LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 
 
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 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
 
 M^. 
 
Christopher-Columbus 
 
 By FRANC B. WILKIE 
 
 CHICAGO 
 
 CHARLES H. SERGEI & COMPANY 
 iSO Dearborn Street 
 
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CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 
 
A LIFE OF 
 
 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 
 
 By FRANC B. WILKIE 
 
 . 7 
 
 6 i VC X 
 
 CHICAGO 
 CHARLES H. SERGEL & COMPANY 
 
Copyright, 1892, by 
 Charles H. Sergel & CoMPAHy 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 I. — Curious — Strange — Contradictory. . . 7 
 
 II.— Geographical Knowledge in the Fifteenth Cen- 
 tury. . . . . .10 
 
 III. — The Birthplaces of the Discoverer. . 14 
 
 IV. — Early Life of Columbus. , , 18 
 
 V. — The Reasons which Prompted Columbus. . 24 
 
 VI. — The Real Columbus Makes his Appearance. 29 
 
 VII. — Columbus Wanders into Spain. . 35 
 
 VIII. — First Efforts of Columbus in Spain. . 40 
 
 IX. — Columbus again Recalled to Court — Queen 
 
 Isabella. .... 47 
 
 ^ X.: — Preparations for Departure. - . 57 
 
 XI.— Into the "Sea of Darkness." . . 64 
 
 XII.— The New World. . . . .71 
 
 XIII. — Columbus Reaches Cuba. . . 77 
 
 XIV. — Homeward Bound. . . . .90 
 
 XV.— Visits Portugal— Then Home. . . 97 
 
 XVI. — The Reception at Palos. . . . 102 
 
 XVII. — Preparations for a Second Voyage to the New 
 
 World. .... log 
 
 XVIII. — Guadaloupe and the Caribs. . • 115 
 
 XIX. — Further Facts in Regard to La Navidad. 125 
 
 XX. — The Building of a New City — Maladies. 132 
 
 XXI. — The Fame of Columbus on the Wane. . 140 
 
 (V) 
 
% 
 vi CONTENTS 
 
 XXII. — Troubles with the Natives — Ojeda and Cao- 
 
 nabo. ..... 147 
 
 XXIII. — Last Days of Columbus in the New World — 
 
 Returns to Spain. . . - 153 
 
 XXIV. — Closing Days of Columbus — Death of Isabella. 160 
 XXV. — Columbus Sees Ferdinand — Treated with 
 
 Cold Contempt. .... 167 
 
 XXVI.— Death of the Explorer. . . .173 
 
 XXVII. — Some Estimates of the Character of Columbus. 179 
 
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 
 
 CHARTER I 
 
 CURIOUS, STRANGE, AND CONTRADICTORY 
 
 Christopher Columbus is a figure in history 
 which presents all the variations, the shiftings, 
 the many-colored lights of a kaleidescope. 
 He has no fixed name in the language of the 
 nation. He is Columbus, Columbo, Colon, 
 Colonus; he is Christoval Colon, and Christo- 
 pher Columbus. 
 
 He is claimed by the residents of several 
 places as having been born in their respective 
 localities ; he was descended from noble fami- 
 lies, and his father was a humble wool-comber. 
 He was educated at a university, he assisted 
 his father in his lowly occupation. He was a 
 student, a wool-comber, and a sailor at the 
 immature age of fourteen years. He was 
 familiar with geography, and yet,, as the facts 
 subsequently established, he scarcely knew its 
 simplest rudiments. These are only a few of 
 the contrarieties in his life as recorded in his- 
 tory. 
 
8 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 
 
 He discovered America, and yet he did noth- 
 ing of the kind. This Northern half of the 
 American Continent is about to celebrate the 
 four hundredth anniversary of a discovery which 
 he never made. The enormous region known 
 as North America, he did not discover, he 
 never even dreamed of its existence. 
 
 He did not undertake his voyage influenced 
 by the slightest idea that a new world was to 
 be found ; it was a different approach to an old 
 world, India, that he sought, and he died in 
 the belief that it was the coasts of India that 
 he had encountered ; hence the name "West 
 Indies" given to the islands that confronted 
 him as he sailed westward. 
 
 He was a tramp, a pauper, a beggar, a 
 viceroy with unlimited wealth, a satrap with 
 power to bind and loose, and a mendicant 
 spurned from the gates of the rich and noble. 
 He was a ragged, bare-footed vagrant, and the 
 welcome guest in the palaces of royalty, and 
 the bosom friend of kings and queens. He 
 was despised, and inundated with adulation. 
 His fame Was wreathed with golden decora- 
 tions intended to do him honor, and with rusty 
 chains of iron calculated to inflict on him 
 humiliation and disgrace. He dined from ves- 
 sels of precious metal, and munched crusts in 
 
^ CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 9 
 
 squalor in the slums and by the lonely road- 
 side of the country across which he journeyed, 
 weary and footsore. 
 
 He died, this great man, and to-day, no one 
 knows with any certainty where his ashes are 
 interred. Several cities claim the honor ; it is 
 only known that he died in one continent, that 
 his remains were shipped to another, that he 
 was buried in a certain place ; that long after 
 the relics were removed, as claimed by some, 
 and that it was the grave of some other person 
 which gave up its contents, as is asserted by 
 others. 
 
 Such are some of the salient things connected 
 with the birth, life, death and sepulture of a 
 character whose anniversary the civilized 
 nations are about to celebrate v/ith a splendor, 
 a magnificence, and grandeur of dimensions 
 never before extended to any human being. 
 
 It is with the facts, so far as they may be 
 attainable, of this marvelous development of 
 the fifteenth century, that these pages will deal, 
 and the writer hopes that such of the public as 
 may accompany him, may find the labor at 
 once pleasant and instructive. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 GEOGRAPHICAL KNOWLEDGE IN THE FIFTEENTH 
 CENTURY 
 
 Much was surmised, guessed at, dreamed of, 
 and speculated about concerning the shape of 
 the earth, the respective extent of its land and 
 water. Civilization was limited mainly to the 
 region lying along the northern shores of the 
 Mediterranean. 
 
 The shape of the earth was a disputed 
 question. That it was a globe was believed 
 by but a few ; the priesthood, as a rule, averred 
 that the theory of the sphericity of the earth 
 was an absurdity, for the reason that if it were 
 true one half the people would be standing 
 with their heads hanging down, which was a 
 physical impossibility. The religious elements 
 asserted that such a conclusion was contrary 
 to the teachings of the Bible, and hence its 
 belief was blasphemous and heretical. 
 
 The known area of the earth was limited in 
 its dimensions. Europe was fairly mapped 
 
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS ii 
 
 out ; Africa was, in the first half of the century 
 known along its western shores for a short dis- 
 tance south of the Mediterranean Sea; and it 
 was not till the last quarter of the century that 
 a Portuguese navigator rounded the Cape of 
 Good Hope, and staved the prevalent belief 
 that Africa extended to the "jumping off" limits 
 of the earth. 
 
 The existence of a portion of Asia was known 
 to the Venetians and other Italians who car- 
 ried on with India a lucrative trade. The 
 distance, however, was very great, being on 
 rivers, seas, and by caravans. Could the same 
 points in southern Asia be reached by water, 
 the cost of the transportation of Indian prod- 
 ucts would be immeasurably lessened. The 
 general conviction that Africa extends out to 
 the end of the world, for centuries forbade an 
 attempt to sail around it to reach India. 
 
 The further borders of India were the themes 
 of startling legends and fanciful conjectures. 
 It was believed to be the El Dorado of the 
 earth, in which abounded, beyond exhaustion, 
 all the precious metals, stones, pearls, useful 
 minerals, spices, perfumes, textile stuffs, the 
 plumage of birds, and, in fine, all the natural 
 materials which constitute wealth, and which 
 are demanded to satisfy the wants of luxury. 
 
12 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 
 
 All these beliefs had been stimulated by 
 vague reports emanating from the remoter por- 
 tions of India visited by commercial "drum- 
 mers" in their search for goods. Marco Polo 
 had left statements of what he had seen in 
 farther India; of islands abounding in gold, of 
 cities marvelous in their great dimensions, the 
 beauty of their architecture, and the splendors 
 and opulence of the natives. 
 
 In their attempts to reach India the nations 
 interested were led by Portugal, whose ambi- 
 tion in the direction of discovery on the ocean 
 excelled that of all other peoples. During 
 the reign of John I. his son, Prince Henry, 
 became interested in the scheme of circumnav- 
 igating Africa, and gathered about him emi- 
 nent men familiar with astronomy and naviga- 
 tion, believing that b}^ this course he could 
 open an easv route to the sources of the fabled 
 wealth of Western India. Irving says : — 
 
 "The effects of these proceedings were soon 
 apparent. " All that was known relative to geog- 
 raphy and navigation was gathered together 
 and reduced to system. A vast improvement 
 took place in maps. The compass was also 
 brought into more general use, especially 
 among the Portuguese, rendering the mariner 
 iriore bold and venturous, by enabling him to 
 
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 13 
 
 navigate in the most gloomy day and in the 
 darkest night. The Portuguese marine became 
 signalized for the hardihood of its enterprises 
 and the extent of its discoveries. The region 
 of the tropics was penetrated and divested of 
 its fancied terrors, and the Azores Islands, 
 which lay three hundred leagues distant from 
 the continent, were rescued from the oblivious 
 empire of the ocean." 
 
 Unfortunately Prince Henry died some 
 thirty years before the first voyage of Columbus, 
 but his life and actions had stimulated the 
 Portuguese ambition for discovery, and that 
 people, says a writer, "were the wonder and 
 admiration of the Fifteenth Century, and Por- 
 tugal, from being one of the least among nations, 
 suddenly rose to be one of the most impor- 
 tant. * * * The fame of the Portuguese 
 discoveries, and of the expeditions continually 
 setting out, drew the attention of the world. 
 Strangers from all parts, the learned, the curi- 
 ous, and the adventurous, resorted to Lisbon 
 to inquire into the particulars or participate in 
 the advantages of these enterprises." 
 
 Among the other hundreds of thousands 
 who were attracted by the splendid achieve- 
 ments of Portugal, and who went there, was 
 Christopher Columbus. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE BIRTHPLACES OF THE DISCOVERER 
 
 It is the general conclusion that Columbus 
 was born in Genoa, in about 1445, and that he 
 was the son of a humble wool-comber, and 
 the eldest of four children, three of whom 
 were boys. There has been, however, a wide 
 difference of opinion on this point of place of 
 birth. 
 
 As in the case of Homer, m.any cities claimed 
 Columbus dead in which, when living, he had 
 received no recognition. The States of Placen- 
 tia, and those of Piedmont both claimed to be 
 entitled to tfee-honor of having given birth to 
 the famous navigator, although the first-named 
 provinces failed to present their evidence till 
 nearly two hundred years after Columbus had 
 discovered the West India Islands. 
 
 An examination of the evidence presented by 
 
 Placentia, made by a committee of experts 
 
 from the Genoese Academy of Sciences, as late 
 
 as 1812, elicited the fact that the claim was to 
 14 
 
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 15 
 
 the effect that Columbus was born in a small 
 place known as Pradello. It was established 
 that the great grandfather of Columbus was the 
 owner of some property in that place, and that 
 the rent was paid to members of the Colum- 
 bus family living in Genoa. Nothing, however, 
 was discovered which connected the navigator 
 with Pradello further than this remote owner- 
 ship of some property. 
 
 Piedmont made a much more plausible show- 
 ing than Placentia. It was proved that a 
 Columbus was living in Montferrat, at the 
 date of the birth of Christopher, and who was 
 asserted to be the son of Dominico Columbo, 
 the resident of Montferrat. It was proved 
 in a suit instituted by a descendant of this 
 Dominico Columbo, who sought to secure the 
 estates of Christopher Columbus, when his 
 line became extinct, that there were two men 
 named Dominico Columbo, and that the ' one 
 at Montferrat was not the father of the navi- 
 gator. 
 
 It was finally decided that he was born in 
 Genoa, but whether in the city itself, or in 
 some other part of the Genoese territory has 
 never been determined. A half a dozen towns 
 whose names are known have presented claims, 
 in Genoese territory, and a greater number of 
 
1 6 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 
 
 others whose names are unknown. Among 
 the former are Savona, Cogoleto, Oneglia, Bog- 
 giasco, and Finale. From time to time each 
 of these towns has held first place in the con- 
 test for the birthplace of Columbus. Savona, 
 although not in the field as a contestant, till 
 a late day, 1826, made a magnificent burst of 
 speed, and, in the opinion of its friends, won the 
 prize. 
 
 Bellero an advocate of Savona, in a letter, 
 published in May 1826, says: — 
 
 "It is an admitted fact that Dominico Colum- 
 bo was, for many years a resident and citizen 
 of Savona in which place one Christopher 
 Columbus is shown to have signed a document 
 in 1472. 
 
 "A public square in the city bore the name of 
 Platea Columbi, toward the end of the sixteenth 
 century, and it was shown that the Ligurian 
 government gave the name of Jurisdizione di 
 Columbi to that district of the republic, under 
 the belief that the great navigator was a native 
 of Savona; and that Columbus gave the name 
 of Savona to a little island, adjacent to His- 
 paniola, among his earliest discoveries." 
 
 The letter of Signor Belloro quotes a large 
 number of authorities to establish the claims 
 of Savona \ but despite this, posterity, in the 
 
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 17 
 
 case of the majority, has agreed to unite on 
 the city of Genoa as the birthplace of Colum- 
 bus. The locality of his birthplace plays no 
 important part whatever in the results of his 
 living. It is not the place where he was born, 
 or in which he died, or was finally buried 
 which cuts any figure in his services. He 
 might have leaped out of the darkness of the 
 past, at the moment he appeared at Lisbon, 
 and the world would have missed nothing of 
 value if the obscurity of his origin had never 
 been penetrated. 
 
 It is said by Prescott in "Ferdinand and 
 Isabella" :— 
 
 "The discrepancies among the earliest 
 
 authorities are such as to render hopeless any 
 
 attempt to settle with precision the chronology 
 
 of Columbus* movements previous to his first 
 
 voyage." It was in 1470 that Columbus went 
 
 to Portugal where he remained fourteen years. 
 2 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 EARLY LIFE OF COLUMBUS 
 
 Very little is positively known of the early 
 life of Columbus, except two or three points 
 upon which there is a certain amount of agree- 
 ment between the various writers. There is 
 no doubt that his parents were very poor, and 
 that his education was limited mainly to such 
 studies as would fit him for the life of a sailor. 
 
 It is asserted by some writers that he had 
 some knowledge of Latin, drawing, geometry, 
 geography, astronomy, and navigation. He 
 had a few months at the University of Pavia; 
 and at the age of fourteen he went to sea. It 
 is stated by some authorities that his career 
 as a sailor was more or less connected with 
 transactions of a piratical character. It is also 
 said that during periods when he was ashore, 
 between his various voyages, he was engaged 
 as a book seller and a map pedler, in Genoa. 
 
 Fancy the great genius that discovered Amer- 
 ica acting as a book agent! 
 
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 19 
 
 When Columbus was twenty-four years of 
 age, according to some authorities, Alphonso 
 of Aragon, King of Naples, threatened an inva- 
 sion of Genoa. An appeal was made to Charles, 
 King of France, Italy refusing to assist the 
 menaced city. The king sent John, of Anjou, 
 who took command of the town and placed the 
 city in a condition of defense. 
 
 Alphonso died before the preparations for 
 the attack had been completed, and the assault 
 on Genoa was abandoned. Immediately after- 
 ward, John, of Anjou, undertook to attack Na- 
 ples for the recovery of the crown. The peo- 
 ple of Genoa sided with him, furnishing him 
 with ships and money. It is stated that Colum- 
 bus served in this army and played a very 
 gallant part. 
 
 While in Portugal Columbus joined the expe- 
 dition of the Portuguese ships which were mak- 
 ing explorations along the eastern African coast. 
 They landed at Porto Santo, of the Madeiras 
 which was governed by Perestrello, who had 
 been a captain in the Portuguese navy and 
 who had died leaving a daughter to whom 
 Columbus was married. He lived for some 
 time at the home of the widow, and availed 
 himself of the papers and charts which had 
 been gathered by the late governor. His son 
 Diego was born on this island in 1474. 
 
20 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 
 
 It was about this time that he had some cor- 
 respondence with an Italian, Toscanelli, an 
 eminent scientific student, in regard to the 
 possibilities of finding land to the westward. 
 With reference to this, Justin Winsor says : 
 
 "Meanwhile gathering what hope he could 
 by reading the ancients, by conferring with 
 wise men, and by questioning mariners return- 
 ing from voyages which had borne them more 
 or less westerly on the great ocean, Columbus 
 suffered the thought to germinate in his mind 
 as it would for several years. Even on the 
 voyages that he made hither and thither for 
 gain, once far north to Iceland, even, or per- 
 haps only to the Faroe Islands, as is inferred, 
 and in active participation in various maraud- 
 ing and warlike expeditions, like the attack 
 on the Venetian galleys near Cape St. Vincent, 
 in 1485, he constantly came in contact with 
 those who could give him hints affecting his 
 theory. Through all these years, however, we 
 know not certainly what were the vicissitudes 
 that fell to his lot." 
 
 At this period, about 1470, the cause that 
 landed Columbus in Portugal is ascribed by 
 some writers to an event that is undoubtedly 
 apocryphal. It is said that there was a Columbo 
 the Younger, a Genoese corsair, in whose expe- 
 
CHRISTOPHRR COLUMBUS 21 
 
 ditions Columbus sometimes shared. On the 
 occasion that he found himself in Portugal, he 
 was acting as captain of one of the ships of 
 the squadron of Columbo the Younger. 
 
 The latter attacked four Venetian galleys, 
 laden with rich stuffs, which were on their 
 return voyage. The attack was made off the 
 coast of Portugal not far from Lisbon. A 
 battle which lasted all day, ensued, and was 
 fought with desperation, and bloody results. 
 
 The accounts of the contest say that the 
 ship commanded by Columbus was engaged 
 with one of the largest of the Venetian galleys 
 and that they fastened together with grappling 
 irons, and both were enveloped in flames. 
 The crews jumped into the sea. Columbus, 
 supported by an oar, swam to the shore a dis- 
 tance of two leagues, and soon after made his 
 way to Lisbon. 
 
 This adventure is narrated by his son Fer- 
 nando, and for a long time, up to within the 
 last century, was accepted as a reliable narra- 
 tion. Later authorities, however, deny its 
 authenticity and assert that while it may be 
 that Columbus took part in the naval battle, 
 he was living in Lisbon, where he had been 
 for some time. 
 
 Portugal, at this period, led all the other 
 
22 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 
 
 nations of Europe in maritime explorations, and 
 on this account, adventurers from all quarters 
 flocked to the Portuguese capital. It is prob- 
 able that the reputation of the ambition and 
 activity of the Portuguese for exploration 
 attracted the attention of Columbus, and 
 brought him to the great center of maritime 
 operations. 
 
 He had accepted the theory of the globular 
 form of the earth, and believed that by sailing 
 westward on the Atlantic, he would find not 
 a new world, but the opposite shores of India. 
 He had read the marvelous accounts of Man- 
 deville and Marco Polo, and fully believed the 
 statements in regard to Cathay, and the Island 
 of Cipango, whose richness excelled descrip- 
 tion, and the enormous wealth of the Indies. 
 
 It was to reach this island, to discover a 
 short route to the thither shore of India that 
 became the dominant idea of Columbus. The 
 conception of a continent, one unknown, 
 between Europe and India, never once entered 
 his mind. 
 
 Whether or not Columbus presented his 
 plans, for discovering a shorter route, first 
 to the king of Portugal, or to Genoa and 
 Venice, is not certainly known. It may be 
 that he approached his native city immediately 
 
CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 23 
 
 after leaving Portugal, which would permit 
 the inference that he had failed to make an 
 impression on the Portuguese king. In any 
 case, neither the Genoese nor the Venetians 
 would listen to his schemes. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 THE REASONS WHICH PROMPTED COLUMBUS 
 
 The son of Columbus furnishes the data, or 
 supposed data, on which the navigator founded 
 his plan of discovery. 
 
 There were three principal considerations. 
 The first was the conviction that the earth 
 was a globe which might be traveled around 
 without insuperable difficulty. The second 
 was the opinion of eminent writers that the 
 ocean west of Europe must be limited in its 
 extent. 
 
 Under the third head are grouped evidences 
 of a countr}^ in the west from which have 
 drifted many objects, impelled by the winds. 
 Fernando relates that he found among his 
 father's notes various incidents of this kind. 
 For instance, a Portuguese pilot, after sailing 
 four hundred and fifty leagues to the west, 
 found, in the water, a piece of carved wood 
 which, carried by a west wind, must have 
 
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 25 
 
 come from some land in that direction. Other 
 notes record that the King of Portugal had 
 learned of reeds of large dimensions which 
 had floated from the west, and which Columbus 
 believed to be of the kind spoken of by an 
 ancient writer as growing in India. 
 
 It is probable that among other influences, 
 the letter of Dr. Paul Toscanelli, a Florentine, 
 was not the least influential in confirming his 
 belief that India would be reached by sailing 
 to the west. It was in 1474, that this famous 
 letter was penned: and in it the learned astron- 
 omer asserted his belief that not more than 
 fifty-two degrees of longitude separated Asia 
 from western Europe, which was far less than 
 the estimate made by Columbus. 
 
 This letter was not written to Columbus, but 
 to a dignitary named Martinez, in Lisbon, and 
 was accompanied by a map which, says Winsor, 
 "was professedly based on information derived 
 from the book of Marco Polo. " At the request 
 of Columbus, Toscanelli sent a copy of the 
 letter accompanied by a map, giving his view 
 of the location of India west from Europe. 
 
 These are some of the legitimate influences 
 that operated to turn the attention of the 
 Genoese sailor to the possibilities of reaching 
 Asia by sailing west on the Atlantic. There 
 
26 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 
 
 are other reasons assigned for his apparent 
 certainty as to what was to be found in such a 
 vo37age. It is claimed b}^ some authorities that 
 he had an actual knowledge of a land in the 
 west which he obtained from the information 
 of one who had seen it. 
 
 A narration prevailed in the sixteenth and 
 seventeenth centuries to the effect that a 
 Spanish pilot on a vo^^age from Madeira, had 
 been driven west till he had encountered land, 
 which it is claimed was Hispaniola, which 
 Columbus afterward discovered. On his return 
 he was shipwrecked, and found a home with 
 Columbus. It is said that he remained in this 
 shelter till he died, leaving his notes and 
 secret with his host. This account has been 
 scouted by some, and believed by others. 
 
 A Spanish author, La Vega, claims to haA^e 
 received the story from his father who had 
 visited the Spanish Court during the reign of 
 Ferdinand and Isabella. The death of the 
 Spanish pilot occurred in 1484, in time to have 
 permitted Columbus to use the information 
 providing there were any of the kind. 
 
 Columbus made a voyage to Iceland in 1477, 
 and it is thought by some that he may have 
 seen the Sagas of the voyages of Northmen to 
 the American coast. There are many claim- 
 
CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 27 
 
 ants to having visited various portions of the 
 western continent. One was Cortereal a Por- 
 tuguese who, it is affirmed, landed at the banks 
 of Newfoundland, in 1463-1464. John Szkolny, 
 a Polish navigator in the service of Denmark 
 is alleged to have landed at Labrador, in 1476; 
 Cousin, a Frenchman is accredited with having, 
 while on his way to Africa, in 1488-1489, been 
 driven by a storm on the coast of South Amer- 
 ica. 
 
 The application of the astrolabe to navi- 
 gation — the discovery of two Portuguese, Jew- 
 ish physicians — came opportunely to aid 
 Columbus. Hitherto ships had always sailed 
 within sight of the land. The astrolabe per- 
 mitted the sailor to ascertain the height of the 
 sun above the horizon and thus learn his dis- 
 tance from the equator. It has been modified 
 until it is now the modern quadrant. The dis- 
 covery gave a vast impetus to navigation as 
 it, in connection with the compass, enabled 
 ships to cut loose from the slavery of sailing 
 by points of land, and to venture out into 
 unknown waters. 
 
