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COLUMBUS 
 
 AND 
 
 HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 A Study in the Beginnings of 
 American History 
 
 BY 
 
 CHARLES H. McCARTHY, Ph.D. (U. of P.) 
 
 Professor of American History in the Catholic 
 
 University of America. Author of 
 
 Lincoln's ^ Plan of Reconstruction; 
 
 Civil Government in the 
 
 United States, etc. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 JOHN JOSEPH McVEY 
 
 1912 
 
Copyright 
 
 John Joseph McVey 
 
 1912 
 
 All Rights Heserved 
 
 £C!.A314696 
 
TO THE 
 
 2Cttt9l)tB of Qlnlumbua 
 
 WHO HAVE SHOWN A GREAT PRACTICAL INTEREST IN 
 
 AMERICAN HISTORY, THIS LITTLE VOLUME 
 
 IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 Although the approved method whereby the 
 present-day historian gleans the facts of his nar- 
 rative is by research among original documents 
 and contemporary papers and by collating these 
 in the most critical manner, this method seems to 
 have been little followed in the history of the dis- 
 covery of America. Strange as it may seem, the 
 beginnings of the history of the New W'orld re- 
 main hidden in the dusk of uncertainty. At best 
 we have come only into the twilight of knowledge 
 regarding even the central figure of this period, 
 for it cannot be said that the full and accurate 
 story has yet been told of the man himself who is 
 the accepted discoverer of the Western hemi- 
 sphere. In view of our honest pride in our coun- 
 try's standing among the nations, it is far from 
 flattering that we should have to make such an 
 admission at this late date. 
 
 \^iewed from another angle, however, one may 
 find that our neglect in this regard is partly ex- 
 tenuated by the distracting conditions which sit 
 upon a country during the period of its formative 
 and maturing process. The time of such develop- 
 ment leaves little enough opportunity for the fol- 
 
vi PREFACE 
 
 lowing of the culturing sciences and arts and for 
 the fullness of that intellectual Hfe which makes 
 its dwelling in the abode of peace. But if our 
 forefathers in pioneer days, and if our fathers 
 in still more stirring times, had work to do which 
 excused them from following to their sources the 
 early records of American history, the same may 
 not be said of the generations in these piping 
 times of peace and of scientific research into the 
 annals of the past. 
 
 This essay on Columbus and his Predecessors 
 is but one among the signs that the duty which 
 Americans owe to the memory of Columbus, is 
 before the eyes of the present generation. The 
 learned author in the following pages has set 
 himself the task of clearing the ground and set- 
 ting the stage, as it were, [for a true survey of 
 the drama whose culmination finds the immortal 
 navigator of Genoa on the shores of a new 
 world, j With painstaking care he sketches, begin- 
 ning with the Phoenicians, what the old pagan 
 world knew about the globe and about navigation ; 
 also the extent of the knowledge of these matters 
 among the early Christian nations, down to the 
 famous explorations of the hardy Norsemen. 
 Briefly, too, he reviews the nautical expeditions, 
 before Columbus' time, undertaken by Italy, 
 France, Spain, Portugal, and England, showing 
 in the course of the interesting story that as the 
 
PREFACE 
 
 outcome of all this maritime activity there came 
 a system into their schemes of discovery, greatly 
 increased geographical knowledge, and better 
 instruments and sea-going apparatus. Columbus, 
 the man of destiny, steps into the story now, 
 and the genesis of his grand project is skilfully 
 traced, and the story told of his struggles, stage 
 by stage, up to his glorious triumph. The legend 
 of the "Nameless Pilot" is critically examined 
 and rejected as the fabrication of an enemy. 
 Next follows a chapter, which is perhaps the 
 most important in the whole book, on the equip- 
 ment of the expedition and the discovery of the 
 new^ Continent. From the records in the archives 
 of Spain it is clear that seven-eighths of the 
 money needed for the equipment was loaned to 
 Ferdinand and Isabella by the Santa Hcrmandad 
 of which Santangel and Pinelo were the treas- 
 urers. We do not yet know whence came the 
 one eighth furnished by the Admiral himself. 
 
 One of the concluding sections makes it plain 
 that the discoveries of Cabot were suggested by 
 the success of Columbus. It was upon the ex- 
 plorations of the former that England based her 
 claims to North America. The United States 
 sprang from the union of thirteen English de- 
 pendencies. Hence the interest of Americans in 
 everything pertaining to the discoverer of the 
 New World. The study is concluded by a brief 
 
viii PREFACE 
 
 but very suggestive statement of Spanish achieve- 
 ment in America. 
 
 The pubhcation of the volume on the eve of 
 the unveiHng in Washington of the Columbus 
 statue, by the order of Congress, is most oppor- 
 tune. It is a like happy circumstance that the 
 essay comes from the experienced pen of the 
 Professor of American History at the Catholic 
 University, Washington, D. C. His gracious act 
 in dedicating the volume to the Knights of Co- 
 lumbus is deeply appreciated, and it will doubt- 
 less serve as an encouragement to them to a 
 renewed and patriotic interest in the history of 
 their country. 
 
 James A. Flaherty, 
 
 Supreme Knight, 
 Knights of Columbus. 
 
 April 25, 1912. 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 The brief study included in the following pages 
 is intended to supply the needs of the general 
 reader. Indeed, it was partly suggested by a 
 number of inquiries received by the author con- 
 cerning some of the topics of which it treats. 
 It is also designed to furnish supplemental read- 
 ing matter for all institutions of learning that 
 offer courses of instruction in American political 
 history. It will be found useful by readers of 
 every class, except a few Columbians, special 
 students of every topic connected with the 
 progress of geographical information. 
 
 This essay is based upon the great scientific 
 works bearing upon the discovery of America 
 as well as upon former studies of the writer. 
 For the benefit of readers desiring to enter more 
 fully upon an examination of the larger topics 
 considered in this volume there has been added 
 a brief bibliography. 
 
 Washington, D. C, 
 April 15, 1912. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 Introduction xiii 
 
 I. Geographical Knowledge of the Ancients 
 
 AND THE Arabs 1 
 
 II. Christian Pilgrims 10 
 
 III. Norse Achievement in the Western Hem- 
 
 isphere 17 
 
 IV. Franciscan Missionaries and Marco Polo 29 
 V. Italian Supremacy in Navigation 51 
 
 VI. Portuguese Achievement 58 
 
 VII. Geographical Knowledge and Theory of 
 
 Columbus 82 
 
 VIII. The Equipment. Discovery 118 
 
 IX. The Nameless Pilot 158 
 
 X. England's Claim to North America 191 
 
 XI. Consequences of the Discovery 198 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 This re-study of familiar themes attempts no 
 more than the correction of certain popular 
 errors relative to the significance of Norse ex- 
 ploration in America, European knowledge of 
 Asia in the fifteenth century, the geographical 
 information of Columbus, and the equipment of 
 that memorable expedition which gave to civiliza- 
 tion a new world. To trace in outline the mari- 
 time achievements which culminated in the dis- 
 covery of the American continents is an under- 
 taking of the greatest magnitude. To endeavor 
 to sketch even a few of its more important 
 phases may be regarded as a piece of presump- 
 tion. The main facts in the extension of geo- 
 graphical science are mentioned in count- 
 less monographs and unnumbered volumes. To 
 collect and arrange this material is something 
 more than the labor of a summer's day. With 
 some suspicion, then, of the extent of the larger 
 theme, the author of this study has chosen a 
 smaller one. It is, however, sufficiently ample, 
 and an accurate knowledge of it is indispensabfe 
 to a firm grasp of the beginnings of American 
 history. The discovery of the New World was 
 
xiv INTRODUCTION 
 
 not an isolated event. It was rather the cul- 
 mination of a succession of great movements 
 which collectively gave new proofs of the form 
 and made known the magnitude of the globe. 
 Therefore we shall glance hastily at the extent 
 of geographical learning in classical times and 
 endeavor briefly to trace its progress from the 
 age of Eratosthenes to the triumph of Columbus. 
 
COLUMBUS AND HIS 
 PREDECESSORS 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 GEOGRAPHICAL KNOWLEDGE OF 
 THE ANCIENTS. 
 
 The Phoenicians. 
 
 Of the nations that grew up around the Medi- 
 terranean the Phoenicians were the first to win 
 weakh and immortaHty in trade. From Sidon 
 and from Tyre they colonized its shores and 
 sailed even in the great ocean beyond ; toward 
 the east their commodities entered the Red Sea 
 and found their way to India. It matters not 
 whether Tarshish was Cadiz or Carthage, Tyrian 
 ships were known there and in every other 
 emporium. 
 
 Solomon was not the only ruler in the ancient 
 world who confided his commerce to the fleets 
 of Tyre. Herodotus, himself a notable traveller 
 in the fifth century B. C, relates that the Egyp- 
 
2 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 tian king Necho, of the XXVI Dynasty (about 
 600 B. C), built a fleet on the Red Sea, manned 
 it with Phoenician sailors, and directed them to 
 sail southward and return to Egypt by way of 
 the Pillars of Hercules and the Mediterranean 
 Sea. According to this tradition, which the 
 Greek historian quotes sceptically, the voyage 
 was accomplished in about three years. The ac- 
 count is too vague, however, to be accepted as 
 anything more than a possibility. 
 
 The Carthaginians. 
 
 The Senate of Carthage, the most famous of 
 the Phoenician colonies, sent an expedition under 
 Hanno, somewhere between 570 and 480 B. C, 
 with the intention of establishing new colonies 
 along the west coast of Africa. The expedition 
 is believed to have sailed along the northern 
 coast of the Gulf of Guinea. This attempt at 
 colonization was made when the prosperity of 
 Carthage was greatest. It was during the same 
 epoch that Himilco was commissioned to ex- 
 plore toward the north the coast of Iberia. He 
 may have reached the Bay of Biscay or even 
 have sighted Britain. The details of his explora- 
 tion are not clear. 
 
 The Greeks. 
 
 In the twentieth century it is not necessary 
 
THE ANCIENTS 3 
 
 to discuss minutely the geographical learning 
 of classical times. It will be sufficient to notice 
 some signs of early nautical activity among 
 the Greeks and, barely allude to the epoch of 
 Alexander the Great. In another connection 
 will be discussed their geographical theory. 
 Though the Romans in many departments of 
 human activity were followers of the Greeks, 
 and in those fields did not attain to the same 
 eminence, in many lines they were themselves 
 pioneers and far excelled their gifted neighbors 
 in Hellas. The purpose of this essay is to show 
 not their respective contributions to civilization 
 but the geographical knowledge and the geo- 
 graphical theory of each. 
 
 As early as 330 B. C. one Pytheas, a navi- 
 gator of the Greek colony of Massilia (Mar- 
 seilles), is believed to have sailed far beyond 
 the Pillars of Hercules, to have entered the 
 English Channel and to have followed the coast 
 of Britain to the extreme north. Beyond this 
 he spoke of a land called Thule, which may have 
 been Shetland or even Iceland. A sea was 
 reached through which he could not sail. From 
 this it has been inferred that he was the first of 
 the Greeks who knew of the Arctic regions. 
 Either on this voyage or a later one he entered 
 the Baltic and there found the coasts where 
 amber is obtained. No other discoveries are 
 
4 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 mentioned before his return to the Mediter- 
 ranean. The scholarship of our time is incUned 
 to accept this account of discoveries by the Mas- 
 siHan seaman, though it was rejected by Strabo, 
 one of the greatest of Greek geographers. 
 
 In the fourth century of our era, the Greeks 
 knew Asia from the river Indus to the Mediter- 
 ranean and from the Sea of Arabia to the moun- 
 tains of Armenia. The armies of Alexander 
 crossed the plains beyond the Caspian, pene- 
 trated the wild passes in the mountains north- 
 west of India and did not turn back until they 
 entered the country between the Indus and the 
 Ganges. As is well known, a part of Alexan- 
 der's victorious army returned by ships from tht; 
 Indus to the Tigris. In October, 326 B. C.. 
 Nearchus left the Indus with his great fleet 
 Though some of the records have perished^, 
 enough remains to show that between those 
 two rivers a careful exploration was made. Near- 
 chus was preparing to sail around Arabia when 
 the death of Alexander led to the breaking up 
 of the fleet without making the voyage. This 
 was a very great epoch of discovery. The Greeks 
 who accompanied Alexander described carefully 
 the towns and villages through which they 
 passed; also the products and the physical ap- 
 pearance of the country. There was then estab- 
 
THE ANCIENTS 
 
 lished a connection between the civilization of 
 Hellas and Hindustan. 
 
 As Carthage continued the maritime enterprise 
 of the mother country, Phoenicia, so now the 
 kingdoms founded by the generals of Alexander 
 preserved for a time the civilization of the Hel- 
 lenic world. Thus was supplied by Megasthenes, 
 an ambassador of Seleucus, full information 
 concerning the valley of the Ganges. The dy- 
 nasty of the Ptolemies, founded by another of 
 Alexander's generals, manifested much interest 
 in extending geographical information. Indeed, 
 by the protection and encouragement of Eratos- 
 thenes, Ptolemy Euergetes (247-228 B. C.) ren- 
 dered the greatest service to geographical science. 
 The researches of Eratosthenes gave the first 
 approximate knowledge of the size of the 
 spherical earth. Under the successors of Ptolemy 
 Euergetes vessels were equipped to explore the 
 Red Sea. Eudoxus, the navigator who com- 
 manded these expeditions, left the service of 
 Egypt and visited the prosperous ports of the 
 Mediterranean for the purpose of obtaining fi- 
 nancial assistance to undertake the exploration 
 of Africa, which he believed to be washed by an 
 ocean on the south. 
 
 The Romans. 
 
 The Romans, at least in their early history. 
 
6 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 did not encourage navigation and commerce with 
 the same ardor as did the Greeks. It was the 
 mihtary genius of Rome and her ambition for 
 universal empire that led to discovery. Every 
 war gave occasion to a new survey. In this way 
 the Romans knew minutely nearly all Europe as 
 well as large tracts in Asia and in Africa. 
 
 In her high and palmy state Rome had ex- 
 plored and surveyed all the coasts of the Medi- 
 terranean : Italy, Greece, the Balkan peninsula, 
 Spain, Gaul, western Germany and also much 
 of Britain. In Africa her possessions included 
 Egypt, Carthage, Numidia and Mauretania. In 
 the third continent her authority was acknowl-. 
 edged in Asia Minor and Syria. Roman legions 
 had entered the vast and mysterious country of 
 the Arabs, and the Roman people knew some- 
 thing of the regions that had been conquered 
 by Alexander. The resources and the extent of 
 Persia were not unknown to them. Something 
 more vague was their knowledge of Bactria and 
 Scythia. Roman intercourse with India led to a 
 very great extension of geographical informa- 
 tion. 
 
 Before the Romans undertook new conquests 
 it was usual with them to send out exploring 
 expeditions to report concerning the nature of 
 the country. This policy collected at Rome a 
 vast masg of geographical facts. Centurions 
 
THE ARABS 
 
 were commissioned to explore the upper reaches 
 of the Nile, and at least one expedition had sailed, 
 out of sight of land, across the Arabian Sea to 
 India. In the time of the Emperor Severus 
 and in the reigns of his immediate successors 
 intercourse with that country was at its height. 
 From the writings of Pausanias (about 174 
 A. D.) it appears that direct communication had 
 already been established between Rome and 
 China. 
 
