admiral should be no +longer in command. This order gave notice to these magistrates of the +full powers which had been given to Bobadilla in civil and criminal +jurisdiction. Another order of the same date, addressed to the "Admiral +of the ocean sea," orders him to surrender all royal property, whether +forts, arms, or otherwise, into Bobadilla's hands,--evidently intended +to have an accompanying effect with the other. Of a date five days later +another letter addressed to the Admiral reads to this effect:-- + +"We have directed Francisco de Bobadilla, the bearer of this, to tell +you for us of certain things to be mentioned by him. We ask you to give +faith and credence to what he says, and to obey him. May 26, 1499." + +[Sidenote: His verbal orders.] + +[Sidenote: 1500. July. Bobadilla leaves Spain.] + +This is an explicit avowal on the sovereigns' part of having given +verbal orders. In addition to these instructions, a royal order required +the commissioner to ascertain what was due from the Crown for unpaid +salaries, and to compel the Admiral to join in liquidating such +obligations so far as he was bound for them, "that there may be no more +complaints." If one may believe Columbus's own statements as made in his +subsequent letter to the nurse of Prince Juan, it had been neglect, and +not inability, on his part which had allowed these arrears to accrue. +Bobadilla was also furnished with blanks signed by the sovereigns, to be +used to further their purposes in any way and at his discretion. With +these extraordinary documents, and possessed of such verbal and +confidential directions as we may imagine rather than prove, Bobadilla +had sailed in July, 1500, more than a year after the letters were dated. +His two caravels brought back to Española a number of natives, who were +in charge of some Franciscan friars. + +[Sidenote: Bobadilla lands at Santo Domingo.] + +We left Bobadilla on board his ship, receiving court from all who +desired thus early to get his ear. It was not till the next day that he +landed, attended by a guard of twenty-five men, when he proceeded to the +church to mass. + +[Sidenote: His demands.] + +This over, the crowd gathered before the church. Bobadilla ordered a +herald to read his original commission of March 21, 1499, and then he +demanded of the acting governor, Diego, who was present, that Guevara, +Riquelme, and the other prisoners should be delivered to him, together +with all the evidence in their cases, and that the accusers and +magistrates should appear before him. Diego referred him to the Admiral +as alone having power in such matters, and asked for a copy of the +document just read to send to Columbus. This Bobadilla declined to give, +and retired, intimating, however, that there were reserved powers which +he had, before which even the Admiral must bow. + +The peremptoriness of this movement was, it would seem, uncalled for, +and there could have been little misfortune in waiting the coming of the +Admiral, compared with the natural results of such sudden overturning of +established authority in the absence of the holder of it. Urgency may +not, nevertheless, have been without its claims. It was desirable to +stay the intended executions; and we know not what exaggerations had +already filled the ears of Bobadilla. At this time there would seem to +have been the occasion to deliver the letter to Columbus which had +commanded his obedience to the verbal instructions of the sovereigns; +and such a delivery might have turned the current of these hurrying +events, for Columbus had shown, in the case of Agueda, that he was +graciously inclined to authority. Instead of this, however, Bobadilla, +the next day, again appeared at mass, and caused his other commissions +to be read, which in effect made him supersede the Admiral. This +superiority Diego and his councilors still unadvisedly declined to +recognize. The other mandates were read in succession; and the gradual +rise to power, which the documents seemed to imply, as the progress of +the investigations demanded support, was thus reached at a bound. This +is the view of the case which has been taken by Columbus's biographers, +as naturally drawn from the succession of the powers which were given +to Bobadilla. It is merely an inference, and we know not the directions +for their proclamations, which had been verbally imparted to Bobadilla. +It is this uncertainty which surrounds the case with doubt. It is +apparent that the reading of these papers had begun to impress the +rabble, if not those in authority. That order which commanded the +payment of arrears of salaries had a very gratifying effect on those who +had suffered from delays. Nothing, however, moved the representatives of +the Viceroy, who would not believe that anything could surpass his +long-conceded authority. + +[Sidenote: Bobadilla assaults the fort.] + +There is nothing strange in the excitement of an officer who finds his +undoubted supremacy thus obstinately spurned, and we must trace to such +excitement the somewhat overstrained conduct which made a show of +carrying by assault the fortress in which Guevara and the other +prisoners were confined. Miguel Diaz, who commanded the fort,--the same +who had disclosed the Hayna mines,--when summoned to surrender had +referred Bobadilla to the Admiral from whom his orders came, and asked +for copies of the letters patent and orders, for more considerate +attention. It was hardly to be expected that Bobadilla was to be +beguiled by any such device, when he had a force of armed men at his +back, aided by his crew and the aroused rabble, and when there was +nothing before him but a weak citadel with few defenders. There was +nothing to withstand the somewhat ridiculous shock of the assault but a +few frail bars, and no need of the scaling ladders which were +ostentatiously set up. Diaz and one companion, with sword in hand, stood +passively representing the outraged dignity of command. Bobadilla was +victorious, and the manacled Guevara and the rest passed over to new and +less stringent keepers. + +[Sidenote: Bobadilla in full possession.] + +Bobadilla was now in possession of every channel of authority. He +domiciled himself in the house of Columbus, took possession of all his +effects, including his papers, making no distinction between public and +private ones, and used what money he could find to pay the debts of the +Admiral as they were presented to him. This proceeding was well +calculated to increase his popularity, and it was still more enhanced +when he proclaimed liberty to all to gather gold for twenty years, with +only the payment of one seventh instead of a third to the Crown. + +[Sidenote: Columbus hears of Bobadilla.] + +[Sidenote: Columbus and the Franciscans.] + +Let us turn to Columbus himself. The reports which reached him at Fort +Conception did not at first convey to him an adequate notion of what he +was to encounter. He associated the proceedings with such unwarranted +acts as Ojeda's and Pinzon's in coming with their ships within his +prescribed dominion. The greater audacity, however, alarmed him, and the +threats which Bobadilla had made of sending him to Spain in irons, and +the known success of his usurpation within the town, were little +calculated to make Columbus confident in the temporary character of the +outburst. He moved his quarters to Bonao to be nearer the confusion, and +here he met an officer bearing to him a copy of the letters under which +the government had been assumed by Bobadilla. Still the one addressed to +Columbus, commanding him to acquiesce, was held back. It showed palpably +that Bobadilla conceived he had passed beyond the judicial aim of his +commission. Columbus, on his part, was loath to reach that conclusion, +and tried to gain time. He wrote to Bobadilla an exculpating and +temporizing letter, saying that he was about to leave for Spain, when +everything would pass regularly into Bobadilla's control. He sent other +letters, calculated to create delays, to the Franciscans who had come +with him. He had himself affiliated with that order, and perhaps thought +his influence might not be unheeded. He got no replies, and perhaps +never knew what the spirit of these friars was. They evidently reflected +the kind of testimony which Bobadilla had been accumulating. We find +somewhat later, in a report of one of them, Nicholas Glassberger,--who +speaks of the 1,500 natives whom they had made haste to baptize in Santo +Domingo,--some of the cruel insinuations which were rife, when he speaks +of "a certain admiral, captain, and chief, who had ill treated these +natives, taking their goods and wives, and capturing their virgin +daughters, and had been sent to Spain in chains." + +[Sidenote: Bobadilla sends the sovereigns' letter to Columbus.] + +Columbus as yet could hardly have looked forward to any such indignity +as manacles on his limbs. Nor did he probably suspect that Bobadilla was +using the signed blanks, entrusted to him by the sovereigns, to engage +the interests of Roldan and other deputies of the Viceroy scattered +through the island. Columbus, in these uncertainties, caused it to be +known that he considered his perpetual powers still unrevoked, if indeed +they were revocable at all. This state of his mind was rudely jarred by +receiving a little later, at the hands of Francisco Velasquez, the +deputy treasurer, and of Juan de Trasierra, one of the Franciscans, the +letter addressed to him by the sovereigns, commanding him to respect +what Bobadilla should tell him. Here was tangible authority; and when it +was accompanied by a summons from Bobadilla to appear before him, he +hesitated no longer, and, with the little state befitting his disgrace, +proceeded at once to Santo Domingo. + +[Sidenote: Columbus approaches Santo Domingo.] + +[Sidenote: 1500. August 23. Columbus is imprisoned in chains.] + +The Admiral's brother Diego had already been confined in irons on one of +the caravels; and Bobadilla, affecting to believe, as Irving holds, that +Columbus would not come in any compliant mood, made a bustle of armed +preparation. There was, however, no such intention on Columbus's part, +nor had been, since the royal mandate of implicit obedience had been +received. He came as quietly as the circumstances would permit, and when +the new governor heard he was within his grasp, his orders to seize him +and throw him into prison were promptly executed (August 23, 1500). In +the southeastern part of the town, the tower still stands, with little +signs of decay, which then received the dejected Admiral, and from its +summit all approaching vessels are signaled to-day. Las Casas tells us +of the shameless and graceless cook, one of Columbus's own household, +who riveted the fetters. "I knew the fellow," says that historian, "and +I think his name was Espinosa." + +While the Adelantado was at large with an armed force, Bobadilla was not +altogether secure in his triumph. He demanded of Columbus to write to +his brother and counsel him to come in and surrender. This Columbus did, +assuring the Adelantado of their safety in trusting to the later justice +of the Crown. Bartholomew obeyed, as the best authorities say, though +Peter Martyr mentions a rumor that he came in no accommodating spirit, +and was captured while in advance of his force. It is certain he also +was placed in irons, and confined on one of the caravels. It was +Bobadilla's purpose to keep the leaders apart, so there could be no +concert of action, and even to prevent their seeing any one who could +inform them of the progress of the inquest, which was at once begun. + +[Sidenote: Charges against Columbus.] + +It seems evident that Bobadilla, either of his own impulse or in +accordance with secret instructions, was acting with a secrecy and +precipitancy which would have been justifiable in the presence of armed +sedition, but was uncalled for with no organized opposition to embarrass +him. Columbus at a later day tells us that he was denied ample clothing, +even, and was otherwise ill treated. He says, too, he had no statement +of charges given to him. It is a later story, started by Charlevoix, +that such accusations were presented to him in writing, and met by him +in the same method. + +The trial was certainly a remarkable procedure, except we consider it +simply an _ex parte_ process for indictment only, as indeed it really +was. Irving lays stress on the reversal by Bobadilla of the natural +order of his acts, amounting, in fact, to prejudging a person he was +sent to examine. He also thinks that the governor was hurried to his +conclusions in order to make up a show of necessity for his precipitate +action. It has something of that look. "The rebels he had been sent to +judge became, by this singular perversion of rule," says Irving, +"necessary and cherished evidences to criminate those against whom they +had rebelled." This is the mistake of the apologists for Columbus. +Bobadilla seems to have been sent to judge between two parties, and not +to assume that only one was culpable. Even Irving suspects the true +conditions. He allows that Bobadilla would not have dared to go to this +length, had he not felt assured that "certain things," as the mandate to +Columbus expressed it, would not be displeasing to the king. + +The charges against the Admiral had been stock ones for years, and we +have encountered them more than once in the progress of this narrative. +They are rehearsed at length in the documents given by Navarrete, and +are repeated and summarized by Peter Martyr. It is perhaps true that +there was some novelty in the asseveration that Columbus's recent +refusal to have some Indians baptized was simply because it deprived him +of selling them as slaves. This accusation, considering Columbus's +relations to the slave trade which he had created, is as little to be +wondered at as any. + +[Sidenote: Columbus and slavery.] + +Las Casas tells us how indignant Isabella had been with his presumptuous +way of dealing with what she called her subjects; and by a royal order +of June 20, 1500, she had ordered, as we have seen, the return in +Bobadilla's fleet of nineteen of the slaves who had been sold. There was +no better way of commending Bobadilla's action to the Queen, apparently, +than by making the most of Columbus's unfortunate relations to the slave +trade. + +As the accusations were piled up, Bobadilla saw the inquest leading, in +his mind, to but one conclusion, the unnatural character of the Viceroy +and his unfitness for command,--a phrase not far from the truth, but +hardly requiring the extraordinary proceedings which had brought the +governor to a recognition of it. There is little question that the +public sentiment of the colony, so far at least as it dare manifest +itself, commended the governor. Columbus in his dungeon might not see +this with his own eyes, but if the reports are true, his ears carried it +to his spirit, for howls and taunts against him came from beyond the +walls, as the expression of the hordes which felt relieved by his fate. +Columbus himself confessed that Bobadilla had "succeeded to the full" in +making him hated of the people. All this was matter to brood upon in his +loneliness. He magnified slight hints. He more than suspected he was +doomed to a violent fate. When Alonso de Villejo, who was to conduct him +to Spain, in charge of the returning ships, came to the dungeon, +Columbus saw for the first time some recognition of his unfortunate +condition. Las Casas, in recounting the interview, says that Villejo was +"an hidalgo of honorable character and my particular friend," and he +doubtless got his account of what took place from that important +participant. + +"Villejo," said the prisoner, "whither do you take me?" + +"To embark on the ship, your excellency." + +"To embark, Villejo? Is that the truth?" + +"It is true," said the captain. + +For the first time the poor Admiral felt that he yet might see Spain and +her sovereigns. + +[Sidenote: 1500. October. Columbus sent to Spain.] + +[Sidenote: His chains.] + +The caravels set sail in October, 1500, and soon passed out of earshot +of the hootings that were sent after the miserable prisoners. The new +keepers of Columbus were not of the same sort as those who cast such +farewell taunts. If the _Historie_ is to be believed, Bobadilla had +ordered the chains to be kept on throughout the voyage, since, as the +writer of that book grimly suggests, Columbus might at any time swim +back, if not secured. Villejo was kind. So was the master of the +caravel, Andreas Martin. They suggested that they could remove the +manacles during the voyage; but the Admiral, with that cherished +constancy which persons feel, not always wisely, in such predicaments, +thinking to magnify martyrdom, refused. "No," he said; "my sovereigns +ordered me to submit, and Bobadilla has chained me. I will wear these +irons until by royal order they are removed, and I shall keep them as +relics and memorials of my services." + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: Degradation of Columbus.] + +[Sidenote: His letter to the nurse of Prince Juan analyzed.] + +[Sidenote: Charges against Columbus.] + +The relations of Columbus and Bobadilla bring before us the most +startling of the many combinations of events in the history of a career +which is sadder, perhaps, notwithstanding its glory, than any other +mortal presents in profane history. The degradation of such a man +appeals more forcibly to human sympathy than almost any other event in +the record of humanity. That sympathy has obscured the import of his +degradation, and that mournful explanation of the events, which, either +on his voyage or shortly after his return, Columbus wrote and sent to +the nurse of Prince Juan, has long worked upon the sensibilities of a +world tender for his misfortunes. We cannot indeed read this letter +without compassion, nor can we read it dispassionately without +perceiving that the feelings of the man who wrote it had been despoiled +of a judicial temper by his errors as well as by his miseries. His +statements of the case are wholly one-sided. He never sees what it pains +him to see. He forgets everything that an enemy would remember. He finds +it difficult to tell the truth, and trusts to iterated professions to be +taken for truths. He claims to have no conception why he was imprisoned, +when he knew perfectly well, as he says himself, that he had endeavored +to create an opposition to constituted authority "by verbal and written +declarations;" and he reiterates this statement after he had bowed to +royal commands that were as explicit as his own treatment of them had +been recalcitrant. Indeed, he puts himself in the rather ridiculous +posture of answering a long series of charges, of which at the same time +he professes to be ignorant. + +In the course of this letter, Columbus set up a claim that he had been +seriously misjudged in trying to measure his accountability by the laws +that govern established governments rather than by those which grant +indulgences to the conqueror of a numerous and warlike nation. The +position is curiously inconsistent with his professed intentions, as the +sole ruler of a colony, to be just in the eyes of God and men. The Crown +had given him its authority to establish precisely what he claims had +not been established, a government of laws kindly disposed to protect +both Spaniard and native, and yet he did not understand why his doings +were called in question. He had boasted repeatedly how far from warlike +and dangerous the natives were, so that a score of Spaniards could put +seven thousand to rout, as he was eager to report in one case. The chief +of the accusations against him did not pertain to his malfeasance in +regard to the natives, but towards the Spaniards themselves, and it was +begging the question to consider his companions a conquered nation. If +there were no established government as respects them, he would be the +last to admit it; and if it were proved against him, there was no one so +responsible for the absence of it as himself. Again he says: "I ought to +be judged by cavaliers who have gained victories themselves,--by +gentlemen, and not by lawyers." The fact was that the case had been +judged by hidalgoes without number, and to his disgrace, and it was +taken from them to give him the protection of the law, such as it was; +and, as he himself acknowledges, there is in the Indies "neither civil +right nor judgment seat." As he was the source of all the bulwarks of +life and liberty in these same Indies, he thus acknowledges the +deficiencies of his own protective agencies. There is something +childishly immature in the proposition which he advances that he should +be judged by persons in his own pay. + +[Sidenote: Palliation.] + +It is of course necessary to allow the writer of this letter all the +palliation that a man in his distressed and disordered condition might +claim. Columbus had in fact been perceptibly drifting into a state of +delusion and aberration of mind ever since the sustaining power of a +great cause had been lifted from him. From the moment when he turned his +mule back at the instance of Isabella's message, the lofty purpose had +degenerated to a besetting cupidity, in which he made even the Divinity +a constant abettor. In this same letter he tells of a vision of the +previous Christmas, when the Lord confronted him miraculously, and +reminded him of his vow to amass treasure enough in seven years to +undertake his crusade to Jerusalem. This visible Godhead then comforted +him with the assurance that his divine power would see that it came to +pass. "The seven years you were to await have not yet passed. Trust in +me and all will be right." It is easy to point to numerous such +instances in Columbus's career, and the canonizers do not neglect to do +so, as evincing the sublime confidence of the devoted servant of the +Lord; but one can hardly put out of mind the concomitants of all such +confidence. The most that we can allow is the unaccountableness of a +much-vexed conscience. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +COLUMBUS AGAIN IN SPAIN. + +1500-1502. + + +[Sidenote: 1500. October. Columbus reaches Cadiz.] + +[Sidenote: Public sympathy at his degradation.] + +It was in October, 1500, after a voyage of less discomfort than usual, +that the ships of Villejo, carrying his manacled prisoners, entered the +harbor of Cadiz. If Bobadilla had precipitately prejudged his chief +prisoner, public sentiment, when it became known that Columbus had +arrived in chains, was not less headlong in its sympathetic revulsion. +Bobadilla would at this moment have stood a small chance for a +dispassionate examination. The discoverer of the New World coming back +from it a degraded prisoner was a discordant spectacle in the public +mind, filled with recollections of those days of the first return to +Palos, when a new range had been given to man's conceptions of the +physical world. This common outburst of indignation showed, as many +times before and since, how the world's sense of justice has in it more +of spirit than of steady discernment. The hectic flush was sure to +pass,--as it did. + +[Sidenote: Columbus's letter to the nurse of Prince Juan.] + +It was while on his voyage, or shortly after his return, that Columbus +wrote the letter to the lady of the Court usually spoken of as the nurse +of Prince Juan, which has been already considered. Before the +proceedings of the inquest which Bobadilla had forwarded by the ship +were sent to the Court, then in the Alhambra, Columbus, with the +connivance of Martin, the captain of his caravel, had got this +exculpatory letter off by a special messenger. The lady to whom it was +addressed was, it will be remembered, Doña Juana de la Torre, an +intimate companion of the Queen, with whom the Admiral's two sons, as +pages of the Queen, had been for some months in daily relations. The +text of this letter has long been known. Las Casas copied it in his +_Historia_. Navarrete gives it from another copy, but corrected by the +text preserved at Genoa; while Harrisse tells us that the text in Paris +contains an important passage not in that at Genoa. + +[Sidenote: The sovereigns order Columbus to be released.] + +While its ejaculatory arguments are not well calculated to impose on the +sober historian, there was enough of fervor laid against its background +of distressing humility to work on the sympathies of its recipient, and +of the Queen, to whom it was early and naturally revealed. "I have now +reached that point that there is no man so vile, but thinks it his right +to insult me," was the language, almost at its opening, which met their +eyes. The further reading of the letter brought up a picture of the +manacled Admiral. Very likely the rumor of the rising indignation +spreading from Cadiz to Seville, and from Seville elsewhere, as well as +the letters of the alcalde of Cadiz, into whose hands Columbus had been +delivered, and of Villejo, who had had him in custody, added to the +tumult of sensations mutually shared in that little circle of the +monarchs and the Doña Juana. If we take the prompt action of the +sovereigns in ordering the immediate release of Columbus, their letter +of sympathy at the baseness of his treatment, the two thousand ducats +put at his disposal to prepare for a visit to the Court, and the cordial +royal summons for him to come,--if all these be taken at their apparent +value, the candid observer finds himself growing distrustful of +Bobadilla's justification through his secret instructions. As the +observer goes on in the story and notes the sequel, he is more inclined +to believe that the sovereigns, borne on the rising tide of indignant +sympathy, had defended themselves at the expense of their commissioner. +We may never know the truth. + +[Sidenote: 1500. December 17. Columbus at Court.] + +That was a striking scene when Columbus, delivered from his irons on the +17th of December, 1500, held his first interview with the Spanish +monarchs. Oviedo was an eyewitness of it; but we find more of its +accompaniments in the story as told by Herrera than in the scant +narrative of the _Historie_. Humboldt fancies that it was the Admiral's +son who wrote it. The author of that book had no heart to record at much +length the professions of regret on the part of the King, since they +were not easily reconcilable with what, in that writer's judgment, would +have been the honorable reception of Bobadilla and Roldan, had they +escaped the fate of the tempests which later overwhelmed them. When the +first warmth of Columbus's reception had subsided, there would have been +no reason to suspect that those absent servants of the Crown would have +been denied a suitable welcome. + +Herrera tells us of the touching character of this interview of December +17; how the Queen burst into tears, and the emotional Admiral cast +himself on the ground at her feet. When Columbus could speak, he began +to recall the reasons for which he had been imprisoned, and rehearsed +them with humble and exculpatory professions. He forgot that in the +letter which so excited their sympathy he had denied that he knew any +such reasons, and the sovereigns forgot it too. The meeting had awakened +the tenderer parts of their natures, and their hearts went out to him. +They made verbal promises of largesses and professions of restitution, +but Harrisse could find no written expressions of this kind, till in the +instructions of March 14, 1502, when they expressed their directions for +his guidance during his next voyage. The Admiral grew confident, as of +old, in their presence. He had always reached a coign of vantage in his +personal intercourse with the Queen. He had evidently not lost that +power. He began to picture his return to Santo Domingo with the triumph +that he now enjoyed. It was a hollow hope. He was never again to be +Viceroy of the Indies. + +[Sidenote: Columbus suspended from power.] + +[Sidenote: Other explorers in American waters.] + +[Sidenote: Portuguese claims.] + +The disorders in Española were but a part of the reasons why it was now +decided to suspend the patented rights of the Admiral, if not +permanently to deny the further exercise of them. We have seen how the +government had committed itself to other discoveries, profiting, as it +did, by the maps which Columbus had sent back to Spain. These +discoveries were a new source of tribute which could not be neglected. +Rival nations too were alert, and ships of the Portuguese and of the +English had been found prowling about within the unquestioned limits +allowed to Spain by the new treaty line of Tordesillas. At the north and +at the south these same powers were pushing their search, to see if +perchance portions of the new regions could not be found to project so +far east as to bring them on the Portuguese side of that same line. +Portugal had already claimed that Cabral had found such territory under +the equator and south of it. An eastward projection of Brazil at the +south, twenty degrees and more, is very common in the contemporary +Portuguese maps. + +[Sidenote: 1501. May 13. Coelho's voyage.] + +[Sidenote: Was Vespucius on this voyage?] + +On the 13th of May, 1501, a new Portuguese fleet of three ships, under +the command of Gonçalo Coelho, sailed from Lisbon to develop the coast +of the southern Vera Cruz, as South America was now called, and to see +if a way could be found through it to the Moluccas. In June, the fleet, +while at the Cape de Verde Islands, met Cabral with his vessels on their +return from India. Here it was that Cabral's interpreter, Gasparo, +communicated the particulars of Cabral's discovery to Vespucius, who +was, as seems pretty clear, though by no means certain, on board this +outward-bound fleet. A letter exists, brought to light by Count Baldelli +Boni, not, however, in the hand of Vespucius, in which the writer, under +date of June 4, gave the results of his note-takings with Cabral to Pier +Francisco de Medici. Varnhagen is in some doubt about the genuineness of +this document. Indeed, the historian, if he weighs all the testimony +that has been adduced for and against the participancy of Vespucius in +this voyage, can hardly be quite sure that the Florentine was aboard at +all, and Santarem is confident he was not. Navarrete thinks he was +perhaps there in some subordinate capacity. Humboldt is staggered at the +profession of Vespucius in still keeping the Great Bear above the +horizon at 32° south, since it is lost after reaching 26°. + +[Sidenote: The _Mundus Novus_ of Vespucius.] + +With all this doubt, we have got to make something out of another +letter, which in the published copy purports to have been written in +1503 about this voyage by Vespucius himself, and from it we learn that +his ship had struck the coast at Cape St. Roque, on August 17, 1501. The +discoverers reached and named Cape St. Augustine on August 28. On +November 1, they were at Bahia. By the 3d of April, 1502, they had +reached the latitude of 52° south, when, driven off the coast in a +severe gale, they made apparently the island of Georgia, whence they +stood over to Africa, and reached Lisbon on September, 7, 1502. By what +name Vespucius called this South American coast we do not know, for his +original Italian text is lost, but the _Mundus Novus_ of the Latin +paraphrase or version raised a feeling of expectancy that something new +had really been found, distinct from the spicy East. Varnhagen is +convinced that Vespucius, different from Columbus, had awakened to the +conception of an absolutely new quarter of the earth. There is little +ground for the belief, however, in its full extent and confidence. The +little tract had in it the elements of popularity, and in 1504 and 1505 +the German and French presses gave it currency in several editions in +the Latin tongue, whence it was turned into Italian, German, and Dutch, +spreading through Europe the fame of Vespucius. We trace to this voyage +the origin of the nomenclature of the coast of the South American +continent which then grew up, and is represented in the earlier maps, +like that of Lorenz Fries, for instance, in 1504. + +[Illustration: MUNDUS NOVUS, first page.] + +[Sidenote: Discoveries of Vespucius.] + +[Sidenote: Maps of early voyages.] + +A letter dated August 12, 1507, preserved in Tritemius's _Epistolarum +familiarum libri duo_ (1536), has been thought to refer to a printed map +which showed the discoveries of Vespucius down to 10° south. This map is +unknown, apparently, as the particulars given concerning it do not agree +with the map of Ruysch, the only one, so far as known, to antedate that +epistle. It is possibly the missing map which Waldseemüller is thought +to have first made, and which became the prototype of the recognized +Waldseemüller map of the Ptolemy of 1513, and was possibly the one from +which the Cantino map, yet to be described, was perfected in other parts +than those of the Cortereal discoveries. This anterior map may have been +merely an early state of the plate, and Lelewel gives reasons for +believing that early impressions of this map were in the market in 1507. + +[Sidenote: Columbus and Vespucius.] + +Thus while Columbus was nurturing his deferred hopes, neglected and +poor, and awaiting what after all was but a tantalizing revival of royal +interest, the rival Portuguese, acting most probably under the +influences of Columbus's own countryman, this Florentine, were +stretching farther towards the true western route to the Moluccas than +the Admiral had any conception of. Vespucius was also at the same time +unwittingly asserting claims which should in the end rob the Great +Discoverer of the meed of bestowing his name on the new continent which +he had just as unwittingly discovered. The contrast is of the same +strange impressiveness which marks so many of the improbable turns in +the career of Columbus. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: 1500. Spanish purposes at the north.] + +Meanwhile, what was going on in the north, where Portugal was pushing +her discoveries in the region already explored by Cabot? The Spaniards +had been dilatory here. The monarchs, May 6, 1500, while they were +distracted with the reports of the disquietude of Española, had turned +their attention in this direction, and had thought of sending ships into +the seas which "Sebastian Cabot had discovered." They had done nothing, +however, though Navarrete finds that explorations thitherward, under +Juan Dornelos and Ojeda, had been planned. + +[Illustration: STRAITS OF BELLE ISLE, SHOWING SITE OF EARLY NORMAN +FISHING STATION AT BRADORE. + +[After Reclus's _L'Amerique_.]] + + +[Illustration: MS. OF GASPAR CORTEREAL. + +[From Harrisse's _Cortereal_, _Postscriptum_, 1883.]] + +[Sidenote: Bretons and Normans at the north.] + +If we may believe some of the accounts of explorations this way on the +part of the Bretons and Normans, they had founded a settlement called +Brest on the Labrador coast, just within the Straits of Belle Isle, on a +bay now called Bradore, as early as 1500. It is said that traces of +their houses can be still seen there. But there is no definite +contemporary record of their exploits. We have such records of the +Portuguese movements, though not through Spanish sources. Unaccountably, +Peter Martyr, who kept himself alert for all such impressions, makes no +reference to any Portuguese voyages; and it is only when we come down to +Gomara (1551) that we find a Spanish writer reverting to the narratives. +In doing so, Gomara makes, at the same time, some confusion in the +chronology. + +[Sidenote: Cortereal voyages.] + +Portugal had missed a great opportunity in discrediting Columbus, but +she had succeeded in finding one in Da Gama. She was now in wait for a +chance to mate her southern route with a western, or rather with a +northern,--at any rate, with one which would give her some warrant for +efforts not openly in violation of the negotiations which had followed +upon the Bull of Demarcation. Opportunely, word came to Lisbon of the +successes of the Cabot voyages, and there was the probability of islands +and interjacent passages at the north very like the geographical +configuration which the Spaniards had found farther south. To +appearances, Cabot had met with such land on the Portuguese side of the +division line of the treaty of Tordesillas. + +[Sidenote: 1500. Gaspar Cortereal.] + +[Sidenote: 1501. Gaspar Cortereal again.] + +King Emanuel had a vassal in Gaspar Cortereal, who at this time was a +man about fifty years old, and he had already in years past conducted +explorations oceanward, though we have no definite knowledge of their +results. It has been conjectured that Columbus may have known him; but +there is nothing to make this certain. At any rate, there was little in +the surroundings of Columbus at Española, when he was subjected to +chains in the summer of 1500, to remind him of any northern rivalry, +though the visits of Ojeda and Pinzon to that island were foreboding. It +was just at that time that Cortereal sailed away from Portugal to the +northwest. He discovered the Terra do Labrador, which he named +apparently because he thought its natives would increase very handily +the slave labor of Portugal. To follow up this quest, Gaspar sailed +again with three ships, May 15, 1501, which is the date given by Damian +de Goes. Harrisse is not so sure, but finds that Gaspar was still in +port April 21, 1501. Cortereal ran a course a little more to the west, +and came to a coast, two thousand miles away, as was reckoned, and +skirted it without finding any end. He decided from the volume of its +rivers, that it was probably a continental area. The voyagers found in +the hands of some natives whom they saw a broken sword and two silver +earrings, evidently of Italian make. The natural inference is that they +had fallen among tribes which Cabot had encountered on his second +voyage, if indeed these relics did not represent earlier visitors. +Cortereal also found in a high latitude a country which he called _Terra +Verde_. Two of the vessels returned safely, bringing home some of the +natives, and the capture of such, to make good the name bestowed during +the previous voyage, seems to have been the principal aim of the +explorers. The third ship, with Gaspar on board, was never afterwards +heard of. + +[Illustration: MS. OF MIGUEL CORTEREAL. + +[From Harrisse's _Cortereal, Postscriptum_.]] + +[Sidenote: Original sources on the Cortereal voyages.] + +[Sidenote: Portuguese habit of concealing information.] + +It so happened that Pasqualigo, the Venetian ambassador in Lisbon, made +record of the return of the first of these vessels, in a letter which he +wrote from Lisbon, October 19, 1501; and it is from this, which made +part of the well-known _Paesi novamente retrovati_ (Vicenza, 1507), that +we derive what little knowledge we have of these voyages. The reports +have fortunately been supplemented by Harrisse in a dispatch dated +October 17, 1501, which he has produced from the archives of Modena, in +which one Alberto Cantino tells how he heard the captain of the vessel +which arrived second tell the story to the king. This dispatch to the +Duke of Ferrara was followed by a map showing the new discoveries. This +cartographical record had been known for some years before it was +reproduced by Harrisse on a large scale. It is apparent from this that +the discoverers believed, or feigned to believe, that the new-found +regions lay westward from Ireland half-way to the American coasts. The +evidence that they feigned to believe rather than that they knew these +lands to be east of their limitary line may not be found; but it was +probably some such doubt of their honesty which induced Robert Thorne, +of Bristol, to speak of the purpose which the Portuguese had in +falsifying their maps. Nor were the frauds confined to maps. +Translations were distorted and narratives perverted. Biddle, in his +_Life of Cabot_, points out a marked instance of this, where the simple +language of Pasqualigo is twisted so as to convey the impression of a +long acquaintance of the natives with Italian commodities, as proving +that the Italians had formerly visited the region,--a hint which Biddle +supposed the Zeni narrative at a later date was contrived to sustain, so +as to deceive many writers. We shall soon revert to this Cantino map. + +[Sidenote: 1501. Miguel Cortereal.] + +The voyage which Miguel Cortereal is known to have undertaken in the +summer of 1501, which has been connected with this series of northwest +voyages, is held by Harrisse, in his revised opinions, not to have been +to the New World at all, but to have been conducted against the Grand +Turk, and Cortereal returned from it on November 4, 1501. + +[Sidenote: 1502. Miguel Cortereal again.] + +To search for the missing Gaspar Cortereal, Miguel, on May 10, 1502, +again sailed to the northwest with two or three ships. They found the +same coast as before, searched it without success, and returned again +without a leader; for Miguel's ship missed the others at a rendezvous +and was never again heard of. + +[Sidenote: Terre des Cortereal.] + +[Sidenote: Straits of Anian.] + +The endeavors of the Portuguese in this direction did not end here; and +the region thus brought by them to the attention of the cartographer +soon acquired in their maps the name of _Terre des Cortereal_, or _Terra +dos Corte reals_, or, as Latinized by Sylvanus, _Regalis Domus_. There +is little, however, to connect these earliest ventures with later +history, except perhaps that from their experiences it is that a vague +cartographical conception of the fabled Straits of Anian confronts us in +many of the maps of the latter half of the sixteenth century. No one has +made it quite sure whence the appellation or even the idea of such a +strait came. By some it has been thought to have grown out of Marco +Polo's Ania, which was conceived to be in the north. By Navarrete, +Humboldt, and others it has been made to grow in some way out of these +Cortereal voyages, and Humboldt supposes that the entrance to Hudson +Bay, under 60° north latitude, was thought at that time to lead to some +sort of a transcontinental passage, going it is hardly known where. The +name does not seem at first to have been magnified into all its later +associations of a kingdom, or "regnum" of Anian, as the Latin +nomenclature then had it. Its great city of Quivira did not appear till +some time after the middle of the sixteenth century, and then it was not +always quite certain to the cosmographical mind whether all this +magnificence might not better be placed on the Asiatic side of such a +strait. This imaginary channel was made for a long period to run along +the parallels of latitudes somewhere in the northern regions of the New +World, after America had begun generally to have its independent +existence recognized, south of the Arctic regions at least. The next +stage of the belief violently changed the course of the straits across +the parallels, prefiguring the later discovered Bering's Straits; and +this is made prominent in maps of Zalterius (1566) and Mercator (1569), +and in the maps of those who copied these masters. + + +[Sidenote: Spanish maps.] + +[Sidenote: Maps of the Cortereal discoveries.] + +It took thirty years for the Cortereal discoveries to work their way +into the conceptions of the Spanish map makers. Whether this dilatory +belief came from lack of information, obliviousness, or simply from an +heroic persistence in ignoring what was not their boast, is a question +to be decided through an estimate of the Spanish character. There seems, +however, to have been interest enough on the part of a single Italian +noble to seek information at once, as we see from the Cantino map; but +the knowledge was not, nevertheless, apparently a matter of such +interest but it could escape Ruysch in 1508. Not till Sylvanus issued +his edition of Ptolemy, in 1511, did any signs of these Cortereal +expeditions appear on an engraved map. + +[Illustration: THE CANTINO MAP.] + +[Sidenote: The Cantino map. 1502.] + +Only a few years have passed since students of these cartographical +fields were first allowed free study of this Cantino map. It is, after +La Cosa, the most interesting of all the early maps of the American +coast as its configuration had grown to be comprehended in the ten years +which followed the first voyage of Columbus. + +[Sidenote: The Cortereal discoveries east of the line of demarcation.] + +[Sidenote: Terra Verde.] + +There are three special points of interest in this chart. The first is +the evident purpose of the maker, when sending it (1502) to his +correspondent in Italy, to render it clear that the coasts which the +Portuguese had tracked in the northwest Atlantic were sufficiently +protuberant towards the rising sun to throw them on the Portuguese side +of the revised line of demarcation. It is by no means certain, however, +in doing so, that they pretended their discoveries to have been other +than neighboring to Asia, since a peninsula north of these regions is +called a "point of Asia." The ordinary belief of geographers at that +time was that our modern Greenland was an extension of northern Europe. +So it does not seem altogether certain that the _Terra Verde_ of +Cortereal can be held to be identical with its namesake of the Sagas. + +[Sidenote: Columbus and the Cantino map in the Paria region.] + +[Sidenote: Columbus in want.] + +The second point of interest is what seems to be the connection between +this map and those which had emanated from the results of the Columbus +voyages, directly or indirectly. Columbus had made a chart of his track +through the Gulf of Paria, and had sent it to Spain, and Ojeda had +coursed the same region by it. We know from a letter of Angelo +Trivigiano, the secretary of the Venetian ambassador in Spain, dated at +Granada, August 21, 1501, and addressed to Domenico Malipiero, that at +that time Columbus, who had ingratiated himself with the writer of the +letter, was living without money, in great want, and out of favor with +the sovereigns. This letter-writer then speaks of his intercession with +Peter Martyr to have copies of his narrative of the voyages of Columbus +made, and of his pleading with Columbus himself to have transcripts of +his own letters to his sovereigns given to him, as well as a map of the +new discoveries from the Admiral's own charts, which he then had with +him in Granada. + +There are three letters of Trivigiano, but the originals are not known. +Foscarini in 1752 used them in his _Della Letteratura veneziana_, as +found in the library of Jacopo Soranzo; but both these originals and +Foscarini's copies have eluded the search of Harrisse, who gives them +as printed or abstracted by Zurla. + +What we have is not supposed to be the entire text, and we may well +regret the loss of the rest. Trivigiano says of the map that he expected +it to be extremely well executed on a large scale, giving ample details +of the country which had been discovered. He refers to the delays +incident to sending to Palos to have it made, because persons capable of +such work could only be found there. + +No such copy as that made for Malipiero is now known. Harrisse thinks +that if it is ever discovered it will be very like the Cantino map, with +the Cortereal discoveries left out. This same commentator also points +out that there are certainly indications in the Cantino map that the +maker of it, in drafting the region about the Gulf of Paria at least, +worked either from Columbus's map or from some copy of it, for his +information seems to be more correct than that which La Cosa followed. + +[Sidenote: What is the coast north of Cuba?] + +The third point of interest in this Cantino map, and one which has given +rise to opposing views, respects that coast which is drawn in it north +of the completed Cuba, and which at first glance is taken with little +question for the Atlantic coast of the United States from Florida up. Is +it such? Did the cartographers of that time have anything more than +conjecture by which to run such a coast line? + +A letter of Pasqualigo, dated at Lisbon, October 18, 1501, and found by +Von Ranke at Venice in the diary of Marino Sanuto,--a running record of +events, which begins in 1496,--has been interpreted by Humboldt as +signifying that at this time it was known among the Portuguese observers +of the maritime reports that a continental stretch of coast connected +the Spanish discoveries in the Antilles with those of the Portuguese at +the north. Harrisse questions this interpretation, and considers that +what Humboldt thinks knowledge was simply a tentative conjecture. If +this knowledge is represented in the Cantino map, there is certainly too +great remoteness in the regions of the Cortereal discoveries to form +such a connection. It is of course possible that the map is a +falsification in this respect, to make the line of demarcation serve the +Portuguese interests, and such falsification is by no means improbable. + +[Sidenote: The Cantino and La Cosa maps at variance.] + +[Sidenote: Bimini.] + +It will be remembered that the La Cosa map showed no hesitancy in +placing the Antilles on the coast of Asia, and put the region of the +Cabot landfall on the coast of Cathay. Consequently, the difference +between the La Cosa and the Cantino maps for this region north of Cuba +is phenomenal. In these two or three years (1500-1502), something had +come to pass which seemed to raise the suspicion that this northern +continental line might possibly not be Asiatic after all, or at least it +might not have the trend or contour which had before been given it on +the Asiatic theory. It is an interesting question from whom this +information could have come. Was this coast in the Cantino map indeed +not North American, but the coast of Yucatan, misplaced, as one +conjecture has been? But this involves a recognition of some voyage on +the Yucatan coast of which we have no record. Was it the result of one +of the voyages of Vespucius, and was Varnhagen right in tracking that +navigator up the east Florida shore? Was it drawn by some unauthorized +Spanish mariners, who were--we know Columbus complained of +such--invading his vested rights, or perhaps by some of those to whom he +was finally induced to concede the privilege of exploration? Was it +found by some English explorer who answers the description of Ojeda in +1501, when he complains that people of this nation had been in these +regions some years before? Was it the discovery of some of those against +whom a royal prohibition of discovery was issued by the Catholic kings, +September 3, 1501? Was it anything more than the result of some vague +information from the Lucayan Indians, aided by a sprinkling of +supposable names, respecting a land called Bimini lying there away? +Eight or nine years later, Peter Martyr, in the map which he published +in 1511, seems to have thought so, and certain stories of a fountain of +youth in regions lying in that direction were already prevalent, as +Martyr also shows us. The fact seems to be that we have no Spanish map +between the making of La Cosa's in 1500 and this one of Peter Martyr in +1511, to indicate any Spanish acquaintance with such a northern coast. + +[Sidenote: Peter Martyr's map. 1511.] + +This map of 1511, if it is honest enough to show what the Spanish +government knew of Florida, is indicative of but the vaguest +information, and its divulgence of that coast may, in Brevoort's +opinion, account for the rarity of the chart, in view of the +determination of Spain to keep control as far as she could of all +cartographical records of what her explorers found out. + +It is evident, if we accept the theory of this Cantino map showing the +coast of the United States, that we have in it a delineation nearer the +source by several years than those which modern students have longer +known in the Waldseemüller map of 1508, the Stobnicza map of 1512, the +Reisch map of 1515, and the so-called Admiral's map of 1513,--all which +arose, it is very clear, from much the same source as this of Cantino. +What is that source? There are some things that seem to indicate that +this source was the description of Portuguese rather than of other +seamen. This belief falls in with what we know of the cordial relations +of Portugal and Duke René, under whose auspices Waldseemüller at least +worked. Thus it would seem that while Spain was impeding cartographical +knowledge through the rest of Europe, Portugal was so assiduously +helping it that for many years the Ptolemies and other central and +southern European publications were making known the cosmographical +ideas which originated in Portugal. + +It has been already said that Humboldt in his _Examen Critique_ (iv. +262) refers to a letter which indicates that in October, 1501, the +Portuguese had already learned, or it may be only conjectured, that the +coast from the region of the Antilles ran uninterruptedly north till it +united with the snowy shores of the northern discoveries. This, then, +seems to indicate that it was a Portuguese source that supplied +conjecture, if not fact, to the maker of the Cantino map. Harrisse's +solution of this matter, as also mentioned already, is that the letter +found by Von Ranke and the letter which we know Pasqualigo sent to +Venice about the Cortereal voyages were one and the same, and that it +was rather conjecture than fact that the Portuguese possessed at this +time. + +The obvious difficulty in the cartographical problem for the Portuguese +was, as has been said, to make it appear that they were not disregarding +the agreement at Tordesillas while they were securing a region for +sovereignty. We have already said that this accounts for the extreme +eastern position found in the Cantino and the cognate maps of the +Newfoundland region, which, as thus drawn, it was not easy to connect +with the coast line of eastern Florida. Hence the open sea-gap which +exists between them in the maps, while the evidence of the descriptions +would make the coast line continuous. + +We have thus suggested possible solutions of this continental shore +above Florida. It must be confessed that the truth is far from patent, +and we must yet wait perhaps a long time before we discover, if indeed +we ever do, to whom this mapping of the coast, as shown in the Cantino +map, was due. + +[Sidenote: Was the Florida coast known?] + +There are evidences other than those of this Cantino map that the +Portuguese were in this Floridian region in the early years of the +sixteenth century, and Lelewel tried to work out their discoveries from +scattered data, in a conjectural map, which he marks 1501-1504, and +which resembles the Ptolemy map of 1513. The bringing forward of the +Cantino map confirms much of the supposed cartography. + +There is one theory which to some minds gives a very easy solution of +this problem, without requiring belief in any knowledge, clandestine or +public, of such a land. + +Brevoort in his _Verrazano_ had already been inclined to the view later +emphasized by Stevens in his _Schöner_, and reiterated by Coote in his +editorial revision of that posthumous work. + +Stevens is content to allow Ocampo, in 1508, to have been the earliest +probable discoverer of this coast, and Ponce de Leon as the original +attested finder in 1513. + +[Sidenote: This Cantino coast a duplicated Cuba.] + +The Stevens theory is that this seeming Florida arose from a Portuguese +misconception of the first two voyages of Columbus, by which two regions +were thought to have been coasted instead of different sides of the +same, and that what others consider an early premonition of Florida and +the upper coasts was simply a duplicated Cuba, to make good the +Portuguese conception. It is not explained how so strange a +misconception of very palpable truths could have arisen, or how a coast +trending north and south so far could have been confounded with one +stretching at right angles to such a course for so short a distance. + +Stevens traces the influence of his "bogus Cuba" in a long series of +maps based on Portuguese notions, in which he names those of +Waldseemüller (1513), Stobnicza (1512), Schöner (1515, 1520), Reisch +(1515), Bordone (1528), Solinus (1520), Friess (1522), and Grynæus +(1532--made probably earlier), as opposed to the Spanish and more +truthful view, which is expressed by Ruysch (1507-8) and Peter Martyr, +(1511). + +It is a proposition not to be dismissed lightly nor accepted +triumphantly on our present knowledge. We must wait for further +developments. + +The fancy that this coast was Asia and that Cuba was Asia might, indeed, +have led to the transfer to it at one time of the names which Columbus +had placed along the north coast of his supposed peninsular Cuba; but +that proves a misplacement of the names, and not a creation of the +coast. For a while this continental land was backed up on the maps +against a meridian scale, which hid the secret of its western limits, +and left it a possible segment of Asia. Then it stood out alone with a +north and southwestern line, but with Asia beyond, just as if it were no +part of it, and this delineation was common even while there was a +division of geographical belief as to North America and Asia being one. + +[Sidenote: Cuba an island.] + +The fact that Cuba, in the drafting of the La Cosa and Cantino maps, is +represented as an island has at times been held to signify that the +views of Columbus respecting its peninsular rather than its insular +character were not wholly shared by his contemporaries. That foolish act +by which, under penalty, the Admiral forced his crew to swear that it +was a part of the main might well imply that he expected his assertions +would be far from acceptable to other cosmographers. If Varnhagen's +opinion as to the track of Vespucius in his voyage of 1497, following +the contour of the Gulf of Mexico, be accepted as knowledge of the time, +the insularity of Cuba was necessarily proved even at that early day; +but it is the opinion of Henry Stevens, as has been already shown, that +the green outline of the western parts of Cuba in La Cosa's chart was +only the conventional way of expressing an uncertain coast. Consequently +it did not imply insularity. If it is to be supposed that the Portuguese +had a similar method of expressing uncertainties of coast, they did not +employ it in the Cantino map, and Cuba in 1502 is unmistakably an +island. It is, moreover, sufficiently like the Cuba of La Cosa to show +it was drawn from one and the same prototype. If the maker of the +Cantino map followed La Cosa, or a copy of La Cosa, or the material +from which La Cosa worked, there is no proof that he ever suspected the +peninsularity of Cuba. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: Columbus looking on at other explorations.] + +Columbus, in his hours of neglect, and amid his unheeded pleas for +recognition, during these two grewsome years in Spain, may never have +comprehended in their full significance these active efforts of the +Portuguese to anticipate his own hopes of a western passage beyond the +Golden Chersonesus; but the doings of Mendoza, Cristobal Guerra, and +other fellow-subjects of Spain were not wholly unknown to him. + +[Sidenote: 1500. October. Bastidas's expedition.] + +In October, 1500, and before Columbus knew just what his reception in +Spain was going to be, Rodrigo de Bastidas, accompanied by La Cosa and +Vasco Nuñez Balboa, sailed from Cadiz on an expedition that had for its +object to secure to the Crown one quarter of the profits, and to make an +examination of the coast line beyond the bay of Venezuela, in order that +it might be made sure that no channel to an open sea lay beyond. The two +caravels followed the shore to Nombre de Dios, and at the narrowest part +of the isthmus, without suspecting their nearness to the longed-for sea, +the navigators turned back. Finding their vessels unseaworthy, for the +worms had riddled their bottoms, they sought a harbor in Española, near +which their vessels foundered after they had saved a part of their +lading. A little later, this gave Bobadilla a chance to arrest the +commander for illicit trade with the natives. This transaction was +nothing more, apparently, than the barter of trinkets for provisions, as +he was leading his men across the island to the settlements. + +[Sidenote: Portuguese and English in these regions.] + +It was while with Bastidas, in 1501-2, that La Cosa reports seeing the +Portuguese prowling about the Caribbean and Mexican waters, seeking for +a passage to Calicut. It was while on a mission of remonstrance to +Lisbon that La Cosa was later arrested and imprisoned, and remained till +August, 1504, a prisoner in Portugal. + +[Sidenote: 1502. January. Ojeda's voyage.] + +We have seen that in 1499 Ojeda had met or heard of English vessels on +the coast of Terra Firma, or professed that he had. The Spanish +government, suspecting they were but precursors of others who might +attempt to occupy the coast, determined on thwarting such purposes, if +possible, by anticipating occupation. Ojeda was given the power to lead +thither a colony, if he could do it without cost to the Crown, which +reserved a due share of his profits. He obtained the assistance of Juan +de Vegara and Garcia de Ocampo, and with this backing he sailed with +four ships from Cadiz in January, 1502, while Columbus was preparing his +own little fleet for his last voyage. It was a venture, however, that +came to naught. The natives, under ample provocation, proved hostile, +food was lacking, the leaders quarreled, and the partners of Ojeda, +combining, overpowered (May, 1502) their leader, and sent him a prisoner +to Española, where he arrived in September, 1502. + +[Sidenote: English in the West Indies.] + +There has never been any clear definition as to who these Englishmen +were, or what was their project, during these earliest years of the +sixteenth century. There is evidence that Henry VII. about this time +authorized some ventures in which his countrymen were joint sharers with +the Portuguese, but we know nothing further of the regions visited than +that the Privy Purse expenses show how some Bristol men received a +gratuity for having been at the "Newefounde Launde." There is also a +vague notion to be formed from an old entry that Sebastian Cabot himself +again visited this region in 1503, and brought home three of the +natives,--to say nothing of additional even vaguer suspicions of other +ventures of the English at this time. + + * * * * * + +In enumerating the ocean movements that were now going on, some +intimation has been given of the tiresome expectancy of something better +which was intermittently beguiling the spirits of Columbus during the +eighteen months that he remained in Spain. It is necessary to trace his +unhappy life in some detail, though the particulars are not abundant. + +[Sidenote: Columbus's life in Spain. 