 It is worthy of note that but little furnished 
 by the historians and biographers of Columbus 
 anterior to his first voyage in search of India 
 are in agreement as to many dates, the nature 
 
28 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 
 
 of actions, or even, in many instances, to the 
 actors themselves. For instance, it is denied 
 by later authorities that Columbus ever applied 
 to the Genoese to undertake to supply him 
 with means to make his initial voyage of dis- 
 covery. Doubt is thrown on the long enter- 
 tained belief that the wife of Columbus was 
 Philippa, the daughter of Bartholomew Pere- 
 strello ; it being claimed that his wife was the 
 daughter of one Vasco Gil Moniz, while it 
 was the sister of the father, Moniz, who mar- 
 ried Perestrello. 
 
 The statement that he attended the Univer- 
 sity of Pavia is also discredited. The hitherto 
 accepted assertion that Columbus left Portugal 
 because the tie which bound him to that country 
 was broken by the death of his wife, is pro- 
 nounced unfounded. 
 
 In truth this obscurity, this uncertainty 
 accompanies the great navigator from his cradle 
 to his grave. Probably less is known with 
 exactness, and more is written of an uncertain 
 character about Columbus than of any other 
 great figure within historic times. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE REAL COLUMBUS MAKES HIS APPEARANCE 
 
 It is now 1484, and Columbus, for the first 
 time emerges from his obscurity, and appears 
 as a distinct figure before the world. At this 
 period, perhaps the readers would be glad to 
 have a portrait of the great navigator as drawn 
 by his son and other writers of that time. 
 
 He was tall, well-formed, muscular, and of 
 a dignified bearing. His face was long ; his 
 complexion fair and freckled and inclined to 
 ruddy ; his nose aquiline his cheeks were high, 
 his eyes light gray ; his whole countenance had 
 an air of authority. His hair when he was 
 younger was of a light color ; but care and 
 trouble, according to Las Casas, soon turned 
 it gray, and at thirty it was quite white. He 
 was moderate and simple in diet and apparel, 
 eloquent in discourse, engaging and affable 
 with strangers, and his amiableness and suavity 
 in domestic life strongly attached his house- 
 hold to his person. 
 
 29 
 
30 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 
 
 "His temper was naturally irritable ; but he 
 subdued it by the magnanimity of his spirit, 
 comporting himself with a courteous and gen- 
 tle gravity, and never indulging in any intem- 
 perance of language. Throughout his life he 
 was noted for the strict attention to the ofBces 
 of religion, observing rigorously the fast and 
 ceremonies of the church ; nor did his piety 
 consist in mere forms, but partook of that lofty 
 and solemn enthusiasm with which his whole 
 character was strongly tinctured. 
 
 It was this year, 1484, that he was in Lis- 
 bon, and presuming on the ambition and activ- 
 ity displayed by the Portuguese in ocean 
 exploration he ventured to lay his plans before 
 King John II., with regard to securing a pas- 
 sage by sea to India. Obtaining an audience 
 with his majesty, he proposed that in case the 
 king would furnish him with ships and men to 
 secure a shorter route than that along the 
 coast of Africa by striking directly west across 
 the Atlantic. 
 
 The king, according to Fernando, listened 
 with great attention, but was discouraged from 
 encountering more expenses than had already 
 been incurred in exploring the route by the 
 African coast. Columbus, however, supported 
 his case so well that the king was finally 
 
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 31 
 
 induced to give his consent. Columbus being 
 possessed by very high ideas exacted so much 
 in the way of titles and other compensations 
 that the king in reality was not disposed to 
 concede his demands. 
 
 Barros, the historian, gives a different 
 account of the first interview. He attributes 
 the seeming acquiescence of the king merely 
 to the importunities of Columbus. He con- 
 sidered him "a vain-glorious man, fond of dis- 
 playing his abilities, and given to fantastic 
 fancies. " 
 
 John n. referred the matter to a junta which 
 had charge of all affairs relating to maratime 
 matters. This junta was composed of two cos- 
 mographers, Roderigo and Joseph, and the 
 king's confessor, Diego Ortiz de Cazadilla, 
 bishop of Ceuta. This scientific body treated 
 the project as extravagant and visionary. 
 
 It was suggested to the king by the bishop, 
 that Columbus might be asked for time to 
 examine the matter, while a vessel might be 
 quietly dispatched in the direction he pointed 
 out and learn whether there was any foundation 
 for his theory. Columbus was asked to give 
 the council a plan of the voyage with all the 
 charts and documents in his possession. Then 
 a caravel was dispatched on the pretense of 
 
32 CHRIS TOPHER COL UMB US 
 
 bearing provisions, but with secret instruc- 
 tions to follow the designated route. 
 
 The caravel sailed westward for several days 
 and seeing nothing but an immeasurable ocean, 
 and the weather becoming stormy, put back, 
 ridiculing the project as irrational. 
 
 This account is given in the history of 
 Herrera and is in some respects disputed. 
 
 Columbus learned of this rascally attempt, 
 and thereupon indignantly declined all offers 
 of King John to renew the negotiations, and, 
 taking his boy Diego, left Portugal and, 
 according to Winsor, disappeared for nearly 
 a year. Munoz claims for this period that he 
 went to Italy. Sharon Turner has conjectured 
 that he went to England ; but there seems to 
 be no ground to believe that he had any rela- 
 tions with the English Court except by deputy, 
 for his brother Bartholomew was dispatched 
 to lay his scheme before Henry VII. Whatever 
 may have been the result of this application, 
 no answer seems to have reached Columbus 
 until he was committed to the service of 
 Spain. 
 
 A foot-note to this statement says that "there 
 is great uncertainty about this English ven- 
 ture. Benzoni says Columbus' ideas were 
 ridiculed; Bacon (Life of Henry VII.) says 
 
' CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 33 
 
 that the acceptance of them was delayed by 
 accident ; Purchas says that they were accepted 
 too late. F. Cradock regrets the loss of honor 
 which Henry VII. incurred in not listening to 
 the project. There is much confusion of 
 statement in the early writers. " 
 
 The initial effort of Columbus is thus seen to 
 be a humiliating failure; one which was all the 
 more galling to a high-spirited, sensitive man 
 in that it was accompanied by gross and 
 scandalous treachery on the part of King John, 
 and apparent indifference on the part of Henry 
 of England. In the cases of both these mon- 
 archs and their subjects, there came a time 
 when there were ample grounds for chagrin 
 and regret over their ill-advised action. 
 
 It is true that many years later, they were 
 both vastly benefitted by the discoveries of 
 Columbus, but neither secured the incompara- 
 ble honor of being connected with the initial 
 effort which led to the magnificent finding of 
 a new world. Both of these powers reaped, 
 in time, where Columbus had sown. Unwit- 
 tingly they allowed the chestnuts to be pulled 
 from the fire by another hand, and yet secured 
 a large share of the kernel. 
 
 The moral of this transaction does not prove 
 that meanness, as a rule, pays; but it affords 
 
34 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 
 
 a striking instance in which such qualities do 
 not result in the prompt punishment of their 
 possessors. 
 
 One cannot resist speculation as to what 
 would have occurred had Henry VII. listened 
 favorably to the application of Columbus. In 
 such a case, the world would probably have 
 been spared the indescribable bigotry, the 
 immeasurable horrors, the wholesale butchery, 
 the robberies, and all the other wicked atroc- 
 ities, the cruelties, the devouring greed attend- 
 ing the Spanish discovery. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 COLUMBUS WANDERS INTO SPAIN 
 
 It was one or two years after leaving Portu- 
 gal that Columbus appeared in Spain. He 
 arrived there in 1485, according to one author- 
 ity, and a year later according to another. 
 
 It was not an opportune period for the pros- 
 ecution of his mission. Ferdinand and Isa- 
 bella were engaged in an attempt to conquer 
 the Moorish Province of Granada, and were 
 meeting with a most determined resistance. It 
 was, however, at the period when Aragon and 
 Castile, the kingdoms respectively of Ferdinand 
 and Isabella, had been united by the marriage 
 of this couple, with the result that Spain was 
 at the very height of its power. Everything 
 was favorable to Columbus : The wealth, and 
 strength of the kingdoms, the intelligence of 
 the reigning monarchs ; but a worse time to 
 present his novel plan could not have possibly 
 
 fallen to his lot. 
 
 35 
 
36 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 
 
 According to Voltaire, "Ferdinand and Isa- 
 bella lived together not like man and wife, but 
 like two monarchs strictly allied. They had 
 separate claims to sovereignt}^ in virtue of 
 their respective kingdoms \ they had separate 
 councils, and were often distant from each 
 other in different parts of their empire, each 
 exercising the royal authority." 
 
 Ferdinand is described by contemporary 
 writers of middle height well-proportioned, 
 with a commanding carriage. He was slightly 
 bald on the forehead ; his hair and beard were 
 a bright brown ; his complexion dark, tanned 
 by exposure in the field ; his mouth well-formed 
 and gracious in its expression ; his teeth small, 
 white, and uneven ; his voice sharp ; his speech 
 rapid and fluent. 
 
 He had excellent judgment, was a fine 
 soldier, a capable statesman, and a fierce, intol- 
 erant bigot, largely controlled by the priests. 
 Voltaire says of him : "He was called the 
 wise and prudent in Spain ; in Italy the pious ; 
 and in England and France, the ambitious and 
 perfidious." 
 
 Irving assiduously collected the contempo- 
 rary utterances of the Spanish historians with 
 reference to Isabella with highly laudatory 
 results. According to the views of the gallant 
 
CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 37 
 
 Spanish writers she is one of the purest and 
 most beautiful characters in history, and as 
 charming in body as in soul. She was of 
 medium size, graceful in figure and deport- 
 ment, and possessed of a mingled gravity and 
 sweetness of demeanor. Her complexion was 
 fair; her hair auburn inclined to red — the fa- 
 vorite tint four centuries later — her eyes were a 
 clear blue with a benign expression, and there 
 was a singular modesty in her countenance, 
 gracing, as it did, a wonderful firmness of 
 purpose, and earnestness of spirit. " 
 
 In all essential respects she was a model save 
 that, like her husband, she was a bigot, and 
 under the thumb of the priests. She was hand 
 in hand with the infernal Torquemada by 
 whose side Caligula, and other human mon- 
 sters were pure, white-robed angels. Morally 
 this beautiful woman was a participating acces- 
 sor}' in the most atrocious series of crimes 
 known in history. 
 
 Prescott denounces this infamous institu- 
 tion, the Spanish Inquisition, in language 
 unstinted in its vigor. 
 
 "It was not enough now," he says, "as for- 
 merly, to conform passively to the doctrines of 
 the church, but it was enjoined to make war 
 on all who refused them. >k * * 'pj^g most 
 
38 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 
 
 frightful maxims were deliberately engrafted into 
 the code of morals. There was some doubt 
 whether a man might Slay his own father, if 
 a heretic or an infidel, but none whatever as 
 to his right, in that event to take away the 
 life of his son or brother. Anyone, it was said, 
 might conscientiously kill an apostate when- 
 ever he could meet him. These maxims were 
 not a dead, letter, but of most active opera- 
 tion, as the sad records of the dread tribunal 
 too well prove." 
 
 Such was the character of an institution 
 which was introduced into Spain by Isabella, 
 who, in all other respects was a paragon of the 
 virtues; whose other phases of action were 
 characterized by tenderness and mercy which 
 were boundless in their extent and application. 
 
 Ferdinand was equally a partner in this 
 infamous crime. He was the more culpable, if 
 possible, of the two, for the reason that he 
 could, if he would, have prevented the blood 
 from reddening the soil of Spain. 
 
 It is scarcely an exaggeration to say that the 
 blood spilled and tbe cruelties perpetrated by 
 the agency of Torquemada, together with the 
 massacre, robbery, spoliation, and other crying 
 outrages inflicted by the Spaniards in the early 
 invasion of this continent, fairly outweighs in 
 
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 39 
 
 the scale of justice the benefits the world has 
 received from the actions of Ferdinand and Isa- 
 bella. It is due to the same illustrious couple, 
 under pressure from Torquemada, that several 
 hundred thousand Jews were driven out of Spain 
 under circumstances so utteriy atrocious and 
 abhorrent that humanity, after an interval of 
 four hundred years, still sheds its tears over 
 the woeful recollection. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 FIRST EFFORTS OF COLUMBUS IN SPAIN 
 
 There are several accounts concerning the 
 arrival of Columbus in Spain, and the persons 
 with whom he was first put into communica- 
 tion. One account has it that he sought at first 
 to make influence among wealthy Spanish noble- 
 men. Among these were the dukes of Medina 
 Sidonia and Medina Celi, who were enormously 
 wealthy, with shipping and all other appliances 
 appertaining to princes. 
 
 This account goes en to state that Columbus 
 saw frequently the Duke of Medina Sidonia, 
 who was very much impressed by the magnifi- 
 cence of the statements of Columbus, but in 
 the end rejected the projects of Columbus as 
 being the extravagant vision of a dreamer ; the 
 Duke of Medina Celi heard Columbus with 
 favor at the beginning. He was so struck 
 with the idea advanced by the navigator that 
 he offered him the use of three or four caravels 
 
 which were all ready for sea in his harbor at 
 40 
 
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 41 
 
 Port St. Mary, when it suddenly occurred to 
 him that the enterprise if successful; would 
 include discoveries too important to be handled 
 by anybody less than a monarch. He finally 
 abandoned the idea, however. 
 
 Columbus then determined to go to France, 
 which being learned by the duke, Vv'ho was 
 unwilling that Spain should lose an opportu- 
 nity so promising, he wrote to Queen Isabella, 
 recommending it to her attention. She replied, 
 asking that Columbus might be sent to her. 
 The Spanish Court was then at Cordova, to 
 which Columbus went with a letter to the 
 queen from the duke, and asking in case the 
 enterprise should be undertaken he should 
 have an interest in it, and permission to fit 
 out the armament from his port as a compen- 
 sation for having given up the expedition in 
 favor of the crown. This is one account. 
 
 Another account says that Columbus was 
 unfortunate in his first channel of communica- 
 tion with the Court. He was furnished by 
 Fray Juan Perez de Marchini in charge of the 
 Convent of La Ravida in Andelusia, who has 
 taken a deep interest in the plans of the navi- 
 gator, with an introduction to Fernando de 
 Talavera, prior of Prado, and the confessor of 
 the queen, a person who stood very high in 
 
42 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 
 
 the royal estimate, and had been raised to the 
 archiepiscopal see of Granada. He was a 
 man of great learning, and, it was said by 
 Prescott : "his learning was that of a cloister, 
 deeply tinctured with pedantry and supersti- 
 tion, and debased by such servile deference 
 even to the errors of antiquity as at once led 
 him to discountenance everything like inno- 
 vation or enterprise." 
 
 Talavera was not in the least able to com- 
 prehend the schemes of Columbus, and looked 
 upon him as a person with an unsettled mind, 
 and not altogether orthodox. The king and 
 queen ordered Talavera to select a council of 
 the most eminent scholars of the kingdom, 
 chiefly churchmen. The theories of Colum- 
 bus were discussed by the conclave with leth- 
 argic interest, and so numerous were the prej- 
 udices, and so great the skepticism, that tney 
 were several years in coming to a decision. 
 
 During this period of waiting, Columbus 
 was in attendance at the Court of Ferdinand 
 and Isabella, fighting occasionally against the 
 Moors, and being treated by the sovereigns 
 with great attention. He was supported by 
 money furnished by the royal order, for his 
 private expenses, and according to Herrera, 
 the Spanish historian, the municipalities of 
 
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 43 
 
 Andelusia were instructed to supply him gra- 
 tuitously with lodging and other personal 
 accommodation. 
 
 At "length Columbus, worn out by the long 
 delay, asked the Court for a definite answer 
 to his propositions, when he was informed 
 that the Council of Salamanca pronounced his 
 scheme to be "vain, impracticable, and resting 
 on grounds too weak to merit the support of 
 the government. " There were a few in the 
 council who differed from this report, who 
 believed in his scheme, and gave him their 
 friendship. One of these was the Cardinal 
 Mendoza, and another, Deza, archbishop of 
 Seville, who was afterward the successor to 
 Torquemada, the chief of the infernal Spanish 
 Inquisition. 
 
 The influence of these two men with the 
 sovereigns was so great that they gave an 
 assurance to Columbus that, "although they 
 were too much occupied at present to embark 
 in his undertaking, yet at the conclusion of 
 the war they would find both time and inclina- 
 tion to treat with him." 
 
 Columbus received this communication as a 
 refusal, and at once left the Court with the 
 intention of seeking some other patron to his 
 undertaking. Without wasting further time 
 
44 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 
 
 he started to France, in 1491, to lay his pro- 
 posal before the king who had written him a 
 letter of encouragement. 
 
 The third account is the well-known one and 
 the most generally accepted which relates to 
 his presentation of himself at the Convent of 
 Santa Maria de la Ravida, asking for bread 
 for himself and his boy. The convent was 
 near Palos and was in charge of Father Supe- 
 rior Juan Perez de Marchina. The stranger 
 interested the prior and it was by his advice 
 that Columbus was sent to Cordova with such 
 claims to recognition as the prior of Ravida 
 could give him. 
 
 It was in 1485 or i486 that Columbus laid 
 his proposal before Ferdinand and Isabella. 
 Among those attached to the Court was Alex- 
 ander Geraldinus, a traveler, a man of letters, 
 and a mathematician, who assisted Columbus in 
 pressing his views upon their majesties. It 
 was through his influence that the ear of Pedro 
 Gonzales de Mendoza was obtained. The king 
 under the archbishop's advice, called the 
 council of learned men at Salamanca, spoken 
 of in the second theory. 
 
 "Here," says a writer, "he was met by all 
 that prejudice, contempt, and ignorance (as 
 now understood, but wisdom then), could bring 
 
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 45 
 
 to bear in the shape of scriptural contradic- 
 tions of his views, and the pseudo-scientific 
 distrust of what were thought mere visionary 
 aims. He told them that he should find Asia 
 that way, and that if he did not there must be 
 other land westerly, quite as desirable to dis- 
 cover. No conclusion had been reached when, 
 in the spring of 1487, the Court departed from 
 Cordova, and Columbus found himself left 
 behind without encouragement, save in the sup- 
 port of a few whom he had convinced." 
 
 For five long years Columbus danced attend- 
 ance on their majesties, fought with them 
 against the Moors to gain their good will, 
 and finally, in 1491, he left the monarchs and 
 returned to Ravida. Once more he convinced 
 the prior, who again applied to the queen with 
 the result that she recalled him. He was very 
 cordially received, and for the first time hope 
 of success possessed his soul. 
 
 However, his satisfaction was short-lived. 
 When the discussion of terms, of rewards, of 
 honors occurred, Columbus developed what 
 seemed to their majesties to be a greed of most 
 extraordinary dimensions. When he demanded 
 that he should be made viceroy, and that he 
 should receive one-tenth of the income, their 
 majesties refused to listen any further, and the 
 
46 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 
 
 conference was summarily brought to a ter- 
 mination. 
 
 Columbus mounted his mule and once more 
 started for France. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 COLUMBUS AGAIN RECALLED TO COURT — QUEEN 
 ISABELLA 
 
 Two wise men, Santangel of Aragon, and 
 Quintanilla of Castile respectively finance min- 
 isters of the two kingdoms in the order named, 
 saw, as they thought, something of value in 
 the projects of Columbus. They appealed to 
 Isabella to reconsider her determination, and 
 to give instructions to recall the navigator. 
 Once more Columbus stood in the presence of 
 her majesty. 
 
 It seems somewhat inconsistent with the 
 reputed firmness, excellent judgment, and 
 practical sense of Ferdinand and Isabella that 
 they should have been five years in making up 
 their minds, and that, throughout all that 
 period, they should have exhibited so constant 
 vacillation. 
 
 It was April 17th, 1492, when Columbus 
 again faced the imperial couple, and received 
 a written agreement to the effect that he should 
 
48 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 
 
 have the positions of high-admiral, and viceroy 
 in new territories to be discovered, and one 
 eighth of the profits in consideration that he 
 should bear one-eighth of the expenses of the 
 expedition. 
 
 It is at this interview where the first allusion 
 is made to the eagerness of Isabella to further 
 the enterprise by the proffer of her jewels. 
 
 "I will," she said, "assume the undertaking 
 for my own crown of Castile, and am read}^ to 
 pawn my jewels to defray the expenses, if the 
 funds in the treasury shall be found to be inad- 
 equate." 
 
 Under the more powerful lens of modern 
 investigation, much of the past which is 
 obscure, distorted, exaggerated, has been 
 clearly revealed in its true character. The 
 results of these minute and careful inspections 
 are often instructive, iconoclastic ; they resolve 
 legends, romances, traditions, alleged history 
 and prove their real character. 
 
 William Tell, under this modern microscope, 
 becomes a myth ; men and events accepted 
 verities for generations, are materially modi- 
 fied and sometimes disappear. The character 
 and dimensions of the giants of antiquity are 
 reconstructed, as are the frames of extinct ani- 
 mals by a bone in the possession of the com- 
 parative anatomist. 
 
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 49 
 
 In this inspection of the past few notabilities 
 have escaped examination, and among those 
 who have been most thoroughly analyzed is 
 Queen Isabella. The result leaves us a gra- 
 cious queen, a woman conspicuous for her 
 beauty and mental charms; a grand figure in 
 the pantheon of the fifteenth century, with 
 the sagacity, the foresight, the skill of a states- 
 man ; the instincts of a chivalrous knight ; in 
 her skirts a feminine counterpart of the Cid 
 in his armor. All these qualities remain 
 under the inspection of the critical lenses, and 
 much more. We still see the young girl dar- 
 ing death to keep her plighted faith with her 
 lover; there remains the loving wife who never 
 forgot her obligation to her husband ; who was 
 a tender mother, a woman of profound piety, 
 and whose moral life was without a flaw. 
 
 It is the same Isabella and yet not the same 
 Isabella, which is reconstructed by the scien- 
 tific anatomist. The main points which the 
 world has so long recognized are there to a 
 considerable extent, but some of the accepted 
 ones are absent. The modern presentation of 
 this great woman does not in the least detract 
 from her resplendent genius, and her superi- 
 ority to all the other great women of the cen- 
 tury in which she lived ; it simply changes her 
 
so CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 
 
 attitude in a very material point, toward the 
 discovery of this continent. 
 
 An encyclopedist says of Isabella : — 
 
 "The masculine intellect, the feminine 
 charms, and the rare virtues of Isabella have 
 been a favorite theme for historians of all sub- 
 sequent times, and the affection in which her 
 subjects held her person is still cherished 
 throughout Spain for her memory. 
 
 "For Ferdinand she always entertained the 
 warmest affection, which was not always faith- 
 fully returned. A genuine piety colored every 
 action of her life. In person she was equally 
 beautiful as in character. She had a clear 
 complexion, light blue eyes, and auburn hair. 
 She had five children. * * * The encour- 
 agement of Christopher Columbus is the deed 
 by which she is best known to posterity ; the 
 squadron with which he discovered America 
 was equipped at her expense." 
 
 All this is true save the closing assertion. 
 Isabella did encourage Columbus, but she did 
 not pay the expenses of the squadron with 
 which he discovered this country. 
 
 The beautiful belief that she gave him her 
 jewels to raise needed funds to equip the fleet 
 of discovery, is, I regret to say, no longer 
 regarded by the latest authorities as a fact. It 
 
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 51 
 
 is a pity that the cold iconoclast of the nine- 
 teenth century should destroy one of the most 
 charming of the delusions of the fifteenth. 
 
 In the "Narrative and Critical History of 
 America" by Justin Winsor, the well-known 
 librarian of Harvard University, and which 
 consists of four thousand pages in eight vol- 
 umes, is treated exhaustively every phase of 
 this continent from earliest antiquity down to 
 the latter portion of the present centurj^. 
 