 After the division of the Roman empire, Con- 
 stantinople, the capital of the eastern portion, 
 became the refuge of learning, of arts and of 
 taste. Justinian, in whose reign (527-565 A. D.) 
 the greatness of the empire culminated, sent to 
 China two Nestorian monks, who returned with 
 eggs of the silk-worm concealed in a hollow cane. 
 From these were obtained the first silk-worms 
 in Europe and in this way was begun in the 
 Peloponnesus and the isles of Greece the manu- 
 facture of silk. It was in the same memorable 
 reign that Cosmas Indicopleustes, an Egyptian 
 merchant, made several voyages to India and 
 afterward composed his Christian Topography, 
 which contains a tolerable description of that 
 country. 
 
 The Arabs. 
 
 During the period of Arabic ascendency the 
 
8 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 Mohammedan world had considerable inter- 
 course with Central Asia and had some knowl- 
 edge of the Far East. For reasons of trade, 
 however, information concerning the routes 
 thither was carefully guarded. For Europeans, 
 therefore, there was little prospect of expansion 
 toward either the South or the East. In those 
 regions Islam stood guard. The brilliant specu- 
 lations of Arabic geographers, though often at- 
 tractive, added little to the scientific conclusions 
 of the Greeks. It was not the Arabs who ex- 
 tended the limits of the known world beyond 
 Thule. As we shall see, that honor belongs al- 
 most exclusively to the Scandinavian nation. 
 The actual contribution of the Arabs to geo- 
 graphical information was their exploration of 
 the northern shores of the Indian Ocean, from 
 Magadoxa or Mozambique to Hindustan. Con- 
 cerning that part of the world European knowl- 
 edge was extremely vague. 
 
 As stated above, the Arabs had some knowl- 
 edge of distant countries. In the middle of the 
 ninth century one Sulaiman, a merchant of that 
 nation, embarked in the Persian Gulf and made 
 several voyages to India and China. It is said 
 that from personal experience Masudi knew all 
 the countries between Spain and China. In his 
 Meadows of Gold he describes lands and peoples. 
 Other Arab writers of that epoch were : Istakhri, 
 
THE ARABS 
 
 who travelled through all Mohammedan coun- 
 tries and in 950 wrote his Book of Climates; 
 Ibn Haukal, whose book of Roads and King- 
 doms, written in 976, was based on the work of 
 Istakhri. The best known of Arabian geographi- 
 cal authors was Idrisi. After travelling exten- 
 sively in the first half of the twelfth century he 
 settled in Sicily, where he wrote a treatise 
 descriptive of an armillary sphere, which he had 
 constructed for Roger II, the Norman king.^ 
 In his work Idrisi incorporated all accessible re- 
 sults of contemporary travel. 
 
 ^An armillary sphere was a skeleton celestial globe, con- 
 sisting of metal rings or hoops representing the equator, 
 ecliptic, tropics, arctic and antarctic circles, and colures, 
 revolving on an axis within a wooden horizon. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 CHRISTIAN PILGRIMS. 
 
 Early Christian Pilgrims. 
 
 From the time of the Emperor Constantine, 
 whose mother, St. Helena, had founded a church 
 at Bethlehem, thousands of nameless pilgrims 
 from Europe visited the Holy Places of Syria. 
 The route generally followed, took them 
 through North Italy, Aquileia, Sirmium, Con- 
 stantinople, and Asia Minor. Of these multitudes 
 perhaps fewer than a dozen have left any valua- 
 ble record of the journey to the Levant. Etheria, 
 a Spanish nun, long believed to have been Sylvia 
 of Aquitaine, (about 385) travelled not only 
 through Syria but in Lower Egypt, in the Sinaitic 
 peninsula, and in Northern Mesopotamia. From 
 the Euphrates her party returned toward the 
 coast and thence by the military road which con- 
 nected Tarsus with the Bosphorus. In the thir- 
 teenth and the succeeding centuries, when greater 
 and more enlightened travellers went into Central 
 Asia and even as far as China these travellers 
 were forgotten. 
 
 10 
 
CHRISTIAN PILGRIMS n 
 
 For five hundred years afterward there was 
 indeed much travel but little of geographical 
 theory. The semi-barbarous conquerors of the 
 Empire of the West had not yet come to appre- 
 ciate the civilization which they had nearly de- 
 stroyed. In the seventh century the victorious 
 Saracens, still engaged chiefly in destruction, did 
 not encourage European travellers to come 
 amongst them. Even in this memorable era 
 there were men like Isidore of Seville, and Ver- 
 gil, an Irish missionary of the eighth century, 
 who held to a more scientific geography. Though 
 little had been discovered that was new, yet the 
 knowledge of the Greeks had not perished. The 
 religious influence was the first agency in the 
 formation of modern nations. It was also "the 
 first impulse towards their expansion."^ 
 
 Arculf and Willibald. 
 
 To this epoch (600-870 A. D.) belong Arculf 
 and Willibald, names more familiar in English- 
 speaking countries. The Eastern adventures of 
 the former were written by Abbot Adamnan, to 
 whose great monast^^ry of lona, Arculf had been 
 driven by storms. This narrative (about A. D. 
 701) was presented and dedicated to Aldfrith 
 the Wise, in his court at York. As a useful 
 manual for Englishmen, Concerning the Holy 
 
 ^Beazley, Prince Henry th-^ yavigator, p. 42. 
 
12 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 Sites, the account was summarized by the Ven- 
 erable Bede. WilHbald, a nephew of St. Boni- 
 face, spent in oriental and other travels a period 
 of ten years. This included many of the coun- 
 tries between places as far apart as Southamp- 
 ton and Damascus. 
 
 Fidelis and Bernard the Wise. 
 
 To the same age belongs Fidelis, who trav- 
 elled in Egypt about the year 750. More than a 
 century later, 867, Bernard the Wise of Mont 
 St. Michel mentions a circumstance which shows 
 the undoubted supremacy of the Saracens at 
 that tirne. The Emir of Bari forwarded Ber- 
 nard's party of pilgrims in a fleet of transports 
 that was carrying 9,000 Christian slaves to Alex- 
 andria. Other travellers and writers in the age 
 succeeding are known to us, but they made few 
 important contributions to geographical learning. 
 The haughty science of to-day characterizes the 
 narratives of the pilgrims of those distant ages 
 as infantile. Nevertheless, it must be admitted 
 that they had comparatively large knowledge 
 and experience. However, when we come to 
 examine the travels and the narratives of the 
 Franciscan friars of the thirteenth and the fol- 
 lowing centuries, we become conscious of an im- 
 mense advance. 
 
IRISH MISSIONARIES 
 
 13 
 
 The Irish in Iceland. 
 
 In the epoch at which we have arrived popu- 
 lar fancy regards the Norsemen as the sole 
 voyagers in the Arctic seas. This opinion, so in 
 harmony with circumstances, is almost literally, 
 but not absolutely true. In Iceland they were 
 anticipated by a race that they were destined to 
 meet in their endeavor to conquer the maritime 
 parts of western Europe. The succession of 
 triumphs which attended their arms is a common- 
 place of school histories ; an enumeration of 
 Norse defeats is less famihar reading. From 
 the death of St. Patrick scarcely half a century 
 had passed when Irish missionaries were engaged 
 in the war that paganism was waging against the 
 Christian world. The conversion of northern 
 England is chiefly to be ascribed to the zeal of 
 Aidan and his countrymen ; Irish missionaries 
 crossed to Flanders and to Burgundy ; they pene- 
 trated even into Italy and Switzerland, where 
 the canton of St. Gall commemorates the labors 
 of an Irish monk. In their apostolic journeys 
 they left valuable manuscripts along the Danube 
 and the Rhine. These wanderings, it is true, 
 were not discoveries, but the zeal which sus- 
 tained the disciples of Patrick and Columba in 
 such undertakings drove them into all the neigh- 
 boring lands where there were souls to save. 
 This zeal it was that in the year 795, from Feb- 
 
14 
 
 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 ruary i to August i, led Irish hermits to Ice- 
 land. 
 
 On the return of these missionaries they re- 
 ported the marvel of perpetual day in Thule 
 (Iceland), where there was then *'no darkness 
 to hinder one from doing what one would." On 
 their arrival in Iceland they found the ocean 
 ice-free for one day's sail ; after that they came 
 to an ice-wall. Memorials of this, and perhaps 
 of other religious settlements were found by 
 Scandinavian colonists when, in the ninth cen- 
 tury, they came to take permanent possession of 
 the island. 
 
 Dicuil, an Irish Geographer. 
 
 The earliest unquestioned mention of the 
 European discovery and the European settle- 
 ment of Iceland is to be found in De Mensura 
 orbis terrae, finished in 825.^ The same essay, 
 of which the author was the Irish monk and 
 geographer Dicuil, also contains the first definite 
 Western reference to the old fresh water canal 
 between the Nile and the Red Sea. This was 
 finally blocked up in y6y. Dicuil learned of this 
 from Brother Fidelis, probably another Irish 
 monk, who in going to Jerusalem sailed along 
 the Nile into the Red Sea, passing on his way 
 
 iThe best text is that of G. Parthey, Berlin, 1870. 
 
IRISH MISSIONARIES 15 
 
 the ''Barns of Joseph" or the pyramids of Giza. 
 These are well described. 
 
 Dicuil's knowledge of the isles north and west 
 of Britain is evidently intimate, while his refer- 
 ences to Irish exploration and colonization, and to 
 the later Scandinavian devastation of the same, 
 are in every way noteworthy. This is not the 
 place to discuss the scholarship of Dicuil, which 
 was considerable. He quotes from and notices 
 thirty Greek and Latin writers ; was the author 
 of a metrical work on astronomy and wrote a 
 grammar, which has been lost. Concerning Ice- 
 land, his information was derived from the 
 missionaries who had sojourned there. 
 
 Predecessors of the Polos. 
 
 Early in the Crusades, Saewulf of Worcester, 
 Adelard of Bath, and Daniel of Kiev were 
 among the peaceful pilgrims who traversed 
 Palestine after the ways had been made smooth 
 by the victorious warriors of the First Crusade. 
 They have little more to tell us than was related 
 centuries before by Fidelis and others. Coming 
 shortly after ^ Abbot Daniel of Kiev, was one 
 Benjamin of Tudela, a Jewish rabbi, who visited 
 communities of his own people from Navarre to 
 Bagdad, ''and described those beyond from Bag- 
 dad to China.*' He seems, however, to hav^ 
 
l6 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 written chiefly for members of his own race and 
 appears otherwise to have attracted Uttle notice.^ 
 His discoveries (about 1160-73) seem to have 
 added to the geographical information of West- 
 ern Europe only what was known to the Greeks 
 and the Arabs. For Europe, however, he may 
 be regarded among overland travellers as a fore- 
 runner of the Polos. 
 
 In the year 1258 the Caliphate of Bagdad was 
 overthrown by the Mongol Tartars. The last 
 Caliph of the Saracens was butchered by Hol- 
 galu and his Tartars and, according to one ac- 
 count, sewn in a sack and cast into the Tigris. 
 The House of Jenghiz Kahn, whose dominions 
 extended from the China Sea to the river Dnie- 
 per, was more enlightened than any former east 
 ern dynasty. As will presently appear, the Pope 
 and the King of France sent missionaries to 
 the Tartar rulers, who were believed to be wav- 
 ering between Islamism and Christianity. It 
 was during this period (1260) that Nicolo and 
 Maffeo Polo, Venetian merchants, began their 
 memorable journey to the Far East. 
 
 iBeazley, Prince Henry the navigator, pp. 88-89. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 NORSE ACHIEVEMENT IN THE WEST- 
 ERN HEMISPHERE. 
 
 Extent and End of Norse Dominion. 
 
 The Danish conquest of England and Nor- 
 mandy as well as the occupation of commercial 
 centres in Ireland are among the commonplaces 
 of school history, but the ambition and the suc- 
 cesses of other branches of that race extended 
 far beyond western Europe. They had visited 
 and ravaged every nation from Archangel to 
 Cordova and from Limerick to Constantinople. 
 For two hundred years they had ruled one-half 
 the British Isles. Their devastation of Irish 
 colonies has been noticed. Indeed, the Danish 
 invasions first arrested the development in Ire- 
 land itself of a flourishing civilization. That 
 nation, however, finally checked the conquering 
 career of the Vikings. The complete destruction 
 of Norse dominion was begun in 1014 by King 
 Brian Boru at Clontarf. Between 1042 and 1066 
 they met many defeats in England at the hands 
 of Godwin and his son Harold. The overthrow 
 17 
 
l8 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 of Hardrada at Stamford Bridge will suggest 
 the nature of their chastisment by the last ruler 
 of the Saxons.^ In the next generation the 
 sovereigns of Scotland inflicted upon the sea- 
 kings still other defeats. Indeed, even earlier a 
 sovereign of that country had punished their 
 invasions. When the witches foretold that Mac- 
 beth would be thane of Cawdor, that ambitious 
 General was returning from the defeat not only 
 of the disloyal subjects of King Duncan but of 
 their Scandinavian allies. Outside of their 
 kingdom in the Orkneys, Norse dominion in 
 western Europe ended in the last half of the 
 eleventh century. 
 
 Place of the Norse as Explorers. 
 
 Betw'een the era of Constantine and the begin- 
 ning of the Crusades the greatest progress in 
 geographical knowledge was that made by the 
 Vikings. Their exploration of northern Europe, 
 as well as the settlement of Iceland and the dis- 
 covery of Greenland, were made when they were 
 still pagans. It was while their great nautical 
 hero, Leif the son of Eric, was on his way from 
 
 ^Edgar Atheling is. of course, always included in the 
 list of the Saxon kings of England. Though Edgar, for a 
 short time after the battle of Hastings, was the lawful 
 king. Harold was the last actual ruler before the Norman 
 Conquest. 
 
NORSE EXPLORERS 
 
 19 
 
 Norway to proclaim Christianity to the people 
 of Greenland that the wooded shores of America 
 were first seen.^ Their voyages thither and their 
 attempt to colonize it will be noticed presently. 
 Early American history is concerned with that 
 branch of the Scandinavian race which colonized 
 Iceland and Greenland and discovered Wineland 
 the Good. For centuries preceding these events 
 its home had been in those countries that we 
 know as Norway and Sweden. The members of 
 this enterprising nation were kinsmen of the 
 Danes, those renowned warriors who placed a 
 line of kings on the throne of England, who 
 wrested from Charles the Simple the valley of 
 the Seine and there built up the powerful duke- 
 dom of Normandy. They intermarried with 
 the Romanized Celtic natives of Gaul and soon 
 became the most polished as well as the most 
 warlike people of Europe. In the short space 
 of five years this new nation put an end to 
 Anglo-Saxon domination, which had been estab- 
 lished in England for more than six hundred 
 years. Indeed, they practically destroyed the 
 Anglo-Saxon monarchy in one October day. 
 Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Italy and Palestine 
 were destined soon to become acquainted with 
 
 ^It is well known that there Is some authority for believ- 
 ing that Herjulfson had seen the American coast even 
 before the accidental discovery by Leif. 
 