1500-1502.] + +Ferdinand had not been unobservant of all these expeditionary movements, +and they were quite as threatening to the Spanish supremacy in the New +World as his own personal defection was to the dejected Admiral. It had +become very clear that by tying his own hands, as he had in the compact +which Columbus was urging to have observed, the King had allowed +opportunities to pass by which he could profit through the newly aroused +enthusiasm of the seaports. + +[Sidenote: Ferdinand allows other expeditions.] + +We have seen that he had, nevertheless, through Fonseca sanctioned the +expeditions of Ojeda, Pinzon, and others, and had notably in that of +Niño got large profits for the exchequer. He had done this in defiance +of the vested rights of Columbus, and there is little doubt that to +bring Columbus into disgrace by the loss of his Admiral's power served +in part to open the field of discovery more as Ferdinand wished. With +the Viceroy dethroned and become a waiting suitor, there was little to +stay Ferdinand's ambition in sending out other explorers. His experience +had taught him to allow no stipulations on which explorers could found +exorbitant demands upon the booty and profit of the ventures. Anybody +could sail westward now, and there was no longer the courage of +conviction required to face an unknown sea and find an opposite shore. +Columbus, who had shown the way, was now easily cast off as a useless +pilot. + +It was not difficult for the King to frame excuses when Columbus urged +his reinstatement. There was no use in sending back an unpopular viceroy +before the people of the colony had been quieted. Give them time. It +might be seasonable enough to send to them their old master when they +had forgotten their misfortunes under him. Perhaps a better man than +Bobadilla could be found to still the commotions, and if so he might be +sent. In the face of all this and the King's determination, Columbus +could do nothing but acquiesce, and so he gradually made up his mind to +bide his time once more. It was not a new discipline for him. + +[Sidenote: Bobadilla's rule in Española.] + +It was clear from the intelligence which was reaching Spain that +Bobadilla would have to be superseded. Freed from the restraints which +had created so much complaint during the rule of Columbus, and even +courted with offers of indulgence, the miserable colony at Española +readily degenerated from bad to worse. The new governor had hoped to +find that a lack of constraint would do for the people what an excess of +it had failed to do. He erred in his judgment, and let the colony slip +beyond his control. Licentiousness was everywhere. The only exaction he +required was the tribute of gold. He reduced the proportion which must +be surrendered to the Crown from a third to an eleventh, but he so +apportioned the labor of the natives to the colonists that the yield of +gold grew rapidly, and became more with the tax an eleventh than it had +been when it was a third. This inhuman degradation of the poor natives +had become an organized misery when, a little later, Las Casas arrived +in the colony, and he depicts the baleful contrasts of the Indians and +their attractive island. Gold was potent, but it was not potent enough +to keep Bobadilla in his place. The representations of the agony of life +among the natives were so harrowing that it was decided to send a new +governor at once. + +[Sidenote: Ovando sent to Española.] + +The person selected was Nicholas de Ovando, a man of whom Las Casas, who +went out with him, gives a high character for justice, sobriety, and +graciousness. Perhaps he deserved it. The sympathizers with Columbus +find it hard to believe such praise. Ovando was commissioned as governor +over all the continental and insular domains, then acquired or +thereafter to be added to the Crown in the New World. He was to have his +capital at Santo Domingo. He was deputed, with about as much authority +as Bobadilla had had, to correct abuses and punish delinquents, and was +to take one third of all gold so far stored up, and one half of what was +yet to be gathered. He was to monopolize all trade for the Crown. He was +to segregate the colonists as much as possible in settlements. No +supplies were to be allowed to the people unless they got them through +the royal factor. New efforts were to be made through some Franciscans, +who accompanied Ovando, to convert the Indians. The natives were to be +made to work in the mines as hired servants, paid by the Crown. + +[Sidenote: Negro slaves to be introduced.] + +It had already become evident that such labor as the mining of gold +required was too exhausting for the natives, and the death-rate among +them was such that eyes were already opened to the danger of +extermination. By a sophistry which suited a sixteenth-century +Christian, the existence of this poor race was to be prolonged by +introducing the negro race from Africa, to take the heavier burden of +the toil, because it was believed they would die more slowly under the +trial. So it was royally ordered that slaves, born of Africans, in +Spain, might be carried to Española. The promise of Columbus's letter to +Sanchez was beginning to prove delusive. It was going to require the +degradation of two races instead of one. That was all! + +[Sidenote: 1501. Columbus's property restored.] + +[Sidenote: His factor.] + +To assuage the smart of all this forcible deprivation of his power, +Columbus was apprised that under a royal order of September 27, 1501, +Ovando would see to the restitution of any property of his which +Bobadilla had appropriated, and that the Admiral was to be allowed to +send a factor in the fleet to look after his interests under the +articles which divided the gold and treasure between him and the Crown. +To this office of factor Columbus appointed Alonso Sanchez de Carvajal. + +[Sidenote: Ovando's fleet.] + +[Sidenote: 1502. February 3. It sails.] + +The pomp and circumstance of the fleet were like a biting sarcasm to the +poor Admiral. One might expect he could have no high opinions of its +pilots, for we find him writing to the sovereigns, on February 6, a +letter laying before them certain observations on the art of navigation, +in which he says: "There will be many who will desire to sail to the +discovered islands; and if the way is known those who have had +experience of it may safest traverse it." Perhaps he meant to imply that +better pilots were more important than much parade. He in his most +favored time had never been fitted out with a fleet of thirty sail, so +many of them large ships. He had never carried out so many cavaliers, +nor so large a proportion of such persons of rank, as made a shining +part of the 2,500 souls now embarked. He could contrast his Franciscan +gown and girdle of rope with Ovando's brilliant silks and brocades which +the sovereigns authorized him to wear. There was more state in the new +governor's bodyguard of twenty-two esquires, mounted and foot, than +Columbus had ever dreamed of in Santo Domingo. Instead of vile convicts +there were respectable married men with their families, the guaranty of +honorable living. So that when the fleet went to sea, February 13, 1502, +there were hopes that a right method of founding a colony on family life +had at last found favor. + +[Sidenote: 1502. April. Reaches Santo Domingo.] + +The vessels very soon encountered a gale, in which one ship foundered, +and from the deck-loads which were thrown over from the rest and floated +to the shore it was for a long time apprehended that the fleet had +suffered much more severely. A single ship was all that failed finally +to reach Santo Domingo about the middle of April, 1502. + +Let us turn now to Columbus himself. He had not failed, as we have said, +to reach something like mental quiet in the conviction that he could +expect nothing but neglect for the present. So his active mind engaged +in those visionary and speculative trains of thought wherein, when his +body was weary and his spirits harried, he was prone to find relief. + +[Sidenote: Columbus's _Libros de las proficias_.] + +He set himself to the composition of a maundering and erratic paper, +which, under the title of _Libros de las proficias_, is preserved in the +Biblioteca Colombina at Seville. The manuscript, however, is not in the +handwriting of Columbus, and no one has thought it worth while to print +the whole of it. + +[Sidenote: Isaiah's prophecy.] + +[Sidenote: Conquest of the Holy Land.] + +In it there is evidence of his study, with the assistance of a +Carthusian friar, of the Bible and of the early fathers of the Church, +and it shows, as his letter to Juan's nurse had shown, how he had at +last worked himself into the belief that all his early arguments for the +westward passage were vain; that he had simply been impelled by +something that he had not then suspected; and that his was but a +predestined mission to make good what he imagined was the prophecy of +Isaiah in the Apocalypse. This having been done, there was something yet +left to be accomplished before the anticipated eclipse of all earthly +things came on, and that was the conquest of the Holy Land, for which he +was the appointed leader. He addressed this driveling exposition, +together with an urgent appeal for the undertaking of the crusade, to +Ferdinand and Isabella, but without convincing them that such a +self-appointed instrument of God was quite worthy of their employment. + +[Sidenote: End of the world.] + +The great catastrophe of the world's end was, as Columbus calculated, +about 155 years away. He based his estimate upon an opinion of St. +Augustine that the world would endure for 7,000 years; and upon King +Alfonso's reckoning that nearly 5,344 years had passed when Christ +appeared. The 1,501 years since made the sum 6,845, leaving out of the +7,000 the 155 years of his belief. + +[Sidenote: Defeated by Satan.] + +He also fancied, or professed to believe, in a letter which he +subsequently wrote to the Pope, that the present deprivation of his +titles and rights was the work of Satan, who came to see that the +success of Columbus in the Indies would be only a preparation for the +Admiral's long-vaunted recovery of the Holy Land. The Spanish government +meanwhile knew, and they had reason to know, that their denial of his +prerogatives had quite as much to do with other things as with a legion +of diabolical powers. Unfortunately for Columbus, neither they nor the +Pope were inclined to act on any interpretation of fate that did not +include a civil policy of justice and prosperity. + +[Sidenote: His geographical whimsies.] + +[Sidenote: Would seek a passage westerly through the Caribbean Sea.] + +[Sidenote: Columbus misunderstands the currents.] + +These visions of Columbus were harmless, and served to beguile him with +pious whimsies. But the mood did not last. He next turned to his old +geographical problems. The Portuguese were searching north and south for +the passage that would lead to some indefinite land of spices, and +afford a new way to reach the trade with Calicut and the Moluccas, which +at this time, by the African route, was pouring wealth into the +Portuguese treasury in splendid contrast to the scant return from the +Spanish Indies. He harbored a belief that a better passage might yet be +found beyond the Caribbean Sea. La Cosa, in placing that vignette of St. +Christopher and the infant Christ athwart the supposed juncture of Asia +and South America, had eluded the question, not solved it. Columbus +would now go and attack the problem on the spot. His expectation to find +a desired opening in that direction was based on physical phenomena, but +in fact on only partial knowledge of them. He had been aware of the +strong currents which set westward through the Caribbean Sea, and he had +found them still flowing west when he had reached the limit of his +exploration of the southern coast of Cuba. Bastidas, who had just pushed +farther west on the main coast, had turned back while the currents were +still flowing on, along what seemed an endless coast beyond. Bastidas +did not arrive in Spain till some months after Columbus had sailed, for +he was detained a prisoner in Española at this time. Some tidings of his +experiences may have reached Spain, however, or the Admiral may not have +got his confirmation of these views till he found that voyager at Santo +Domingo, later. Columbus had believed Cuba to be another main, confining +this onward waste of waters to the south of it. + +[Sidenote: Gulf Stream.] + +It was clear to him that such currents must find an outlet to the west, +and if found, such a passage would carry him on to the sea that washed +the Golden Chersonesus. He indeed died without knowing the truth. This +same current, deflected about Honduras and Yucatan, sweeps by a +northerly circuit round the great Gulf of Mexico, and, passing out by +the Cape of Florida, flows northward in what we now call the Gulf +Stream. + +There is nothing in all the efforts of the canonizers more absurdly +puerile than De Lorgues's version of the way in which Columbus came to +believe in this strait. He had a vision, and saw it! The only difficulty +in the matter was that the poor Admiral was so ecstatic in his +hallucination that he mistook the narrowness of an isthmus for the +narrowness of a strait! + +[Sidenote: A convenient relief to Ferdinand to send Columbus on such a +search.] + +[Sidenote: 1501. Columbus prepares to equip his ships.] + +[Sidenote: 1502. February. Columbus writes to the Pope.] + +The proposition of such a search was not inopportune in the eyes of +Ferdinand. There were those about the Court who thought it unwise to +give further employment to a man who was degraded from his honors; but +to the King it was a convenient way of removing a persistent and +active-minded complainant from the vicinity of the Court, to send him on +some quest or other, and no one could tell but there was some truth in +his new views. It was worth while to let him try. So once again, by the +royal permission, Columbus set himself to work equipping a little fleet. +It was the autumn of 1501 when he appeared in Seville with the +sovereign's commands. He varied his work of preparing the ships with +spending some part of his time on his treatise on the prophecies, while +a friar named Gaspar Gorricio helped him in the labor. Early in 1502 he +had got it into shape to present to the sovereigns, and in February he +wrote the letter to Pope Alexander VII. which has already been +mentioned. + +[Sidenote: Forbidden to touch at Española.] + +As the preparations went on, he began to think of Española, and how he +might perhaps be allowed to touch there; but orders were given to him +forbidding it on the outward passage, though suffering it on the return, +for it was hoped by that time that the disorders of the island would be +suppressed. It was arranged that the Adelantado and his own son +Ferdinand should accompany him, and some interpreters learned in Arabic +were put on board, in case his success put him in contact with the +people of the Great Khan. + +The suspension of his rights lay heavily on his mind, and early in +March, 1502, he ventured to refer to the subject once more in a letter +to the sovereigns. They replied, March 14, in some instructions which +they sent from Valencia de Torre, advising him to keep his mind at ease, +and leave such things to the care of his son Diego. They assured him +that in due time the proper restitution of all would be made, and that +he must abide the time. + +[Sidenote: 1502. January 5. Columbus's care to preserve his titles, +etc.] + +He had already taken steps to secure a perpetuity of the record of his +honors and deeds, if nothing else could be permanent. It was at Seville, +January 5, 1502, that Columbus, appearing before a notary in his own +house, attested that series of documents respecting his titles and +prerogatives which are so religiously preserved at Genoa. These papers, +as we have seen, were copies which Columbus had lately secured from the +documents in the Spanish Admiralty, among which he was careful to +include the revocation of June 2, 1497, of the licenses which, much to +Columbus's annoyance, had been granted in 1495, to allow others than +himself to explore in the new regions. We may not wonder at this, but we +can hardly conjecture why a transaction of his which had caused as much +as anything his wrongs, mortification, and the loss of his dignities +should have been as assiduously preserved. These are the royal orders +which enabled Columbus, at his request, to fill up his colony with +unshackled convicts. This he might as well have let the world forget. +The royal order requiring Bobadilla or his successor to restore all the +sequestered property of Columbus, and the new declaration of his rights, +he might well have been anxious to preserve. + +[Sidenote: Columbus and the Bank of St. George.] + +There was one other act to be done which lay upon his mind, now that the +time of sailing approached. He wished to make provision that his heirs +should be able to confer some favor on his native city, and he directed +that investments should be made for that purpose in the Bank of St. +George at Genoa. He then notified the managers of that bank of his +intention in a letter which is so characteristic of his moods of +dementation that it is here copied as Harrisse translates it:-- + + +HIGH NOBLE LORDS:--Although the body walks about here, the heart is +constantly over there. Our Lord has conferred on me the greatest favor +to any one since David. The results of my undertaking already appear, +and would shine greatly were they not concealed by the blindness of the +government. I am going again to the Indies under the auspices of the +Holy Trinity, soon to return; and since I am mortal, I leave it with my +son Diego that you receive every year, forever, one tenth of the entire +revenue, such as it may be, for the purpose of reducing the tax upon +corn, wine, and other provisions. If that tenth amounts to something, +collect it. If not, take at least the will for the deed. I beg of you to +entertain regard for the son I have recommended to you. Nicolo de +Oderigo knows more about my own affairs than I do myself, and I have +sent him the transcripts of any privileges and letters for safe-keeping. +I should be glad if you could see them. My lords, the King and Queen +endeavor to honor me more than ever. May the Holy Trinity preserve your +noble persons and increase your most magnificent House. Done in Sevilla, +on the second day of April, 1502. + +The chief Admiral of the ocean, Viceroy and Governor-General of the +islands and continent of Asia and the Indies, of my lords, the King and +Queen, their Captain-General of the sea, and of their Council. + + .S. + .S.A.S. + X M Y + [Greek: Chr~o] FERENS. + + +[Sidenote: 1502. December 8. The bank's reply.] + +The letter was handed by Columbus to a Genoese banker, then in Spain, +Francisco de Rivarolla, who forwarded it to Oderigo; but as this +ambassador was then on his way to Spain, Harrisse conjectures that he +did not receive the letter till his return to Genoa, for the reply of +the bank is dated December 8, 1502, long after Columbus had sailed. This +response was addressed to Diego, and inclosed a letter to the Admiral. +The great affection and good will of Columbus towards "his first +country" gratified them inexpressibly, as they said to the son; and to +the father they acknowledged the act of his intentions to be "as great +and extraordinary as that which has been recorded about any man in the +world, considering that by your own skill, energy, and prudence, you +have discovered such a considerable portion of this earth and sphere of +the lower world, which during so many years past and centuries had +remained unknown to its inhabitants." + +The letter of Columbus to the bank remained on the files of that +institution--a single sheet of paper, written on one side only, and +pierced in the centre for the thread of the file--undiscovered till the +archivist of the bank, attracted by the indorsement, M D II, EPLA D. +ADMIRATI DON XROPHORI COLUMBI, identified it in 1829, when, at the +request of the authorities of Genoa, it was transferred to the keeping +of its archivists. It is to be seen at the city hall, to-day, placed +between two glass plates, so that either side of the paper can be read. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +THE FOURTH VOYAGE. + +1502-1504. + + +[Sidenote: 1502. March. Columbus commanded to sail.] + +[Sidenote: May 9-11. Sailed.] + +Their Majesties, in March, 1502, were evidently disturbed at Columbus's +delays in sailing, since such detentions brought to them nothing but the +Admiral's continued importunities. They now instructed him to sail +without the least delay. Nevertheless, Columbus, who had given out, as +Trivigiano reports, that he expected his discoveries on this voyage to +be more surprising and helpful than any yet made, his purpose being, in +fact, to circumnavigate the globe, did not sail from Cadiz till May 9 or +11, 1502,--the accounts vary. He had four caravels, from fifty to +seventy tons each, and they carried in all not over one hundred and +fifty men. + +[Sidenote: His instructions.] + +Apparently not forgetting the Admiral's convenient reservation +respecting the pearls in his third voyage, their Majesties in their +instructions particularly enjoined upon him that all gold and other +precious commodities which he might find should be committed at once to +the keeping of François de Porras, who was sent with him to the end that +the sovereigns might have trustworthy evidence in his accounts of the +amount received. Equally mindful of earlier defections, their further +instructions also forbade the taking of any slaves. + +[Sidenote: The physical and mental condition of Columbus.] + +Years had begun to rest heavily on the frame of Columbus. His +constitution had been strained by long exposures, and his spirits had +little elasticity left. Hope, to be sure, had not altogether departed +from his ardent nature; but it was a hope that had experienced many +reverses, and its pinions were clipped. There was still in him no lack +of mental vitality; but his reason had lost equipoise, and his +discernment was clouded with illusory visions. + +There was the utmost desire at this time on the part of their Majesties +that no rupture should break the friendly relations which were sustained +with the Portuguese court, and it had been arranged that, in case +Columbus should fall in with any Portuguese fleet, there should be the +most civil interchange of courtesies. The Spanish monarchs had also +given orders, since word had come of the Moors besieging a Portuguese +post on the African coast, that Columbus should first go thither and +afford the garrison relief. + +[Sidenote: Columbus stops on the African coast.] + +[Sidenote: 1502. May. At the Canaries.] + +It was found, on reaching that African harbor on the 15th, that the +Moors had departed. So, with no longer delay than to exchange +civilities, he lifted anchor on the same day and put to sea. It was +while he was at the Canaries, May 20-25, taking in wood and water, that +Columbus wrote to his devoted Gorricio a letter, which Navarrete +preserves. "Now my voyage will be made in the name of the Holy Trinity," +he says, "and I hope for success." + +[Sidenote: 1502. June 15. Reaches Martinico.] + +There is little to note on the voyage, which had been a prosperous one, +and on June 15 he reached Martinino (Martinico). He himself professes to +have been but twenty days between Cadiz and Martinino, but the statement +seems to have been confused, with his usual inaccuracy. He thence pushed +leisurely along over much the same track which he had pursued on his +second voyage, till he steered finally for Santo Domingo. + +[Sidenote: Determines to go to Española.] + +It will be recollected that the royal orders issued to him before +leaving Spain were so far at variance with Columbus's wishes that he was +denied the satisfaction of touching at Española. There can be little +question as to the wisdom of an injunction which the Admiral now +determined to disregard. His excuse was that his principal caravel was a +poor sailer, and he thought he could commit no mistake in insuring +greater success for his voyage by exchanging at that port this vessel +for a better one. He forgot his own treatment of Ojeda when he drove +that adventurer from the island, where, to provision a vessel whose crew +was starving, Ojeda dared to trench on his government. When we view this +pretense for thrusting himself upon an unwilling community in the light +of his unusually quick and prosperous voyage and his failure to make +any mention of his vessel's defects when he wrote from the Canaries, we +can hardly avoid the conclusion that his determination to call at +Española was suddenly taken. His whole conduct in the matter looks like +an obstinate purpose to carry his own point against the royal commands, +just as he had tried to carry it against the injunctions respecting the +making of slaves. We must remember this when we come to consider the +later neglect on the part of the King. We must remember, also, the +considerate language with which the sovereigns had conveyed this +injunction: "It is not fit that you should lose so much time; it is much +fitter that you should go another way; though if it appears necessary, +and God is willing, you may stay there a little while on your return." + +Roselly de Lorgues, with his customary disingenuousness, merely says +that Columbus came to Santo Domingo, to deliver letters with which he +was charged, and to exchange one of his caravels. + +[Sidenote: 1502. June 29. Columbus arrives off Santo Domingo.] + +[Sidenote: Columbus forbidden to enter the harbor.] + +It was the 29th of June when the little fleet of Columbus arrived off +the port. He sent in one of his commanders to ask permission to shelter +his ships, and the privilege of negotiating for another caravel, since, +as he says, "one of his ships had become unseaworthy and could no longer +carry sail." His request came to Ovando, who was now in command. This +governor had left Spain in February, only a month before Columbus +received his final instructions, and there can be little doubt that he +had learned from Fonseca that those instructions would enjoin Columbus +not to complicate in any way Ovando's assumption of command by +approaching his capital. Las Casas seems to imply this. However it may +be, Ovando was amply qualified by his own instructions to do what he +thought the circumstances required. Columbus represented that a storm +was coming on, or rather the _Historie_ tells us that he did. It is to +be remarked that Columbus himself makes no such statement. At all +events, word was sent back to Columbus by his boat that he could not +enter the harbor. Irving calls this an "ungracious refusal," and it +turned out that later events have opportunely afforded the apologists +for the Admiral the occasion to point a moral to his advantage, +particularly since Columbus, if we may believe the doubtful story, +confident of his prognostications, had again sent word that the +fleet lying in the harbor, ready to sail, would go out at great peril in +view of an impending storm. It seems to be quite uncertain if at the +time his crew had any knowledge of his reasons for nearing Española, or +of his being denied admittance to the port. At least Porras, from the +way he describes the events, leaves one to make such an inference. + +[Sidenote: Ovando's fleet.] + +[Sidenote: Bobadilla, Roldan, and others on the fleet.] + +[Sidenote: Columbus's factor had placed his gold on one of the ships.] + +This fleet in the harbor was that which had brought Ovando, and was now +laden for the return. There was on board of it, as Columbus might have +learned from his messengers, the man of all men whom he most hated, +Bobadilla, who had gracefully yielded the power to Ovando two months +before, and of whom Las Casas, who was then fresh in his inquisitive +seeking after knowledge respecting the Indies and on the spot, could not +find that any one spoke ill. On the same ship was Columbus's old +rebellious and tergiversating companion, Roldan, whose conduct had been +in these two months examined, and who was now to be sent to Spain for +further investigations. There was also embarked, but in chains, the +unfortunate cacique of the Vega, Guarionex, to be made a show of in +Seville. The lading of the ships was the most wonderful for wealth that +had ever been sent from the island. There was the gold which Bobadilla +had collected, including a remarkable nugget which an Indian woman had +picked up in a brook, and a large quantity which Roldan and his friends +were taking on their own account, as the profit of their separate +enterprises. Carvajal, whom Columbus had sent out with Ovando as his +factor, to look after his pecuniary interests under the provisions which +the royal commands had made, had also placed in one of the caravels four +thousand pieces of the same precious metal, the result of the settlement +of Ovando with Bobadilla, and the accretions of the Admiral's share of +the Crown's profits. + +[Sidenote: Ovando's fleet puts to sea and is wrecked;] + +Undismayed by the warnings of Columbus, this fleet at once put to sea, +the Admiral's little caravels having meanwhile crept under the shore +at a distance to find such shelter as they could. The larger fleet stood +homeward, and was scarcely off the easterly end of Española when a +furious hurricane burst upon it. The ship which carried Bobadilla, +Roldan, and Guarionex succumbed and went down. + +[Sidenote: but ship with Columbus's gold is saved.] + +Others foundered later. Some of the vessels managed to return to Santo +Domingo in a shattered condition. A single caravel, it is usually +stated, survived the shock, so that it alone could proceed on the +voyage; and if the testimony is to be believed, this was the weakest of +them all, but she carried the gold of Columbus. Among the caravels which +put back to Santo Domingo for repairs was one on which Bastidas was +going to Spain for trial. This one arrived at Cadiz in September, 1502. + +[Sidenote: Columbus's ships weather the gale.] + +The ships of Columbus had weathered the gale. That of the Admiral, by +keeping close in to land, had fared best. The others, seeking sea-room, +had suffered more. They lost sight of each other, however, during the +height of the gale; but when it was over, they met together at Port +Hermoso, at the westerly end of the island. The gale is a picture over +which the glow of a retributive justice, under the favoring dispensation +of chance, is so easily thrown by sympathetic writers that the effusions +of the sentimentalists have got to stand at last for historic verity. De +Lorgues does not lose the opportunity to make the most of it. + +[Sidenote: 1502. July 14. Columbus sails away.] + +[Sidenote: July 30. At Guanaja.] + +[Sidenote: Meets a strange canoe.] + +Columbus, having lingered about the island to repair his ships and +refresh his crews, and also to avoid a second storm, did not finally get +away till July 14, when he steered directly for Terra Firma. The +currents perplexed him, and, as there was little wind, he was swept west +further than he expected. He first touched at some islands near Jamaica. +Thence he proceeded west a quarter southwest, for four days, without +seeing land, as Porras tells us, when, bewildered, he turned to the +northwest, and then north. But finding himself (July 24) in the +archipelago near Cuba, which on his second voyage he had called The +Gardens, he soon after getting a fair wind (July 27) stood southwest, +and on July 30 made a small island, off the northern coast of Honduras, +called Guanaja by the natives, and Isla de Pinos by himself. He was now +in sight of the mountains of the mainland. The natives struck him as of +a physical type different from all others whom he had seen. A large +canoe, eight feet beam, and of great length, though made of a single +log, approached with still stranger people in it. + +[Sidenote: On the Honduras coast.] + +They had apparently come from a region further north; and under a canopy +in the waist of the canoe sat a cacique with his dependents. The boat +was propelled by five and twenty men with paddles. It carried various +articles to convince Columbus that he had found a people more advanced +in arts than those of the regions earlier discovered. They had with them +copper implements, including hatchets, bells, and the like. He saw +something like a crucible in which metal had been melted. Their wooden +swords were jagged with sharp flints, their clothes were carefully made, +their utensils were polished and handy. Columbus traded off some +trinkets for such specimens as he wanted. If he now had gone in the +direction from which this marvelous canoe had come, he might have thus +early opened the wondrous world of Yucatan and Mexico, and closed his +career with more marvels yet. His beatific visions, which he supposed +were leading him under the will of the Deity, led him, however, south. +The delusive strait was there. He found an old man among the Indians, +whom he kept as a guide, since the savage could draw a sort of chart of +the coast. He dismissed the rest with presents, after he had wrested +from them what he wanted. Approaching the mainland, near the present +Cape of Honduras, the Adelantado landed on Sunday, August 14, and mass +was celebrated in a grove near the beach. Again, on the 17th, +Bartholomew landed some distance eastward of the first spot, and here, +by a river (Rio de la Posesion, now Rio Tinto), he planted the Castilian +banner and formally took possession of the country. The Indians were +friendly, and there was an interchange of provisions and trinkets. The +natives were tattooed, and they had other customs, such as the wearing +of cotton jackets, and the distending of their ears by rings, which were +new to the Spaniards. + +[Sidenote: Seeking a strait.] + +[Sidenote: Columbus oppressed with the gout.] + +[Illustration: BELLIN'S HONDURAS.] + +Tracking the coast still eastward, Columbus struggled against the +current, apparently without reasoning that he might be thus sailing away +from the strait, so engrossed was he with the thought that such a +channel must be looked for farther south. His visions had not helped him +to comprehend the sweep of waters that would disprove his mock oaths of +the Cuban coast. So he wore ship constantly against the tempest and +current, and crawled with bewildered expectation along the shore. All +this tacking tore his sails, racked his caravels, and wore out his +seamen. The men were in despair, and confessed one another. Some made +vows of penance, if their lives were preserved. Columbus was himself +wrenched with the gout, and from a sort of pavilion, which covered his +couch on the quarter deck, he kept a good eye on all they encountered. +"The distress of my son," he says, "grieved me to the soul, and the more +when I considered his tender age; for he was but thirteen years old, +and he enduring so much toil for so long a time." "My brother," he adds +further, "was in the ship that was in the worst condition and the most +exposed to danger; and my grief on this account was the greater that I +brought him with me against his will." + +[Sidenote: 1502. September. Cape Gracios à Dios.] + +[Sidenote: Loses a boat's crew.] + +[Sidenote: 1502. September 25. The Garden.] + +It was no easy work to make the seventy leagues from Cape Honduras to +Cape Gracios à Dios, and the bestowal of this name denoted his +thankfulness to God, when, after forty days of this strenuous endeavor, +his caravels were at last able to round the cape, on September 12 (or +14). A seaboard stretching away to the south lay open before him,--now +known as the Mosquito Coast. The current which sets west so persistently +here splits and sends a branch down this coast. So with a "fair wind and +tide," as he says, they followed its varied scenery of crag and lowland +for more than sixty leagues, till they discovered a great flow of water +coming out of a river. It seemed to offer an opportunity to replenish +their casks and get some store of wood. On the 16th of September, they +anchored, and sent their boats to explore. A meeting of the tide and the +river's flow raised later a tumultuous sea at the bar, just as the boats +were coming out. The men were unable to surmount the difficulty, and one +of the boats was lost, with all on board. Columbus recorded their +misfortune in the name which he gave to the river, El Rio del Desastre. +Still coasting onward, on September 25 they came to an alluring +roadstead between an island and the main, where there was everything to +enchant that verdure and fragrance could produce. He named the spot The +Garden (La Huerta). Here, at anchor, they had enough to occupy them for +a day or two in restoring the damage of the tempest, and in drying their +stores, which had been drenched by the unceasing downpour of the clouds. +The natives watched them from the shore, and made a show of their +weapons. The Spaniards remaining inactive, the savages grew more +confident of the pacific intent of their visitors, and soon began +swimming off to the caravels. Columbus tried the effect of largesses, +refusing to barter, and made gifts of the Spanish baubles. Such +gratuities, however, created distrust, and every trinket was returned. + +[Sidenote: Character of the natives.] + +Two young girls had been sent on board as hostages, while the Spaniards +were on shore getting water; but even they were stripped of their +Spanish finery when restored to their friends, and every bit of it was +returned to the givers. There seem to be discordant statements by +Columbus and in the _Historie_ respecting these young women, and +Columbus gives them a worse character than his chronicler. When the +Adelantado went ashore with a notary, and this official displayed his +paper and inkhorn, it seemed to strike the wondering natives as a spell. +They fled, and returned with something like a censer, from which they +scattered the smoke as if to disperse all baleful spirits. + +These unaccustomed traits of the natives worked on the superstitions of +the Spaniards. They began to fancy they had got within an atmosphere of +sorceries, and Columbus, thinking of the two Indian maiden hostages, was +certain there was a spell of witchcraft about them, and he never quite +freed his mind of this necromantic ghost. + +The old Indian whom Columbus had taken for a guide when first he touched +the coast, having been set ashore at Cape Gracios à Dios, enriched with +presents, Columbus now seized seven of this new tribe, and selecting two +of the most intelligent as other guides, he let the rest go. The seizure +was greatly resented by the tribe, and they sent emissaries to negotiate +for the release of the captives, but to no effect. + +[Sidenote: 1502. October. Cariari.] + +[Sidenote: Gold sought at Veragua.] + +Departing on October 5 from the region which the natives called Cariari, +and where the fame of Columbus is still preserved in the Bahia del +Almirante, the explorers soon found the coast trending once more towards +the east. They were tracking what is now known as the shore of Costa +Rica. They soon entered the large and island-studded Caribaro Bay. Here +the Spaniards were delighted to find the natives wearing plates of gold +as ornaments. They tried to traffic for them, but the Indians were loath +to part with their treasures. The natives intimated that there was much +more of this metal farther on at a place called Veragua. So the ships +sailed on, October 17, and reached that coast. The Spaniards came to a +river; but the natives sent defiance to them in the blasts of their +conch-shells, while they shook at them their lances. Entering the tide, +they splashed the water towards their enemies, in token of contempt. +Columbus's Indian guides soon pacified them, and a round of barter +followed, by which seventeen of their gold disks were secured for three +hawks' bells. The intercourse ended, however, in a little hostile bout, +during which the Spanish crossbows and lombards soon brought the savages +to obedience. + +[Illustration: BELLINI'S VERAGUA.] + +[Sidenote: Ciguare.] + +[Sidenote: At the isthmus.] + +Still the caravels went on. The same scene of startled natives, in +defiant attitude, soon soothed by the trinkets was repeated everywhere. +In one place the Spaniards found what they had never seen before, a wall +laid of stone and lime, and Columbus began to think of the civilized +East again. Coast peoples are always barbarous, as he says; but it is +the inland people who are rich. As he passed along this coast of +Veragua, as the name has got to be written, though his notary at the +time caught the Indian pronunciation as Cobraba, his interpreters +pointed out its villages, and the chief one of all; and when they had +passed on a little farther they told him he was sailing beyond the gold +country. Columbus was not sure but they were trying to induce him to +open communication again with the shore, to offer chances for their +escape. The seeker of the strait could not stop for gold. His vision led +him on to that marvelous land of Ciguare, of which these successive +native tribes told him, situated ten days inland, and where the people +reveled in gold, sailed in ships, and conducted commerce in spices and +other precious commodities. The women there were decked, so they said, +with corals and pearls. "I should be content," he says, "if a tithe of +this which I hear is true." He even fancied, from all he could +understand of their signs and language, that these Ciguare people were +as terrible in war as the Spaniards, and rode on beasts. "They also say +that the sea surrounds Ciguare, and that ten days' journey from thence +is the river Ganges." Humboldt seems to think that in all this Columbus +got a conception of that great western ocean which was lying so much +nearer to him than he supposed. It may be doubted if it was quite so +clear to Columbus as Humboldt thinks; but there is good reason to +believe that Columbus imagined this wonderful region of Ciguare was +half-way to the Ganges. If, as his canonizers fondly suppose, he had not +mistaken in his visions an isthmus for a strait, he might have been +prompted to cross the slender barrier which now separated him from his +goal. + +[Sidenote: 1502. November 2.] + +[Sidenote: Porto Bello.] + +[Sidenote: Nombre de Dios.] + +On the 2d of November, the ships again anchored in a spacious harbor, so +beautiful in its groves and fruits, and with such deep water close to +the shore, that Columbus gave it the name of Puerto Bello (Porto +Bello),--an appellation which has never left it. It rained for seven +days while they lay here, doing nothing but trading a little with the +natives for provisions. The Indians offered no gold, and hardly any was +seen. Starting once more, the Spaniards came in sight of the cape known +since as Nombre de Dios, but they were thwarted for a while in their +attempts to pass it. They soon found a harbor, where they stayed till +November 23; then going on again, they secured anchorage in a basin so +small that the caravels were placed almost beside the shore. Columbus +was kept here by the weather for nine days. The basking alligators +reminded him of the crocodiles of the Nile. The natives were uncommonly +gentle and gracious, and provisions were plenty. The ease with which the +seamen could steal ashore at night began to be demoralizing, leading to +indignities at the native houses. The savage temper was at last aroused, +and the Spanish revelries were brought to an end by an attack on the +ships. It ceased, as usual, after a few discharges of the ships' guns. + +[Sidenote: Bastidas's exploration of this coast.] + +Columbus had not yet found any deflection of that current which sweeps +in this region towards the Gulf of Mexico. He had struggled against its +powerful flow in every stage of his progress along the coast. Whether +this had brought him to believe that his vision of a strait was delusive +does not appear. Whether he really knew that he had actually joined his +own explorations, going east, to those which Bastidas had made from the +west is equally unknown, though it is possible he may have got an +intimation of celestial and winged monsters from the natives. If he +comprehended it, he saw that there could be no strait, this way at +least. Bastidas, as we have seen, was on board Bobadilla's fleet when +Columbus lay off Santo Domingo. There is a chance that Columbus's +messenger who went ashore may have seen him and his charts, and may have +communicated some notes of the maps to the Admiral. Some of the +companions of Bastidas on his voyage had reached Spain before Columbus +sailed, and there may have been some knowledge imparted in that way. If +Columbus knew the truth, he did not disclose it. + +Porras, possibly at a later day, seems to have been better informed, or +at least he imparts more in his narrative than Columbus does. He says he +saw in the people of these parts many of the traits of those of the +pearl coast at Paria, and that the maps, which they possessed, showed +that it was to this point that the explorations of Ojeda and Bastidas +had been pushed. + +[Sidenote: Columbus turns back.] + +[Sidenote: 1502. December 5.] + +[Sidenote: A gale.] + +There were other things that might readily have made him turn back, as +well as this despair of finding a strait. His crew were dissatisfied +with leaving the gold of Veragua. His ships were badly bored by the +worms, and they had become, from this cause and by reason of the heavy +weather which had so mercilessly followed them, more and more +unseaworthy. So on December 5, 1502, when he passed out of the little +harbor of El Retrete, he began a backward course. Pretty soon the wind, +which had all along faced him from the east, blew strongly from the +west, checking him as much going backward as it had in his onward +course. It seemed as if the elements were turned against him. The gale +was making sport of him, as it veered in all directions. It was indeed a +Coast of Contrasts (La Costa de los Contrastes), as Columbus called it. +The lightning streaked the skies continually. The thunder was appalling. +For nine days the little ships, strained at every seam, leaking at every +point where the tropical sea worm had pierced them, writhed in a +struggle of death. At one time a gigantic waterspout formed within +sight. The sea surged around its base. The clouds stooped to give it +force. It came staggering and lunging towards the fragile barks. The +crews exorcised the watery spirit by repeating the Gospel of St. John +the Evangelist, and the crazy column passed on the other side of them. + +Added to their peril through it all were the horrors of an impending +famine. Their biscuit were revolting because of the worms. They caught +sharks for food. + +[Sidenote: 1502. December 17.] + +[Sidenote: Bethlehem River.] + +[Sidenote: 1503. January 24.] + +[Sidenote: Bartholomew seeks the mines.] + +At last, on December 17, the fleet reunited,--for they had, during the +gales, lost sight of each other,--and entered a harbor, where they found +the native cabins built in the tree tops, to be out of the way of +griffins, or some other beasts. After further buffeting of the tempests, +they finally made a harbor on the coast of Veragua, in a river which +Columbus named Santa Maria de Belen (Bethlehem), it being Epiphany Day; +and here at last they anchored two of the caravels on January 9, and the +other two on the 10th (1503). Columbus had been nearly a month in +passing thirty leagues of coast. The Indians were at first quieted in +the usual way, and some gold was obtained by barter. The Spaniards had +not been here long, however, when they found themselves (January 24, +1503) in as much danger by the sudden swelling of the river as they had +been at sea. It was evidently occasioned by continued falls of rain in +distant mountains, which they could see. The caravels were knocked about +like cockboats. The Admiral's ship snapped a mast. "It rained without +ceasing," says the Admiral, recording his miseries, "until the 14th of +February;" and during the continuance of the storm the Adelantado was +sent on a boat expedition to ascend the Veragua River, three miles along +the coast, where he was to search for mines. The party proceeded on +February 6 as far as they could in the boats, and then, leaving part of +the men for a guard, and taking guides, which the Quibian--that being +the name, as he says, which they gave to the lord of the country--had +provided, they reached a country where the soil to their eyes seemed +full of particles of gold. Columbus says that he afterwards learned that +it was a device of the crafty Quibian to conduct them to the mines of a +rival chief, while his own were richer and nearer, all of which, +nevertheless, did not escape the keen Spanish scent for gold. +Bartholomew made other excursions along the coast; but nowhere did it +seem to him that gold was as plenty as at Veragua. + +[Sidenote: Mines of Aurea.] + +Columbus now reverted to his old fancies. He remembered that Josephus +has described the getting of gold for the Temple of Jerusalem from the +Golden Chersonesus, and was not this the very spot? "Josephus thinks +that this gold of the Chronicles and the Book of Kings was found in the +Aurea," he says. "If it were so, I contend that these mines of the Aurea +are identical with those of Veragua. David in his will left 3,000 +quintals of Indian gold to Solomon, to assist in building the Temple, +and according to Josephus it came from these lands." He had seen, as he +says, more promise of gold here in two days than in Española in four +years. It was very easy now to dwarf his Ophir at Hayna! Those other +riches were left to those who had wronged him. The pearls of the Paria +coast might be the game of the common adventurer. Here was the princely +domain of the divinely led discoverer, who was rewarded at last! + +[Sidenote: Columbus seeks to make a settlement.] + +A plan was soon made of founding a settlement to hold the region and +gain information, while Columbus returned to Spain for supplies. Eighty +men were to stay. They began to build houses. They divided the stock of +provisions and munitions, and transferred that intended for the colony +to one of the caravels, which was to be left with them. Particular pains +were taken to propitiate the natives by presents, and the Quibian was +regaled with delicacies and gifts. When this was done, it was found that +a dry season had come on, and there was not water enough on the bar to +float the returning caravels. + +[Sidenote: Diego Mendez's exploits.] + +[Sidenote: The Quibian taken,] + +[Sidenote: but escapes.] + +Meanwhile the Quibian had formed a league to exterminate the intruders. +Columbus sent a brave fellow, Diego Mendez, to see what he could learn. +He found a force of savages advancing to the attack; but this single +Spaniard disconcerted them, and they put off the plan. Again, with but a +single companion, one Rodrigo de Escobar, Mendez boldly went into the +Quibian's village, and came back alive to tell the Admiral of all the +preparations for war which he had seen, or which were inferred at least. +The news excited the quick spirits of the Adelantado, and, following a +plan of Mendez, he at once started (March 30) with an armed force. He +came with such celerity to the cacique's village that the savages were +not prepared for their intrusion, and by a rapid artifice he surrounded +the lodge of the Quibian, and captured him with fifty of his followers. +The Adelantado sent him, bound hand and foot, and under escort, down the +river, in charge of Juan Sanchez, who rather resented any intimation of +the Adelantado to be careful of his prisoner. As the boat neared the +mouth of the river, her commander yielded to the Quibian's importunities +to loosen his bonds, when the chief, watching his opportunity, slipped +overboard and dove to the bottom. The night was dark, and he was not +seen when he came to the surface, and was not pursued. The other +prisoners were delivered to the Admiral. The Adelantado meanwhile had +sacked the cacique's cabin, and brought away its golden treasures. + +[Sidenote: 1503. April 6.] + +[Sidenote: The settlement attacked.] + +Columbus, confident that the Quibian had been drowned, and that the +chastisement which had been given his tribe was a wholesome lesson, +began again to arrange for his departure. As the river had risen a +little, he succeeded in getting his lightened caravels over the bar, and +anchored them outside, where their lading was again put on board. To +offer some last injunctions and to get water, Columbus, on April 6, sent +a boat, in command of Diego Tristan, to the Adelantado, who was to be +left in command. When the boat got in, Tristan found the settlement in +great peril. The Quibian, who had reached the shore in safety after his +adventure, had quickly organized an attacking party, and had fallen upon +the settlement. The savages were fast getting their revenge, for the +unequal contest had lasted nearly three hours, when the Adelantado and +Mendez, rallying a small force, rushed so impetuously upon them that, +with the aid of a fierce bloodhound, the native host was scattered in a +trice. Only one Spaniard had been killed and eight wounded, including +the Adelantado; but the rout of the Indians was complete. + +[Sidenote: Tristan murdered.] + +It was while these scenes were going on that Tristan arrived in his boat +opposite the settlement. He dallied till the affair was ended, and then +proceeded up the river to get some water. Those on shore warned him of +the danger of ambuscade; but he persisted. When he had got well beyond +the support of the settlement, his boat was beset with a shower of +javelins from the overhanging banks on both sides, while a cloud of +canoes attacked him front and rear. But a single Spaniard escaped by +diving, and brought the tale of disaster to his countrymen. + +The condition of the settlement was now alarming. The Indians, +encouraged by their success in overcoming the boat, once more gathered +to attack the little group of "encroaching Spaniards," as Columbus could +but call them. The houses which sheltered them were so near the thick +forest that the savages approached them on all sides under shelter. The +woods rang with their yells and with the blasts of their conch-shells. +The Spaniards got, in their panic, beyond the control of the Adelantado. +They prepared to take the caravel and leave the river; but it was found +she would not float over the bar. They then sought to send a boat to the +Admiral, lying outside, to prevent his sailing without them; but +the current and tide commingling made such a commotion on the bar that +no boat could live in the sea. The bodies of Tristan and his men came +floating down stream, with carrion crows perched upon them at their +ghastly feast. It seemed as if nature visited them with premonitions. At +last the Adelantado brought a sufficient number of men into such a +steady mood that they finally constructed out of whatever they could get +some sort of a breastwork near the shore, where the ground was open. +Here they could use their matchlocks and have a clear sweep about them. +They placed behind this bulwark two small falconets, and prepared to +defend themselves. They were in this condition for four days. Their +provisions, however, began to run short, and every Spaniard who dared to +forage was sure to be cut off. Their ammunition, too, was not abundant. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: Columbus at anchor outside the bar.] + +Meanwhile Columbus was in a similar state of anxiety. "The Admiral was +suffering from a severe fever," he says, "and worn with fatigue." His +ships were lying at anchor outside the bar, with the risk of being +obliged to put to sea at any moment, to work off a lee shore. Tristan's +prolonged absence harassed him. Another incident was not less ominous. +The companions of the Quibian were confined on board in the forecastle; +and it was the intention to take them to Spain as hostages, as it was +felt they would be, for the colony left behind. Those in charge of them +had become careless about securing the hatchway, and one night they +failed to chain it, trusting probably to the watchfulness of certain +sailors who slept upon the hatch. The savages, finding a footing upon +some ballast which they piled up beneath, suddenly threw off the cover, +casting the sleeping sailors violently aside, and before the guard could +be called the greater part of the prisoners had jumped into the sea and +escaped. Such as were secured were thrust back, but the next morning it +was found that they all had strangled themselves. + +[Sidenote: Ledesma's exploit.] + +After such manifestations of ferocious determination, Columbus began to +be further alarmed for the safety of his brother's companions and of +Tristan's. For days a tossing surf had made an impassable barrier +between him and the shore. He had but one boat, and he did not dare to +risk it in an attempt to land. Finally, his Sevillian pilot, Pedro +Ledesma, offered to brave the dangers by swimming, if the boat would +take him close to the surf. The trial was made; the man committed +himself to the surf, and by his strength and skill so surmounted wave +after wave that he at length reached stiller water, and was seen to +mount the shore. In due time he was again seen on the beach, and +plunging in once more, was equally successful in passing the raging +waters, and was picked up by the boat. He had a sad tale to tell the +Admiral. It was a story of insubordination, a powerless Adelantado, and +a frantic eagerness to escape somehow. Ledesma said that the men were +preparing canoes to come off to the ships, since their caravel was +unable to pass the bar. + +[Sidenote: Resolve to abandon the region.] + +There was long consideration in these hours of disheartenment; but the +end of it was a decision to rescue the colony and abandon the coast. The +winds never ceased to be high, and Columbus's ships, in their weakened +condition, were only kept afloat by care and vigilance. The loss of the +boat's crew threw greater burdens and strains upon those who were left. +It was impossible while the surf lasted to send in his only boat, and +quite as impossible for the fragile canoes of his colony to brave the +dangers of the bar in coming out. There was nothing for Columbus to do +but to hold to his anchor as long as he could, and wait. + +[Sidenote: Columbus in delirium hears a voice.] + +Our pity for the man is sometimes likely to unfit us to judge his own +record. Let us try to believe what he says of himself, and watch him in +his delirium. "Groaning with exhaustion," he says, "I fell asleep in the +highest part of the ship, and heard a compassionate voice address me." +It bade him be of good cheer, and take courage in the service of God! +What the God of all had done for Moses and David would be done for him! +As we read the long report of this divine utterance, as Columbus is +careful to record it, we learn that the Creator was aware of his +servant's name resounding marvelously throughout the earth. We find, +however, that the divine belief curiously reflected the confidence of +Columbus that it was India, and not America, that had been revealed. +"Remember David," said the Voice, "how he was a shepherd, and was made a +king. Remember Abraham, how he was a hundred when he begat Isaac, and +that there is youth still for the aged." Columbus adds that when the +Voice chided him he wept for his errors, and that he heard it all as in +a trance. + +The obvious interpretation of all this is either that by the record +Columbus intended a fable to impress the sovereigns, for whom he was +writing, or that he was so moved to hallucinations that he believed what +he wrote. The hero worship of Irving decides the question easily. "Such +an idea," says Irving, referring to the argument of deceit, and +forgetting the Admiral's partiality for such practices, "is inconsistent +with the character of Columbus. In recalling a dream, one is +unconsciously apt to give it a little coherency." Irving's plea is that +it was a mere dream, which was mistaken by Columbus, in his feverish +excitement, for a revelation. "The artless manner," adds that +biographer, "in which he mingles the rhapsodies and dreams of his +imagination with simple facts and sound practical observations, pouring +them forth with a kind of Scriptural solemnity and poetry of language, +is one of the most striking illustrations of a character richly +compounded of extraordinary and apparently contradictory elements." We +may perhaps ask, Was Irving's hero a deceiver, or was he mad? The +chances seem to be that the whole vision was simply the product of one +of those fits of aberration which in these later years were no strangers +to Columbus's existence. His mind was not infrequently, amid +disappointments and distractions, in no fit condition to ward off +hallucination. + +Humboldt speaks of Columbus's letter describing this vision as showing +the disordered mind of a proud soul weighed down with dead hopes. He has +no fear that the strange mixture of force and weakness, of pride and +touching humility, which accompanies these secret contortions will ever +impress the world with other feelings than those of commiseration. + +It is a hard thing for any one, seeking to do justice to the agonies of +such spirits, to measure them in the calmness of better days. "Let those +who are accustomed to slander and aspersion ask, while they sit in +security at home, Why dost thou not do so and so under such +circumstances?" says Columbus himself. It is far easier to let one's +self loose into the vortex and be tossed with sympathy. But if four +centuries have done anything for us, they ought to have cleared the air +of its mirages. What is pitiable may not be noble. + +[Sidenote: The colony embark.] + +The Voice was, of course, associated in Columbus's mind with the good +weather which followed. During this a raft was made of two canoes lashed +together beneath a platform, and, using this for ferrying, all the +stores were floated off safely to the ships, so that in the end nothing +was left behind but the decaying and stranded caravel. This labor was +done under the direction of Diego Mendez, whom the Admiral rewarded by +kissing him on the cheek, and by giving him command of Tristan's +caravel, which was the Admiral's flagship. + +[Sidenote: 1503. April, Columbus sails away.] + +It is a strange commentary on the career and fame of Columbus that the +name of this disastrous coast should represent him to this day in the +title of his descendant, the Duke of Veragua. Never a man turned the +prow of his ship from scenes which he would sooner forget, with more +sorrow and relief, than Columbus, in the latter days of April, 1503, +with his enfeebled crews and his crazy hulks, stood away, as he thought, +for Española. And yet three months later, and almost in the same breath +with which he had rehearsed these miseries, with that obliviousness +which so often caught his errant mind, he wrote to his sovereigns that +"there is not in the world a country, whose inhabitants are more timid; +added to which there is a good harbor, a beautiful river, and the whole +place is capable of being easily put into a state of defense. Your +people that may come here, if they should wish to become masters of the +products of other lands, will have to take them by force, or retire +empty-handed. In this country they will simply have to trust their +persons in the hands of a savage." The man was mad. + +It was easterly that Columbus steered when his ships swung round to +their destined course. It was not without fear and even indignation that +his crews saw what they thought a purpose to sail directly for Spain in +the sorry plight of the ships. Mendez, indeed, who commanded the +Admiral's own ship, says "they thought to reach Spain." The Admiral, +however, seems to have had two purposes. He intended to run eastward far +enough to allow for the currents, when he should finally head for Santo +Domingo. He intended also to disguise as much as he could the route +back, for fear that others would avail themselves of his crew's +knowledge to rediscover these golden coasts. He remembered how the +companions of his Paria voyage had led other expeditions to that region +of pearls. He is said also to have taken from his crew all their +memoranda of the voyage, so that there would be no such aid available to +guide others. "None of them can explain whither I went, nor whence I +came," he says. "They do not know the way to return thither." + +[Sidenote: At Puerto Bello.] + +[Sidenote: At the Gulf of Darien.] + +[Sidenote: 1503. May 10.] + +[Sidenote: May 30. On the Cuban coast.] + +[Sidenote: 1503. June 23. Reaches Jamaica.] + +By the time he reached Puerto Bello, one of his caravels had become so +weakened by the boring worms that he had to abandon her and crowd his +men into the two remaining vessels. His crews became clamorous when he +reached the Gulf of Darien, where he thought it prudent to abandon his +easterly course and steer to the north. It was now May 1. He hugged the +wind to overcome the currents, but when he sighted some islands to the +westward of Española, on the 10th, it was evident that the currents had +been bearing him westerly all the while. They were still drifting him +westerly, when he found himself, on May 30, among the islands on the +Cuban coast which he had called The Gardens. "I had reached," he says in +his old delusion, "the province of Mago, which is contiguous to that of +Cathay." Here the ships anchored to give the men refreshment. The labor +of keeping the vessels free from water had been excessive, and in a +secure roadstead it could now be carried on with some respite of toil, +if the weather would only hold good. This was not to be, however. A gale +ensued in which they lost their anchors. The two caravels, moreover, +sustained serious damage by collision. All the anchors of the Admiral's +ship had gone but one, and though that held, the cable nearly wore +asunder. After six days of this stormy weather, he dared at last to +crawl along the coast. Fortunately, he got some native provisions at one +place, which enabled him to feed his famished men. The currents and +adverse winds, however, proved too much for the power of his ships to +work to windward. They were all the while in danger of foundering. "With +three pumps and the use of pots and kettles," he says, "we could +scarcely clear the water that came into the ship, there being no remedy +but this for the mischief done by the ship worm." He reluctantly, +therefore, bore away for Jamaica, where, on June 23, he put into Puerto +Buono (Dry Harbor). + +[Sidenote: 1503. July, August. His ships stranded]. + +Finding neither water nor food here, he went on the next day to Port San +Gloria, known in later days as Don Christopher's Cove. Here he found it +necessary, a little later (July 23 and August 12), to run his sinking +ships, one after the other, aground, but he managed to place them side +by side, so that they could be lashed together. They soon filled with +the tide. Cabins were built on the forecastles and sterns to live in, +and bulwarks of defense were reared as best they could be along the +vessels' waists. Columbus now took the strictest precautions to prevent +his men wandering ashore, for it was of the utmost importance that no +indignity should be offered the natives while they were in such +hazardous and almost defenseless straits. + +It became at once a serious question how to feed his men. Whatever scant +provisions remained on board the stranded caravels were spoiled. His +immediate savage neighbors supplied them with cassava bread and other +food for a while, but they had no reserved stores to draw upon, and +these sources were soon exhausted. + +[Sidenote: Mendez seeks food for the company.] + +Diego Mendez now offered, with three men, carrying goods to barter, to +make a circuit of the island, so that he could reach different caciques, +with whom he could bargain for the preparation and carriage of food to +the Spaniards. As he concluded his successive impromptu agreements with +cacique after cacique, he sent a man back loaded with what he could +carry, to acquaint the Admiral, and let him prepare for a further +exchange of trinkets. Finally, Mendez, left without a companion, still +went on, getting some Indian porters to help him from place to place. In +this way he reached the eastern end of the island, where he ingratiated +himself with a powerful cacique, and was soon on excellent terms with +him. From this chieftain he got a canoe with natives to paddle, and +loading it with provisions, he skirted westerly along the coast, until +he reached the Spaniards' harbor. His mission bade fair to have +accomplished its purpose, and provisions came in plentifully for a while +under the arrangements which he had made. + +[Sidenote: Mendez prepares to go to Española.] + +Columbus's next thought was to get word, if possible, to Ovando, at +Española, so that the governor could send a vessel to rescue them. +Columbus proposed to Mendez that he should attempt the passage with the +canoe in which he had returned from his expedition. Mendez pictured the +risks of going forty leagues in these treacherous seas in a frail canoe, +and intimated that the Admiral had better make trial of the courage of +the whole company first. He said that if no one else offered to go he +would shame them by his courage, as he had more than once done before. +So the company were assembled, and Columbus made public the proposition. +Every one hung back from the hazards, and Mendez won his new triumph, as +he had supposed he would. He then set to work fitting the canoe for the +voyage. He put a keel to her. He built up her sides so that she could +better ward off the seas, and rigged a mast and sail. She was soon +loaded with the necessary provisions for himself, one other Spaniard, +and the six Indians who were to ply the paddles. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: 1503. July 7. Letter of Columbus to the sovereigns.] + +The Admiral, while the preparations were making, drew up a letter to his +sovereigns, which it was intended that Mendez, after arranging with +Ovando for the rescue, should bear himself to Spain by the first +opportunity. At least it is the reasonable assumption of Humboldt that +this is the letter which has come down to us dated July 7, 1503. + +[Sidenote: _Lettera rarissima._] + +It is not known that this epistle was printed at the time, though +manuscript copies seem to have circulated. An Italian version of it was, +however, printed at Venice a year before Columbus died. The original +Spanish text was not known to scholars till Navarrete, having discovered +in the king's library at Madrid an early transcript of it, printed it in +the first volume of his _Coleccion_. It is the document usually referred +to, from the title of Morelli's reprint (1810) of the Italian text, as +the _Lettera rarissima di Cristoforo Colombo_. This letter is even more +than his treatise on the prophets a sorrowful index of his wandering +reason. In parts it is the merest jumble of hurrying thoughts, with no +plan or steady purpose in view. It is in places well calculated to +arouse the deepest pity. It was, of course, avowedly written at a +venture, inasmuch as the chance of its reaching the hands of his +sovereigns was a very small one. "I send this letter," he says, "by +means of and by the hands of Indians; it will be a miracle if it reaches +its destination." + +He not only goes back over the adventures of the present expedition, in +a recital which has been not infrequently quoted in previous pages, but +he reverts gloomily to the more distant past. He lingers on the +discouragements of his first years in Spain. "Every one to whom the +enterprise was mentioned," he says of those days, "treated it as +ridiculous, but now there is not a man, down to the very tailors, who +does not beg to be allowed to become a discoverer." He remembers the +neglect which followed upon the first flush of indignation when he +returned to Spain in chains. "The twenty years' service through which I +have passed with so much toil and danger have profited me nothing, and +at this very day I do not possess a roof in Spain that I can call my +own. If I wish to eat or sleep I have nowhere to go but to a low tavern, +and most times lack wherewith to pay the bill. Another anxiety wrings my +very heartstrings, when I think of my son Diego, whom I have left an +orphan in Spain, stripped of the house and property which is due to him +on my account, although I had looked upon it as a certainty that your +Majesties, as just and grateful princes, would restore it to him in all +respects with increase." + +"I was twenty-eight years old," he says again, "when I came into your +Highnesses' services, and now I have not a hair upon me that is not +gray, my body is infirm, and all that was left to me, as well as to my +brother, has been taken away and sold, even to the frock that I wore, to +my great dishonor." + +And then, referring to his present condition, he adds: "Solitary in my +trouble, sick, and in daily expectation of death, I am surrounded by +millions of hostile savages, full of cruelty. Weep for me, whoever has +charity, truth, and justice!" + +He next works over in his mind the old geographical problems. He recalls +his calculation of an eclipse in 1494, when he supposed, in his error, +that he had "sailed twenty-four degrees westward in nine hours." He +recalls the stories that he had heard on the Veragua coast, and thinks +that he had known it all before from books. Marinus had come near the +truth, he gives out, and the Portuguese have proved that the Indies in +Ethiopia is, as Marinus had said, four and twenty degrees from the +equinoctial line. "The world is but small," he sums up; "out of seven +divisions of it, the dry part occupies six, and the seventh is entirely +covered by water. I say that the world is not so large as vulgar +opinion makes it, and that one degree from the equinoctial line measures +fifty-six miles and two thirds, and this may be proved to a nicety." + +[Sidenote: Columbus on gold.] + +And then, in his thoughts, he turns back to his quest for gold, just as +he had done in action at Darien, when in despair he gave up the search +for a strait. It was gold, to his mind, that could draw souls from +purgatory. He exclaims: "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 paradise." + +Then his hopes swell with the vision of that wealth which he thought he +had found, and would yet return to. He alone had the clues to it, which +he had concealed from others. "I can safely assert that to my mind my +people returning to Spain are the bearers of the best news that ever was +carried to Spain.... I had certainly foreseen how things would be. I +think more of this opening for commerce than of all that has been done +in the Indies. This is not a child to be left to the care of a +stepmother." + +These were some of the thoughts, in large part tumultuous, incoherent, +dispirited, harrowing, weakening, and sad, penned within sound of the +noise of Mendez's preparations, and disclosing an exultant and +bewildered being, singularly compounded. + +This script was committed to Mendez, beside one addressed to Ovando, and +another to his friend in Spain, Father Gorricio, to whom he imparts some +of the same frantic expectations. "If my voyage will turn out as +favorable to my health," he says, "and to the tranquillity of my house, +as it is likely to be for the glory of my royal masters, I shall live +long." + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: Mendez starts.] + +Mendez started bravely. He worked along the coast of the island towards +its eastern end; not without peril, however, both from the sea and from +the Indians. Finally, his party fell captives to a startled cacique; but +while the savages were disputing over a division of the spoils, Mendez +succeeded in slipping back to the canoe, and, putting off alone, paddled +it back to the stranded ships. + +[Sidenote: Mendez starts again.] + +Another trial was made at once, with larger preparation. A second canoe +was added to the expedition, and the charge of this was given to +Bartholomew Fiesco, a Genoese, who had commanded one of the caravels. +The daring adventurers started again with an armed party under the +Adelantado following them along the shore. + +The land and boat forces reached the end of the island without +molestation, and then, bidding each other farewell, the canoes headed +boldly away from land, and were soon lost to the sight of the Adelantado +in the deepening twilight. The land party returned to the Admiral +without adventure. There was little now for the poor company to do but +to await the return of Fiesco, who had been directed to come back at +once and satisfy the Admiral that Mendez had safely accomplished his +mission. + +[Sidenote: The revolt of Porras.] + +Many days passed, and straining eyes were directed along the shore to +catch a glimpse of Fiesco's canoe; but it came not. There was not much +left to allay fear or stifle disheartenment. The cramped quarters of the +tenements on the hulks, the bad food which the men were forced to depend +upon, and the vain watchings soon produced murmurs of discontent, which +it needed but the captious spirit of a leader to convert into the +turmoil of revolt. Such a gatherer of sedition soon appeared. There were +in the company two brothers, Francisco de Porras, who had commanded one +of the vessels, and Diego de Porras, who had, as we have seen, been +joined to the expedition to check off the Admiral's accounts of +treasures acquired. The very espionage of his office was an offense to +the Admiral. It was through the caballing of these two men that the +alien spirits of the colony found in one of them at last a determined +actor. It is not easy to discover how far the accusations against the +Admiral, which these men now began to dwell upon, were generally +believed. It served the leaders' purposes to have it appear that +Columbus was in reality banished from Spain, and had no intention of +returning thither till Mendez and Fiesco had succeeded in making favor +for him at Court; and that it was upon such a mission that these +lieutenants had been sent. It was therefore necessary, if those who were +thus cruelly confined in Jamaica wished to escape a lingering death, to +put on a bold front, and demand to be led away to Española in such +canoes as could be got of the Indians. + +[Sidenote: 1504. January 2. Demands of Porras.] + +[Sidenote: The flotilla of Porras sails.] + +It was on the 2d of January, 1504, that, with a crowd of sympathizers +watching within easy call, Francisco de Porras suddenly presented +himself in the cabin of the weary and bedridden Admiral. An altercation +ensued, in which the Admiral, propped in his couch, endeavored to +assuage the bursting violence of his accuser, and to bring him to a +sense of the patient duty which the conditions demanded. It was one of +the times when desperate straits seemed to restore the manhood of +Columbus. It was, however, of little use. The crisis was not one that, +in the present temper of the mutineers, could be avoided. Porras, +finding that the Admiral could not be swayed, called out in a loud +voice, "I am for Castile! Those who will may come with me!" This signal +was expected, and a shout rang in the air among those who were awaiting +it. It aroused Columbus from his couch, and he staggered into sight; but +his presence caused no cessation of the tumult. Some of his loyal +companions, fearing violence, took him back to his bed. The Adelantado +braced himself with his lance for an encounter, and was pacified only by +the persuasions of the Admiral's friends. They loyally said, "Let the +mutineers go. We will remain." The angry faction seized ten canoes, +which the Admiral had secured from the Indians, and putting in them what +they could get, they embarked for their perilous voyage. Some others who +had not joined in their plot being allured by the flattering hope of +release, there were forty-eight in all, and the little flotilla, amid +the mingled execrations and murmurs of despair among the weak and the +downcast who stayed behind, paddled out of that fateful harbor. + +The greater part of all who were vigorous had now gone. There were a few +strong souls, with some vitality left in them, among the small company +which remained to the Admiral; but the most of them were sorry objects, +with dejected minds and bodies more or less prostrate from disease and +privation. The conviction soon settled upon this deserted community that +nothing could save them but a brotherly and confident determination to +help one another, and to arouse to the utmost whatever of cheer and good +will was latent in their spirits. They could hardly have met an attack +of the natives, and they knew it. This made them more considerate in +their treatment of their neighbors, and the supply of provisions which +they could get from those who visited the ship was plentiful for a +while. But the habits of the savages were not to accumulate much beyond +present needs, and when the baubles which the Spaniards could distribute +began to lose their strange attractiveness, the incentive was gone to +induce exertion, and supplies were brought in less and less frequently. +It was soon found that hawks' bells had diminished in value. It took +several to appease the native cupidity where one had formerly done it. + +[Sidenote: Porras's men still on the island.] + +There was another difficulty. There were failures on the part of the +more distant villages to send in their customary contributions, and it +soon came to be known that Porras and his crew, instead of having left +the island, were wandering about, exacting provisions and committing +indignities against the inhabitants wherever they went. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: His voyage a failure.] + +It seems that the ten canoes had followed the coast to the nearest point +to Española, at the eastern end of the island, and here, waiting for a +calm sea, and securing some Indians to paddle, the mutineers had finally +pushed off for their voyage. The boats had scarcely gone four leagues +from land, when the wind rose and the sea began to alarm them. So they +turned back. The men were little used to the management of the canoes, +and they soon found themselves in great peril. It seemed necessary to +lighten the canoes, which were now taking in water to a dangerous +extent. They threw over much of their provisions; but this was not +enough. They then sacrificed one after another the natives. If these +resisted, a swoop of the sword ended their miseries. Once in the water, +the poor Indians began to seize the gunwales; but the sword chopped off +their hands. So all but a few of them, who were absolutely necessary to +manage the canoes, were thrown into the sea. Such were the perils +through which the mutineers passed in reaching the land. + +A long month was now passed waiting for another calm sea; but when they +tempted it once more, it rose as before, and they again sought the land. +All hope of success was now abandoned. From that time Porras and his +band gave themselves up to a lawless, wandering life, during which they +created new jealousies among the tribes. As we have seen, by their +exactions they began at last to tap the distant sources of supplies for +the Admiral and his loyal adherents. + +[Sidenote: 1504. February 29. Eclipse of the moon.] + +Columbus now resorted to an expedient characteristic of the ingenious +fertility of his mind. His astronomical tables enabled him to expect the +approach of a lunar eclipse (February 29, 1504), and finding it close at +hand he hastily summoned some of the neighboring caciques. He told them +that the God of the Spaniards was displeased at their neglect to feed +his people, and that He was about to manifest that displeasure by +withdrawing the moon and leaving them to such baleful influences as they +had provoked. When night fell and the shadow began to steal over the +moon, a long howl of horror arose, and promises of supplies were made by +the stricken caciques. They hurled themselves for protection at the feet +of the Admiral. Columbus retired for an ostensible communion with this +potent Spirit, and just as the hour came for the shadow to withdraw he +appeared, and announced that their contrition had appeased the Deity, +and a sign would be given of his content. Gradually the moon passed out +of the shadow, and when in the clear heavens the luminary was again +swimming unobstructed in her light, the work of astonishment had been +done. After that, Columbus was never much in fear of famine. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: The canoe voyage of Mendez.] + +[Sidenote: At Navasa Island.] + +It is time now to see how much more successful Mendez and Fiesco had +been than Porras and his crew. They had accomplished the voyage to +Española, it is true, but under such perils and sufferings that Fiesco +could not induce a crew sufficient to man the canoe to return with him +to the Admiral. The passage had been made under the most violent +conditions of tropical heat and unprotected endurance. Their supply of +water had given out, and the tortures of thirst came on. They looked out +for the little island of Navasa, which lay in their track, where they +thought that in the crevices of the rocks they might find some water. +They looked in vain. The day when they had hoped to see it passed, and +night came on. One of the Indians died, and was dropped overboard. +Others lay panting and exhausted in the bottom of the canoes. Mendez sat +watching a glimmer of light in the eastern horizon that betokened the +coming of the moon. + +[Sidenote: They see Española.] + +[Sidenote: Mendez lands at Española.] + +Presently a faint glisten of the real orb grew into a segment. He could +see the water line as the illumination increased. There was a black +stretch of something jagging the lower edge of the segment. It was land! +Navasa had been found. By morning they had reached the island. Water was +discovered among the rocks; but some drank too freely, and paid the +penalty of their lives. Mussels were picked up along the shore; they +built a fire and boiled them. All day long they gazed longingly on the +distant mountains of Española, which were in full sight. Refreshed by +the day's rest, they embarked again at nightfall, and on the following +day arrived at Cape Tiburon, the southwestern peninsula of Española, +having been four days on the voyage from Jamaica. They landed among +hospitable natives, and having waited two days to recuperate, Mendez +took some savages in a canoe, and started to go along the coast to Santo +Domingo, one hundred and thirty leagues distant. He had gone nearly two +thirds of the distance when, communicating with the shore, he learned +that Ovando was not in Santo Domingo, but at Xaragua. So Mendez +abandoned his canoe, and started alone through the forests to seek the +governor. + +[Sidenote: Ovando delays sending relief to Columbus.] + +Ovando received him cordially, but made excuses for not sending relief +to Columbus at once. He was himself occupied with the wars which he was +conducting against the natives. There was no ship in Santo Domingo of +sufficient burden to be dispatched for such a rescue. So excuse after +excuse, and promises of attention unfulfilled, kept Mendez in the camp +of Ovando for seven months. The governor always had reasons for denying +him permission to go to Santo Domingo, where Mendez had hopes of +procuring a vessel. This procrastinating conduct has naturally given +rise to the suspicion that Ovando was not over-anxious to deliver +Columbus from his perils; and there can be little question that for the +Admiral to have sunk into oblivion and leave no trace would have +relieved both the governor and his royal master of some embarrassments. + +At length Ovando consented to the departure of Mendez to Santo Domingo. +There was a fleet of caravels expected there, and Mendez was anxious to +see if he could not procure one of them on the Admiral's own account to +undertake the voyage of rescue. His importunities became so pressing +that Ovando at last consented to his starting for that port, seventy +leagues distant. + +[Sidenote: Ovando sends Escobar to observe Columbus.] + +No sooner was Mendez gone than Ovando determined to ascertain the +condition of the party at Jamaica without helping them, and so he +dispatched a caravel to reconnoitre. He purposely sent a small craft, +that there might be no excuse for attempting to bring off the company; +and to prevent seizure of the vessel by Columbus, her commander was +instructed to lie off the harbor, and only send in a boat, to +communicate with no one but Columbus; and he was particularly enjoined +to avoid being enticed on board the stranded caravels. The command of +this little craft of espionage was given to one of Columbus's enemies, +Diego de Escobar, who had been active as Roldan's lieutenant in his +revolt. + +When the vessel appeared off the harbor where Columbus was, eight months +had passed since Mendez and Fiesco had departed. All hopes of hearing of +them had been abandoned. A rumor had come in from the natives that a +vessel, bottom upwards, had been seen near the island, drifting with the +current. It is said to have been a story started by Porras that its +effect might be distressing to Columbus's adherents. It seems to have +had the effect to hasten further discontent in that stricken band, and a +new revolt was almost ready to make itself known when Escobar's tiny +caravel was descried standing in towards shore. + +The vessel was seen to lie to, when a boat soon left her side. As it +came within hailing, the figure of Escobar was recognized. Columbus knew +that he had once condemned the man to death. Bobadilla had pardoned him. +The boat bumped against the side of one of the stranded caravels; the +crew brought it sidewise against the hulk, when a letter for the Admiral +was handed up. Columbus's men made ready to receive a cask of wine and +side of bacon, which Escobar's companions lifted on board. All at once a +quick motion pushed the boat from the hulks, and Escobar stopped her +when she had got out of reach. He now addressed Columbus, and gave him +the assurances of Ovando's regret that he had no suitable vessel to send +to him, but that he hoped before long to have such. He added that if +Columbus desired to reply to Ovando's letter, he would wait a brief +interval for him to prepare an answer. + +The Admiral hastily made his reply in as courteous terms as possible, +commending the purposes of Mendez and Fiesco to the governor's kind +attention, and closed with saying that he reposed full confidence in +Ovando's expressed intention to rescue his people, and that he would +stay on the wrecks in patience till the ships came. Escobar received the +letter, and returned to his caravel, which at once disappeared in the +falling gloom of night. + +Columbus was not without apprehension that Escobar had come simply to +make sure that the Admiral and his company still survived, and Las +Casas, who was then at Santo Domingo, seems to have been of the opinion +that Ovando had at this time no purpose to do more. The selection of +Escobar to carry a kindly message gave certainly a dubious ostentation +to all expressions of friendly interest. The transaction may possibly +admit of other interpretations. Ovando may reasonably have desired that +Columbus and his faithful adherents should not abide long in Española, +as in the absence of vessels returning to Spain the Admiral might be +obliged to do. There were rumors that Columbus, indignant at the wrongs +which he felt he had received at the hands of his sovereigns, had +determined to hold his new discoveries for Genoa, and the Admiral had +referred to such reports in his recent letter to the Spanish monarchs. +Such reports easily put Ovando on his guard, and he may have desired +time to get instructions from Spain. At all events, it was very palpable +that Ovando was cautious and perhaps inhuman, and Columbus was to be +left till Escobar's report should decide what action was best. + +[Sidenote: Columbus communicates with Porras.] + +Columbus endeavored to make use of the letter which Escobar had brought +from Ovando to win Porras and his vagabonds back to loyalty and duty. He +dispatched messengers to their camp to say that Ovando had notified him +of his purpose to send a vessel to take them off the island. The Admiral +was ready to promise forgiveness and forgetfulness, if the mutineers +would come in and submit to the requirements of the orderly life of his +people. He accompanied the message with a part of the bacon which +Escobar had delivered as a present from the governor. The lure, however, +was not effective. Porras met the ambassadors, and declined the +proffers. He said his followers were quite content with the freedom of +the island. The fact seemed to be that the mutineers were not quite sure +of the Admiral's sincerity, and feared to put themselves in his power. +They were ready to come in when the vessels came, if transportation +would be allowed them so that their band should not be divided; and +until then they would cause the Admiral's party no trouble, unless +Columbus refused to share with them his stores and trinkets, which they +must have, peacefully or forcibly, since they had lost all their +supplies in the gales which had driven them back. + +It was evident that Porras and his company were not reduced to such +straits that they could be reasoned with, and the messengers returned. + +[Sidenote: Bartholomew and his men confront the Porras mutineers.] + +The author of the _Historie_, and others who follow his statements, +represent that the body of the mutineers was far from being as arrogant +as their leaders, was much more tractable in spirit, and was inclined to +catch at the chance of rescue. The leaders labored with the men to keep +them steady in their revolt. Porras and his abettors did what they could +to picture the cruelties of the Admiral, and even accused him of +necromancy in summoning the ghost of a caravel by which to make his +people believe that Escobar had really been there. Then, to give some +activity to their courage, the whole body of the mutineers was led +towards the harbor on pretense of capturing stores. The Adelantado went +out to meet them with fifty armed followers, the best he could collect +from the wearied companions of the Admiral. Porras refused all offers of +conference, and led his band to the attack. There was a plan laid among +them that six of the stoutest should attack the Adelantado +simultaneously, thinking that if their leader should be overpowered the +rest would flee. The Adelantado's courage rose with the exigency, as it +was wont to do. He swung his sword with vigor, and one after another the +assailants fell. At last Porras struck him such a blow that the +Adelantado's buckler was cleft and his hand wounded. The blow was too +powerful for the giver of it. His sword remained wedged in the buckler, +affording his enemy a chance to close, while an attempt was made to +extricate the weapon. Others came to the loyal leader's assistance, and +Porras was secured and bound. + +[Sidenote: Porras taken.] + +[Sidenote: Sanchez killed.] + +[Sidenote: Ledesma wounded.] + +This turned the current of the fight. The rebels, seeing their leader a +prisoner, fled in confusion, leaving the field to the party of the +Adelantado. The fight had been a fierce one. They found among the rebel +dead Juan Sanchez, who had let slip the captured Quibian, and among the +wounded Pedro Ledesma, who had braved the breakers at Veragua. Las +Casas, who knew the latter at a later day, deriving some help from him +in telling the story of these eventful months, speaks of the many and +fearful wounds which he bore in evidence of his rebellion and courage, +and of the sturdy activity of his assailants. We owe also to Ledesma and +to some of his companions, who, with himself, were witnesses in the +later lawsuit of Diego Colon with the Crown, certain details which the +principal narrators fail to give us. + +A charm had seemed throughout the conflict to protect the Admiral's +friends. None were killed outright, and but one other beside their +leader was wounded. This man, the Admiral's steward, subsequently died. + +[Sidenote: 1504. March 20. The rebels propose to submit.] + +The victors returned to the ships with their prisoners; and in the midst +of the gratulations which followed on the next day, March 20, 1504, the +fugitives sent in an address to the Admiral, begging to be pardoned and +received back to his care and fortunes. They acknowledged their errors +in the most abject professions, and called upon Heaven to show no mercy, +and upon man to know no sympathy, in dealing retribution, if they failed +in their fidelity thereafter. The proposition of surrender was not +without embarrassment. The Admiral was fearful of the trial of their +constancy when they might gather about him with all the chances of +further cabaling. He also knew that his provisions were fast running +out. Accordingly, in accepting their surrender, he placed them under +officers whom he could trust, and supplying them with articles of +barter, he let them wander about the island under suitable discipline, +hoping that they would find food where they could. He promised, however, +to recall them when the expected ships arrived. + +[Sidenote: Ships come to rescue them.] + +It was not long they had to wait. One day two ships were seen standing +in towards the harbor. One of them proved to be a caravel which Mendez +had bought on the Admiral's account, out of a fleet of three, just then +arrived from Spain, and had victualed for the occasion. Having seen it +depart from Santo Domingo, Mendez, in the other ships of this opportune +fleet, sailed directly for Spain, to carry out the further instructions +of the Admiral. + +The other of the approaching ships was in command of Diego de Salcedo, +the Admiral's factor, and had been dispatched by Ovando. Las Casas tells +us that the governor was really forced to this action by public +sentiment, which had grown in consequence of the stories of the trials +of Columbus which Mendez had told. It is said that even the priests did +not hesitate to point a moral in their pulpits with the governor's +dilatory sympathy. + +[Sidenote: 1504. June 28. Columbus leaves Jamaica.] + +Finally, on June 28, everything was ready for departure, and Columbus +turned away from the scene of so much trouble. "Columbus informed me +afterwards, in Spain," says Mendez, recording the events, "that in no +part of his life did he ever experience so joyful a day, for he had +never hoped to have left that place alive." Four years later, under +authority from the Admiral's son Diego, the town of Sevilla Nueva, later +known as Sevilla d'Oro, was founded on the very spot. + +[Sidenote: Events at Española during the absence of Columbus.] + +[Sidenote: Ovando's rule.] + +The Admiral now committed himself once more to the treacherous currents +and adverse winds of these seas. We have seen that Mendez urged his +canoe across the gap between Jamaica and the nearest point of Española +in four days; but it took the ships of Columbus about seven weeks to +reach the haven of Santo Domingo. There was much time during this long +and vexatious voyage for Columbus to learn from Salcedo the direful +history of the colony which had been wrested from him, and which even +under the enlarged powers of Ovando had not been without manifold +tribulations. We must rehearse rapidly the occurrences, as Columbus +heard of them. He could have got but the scantiest inkling of what had +happened during the earliest months of Ovando's rule, when he applied by +messenger, in vain, for admission to the harbor, now more than two years +ago. The historian of this period must depend mainly upon Las Casas, who +had come out with Ovando, and we must sketch an outline of the tale, as +Columbus heard it, from that writer's _Historia_. It was the old sad +story of misguided aspirants for wealth in their first experiences with +the hazards and toils of mining,--much labor, disappointed hopes, +failing provisions, no gold, sickness, disgust, and a desponding return +of the toilers from the scene of their infatuation. It took but eight +days for the crowds from Ovando's fleet, who trudged off manfully to the +mountains on their landing, to come trooping back, dispirited and +diseased. + +[Sidenote: Columbus and slavery.] + +[Sidenote: 1503. December 20. Forced labor of the natives.] + +Columbus could hardly have listened to what was said of suffering among +the natives during these two years of his absence without a vivid +consciousness of the baleful system which he had introduced when he +assigned crowds of the poor Indians to be put to inhuman tasks by +Roldan's crew. The institution of this kind of distribution of labor had +grown naturally, but it had become so appalling under Bobadilla that, +when Ovando was sent out, he was instructed to put an end to it. It was +not long before the governor had to confront the exasperated throngs +coming back from the mines, dejected and empty-handed. It was apparent +that nothing of the expected revenue to the Crown was likely to be +produced from half the yield of metal when there was no yield at all. +So, to induce greater industry, Ovando reduced the share of the Crown to +a third, and next to a fifth, but without success. It was too apparent +that the Spaniards would not persist in labors which brought them so +little. At a period when Columbus was flattering himself that he was +laying claim to far richer gold fields at Veragua, Ovando was devising a +renewal of the Admiral's old slave-driving methods to make the mines of +Hayna yield what they could. He sent messages to the sovereigns +informing them that their kindness to the natives was really +inconsiderate; that the poor creatures, released from labor, were giving +themselves up to mischief; and that, to make good Christians of them, +there was needed the appetizing effect of healthful work upon the native +soul. The appeal and the frugal returns to the treasury were quite +sufficient to gain the sovereigns to Ovando's views; and while bewailing +any cruelty to the poor natives, and expressing hopes for their +spiritual relief, their Majesties were not averse, as they said +(December 20, 1503), to these Indians being made to labor as much as was +needful to their health. This was sufficient. The fatal system of +Columbus was revived with increased enormities. Six or eight months of +unremitting labor, with insufficient food, were cruelly exacted of every +native. They were torn from their families, carried to distant parts of +the island, kept to their work by the lash, and, if they dared to +escape, almost surely recaptured, to work out their period under the +burden of chains. At last, when they were dismissed till their labor was +again required, Las Casas tells us that the passage through the island +of these miserable creatures could be traced by their fallen and +decaying bodies. This was a story that, if Columbus possessed any of the +tendernesses that glowed in the heart of Las Casas, could not have been +a pleasant one for his contemplation. + +[Sidenote: Anacaona treacherously treated.] + +[Sidenote: The Indians slaughtered.] + +There was another story to which Columbus may have listened. It is very +likely that Salcedo may have got all the particulars from Diego Mendez, +who was a witness of the foul deeds which had indeed occurred during +those seven months when Ovando, then on an expedition in Xaragua, kept +that messenger of Columbus waiting his pleasure. Anacaona, the sister of +Behechio, had succeeded to that cacique in the rule of Xaragua. The +licentious conduct and the capricious demands of the Spaniards settled +in this region had increased the natural distrust and indignation of the +Indians, and some signs of discontent which they manifested had been +recounted to Ovando as indications of a revolt which it was necessary to +nip in the bud. So the governor had marched into the country with three +hundred foot and seventy horse. The chieftainess, Anacaona, came forth +to meet him with much native parade, and gave all the honor which her +savage ceremonials could signify to her distinguished guest. She lodged +him as well as she could, and caused many games to be played for his +divertisement. In return, Ovando prepared a tournament calculated to +raise the expectation of his simple hosts, and horseman and foot came to +the lists in full armor and adornment for the heralded show. On a signal +from Ovando, the innocent parade was converted in an instant into a +fanatical onslaught. The assembled caciques were hedged about with armed +men, and all were burned in their cabins. The general populace were +transfixed and trampled by the charging mounted spearmen, and only those +who could elude the obstinate and headlong dashes of the cavalry +escaped. Anacaona was seized and conveyed in chains to Santo Domingo, +where, with the merest pretense of a trial for conspiracy, she was soon +hanged. + +[Sidenote: Xaragua and Higuey over-run.] + +[Sidenote: Esquibel's campaign.] + +And this was the pacification of Xaragua. That of Higuey, the most +eastern of the provinces, and which had not yet acknowledged the sway of +the Spaniards, followed, with the same resorts to cruelty. A cacique of +this region had been slain by a fierce Spanish dog which had been set +upon him. This impelled some of the natives living on the coast to seize +a canoe having eight Spaniards in it, and to slaughter them; whereupon +Juan de Esquibel was sent with four hundred men on a campaign against +Cotabanama, the chief cacique of Higuey. The invaders met more heroism +in the defenders of this country than they had been accustomed to, but +the Spanish armor and weapons enabled Esquibel to raid through the land +with almost constant success. The Indians at last sued for peace, and +agreed to furnish a tribute of provisions. Esquibel built a small +fortress, and putting some men in it, he returned to Santo Domingo; not, +however, until he had received Cotabanama in his camp. The Spanish +leader brought back to Ovando a story of the splendid physical power of +this native chief, whose stature, proportions, and strength excited the +admiration of the Spaniards. + +[Sidenote: New revolt in Higuey.] + +The peace was not of long duration. The reckless habits of the garrison +had once more aroused the courage of the Indians, and some of the latest +occurrences which Salcedo could tell of as having been reported at Santo +Domingo just before his sailing for Jamaica were the events of a new +revolt in Higuey. + +[Sidenote: 1504. August 3. Columbus at Beata.] + +[Sidenote: 1504. August 15. At Santo Domingo.] + +Such were the stories which Columbus may have listened to during the +tedious voyage which was now, on August 3, approaching an end. On that +day his ships sailed under the lea of the little island of Beata, which +lies midway of the southern coast of Española. Here he landed a +messenger, and ordered him to convey a letter to Ovando, warning the +governor of his approach. Salcedo had told Columbus that the governor +was not without apprehension that his coming might raise some factious +disturbances among the people, and in this letter the Admiral sought to +disabuse Ovando's mind of such suspicions, and to express his own +purpose to avoid every act of irritation which might possibly embarrass +the administration of the island. The letter dispatched, Columbus again +set sail, and on August 15 his ship entered the harbor of Santo Domingo. +Ovando received him with every outward token of respect, and lodged him +in his own house. Columbus, however, never believed that this officious +kindness was other than a cloak to Ovando's dislike, if not hatred. +There was no little popular sympathy for the misfortunes which Columbus +had experienced, but his relations with the governor were not such as to +lighten the anxieties of his sojourn. It is known that Cortes was at +this time only recently arrived at Santo Domingo; but we can only +conjecture what may have been his interest in Columbus's recitals. + +[Sidenote: Columbus and Ovando.] + +There soon arose questions of jurisdiction. Ovando ordered the release +of Porras, and arranged for sending him to Spain for trial. The governor +also attempted to interfere with the Admiral's control of his own crew, +on the ground that his commission gave him command over all the regions +of the new islands and the main. Columbus cited the instructions, which +gave him power to rule and judge his own followers. Ovando did not push +his claims to extremities, but the irritation never subsided; and +Columbus seems to have lost no opportunity, if we may judge from his +later letters, to pick up every scandalous story and tale of +maladministration of which he could learn, and which could be charged +against Ovando in later appeals to the sovereigns for a restitution of +his own rights. The Admiral also inquired into his pecuniary interests +in the island, and found, as he thought, that Ovando had obstructed his +factor in the gathering of his share. Indeed, there may have been some +truth in this; for Carvajal, Columbus's first factor, had complained of +such acts to the sovereigns, which elicited an admonishment from them to +Ovando. + +[Sidenote: 1504. September 12. Columbus sails for Spain.] + +[Sidenote: 1504. November 7. Reaches San Lucar.] + +Such money as Columbus could now collect he used in refitting the ship +which had brought him from Jamaica, and he put her under the order of +the Adelantado. Securing also another caravel for his own conveyance, he +embarked on her with his son, and on September 12 both ships started on +their homeward voyage. They were scarcely at sea, when the ship which +bore the Admiral lost her mast in a gale. He transferred himself and his +immediate dependents to the other vessel, and sent the disabled caravel +back to Santo Domingo. His solitary vessel now went forward, amid all +the adversities that seemed to cling inevitably to this last of +Columbus's expeditions. Tempest after tempest pursued him. The masts +were sprung, and again sprung; and in a forlorn and disabled condition +the little hapless bark finally entered the port of San Lucar on +November 7, 1504. He had been absent from Spain for two years and a +half. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +COLUMBUS'S LAST YEARS.--DEATH AND CHARACTER. + +1504-1506. + + +[Sidenote: Columbus in Seville till May, 1505.] + +[Sidenote: Letters to his son.] + +From San Lucar, Columbus, a sick man in search of quiet and rest, was +conveyed to Seville. Unhappily, there was neither repose nor peace of +mind in store for him. He remained in that city till May, 1505, broken +in spirits and almost helpless of limb. Fortunately, we can trace his +varying mental moods during these few months in a series of letters, +most of which are addressed by him to his son Diego, then closely +attached to the Court. These writings have fortunately come down to us, +and they constitute the only series of Columbus's letters which we have, +showing the habits of his mind consecutively for a confined period, so +that we get a close watch upon his thoughts. They are the wails of a +neglected soul, and the cries of one whose hope is cruelly deferred. +They have in their entirety a good deal of that haphazard jerkiness +tiresome to read, and not easily made evident in abstract. They are, +however, not so deficient in mental equipoise as, for instance, the +letter sent from Jamaica. This is perhaps owing to the one absorbing +burden of them, his hope of recovering possession of his suspended +authority. + +[Sidenote: 1504. November 21.] + +He writes on November 21, 1504, a fortnight after his landing at San +Lucar, telling his son how he has engaged his old friend, the Dominican +Deza, now the Bishop of Palencia, to intercede with the sovereigns, that +justice may be done to him with respect to his income, the payment of +which Ovando had all along, as he contends, obstructed at Española. He +tries to argue that if their Highnesses but knew it, they would, in +ordering restitution to him, increase their own share. He hopes they +have no doubt that his zeal for their interests has been quite as much +as he could manifest if he had paradise to gain, and hopes they +will remember, respecting any errors he may have committed, that the +Lord of all judges such things by the intention rather than by the +outcome. He seems to have a suspicion that Porras, now at liberty and +about the Court, might be insidiously at work to his old commander's +disadvantage, and he represents that neither Porras nor his brother had +been suitable persons for their offices, and that what had been done +respecting them would be approved on inquiry. "Their revolt," he says, +"surprised me, considering all that I had done for them, as much as the +sun would have alarmed me if it had shot shadows instead of light." He +complains of Ovando's taking the prisoners, who had been companions of +Porras, from his hands, and that, made free, they had even dared to +present themselves at Court. "I have written," he adds, "to their +Highnesses about it, and I have told them that it can't be possible that +they would tolerate such an offense." He says further that he has +written to the royal treasurer, begging him to come to no decision of +the representations of such detractors until the other side could be +heard, and he adds that he has sent to the treasurer a copy of the oath +which the mutineers sent in after Porras had been taken. "Recall to all +these people," he writes to his son, "my infirmities, and the recompense +due to me for my services." + +Diego was naturally, from his residence at Court, a convenient medium to +bring all Columbus's wishes to the notice of those about the sovereigns. +The Admiral writes to Diego again that he hopes their Highnesses will +see to the paying of his men who had come home. "They are poor, and have +been gone three years," he says. "They bring home evidences of the +greatest of expectations in the new gold fields of Veragua;" and then he +advises his son to bring this fact to the attention of all who are +concerned, and to urge the colonizing of the new country as the best way +to profit from its gold mines. For a while he harbored the hope that he +might at once go on to the Court, and a litter which had served in the +obsequies of Cardinal Mendoza was put at his disposal; but this plan was +soon given up. + +[Sidenote: 1504. November 28.] + +A week later, having in the interim received a letter of the 15th, from +Diego, Columbus writes again, under date of November 28. In this epistle +he speaks of the severity of his disease, which keeps him in Seville, +from which, however, he hopes to depart the coming week, and of his +disappointment that the sovereigns had not replied to his inquiries. He +sends his love to Diego Mendez, hoping that his friend's zeal and love +of truth will enable him to overcome the deceits and intrigues of +Porras. + +[Sidenote: 1504. November 26. Queen Isabella dies.] + +[Sidenote: Isabella's character.] + +Columbus was not at this time aware that the impending death of the +Queen had something to do with the delays in his own affairs at Court. +Two days (November 26) before the Admiral wrote this note, Isabella had +died, worn out by her labors, and depressed by the afflictions which she +had experienced in her domestic circle. She was an unlovely woman at the +best, an obstructor of Christian charity, but in her wiles she had +allured Columbus to a belief in her countenance of him. The conventional +estimate of her character, which is enforced in the rather cloying +descriptions of Prescott, is such as her flatterers drew in her own +times; but the revelations of historical research hardly confirm it. It +was with her much as with Columbus,--she was too largely a creature of +her own age to be solely judged by the criteria of all ages, as lofty +characters can be. + +The loss of her influence on the king removed, as it proved, even the +chance of a flattering delusiveness in the hopes of Columbus. As the +compiler of the _Historie_ expresses it, "Columbus had always enjoyed +her favor and protection, while the King had always been indifferent, or +rather inimical." She had indeed, during the Admiral's absence on his +last voyage, manifested some new appreciation of his services, which +cost her little, however, when she made his eldest son one of her +bodyguard and naturalized his brother Diego, to fit him for +ecclesiastical preferment. + +[Sidenote: 1504. December 1.] + +On December 1, ignorant of the sad occurrences at Court, Columbus writes +again, chiding Diego that he had not in his dutifulness written to his +poor father. "You ought to know," he says, "that I have no pleasure now +but in a letter from you." Columbus by this time had become, by the +constant arrival of couriers, aware of the anxiety at Court over the +Queen's health, and he prays that the Holy Trinity will restore her to +health, to the end that all that has been begun may be happily finished. +He reiterates what he had previously written about the increasing +severity of his malady, his inability to travel, his want of money, and +how he had used all he could get in Española to bring home his poor +companions. He commends anew to Diego his brother Ferdinand, and speaks +of this younger son's character as beyond his years. "Ten brothers would +not be too many for you," he adds; "in good as in bad fortune, I have +never found better friends than my brothers." + +Nothing troubles him more than the delays in hearing from Court. A rumor +had reached him that it was intended to send some bishops to the Indies, +and that the Bishop of Palencia was charged with the matter. He begs +Diego to say to the bishop that it was worth while, in the interests of +all, to confer with the Admiral first. In explaining why he does not +write to Diego Mendez, he says that he is obliged to write by night, +since by day his hands are weak and painful. He adds that the vessel +which put back to Santo Domingo had arrived, bringing the papers in +Porras's case, the result of the inquest which had been taken at +Jamaica, so that he could now be able to present an indictment to the +Council of the Indies. His indignation is aroused at the mention of it. +"What can be so foul and brutal! If their Highnesses pass it by, who is +going again to lead men upon their service!" + +[Sidenote: 1504. December 3.] + +Two days later (December 3), he writes again to Diego about the neglect +which he is experiencing from him and from others at Court. "Everybody +except myself is receiving letters," he says. He incloses a memoir +expressing what he thought it was necessary to do in the present +conjunction of his affairs. This document opens with calling upon Diego +zealously to pray to God for the soul of the Queen. "One must believe +she is now clothed with a sainted glory, no longer regretting the +bitterness and weariness of this life." The King, he adds, "deserves all +our sympathy and devotion." He then informs Diego that he has directed +his brother, his uncle, and Carvajal to add all their importunities to +his son's, and to the written prayers which he himself has sent, that +consideration should be given to the affairs of the Indies. Nothing, he +says, can be more urgent than to remedy the abuses there. In all this he +curiously takes on the tone of his own accusers a few years before. He +represents that pecuniary returns from Española are delayed; that the +governor is detested by all; that a suitable person sent there could +restore harmony in less than three months; and that other fortresses, +which are much needed, should be built, "all of which I can do in his +Highness's service," he exclaims, "and any other, not having my personal +interests at stake, could not do it so well!" Then he repeats how, +immediately after his arrival at San Lucar, he had written to the King a +very long letter, advising action in the matter, to which no reply had +been returned. + +[Sidenote: 1503. January 20. The _Casa de Contratacion_ established.] + +It was during Columbus's absence on this last voyage that, by an +ordinance made at Alcalá, January 20, 1503, the famous _Casa de +Contratacion_ was established, with authority over the affairs of the +Indies, having the power to grant licenses, to dispatch fleets, to +dispose of the results of trade or exploration, and to exercise certain +judicial prerogatives. This council was to consist of a treasurer, a +factor, and a comptroller, to whom two persons learned in the law were +given as advisers. Alexander VI. had already, by a bull of November 16, +1501, authorized the payment to the constituted Spanish officials of all +the tithes of the colonies, which went a long way in giving Spain +ecclesiastical supremacy in the Indies, in addition to her political +control. + +It was to this council that Columbus refers, when he says he had told +the gentlemen of the _Contratacion_ that they ought to abide by the +verbal and written orders which the King had given, and that, above all, +they should watch lest people should sail to the Indies without +permission. He reminded them of the sorry character of the people +already in the New World, and of the way in which treasure was stored +there without protection. + +[Sidenote: 1504. December 13.] + +Ten days later (December 13), he writes again to Diego, recurring to his +bitter memories of Ovando, charging him with diverting the revenues, and +with bearing himself so haughtily that no one dared remonstrate. +"Everybody says that I have as much as 11,000 or 12,000 castellanos in +Española, and I have not received a quarter. Since I came away he must +have received 5,000." He then urges Diego to sue the King for a +mandatory letter to be sent to Ovando, forcing immediate payment. +"Carvajal knows very well that this ought to be done. Show him this +letter," he adds. Then referring to his denied rights, and to the +best way to make the King sensible of his earlier promises, he next +advises Diego to lessen his expenses; to treat his uncle with the +respect which is due to him; and to bear himself towards his younger +brother as an older brother should. "You have no other brother," he +says; "and thank God this one is all you could desire. He was born with +a good nature." Then he reverts to the Queen's death. "People tell me," +he writes, "that on her death-bed she expressed a wish that my +possession of the Indies should be restored to me." + +[Sidenote: 1504. December 21.] + +A week later (December 21), he once more bewails the way in which he is +left without tidings. He recounts the exertions he had made to send +money to his advocates at Court, and tells Diego how he must somehow +continue to get on as best he can till their Highnesses are content to +give them back their power. He repeats that to bring his companions home +from Santo Domingo he had spent twelve hundred castellanos, and that he +had represented to the King the royal indebtedness for this, but it +produced no reimbursement. He asks Diego to find out if the Queen, "now +with God, no doubt," had spoken of him in her will; and perhaps the +Bishop of Palencia, "who was the cause of their Majesties' acquiring the +Indies, and of my returning to the Court when I had departed," or the +chamberlain of the King could find this out. Columbus may have lived to +learn that the only item of the Queen's will in which he could possibly +have been in mind was the one in which she showed that she was aroused +to the enormities which Columbus had imposed on the Indians, and which +had come to such results that, as Las Casas says, it had been endeavored +to keep the knowledge of it from the Queen's ears. She earnestly +enjoined upon her successors a change of attitude towards the poor +Indians. + +[Sidenote: Columbus writes to the Pope.] + +Columbus further says that the Pope had complained that no account of +his voyage had been sent to Rome, and that accordingly he had prepared +one, and he desired Diego to read it, and to let the King and the bishop +also peruse it before it was forwarded to Rome. It is possible that the +Adelantado was dispatched with the letter. The canonizers say that the +mission to Rome had also a secret purpose, which was to counteract the +schemes of Fonseca to create bishoprics in Española, and that the +advice of Columbus in the end prevailed over the "cunning of diplomacy." + +[Sidenote: 1505. February 23. Columbus allowed to ride a mule.] + +There had been some time before, owing to the difficulty which had been +experienced in mounting the royal cavalry, an order promulgated +forbidding the use of mules in travel, since it was thought that the +preference for this animal had brought about the deterioration and +scarcity of horses. It was to this injunction that Columbus now referred +when he asked Diego to get a dispensation from the King to allow him to +enjoy the easier seat of a mule when he should venture on his journey +towards the Court, which, with this help, he hoped to be able to begin +within a few weeks. Such an order was in due time issued on February 23, +1505. + +[Sidenote: 1504. December 29.] + +On December 29, Columbus wrote again. The letter was full of the same +pitiful suspense. He had received no letters. He could but repeat the +old story of the letters of credit which he had sent and which had not +been acknowledged. No one of his people had been paid, he said, neither +the faithful nor the mutineers. "They are all poor. They are going to +Court," he adds, "to press their claims. Aid them in it." He excepts, +however, from the kind interest of his friends two fellows who had been +with him on his last voyage, one Camacho and Master Bernal, the latter +the physician of the flagship. Bernal was the instigator of the revolt +of Porras, he says, "and I pardoned him at the prayer of my brother." + +[Sidenote: Columbus and the Bank of St. George.] + +It will be remembered that, previous