 The portion of this volume devoted to 
 "Columbus and His Discoveries" is based on 
 manuscript beginning with documentary proofs 
 first collected by a Spanish historian, Herrera, 
 in 1 601, and thence through all subsequent 
 accumulations furnished by successive Span- 
 ish writers. Many new manuscripts were con 
 suited — that is, new in the sense of never before 
 having been examined or given publicity. 
 
 It is from this source that will be given the 
 authorities to prove that Isabella did not 
 assist Columbus with either cash or her jewels, 
 as is popularl}^ supposed. She gave him 
 moral support ; she rewarded him with honors 
 after he had found the western islands — the 
 Bahamas, the Antilles, and the misnamed 
 West Indies, which some years later led to 
 the discovery of the mainland by the Cabots 
 
• 
 
 52 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 
 
 and Vespucci within a few weeks of each other. 
 
 In Vol. II. of the "Narrative and Critical 
 History of America," the legend in regard to 
 the donation of her jewels by the queen to 
 Columbus is thus alluded to by Winsor : — 
 
 "The world has long glorified the story in 
 the 'Historie of 1571' about the part which the 
 crown jewels and the like played in the efforts 
 of Isabella to assist Columbus in the furnish- 
 ing of Columbus' vessel. Peter Martyr, Ber- 
 naldes and others who took occasion to make 
 frequent mention, to sound the praises of her 
 majesty, say nothing of it ; and as is now con- 
 tended, for the good reason that there was no 
 truth in the story, the jewels having long before 
 been pledged in the prosecution of the war 
 with the Moors." 
 
 Washington Irving speaks of the interview 
 between Santangel and Isabella as follows : — 
 
 "With an enthusiasm worthy of herself and 
 of her cause Isabella exclaimed : 'I undertake 
 the enterprise for my own crown of Castile, 
 and will pledge my jewels to raise the neces- 
 sary funds.'" 
 
 "This was the proudest moment in the life 
 of Isabella. Santangel, eager to secure this 
 noble impulse assured her that there would be 
 no need of her pledging her jewels, as he was 
 
CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 53 
 
 ready to advance the necessary funds. His 
 offer was gladly accepted; the funds really 
 came from the coffers of Aragon." 
 
 These facts leave no doubt on the question 
 of the jewels and also as to the part Ferdinand 
 and Isabella took in aiding Columbus on his 
 first voyage of discovery. They smiled on him, 
 and Santangel and the Pinzons furnished the 
 cash and the ships. 
 
 The brightest feature in the acts of Isabella 
 was her sympathy with the suffering inflicted 
 on the natives of the new world. A cargo of 
 them was taken over to Spain to be used as 
 slaves, but were returned by order of the queen, 
 and a penalty of death of the culprits in case 
 they refused to obey. 
 
 Isabella was a strange compound in this 
 matter of tenderness and sensibility to the abuse 
 of Amercian Indians and the Moors against 
 whom she fought, but whom she would not 
 permit to be persecuted. And yet, thus sensi- 
 tive to pain, she was the sovereign who con- 
 sented to the introduction of the Inquisition 
 with all its imaginable horrors. 
 
 Eminently just in her judgment, enforcing 
 justice without the slightest reference to the 
 wealth or social standing of culprits, she was 
 capable of committing acts which in this age 
 
54 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 
 
 of enlightenment are looked upon as gross 
 outrages. In Vol. IX, p. 422 of the American 
 Encyclopedia, it is said of the queen : — 
 
 "Though the life and soul of the war against 
 the Moors, in which she personally took part, 
 even wearing armor, she was opposed to the 
 cruelty which was then the established policy 
 toward that people; and if she decreed the 
 expulsion of the Jews from Castile, and gave 
 a reluctant consent to the introduction of the 
 Inquisition, it was from a conviction that the 
 safety of the Catholic faith demanded this 
 sacrifice of her private feelings." 
 
 "This sacrifice of her private feelings sent 
 160,000 Jews into exile, who were soon after 
 followed by 3,000,000 Moors who were given 
 the choice between becoming Christians or 
 being expatriated." 
 
 In view of these facts in regard to Isabella, 
 it is not just that she should be presented to 
 the American people as the patron whose 
 money and influence brought about the discov- 
 ery of the Western Continent. Shall we per- 
 petuate a legend which is demonstrated to be 
 an untruth solely for the purpose of giving 
 a woman prominence? 
 
 The civilization of the northern half of the 
 hemisphere is not in the least due to the Span- 
 
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 55 
 
 ish queen, but rather to an English queen, 
 Elizabeth. The northern half was discovered 
 by Englishmen, the Cabots ; it was first settled 
 by Englishmen, mainly under the lead of Sir 
 Walter Raleigh, and the patronage of Queen 
 Elizabeth, who planted colonies on this por- 
 tion of the continent in an area which was 
 named Virginia. 
 
 The colonization of the northern half of the 
 Western Hemisphere was not the greedy and 
 bloody effort of robbers ; it was of a pacific 
 people that sought homes, established schools, 
 tilled the land, and cultivated the growth of 
 civilization. The moral and physical advan- 
 tages which North America enjoyed over the 
 conditions of South America, are largely due 
 to the initial encouragement afforded by "the 
 Virgin Queen" in the seventeenth century of 
 explorers and colonists. 
 
 Great as was Elizabeth ; great as was the 
 age in which she lived, and potent as was the 
 assistance she rendered toward the peaceful 
 settlement of this northern continent, she is 
 an objectionable character. While one of the 
 greatest spirits in many essential qualities, of 
 her age, or any other, she was nevertheless a 
 very bad woman. She was a notorious liar, 
 her hands were reddened with the blood of her 
 
56 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 
 
 own sisters and that of many others; a virgin, 
 she was unchaste; she was a bigot, she perse- 
 cuted Puritans and Catholics, was a trickster 
 and treacherous. 
 
 Leaving out all moral considerations, and 
 looking only at the benefits which this hemi- 
 sphere has derived from the subjects of Eliza- 
 beth and Isabella, the balance is lagely in favor 
 of the former; but neither is entitled to stand 
 for the statue of a woman who represents 
 prominence in the discovery of America. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 PREPARATIONS FOR DEPARTURE 
 
 Columbus did not omit the pious argument 
 in his presentation of his plans to the monarchs. 
 While their avarice for an extension of territo- 
 rial domains and for gold was not lost sight 
 of, their religious natures were freely stimu- 
 lated. 
 
 His mission, he claimed, was as much to 
 secure the salvation of the heathen as for any 
 other purpose. He was undertaking the voy- 
 age for the reason that he wished to fulfill cer- 
 tain prophecies in the sacred scriptures which 
 clearly foretold the discovery of a new land. 
 As if these reasons were not sufficient to awaken 
 the religious element, he promised to devote 
 a large amount of the profits of the voyage to 
 the rescue of the Holy Sepulchre. 
 
 Columbus must be credited with a most 
 extraordinary pertinacity which would have 
 entitled him to a hero's laurels had he even 
 
 57 
 
58 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 
 
 failed in his voyage of discovery. He had 
 labored for eighteen years to bring about the 
 end which he sought for. 
 
 His perseverance was the more remarkable 
 in view of the character of public sentiment, 
 which was hostile, or indifferent ; the priest- 
 hood, with a half dozen exceptions, was antag- 
 onistic; the entire church believed that it was 
 a contravention of the scriptures, and the 
 teaching of the fathers to admit that the world 
 was spherical, and could be encompassed by 
 sailing in one direction. 
 
 The ocean which extended to the western 
 sky was an unknown expanse of howling hur- 
 ricanes, mysterious dangers, and a region peo- 
 pled undoubtedly by ravenous monsters, and 
 demons of accursed birth. Columbus did not 
 credit these beliefs, born of superstition and 
 ignorance ; but the existence of such ideas was 
 a powerful obstacle whose full force he encoun- 
 tered at a critical time when it came very near 
 to ruining his prospects. 
 
 Columbus met a fierce opposition at the very 
 outset of his voyage at Palos, the port of 
 departure. 
 
 This port, for some offense against the gov- 
 ernment, had been ordered to furnish the 
 crown, for one year, with two armed vessels. 
 
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 59 
 
 Columbus was given an order for the use of 
 these two, and also the necessary papers 
 authorizing him to enforce compliance with his 
 wishes. 
 
 The leading men of the town were summoned 
 to meet Columbus at St. George's- church, 
 where the official order of the crown was read 
 to place the two caravels and their crews at 
 the service of Columbus, a third ship to be 
 provided by the latter. The order announced 
 that the crews were to implicitly obey the 
 orders of Columbus in all things except any 
 which might direct them to go to the coast of 
 Africa, or any portion of land or sea in the 
 possession of Portugal. 
 
 The order further directed the people of 
 Andalusia, in the maritime borders, to furnish 
 supplies for the vessels at reasonable figures. 
 To encourage enlistments, any person who 
 should volunteer and against whom there was 
 pending a criminal prosecution, such process 
 should be suspended during their absence, 
 and for an additional period of two months 
 after their return from the voyage. 
 
 Of course, this was a bid for the criminal ele- 
 ment. It was probably thought that the larger 
 the number of this class the better for the 
 community, while they were quite good enough 
 
6o CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 
 
 for the purposes of such a voyage as was con- 
 templated. Later developments amply demon- 
 strated the disadvantage of this criminal ele- 
 ment. 
 
 The authorities readily agreed to respond to 
 all these demands until the nature of the 
 expedition came to be known. Then a panic 
 pervaded the community. The ships' crews 
 were looked upon as being required for a 
 service so desperate that it amounted to the 
 sacrifice of their fortunes and their lives. The 
 owners of the vessels absolutely refused to 
 supply them. The seamen rebelled and shrank 
 from this cruise into the unknown. 
 
 Many weeks elapsed, and no vessel was pro- 
 cured or anything else asked for in the orders 
 of the crown. Additional orders were issued 
 by their majesties directing the officials of 
 Andalusia to press into service any vessels of 
 Spanish ownership, and to oblige the captains 
 and crews to sail with Columbus wherever he 
 wished to go. A special officer of the royal 
 household was sent to see that the order was 
 carried out, but he met with no success. 
 
 There was a tremendous confusion among 
 the various communities. Riots occurred and 
 extended rebellion seemed likely to take place. 
 
 At this critical moment relief came from an 
 
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 6i 
 
 unexpected quarter. There were two naviga- 
 torS:, owners of vessels, the brothers Pinzon, 
 Martin Alonzo, and Vicente Yanez, who 
 stepped forward and offered to furnish two of 
 the vessels required. The "Pinta" was one of 
 the ships that had been previously pressed into 
 the service, and all sorts of obstacles were made 
 by the owners to defeat the voyage. Many of 
 the seamen who had enlisted willingly, desert- 
 ed. 
 
 The example of the Pinzons had all the effect 
 to allay this opposition, and to induce many 
 of their friends to take part in the expedition. 
 The fleet as made up consisted of the "Santa 
 Maria" which was the only one of the three 
 that had a deck, while the others, the "Nina" 
 and the "Pinta" were open caravels. Martin 
 Alonzo commanded the "Pinta" and Vicente 
 the "Nina." Columbus raised his flag on the 
 "Santa Maria." 
 
 As can be learned from this statement, 
 Ferdinand and Isabella had little to do with 
 the expedition save to issue the orders for the 
 outfit; two of the vessels being furnished by 
 outsiders, while the smallest and poorest one 
 only was due to the crown of Spain. 
 
 Escobar went along as a royal notary to take 
 notice of all transactions, There were physi- 
 
62 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 
 
 cians, priests to the number of a dozen or so, 
 ninety sailors, making in all one hundred and 
 twenty people. 
 
 They sailed out of the harbor of Palos on 
 the 3d of August 1492. The feeling in the 
 community was gloomy and despondent for 
 there were many of the friends and relatives of 
 the Andalusian population who had embarked 
 on the voyage. This depression on the part 
 of the people had a sinister effect upon the sail- 
 ors,andfilled them with dismal previsions of dis- 
 aster, and a fear that they would never return. 
 
 Just before the anchors were weighed, Colum- 
 bus confessd himself to the prior, Juan Perez, 
 and partook of the sacrament of the commun- 
 ion. His example was followed by his officers 
 and crew, and they entered on their enterprise 
 with devout and affecting ceremonials, com- 
 mitting themselves to the care and guidance, 
 and the special protection of Heaven. 
 
 According to Brevoort, in his "Verrazano, " 
 after describing the usual route of the early 
 navigators from Spain to the West Indies, 
 Columbus kept two records of his progress. 
 One was an unworthily deceitful one (remind- 
 ing us of an earlier deceit when he tampered 
 with a compass to mislead his crew), by which 
 he hoped to check the apprehensions of his 
 
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 63 
 
 men, arising from his increasing longitude ; 
 and the other a dead reckoning of some kind, 
 in which he thought he was approximately 
 accurate. The story of his capitulating to his 
 crew, and agreeing to turn back in three days 
 in case land was not reached, is only told by 
 Oviedo on the testimony of a pilot hostile to 
 Columbus, 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 INTO THE SEA OF DARKNESS 
 
 It requires no stretch of fancy to see, as one 
 looks back four centuries, that the occupants of 
 the little trinity of vessels leaving the Span- 
 ish port were more like a collection of mourn- 
 ers, or like condemned victims on their way to 
 the scaffold. Of course, this despondency 
 was not shared by Columbus. He, on the con- 
 trary, must have felt buoyant, happy, and 
 inspired by the brightest of hopes. 
 
 The change in his condition was miraculous. 
 For nearly a score of years, he had been a 
 wanderer, looked on as an idle vagabond by 
 some, a semi-crazed visionary by others, and 
 an object of contempt and derision of the 
 majority with whom he came in contact. 
 
 It must have been a balm to his hurts, as 
 
 he stood on the deck of the "Santa Maria," with 
 
 the prow of his fleet pointing directly into the 
 
 mysterious West. 
 
 64 
 
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 65 
 
 He was no longer humble, neglected, sub- 
 ject to the insults of the world ; he was now an 
 admiral, a viceroy, with dignities and power 
 but little below those of the monarchs whom he 
 served. It is not, however, probable that he 
 gave much more than a brief retrospective 
 glance over his experiences of his long and 
 weary journey from pauperhood to princeship j 
 he rather looked ahead into the future. 
 
 What he saw can easily be imagined. It 
 was a roseate view. India, with its perfumes 
 and spices, its pearls and precious diamonds, 
 its shining gold-dust, its brilliant dyes. He 
 carried a letter to the mighty Khan of India, 
 and his mind dwelt with pride on the recep- 
 tion which would be given him, and the honors 
 conferred on him in the white marble palace of 
 the Indian potentate. He strolled in imagi- 
 nation through the magnificent streets of the 
 new found city of Cipango. 
 
 It is even possible that it may have come 
 within his vision that he should find the domain 
 of the famous Prester John, the mysterious king, 
 who was white, whose banner bore the cross, 
 and who ruled a kingdom, of Christian subjects. 
 What a welcome he would receive from this 
 Prester John, who was believed to be immortal, 
 as his existence had been spoken of for more 
 
66 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 
 
 than four centuries, by travelers who had vis- 
 ited India, who always heard of this monarch 
 but never could just reach the region in which 
 he reigned. 
 
 And thus thinking, dreaming, hoping, elated, 
 with his nerves thrilling with expectation, and 
 his blood racing through his veins, Columbus 
 sailed westward and plunged boldly into the 
 depths of the Unknown. 
 
 The weather was fair and the initiation of 
 the voyage was filled with happy portents 
 from smooth waves and smiling skies. At no 
 period during his voyage did the elements 
 afford opposition to his progress; on the con- 
 trary, it seemed sentient, to know his pur- 
 pose, and aided him with quiet waves and 
 favoring gales. 
 
 It was not in his surroundings that dangers 
 lurked, but in the human forces that accom- 
 panied him. Storms arose, destruction menaced 
 the expedition, but it was all within, not with- 
 out the vessels. 
 
 The first interruption came from the failure 
 of the rudder of the "Pinta." As this was the 
 ship whose services were forcibly taken by the 
 crown, Columbus had reason to suspect that 
 the damage had been arranged in advance by 
 the dissatisfied owners. 
 
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 67 
 
 The fleet ran into a harbor in the Canaries, 
 where a new rudder was made and, after a 
 delay of several weeks, the voyage was resumed. 
 When they lost sight of the Canaries, they 
 were beyond the limit of known navigation, 
 and the crew began to rapidly lose heart. They 
 had left the known world behind them. They 
 were going they knew not whither. They wept, 
 and showed their grief and despair in clamor- 
 ous complainings. The sight of a mast float- 
 ing by them, and which seemed to have been 
 a long time in the water, gave them an addi- 
 tional shock. It was suggestive of what would 
 happen to them in the frightful darkness be- 
 yond. Columbus tried to reassure them. He 
 held out to them visions of unlimited wealth, 
 and appealed to their cupidity, their passions, 
 and every other motive which would reconcile 
 them to their journey. As stated, he concealed 
 with a false record the number of leagues 
 passed over each day. 
 
 Thirty days after leaving Palos, the voyagers 
 were cheered by the sight of a heron, and a wag- 
 tail> birds which are not believed to venture 
 very far from land. In due season, the fleet 
 fell within the influence of the trade winds and 
 sailed on in a delicious atmosphere and over 
 pacific waters. Weeds began to make their 
 
68 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 
 
 appearance ; a white bird flew about the ship, 
 one of the kind that never sleeps on the sea. 
 
 The birds were harbingers of good, and it is 
 largely to their cheering presence and matutinal 
 songs that the crew was kept from open rebel- 
 lion. 
 
 Nevertheless it required the utmost patience, 
 watchfulness, and the exercise of all sorts of 
 ingenious expedients on the part of the admiral 
 to prevent an open outbreak. For a time the 
 crew was delighted with the trade wind which 
 bore them smoothly on ; and then they becam.e 
 alarmed at its long continuance, for then they 
 feared it would always blow from the east, and 
 thus prevent their return to Spain. 
 
 When they first met masses of floating weeds, 
 they were gratified because they thought it 
 was an indication of the nearness of land ; and 
 when the weeds became denser, they became 
 frightened thinking they might become impris- 
 oned in the thick vegetation from which they 
 would never be able to extricate themselves. 
 When it was calm they were equally dissatis- 
 fied, for then they thought they had reached a 
 region where the air was stagnant, and they 
 might rot in the windless sea. 
 
 The task of placating the sailors tested to 
 the extreme the efforts of the admiral. They 
 
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 69 
 
 talked over their doubts, fears, and discontent, 
 at. first, among themselves, and in time these 
 mutterings became louder and reached the ears 
 of the officers. The situation became critical ; 
 they began to regard Columbus as a soulless 
 adventurer who was willing to imperil their 
 lives to gratify some useless purpose. It was 
 about decided to throw their commander into 
 the sea, attributing it to accident, and then 
 return to Spain. It was just at a time, when 
 the expedition was on the point of being ruined 
 by mutiny, when there rang out from the"Pinta, " 
 the thrilling cry of: "Land! Land!" It was 
 Martin Alonzo Pinzon who shouted the tidings. 
 
 Everything was at once turned into joy, but 
 the joy became despair when after sailing all 
 night toward what had been supposed to be 
 land proved to be a deception. Several days 
 followed in which there was an incessant cry 
 of "Land!" from the sailors, but there proved 
 to be no foundation for the alarm. 
 
 On the ist of October the reckoning showed 
 that they had sailed five hundred and eighty 
 leagues from the Canary Islands, while the pri- 
 vate reckoning kept by Columbus showed the 
 distance to be seven hundred and seven. For 
 a week the men were discouraged and muti- 
 nous, and it is marvelous that they did not seize 
 
70 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 
 
 the ship, and turn the prow homeward. A lit- 
 tle thing diverted their atttention from their 
 wretched thoughts and rekindled their smol- 
 dering hopes. 
 
 Several of the people saw a light, one night 
 on the horizon, Columbus being the first to 
 detect it. At two in the morning of the same 
 night, the roar of a gun from the "Pinta" gave 
 the joyful signal that land was in sight. It was 
 discovered by a sailor named Rodrigo Triana, 
 who claimed the reward offered to the first who 
 should discover land, but it was taken by 
 Columbus who first saw the light. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE NEW WORLD 
 
 It was on the 12th of October that the New 
 World presented itself to the view of the expe- 
 dition. It was a low island, densely wooded 
 from out the depths of which there poured 
 masses of people who covered the shores, and 
 watched, with boundless astonishment, the 
 white-winged ships, which to them must have 
 seemed monstrous birds swimming over the 
 water. 
 
 A landing was made from the small boats, 
 after the ships had dropped their anchors. In 
 order to impress the strangers with the splendor 
 of their appearance, Columbus wore a scarlet 
 wrap, and held aloft the gorgeous banner of 
 Spain, while the brothers Pinzon each in his own 
 boat also carried banners, green in hue, and 
 decorated with golden letters, "F," and "I," 
 for Ferdinand and Isabella. The men were 
 clad in glittering steel, and stuffs of brilliant 
 
^2 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 
 
 colors, so that the procession of boats, with 
 its scarlet, gold, green, and other bright hues 
 must have resembled a floral march. 
 
 All of them threw themselves on their knees 
 when they landed to return thanks for the for- 
 tunate outcome of their journey. The admiral 
 then drew his sword, and took possession of the 
 island in the name of the Spanish sovereigns, 
 and gave it the name of San Salvador. As is 
 known, the island is one of the group of Baha- 
 mas, and a long distance from the America 
 which Columbus has the credit of having dis- 
 covered. 
 
 So soon as the natives saw the approach of 
 the small boats filled with beings with white 
 faces and long beards, they fled in terror to 
 the depths of the woods in which they con- 
 cealed themselves, terrified at the spectacle 
 which seemed to have risen out of the deep. 
 
 The place and the people suggested Eden 
 before the fall. The air was pure and inspir- 
 ing, the skies soft, blue, and tender ; the vege- 
 tation was rich in coloring, and of a wonderful 
 beauty, and the trees were loaded with unknown 
 fruits. The natives, without exception, men, 
 women, children, wore no clothing. They 
 were as naked as were Adam and Eve before 
 they ate the forbidden fruit. They were beard- 
 
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 73 
 
 less, tawny, or copper-colored, with long 
 straight black hair. 
 
 The adults were tall, well-formed, with fine 
 foreheads and piercing eyes. Only one woman 
 was among those of them who ventured to 
 approach the Spaniards, and she, like the others, 
 was entirely naked. They were friendly, and 
 seemed to have the gentleness of a race pos- 
 sessed only of the milder qualities of character. 
 Their arms were wooden lances hardened at 
 the ends by fire, and pointed with the bones 
 of fish. 
 
 The admiral distributed among them some 
 gaudy presents such as colored glass-beads and 
 hawk's bells with which they were immensely 
 delighted. They supposed from the munifi- 
 cence of the Spaniards that they were gods who 
 had come to them from the sky. Columbus, 
 under the impression that he had reached India 
 spoke of the natives as Indians, a misnomer 
 which extended to the main land, with the 
 result that all the aboriginal inhabitants of 
 both North and South America have since 
 been known as Indians. 
 
 Some of the natives had ornaments of gold in 
 their noses, a sight which undoubtedly conferred 
 greater satisfaction among the Spaniards than 
 even the sight of land in their extremity. The 
 
74 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 
 
 simple natives unaware of the intrinsic value 
 of the metal traded their ornaments for colored 
 glass-beads, and beyond doubt thought the 
 Spaniards to be a very liberal, and credulous 
 people. They informed the visitors, as they 
 best could, when asked where they obtained 
 the material of which their ornaments were 
 made, that it came from the south, where there 
 was a king with great wealth who ate from 
 vessels of gold. 
 
 Columbus at once concluded that the region 
 abounding in gold was the noted Cipango, 
 and that the king was the one whose wealth, 
 power, and splendor had been reported by 
 Marco Polo. He sailed in the direction indi- 
 cated, but found no other island which differed 
 in any particular respect from San Salvador, 
 the one first discovered, and known to the 
 natives as Guanahane. He found, however, 
 everywhere a most delicious climate, nourish- 
 ing fruit, cool, pure water from shaded springs, 
 and received every attention which could be 
 afforded by the natives. 
 