2D COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 the Normans. With their remarkable history 
 this essay is not concerned. Their kinsmen, the 
 Norwegians, did not come into so close contact 
 with the civilization of southern Europe and 
 therefore did not play so important a part in 
 history. They did, however, act a very interest- 
 ing part, and in a climate more congenial than 
 that of Iceland and Greenland would, doubtless, 
 have built up a powerful and enduring state. 
 
 Eric Discovers Greenland. 
 
 In the sagas, or Norse histories, we are told 
 that Eric and his father, on account of man- 
 slaughter, went from Norway to Iceland. Not 
 long afterward, about 985 A. D., Eric discovered 
 a new country and named it Greenland, not 
 indeed, because it was a pleasant place, but in 
 order to attract settlers. In the tenth century 
 the climate of Greenland was very much the same 
 as it is to-day. From its history we know that 
 even in its most flourishing state it was not 
 easy during the long winters to find food for cat- 
 tle ; we know too, that many ships trading there 
 were hemmed in by icebergs and that countless 
 others were wrecked in its dangerous waters. 
 
 It was not long until settlements were made in 
 the new land. From a partial examination of its 
 
GREENLAND SETTLEMENTS 21 
 
 ruins and its records it is certain that the prin- 
 cipal colonies of Greenland, the Estribygd and 
 the Vestribygd, were situated along its south- 
 western coast. The people were engaged chiefly 
 in hunting, in fishing and in cattle-breeding. 
 Their conversion to Christianity, in the begin- 
 ning of the eleventh century, brought them into 
 such intercourse with Rome as their remote 
 situation would permit. They contributed tithes 
 to the Crusades and, as late as the year 1418, 
 in walrus-tusks paid their Peter's Pence to the 
 Holy See. In its most flourishing era the popu- 
 lation of Greenland was about five thousand. 
 The western settlement contained four churches, 
 the eastern twelve. There was a monastery of 
 Saints Olaf and Augustine ; also a convent of the 
 Benedictine order. From the time of the con- 
 version of its people until the year 1492, when 
 the last spiritual head was nominated to the 
 See of Gardar, Greenland could claim a line of 
 at least sixteen bishops. 
 
 In developing their fisheries and in seeking 
 pasture for their cattle, the people of Greenland 
 became familiar with its western coast. They 
 appear to have also explored its more perilous 
 eastern parts. Their nautical activity was not 
 confined, however, to their own inhospitable 
 land. An accident broadened their maritime 
 horizon. 
 
22 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 J 
 
 Leif Discovers a New Land. 
 
 Leif, one of the sons of Eric the Red, had 
 gained the good opinion of Olaf Tryggvason, 
 King of Norway. On one occasion this ruler 
 asked, *'Is it thy purpose to sail to Greenland 
 this summer?" "It is my purpose," said Leif, 
 "if it be your will." "I believe it will be well," 
 answered the King, "and thither thou shalt go 
 upon my errand to proclaim Christianity there." 
 When Leif's modesty suggested doubts concern- 
 ing the success of the proposed mission, the King 
 replied that he knew no man better fitted for the 
 undertaking, and added, "In thy hands the cause 
 will surely prosper." King Olaf then gave to 
 Leif a man and a woman, both Gaels, and assured 
 him that if he had need of fleetness, this couple 
 would serve him, for they were as swift as deer. 
 Haki and Haekia, the Irish runners, will be 
 heard of again. What followed this conversa- 
 tion is told by the sagas in a simple and straight- 
 forward manner. 
 
 When his ship was ready for the voyage, Leif 
 put to sea. For a long time he was tossed about 
 upon the ocean and finally came upon lands of 
 which hitherto he had had no knowledge. "There 
 were self-sown wheat-fields and vines growing 
 there. There were also those trees growing there 
 which are called 'mausur' and of all these they 
 took specimens." On resuming his voyage, 
 
A NEW LAND 23 
 
 Leif rescued a shipwrecked crew, took the men 
 with him to Greenland, and procured them quar- 
 ters during the winter. On arriving at his home 
 in Brattahhd he was well received by everyone. 
 "He soon proclaimed Christianity throughout the 
 land, and the Catholic faith, and announced King 
 Olaf Tryggvason's message to the people, telling 
 them how much excellence and how great glory 
 accompanied this faith. . . .^ 
 
 Exploration of the New Land. 
 
 These were the principal events in a great 
 discovery, though, for reasons that will be ex- 
 plained, it did not prove a valuable one. At 
 Leif 's home there was much talk of his accidental 
 discovery, but his neighbors and kinsmen did not 
 confine themselves merely to talking about ex- 
 ploration. In the spring of 1005 Karlsefni aiiH 
 Snorri fitted out their ship to search for the land 
 discovered by Leif. Biarni and Thorliall with 
 their crew joined the expedition. In all there 
 were one hundred and sixty men. From the 
 western settlement they sailed to Bear Island ; 
 thence southward for two doegr- until they saw 
 
 ^Arthur Middleton Reeves, The Finding of Wineland the 
 Good, p. 3G. 
 
 2It is not certain wlietlier the term doegr, in ttie sagas, 
 means a day of twelve hours or one of twenty-four. 
 
24 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 land. This country they explored and named 
 Helluland; that is, the land of flat stones. Con- 
 tinuing for two days more they came to a for- 
 ested region, which they called Markland. An- 
 other voyage farther southward brought them to 
 a sandy shore. So long was it to sail by that 
 they called it Wonderstrands. Afterward they 
 put the Gaels ashore to explore the country be- 
 yond. On their return, with an ear of "new- 
 sown wheat" and a bunch of grapes, the expe- 
 dition resumed its southerly course. Part of a 
 winter was spent at one point ; then other long 
 voyages were made and they rested for half a 
 month. Here there was barter with the natives, 
 who visited them in skin-canoes. They are de- 
 scribed as ill-looking and swarthy men with ugly 
 hair, great eyes and broad cheeks. The Norse- 
 men built huts and remained for the winter. In 
 the spring there was an unsuccessful battle with 
 the natives, whom they called Skrellings. At 
 this time there was some dissension ^mong the 
 Norsemen. This internal weakness and the cer- 
 tainty that there would be constant warfare with 
 the savages convinced Karlsefni that life in that 
 otherwise pleasant country would be a thing of 
 constant dread. In the summer of 1006 he re- 
 turned with the survivors to Greenland. 
 
WINELAND THE GOOD 
 
 Intercourse with Wineland. 
 
 Many later voyages were made to Wineland, 
 Indeed, as late as 1121 Bishop Eric left Green- 
 land in order to visit that part of his See. After- 
 ward he was never heard from. For a long 
 time Wineland was a geographical landmark, and 
 occasional voyages were made thither. The at- 
 tempt of Karlsefni, however, appears to have 
 been the most serious that was undertaken for 
 its colonization, but beyond the building of some 
 huts and a few trading booths he attempted 
 to erect no durable structures. Therefore we 
 need not seek for architectural memorials of 
 his brief sojourn. 
 
 No historical student has the slightest doubt 
 that the Norsemen discovered America almost 
 five hundred years before Columbus arrived at 
 the Bahamas. There is, however, no such un- 
 animity of opinion concerning the latitude at 
 which Leif was driven upon its coast or the 
 places which Karlsefni explored. Speculation, 
 it is true, has assigned certain regions to Hellii- 
 land, Markland and Wineland. The last named 
 was the most southerly and has been fixed in 
 many places between Nova Scotia and Rhode 
 Island. Though of some intrinsic interest their 
 precise location does not greatly concern us. The 
 important question is the fact of discovery. 
 
26 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 Destruction of Greenland Settlements. 
 
 Many races in western Europe claim to have 
 discovered America in the remote past. These 
 claims, however, rest on foundations very dif- 
 ferent from those of the Norsemen. The story 
 of their voyages to Wineland as well as their 
 attempt to colonize it comes to us from Iceland 
 rather than Greenland, because the settlements 
 in the latter country were destroyed early in the 
 fifteenth century in a succession of attacks by 
 the Esquimaux. The Greenland ruins have been 
 located, but as yet only a few of them have been 
 carefully explored. Even this partial examina- 
 tion has yielded many antiquities. Further work 
 with the pick-axe and the spade, especially on the 
 sites of the homesteads, the convent, the monas- 
 tery and the churches, will no doubt tell us new 
 facts about this vanished race. As Greenland 
 was a Catholic country, it is possible that the 
 Vatican archives may furnish additional infor- 
 mation concerning that lonely outpost of Chris- 
 tianity. Already they have told us much. In 
 his Ecclesiastical History of Northern Europe, 
 written during the eleventh century, Adam of 
 Bremen makes mention of Wineland. Indeed, it 
 is not improbable that he may have talked at the 
 Norwegian court with men who participated in 
 those distant voyages. 
 
ENGLISH IN ORIGIN 27 
 
 Basis of England's Claim to North America. 
 If, as has been said, the Norsemen discovered 
 America four hundred and ninety-one years be- 
 fore the arrival of Columbus at San Salvador, 
 why have the people of the United States failed 
 to commemorate that event? This question is 
 easily answered. The United States developed 
 from a confederation of thirteen colonies which 
 England had either settled or conquered. That 
 nation has always based her claim to North 
 America upon the discovery of John Cabot and 
 upon the alleged exploration of his son, Sebas- 
 tian Cabot. English statesmen never admitted 
 the right of the French, the Dutch or the Swedes 
 to colonize the Atlantic coast of North America. 
 John Cabot's expedition of 1497 was suggested 
 by the startling success of Columbus, and we 
 have no proof that he had "any knowledge of 
 Norse exploration. It was long believed, indeed, 
 that he had made a voyage to Iceland and then 
 gained intelHgence concerning Wineland the 
 Good. There is no evidence, accepted by recent 
 Columbian students, that the great discoverer 
 ever visited that island. In other words, modern 
 historical experts are incHned to reject the Ice- 
 land voyage. If Columbus knew even vaguely 
 of Greenland's intercourse with a western world, 
 that knowledge had no influence whatever upon 
 his cherished project, for he sailed from Palos 
 
28 COLUMBUS AND HIS F'REDECESSORS 
 
 not northwest nor even -westward but almost 
 directly south. His discovery was as uncon- 
 nected with the geographical opinions of his 
 own and of former times as it was possible for 
 it to be. Yet, as will appear, that was no isolated 
 event. 
 
 Norsemen did not found the United States. 
 
 If the Norsemen, like the Spaniards who came 
 in the fifteenth century, had a knowledge of the 
 use of firearms, they would doubtless have held 
 their ground against the sWarthy Skrellings of 
 Wineland, and, perhaps, the history of the mod- 
 ern world might have been very different from 
 what it is. This, however, is speculation and 
 belongs to the world of fancy. So long as the 
 useful efforts of intelligence, courage and enter- 
 prise are admired, the memory of Norse exploits 
 will not perish. However, that race did not call 
 the United States into existence. Their begin- 
 nings resulted from other movements presently 
 to be noticed. With the progress of these move- 
 ments the sea-kings had no connection. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 FRANCISCANS AND MARCO POLO. 
 
 Overland Trade with Asia. 
 
 The reader is not to suppose that in pursuit of 
 trade the merchants of Europe went to China, to 
 Siam or even to India. The ItaHan traders, who 
 had a monopoly of this commerce, made the 
 journey to Constantinople or to other ports on 
 the Black Sea. There they purchased commod- 
 ities that had come from the interior. The na- 
 tive products of India were brought by Arabs 
 to Mecca, where, as we shall see, John Cabot 
 claimed to have been. Intelligent Europeans 
 could hardly have met the men from central 
 Asia without learning much about its resources 
 and its people. Incidentally, they would hear 
 something of Siam and of China. As a rule these 
 merchants were not good writers, and their books 
 tell us little. To this remark there was one 
 notable exception. 
 
 In the year 1260 Nicolo and Maf¥eo Polo, 
 prosperous Venetian traders, made a successful 
 29 
 
30 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 business venture in the Crimea. An uprising of 
 Tartar tribes prevented their return. As they 
 could not go back, they went forward as far as 
 Bokhara, where they remained for three years. 
 They then determined to visit "Kubla Khan," a 
 party of whose envoys were about to return to 
 Cathay (China). A year's journey brought them 
 to his court, where they were kindly received. 
 The great Khan asked them many questions 
 about Europe, especially about its rulers, about 
 the Pope and the Church. It was not long be- 
 fore he sent them back as an embassy to the 
 Pope. They were instructed to ask His Holiness 
 to send a hundred missionaries to convert the 
 people of Cathay to the Christian faith and in- 
 struct them in the liberal arts. The dangerous 
 homeward journey was begun, and in three years 
 the merchants were at Acre, on the Mediter- 
 ranean. 
 
 Marco Polo Goes to China. 
 
 Great was the disappointment of the Polos 
 when they learned that the Pope was dead. They 
 concluded, therefore, to return to Venice and 
 remain until the election of his successor. There 
 they continued for two years awaiting that event. 
 As there seemed to be no prospect of its hap- 
 pening, they resolved to return to Cathay and 
 
THE FAR EAST 
 
 31 
 
 report the failure of their mission. After ob- 
 taining from the Papal Legate at Acre a letter 
 explaining the situation, and taking with them 
 some of the holy oil from the lamp of the 
 Holy Sepulchre, they set out on their return. 
 This time they were accompanied by Marco, 
 the seventeen year old son of Nicolo Polo. They 
 had not proceeded far when they were over- 
 taken by a messenger, who informed them that 
 the Legate had himself been chosen Pope. In- 
 stead of sending one hundred missionaries, how- 
 ever, the new Pope appointed two preaching 
 friars. When the party reached Armenia the 
 rumor of war caused the missionaries to turn 
 back. The Polos resumed their journey and 
 after travelling for three years arrived in 1275 
 at the Khan's court in Shang-tu near Pekin. 
 This was the place of wdiich Coleridge wrote: 
 
 At Xanadu did Kubla-Khan 
 
 A stately pleasure-dome decree. 
 
 Where Alph, the sacred river, ran 
 Through caverns measureless to man 
 
 Down to a sunless sea. 
 
 The Khan, who welcomed them graciously, 
 made much of Marco, then twenty years of age. 
 
 A Voyage from China. 
 
 After serving the Grand Khan of all the Tar- 
 
32 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 tars for seventeen years, they had acquired con- 
 siderable wealth, and became eager to return 
 to their native land. That ruler was sending 
 to Persia his young daughter, who had been 
 asked in marriage by its Khan. His envoys 
 had requested of Kublai permission for the 
 Polos, who were familiar with the art of navi- 
 gation, to accompany them. This favor was 
 granted, and in 1292 a great fleet sailed away 
 from Zaitum, the largest Chinese port of that 
 time. N Before they arrived in Persia two years 
 had passed, and during that time some of the 
 envoys had died and the fleet had lost six hun- 
 dred men. Though the Khan of Persia had died, 
 the young maiden was well received by his 
 brother, who had succeeded as ruler, and after- 
 ward she was married to the Khan's son. Be- 
 cause of its disturbed state the Polos were 
 escorted through that country by troops of 
 horse. After many hardships they finally ar- 
 rived in Venice sometime in the year 1295. 
 
