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CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS
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 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 th
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SOURCES, AND THE GATHERERS OF THEM.
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. 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 p
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BIOGRAPHERS AND PORTRAITISTS.
BIOGRAPHERS AND PORTRAITISTS.
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 ar
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THE ANCESTRY AND HOME OF COLUMBUS.
THE ANCESTRY AND HOME OF COLUMBUS.
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
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THE UNCERTAINTIES OF THE EARLY LIFE OF COLUMBUS.
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 d
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THE ALLUREMENTS OF PORTUGAL.
THE ALLUREMENTS OF 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
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COLUMBUS IN PORTUGAL.
COLUMBUS IN PORTUGAL.
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 t
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WAS COLUMBUS IN THE NORTH?
WAS COLUMBUS IN THE NORTH?
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, whe
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COLUMBUS LEAVES PORTUGAL FOR SPAIN.
COLUMBUS LEAVES PORTUGAL FOR SPAIN.
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 whic
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THE FINAL AGREEMENT AND THE FIRST VOYAGE, 1492.
THE FINAL AGREEMENT AND THE FIRST VOYAGE, 1492.
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. 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
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AMONG THE ISLANDS AND THE RETURN VOYAGE.
AMONG THE ISLANDS AND THE RETURN VOYAGE.
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
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COLUMBUS IN SPAIN AGAIN; MARCH TO SEPTEMBER, 1493.
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 dis
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THE SECOND VOYAGE.
THE SECOND VOYAGE.
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 a
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THE SECOND VOYAGE, CONTINUED.
THE SECOND VOYAGE, CONTINUED.
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
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THE SECOND VOYAGE, CONTINUED.
THE SECOND VOYAGE, CONTINUED.
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. 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
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IN SPAIN, 1496-1498.
IN SPAIN, 1496-1498.
"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
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THE THIRD VOYAGE.
THE THIRD VOYAGE.
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
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THE DEGRADATION AND DISHEARTENMENT OF COLUMBUS.
THE DEGRADATION AND DISHEARTENMENT OF COLUMBUS.
Columbus, writing to the Spanish sovereigns from Española, said, in reference to the lifelong opposition which he had encountered:— "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 i
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COLUMBUS AGAIN IN SPAIN.
COLUMBUS AGAIN IN SPAIN.
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 degrade
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THE FOURTH VOYAGE.
THE FOURTH VOYAGE.
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 1
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COLUMBUS'S LAST YEARS.—DEATH AND CHARACTER.
COLUMBUS'S LAST YEARS.—DEATH AND CHARACTER.
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 con
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THE DESCENT OF COLUMBUS'S HONORS.
THE DESCENT OF COLUMBUS'S HONORS.
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. The descent of his titles depended
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THE COLUMBUS PEDIGREE.
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. 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
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THE GEOGRAPHICAL RESULTS.
THE GEOGRAPHICAL RESULTS.
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 tw
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