 Still as they found no gold, in any quantities, 
 their disappointment was great. They undoubt- 
 edly appreciated the kindness of the Indians, 
 but what they were in search of was gold. 
 Columbus treated the people with the utmost 
 
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 75 
 
 gentleness, his motive probably being to secure 
 their good will and obtain from them informa- 
 tion as to where the mines of precious metals 
 were located. It was always an island farther 
 on, according to his informants, and Columbus 
 sailed on from island to island looking vainly 
 for an ignis fatuus which constantly wooed him 
 and as constantly eluded him. 
 
 The fourth island which he reached was one 
 of the Bahamas where he expected to find a 
 great monarch and rich gold-mines, but, as 
 usual, found neither. It was a very charming 
 place, however, concerning which an extract 
 from his journal contains the following: — 
 
 "Here are large lakes and the groves about 
 them are marvelous ; and here and in all the 
 islands everything is green, as in April in An- 
 dalusia. The singing of the birds is such that 
 it seems as if one would never desire to depart 
 hence. There are flocks of parrots which ob- 
 scure the sun, and other birds large and small, 
 of so many kinds so different from ours, that it 
 is wonderful : and besides, there are trees of a 
 thousand species, each having its particular 
 fruit, and all of marvelous flavor, so that I am 
 in the greatest trouble in the world not to 
 know them, for I am certain that they are each 
 of great value. I shall bring home some of 
 
76 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 
 
 them as specimens, and also some of the herbs. " 
 To this beautiful island he gave the name of 
 the queen, Isabella. He was very anxious to 
 discover the drugs and spices of the east, and 
 on approaching this island, thought he detected 
 in the air the spicy odors said to be wafted 
 from the islands of the Indian seas. 
 
 "As I arrived at this cape," says he, "there 
 came thsnce a fragrance so good and soft from 
 the flowers or the trees of the land that it was 
 the sweetest thing in the world. I believe 
 that there are here many trees and herbs which 
 would be of great price in Spain for tinctures, 
 medicines, and spices ; but I know nothing of 
 them, which gives me great' concern. " 
 
 He goes on further to say that the fish which 
 abounded in these seas, partook of the novelty 
 which characterized most of the objects in the 
 New World. They rivaled the birds in trop- 
 ical brilliancy of color, the scales of some of 
 them glancing back the rays of light like pre- 
 cious stones ; and the dolphins, taken out of 
 their element, delighted the eye with the 
 changes of colors ascribed in fable to the cha- 
 meleon. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 COLUMBUS REACHES CUBA 
 
 Columbus left this delicious island called by 
 the natives Saometo, and sailed on the 24th of 
 October at midnight in search of an island 
 called Cuba, which from the signs of the natives 
 he undertsood to be of great extent, producing 
 gold, pearls, and spices and carrying on an 
 extensive commerce in these precious articles, 
 and that large merchant ships came to trade 
 with its inhabitants. 
 
 He was now certain that this island must be 
 the famous Cipango, and the merchant ships 
 those of the Grand Khan. He therefore deter- 
 mined to sail at once for this island and make 
 himself acquainted with its forts, cities, and 
 productions for the purpose of establishing 
 relations of traffic. 
 
 After having visited Cuba he had it in his 
 program to visit another great island named 
 Bohio, concerning which there were given mar- 
 
 V7 
 
78 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 
 
 velous accounts by the natives. His stay in 
 those islands would depend upon the extent of 
 the precious metals and stones and other val- 
 uable articles which he would find there. After 
 this he would sail by the main land of India 
 which must be within ten days journe}^, and 
 find the city of Quinsai, which according to 
 Marco Polo was one of the most magnificent 
 capitals in the world ; he would there deliver 
 in person the letters of the Castilian Govern- 
 ment to the Grand Khan, and when he received 
 his reply, return triumphantly to Spain with 
 this document, to prove that he had accom- 
 plished the great object of his voyage. Such 
 was the splendid scheme with which Colum- 
 bus fed his imagination, when about to leave 
 the Bahamas in quest of the island of Cuba. 
 
 This program of the admiral is given by the 
 historian Navarrete, and is credited to the 
 journal of Columbus. 
 
 Three days after leaving Isabella, he came 
 in sight of Cuba, on the morning of the 28th 
 of October. He was struck as he approached 
 the island by its magnificence, its lofty moun- 
 tains, its great plains traversed by mighty riv- 
 ers, its stately forests, its grand promontories 
 and headlands which melted away into the 
 remotest distance. He took possession of the 
 
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 79 
 
 island and gave it the name of Buena, in honor 
 of Prince Juan, and to the river in which he 
 landed, the name of San Salvador. 
 
 In his journal a continual eulogy is made by 
 Columbus on the beauty of the country. "There 
 is a wonderful splendor," he says, "variety and 
 luxuriance in the vegetation of these quick and 
 ardent climates. The verdure of the groves 
 and the colors of the flowers and blossoms, 
 derive a vividness from the transparent purity 
 of the air, and the deep serenity of the azure 
 heavens. The forests, too, are full of life, 
 swarming with birds of brilliant plumage. 
 Painted varieties of parrots and woodpeckers 
 create a glitter in the verdure of groves, and the 
 humming birds dart from flower to flower 
 resembling animated particles of a rainbow. 
 The scarlet flamingoes, too, seen sometimes 
 through the opening of the forest, have the 
 appearance of soldiers drawn up in a battalion, 
 with an advance scout on the alert to give 
 notice of approaching danger. Nor is the 
 least beautiful part of animated nature the vari- 
 ous tribes of insects peopling every plant, 
 and displaying brilliant coats of mail which 
 sparkle like precious gems." 
 
 Columbus did not doubt that this wonderful 
 island possessed mines of gold and groves of 
 
8o CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 
 
 spices, and that it was certainly the Island of 
 Cipango. He sailed westward to find the mag- 
 nificent city where its king was situated. He 
 at last discovered, on further examination, that 
 this v»7as not the Island of Cipango, but he con- 
 cluded that he had reached the mainland of 
 India, and if so he could not be at any great 
 distance from Mangi and Cathay, the ultimate 
 destination of his voyage. He thought that 
 the prince in question who reigned over this 
 neighboring country, must be some Oriental 
 potentate of consequence, and that he would 
 find him and send a present to the monarch 
 with one of the letters from the Castilian sov- 
 ereign ; and after visiting his dominions, he 
 would proceed to the capital of Cathay, the 
 residence of the Grand Khan. 
 
 So sure was Columbus that he was on the 
 borders of Cathay that he sent a delegation of 
 two Spaniards and an Indian to find the mon- 
 arch, and to deliver to him the assurance that 
 he was a friend and the bearer of a letter from 
 the sovereign of Castile to the Grand Khan. 
 
 The ambassadors returned after an absence of 
 some weeks. They found no great monarch, 
 no indications of gold, no precious stones, no 
 spices ; simply found the capital an Indian 
 collection of huts with about a thousand inhab- 
 
CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 8 1 
 
 itants, who were the average natives, naked, 
 hospitable, guileless, and simple. 
 
 There was one who seemed to have some 
 authority, but there was no princely potentate 
 such as Columbus anticipated finding. He 
 wore no royal robes, but went about in a state 
 of unclad purit}', occupying no palace, but liv- 
 ing in a plain hut like his subjects. 
 
 Navarrete, in his "First Voyage of Colum- 
 bus," relates an event which will be a novelt}'' 
 to most people who have supposed that to Sir 
 Walter Raleigh is due the discovery of tobacco- 
 smoking. "On their return, the ambassadors 
 witnessed," says Navarrete, "the use of a weed, 
 which the caprice of men has since converted 
 into a universal luxury in defiance of the oppo- 
 sition of the senses. They beheld several 
 natives going along with firebrands in their 
 hands, and certain dried herbs which they 
 rolled up in a leaf, and lighting one end, put 
 the other in their mouths, and continued exhal- 
 ing and puffing out the smoke. A roll of this 
 kind, they called tobacco, a name since trans- 
 ferred to the plant from which the rolls were 
 made. The Spaniards, although prepared to 
 meet with wonders, were struck with astonish- 
 ment at this singular and apparently nauseous 
 indulgence." 
 
82 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 
 
 It thus appears that the use of the cigarette 
 was discovered four hundred years ago, on the 
 very island which has ever since been the chief 
 source of its growth and manufacture. Colum- 
 bus, in his eager search for gold, precious stones, 
 and spices, overlooked in the tobacco-plant a 
 mine of wealth that has since yielded untold 
 millions of dollars on the very island where he 
 discovered it. 
 
 The returned ambassadors gave rose-colored 
 reports of the character of the country. They 
 had encountered many small settlements sur- 
 rounded by fields in which were growing in 
 luxuriance, sweet pepper, potatoes, Indian- 
 corn ; many of the trees bore fruits at once 
 plentiful and nutritious, among which was the 
 yuca, and lupine from which the natives made 
 bread. 
 
 This report ended Columbus' dream of find- 
 ing Cuba the opulent Cipango of the ancient 
 writers. Nevertheless, the hope of finding gold- 
 bearing regions was not yet extinguished. 
 Natives informed him by signs of a place in 
 the east where the people collected gold along 
 the banks of streams, and made it into bars; and 
 concerning which they used the words Babique, 
 and Bohio, which the admiral construed as 
 names of places. Taking aboard several of the 
 
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 83 
 
 Cubans of both sexes, for the purpose of carry- 
 ing them to Spain, where they could learn the 
 language, and thereafter act as interpreters, he 
 set out in search of Babique, or Bohio. 
 
 Had Columbus not been diverted from his 
 course by this change in its direction, he would 
 have rounded Cuba, and found that it was not 
 a portion of the mainland, and might have dis- 
 covered the continent by being carried by the 
 gulf stream either to Florida or Yucatan. After 
 sailing several days toward Babique, as he sup- 
 posed, he encountered a furious storm, and 
 when it had cleared away, he found that the 
 „Pinta, commanded by Pinzon had disappeared. 
 
 This very much disturbed the commander. 
 He knew that Pinzon was jealous of him, and 
 his first impression was that Pinzon had sailed 
 for Spain for the purpose of securing the honors 
 of the discovery of India. This altered the 
 intention of Columbus, and he gave up the 
 Babique trip, and returned to the coast of Cuba. 
 This was in November. 
 
 When Columbus reached the eastern limits 
 of Cuba, he saw in the southeast some high- 
 lands, toward which he sailed, and discovered 
 Hayti. If it were possible, Columbus admired 
 this island more than even Cuba; its sole fault 
 was that it furnished no signs of gold. The 
 
84 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 
 
 inhabitants were found to be superior in build 
 and look to the natives of the islands hitheito 
 visited. They were boundlessly hospitable ; their 
 doors were never closed ; their condition was 
 the ideal of a perfect life in a state of nature. 
 The climate was equable and salubrious; no 
 labor was necessary to plant, or cultivate arti- 
 cles of food. All these were supplied by benefi- 
 cent nature. Peter Martyr, who gained his 
 information from conversations with Columbus, 
 pays high compliments to the honesty and the 
 integrity of the natives of this favored island. 
 The land is not owned by individuals, and 
 "hence mine and thine have no place among 
 them. They are content with so little, that 
 in so large a country they have rather super- 
 fluity than scarcity; so that they seem to live 
 in the golden world, without toil, living in 
 open gardens ; not entrenched with dykes, 
 divided with hedges, or defended with walls. 
 They deal truly with each other without laws, 
 without books, and without judges. They 
 take him for an evil and mischievous man, who 
 taketh pleasure in doing hurt to another; and 
 albeit they delight not in superfluities, yet they 
 make provisions for the increase of such roots 
 whereof they make their bread, contented with 
 
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 85 
 
 such simple dijet whereby health is preserved 
 and disease avoided." 
 
 This picture is generally confirmed by con- 
 temporary historians. All of them agree, in 
 presenting the life of these islanders as ap- 
 proaching to the golden state of poetical felic- 
 ity ; living under the absolute but easy rule of 
 their caciques, free from pride, with few wants, 
 and abundant country, a happily tempered cli- 
 mate, and a natural disposition to careless and 
 indolent enjoyment. 
 
 On the 14th of December Columbus made 
 another attempt to find the Island of Babique; 
 and on his route visited an island lying oppo- 
 site the harbor of Conception, to which, from 
 the great number of turtles in the vicinity he 
 gave the name of Tortugas, and which was the 
 island which later became the headquarters of 
 the renowned buccaneers. For some reason 
 Columbus abandoned his search for Babique, 
 and nothing more is said of it in any of his 
 records. 
 
 He visited Hispaniola where he obtained 
 but little gold, although whatever the natives 
 possessed the)^ readily presented him, and was 
 well treated by the islanders. He was called 
 upon by the young cacique, who came carried 
 by four men on a sort of a litter, and escorted 
 
86 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 
 
 by two hundred of his subjects. If anything 
 was given him to eat or drink he merely tasted 
 it and sent it to his men on the outside. What 
 probably most pleased Columbus was that the 
 young chief gave him two pieces of gold. The 
 admiral tried to explain to him something about 
 the greatness of Spain ; but the cacique would 
 not believe that there was a region on the earth 
 that produced these wonderful people and 
 things; he believed that they were immortal, 
 and that the people and kings of whom he 
 talked must exist somewhere in the sky. 
 
 On the igth of December, 1492, he sailed and 
 discovered an island which he named St. 
 Thomas, where they were visited by a large 
 canoe filled with natives, who brought the 
 admiral a present of a broad belt, wrought 
 ingeniously with colored beads and bones; and 
 a wooden mask, the eyes and nose and tongue 
 of which were of gold. 
 
 A few days later, Columbus set sail from port 
 St. Thomas. The wind was from the land, but 
 so light that the ship made little progress. Co- 
 lumbus finding the sea calm and smooth, retired 
 to rest, not having slept the preceding night. 
 He no sooner disappeared than the helmsman 
 gave the tiller in charge to one of the ship's boys 
 and went to sleep. The rest of the sailors took 
 
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 87 
 
 advantage of the absence of Columbus and also 
 went to sleep. The ship floated up on a sand 
 bank and it was impossible to get her off. The 
 shock opened several leaks, and the admiral 
 and his men took refuge on board the caravel. 
 It speaks well for the honesty of the cacique, 
 who when he heard of the wreck was affected 
 even to tears, that he immediately sent his 
 people with all the canoes they could muster, 
 and removed the effects to a point near his 
 dwelling, where he placed armed guards around 
 them until proper shelter could be prepared 
 for them. Not the most trifling article was 
 taken during the work of transporting the 
 goods. 
 
 "So loving, so tractable, so peaceable," says 
 Columbus in his journal, "that I swear to your 
 majesties there is not in the world a better 
 nation, nor a better land. They love their 
 neighbors as themselves ; and their discourse is 
 sweet and gentle, and accompanied with a 
 smile ; and though it is true that they are naked, 
 yet their manners are decorous and praise- 
 worthy." 
 
 So pleasant was this island, and so friendly 
 the cacique that Columbus concluded that it 
 would be a good place to establish the germ 
 of a colony. The wreck of the caravel gave 
 
88 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 
 
 materials for a fort upon which were placed 
 her guns, and provisions enough to maintain 
 the garrison for a year. The natives gave all 
 possible assistance to the building of the for- 
 tress, little dreaming what would be the effect 
 upon themselves in the future. 
 
 In ten days the fortress was completed, so 
 ample was the assistance of the natives. He 
 gave the place the name of La Navidad, or the 
 Nativity, in memory of having escaped a wreck 
 on Christmas Day. He selected thirty-nine of 
 the men who volunteered to remain on the 
 island, including a physician, ship carpenter, 
 cooper, tailor, and gunner, all expert at their 
 several professions. And then he set sail for 
 Spain on the 4th of January 1493. 
 
 On the 6th, a sailor at the masthead saw 
 the "Pinta" at a distance. When the ships 
 joined each other, the admiral had a conver- 
 sation with Pinzon at which the latter tried to 
 excuse his desertion sa3ang that he had been 
 driven to part company by the weather, and 
 had ever since been trying to rejoin the admiral. 
 Private information received by Columbus 
 showed that he had remained in Hispaniola 
 several weeks trading with the natives, and 
 had collected a considerable quantity of gold, 
 
CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 8g 
 
 half of which he retained as captain ; the rest 
 he divided among his men to secure their 
 fidelity and secrecy. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 HOMEWARD BOUND 
 
 The point where Pinzon had traded with the 
 natives was a river called by the natives Yaqui. 
 Columbus landed there for a short time and 
 found many particles of gold in the sand at 
 its mouth. He mentions in his journal that 
 he saw two mermaids, who elevated themselves 
 above the surface of the sea. They were not 
 the beautiful green that they are generally 
 rumored to be ; it is supposed that they must 
 have been sea-calves. 
 
 The natives of the place complained that 
 Pinzon had, on his previous visit, violently 
 carried off four men and two girls. Finding 
 that they were retained on the "Pinta" to be 
 taken to Spain to be sold as slaves, the admiral 
 immediately ordered that they be restored to 
 their homes, with many presents, and well 
 clothed. Pinzon objected, used violent Ian- 
 
CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 9 1 
 
 guage, and gave them up with great unwilling- 
 ness. 
 
 A little beyond this they anchored near a 
 spot where they found the natives very differ- 
 ent from those they had hitherto met. Las 
 Casas says of them : — 
 
 "They were of a ferocious aspect and hide- 
 ously painted. Their hair was long, tied 
 behind, and decorated with the feathers of 
 parrots and other birds of gaudy plumage. 
 Some were armed with war clubs ; others had 
 bows of the length of those used by the English 
 archers, with arrows of slender reeds pointed 
 with hard wood, or tipped with bone or the 
 tooth of a iish. Their swoirds were of palm- 
 wood, as hard and heavy as iron ; not sharp, 
 but broad, nearly of the thickness of two fin- 
 gers, and capable, with one blow, of cleaving 
 through a helmet to the very brains. Though 
 thus prepared for combat, they made no attempt 
 to molest the Spaniards ; on the contrary, they 
 sold them two of their bows and several of 
 their arrows, and one of them was induced to 
 go on board the admiral's ship." 
 
 This warrior, who was one of ferocious looks 
 and undaunted manner, spoke of an island 
 called Nantinino, which was peopled by women 
 who received visits from the Caribs yearly for 
 
92 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 
 
 the sake of continuing the population of their 
 island. All the male progeny resulting from 
 such visits were delivered to the fathers, the 
 female remaining with the mother. 
 
 It is probable that this Amazonian island is 
 another of the delusions of Columbus, based 
 on the work of Marco Polo. The latter describes 
 two islands near the coast of Asia, one occupied 
 solely by the women, the other by men, between 
 which a like intercourse existed ; and Columbus 
 supposing himself in that vicinity, easily 
 believed the statement of the native to agree 
 with the description of the Venetian. 
 
 A boat was sent out to the land, carrying the 
 single warrior, with the hope of securing a 
 trade for gold. As the boat neared the shore, a 
 large number of natives armed with bows and 
 arrows, war clubs and javelins, were seen 
 among the trees. The Spaniards attempted to 
 purchase some of their weapons to take home 
 as curiosities. Two bows were obtained ; but 
 suddenly they rushed back to the place where 
 the}^ had left their weapons, picked them up, 
 and returned with cords as if to bind the Span- 
 iards. The latter immediately attacked them, 
 wounded two, and routed the others. This 
 was the first contest with the Indians, and the 
 
CHRISTOFHJ^R COLUMBUS 93 
 
 first time that native blood was shed by the 
 white men in the New World. 
 
 Columbus now, the i6th of January, headed 
 his caravels for Spain, and during the remainder 
 of the month the trade winds retarded him, 
 blowing strongly from the east. He was also 
 detained by the bad sailing of the "Pinta" which 
 could carry but little sail. On the 12th of 
 February they encountered a tremendous storm 
 which lasted for three days, and was accom- 
 panied by awful thunder and lightning. One 
 can fancy how perilous was the condition of 
 these two vessels, which had no decks, and over 
 which the waves dashed every moment. Dur- 
 ing the storm the "Pinta" was driven southward 
 and disappeared. 
 
 Columbus endeavored to propitiate the heav- 
 ens by religious acts. A number of beans, 
 equal to the number of persons on board were 
 put into a hat, on one of which was cut the 
 sign of the cross. It was agreed that each of 
 the crew should draw from the hat, and the 
 one that secured the marked bean would make 
 a pilgrimage to the shrine of Santa Maria de 
 Guadalupe, bearing a white taper of five pounds 
 weight. The admiral was the first to put his 
 hand in and the lot fell on him. A second lot 
 was cast in the same way for a pilgrimage to 
 
94 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 
 
 the chapel of Our Lady of Loretto, which fell 
 upon a seaman, Pedro de Villa ; and a third for 
 a pilgrimage to Santa Clara de Moguer, to per- 
 form a solemn mass, and to watch all night 
 in the chapel, which fell on Columbus. 
 
 These acts did not seem to affect the tempest 
 in the least, for it raged with all its old vio- 
 lence. Conceiving that the ceremonials were 
 not sufficiently strong, something more difficult 
 was devised. What they selected was something 
 quite unique. They made a vow that if spared, 
 at the first place they landed, they would go 
 in procession, barefooted, and in their shirts, to 
 offer prayers and thanksgiving in some church 
 dedicated to the Holy Virgin. In addition to 
 these efforts to placate the tempest, each one 
 made a private vow to perform some religious 
 act at his favorite shrine. 
 
 Still the storm was relentless. It grew more 
 wild and frightful, and each man gave himself 
 up for lost. Columbus was very much alarmed 
 fearing that the "Pinta" had foundered,and that 
 the whole history of the discoveries rested 
 upon the security of his own feeble bark, 
 which any moment might be buried in the 
 ocean. 
 
 An expedient suggested itself by which, in 
 case the ship perished, the glory of his discov- 
 
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 95 
 
 eries might be preserved. He wrote an account 
 of his voyage on parchment, sealed it, directed 
 it to the king and queen, with a promise of a 
 thousand ducats to the person who should 
 deliver the package unopened. He then wrapped 
 it in a waxed cloth, which he placed in the 
 center of a cake of wax, and enclosed the whole 
 in a barrel, which he threw into the sea. He 
 also prepared another copy of the same, and 
 placed it in a barrel on the poop, so that if the 
 caravel should be swallowed up, the barrel 
 would float off and survive. 
 
 February 15th land was seen, and they soon 
 came in sight of an island. For two days they 
 tried to reach it but were driven off by the 
 tempest. After beating off and on for several 
 days, they landed, found it to be one of the 
 Azores, belonging to the Portuguese. For 
 fifteen days they had been beset by a gale of 
 unexampled hixy. The next morning they 
 undertook to carry out their vow for a proces- 
 sion to a chapel dedicated to the Virgin. One- 
 half of the crew barefooted and in their shirts 
 moved to the chapel ; while Columbus awaited 
 their return to perform the same ceremony 
 with the others. Scarcely had they begun 
 their prayers when they were surrounded by 
 a mob that took them all prisoners. 
 
96 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 
 
 The ship with the remainder of the crew 
 was driven out to sea by the storm, and returned 
 to the island at the end of two days. The gov- 
 ernor of the island came aboard, and much 
 wrangling ensued between him and Columbus. 
 The governor finally announced that if they 
 were really in the service of Spain, he would 
 render them every service. The next day the 
 boat and crew were liberated. 
 
 It was later ascertained that the arrest was 
 made by the order of the king of Portugal, 
 who was jealous ; fearing that the expedition 
 of Columbus, might interfere with his own dis- 
 coveries, he had sent orders to the islands 
 and distant ports to detain him wherever he 
 should be met with. 
 