 Polo taken Prisoner. 
 
 A war breaking out soon after between Venice 
 and Genoa, the wealthy Polos were asked to 
 equip a galley. Marco sailed in command of 
 this vessel and was captured in 1296, when the 
 Venetian fleet under Dandolo was defeated by 
 
TRAVELS OF POLO 
 
 33 
 
 the Genoese. Polo was carried a prisoner to 
 Genoa and remained there for three years. ^ It 
 is generally believed that it was during this time 
 that he dictated to a fellow-prisoner, Rustician 
 of Pisa, The Travels of Marco Polo The Vene- 
 tian.^ 
 
 Polo in the Service of Kublai Khan. 
 
 The Polos had scarcely arrived in Cathay 
 when Marco began earnestly to study the lan- 
 guages of the multifarious nations subject to 
 Kublai Khan. Seeing that he was both clever 
 and discreet, the great ruler soon employed him 
 in the public service. In 1277, as is shown by 
 Chinese annals, "a certain Polo was nominated 
 as a second-class commissioner or agent attached 
 to the imperial council." His public missions 
 carried him to the provinces of Shansi, Shensi 
 and Szechuen ; also to the wild country on the 
 borders of Tibet, to the distant province of Yun- 
 nan and into northern Burma. For three years 
 he held the government of the great city of 
 Yangchow. Again he was in southern Cochin- 
 China, and perhaps also on a mission to the 
 southern states of India. 
 
 ^Some authorities give the term of his imprisonment as 
 one year. 
 
 ^See Introduction to this work by Masefield 
 
34 
 
 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 Polo's Travels. 
 
 Seeing that the Khan appreciated all sorts of 
 tidings concerning his distant subjects, Polo was 
 careful to store his memory or his note-book 
 with those matters that would please his mas- 
 ter. These journeys sometimes took him through 
 regions almost unknown till i860. ''In his ac- 
 count of the desert of Gobi, he gives some de- 
 scription of the terrors and superstitions of the 
 waste, a description which strikingly reproduces 
 that of the Chinese pilgrim, Suan T'sang, in 
 passing the same desert in the contrary direction 
 six hundred years before." Lop-Nor, through 
 which the Polos passed on their way to Cathay, 
 was not visited again by Europeans until it was 
 reached by Prjevalsky in 1871. 
 
 Whether his father and his uncle accompanied 
 him on these distant missions we do not know. 
 Pie visited Kankchow, the capital of Tangut, 
 within the Great Wall, and, perhaps, Karako- 
 rum on the north of the Gobi. He was sent to 
 Ciampa (southern Cochin-China) a second time, 
 and he may have gone twice on imperial busi- 
 ness to India. 
 
 Until recently the story of Polo was regarded 
 with grave suspicion. It is now universally be- 
 lieved that he was not only the greatest of 
 mediaeval travellers but also a most veracious 
 
TRAVELS OF POLO 35 
 
 one. It was in describing what he had never 
 seen that he most frequently erred. He was the 
 first European to trace a route across the whole 
 longitude of Asia, naming and describing king- 
 dom after kingdom; the first to make known 
 China in all its wealth and vastness ; the first to 
 speak of the new and brilliant court which had 
 been established at Peking. For the first time 
 Europeans learned from his book something 
 more of Tibet than its name. In it they first saw 
 the names : Burma, Laos, Siam, Cochin-China, 
 Japan, Java, and Sumatra. From him they first 
 heard of the Xicobar and the Andaman Islands, 
 of Ceylon and its sacred peak. Polo was the 
 first in mediaeval times to give any distinct ac- 
 count of the secluded Christian kingdom of 
 Abyssinia; he was the first to speak of Zanzi- 
 bar and Madagascar. He takes his reader to the 
 far north also, to Siberia and its Arctic shores; 
 he speaks of white bears, of dog-sledges and of 
 the reindeer-riding Tunguses.^ 
 
 From having doubted many of the facts nar- 
 rated by Polo, opinion so changed that to him it 
 ascribed the introduction into Europe of several 
 very useful inventions. As we shall see, there 
 were flourishing missions of the Catholic Church 
 
 ^Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition, Art. Marco Polo. 
 
36 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 in many of the principal cities of eastern China 
 in the fourteenth century. There was also a 
 regular overland trade between Italy and Cathay 
 by way of Tana (Azov), Astrakhan, Otrar, 
 Kamul and Kangchow. Many a traveller be- 
 sides Polo might have brought from the Far 
 East the idea of block-books, the mariner's com- 
 pass and other important inventions. 
 
 Among thirteenth century travellers in Asia, 
 Polo was a prince. Certainly no one of them, 
 and, perhaps, not all of them together collected 
 an equal amount of information concerning that 
 vast and mysterious land filled with splendors 
 and, to many European minds, with things ap- 
 palling. There were, it is true, other keen ob- 
 servers and intelligent recorders, who crossed 
 the rivers and the mountains of Asia and who 
 knew its deserts and its plains. They did not, in- 
 deed, possess equal opportunities with the 
 trusted envoy of the Grand Khan. They trav- 
 elled by different routes, visited different prov- 
 inces and were interested in different matters. 
 As we would expect under such circumstances 
 each narrative, while containing much that is^ 
 new, supplements and verifies the others. 
 
 Friar John of Piano Carpini. 
 
 It has been said that two friars undertook the 
 toilsome journey to Cathay in the company of 
 
JOHX OF PLAXO CARPINI 
 
 ?^7 
 
 the Polos and that they were diverted from their 
 purpose by alarms of war. All missionaries, 
 however, were not like these timid friars. On 
 the contrary, the deeds of a great majority show 
 them to have been distinguished by rare ener- 
 gies of body as well as mind. Next in importance 
 to Polo as a writer of that era was John of 
 Carpini, a Franciscan friar. In his youth he had 
 been a companion and in his maturer years be- 
 came a disciple of St. Francis of Assisi. Before 
 he was commissioned to go as envoy into Asia, 
 he had been a prior of his order in Saxony, and 
 a Provincial in Germany. Subsequently he went 
 as an organizer into Spain and even visited the 
 coast of Barbary. 
 
 In Asiatic travel this celebrated man was not 
 a follower of Polo but a predecessor. In fact, he 
 entered that continent about a decade before 
 Marco was born. In those days the merchant 
 was often a follower of the friar. In 1245 Pope 
 Innocent I\^ selected this accomplished man for 
 the dangerous mission to the Tartars, wdio just 
 at that moment threatened to overrun Europe. 
 The battle of Liegnitz, April 9, 1241, threatened 
 to cast Christendom beneath the feet of barbar- 
 ous hordes. Though more than sixty years of 
 age, the envoy set out on his perilous way with a 
 single companion, a Polish friar, who went to 
 act as interpreter. 
 
38 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 From Poland they travelled to Kiev. After- 
 ward their journey lay across rivers and plains 
 until they arrived at Kanev, where they came 
 up with the Tartar outposts; thence they pro- 
 ceeded to the Volga, finally arriving at the camp 
 of Batu, a prince of the house of Jenghiz Khan. 
 After an exchange of presents Batu allowed 
 ihem to pass on to the Grand Khan in Mongolia. 
 In one hundred days they journeyed 3,000 miles. 
 Three months later they set out on their return 
 with the Khan's brief message to the Pope. The 
 supreme ruler of the Tartars said in a letter, 
 written in Mongol, Arabic, and Latin, that for 
 Christianity he was the scourge of God. This 
 ominous threat was of but little consolation for 
 the dangers and discomforts of their homeward 
 journey. Frequently they slept on ground which 
 they had scraped bare with their feet, and often- 
 times their bed was the frozen snow. At the 
 end of seven months they arrived at Kiev ; thence 
 they proceeded to Lyons, where they delivered 
 the imperious letter to the Pope. 
 
 The Narrative of Friar John. 
 
 On his return Friar John often told the story 
 of their travels. In order to avoid its too fre- 
 quent repetition he finally prepared an account of 
 the strange lands through which they travelled 
 and the strange inhabitants of those regions. 
 
JOHN OF PLANO CARPINI 
 
 39 
 
 This narrative is called the Book of the Tartars, 
 Liber Tartaronim.^ The work is epic in char- 
 acter, being almost without any personal note. 
 Half a century ago a Mongol scholar bore testi- 
 mony to the accuracy of its statements.- Portions 
 of the work will be found in Hakluyt. About 
 the middle of the last century an edition of this 
 book was brought out by the Geographical So- 
 ciety of Paris. This publication included also a 
 narrative by Friar Benedict, the companion of 
 John of Piano Carpini. 
 
 Estimate of Friar's Merits. 
 
 An English author, competent to speak not 
 only on the dawn of modern geography but on 
 every phase of its progress, describes this mis- 
 sionary as "an honest and clear-headed and 
 
 '^Liber Tartarorum is divided into eight chapters, which 
 treat of the country and its people ; of their manners, 
 character, and religion ; of the history, policy and tactics 
 of the Tartars and the best method of opposing them. A 
 single chapter describes the regions through which the 
 travellers passed. 
 
 This narrative is in many respects the chief literary 
 memorial of European overland expansion before Marco 
 Polo. It first revealed the Mongol world to Christendom ; 
 it told of the nations conquered by the Mongols, of the 
 nations which up to that time had successfully resisted 
 them, and it included a list of Mongol princes. In a word, 
 Friar John's Historia is of the utmost historical value. 
 
 2Galsang Gombeyev, Historical and Thilological Bulletin 
 of the Imperial Academy of St. Petersburg. 
 
40 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 keen-eyed observer, neither timid nor cred- 
 ulous,"^ and he adds: "We have gone a good 
 way from Abbot Daniel, for in John of Piano 
 Carpini, Christian Europe has at last a real ex- 
 plorer, a real historian, a genuine man of science, 
 in the service of the Church and of discovery."- 
 
 Odoric of Pordenone. 
 
 Odoric of Pordenone, one of the greatest trav- 
 ellers of the Middle Ages, was born of a Czech 
 family named Mattiussi, about the year 1286 at 
 Villa Nuova, a hamlet near Pordenone in Friuli. 
 He died at Pisa on the 14th of January, 1331, 
 while en route to Avignon, then the residence of 
 the Pope. In 1775, four hundred and forty-four 
 years afterward, he was beatified. Like many 
 other great missionaries of that era he was a 
 member of the Franciscan order. The Encyclo- 
 paedia Britannica, eleventh edition (1911), says 
 that '*a remarkable extension of missionary 
 action was then taking place" in the East. In 
 April, 1318, Friar Odoric was sent thither. About 
 1329 or 1330 he returned. 
 
 Odoric went to Cathay by way of Tabriz, 
 Erzerum and Sultanieh, places at which the 
 Franciscans had houses. From Sultanieh he 
 proceeded by Kashan and Yezd. By a circuitous 
 
 ^Beazley. Prince Henry the Navigator, p. 91. 
 ^ ^Ibid., p. 92. 
 
ODORIC OF PORDENONE ^i 
 
 route he arrived at the Persian Gulf. In this 
 journey he appears to have passed PersepoHs 
 as well as the regions of Shiraz and Bagdad. 
 At Hormuz he embarked for India and landed 
 near Bombay. For the Christian missionary that 
 must have been a land of terror, because it was 
 only a short time before his arrival that four of 
 his brethren met death at the hands of the 
 Mohammedan governor. Thei^ remains Odoric 
 collected and took with him for the purpose of 
 burial in China. Afterward he visited Mala- 
 bar, Cranganore, and Quilon, proceeding thence 
 to Ceylon and to the shrine of St. Thomas near 
 Madras. 
 
 From India, Odoric sailed in a Chinese junk 
 to Sumatra. He visited A^arious ports on its 
 northern coast before embarking for Java. 
 Thence he seems to have sailed along the coast 
 of Borneo on his way to South Cochin-China and 
 Canton. Thus was the route between China and 
 Persia twice travelled by Italians. 
 
 Travels of Odoric. 
 
 Leaving Canton the missionary visited in suc- 
 cession the great ports of Fukien, at one of 
 which he found two houses of his order. In one 
 of these he deposited relics of the four friars 
 who had suffered martyrdom in India. Leaving 
 Fuchow he proceeded across the mountains to 
 
42 
 
 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 Hangkow, then known as Cansay, or Quinsai. 
 The splendors of this renowned city he described. 
 To a description of Kin-sai, Marco Polo devotes 
 an entire chapter. In it are noticed its canals 
 and streets; its 12,000 bridges and its circum- 
 scribing moat. He also estimates the number 
 of inhabitants with their various occupations, 
 their government, their commerce and their 
 somewhat unwadike character. By him it w^as 
 considered the largest, the most splendid and the 
 wealthiest city in the world. Marignolli, a Papal 
 legate, has also left us a description of this 
 magnificent city. 
 
 By way of the Grand Canal, Odoric went on to 
 Cambulac ( Peking) . Here he remained for three 
 years attached, it is supposed, to one of the 
 churches founded by that famous friar, John of 
 Monte Corvino, then in extreme old age. Odoric 
 did not return to Europe by water, but by land. 
 He crossed the kingdom of Prester John and 
 Casan. The venturesome missionary seems, also 
 to have entered Tibet, and it is believed that he 
 visited Lhasa. Next he is found in northern 
 Persia. His further progress is not so clearly 
 described. It is probable, however, that he 
 passed through Tabriz. Finally he arrived safely 
 in Padua. During much of his travels his com- 
 panion was one Friar James, an Irishman who 
 had gone to Italy to join the Franciscan order. 
 
ODORIC OF PORDENONE 43 
 
 "Mandeville" Borrowed from Odoric. 
 
 *The fame of his vast journeys/' says the 
 Britannica, from which is derived much of this 
 outHne of Odoric's travels, "appears to have 
 made a much greater impression on the laity 
 of his native territory than on his Franciscan 
 brethren." However this may have been it was 
 at the request of his superior, Giudotto, that 
 Odoric, while at the monastery of St. Anthony 
 of Padua, dictated to Brother William of 
 Solagna an account of his travels. His wondrous 
 journeys and voyages were soon known in Car- 
 niola as well as in Friuli. In the Latin, the 
 Italian, the French and other languages there are 
 known to exist seventy-three manuscripts of 
 Odoric's narrative. This fact would indicate 
 that the geographical knowledge contained in 
 it must have become a familiar possession of the 
 Latin and the neighboring races. It was given 
 a still wider circulation by "Sir John Mande- 
 ville," who composed his own travels from the 
 account of Odoric and the narratives of others. 
 To this unchivalrous knight we shall refer pres- 
 ently. 
 