to starting on his last voyage, +Columbus had written to the Bank of St. George in Genoa, proposing a +gift of a tenth of his income for the benefit of his native town. The +letter was long in reaching its destination, but a reply was duly sent +through his son Diego. It never reached Columbus, and this apparent +spurning of his gift by Genoa caused not a small part of his present +disgust with the world. + +[Sidenote: 1504. December 27.] + +On December 27, 1504, he wrote to Nicolo Oderigo, reminding him of the +letter, and complaining that while he had expected to be met on his +return by some confidential agent of the bank, he had not even had a +letter in response. "It was uncourteous in these gentlemen of St. George +not to have favored me with an answer." The intention was, in fact, far +from being unappreciated, and at a later day the promise became so far +magnified as to be regarded as an actual gift, in which the Genoese were +not without pride. The purpose never, however, had a fulfillment. + +[Sidenote: 1505. January 4.] + +On January 4, 1505, the Admiral wrote to his friend Father Gorricio, +telling him that Diego Mendez had arrived from the Court, and asking the +friar to encase in wax the documentary privileges of the Admiral which +had been intrusted to him, and to send them to him. "My disease grows +better day by day," he adds. + +[Sidenote: 1505. January 18.] + +On January 18, 1505, he again wrote. The epistle was in some small +degree cheery. He had heard at last from Diego. "Zamora the courier has +arrived, and I have looked with great delight upon thy letter, thy +uncle's, thy brother's, and Carvajal's." Diego Mendez, he says, sets out +in three or four days with an order for payment. He refers with some +playfulness, even, to Fonseca, who had just been raised to the bishopric +of Placentia, and had not yet returned from Flanders to take possession +of the seat. "If the Bishop of Placentia has arrived, or when he comes, +tell him how much pleased I am at his elevation; and that when I come to +Court I shall depend on lodging with his Grace, whether he wishes it or +not, that we may renew our old fraternal bonds." His biographers have +been in some little uncertainty whether he really meant here Fonseca or +his old friend Deza, who had just left that bishopric vacant for the +higher post of Archbishop of Seville. A strict application of dates +makes the reference to Fonseca. One may imagine, however, that Columbus +was not accurately informed. It is indeed hard to understand the +pleasantry, if Fonseca was the bitter enemy of Columbus that he is +pictured by Irving. + +Some ships from Española had put into the Tagus. "They have not arrived +here from Lisbon," he adds. "They bring much gold, but none for me." + +[Sidenote: Conference with Vespucius.] + +[Sidenote: Vespucius's account of his voyage.] + +We next find Columbus in close communion with a contemporary with whose +fame his own is sadly conjoined. Some account of the events of the +voyage which Vespucius had made along the coast of South America with +Coelho, from which he had returned to Lisbon in September, 1502, has +been given on an earlier page. Those events and his descriptions had +already brought the name of Vespucius into prominence throughout +Europe, but hardly before he had started on another voyage in the +spring or early summer of 1503, just at the time when Columbus was +endeavoring to work his way from the Veragua coast to Española. The +authorities are not quite agreed whether it was on May 10, 1503, or +a month later, on June 10, that the little Portuguese fleet in which +Vespucius sailed left the Tagus, to find a way, if possible, to the +Moluccas somewhere along the same great coast. This expedition had +started under the command of Coelho, but meeting with mishaps, by +which the fleet was separated, Vespucius, with his own vessel, joined +later by another with which he fell in, proceeded to Bahia, where a +factory for storing Brazil-wood was erected; thence, after a stay +there, they sailed for Lisbon, arriving there after an absence of +seventy-seven days, on June 18, 1504. It was later, on September 4, +that Vespucius wrote, or rather dated, that account of his voyage +which was to work such marvels, as we shall see, in the reputation of +himself and of Columbus. There is no reason to suppose that Columbus +ever knew of this letter of September 4, so subversive as it turned +out of his just fame; nor, judging from the account of their interview + which Columbus records, is there any reason to suppose that Vespucius +himself had any conception of the work which that fateful letter was +already accomplishing, and to which reference will be made later. + +[Sidenote: 1505. February 5.] + +On February 5, 1505, Columbus wrote to Diego: "Within two days I have +talked with Americus Vespucius, who will bear this to you, and who is +summoned to Court on matters of navigation. He has always manifested a +disposition to be friendly to me. Fortune has not always favored him, +and in this he is not different from many others. His ventures have not +always been as successful as he would wish. He left me full of the +kindliest purposes towards me, and will do anything for me which is in +his power. I hardly knew what to tell him would be helpful in him to do +for me, because I did not know what purpose there was in calling him to +Court. Find out what he can do, and he will do it; only let it be so +managed that he will not be suspected of rendering me aid. I have told +him all that it is possible to tell him as to my own affairs, including +what I have done and what recompense I have had. Show this letter to +the Adelantado, so that he may advise how Vespucius can be made +serviceable to us." + +[Sidenote: 1505. April 24. Vespucius naturalized.] + +We soon after this find Vespucius installed as an agent of the Spanish +government, naturalized on April 24 as a Castilian, and occupied at the +seaports in superintending the fitting out of ships for the Indies, with +an annual salary of thirty thousand maravedis. We can find no trace of +any assistance that he afforded the cause of Columbus. + +[Sidenote: Columbus's effects sold.] + +Meanwhile events were taking place which Columbus might well perhaps +have arrested, could he have got the royal ear. An order had been sent +in February to Española to sell the effects of Columbus, and in April +other property of the Admiral had been seized to satisfy his creditors. + +[Sidenote: 1505. May. Columbus goes to Segovia.] + +[Sidenote: August 25. Attests his will.] + +[Sidenote: Columbus and Ferdinand.] + +In May, 1505, Columbus, with the friendly care of his brother +Bartholomew, set out on his journey to Segovia, where the Court then +was. This is the statement of Las Casas, but Harrisse can find no +evidence of his being near the Court till August, when, on the 25th, he +attested, as will appear, his will before a notary. The change bringing +him into the presence of his royal master only made his mortification +more poignant. His personal suit to the King was quite as ineffective as +his letters had been. The sovereign was outwardly beneficent, and +inwardly uncompliant. The Admiral's recitals respecting his last voyage, +both of promised wealth and of saddened toil, made little impression. +Las Casas suspects that the insinuations of Porras had preoccupied the +royal mind. To rid himself of the importunities of Columbus, the King +proposed an arbiter, and readily consented to the choice which Columbus +made of his old friend Deza, now Archbishop of Seville; but Columbus was +too immovably fixed upon his own rights to consent that more than the +question of revenue should be considered by such an arbiter. His +recorded privileges and the pledged word of the sovereign were not +matters to be reconsidered. Such was not, however, the opinion of the +King. He evaded the point in his talk with bland countenance, and did +nothing in his acts beyond referring the question anew to a body of +counselors convened to determine the fulfillment of the Queen's will. +They did nothing quite as easily as the King. Las Casas tells us that +the King was only restrained by motives of outward decency from a +public rejection of all the binding obligations towards the Admiral into +which he had entered jointly with the Queen. + +[Sidenote: 1505. August 25. His will.] + +[Sidenote: Columbus pleads for his son.] + +[Sidenote: Rejects offers of estates.] + +Columbus found in all this nothing to comfort a sick and desponding man, +and sank in despair upon his couch. He roused enough to have a will +drafted August 25, which confirmed a testament made in 1502, before +starting on his last voyage. His disease renewed its attacks. An old +wound had reopened. From a bed of pain he began again his written +appeals. He now gave up all hopes for himself, but he pleaded for his +son, that upon him the honors which he himself had so laboriously won +should be bestowed. Diego at the same time, in seconding the petition, +promised, if the reinstatement took place, that he would count those +among his counselors whom the royal will should designate. Nothing of +protest or appeal came opportunely to the determined King. "The more he +was petitioned," says Las Casas, "the more bland he was in avoiding any +conclusion." He hoped by exhausting the patience of the Admiral to +induce him to accept some estates in Castile in lieu of such powers in +the Indies. Columbus rejected all such intimations with indignation. He +would have nothing but his bonded rights. "I have done all that I can +do," he said in a pitiful, despairing letter to Deza. "I must leave the +issue to God. He has always sustained me in extremities." + +"It argued," says Prescott, in commenting on this, "less knowledge of +character than the King usually showed, that he should have thought the +man who had broken off all negotiations on the threshold of a dubious +enterprise, rather than abate one tittle of his demands, would consent +to such abatement, when the success of that enterprise was so gloriously +established." + +[Sidenote: Columbus at Salamanca.] + +[Sidenote: Mendez and Columbus.] + +The Admiral was, during this part of his suit, apparently at Salamanca, +for Mendez speaks of him as being there confined to his bed with the +gout, while he himself was doing all he could to press his master's +claims to have Diego recognized in his rights. In return for this +service, Mendez asked to be appointed principal Alguazil of Española for +life, and he says the Admiral acknowledged that such an appointment +was but a trifling remuneration for his great services, but the requital +never came. + +[Sidenote: Columbus unable to leave Valladolid to greet Philip and +Juana.] + +There broke a glimmer of hope. The death of the Queen had left the +throne of Castile to her daughter Juana, the wife of Philip of Austria, +and they had arrived from Flanders to be installed in their inheritance. +Columbus, who had followed the Court from Segovia to Salamanca, thence +to Valladolid, was now unable to move further in his decrepitude, and +sent the Adelantado to propitiate the daughter of Isabella, with the +trust that something of her mother's sympathy might be vouchsafed to his +entreaties. Bartholomew never saw his brother again, and was not +privileged to communicate to him the gracious hopes which the benignity +of his reception raised. + +[Sidenote: Negroes sent to Española.] + +A year had passed since the Admiral had come to the neighborhood of the +Court, wherever it was, and nothing had been accomplished in respect to +his personal interests. Indeed, little touching the Indies at all seems +to have been done. There had been trial made of sending negro slaves to +Española as indicating that the native bondage needed reinforcement; but +Ovando had reported that the experiment was a failure, since the negroes +only mixed with the Indians and taught them bad habits. Ferdinando cared +little for this, and at Segovia, September 15, 1505, he notified Ovando +that he should send some more negroes. Whether Columbus was aware of +this change in the methods of extracting gold from the soil we cannot +find. + +[Sidenote: 1506. May 4. Codicil to his will.] + +As soon as Bartholomew had started on his mission the malady of Columbus +increased. He became conscious that the time had come to make his final +dispositions. It was on May 4, 1506, according to the common story, that +he signed a codicil to his will on a blank page in a breviary which had +been given to him, as he says, by Alexander VI., and which had +"comforted him in his battles, his captivities, and his misfortunes." +This document has been accepted by some of the commentators as genuine; +Harrisse and others are convinced of its apocryphal character. It was +not found till 1779. It is a strange document, if authentic. + +[Sidenote: Thought to be spurious.] + +Itholds that such dignities as were his under the Spanish Crown, +acknowledged or not, were his of right to alienate from the Spanish +throne. It was, if anything, a mere act of bravado, as if to flout at +the authority which could dare deprive him of his possessions. He +provides for the descent of his honors in the male line, and that +failing, he bequeaths them to the republic of Genoa! It was a gauge of +hostile demands on Spain which no one but a madman would imagine that +Genoa would accept if she could. He bestowed on his native city, in the +same reckless way, the means to erect a hospital, and designated that +such resources should come from his Italian estates, whatever they were. +Certainly the easiest way to dispose of the paper is to consider it a +fraud. If such, it was devised by some one who entered into the spirit +of the Admiral's madness, and made the most of rumors that had been +afloat respecting Columbus's purposes to benefit Genoa at the expense of +Spain. + +[Sidenote: 1506. May 19. Ratified his will.] + +About a fortnight later (May 19), he ratified an undoubted will, which +had been drafted by his own hand the year before at Segovia, and +executed it with the customary formalities. Its testamentary provisions +were not unnatural. He made Diego his heir, and his entailed property +was, in default of heirs to Diego, to pass to his illegitimate son +Ferdinand, and from him, in like default, to his own brother, the +Adelantado, and his male descendants; and all such failing, to the +female lines in a similar succession. He enjoined upon his +representatives, of whatever generation, to serve the Spanish King with +fidelity. Upon Diego, and upon later heads of the family, he imposed the +duty of relieving all distressed relatives and others in poverty. He +imposed on his lawful son the appointment of some one of his lineage to +live constantly in Genoa, to maintain the family dignity. He directed +him to grant due allowances to his brother and uncle; and when the +estates yielded the means, to erect a chapel in the Vega of Española, +where masses might be said daily for the repose of the souls of himself +and of his nearest relatives. He made the furthering of the crusade to +recover the Holy Sepulchre equally contingent upon the increase of his +income. He also directed Diego to provide for the maintenance of Donna +Beatrix Enriquez, the mother of Ferdinand, as "a person to whom I am +under great obligations," and "let this be done for the discharge of my +conscience, for it weighs heavy on my soul,--the reasons for which I +am not here permitted to give;" and this was a behest that Diego, in his +own will, acknowledges his failure to observe during the last years of +the lady's life. Then, in a codicil, Columbus enumerates sundry little +bequests to other persons to whom he was indebted, and whose kindness he +wished to remember. He was honest enough to add that his bequests were +imaginary unless his rights were acknowledged. "Hitherto I neither have +had, nor have I now, any positive income." He failed to express any wish +respecting the spot of his interment. The documents were committed at +once to a notary, from whose archives a copy was obtained in 1524 by his +son Diego, and this copy exists to-day among the family papers in the +hands of the Duke of Veragua. + +[Sidenote: 1506. May 20. Columbus dies.] + +This making of a will was almost his last act. On the next day he +partook of the sacrament, and uttering, "Into thy hands, O Lord, I +commit my spirit," he gasped his last. It was on the 20th of May, +1506,--by some circumstances we might rather say May 21,--in the city of +Valladolid, that this singular, hopeful, despondent, melancholy life +came to its end. He died at the house No. 7 Calle de Colon, which is +still shown to travelers. + +[Illustration: HOUSE WHERE COLUMBUS DIED. + +[From Ruge's _Geschichte des Zeitalters der Entdeckungen_.]] + +[Sidenote: His death unnoticed.] + +There was a small circle of relatives and friends who mourned. The tale +of his departure came like a sough of wind to a few others, who had seen +no way to alleviate a misery that merited their sympathy. The King could +have but found it a relief from the indiscretion of his early promises. +The world at large thought no more of the mournful procession which bore +that wayworn body to the grave than it did of any poor creature +journeying on his bier to the potter's field. + +It is hard to conceive how the fame of a man over whose acts in 1493 +learned men cried for joy, and by whose deeds the adventurous spirit had +been stirred in every seaport of western Europe, should have so +completely passed into oblivion that a professed chronicler like Peter +Martyr, busy tattler as he was, should take no notice of his illness and +death. There have come down to us five long letters full of news and +gossip, which Martyr wrote from Valladolid at this very time, with not a +word in them of the man he had so often commemorated. Fracanzio da +Montalboddo, publishing in 1507 some correction of his early voyages, +had not heard of Columbus's death; nor had Madrignano in dating his +Latin rendering of the same book in 1508. It was not till twenty-seven +days after the death-bed scene that the briefest notice was made in +passing, in an official document of the town, to the effect that "the +said Admiral is dead!" + +[Sidenote: His burial.] + +[Sidenote: His coffin carried to Seville.] + +It is not even certain where the body was first placed, though it is +usually affirmed to have been deposited in the Franciscan convent in +Valladolid. Nor is there any evidence to support another equally +prevalent story that King Ferdinand had ordered the removal of the +remains to Seville seven years later, when a monument was built bearing +the often-quoted distich,-- + + À CASTILLA Y À LEON + NUEVO MUNDO DIÓ COLON,-- + +it being pretty evident that such an inscription was never thought of +till Castellanos suggested it in his _Elegias_ in 1588. If Diego's will +in 1509 can be interpreted on this matter, it seems pretty sure that +within three years (1509) after the death of Columbus, instead of seven, +his coffin had been conveyed to Seville and placed inside the convent of +Las Cuevas, in the vault of the Carthusians, where the bodies of his +son Diego and brother Bartholomew were in due time to rest beside his +own. Here the remains were undisturbed till 1536, when the records of +the convent affirm that they were given up for transportation, though +the royal order is given as of June 2, 1537. From that date till 1549 +there is room for conjecture as to their abiding-place. + +[Sidenote: 1541. Removed to Santo Domingo.] + +[Sidenote: Remains removed to Havana.] + +It was during this interval that his family were seeking to carry out +what was supposed to be the wish of the Admiral to rest finally in the +island of Española. From 1537 to 1540 the government are known to have +issued three different orders respecting the removal of the remains, and +it is conjectured the transference was actually made in 1541, shortly +after the completion of the cathedral at Santo Domingo. If any record +was made at the time to designate the spot of the reëntombment in that +edifice, it is not now known, and it was not till 1676 that somebody +placed an entry in its records that the burial had been made on the +right of the altar. A few years later (1683), the recollections of aged +people are quoted to substantiate such a statement. We find no other +notice till a century afterwards, when, on the occasion of some repairs, +a stone vault, supposed in the traditions to be that which held the +remains, was found on "the gospel side" of the chancel, while another on +"the epistle side" was thought to contain the remains of Bartholomew +Columbus. This was the suspected situation of the graves when the treaty +of Basle, in 1795, gave the Santo Domingo end of the island to France, +and the Spanish authorities, acting in concert with the Duke of Veragua, +as the representative of the family of Columbus, determined on the +removal of the remains to Havana. It is a question which has been raised +since 1877 whether the body of Columbus was the one then removed, and +over which so much parade was made during the transportation and +reinterment in Cuba. There has been a controversy on the point, in which +the Bishop of Santo Domingo and his adherents have claimed that the +remains of Columbus are still in their charge, while it was those of his +son Diego which had been removed. The Academy of History at Madrid have +denied this, and in a long report to the Spanish government have +asserted that there was no mistake in the transfer, and that the +additional casket found was that of Christopher Colon, the grandson. + +[Illustration: CATHEDRAL AT SANTO DOMINGO.] + +[Sidenote: Question of the identity of his remains.] + +It was represented, moreover, that those features of the inscription on +the lately found leaden box which seemed to indicate it as the casket of +the first Admiral of the Indies had been fraudulently added or altered. +The question has probably been thrown into the category of doubt, though +the case as presented in favor of Santo Domingo has some recognizably +weak points, which the advocates of the other side have made the most +of, and to the satisfaction perhaps of the more careful inquirers. The +controversial literature on the subject is considerable. The repairs of +1877 in the Santo Domingo cathedral revealed the empty vault from which +the transported body had been taken; but they showed also the occupied +vault of the grandson Luis, and another in which was a leaden case which +bore the inscriptions which are in dispute. + +[Sidenote: Alleged burial of his chains with him.] + +It is the statement of the _Historie_ that Columbus preserved the chains +in which he had come home from his third voyage, and that he had them +buried with him, or intended to do so. The story is often repeated, but +it has no other authority than the somewhat dubious one of that book; +and it finds no confirmation in Las Casas, Peter Martyr, Bernaldez, or +Oviedo. + +Humboldt says that he made futile inquiry of those who had assisted in +the reinterment at Havana, if there were any trace of these fetters or +of oxide of iron in the coffin. In the accounts of the recent discovery +of remains at Santo Domingo, it is said that there was equally no trace +of fetters in the casket. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: The age of Columbus.] + +The age of Columbus is almost without a parallel, presenting perhaps the +most striking appearances since the star shone upon Bethlehem. It saw +Martin Luther burn the Pope's bull, and assert a new kind of +independence. It added Erasmus to the broadeners of life. Ancient art +was revivified in the discovery of its most significant remains. Modern +art stood confessed in Da Vinci, Michael Angelo, Titian, Raphael, +Holbein, and Dürer. Copernicus found in the skies a wonderful +development without great telescopic help. The route of the Portuguese +by the African cape and the voyage of Columbus opened new worlds to +thought and commerce. They made the earth seem to man, north and south, +east and west, as man never before had imagined it. It looked as if +mercantile endeavor was to be constrained by no bounds. Articles of +trade were multiplied amazingly. Every movement was not only new and +broad, but it was rapid beyond conception. It was more like the +remodeling of Japan, which we have seen in our day, than anything that +had been earlier known. + +[Illustration: STATUE OF COLUMBUS AT SANTO DOMINGO.] + +The long sway of the Moors was disintegrating. The Arab domination in +science and seamanship was yielding to the Western genius. The Turks had +in the boyhood (1453) of Columbus consummated their last great triumph +in the capture of Constantinople, thus placing a barrier to Christian +commerce with the East. This conquest drove out the learned Christians +of the East, who had drunk of the Arab erudition, and they fled with +their stores of learning to the western lands, coming back to the heirs +of the Romans with the spirit which Rome in the past had sent to the +East. + +But what Christian Europe was losing in the East Portugal and Prince +Henry were gaining for her in the great and forbidding western waste of +waters and along its African shores. As the hot tide of Mahometan +invasion rolled over the Bosphorus, the burning equatorial zone was +pierced from the north along the coasts of the Black Continent. + +[Sidenote: Italian discoverers.] + +[Sidenote: His growing belief in the western passage.] + +Italy, seeing her maritime power drop away as the naval supremacy of the +Atlantic seaboard rose, was forced to send her experienced navigators to +the oceanic ports, to maintain the supremacy of her name and genius in +Cadamosto, Columbus, Vespucius, Cabot, and Verrazano. Those +cosmographical views which had come down the ages, at times obscured, +then for a while patent, and of which the traces had lurked in the minds +of learned men by an almost continuous sequence for many centuries, at +last possessed by inheritance the mind of Columbus. By reading, by +conference with others, by noting phenomena, and by reasoning, in the +light of all these, upon the problem of a western passage to India, +obvious as it was if once the sphericity of the earth be acknowledged, +he gradually grew to be confident in himself and trustful in his agency +with others. He was far from being alone in his beliefs, nor was his age +anything more than a reflection of long periods of like belief. + +[Sidenote: Deficiencies of character.] + +There was simply needed a man with courage and constancy in his +convictions, so that the theory could be demonstrated. This age produced +him. Enthusiasm and the contagion of palpable though shadowy truths gave +Columbus, after much tribulation, the countenance in high quarters that +enabled him to reach success, deceptive though it was. It would have +been well for his memory if he had died when his master work was done. +With his great aim certified by its results, though they were far from +being what he thought, he was unfortunately left in the end to be laid +bare on trial, a common mortal after all, the creature of buffeting +circumstances, and a weakling in every element of command. His +imagination had availed him in his upward course when a serene habit in +his waiting days could obscure his defects. Later, the problems he +encountered were those that required an eye to command, with tact to +persuade and skill to coerce, and he had none of them. + +[Sidenote: Roger Bacon and Columbus.] + +[Sidenote: Pierre d'Ailly's _Imago Mundi_.] + +The man who becomes the conspicuous developer of any great +world-movement is usually the embodiment of the ripened aspirations of +his time. Such was Columbus. It is the forerunner, the man who has +little countenance in his age, who points the way for some hazardous +after-soul to pursue. Such was Roger Bacon, the English Franciscan. It +was Bacon's lot to direct into proper channels the new surging of the +experimental sciences which was induced by the revived study of +Aristotle, and was carrying dismay into the strongholds of Platonism. +Standing out from the background of Arab regenerating learning, the name +of Roger Bacon, linked often with that of Albertus Magnus, stood for the +best knowledge and insight of the thirteenth century. Bacon it was who +gave that tendency to thought which, seized by Cardinal Pierre d'Ailly, +and incorporated by him in his _Imago Mundi_ (1410), became the link +between Bacon and Columbus. Humboldt has indeed expressed his belief +that this encyclopædic Survey of the World exercised a more important +influence upon the discovery of America than even the prompting which +Columbus got from his correspondence with Toscanelli. How well Columbus +pored over the pages of the _Imago Mundi_ we know from the annotations +of his own copy, which is still preserved in the Biblioteca Colombina. +It seems likely that Columbus got directly from this book most that he +knew of those passages in Aristotle, Strabo, and Seneca which speak of +the Asiatic shores as lying opposite to Hispania. There is some evidence +that this book was his companion even on his voyages, and Humboldt +points out how he translates a passage from it, word for word, when in +1498 he embodied it in a letter which he wrote to his sovereigns from +Española. + +[Sidenote: His acquaintance with the elder writers.] + +If we take the pains, as Humboldt did, to examine the writings of +Columbus, to ascertain the sources which he cited, we find what appears +to be a broad acquaintance with books. It is to be remembered, however, +that the Admiral quoted usually at second hand, and that he got his +acquaintance with classic authors, at least, mainly through this _Imago +Mundi_ of Pierre d'Ailly. Humboldt, in making his list of Columbus's +authors, omits the references to the Scriptures and to the Church +fathers, "in whom," as he says, "Columbus was singularly versed," and +then gives the following catalogue:-- + +Aristotle; Julius Cæsar; Strabo; Seneca; Pliny; Ptolemy; Solinus; Julius +Capitolinus; Alfrazano; Avenruyz; Rabbi Samuel de Israel; Isidore, +Bishop of Seville; the Venerable Bede; Strabus, Abbé of Reichenau; Duns +Scotus; François Mayronis; Abbé Joachim de Calabre; Sacrobosco, being in +fact the English mathematician Holywood; Nicholas de Lyra, the Norman +Franciscan; King Alfonso the Wise, and his Moorish scribes; Cardinal +Pierre d'Ailly; Gerson, Chancellor of the University of Paris; Pope Pius +II., otherwise known as Æneas Sylvius Piccolomini; Regiomontanus, as the +Latinized name of Johann Müller of Königsberg is given, though Columbus +does not really name him; Paolo Toscanelli, the Florentine physician; +and Nicolas de Conti, of whom he had heard through Toscanelli, perhaps. + +Humboldt can find no evidence that Columbus had read the travels of +Marco Polo, and does not discover why Navarrete holds that he had, +though Polo's stories must have permeated much that Columbus read; nor +does he understand why Irving says that Columbus took Marco Polo's book +on his first voyage. + +[Sidenote: Columbus and Toscanelli.] + +We see often in the world's history a simultaneousness in the +regeneration of thought. Here and there a seer works on in ignorance of +some obscure brother elsewhere. Rumor and circulating manuscripts bring +them into sympathy. They grow by the correlation. It is just this +correspondence that confronts us in Columbus and Toscanelli, and it is +not quite, but almost, perceptible that this wise Florentine doctor was +the first, despite Humboldt's theory, to plant in the mind of Columbus +his aspirations for the truths of geography. It is meet that Columbus +should not be mentioned without the accompanying name of Toscanelli. It +was the Genoese's different fortune that he could attempt as a seaman a +practical demonstration of his fellow Italian's views. + +Many a twin movement of the world's groping spirit thus seeks the light. +Progress naturally pushes on parallel lines. Commerce thrusts her +intercourse to remotest regions, while the Church yearns for new souls +to convert, and peers longingly into the dim spaces that skirt the +world's geography. Navigators improve their methods, and learned men in +the arts supply them with exacter instruments. The widespread +manifestations of all this new life at last crystallize, and Gama and +Columbus appear, the reflex of every development. + +[Sidenote: Opportuneness of his discoveries.] + +Thus the discovery of Columbus came in the ripeness of time. No one of +the anterior accidents, suggesting a western land, granting that there +was some measure of fact in all of them, had come to a world prepared to +think on their developments. Vinland was practically forgotten, wherever +it may have been. The tales of Fousang had never a listener in Europe. +Madoc was as unknown as Elidacthon. While the new Indies were not in +their turn to be forgotten, their discoverer was to bury himself in a +world of conjecture. The superlatives of Columbus soon spent their +influence. The pioneer was lost sight of in the new currents of thought +which he had started. Not of least interest among them was the +cognizance of new races of men, and new revelations in the animal and +physical kingdoms, while the question of their origins pressed very soon +on the theological and scientific sense of the age. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: Not above his age.] + +[Sidenote: Claims for palliation.] + +No man craves more than Columbus to be judged with all the palliations +demanded of a difference of his own age and ours. No child of any age +ever did less to improve his contemporaries, and few ever did more to +prepare the way for such improvements. The age created him and the age +left him. There is no more conspicuous example in history of a man +showing the path and losing it. + +It is by no means sure, with all our boast of benevolent progress, that +atrocities not much short of those which we ascribe to Columbus and his +compeers may not at any time disgrace the coming as they have blackened +the past years of the nineteenth century. This fact gives us the right +to judge the infirmities of man in any age from the high vantage-ground +of the best emotions of all the centuries. In the application of such +perennial justice Columbus must inevitably suffer. The degradation of +the times ceases to be an excuse when the man to be judged stands on the +pinnacle of the ages. The biographer cannot forget, indeed, that +Columbus is a portrait set in the surroundings of his times; but it is +equally his duty at the same time to judge the paths which he trod by +the scale of an eternal nobleness. + +[Sidenote: Test of his character.] + +[Sidenote: Not a creator of ideas.] + +The very domination of this man in the history of two hemispheres +warrants us in estimating him by an austere sense of occasions lost and +of opportunities embraced. The really great man is superior to his age, +and anticipates its future; not as a sudden apparition, but as the +embodiment of a long growth of ideas of which he is the inheritor and +the capable exemplar. Humboldt makes this personal domination of two +kinds. The one comes from the direct influence of character; the other +from the creation of an idea, which, freed from personality, works its +controlling mission by changing the face of things. It is of this last +description that Humboldt makes the domination of Columbus. It is +extremely doubtful if any instance can be found of a great idea changing +the world's history, which has been created by any single man. None such +was created by Columbus. There are always forerunners whose agency is +postponed because the times are not propitious. A masterful thought has +often a long pedigree, starting from a remote antiquity, but it will be +dormant till it is environed by the circumstances suited to fructify it. +This was just the destiny of the intuition which began with Aristotle +and came down to Columbus. To make his first voyage partook of +foolhardiness, as many a looker-on reasonably declared. It was none the +less foolhardy when it was done. If he had reached the opulent and +powerful kings of the Orient, his little cockboats and their brave souls +might have fared hard for their intrusion. His blunder in geography very +likely saved him from annihilation. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: His character differently drawn.] + +[Sidenote: Prescott.] + +[Sidenote: Irving.] + +The character of Columbus has been variously drawn, almost always with a +violent projection of the limner's own personality. We find Prescott +contending that "whatever the defects of Columbus's mental constitution, +the finger of the historian will find it difficult to point to a single +blemish in his moral character." It is certainly difficult to point to a +more flagrant disregard of truth than when we find Prescott further +saying, "Whether we contemplate his character in its public or private +relations, in all its features it wears the same noble aspects. It was +in perfect harmony with the grandeur of his plans, and with results more +stupendous than those which Heaven has permitted any other mortal to +achieve." It is very striking to find Prescott, after thus speaking of +his private as well as public character, and forgetting the remorse of +Columbus for the social wrongs he had committed, append in a footnote to +this very passage a reference to his "illegitimate" son. It seems to +mark an obdurate purpose to disguise the truth. This is also nowhere +more patent than in the palliating hero-worship of Irving, with his +constant effort to save a world's exemplar for the world's admiration, +and more for the world's sake than for Columbus's. + +Irving at one time berates the biographer who lets "pernicious +erudition" destroy a world's exemplar; and at another time he does not +know that he is criticising himself when he says that "he who paints a +great man merely in great and heroic traits, though he may produce a +fine picture, will never present a faithful portrait." The commendation +which he bestows upon Herrera is for precisely what militates against +the highest aims of history, since he praises that Spanish historian's +disregard of judicial fairness. + +In the being which Irving makes stand for the historic Columbus, his +skill in softened expression induced Humboldt to suppose that Irving's +avoidance of exaggeration gave a force to his eulogy, but there was +little need to exaggerate merits, if defects were blurred. + +[Sidenote: Humboldt.] + +The learned German adds, in the opening of the third volume of his +_Examen Critique_, his own sense of the impressiveness of Columbus. That +impressiveness stands confessed; but it is like a gyrating storm that +knows no law but the vagrancy of destruction. + +One need not look long to discover the secret of Humboldt's estimate of +Columbus. Without having that grasp of the picturesque which appeals so +effectively to the popular mind in the letters of Vespucius, the Admiral +was certainly not destitute of keen observation of nature, but +unfortunately this quality was not infrequently prostituted to ignoble +purposes. To a student of Humboldt's proclivities, these traits of +observation touched closely his sympathy. He speaks in his _Cosmos_ of +the development of this exact scrutiny in manifold directions, +notwithstanding Columbus's previous ignorance of natural history, and +tells us that this capacity for noting natural phenomena arose from his +contact with such. It would have been better for the fame of Columbus if +he had kept this scientific survey in its purity. It was simply, for +instance, a vitiated desire to astound that made him mingle theological +and physical theories about the land of Paradise. Such jugglery was +promptly weighed in Spain and Italy by Peter Martyr and others as the +wild, disjointed effusions of an overwrought mind, and "the reflex of a +false erudition," as Humboldt expresses it. It was palpably by another +effort, of a like kind, that he seized upon the views of the fathers of +the Church that the earthly Paradise lay in the extreme Orient, and he +was quite as audacious when he exacted the oath on the Cuban coast, to +make it appear by it that he had really reached the outermost parts of +Asia. + +[Sidenote: Observations of nature.] + +Humboldt seeks to explain this errant habit by calling it "the sudden +movement of his ardent and passionate soul; the disarrangement of ideas +which were the effect of an incoherent method and of the extreme +rapidity of his reading; while all was increased by his misfortunes and +religious mysticism." Such an explanation hardly relieves the subject of +it from blunter imputations. This urgency for some responsive wonderment +at every experience appears constantly in the journal of Columbus's +first voyage, as, for instance, when he makes every harbor exceed in +beauty the last he had seen. This was the commonplace exaggeration +which in our day is confined to the calls of speculating land companies. +The fact was that Humboldt transferred to his hero something of the +superlative love of nature that he himself had experienced in the same +regions; but there was all the difference between him and Columbus that +there is between a genuine love of nature and a commercial use of it. +Whenever Columbus could divert his mind from a purpose to make the +Indies a paying investment, we find some signs of an insight that shows +either observation of his own or the garnering of it from others, as, +for example, when he remarks on the decrease of rain in the Canaries and +the Azores which followed upon the felling of trees, and when he +conjectures that the elongated shape of the islands of the Antilles on +the lines of the parallels was due to the strength of the equatorial +current. + +[Sidenote: Roselly de Lorgues and his school.] + +[Sidenote: Harrisse.] + +Since Irving, Prescott, and Humboldt did their work, there has sprung up +the unreasoning and ecstatic French school under the lead of Roselly de +Lorgues, who seek to ascribe to Columbus all the virtues of a saint. +"Columbus had no defect of character and no worldly quality," they say. +The antiquarian and searching spirit of Harrisse, and of those writers +who have mainly been led into the closest study of the events of the +life of Columbus, has not done so much to mould opinion as regards the +estimate in which the Admiral should be held as to eliminate confusing +statements and put in order corroborating facts. The reaction from the +laudation of the canonizers has not produced any writer of consideration +to array such derogatory estimates as effectually as a plain recital of +established facts would do it. Hubert Bancroft, in the incidental +mention which he makes of Columbus, has touched his character not +inaptly, and with a consistent recognition of its infirmities. Even +Prescott, who verges constantly on the ecstatic elements of the +adulatory biographer, is forced to entertain at times "a suspicion of a +temporary alienation of mind," and in regard to the letter which +Columbus wrote from Jamaica to the sovereigns, is obliged to recognize +"sober narrative and sound reasoning strangely blended with crazy dreams +and doleful lamentations." + +[Sidenote: Aaron Goodrich.] + +"Vagaries like these," he adds, "which came occasionally like clouds +over his soul to shut out the light of reason, cannot fail to fill the +mind of the reader, as they doubtless did those of the sovereigns, with +mingled sentiments of wonder and compassion." An unstinted denunciatory +purpose, much weakened by an inconsiderate rush of disdain, +characterizes an American writer, Aaron Goodrich, in his _Life of the +so-called Christopher Columbus_ (New York, 1875); but the critic's +temper is too peevish and his opinions are too unreservedly biased to +make his results of any value. + +[Sidenote: Humboldt.] + +The mental hallucinations of Columbus, so patent in his last years, were +not beyond recognition at a much earlier age, and those who would get +the true import of his character must trace these sorrowful +manifestations to their beginnings, and distinguish accurately between +Columbus when his purpose was lofty and unselfish and himself again when +he became mercenary and erratic. So much does the verdict of history +lodge occasionally more in the narrator of events than in the character +of them that, in Humboldt's balancing of the baser with the nobler +symptoms of Columbus's nature, he does not find even the most degraded +of his actions other than powerful in will, and sometimes, at least, +clear in intelligence. There were certainly curiously transparent, but +transient gleams of wisdom to the last. Humboldt further says that the +faith of Columbus soothed his dreary and weary adversities by the charm +of ascetic reveries. So a handsome euphuism tries to save his fame from +harsher epithets. + +It was a faith, says the same delineator, which justified at need, under +the pretext of a religious object, the employment of deceit and the +excess of a despotic power; a tenderer form, doubtless, of the vulgar +expression that the end sanctifies the means. It is not, however, within +the practice of the better historical criticism of our day to let such +elegant wariness beguile the reader's mind. If the different, not to say +more advanced, condition of the critical mind is to be of avail to a new +age through the advantage gained from all the ages, it is in precisely +this emancipation from the trammels of traditionary bondage that the +historian asserts his own, and dispels the glamour of a conventionalized +hero-worship. + +[Sidenote: Dr. J. G. Shea.] + +Dr. Shea, our most distinguished Catholic scholar, who has dealt with +the character of Columbus, says: "He accomplished less than some +adventurers with poor equipped vessels. He seems to have succeeded in +attaching but few men to him who adhered loyally to his cause. Those +under him were constantly rebellious and mutinous; those over him found +him impracticable. To array all these as enemies, inspired by a satanic +hostility to a great servant of God, is to ask too much for our belief;" +and yet this is precisely what Irving by constant modifications, and De +Lorgues in a monstrous degree, feel themselves justified in doing. + +[Sidenote: The French canonizers.] + +There is nothing in Columbus's career that these French canonizers do +not find convertible to their purpose, whether it be his wild vow to +raise 4,000 horse and 50,000 foot in seven years, wherewith to snatch +the Holy Sepulchre from the infidel, or the most commonplace of his +canting ejaculations. That Columbus was a devout Catholic, according to +the Catholicism of his epoch, does not admit of question, but when tried +by any test that finds the perennial in holy acts, Columbus fails to +bear the examination. He had nothing of the generous and noble spirit of +a conjoint lover of man and of God, as the higher spirits of all times +have developed it. There was no all-loving Deity in his conception. His +Lord was one in whose name it was convenient to practice enormities. He +shared this subterfuge with Isabella and the rest. We need to think on +what Las Casas could be among his contemporaries, if we hesitate to +apply the conceptions of an everlasting humanity. + +[Sidenote: Converts and slaves.] + +The mines which Columbus went to seek were hard to find. The people he +went to save to Christ were easy to exterminate. He mourned bitterly +that his own efforts were ill requited. He had no pity for the misery of +others, except they be his dependents and co-sharers of his purposes. He +found a policy worth commemorating in slitting the noses and tearing off +the ears of a naked heathen. He vindicates his excess by impressing upon +the world that a man setting out to conquer the Indies must not be +judged by the amenities of life which belong to a quiet rule in +established countries. Yet, with a chance to establish a humane life +among peoples ready to be moulded to good purposes, he sought from the +very first to organize among them the inherited evils of "established +countries." He talked a great deal about making converts of the poor +souls, while the very first sight which he had of them prompted him to +consign them to the slave-mart, just as if the first step to +Christianize was the step which unmans. + +The first vicar apostolic sent to teach the faith in Santo Domingo +returned to Spain, no longer able to remain, powerless, in sight of the +cruelties practiced by Columbus. Isabella prevented the selling of the +natives as slaves in Spain, when Columbus had dispatched thither five +shiploads. Las Casas tells us that in 1494-96 Columbus was generally +hated in Española for his odiousness and injustice, and that the +Admiral's policy with the natives killed a third of them in those two +years. The Franciscans, when they arrived at the island, found the +colonists exuberant that they had been relieved of the rule which +Columbus had instituted; and the Benedictines and Dominicans added their +testimony to the same effect. + +[Sidenote: He urges enslaving the natives from the first.] + +The very first words, as has been said, that he used, in conveying to +expectant Europe the wonders of his discovery, suggested a scheme of +enslaving the strange people. He had already made the voyage that of a +kidnapper, by entrapping nine of the unsuspecting natives. + +On his second voyage he sent home a vessel-load of slaves, on the +pretense of converting them, but his sovereigns intimated to him that it +would cost less to convert them in their own homes. Then he thought of +the righteous alternative of sending some to Spain to be sold to buy +provisions to support those who would convert others in their homes. The +monarchs were perhaps dazed at this sophistry; and Columbus again sent +home four vessels laden with reeking cargoes of flesh. When he returned +to Spain, in 1496, to circumvent his enemies, he once more sought in his +turn, and by his reasoning, to cheat the devil of heathen souls by +sending other cargoes. At last the line was drawn. It was not to save +their souls, but to punish them for daring to war against the Spaniards, +that they should be made to endure such horrors. + +It is to Columbus, also, that we trace the beginning of that monstrous +guilt which Spanish law sanctioned under the name of _repartimientos_, +and by which to every colonist, and even to the vilest, absolute power +was given over as many natives as his means and rank entitled him to +hold. Las Casas tells us that Ferdinand could hardly have had a +conception of the enormities of the system. If so, it was because he +winked out of sight the testimony of observers, while he listened to +the tales prompted of greed, rapine, and cruelty. The value of the +system to force heathen out of hell, and at the same time to replenish +his treasury, was the side of it presented to Ferdinand's mind by such +as had access to his person. In 1501, we find the Dominicans entering +their protest, and by this Ferdinand was moved to take the counsel of +men learned in the law and in what passed in those days for Christian +ethics. This court of appeal approved these necessary efforts, as was +claimed, to increase those who were new to the faith, and to reward +those who supported it. + +Peter Martyr expressed the comforting sentiments of the age: "National +right and that of the Church concede personal liberty to man. State +policy, however, demurs. Custom repels the idea. Long experience shows +that slavery is necessary to prevent those returning to their idolatry +and error whom the Church has once gained." All professed servants of +the Church, with a few exceptions like Las Casas, ranged themselves with +Columbus on the side of such specious thoughts; and Las Casas, in +recognizing this fact, asks what we could expect of an old sailor and +fighter like Columbus, when the wisest and most respectable of the +priesthood backed him in his views. It was indeed the misery of Columbus +to miss the opportunity of being wiser than his fellows, the occasion +always sought by a commanding spirit, and it was offered to him almost +as to no other. + +[Sidenote: Progress of slavery in the West Indies.] + +There was no restraining the evil. The cupidity of the colonists +overcame all obstacles. The Queen was beguiled into giving equivocal +instructions to Ovando, who succeeded to Bobadilla, and out of them by +interpretation grew an increase of the monstrous evil. In 1503, every +atrocity had reached a legal recognition. Labor was forced; the slaves +were carried whither the colonists willed; and for eight months at least +in every year, families were at pleasure disrupted without mercy. One +feels some satisfaction in seeing Columbus himself at last, in a letter +to Diego, December 1, 1504, shudder at the atrocities of Ovando. When +one sees the utter annihilation of the whole race of the Antilles, a +thing clearly assured at the date of the death of Columbus, one wishes +that that dismal death-bed in Valladolid could have had its gloom +illumined by a consciousness that the hand which lifted the banner of +Spain and of Christ at San Salvador had done something to stay the +misery which cupidity and perverted piety had put in course. When a man +seeks to find and parades reasons for committing a crime, it is to +stifle his conscience. Columbus passed years in doing it. + +[Sidenote: Talavera.] + +[Sidenote: The Franciscans.] + +Back of Isabella in this spasmodic interest in the Indians was the +celebrated Archbishop of Granada, Fernando de Talavera, whom we have +earlier known as the prior of Prado. He had been since 1478 the +confessor of the Queen, and when the time came for sending missionaries +to the Antilles it was natural that they were of the order of St. +Jerome, of which Talavera was himself a member. Columbus, through a +policy which induced him to make as apparent as possible his mingling of +interests with the Church, had before this adopted the garb of the +Franciscans, and this order was the second in time to be seen in +Española in 1502. They were the least tolerant of the leading orders, +and had already shown a disposition to harass the Indians, and were +known to treat haughtily the Queen's intercessions for the poor souls. +It was not till after the death of Columbus that the Dominicans, coming +in 1510, reinforced the kindly spirit of the priests of St. Jerome. +Still later they too abandoned their humanity. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: Columbus's mercenary impulses.] + +[Sidenote: His praise of gold.] + +The downfall of Columbus began when he wrested from the reluctant +monarchs what he called his privileges, and when he insisted upon riches +as the accompaniment of such state and consequence as those privileges +might entail. The terms were granted, so far as the King was concerned, +simply to put a stop to importunities, for he never anticipated being +called upon to confirm them. The insistency of Columbus in this respect +is in strange contrast to the satisfaction which the captains of Prince +Henry, Da Gama and the rest, were content to find in the unpolluted +triumphs of science. The mercenary Columbus was forced to the utterance +of Solomon: "I looked upon the labor that I had labored to do, and +behold all was vanity and vexation of spirit." The Preacher never had a +better example. Columbus was wont to say that gold gave the soul its +flight to paradise. Perhaps he referred to the masses which could be +bought, or to the alms which could propitiate Heaven. He might better +have remembered the words of warning given to Baruch: "Seekest thou +great things for thyself? Seek them not. For, saith the Lord, thy life +will I give unto them for a prey in all places whither thou goest." And +a prey in all places he became. + +Humboldt seeks to palliate this cupidity by making him the conscious +inheritor of the pecuniary chances which every free son of Genoa +expected to find within his grasp by commercial enterprise. Such +prominence was sought because it carried with it power and influence in +the republic. + +If Columbus had found riches in the New World as easily as he +anticipated, it is possible that such affluence would have moulded his +character in other ways for good or for evil. He soon found himself +confronting a difficult task, to satisfy with insufficient means a +craving which his exaggerations had established. This led him to spare +no device, at whatever sacrifice of the natives, to produce the coveted +gold, and it was an ingenious mockery that induced him to deck his +captives with golden chains and parade them through the Spanish towns. + +[Sidenote: Nicolas de Conti.] + +[Sidenote: The world's disgust.] + +After Da Gama had opened the route to Cathay by the Cape of Good Hope, +and Columbus had, as he supposed, touched the eastern confines of the +same country, the wonderful stories of Asiatic glories told by Nicolas +de Conti were translated, by order of King Emanuel (in 1500), into +Portuguese. It is no wonder that the interest in the development of 1492 +soon waned when the world began to compare the descriptions of the +region beyond the Ganges, as made known by Marco Polo, and so recently +by Conti, and the apparent confirmation of them established by the +Portuguese, with the meagre resources which Columbus had associated with +the same country, in all that he could say about the Antilles or bring +from them. An adventurous voyage across the Sea of Darkness begat little +satisfaction, if all there was to show for it consisted of men with +tails or a single eye, or races of Amazons and cannibals. + +[Sidenote: Columbus's lack of generosity.] + +When we view the character of Columbus in its influence upon the minds +of men, we find some strange anomalies. Before his passion was tainted +with the ambition of wealth and its consequence, and while he was urging +the acceptance of his views for their own sake, it is very evident that +he impressed others in a way that never happened after he had secured +his privileges. It is after this turning-point of his life that we begin +to see his falsities and indiscretions, or at least to find record of +them. The incident of the moving light in the night before his first +landfall is a striking instance of his daring disregard of all the +qualities that help a commander in his dominance over his men. It needs +little discrimination to discern the utter deceitfulness of that +pretense. A noble desire to win the loftiest honors of the discovery did +not satisfy a mean, insatiable greed. He blunted every sentiment of +generosity when he deprived a poor sailor of his pecuniary reward. That +there was no actual light to be seen is apparent from the distance that +the discoverers sailed before they saw land, since if the light had been +ahead they would not have gone on, and if it had been abeam they would +not have left it. The evidence is that of himself and a thrall, and he +kept it secret at the time. The author of the _Historie_ sees the +difficulty, and attempts to vaporize the whole story by saying that the +light was spiritual, and not physical. Navarrete passes it by as a thing +necessary, for the fame of Columbus, to be ignored. + +[Sidenote: His enforced oath at Cuba.] + +A second instance of Columbus's luckless impotence, at a time when an +honorable man would have relied upon his character, was the attempt to +make it appear that he had reached the coast of Asia by imposing an oath +on his men to that effect, in penalty of having their tongues wrenched +out if they recanted. One can hardly conceive a more debasing exercise +of power. + +[Sidenote: His ambition of territorial power.] + +His insistence upon territorial power was the serious mistake of his +life. He thought, in making an agreement with his sovereigns to become a +viceroy, that he was securing an honor; he was in truth pledging his +happiness and beggaring his life. He sought to attain that which the +fates had unfitted him for, and the Spanish monarchs, in an evil day, +which was in due time their regret, submitted to his hallucinated +dictation. No man ever evinced less capacity for ruling a colony. + +[Sidenote: His professed inspiration.] + +The most sorrowful of all the phases of Columbus's character is that +hapless collapse, when he abandoned all faith in the natural world, and +his premonitions of it, and threw himself headlong into the vortex of +what he called inspiration. + +Everything in his scientific argument had been logical. It produced the +reliance which comes of wisdom. It was a manly show of an incisive +reason. If he had rested here his claims for honor, he would have ranked +with the great seers of the universe, with Copernicus and the rest. His +successful suit with the Spanish sovereigns turned his head, and his +degradation began when he debased a noble purpose to the level of +mercenary claims. He relied, during his first voyage, more on chicanery +in controlling his crew than upon the dignity of his aim and the natural +command inherent in a lofty spirit. This deceit was the beginning of his +decadence, which ended in a sad self-aggrandizement, when he felt +himself no longer an instrument of intuition to probe the secrets of the +earth, but a possessor of miraculous inspiration. The man who had been +self-contained became a thrall to a fevered hallucination. + +The earnest mental study which had sustained his inquisitive spirit +through long years of dealings with the great physical problems of the +earth was forgotten. He hopelessly began to accredit to Divinity the +measure of his own fallibility. "God made me," he says, "the messenger +of the new heaven and the new earth, of which He spoke in the Apocalypse +by St. John, after having spoken of it by the mouth of Isaiah, and He +showed me the spot where to find it." He no longer thought it the views +of Aristotle which guided him. The Greek might be pardoned for his +ignorance of the intervening America. It was mere sacrilege to impute +such ignorance to the Divine wisdom. + +[Sidenote: Lost his friends.] + +There is no excuse but the plea of insanity. He naturally lost his +friends with losing his manly devotion to a cause. I do not find the +beginning of this surrender of his manhood earlier than in the will +which he signed February 22, 1498, when he credits the Holy Trinity with +having inspired him with the idea that one could go to the Indies by +passing westward. + +In his letter to the nurse of Don Juan, he says that the prophecy of +Isaiah in the Apocalypse had found its interpreter in him, the messenger +to disclose a new part of the world. "Human reason," he wrote in the +_Proficias_, "mathematics, and maps have served me in no wise. What I +have accomplished is simply the fulfillment of the prophecy of David." + +[Sidenote: His pitiable death.] + +We have seen a pitiable man meet a pitiable death. Hardly a name in +profane history is more august than his. Hardly another character in the +world's record has made so little of its opportunities. His discovery +was a blunder; his blunder was a new world; the New World is his +monument! Its discoverer might have been its father; he proved to be its +despoiler. He might have given its young days such a benignity as the +world likes to associate with a maker; he left it a legacy of +devastation and crime. He might have been an unselfish promoter of +geographical science; he proved a rabid seeker for gold and a +viceroyalty. He might have won converts to the fold of Christ by the +kindness of his spirit; he gained the execrations of the good angels. He +might, like Las Casas, have rebuked the fiendishness of his +contemporaries; he set them an example of perverted belief. The triumph +of Barcelona led down to the ignominy of Valladolid, with every step in +the degradation palpable and resultant. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +THE DESCENT OF COLUMBUS'S HONORS. + + +[Sidenote: His kinsfolk.] + +Columbus had left behind him, as the natural guardians of his name and +honors, the following relatives: his brother Bartholomew, who in +December, 1508, had issue of an illegitimate daughter, his only child so +far as known; his brother Diego, who, as a priest, was precluded from +having lawful issue; his son Diego, now become the first inheritor of +his honors; his natural son, Ferdinand, the most considerable in +intellectual habit of all Columbus's immediate kin. + +[Sidenote: His son Diego.] + +The descent of his titles depended in the first instance on such a +marriage as Diego might contract. Within a year or two Diego had had by +different women two bastard children, Francisco and Cristoval, shut off +from heirship by the manner of their birth. Diego was at this time not +far from four and twenty years of age. + +Ten or twelve days after Diego succeeded to his inheritance, Philip the +Handsome, now sharing the throne of Castile as husband of Juana, +daughter of Isabella, ordered that what was due to Columbus should be +paid to his successor. This order reached Española in June, 1506, but +was not obeyed promptly; and when Ferdinand of Aragon returned from +Italy in August, 1507, and succeeded to the Castilian throne, he +repeated the order on August 24. + +[Sidenote: Diego's income.] + +[Sidenote: Diego presses for a restitution of Columbus's honors.] + +It would seem that in due time Diego was in receipt of 450,000 ounces of +gold annually from the four foundries in Española. This, with whatever +else there may have been, was by no means satisfactory to the young +aspirant, and he began to press Ferdinand for a restitution of his +inherited honors and powers with all the pertinacity which had +characterized his father's urgency. + +[Sidenote: 1508. Suit against the Crown.] + +Upon the return of Ferdinand from Naples, Diego determined to push the +matter to an issue, but Ferdinand still evaded it. Diego now asked, +according to Las Casas and Herrera, to be allowed to bring a suit +against the Crown before the Council of the Indies, and the King yielded +to the request, confident, very likely, in his ability to control the +verdict in the public interests. The suit at once began (1508), and +continued for several years before all was accomplished, and in December +of that same year (1508), we find Diego empowering an attorney of the +Duke of Alva to represent his case. + +The defense of the Crown was that a transmission of the viceroyalty to +the Admiral's son was against public policy, and at variance with a law +of 1480, which forbade any judicial office under the Crown being held in +perpetuity. It was further argued in the Crown's behalf that Columbus +had not been the chief instrument of the first discovery and had not +discovered the mainland, but that other voyagers had anticipated him. In +response to all allegations, Diego rested his case on the contracts of +the Crown with his father, which assured him the powers he asked for. +Further than this, the Crown had already recognized, he claimed, a part +of the contract in its orders of June 2, 1506, and August 24, 1507, +whereby the revenues due under the contracts had been restored to him. +It was also charged by the defense that Columbus had been relieved of +his powers because he had abused them, and the answer to this was that +the sovereigns' letter of 1502 had acknowledged that Bobadilla acted +without authority. A number of navigators in the western seas were put +on the stand to rebut the allegation of existing knowledge of the coast +before the voyages of Columbus, particularly in substantiating the +priority of the voyage of Columbus to the coast of Paria, and the +evidence was sufficient to show that all the alleged claims were simply +perverted notions of the really later voyage of Ojeda in 1499. It is +from the testimony at this time, as given in Navarrete, that the +biographers of Columbus derive considerable information, not otherwise +attainable, respecting the voyages of Columbus,--testimony, however, +which the historian is obliged to weigh with caution in many respects. + +[Sidenote: Diego wins.] + +The case was promptly disposed of in Diego's favor, but not without +suspicions of the Crown's influence to that end. The suit is, indeed, +one of the puzzles in the history of Columbus and his fame. If it was a +suit to secure a verdict against the Crown in order to protect the +Crown's rights under the bull of demarcation, we can understand why much +that would have helped the position of the fiscal was not brought +forward. If it was what it purported to be, an effort to relieve the +Crown of obligations fastened upon it under misconceptions or deceits, +we may well marvel at such omission of evidence. + +[Sidenote: Diego marries Maria de Toledo.] + +[Sidenote: Diego waives his right to the title of Viceroy.] + +It was left for the King to act on the decision for restitution. This +might have been by his studied procrastination indefinitely delayed but +for a shrewd movement on the part of Diego, who opportunely aspired to +the hand of Doña Maria de Toledo, the daughter of Fernando de Toledo. +This nobleman was brother of the Duke of Alva, one of the proudest +grandees of Spain, and he was also cousin of Ferdinand, the King. The +alliance, soon effected, brought the young suitor a powerful friend in +his uncle, and the bride's family were not averse to a connection with +the heir to the viceroyalty of the Indies, now that it was confirmed by +the Council of the Indies. Harrisse cannot find that the promised dower +ever came with the wife; but, on the contrary, Diego seems to have +become the financial agent of his wife's family. A demand for the royal +acquiescence in the orders of the Council could now be more easily made, +and Ferdinand readily conceded all but the title of Viceroy. Diego +waived that for the time, and he was accordingly accredited as governor +of Española, in the place of Ovando. + +[Sidenote: Ovando recalled.] + +Isabella had indeed, while on her death-bed, importuned the King to +recall Ovando, because of the appalling stories of his cruelty to the +Indians. Ferdinand had found that the governor's vigilance conduced to +heavy remittances of gold, and had shown no eagerness to carry out the +Queen's wishes. He had even ordered Ovando to begin that transference of +the poor Lucayan Indians from their own islands to work in the Española +mines which soon resulted in the depopulation of the Bahamas. Now that +he was forced to withdraw Ovando he made it as agreeable for him as +possible, and in the end there was no lack of commendation of his +administration. Indeed, as Spaniards went in those days, Ovando was good +enough to gain the love of Las Casas, "except for some errors of moral +blindness." + +[Sidenote: 1509. June 9. Diego sails for Española.] + +It was on May 3, 1509, that Ferdinand gave Diego his instructions; and +on June 9, the new governor with his noble wife sailed from San Lucar. +There went with Diego, beside a large number of noble Spaniards who +introduced, as Oviedo says, an infusion of the best Spanish blood into +the colony, his brother Ferdinand, who was specially charged, as Oviedo +further tells us, to found monasteries and churches. His two uncles also +accompanied him. Bartholomew had gone to Rome after Columbus's death, +with the intention of inducing Pope Julius II. to urge upon the King a +new voyage of discovery; and Harrisse thinks that this is proved by some +memoranda attached to an account of the coasts of Veragua, which it is +supposed that Bartholomew gave at this time to a canon of the Lateran, +which is now preserved in the Megliavecchian library, and has been +printed by Harrisse in his _Bibliotheca Americana Vetustissima_. It was +perhaps on this visit that the Adelantado took to Rome that map of +Columbus's voyage to those coasts which it is usually said was carried +there in 1505, when he may possibly have borne thither the letter of +Columbus to the Pope. + +[Sidenote: Bartholomew Columbus, and Diego Mendez.] + +The position which Bartholomew now went with Diego to assume, that of +the Chief Alguazil of Santo Domingo, caused much complaint from Diego +Mendez, who claimed the credit of bringing about the restitution of +Diego's power, and who had, as he says, been promised both by Columbus +and by his son this office as recompense for his many services. + +[Sidenote: 1509. July 10. Diego reaches his government.] + +The fleet arrived at its destination July 10, 1509. The wife of the +governor had taken a retinue, which for splendor had never before been +equaled in the New World, and it enabled her to maintain a kind of +viceregal state in the little capital. It all helped Diego to begin his +rule with no inconsiderable consequence. There was needed something of +such attraction to beguile the spirits of the settlers, for, as Benzoni +learned years afterwards, when he visited the region, the coming of the +son of Columbus had not failed to engender jealousies, which attached to +the imposition of another foreigner upon the colony. + +[Sidenote: Ojeda and Nicuessa.] + +The King was determined that Diego's rule should be confined to +Española, and, much to the governor's annoyance, he parceled out the +coasts which Columbus had tracked near the Isthmus of Panama into two +governments, and installed Ojeda in command of the eastern one, which +was called New Andalusia, while the one beyond the Gulf of Uraba, which +included Veragua, he gave to Diego de Nicuessa, and called it Castilla +del Oro. + +[Illustration: POPE JULIUS II.] + +[Sidenote: Porto Rico.] + +[Sidenote: Faction of Passamonte.] + +[Sidenote: 1511. October 5. _Audiencia._] + +This action of the King, as well as his effort to put Porto Rico under +an independent governor, incited new expostulations from Diego, and +served to make his rule in the island quite as uncomfortable as its +management had been to his father. There also grew up the same +discouragement from faction. The King's treasurer, Miguel Passamonte, +became the head of the rebellious party, not without suspicion that he +was prompted to much denunciations in his confidential communications +with the King. Reports of Diego's misdeeds and ambitions, threatening +the royal power even, were assiduously conveyed to the King. The +sovereign devised a sort of corrective, as he thought, of this, by +instituting later, October 5, 1511, a court of appeals, or _Audiencia_, +to which the aggrieved colonists could go in their defense against +oppression or extortion. Its natural effect was to undermine the +governor's authority and to weaken his influence. He found himself +thwarted in all efforts to relieve the Indians of their burdens, as +nothing of that sort could be done without disturbing the revenues of +leading colonists. There was no great inducement to undo measures by +which no one profited in receipts more than himself, and the cruel +devastation of the native population ran on as it had done. He certainly +did not show himself averse to continuing the system of _repartimientos_ +for the benefit of himself and his friends. + +Diego, who had been for a while in Spain, returned in 1512 to Española, +and later new orders were sent out by the King, and these included +commands to reduce the labor of the Indians one third, to import negro +slaves from Guinea as a measure of further relief to the natives, and to +brand Carib slaves, so as to protect other Indians from harsh treatment +intended for the Caribs alone. + +[Sidenote: Bartholomew Columbus died.] + +Diego was again in Spain in 1513, and the attempts of Ojeda and Nicuessa +having failed, later orders in 1514 so far reinstated Diego in his +viceregal power as to permit him to send his uncle Bartholomew to take +possession of the Veragua coast. But the life of the Adelantado was +drawing to a close, and his death soon occurring nothing was done. + +[Sidenote: 1515. Diego in Spain.] + +Affairs had come to such a pass that Diego again felt it necessary to +repair to Court to counteract his enemies' intrigues, and once more +getting permission from the King, he sailed for Spain, April 9, 1515, +leaving the Vice-Queen with a council in authority. + +Diego found the King open and kindly, and not averse to acknowledging +the merits of his government. He again pressed his bonded +rights with the old fervency. "I would bestow them willingly on you," +said the King; "but I cannot do so without intrusting them also to your +son and to his successors." "Is it just," said Diego, "that I should +suffer for a son which I may never have?" Las Casas tells us that Diego +repeated this colloquy to him. + +[Illustration: CHARLES THE FIFTH.] + +[Sidenote: 1516. January 23. Ferdinand died.] + +The King found it reasonable to question if Columbus had really sailed +along all the coasts in which Diego claimed a share, and ordered an +examination of the matter to be made. While these claims were in +abeyance, the King died, January 23, 1516. + +[Sidenote: Diego again in Española.] + +[Sidenote: 1520. Diego in Spain.] + +[Sidenote: Diego partially reinstated.] + +This event much retarded the settlement of the difficulties. Cardinal +Ximenes, who held power for a while, was not willing to act, and nothing +was done for four years, during part of which period Diego was certainly +in Española. We know also that he was present at the convocation of +Barcelona, presided over by the Emperor, when Las Casas made his urgent +appeals for the Indians and pictured their hardships. Finally, in 1520, +when Charles V. was about to embark for Flanders, Diego was in a +position to advance to the Emperor so large a sum as ten thousand +ducats, which was, as it appears, about a fifth of his annual income +from Española at this time. This financial succor seemed to open the way +for the Emperor to dismiss all charges against Diego, and to reinstate +him in qualified authority as Viceroy over the Indies. + +[Sidenote: 1520. September. Diego returns to Española.] + +This seeming restitution was not without a disagreeable accompaniment in +the appointment of a supervisor to reside at his viceregal court and +report on the Viceroy's doings. In September, 1520, Diego sailed once +more for his government, and on November 14 we find him in Santo +Domingo, and shortly afterwards engaged in the construction of a lordly +palace, which he was to occupy, and which is seen there to-day. The +substantialness of its structure gave rise to rumors that he was +preparing a fortress for ulterior aims. + +[Sidenote: Negro slaves increase.] + +Diego soon found that various administrative measures had not gone well +in his absence. Commanders of some of the provinces had exceeded their +powers, and it became necessary to supersede them. This made them +enemies as a matter of course. The raising of sugar-cane had rapidly +developed under the imported African labor, and the revenues now came +for the most part from the plantations rather than from the mines. The +negroes so increased that it was not long before some of them dared to +rise in revolt, but the mischief was stopped by a rapid swoop of armed +horsemen. + +[Illustration: RUINS OF DIEGO COLON'S HOUSE.] + +[Sidenote: 1523. Diego in Spain.] + +[Sidenote: 1526. February 23. Diego dies.] + +The jealousies and revengeful accusations of Diego's enemies were not so +easily quelled, and before long he was summoned to Spain to render an +account of his doings, for Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon had presented charges +against him. On September 16, 1523, Diego embarked, and landed at St. +Lucar November 5. He presented himself before the Emperor at Vittoria in +January, 1524, and reviewed his conduct. This he succeeded in doing in a +manner to disarm his foes; and this success encouraged him to press anew +for his inherited rights. The demand ended in the questions in dispute +being referred to a board; and Diego for two years followed the Court in +its migrations, to be in attendance on the sessions of this commission. +His health gave way under the strain, so that, with everything still +unsettled, he died at Montalvan, February 23, 1526, having survived his +father for twenty troublous years. His remains were laid in the +monastery of Las Cuevas by the side of Columbus. Being later conveyed to +the cathedral at Santo Domingo, they were, if one may credit the quite +unproved statements of the priests of the cathedral, mistaken for those +of his father, and taken to Havana in 1795. + +[Sidenote: His family.] + +[Sidenote: Luis Colon succeeds.] + +The Vice-Queen and her family were still in Santo Domingo, and her +children were seven in number, four daughters and three sons. The +descent of the honors came eventually to the descendants of one of these +daughters, Isabel, who married George of Portugal, Count of Gelves. Of +the three sons, Luis succeeded his father, who was in turn succeeded by +Diego, a son of Luis's brother Cristoval. + +The Vice-Queen, after making an ineffectual attempt to colonize Veragua, +in which she was thwarted by the royal _Audiencia_ at Española, returned +to Spain in 1529. Her son Luis, the heir, was still a child, having been +born in 1521 or 1522. For fourteen years his mother pressed his claims +upon the Emperor, Charles V., and she was during a part of the time in +such distress that she borrowed money of Ferdinand Columbus and pledged +her jewels. She lived till 1549, and died at Santo Domingo. + +[Sidenote: 1536. The Crown's compromise with Luis.] + +[Sidenote: Duke of Veragua.] + +[Sidenote: 1540. Luis in Española.] + +Early in 1536 the Cardinal Garcia de Loyasa, in behalf of the Council of +the Indies, rendered a decision in which he and Ferdinand Columbus had +acted as arbiters, which was confirmed by the Emperor in September of +the same year. This was that, upon the abandonment by Luis of all claims +upon the revenues of the Indies, of the title of Viceroy, and of the +right to appoint the officers of the New World, he should be given the +island of Jamaica in fief, a perpetual annuity of ten thousand ducats, +and the title of Duke of Veragua, with an estate twenty-five leagues +square in that province, to support the title and functions of Admiral +of the Indies. In 1540 Luis returned to Española with the title of +Captain-General, and in 1542 married at Santo Domingo, much against his +mother's wish, Maria de Orozco, who later lived in Honduras and married +another. While she was still living, Luis again espoused at Santo +Domingo Maria de Mosquera. In 1551 he returned to Spain. + +[Sidenote: Columbus's privileges gradually abridged.] + +[Sidenote: 1556. All Columbus's territorial rights abandoned.] + +Whatever remained of the rights which Columbus had sought to transmit to +his heirs had already been modified to their detriment by Charles, under +decrees in 1540, 1541, and 1542; and when Charles was succeeded by +Philip II., early in 1556, one of the first acts of the latter was to +force Luis to abandon his fief of Veragua and to throw up his power as +Admiral. The Council of the Indies took cognizance of the case in July, +1556, and on September 28 following, Philip II., at Ghent, recompensed +the grandson of Columbus, for his submission to the inevitable, by +decreeing to Luis the honorary title of Admiral of the Indies and Duke +of Veragua, with an income of seven thousand ducats. So in fifty years +the dreams of Columbus for territorial magnificence came to naught, and +the confident injunctions of his will were dissipated in the air. + +[Sidenote: Luis a polygamist.] + +[Sidenote: 1572. Luis dies.] + +Immediately after this, Luis furtively married, while his other wives +were still living, Ana de Castro Ossorio. The authorities found in these +polygamous acts a convenient opportunity to get another troublesome +Colon out of the way, and arrested Luis in 1559. He was held in prison +for nearly five years, and when in 1563 judgment was got against him, he +was sentenced to ten years of exile, half of which was to be passed in +Oran, in Africa. While his appeal was pending, his scandalous life added +crime to crime, and finally, in November, 1565, his sentence being +confirmed, he was conducted to Oran, and there he died February 3, +1572. + + + + +THE COLUMBUS PEDIGREE. + + +NOTE. Dotted lines mark illegitimate descents; the dash-and-dot lines +mark pretended descents. The heavy face numerals show the successful +holders of the honors of Columbus. The lines _a a_, _b b_, and _c c_ +join respectively. + + + _Fadrique Enriquez_, + Adm. of Castile. + | + +-----+------+ + | | + Alvarez = Maria. Juana = Juan II. + de | |of Aragon. + _Toledo_ | | +----------------------_a_ + +-----+------+ +----+----+ | + | | |Ferdinand| = Isabella of Filipe = CRISTOFORO = Beatrix + Duke of Fernando. |of Aragon| Castile. Moniz | =1= ¦ Henriquez, + _Alba_. | +---------+ | ¦ living in 1513. + | +-----------------------------------+ ¦ + | | Fernando, + Maria de = DIEGO, b. 1488, + Toledo | =2= d. 1526. d. 1539. + | + +---------+-----------------+---------------+-----------------------+-------------------------_b_ + | | | | | + Felipa, Maria Juana Isabel Luisa de = LUIS = Maria de + nun. = Sancho = Luis de = Jorge de Carvajal ¦ =3= | Mosquira. + | de Cardona, | la Cueva. Portogallo. ¦ | + | Adm. of | | ¦ +------------+ + | Aragon. | | ¦ | | + +----------+-------+ | | ¦ | | + | | | Maria, =Alvaro.= Cristoval. Maria, Filipa, _c_ + =Cristoval=, Luis, Maria = Carlos de | of the d. 1577. + d.s.p. d.s.p. = Fr. | Arellano, | Convent + 1583. de Mendoza| d. bef. 1600. +-------+------+ of San + d. 1605. | | | Quirce. + | | Jorge NUÑO DE =5= + | | Alberti, PORTOGALLO, + | | d. 1581. established in + | | 1608. + Maria Juana | + d.s.p. = Fr. Pacheco, | + | d. 1605. ALVARO =6= + +---------+ | JACINTO. + |James II.| = Arabella Carlos. | + |England. | ¦ Churchill. | | + +---------+ ¦ | PEDRO NUÑO. =7= + ¦ | | + Duke of Various | + Berwick. lines. | + | PEDRO MANUEL. =8= + | | + | +----------------------------+---+ + | | | + James STUART, = Catarina PEDRO NUÑO, =9= + Duke of Liria, | Ventura, d. 1753, + d. 1738. | d. 1740. without legitimate + | issue. + JACOBO EDUARDO. + | =10= + | + CARLOS FERNANDO. + | =11= + | + JACOBO FILIPE, =12= + dispossessed + in 1790; + the decree of + 1664 reversed. + | + | + Continued to + our day. + + + Dominico + Susanna Colombo, of + DOMENICO = Fontanarosa. _Cuccaro_. + | | + _a_---------------+-------------+------------+-------------+ ¦ + | | | | | + Bartolomeo. Giovanni Giacomo Blanchinetta ¦ + ¦ | Pelegrino, or Diego, = Giacomo | + ¦ ¦ d. s. p. priest. Paravello. ¦ + ¦ | | + Maria, ¦ ¦ + nun, | | + b. 1508. .----.----.----.----.----.----. ¦ + | | + _b_---------------+--------------------+ ¦ ¦ + | | | | + Ana = Cristoval = Magdalena Diego ¦ ¦ + de | | de = Isabel | | + Pravia | | Guzman. Justenian. ¦ ¦ + | | | | + +------+-----+ +---------+ ¦ ¦ + | | | | | + _c_ = DIEGO, Francesca Maria ¦ ¦ + =4= d.s.p. = Diego = Luis de | | + 1578. | Ortegon. Avila. ¦ ¦ + | | | | + | | ¦ ¦ + Josefa | Bernardo Balthazar + = De Paz de la _Luis de_ Colombo, Colombo, + | Serra. AVILA, of Cogoleto. of Cuccaro. + | d. 1633. + | + Josefa = Martín de + | LARREATEGUI. + | + Diego. + | + | + Francisco. + | + | + Pedro Isidoro. + | + | + MANIANO(1790). =13= + | + | + PEDRO. =14= + | + | + CRISTOVAL. =15= + | + | + Son b. + 1878. + + +[Sidenote: His heirs.] + +[Sidenote: His daughter marries her cousin Diego, the male heir.] + +[Sidenote: Columbus's male line extinct.] + +Luis left two illegitimate children, one a son; but his lawful heirs +were adjudged to be the children of Maria de Mosquera, two daughters, +one a nun and the other Filipa. This last presented a claim for the +titles in opposition to the demands of Diego, the nephew of her father. +She declared this cousin to be the natural, and not the lawful, son of +Luis's brother. It was easy enough to forget such imputations in coming +to the final conclusion, when Filipa and Diego took each other in +marriage (May 15, 1573) to compose their differences, the husband +becoming Duke of Veragua. Filipa died in November, 1577, and her husband +January 27, 1578. As they had no children, the male line of Columbus +became extinct seventy years after his death. + +[Sidenote: The long lawsuit and its many contestants.] + +The lawsuit which followed for the settlement of the succession was a +famous one. It lasted thirty years. The claimants were at first eight in +number, but they were reduced to five by deaths during the progress of +the trials. + +The first was Francesca, own sister of Diego, the late Duke. Her claim +was rejected; but five generations later the dignities returned to her +descendants. + +The second was the representative of Maria, the daughter of Luis, and +sister-in-law of Diego. The claim made by her heir, the convent of San +Quirce, was discarded. + +The third was Cristoval, the bastard son of Luis, who claimed to be the +fruit of a marriage of Luis, concluded while he was in prison accused of +polygamy. Cristoval died in 1601, before the cause was decided. + +The fourth was Alvaro de Portogallo, Count of Gelves, a son of Isabel, +the sister of Luis. He had unsuccessfully claimed the titles when Luis +died, in 1572, and again put forth his claims in 1578, when Diego died, +but he himself died, pending a decision, in 1581. His son, Jorge +Alberto, inherited his rights, but died in 1589, before a decision was +reached, when his younger brother, Nuño de Portogallo, became the +claimant, and his rights were established by the tribunal in 1608, when +he became Duke of Veragua. His enjoyment of the title was not without +unrest, but the attempts to dispossess him failed. + +The fifth was Cristoval de Cardona, Admiral of Aragon, son of Maria, +elder sister of Luis. This claimant died in 1583, while his claim, +having once been allowed, was held in abeyance by an appeal of his +rivals. His sister, Maria, was then adjudged inheritor of the honors, +but she died in 1605, before the final decree. + +The sixth was Maria de la Cueva, daughter of Juana, sister of Luis, who +died before December, 1600, while her daughter died in 1605, leaving +Carlos Pacheco a claimant, whose rights were disallowed. + +The seventh was Balthazar Colombo, a descendant of a Domenico Colombo, +who was, according to the claim, the same Domenico who was the father of +Columbus. His genealogical record was not accepted. + +The eighth was Bernardo Colombo, who claimed to be a descendant of +Bartholomew Columbus, the Adelantado, a claim not made good. + +These last two contestants rested their title in part on the fact that +their ancestors had always borne the name of Colombo, and this was +required by Columbus to belong to the inheritors of his honors. The +lineal ancestors of the other claimants had borne the names of Cardona, +Portogallo, or Avila. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: Nuño de Portogallo succeeds, and the line later changes.] + +From Nuño de Portogallo the titles descended to his son Alvaro Jacinto, +and then to the latter's son, Pedro Nuño. His rights were contested by +Luis de Avila (grandson of Cristoval, brother of Luis Colon), who tried +in 1620 to reverse the verdict of 1608, and it was not till 1664 that +Pedro Nuño defeated his adversaries. He was succeeded by his son, Pedro +Manuel, and he by his son, Pedro Nuño, who died in 1733, when this male +line became extinct. + +The titles were now illegally assumed by Pedro Nuño's sister, Catarina +Ventura, who by marriage gave them to her husband, James Fitz-James +Stuart, son of the famous Duke of Berwick, and by inheritance in his own +right, Duke of Liria. When he died, in 1738, the titles passed to his +son, Jacobo Eduardo; thence to the latter's son, Carlos Fernando, who +transmitted them to his son, Jacobo Filipe. This last was obliged, by a +verdict in 1790, which reversed the decree of 1664, to yield the titles +to the line of Francesca, sister of Diego, the fourth holder of them. +This Francesca married Diego Ortegon, and their grandchild, Josefa, +married Martin Larreategui, whose great-great-grandson, Mariano (by +decrees 1790-96), became Duke of Veragua, from whom the title descended +to his son, Pedro, and then to his grandson, Cristoval, the present +Duke, born in 1837, whose heir, the next Duke, was born in 1878. The +value of the titles is said to-day to represent about eight or ten +thousand dollars, and this income is chargeable upon the revenues of +Cuba and Porto Rico. + +In concluding this rapid sketch of the descent of the blood and honors +of Columbus, two striking thoughts are presented. The Larreateguis are a +Basque family. The blood of Columbus, the Genoese, now mingles with that +of the hardiest race of navigators of western Europe, and of whom it may +be expected that if ever earlier contact of Europe with the New World is +proved, these Basques will be found the forerunners of Columbus. The +blood of the supposed discoverer of the western passage to Asia flows +with that of the earliest stock which is left to us of that Oriental +wave of population which inundated Europe, in the far-away times when +the races which make our modern Christian histories were being disposed +in valleys and on the coasts of what was then the Western World. + + + + +APPENDIX. + +THE GEOGRAPHICAL RESULTS. + + +[Sidenote: Progress of discovery.] + +There was a struggling effort of the geographical sense of the world for +thirty years and more after the death of Columbus, before the fact began +to be grasped that a great continent was interposed as a substantial and +independent barrier in the track to India. It took nearly a half century +more before men generally recognized that fact, and then in most cases +it was accepted with the reservation of a possible Asiatic connection at +the extreme north. It was something more than two hundred and twenty +years from the death of Columbus before that severance at the north was +incontestably established by the voyage of Bering, and a hundred and +thirty years longer before at last the contour of the northern coast of +the continent was established by the proof of the long-sought northwest +passage in 1850. We must now, to complete the story of the influence of +Columbus, rehearse somewhat concisely the narrative of this progressive +outcome of that wonderful voyage of 1492. The spirit of western +discovery, which Columbus imparted, was of long continuance. + +[Sidenote: The influence of Ptolemy and his career.] + +"If we wish to make ourselves thoroughly acquainted," says Dr. Kohl, +"with the history of discovery in the New World, we must not only follow +the navigators on their ships, but we must look into the cabinets of +princes and into the counting-houses of merchants, and likewise watch +the scholars in their speculative studies." There was no rallying point +for the scholar of cosmography in those early days of discovery like the +text and influence of Ptolemy. + +We know little of this ancient geographer beyond the fact of his living +in the early portion of the second century, and mainly at Alexandria, +the fittest home of a geographer at that time, since this Egyptian city +was peerless for commerce and learning. Here he could do best what he +advises all geographers to do, consult the journals of travelers, and +get information of eclipses, as the same phenomena were observed at +different places; such, for instance, as that of the moon noted at +Arbela in the fifth, and seen at Carthage in the second hour. + +[Sidenote: Portolanos.] + +The precision of Ptolemy was covered out of sight by graphic fancies +among the cosmographers of succeeding ages, till about the beginning of +the fourteenth century Italy and the western Mediterranean islands began +to produce those atlases of sea-charts, which have come down to us under +the name of "portolanos;" and still later a new impetus was given to +geographical study by the manuscripts of Ptolemy, with his maps, which +began to be common in western Europe in the beginning of the fifteenth +century, largely through the influence of communications with the +Byzantine peoples. + +[Illustration: PTOLEMY. + + [From Reusner's _Icones_.]] + +The portolanos, however, never lost their importance. Nordenskiöld says +that, from the great number of them still extant in Italy, we may deduce +that they had a greater circulation during the sixteenth century than +printed cartographical works. About five hundred of these sea-charts are +known in Italian libraries, and the greater proportion of them are of +Italian origin. + +[Sidenote: Latin text of Ptolemy.] + +[Sidenote: The Donis maps.] + +It is a composite Latin text, brought into final shape by Jacobus +Angelus not far from 1400-1410, which was the basis of the early printed +editions of Ptolemy. This version was for a while circulated in +manuscript, sometimes with copies of the maps of the Old World having a +Latinized nomenclature; and the public libraries of Europe contain here +and there specimens of these early copies, one of which it is thought +was known to Pierre d'Ailly. It is a question if Angelus supplied the +maps which accompanied these early manuscripts, and which got into the +Bologna edition of 1462 (wrongly dated for 1472), and into the metrical +version of Berlingièri. These maps, whether always the same in the early +manuscripts or not, were later superseded by a new set of maps made by a +German cartographer, Nicolaus Donis, which he added to a revision of +Angelus's Latin text. These later maps were close copies of the original +Greek maps, and were accompanied by others of a similar workmanship, +which represented better knowledge than the Greeks had. In 1478 these +Donis maps were first engraved on copper, and were used in the later +editions of 1490, and slightly corrected in those of 1507 and 1508. The +engravers were Schweinheim and Buckinck, and their work, following +copies of it in the edition of 1490, has been admirably reproduced in +_The Facsimile Atlas_ of Nordenskiöld (Stockholm, 1889). + +[Illustration: DONIS, 1482.] + +[Sidenote: Greenland in maps.] + +Meanwhile, editions of the text of Angelus had been issued at Ulm in +1482, and giving additions in 1486, with woodcut maps, the same in both +issues on a different projection, assigned to Dominus Nicolaus Germanus, +who had, according to Nordenskiöld, completed the manuscript fifteen +years earlier. It is significant, perhaps, of the slowness with which +the bruit of Portuguese discoveries to the south had traveled that there +is in the maps of Africa no extension of Ptolemy's knowledge. But if +they are deficient in the south, they are remarkable in the north for +showing the coming America in a delineation of Greenland, which, as we +have already pointed out, was no new object in the manuscript +portolanos, even as far back as the early part of the same century. + +[Illustration: RUYSCH, 1508.] + +Two years after the death of Columbus, we find in the edition of 1508, +and sometimes in the edition of 1507,--there is no difference between +the two issues except in the title-page,--the first engraved map which +has particular reference to the new geographical developments of the +age. + +[Sidenote: 1507-8. The Ruysch map.] + +This Ruysch map shows the African coast discoveries of the Portuguese, +with the discoveries of Marco Polo towards the east. In connection with +the latter, the same material which Behaim had used in his globe seems +to have been equally accessible to Ruysch. The latter's map has a legend +on the sea between Iceland and Greenland, saying that an island situated +there was burnt up in 1456. This statement has been connected by some +with another contained in the Sagas, that from an island in this channel +both Greenland and Iceland could be seen. + +We also learn from another legend that Portuguese vessels had pushed +down the South American coast to 50° south latitude, and the historians +of these early voyages have been unable to say who the pioneers were who +have left us so early a description of Brazil. + +[Sidenote: Columbus and the Ruysch map.] + +It is inferred from a reference of Beneventanus, in his Ptolemy, +respecting this map, that some aid had been derived from a map made by +one of the Columbuses, and a statement that Bartholomew Columbus, in +Rome in 1505, gave a map of the new discoveries to a canon of San +Giovanni di Laterano has been thought to refer to such a map, which +would, if it could be established, closely connect the Ruysch map with +Columbus. It is also supposed to have some relation to Cabot, since a +voyage which Ruysch made to the new regions westward from England may +have been, and probably was, with that navigator. In this case, the +reference to that part of the coast of Asia which the English discovered +may record Ruysch's personal experiences. If these things can be +considered as reasonably established, it gives great interest to this +map of Ruysch, and connects Columbus not only with the earliest +manuscript map, La Cosa of 1500, but also with the earliest engraved map +of the New World, as Ruysch's map was. + +[Sidenote: Sources of the Ruysch map.] + +In speaking of the Ruysch map, Henry Stevens thinks that the +cartographer laid down the central archipelago of America from the +printed letter of Columbus, because it was the only account in print in +1507; but why restrict the sources of information to those in print, +when La Cosa's map might have been copied, or the material which La Cosa +employed might have been used by others, and when the Cantino map is a +familiar copy of Portuguese originals, all of which might well have been +known in the varied circles with which Ruysch is seen by his map to have +been familiar? + +[Sidenote: Portuguese geography and maps.] + +While it is a fact that central and northern Europe got its +cartographical knowledge of the New World almost wholly from Portugal, +owing, perhaps, to the exertions of Spain to preserve their explorers' +secrets, we do not, at the same time, find a single engraved Portuguese +map of the early years of this period of discovery. + +[Sidenote: Portuguese portolano.] + +[Sidenote: Pedro Reinel.] + +A large map, to show the Portuguese discoveries during years then +recent, was probably made for King Emanuel, and it has come down to us, +being preserved now at Munich. This chart wholly omits the Spanish work +of exploration, and records only the coasts coursed by Cabral in the +south, and by the Cortereals in the north. We have a further and similar +record in the chart of Pedro Reinel, which could not have been made far +from the same time, and which introduces to us the same prominent cape +which in La Cosa's map had been called the English cape as "Cavo Razo," +a name preserved to us to-day in the Cape Race of Newfoundland. + +[Illustration: THE SO-CALLED ADMIRAL'S MAP.] + +[Sidenote: Spain and Portugal conceal their geographical secrets.] + +There is abundant evidence of the non-communicative policy of Spain. +This secretiveness was understood at the time Robert Thorne, in 1527, +complained, as well as Sir Humphrey Gilbert in his _Discoverie_, that a +similar injunction was later laid by Portugal. In Veitia Linage's +_Norte_ we read of the cabinets in which these maps were preserved, and +how the Spanish pilot major and royal cosmographer alone kept the keys. +There exists a document by which one of the companions of Magellan was +put under a penalty of two thousand ducats not to disclose the route he +traversed in that famous voyage. We know how Columbus endeavored to +conceal the route of his final voyage, in which he reached the coast of +Veragua. + +[Illustration: MÜNSTER, 1532.] + + +[Illustration: GLOBUS MUNDI.] + +[Sidenote: A strait to India.] + +In the two maps of nearly equal date, being the earliest engraved charts +which we have, the Ruysch map of 1508 and the so-called Admiral's map of +1507 (1513), the question of a strait leading to the Asiatic seas, which +Columbus had spent so much energy in trying to find during his last +voyage, is treated differently. We have seen that La Cosa confessed his +uncertain knowledge by covering the place with a vignette. In the Ruysch +map there is left the possibility of such a passage; in the other there +is none, for the main shore is that of Asia itself, whose coast line +uninterruptedly connects with that of South America. The belief in such +a strait in due time was fixed, and lingered even beyond the time when +Cortes showed there was no ground for it. We find it in Schöner's +globes, in the Tross gores, and even so late as 1532, in the belated map +of Münster. + +[Illustration: EDEN.] + +[Sidenote: Earliest map to show America made north of the Alps.] + +The map of the _Globus Mundi_ (Strassburg, 1509) has some significance +as being the earliest issued north of the Alps, recording both the +Portuguese and Spanish discoveries; though it merely gives the +projecting angle of the South American coast as representing the +developments of the west. + + +[Sidenote: English references to America.] + +[Sidenote: Richard Eden.] + +It is doubtful if any reference to the new discoveries had appeared in +English literature before Alexander Barclay produced in 1509 a +translation of Brant's _Ship of Fools_, and for a few years there were +only chance references which made no impression on the literary +instincts of the time. It was not till after the middle of the century, +in 1553, that Richard Eden, translating a section of Sebastian Münster's +_Cosmographia_, published it in London as a _Treatyse of the newe +India_, and English-reading people first saw a considerable account of +what the rest of Europe had been doing in contrast with the English +maritime apathy. Two years later (1555), Eden, drawing this time upon +Peter Martyr, did much in his _Decades of the Newe World_ to enlarge the +English conceptions. + +[Sidenote: The naming of America.] + +But the most striking and significant of all the literary movements +which grew out of the new oceanic developments was that which gave a +name to the New World, and has left a continent, which Columbus +unwittingly found, the monument of another's fame. + +[Sidenote: 1504. September. Letter of Vespucius.] + +It was in September, 1504, that Vespucius, remembering an old schoolmate +in Florence, Piero Soderini, who was then the perpetual Gonfalonière of +that city, took what it is supposed he had written out at length +concerning his experiences in the New World, and made an abstract of it +in Italian. Dating this on the 4th of that month, he dispatched it to +Italy. It is a question whether the original of this abridged text of +Vespucius is now known, though Varnhagen, with a confidence few scholars +have shared, has claimed such authenticity for a text which he has +printed. + +[Sidenote: St. Dié.] + +[Sidenote: Duke René.] + +It concerns us chiefly to know that somehow a copy of this condensed +narrative of Vespucius came into the hands of his fellow-townsman, Fra +Giovanni Giocondo, then in Paris at work as an architect constructing a +bridge over the Seine. It is to be allowed that R. H. Major, in tracing +the origin of the French text, assumes something to complete his story, +and that this precise genesis of the narrative which was received by +Duke René of Lorraine is open to some question. The supposition that a +young Alsatian, then in Paris, Mathias Ringmann, had been a friend of +Giocondo, and had been the bearer of this new version to René, is +likewise a conjecture. Whether Ringmann was such a messenger or not +matters little, but the time was fast approaching when this young man +was to be associated with a proposition made in the little village of +St. Dié, in the Vosges, which was one of those obscure but far-reaching +mental premonitions so often affecting the world's history, without the +backing of great names or great events. This almost unknown place was +within the domain of this same Duke René, a wise man, who liked +scholars and scholarly tomes. His patronage had fostered there a small +college and a printing-press. There had been grouped around these +agencies a number of learned men, or those ambitious of knowledge. +Scholars in other parts of Europe, when they heard of this little +coterie, wondered how its members had congregated there. One Walter Lud, +or Gualterus Ludovicus, as they liked to Latinize his name, a dependent +and secretary of Duke René, was now a man not much under sixty, and he +had been the grouper and manager of this body of scholars. There had +lately been brought to join them this same Mathias Ringmann, who came +from Paris with all the learning that he had tried to imbibe under the +tutoring of Dr. John Faber. If we believe the story as Major has worked +it out, Ringmann had come to this sparse community with all the fervor +for the exploits of Vespucius which he got in the French capital from +associating with that Florentine's admirer, the architect Giocondo. + +[Illustration: VESPUCIUS.] + +Coming to St. Dié, Ringmann had been made a professor of Latin, and with +the usual nominal alternation had become known as Philesius; and as such +he appears a little later in connection with a Latin version of the +French of Giocondo, which was soon made by another of the St. Dié +scholars, a canon of the cathedral there, Jean Bassin de Sandacourt. +Still another young man, Walter Waldseemüller, had not long before been +made a teacher of geography in the college, and his name, as was the +wont, had been classicized into Hylacomylus. + +There have now been brought before the reader all the actors in this +little St. Dié drama, upon which we, as Americans, must gaze back +through the centuries as upon the baptismal scene of a continent. + +[Sidenote: Waldseemüller.] + +[Sidenote: _Cosmographiæ Introductio._] + +The Duke had emphasized the cosmographical studies of the age by this +appointment of an energetic young student of geography, who seems to +have had a deft hand at map-making. Waldseemüller had some hand, at +least, in fashioning a map of the new discoveries at the west, and the +Duke had caused the map to be engraved, and we find a stray note of +sales of it singly as early as 1507, though it was not till 1513 that it +fairly got before the world in the Ptolemy of that year. Waldseemüller +had also developed out of these studies a little cosmographical +treatise, which the college press was set to work upon, and to swell it +to the dignity of a book, thin as it still was, the diminutive quarto +was made to include Bassin's Latin version of the Vespucius narrative, +set out with some Latin verses by Ringmann. The little book called +_Cosmographiæ Introductio_ was brought out at this obscure college press +in St. Dié, in April and August, 1507. There were some varieties in each +of these issues, while that part which constituted the Vespucius +narrative was further issued in a separate publication. + + +[Illustration: TITLE OF THE COSMOGRAPHIÆ INTRODUCTIO.] + +It was in this form that Vespucius's narrative was for the first time, +unless Varnhagen's judgment to the contrary is superior to all others, +brought before the world. The most significant quality of the little +book, however, was the proposition which Waldseemüller, with his +anonymous views on cosmography, advanced in the introductory parts. It +is assumed by writers on the subject that it was not Waldseemüller alone +who was responsible for the plan there given to name that part of the +New World which Americus Vespucius had described after the voyager who +had so graphically told his experiences on its shores. The plan, it is +supposed, met with the approval of, or was the outcome of the counsels +of, this little band of St. Dié scholars collectively. It is not the +belief of students generally that this coterie, any more than Vespucius +himself, ever imagined that the new regions were really disjoined from +the Asiatic main, though Varnhagen contends that Vespucius knew they +were. + +[Sidenote:_Mundus Novus._] + +One thing is certainly true: that there wasno intention to apply the +name which was now proposed to anything more than the continental mass +of the Brazilian shore which Vespucius had coasted, and which was looked +upon as a distinct region from the islands which Columbus had traversed. +It had come to be believed that the archipelago of Columbus was far from +the paradise of luxury and wealth that his extravagant terms called for, +and which the descriptions of Marco Polo had led the world to expect, +supposing the regions of the overland and oceanic discoverers to be the +same. Further than this, a new expectation had been aroused by the +reports which had come to Europe of the vaster proportions and of the +brilliant paroquets--for such trivial aspects gave emphasis--of the more +southern regions. It was an instance of the eagerness with which deluded +minds, to atone for their first disappointment, grasp at the chances of +a newer satisfaction. This was the hope which was entertained of this +_Mundus Novus_ of Vespucius,--not a new world in the sense of a new +continent. + +The Española and its neighboring regions of Columbus, and the Baccalaos +of Cabot and Cortereal, clothed in imagination with the descriptions of +Marco Polo, were nothing but the Old World approached from the east +instead of from the west. It was different with the _Mundus Novus_ of +Vespucius. Here was in reality a new life and habitation, doubtless +connected, but how it was not known, with the great eastern world of the +merchants. It corresponded with nothing, so far as understood, in the +Asiatic chorography. It was ready for a new name, and it was alone +associated with the man who had, in the autumn of 1502, so described it, +and from no one else could its name be so acceptably taken. Europe and +Asia were geographically contiguous, and so might be Asia and the new +"America." + +[Sidenote: Eclipse of Columbus's name.] + +The sudden eclipse which the name of Columbus underwent, as the fame of +Vespucius ran through the popular mind, was no unusual thing in the +vicissitudes of reputations. Factitious prominence is gained without +great difficulty by one or for one, if popular issues of the press are +worked in his interest, and if a great variety of favoring circumstances +unite in giving currency to rumors and reports which tend to invest him +with exclusive interest. The curious public willingly lends itself to +any end that taxes nothing but its credulity and good nature. + +[Sidenote: Fame of Vespucius.] + +We have associated with Vespucius just the elements of such a success, +while the fame of Columbus was waning to the death, namely: a stretch of +continental coast, promising something more than the scattered trifles +of an insalubrious archipelago; a new southern heavens, offering other +glimpses of immensity; descriptions that were calculated to replace in +new variety and mystery the stale stories of Cipango and Cathay: the +busy yearnings of a group of young and ardent spirits, having all the +apparatus of a press to apply to the making of a public sentiment; and +the enthusiasm of narrators who sought to season their marvels of +discovery with new delights and honors. + +The hold which Vespucius had seized upon the imagination of Europe, and +which doubtless served to give him prominence in the popular +appreciation, as it has served many a ready and picturesque writer +since, was that glowing redundancy of description, both of the earth and +the southern constellations, which forms so conspicuous a feature of his +narratives. It was the later voyage of Vespucius, and not his alleged +voyage of 1497, which raised, as Humboldt has pointed out, the great +interest which his name suggested. + +[Sidenote: Columbus and Vespucius.] + +Just what the notion prevailing at the time was of the respective +exploits of Columbus and Vespucius is easily gathered from a letter +dated May 20, 1506, which appears in a _Dyalogus Johannis Stamler de +diversarum gencium sectis, et mundi regionibus_, published in 1508. In +this treatise a reference is made to the letters of Columbus (1493) and +Vespucius (1503) as concerning an insular and continental space +respectively. It speaks of "Cristofer Colom, the discoverer of _new +islands_, and of Albericus Vespucius concerning the new discovered +_world_, to both of whom our age is most largely indebted." It will be +remembered that an early misnaming of Vespucius by calling him Albericus +instead of Americus, which took place in one of the early editions of +his narrative, remained for some time to confuse the copiers of them. + +[Sidenote: Vespucius on gravitation.] + +If we may judge from a diagram which Vespucius gives of a globe with two +standing men on it ninety degrees apart, each dropping a line to the +centre of the earth, this navigator had grasped, together with the idea +of the sphericity of the globe, the essential conditions of gravitation. +There could be no up-hill sailing when the zenith was always overhead. +Curiously enough, the supposition of Columbus, when as he sailed on his +third voyage he found the air grow colder, was that he was actually +sailing up-hill, ascending a protuberance of the earth which was like +the stem end of a pear, with the crowning region of the earthly paradise +atop of all! Such contrasts show the lesser navigator to be the greater +physicist, and they go not a small way in accounting for the levelness +of head which gained the suffrages of the wise. + + * * * * * + +[Illustration: PART OF MAP IN THE PTOLEMY OF 1513.] + +[Illustration: PART OF MAP IN THE PTOLEMY OF 1513.] + +[Sidenote: 1508. Duke René died.] + +[Sidenote: 1509. _Globus Mundi._] + +When Duke René, upon whom so much had depended in the little community +at St. Dié, died, in 1508, the geographical printing schemes of +Waldseemüller and his fellows received a severe reverse, and for a few +years we hear nothing more of the edition of Ptolemy which had been +planned. The next year (1509), Waldseemüller, now putting his name to +his little treatise, was forced, because of the failure of the college +press, to go to Strassburg to have a new edition of it printed (1509). +The proposals for naming the continental discoveries of Vespucius seem +not in the interim to have excited any question, and so they are +repeated. We look in vain in the copy of this edition which Ferdinand +Columbus bought at Venice in July, 1521, and which is preserved at +Seville, for any marginal protest. The author of the _Historie_, how far +soever Ferdinand may have been responsible for that book, is equally +reticent. There was indeed no reason why he should take any exception. +The fitness of the appellation was accepted as in no way invalidating +the claim of Columbus to discoveries farther to the north; and in +another little tract, printed at the same time at Grüniger's Strassburg +press, the anonymous _Globus Mundi_, the name "America" is adopted in +the text, though the small bit of the new coast shown in its map is +called by a translation of Vespucius's own designation merely "_Newe +Welt_." + +[Sidenote: 1513. The Strassburg Ptolemy.] + +The Ptolemy scheme bore fruit at last, and at Strassburg, also, for here +the edition whose maps are associated with the name of Waldseemüller, +and whose text shows some of the influence of a Greek manuscript of the +old geographer which Ringmann had earlier brought from Italy, came out +in 1513. Here was a chance, in a book far more sure to have influence +than the little anonymous tract of 1507, to impress the new name America +upon the world of scholars and observers, and the opportunity was not +seized. It is not easy to divine the cause of such an omission. The +edition has two maps which show this Vespucian continent in precisely +the same way, though but one of them shows also to its full extent the +region of Columbus's explorations. On one of these maps the southern +regions have no designation whatever, and on the other, the "Admiral's +map," there is a legend stretched across it, assigning the discovery of +the region to Columbus. + +We do not know, in all the contemporary literature which has come down +to us, that up to 1513 there had been any rebuke at the ignorance or +temerity which appeared in its large bearing to be depriving Columbus of +a rightful honor. That in 1509 Waldseemüller should have enforced the +credit given to Vespucius, and in 1513 revoked it in favor of Columbus, +seems to indicate qualms of conscience of which we have no other trace. +Perhaps, indeed, this reversion of sympathy is of itself an evidence +that Waldseemüller had less to do with the edition than has been +supposed. It is too much to assert that Waldseemüller repented of his +haste, but the facts in one light would indicate it. + +[Sidenote: The name America begins to be accepted.] + +[Illustration: THE TROSS GORES.] + +Like many such headlong projects, however, the purpose had passed beyond +the control of its promoters. The euphony, if not the fitness, of the +name America had attracted attention, and there are several printed and +manuscript globes and maps in existence which at an early date adopted +that designation for the southern continent. Nordenskiöld (_Facsimile +Atlas_, p. 42) quotes from the commentaries of the German Coclæus, +contained in the _Meteorologia Aristotelis_ of Jacobus Faber (Nuremberg, +1512) a passage referring to the "Nova Americi terra." + +[Sidenote: 1516-17. First in a map.] + +To complicate matters still more, within a few years after this an +undated edition of Waldseemüller's tract appeared at Lyons,--perhaps +without his participation,--which was always found, down to 1881, +without a map, though the copies known were very few; but in that year a +copy with a map was discovered, now owned by an American collector, in +which the proposition of the text is enforced with the name America on +the representation of South America. A section of this map is here given +as the Tross Gores. In the present condition of our knowledge of the +matter, it was thus at a date somewhere about 1516-17 that the name +appeared first in any printed map, unless, indeed, we allow a somewhat +earlier date to two globes in the Hauslab collection at Vienna. On the +date of these last objects there is, however, much difference of +opinion, and one of them has been depicted and discussed in the +_Mittheilungen_ of the Geographische Gesellschaft (1886, p. 364) of +Vienna. Here, as in the descriptive texts, it must be clearly kept in +mind, however, that no one at this date thought of applying the name to +more than the land which Vespucius had found stretching south beyond the +equator on the east side of South America, and which Balboa had shown to +have a similar trend on the west. The islands and region to the north, +which Columbus and Cabot had been the pioneers in discovering, still +remained a mystery in their relations to Asia, and there was yet a long +time to elapse before the truth should be manifest to all, that a +similar expanse of ocean lay westerly at the north, as was shown by +Balboa to extend in the same direction at the south. + +[Illustration: THE HAUSLAB GLOBE.] + +This Vespucian baptism of South America now easily worked its way to +general recognition. It is found in a contemporary set of gores which +Nordenskiöld has of late brought to light, and was soon adopted by the +Nuremberg globe-maker, Schöner (1515, etc.); by Vadianus at Vienna, when +editing Pomponius Mela (1515); by Apian on a map used in an edition of +Solinus, edited by Camers (1520); and by Lorenz Friess, who had been of +Duke René's coterie and a correspondent of Vespucius, on a map +introduced into the Grüniger Ptolemy, published at Strassburg (1522), +which also reproduced the Waldseemüller map of 1513. This is the +earliest of the Ptolemies in which we find the name accepted on its +maps. + +[Sidenote: 1522. The name first in a Ptolemy.] + +[Illustration: THE NORDENSKIÖLD GORES.] + +[Illustration: APIANUS, 1520.] + +[Illustration: SCHÖNER GLOBE, 1515.] + +[Illustration: FRIESS (_Frisius_), IN THE PTOLEMY OF 1522.] + +There is one significant fact concerning the conflict of the Crown with +the heirs of Columbus, which followed upon the Admiral's death, and in +which the advocates of the government sought to prove that the claim of +Columbus to have discovered the continental shore about the Gulf of +Paria in 1498 was not to be sustained in view of visits by others at an +earlier date. This significant fact is that Vespucius is not once +mentioned during the litigation. It is of course possible, and perhaps +probable, that it was for the interests of both parties to keep out of +view a servant of Portugal trenching upon what was believed to be +Spanish territories. The same impulse could hardly have influenced +Ferdinand Columbus in the silent acquiescence which, as a contemporary +informs us, was his attitude towards the action of the St. Dié +professors. There seems little doubt of his acceptance of a view, then +undoubtedly common, that there was no conflict of the claims of the +respective navigators, because their different fields of exploration had +not brought such claims in juxtaposition. + +[Sidenote: Who first landed on the southern main?] + +[Sidenote: Vespucius's maps.] + +[Sidenote: Vespucius not privy to the naming.] + +Following, however, upon the assertion of Waldseemüller, that Vespucius +had "found" this continental tract needing a name, there grew up a +belief in some quarters, and deducible from the very obscure chronology +of his narrative, which formulated itself in a statement that Vespucius +had really been the first to set foot on any part of this extended main. +It was here that very soon the jealousy of those who had the good name +of Columbus in their keeping began to manifest itself, and some time +after 1527,--if we accept that year as the date of his beginning work on +the _Historie_,--Las Casas, who had had some intimate relations with +Columbus, tells us that the report was rife of Vespucius himself being +privy to such pretensions. Unless Las Casas, or the reporters to whom he +referred, had material of which no one now has knowledge, it is certain +that there is no evidence connecting Vespucius with the St. Dié +proposition, and it is equally certain that evidence fails to establish +beyond doubt the publication of any map bearing the name America while +Vespucius lived. He had been made pilot major of Spain March 22, 1508, +and had died February 22, 1512. We have no chart made by Vespucius +himself, though it is known that in 1518 such a chart was in the +possession of Ferdinand, brother of Charles the Fifth. The recovery of +this chart would doubtless render a signal service in illuminating this +and other questions of early American cartography. It might show us how +far, if at all, Vespucius "sinfully failed towards the Admiral," as Las +Casas reports of him, and adds: "If Vespucius purposely gave currency to +this belief of his first setting foot on the main, it was a great +wickedness; and if it was not done intentionally, it looks like it." +With all this predisposition, however, towards an implication of +Vespucius, Las Casas was cautious enough to consider that, after all, it +may have been the St. Dié coterie who were alone responsible for +starting the rumor. + +[Sidenote: "America" not used in Spain.] + +[Sidenote: 1541. Mercator first applied the name to both North and South +America.] + +It is very clear that in Spain there had been no recognition of the name +"America," nor was it ever officially recognized by the Spanish +government. Las Casas understood that it had been applied by +"foreigners," who had, as he says, "called America what ought to be +called Columba." Just what date should attach to this protest of Las +Casas is not determinable. If it was later than the gore-map of Mercator +in 1541, which was the first, so far as is known, to apply the name to +both North and South America, there is certainly good reason for the +disquietude of Las Casas. If it was before that, it was because, with +the progress of discovery, it had become more and more clear that all +parts of the new regions were component parts of an absolutely new +continent, upon which the name of the first discoverer of any part of +it, main or insular, ought to have been bestowed. That it should be left +to "foreign writers," as Las Casas said, to give a name representing a +rival interest to a world that Spanish enterprise had made known was no +less an indignity to Spain than to her great though adopted Admiral. + +[Sidenote: Spread of the name in central Europe.] + +It happens that the suggestion which sprang up in the Vosges worked +steadily onward through the whole of central Europe. That it had so +successful a propagation is owing, beyond a doubt, as much to the +exclusive spirit of the Spanish government in keeping to itself its +hydrographical progress as to any other cause. We have seen how the name +spread through Germany and Austria. It was taken up by Stobnicza in +Poland in 1512, in a Cracow introduction to Ptolemy; and many other of +the geographical writers of central and southern Europe adopted the +designation. The _New Interlude_, published in England in 1519, had used +it, and towards the middle of the century the fame of Vespucius had +occupied England, so far as Sir Thomas More and William Cunningham +represent it, to the almost total obscuration of Columbus. + +It was but a question of time when Vespucius would be charged with +promoting his own glory by borrowing the plumes of Columbus. Whether Las +Casas, in what has been quoted, initiated such accusations or not, the +account of that writer was in manuscript and could have had but small +currency. + +[Sidenote: 1533. Schöner accuses Vespucius of participation in the +injustice.] + +The first accusation in print, so far as has been discovered, came from +the German geographer, Johann Schöner, who, having already in his +earlier globes adopted the name America, now in a tract called +_Opusculum Geographicum_, which he printed at Nuremberg in 1533, openly +charged Vespucius with attaching his own name to a region of India +Superior. Two years later, Servetus, while he repeated in his Ptolemy of +1535 the earlier maps bearing the name America, entered in his text a +protest against its use by alleging distinctly that Columbus was earlier +than Vespucius in finding the new main. + +Within a little more than a year from the death of Vespucius, and while +the maps assigned to Waldseemüller were pressed on the attention of +scholars, the integralness of the great southern continent, to which a +name commemorating Americus had been given, was made manifest, or at +least probable, by the discovery of Balboa. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: A barrier suspected.] + +Let us now see how the course of discovery was finding record during +these early years of the sixteenth century in respect to the great but +unsuspected barrier which actually interposed in the way of those who +sought Asia over against Spain. + +[Sidenote: Discoveries in the north.] + +[Sidenote: 1504. Normans and Bretons.] + +In the north, the discoveries of the English under Cabot, and of the +Portuguese under the Cortereals, soon led the Normans and Bretons from +Dieppe and Saint Malo to follow in the wake of such predecessors. As +early as 1504 the fishermen of these latter peoples seem to have been on +the northern coasts, and we owe to them the name of Cape Breton, which +is thought to be the oldest French name in our American geography. It is +the "Gran Capitano" of Ramusio who credits the Bretons with these early +visits at the north, though we get no positive cartographical record of +such visits till 1520, in a map which is given by Kunstmann in his +_Atlas_. + +[Sidenote: 1505. Portuguese.] + +Again, in 1505, some Portuguese appear to have been on the Newfoundland +coast under the royal patronage of Henry VII. of England, and by 1506 +the Portuguese fishermen were regular frequenters of the Newfoundland +banks. We find in the old maps Portuguese names somewhat widely +scattered on the neighboring coast lines, for the frequenting of the +region by the fishermen of that nation continued well towards the close +of the century. + +[Sidenote: 1506. Spaniards.] + +There are also stories of one Velasco, a Spaniard, visiting the St. +Lawrence in 1506, and Juan de Agramonte in 1511 entered into an +agreement with the Spanish King to pursue discovery in these parts more +actively, but we have no definite knowledge of results. + +[Sidenote: 1517. Sebastian Cabot.] + +[Sidenote: 1521. Portuguese.] + +The death of Ferdinand, January 23, 1516, would seem to have put a stop +to a voyage which had already been planned for Spain by Sebastian Cabot, +to find a northwest passage; but the next year (1517) Cabot, in behalf +of England, had sailed to Hudson's Strait, and thence north to 67° 30', +finding "no night there," and observing extraordinary variations of the +compass. Somewhat later there are the very doubtful claims of the +Portuguese to explorations under Fagundes about the Gulf of St. Lawrence +in 1521. + +[Sidenote: 1506. Ango's captains.] + +[Sidenote: Denys's map.] + +[Sidenote: 1518. Léry.] + +By 1506 also there is something like certainty respecting the Normans, +and under the influence of a notable Dieppese, Jean Ango, we soon meet a +class of adventurous mariners tempting distant and marvelous seas. We +read of Pierre Crignon, and Thomas Aubert, both of Dieppe, Jean Denys of +Honfleur, and Jean Parmentier, all of whom have come down to us through +the pages of Ramusio. It is of Jean Denys in 1506, and of Thomas Aubert +a little later, that we find the fullest recitals. To Denys there has +been ascribed a mysterious chart of the Gulf of St. Lawrence; but if the +copy which is preserved represents it, there can be no hesitation in +discarding it as a much later cartographical record. The original is +said to have been found in the archives of the ministry of war in Paris +so late as 1854, but no such map is found there now. The copy which was +made for the Canadian archives is at Ottawa, and I have been favored by +the authorities there with a tracing of it. No one of authority will be +inclined to dispute the judgment of Harrisse that it is apocryphal. We +are accordingly left in uncertainty just how far at this time the +contour of the Golfo Quadrago, as the Gulf of St. Lawrence was called, +was made out. Aubert is said to have brought to France seven of the +natives of the region in 1509. Ten years or more later (1519, etc.), the +Baron de Léry is thought to have attempted a French settlement +thereabouts, of which perhaps the only traces were some European cattle, +the descendants of his small herd landed there in 1528, which were found +on Sable Island many years later. + +[Sidenote: 1526. Nicholas Don.] + +We know from Herrera that in 1526 Nicholas Don, a Breton, was fishing +off Baccalaos, and Rut tells us that in 1527 Norman and Breton vessels +were pulling fish on the shores of Newfoundland. Such mentions mark the +early French knowledge of these northern coasts, but there is little in +it all to show any contribution to geographical developments. + +[Illustration: PETER MARTYR, 1511.] + +[Illustration: PONCE DE LEON. + +[From Barcia's _Herrera_.]] + +[Sidenote: Attempts to connect the northern discoveries with those of +the Spanish.] + +[Sidenote: 1511. Peter Martyr's map.] + +[Sidenote: 1512. Ponce de Leon.] + +[Sidenote: 1513. March.] + +[Sidenote: Florida.] + +Before this, however, the first serious attempt of which we have +incontrovertible evidence was made to connect these discoveries in the +north with those of the Spanish in the Antilles. As early as 1511 the +map given by Peter Martyr had shown that, from the native reports or +otherwise, a notion had arisen of lands lying north of Cuba. In 1512 +Ponce de Leon was seeking a commission to authorize him to go and see +what this reported land was like, with its fountain of youth. He got it +February 23, 1512, when Ferdinand commissioned him "to find and settle +the island of Bimini," if none had already been there, or if Portugal +had not already acquired possession in any part that he sought. Delays +in preparation postponed the actual departure of his expedition from +Porto Rico till March, 1513. On the 23d of that month, Easter Sunday, he +struck the mainland somewhere opposite the Bahamas, and named the +country Florida, from the day of the calendar. He tracked the coast +northward to a little above 30° north latitude. Then he retraced his +way, and rounding the southern cape, went well up the western side of +the peninsula. Whether any stray explorers had been before along this +shore may be a question. Private Spanish or Portuguese adventurers, or +even Englishmen, had not been unknown in neighboring waters some years +earlier, as we have evidence. We find certainly in this voyage of Ponce +de Leon for the first time an unmistakable official undertaking, which +we might expect would soon have produced its cartographical record. The +interdicts of the Council of the Indies were, however, too powerful, and +the old lines of the Cantino map still lingered in the maps for some +years, though by 1520 the Floridian peninsula began to take recognizable +shape in certain Spanish maps. + +[Illustration: PONCE DE LEON'S TRACK.] + +[Sidenote: Bimini.] + +Just what stood for Bimini in the reports of this expedition is not +clear; but there seems to have been a vague notion of its not being the +same as Florida, for when Ponce de Leon got a new patent in September, +1514, he was authorized to settle both "islands," Bimini and Florida, +and Diego Colon as viceroy was directed to help on the expedition. Seven +years, however, passed in delays, so that it was not till 1521 that he +attempted to make a settlement, but just at what point is not known. +Sickness and loss in encounters with the Indians soon discouraged him, +and he returned to Cuba to die of an arrow wound received in one of the +forays of the natives. + +[Sidenote: 1519. Pineda.] + +It was still a question if Florida connected with any adjacent lands. +Several minor expeditions had added something to the stretch of coast, +but the main problem still stood unsolved. In 1519 Pineda had made the +circuit of the northern shores of the Gulf of Mexico, and at the river +Panuco he had been challenged by Cortes as trenching on his government. +Turning again eastward, Pineda found the mouth of the river named by him +Del Espiritu Santo, which passes with many modern students as the first +indication in history of the great Mississippi, while others trace the +first signs of that river to Cabeça de Vaca in 1528, or to the passage +higher up its current by De Soto in 1541. Believing it at first the +long-looked-for strait to pass to the Indies, Pineda entered it, only to +be satisfied that it must gather the watershed of a continent, which in +this part was now named Amichel. It seemed accordingly certain that no +passage to the west was to be found in this part of the gulf, and that +Florida must be more than an island. + +[Sidenote: 1520. Ayllon.] + +[Sidenote: Spaniards in Virginia.] + +While these explorations were going on in the gulf, others were +conducted on the Atlantic side of Florida. If the Pompey Stone which has +been found in New York State, to the confusion of historical students, +be accepted as genuine, it is evidence that the Spaniard had in 1520 +penetrated from some point on the coast to that region. In 1520 we get +demonstrable proof, when Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon sent a caravel under +Gordillo, which joined company on the way with another vessel bound on a +slave-hunting expedition, and the two, proceeding northward, sighted the +main coast at a river which they found to be in thirty-three and a half +degrees of north latitude, on the South Carolina coast. They returned +without further exploration. Ayllon, without great success, attempted +further explorations in 1525; but in 1526 he went again with greater +preparations, and made his landfall a little farther north, near the +mouth of the Wateree River, which he called the Jordan, and sailed on to +the Chesapeake, where, with the help of negro slaves, then first +introduced into this region, he began the building of a town at or near +the spot where the English in the next century founded Jamestown; or at +least this is the conjecture of Dr. Shea. Here Ayllon died of a +pestilential fever October 18, 1526, when the disheartened colonists, +one hundred and fifty out of the original five hundred, returned to +Santo Domingo. + +[Illustration: THE AYLLON MAP.] + +[Sidenote: 1524. Gomez.] + +[Sidenote: Chaves's map.] + +[Sidenote: 1529. Ribero's map.] + +While these unfortunate experiences were in progress, Estevan Gomez, +sent by the Spanish government, after the close of the conference at +Badajos, to make sure that there was no passage to the Moluccas anywhere +along this Atlantic coast, started in the autumn of 1524, if the data we +have admit of that conclusion as to the time, from Corunna, in the north +of Spain. He proceeded at once, as Charles V. had directed him, to the +Baccalaos region, striking the mainland possibly at Labrador, and then +turned south, carefully examining all inlets. We have no authoritative +narrative sanctioned by his name, or by that of any one accompanying the +expedition; nor has the map which Alonso Chaves made to conform to what +was reported by Gomez been preserved, but the essential features of the +exploration are apparently embodied in the great map of Ribero (1529), +and we have sundry stray references in the later chroniclers. From all +this it would seem that Gomez followed the coast southward to the point +of Florida, and made it certain to most minds that no such passage to +India existed, though there was a lingering suspicion that the Gulf of +St. Lawrence had not been sufficiently explored. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: Shores of the Caribbean Sea.] + +[Sidenote: Ojeda and Nicuessa.] + +Let us turn now to the southern shores of the Caribbean Sea. New efforts +at colonizing here were undertaken in 1508-9. By this time the coast had +been pretty carefully made out as far as Honduras, largely through the +explorations of Ojeda and Juan de la Cosa. The scheme was a dual one, +and introduces us to two new designations of the regions separated by +that indentation of the coast known as the Gulf of Uraba. Here Ojeda and +Nicuessa were sent to organize governments, and rule their respective +provinces of Nueva Andalusia and Castilla del Oro for the period of four +years. Mention has already been made of this in the preceding chapter. +They delayed getting to their governments, quarreled for a while about +their bounds on each other, fought the natives with desperation but not +with much profit, lost La Cosa in one of the encounters, and were +thwarted in their purpose of holding Jamaica as a granary and in getting +settlers from Española by the alertness of Diego Colon, who preferred to +be tributary to no one. + +All this had driven Ojeda to great stress in the little colony of San +Sebastian which he had founded. He attempted to return for aid to +Española, and was wrecked on the voyage. This caused him to miss his +lieutenant Enciso, who was on his way to him with recruits. So Ojeda +passes out of history, except so far as he tells his story in the +testimony he gave in the suit of the heirs of Columbus in 1513-15. + +[Sidenote: Pizarro.] + +[Illustration: BALBOA. + +[From Barcia's _Herrera_.]] + +New heroes were coming on. A certain Pizarro had been left in command by +Ojeda,--not many years afterwards to be heard of. One Vasco Nuñez de +Balboa, a poor and debt-burdened fugitive, was on board of Enciso's +ship, and had wit enough to suggest that a region like San Sebastian, +inhabited by tribes which used poisoned arrows, was not the place for a +colony struggling for existence and dependent on foraging. So they +removed the remnants of the colony, which Enciso had turned back as they +were escaping, to the other side of the bay, and in this way the new +settlement came within the jurisdiction of Nicuessa, whom a combination +soon deposed and shipped to sea, never to be heard of. It was in these +commotions that Vasco Nuñez de Balboa brought himself into a prominence +that ended in his being commissioned by Diego Colon as governor of the +new colony. He had, meanwhile, got more knowledge of a great sea at the +westward than Columbus had acquired on the coast of Veragua in 1503. +Balboa rightly divined that its discovery, if he could effect it, would +serve him a good purpose in quieting any jealousies of his rule, of +which he was beginning to observe symptoms. + +[Sidenote: 1513. Balboa and the South Sea.] + +So on the 1st of September, 1513, he set out in the direction which the +natives hadindicated, and by the 24th he had reached a mountain from the +topof which his guides told him he would behold the sea. On the 25th his +party ascended, himself in front, and it was not long before he stood +gazing upon the distant ocean, the first of Europeans to discern the +long-coveted sea. Down the other slope the Spaniards went. The path was +a difficult one, and it was three days before one of his advanced squads +reached the beach. Not till the next day, the 29th, did Vasco Nuñez +himself join those in advance, when, striding into the tide, he took +possession of the sea and its bordering lands in the name of his +sovereigns. It was on Saint Miguel's Day, and the Bay of Saint Miguel +marks the spot to-day. Towards the end of January, 1514, he was again +with the colony at Antigua del Darien. Thence, in March, he dispatched a +messenger to Spain with news of the great discovery. + +[Sidenote: Pedrarias.] + +[Sidenote: 1517. Balboa executed.] + +This courier did not reach Europe till after a new expedition had been +dispatched under Pedrarias, and with him went a number of followers, who +did in due time their part in thridding and designating these new paths +of exploration. We recognize among them Hernando de Soto, Bernal Diaz, +the chronicler of the exploits of Cortes, and Oviedo, the historian. It +was from April till June, 1514, that Pedrarias was on his way, and it +was not long before the new governor with his imposing array of strength +brought the recusant Balboa to trial, out of which he emerged burdened +with heavy fines. The new governor planned at once to reap the fruits of +Balboa's discovery. An expedition was sent along his track, which +embarked on the new sea and gathered spoils where it could. Pedrarias +soon grew jealous of Balboa, for it was not without justice that the +state of the augmented colony was held to compare unfavorably with the +conditions which Balboa had maintained during his rule. But constancy +was never of much prevalence in these days, and Balboa's chains, lately +imposed, were stricken off to give him charge of an exploration of the +sea which he had discovered. Once here, Balboa planned new conquests and +a new independency. Pedrarias, hearing of it through a false friend of +Balboa, enticed the latter into his neighborhood, and a trial was soon +set on foot, which ended in the execution of Balboa and his abettors. +This was in 1517. + +It was not long before Pedrarias removed his capital to Panama, and in +1519 and during the few following years his captains pushed their +explorations northerly along the shores of the South Sea, as the new +ocean had been at once called. + +[Sidenote: 1515. Biru.] + +[Sidenote: 1519. Panama founded.] + +As early as 1515 Pizarro and Morales had wandered down the coast +southward to a region called Biru by the natives, and this was as far as +adventure had carried any Spaniard, during the ten years since Balboa's +discovery. They had learned here of a rich region farther on, and it got +to be spoken of by the same name, or by a perversion of it, as Peru. In +this interval the town of Panama had been founded (1519), and Pizarro +and Almagro, with the priest Luque, were among those to whom allotments +were made. + +[Sidenote: Peru.] + +[Sidenote: Chili.] + +[Sidenote: Chiloe.] + +It was by these three associates, in 1524 and 1526, that the expeditions +were organized which led to the exploration of the coasts of Peru and +the conquest of the region. The equator was crossed in 1526; in 1527 +they reached 9° south. It was not till 1535 that, in the progress of +events, a knowledge of the coast was extended south to the neighborhood +of Lima, which was founded in that year. In the autumn of 1535, Almagro +started south to make conquest of Chili, and the bay of Valparaiso was +occupied in September, 1536. Eight years later, in 1544, explorations +were pushed south to 41°. It was only in 1557 that expeditions reached +the archipelago of Chiloe, and the whole coast of South America on the +Pacific was made out with some detail down to the region which Magellan +had skirted, as will be shortly shown. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: 1508. Ocampo and Cuba.] + +It will be remembered that in 1503 Columbus had struck the coast of +Honduras west of Cape Gracias à Dios. He learned then of lands to the +northwest from some Indians whom he met in a canoe, but his eagerness to +find the strait of his dreams led him south. It was fourteen years +before the promise of that canoe was revealed. In 1508 Ocampo had found +the western extremity of Cuba, and made the oath of Columbus ridiculous. + +[Sidenote: 1517. Yucatan.] + +In 1517 a slave-hunting expedition, having steered towards the west from +Cuba, discovered the shores of Yucatan; and the next year (1518) the +real exploration of that region began when Juan de Grijalva, a nephew of +the governor of Cuba, led thither an expedition which explored the coast +of Yucatan and Mexico. + +[Sidenote: 1518. Cortes.] + +[Sidenote: 1519.] + +When Grijalva returned to Cuba in 1518, it was to find an expedition +already planned to follow up his discoveries, and Hernando Cortes, who +had been in the New World since 1504, had been chosen to lead it, with +instructions to make further explorations of the coast,--a purpose very +soon to become obscured in other objects. He sailed on the 17th of +November, and stopped along the coast of Cuba for recruits, so it was +not till February 18, 1519, that he sunk the shores of Cuba behind him, +and in March he was skirting the Yucatan shore and sailed on to San Juan +de Uloa. In due time, forgetting his instructions, and caring for other +conquests than those of discovery, he began his march inland. The story +of the conquest of Mexico does not help us in the aim now in view, and +we leave it untold. + +[Illustration: GRIJALVA. + +[From Barcia's _Herrera_.]] + +[Sidenote: Quinsay.] + +It was not long after this conquest before belated apostles of the +belief of Columbus appeared, urging that the capital of Montezuma was in +reality the Quinsay of Marco Polo, with its great commercial interests, +as was maintained by Schöner in his _Opusculum Geographicum_ in 1533. + +[Illustration: GLOBE GIVEN IN SCHÖNER'S _OPUSCULUM GEOGRAPHICUM_, 1533.] + +[Sidenote: 1520. Garay.] + +[Sidenote: Gulf of Mexico.] + +[Sidenote: 1524. Cortes's Gulf of Mexico.] + +[Sidenote: Yucatan as an island.] + +We have seen how Pineda's expedition to the northern parts of the Gulf +of Mexico in 1519 had improved the knowledge of that shore, and we have +a map embodying these explorations, which was sent to Spain in 1520 by +Garay, then governor of Jamaica. It was now pretty clear that the blank +spaces of earlier maps, leaving it uncertain if there was a passage +westerly somewhere in the northwest corner of the gulf, should be filled +compactly. Still, a belief that such a passage existed somewhere in the +western contour of the gulf was not readily abandoned. Cortes, when he +sent to Spain his sketch of the gulf, which was published there in 1524, +was dwelling on the hope that some such channel existed near Yucatan, +and his insular delineation of that peninsula, with a shadowy strait at +its base, was eagerly grasped by the cartographers. Such a severance +finds a place in the map of Maiollo of 1527, which is preserved in the +Ambrosian library at Milan. Grijalva, some years earlier, had been sent, +as we have seen, to sail round Yucatan; and though there are various +theories about the origin of that name, it seems likely enough that the +tendency to give it an insular form arose from a misconception of the +Indian appellation. At all events, the island of Yucatan lingered long +in the early maps. + +[Illustration: GULF OF MEXICO, 1520.] + +[Sidenote: 1523. Cortes.] + +In 1523 Cortes had sent expeditions up the Pacific, and one up the +Atlantic side of North America, to find the wished-for passage; but in +vain. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: Spanish and Portuguese rivalries.] + +Meanwhile, important movements were making by the Portuguese beyond that +great sea of the south which Balboa had discovered. These movements were +little suspected by the Spaniards till the development of them brought +into contact these two great oceanic rivals. + +[Illustration: GULF OF MEXICO, BY CORTES.] + +[Sidenote: 1511. Moluccas.] + +[Sidenote: A western passage sought at the south.] + +The Portuguese, year after year, had extended farther and farther their +conquests by the African route. Arabia, India, Malacca, Sumatra, fell +under their sway, and their course was still eastward, until in 1511 the +coveted land of spices, the clove and the nutmeg, was reached in the +Molucca Islands. This progress of the Portuguese had been watched with a +jealous eye by Spain. It was a question if, in passing to these islands, +the Portuguese had not crossed the line of demarcation as carried to the +antipodes. If they had, territory neighboring to the Spanish American +discoveries had been appropriated by that rival power wholly +unconfronted. This was simply because the Spanish navigators had not as +yet succeeded in finding a passage through the opposing barrier of what +they were beginning to suspect was after all an intervening land. +Meanwhile, Columbus and all since his day having failed to find such a +passage by way of the Caribbean Sea, and no one yet discovering any at +the north, nothing was left but to seek it at the south. This was the +only chance of contesting with the Portuguese the rights which +occupation was establishing for them at the Moluccas. + +[Sidenote: 1508. Pinzon and Solis.] + +On the 29th of June, 1508, a new expedition left San Lucar under Pinzon +and Solis. They made their landfall near Cape St. Augustine, and, +passing south along the coast of what had now come to be commonly called +Brazil, they traversed the opening of the broad estuary of the La Plata +without knowing it, and went five degrees beyond (40° south latitude) +without finding the sought-for passage. + +[Illustration: MAIOLLO MAP, 1527.] + +[Sidenote: 1511. Portuguese at Rio de Janeiro.] + +[Sidenote: Ferdinand Columbus and the western passage.] + +There is some reason to suppose that as early as 1511 the Portuguese had +become in some degree familiar with the coast about Rio de Janeiro, and +there is a story of one Juan de Braza settling near this striking bay at +this early day. It was during the same year (1511) that Ferdinand +Columbus prepared his _Colon de Concordia_, and in this he maintained +the theory of a passage to be found somewhere beyond the point towards +the south which the explorers had thus far reached. + +[Illustration: DE COSTA'S DRAWING FROM THE LENOX GLOBE.] + +[Sidenote: 1516. Solis.] + +[Illustration: SCHÖNER'S GLOBE, 1520.] + +[Illustration: MAGELLAN.] + +[Sidenote: 1519. Magellan.] + +A few years later (1516) the Spanish King sent Juan Diaz de Solis to +search anew for a passage. He found the La Plata, and for a while hoped +he had discovered the looked-for strait. Magellan, who had taken some +umbrage during his Portuguese service, came finally to the Spanish King, +and, on the plea that the Moluccas fell within the Spanish range under +the line of demarcation, suggested an expedition to occupy them. He +professed to be able to reach them by a strait which he could find +somewhere to the south of the La Plata. It has long been a question if +Magellan's anticipation was based simply on a conjecture that, as Africa +had been found to end in a southern point, America would likewise be +discovered to have a similar southern cape. It has also been a question +if Magellan actually had any tidings from earlier voyages to afford a +ground for believing in such a geographical fact. It is possible that +other early discoverers had been less careful than Solis, and had been +misled by the broad estuary of the La Plata to think that it was really +an interoceanic passage. Some such intelligence would seem to have +instigated the conditions portrayed in one early map, but the general +notion of cartographers at the time terminates the known coast at Cape +Frio, near Rio de Janeiro, as is seen to be the case in the Ptolemy map +of 1513. There is a story, originating with Pigafetta, his historian, +that Magellan had seen a map of Martin Behaim, showing a southern cape; +but if this map existed, it revealed probably nothing more than a +conjectural termination, as shown in the Lenox and earliest Schöner +globes of 1515 and 1520. Still, Wieser and Nordenskiöld are far from +being confident that some definite knowledge of such a cape had not been +attained, probably, as it is thought, from private commercial voyage of +which we may have a record in the _Newe Zeitung_ and in the +_Luculentissima Descriptio_. It is to be feared that the fact, whatever +it may have been, must remain shadowy. + +Magellan's fleet was ready in August, 1519. His preparation had been +watched with jealousy by Portugal, and it was even hinted that if the +expedition sailed a matrimonial alliance of Spain and Portugal which was +contemplated must be broken off. Magellan was appealed to by the +Portuguese ambassador to abandon his purpose, as one likely to embroil +the two countries. The stubborn navigator was not to be persuaded, and +the Spanish King made him governor of all countries he might discover on +the "back side" of the New World. + +In the late days of 1519, Magellan touched the coast at Rio de Janeiro, +where, remaining awhile, he enjoyed the fruits of its equable climate. +Then, passing on, he crossed the mouth of the La Plata, and soon found +that he had reached a colder climate and was sailing along a different +coast. The verdure which had followed the warm currents from the +equatorial north gave way to the concomitants of an icy flow from the +Antarctic regions which made the landscape sterile. So on he went along +this inhospitable region, seeking the expected strait. His search in +every inlet was so faithful that he neared the southern goal but slowly. +The sternness of winter caught his little barks in a harbor near 50° +south latitude, and his Spanish crews, restless under the command of a +Portuguese, revolted. The rebels were soon more numerous than the +faithful. The position was more threatening than any Columbus had +encountered, but the Portuguese had a hardy courage and majesty of +command that the Genoese never could summon. Magellan confronted the +rebels so boldly that they soon quailed. He was in unquestioned command +of his own vessels from that time forward. The fate of the conquered +rioters, Juan de Carthagena and Sanchez de la Reina, cast on the +inhospitable shore of Patagonia in expiation of their offense, is in +strong contrast to the easy victory which Columbus too often yielded, to +those who questioned his authority. The story of Magellan's pushing his +fleet southward and through the strait with a reluctant crew is that of +one of the royally courageous acts of the age of discovery. + +[Sidenote: 1520. October. Magellan enters the strait.] + +On October 21, 1520, the ships entered the longed-for strait, and on the +28th of November they sailed into the new sea; then stretching their +course nearly north, keeping well in sight of the coast till the Chiloe +Archipelago was passed, the ships steered west of Juan Fernandez without +seeing it, and subsequently gradually turned their prows towards the +west. + +[Illustration: MAGELLAN'S STRAITS BY PIZAFETTA. + +[The north is at the bottom.]] + +[Sidenote: The western way discovered.] + +It is not necessary for our present purpose to follow the incidents of +the rest of this wondrous voyage,--the reaching the Ladrones and the +Asiatic islands, Magellan's own life sacrificed, all his ships but one +abandoned or lost, the passing of the Cape of Good Hope by the +"Victoria," and her arrival on September 6, 1522, under Del Cano, at the +Spanish harbor from which the fleet had sailed. The Emperor bestowed on +this lucky first of circumnavigators the proud motto, inscribed on a +globe, "Primus circumdedisti me." The Spaniards' western way to the +Moluccas was now disclosed. + +[Illustration: MAGELLAN'S STRAIT.] + +[Sidenote: Pacific Ocean.] + +The South Sea of Balboa, as soon as Magellan had established its +extension farther south, took from Magellan's company the name Pacific, +though the original name which Balboa had applied to it did not entirely +go out of vogue for a long time in those portions contiguous to the +waters bounding the isthmus and its adjacent lands. + +[Sidenote: North America and Asia held to be one.] + +For a long time after it was known that South America was severed, as +Magellan proved, from Asia, the belief was still commonly held that +North America and Asia were one and continuous. While no one ventures to +suspect that Columbus had any prescience of these later developments, +there are those like Varnhagen who claim a distinct insight for +Vespucius; but it is by no means clear, in the passages which are cited, +that Vespucius thought the continental mass of South America more +distinct from Asia than Columbus did, when the volume of water poured +out by the Orinoco convinced the Admiral that he was skirting a +continent, and not an island. That Columbus thought to place there the +region of the Biblical paradise shows that its continental features did +not dissociate it from Asia. The New World of Vespucius was established +by his own testimony as hardly more than a new part of Asia. + +[Sidenote: 1525. Loyasa.] + +[Sidenote: De Hoces discovers Cape Horn.] + +In 1525 Loyasa was sent to make further examination of Magellan's +Strait. It was at this time that one of his ships, commanded by +Francisco de Hoces, was driven south in February, 1526, and discovered +Cape Horn, rendering the insular character of Tierra del Fuego all but +certain. The fact was kept secret, and the map makers were not generally +made aware of this terminal cape till Drake saw it, fifty-two years +later. It was not till 1615-17 that Schouten and Lemaire made clear the +eastern limits of Tierra del Fuego when they discovered the passage +between that island and Staten Island, and during the same interval +Schouten doubled Cape Horn for the first time. It was in 1618-19 that +the observations of Nodal first gave the easterly bend to the southern +extremity of the continent. + +[Sidenote: 1535. Chili.] + +The last stretch of the main coast of South America to be made out was +that on the Pacific side from the point where Magellan turned away from +it up to the bounds of Peru, where Pizarro and his followers had mapped +it. This trend of the coast began to be understood about 1535; but it +was some years before its details got into maps. The final definition of +it came from Camargo's voyage in 1540, and was first embodied with +something like accuracy in Juan Freire's map of 1546, and was later +helped by explorations from the north. But this proximate precision gave +way in 1569 to a protuberant angle of the Chili coast, as drawn by +Mercator, which in turn lingered on the chart till the next century. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: Cartographical views.] + +We need now to turn from these records of the voyagers to see what +impression their discoveries had been making upon the cartographers and +geographers of Europe. + +[Sidenote: Sylvanus's Ptolemy. 1511.] + +Bernardus Sylvanus Ebolensis, in a new edition of Ptolemy which was +issued at Venice in 1511, paid great attention to the changes necessary +to make Ptolemy's descriptions correspond to later explorations in the +Old World, but less attention to the more important developments of the +New World. Nordenskiöld thinks that this condition of Sylvanus's mind +shows how little had been the impression yet made at Venice by the +discoveries of Columbus and Da Gama. The maps of this Ptolemy are +woodcuts, with type let in for the names, which are printed in red, in +contrast with the black impressed from the block. + +[Sidenote: Nordenskiöld gores.] + +Sylvanus's map is the second engraved map showing the new discoveries, +and the earliest of the heart-shaped projections. It has in "Regalis +Domus" the earliest allusion to the Cortereal voyage in a printed map. +Sylvanus follows Ruysch in making Greenland a part of Asia. The rude map +gores of about the same date which Nordenskiöld has brought to the +attention of scholars, and which he considers to have been made at +Ingolstadt, agree mainly with this map of Sylvanus, and in respect to +the western world both of these maps, as well as the Schöner globe of +1515, seem to have been based on much the same material. + +[Illustration: FREIRE'S MAP, 1546.] + + +[Illustration: SYLVANUS'S PTOLEMY OF 1511.] + +[Illustration: STOBNICZA'S MAP.] + +[Sidenote: 1512. Stobnicza map.] + +We find in 1512, where we might least expect it, one of the most +remarkable of the early maps, which was made for an introduction to +Ptolemy, published at this date at Cracow, in Poland, by Stobnicza. This +cartographer was the earliest to introduce into the plane delineation of +the globe the now palpable division of its surface into an eastern and +western hemisphere. His map, for some reason, is rarely found in the +book to which it belongs. Nordenskiöld says he has examined many copies +of the book in the libraries of Scandinavia, Russia, and Poland, without +finding a copy with it; but it is found in other copies in the great +libraries at Vienna and Munich. He thinks the map may have been excluded +from most of the editions because of its rudeness, or "on account of its +being contrary to the old doctrines of the Church." Its importance in +the growth of the ideas respecting the new discoveries in the western +hemisphere is, however, very great, since for the first time it gives a +north and south continent connected by an isthmus, and represents as +never before in an engraved map the western hemisphere as an entirety. +This is remarkable, as it was published a year before Balboa made his +discovery of the Pacific Ocean. It is not difficult to see the truth of +Nordenskiöld's statement that the map divides the waters of the globe +into two almost equal oceans, "communicating only in the extreme south +and in the extreme north," but the south communication which is +unmistakable is by the Cape of Good Hope. The extremity of South America +is not reached because of the marginal scale, and because of the same +scale it is not apparent that there is any connection between the +Pacific and Indian oceans, and for similar reasons connection is not +always clear at the north. There must have been information at hand to +the maker of this map of which modern scholars can find no other trace, +or else there was a wild speculative spirit which directed the pencil in +some singular though crude correspondence to actual fact. This is +apparent in its straight conjectural lines on the west coast of South +America, which prefigure the discoveries following upon the enterprise +of Balboa and the voyage of Magellan. + +[Sidenote: The Lenox globe.] + +[Sidenote: Da Vinci globe.] + +If Stobnicza, apparently, had not dared to carry the southern extremity +of South America to a point, there had been no such hesitancy in the +makers of two globes of about the same date,--the little copper sphere +picked up by Richard M. Hunt, the architect, in an old shop in Paris, +and now in the Lenox Library in New York, and the rude sketch, giving +quartered hemispheres separated on the line of the equator, which is +preserved in the cabinet of Queen Victoria, at Windsor, among the papers +of Leonardo da Vinci. This little draft has a singular interest both +from its association with so great a name as Da Vinci's, and because it +bears at what is, perhaps, the earliest date to be connected with such +cartographical use the name America lettered on the South American +continent. Major has contended for its being the work of Da Vinci +himself, but Nordenskiöld demurs. This Swedish geographer is rather +inclined to think it the work of a not very well informed copier working +on some Portuguese prototype. + +[Sidenote: 1507-13. Admiral's map.] + +[Sidenote: 1515. Reisch's map.] + +It is worthy of remark that, in the same year with the discovery of the +South Sea by Balboa, an edition of Ptolemy made popular a map which had +indeed been cut in its first state as early as 1507, but which still +preserved the contiguity of the Antilles to the region of the Ganges and +its three mouths. This was the well-known "Admiral's map," usually +associated with the name of Waldseemüller, and if this same +cartographer, as Franz Wieser conjectures, is responsible for the map in +Reisch's _Margarita philosophica_ (1515), a sort of cyclopædia, he had +in the interim awaked to the significance of the discovery of Balboa, +for the Ganges has disappeared, and Cipango is made to lie in an ocean +beyond the continental Zoana Mela (America), which has an undefined +western limit, as it had already been depicted in the Stobnicza map of +1512. + +[Illustration: THE ALLEGED DA VINCI SKETCH. + +[_Combination._]] + +[Sidenote: First modern atlas.] + +It was in this Strassburg Ptolemy of 1513 that Ringmann, who had been +concerned in inventing the name of America, revised the Latin of +Angelus, using a Greek manuscript of Ptolemy for the purpose. +Nordenskiöld speaks of this edition as the first modern atlas of the +world, extended so as to give in two of its maps--that known as the +"Admiral's map," and another of Africa--the results following upon the +discoveries of Columbus and Da Gama. This "Admiral's map," which has +been so often associated with Columbus, is hardly a fair representation +of the knowledge that Columbus had attained, and seems rather to be the +embodiment of the discoveries of many, as the description of it, indeed, +would leave us to infer; while the other American chart of the volume +is clearly of Portuguese rather than of Spanish origin, as may be +inferred by the lavish display of the coast connected with the +descriptions by Vespucius. On the other hand, nothing but the islands of +Española and Cuba stand in it for the explorations of Columbus. Both of +these maps are given elsewhere in this Appendix. + +[Illustration: REISCH, 1515.] + +[Illustration: THE WORLD OF POMPONIUS MELA. + +[From Bunbury's _Ancient Geography_.]] + +[Sidenote: Asiatic connection of North America.] + +We could hardly expect, indeed, to find in these maps of the Ptolemy of +1513 the results of Balboa's discovery at the isthmus; but that the maps +were left to do service in the edition of 1520 indicates that the +discovery of the South Sea had by no means unsettled the public mind as +to the Asiatic connection of the regions both north and south of the +Antilles. Within the next few years several maps indicate the enduring +strength of this conviction. A Portuguese portolano of 1516-20, in the +Royal Library at Munich, shows Moslem flags on the coasts of Venezuela +and Nicaragua. A map of Ayllon's discoveries on the Atlantic coast in +1520, preserved in the British Museum, has a Chinaman and an elephant +delineated on the empty spaces of the continent. Still, geographical +opinions had become divided, and the independent continental masses of +Stobnicza were having some ready advocates. + +[Illustration: VADIANUS.] + +[Illustration: APIANUS. + +[From Reusner's _Icones_.]] + +[Sidenote: Vienna geographers.] + +[Sidenote: Pomponius Mela.] + +[Sidenote: Solinus.] + +[Sidenote: Vadianus.] + +[Sidenote: 1520. Apianus.] + +There was at this time a circle of geographers working at Vienna, +reëditing the ancient cosmographers, and bringing them into relations +with the new results of discovery. Two of these early writers thus +attracting attention were Pomponius Mela, whose _Cosmographia_ dated +back to the first century, and Solinus, whose _Polyhistor_ was of the +third. The Mela fell to the care of Johann Camers, who published it as +_De Situ Orbis_ at Vienna in 1512, at the press of Singrein; and this +was followed in 1518 by another issue, taken in hand by Joachim Watt, +better known under the Latinized name of Vadianus, who had been born in +Switzerland, and who was one of the earlier helpers in popularizing the +name of America. The Solinus, the care of which was undertaken by +Camers, the teacher of Watt, was produced under these new auspices at +the same time. Two years later (1520) both of these old writers attained +new currency while issued together and accompanied by a map of +Apianus,--as the German Bienewitz classicized his name,--in which +further iteration was given to the name of America by attaching it to +the southern continent of the west. + +[Sidenote: A strait at the Isthmus of Panama.] + +[Sidenote: 1515. Schöner.] + +[Sidenote: Antarctic continent.] + +In this map Apianus, in 1520, was combining views of the western +hemisphere, which had within the few antecedent years found advocacy +among a new school of cartographers. These students represented the +northern and southern continents as independent entities, disconnected +at the isthmus, where Columbus had hoped to find his strait. This is +shown in the earliest of the Schöner globes, the three copies of which +known to us are preserved, one at Frankfort and two at Weimar. It is in +the _Luculentissima Descriptio_, which was written to accompany this +Schöner globe of 1515, where we find that statement already referred to, +which chronicles, as Wieser thinks, an earlier voyage than Magellan's to +the southern strait, which separated the "America" of Vespucius from +that great Antarctic continent which did not entirely disappear from our +maps till after the voyage of Cook. + +[Sidenote: 1515. Reisch.] + +[Sidenote: Brazil.] + +It is a striking instance of careless contemporary observation, which +the student of this early cartography has often to confront, that while +Reisch, in his popular cyclopædia of the _Margarita Philosophica_ which +he published first in 1503, gave not the slightest intimation of the +discoveries of Columbus, he did not much improve matters in 1515, when +he ignored the discoveries of Balboa, and reproduced in the main the +so-called "Admiral's map" of the Ptolemy of 1513. It is to be observed, +however, that Reisch was in this reproduced map of 1515 the first of +map makers to offer in the word "Prisilia" on the coast of Vespucius the +prototype of the modern Brazil. It will be remembered that Cabral had +supposed it an island, and had named it the Isla de Santa Cruz. The +change of name induced a pious Portuguese to believe it an instigation +of the devil to supplant the remembrance of the holy and sacred wood of +the great martyr by the worldly wood, which was commonly used to give a +red color to cloth! + +[Sidenote: Theories of seamanship.] + +In 1519, in the _Suma de Geographia_ of Fernandez d'Enciso, published +later at Seville, in 1530, we have the experience of one of Ojeda's +companions in 1509. This little folio, now a scarce book, is of interest +as first formulating for practical use some of the new theories of +seamanship as developed under the long voyages at this time becoming +common. It has also a marked interest as being the earliest book of the +Spanish press which had given consideration at any length to the new +possessions of Spain. + +[Sidenote: 1522. Frisius.] + +We again find a similar indisposition to keep abreast of discovery, so +perplexing to later scholars, in the new-cast edition of Ptolemy in +1522, which contains the well-known map of Laurentius Frisius. It is +called by Nordenskiöld, in subjecting it to analysis in his _Facsimile +Atlas_, "an original work, but bad beyond all criticism, as well from a +geographical as from a xylographical point of view." One sees, indeed, +in the maps of this edition, no knowledge of the increase of +geographical knowledge during later years. We observe, too, that they go +back to Behaim's interpretation of Marco Polo's India, for the eastern +shores of Asia. The publisher, Thomas Ancuparius, seems never to have +heard of Columbus, or at least fails to mention him, while he awards the +discovery of the New World to Vespucius. The maps, reduced in the main +from those of the edition of 1513, were repeated in those of 1525, 1535, +and 1541, without change and from the same blocks. + +[Illustration: SCHÖNER.] + +The results of the voyage of Magellan and Del Cano promptly attained a +more authentic record than usually fell to the lot of these early ocean +experiences. + +[Sidenote: 1523. Magellan's voyage described.] + +The company which reached Spain in the "Victoria" went at once to +Valladolid to report to the Emperor, and while there a pupil and +secretary of Peter Martyr, then at Court, Maximilianus Transylvanus by +name, got from these men the particulars of their discoveries, and, +writing them out in Latin, he sent the missive to his father, the +Archbishop of Salzburg,--the young man was a natural son of this +prelate,--and in some way the narrative got into print at Cologne and +Rome in 1523. + +[Sidenote: 1523. Schöner.] + +[Sidenote: Rosenthal gores.] + +Schöner printed in 1523 a little tract, _De nuper ... repertis insulis +ac regionibus_ to elucidate a globe which he had at that time +constructed. It was published at Timiripæ, as the imprint reads, which +has been identified by Coote as the Grecized form of the name of a small +village not far from Bamberg, where Schöner was at that time a parochial +vicar. When a new set of engraved gores were first brought to light by +Ludwig Rosenthal, in Munich, in 1885, they were considered by Wieser, +who published an account of them in 1888, as the lost globe of Schöner. +Stevens, in a posthumous book on _Johann Schöner_, expressed a similar +belief. This was a view which Stevens's editor, C. H. Coote, accepted. +The opinion, however, is open to question, and Nordenskiöld finds that +the Rosenthal gores have nothing to do with the lost globe of Schöner, +and puts them much later, as having been printed at Nuremberg about +1540. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: Political aspects of Magellan's voyage.] + +[Sidenote: Gomez.] + +The voyage of Magellan had reopened the controversy of Spain with +Portugal, stayed but not settled by the treaty of Tordesillas. Estevan +Gomez, a recusant captain of Magellan's fleet, who had deserted him just +as he was entering the straits, had arrived in Spain May 6, 1521, and +had his own way for some time in making representation of the +foolhardiness of Magellan's undertaking. + +On March 27, 1523, Gomez received a concession from the Emperor to go on +a small armed vessel for a year's cruise in the northwest, to make +farther search for a passage, but he was not to trespass on any +Portuguese possession. The disputes between Portugal and Spain +intensifying, Gomez's voyage was in the mean time put off for a while. + + +[Sidenote: Dispute over the Moluccas.] + +[Sidenote: Congress at Badajos.] + +[Illustration: ROSENTHAL OR NUREMBERG GORES.] + +Gomara tells us that, in the opinion of his time, the Spaniards had +gained the Moluccas, at the conference at Tordesillas, by yielding to +the demands of the Portuguese, so that what Portugal gained in Brazil +and Newfoundland she lost in Asia and adjacent parts. The Portuguese +historian, Osorius, viewed it differently; he counted in the American +gain for his country, but he denied the Spanish rights at the antipodes. +So the longitude of the Moluccas became a sharp political dispute, which +there was an attempt to settle in 1524 in a congress of the two nations +that was convened alternately at Badajos and Elvas, situated on opposite +sides of the Caya, a stream which separates the two countries. + +[Sidenote: Council of the Indies.] + +Ferdinand Columbus, by a decree of February 19, 1524, had been made one +of the arbiters. After two months of wrangling, each side stood stiff in +its own opinions, and it was found best to break up the congress. +Following upon the dissolution of this body, the Spanish government was +impelled to make the management of the Indies more effective than it had +been under the commissions which had existed, and on August 18, 1524, +the Council of the Indies was reorganized in more permanent form. + +[Sidenote: Gomez's voyage.] + +An immediate result of the interchange of views at Badajos was a renewal +of the Gomez project, to examine more carefully the eastern coast of +what is now the United States, in the hopes of yet discovering a western +passage. Of that voyage, which is first mentioned in the _Sumario_ of +Oviedo in 1526, and of the failure of its chief aim, enough has already +been said in the early part of this appendix. + +It has been supposed by Harrisse that the results of this voyage were +embodied in the earliest printed Spanish map which we have showing lines +of latitude and longitude,--that found in a joint edition of Martyr and +Oviedo (1534), and which is only known in a copy now in the Lenox +Library. + +The purpose which followed upon the congress of Badajos, to penetrate +the Atlantic coast line and find a passage to the western sea, was +communicated to Cortes, then in Mexico, some time before the date of his +fourth letter, October 15, 1524. The news found him already convinced of +the desirableness of establishing a port on the great sea of the west, +and he selected Zucatula as a station for the fleets which he undertook +to build. + +[Sidenote: 1526. Cortes sends ships to the Moluccas.] + +[Sidenote: The Moluccas sold to Portugal.] + +Other projects delayed the preparations which were planned, and it was +not till September 3, 1526, that Cortes signified to the Emperor his +readiness to send his ships to the Moluccas. After a brief experimental +trip up the coast from Zucatula, three of his vessels were finally +dispatched, in October, 1527, on a disastrous voyage to those islands, +where the purpose was to confront the Portuguese pretensions. It so +happened, meanwhile, that Charles V. needed money for his projects in +Italy, and he called Ferdinand Columbus to Court to consult with him +about a sale of his rights in the Moluccas to Portugal. Ferdinand made a +report, which has not come down to us, but a decision to sell was +reached, and the Portuguese King agreed to the price of purchase on June +20, 1530. Thus the Moluccas, which had been so long the goal of Spanish +ambition, pass out of view in connection with American discovery. + +There is some ground for the suspicion, if not belief, that the +Portuguese from the Moluccas had before this pushed eastward across the +Pacific, and had even struck the western verge of that continent which +separated them from the Spanish explorers on the Atlantic side. + +[Illustration: MARTYR-OVIEDO] + +[Illustration: MAP, 1534.] + +[Sidenote: North America, east coast.] + +[Sidenote: Verrazano.] + +We come next to some further developments on the eastern coast of North +America. A certain French corsair, known from his Florentine birth as +Juan Florin, had become a terror by preying on the Spanish commerce in +the Indies. In January, 1524, he was on his way, under the name of +Verrazano, in the expedition which has given him fame, and has supplied +not a little ground for contention, and even for total distrust of the +voyage as a fact. He struck the coast of North Carolina, turned south, +but, finding no harbor, retraced his course, and, making several +landings farther north, finally entered, as it would seem from his +description, the harbor of New York. The only point that he names is a +triangular island which he saw as he went still farther to the east, and +which has been supposed to be Block Island, or possibly Martha's +Vineyard. At all events, the name Luisa which he gave to it after the +mother of Francis I. clung to an island in this neighborhood in the maps +for some time longer. So he went on, and, if his landings have been +rightly identified, he touched at Newport, then at some place evidently +near Portsmouth in New Hampshire, and then, skirting the islands of the +Maine coast, he reached the country which he recognized as that where +the Bretons had been. He now ended what he considered the exploration of +seven hundred leagues of an unknown land, and bore away for France, +reaching Dieppe in July, whence, on the 9th, he wrote the letter to the +King which is the source of our information. Attempts have been made, +especially by the late Henry C. Murphy, to prove this letter a forgery, +but in the opinion of most scholars without success. + +[Illustration: THE VERRAZANO MAP.] + +[Illustration: AGNESE, 1536.] + +[Sidenote: The Verrazano map.] + +Fortunately for the student, Hieronimo da Verrazano made, in 1529, a +map, still preserved in the college of the Propaganda at Rome, in which +the discoveries of his brother, Giovanni, are laid down. In this the +name of Nova Gallia supplants that of Francesca, which had been used in +the map of Maiollo (1527), supposed, also, to have some relation to the +Verrazano voyage. + +[Illustration: MÜNSTER, 1540.] + +The most distinguishing feature of the Verrazano map is a great inland +expanse of water, which was taken to be a part of some western ocean, +and which remained for a long while in some form or other in the maps. +It was made to approach so near the Atlantic that at one point there was +nothing but a slender isthmus connecting the discoveries of the north +with the country of Ponce de Leon and Ayllon at the south. + +[Illustration: MÜNSTER, 1540.] + +[Sidenote: The sea of Verrazano.] + +It is in the _Sumario_ (1526) of Oviedo that we get the first idea of +this sea of Verrazano, as Brevoort contends, and we see it in the +Maiollo map of the next year, called "Mare Indicum," as if it were an +indentation of the great western ocean of Balboa. It was a favorite +fancy of Baptista Agnese, in the series of portolanos associated with +his name during the middle of the century, and in which he usually +indicated supposable ocean routes to Asia. As time went on, the idea was +so far modified that this indentation took the shape of a loop of the +Arctic seas, or of that stretch of water which at the north connected +the Atlantic and Pacific, as shown in the Münster map in the Ptolemy of +1540,--a map apparently based on the portolanos of Agnese,--though the +older form of the sea seems to be adopted in the globe of Ulpius (1542). +This idea of a Carolinian isthmus prevailed for some years, and may have +grown out of a misconception of the Carolina sounds, though it is +sometimes carried far enough north, as in the Lok map of 1582, to seem +as if Buzzard's Bay were in some way thought to stretch westerly into +its depths. The last trace of this mysterious inner ocean, so far as I +have discovered, is in a map made by one of Ralegh's colonists in 1585, +and preserved among the drawings of John White in the De Bry collection +of the British Museum, and brought to light by Dr. Edward Eggleston. +This drawing makes for the only time that I have observed it, an actual +channel at "Port Royal," leading to this oceanic expanse, which was +later interpreted as an inland lake. Thus it was that this geographical +blunder lived more or less constantly in a succession of maps for about +sixty years, until sometimes it vanished in a large lake in Carolina, or +in the north it dwindled until it began to take a new lease of life in +an incipient Hudson's Bay, as in the great Lake of Tadenac, figured in +the Molineaux map of 1600, and in the Lago Dagolesme in the Botero map +of 1603. + +[Illustration: MICHAEL LOK, 1582.] + +[Illustration: JOHN WHITE'S MAP. + +[Communicated by Dr. Edward Eggleston.]] + +[Sidenote: Norumbega.] + +It was apparently during the voyage of Verrazano that an Indian name +which was understood as "Aranbega" was picked up along the northern +coasts as designating the region, and which a little later was reported +by others as "Norumbega," and so passed into the mysterious and fabled +nomenclature of the coast with a good deal of the unstableness that +attended the fabulous islands of the Atlantic in the fancy of the +geographers of the Middle Ages. As a definition of territory it +gradually grew to have a more and more restricted application, coming +down mainly after a while to the limits of the later New England, and at +last finding, as Dr. Dee (1580), Molineaux (1600), and Champlain (1604) +understood it, a home on the Penobscot. Still the region it represented +contracted and expanded in people's notions, and on maps the name seemed +to have a license to wander. + + * * * * * + +[Illustration: ROBERT THORNE, 1527.] + +[Sidenote: The English on the coast.] + +[Sidenote: William Hawkins.] + +During this period the English also were up and down the coast, but they +contributed little to our geographical knowledge. Slave-catching on the +coast of Guinea, and lucrative sales of the human plunder in the Spanish +West Indies and neighboring regions, seem to have taken William Hawkins +and others of his countrymen to these coasts not infrequently between +1525 and 1540. + +[Sidenote: John Rut.] + +There is some reason to believe that John Rut, an Englishman, may have +explored the northeast coasts of the present United States in 1527, a +proposition, however, open to argument, as the counter reasonings of Dr. +Kohl and Dr. De Costa show. It is certain that at this time Robert +Thorne, an English merchant living in Seville, was gaining what +knowledge he could to promote English enterprise in the north, and there +has come down to us the map which in 1527 he gave to the English +ambassador in Spain, Edward Leigh, to be transmitted to Henry VIII. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: Progress of maritime art.] + +It was in 1526 when the Spanish authorities thought that the time was +fitting for making a sort of register of the progress of discovery and +of the attendant cartographical advances. Nordenskiöld says that "from +the beginning of the printing of maps the graduations of latitude and +longitude were marked down in most printed maps, at least in the +margin;" the most conspicuous example of omitting these being, perhaps, +in the work of Sebastian Münster, at a period a little later than the +one we have now reached. + +[Sidenote: Latitude and longitude.] + +In 1503 Reisch for the first time settled upon something like the modern +methods of indicating latitude and longitude in the map which he annexed +to his _Margarita philosophica_ at Freiburg, though so far as climatic +lines could stand for latitudinal notions, Pierre d'Ailly had set an +example of scaling the zones from the equator in his map of 1410. The +Spaniards, however, did not fall into the method of Reisch, so far as +published maps are concerned, till long afterwards (1534). + +[Sidenote: Italian maps.] + +Up to the time when the Strassburg Ptolemy was issued, in 1513, the +chief activity in map-making had been in Italy. The cartographers of +that country got what they could from Spain, but the main dependence +was on Portuguese sources, though the rivals of Spain were not always +free in imparting the knowledge of their hydrographical offices, since +we find Robert Thorne, in 1527, charging the Portuguese with having +falsified their records. It is worthy of remark that no official map of +the Indies was published in Spain till 1790. + +[Illustration: SEBASTIAN MÜNSTER. + +[From Reusner's _Icones_, 1590.]] + +[Sidenote: Cartographical activity north of the Alps.] + +[Sidenote: Map projections.] + +After 1513, and so on to the middle of the century, it was to the north +of the Alps that the cosmographical students turned for the latest light +upon all oceanic movements. The question of longitude was the serious +one which both navigators and map makers encountered. The cartographers +were trying all sorts of experiments in representing the converging +meridians on a plane surface, so as not to distort the geography, and in +order to afford some manifest method for the guidance of ships. + +[Sidenote: Lunar observations.] + +[Sidenote: Chronometers.] + +These experiments resulted, as Nordenskiöld counts, in something like +twenty different projections being devised before 1600. For the seaman +the difficulty was no less burdensome in trying to place his ship at +sea, or to map the contours of the coasts he was following. The +navigator's main dependence was the course he was steering and an +estimate of his progress. He made such allowance as he could for his +drift in the currents. We have seen how the imperfection of his +instruments and the defects of his lunar tables misled Columbus +egregiously in the attempts which he made to define the longitude of the +Antilles. He placed Española at 70° west of Seville, and La Cosa came +near him in counting it about 68°, so far as one can interpret his map. +The Dutch at this time were beginning to grasp the idea of a +chronometer, which was the device finally to prove the most satisfactory +in these efforts. + +[Sidenote: Earliest sea-atlas.] + +Reinerus Gemma of Friesland, known better as Gemma Frisius, began to +make the Dutch nautical views better known when he suggested, a few +years later, the carrying of time in running off the longitudes, and +something of his impress on the epoch was shown in the stand which a +pupil, Mercator, took in geographical science. The _Spieghel der +Zeevaardt_ of Lucas Wagenaer, in 1584 (Leyden), was the first sea-atlas +ever printed, and showed again the Dutch advance. + +There were also other requirements of sea service that were not +forgotten, among which was a knowledge of prevalent winds and ocean +currents, and this was so satisfactorily acquired that the return voyage +from the Antilles came, within thirty years after Columbus, to be made +with remarkable ease. Oviedo tells us that in 1525 two caravels were but +twenty-five days in passing from San Domingo to the river of Seville. + +Two of the duties imposed by the Spanish government upon the Casa de la +Contratacion, soon after the discovery of the New World, were to +patronize invention to the end of discovering a process for making fresh +water out of salt, and to improve ships' pumps,--the last a conception +not to take effective shape till Ribero, the royal cosmographer, secured +a royal pension for such an invention in 1526. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: Congress of pilots at Seville.] + +It was in the midst of these developments, both of the practical parts +of seamanship and of the progress of oceanic discovery, that in 1526 +there was held at Seville a convention of pilots and cosmographers, +called by royal order, to consolidate and correlate all the +cartographical data which had accumulated up to that time respecting the +new discoveries. + +[Sidenote: Ferdinand Columbus.] + +Ferdinand Columbus was at this time in Seville, engaged in completing a +house and library for himself, and in planting the park about them with +trees brought from the New World, a single one of which, a West Indian +sapodilla, was still standing in 1871. It was in this house that the +convention sat, and Ferdinand Columbus presided over it, while the +examinations of the pilots were conducted by Diego Ribero and Alonso de +Chaves. + +[Illustration: HOUSE AND LIBRARY OF FERDINAND COLUMBUS.] + +[Sidenote: 1527-29. Maps.] + +There have come down to us two monumental maps, the outgrowth of this +convention. One of these is dated at Seville, in 1527, purporting to be +the work of the royal cosmographer, and has been usually known by the +name of Ferdinand Columbus; and the other, dated 1529, is known to have +been made by Diego Ribero, also a royal cosmographer. These maps closely +resemble each other. + +[Illustration: SPANISH MAP, 1527. + +[After sketch in E. Mayer's _Die Entwicklung der Seekarten_ (Wien, +1877).]] + +The Weimar chart of 1527, which Kohl, Stevens, and others have assigned +to Ferdinand Columbus, has been ascribed by Harrisse to Nuño Garcia de +Toreno, but by Coote, in editing Stevens on _Schöner_, it is assigned to +Ribero, as a precursor of his undoubted production of 1529. + +[Sidenote: Idea of a new continent spreading.] + +We have seen how, succeeding to the belief of Columbus that the new +regions were Asia, there had grown up, a few years after his death, in +spite of his audacious notarial act at Cuba, a strong presumption among +geographical students that a new continent had been found. We have seen +this conception taking form with more or less uncertainty as to its +western confines immediately upon, and even anticipating, the discovery +of the actual South Sea by Balboa, and can follow it down in the maps or +globes of Stobnicza and Da Vinci, in that known as the Lenox globe, in +those called the Tross and Nordenskiöld gores, the Schöner and Hauslab +globes, the Ptolemy map of 1513, and in those of Reisch, Apianus, +Laurentius Frisius, Maiollo, Bordone, Homem, and Münster,--not to name +some others. In twenty years it had come to be a prevalent belief, and +men's minds were turned to a consideration of the possibility of this +revealed continent having been, after all, known to the ancients, as +Glareanus, quoting Virgil, was the earliest to assert in 1527. + +[Illustration: THE NANCY GLOBE.] + +[Sidenote: Reaction in the monk Franciscus.] + +About 1525 there came a partial reaction, as if the discovery of Balboa +had been pushed too far in its supposed results. We find this taking +form in 1526, in an identification of North America with eastern Asia in +a map ascribed to the monk Franciscus, while South America is laid down +as a continental island, separated from India by a strait only. The +strait is soon succeeded by an isthmus, and in this way we get a +solution of the problem which had some currency for half a century or +more. + +[Sidenote: Orontius Finæus.] + +Orontius Finæus was one of these later compromisers in cartography, in a +map which he is supposed to have made in 1531, but which appeared the +next year in the _Novus Orbis_ (1532) of Simon Grynæus, and was used in +some later publications also. We find in this map, about the Gulf of +Mexico, the names which Cortes had applied in his map of 1520 mingled +with those of the Asiatic coast of Marco Polo. We annex a sketch of this +map as reduced by Brevoort to Mercator's projection. A map very similar +to this and of about the same date is preserved in the British Museum +among the Sloane manuscripts, and the same bold solution of the +difficulty is found in the Nancy globe of about 1540, and in the globe +of Gaspar Vopel of 1543. + +[Illustration: THE NANCY GLOBE.] + +[Sidenote: Johann Schöner.] + +There is a good instance of the instability of geographical knowledge at +this time in the conversion of Johann Schöner from a belief in an +insular North America, to which he had clung in his globes of 1515 and +1520, to a position which he took in 1533, in his _Opusculum +Geographicum_, where he maintains that the city of Mexico is the Quinsay +of Marco Polo. + +[Illustration: ORONTIUS FINÆUS, 1532. + +[After Cimelinus's Copperplate of 1566.]] + +[Illustration: ORONTIUS FINÆUS, 1531. + +[Reduced by Brevoort to Mercator's projection.]] + +[Sidenote: The Pacific explored.] + +[Sidenote: California.] + +[Illustration: CORTES.] + +Previous to Cortes's departure for Spain in 1528, he had, as we have +seen, dispatched vessels from Tehuantepec to the Moluccas, but nothing +was done to explore the Pacific coast northward till his return to +Mexico. In the spring or early summer of 1532 he sent Hurtado de Mendoza +up the coast; but little success attending the exploration, Cortes +himself proceeded to Tehuantepec and constructed other vessels, which +sailed in October, 1533. A gale drove them to the west, and when they +succeeded in working back and making the coast, they found themselves +well up what proved to be the California peninsula. They now coasted +south and developed its shape, which was further brought out in detail +by an expedition led by Cortes himself in 1535, and by a later one sent +by him under Francisco de Ulloa in 1539. Cortes had supposed the +peninsula an island, but this expedition of 1539 demonstrated the fact +that no passage to the outer sea existed at the head of the gulf, which +these earliest navigators had called the Sea of Cortes. The conqueror of +Mexico had now made his last expedition on the Pacific, and his name was +not destined to be long connected with this new field of discovery, +unless, indeed, it was a prompting of Cortes--hardly proved, +however--which attached to this peninsular region the euphonious name of +California, and which, after an interval when the gulf was called the +Red Sea, was applied to that water also. The views of Ulloa were +confirmed in part, at least, by Castillo in 1540, who has left us a map +of the gulf. + +[Illustration: CASTILLO'S CALIFORNIA.] + +The outer coast of the peninsula as far north as 28° 30' had been +established in 1533. It was ten years later, in 1543, that Cabrillo, +making his landfall in the neighborhood of 33°, just within the southern +bounds of the present State of California, coasted up to Cape +Mendocino, and perhaps to 44°, or nearly, to that spot, in the present +State of Oregon. If Cabrillo, who had died January 3, 1543, did not +himself go so high, the credit belongs to Ferrelo, his chief pilot. + +Late in 1542 Mendoza sent an expedition under Ruy Lopez de Villalobos, +across the Pacific, and if a map of Juan Freire, made in 1546, is an +indication of his route, he seems to have gone higher up the coast than +any previous explorer. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: The Atlantic coast of North America.] + +While this development of the northwest coast of North America was going +on, there were other discoverers still endeavoring on the Atlantic side +to connect the waters of the two oceans. + +[Sidenote: 1534. Cartier.] + +In April, 1534, Jacques Cartier, a jovial and roistering fellow, as +Father Jouon des Longrais, his latest biographer, makes him out +(_Jacques Cartier_, Paris, 1888), and who had led the roving life of a +corsair in the recent wars of France, was now turning his energy to +solve the great problem of this western passage. He sailed from St. +Malo, and for the first time laid open, by an official examination, the +inner spaces of the St. Lawrence Gulf, which might have been, indeed, +and probably were, known earlier to the hardy Breton and Norman +fishermen. We are deficient in a knowledge of the early frequenting of +these coasts because the charts of such fishermen, and of those who +visited the region for trade in peltries, have not come down to us, +though Kohl thinks there is some likelihood of such records being +preserved in a portolano of the British Museum. + +The track of Cartier about the Gulf of St. Lawrence has caused some +discussion and difference of opinion in the publications of Kohl, De +Costa, Laverdière, and W. F. Ganong, the latter writer claiming, in a +careful paper in the _Transactions_ of the Royal Society of Canada for +1889, that in the correct interpretation of Cartier's first voyage we +find a key to the cartography of the gulf for almost a century. + +The Rotz map of 1542 seems to be the earliest map which we know to show +a knowledge of Cartier's first voyage. The Henri II. map of 1542 still +more develops his work of exploration. + +The chance of further discovery in this direction induced the French +king once more to commission Cartier, October 30, 1534, and early in +1535 his little fleet sailed, and by August, after some discouragements, +not lessened when he found the water freshening, he began to ascend the +St. Lawrence River, reaching the site of Montreal. No map by Cartier +himself is preserved, though it is known that he made such. +Thenceforward the cartography of this northeastern region showed the St. +Lawrence Gulf in a better development of the earlier so-called Square +Gulf and of the great river of Canada. It is of record that Francis I., +in commissioning Cartier, considered that he was dispatching him to +ascend an Asiatic river, and the name of Lachine even to-day is +preserved as evidence of the belief which Cartier entertained that he +was within the bounds of China. + +[Illustration: SKETCH FROM A PORTOLANO IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM.] + +[Sidenote: John Rotz's map.] + +John Rotz's _Boke of Idiography_--a manuscript of 1542, preserved in the +British Museum--shows, in his drawing of the region about the Gulf of +St. Lawrence, certain signs, as Kohl thinks, of having had access to the +charts of Cartier, and Harrisse traces in them the combined influence of +the Portuguese and Dieppe navigators. + +The Cartier voyages seem to have made little impression outside of +France, and we find for some years few traces of his discoveries in the +portolanos of Italy and in the maps of the rest of Europe. It was only +when the expedition of Roberval, in 1540-41, excited attention that the +rest of Europe seemed to recognize these French efforts. + +[Illustration: HOMEM, 1558.] + +[Illustration: ZIEGLER'S SCHONDIA.] + +[Sidenote: Cartier's later voyages.] + +[Sidenote: Allefonsce.] + +The later voyages of Cartier, in 1541 and 1543, revealed nothing more of +general geographical interest. Indeed, the hope of a western passage in +this direction had been abandoned in effect after Cartier's second +voyage, although the pilot Allefonsce, who accompanied a later +expedition, had been detailed to explore the Labrador coast to that end, +and had been turned back by ice. After this he seems to have gone south +into a great bay, under 42°, the end of which he did not reach. This may +have been the large expanse partly shut in by Cape Sable (Nova Scotia) +and Cape Cod, now called in the coast survey charts the Gulf of Maine; +or perhaps it may conform, taking into account his registered latitude, +to the inner bight of it called Massachusetts Bay. At all events, +Allefonsce believed himself on coasts contiguous to Tartary, through +which he had hopes to find access to the more hospitable orient +(occident) farther south. He apparently had something of the same notion +regarding the westerly stretch of water which he found below Cape Cod, +extending he knew not where, along the inclosure of the present Long +Island Sound. + +In the years both before and after the middle of the century, French +vessels were on this coast in considerable numbers for purposes of trade +or for protecting French interests, but we know nothing of any +accessions to geographical knowledge which they made. + +[Illustration: RUSCELLI, 1544.] + +Allefonsce speaks of the Saguenay as widening, when he went up, till it +seemed to be an arm of the sea, and "I think the same," he adds, "runs +into the Sea of Cathay;" and so he draws it on one of his maps,--an idea +made more general in the map of Homem in 1558, where the St. Lawrence +really becomes a channel, locked by islands, bordering an Arctic Sea. +Ramusio, in 1553, has inferred from such reports as he could get of +Cartier's explorations, that his track had lain in channels bounded by +islands, and a similar view had already been expressed in a portolano of +1536, preserved in the Bodleian, which Kohl associates with Homem or +Agnese. The oceanic expansion of the Saguenay is preserved as late as +the Molineaux map of 1600. + +[Sidenote: River of Norumbega.] + +It is to the work of Allefonsce that we probably owe another confusion +of this northern cartography in the sixteenth century. What we now know +as Penobscot Bay and River was called by him the River of Norumbega, and +he seems to have given some ground for believing that this river +connected the waters of the Atlantic with the great river of Canada, +just as we find it later shown upon Gastaldi's map in Ramusio, by +Ruscelli in 1561, by Martines in 1578, by Lok in 1582, and by Jacques de +Vaulx in 1584. + +[Sidenote: Greenland connects Europe and America.] + +While this idea of the north was developing, there came in another that +made the peninsular Greenland of the ante-Columbian maps grow into a +link of land connecting Europe with the Americo-Asiatic main, so that +one might in truth perambulate the globe dryshod. We find this +conception in the maps of the Bavarian Ziegler (1532), and in the +Italians Ruscelli (1544) and Gastaldi (1548),--the last two represented +in the Ptolemies of those years published in Italy. But these Italian +cosmographers were by no means constant in their belief, as Ruscelli +showed in his Ptolemy of 1561, and Gastaldi in his Ramusio map of 1550. + +[Illustration: CARTA MARINA, 1548.] + +[Sidenote: Asia and America joined in the higher latitudes.] + +[Illustration: MYRITIUS, 1590.] + +As the Pacific explorations were stretched northward from Mexico, and +the peninsula of California was brought into prominence, there remained +for some time a suspicion that the western ocean made a great northerly +bend, so as to sever North America from Asia except along the higher +latitudes. We find this northerly extension of the Pacific in a map of +copper preserved in the Carter-Brown library, which seems to have been +the work of a Florentine goldsmith somewhere about 1535; in the Carta +Marina of Gastaldi in 1548; and it even exists in maps of a later date, +like that of Paolo de Furlani (1560) and that of Myritius (1587). + +[Illustration: ZALTIÈRE, 1566.] + +[Sidenote: Entanglement of the American and Asiatic coasts.] + +[Sidenote: 1728. Bering.] + +This map of Myritius, which appeared in his _Opusculum Geographicum_, +published at Ingolstadt in 1590, is the work of, perhaps, the last of +the geographers who did not leave more or less doubt about the +connection of North America with Asia. So it took about a full century +for the entanglement of the coasts of Asia and America, which Columbus +had imagined, to be practically eradicated from the maps. Not that there +were not doubters, even very early, but the faith in a new continent +grew slowly and had many set-backs; nor did the Asiatic connection fade +entirely out, as among the possibilities of geography, for considerably +more than a century yet to come. The uncertainties of the higher +latitudes kept knowledge in suspense, and even the English settlers on +the northerly coasts of the United States were not quite sure. Thomas +Morton, the chronicler of a colony on the Massachusetts shores, felt it +necessary, so late as 1636, to make a reservation that possibly the +mainland of America bordered on the land of the Tartars. Indeed, no one +could say positively, though much was conjectured, that there was not a +terrestrial connection in the extreme northwest, under arctic latitudes, +till Bering in 1728, two hundred and thirty-six years after Columbus +offered his prayer at San Salvador, passed from the Pacific into the +polar waters. This became the solution of the fabled straits of Anian, +an inheritance from the very earliest days of northern exploration, +which, after the middle of the sixteenth century, was revived in the +maps of Martines, Zaltière, Mercator, Porcacchi, Furlani, and Wytfliet, +prefiguring the channel which Bering passed. Much in the same way as the +southern apex of South America was a vision in men's minds long before +Magellan found his way to the Pacific. + +[Illustration: PORCACCHI, 1572.] + +[Sidenote: 1536. Chaves.] + +[Sidenote: 1538. Mercator.] + +[Sidenote: 1540. Hartmann gores.] + +But we have anticipated a little. Coincident with the efforts of Cartier +to discover this northern passage we mark other navigators working at +the same problem. The Spaniard Alonso de Chaves made a chart of this +eastern coast in 1536; but we only know of its existence from the +description of it written by Oviedo in 1537. In the earliest map which +we have from the hand of Gerard Mercator, and of which the only copy +known was discovered some years ago by the late James Carson Brevoort, +of New York, we find the northern passage well defined in 1538, and a +broad channel separating the western coast of America from a parallel +coast of Asia,--a kind of delineation which is followed in some +globe-gores of about 1540, which Nordenskiöld thinks may have been the +work of George Hartmann, of Nuremberg. This map is evidently based on +Portuguese information, and that Swedish scholar finds no ground for +associating it with the lost globe of Schöner, as Stevens has done. A +facsimile of part of it has already been given. + +[Sidenote: 1540-45. Münster.] + +Sebastian Münster, in his maps in the Ptolemy of 1540-45, makes a clear +seaway to the Moluccas somewhere in the latitude of the Strait of Belle +Isle. Münster was in many ways antiquated in his notions. He often +resorted to the old device of the Middle Ages by supplying the place of +geographical details with figures of savages and monsters. + + * * * * * + +We come now to two significant maps in the early history of American +cartography. + +[Illustration: MERCATOR'S GLOBE OF 1538.] + +Columbus had been dead five and thirty years when a natural result grew +out of those circumstances which conspired to name the largest part of +the new discoveries after a secondary pathfinder. We have seen that +there seemed at first no injustice in the name of America being applied +to a region in the main external to the range of Columbus's own +explorations, and how it took nearly a half century before public +opinion, as expressed in the protest of Schöner in 1533, recognized the +injustice of using another's name. + +[Sidenote: 1541. Mercator.] + +Whether that protest was prompted by a tendency, already shown, to give +the name to the whole western hemisphere is not clear; but certainly +within eight years such a general application was publicly made, when +Mercator, in drafting in 1541 some gores for a globe, divided the name +AME--RICA so that it covered both North and South America, and qualified +its application by a legend which says that the continent is "called +to-day by many, New India." Thus a name that in the beginning was given +to a part in distinction merely and without any reference to the entire +field of the new explorations, was now become, by implication, an +injustice to the great first discoverer of all. The mischief, aided by +accident and by a not unaccountable evolution, was not to be undone, +and, in the singular mutations of fate, a people inhabiting a region of +which neither Columbus nor Vespucius had any conception are now +distinctively known in the world's history as Americans. + +[Illustration: MERCATOR'S GLOBE OF 1538.] + +These 1541 gores of Mercator were first made known to scholars a few +years ago, when the Belgian government issued a facsimile edition of the +only copy then known, which the Royal Library at Brussels had just +acquired; but since there have been two other copies brought to +light,--one at St. Nicholas in Belgium, and the other in the Imperial +library at Vienna. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: Henry II. map.] + +[Sidenote: 1544. Cabot map.] + +There are some indications on Spanish globes of about 1540, and in the +Desceliers or Henry II. map of 1546, that the Spanish government had +sent explorers to the region of Canada not long after Cartier's earliest +explorations, and it is significant that the earliest published map to +show these Cartier discoveries is the other of the two maps already +referred to, namely, the Cabot mappemonde of 1544, which has been +supposed a Spanish cartographical waif. Early publications of southern +and middle Europe showed little recognition of the same knowledge. + +[Illustration: MÜNSTER, 1545.] + +The Cabot map has been an enigma to scholars ever since it was +discovered in Germany, in 1843, by Von Martius. It was deposited the +next year in the great library at Paris. It is a large elliptical +world-map, struck from an engraved plate, and it bears sundry +elucidating inscriptions, some of which must needs have come from +Sebastian Cabot, others seem hardly to merit his authorship, and one +acknowledges him as the maker of the map. There is, accordingly, a +composite character to the production, not easily to be analyzed so as +to show the credible and the incredible by clear lines of demarcation. +We learn from it how it proclaimed for the first time the real agency of +John Cabot in the discovery of North America, confirmed when Hakluyt, in +1582, printed the patent from Henry VII. There is an unaccountable year +given for that discovery, namely, 1494, but we seem to get the true date +when Michael Lok, in 1582, puts down "J. Cabot. 1497," against Cape +Breton in his map of that year. As this last map appeared in Hakluyt's +_Divers Voyages_, and as Hakluyt tells us of the existence of Cabot's +maps and of his seeing them, we may presume that we have in this date of +1497 an authoritative statement. We learn also from this map of 1544 +that the land first seen was the point of the island now called Cape +Breton. Without the aid of this map, Biddle, who wrote before its +discovery, had contended for Labrador as the landfall. + +[Illustration: MERCATOR, 1541. + +[Sketched from his gores.]] + +[Illustration: FROM THE SEBASTIAN CABOT MAPPEMONDE. 1514.] + +[Sidenote: Scarcity of Spanish printed maps.] + +We know, on the testimony of Robert Thorne in 1527, if from no other +source, that it was a settled policy of the Spanish government to allow +no one but proper cartographical designers to make its maps, "for that +peradventure it would not sound well to them that a stranger should know +or discover their secrets." This doubtless accounts for the fact that, +in the two hundred maps mentioned by Ortelius in 1570 as used by him in +compiling his atlas, not one was published in Spain; and every +bibliographer knows that not a single edition of Ptolemy, the best known +channel of communicating geographical knowledge in this age of +discovery, bears a Spanish imprint. The two general maps of America +during the sixteenth century, which Dr. Kohl could trace to Spanish +presses, were that of Medina in 1545 and that of Gomara in 1554, and +these were not of a scale to be of any service in navigating. + +[Sidenote: Cabot's connection with the map of 1544.] + +There seem to be insuperable objections to considering that Sebastian +Cabot had direct influence in the production of the map now under +consideration. It is full of a lack of knowledge which it is not +possible to ascribe to him. That it is based upon some drafts of Cabot +is most probably true; but they are clearly drafts, confused and in some +ways perverted, and eked out by whatever could be picked up from other +sources. + +That the Cabot map was issued in more than one edition is inferred +partly from the fact that the legends which Chytræus quotes from it +differ somewhat from those now in the copy preserved in Paris; and +indeed Harrisse finds reason to suppose that there may have been four +different editions. That in some form or other it was better known in +England than elsewhere is deduced from certain relations sustained with +that country on the part of those who have mentioned the map,--Livio +Sanuto, Ortelius, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, Richard Willes, Hakluyt, and +Purchas. + +Whoever its author and whatever its minor defects, this so-called Cabot +map of 1544 may reasonably be accepted as the earliest really honest, +unimaginative exhibition of the American continent which had been made. +There was in it no attempt to fancy a northwest passage; no confidence +in the marine or terrestrial actuality of the region now known to be +covered by the north Pacific; no certainty about the entire western +coast line of South America, though this might have been decided upon if +the maker of the map had been posted to date for that region. The maker +of it further showed nothing of that presumption, which soon became +prevalent, of making Tierra del Fuego merely but one of the various +promontories of an immense Antarctic continent, which later stood in the +planispheres of Ortelius and Wytfliet. + +[Illustration: MEDINA, 1544.] + +[Sidenote: Geographical study transferred to Italy.] + +This map of Cabot was the last of the principal cartographical monuments +made north of the Alps in this early half of the sixteenth century. The +centre of geographical study was now transferred to Italy, where it had +begun with the opening of the interest in oceanic discovery. For the +next score years and more we must look mainly to Venice for the newer +development. + +[Illustration: MEDINA, 1544.] + +[Sidenote: 1548, Gastaldi.] + +In the Venice Ptolemy of 1548, we have for the first time a _series_ of +maps of the New World by Gastaldi, which were simply enlarged by +Ruscelli in the edition of 1561, except in a few instances, where new +details were added, like the making of Yucatan a peninsula instead of +the island which Gastaldi had drawn. They were repeated in the edition +of 1562. + +[Sidenote: Sea manuals.] + +Meanwhile the most popular sea manuals of this period were Spanish; but +they studiously avoided throwing much light on the new geography. + +[Illustration: WYTFLIET, 1597.] + +That of Martin Cortes was the first to suggest a magnetic pole as +distinct from the terrestrial pole. Its rival, the _Arte de Navegar_ of +Pedro de Medina, published at Valladolid in 1545, never reached the same +degree of popularity, nor did it deserve to, for his notions were in +some respects erratic. + +The English in their theories of navigation had long depended on the +teachings of the Spaniards, and Eden had translated the chief Spanish +manual in his _Arte of Navigation_ of 1561. + +[Illustration: WYTFLIET, 1597.] + +[Sidenote: Ship's log.] + +A great advance was possible now, for a new principle had been devised, +and an estimate of the progress of a ship was no longer dependent on +visual observation. The log had made it possible to put dead reckoning +on a pretty firm basis. This was the great new feature of the _Regiment +of the Sea_, which the Englishman, William Bourne, published in 1573; +and sixteen years later, in 1589, another Englishman, Blunderville, made +popularly known the new instrument for taking meridian altitudes at sea, +the cross-staff, which had very early superseded the astrolabe on +shipboard. + +The inclination or dip of the needle, showing by its increase an +approach to a magnetic pole, was not scaled till 1576, when Robert +Norman made his observations, and it is not without some service to-day +in that combination of phenomena of which Columbus noted the earliest +traces in his first voyage of 1492. + +[Illustration: THE CROSS-STAFF.] + +[Sidenote: Italian discoverers.] + +[Sidenote: English discoverers.] + +It is significant how large a part in the cardinal discoveries of the +fifteenth and sixteenth centuries was taken by Italian navigators, +seamen, shipwrights, mathematicians, and merchants, whether in Portugal +or Spain, France or England. It is curious, too, to observe how, when +the theoretical work and confirmatory explorations were finished, and +the commercial spirit succeeded to that of science, England embarked +with her adventurous spirit. The death of Queen Mary in 1558 was the +signal for English exertion, and that exertion became ominous to all +Europe in the reign of Elizabeth, accompanied by an intellectual +movement, typified in Bacon and Shakespeare, similar to that which +stirred the age of Columbus and the Italian renaissance. + +[Sidenote: John Hawkins.] + +John Hawkins and African marauders of his English kind were selling +negro slaves in Española in 1562 and subsequent years, and from them we +get our first English accounts of the Florida coast, which on their +return voyages they skirted. + +[Sidenote: New France.] + +[Sidenote: Spanish settlements fail at the north.] + +America had at this time been abandoned for a long while to Spain and +France, and the latter power had only entered into competition with +Charles V., when Francis I., as we have seen, had sent out Verrazano in +1521 to take possession of the north Atlantic coasts. Out of this grew +upon the maps the designation of New France, which was attached to the +main portion of the North American continent. And this French claim is +recognized in the maps, painted about 1562, on the walls of the +geographical gallery in the Vatican. So the French stole upon the +possession of Spain in the West Indies; and the English followed in +their wake, when the death of Mary rendered it easier for the English to +smother their inherited antipathy to France. This done, the English in +due time joined the French in efforts to gain an ascendency over Spain +in the Indies, to compensate for the loss of such power in Italy. The +Spaniards, though they had attempted to make settlements along the +Chesapeake at different times between 1566 and 1573, never succeeded in +making any impression on the history of this northern region. + + * * * * * + +The cartography of the north was at this period subject to two new +influences; and both of them make large demands upon the credulity of +scholarship in these latter days. + +[Sidenote: André Thevet.] + +Attempts have been made to trace some portion of the development of the +coasts of the northeastern parts of the United States to the +publications of a mendacious monk, André Thevet. He had been sent out to +the French colony of Rio de Janeiro in 1555, where he remained +prostrated with illness till he was able to reëmbark for France, January +31, 1556. In 1558 he published his _Singularitez de la France +Antarctique_, a descriptive and conglomerate work, patched together from +all such sources as he could pillage, professing to follow more or less +his experiences on this voyage. He says nothing in it of his tracking +along the east coast of the present United States. Seeking notoriety and +prestige for his country, he pretends, however, in his _Cosmographie_ +published in 1575, to recount the experiences of the same voyage, and +now he professes to have followed this same eastern coast to the region +of Norumbega. Well-equipped scholars find no occasion to believe that +these later statements were other than boldly conceived falsehoods, +which he had endeavored to make plausible by the commingling of what he +could filch from the narratives of others. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: The Zeni story.] + +[Illustration: THE ZENI MAP.] + +It was at this time also (1558) that there was published at Venice the +strange and riddle-like narrative which purports to give the experiences +of the brothers Zeni in the north Atlantic waters in the fourteenth +century. The publication came at a time when, with the transfer of +cartographical interest from over the Alps to the home of its earliest +growth, the countrymen of Columbus were seeking to reinstate their +credit as explorers, which during the fifteenth century and the early +part of the sixteenth they had lost to the peoples of the Iberian +peninsula. Anything, therefore, which could emphasize their claims was a +welcome solace. This accounts both for the bringing forward at this time +of the long-concealed Zeni narrative,--granting its genuineness,--and +for the influence which its accompanying map had upon contemporary +cartography. This map professed to be based upon the discoveries made by +the Zeni brothers, and upon the knowledge acquired by them at the north +in the fourteenth century. It accordingly indicated the existence of +countries called Estotiland and Drogeo, lying to the west, which it was +now easy to identify with the Baccalaos of the Cabots, and with the New +France of the later French. + +[Sidenote: The Zeni map.] + +"If this remarkable map," says Nordenskiöld, "had not received extensive +circulation under the sanction of Ptolemy's name," for it was copied in +the edition of 1561 of that geographer, "it would probably have been +soon forgotten. During nearly a whole century it had exercised an +influence on the mapping of the northern countries to which there are +few parallels to be found in the history of cartography." It is +Nordenskiöld's further opinion that the Zeni map was drawn from an old +map of the north made in the thirteenth century, from which the map +found in the Warsaw Codex of Ptolemy of 1467 was also drawn. He further +infers that some changes and additions were imposed to make it +correspond with the text of the Zeni narrative. + +[Illustration: THE ZENI MAP.] + + * * * * * + +The year 1569 is marked by a stride in cartographical science, of which +we have not yet outgrown the necessity. + +[Illustration: THE WARSAW CODEX, 1467; after Nordenskiöld.] + +[Sidenote: 1569. Mercator's projection.] + +The plotting of courses and distances, as practiced by the early +explorers, was subject to all the errors which necessarily accompany the +lack of well-established principles, in representing the curved surface +of the globe on a plane chart. Cumbrous and rude globes were made to do +duty as best they could; but they were ill adapted to use at sea. +Nordenskiöld (_Facsimile Atlas_, p. 22) has pointed out that +Pirckheimer, in the Ptolemy of 1525, had seemingly anticipated the +theory which Mercator now with some sort of prevision developed into a +principle, which was applied in his great plane chart of 1569. The +principle, however, was not definite enough in his mind for the clear +exposition of formulæ, and he seems not to have attempted to do more +than rough-hew the idea. The hint was a good one, and it was left for +the Englishman Edward Wright to put its principles into a formulated +problem in 1599, a century and more after Columbus had dared to track +the ocean by following latitudinal lines in the simplest manner. + +[Illustration: THE WARSAW CODEX, 1467; after Nordenskiöld.] + +It has been supposed that Wright had the fashioning of the large map +which, on this same Mercator projection, Hakluyt had included in his +_Principall Navigations_ in 1599. Hondius had also adopted a like method +in his _mappemonde_ of the same year. + +[Sidenote: 1570. The _Theatrum_ of Ortelius.] + +[Sidenote: Decline of Ptolemy.] + +[Illustration: MERCATOR, 1569.] + +In 1570 the publication of the great atlas of Abraham Ortelius showed +that the centre of map-making had again passed from Italy, and had found +a lodgment in the Netherlands. The _Theatrum_ of Ortelius was the signal +for the downfall of the Ptolemy series as the leading exemplar of +geographical ideas. The editions of that old cartographer, with their +newer revisions, never again attained the influence with which they had +been invested since the invention of printing. This influence had been +so great that Nordenskiöld finds that between 1520 and 1550 the Ptolemy +maps had been five times as numerous as any other. They had now passed +away; and it is curious to observe that Ortelius seems to have been +ignorant of some of the typical maps anterior to his time, and which we +now look to in tracing the history of American cartography, like those +of Ruysch, Stobnicza, Agnese, Apianus, Vadianus, and Girava. + +[Sidenote: Ortelius.] + +It has already been mentioned that when Ortelius published his +_Theatrum_, and gave a list of ninety-nine makers of maps whom he had +consulted, not a solitary one of Spanish make was to be found among +them. It shows how effectually the Council of the Indies had concealed +the cartographical records of their office. + +[Illustration: MERCATOR.] + +[Sidenote: 1577. English explorations.] + +[Sidenote: 1548. Sebastian Cabot.] + +It was eighty years since the English under John Cabot had undertaken a +voyage of discovery in the New World. The interval passed not without +preparation for new efforts, which had for a time, however, been +extended to the northwest rather than to the northeast. In 1548 +Sebastian Cabot had returned to his native land to assume the first +place in her maritime world. His influence in directing, and that of +Richard Eden in informing, the English mind prepared the way for the +advent of Frobisher, the younger Hawkins, and Drake. + +[Sidenote: 1576. Frobisher.] + +[Illustration: ORTELIUS.] + +[Sidenote: 1577-78. Frobisher.] + +Frobisher's voyage of 1576 was the true beginning of the arctic search +for a northwest passage, all earlier efforts having been in lower +latitudes. He had sought, by leaving Greenland on the right, to pass +north of the great American barrier, and thus reach the land of spices. +He congratulated himself on having found the long-desired strait, when, +naming it for himself, he returned to England. Frobisher attempted to +add to these earlier discoveries by a voyage the next year, 1577, but he +made exploration secondary to mining for gold, and not much was done. A +third voyage in 1578 brought him into Hudson's Straits, which he entered +with the hope of finding it the channel to Cathay. But in all his +voyages Frobisher only crossed the threshold of the arctic north. + +[Illustration: ORTELIUS, 1570.] + +[Sidenote: The Zeni influence.] + +[Illustration: SEBASTIAN CABOT.] + +It was one of the results of Frobisher's voyages that they served to +implant in the minds of the cartographers of the northern waters the +notions of the Zeni geography, and aided to give those notions a new +lease of favor. It is conjectured that Frobisher had the Zeni map with +him, or its counterpart in one of the recent Ptolemies. This map had +placed the point of Greenland under 66° instead of 61°, and under the +last latitude this map had shown the southern coast of its insular +Frisland. Therefore, when Frobisher saw land under 61°, which was in +fact Greenland, he supposed it to be Frisland, and thus the maps after +him became confused. A like mischance befell Davis, a little later. When +this navigator found Greenland in 61°, he supposed it an island south of +Greenland, which he called "Desolation," and the fancy grew up that +Frobisher's route must have gone north of this island and between it and +Greenland, and so we have in later maps this other misplacement of +discoveries. + +[Illustration: FROBISHER.] + +[Sidenote: 1577. Francis Drake.] + +While Frobisher was absent, Drake developed his great scheme of +following in the southerly track of Magellan. + +[Sidenote: Drake sees Cape Horn.] + +Four years before (1573), being at Panama, he had seen from a treetop +the great Pacific, and had resolved to be the first of the English to +furrow its depths. In 1577, starting on his great voyage of +circumnavigation, he soon added a new stretch of the Pacific coast to +the better knowledge of the world. When he returned to England, he +proved to be the first commander who had taken his ship, the "Pelican," +later called the "Golden Hind" wholly round the globe, for Magellan had +died on the way. Passing through Magellan's Strait and entering the +Pacific, Drake's ship was separated from its companions and driven +south. It was then he saw the Cape Horn of a later Dutch navigator, and +proved the non-existence of that neighboring antarctic continent, which +was still persistently to cling to the maps. Bereft of his other ships, +which the storm had driven apart, Drake, during the early months of +1579, made havoc among the Spanish galleons which were on the South +American coasts. + +[Illustration: FROBISHER, 1578.] + +In March, 1579, surfeited with plunder, he started north from the coast +of Mexico, to find a passage to the Atlantic in the upper latitudes. + +[Sidenote: In the north Pacific.] + +In June he had reached 42° north, though some have supposed that he went +several degrees higher. He had met, however, a rigorous season, and his +ropes crackled with the ice. The change was such a contrast to the +allurements of his experiences farther to the south that he gave up his +search for the strait that would carry him, as he had hoped, to the +Atlantic, and, turning south, he reached a bay somewhere in the +neighborhood of San Francisco, where he tarried for a while. Having +placed the name of New Albion on the upper California coast, and fearing +to run the hazards of the southern seas, where his plundering had made +the Spaniards alert, he sailed westerly, and, rounding the Cape of Good +Hope, reached England in due time, and was acknowledged to be the +earliest of English circumnavigators. + +[Illustration: FRANCIS DRAKE.] + +It is one of the results of Drake's explorations in 1579-80 that we get +in subsequent maps a more northerly trend to the California coast. + +[Sidenote: Confusion in the Pacific coast cartography.] + +Shortly after this, a great confusion in the maps of this Pacific region +came in. From what it arose is not very apparent, except that absence of +direct knowledge in geography opens a wide field for discursiveness. The +Michael Lok map of 1582 indicates this uncertainty. It seemed to be the +notion that the Arctic Sea was one and the same with that of Verrazano; +also, that it came down to about the latitude of Puget Sound, and that +the Gulf of California stretched nearly up to meet it. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: Francisco Gali.] + +[Sidenote: Proves the great width of the Pacific.] + +Francisco Gali, a Spanish commander, returning to Acapulco from China in +1583, tried the experiment of steering northward to about 38°, when he +turned west and sighted the American coast in that latitude. At this +point he steered south, and showed the practicability of following this +circuitous route with less time than was required to buffet the easterly +trades by a direct eastern passage. His experiment established one other +fact, namely, the great width of water separating the two continents in +those upper latitudes; for he had found it to be 1200 leagues across +instead of there being a narrow strait, as the theorizing geographers +had supposed. Gali seems also to have shown that the distance south from +Cape Mendocino to the point of the California peninsula was not more +than half as great as the maps had made it. His voyage was a significant +source of enlightenment to the cartographers. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: Eastern coast of North America.] + +[Sidenote: 1579. The English on the coast.] + +To return to the eastern coasts, an English vessel under Simon +Ferdinando spent a short season in 1579 somewhere about the Gulf of +Maine, and was followed the next year by another under John Walker, and +in 1593 by still a third under Richard Strong. + +[Sidenote: Sir Humphrey Gilbert.] + +For eighty years England might have rested her claim to North America on +the discoveries of the Cabots; but Queen Elizabeth first gave prominence +to these pretensions when she granted to Sir Humphrey Gilbert in 1578 +the right to make a settlement somewhere in these more northerly +regions. Gilbert's first voyage accomplished nothing, and there was an +interdict to prevent a second, since England might have use for daring +seamen nearer home. "First," says Robert Hues, "Sir Humphrey Gilbert, +with great courage and forces, attempted to make discovery of those +parts of America which were yet unknown to the Spaniards; but the +success was not answerable." The effort was not renewed till 1583, when +Gilbert took possession of Newfoundland and attempted to make +settlements farther south; but disaster followed him, and his ship +foundered off the Azores on his return voyage. + +[Illustration: GILBERT'S MAP, 1576.] + +[Sidenote: Sir Walter Ralegh.] + +It was at this time that Sir Walter Ralegh came into prominence in +pushing English colonization in America. He had been associated with his +half-brother, Gilbert, in the earlier movements, but now he was alone. +In 1584 he got his new charter, partly by reason of the urgency of +Hakluyt in his _Westerne Planting_. Ralegh had his eye upon a more +southern coast than Gilbert had aimed for,--upon one better fitted to +develop self-dependent colonization. He knew that north of what was +called Florida the Spaniards had but scantily tracked the country, and +that they probably maintained no settlements. Therefore to reach a +region somewhere south of the Chesapeake was the aim of the first +company sent out under Ralegh's inspiration. These adventurers made +their landfall where they could find no good inlet, and so sailed north, +searching, until at last they reached the sounds on the North Carolina +coast, and tarried awhile. Satisfied with the quality of the country, +they returned to England; and their recitals so pleased Ralegh and the +Queen that the country was named Virginia, and preparations were made to +dispatch a colony. It went the next year, but its history is of no +farther importance to our present purpose than that it marks the +commencement of English colonization, disastrous though it was, on the +North American continent, and the beginning of detailed English +cartography of its coast, in the map, already referred to, which seems +to open a passage, somewhere near Port Royal, to an interior sea. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: 1585-86. John Davis.] + +In 1585-86 John Davis had been buffeting among the icebergs of Greenland +and the north in hopes to find a passage by the northwest; on June 30, +1587, he reached 72° 12' on the Greenland coast, and discovered the +strait known by his name, and in 1595 when he published his _World's +Hydrographical Description_, he maintained that he had touched the +threshold of the northwest passage. He tells us that the globe of +Molineaux shows how far he went. + +[Sidenote: English seamanship.] + +Seamanship owes more to Davis than to any other Englishman. In 1590, or +thereabout, he improved the cross-staff, and giving somewhat more of +complexity to it, he produced the back-staff. This instrument gave the +observer the opportunity of avoiding the glare of the sun, since it was +used with his back to that luminary; and when Flamsteed, the first +astronomer royal at Greenwich, used a glass lens to throw reflected +light, the first approach to the great principle of taking angles by +reflection was made, which was later, in 1731, to be carried to a +practical result in Hadley's quadrant. + +[Illustration: BACK-STAFF.] + +The art of finding longitude was still in an uncertain state. Gemma +Frisius, as we have noted, had as early as 1530 divined the method of +carrying time by a watch; but it was not till 1726 that anything really +practicable came of it, in a timekeeper constructed by Harrison. This +watch was continually improved by him up to 1761, when the method of +ascertaining longitude by chronometer became well established; and a few +years later (1767) the first nautical almanac was published, affording a +reasonably good guide in lunar distances, as a means in the computations +of longitude. + +[Sidenote: 1676.] + +In 1676 the Greenwich observatory had been founded to attempt the +rectification of lunar tables, then so erroneous that the calculations +for longitude were still uncertain. In 1701 Edmund Halley had published +his great variation charts. These dates will fix in the reader's mind +the advance of scientific skill as applied to navigation and discovery. +It will be well also to remember that in 1594 Davis published his +_Seaman's Secrets_, the first manual in the English tongue, written by a +practical sailor, in which the principles of great circle sailing were +explained. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: 1583-84. Earliest marine atlas.] + +[Sidenote: 1592. Dutch West India Company.] + +[Sidenote: 1598.] + +The first marine atlas had been printed at Leyden in 1583-84; but the +Dutch had not at that time taken any active part in the development of +discovery in the New World. Their longing for a share in it, mated with +a certain hostile intention towards the Spaniards, instigated the +formation of the West India Company, which had first been conceived in +the mind of William Usselinx in 1592, though it was not put into +execution till twenty-five years later. It was claimed by the Dutch that +in 1598 the ships of their Greenland Company had discovered the Hudson +River, though there can be little doubt that the French, Spanish, and +perhaps English had been there much earlier. It is also claimed that the +straits shown in Lok's map in 1582 had instigated Heinrich Hudson to his +later search. But the truth in all these questions which involve +national rights is very much perplexed with claim and counter-claim, +invention and perversion, in which historical data are at the beck of +political objects. + +[Sidenote: 1598. The Dutch on the North American coasts.] + +[Sidenote: The English.] + +By the end of the sixteenth century the Dutch began to appear on the +coasts of the Middle and New England States, and the cartography of +those regions developed rapidly under their observation; but it was +through the boating explorations of Captain John Smith in 1614 that it +took a shape nearer the truth. It is to him that the northerly parts owe +the name of New England, which Prince Charles confirmed for it. The +reports from Hudson, May, and others instigated a plan marked out in +1618, but not directly ordered by the States General till 1621, which +led to the Dutch occupation of Manhattan and the neighboring regions, +introducing more strongly than before a Dutch element into the maps. + +[Sidenote: The English leaders in maritime discovery.] + +[Sidenote: Richard Hakluyt.] + +When the seventeenth century opened, the English had come well to the +front in maritime explorations. A large-minded and patriotic man, Sir +Thomas Smith, did much in his capacity as governor of the "merchants +trading into the East Indies" to direct contemporary knowledge into +better channels. Dr. Thomas Hood gave public lectures in London on the +improvements in methods of navigation. Richard Hakluyt, the +historiographer of the new company, had already shown that he had +inherited the spirit of helpful patronage which had characterized the +labors of Eden. + +[Sidenote: 1600.] + +[Sidenote: The search for a western passage at the north.] + +[Sidenote: 1601. George Waymouth.] + +We find the peninsula made by the St. Lawrence and the Atlantic +insularized from the beginning of the seventeenth century, the +transverse channel being now on the line of the Hudson, then of the +Penobscot, then of the St. Croix, and when the seventeenth century came +in, it was not wholly determined that the longed-for western passage +might not yet be found somewhere in this region. On July 24, 1601, +George Waymouth, a navigator, as he was called, applied to the London +East India Company to be assisted in making an attempt to discover a +northwest passage to India, and the company agreed to his proposition. +The Muscovy Company protested in vain against such an infringement of +its own rights; but it found a way to smother its grief and join with +its rival in the enterprise. Through such joint action Waymouth was sent +by the northwest "towards Cataya or China, or the back side of America," +bearing with him a letter from Queen Elizabeth to the Emperor of "China +or Kathia." The attempt failed, and Waymouth returned almost +ignominiously. + +[Sidenote: Hudson at the north.] + +In 1602, under instructions from the East India Company, he again +sailed, and now pushed a little farther into Hudson's Strait than any +one had been before. In 1609 Hudson had made some explorations, defining +a little more clearly the northern coasts of the present United States; +and in 1610 he sailed again from England to attempt the discovery of the +northwest passage, in a small craft of fifty-five tons, with +twenty-three souls on board. Following the tracks of Davis and Waymouth, +he went farther than they, and revealed to the world the great inland +sea which is known by his name, and in which he probably perished. + +[Sidenote: Hudson's Bay.] + +[Sidenote: 1615. Baffin's Bay.] + +In 1612-13 Sir Thomas Button developed more exactly the outline in part +of this great bay, and in 1614 the _Discovery_, under Robert Bylot and +William Baffin, passed along the coasts of Hudson's Strait, making most +careful observation, and Baffin took for the first time at sea a lunar +observation for longitude, according to a method which had been +suggested as early as 1514. It was on a voyage undertaken in the next +year, 1615, that Baffin, exceeding the northing of Davis, found lying +before him the great expanse of Baffin's Bay, through which he proceeded +till he found a northern exit in Sir Thomas Smith's Sound, under 78°. +Baffin did all this with an accuracy which surprised Sir John Ross, who +was the next to enter the bay, two centuries later. It was in these +years of Hudson and Baffin that Napier invented logarithms and +simplified the processes of nautical calculations. + +[Illustration: LUKE FOX, 1635.] + +[Sidenote: 1631. Luke Fox.] + +[Sidenote: Thomas James.] + +The voyage of Luke Fox in 1631 developed some portions of the western +shores of Hudson's Bay, and he returned confident, from his observation +of the tides farther north, that they indicated a western passage; and +in the same year Thomas James searched the more southern limits of the +great bay with no more success. These voyages put a stay for more than a +hundred years to efforts in this direction to find the passage so long +sought. + +[Sidenote: 1602. Gosnold.] + +Up to 1602 the explorations of our northern coasts seem to have been +ordinarily made either by a sweep northerly from Europe, striking +Newfoundland and then proceeding south, or by a southerly sweep +following the Spanish tracks and coasting north from Florida. In this +year, 1602, the Englishman Gosnold, without any earlier example that we +know of since the time of Verrazano, stood directly to the New England +coast, and in the accounts of his voyage we begin to find some +particular knowledge of the contour of this coast, which opens the way +to identifications of landmarks. The explorations of Pring (1603), +Champlain (1604), Waymouth (1605), Popham (1607), Hudson (1609), Smith +(1614), Dermer (1619), and others which followed are of no more +importance in our present survey than as marking further stages of +detailed geography. Even Dermer was dreaming of a western passage yet to +be found in this region. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: Discoveries on the Pacific coast.] + +We must now turn to follow the development during the seventeenth +century of the discoveries on the Pacific coast. + +[Sidenote: 1602. Viscaino.] + +Sebastian Viscaino, in his voyage up the coast from Acapulco in 1602, +sought the hidden straits as high as 42°, and one of his captains +reporting the coast to trend easterly at 43°, his story confused the +geography of this region for many years. This supposed trend was held to +indicate another passage to the Gulf of California, making the peninsula +of that name an island, and so it long remained on the maps, after once +getting possession, some years later (1622), of the cartographical +fancy. + +[Sidenote: 1643. De Vries.] + +Some explorations of the Dutch under De Vries, in 1643, were the source +of a notion later prevailing, that there was an interjacent land in the +north Pacific, which they called "Jesso," and which was supposed to be +separated by passages both from America and from Asia; and for half a +century or more the supposition, connected more or less with a land seen +by João da Gama, was accepted in some quarters. Indeed, this notion may +be said to have not wholly disappeared till the maps of Cook's voyage +came out in 1777-78, when the Aleutian Islands got something like their +proper delineation. + +[Sidenote: Confused geographical notions of a western sea.] + +In fact, so vague was the conception of what might be the easterly +extension of the northern sea in the latitudinal forties that the notion +of a sea something like the old one of Verrazano was even thought in +1625 by Briggs in Purchas, and again in 1651 in Farrer's map of +Virginia, to bathe the western slope of the Alleghanies. + +[Sidenote: 1700.] + +[Sidenote: Maldonado, Da Fuca, De Fonte.] + +Early in the eighteenth century, even the best cartographers ran wild in +their delineations of the Pacific coast. A series of multifarious +notions, arising from more or less faith in the alleged explorations of +Maldonado, Da Fuca, and De Fonte, some of them assumed to have been made +more than a century earlier, filled the maps with seas and straits, +identified sometimes with the old strait of Anian, and converting the +northwestern parts of North America into a network of surmises, that +look strangely to our present eyes. Some of these wild configurations +prevailed even after the middle of the century, but they were finally +eliminated from the maps by the expedition of that James Cook who first +saw the light in a Yorkshire cabin in 1728. + +[Illustration: JESSO. + +[After Hennepin.]] + +[Sidenote: 1724. Bering.] + +[Sidenote: 1728.] + +In 1724 Peter the Great equipped Vitus Bering's first expedition, and in +December, 1724, five weeks before his death, the Czar gave the +commanding officer his instruction to coast northward and find if the +Asiatic and American coasts were continuous, as they were supposed to +be. There were, however, among the Siberians, some reports of the +dividing waters and of a great land beyond, and these rumors had been +prevailing since 1711. Peter the Great died January 28, 1725 (old +style), just as Bering was beginning his journey, and not till March, +1728, did that navigator reach the neighborhood of the sea. In July he +spread his sails on a vessel which he had built. + +[Illustration: DOMINA FARRER'S MAP, 1651.] + +[Illustration: DOMINA FARRER'S MAP, 1651.] + +[Illustration: BUACHE'S THEORY, 1752.] + +[Illustration: BERING'S STRAITS.] + +[Sidenote: 1732.] + +[Sidenote: 1741. Bering.] + +By the middle of August he had passed beyond the easternmost point of +Asia, and was standing out into the Arctic Ocean, when he turned on his +track and sailed south. Neither in going nor in returning did he see +land to the east, the mists being too thick. He had thus established the +limits of the Russian Empire, but he had not as yet learned of the close +proximity of the American shores. His discoveries did not get any +cartographical record till Kiriloff made his map of Russia in 1734, +using the map which Bering had made in Moscow in 1731. The following +year (1732), Gvosdjeff espied the opposite coast; but it was not till +1741 that Bering sailed once more from the Asiatic side to seek the +American coast. He steered southeast, and soon found that the land seen +by Da Gama, and which the Delisles had so long kept on their maps, did +not exist there. + +[Sidenote: Aleutian Islands.] + +Thence sailing northward, Bering sighted the coast in July and had Mount +St. Elias before him, then named by him from that saint's day in the +calendar. On his return route some vague conception of the Aleutian +Islands was gained, the beginning of a better cartography, in which was +also embodied the stretch of coast which Bering's associate, Chirikoff, +discovered farther east and south. + +[Sidenote: Northern Pacific.] + +In 1757 Venegas, uninformed as to these Russian discoveries, confessed +in his _California_ that nothing was really known of the coast line in +the higher latitudes,--an ignorance that was the source of a great +variety of conjectures, including a large inland sea of the west +connecting with the Pacific, which was not wholly discarded till near +the end of the century, as has already been mentioned. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: The search for the northwest passage.] + +The search for the northwest passage to Asia, as it had been begun by +the English under Cabot in 1497, was also the last of all the endeavors +to isolate the continent. The creation of the Hudson Bay Company in 1670 +was ostensibly to promote "the discovery of a new passage into the South +Sea," but the world knows how for two centuries that organization +obstinately neglected, or as far as they dared, the leading purpose for +which they pretended to ask a charter. They gave their well-directed +energies to the amassing of fortunes with as much persistency as the +Spaniards did at the south, but with this difference: that the wisdom in +their employment of the aborigines was as eminent as with the Southrons +it was lacking. It was left for other agencies of the British government +successfully to accomplish, with the aid of the votaries of geographical +science, what the pecuniary speculators of Fen Church Street hardly +dared to contemplate. + +[Sidenote: 1779. James Cook.] + +The spirit of the old navigators was revived in James Cook, when in 1779 +he endeavored to pass eastward by Bering's Straits; but it was not till +forty years later that a series of arctic explorations was begun, in +which the English races of both continents have shown so conspicuous a +skill and fortitude. + +[Sidenote: Kendrick in the "Columbia."] + +While the English, French, and Spaniards were dodging one another in +their exploring efforts along this upper coast, a Boston ship, the +"Columbia," under Captain Kendrick, entered the Columbia River, then +named; and to these American explorations, as well as to the +contemporary ones of Vancouver, the geographical confusion finally +yielded place to something like an intelligible idea. + +[Sidenote: 1790-95. Vancouver.] + +It had also been the aim of Vancouver in 1790-95 "to ascertain the +existence of any navigable communication between the North Pacific and +the North Atlantic Oceans," and the correspondence of the British +government leading to this expedition has only been lately printed in +the _Report_ of the Dominion archivist, Douglas Brymner, for 1889. + +[Illustration: THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE.] + +[Sidenote: Arctic explorers.] + +[Sidenote: 1850. McClure finds the northwest passage.] + +The names of Barrow, Ross, Parry, and Franklin, not to mention others of +a later period, make the story of the final severance of the continent +in the arctic seas one of conspicuous interest in the history of +maritime exploration. Captain Robert L. McClure, in the "Investigator," +late in 1850 passed into Bering's Straits, and before September closed +his ship was bound in the ice. In October McClure made a sledge journey +easterly over a frozen channel and reached the open sea, which thirty +years before Parry had passed into from the Atlantic side. The northwest +passage was at last discovered. + +We have seen that within thirty years from the death of Columbus the +outline of South America was defined, while it had taken nearly two +centuries and a quarter to free the coast lines of the New World from an +entanglement in men's minds with the outlines of eastern Asia, and +another century and a quarter were required to complete the arctic +contour of America, so that the New World at last should stand a wholly +revealed and separate continent. + +Nor had all this labor been done by governments alone. The private +merchant and the individual adventurer, equipping ships and sailing +without national help, had done no small part of it. Dr. Kohl strikingly +says, "The extreme northern limit of America, the desolate peninsula +Boothia, is named after the English merchant who fitted out the arctic +expedition of Sir John Ross; and the southernmost strait, beyond +Patagonia, preserves the name of Le Maire, the merchant at whose charge +it was disclosed to the world!" + + + + +INDEX. + + + Acklin Island, 215. + + Adam of Bremen, 147. + + Adda, G. d', 12. + + Admiral's map, 534, 546, 581. _See_ Waldseemüller. + + Africa, circumnavigations of, 91; + discoveries along its coast, 91, 151; + early maps, 133; + Ptolemy's map of its southern part, 335. + + Agnese Baptista, his maps, 595, 597. + + Aguado, Juan, sent to Española, 317; + his conduct, 319. + + Ailly, Pierre d', _De Imagine Mundi_, 7, 8, 121, 180, 497; + his map (1410), 601. + + Albertus Magnus, 497; portrait, 120. + + Aleutian Islands, 652, 658. + + Alexander VI., letter to, from Columbus, 9; + pope, 252; + his bull of demarcation, 252; + his bust, 253. + + Alfonso V. (Portugal), 108. + + Aliacus. _See_ Ailly. + + Allefonsce, 614. + + Allegetto degli Allegetti, _Ephemerides_, 32. + + Almagro, 565. + + Alto Velo, 390. + + Alva, Duke of, 514, 515. + + Amazons, 235, 237. + + America, mainland first seen by Columbus, 351; + gradually developed as a continent, 529, 606, 619, 660; + history of its name, 538, 621; + earliest maps bearing the name, 547-552; + the name never recognized in Spain, 554; + earliest on maps, 581; + was it known to the ancients? 606. + _See_ North _and_ South America. + + Anacaona, 305; + entertains Bartholomew Columbus, 361; + captured, 473. + + Ancuparius, 588. + + Angelus, Jacobus. 531. + + Ango, Jean, 556. + + Anian, Straits of, 418, 620. + + Antarctic continent, 628, 644. + + Antillia, belief in, 111, 112, 128. + + Apianus, his map (1520), 550, 587; + portrait, 586. + + Archipelago on the Asiatic coast, 190. + + Arctic explorations, 640, 658, 659, 660. + + Asia, as known to Marco Polo, etc., map, 113, 114. + + Aspa, Ant. de, his documents, 29. + + Astrolabe, 94-96, 132, 150, 260, 632. + + Atlantic Ocean, early cartography of, 86, 88; + floating islands in, 185; + its archipelago, 185; + as defined by Behaim compared with its actual condition, 190; + early voyages on, 603. + + Atlantis, story of, 126. + + Aubert, Thomas, 556. + + Audiencia, 518. + + Avila, Luis de, 527. + + Ayala, Pedro de, 343. + + Ayllon, Lucas Vasquez de, 561; + and Diego Colon, 522; + his map, 561, 584; + settlement on the Potomac, 561. + + Azores discovered, 86, 88. + + + Babeque, 225, 230, 231. + + Baccalaos, 344. + + Back-staff, 648. + + Bacon, Roger, _Opus majus_, 121, 497. + + Badajos, congress at, 590. + + Baffin, Wm., 650. + + Baffin's Bay, 651. + + Bahamas, Herrera's map, 212; + modern map, 213; + character of, 215; + their peoples, 218; + depopulated, 515. + + Balboa, 562; + portrait, 563; + discovers the South Sea, 564, 606; + executed, 564. + + Ballester, Miguel, 366, 372. + + Bancroft, H. H., on Columbus, 59, 503. + + Bank of St. George, and its records, 21, 70. + + Barclay, Alex., translates Brant, 537. + + Barlow, S. L. M., his library, 17. + + Barrentes, Garcia de, 372. + + Barros, João de. _Decada_, 33, 149, 241. + + Bastidas, Rodrigo de, on the South American coast, 426, 528. + + Basques on the Atlantic, 128; + fishermen, 340. + + Baza, siege of, 169. + + Behaim, Martin, in Lisbon, 132; + improves the astrolabe, 132; + at sea, 134; + portrait, 134; + and Columbus, 150; + his globe, 185-188, 533. + + Behechio, 305, 361. + + Belknap, Dr. Jeremy, on Columbus, 55. + + Belloy, Marquis de, life of Columbus, 54. + + Beneventanus, 533. + + Benincasa, maps, 81. + + Benzoni, 32, 51. + + Beradi, Juonato, 258, 317. + + Bergenroth, _Calendar_, 13, 23. + + Bergomas, his chronicle, 32. + + Bering's Straits, 418, 657. + + Bering, his discoveries, 529, 620, 653. + + Bernaldez, Andrès, friend of Columbus, 13, 331; _Historia_, 13, 18, + 37. + + Berwick, Duke of, 527. + + Béthencourt, Jean de, 86. + + Bianco, Andrea, his map, 88, 89; helps Fra Mauro, 100. + + Bienewitz. _See_ Apianus. + + Bimini, 422, 558, 560. + + Birds, flight of, 88. + + Blanco, Cape, passed, 98. + + Bloodhounds, 312. + + Blunderville, 632. + + Bobadilla, Francisco de, sent to Santo Domingo, 390; + his character, 395; + his instructions, 396, 397; + reaches Española, 398; + his acts, 398; + their effect upon Columbus, 400; + arrests Bastidas, 426; + his rule in Santo Domingo, 428; + superseded, 429; + to return to Spain, 440; + lost, 440. + + Bohio, 228. + + Bojador, Cape, passed, 97. + + Bordone, map, 142. + + Bossi, L., on Columbus, 32. + + Bourne, Wm., _The Regiment of the Sea_, 631. + + Boyle. _See_ Buil. + + Brandt, _Shyppe of Fools_, 14. + + Brazil coast visited by Cabral, 378; + early explorers, 533. + + Brazil, island of, 112, 139. + + Breton explorations, 555, 556. + + Breviesca, Ximeno de, 333. + + Brevoort, J. C., 597, 607, 621. + + Briggs in Purchas, 652. + + Bristol, England, and its maritime expeditions, 342. + + Brocken, Baron van, _Colomb_, 55. + + Brymner, Douglas, 660. + + Buache, his map, 656. + + Büdinger, Max, _Acten zur Columbus Geschichte_, 46; + _Zur Columbus Literatur_, 46. + + Buet, C., _Colomb_, 54. + + Buil, Bernardo, sent to the New World, 259. + + Bull of demarcation, 22, 252, 339. + + Bull of extension, 305. + + Button, Sir Thomas, 650. + + Bylot, Robert, 650. + + + Cabot, John, in England, 167, 340; + sails on a voyage of discovery, 340; + earliest engraved map of his discoveries, 341; + great circle sailing, 341; + discovers land, 341; + question of his landfall, 341; + returns to Bristol, 342; + question of his going to Seville, 343; + his second voyage, 344; + its extent, 344; + lack of knowledge respecting these voyages, 345; + authorities on, 346; + was his voyage known to Columbus? 386; + and the Ruysch map, 533; his explorations, 624. + + Cabot, Sebastian, his observation of the line of no variation, 201; + on Columbus's discovery, 248; + his participancy in his father's voyages, 344; + his papers, 345; + alleged voyage, 427; + voyages, 555; + his mappemonde, 341, 345, 624, 626, 627; + returns to England, 639; + portrait, 642. + + Cabral, Pedro Alvarez, on the South American coast, 377. + + Cabrero, Juan, 161. + + Cabrillo, 611. + + Cacique, 231. + + Cadamosto, his voyage, 98. + + Cado, Fermin, 285. + + California, peninsula of, 610; + its name, 611; + map, 611; + mapped as an island, 652; + Drake on the coast, 644, 645. + + Cam, Diogo, 134. + + Camargo on the coast of Chili, 577. + + Camers, Johann, 585. + + Canaries, their history, 86; map of, 194. + + Cannibals, 225, 227, 230, 268, 270, 281. + + Canoes, 219. + + Cantino, Alberto, 417; + Cantino map, 387; + sketched, 419; + its traits examined, 420; + its relation with Columbus, 421. + + Caonabo, 305; + attacks La Navidad, 273, 275; + attacks St. Thomas, 308; + forms a league, 308; + captured, 313; + dies, 323. + + Cape Blanco, 98. + + Cape Bojador, 97. + + Cape Breton, 627. + + Cape of Good Hope discovered, 151. + + Cape Horn discovered, 577; + seen by Drake, 644. + + Cape Race, 534. + + Cape Verde Island discovered, 199. + + Cardenas, Alonso de, 161. + + Cardona, Cristoval de, Admiral of Aragon, 524, 526, 527. + + Caribs, 236, 271, 323. + + Carpini, Plano, 90. + + Carthaginians as voyagers, 127. + + Cartier, Jacques, his explorations, 612, 624. + + Carvajal, Alonso Sanchez de, factor of Columbus, 430. + + Carvajal, Bernardin de, 248. + + Casa de Contratacion, 481. + + Casaneuve. _See_ Colombo the Corsair. + + Casanove, 71. + + Casoni, F., annals of Genoa, 32, 154. + + Casteñeda, Juan de, 238. + + Castellanos, _Elegias_, 491. + + Castillo, 611. + + Catalan seamanship, 94. + + Catalina, Doña, 9, 276. + + Cathay, 224, 457; + early name of China, 90; + map of, 113, 114; + as found by the Portuguese, 509. + + Cazadilla, 150. + + Chanca, Dr., his narrative, 29; + goes to the new world, 262, 282. + + Charles V., portrait, 519. + + Chaves, Alonso, his map, 561, 621; + at the Seville Conference, 604. + + Chesapeake Bay, Spaniards in the, 633. + + Chili discovered, 565, 577. + + China, early known, 90. _See_ Cathay. + + Chronica Delphinea, 9, 11. + + Chronometers, 260, 603. + + Chytræus, 627. + + Cibao, 232; + its mines visited by Ojeda, 279. + + Ciguare, 447. + + Cipango, 125; map, 113. + + Circourt, Count, 46. + + Clavus, Claudius, 140, 141. + + Clemente, Claudio, _Tablas_, 214. + + Climatic lines, 601. + + Codex Flatoyensis, 146. + + Coelho's voyage, 410. + + Colombo, Balthazar, 525, 527. + + Colombo, Bernardo, 525, 527. + + Colombo, Corsair, 71, 72, 83, 84. + + Colon, Cristoval (bastard son of Luis, grandson of Columbus), 526. + + Colon, Diego (brother of Columbus), born, 77; + in Spain and in Columbus's second expedition, 262; + his character, 285; + placed by Columbus in command at Isabella, 290; + goes to Spain, 311; + quarrels with Fonseca, 318. + + Colon, Diego (son of Columbus), 106; + page to the Queen, 181; + at Court, 478, 479; + receives letter from Columbus, 478; + his illegitimate children, 513; + receives what was due to his father, 513; + urges the King to restore his father's privileges, 513; + his suit against the Crown, 514, 553; + wins, 515; + marriage, 515; + denied the title of Viceroy, 515; + Governor of Española, 515, 516; + in Spain, 519; + lends money to Charles V., 520; + his income, 520; + Viceroy, 520; + builds a palace, 520; + its ruins, 520; + in Spain pressing his claims, 522; + dies, 522; + his children, 522. + + Colon, Diego (great-grandson of Columbus), marries and becomes + Duke of Veragua, 525, 526; + his connection with the _Historie_ of 1571, 44. + + Colon, Luis (grandson of Columbus), succeeds his father, 522; + makes compromise with the Crown, 522; + holds Jamaica, 523; + made Duke of Veragua, 523; + governs Española, 523; + his marriages, 523; + imprisoned and dies, 523; + his children, 526. + + Colon. _See_ Columbus. + + Columbia River, 658. + + Columbus, Bartholomew (brother of Columbus), born, 77; + in Portugal, 104; + affects Columbus's views, 117; + with Diaz on the African coast, 151, 303; + sent to England, 167, 303, 339; + in France, 168, 303; + reaches Española, 303; + made Adelantado, 304; + left in command by Columbus, 323; + confirmed by the Crown as Adelantado, 328; + portrait, 329; + attacks the Quibian, 451; + sees Columbus for the last time, 488; + survives him, 513; + goes to Rome, 516; + takes a map, 516, 533; + goes to Española, 516; + dies, 518; + reputed descendant, 527. + + COLUMBUS, CHRISTOPHER, sources of information, 1; + biographers, 30; + his prolixity and confusion, 1; + his writings, 1; + _Libro de las Proficias_, 1; + facsimile of his handwriting, 2; + his private papers, 2; + letters, 2, 5; + written in Spanish, 2; + his privileges, 3; + _Codex Diplomaticus_, 3; + the Custodia at Genoa, 4, 5; + Bank of St. George, 5; + marginalia, 7; + _Declaracion de Tabla navigatoria_, 7, 32; + _Cinco Zonas_, 7; + lost manuscripts, 8; + MS. annotations, 8; + missing letters, 9, 18, 19; + missing commentary, 9; + journal of his first voyage, 9, 193; + printed in English, 10; + letters on his discovery, 10; + printed editions, 12; + Catalan text, 13; + Latin text, 14; + his transient fame, 14; + in England, 14; + autographs, 14; + edition of the Latin first letter, 15; + facsimile of a page, 16; + libraries possessing copies, 17; + bibliography of first letter, 17; + other accounts of first voyage, 17; + lawsuits of heirs, 18, 26, 514; + account of his second voyage, 18, 264; + _Libro del Segundo Viage_, 18, 264; + letters owned by the Duke de Veragua, 18; + accounts of his third voyage, 18, 347; + of his fourth voyage, 19; + _Lettera rarissima_, 19; + _Libros de memorias_, 19; + work on the Arctic Pole, 19; + his maps, 29; + _Memorial del Pleyto_, 26; + Italian accounts of, 30; + influenced by his Spanish life, 33; + Portuguese accounts, 33; + Spanish accounts, 33; + documents preserved by Las Casas, 47; + canonization, 52; + English accounts, 55; + life by Irving, 56; + bibliography, 59; + his portraits, 61-70; + his person, 61; + tomb at Havana, 69; + his promise to the Bank of St. George, 5, 70; + ancestry, 71; + early home, 71; + name of Colombo, 71; + the French family, 71; + professes he was not the first admiral of his name, 72; + spurious genealogies, 73, 74; + prevalence of the name Colombo, 73; + his grandfather, 74; + his father, 74; + life at Savona, 75; + Genoa, 75; + his birth, 76; + disputed date, 76; + his mother, 77; + her offspring, 77; + place of his birth, 77; + many claimants, 78; + uncertainties of his early life, 79; + his early education, 79; + his penmanship and drawing, 79; + specimen of it, 80; + said to have been at Pavia, 79; + at Genoa, 81; + in Anjou's expedition, 83; + his youth at sea, 83; + drawn to Portugal, 86, 102; + living there, 103; + alleged swimming with an oar, 103; + marries, 105; + supposed interview with a sailor who had sailed west, 107; + knew Marco Polo's book, 116; + Mandeville's book, 116; + the ground of his belief in a western passage, 117; + inherits his views of the sphericity of the earth, 119; + of its size, 123; + his ignorance of the Atlantis story, etc., 126, 148; + learns of western lands, 129; + in Portugal, 131; + in Iceland, 135; + _Tratado de las Cinco Zonas_, 137; + and the Sagas, 146; + his first gratuity in Spain, 149; + difficulty in following his movements, 149; + interviews the Portuguese king, 150; + abandons Portugal, 149, 153; + did he lay his project before the authorities of Genoa? 153; + did he propose to those of Venice? 154; + did he leave a wife in Portugal? 154; + enters Spain, 154, 157, 169; + at Rabida, 154, 173; + calls himself Colon, 157; + receives gratuities, 157, 168; + sells books and maps, 158; + writes out his proofs of a new world, 158; + interview with Ferdinand of Spain, 159; + his monument at Genoa, 163; + at Malaga, 165; + connection with Beatrix Enriquez, 166; + his son Ferdinand born, 166; + his views in England, 167; + invited back to Portugal, 168; + lived in Spain with the Duke of Medina-Celi, 169; + at Cordova, 169; + at Baza, 169; + his views again rejected, 170; + at Santa Fé, 176; + his arrogant demands, 177; + starts for France, 177; + recalled and agreed with, 179; + his passport, 180; + the capitulations, 181; + allowed to use Don, 181; + at Palos, 181; + his fleet fitted out, 182; + expenses of the first voyage, 183; + his flag-ship, 183; + her size, 184; + hopes to find mid-ocean islands, 185; + sails, 191; + keeps a journal, 193; + the "Pinta" disabled, 195; + sees Teneriffe, 195; + at the Canaries, 195; + falsifies his reckoning, 195; + map of the routes of his four voyages, 196; + of the first voyage, 197; + his dead reckoning, 198; + his judgment of his speed, 198; + observes no variation of his needle, 198; + watches the stars, 203; + believed the earth pear-shaped, 203; + meets a west wind, 205; + thinks he sees land, 206; + follows the flight of birds, 206; + pacifies his crew, 207; + alleged mutiny, 208; + claims to see a light, 208; + receives a reward for first seeing land, 209, 249; + map of the landfall, 210; + land actually seen, 211; + land taken possession of, 211; + his armor, 211; + question of his landfall, 214; + trades with the natives, 218, 220; + first intimates his intention to enslave them, 220; + finds other islands, 220; + eager to find gold, 221; + reaches Cuba, 223; + mentions pearls for the first time, 223; + thought himself on the coast of Cathay, 224; + takes an observation, 224; + meets with tobacco, 225; + with potatoes, 225; + hears of cannibals, 225; + seeks Babeque, 225; + difficult communication with the natives, 226, 227; + in the King's Garden, 226; + deserted by Pinzon, 226; + at Española, 228; + takes his latitude, 229; + entertains a cacique, 231; + meets with a new language, 232; + seeks gold, 232; + shipwrecked, 232; + builds a fort, 233; + names it La Navidad, 235; + hears of Jamaica, 235; + of Amazons, 235; + fears the Pinzons, 235; + sees mermaids, 236; + sails for Spain, 236; + meets a gale, 237; + separates from the "Pinta," 237; + throws overboard an account of his discoveries, 238; + makes land at the Azores, 238; + gets provisions, 238; + his men captured on shore, 239; + again at sea, 240; + enters the Tagus, 240; + reason for using the name Indies, 240; + goes to the Portuguese Court, 241; + leaves the Tagus, having sent a letter to the Spanish Court, 242; + reaches Palos, 242; + the "Pinta" arrives the same day, 242, 244; + his Indians, 244, 259, 272; + summoned to Court, 244; + at Barcelona, 245; + reception, 245; + his life there, 246, 247, 249, 256; + his first letter, 248; + scant impression made by the announcement, 248; + the egg story, 249; + receives a coat-of-arms, 249, 550; + his family arms, 251; + his motto, 251; + receives the royal seal, 256; + leaves the Court, 256; + in Seville, 256; + relations with Fonseca begin, 256; + fits out the second expedition, 257, 258, 261; + embarks, 263; + sails, 264; + his character, 265; + at the Canaries, 265; + at Dominica, 266; + at Marigalante, 266; + at Guadaloupe, 268; + fights the Caribs at Santa Cruz, 271; + reaches Española, 272; + arrives at La Navidad, 273; + finds it destroyed and abandons it, 275, 277; + disembarks at another harbor, 278; + founds Isabella, 278; + grows ill, 279; + expeditions to seek gold, 279, 280; + writes to the sovereigns, 280; + the fleet leaves him, 282; + harassed by factions, 284; + leads an expedition inland, 285; + builds Fort St. Thomas, 287; + returns to Isabella, 288; + sends Ojeda to St. Thomas, 289; + sails to explore Cuba, 290; + discovers Jamaica, 291; + returns to Cuba, 293; + imagines his approach to the Golden Chersonesus, 295; + exacts an oath from his men that they were in Asia, 296; + doubts as to his own belief, 297; + return voyage, 299; + on the Jamaica coast, 300; + calculates his longitude on the Española coast, 301; + falls into a stupor, 302; + reaches Isabella, 302; + finds his brother Bartholomew there, 303; + learns what had happened in his absence, 304; + receives supplies, 309; + sends the fleet back, 310; + sends Diego to Spain, 311; + sends natives as slaves, 311; + battle of the Vega Real, 312; + oppresses the natives, 315; + his enemies in Spain, 318; + receives a royal letter by Aguado, 319; + the fleet wrecked, 321; + thinks the mines of Hayna the Ophir of Solomon, 322; + sails for Spain, 323; + reaches Cadiz, 324; + lands in the garb of a Franciscan, 325; + proceeds to Court, 326; + asks for a new fleet, 326; + delays, 327; + his rights reaffirmed, 328; + new proportion of profits, 328; + his will, 330; + his signature, 330; + lives with Andres Bernaldez, 331; + his character drawn by Bernaldez, 331; + enlists criminals, 332; + his altercation with Fonseca's agent, 333; + had authorized voyages, 336; + the third voyage and its sources, 347; + leaves directions for his son Diego, 348; + sails from San Lucar, 348; + his course, 348; + letter to him from Jayme Ferrer, 349; + captures a French prize, 349; + at the Cape de Verde Islands, 349; + at Trinidad, 350; + first sees mainland, 351; + touches the Gulf Stream, 352; + grows ill, 355, 356; + his geographical delusions, 356; + compared with Vespucius, 358; + observations of nature, 359; + meets the Adelantado, 359; + reaches Santo Domingo, 365; + his experience with convict settlers, 366, 392, 396, 434; + sends letters to Spain, 367; + treats with Roldan, 368, 370; + institutes repartimientos, 371; + sends other ships to Spain, 371; + his prerogatives as Admiral infringed, 372; + sends Roldan against Ojeda, 374; + did he know of Cabot's voyage? 386; + his wrongs from furtive voyagers, 372-387; + opposition to his rule in the Antilles, 388; + his new relations with Roldan, 389; + quells Moxica's plot, 390; + Bobadilla arrives, 390; + charges against the Admiral, 392, 402, 404; + his deceiving the Crown, 393; + receives copies of Bobadilla's instructions, 400; + reaches Santo Domingo, 401; + imprisoned and fettered, 401; + sent to Spain in chains, 403; + his letter to Prince Juan's nurse, 404, 405, 407; + his alienation of mind, 405; + reaches Cadiz, 407; + his reception, 408, 409; + suspended from power, 409; + his connection with the Cantino map, 420, 421; + his destitution, 420; his vested rights invaded, 428; + his demands unheeded, 428; + sends a factor to Española, 430; + _Libros de las Proficias_, 431; + his projected conquest of the Holy Land, 431; + defeated by Satan, 431; + dreams on a hidden channel through the new world, 432; + still seeking the Great Khan, 433; + his purposed gift to Genoa, 434; + writes to the Bank of St. George, 435; + his fourth voyage, 437; + his mental and physical condition, 437; + at Martinico, 438; + touches at the forbidden Santo Domingo, 438; + but is denied the port, 439; + his ships ride out a gale, 441; + on the Honduras coast, 441; + meets a large canoe, 442; + says mass on the land, 442; + on the Veragua coast, 445; + touches the region tracked by Bastidas, 448; + sees a waterspout, 449; + returns to Veragua, 450; + finds the gold mines of Solomon, 450; + plans settlement at Veragua, 451; + dangers, 451; + has a fever, 453; + hears a voice, 454; + the colony rescued, 456; + sails away, 456; + abandons one caravel, 457; + on the Cuban coast, 457; + goes to Jamaica, 457; + strands his ships, 458; + sends Mendez to Ovando, 458, 461; + writes a letter to his sovereigns, 459; + _Lettera rarissima_, 459; + his worship of gold, 461; + the revolt of Porras, 462; + Porras sails away, 464; + but returns to the island and wanders about, 464; + predicts an eclipse of the moon, 465; + Escobar arrives, 467; + and leaves, 468; + negotiations with Porras, 468; + fight between the rebels and the Adelantado, 469; + Porras captured, 469; + the rebels surrender, 470; + Mendez sends to rescue him, 470; + leaves Jamaica, 471; + learns of events in Española during his absence, 472; + reaches Santo Domingo, 475; + relations with Ovando, 475; + sails for Spain, 475; + arrives, 476; in Seville, 477; + his letters at this time, 477; + his appeals, 477; + fears Porras, 478, 479; + appeals to Mendez, 479; + his increasing malady, 480; + sends a narrative to Rome, 482; + suffered to ride on a mule, 483; + relations with the Bank of St. George in Genoa, 483; + his privileges, 484; + doubtful reference to Fonseca, 484; + later relations with Vespucius, 484; + his property sold, 486; goes to Segovia, 486; + Deza asked to arbitrate, 486; + makes a will, 487; + at Salamanca, 487; + at Valladolid, 488; + seeks to propitiate Juana, 488; + makes a codicil to his will, 488; + its doubtful character, 488; + ratifies his will, 489; + its provisions, 489; + dies, 490; + his death unnoticed, 491; + later distich proposed for his tomb, 491; + successive places of interment, 491; + his bones removed to Santo Domingo, 492; + to Havana, 492; + controversy over their present position, 492; + his chains, 494; + the age of Columbus, 494; + statue at Santo Domingo, 495; + his character, his dependence on the _Imago Mundi_, 497; + on other authors, 498; + relations with Toscanelli, 499; + different delineations of his character, 501; + his observations of nature, 502; + his overwrought mind, 502; + hallucinations, 503, 504; + arguments for his canonization, 505; + purpose to gain the Holy Sepulchre, 505; + his Catholicism, 505; his urgency to enslave the Indians, 505, 506; + his scheme of repartimientos 506; + adopts garb of the Franciscans, 508; + mercenary, 508, 509; + the moving light of his first voyage, 510; + insistence on territorial power, 510; + claims inspiration, 511; + his heirs, 513; his discoveries denied after his death, 514, 520; + his territorial power lost by his descendants, 523; + table of his descendants, 524, 525; + his male line becomes extinct, 526; + lawsuit to establish the succession, 526; + female line through the Portogallos fails, 527; + now represented by the Larreategui family, 528; + present value of the estates, 528; + the geographical results of his discoveries, 529; + connection with early maps, 533, 534; + his errors in longitude, 603; + his observations of magnetic influence, 632. + + Columbus, Ferdinand (bastard son of Columbus), 480, 482; + his _Historie_, 39; + doubts respecting it, 39; + his career, 40; + his income, 40; + his library, 40; + its catalogue, 42; + English editions of the _Historie_, 55; + his birth, 166; + at school, 181; + made page of the Queen, 331; + his ability, 513; + goes with Diego to Española, 515; + aids his brother's widow, 522; + an arbiter, 522; + owns Ptolemy (1513), 545; + his disregard of the claims urged for Vespucius, 553; + his _Colon de Concordia_, 571; + arbiter at the Congress of Badajos, 591; + advises the King, 591; + his house at Seville, 603; + at the Seville Conference, 604; + map inscribed to him, 605. + + Coma, Guglielmo, 282. + + Conti, Nicolo di, 116, 509. + + Cook, James, voyage, 633, 658. + + Cordova, Cathedral of, 172. + + Coronel, Pedro Fernandez, 332, 364. + + Correa da Cunha, Pedro, 106, 131. + + Correnti, C., 12. + + Corsairs, 71. + + Corsica, claim for Columbus's birth in, 77. + + Cortereal discoveries, 577. + + Cortereal, Gaspar, manuscript, facsimile, 414; + his voyage to Labrador, 415. + + Cortereal, João Vaz, 129. + + Cortereal, Miguel, his handwriting, facsimile, 416; + his voyages, 417. + + Cortes, Hernando, in Santo Domingo, 475; + sails for Mexico, 565; + his map of the Gulf of Mexico, 567, 569, 607; + his exploring expeditions, 568; + planning to explore the Pacific, 591; + his Pacific explorations, 610; + his portrait, 610. + + Cortes, Martin, 630. + + Cosa, Juan de la, 426; + goes to the new world, 262; + his charts, 343, 345, 380-382; + with Ojeda, 373. + + Cosco, Leander de, 15. + + Costa Rica, map, 443. + + Cotabanama, 305, 474. + + Coulomp, 71. + + Cousin, Jean, on the Brazil coast, 174. + + Crignon, Pierre, 556. + + Criminals enlisted by Columbus, 332. + + Crossbows, 258. + + Cross-staff, 261, 632, 648. _See_ Back-staff. + + Cuba, reached by Columbus, 223; + believed to be Asia, 226; + named Juana, 228; + its southern coast explored, 291; + insularity of, 384; + Wytfliet's map, 384-85; + its cartography, 424; + Columbus's views, 425; + circumnavigated, 565. + + Cubagua, 355. + + Cushing, Caleb, on the Everett MS., 4; + on Navarrete, 28; + on Columbus's landfall, 217. + + + Darien, isthmus, map, 446. + + Dati, versifies Columbus's first letter, 15. + + D'Avezac on the _Historie_, 45. + + Davis, John, in the north, 643, 648; + his _Seaman's Secrets_, 649. + + Dead reckoning, 94. + + De Bry, 51; + his engraving of Columbus, 66, 68. + + Degree, length of, 124. + + Del Cano, 576. + + Demarcation. _See_ Bull of. + + Demersey, A., on the Muñoz MSS., 27. + + Denys, Jean, 556. + + Desceliers (or Henri II.) map, 612, 624. + + Deza, Diego de, 161, 164, 170; + asked to arbitrate between Columbus and the King, 486. + + Diaz, Bart., on the African coast, 151. + + Diaz, Miguel, 322, 399. + + Diaz de Pisa, Bernal, 284. + + Dogs used against the natives, 292, 312. + + Dominica, 266. + + Dominicans in Española, 508. + + Don, Nicholas, 556. + + Donis, Nicholas, his map, 140, 531. + + Drake, Francis, sees Cape Horn, 577; + his voyages, 643; + portrait, 645, 654. + + Drogeo, 635. + + Duro, C. F., _Colon_, etc., 54. + + Dutch, the, their American explorations, 649. + + + Earth, sphericity of, 118; + size of, 121; + how far known before Columbus, 122. + + East India Company, 650. + + Eden, R., _Treatyse of the Newe India_, 537, 538; + _Decades_, 538; + _Arte of Navigation_, 631; + influence in England, 639. + + Eden (paradise), situation of, 357. + + Eggleston, Edward, 597, 599. + + Enciso, Fernandes d', _Geographia_, 587. + + Encomiendas, 314. + + England, reception of Columbus's news in, 167; + earliest mention of the Spanish discoveries, 537; + sea-manuals in, 631; + effects on discovery of her commercial spirit, 632; + her explorations, 639; + beginning of her colonization, 648; + her later explorations, 650; + her seamen in the Caribbean Sea, 373, 426, 427; + on the eastern coast of North America, 601. + + Enriquez, Beatrix, connection with Columbus, 166; + noticed in Columbus's will, 489. + + Equator, crossed by the Portuguese, 134; + first crossed on the American side, 376. + + Eric the Red, 139, 140, 144, 146. + + Escobar, Diego de, sent to Jamaica by Ovando, 467. + + Escobar, Roderigo de, 451. + + Escoveda, Rodrigo de, 235. + + Española, discovered and named, 228, 229; + its divisions, 305; + Charlevoix's map, 306; + Ramusio's map of, 369; + Ovando recalled, 515; + Diego Colon governor, 515; + sugar cane raised, 520. + + Esquibel, Juan de, 474. + + Estotiland, 635. + + Evangelista, 297. + + Everett, A. H., on Irving's Columbus, 56. + + Everett, Edward, possessed a copy of Columbus's privileges, 3. + + + Faber, Jacobus, _Meteorologia_, 546. + + Faber, Dr. John, 540. + + Fagundes, 566. + + Faria y Sousa, _Europa Portuguesa_, 241. + + Farrer, Domina, her map, 652, 654, 655. + + Ferdinand of Spain, his character, 159; + his unwillingness to embark in Columbus's plans, 178; + his appearance, 245; + grows apathetic, 327; + his portrait, 328; + his distrust of Columbus, 393, 427, 479, 486; + sends Bobadilla to Santo Domingo, 394; + dies 520, 555. + + Ferdinando, Simon, 646. + + Fernandina, 221. + + Ferrelo, 612. + + Ferrer, Jayme, letter to Columbus, 349. + + Fieschi, G. L., 9. + + Fiesco, B., 462. + + Finæus, Orontius, his map, 607-609. + + Flamsteed, 648. + + Floating islands, 190. + + Flores discovered, 88. + + Florida coast early known, 424; + discovered, 558; + English on the coast, 632. + + Fonseca, Juan Rodriguez de, relations with Columbus begin, 256; + his character, 256, 257, 316; + quarrel with Diego Colon, 318; + allowed to grant licenses, 329; + lukewarm towards the third voyage of Columbus, 333; + made bishop of Placentia, 484. + + Fontanarossa, G. de, 77. + + Fonte, de, 653. + + Fort Concepcion, 309. + + Fox, G. A., on Columbus's landfall, 214, 216. + + Fox, Luke, his map, 651. + + France, her share in American explorations, 633. + + Franciscus, monk, his map, 606. + + Franciscans in Española, 508. + + Freire, Juan, his map, 577, 578, 612. + + Friess. _See_ Frisius. + + Frisius, Laurentius, his map (1522), 552, 588. + + Frisland, 137, 145. + + Frobisher, his voyages, 640; + portrait, 643; + his map, 644. + + Fuca, Da, 653. + + Fulgoso, B., _Collectanea_, 32. + + Furlani, Paolo de, 619. + + Fuster, _Bibl. Valenciana_, 27. + + + Gali, Francisco, 646. + + Gallo, Ant., on Columbus, 30. + + Gama, João da, 652. + + Gama, Vasco da, portrait, 334; + his voyage, 334. + + Ganong, W. F., 612. + + Garay, 566; his map, 568. + + Gastaldi, his map, 616-618, 629. + + Gelcich, E., on the _Historie_, 46. + + Gemma Frisius, nautical improvements, 603, 648. + + Genoa, records, 21; + Columbus's early life in, 75, 77; + citizens of, in Spain, 158; + Columbus's monument, 163; + favored in Columbus's will, 330; + Bank of St. George, 435, 483; + her citizens in Portugal, 86; + on the Atlantic, 128. + + Geraldini, Antonio, 158. + + Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, his voyages, 646; + his map, 647. + + Giocondo, 538. + + Giovio. _See_ Jovius. + + Giustiniani, his Psalter, 30, 83; + his Annals of Genoa, 30. + + Glareanus on the ancients' knowledge of America, 606. + + Glassberger, Nicholas, 400. + + _Globus Mundi_, 536, 537, 546. + + Gold mines, 232; + scant returns, 332. + + Gomara, the historian, 39. + + Gomera (Canaries), 195. + + Gomez, Estevan, on the Atlantic coast, 561, 589, 591; + cartographical results, 591-593. + + Gonzales, keeper of the Spanish archives, 28. + + Goodrich, Aaron, _Columbus_, 59, 60, 504. + + Gorricio, Gaspar, 433, 484; + friend of Columbus, 18; + adviser of Diego Colon, 348. + + Gorvalan, 280. + + Gosnold on the New England coast, 652 + + Granada, siege of, 175. + + Grand Turk Island, 216. + + Great circle sailing, 341, 649. + + Great Khan, letter to, 180. + + Greenland, 139, 140; + held to be a part of Europe, 140, 145, 152; + part of Asia, 143; + a link between Europe and Asia, 616; + delineated on maps (Zeni), 634, 643; + (1467), 636; + (1482), 531, 532; + (1508), 532; + (1511), 577; + (1513), 544; + (1527), 600; + (1576), 647; + (1582), 598. + + Grenada, 355. + + Grimaldi, G. A., 21. + + Grijalva, 565; portrait, 566. + + Grönlandia, 145. _See_ Greenland. + + Grothe, H., _Da Vinci_, 117. + + Grynæus, Simon. _Novus Orbis_, 607. + + Guacanagari, the savage king, 234, 273, 275, 277; + faithful, 309; + maltreated, 316. + + Guadaloupe, 268, 323. + + Guanahani, seen by Columbus, 211. + + Guarionex, 305, 309; + his conspiracy, 362, 364; + embarked for Spain, 440; + lost, 440. + + Guelves, Count of, 524, 526. + + Guerra, Luis, 375. + + Guevara, Fernand de, watched by Roldan, 389. + + Gulf Stream, 131, 352, 433. + + Gutierrez, Pedro, 208. + + + Hadley's quadrant, 648. + + Hakluyt, Richard, _Principall Navigations_, 637; + _Western Planting_, 647; + his interest in explorations, 650. + + Hall, Edw., _Chronicle_, 14. + + Halley, Edmund, his variation charts, 649. + + Hammocks, 219, 222. + + Hanno, the Carthaginian, 97. + + Harrison's chronometer, 649. + + Harrisse, Henry, his works on Columbus, 7, 51, 52; + on the Biblioteca Colombina, 41; + attacks the character of the _Historie_ of 1571, 44; + his _Fernando Colon_, 45; + _Les Colombo_, 71; + _Bank of St. George_, 73. + + Hartmann, George, his gores, 621. + + Hauslab globes, 547, 548. + + Hawkins, John, 632. + + Hawkins, Wm., 601. + + Hayna mines, 322. + + Hayna country, 360. + + Hayti. _See_ Española. + + Heimskringla, 140, 147. + + Helleland, 145. + + Helps, Arthur, on the Spanish Conquest and Columbus, 58. + + Henry the Navigator, Prince, death, 82, 100; + his navigators, 88, 97; + his relations to African discovery, 91; + his school, 92; + his portrait, 93; + his character, 97; + his tomb, 101; + his statue, 102. + + Henri II., map. _See_ Desceliers. + + Herrera, the historian, 50; + map of Bahamas, 212. + + Higuay, 305; conquered, 474. + + Hispaniola. _See_ Española. + + Hoces, F. de, discovers Cape Horn. 576. + + Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, 169; + Columbus's purpose to rescue it, 170, 180. + + Holywood. John, _Sphera Mundi_, 93. + + Homem's map, 614, 616. + + Hondius, 637. + + Honduras, early voyages to, 337, 339; map, 443; + coast explored, 562. + + Hood, Dr. Thomas, 650. + + Hudson's Bay, 650. + + Hudson Bay Company, 658. + + Hudson River, 649. + + Hudson, Heinrich, his voyages, 649, 650. + + Hues, Robert, _Tractatus_, 191, 201, 301. + + Humboldt, Alex. von, _Exam. Critique_, 51; + on Columbus, 502, 504. + + + Ibarra, Bernaldo de, 347. + + Iceland, Columbus at, 135; early map, 136. + + India, African route to, 90; + strait to, sought, 535, 555, 567, 569, 587, 591; + discovered at the south, 576. + + Indies, name why used, 240. + + Irving, W., _Columbus_, 55, 60; + his historical habit, 233, 234; + on Columbus, 501, 505. + + Isabella of Spain, her character, 159, 479; + yields to Columbus's views, 178; + her appearance, 245; + her interest in Columbus's second voyage, 258; + her faith in Columbus shaken, 393, 396, 409; + dies, 479; + her will about the Indians, 482. + + Isabella (island), 222. + + Isabella (town) founded, 278. + + Italy, her relations to American discovery, 33; + her conspicuous mariners, 104, 632; + and the new age, 496; + cartographers of, 601, 628. + + + Jack-staff, 261. + + Jacquet Island, 111. + + Jamaica, possibly Babeque, 230; + called Yamaye, 235; + discovered by Columbus, 291; + again visited, 300; + Columbus at, during his last voyage, 457. + + Januarius, Hanibal, 22. + + Japan, supposed position, 207. _See_ Cipango. + + Jayme, 92. + + Jesso, 652, 653. + + John of Anjou, 82, 84. + + Jorrin, J. S., _Varios Autografos_, 7. + + Jovius (Giovio) Paulus, his biography, 32; + his picture of Columbus, 61, 63; + _Elogia_, 64. + + Juana. _See_ Cuba. + + Julius II., Pope, portrait, 517. + + + Kettell, Samuel, 10. + + Khan, the Great, 90, 224. + + King's Garden, 226. + + Kolno (Skolno), 138. + + Kublai Khan, 90, 224. + + + Labrador coast, Normans on, 413; + Portuguese on, 415. + + Lachine, 613. + + Lafuente y Alcántara, 13. + + Lake, Arthur, 184. + + Lamartine on Columbus, 75. + + La mina (Gold coast), 101. + + Laon globe, 123, 190. + + Larreategui family, representatives of Columbus, 528. + + Las Casas, B., his abridgment of Columbus's journal, 10; + his papers of Columbus, 19, 47; + his _Historia_, 45, 46; + his career, 47; + his portrait, 48; + his pity for the Indians, 50; + his father goes to the new world, 262; + at Santo Domingo, 429; + appeals for the Indians, 520; + on the respective merits of Columbus and Vespucius, 553. + + Latitude, errors in observing, 261. + + Latitude and longitude on maps, 601, 602. + + Laurentian portolano (1351), 87. + + Ledesma, Pedro, 454, 470. + + Leibnitz, _Codex_, 71. + + Leigh, Edward, 601. + + Lemoyne, G. B., _Colombo_, 33. + + Lenox globe, 571. + + Lepe, Diego de, on the South American coast, 377. + + Léry, Baron de, 556. + + Liria, Duke of, 527. + + Lisbon, naval battle near, 103; Genoese in, 104. + + Loadstone, its history. 93. _See_ Magnet. + + Log, ship's, 95, 96, 631. + + Lok, Michael, map (1582), 597, 598, 616, 624, 646. + + Long Island Sound, 616. + + Longitude, methods of ascertaining, 259; + difficulties in computing, 602, 648, 650. _See_ Latitude. + + Longrais, Jouon des, _Cartier_, 612. + + Lorgues, Roselly de, on Columbus, 53, 60, 503, 505. + + Loyasa, 576. + + Luca, the Florentine engineer, 22. + + Lucayans, 218, 219, 271; destroyed, 219, 515. + + Lud, Walter, 439. + + Lully, Raymond, _Arte de Navegar_, 93. + + Luxan, Juan de, 288. + + Machin, Robert, at Madeira, 87. + + McClure, R. L., 660. + + Madeira discovered, 86, 88. + + Madoc, 138. + + Magellan's voyage, 571, 589; his portrait, 572; + compared with Columbus, 574; + maps of his straits, 575, 576. + + Magnet, its history, 93; + use of, 198; + needle, 632; + pole, 203, 630. _See_ Needle. + + Magnus, Bishop, 139. + + Maguana, 305. + + Maine, Gulf of, 616, 646. + + Maiollo map (1527), 570, 595, 597. + + Major, R. H., on Columbus, 58; + on the naming of America, 538. + + Malaga, Columbus at the siege of, 165. + + Maldonado, Melchior, 277, 653. + + Mandeville, Sir John, his travels, 116. + + Mangon, 224, 294. + + Manhattan, 649. + + Manicaotex, 312. + + Manilius, 107. + + Mappemonde, Portuguese (1490), 152. + + Maps, fifteenth century, 128; + projections of, 603. _See_ Portolano. + + Marchena, Antonio de, 259. + + Marchena, Juan Perez de, 155; + portrait, 155; + intercedes for Columbus, + 175. + + Marchesio, F., 21. + + Margarita, 355. + + Margarite, Pedro, at St. Thomas, 288; + his career, 307. + + Mariéjol, J. H., _Peter Martyr_, 35. + + Marien, 305. + + Marigalante, 266. + + Mariguana, 216. + + Marin, on Venetian commerce, 9. + + Marine atlases, 649. + + Markham, Clements R., his _Hues_, 191. + + Markland, 145. + + Martens, T., printer, 16. + + Martines, his map, 616. + + Martinez, Fernando, 108. + + Martyr, Peter, has letters from Columbus, 19; + account of, 34; + knew Columbus, 35; + his letters, 34; + _De Orbe Novo_, or _Decades_, 35; + on Isabella, 160; + on Columbus's discovery, 247; + his map, (1511), 422, 556, 557; + fails to notice the death of Columbus, 491. + + Massachusetts Bay, 616. + + Mastic, 225. + + Matheos, Hernan Perez, 347. + + Mayobanex, 364. + + Mauro, Fra, his world map, 99, 101, 116. + + Medina, Pedro de, _Arte de Navegar_, 630; + map, 628, 629. + + Medina-Celi, Duke of, 173; + entertains Columbus, 169. + + Medina-Sidonia, Duke of, 173. + + Mela, Pomponius, 107; + his world-map, 584; + _Cosmographia_, 585. + + Mendez, Diego, his exploits, 451, 452, 456, 458; + sails from Jamaica for Española, 461; + arrives, 466; + sends to rescue Columbus, 470; + goes to Spain, 471; + appealed to by Columbus, 479, 487; + denied office by Diego Colon, 516. + + Mendoza, Hurtado de, 610, 612. + + Mendoza, Pedro Gonzales de, 159, 176. + + Mercator, Gerard, pupil of Gemma, 603; + his earliest map, 621-623; + his globe of 1541, 554, 621, 625; + his projection, 636; + his map (1569), 638; + portrait, 639. + + Mercator, R., his map of the polar regions, 202. + + Mermaids, 236. + + Meropes, 126. + + Mississippi River discovered, 560. + + Molineaux, his map, 616, 648. + + Moluccas occupied by the Portuguese, 569; + dispute over their longitude, 590; + sold by Spain to Portugal, 591. + + Moniz, Felipa, wife of Columbus, 105; + her family, 106. + + Monte Peloso, Bishop of, 15. + + Moon, eclipse of, 465. + + Morton, Thos., _New English Canaan_, 620. + + Mosquito coast, 444. + + Moxica, Adrian de, 389. + + Moya, Marchioness of, 175, 178. + + Müller, Johannes, 94. + + Muñoz, J. B., his labors, 27; + his _Historia_, 27. + + Münster, Seb., his maps, 621, 624 (1532); + 535, 537 (1540); + 596, 597; + portrait, 602. + + Muratori, his collection, 30. + + Murphy, Henry C., 595; + his library, 17. + + Muscovy Company, 650. + + Myritius, his map, 618. + + + Nancy globe, 606, 607. + + Napier, logarithms, 651. + + Nautical almanac, 649. + + Navasa, island, 465. + + Navarrete, M. F. de, his _Coleccion_, 27; + the French edition, 28; + criticised by Caleb Cushing, 28. + + Navidad, La, destroyed, 273. + + Navigation, art of, 131; + Columbus's method, 237, 260. + + Needle, no variation of the, 198, 254; + its change of position, 199, 206, 254. _See_ Magnet. + + Negroes, first seen as slaves in Europe, 98; + early introduced in Española, 429, 488. + + New Albion, 645. + + New England, named, 649. + + Newfoundland banks, early visits, 129, 340. + + Newfoundland, visited by Gilbert, 646. + + New France, 633. + + Nicaragua, map of, 443. + + Nicuessa, Diego de, in Castilla del Oro, 517, 562. + + Niño, Pedro Alonso, 325; + on the pearl coast, 375. + + Nombre de Dios, Cape, 448. + + Nordenskiöld on Columbus's discovery, 248; + his _Facsimile Atlas_, 531, 532, 546, 548, 573, 577, 578, 581, 582, + 588, 589, 635, 636, 638; + map gores discovered by him, 549. + + Norman seamanship, 94; + explorations, 555, 556. + + Norman, Robt., 632. + + North America held to be continuous with Asia, 576, 584. + _See_ America. + + Northwest passage, the search for, 529, 640, 648, 650-652, 658; + mapped, 659. + + Norumbega, 599, 616, 633. + + Notarial records in Italy, 20; + in Spain, 25; + in Portugal, 26. + + Nuremberg, Behaim's globe at, 191. + + + Ocampo, 565. + + Oceanic currents, 130, 603. + + Odericus Vitalis, 147. + + Oderigo, Nicolo, 483. + + Ojeda, Alonso de, in Columbus's second expedition, 262, 270; + at St. Thomas, 289; + attacked by Caonabo, 308; + captures Caonabo, 313; + fired by Columbus's experiences in Paria, 372; + is permitted by Fonseca to sail thither, 372; + reaches Venezuela, 373; + at Española, 373; + returns to Spain, 375; + voyage (1499), 514; + his (1502) voyage, 427; + in New Andalusia, 517, 562. + + Oliva, Perez de, on Columbus, 43, 45. + + Ophir of Solomon, 322. + + Orient, European notions of, 90, 109. + + Ortegon, Diego, 528. + + Ortelius, his _Theatrum_, 627, 638; + portrait, 640; + his map of America, 641. + + Ortis, Alonso, _Los Tratados_, 248. + + Ovando, Nicholas de, sent to Santo Domingo, 429; + receives Mendez, 466; + his rule in Española, 466, 471; + sends a caraval to Jamaica to observe Columbus, 467; + sends to rescue him, 471; + receives him at Santo Domingo, 475; + recalled from Española, 515. + + Oviedo, on the first voyage, 17; + as a writer, 38; + his career, 38; + _Historia_, 39; + on Isabella, 160; + on the arms of Columbus, 251; + on his motto, 251. + + Oysters, 354. + + + Pacheco, his _Coleccion_, 29. + + Pacheco, Carlos, 527. + + Pacific Ocean named, 576; + explorations, 618; + Drake in the, 644; + sees Cape Horn, 644; + Gali's explorations, 646; + discoveries, 652; + wild theories about its coast, 652, 656, 658. + + _Paesi novamente retrovati_, 417. + + Palos, 182. + + Panama founded, 565. + + Papal authority to discover new lands, 252. + + Paria, Gulf of, map, 353; + land of, 354. + + Parmentier, Jean, 556. + + Passamonte, Miguel, 518. + + Pavia, university at, 80. + + Pearls, 354. + + Pedrarias, 564. + + Peragallo, Prospero, _Historie di F. Colombo_, 46. + + Perestrello, Bart., 88. + + Perestrello family, 105. + + Peringskiöld, 147. + + Peru discovered, 564, 565. + + Pesaro, F., 9. + + Peschel, Oscar, on the _Historie_, 46. + + Peter the Great, 653. + + Pezagno, the Genoese, 86. + + Phoenicians as explorers, 127. + + Philip II., of Spain, 523. + + Philip the Handsome, 513. + + Pineda, 560. + + Pinelo, Francisco, 257. + + Pinilla, T. R., _Colon en España_, 51. + + Pinzon, Martin Alonso, at Rabida, 174; + engages with Columbus, 183; + deserts Columbus, 226; + returns, 235; + reaches Palos and dies, 242. + + Pinzon, Vicente Yañez, with Columbus, 183; + his voyage (1494) across the equator, 376; + sees Cape St. Augustine, 376; + at Española, 377. + + Pinzon and Solis's expedition, 570. + + Piracy, 81. + + Pirckheimer, 636. + + Pizarro, 562, 564. + + Plaanck, the printer, 15. + + Plato and Atlantis, 126. + + Plutarch's Saturnian Continent, 126. + + Polar regions, map of, 202. + + Polo, Marco, 90, 498; + annotations of Columbus in, 7; + in Cathay, 114; + his narrative _Milione_, 114; + his portrait, 115; + known to Columbus, 115. + + Pompey stone, 560. + + Ponce de Leon, Juan, 179, 556; + goes to the New World, 262; + portrait, 558; + his track, 559. + + Porcacchi, his map, 620. + + Porras, François de, 437; + his revolt, 462; + ended, 470; + at court, 478. + + Porto Bello, 448. + + Porto Rico, 236, 272, 517. + + Porto Santo discovered, 88, 105, 106. + + Portolanos, 530. _See_ Maps. + + Potatoes, 225. + + Portogallo, Alonso de, Count of Guelves, 526. + + Portogallo, Nuño de, becomes Duke of Veragua, 524, 526. + + Portugal, archives, 25; + attractions for Columbus, 85; + spirit of exploration in, 86; + her expert seamen, 86, 92; + Genoese in her service, 86; + discovers Madeira, 86; + and the Azores, 86; + Columbus in, 103, 149; + the King sends an expedition to anticipate Columbus's discovery, + 153; + Columbus's second visit, 168; + the bull of demarcation, 254; + negotiations with Spain, 255; + her pursuit of African discovery, 334; + establishes claims in South America, through the voyage of Cabral, + 377; + sends out Coelho (1501), 410; + settlements on the Labrador coast, 415; + maps in, falsified, 417; + the spread of cartographical ideas, 423; + earliest maps, 533, 534; + denies them to other nations, 534; + her seamen on the Newfoundland coast, 555, 556; + push the African route to the Moluccas, 569; + on the coast of Brazil, 570; + on the Pacific coast, 592; + cartographical progress in, 602. + + Prado, prior of, 508. + + Prescott's, W. H., _Ferdinand and Isabella_, 57; on Columbus, 501, + 503. + + Ptolemy, influence of, 91, 529, 638; + portrait, 530; + maps in, 530, 531, 627; + editions, 108; + (1511), 577; + (1513), 544, 545, 546, 582, 584; + (Stobnicza), 578; + (1522), 588; + (1525), 588; + (1535), 555, 588; + (1541), 588. + + + Queen's Gardens, 293, 299. + + Quibian, 450; + his attacks, 451; + captured, 451; + escapes, 451. + + Quinsay, 121, 124, 566, 607. + + Quintanilla, Alonzo de, 158, 165, 176, 178. + + + Rabida, Convent of, 154; + at what date was Columbus there? 155, 173. + + Rae, J. E. S., 12. + + Ralegh, Sir Walter, his American projects, 647. + + Ramusio on Columbus, 37. + + Regiomontanus, 94, 301; + his astrolabe, 95, 96; + _Ephemerides_, 131. + + Reinel, Pedro, his map, 534. + + Reisch, _Margarita Phil._, 582, 587, 601; + map, 583, 587. + + Remesal's _Chyapa_, 161. + + Rene, Duke of Provence, 82, 538, 543. + + Repartimientos, 314, 506, 507, 518. + + Resende, Garcia de, _Choronica_, 33. + + Ribero, map of the Antilles, 383; + map (1529), 562, 605; + invents a ship's pump, 603; + at the Seville conference, 604. + + Ringmann, M., 538. + + Rink, Henrik, 146. + + Riquelme, Pedro, 389, 390. + + Robertson, Wm., _America_, 55. + + Robertus Monarchus, _Bellum Christianorum Principum_, 17. + + Roberval, 614. + + Rodriguez, Sebastian, 175. + + Roldan revolts, 362, 366; + reinstated, 370; + sent to confront Ojeda, 374; + watched by Moxica, 389; + sails for Spain, 440; + lost, 440. + + Romans on the Atlantic, 127. + + Roselly de Lorgues, his efforts to effect canonization of + Columbus, 53, 60, 503, 505. + + Ross, Sir John, 651. + + Rotz, map, 612; + _Boke of Idiography_, 613. + + Roxo, Cape, passed, 99. + + Rubruquis, 90, 121. + + Ruscelli, his map, 616, 617. + + Rut, John, 601. + + Ruy de Pina, archivist of Portugal, 33, 149. + + Ruysch, map, 143, 532; + _Ptolemy_, 341. + + + Sabellicus, 103. + + Sacrobosco. _See_ Holywood. + + Sagas, 146. + + Saguenay River, 616. + + St. Brandan's Island, 112. + + St. Dié, college at, 538. + + St. Jerome, monks of, 508. + + St. Lawrence, Gulf of, 612. + + St. Thomas (fort), 287. + + St. Thomas (island), 231. + + Saints' days, suggest geographical names, 229. + + Salamanca, council of, 161, 164; + University, 162. + + Salcedo, Diego de, goes to Jamaica, 471. + + Samaot, 221. + + San Jorge da Mina, 134. + + San Salvador, 211, 215. + + Sanarega, Bart., 21, 30. + + Sanchez, Gabriel, letter to, 11. + + Sanchez, Juan, 451; + killed, 470. + + Sanchez, Rodrigo, 209. + + Sandacourt, J. B. de, 540. + + Santa Cruz, Alonso de, 203. + + Santa Cruz (island), 271. + + Santa Maria de la Concepcion, 220. + + Santa Maria de las Cuevas, 25. + + Santangel, Luis de, 11, 175, 178. + + Santo Domingo, archives, 26; + founded, 360; + cathedral at, 492, 493. + + Sanuto, Livio, _Geographia_, 201. + + Sanuto, Marino, his diary, 421; + cartographer, 86. + + Sargasso Sea, 204. + + Savona, records of, 20; + the Colombos of, 74. + + Saxo Grammaticus, 147. + + Schöner, Johann, his globe, 551, 572; + his charges against Vespucius, 554; + _Opusculum geographicum_, 555, 567, 607; + _Luculentissima descriptio_, 587; + portrait, 588; + _De insulis_, 589; + his alleged globe, 589, 590; + his variable beliefs, 607. + + Schouten defines Tierra del Fuego, 577. + + Sea-atlases, 603. + + Sea of Darkness, 86, 243; + fantastic islands of, 111. + + Sea-manuals, 630. + + Seamanship, early, 92. + + Seneca, his _Medea_, 118. + + Servetus, his _Ptolemy_, 555. + + Seven Cities, Island of. _See_ Antillia. + + Sevilla d'Oro, 471. + + Seville, archives at, 23; + cathedral of, 171; + cartographical conference at, 603. + + Shea, J. G., on the _Historie_, 46; + on the canonization of Columbus, 54; + onColumbus, 504. + + Ships (fifteenth century), 82; + speed of, 94; + of Columbus's time, 192, 193. + + Sierra Leone discovered, 101. + + Silber, Franck, the printer, 15. + + Simancas, archives, 22, 23; + view of the building, 24. + + Skralingeland, 145. + + Slavery, efforts of Columbus to place the Indians in, 220, 230, 281, + 282, 311, 314, 318, 327, 331, 360, 367, 371, 394, 402, 403, 429, + 437, 472, 482, 505, 506; + after Columbus's time, 518, 520. + + Smith, Captain John, his explorations, 649. + + Smith, Sir Thomas, 630. + + Solinus, 107. + + Soria, Juan de, 257. + + Sousa, A. C. de, _Hist. Geneal._, 27. + + South America, earliest picture of the natives, 336; + earliest seen, 352; + its coast nomenclature, 412; + supposed southern cape, 573. _See_ America. + + Southern cross first seen, 99, 376. + + Spain, archives of, 22; + publication of, 28, 29; + _Cartas de Indias_, 29; + Columbus in, 154; + the Genoese in, 157; + map of (1482), 165; + powerful grandees, 172; + the bull of demarcation, 254; + suspicious of Portugal, 254; + council for the Indies, 257; + plans expedition to the north, 413; + her authority in the Indies, 481; + the Crown's suit with Diego Colon, 514, 553; + King Ferdinand dies, 520; + Charles V., 523; + Philip II., 523; + her secretiveness about maps, 534, 554, 560, 627, 639; + earliest accounts of America, 587; + her seamen in the St. Lawrence region, 555; + on the Atlantic coast, 560; + council of the Indies instituted, 591; + failure to publish map in, 602; + Casa de la Contratacion, 603; + her sea-manuals, 630. + + Spotorno, Father, _Codice diplom. Colom. Americano_, 4; + _La Tavola di Bronzo_, 5. + + Square Gulf, 613. + + Staglieno, the Genoese antiquary, 21, 75. + + Stamler, Johannis, 543. + + Stephanius, Sigurd, his map, 144, 145. + + Stevens, Henry, 533; + on the _Historie_, 45; + on La Cosa's map, 385; + his _Schöner_, 424. + + Stevens, edition of Herrera, 55. + + Stimmer, Tobias, 64. + + Stobnicza's introduction to Ptolemy, 578; + his map, 580, 581, 585. + + Stockfish, 128, 340. + + Strabo, 107. + + Straits of Hercules, voyages beyond, 81. + + Strong, Richard, 646. + + Sumner, George, 246. + + Sylvanus, his edition of Ptolemy first gave maps of the Cortereal + discoveries, 419; + edits Ptolemy, 577; + his map, 579. + + Sylvius, Æneas, _Historia_, 7. + + + Talavera, Fernando de, 156, 508; + and Columbus's projects, 161, 176. + + Teneriffe, 195. + + Terra Verde, 416, 420. + + Thevet, André, his stories, 633. + + Thorne, Robt., map (1527), 600-602. + + Thyle, 135. + + Ticknor, George, 10. + + Tobacco, 225. + + Tobago, 355. + + Tordesillas, treaty of, 310. + + Torre do Tombo, archives, 25. + + Torres, Antonio de, returns to Spain in command of fleet, 282, 317. + + Tortuga, 228, 229. + + Toscanelli, Paolo, 499; his letters, 7, 107-109; + his map, 49, 109, 110, 191; + dies, 117. + + Triana, Rodrigo de, 211. + + Trinidad, 350. + + Tristan, Diego, his fate, 452, 453. + + Tritemius, _Epistolarum libri_, 412. + + Trivigiano, A., translates Peter Martyr, 35; + _Libretto_, 36; + his letters, 420. + + Tross gores, 547. + + + Ulloa, Francisco de, 610. + + Ullua, Alfonso de, 44. + + Ulpius globe, 597. + + Usselinx, W., 20, 649. + + + Vadianus, portrait, 585. + + Vallejo, Alonso de, 347. + + Valsequa's map, 88. + + Vancouver, 658. + + Variation. _See_ Needle. + + Varnhagen on the first letter of Columbus, 14; + and the early cartography, 382, 386. + + Vasconcellos, 149. + + Vatican archives, 22; + maps, 633. + + Vaulx, 616. + + Velasco, Pedro de, 156. + + Vega Real, 286; + its natives, 288. + + Venegas, _California_, 658. + + Venezuela, named by Ojeda, 373. + + Venice, cartographers of, 629. + + Veradus, 17. + + Veragua, map, 446; + characteristics of its coast, 447; + its abortive settlement, 456; + Duke of, title given to Columbus's grandson, 523. + + Verde, Simone, 283, 347. + + Verde, Cape, reached, 98. + + Verrazano on the Atlantic coast, 592, 593; + map, 594; + his voyage disputed, 595; + his so-called sea, 596, 646; + discoveries, 633. + + Verzellino, G. V., his memoirs, 21. + + Vespucius, Americus, and the naming of America, 30; + engaged in fitting out the second expedition of Columbus, 258; + supposed voyage (1497), 336; + controversy over, 338; + his character as a writer, 359; + his first voyage, 373; + in Coelho's fleet, 410; + his _Mundus Novus_, 410, 411, 542; + relations to the early cartography, 412; + his name bestowed on the New World, 36, 412, 538-555; + personal relations with Columbus, 484; + his narrative, 485; + writes an account of his voyage, 538; + portrait, 539; + his narrative published, 540; + his discoveries compared with those of Columbus, 542, 543; + miscalled Albericus, 543; + suspects gravitation, 543; + not called in the Columbus lawsuit, 553; + charged with being privy to the naming of America, 553, 554; + pilot major, 553; + dies, 553; + his map, 553; + his fame in England, 554. + + Vienna, geographers at, 585. + + Villalobos, 612. + + Vinci, Leonardo da, his map, 581, 582. + + Vinland, 144, 146. + + Virginia, named, 648; map, 654, 655. + + Viscaino, Sebastian, 652. + + Vopel, Gaspar, his globe, 607. + + Volterra, Maffei de, 32. + + Vries, De, 652. + + + Wagenaer, Lucas, his _Spieghel_, 603. + + Waldseemüller, his career, 540; + _Cosmographiæ Introductio_, 540; + its title, 541; + edits Ptolemy, 546, 582; + his map, 412. + + Walker, John, 646. + + Warsaw codex (Ptolemy), map, 635-637. + + Watling's Island, 216. + + Watt, Joachim. _See_ Vadianus. + + Waymouth, George, 650. + + West India Company, 649. + + White, John, his map, 597, 599. + + Winsor, Justin, _America_, 59. + + Wright, Edw., improves Mercator's projection, 637. + + Wytfliet, his maps, 630, 631. + + + Xaragua, 305; made subject, 361, 473. + + Ximenes in power, 520. + + + Yucatan, 629; discovered, 565, 567. + + + Zarco, 87. + + Zeni, the, 138, 634; + their map, 634, 635; + their influence, 642. + + Ziegler, _Schondia_ and its map, 615, 617. + + Zoana mela, 582, 583. + + Zorzi _or_ Montalboddo, _Paesi novamente retrovati_, 36. + + Zuñiga, Diego Ortiz de, on Seville, 169. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Christopher Columbus and How He +Received and Imparted the Spirit of Discovery, by Justin Winsor + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42059 *** |