 Castaneda, the governor of St. Mary% had 
 expected to surprise Columbus in the chapel, 
 but failing in this he had been obliged to let 
 him go, as his papers showed that he had in 
 no way intrenched on the possessions of the 
 Portuguese, 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 VISITS PORTUGAL — THEN HOME 
 
 When Columbus left St. Mary's Island, he 
 again encountered a tremendous tempest, dur- 
 ing which his vessel became unmanageable. 
 Destruction menaced the frail vessel ; its sails 
 were carried away, and the ship drifted under 
 bare poles. ^ 
 
 Another attempt was made to placate the 
 assumed wrath of heaven by casting lots to 
 select one to make a pilgrimage to the shrine 
 of Santa Maria de la Cueva, in Huelva, and 
 strange to say, Columbus, for the third time 
 drew the winning number. Still, despite this 
 additional effort to mitigate the anger of the 
 fates, the tempest increased in fury. 
 
 As the pilgrimage determined on to the shrine 
 of Santa Maria de la Cueva did seem to pro- 
 duce the cessation of the tempest, the ingen- 
 ious mariners, persistent in their devotion, 
 unanimously vowed that if the commotion of 
 
 97 
 
98 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 
 
 the elements could be made to subside, they 
 would "fast" on bread and water the next Sat- 
 urday. The fates seemed to regard this proffer 
 as something offensive, and at once increased 
 the height of the waves, and the fury of the 
 winds. 
 
 All the next day the storm increased in 
 dimensions, lightnings rent the black clouds, 
 and hoarse incessant thunders shook the very 
 firmament. Not a soul on the "Nina" expected 
 ever to reach the shore alive. It must have 
 been a distracting thought to Columbus as he 
 reflected on the smooth seas, the warm breezes, 
 and the spiced airs which greeted his arrival 
 in the New World, among heathen, and the 
 fearful buffeting which he was undergoing as 
 he neared the shores of the old world, occu- 
 pied by Christian shrines, churches, crosses, and 
 all the creations of a high civilization. 
 
 The night following the day was, if possible, 
 still worse in the developments of the raging 
 tempest. Land was discovered as the day 
 closed, and as the admiral did not know where 
 they were nor how to manage the vessel, 
 the vicinity of land increased his apprehen- 
 sions. He lowered sails, and kept out at sea 
 as much as possible till daylight, when he 
 found that he was opposite the mouth of the 
 
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 99 
 
 Tagus River, which was pouring into the sea 
 from the soil of Portugal. 
 
 Columbus knew of the hostility of Portugal 
 toward his expedition, but the storm left him 
 no other recourse, and he was forced to seek 
 shelter in the Portuguese port. He immedi- 
 ately sent off messengers to the Spanish sover- 
 eigns of his arrival, and communication to the 
 king of Portugal, asking permission to visit 
 Lisbon. The excuse which Columbus makes 
 for this last communication is that the report 
 having become circulated that his ship was 
 laden with gold, anchorage in the vicinity of 
 the mouth of the Tagus was not safe. On the 
 other hand, there is a belief abroad that the 
 admiral, finding himself so near the Portuguese 
 Court, could not resist the opportunit}^ to 
 revenge himself for the slight put on him by 
 King John in rejecting his proposals. 
 
 It was an ingenious scheme to show the 
 monarch how short-sighted he had been in his 
 action when Columbus appeared at his Court 
 and humbly asked his support. How John 
 would writhe with chagrin and jealousy when 
 he learned that Portugal, which had hitherto 
 stood far in advance for its geographical expe- 
 ditions and discoveries, was now excelled by a 
 
lOo CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 
 
 despised rival nation which had never devel- 
 oped any desire for maritime explorations. 
 
 On the 8th of March a letter came from 
 King John, complimenting the admiral on his 
 achievements, and inviting him to visit the 
 Court, then at Valparaiso. He set out accom- 
 panied only by his pilot, and was met by an 
 escort which conducted him to the royal pal- 
 ace, where he was received with the highest 
 honors. A long conversation occurred between 
 the two, in which the king appeared very much 
 pleased with what Columbus related of his dis- 
 coveries, but it is not impossible that, in his 
 inner soul, he was overwhelmed with rage and 
 mortification over what he had lost. 
 
 King John thought, or pretended to think, that 
 Columbus had possibly trenched on his terri- 
 torial domains which had been granted him by 
 a papal bull, and which included all the west- 
 ern coast of Africa and as far as the Indies, 
 providing that the land should be discovered by 
 the Portuguese. The king submitted this view 
 to his advisers who eagerly agreed with his 
 majesty, among whom were some of those 
 who advised with scorn the rejection of pro- 
 posals which Columbus had made to Portugal. 
 
 They spared no falsehood, or detraction to 
 belittle the reputed discoveries of Columbus, 
 
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS loi 
 
 and some of them even went to the wretched 
 extremity of advocating the assassination of 
 the admiral ; a fact which is affirmed by both 
 Spanish and Portuguese historians. King John 
 was too magnanimous to adopt this advice, or 
 too cowardly, but he adopted a plan which was 
 scarcely less mean. He resolved to let Colum- 
 bus return to Spain, and before the latter 
 would be ready to make a second voyage, he 
 would send a naval force, under guidance of 
 two Portuguese sailors who had accompanied 
 Columbus, and take possession of the new 
 region, and retain possession by force of arms. 
 Columbus returned to Spain, entering the 
 harbor of Palos on the 15th of March, 1493, 
 having sailed from the same port August 3rd 
 of the preceding 3^ear, having been absent a 
 ittle over seven months. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 THE RECEPTION AT PALOS 
 
 Columbus left Palos on a Friday, first dis- 
 covered land on a Friday, and re entered 
 Palos on a Friday. It may be a question, in 
 view of all the things connected with his voy- 
 age and personal experiences, whether or not 
 this incidental connection with the usually 
 ominous Friday may not have been portentous 
 of ill-luck. 
 
 In the spring of 1493, while the Spanish 
 court was still at Barcelona, letters were 
 received from Columbus, announcing his return 
 to Spain, and his success in finding land in 
 the western ocean. The joy and astonishment 
 created b}' this informaton were in proportion 
 to the skepticism with which his project had 
 been originally viewed. Ferdinand and Isa- 
 bella were naturally eager to learn the extent 
 and the like of the said discover}^, and they 
 
' CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 103 
 
 sent instructions that he should come to Barce- 
 lona at once. 
 
 Here may be inserted a letter from Colum- 
 bus which was written at Lisbon to the treas- 
 urer Sanchez, in which he displays his supreme 
 satisfaction. 
 
 "Let processions be made, festivals held, 
 temples filled with branches and flowers, for 
 Christ rejoices on earth as in Heaven, seeing 
 the future redemption of souls. Let us rejoice 
 also for the temporal benefit likely to result not 
 only to Spain, but to all Christendom." 
 
 Could Columbus have foreseen the events of 
 the next century, there would possibly have 
 been a modification of his pious exaltation. 
 
 It may readily be imagined that when the lit- 
 tle caravel, "Nina," appeared in the harbor of 
 Palos, a tremedous excitement was the result. 
 For months the community had believed that 
 it had been swallowed up by the ocean, for the 
 weather which they had experienced during 
 the voyage, was the most tempestuous and 
 savage within the memory of the oldest inhab- 
 itant. The crew of the vessel had many rela- 
 tives and friends at Palos. 
 
 The latter thronged to the landing with 
 tumultuous haste in order to satisfy themselves 
 that the vessel was a reality and not an appar- 
 
1 04 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 
 
 ition. When they saw their old acquaintances 
 were all safe, and the many things that they 
 had brought back, attesting the success of the 
 voyage, they shook the air with roars of enthu- 
 siastic joy. The entire population accompan- 
 ied Columbus and his men to a church ; thanks- 
 givings were offered up for their safe return, 
 and the bells joined giving voice to the general 
 satisfaction. 
 
 The admiral hurried to leave Palos to meet 
 the monarchs, taking with him specimens of 
 many kinds found in the land that he supposed 
 was India. Several natives of the islands 
 wearing their barbaric decorations of collars, 
 bracelets and other ornaments of gold, rudely 
 fashioned, accompanied him. He also exhib- 
 ited considerable quantities of the same metal 
 in dust or in crude masses. "Among other 
 specimens was a lump of gold of sufficient mag- 
 nitude, " sa57s Salazar de Mendoza, "to be fash- 
 ioned into a vessel to contain the host, thus 
 converting the first fruits of the new dominion 
 to pious uses. " 
 
 Columbus had in his collection many vege- 
 table exotics, possessing aromatic and medic- 
 inal virtues, many kinds of birds, whose variety 
 of gaudy plumage gave a brilliant effect to 
 the pageant. He had also some quadrupeds 
 
, CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 1 05 
 
 quite unknown in Europe. Throngs impeded 
 his progress at every step. 
 
 At Seville, a large and active city, every 
 point of advantage which could afford a glimpse 
 of him, is described to have been crowded with 
 spectators. When he reached Barcelona, he 
 was met by the nobility and cavaliers con- 
 nected with the court, who, with the authori- 
 ties of the city met him at the gates and es- 
 corted him to the presence of the royal couple. 
 
 Ferdinand and Isabella were seated under a 
 superb canopy of state awaiting his arrival. 
 They rose to receive him, gave him their hands 
 to salute, and caused him to be seated before 
 them, which was a most astonishing mark of 
 condescension, to an humble person of the 
 grade of Columbus in the ceremonious court of 
 Castile. 
 
 Peter Martyr says : "It was indeed, the proud- 
 est moment in the life of Columbus. He had 
 fully established the proof of his long-contested 
 theory in the face of argument, sophistry, sneer, 
 skepticism, and contempt. He had achieved 
 this, not by chance, but by calculations sup- 
 ported through the most adverse circumstances, 
 by consummate conduct. The honors paid 
 him which had hitherto been reserved for rank, 
 or fortune, or military success, purchased by the 
 
io6 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 
 
 blood and tears of thousands, were in his case, 
 an homage to intellectual power successfully 
 asserted in behalf of the noblest interests of 
 humanity." 
 
 All the contemporary and later writers are 
 in the highest degree complimentary to the 
 bearing of Columbus at this interview. Accord- 
 ing to them his manner was sedate and digni- 
 fied, but warmed by the glow of natural enthu- 
 siasm. He enumerated the islands that he had 
 visited, expatiated on the temperate character 
 of the climate, and the capacity of the soil for 
 every variety of production. He dwelt more 
 at large on the precious metals to be found in 
 these islands, which he inferred, less from the 
 specimens actually obtained, than from the 
 uniform testimony of the natives, to their 
 abundance in the unexplored regions of the 
 interior. 
 
 Finally, he pointed out the wide field there 
 was for Christian effort in the illumination of 
 a race of men whose minds were not wedded 
 to any system of idolatry, and who were pre- 
 pared by their extreme simplicity for the recep- 
 tion of a pure and uncorrupted doctrine. This 
 last consideration touched Isabella's heart most 
 sensibly. It was only about a year later when 
 the priest and the musketeer were well on in 
 
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 107 
 
 their respective works of killing, or convert- 
 ing, or both, the unbiased natives. 
 
 The report of Columbus excited a sensation 
 among the scientific men in all parts of Europe. 
 The same men who had heard of his plans 
 with entire indifference, now felicitated each 
 other in being connected with an age in which 
 had been developed so grand an event. 
 
 Peter Martyr, who in his very extended let- 
 ters, and whom as a contemporary of Columbus, 
 had not even mentioned the preparations 
 for the voyage of discovery, now lavished the 
 most unbounded panegyric on the results ; 
 which he contemplated with the eye of a phil- 
 osopher, having far less reference to consider- 
 ations of profit or policy, than to the prospect 
 which they unfolded of enlarging the boundaries 
 of knowledge. 
 
 Many of the scholars of the day fell into the 
 errors of Columbus to the effect that the land 
 that he had discovered bordered on the eastern 
 shores of Asia, and lay close to the vast and 
 opulent region depicted in such vivid colors by 
 Mandeville and Polo. On account of this mis- 
 apprehension, the new region was now known 
 as the West Indies, a name by which they are 
 still recognized by the world and in the titles 
 of the Spanish crown. 
 
io8 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 
 
 Efforts were at once begun to push the 
 exploration of the new found regions. A board 
 was established on the management of Indian 
 affairs, and an office for the transaction of busi- 
 ness was instituted at Seville, and a custom 
 house placed under its direction at Cadiz. The 
 commercial regulations forbade the new terri- 
 tories free intercourse with foreign nations, and 
 only Spanish subjects were allowed to deal 
 with them. No one could trade or even visit 
 the Indies without a license. Commodities of 
 every description for the supply of the fleet 
 were exempted from duty. The owners of all 
 vessels in the ports of Andalusia, were required 
 to hold them in readiness for the expedition, 
 and authority was given to impress officers and 
 men wherever necessary. Mechanics were en- 
 listed for service in the new territory ; and in 
 order to defray the heavy charges of which the 
 Government in addition to the regular resources 
 had recourse to a loan, and to these questrated 
 property of the exiled Jews. 
 
 At that period the unfortunate Jews had rea- 
 son to congratulate themselves that the money 
 wrung from them was used with the result that 
 hundreds of thousands of Gentiles and heathen 
 lost their property and their lives. 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 PREPARATIONS FOR A SECOND VOYAGE TO THE NEW 
 WORLD 
 
 Ample provisions were made for caring for 
 the souls and bodies of the natives ; for the 
 former were twelve priests, for the latter artil- 
 lary, powder, muskets, lances, corselets and 
 cross-bows, many of the soldiers preferring the 
 last-named to the arquebus which was fired 
 with a match lock and was so heavy as to 
 require an iron rest. The pious portion of 
 the outfit was equally well supplied with ammu- 
 nition. Bernardo Boyle, a benedictine monk 
 who was considered a man of great talent and 
 sanctity, but who was in reality a politician, was 
 selected as one of the religious element. The 
 mission was provided with all necessary sup- 
 plies. The queen supplied from her own chap- 
 el the ornaments and vestments to be used 
 in all solemn ceremonies. She desired that 
 
 great care should be taken of their religious 
 109 
 
1 1 o CHRISTOPHER "^COL UMB US 
 
 instruction ; that they should be well treated, 
 and insisted that Columbus should punish all 
 Spaniards who should be guilty of injustice or 
 outrage toward any of the natives. 
 
 The six Indians brought over by Columbus 
 were b^aptized with great ceremony, the royal 
 family acting as sponsors. It was hoped that 
 when they returned to India they would be 
 valuable as missionaries. One of them remained 
 in the royal household, but soon after died, 
 when it was remarked by Herrera, the historian, 
 that, according to what ought to be our pious 
 belief, he was the first of his nation to enter 
 heaven. If his pious belief were true, purga- 
 tory and hades must have necessarily been of 
 limitless dimensions to have accommodated all 
 the pagans who had been damned. 
 
 There was a long series of vexatious nego- 
 tiations between the Spanish monarchy, and 
 John II. of Portugal. As said before the latter 
 prepared a large naval force whose ostensible 
 purpose was i\frican discoveries in Africa, but 
 whose real purpose was to take possession of 
 the West Indies. Ferdinand was too shrewd 
 a politician to be deceived by this action of the 
 Portuguese king. He wrote two letters to the 
 Portuguese monarch which he sent by a special 
 messenger. These two letters were exactly 
 
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS iii 
 
 unlike. One of them returned thanks for the 
 hospitality showed Columbus, and asked that 
 the Portuguese fleet be prohibited from visiting 
 the new country, the same as Spain had done 
 in the case of the African possessions of the 
 Portuguese. If the ambassador who carried 
 the letters discovered that Portugal was going 
 to dispatch the fleet to the new world, then 
 he was to present the other letter which was a 
 peremptory order not to send the armament as 
 proposed. 
 
 There was a long diplomatic wrangle with 
 the result that Ferdinand who was much the 
 shrewder of the two, managed to gain suffi- 
 cient time for Columbus to conclude his pre- 
 parations, and start on his second journey. 
 Columbus was written to repeatedly to hurry. 
 He, however, needed no spurring, and made 
 all haste possible. He issued the requisition 
 for ships and crews and soon succeeded in 
 concentrating a fleet of seventeen vessels. 
 Horses were shipped, cattle and domestic ani- 
 mals of all kinds were put on board. 
 
 A vast excitement prevailed in regard to this 
 trip. Everybody wished to participate in it, 
 many of the people of highest rank as well as of 
 the common people thronging forward for ad- 
 mission as emigrants to the new world. Las 
 
112 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 
 
 Casas relates some facts interesting in regard 
 to a young cavalier. Don Alonso de Ojeda, 
 who was one of the men who engaged in the 
 expedition. He says : 
 
 "He was celebrated for his remarkable per- 
 sonal endowments and his daring spirit, and 
 who distinguished himself among the early 
 discoverers by many perilous expeditions. He 
 was cousin-german to the venerable Father 
 Alonzo de Ojeda, Inquisitor of Spain, and 
 served in the wars against the Moors. He 
 was of small stature, but vigorous make, well- 
 proportioned, dark complexioned, of handsome 
 animated countenance, and incredible strength 
 and agility. Expert at all kinds of weapons, 
 accomplished in all manly and war-like exer- 
 cises, an admirable horseman, and a partisan 
 soldier of the highest order. Bold of heart, 
 free of spirit, open of hand ; fierce in fight, 
 quick in brawl, but ready to forgive and prone 
 to forget an injury ; he was for a long time the 
 idol of the rash and roving youth who engaged 
 in the early expedition to the new world, and 
 was the hero of many wonderful tales. " 
 
 Las Casas gives an anecdote of one of his 
 exploits as follows : "Queen Isabella being in 
 the tower of the Cathedral of Seville, Ojeda, 
 to entertain her majesty, and to give proof of 
 
CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 113 
 
 his courage and agility, mounted on a great 
 beam which projected in the air twenty feet 
 from the tower, at such an immense height 
 from the ground that the people looked like 
 dwarfs; and it was enough to make Ojeda him- 
 self shudder to look down. Along this beam 
 he walked briskly, and with as much confi- 
 dence as if he had been pacing his chamber. 
 When he arrived at the end, he stood on one 
 leg, lifting the other into the air ; then turning 
 nimbly round, he returned in the same way to 
 the tower, unaffected by the giddy height, 
 whence the least false step would have precip- 
 itated him. and dashed him to pieces. He 
 afterward stood with one foot on the beam, and 
 the other against the wall of the building, and 
 threw an orange to the summit of the tower, a 
 proof of an immense muscular strength. Such 
 was Alonzo de Ojeda, who soon became con- 
 spicuous among the followers of Columbus, and 
 who was always foremost in every enterprise 
 of an adventurous nature ; he courted peril as 
 if for the very love of danger, and seemed to 
 fight more for the pleasure of fighting than for 
 the distinction." 
 
 It was decided at the start to limit the 
 number of persons who were to go in the 
 expedition to a thousand, but such was the 
 
1 1 4 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 
 
 pressure of volunteers who wished to enlist 
 without pay, that the number reached twelve 
 hundred. Others entered as stowaways so that 
 finally there were at least fifteen hundred. 
 Columbus was hastened in^ starting before the 
 time that he had fixed on by the report that 
 the Portuguese had sent out an armed ship 
 from Madeira which was headed west. An 
 account of this was sent to the sovereigns, and 
 remonstrances sent to King John who said that 
 the ship had gone without permission, and 
 that he would send caravels to bring her back. 
 The Spanish monarchs believed that this was 
 simply a subterfuge, and Columbus was urged 
 to start at once. 
 
 On the 25th of September, 1493, his fleet 
 was gathered in the Bay of Cadiz. It consisted 
 of three large ships, and and fourteen caravels. 
 
 All were full of animation and hope. The 
 two sons of Columbus, Diego and Fernando, 
 had come to witness his departure. Word was 
 given to weigh anchor early in the morning 
 and before sunrise the fleet was under way. 
 They reached the Canaries on the first of Octo- 
 ber. On the evening of the second of Novem- 
 ber, Columbus discovered an island to which 
 he gave the name of Dominica, from having 
 discovered it on Sunday. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 GUADALOUPE AND THE CARIES 
 
 The island which Columbus discovered was 
 one of the group of Antilles, which he took 
 possession of for Spain. Two days later, he 
 sighted an island on which was a volcano and 
 to which, with the purpose of complimenting 
 a Catholic saint, he gave the name of Guada- 
 loupe. 
 
 He landed, and found a village of thirty 
 houses from which the natives had fled in ter- 
 ror at the sight of the fleet. The houses were 
 different in form and construction from those 
 seen on any other island, being more roomy 
 and of a stronger construction. The furniture 
 was also superior to that which the explorers 
 had before seen ; the beds were hammocks of 
 cotton netting. There was cotton cloth of a 
 fair texture and an abundance of the raw mater- 
 ial. They found bows and arrows, geese the 
 
 same as the domestic fowls of Europe; and 
 
 115 
 
1 16 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 
 
 on this island the explorers first saw the delic- 
 ious pine-apple. 
 
 Among other curiosities was a pan which 
 had the appearance of being of iron. What 
 much excited their wonder was the finding in 
 one of the houses of the stern-post of a ship, 
 whose origin excited speculation. It had pro- 
 bably drifted to the island driven by the trades. 
 
 Still another thing excited their horror and 
 disgust as well as their astonishment. They 
 found human bones whose flesh they concluded 
 had been eaten. There were also skulls which 
 were evidently used for household purposes. 
 Those hideous remnants convinced the Span- 
 iards that the island was occupied by canni- 
 bals, or Caribs ; the next day, the conviction 
 was confirmed. 
 
 Sailing further along the coast, a boat went 
 ashore and brought back a boy and several 
 women, from whom Columbus learned that the 
 island belonged to the predatory, man-eating 
 Caribs. He also learned that they were in league 
 w'ith another island, and went in their canoes, 
 made from logs, a distance, sometimes as far 
 as one hundred and fifty leagues to pillage on 
 other islands, capturing men whom they ate, 
 and women of whom they made servants, or 
 worse. 
 
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 117 
 
 Columbus had a severe fright while at this 
 infernal retreat of the murderous Caribs. One 
 day he learned that a captain of one of the 
 caravels, and eight men were missing ; they had 
 gone ashore without leave of absence, and had 
 disappeared in the woods. Parties to search 
 for them scoured the country in every direc- 
 tion ; guns were fired, trumpets blown, with 
 no results. The searching parties discovered 
 abundant evidence of man-eating practices. 
 Human limbs hung from beams in the houses, 
 being "cured" like hams in a country smoke- 
 house. There was the still-bleeding head of 
 a young man, parts of whose bod}" were roast- 
 ing before a fire. 
 
 Some days passed and the stragglers did not 
 return ; and then Ojeda took a party of forty 
 men, and started on a renewed search. He found 
 .a fine region, with trees shedding aromatic 
 odors; honey in hollow trees, and an abundance 
 of fruit, but he did not find what he specifi- 
 cally went for, the stragglers. The admiral 
 gave them up and was to sail away when the 
 wanderers suddenly appeared almost dead from 
 fatigue. They had entered the f rest, and lost 
 their bearings, and it was only by sheer chance 
 that they reached the shore of which they fol- 
 lowed till they found the fleet. The captain 
 
ii8 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 
 
 was put under arrest and the privates who fol- 
 lowed him, were put on half rations. They 
 learned from some women whom they brought 
 back with them that the king and all the men 
 were absent on a plundering expedition. 
 
 On the loth of November, he resumed his 
 course, passing many islands, and naming them 
 as he went along. He sent a boat ashore at an 
 island for water and named it Santa Cruz. Here 
 he witnessed a specimen of Carib audacity and 
 courage which was of a novel character. While 
 in the village, a boat filled with natives came 
 around a head-land near the ships ; two of the 
 inmates of the canoe were women. They were 
 so engaged in staring at the unexpected sight, 
 that the boat at the village had time to run 
 out and intercept the retreat of the natives. 
 