 After Marco Polo, Odoric of Pordenone is the 
 first European who mentions Sumatra. The 
 cannibalism and the community of wives which 
 he ascribes to its natives belonged to it or to 
 some of the adjacent islands. In his account of 
 
44 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 the Chinese he mentions many peculiarities 
 omitted by Polo. He notices the extravagant 
 finger-nails of the natives, the custom of com- 
 pressing women's feet, and the practice of fish- 
 ing with tame cormorants. 
 
 Friar William at Karakorum. 
 
 Another renowned traveller of that epoch was 
 William of Rubrouck, a Franciscan friar, who is 
 believed to have been a native of Rubrouck, in 
 mediaeval French Flanders. All that we know 
 of him is derived from his own narrative and 
 from the statements of his contemporary and 
 brother-Franciscan, Roger Bacon. He was sent 
 to the East by King Louis IX for the purpose 
 of introducing Christianity. St. Louis appears 
 to have sent into Tartary an earlier mission also. 
 So unsuccessful was this embassy, however, that 
 he regretted that he had sent it. Friar William, 
 therefore, disclaimed any official character. He 
 went as far as Karakorum to the court of the 
 Great Kahn. There in the presence of the Khan, 
 and before three umpires, a Christian, a Moham- 
 medan and a Bhuddist, Friar William maintained 
 a public disputation. The Khan seems to have 
 been desirous of discovering the truth of these 
 religions, so that he might adopt the one which 
 was adjudged by his secretaries to have the best 
 foundation in reason. However, no decision was 
 
WILLIAM OF RUBROUCK 45 
 
 rendered, probably because the interpreters were 
 unable adequately to state the cause of Chris- 
 tianity. The return, which was made in the 
 summertime, permitted the missionary to take a 
 more northerly route. 
 
 Additions to Scientific Geography. 
 
 The sprightly and interesting account of 
 Friar William's travels, written for the King of 
 France, made important additions to scientific 
 geography. It also made contributions to 
 ethnography, philology, Asiatic morals and com- 
 mercial customs. A writer in The Encyclopaedia 
 Britannica (nth edition) sees in. the account 
 of this missionary, who tells so little of himself, 
 "an honest, pious, stout-hearted, acute and most 
 intelligent observer, keen in the acquisition of 
 knowledge, the author of one of the best narra- 
 tives of travel in existence. His language in- 
 deed is dog-Latin of the most un-Ciceronian 
 quality; but it is in his hands a pithy and trans- 
 parent medium of expression. . . . He 
 gathered a mass of particulars, wonderfully true 
 or near the truth, not only as to Asiatic nature, 
 geography, ethnography and manners, but as to 
 religion and language." 
 
 Giving an example of Friar William's quali- 
 fications for observing what was passing before 
 his eyes the same writer has the following: 
 
46 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 "The current money of Cathay is of cotton 
 paper, a palm in length and breadth, and on this 
 they print lines like those of Mangu Khan's 
 seal: — 'imprimunt lineas sicitt est sigilltmi 
 Mangu — a remarkable expression. They write 
 with a painter's pencil and combine in one char- 
 acter several letters, forming one expression : — 
 'facinnt in una figura plures lit eras compre- 
 hendentes unam dictionem; a still more remark- 
 able utterance, showing an approximate appre- 
 hension of the nature of Chinese writing." 
 
 Work of Friars Verified. 
 
 Without doubt Rubruquis, as he is often 
 called, was the most brilliant and literary of 
 mediaeval travellers. By some modern writers 
 far inferior to him in natural acumen and can- 
 dor this informal envoy of St. Louis is character- 
 ized as an untruthful blunderer. A pseudo- 
 scientific age rejected with almost indiscriminate 
 disdain many mediaeval narratives that possessed 
 all the earmarks of truth. That age has passed 
 away forever. Since i860 explorers have veri- 
 fied many of the statements that were once cast 
 aside with indignation or contempt. 
 
 In 1307 Hetoum, an Armenian of princely 
 family, who became a monk of the Praemon- 
 strant order, dictated his Historiae Orientis, a 
 
EXTENSION OF CHRISTIANITY 
 
 47 
 
 work on the East, which he was able to prepare 
 from his own extraordinary acquaintance with 
 Asia and its history in his own time. This book 
 made its appearance in the French language. 
 
 In the last quarter of the thirteenth century 
 it was not possible for the Pope to send to 
 Cathay as many as one hundred missionaries, 
 the number requested by Kublai Khan. That 
 great ruler expected, no doubt, that the learning 
 and the religion of Europe would assist some- 
 what in taming the more turbulent of his sub- 
 jects. The Holy Father could not have been 
 indifferent to the benefits that would result from 
 the conversion of the Tartars. Indeed, the early 
 missions to Mongolia and Karakorum were not 
 unconnected with a fear of Asiatic invasion. This 
 consideration must have been in the mind of 
 Innocent IV, when he sent Friar John of Piano 
 Carpini into the interior of Mongolia, and in 
 the mind of St. Louis also, when he sent \\'\\- 
 Ham of Rubrouck as far as Karakorum. 
 
 John of Monte Corvine. 
 
 Marco Polo had scarcely sailed from Zaitum 
 when, in 1295, a Francis.can friar, John of ]\Ionte 
 Corvino, began his labors in the most populous 
 part of the pagan world. At first the results of 
 his activity were not encouraging, but to the 
 
48 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 missionary it mattered not that success was 
 banished from his field or that hope itself seemed 
 to have fled; he toiled on. Years of endeavor 
 were finally rewarded by a multitude of con- 
 verts ; the faithful Friar was joined by several 
 coadjutors and in time was consecrated Arch- 
 bishop of Peking, then called Camhulac. The 
 beginning of the fourteenth century saw Chris- 
 tianity flourishing in the principal cities of east- 
 ern China. 
 
 It is impossible to give here even a hasty 
 sketch of Friar John's career. This essay must 
 leave to the student of Church history an ac- 
 count of his attempt under a commission of the 
 Emperor Michael Palaeologus to negotiate with 
 Pope Gregory X for a reunion of the Greek and 
 the Latin churches. He also must do justice to 
 the Franciscan's merits as a missionary in the 
 Nearer as well as in the Middle East, and as an 
 envoy to many of the leading personages in the 
 Mongol world. This study is chiefly interested 
 in his contributions to geographical science. 
 
 Christianity in China. 
 
 In December, 1291 (ar 1292) he wrote the 
 earliest account of the Coromandel coast fur- 
 nished by any European. \\^hen next heard from 
 he is in Camhulac or Peking. Thence, on Jan- 
 
JOHN OF MONTE CORVINO 49 
 
 iiary 8, 1305, and again on February 13, 1306, he 
 wrote letters describing the progress of his mis- 
 sions in the Far East notwithstanding Nestorian 
 opposition. These letters also allude to a Roman 
 Catholic community that he had founded in India 
 and to an appeal that he had received to preach 
 in ''Ethiopia." He also describes the overland 
 route from the Black Sea, and the sea-route from 
 the Persian Gulf to Cathay. 
 
 In 1303 he was joined by his first colleague, 
 the Franciscan, Arnold of Cologne; in 1307 Pope 
 Clement V created him archbishop of Peking, 
 and sent seven bishops to consecrate and assist 
 him. Of these only three arrived (1308). Three 
 other suffragans were directed to go thither in 
 13 12, and of these at least one reached the East. 
 When at an advanced age this statesman, travel- 
 ler and missionary died in 1328, heathen vied 
 with Christian in doing him honor. At last far 
 off Cathay w^as illuminated by the light of the 
 gospel, and, for a moment it seemed as if the 
 religion and the civilization of Europe wxre 
 about to become established forever among the 
 follow^ers of Confucius. 
 
 Intercourse with China Ceases. 
 
 But the Mongol dynasty was even then totter- 
 ing on the verge of destruction; half a century 
 
50 
 
 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 ended the prosperity of the Christian missions 
 in Cathay, and one hundred and forty years 
 after the death of Jenghiz Khan his feeble 
 descendants were hurled from power by a revolt 
 of the native Chinese. Night came down on the 
 East; Islam recovered control over Central Asia, 
 and again the world of Christendom shrunk to 
 almost its former limits. With the narrow policy 
 that has distinguished them down to our own 
 time the Chinese kept foreigners at a dis- 
 tance. Missionaries, it is true, were regularly 
 sent forth from Avignon or from Rome, but 
 they went out into darkness and were heard of 
 no more. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 ITALIAN SUPREMACY IN 
 NAVIGATION. 
 
 The geographical conquests described in the 
 preceding section were to a great extent won on 
 land. In the same era, however, there was con- 
 siderable exploration by sea. As in the over- 
 land travel, so in maritime enterprise the repub- 
 lics of Italy were the leaders of Europe. Chief 
 among these city states were : Amalphi, Pisa, 
 A^nice, and Genoa in ancient Liguria. The 
 Dorias, the Vivaldi, and the Malocelli of Italy 
 were the Greeks and the Phoenicians of the 
 Middle Ages. In that epoch not a little of the 
 geographical knowledge of the ancients had be- 
 come a sort of dim tradition. 
 
 Italians attempt to find a sea-route to India. 
 
 In the year 1270, while the elder Polos were 
 awaiting in Venice the election of a new Pope, 
 Lancelot Malocello discovered the Canaries. In 
 the next decade, between 1281 and 1291, Tedisio 
 Doria and Ugolino de A'ivaldi, while trying to 
 51 
 
52 
 
 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 "go by sea to the ports of India to trade there," 
 arrived at Cape Non, in Barbary, and, according 
 to another account, "sailed in the Sea of Ghinoia 
 (Guinea) to a city of Ethiopia." Though they 
 were never heard of after 13 12, the fame of 
 these Genoese mariners did not fade in the 
 mists of the Sea of Darkness. Their daring 
 voyage continued long to attract the attention of 
 scientific geography and commerce. These in- 
 trepid seamen were the pioneers of Christian 
 exploration toward the South, for in that direc- 
 tion even the hardy Norsemen had never passed 
 the Pillars of Hercules. 
 
 Italians Teach Navigation. 
 
 As is well known, the first stage of South 
 Atlantic exploration was purely Italian. The 
 second was chiefly marked by the efforts of 
 Spanish states to ecjuip vessels and send out 
 explorers under Genoese captains.^ In 13 17 
 Emmanuel Passanha, a Genoese, became Ad> 
 miral of Portugal. In T341 three ships manned 
 by the Portuguese, "other Spaniards," and 
 Italians left Lisbon to search for the Rediscov- 
 ered Islands of Malocello. Five days afterward 
 they discovered land. The archipelago then 
 found was probably the Fortunate Islands of 
 
 ifieazley, Prince Henry the Xavigator^ p. 107. 
 
AX ACCIDEXTAL DISCOVERY 
 
 53 
 
 Greek geography, more familiar to us as the 
 Canaries. Jayme Ferrer left Majorca in 1346 
 for the River of Gold, but of him and his galley 
 no tidings ever reached Europe. 
 
 An English Discovery. 
 
 To a later generation (about 1370) belongs the 
 interesting story of an Englishman, Robert 
 Machin, who eloped with Anne d'Arfet from 
 Bristol, and by a relentless northeast wind was 
 driven off the coast of France, which he was at- 
 tempting to make. After thirteen days his 
 crew sighted Madeira. During the involuntary 
 voyage Machin's mistress had died of terror and 
 exhaustion. Five days later his men laid him 
 beside her ; then in the ship's boat, which they 
 had saved, they reached the coast of Africa, 
 where they were promptly enslaved by Barbary 
 pirates. A Spanish fellow-prisoner, who had 
 been ransomed in 1416, was again taken, on his 
 way to Seville, by the Portuguese Captain Zarco, 
 a servant of Prince Henry. In 1420 this enter- 
 prising navigator sent Captain Zarco, with his 
 accidental knowledge, on an expedition which 
 re-discovered Madeira. This romance of the sea 
 is told here because of its bearing upon a legend 
 connected with the discovery of America. 
 
54 
 
 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 French Exploration. 
 
 About the voyages of the French predecessors 
 of Prince Henry there is much vagueness. Be- 
 tween 1364 and 1410 the men of Dieppe and of 
 Rouen are said to have opened a regular trade 
 with the coast of Guinea. Concerning the genu- 
 ine Norman voyage of Bethencourt in 1402 it 
 is different, but this made no contribution to 
 geographical knowledge. Tidings reached Ro- 
 chelle of visits, accidental and designed, which 
 the Spaniards had made to the Canaries. In 
 July, 1402, Jean de Bethencourt and Gadifer de 
 la Salle left France to conquer in the sea a king- 
 dom for themselves. Owing to a disagreement 
 between the leaders the enterprise was not com- 
 pletely successful. However, several of the 
 islands became Christian colonies. There is noth- 
 ing in the history of French undertakings of that 
 era to indicate that the mariners of that coun- 
 try had any definite knowledge of either Guinea 
 or the way thither.' 
 
 Italians Independent of Arabs. 
 
 Before the era of the Crusades the scientific 
 geography of Christian Europe was derived 
 mainly from the Greeks. Though the Arabs 
 made but slight addition to the body of classical 
 knowledge, they at least preserved what they 
 
THE MARINER'S COMPASS 
 
 55 
 
 had inherited. From the ninth century forward 
 a growing interest in learning marked many of 
 the Christian countries of Europe. With the 
 impetus given to navigation by the Norsemen 
 and the awakening caused by those huge mih- 
 tary invasions of Asia both the mind and the 
 empire of Christendom began to expand. The 
 Christian states, especially those along the Medi- 
 terranean, soon became independent of the geo- 
 graphical theory of the Arabs. In the }'ear 1400 
 Italian mariners used compass, charts, timepiece 
 and astrolabe as well as did Arab seamen. 
 
 It is an English monk, Alexander Neckam, 
 of St. Albans, who makes the earliest mention 
 of the ''black ugly stone." Writing about 1180 
 on The Natures of Things, he tells us that it was 
 not merely the secret of the learned, but was 
 commonly used by sailors. ''When they cannot 
 see the sun in cloudy weather, or at night, and 
 cannot tell which way their prow is tending, they 
 put a Needle above a Magnet which revolves till 
 its point looks North and then stops." It may 
 have been Flavio Gioja, or some other citizen of 
 Amalphi, who fitted the magnet into a box, and 
 by connecting it with a compass-card, made it 
 easily available. Before the time of Prince 
 Henry the Italians as well as their Spanish 
 
56 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 pupils were familiar with the use of the 
 mariner's compass. 
 
 Italian Science Dominant. 
 
 Long after Italian leadership in exploration 
 had passed to the rising western nations, Italian 
 science remained in control of geographical 
 theory. The Venetian charts of the brothers 
 Pizzigani (1367), the maps of the Camaldolese 
 convent at Murano, 1380 and 1459, ^^^ the work 
 of Andrea Bianco in 1436 and 1448 were the 
 most important of Mediaeval charts, after the 
 Florentine map of 1351, known as the Lauren- 
 tian Portulano. Space will not permit even an 
 emuneration of many others that are known. It 
 will be sufficient to state that until after the death 
 of Prince Henry the Navigator, in 1460, Italian 
 draughtsmen held the field. Their supermacy 
 in that and in the succeeding age is skillfully 
 summarized by an able American historian. 
 "Educated men from Venice, Genoa, Pisa and 
 Florence emigrated to other lands, carrying with 
 them science, skill and ingenuity unknown except 
 in the advanced and enterprising Italian city 
 republics and principalities. Italian mathemati- 
 cians made the calculations on which all naviga- 
 tion was based ; Italian cartographers drew maps 
 and charts ; Italian ship-builders designed and 
 built the best vessels of the time; Italian cap- 
 
ITALIAN SUPREMACY 
 
 57 
 
 tains commanded them, and very often Italian 
 sailors made up their crews ; while at least in 
 the earlier period Italian bankers advanced the 
 funds with which the expeditions were equipped 
 and sent out."^ 
 
 iCheyney. The European Background of American His- 
 tory, p. 42. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 PORTUGUESE ACHIEVEMENT. 
 
 Portugal Once a Leader. 
 
 Were it not that the loss of their possessions 
 has occurred in times so recent, many of the 
 Portuguese nation could scarcely believe that 
 their ancestors had founded a vast colonial em- 
 pire. Though Portugal still gives laws to dis- 
 tant dependencies, it would not be easy to dis- 
 cover in the revolutionary kingdom of our day 
 any proofs that it was once the home of a giant 
 race of navigators and statesmen. Nevertheless, 
 Portugal had her era of maritime supremacy, a 
 supremacy as unquestioned as was that of Spain 
 or of Britain in later times. It is the purpose 
 of these paragraphs to show not how that 
 supremacy was lost, but in what manner it was 
 acquired. 
 
 Henry the Navigator. 
 
 Portugal is geographically a part of Spain, and 
 
 there is a political party in the latter country 
 
 which believes that there should be in the Iberian 
 
 peninsula but one government and one state. 
 
 58 
 
INFLUENCE OF HENRY 59 
 
 Centuries of successful warfare, however, gave 
 the gallant inhabitants of Portugal the right 
 to be a distinct people. When they had waged 
 successful war against the hosts of Islam, they 
 turned their victorious arms against their fellow 
 Christians in Castile. Next there was imposed a 
 long peace upon certain restless elements at home. 
 In its strange and eventful story, crowded though 
 it is with names of note, Henry the Navigator 
 stands out conspicuous and alone. He towers 
 above all the heroes in his country's history. 
 
 To the military qualities of his people he gave 
 a new tendency. He stirred to life in them an 
 appetite for knowledge. The result of this 
 awakened interest in matters non-military was 
 the finding of a vast continent beyond the Sahara, 
 the discovery of another continent in the western 
 seas, the opening up of the Indian Ocean to the 
 commerce of Europe and the location of the 
 Moluccas. Indeed, it was the seamanship of a 
 Portuguese that was first to trace a route around 
 the world. In a word, Prince Henry had much 
 to do with the establishment of modern commer- 
 cial civilization. 
 
 For Portugal and for mankind the union of 
 King John I and Philippa, daughter of "time- 
 honored Lancaster," was most fortunate. Of 
 their five sons, Edward the Eloquent, Pedro the 
 Great Regent, Henry the Navigator, John the 
 
6o COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 Constable, and Ferdinand the Saint, we are now 
 interested in only one. 
 
 To his brother Edward, Henry was indebted 
 for assistance in his schemes and for bringing 
 them into fashion at a time when enterprise 
 seemed about to slacken, but his greatest auxili- 
 ary was his brother Pedro the Traveller, "who, 
 after visiting all the countries of Western 
 Europe and fighting with the Teutonic knights 
 against the heathen Prussians, brought back to 
 Portugal for the use of discovery that great mass 
 of suggestive material, oral and written, in maps 
 and plans and books, which was used for the 
 first ocean voyages of Henry's sailors."^ 
 
 Henry, surnamed the Navigator, was born 
 March 4, 1394. Notwithstanding attractive 
 offers, while still a youth, he chose the life of a 
 seaman and a student. By the year 1415 he had 
 grown to manhood and had acquitted himself 
 with credit in the campaign which ended in 
 the capture of Ceuta. After that event he estab- 
 lished himself in his Naval Arsenal at Sagres, 
 near Cape St. Vincent, where for more than 
 forty years he spent his time considering plans 
 of discovery. Almost annually until his death 
 in 1460 he fitted out expeditions to discover new 
 lands, to add to the greatness of his country and 
 
 iBeazley, Prince Henry the Navigator, p. l.'^6. 
 
CONQUEST OF CEUTA 6l 
 
 to spread the Christian faith. These were the 
 grand objects to which he consecrated his useful 
 Hfe. 
 
 Before the age of Prince Henry, Marco Polo 
 had traced the outline of southern Asia, and, as 
 we have seen, at least mentioned Madagascar. 
 Concerning the shape of Africa the designer of 
 the Florentine map (1351) had made a remark- 
 able guess. In his conjecture, the Italian carto- 
 grapher could not have been assisted by any 
 tradition of the Tyrians whom Pharaoh Necho 
 sent down the coast of Africa six hundred years 
 before Christ. After three years those mariners 
 returned with a story that they found Africa to 
 be an island. In the time of Prince Henry the 
 Arabs still preserved their monopoly of the trade 
 with India. 
 
 Prince Henry as a Soldier. 
 
 In the year 141 5 King John brought together 
 80,000 Portuguese soldiers and seamen for the 
 siege of Ceuta. Merchant adventurers from 
 England, France and Germany accompanied the 
 expedition. By September of the same year the 
 conquest was so far completed that King John 
 and his chivalrous sons sailed for Portugal, 
 leaving their splendid prize to be defended by a 
 small garrison commanded by a subaltern. Three 
 years later this force was hard pressed as well 
 
62 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 by Moors from the back country as by other 
 Moors from Granada. The latter had blockaded 
 the city by a powerful fleet. This circumstance 
 brought Henry, who had taken a leading part in 
 its capture, with a force to the relief of the be- 
 sieged. The Moors from Granada were cut to 
 pieces and the native Moslems again driven into 
 the interior of Morocco. Henry's second visit 
 was made in the year 1418. 
 
 The second expedition confirmed Ceuta in 
 possession of the Christians, but Henry was not 
 content with the victory to which his skill and 
 gallantry so largely contributed. He had con- 
 cluded, even against the advice of his officers, 
 to attempt the capture of Gibraltar on the op- 
 posite shore. With the two Pillars of Hercules 
 in Christian hands commerce would be safer in 
 the western Mediterranean as well as on the 
 Atlantic coast. The conquest of Gibraltar, then, 
 was designed to promote Portuguese exploration 
 in North Africa. However, a storm broke up 
 the fleet of Henry and before it could be reassem- 
 bled the opportunity had passed. 
 
 In his two visits to Ceuta, Prince Henry 
 learned from masters of caravans and from 
 Moorish prisoners much about the interior of 
 Africa. He learned how merchants passed from 
 
OBJECTS OF THE PRINCE 63 
 
 Tunis to Timbuctoo and to Cantor, on the 
 Gambia. This inspired him with the idea of 
 seeking those lands by way of the sea. When his 
 captains would reach the mouth of the Senegal, 
 they could identify it by the tall palms growing 
 there. Of this fact he had been told by his 
 "tawny" prisoners. Henry had many reasons 
 for desiring to explore the coast of Guinea : 
 
 1. He wanted to know something of the 
 country beyond Cape Bojador. Concerning it 
 there were no reports by sailors and there was 
 no account in books. 
 
 2. H there were any good ports or any Chris- 
 tian people in that country, he was anxious to 
 trade there, for European nations had no com- 
 merce in those regions. 
 
 3. He feared there were no Christians there at 
 all. If not, he could ascertain the strength of 
 the Moors, whom he regarded as stronger in 
 those parts. 
 
 4. In all his fighting with the Moors he had 
 never received any assistance from that side of 
 Africa. From this fact he concluded that there 
 were no Christians there. If there were, he 
 wanted to meet them. We are also told that, 
 perhaps, the conclusions of astrology had a share 
 in the Prince's interest. 
 
 Finally his great desire was to spread the 
 .Christian faith and to redeem the vast tribes 
 
64 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 of men dwelling in the regions of the interior. 
 Thus it will be seen that Henry had in mind the 
 conquest of a land empire in North Africa as 
 well as the exploration of its coast. 
 
 Systematic Exploration. 
 
 Even from a King who was not his father 
 Prince Henry would have been certain to re- 
 ceive some reward for his services in Africa. 
 As it was, he was -made Governor for Hfe of the 
 Algarves, the southern province of Portugal. 
 After his appointment, in 1419, he began at once 
 to rebuild and enlarge the old naval arsenal near 
 Point Sagres or Cape St. Vincent. Indeed, even 
 before the capture of Ceuta he had equipped a 
 few expeditions for discovery. With the account 
 of these we are not now concerned. At Sagres, 
 adjacent to the port of Lagos, Prince Henry con- 
 tinued for more than forty years to apply him- 
 self to problems of navigation and systematic dis- 
 covery. Geographical information was reex- 
 amined, maps and nautical instruments were 
 corrected and schemes of discovery thought out 
 by Henrv' and the experts that he brought round 
 him from many of the enlightened nations of 
 Europe. 
 
 Italian and Portuguese Exploration. 
 
 On the desolate promontor^^ of Sagres, on three 
 
OBSERVATORY OF SAGRES 65 
 
 sides washed by the Sea of Darkness, Prince 
 Henry built for himself a palace, a chapel, a 
 study, an observatory, and, for his helpers, a 
 village. He is said to have secured at much 
 expense the services of one Master Jacome from 
 Majorca, a ])ractical navigator, skilled in the 
 making of both maps and instruments. From 
 Sagres went out sailors well instructed in sea- 
 manship and equipped with the theory and rules 
 for designing charts. In a word, Prince Henry 
 improved among the Portuguese the art of map- 
 making and the construction of caravels. His 
 advance was based upon the results achieved by 
 the Italians. The fame of Henry attracted to 
 his settlement mariners of that nation, such as 
 DeXolli and Cadamosto, scientific draughtsmen 
 like Fra Mauro and Andrea Bianco. 
 
 First Successes. 
 
 The results of the nautical activity at Sagres 
 soon began to be apparent. In 141 5 a voyage had 
 been made to the Grand Canary, but, as we have 
 seen, that was already known to the French, as 
 far back as 1402, and had been conquered by 
 Bethencourt. John Gonzalvez Zarco and Tristam 
 Vaz were caught in a tempest near Lagos and 
 carried to Porto Santo (Holy Haven), which 
 they named. On their return to Sagres they re- 
 ported the island to be worth permanent settle- 
 
66 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 ment. In acting upon their recommendation 
 Henry authorized the discoverers and one 
 Bartholomew Perestrello to undertake its colo- 
 nization. He gave them two ships ; also seed- 
 corn, sugar-cane and vines. 
 
 It was in returning from Porto Santo, already 
 a Portuguese colony, that Captain Zarco met the 
 Spaniard Morales, who had been a fellow- 
 prisoner of the English seamen that had been 
 driven to the Madeiras. In 1420, with Morales 
 as guide, Zarco sailed from Lagos, found and 
 explored Machin's island, of which he took pos- 
 session in the name of King John, Prince Henry, 
 and the Order of Christ. 
 
 On his return to Portugal, Zarco was enthu- 
 siastically received at court and made governor 
 of Madeira for life. Afterward the governor- 
 ship was made hereditary in his" family, while 
 Tristam Vaz was given a captaincy in the north- 
 ern half of the island. In 1425 Henry began 
 its more systematic colonization. Wood, wheat, 
 dragon's blood, and wine were among the early 
 exports. Family registers" were carefully kept 
 and even a census of the little community was 
 ordered by the Prince. 
 
 Don Pedro, The Traveller. 
 
 Notwithstanding the success of Zarco but little 
 progress had been made in the endeavor to trace 
 
ARABIAN LEGENDS 67 
 
 the coast-line south to Guinea. In 1428 Don 
 Pedro, Henry's elder brother, had returned from 
 his travels, bringing with him books and charts 
 and the Mappa Mundi given him in Venice. It 
 is believed that this influenced later voyages to 
 the south and to the west. In 143 1 the Portu- 
 guese re-discovered the Azores. Up to that 
 time they had made no headway in their efforts 
 to pass the dangerous currents of Cape Bojador. 
 These expeditions were a constant and heavy 
 source of expense and they brought no profits. 
 Though this discouraged the nobility as well 
 as the merchant classes, Henry persevered. 
 
 After many Portuguese failures Captain Gil 
 Eannes, in 1434, doubled the barrier of Bojador, 
 and found, contrary to the representations of 
 Arabian geographers, no sea monsters, water 
 unicorns or serpent rocks but tranquil waters 
 and a rich and pleasant land. At last the terrors 
 of the Saracen legends had vanished. 
 
 The Land of the Negroes. 
 
 In 1435 Baldaya sailed 390 miles beyond Cape 
 Bojador, sent on shore two mounted noblemen 
 who penetrated into the country until they met 
 and fought with nineteen natives armed with 
 assegais. They returned, however, without any 
 prisoners. The captain of the vessel with a 
 stronger party- in the ship's boat then rowed up 
 
68 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 a river. In taking a prisoner, as he had been 
 instructed to do, Baldaya was not more success- 
 ful than the two young men who had first been 
 sent on shore. If he was not able to bring back 
 .a native to the Prince, he brought tidings inter- 
 esting to Christendom. Beyond the zone of 
 Islamism that faced Europe in north Africa were 
 wild tribes of negroes. These had been seen and 
 ev^n fought with, but as yet there had been 
 established no intercourse with them. 
 
 Loss of Ceuta. 
 
 By reason of the death of his father and one 
 of his brothers, Henry found it necessary to 
 assist in ruling the kingdom. For seven or eight 
 years this withdrew him from the work of dis- 
 covery. This essay is not interested in the 
 second invasion of Morocco, and the consequent 
 loss of Ceuta, or with the quarrels of political 
 factions in Portugal. By 1440 Henry succeeded 
 in restoring peace to the kingdom. After that 
 service he returned at once to Sagres and re- 
 sumed his work. 
 
 Gold Dust from Guinea. 
 
 In 1 44 1 Antam Gonsalvez with a single caravel 
 and a small crew sailed far down the African 
 coast and succeeded in capturing a man and a 
 woman. Another Portuguese vessel, under Nuno 
 
yEGRO SLAVERY 
 
 69 
 
 Tristam, arrived soon afterwards and a joint 
 expedition into the interior resulted in the cap- 
 ture of about ten other natives. These were 
 taken to Portugal, but later were brought back 
 to Africa for ransom. In this exchange the 
 Portuguese obtained, besides native captives, a 
 little gold dust, the first ever brought by Euro- 
 peans from the coast of Guinea. 
 
 Beginning of the Slave Trade. 
 
 The Sahara was soon passed, and a later ex- 
 pedition, in 1448, built a fort which soon became 
 a considerable center of European commerce. 
 This was one of the first steps in modern coloni- 
 zation. The arrival in Portugal of cargoes of 
 gold dust and slaves hushed the murmurs caused 
 by the expense of the Prince's experiments. 
 Without a license no one could trade in the new 
 regions, but permission was applied for and 
 cheerfully granted. In 1444 six caravels set out 
 on an exploring voyage. It was about this time 
 that the African slave trade began to be an ele- 
 ment of European commerce. 
 