 They immediately dropped their paddles, 
 picked up their bows and arrows and began 
 using them with astonishing rapidity and skill. 
 The Spaniards ran against the canoe and upset 
 it, but it made little difference to the natives. 
 They used their bows in the water as rapidly 
 as they did from the boat. The women took 
 part in the fight, and wielded their bows with 
 as much dexterity as the men. They were 
 captured with great difficulty, and not till one 
 
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 119 
 
 of them had been run through with a lance, 
 from which he soon after died. 
 
 The natives were a frightful collection of 
 semi-monsters, with long, coarse hair, and 
 faces hideously painted. Just why they were 
 attacked when they wished to escape, and had 
 done the strangers no harm, it is difficult to 
 explain. Columbus was very careful to avoid 
 irritating the natives, but in this instance it 
 seems a case of inexcusable shedding of blood. 
 One Spaniard died from being hit by a pois- 
 oned arrow launched by one of the women. 
 
 The fleet sailed on and passed hundreds of 
 islands, and finally anchored in front of what 
 is now known as Porto Rico. Two days later 
 he left the Caribbean sea, and sailed for His- 
 paniola, which he reached on the 22d of No- 
 vember. 
 
 Hispaniola is the island now known as Hayti, 
 which was, according to all accounts, a most 
 charming island at the advent of the Spaniards. 
 Here Columbus liberated a young Indian who 
 had been taken to Spain, and converted. He 
 was loaded with presents with which he was 
 expected to dazzle his friends, and induce them 
 to visit the ship. He left, promising to return 
 soon, but was never seen or heard of again. 
 
 Up to this period Columbus had experienced 
 
1 20 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 
 
 uninterrupted months of quiet, crowned with 
 honors, and not a cloud in the sky of his life. 
 It was while he was at anchor in a harbor of 
 Hayti that the turning point in his life oc- 
 curred. It was a date from which his descent 
 was almost as rapid as had been his rise. 
 
 Some sailors who were ashore found the bod- 
 ies of a man and boy with a rope of grass around 
 the neck of the former. They were so much de- 
 composed that it was impossible to pronounce as 
 to whether they were Spanish or native. The 
 facts were reported to the admiral, who felt that 
 they were an omen of evil. On the next day all 
 doubt was dissipated by the finding of two other 
 bodies near the same, one of which had a beard 
 which proved incontestibly that the remains 
 were those of a European. 
 
 Filled with apprehension, Columbus imme- 
 diately sailed for La Navidad, where, on his 
 last voyage he had built a fort from the tim- 
 bers of the Santa Maria, and in which he had 
 left a garrison. On the evening of the 27th 
 he reached a point opposite La Navidad. It 
 was too dark to enter the harbor ; and coming 
 to anchor he fired a couple of guns to notify 
 the garrison of his presence. There was no 
 response from the shore. 
 
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 121 
 
 About midnight a canoe containing a single 
 Indian came along side, and was taken aboard. 
 He said that many of the Spanish garrison had 
 died of sickness; others had quarrelled and 
 fought among themselves, and still others had 
 removed to a distant part of the island where 
 they had taken Indian wives. The Indian left 
 promising to return in the morning and bring 
 with him the cacique, Guancanagari, whom 
 Columbus had met on his former trip, and who 
 had then given every evidence of a warm friend- 
 ship for Columbus. 
 
 Morning came and the day advanced, and 
 the cacique did not come. For a time it was 
 thought that the Indian might have taken too 
 much wine the preceding night, and that on the 
 way to the shore, the canoe might have been 
 upsetand the occupant drowned. When Colum- 
 bus had visited the harbor before, the natives 
 had come to see them by hundreds, the water was 
 covered with canoes, and innumerable Indians 
 were seen in the woods on the shore. Now there 
 was not a boat nor an Indian in sight. After 
 impatiently waiting until near night, Columbus 
 sent some men ashore to look over the situation. 
 The men found the fortress. It was a com- 
 plete ruin. It had been beaten down and had 
 the appearance of having been burned, and its 
 
122 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 
 
 contents stolen. Broken chests, spoiled pro- 
 visions, and remnants of European garments 
 were scattered around. Two or three Ind'ian-s 
 were seen in the distance among the trees as if 
 watching them, but disappeared when they 
 noticed that they were seen. 
 
 Columbus was very much afflicted by this 
 intelligence, and the next day went to look over 
 the scene in person. A search was made for 
 dead bodies, but none could be found. No 
 traces of the garrison were to be seen, but 
 broken utensils and torn vestments were scat- 
 tered about in the grass. It was hoped that 
 some of the garrison might yet be alive, and 
 the cannon were fired with the hope that any 
 of the survivors who were within hearing might 
 come out, but no one made an appearance. 
 
 On looking for the village of the cacique, it 
 was found to be a heap of burned ruins which 
 showed that he had shared in the disaster of 
 the garrison. 
 
 Orders had been left with the officers of the 
 garrison to bury all the treasure they could 
 get hold of, or in case of an emergency throw it 
 into the well of the fortress. Excavations were 
 made all over the ruins and the well was cleared 
 out. Nothing was found. He proceeded to 
 inspect the adjacent shore in boats and some 
 
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 123 
 
 distance away he came to a village the inhab- 
 itants of which had left taking some of their 
 goods with them and hiding the remainder in 
 the grass. In the houses were .European arti- 
 cles which evidently had not been procured by 
 barter, such as stockings, pieces of cloth and an 
 anchor of the caravel which had been wrecked 
 and a beautiful Moorish robe folded in the form 
 in which it had been brought from Spain. 
 
 The digging revealed no treasure, but it 
 brought to light the bodies of eleven men buried 
 in various places, and which were known by their 
 clothing to be Europeans. The grass had 
 grown on their graves, showing that they had 
 been some time buried. 
 
 Some Indians came in finally, and in time the 
 facts of the fate of the garrison were to some ex- 
 tent brought out. Concerning what occurred 
 after Columbus had left Oviedo, he says : "With 
 the exception of the commander Don Diego 
 Arana, and one 01 two others, the men who 
 were left behind were but little calculated to 
 follow the precepts of so prudent a person, or 
 to discharge the critical duties enjoined upon 
 them. They were principally men of the low- 
 est order, or mariners who knew not how to 
 conduct themselves with restraint or sobriety 
 on shore. No sooner had the admiral departed, 
 
1 24 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 
 
 than all his commands and counsels died away 
 from their minds. Though a mere handful of 
 men surrounded by savage tribes, and depend- 
 ent upon their own prudence and good conduct, 
 and upon the good will of the natives for their 
 very existence, they soon began to indulge 
 in the most wanton abuses. Some were prompt- 
 ed by rapacious avarice, and sought to possess 
 themselves, by all kinds of wrongful means, 
 of the golden ornaments and other valuable 
 property of the natives. Others were grossly 
 sensual, and not content with the two or three 
 wives allowed to each, by the cacique, seduced 
 the wives and daughters of the Indians. 
 
 "Fierce brawls ensued among them about 
 their ill-gotten spoils, and the favors of the 
 Indian women, and the natives beheld with 
 astonishment the beings whom they had wor- 
 shipped, as descended from the skies, aban- 
 doned to the grossest earthty passions, and 
 raging against each other with worse than 
 brutal ferocity." 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 FURTHER FACTS IN REGARD TO LA NAVIDAD 
 
 It was further ascertained that the garrison 
 had not maintained military discipline. It was 
 fruitless that Don Diego de Arana interfered ; 
 all order, subordination and unity disappeared. 
 Many left the fortress, and lived about the 
 neighborhood ; each joined with some other 
 one in a conspiracy to injure and spoil the 
 others. Factions broke out, and assisted to 
 complete the ruin ; two men who were lieuten- 
 ants, left by Columbus to succeed the com- 
 mander in case of accident, undertook to get 
 an equal share in the authority and if possi- 
 ble obtain control. Frequent affrays succeeded, 
 in which some of the Spaniards were killed. 
 The two lieutenants, having failed, left the fort 
 with nine of their adherents, and a number of 
 their women. 
 
 They heard marvelous accounts of the mines 
 of Cibao, and went to that district expecting 
 
 185 
 
126 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 
 
 to secure much treasure. In going to this point, 
 they went outside the region of the friendly 
 territory of Guacanagari. The section where 
 they went was in the interior of the island, a 
 locality ruled by the famous Caonabo^ who 
 was a Carib by birth, and had the fierceness 
 and enterprise of his nation. He came as an 
 adventurer to Hispaniola, and by his war-like 
 exploits had put himself at the head of all the 
 other caciques. 
 
 He was the hero of the island when the ships 
 of the white men reached the shore. He was 
 sharp enough to understand that his conse- 
 quence would decline before such intruders. 
 The quarrels and excesses of those that re- 
 mained, while they moved his detestation, in- 
 spired him with increasing confidence. No 
 sooner did the two lieutenants with their fol- 
 lowing take refuge in his dominions, than he 
 put them to death. 
 
 He then formed a league with the cacique 
 of Marien, and made a sudden attack upon 
 the fortress. Descending with his warriors, 
 and traversing great tracts of forests with pro- 
 found secrecy, he arrived in the vicinity of the 
 village without being discovered. But ten 
 men were in the fortress with Arana, and these 
 had no guard. The rest were quartered in 
 
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 127 
 
 houses in the neighborhood. In the dead of 
 the night, when all were wrapped in sleep, 
 Caonabo and his warriors burst upon the place 
 with frightful yells, carried the fort, and sur- 
 rounded and set fire to the houses in which the 
 rest of the white men were asleep. Eight of 
 the Spaniards fled to the sea side, pursued by 
 the savages, and rushing into the waves were 
 drowned. All the rest were massacred. 
 
 Guacanagari and his subjects fought faith- 
 fully in defence of their guests, but not being 
 of a war-like character, were easily routed ; the 
 cacique was wounded by the hand of Caonabo, 
 and his village was burned to the ground. 
 
 Such was the humiliating and bloody termi- 
 nation of the first effort to establish civiliza- 
 tion in the New World. On this point Irving 
 says : 
 
 "It presents in a diminutive compass an 
 epitome of the gross vices which desjrade civ- 
 ilization, and the grand political errors which 
 sometimes subvert the mightiest empires. All 
 law and order being relaxed by corruption and 
 licentiousness, public good was sacrificed to 
 private interests and passion, the community 
 was convulsed by divers factions and dissen- 
 tions, until the whole was shaken asunder by 
 two aspiring demagogues, ambitious of the 
 
128 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 
 
 command of a petty fortress In the wilderness, 
 and the supreme control of eight-and-thirty 
 men." 
 
 The cacique, Guacanagari, did not entirely 
 escape suspicion of complicity in the destruc- 
 tion of the fortress. One of the captains of 
 the vessels was invited b}' the brother of the 
 cacique to visit him. He went to the village 
 where the cacique was confined, and found him 
 in a hammock, surrounded by seven of his 
 wives. Columbus also visited him, and to 
 make an impression brought with him his offi- 
 cers all in their armor. The cacique shed many 
 tears as he related the destruction of La Navi- 
 dad, and showed several of his subjects who 
 had been wounded evidently by Indian weap- 
 ons. The leg of the cacique had been, as he 
 asserted, struck by a stone. A surgeon exam- 
 ined it and found no sign of a wound. A good 
 many of the Spaniards looked upon his lame- 
 ness as made-up, and the story of the battle 
 an invention to cover up his own duplicity. 
 
 The priest, Father Boyle, more than any 
 other believed in his guilt, and insisted that 
 Columbus should make an example of the chief. 
 This priest was of a vindictive spirit, and was 
 possessed of a willingness to persecute and 
 torture characteristic of a member of the Inqui- 
 
CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 1 29 
 
 sition. Columbus thought that it would be 
 impolitic on the strength of a mere suspicion, 
 to disturb the relations between the natives 
 and the Spaniards, and interfere with their 
 operation on the island. The majority of his 
 officers agreed with him, and thus the inquisi- 
 torial designs of the friar* were balked. 
 
 The cacique was invited to visit the ship. 
 He had been astonished when he had seen the 
 two caravels on the first trip, and now his 
 amazement was vastly enlarged on seeing the 
 enormous fleet, especially the admiral's ship, 
 which was a very large vessel. The Carib 
 prisoners were in one of the vessels in chains, 
 and still he contemplated them with fear and 
 shuddering. The fact that the Spaniards had 
 invaded these terrible cannibals in their lair, 
 and had taken them tiom their strongholds 
 immeasurably increased his estimate of the 
 tremendous powers of the white men. He was 
 taken through the ship of the admiral. Every- 
 thing was a novelty to him. The domestic 
 fowls, cattle, sheep and swine, and other ani- 
 mals which had been brought over were all 
 marvels to him ; more especially was he as- 
 tounded at the sight of the horses He had 
 been accustomed to seeing only small animals, 
 and was astonished at their size, their great" 
 
1 30 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 
 
 strength, and terrific appearance. He believed 
 that all these objects must have been brought 
 from Heaven from whence the white men must 
 have come. 
 
 A little romance occurred in connection with 
 this visit of the cacique, which may bear nar- 
 ration. On the ship were ten women who had 
 been prisoners in the hands of the Caribs, and 
 who had been rescued by the Spaniards. There 
 was one of them who was evidently superior 
 to all the others, and seemed to attract the 
 special attention of the cacique. The next 
 morning a messenger from the cacique came 
 on board to find out how long before the ad- 
 miral would sail. In the evening the brother 
 of the cacique came to the ship on the pretense 
 of wishing to sell a quantity of gold ; and when 
 an opportunity offered he was noticed to talk 
 privately with the female prisoners, particu- 
 larly with Catalina, the one whose bearing had 
 attracted the attention of Guanacagari. At mid- 
 night when the crew were in their first sleep, 
 Catalina woke her companions. The shore was 
 distant three miles and the sea was ver}^ rough, 
 but they let themselves down into the water, 
 and swam for the shore. The watch heard them 
 and an alarm was sounded. Chase was given, 
 but such was the skill and strength of these 
 
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 131 
 
 women that they reached land. Four were re- 
 captured on the beach but Catalina and the 
 others made their escape in the forest. Next 
 morning Columbus sent messengers to the 
 cacique to demand the return of the fugitives. 
 The residence of'the cacique was deserted, and 
 not an Indian was to be seen. This desertion 
 increased the doubts before entertained, and the 
 cacique was generally stigmatized as a traitor 
 to the white men, and the perfidious destroyer 
 of the garrison. Thus ended one of the few 
 romances involving love and women which 
 occurred during the visits of Columbus to the 
 New World. 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 
 THE BUILDING OF A NEW CITY MALADIES 
 
 The destruction of La Navidad rendered it 
 necessary to make a beginning somewhere, and 
 a short distance east of the site of the ruined 
 fort the Spaniards landed and began the laying 
 out of a city which they called Isabella. There 
 was a spacious harbor, two rivers debouching 
 at the point, and many other desirable features 
 in the selected locality. One of the strongest 
 inducements to locate at this point was the 
 intelligence from the Indians, that the moun- 
 tains of Cibao where the gold mines were sit- 
 uated, were not far distant. The city went up 
 rapidly. A church, a public store-house, and 
 a residence for the admiral were erected, all of 
 which were built of stone, while the other 
 houses were built of wood or plaster, reeds, or 
 whatever else could be made available. This 
 was the first city of the New World, and which 
 was very appropriately named after the queen 
 
CRHISTOPHER COLUMBUS 133 
 
 who had given so much sympathy to the scheme 
 of Columbus. 
 
 All the animals were taken ashore, and for 
 a time the colonists were very happy in escap- 
 ing the confinement of the ships, and finding 
 themselves on firm land and breathing free air 
 in place of the stagnant exhalations of the inte- 
 rior of the vessels. Sickness, however, soon 
 broke out, especially among those who had 
 suffered from sea sickness, and who had lived 
 for a long time on damaged salt provisions and 
 moldy biscuit. Before the houses could be 
 built, they suffered from the exhalations of the 
 hot, moist climate and soil, the miasmatic mists 
 that overhung the rivers. They were sick at 
 heart as well as body. Scarcely any of their 
 romantic expectations had been realized. The 
 gold regions of Cipango had not been discov- 
 ered \ they had fancied a region of luxury, and an 
 opportunity for adventure and chivalrous enter- 
 prise. They found themselves confined to an 
 island enveloped by dense forests, forced to 
 work hard for a mere living, and only to secure 
 comfort by the severest exertions. Gold did 
 not lie in quantities where it could be picked 
 up with no trouble, but was scarce, only to be 
 obtained with the greatest difficulty. 
 
 All these things produced a profound des- 
 
1 34 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 
 
 pendency, and added to the virulence of the 
 physical diseases. Columbus, himself, was 
 affected like the others, but his sense of respon- 
 sibilit}^ sustained and supported him by forcing 
 him to withstand prostration. He had tremen- 
 dous labor whose execution was imperative ; 
 he had the oversight and management of hi» 
 fleet ; he had to exercise incessant vigilance, 
 to smother embryotic dissatisfaction, which, if 
 unchecked, might develop into open mutin}^ 
 
 The attitude of the natives since the destruc- 
 tion of La Navidad ; the menacing position of 
 the hordes of hostile Caribs ; the failure to find 
 the wealthy city of Cipango ; the comparatively 
 small amount of gold thus far obtained, and 
 the depressing effect the facts would have on 
 public opinion at home ; the prevailing sick- 
 ness, the scarcity of supplies, all of these and 
 other weighty difficulties bore down on him, 
 and constituted a burden which would have 
 crushed a man with less powers of endurance. 
 In his case, the necessity of active exertion 
 produced a reaction against his weighty troubles 
 and enabled him to defy them. 
 
 His ships having been unloaded, it was neces- 
 sary to send some of them home. Alarmed at 
 the paucity of the returns which he would be 
 obliged to make, he determined to make one 
 
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 135 
 
 more effort before the sailing of the ships to 
 increase the interest of the reports which he 
 had to send to Spain. He hit on what proved 
 to be a fairly fortunate scheme. The Indians 
 had constantly spoken of Cibao as the place 
 where they obtained their supplies of gold. 
 Perhaps this might be the long sought for 
 Cipango. 
 
 He organized an exploring party of the young- 
 est and most courageous of his colony, and 
 placed the company under command of the gal- 
 lant knight Ojeda, whose exploits at Seville, and 
 in the New World, have already been noticed. 
 Orders were given for the party to visit Cibao, 
 and learn its value. Ojeda started in 1494, 
 greatly delighted with his mission, the more 
 so as it carried him into the dominion of the 
 cacique, Caonabo, who had the reputation of 
 being a great warrior. The anticipation of a 
 few hard blows filled his knightly soul with sat- 
 isfaction. 
 
 For two days he journeyed through a country 
 wholly deserted by its inhabitants who had 
 fled in terror before the advance of the Spanish 
 party. The expedition then struck a moun- 
 tain region up which they climbed along a nar- 
 row path, with great difficulty. They crossed 
 this range, and then descended to a plain in 
 
1 36 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 
 
 which were many Indian villages, and whose 
 inhabitants treated the explorers with great 
 cordiality. In six days more they reached 
 another chain of mountains in which were the 
 famed regions of Cibao. They entered this 
 section without any serious obstacle on the 
 part of the natives, the ferocious Caonabo being 
 absent in some other portion of his kingdom. 
 
 They found no Cipango, or any other cities 
 populous and wealthy. Instead they found the 
 regions in a state of nature, with naked sav- 
 ages who received them with great kindness. 
 They found, however, abundant evidences of 
 auriferous deposits. Gold in quantities shone 
 in the sands of the mountain streams, proving 
 the existence of lodes in the mountains. Peter 
 Martyr says that in some places they picked 
 up large specimens of virgin ore from the beds 
 of the torrents, and stones richly streaked and 
 impregnated by it. "I saw" he says, "a mass 
 of rude gold weighing nine ounces, which 
 Ojeda had found in one of the brooks. " 
 
 Ojeda immediately returned to the harbor 
 where his specimens and his glowing reports 
 did much to lessen the depression which afflict- 
 ed the admiral. His feelings were further 
 relieved by hearing good reports from an explor- 
 ing party which had been sent in another direc- 
 
CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 137 
 
 tion under the lead of a young cavalier named 
 Gorvalan. As soon as possible after the return 
 of the two expeditions, Columbus ordered twelve 
 of his ships to return to Spain. 
 
 He sent with the returning ships specimens 
 of the gold found by Ojeda and Gorvalan, and 
 their enthusiastic reports of the richness of 
 the gold region — sending Gorvalan as a mes- 
 senger. 
 
 These ships carried large numbers of native 
 products, and also the captives taken from the 
 Caribs, who consisted of men, women and child- 
 ren for the purpose of having them taught the 
 Spanish language, and being instructed in the 
 Christian faith. Thus far, the influence of 
 the dozen, or more ecclesiastics who had accom- 
 panied Columbus in his second voyage, was 
 not made apparent. No conversion of the 
 natives is spoken of up to this point. The 
 single proselyte, after being converted and 
 baptized in Spain came back with Columbus, 
 and disappeared in the woods, as soon as land 
 was reached, and never was heard of afterward. 
 An attempt was made to influence the religious 
 bias of the cacique. Guacanagari, whose sim- 
 ple, kindly -nature, it was thought, made him 
 an easy subject for conversion. 
 
 An effort was made to create a reverence for 
 
1 38 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 
 
 Christian symbols, on his part, by Columbus, 
 who offered to place about his neck a ribbon 
 holding an imasfe of the Virgin. It was with 
 the greatest reluctance that the cacique per- 
 mitted the proffer to be carried into effect. 
 He had been a spectator of the profligacy, the 
 scandalous outrages, perpetrated by the garri- 
 son of La Navidad and entertained, beyond 
 question, a poor opinion of the Christianity 
 which would permit such abominations. 
 
 Columbus wrote to the sovereigns asking for 
 further supplies, and made a proposal which 
 proves him to have been a soulless, cruel bigot. 
 His suggestion was that when the natives sent 
 to Spain, had been converted, they should be 
 sold for slaves to be paid for in live stock, 
 which should be forwarded to his colony. For- 
 tunately the queen, who did not hesitate to 
 expatiate tens of thousands of Jews, and to 
 sequestrate their property, was too sensitive 
 to right and wrong to permit the carrying out 
 of this outrageous proposition. The Carib 
 prisoners were ordered to be converted on the 
 usual terms, baptism, or the offices of the inqui- 
 sition. 
 
 The returning fleet sailed on February 2d, 
 1494. The specimens of gold which were taken 
 back to Spain ; the certainties of the discover- 
 
CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 1 39 
 
 ies of rich gold-bearing regions, had the effect 
 to secure favorable consideration for the report 
 of Columbus. It obliterated the scandal and 
 the massacre, the gross mismanagement con- 
 nected with La Navidad, and elevated Spanish 
 hopes to the very zenith. Next to the discov- 
 ery of gold, the greatest satisfaction was exper- 
 ienced over the project to build cities and extend 
 civilization in this New World. 
 
 Peter Martyr, who cared less for gold than 
 the majority, grew enthusiastic over the pros- 
 pects. "Columbus," he says, "has begun to 
 build a city, as he has lately written to me, 
 and sow our seeds, and propagate our animals! 
 Who of us shall now speak of the wonder of 
 Saturn, and Ceres, and Triptolemus, traveling 
 about the earth to spread new inventions among 
 mankind? Of the Phoenicians who built Tyne, 
 or Sidon? Or of the Phoenicians whose rov- 
 ing desires led them to migrate to foreign 
 lands, to build new cities, and establish new 
 communities?" 
 
 It was reserved to other peoples, and other 
 times to build cities and to introduce civiliza- 
 tion into the New World. At this time of 
 universal pride and self-congratulation, the 
 New World had not even been discovered. 
 All this rejoicing on the part of jubilant Spain 
 was premature. 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 
 THE FAME OF COLUMBUS ON THE WANE 
 
 Columbus, near the close of his second voy- 
 age, with three caravels made a voyage west- 
 ward, during which he discovered Jamaica. 
 During his expedition he made up his mind 
 that Cuba was a part of the Asiatic mainland, 
 and forced his men to sign a paper declaring 
 their own belief to the same purport. Con- 
 cerning this act Navarrete says : 
 
 "It is the frequent occurrence of such arro- 
 gant and audacious acts on the part of Colum- 
 bus which explains his sad failure as an admin- 
 istrator, and seriously impairs the veneration 
 in which the world would rejoice to hold him." 
 