 Henry welcomed the arrival of prisoners, 
 whom he ordered to be treated with all kind- 
 ness. By educating these and returning them 
 to their homes he had hoped to win all the tribes 
 to Christianity. His captains, however, often 
 overlooked these important considerations and 
 
70 
 
 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 were frequently ruthless in seizing Moors and 
 Negroes. An English writer says that a Black- 
 Moor hunt came to be regarded, "like the kill- 
 ing of the wild Irish in the sixteenth century," 
 as the best of sport. So easy is it for greed to 
 turn awry the most enlightened plans. 
 
 So long as the followers of the Prince were 
 influenced chiefly by the prospects of plunder 
 and the profits of slave-hunting not much could 
 be done for either discovery or Christianity. It 
 was necessary for Henry first to convert his 
 friends to his own lofty principles. Real progress 
 was made "by the slow increase of that inner 
 circle which really shared Henry's own ambition, 
 of that group of men who went out, not to make 
 bargains or do a little killing, but to carry the 
 flag of Portugal and of Christ farther than it 
 had ever been planted before, 'according to the 
 will of the Lord Infant.' "^ 
 
 Man- hunting Retards Discovery. 
 
 Some captains had altogether ceased to have 
 any interest in discovery. The voyage of Lan- 
 <;arote, which in all its phases was a man-hunt, 
 resulted in the capture of 235 blacks. When 
 these arrived in Portugal, they were treated with 
 much kindness. The younger were taught 
 
 *Beazley, Prince Ileriry the Navigaior, p. 2li. 
 
MAN-HUNTING y\ 
 
 trades, while those who showed abiHty to 
 manage property were set free and allowed to 
 marry. Ultimately they all became Christians. 
 Though they seem to have been treated very 
 much like the members of the families with 
 which they lived, it must be remembered that 
 in seizing them there was considerable slaughter, 
 and in allotting them among the captors there 
 was a ruthless separation of families. Henry 
 finally succeeded in imposing some sort of a 
 check upon the buccaneering spirit of those trad- 
 ing on the African coast. 
 
 Diaz Reaches Cape Verde. 
 
 This is not a history of the institution of 
 slavery in either its gentler or more cruel 
 aspects. Whatever may have been Henry's mo- 
 tives, and they were undoubtedly high, the 
 system permitted hideous excesses. Upon his 
 grand work, systematic exploration, the slave 
 trade acted as a check. Though most explorers 
 turned aside from objects of discovery, one was 
 at last found faithful to the ideals of the Prince. 
 Diniz Diaz passed Cape Blanco, Cape Palmar 
 and other landmarks and entered the mouth of the 
 Senegal. Resuming his voyage he reached Cape 
 Verde beyond which there stretched no western 
 land. After these achievements he returned to 
 Portugal. 
 
72 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 By the year 1445 there had grown up in 
 Portugal almost a universal interest in these 
 Guinea voyages, as by that time they began to 
 be called. On August 10, 1446, there sailed 
 from Lagos the largest fleet that had gone down 
 the African coast since the Senate of Carthage 
 had sent Hanno to colonize the country of 
 Guinea. Of caravels, galleys and pinnaces there 
 were twenty-seven. In that armada sailed 
 nearly all the surviving navigators who had won 
 renown in ocean voyages. Joined by three re- 
 turning vessels the thirty ships with their crews 
 arrived amongst the Moors and after capturing 
 more than half a hundred agreed to separate. 
 Some crews concluded to return at once to 
 Portugal. Six caravels sailed southward until 
 landing on Cape Verde they found carved upon 
 a tree the arms of the Infant and the words of his 
 motto, Talent de Bien Faire, two thousand miles 
 from Sagres. This immense fleet accomplished 
 little for discovery, 
 
 X^oyages continued to be made with great regu- 
 larity ; those members of the crews who landed 
 were in danger of being ambushed or being 
 wounded by the poisoned arrows of the natives, 
 who were both well armed and capable of fight- 
 ing. However, from the multitude of reports 
 Henry was able so far as concerned the west 
 
COLOXIZATION 73 
 
 African coast to correct the Mappa Mundi ; also 
 to perceive that on the part of its designer it 
 was mere conjecture. 
 
 Insular Possessions Colonized. 
 
 From 1448 to 1460, the last twelve years of 
 Henry's life, but little progress had been made 
 in exploration. There was, however, not a little 
 activity in discovering and colonizing islands of 
 the western archipelagos. In the lifetime of 
 the Prince all the Azores had been found and 
 colonized. It does not seem to have occurred to 
 any of these navigators to seek, as afterwards 
 Columbus sought, islands or mainlands in the 
 boundless seas to the westward. Some of this 
 settlement w-as made by private enterprise. 
 Among the early colonists were certain Flemings. 
 To that nation belonged Jacques de Bruges, one 
 \'an der Haager, and Job van Heurter. In 143 1 
 an expedition of Henry had re-discovered these 
 islands. Sixty years later they contained some 
 thousands of people. 
 
 Cadamosto's Discoveries. 
 
 In the year 1455 Luigi Ca da Mosto, a Vene- 
 tian, who had taken refuge at Sagres from a 
 storm, obtained the consent of Prince Henry to 
 
74 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 equip at his own expense a vessel for the pur- 
 pose of. trade and discovery. From Lagos, 
 Cadamosto and a Portuguese captain sailed in 
 four days to Porto Santo. A few days later 
 they took their departure for Madeira ; then they 
 steered to the Canaries, three hundred and 
 twenty miles distant. From these islands Cada- 
 mosto sailed for the mainland. Though he has 
 written an ample account of his voyages as well 
 as of the countries and the peoples that he saw, 
 he made no important discoveries on his first 
 expedition. Finally he returned to Portugal to 
 refit. 
 
 Later Cadamosto sailed again for the Canaries ; 
 on this voyage he discovered three islands that 
 were unsettled. Thence he steered once more for 
 the mainland and was soon back in the country 
 from which he had recently returned to Portugal. 
 This time his trading venture was more success- 
 ful, but he made no important discoveries be- 
 sides the new islands found in the Canaries. He 
 had gone so far south that the North Star had 
 sunk almost to the horizon. The two voyages 
 of this Venetian are well known because he wrote 
 an ample and interesting account of them. 
 
 The last of the many expeditions equipped in 
 Henry's lifetime was that intrusted to Diego 
 Gomez. This followed close upon the voyages 
 of Cadamosto. By his kindness and generosity 
 
MISSIONARY IN GUINEA 75 
 
 to the chiefs whom he met, Gomez did much to 
 efface the bad impression which Portuguese 
 slave-hunters had made at the outset. Above 
 all he had promised one of the negro lords of 
 the Guinea regions to bring a missionary to 
 them. This he was unable promptly to do be- 
 cause King Affonso was then conducting in 
 Africa a w^ar which required much of his atten- 
 tion. Finally there w^ere brought together in 
 1458 the presents promised King Nomimansa. 
 The Abbot of Soto de Cassa w^as sent as mis- 
 sionary; a member of the royal household 
 also joined the expedition. At this time, 1458, 
 it became necessary to deal harshly with those 
 traders who sold arms to the Moors. One of 
 these offenders was thrown alive into a fire and 
 burned to death. The expedition of Gomez was 
 the last that Henry w^as destined to see. "In the 
 year of Christ 1460," says his faithful body-ser- 
 vant, Diego Gomez, "the Lord Infant Henry fell 
 sick in his own town, on Cape St. Vincent, and 
 of that sickness he died on Thursday, November 
 13th, in the selfsame year." 
 
 Results of Henry's Expeditions. 
 
 Henry's captains had dispersed the monsters 
 of the deep, and had extended the traditional 
 limits far toward the south and the west. His 
 
76 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 last enterprise began the conversion of the native 
 Africans, as his earher ones had commenced 
 their civiHzation. His trading sites grew into 
 colonies, which tended to make the civilization 
 permanent. These exploits were enough for 
 immortality but to his credit are recorded count- 
 less things besides. In modern times he was the 
 originator of continuous and systematic dis- 
 covery and the founder of a school of navigators 
 whose achievements surpassed anything that he 
 had ever known. 
 
 Map of Fra Mauro. 
 
 King Affonso V, the nephew of Henry, had 
 done his best to get the great map of Fra Mauro 
 completed. This map, which came out in 1459, 
 was the most comprehensive that was ever seen, 
 and included all the achievements of Henry. 
 The King also undertook to regulate the slave 
 trade ; he had the good fortune to be served by 
 Fernando Po and by the pilots Fernandez and 
 Esteeves. The two last named had crossed the 
 equator and wxre rewarded by a view of the 
 southern heavens. King Affonso dying, his work 
 was taken up by his successor, John H. 
 
 St. George da Mina. 
 
 The trade of the Guinea coast was secured by 
 the building of a fort at St. George da Mina ; 
 
CAPE OF GOOD HOPE yy 
 
 Henry's fort was reconstructed and the unknown 
 portion of the coast designated for exploration. 
 A church also was built at La Mina. In 1484 
 Diego Cam reached the mouth of the Congo. In 
 the following year he sailed six hundred miles 
 beyond. In i486 Bartholomew Diaz sailed to 
 explore as much of the undiscovered coast as 
 possible. Envoys were sent to search for Prester 
 John . another expedition was instructed to 
 ascend the Senegal as far as the Nile; hnally a 
 fourth party started for Cathay by a north-east 
 passage. 
 
 Diaz Rounds Cape of Good Hope. 
 
 Beginning in i486 Bartholomew Diaz, in a 
 single voyage of sixteen months, solved the 
 problem that Henry had proposed to his country- 
 men seventy years before. Passing Walvisch 
 Bay, the most southerly point reached by Diego 
 Cam, Diaz set up his pillar at a place still known 
 as Diaz Point ; thence he sailed on, passing the 
 mouth of the Orange River ; steering well out to 
 sea he ran on before the wind hoping that by a 
 great sweep he would be able to pass the end of 
 the continent, which could not now be far off. 
 An antarctic coldness and heavy seas led him to 
 change his course toward the east. Finding, 
 after five days, that there was no land in that 
 direction he sailed northward. At last he saw 
 
78 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 the shores of a bay where cowherds were watch- 
 ing their cattle. He then followed the coast for 
 a great distance and found it tending steadily 
 northward. Diaz had sailed far to the south of 
 Africa and was now on its eastern coast. When 
 his ships had reached the Great Fish River, the 
 crew refused to go farther. After setting up his 
 last pillar, Diaz turned back, certain of only one 
 fact; namely, that he had missed the Cape. It 
 was while he was coasting slowly backward and 
 in a despondent state of mind that he sighted 
 the promontory around which lay the route to 
 India. He had gone beyond it five hundred 
 miles. 
 
 Exploring East Africa. 
 
 At the time that Diaz was returning around 
 the Cape of Good Hope, Covilham and his com- 
 panions had left Lisbon for the purpose of ex- 
 ploring the northern coasts of the Indian Ocean. 
 After visiting Calicut on one side and Mozam- 
 bique on the other, Covilham wrote home, "If 
 you persist, Africa must come to an end. And 
 when ships come to the Eastern Ocean let them 
 ask for Sofala and the island of the moon 
 (Madagascar), and they will find pilots to take 
 them to Malabar."^ King John's Cathay fleet 
 
 iBeazley, Prince Henry the Navicjator, p. 319- 
 
VASCO DA GAMA 79 
 
 found not a north-east passage to China but a 
 frozen island off the north coast of Asia. This 
 was named Nova Zemlaia or Nova Zembla. 
 
 Portuguese Reach India. 
 
 The great work begun by Prince Henry was 
 approaching completion. In 1497 Vasco da 
 Gama made the outward voyage to India and by 
 1499 had returned. The exploit of Bartholomew 
 Diaz, the greatest before the time of Columbus, 
 had been forgotten in the national rejoicing over 
 this fulfilment of the Infant's dream. This 
 essay will not consider the manner in which 
 Affonso d'Albuquerque founded for Portugal a 
 vast colonial empire. 
 
 Consequences of Henry's Systematic Work. 
 
 European forts and settlements were soon 
 established on both the western and eastern coasts 
 of Africa. Ormuz, Ceylon, Goa and Malacca 
 were all in Christian hands.- Subjects of Lisbon 
 kings travelled in Japan, the Zipangu of Marco 
 Polo and Columbus, and as early as 15 17 opened 
 up a trade with Cathay, then called China. These- 
 achievements do not indicate, however, the full 
 extent of Portuguese activity in that stirring 
 epoch. By the year 1520 Alvarez and other 
 Catholic missionaries had made a complete ex- 
 
8o COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 ploration of Abyssinia, in Malabar millions of 
 natives were converted by St. Francis Xavier 
 and other Jesuits, and at a later time (1599) the 
 old Christian Church of India united with Rome. 
 All of these consequences, and a multitude that 
 cannot be even enumerated, resulted from the 
 great exploring and colonizing movements set 
 on foot by Prince Henry the Navigator. A few 
 words concerning his character and the motives 
 which sustained him in his grand ambition will 
 conclude this summary of Portuguese triumphs. 
 When in their progress southward Portuguese 
 navigators passed Cape Bojador an account of 
 their discoveries w^as promptly conveyed to the 
 Pope. The approval of these enterprises was 
 solicited, and Henry, forseeing that many voy- 
 ages would follow, prayed for a "concession in 
 perpetuity to the crown of Portugal of whatever 
 lands might be discovered beyond Cape Bojador 
 to the Indies inclusive," especially submitting to 
 His Holiness that "the salvation of the natives, 
 was the principal object of his labors." The 
 Holy Father promptly complied with the Prince's 
 petition. A bull then issued was afterward con- 
 firmed by Popes Nicholas V and Sixtus IV. The 
 limit of each expedition was appropriately 
 marked by a stone cross, and the navigator who 
 erected it farthest south was invariably rewarded 
 by the generosity of Henry. Notwithstanding 
 
MOTIVES OF HENRY 8l 
 
 the approbation of the Church and the induce- 
 ments of the Prince, it required more than fifty 
 years for the mariners of that day to creep 
 southward along the five thousand miles of Afri- 
 can coast. As he repeatedly states in his letters, 
 it was neither the wish to extend the dominions 
 of Portugal nor the desire to engage in profitable 
 trade with the natives of Africa that sustained 
 for a lifetime his noble efforts. Though not 
 indifferent to the advantages which his country 
 derived from those discoveries, Prince Henry's 
 great anxiety was to confer on the heathen the 
 blessings of Christianity. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE GEOGRAPHICAL KNOWLEDGE 
 AND THEORY OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 Genesis of the Project of Columbus. 
 