 Returning from his expedition to the Colony, 
 he found that affairs were not in good shape. 
 The people were very much discontented. 
 Justin Winsor says: "He had not himself in- 
 spired the confidence of the Governor, and his 
 
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 141 
 
 fame as an explorer by his misfortunes as a 
 ruler. " 
 
 The papal vicar accompanied by some of his 
 colonists had seized ships and sailed for home. 
 The natives outraged by the cruelties prac- 
 ticed upon them, were attacking his fortified 
 post. He learned from Fort St. Thomas, that 
 the Indians of the neighborhood, were exhibit- 
 ing hostility; and that Caonabo was making 
 preparations to attack the fortress. The real 
 cause of the grievance was that when Columbus 
 left Fort St. Thomas, the garrison had com- 
 mitted innumerable outrages on the natives 
 by robbing them of their gold, and assaulting 
 their women. 
 
 While this general uneasiness and disaffec- 
 tion prevailed, his brother Bartholomew arrived 
 from Spain with three store-ships and later 
 came four other ships, which, in due time, 
 were sent back to carry samples of gold and 
 a cargo of natives to be sold as slaves. These 
 vessels had brought information of the charges 
 made against the admiral at the Spanish court, 
 and his brother Diego was sent back to answer 
 the charges in the admiral's name. 
 
 In March, 1495, Columbus led an armed force 
 to terrify and subdue the native population. It 
 is claimed, on excellent authority, that thia 
 
1 42 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 
 
 work was done with a cruelty which was beyond 
 description. 
 
 Meanwhile, in Spain, during this period, 
 charges were made against Columbus so thick 
 and fast as to greatly impair his standing with 
 his sovereigns, Juan Aguado, a friend of 
 Columbus, was sent to the New World to inves- 
 tigate the condition of things, and who reached 
 Isabella in October, taking with him Diego. 
 Affairs were found not to be satisfactory, and 
 after he had concluded his report, he went back 
 to Spain in March, 1496. Columbus knowing 
 the nature of the reports decided that it would 
 be best for him to accompany Aguado, and 
 make his explanation in person. They reached 
 Cadiz in June. 
 
 The monarchs received him kindly, and 
 promised him further outfits. However, the 
 matter was considerably delayed. For two 
 years he was kept waiting, and it was not till 
 the 30th of May, 1498, that Columbus, with six 
 ships, started on his third voyage. In truth, 
 the enthusiasm and excitement among the peo- 
 ple in regard to the discoveries in the New 
 World were dying out. The reports from the 
 new country were not in the least corroborative 
 of the flaming narrations of Marco Polo, and 
 the new found world was thought to be very 
 
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 143 
 
 poor India after all. Such was the general 
 impression : Columbus alone was not discour- 
 aged and the public treasury was opened for 
 another voyage. 
 
 On this voyage, he discovered Trinidad July 
 31st, which he named from its three peaks or 
 from the Holy Trinity; and according to some 
 accounts; struck the northern coast of South 
 America, and skirted what was later known as 
 the pearl coast. This statement that he touched 
 the mainland is disputed, or at least that he 
 was the first. He may have done so, but it is 
 claimed that it before had been visited hy Ves- 
 puscius. 
 
 Columbus reached the southern coast of Hayti 
 on the 30th of August, where his colonists had 
 built a fort and founded the town of Santo 
 Domingo. His brother Bartholomew, although 
 an energetic ruler, had not prevented a revolt, 
 which had been headed by Roldan. Colum- 
 bus found the insurgents still in arms, but was 
 able to quiet them, and succeeded in attaching 
 Roldan warmly to his interest. 
 
 During the absence of Columbus from Spain, 
 he left but few friends to care for his reputa- 
 tion ; and to placate his enemies a new commis- 
 soner was sent over with plenary powers, even 
 to suspend Columbus from command if neces- 
 
1 44 CHRISTOPHER COL UiMB US 
 
 sary. The person thus sent was Francisco de 
 Bobadilla, who reached Santo Domingo August 
 23d, 1500. Diego was in command in the absence 
 of Columbus, and refused to pay any attention 
 to the orders of the commissioner until the 
 return of Columbus ; whereupon Bobadilla took 
 violent possession of the crown property, and of 
 the residence of Columbus, and when the latter 
 returned, he and Diego were arrested and put 
 in irons. 
 
 He was placed on a ship, the captain of 
 which offered to remove the manacles ; but Co- 
 lumbus refused to have them taken off, being 
 determined to land in Spain bound as he was. 
 And his resolution was persevered in. This 
 degradation was greatly to his advantage. The 
 king and queen and the people were shocked at 
 the spectacle, and endeavored to make amends 
 by extending to him renewed support. He 
 proposed a new voyage and getting the royal 
 endorsement, he was supplied with four vessels, 
 and sailed May gth, 1502, reaching Santo Do- 
 mingo June 29th. 
 
 Nicholas de Ovando had taken the place of 
 Bobadilla, whose administration for a year and 
 a half had been unfortunate, and the fleet which 
 had brought Columbus lay in front of the har- 
 bor waiting to receive Bobadilla for the return 
 
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 145 
 
 voyage, Columbus had been instructed to avoid 
 Hispaniola, bnt one of the vessels was leaking 
 badly, and he sent a boat ashore to ask per- 
 mission to enter the harbor. Permission was 
 refused, although a storm was pending. He 
 secured the best shelter he could and rode out 
 the gale. The ships on which were Bobadilla 
 and Roldan with their ill-gotten gains were 
 wrecked, and these enemies of Columbus were 
 drowned.* 
 
 The admiral found a small harbor where he 
 could make his repairs, and then, July 14, 
 sailed westward to find as he supposed, the 
 richer portions of India, in exchange for the 
 barbarous outlying districts which others had 
 appropriated for themselves. He began to 
 find more intelligence in the natives of the 
 islands which he visited, than had been exhib- 
 ited by those of Cuba, and received intimations 
 of land still further west where copper and gold 
 were in abundance. 
 
 An old Indian made a rough map of the main 
 shore. Columbus took him on board, and pro- 
 ceeding onward, landing was made August 14th 
 on the coast of Honduras. And three days 
 later he landed fifteen leagues further east and 
 took possession of the country in the name of 
 
 *Narrative and Critical History of America. 
 10 
 
146 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 
 
 Spain. Columbus was lying ill in his bed, 
 placed on deck ; they still sailed south till they 
 reached the coast of Costa Rica. In this region 
 Columbus dallied, not suspecting how thin the 
 strip of country was that separated him from 
 the great ocean. 
 
CHAPTER XXII 
 
 TROUBLES WITH THE NATIVES OJEDA AND CAO- 
 
 NABO 
 
 The troubles alluded to as occurring at the 
 Fort St. Thomas, demand a special notice on 
 account of their bearing on the strained rela- 
 tions of the Spaniards and the natives. When 
 Columbus left the fort he placed in command a 
 man named Margarite, who organized an expe- 
 dition for the purpose of plundering the natives, 
 leaving the famous cavalier, Ojeda, in charge 
 of the fort. He took with him the largest 
 portion of the garrison, and then descended 
 into the rich valley of the Vega. 
 
 Margarite at once gave loose reins to his 
 avarice, and sensuality. The Indians received 
 them, at first, with unbounded hospitality, sup- 
 plying the Spanish force with provisions to 
 the best of their ability. But Margarite had 
 no sense of gratitude or decency. When the 
 
 scant stores of the natives grew scanter, he 
 
 147 
 
148 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 
 
 wrested supplies from them with acts of vio- 
 lence. His greed for gold led him to resort to 
 bold, open robbery, in which he enacted the 
 role of a highwayman, a footpad, and a burglar. 
 Nor was this all of his iniquitous outrages; 
 not satisfied with impoverishing the natives by 
 forcibly wrenching from them their supplies of 
 food, and wringing from them their gold orna- 
 ments by force and torture, he outraged their 
 domestic relations by sacrificing the women to 
 his lusts. 
 
 Revolts on the parts of the natives broke out 
 in various portions of the island. The Span- 
 iards defied all order and discipline, broke up 
 into small bands, and scattered wherever there 
 was booty to be found, or women to be outraged. 
 So long as the Spaniards moved in a single 
 body, the Indians dared not resist them ; but 
 when they began to scatter, the natives gained 
 courage, and attacked them in detail. A caci- 
 que, named Guatiguana, slaughtered ten Span- 
 iards who had forced themselves, on his village 
 and offended his people by their licentiousness. 
 
 The same cacique followed up this act by 
 setting fire to a house in which forty-six soldiers 
 were quartered. He surrounded a small fort 
 which had lately been erected on the Vega, 
 
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 149 
 
 and prevented the garrison from obtaining sup- 
 plies. 
 
 The deadliest enemy of the hated Spaniard 
 was the Carib cacique, Caonaba, who has before 
 been referred to. His dominions were in the 
 vicinity of Fort St. Thomas, and Margarite 
 took away so large a portion of the garrison, 
 he thought the opportunity a good one to 
 attack the fort, now defended by only a limited 
 force. 
 
 Ojeda was in command: He had been in 
 the war with the Moors, and was a skilled sol- 
 dier. What he lacked in men he made up in 
 daring audacity, dash and cunning. 
 
 Herrera thus speaks of him at this period : 
 "He was versed in all kinds of feints, strata- 
 gems, lurking ambuscades and wild assaults. 
 No man was, therefore, better fitted to cope 
 with Indian warriors. He had a headlong cour- 
 age, arising partly from natural heat and vio- 
 lence in his disposition and in a great measure 
 from religious superstition. 
 
 "He had been engaged in wars with Moors 
 and Indians, in public battles, and private 
 combats, in fights, feuds, and encounters of 
 all kinds, to which he had been prompted by 
 a rash and fiery spirit, and a love of adventure ; 
 yet he never had been wounded nor lost a drop 
 
I50 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 
 
 of blood. He began to doubt whether any 
 weapon had power to harm him, and to con- 
 sider himself under the especial protection of 
 the Holy Virgin. 
 
 "As a kind of religious talisman, he had a 
 small Flemish painting of the Virgin, given 
 him by his patron, Fonesca, bishop of Rada- 
 joz. This he constantly carried with him in 
 city, camp, or field, making it the object of 
 frequent orisonsand invocations. In garrison 
 or in encampment, it was suspended in his 
 tent \ in his rough expeditions in the wilder- 
 ness, he carried it in his knapsack, and when- 
 ever the time permitted, he would take it out, 
 fix it on a tree, and address his prayers to this 
 military patroness. 
 
 "In a word, he swore by the Virgin, he in- 
 voked the Virgin whether in brawl or battle, 
 and under the favor of the Virgin he was ready 
 for any enterprise or adventure. Such was 
 Alonzo de Ojeda ; bigoted in his devotion, reck- 
 less in his life, fearless in his spirit, like many 
 of the roving Spanish cavaliers of that day. 
 Though small in stature, he was a prodigy in 
 strength and prowess ; and the chroniclers of 
 the early discoveries relate marvels of his valor 
 and exploits." 
 
 This is a graphic and pleasing picture of one 
 
CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 151 
 
 of the most famous of the Spanish hidalgos 
 who accompanied Columbus in his explorations. 
 
 Caonabo, barring the tincture of superstition, 
 was among the natives something of the same 
 daring, reckless, audacious kind of warrior that 
 was Ojeda among the Spaniards. With the 
 same discipline, experience, arms, and other 
 military appliances, he would have proven 
 himself the equal in warlike feats of the other. 
 
 Having carefully examined Fort St. Thomas, 
 Caonabo gathered a formidable force, amounting 
 in all to ten thousand men who were armed 
 with clubs, bows and arrows, and firehardened 
 lanceSj and marched to pit these primitive 
 weapons and the naked bodies of his men against 
 the cross-bows, the cannon, the arquebuses, 
 and the steel corselets of the Spaniards. Find- 
 ing the garrison all within the walls of the 
 fort, which he could not penetrate, he distrib- 
 uted his forces about the works with a view of 
 starving the inmates into surrender. 
 
 He did succeed in reducing them to great 
 straitSj and would have captured the place had 
 it not been for the constant sallies led by Ojeda, 
 in which the Indians were slaughtered in great 
 numbers, he was always in the van, went where 
 the Indians were thickest, and never received 
 a wound. The Indians became discouraged, 
 
152 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 
 
 deserted in large numbers, and then, Caonaba, 
 at the very time when the garrison was suffering 
 from famine, withdrew his army. 
 
 Caonaba afterward tried to form a league of 
 the caciques of the island for the purpose of 
 exterminating the Spaniards. But three others 
 consented to take part in the plot. One who 
 steadfastly refused, was the cacique, Guacan- 
 gari, the one who was accused by the friar, 
 Boyle, of having assisted in the destruction of 
 La Navidad, thus conclusively demonstrating 
 that the suspicion against him was without foun- 
 dation. He cared for one hundred Spaniards, 
 during the period when Caonaba was trying to 
 form a hostile league, and thereby drew on 
 him the vengeance of the Carib chief, and his 
 brother-in-law, Behechio, who repeatedly raided 
 Guacanagari's territories, killing and robbing. 
 Among their victims was one of the cacique's 
 wives who was killed by Behechio, while 
 Caonaba carried off another one of them as a 
 prisoner. 
 
 Still the cacique never varied in his loyalty 
 to the Spaniards. He was the alleged traitor 
 to whom Inquisitor Boyle wished to apply the 
 thumb-screw and the fagot. 
 
CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 LAST DAYS OF COLUMBUS IN THE NEW WORLD — 
 RETURNS TO SPAIN 
 
 After having so narrowly failed in the dis- 
 covery of the mainland, Columbus followed 
 the coast of Costa Rica until he reached Porto 
 Bello, where he found houses and orchards. 
 Along the gulf side of the Panama isthmus he 
 encountered storms that forced him into vari- 
 ous harbors, in all of which he saw regions of 
 great fertility and richness, A long series of 
 explorations were made, when finally Colum- 
 bus returned to Jamaica. His ships were 
 weather-beaten and worm-eaten. He abandoned 
 one of them, a caravel at Porto Bello. and 
 at Jamaica beached two others. A year of dis- 
 appointment, grief and want followed, during 
 which he clung to his wrecked vessels. Ovando 
 at Hispaniola, heard of his straits, but only 
 tardily and scantily relieved him. 
 
 Some ships were at last sent him by the 
 
 153 
 
1 54 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 
 
 admiraPs agent at Santo Domingo, and brought 
 him and his companions to that place, where 
 Ovando lodged and cared for him until Colum- 
 bus departed for Spain September 12th, 1504. 
 The arrival of the two vessels at Jamaica which 
 were to take him to Santo Domingo, made an 
 immense difference in his situation. He had 
 been living in a wreck for over a year, and had 
 suffered indescribable hardships, including im- 
 paired health and the hatred and persecution 
 of the officials at Jamaica. 
 
 As he approached Santo Domingo, Colum- 
 bus became oppressed by an apprehension that 
 he would not be well received by the people. 
 The settlement had been the very centre of 
 hatred and opposition to him at a time when 
 he was at the very height of his power; and 
 as was said by a Spanish writer : "he had been 
 hurried from it in ignominious chains, amidst 
 the shouts and taunts of the triumphant rabble ; 
 he had been excluded from its harbor when, 
 as commander of a squadron, he craved shelter 
 from an impending tempest ; but now that he 
 arrived in its waters, a broken-down and ship- 
 wrecked man, all past hostility was over-pow- 
 ered by the popular sense of his late disasters. 
 There was a momentary burst of enthusiasm in 
 his favor; what had been denied to his merits 
 
CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 1 55 
 
 was gained by his misfortunes ; and even the 
 envious, appeased by his present reverses, 
 seemed to forgive him for having once been so 
 triumphant." 
 
 Although Ovando treated him with apparent 
 good-feeling, the admiral, according to his son, 
 always believed that his fidelity was assumed. 
 Hence the sojourn of Columbus at Santo Do- 
 mingo afforded him but little satisfaction. In 
 a letter to his son he speaks about his grief at 
 the desolation of the island by the oppressive 
 treatment of the natives, and the horrible mas- 
 sacre that had been perpetrated by Ovando and 
 his agents. He had fondly hoped, he says, at 
 one time, to render the natives civilized, indus- 
 trious, and tributary subjects to the crown, and 
 to derive from their well-regulated labor, a 
 great and steady revenue. 
 
 How different had been the event! The five 
 great tribes that had peopled the mountains and 
 valleys at the time of the discovery, and rendered 
 by their mingled towns and villages, and tracts 
 of cultivation, the rich levels of the Vega so 
 many "painted gardens, "had almost all passed 
 away, and the native princes had perished 
 chiefly by violence or ignominious death. 
 
 Columbus complained in subsequent letters 
 to the sovereigns that the public business wa? 
 
156 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 
 
 badly managed, that the ore collected lay un- 
 guarded in large quantities in houses slightly 
 built and thatched, inviting depredation; that 
 Ovando was unpopular, the people were disso- 
 lute, and the property of the crown and the 
 security of the island in continual risk of mutiny 
 and sedition. 
 
 In later letters he accuses Ovando of having 
 neglected, if not sacrificed, his interests during 
 his long absence, and of having impeded those 
 who had been appointed to attend to his con- 
 cerns. All these things induced Columbus to 
 desire to hasten his departure from the island. 
 That Columbus had the sympathy of Isabella 
 in the misunderstanding between the admiral 
 and Ovanda, is shown by letters in which she 
 writes to Ovando on the 27th of November, 1503, 
 expressly commanding him to observe the capit- 
 ulations granted to Columbus ; to respect his 
 agents and to facilitate, instead of obstructing 
 his concerns. These letters show the personal 
 interest taken by Isabella in the affairs of Co- 
 lumbus during his absence. 
 
 Before he returned to Spain, the ship in 
 which he had been brought from Jamaica was 
 repaired and fitted out, and in this Columbus 
 embarked with his son and servants. His great 
 liberality was shown in the fact that the necessi- 
 
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 157 
 
 ties of many of his late crew who were in poverty 
 at Santo Domingo, were relieved from his own 
 purse, and that he advanced the necessary funds 
 to pay the passage of those who wished to 
 return to Spain. From the day of his sailing 
 for Spain, he was beaten by tempests during 
 almost every hour of his passage, until they 
 reached the Spanish coast. The mainmast was 
 sprung in four places during one storm, and 
 although Columbus was confined to his bed at 
 the time, by his advice the damage was repaired ; 
 the mast was shortened and fortified by wood 
 taken from the cabins, and the whole was well 
 secured by cords. They were still more dam- 
 aged in another tempest, in which the foremast 
 was sprung. In this crippled state they had 
 to traverse seven hundred leagues of stormy 
 ocean. 
 
 "Fortune continued to persecute Columbus 
 to the end 'of this, his last and most disastrous 
 expedition," says Las Casas. "For several 
 weeks he was tempest-tossed— suffering at the 
 same time the most excruciating pains from 
 his malady— until, on the 7th day of November, 
 his crazy and shattered bark anchored in the 
 harbor of San Lucar. From here he had him- 
 self conveyed to Seville, where he hoped to 
 enjoy repose of mind and body, and to recruit 
 
158 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 
 
 his health after such a long series of fatigues, 
 anxieties, and hardships." 
 
 Weakness and sickness kept him in his bed 
 at Seville, the place that he had looked for- 
 ward to as a haven of rest. Anxiety and care 
 hung to him by land as well as by sea. A dif- 
 ference in the places which he occupied simply 
 varied the nature of his distress. He found all 
 his affairs in confusion. His rents and dues 
 had not been properly collected at Santo Do- 
 mingo, remaining in the hands of Ovando. He 
 pleaded that a letter might be written by the 
 king commanding the payment of the arrears 
 without delay ; for his agents would not venture 
 to even speak to Ovando on the subject. 
 
 "I have much vexation from the governor," 
 says he in a letter to his son Diego. "All tell 
 me that I have there eleven or twelve thousand 
 castillanos ; and I have not received a quarter. 
 I know well, that, since my departure he must 
 have received upward of five thousand castil- 
 lanos." 
 
 The rank of Columbus involved large expen- 
 ditures, and he was supposed to be the possessor 
 of inexhaustible wealth, which was not true, 
 as his income was precarious and scanty. His 
 last voyage had exhausted his accumulations, 
 and involved him in debt. All the money he 
 
CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 159 
 
 had been able to collect in Hispaniola, to the 
 amount of twelve hundred castillanos, had been 
 expended in bringing home members of his 
 crew who were in distress. At this period he 
 was absolutely in want. He urges his son Diego 
 to economize until he can secure the payment 
 of his arrears. 
 
 "I received nothing of the revenue due to 
 me," says he in one letter to his son ; "I live 
 by borrowing. Little have I profited by twenty 
 years of service, with such toils and perils ; 
 since at present I do not own a roof in Spain. 
 If I desire to eat or sleep, I have no resort but 
 an inn; and for the most times, have not the 
 wherewithal to pay my bill." 
 
CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 CLOSING DAYS OF COLUMBUS — DEATH OF ISABELLA 
 
 The closing days of Columbus grew more 
 and more distressing as the end of his life ap- 
 proached. Despite the fact that he suffered 
 acutely from a complication of diseases, includ- 
 ing the gout, and from an intense mental strain, 
 he did not forget the wrongs inflicted upon 
 others, especially his crew, and did not cease 
 to urge on the sovereigns to pay them their 
 arrears. "They are poor," said he, "as it is 
 now nearly three years since they left their 
 homes. They have endured infinite toils and 
 perils, and they bring in valuable tidings for 
 which their majesties ought to give thanks to 
 God and rejoice," 
 
 It speaks well for his innate generosity for 
 these poor sailors, for many of those whom he 
 was soliciting justice, had been his enemies. 
 While engaged in this effort to secure the back 
 payments of the crews, he gave a great deal of 
 
 i6o 
 
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS i6i 
 
 attention to his own case. So far as the record 
 shows he laid very little stress upon pecuniary 
 remuneration for himself. What he most sought 
 for in this direction, was the restoration of his 
 dignities which he regarded as the evidences of 
 his great achievements. In this direction he 
 had been constantly and scandalously deceived 
 by Ferdinand, who had promised him that his 
 offices and dignities should be restored to him. 
 He felt, in a strong degree, that so long as they 
 were withheld from him, it was a stain upon his 
 reputation. 
 
 "Had he not," says a writer, "been proudly 
 impatient on the subject, he would have belied 
 the loftiest part of his character; for he who 
 can be indifferent to the wreath of triumph, is 
 deficient in the noble ambition which incites 
 to glorious deeds." 
 
 The intelligence which he received from the 
 Court was irritating and unsatisfactory. He 
 knew that there was powerful opposition against 
 him, which was always prepared to make the 
 worst of the situation so far as it applied to 
 him ; and he knew that it was a matter of the 
 greatest importance that he should attend the 
 Court in person to defend his own case. He 
 made an attempt to reach their majesties, but 
 his illness and the inclemency of winter effec- 
 
1 62 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 
 
 tively prevented him from making the journey. 
 
 He was very much worried at the outbreaks 
 in Jamaica, which might be construed by those 
 who hated him into charges against his charac- 
 ter. Diego Menzes and Alonzo Sanchez de 
 Carvajal and Geronimo, all active friends of 
 Columbus, were at Court. He wrote to his 
 son Diego to call upon them for their good 
 offices. "I have served their majesties," said 
 he, "with as much zeal and diligence as if it 
 had been to gain Paradise ; and if I have failed 
 in anything, it has been because my knowledge 
 and powers went no further." 
 
 With a very slight difference, the case cf 
 Columbus in his humiliation and the nelgect 
 which characterized the treatment of him sug- 
 gests to a considerable extent an almost sim- 
 ilar condition presented b}^ Cardinal Woolsey. 
 The one was appealing to Ferdinand, the other 
 to Henry VHI. and both found only an atrocious 
 ingratitude for lives devoted to the service of 
 the very men who were engaged in crushing 
 them. 
 
 It is very difficult for the imagination to 
 conceive the broad difference between the Co- 
 lumbus of 1492, and the same character in 
 1504. The one was the favorite of the sover- 
 eigns, was permitted to sit in their presence, 
 
CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 163 
 
 was inundated with honors, titles, and dignity; 
 was admired by scientific men of all Europe, 
 and for the time being probably stood higher 
 than any other man in civilization in the esteem 
 of the people. The latter was a weak, wretched 
 invalid ; the former was a tall, robust, virile 
 man. The one could command his own entrance 
 into Court in the presence of royalty ; the other 
 was met by contemptible subterfuges, and was 
 tabooed as if he had been a poisonous reptile. 
 His anxiety to get to Court became every day 
 more intense. He was carried to the door in 
 a litter, but his health was feeble and the win- 
 ter so bleak and trying, that he was obliged to 
 abandon the effort. His ability to write letters 
 to the sovereigns began to lessen, for he could 
 only write at night, as at other times, his malady 
 deprived him of the use of his hands. Bad 
 news came incessantly from the Court ; the 
 machinations of his foes were becoming stronger 
 and stronger, and Ferdinand treated his appli- 
 cations with absolute indifference, while the 
 queen was prostrated with a fatal illness. Re- 
 pelled by Ferdinand, Columbus placed his sole 
 reliance for justice in Queen Isabella. "May 
 it please the Holy Trinity," say he, "to restore 
 our sovereign queen to health ; for by her will 
 
1 64 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 
 
 everything be adjusted which is now in confu- 
 sion." 
 
 It is sad to be obliged to state that while 
 Columbus was writing this pathetic supplication 
 for the recovery of his benefactress, she was 
 lying a corpse in tne royal palace. 
 
 The health of Isabella had been injured by 
 repeated domestic afflictions. She lost by death 
 her only son, Prince Juan, and her daughter 
 and warmest friend, the Princess Isabella; and 
 last, death visited her a third time and took 
 away Prince Miguel, who was the prospective 
 heir of the throne. These burdens were not 
 apparently sufficient, for she was constantl}^ 
 oppressed by the conviction of the weakness of 
 intellect of her daughter Juana, and the domes- 
 tic unhappiness of that princess with her hus- 
 band, Archduke Philip. 
 
 It was said by a writer that, "the desolation 
 which walks through palaces does not permit the 
 familiar sympathies and sweet consolation which 
 alleviate the sorrows of common life. Isabella 
 pined in state, amidst the obsequious homages 
 of the Court, surrounded by the trophies of a 
 glorious and successful reign, and placed at the 
 summit of earthly grandeur. A deep and incur- 
 able melancholy settled upon her, which under- 
 minded her constitution, and gave a fatal acute- 
 
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 165 
 
 ness to her bodily maladies. She died Nov. 26th, 
 1504, at Medina del Campo, in the fifty-fourth 
 year of her age, after an illness of four months. 
 
 Long beiore her eyes closed on the world she 
 had ceased to regard its allurements and van- 
 ities. 
 
 "Let my body," she said in her will, "be 
 interred in the monastery of San Francisco, 
 which is in the Alhambra of the city of Gre- 
 nada, in a low sepulchre, without any monu- 
 ment except a plain stone, with the inscription 
 cut on it. But I desire and command that, if 
 the king, my lord, should choose his sepulchre 
 in any church or monastery, in any other part 
 of these my kingdoms, my body may be trans- 
 ported thither, and buried beside the body of 
 his highness ; so that the union that we have 
 enjoyed while living, and which, with the 
 mercy of God, we hope our souls will experi- 
 ence in Heaven, may be repeated by our bodies 
 in the earth." 
 
 The intelligence of the death of Isabella 
 reached Columbus when he was writing the 
 letter to his son Diego. "A memorial," he 
 writes in the postscript, "for thee, my dear 
 son Diego, of what is at present to be done. 
 The principal thing is to commend affection- 
 ately and with great devotion, the soul of the 
 
i66 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 
 
 queen, our sovereign, to God. Her life was 
 always Catholic and holy, and prompt to all 
 things in the holy service ; for this reason we 
 may rest assured that she is received into His 
 glory, and beyond the care of this rough and 
 weary world. The next thing is to watch and 
 labor in all matters for the service of our sov- 
 ereign, the king, and to alleviate his grief. His 
 majesty is the head of Christendom. Remem- 
 ber the proverb which says : 'When the head 
 suffers all the members suffer.' Therefore all 
 good Christians should pray for his health and 
 long life, and we who are in his employ, ought 
 more than others to do this with all study and 
 diligence, " 
 
CHAPTER XXV 
 
 COLUMBUS SEES FERDINAND — TREATED WITH COLD 
 CONTEMPT 
 
 The death of Isabella carried into the grave 
 the prospects of Columbus. He did not, it is 
 true, yield at once, and although despairing, 
 and sunken into depths of despondency, he 
 determined, as a last resort, to make an appeal 
 to Ferdinand. During the winter following 
 the death of the queen, he was confined by his 
 malady to his bed, and once more resorted to 
 letter-writing for the purpose of securing redress 
 from the crown. 
 
 It was at this period that Columbus employed 
 as one of his messengers to the Court, a char- 
 acter whose fame is but little less brilliant than 
 that which enveloped Columbus ; in fact, there 
 are those who give him a higher place. It was 
 Amerigo Vespucci. There is no necessity for 
 
 a discussion in this work of the claims of this 
 
 167 
 
1 68 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 
 
 person for an alleged priority in the discovery 
 of the continent. For four hundred years the 
 problem has been discussed without any settled 
 conclusion, and there is no possible reason 
 why an equal number of years of similar argu- 
 ment will dispose of the knotty question. 
 
 When Columbus made his final effort to get 
 a hearing from Ferdinand, he was supported 
 in his efforts by Diego de Deza, the bishop of 
 Palencia, who was the friar who had advocated 
 the adoption of his plans when they were pre- 
 sented before the Junta of Salamanca. Colum- 
 bus sent his son Diego to learn from the bishop 
 whether or not the queen had made a will. 
 
 "Two things," he said, "require particular 
 attention. Ascertain whether the queen who 
 is now with God, has said anything concerning 
 me in her testament ; and stimulate the bishop 
 of Palencia, he who was the cause that their 
 highnesses obtained possession of the Indies, 
 who induced me to remain in Castile when I was 
 on the road to leave it. If the bishop of Palen- 
 cia has arrived, or should arrive, tell him how 
 much I have been gratified by his prosperity, 
 and that if I come, I shall lodge with his grace, 
 even though he should not invite me, for we 
 must return to our ancient, fraternal affecticn. " 
 
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 169 
 
 All the appeals of Columbus were listened 
 to with contemptuous indifference, or not at all. 
 In no particulars to the affairs, condition, or 
 mangement of officers of the New World was he 
 given any information. He was totally ignored. 
 He endeavored in various matters to vary cer- 
 tain official appointments, or to protest against 
 some contemplated action which, from his ex- 
 perience in Indian complications, he knew to 
 be wrong. 
 
 After a considerable period had elapsed, and 
 Columbus was slowly dying of chagrin and 
 humiliation, by a royal order, issued probably at 
 the solicitation of the Bishop of Placentia, 
 he was given permission to come to the Court, 
 which was then being held at Segovia. As a 
 concession to his age and illness, permission 
 was issued from the Court, to allow him to 
 travel on a mule, a practice then forbidden, as 
 it had the effect to interfere with the rearing of 
 saddle-horses. 
 
 It was not till May, 1505, that he was able 
 to make the journey. The facts just presented 
 concerning his stay at Seville, after the return 
 from his fourth and last voyage, contradict the 
 statement commonly made that he was at that 
 place recuperating by a quiet rest. And he, 
 who, a few years ago had entered Barcelona 
 
I70 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 
 
 in triumph, now poor, broken down,humiliated, 
 despairing, entered Segovia without the greet- 
 ing of a single friend in the royal crowd. 
 
 When he appeared in Court, he received none 
 of the attention to which his long and arduous 
 services were entitled. The king professed to 
 feel kindly toward him ; but unmistakably with- 
 out any sincerity. Columbus related to the 
 king a narrative of his last voyage, the new 
 lands he had explored; but his listener was 
 cold and indifferent. In regard to this inter- 
 view, Las Casas said : 
 
 "I do not know what caused this dislike, and 
 this lack of princely countenance of the king 
 toward one who had rendered him such prom- 
 inent benefits; unless that his mind was swayed 
 by the false testimony which had been brought 
 against the admiral ; of which I have been able 
 to learn something from persons much in favor 
 of the sovereigns." 
 
 Columbus offered to submit the difference 
 between them to his friend, the arch-bishop of 
 Seville, Don Diego de Deza, when the king 
 suggested arbitration. The king consented, but 
 presented issues which he knew Columbus 
 would not accept, as for instance, the question 
 of restoring him to the rank of viceroy which the 
 admiral declined to discuss, as he believed that 
 
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 171 
 
 the dignity had been conferred on him in a 
 manner that made of it an inalienable right. 
 All that he insisted on was that his titles should 
 be respected as the result of a solemn agree- 
 ment in the nature of a treaty. Months were 
 expended in an effort to move the king, but 
 to no avail, "as far as actions went," says Las 
 Casas, "the king not merely showed him no 
 signs of favor, but, on the contrary, discoun- 
 tenanced hia-i as much as possible; yet he was 
 never wanting in complimentary expressions. 
 
 A long time passed, and Columbus continued 
 to receive smooth words from the king, but 
 nothing more substantial. His claims were 
 finally referred to a tribunal called "The coun- 
 cil of the discharges of the conscience of the 
 king and the deceased queen." Two sessions 
 were held, but nothing came of it for the rea- 
 son that those composing it knew too well the 
 wishes of Ferdinand. 
 
 "It was believed," says Las Casas, "that if 
 the king could have done so with a safe con- 
 science, and without detriment to his fame, he 
 would have respected few or none of the priv- 
 ileges which he and the queen had conceded to 
 the admiral, and which had so justly been mer- 
 ited." 
 
 Columbus continued to hope against hope, 
 
172 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 
 
 and flattered himself with the belief that when 
 the daughter of the queen, Juana, wife of the 
 king, Philip of Flanders was to take the 
 place of her mother as queen of Castile, the 
 breach might be healed. Nothing came from 
 the presence of the new queen. The admiral 
 then tried to secure the succession of his titles 
 for his son, Diego ; and this, like all his efforts, 
 since his return from his last voyage, was a 
 total failure. 
 
 Columbus became discouraged. He was suf- 
 fering from a most painful and fatal illness, and 
 at last ceased his stubborn contest. He wrote 
 to Diego de Deza, in which communication he 
 gave utterance to his despair. He said: "It 
 appears to me that his Majesty objects to ful- 
 fill that, which he, with the queen, promised 
 me by word and seal. For me to contend with 
 the contrary would be to contend with the 
 wind. I have done all I could do. I leave 
 the rest to God, whom I have ever found pro- 
 pitious to my necessities." 
 
CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 DEATH OF THE EXPLORER 
 
 The embers of the flame of life of Columbus 
 had nearly reached extinction, when for a mo- 
 ment they blazed up with something like the old 
 energy. The arrival of king Philip and Queen 
 Juana was the occasion of the revivication. They 
 had just come to take possession of the throne 
 of Castile. In the daughter of Isabella he was 
 certain that he would once more find a friend 
 in whose kindness he would secure support. 
 Columbus would have gladly gone to meet the 
 couple, but a recurrence of his illness prevented 
 him from leaving his bed. And so helpless 
 was he in his situation that he could not dis- 
 pense with the services of his son Diego. He 
 therefore delegated his brother, who was his 
 main reliance, to represent him and to offer his 
 congratulations. 
 
 Columbus sent a letter to the new king and 
 
 173 
 
1 74 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 
 
 queen, in which he expressed his sorrow that 
 he was too ill to come in person to present 
 his gratification at their accession to the throne, 
 and begged them to regard him as one of the 
 most loyal of their subjects. He furthermore 
 expressed a wish in his letter that they would 
 do him the justice to restore him his honors 
 and estates, assuring them that though pros- 
 trated by a severe illness, he was certain that 
 he would yet be able to perform even greater 
 labor than any which he had hitherto accom- 
 plished. 
 
 This was the last supreme effort of the dying 
 explorer; it exhibited a spirit which, without 
 regarding age and infirmities, and all humili- 
 ation and mortification gave his last utterances 
 with all the confidence he had exhibited in his 
 best days ; and spoke of still greater explora- 
 tions as if he stood at the height of a vigorous 
 life. The Adelantedo bade his brother good- 
 bye, whom he was never to see again alive, 
 and started out on his mission. He met with 
 the most cordial reception. The young couple 
 gave the closest attention to the reports, and 
 every assertion was to the effect that there 
 would be a concession to the demands of the 
 admiral. 
 
 Columbus' troubles were about at an end. 
 
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 175 
 
 The flash of the expiring flame was smothered 
 by increasing illness. Scarcely had his brother 
 left when his malady increased in violence. 
 His voyages, especially the last one, had ruined 
 beyond repair a constitution already impaired 
 by arduous labor ;. and incessant anxieties pre- 
 vented his enjoyment of that rest so essential 
 to recruit the weariness and depression of age. 
 The action of Ferdinand, his hypocrisy, his 
 evasion broke his heart. The suspension of 
 his titles, the enmity and contempt which he 
 had experienced, the popular detraction of which 
 he was the object, had overshadowed the great 
 ambition which had been the purpose of his 
 life. It may be that he had a prescience that 
 this obscurity would not be permanent; but 
 sometime in the distance a glorious light would 
 illuminate his career. 
 
 Knowing that he was about to die, he made 
 preparations to leave his business in shape for 
 the benefit of his successor. Among other be- 
 quests on the fourth of May, he wrote a testa- 
 mentary codicil on a blank page of a little 
 prayer-book given him by Pope Alexander VI. 
 He left this book to the public of Genoa, and 
 made that province the successor of his privi- 
 leges and dignities, incase of the running out of 
 his male line. Another provision of this codi- 
 
176 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 
 
 cil was the construction of a hospital in the 
 city of Genoa, the funds to be taken from his 
 property in Italy. 
 
 Among writers the authenticity of this docu- 
 ment is disputed. "It is not, however," says 
 a writer, "of much importance. The paper is 
 such as might readily have been written by a 
 person such as Columbus, in the paroxysm of 
 disease, when he imagined his end suddenly 
 approaching, and shows the affection with which 
 his thoughts were bent on his native city. It 
 is termed among commentators a military codi- 
 icil, because testamentary dispositions of this 
 kind are executed by a soldier at the point of 
 death, without the usual formalities required by 
 the civil law. About two weeks afterward, on 
 the eve of his death, he executed a final and 
 regularly authenticated codicil, in which he 
 bequeaths his dignities and estates with bet- 
 ter judgment. " 
 
 This final codicil of Columbus, made as he 
 stood with one foot in the grave, is creditable 
 to all the better qualities of the great explorer. 
 In case he died without male issue the estate 
 was to go to his brother Don Fernando, and 
 in case he failed of issue, passing to his uncle, 
 Don Bartholomew, and always going to the 
 nearest male heir. And were there a lack of 
 
CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US i ^^ 
 
 male descendents, it was to go to the female of 
 the closest kin. All his heirs must be devoted 
 at all times to serve the king and promote the 
 Christian faith. Liberal allowances were made 
 for poor relatives and others in necessity. 
 
 His son was ordered to build a chapel in 
 Hispaniola, in the town of Conception, in the 
 Vega, where masses should be performed daily 
 for the repose of the souls of himself, his mother, 
 wife, and others who died in the faith. Among 
 the closing items were several small sums to 
 be paid to people at different points without 
 their being told where they came from. One 
 of these was half a mark of silver to a poor 
 Jew who lived in Lisbon. 
 
 Having thus attended to the disposition of 
 his personal possessions, Columbus received 
 the holy sacrament, and performed all the pious 
 duties of a devout Christian, and died on the 
 2oth of May, 1506, being about seventy years 
 of age. His last words were : "Into thy hands, 
 O Lord, I commend my spirit." 
 
 His body was deposited in the convent of 
 San Francisco, and the funeral services held 
 at Valladolid. In 1513 they were removed to 
 the Carthusian monastery of Las Cuevas at 
 Seville, to the chapel of St. Anne, in which 
 was also deposited the body of his son Don 
 
1 78 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 
 
 Diego. In 1536 the bodies of Columbus and 
 his son were removed to Hispaniola, and in- 
 terred in the principal chapel of the Cathedral 
 of San Domingo. But even here they did not 
 rest in quiet, having been again disinterred 
 and conveyed to Havana on the island of Cuba. 
 
 In 1795 all the Spanish possessions in the 
 island of Hispaniola were ceded to France, at 
 the termination of the war between France and 
 Spain. This same year it is said that the body 
 of Columbus "was again moved to Cuba," which 
 would permit the inference that since the re 
 moval two hundred and fifty years before to 
 Cuba, the body had been removed at least once 
 to some place not mentioned. 
 
 It may be said at this point that there is 
 much uncertainty as to where Columbus really 
 is buried. There is no certainty that the re- 
 mains exhumed at San Domingo were those of 
 the great discoverer. In fact the question is 
 an open one. So many years had elapsed, 
 nearly three hundred, that the graves in the 
 church must have long since become impaired 
 and disintegrated, permitting no certainty that 
 the ashes taken were those of Columbus. 
 
CHAPTER XXVII 
 
 SOME ESTIMATES OF THE CHARACTER OF COLUMBUS 
 
 As was said in the opening chapter of this 
 biography, Columbus was a man of diverse and 
 contradictory qualities. He was great in some 
 things, and infinitely little in others. One 
 admirable quality that he possessed in great 
 and unvarying quantity was humanity and a 
 warm, benevolent consideration of the rights 
 and customs and feelings of the natives whom 
 he discovered. There is not the slightest stain 
 of blood on his garments; he was Christ-like 
 in his gentleness, his patience, his regard of 
 the primitive people whom he brought into 
 contact with civilization. 
 
 In this particular he was not representative 
 of the large element of Spaniards whom his 
 explorations brought into contact with the Indi- 
 ans. He stood almost isolated in his attitude; 
 the others were characterized by rapacious 
 greed, the most intolerable cruelty, the most 
 179 
 
1 So CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 
 
 total disregard of the property, the family rights, 
 the lives of the native inhabitants. He left 
 among the aborigines love, respect, confidence; 
 they strewed their progress with the blackened 
 ruins of burned huts, with gashed bodies, with 
 trails of blood ; where they found peace, they 
 distributed desolation. 
 
 Apart from this single quality of a humane re- 
 gard for the Indians, Columbus was very uneven 
 in his development. He did not hesitate to 
 deceive his crew about the distance they had 
 reached on their first voyage ; or to force his 
 men to sign papers certifying that they had seen 
 the mainland of Asia, when each of them well 
 knew that he was subscribing to a falsehood. 
 
 That he had no ability to control men is 
 shown conclusively by the acts of his subordi- 
 nates so soon as his back was turned and they 
 were left to themselves. There were mutiny, 
 and revolt even under his eyes on his first voy- 
 age ; Pinzon ran off with one-third of his fleet; 
 La Navidad, drew on itself annihilation by its 
 robberies and gross licentiousness ; in fine, in 
 a very brief period, the region which he dis- 
 covered, and as an Eden when he found it, be- 
 came suddenly a hell under his administration. 
 
 In view of this conspicuous lack of admin- 
 istrative ability; seeing that the colonies went 
 
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS i8i 
 
 to decays that his men died like rotten sheep; 
 that his supplies of food were generally insuf- 
 ficient ; and this universal, disastrous failure 
 was known to all Spain, as it must, or should 
 have been known to Columbus himself, there 
 is something mean, grasping, almost swinish 
 in the pertinacity with which he hounded the 
 Spanish sovereigns to restore his forfeited rank 
 and income. 
 
 It cannot but be that he was possessed by a 
 self-conceit that refused to see the colossal 
 failure of his attempt at the government of his 
 colonies. Ferdinand, however great his duplici- 
 ty in his final treatment of Columbus, is not 
 without his apologists. He was sufficiently 
 Jesuitical in his nature to smile, and use flat- 
 tering words to a man whom he disliked ; but 
 despite these hypocrisies, he knew Columbus 
 well enough to comprehend that it was not the 
 fair thing to do, to burden all succeeding Span- 
 ish generations with wealth, titles, honors for 
 the labor, albeit vast, performed in the discov- 
 ery of the West Indies. 
 
 It is a fair question as to whether Columbus 
 was not well paid for what he had done. He 
 exhibited no more than a very high order of 
 daring as a navigator. His purpose in the 
 enterprise was not one which involved the dis- 
 
i82 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 
 
 covery of a new continent, but to get a shorter 
 route to an old one. His project was not the 
 scheme of a great geographer, but that of a 
 navigator anxious to increase his wealth by- 
 opening up a permanent and lucrative occupa- 
 tion. 
 
 He did not have in view a new world. What 
 he was allured by were the exaggerations and 
 fables of Mandeville, and Marco Polo, the fairy 
 city of Cipango, with its marvelous extent of 
 opulence and beauty, Prester John, a white 
 native of interior India, and the Khan of Tar- 
 tary, still another creation of romancers, and 
 Munchausens, These impossibilities, these 
 absurdities are what he sailed after; he discov- 
 ered a few hundred islands, and died believing 
 he had reached India, and never dreaming of 
 the existence of the great northern continent, 
 against which he almost ran the prows of his 
 crude vessel. 
 
 It cannot but be conceded that he was intense- 
 ly religious, although, there was in his piety 
 an element of gross superstition. It is seen 
 how in emergencies, during tempestuous weath- 
 er, for instance, lots were drawn to see who 
 should make a pilgrimage to some remote shrine 
 of Virgin or saint, to placate the powers and 
 allay the storms. In one instance in 1451, 
 
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 183 
 
 Columbus saw a water-spout approaching which 
 could only be averted by reading the gospel of 
 St. John. 
 
 His bigotry sometimes displaced his gentle- 
 ness and humane regard for the natives ; they 
 must be converted at all hazards, death or slav- 
 ery included. He sent some large numbers of 
 Indians with the recommendation that efforts 
 should be made to convert them, failing in 
 which they should be sold into slavery. He 
 had all the fanatical intolerance in regard to 
 the conversion of the irreligious entertained 
 by the infamous ministers of the Inquisition. 
 Merciful in his ordinary treatment of them, he 
 was implacable and merciless in the matter of 
 their conversion to Christianity. It is not on 
 record that despite all his efforts, and the 
 hordes of priests that accompanied him on his 
 later expeditions, but one convert was made, 
 and who took the first opportunity on his return 
 from Spain, to swim ashore in the night and 
 disappear in the forests, and was never after 
 seen to be recognized by white men. 
 
 There was one convert, who fled ; there were 
 hundreds of whites killed by Indians, who were 
 driven into hostilities, and thousands of natives 
 who were mercilessly massacred during the 
 reign of Columbus over the islands. 
 
i 84 CHRISTOPHER COL UMB US 
 
 Winsor says in a summary on the multifarious 
 qualities of Columbus ; "If his mental and moral 
 equipoise had been as true, and his judgment 
 as clear as his spirit was lofty and impressive, 
 he could have controlled the actions of men as 
 readily as he subjected their imagination to his 
 v^rill, and more than one brilliant opportunity 
 for a record befitting a ruler of men would not 
 have been lost. 
 
 "The world always admires constancy and 
 zeal : but when it is fed, not by well-rounded 
 performance, but by self-satisfaction and self- 
 interest, and tarnished by deceit, we lament 
 where we would approve. Columbus' imagina- 
 tion was eager, and ungovernable. It led him 
 to a great discovery, which he was not looking 
 for; and he was far enough right to make his 
 error more emphatic. He is certainly not alone 
 among the great men of the world's regard who 
 have some of the attributes of the small and 
 mean." 
 
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