 Thus far this essay has been considering a few 
 of the landmarks of history. Concerning their 
 large outlines there is little disagreement. Even 
 in the field of Norse achievement there is much 
 unanimity. It is mainly in the details that the 
 authorities differ.- Now we enter a zone in which 
 there is much speculation. Here seem fewer 
 resting-places for the careful student. Objective 
 facts are easy to record and to examine ; the 
 operations of the human mind are not so. Our 
 problem is nothing less than to describe the 
 genesis of the grand project of Columbus. Its 
 elements may be stated, but precisely how his 
 intellect turned into shape the mass of facts 
 collected by his industry, we shall probably never 
 know. Indeed, we seldom know much about 
 beginnings. When, for instance, we believe that 
 we have at last traced to the place of its origin 
 some beautiful literary expression, a little re- 
 82 
 
COLUMBUS IN PORTUGAL 83 
 
 search discovers it farther away, more dim, 
 perhaps, but scarcely less elegant. Greater per- 
 severance will enable us to locate it in a region 
 still more distant, but it is not often that we dis- 
 cover the native land of beauty. The project 
 of Columbus, however, possessed none of the 
 conventional characteristics of literature, nor was 
 it to be worked out by the art of the engineer, 
 who, by a succession of improvements upon a 
 familiar contrivance, constructs a machine novel 
 in design and charged with new functions. 
 
 After glancing at the slight sketch of Portu- 
 guese achievement, given in the preceding sec- 
 tion, the reader will not be surprised to find 
 Christopher Columbus trying his fortunes 
 amongst a people already renow^ned in coloniza- 
 tion and discovery. It appears to have been 
 sometime between 1471 and 1476, when the 
 maritime activity of Portugal was approaching 
 its zenith, and just before the navigators of that 
 nation accomplished their greatest exploits, that 
 he arrived in Lisbon. Diego Cam had not yet 
 reached the mouth of the Congo, while the 
 epoch-making voyage of Bartholomew Diaz was 
 at least a decade in the future. 
 
 The Youth of Columbus. 
 
 From the moment of his birth until the hour 
 
84 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 of his death almost every important event in 
 the career of Columbus has been a battle- 
 ground for historians. Many different dates 
 have been assigned for his birth, and various 
 places have competed for that honor. The rank 
 of his family and even its identity have been dis- 
 puted. Neither the manner nor the extent of 
 his education has been shown with any degree 
 of certainty. Even after he had ceased to be 
 obscure the same ill-fortune attended him. 
 Indeed, one of the most interesting events of his 
 entire career, the equipment of that memorable 
 expedition which discovered America, is not yet 
 known in all its important details. It is not 
 improbable that some day it will be. Finally 
 there exists a little doubt as to the present rest- 
 ing-place of his remains. Columbus is not, how- 
 ever, the only illustrious person about whom we. 
 should like to be better informed. The fact that 
 Shakespeare, unchallenged monarch in the realm 
 of letters, is believed to have been educated in 
 the grammar school at Stratford fails for many 
 to explain his undoubted superiority in eloquence 
 and poetry. Notwithstanding all this doubt con- 
 cerning Columbus many facts have been well 
 established by the researches of four centuries. 
 From the information now in our possession 
 it appears that Christopher Columbus, the great- 
 
YOUTH OF COLUMBUS g^ 
 
 est navigator of recorded time, was born about 
 the year 1446.^ It is true that the date 145 1 is 
 supported by the fact that in 1470 he signed a 
 legal document, and that the formal statement 
 was then made that he was upwards of nineteen 
 years of the age." It has likewise been established 
 that the place of his birth was Genoa, in Italy. 
 By occupation his parents were simple weavers, 
 as he w-as himself. Indeed, it is probable that 
 all his kinsmen were artisans. He does not seem to 
 have been sent to any university, but received such 
 an education as was given to the sons of plain 
 people. If Columbus had been a boy of average 
 mental power, this instruction would not have 
 done much for him. He was not, however, a 
 common youth, but a young man of genius, and 
 we seldom know precisely how men of genius 
 accomplish what they do. In some way, not yet 
 known to us, Columbus mastered in a few years 
 not only the entire art of navigation but he 
 learned the Latin language and read voluminously 
 in the geographical works written in that tongue.^ 
 It may be true, as is sometimes said, that his 
 writings exhibit some indifference to the rules 
 of Latin grammar. It was not, however, in the 
 commonwealth of letters that Columbus won 
 
 ^Bourne, Spain in America, p. 0. 
 
 "Vignaud. Real Birth-date of Columbus, pp. 74 101. 
 
 *Bournp. Spain in America, p. 0. 
 
86 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 immortality. He left to posterity no fine poem, 
 no splendid oration. His achievement was of 
 greater epic grandeur. 
 
 His Reading. 
 
 After he had attained to his twentieth year 
 he was still working at his trade as a weaver. 
 Precisely when and under what circumstances 
 he did his reading, we do not know. Concern- 
 ing the* nature of his studies, however, there can 
 be no sort of doubt. He read with microscopic 
 eye the General History and Geography of Aneas 
 Sylvius,^ later Pope Pius H. When this author 
 states that the frigid and the torrid zones are 
 uninhabitable, Columbus notes that this is dis- 
 proved by the voyages of the Portuguese in the 
 south and by the English and the Germans, who 
 sail the northern seas. 
 
 Another work that he had read with attention 
 was the Image of the World,^ a vast compilation 
 by Cardinal Pierre d'Ailly. When this prelate 
 and philosopher asserts that the torrid zone is 
 uninhabitable because of the excessive heat, 
 Columbus writes this note on the margin : "It 
 is not uninhabitable, because the Portuguese sail 
 through it ; in fact, it is teeming with people, and 
 near the equator is his Serene Highness the King 
 
 ^Historia Reriim Uhiqtie Gestarum (Venice in 1477). 
 Hmago Mundi, printed between 1480 and 1483. 
 
INTEREST IN THE EAST 
 
 ?7 
 
 of Portugal's castle of Mine, which we have 
 seen." Of all the statements of Pierre d'Ailly 
 perhaps none impressed Columbus more than the 
 quotation from Aristotle that "between the end 
 of Spain and the beginning of India the sea is 
 small and navigable in a few days." 
 
 Columbus scanned the Scriptures with as much 
 care as he had examined the two authors men- 
 tioned. Indeed, he seems to have consulted all 
 the serious books that he believed would assist 
 in solving the problems that he was considering. 
 About 1485 there was published, at Antwerp 
 or Gouda, a Latin versio'n of the travels of Marco 
 Polo. Perhaps this book was for the purpose 
 of Columbus the most important of all. In his 
 Latin notes written on the margins of these 
 volumes there is revealed an unusual interest in 
 the East and a disposition to set right, by his 
 own experience and knowdedge, the accepted 
 notions of geography. 
 
 Interest in Western Lands. 
 
 Books did not solve for Columbus all the 
 problems of geography. Every sign that he had 
 observed, as well as every indication brought 
 to his attention of the existence of land beyond 
 the western isles, he carefully noted. He also 
 recorded tl-ie reports of voyages of exploration. 
 ' In the case of no navigator of that age or 
 
88 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 earlier," says an eminent authority, "is there such 
 impressive evidence of protracted study of all 
 available sources of information in regard to any 
 specific problem of geographical exploration."^ 
 Much, if not all, of this preparatory work was 
 done while he was living in Portugal, whither he 
 had gone early in his nautical career. 
 
 During 1479 or 1480 Columbus married one 
 Felipa Moniz Perestrello, a kinswoman of 
 Bartholomew Perestrello, one of Prince Henry's 
 navigators. They removed from Lisbon to the 
 island of Porto Santo, where, it is believed, they 
 lived for a time with Isabel Moniz Perestrello, 
 the mother of Felipa. Precisely at what date we 
 do not know, but almost certainly after the mar- 
 riage, Columbus received from his mother-in-law 
 the papers, maps, and charts of her deceased 
 husband, who had himself been a considerable 
 traveller. This incident, it appears, determined 
 the vocation of Columbus for maritime discovery. 
 At any rate, his friend Las Casas and his son 
 Ferdinand explicitly state that it was this cir- 
 cumstance which determined him to devote him- 
 self to exploration. Except for its bearing upon 
 a singular story, presently to be related, it matters 
 little whether Columbus lived in Lisbon or in 
 Porto Santo, for it would not have been possible 
 
 ^Bourne, Spain in America, p. 11. 
 
WESTERN LANDS 89 
 
 for him altogether to have escaped the universal 
 interest in exploration. It is certain that he made 
 several voyages, in Portuguese ships, to the coast 
 of Guinea and that in the opposite direction he 
 sailed to the British Isles. 
 
 Proofs of Existence of Western Lands. 
 
 In his History of the Indies, Las Casas tells us 
 distinctly that Columbus derived much informa- 
 tion from the maps and charts of Perestrello, and 
 he adds that the future discoverer made the 
 Guinea voyages to learn in a practical way the 
 Portuguese method of navigating the African 
 coast. Las Casas learned this from Diego, the 
 son of Columbus. Other interesting statements 
 are made by Ferdinand Columbus, who wrote 
 the life of his father. "It was not only, " says 
 his son and biographer, *'this opinion of certain 
 philosophers, that the greater part of our globe 
 is dry land that stimulated the admiral ; he 
 learned also from many pilots, experienced in 
 the western voyages to the Azores and the island 
 of Madeira, facts and signs which convinced him 
 that there was an unknown land towards the 
 west. Martin Vicente, pilot of the King of 
 Portugal, told him that at a distance of four 
 hundred and fifty leagues from Cape St. Vin- 
 cent, he .had taken from the water a piece of 
 wood sculptured very artistically, but not with an 
 
go COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 iron instrument. This wood had been driven 
 across by the west wind, which made the sailors 
 beHeve that certainly there were on that side some 
 islands not yet discovered. Pedro Correa, 
 brother-in-law to the admiral, told him, that near 
 the island of Madeira he had found a similar 
 piece of sculptured wood, and coming from the 
 same western direction."^ 
 
 The colonists of the Azores are said to have 
 related that during protracted west winds the 
 sea, especially in the islands of Graciosa and 
 Fayal, threw up pines of a foreign species. 
 Others told that one day on the shores of the 
 island of Flores there were found the dead 
 bodies of two men whose features differed" en- 
 tirely from the features of Europeans. What- 
 ever may have been wafted across the Atlantic 
 in the fifteenth century, in our time not only 
 tropical seeds from America but the remains of 
 cargoes wrecked in the AA'est Indies are de- 
 posited annually on the coasts of Ireland, of 
 the Hebrides, and of Norway.^ With the facts 
 and the fictions of the western isles we may be 
 sure that Columbus was well acquainted. He 
 disdained no source of information. 
 
 For more than fifty years before the arrival 
 
 ^Major, The Life of Prince Henry of Portugal Surnanicd 
 the Navigator, p. 348. 
 
 ^Humboldt, Examcn Critique, II, 246-251. 
 
AN ANCIENT PROBLEM 91 
 
 of Columbus in Lisbon the Portuguese had been 
 interested in the problem of finding a water route 
 to India, but there was nothing new about that 
 undertaking, because his own countrymen, Doria 
 and Vivaldi, had made the attempt as early as 
 the thirteenth century. What was novd in the 
 enterprise of the Portuguese was the scientific 
 manner in which they attacked this ancient 
 problem. They patiently traced the coast-line 
 of west Africa ; they sought a northeast route 
 around the Scandinavian peninsula, and dis- 
 covered Nova Zembla; they likewise sent a 
 party to explore the east African coast, and by 
 its leader were urged to persevere in their work. 
 As we have seen, the Portuguese, by following 
 their own plans, finally met with perfect success. 
 An eager mind like that of Columbus must 
 soon have become acquainted with the chief re- 
 sults of Portuguese maritime activity. In some 
 of their voyages he had participated. Up to 1471, 
 one of the earliest dates assigned to his arrival in 
 Portugal, the success of their attempts to reach 
 India by either the southeastern or the north- 
 eastern route was not encouraging. At any rate, 
 the Portuguese method of working out the 
 problem does not appear to have attracted 
 Columbus. In the annals of Portugal he does 
 not appear as a leader in any undertaking, or 
 
92 
 
 2 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 as an applicant for a command in any expedition 
 following the usual courses taken by its mariners. 
 
 The slender measure of success thus far 
 achieved by Portuguese navigators may have 
 been one of the circumstances that contributed 
 to turn the thoughts of Columbus in a different 
 direction, or confirmed him in conclusions that 
 he had already reached. After all, the cardinal 
 points of the compass are soon exhausted. The 
 overland routes to India and Cathay had been 
 abandoned because, after the .fall of Con- 
 stantinople, they were deemed too hazardous 
 for commerce. By way of the northeast or the 
 southeast' success seemed distant; only the 
 western route was left, and one is puzzled to 
 understand why the Portuguese navigators, 
 with their undoubted courage and seamanship, 
 had never tried it. The Greek theory of the 
 sphericity of the earth could not have been 
 unknown to the scientists who surrounded 
 Prince Henry, but in it they had no practical 
 belief. 
 
 From our present information on the subject 
 it seems certain that the idea of a westward 
 voyage to the countries of the Grand Khan was 
 never urged upon the consideration of a Portu- 
 guese or other European ruler until the moment 
 when Columbus submitted his plan to King 
 Joao. About the time of his leaving Palos, 
 
PROPOSES WESTERN VOYAGE 
 
 93 
 
 August, 3, 1492, he wrote in his Journal that 
 his Sovereigns had commanded him to go to 
 the East, not by land, as was customary, but 
 by way of the west, "whence until to-day we 
 do not know" certainly that any one has gone." 
 
 Opinion of Eratosthenes. 
 
 In a preceding section it was said that dur- 
 ing the period of Macedonian ascendency, when 
 western Asia was somewhat Hellenized, the 
 Greeks became familiar with all those countries 
 between the river Indus and the Mediterranean 
 Sea. Of course, it was not intended to state 
 that this was their first contact with Asia. More 
 than two centuries before Christ, Eratosthenes^ 
 of Alexandria not only knew of the existence of 
 India but actually discussed the possibility of 
 going thither by a voyage from Spain. We 
 have seen that the Phoenicians sailed still earlier 
 in the Mediterranean and in their era of pros- 
 perity maintained a trade with India. In ex- 
 amining the theory of Eratosthenes, Strabo,- 
 
 lEratosthenes was born about 27G and died in the year 
 194 B. C. 
 
 =Strabo, born about G3 B. C, had before him the results 
 of Eratosthenes, Ilipparchus. and Posidonius. The chief 
 conclusions of astronomers concerning the sphericity and 
 the dimensions of the earth, its relation to the celestial 
 bodies, and the great circles of the globe were then con- 
 sidered as well established. The passage quoted is from 
 Book I, of Strabo, p. 85. ch, 65, 
 
94 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 another eminent Greek scientific writer, has the 
 following remarkable commentary : 
 
 "And so, if the great extent of the Atlantic 
 Ocean did not "stand in the way, it would be 
 possible for us to sail on the same parallel line 
 from Spain to India: and that which would be 
 left beyond this distance would not exceed a third 
 part of the entire globe: since the circle drawn 
 through Sina on the parallel which we reckon 
 our distance from India to Spain is less than 
 200,000 stadia. Here also he [Eratosthenes] 
 does not reason correctly — for speculation con- 
 cerning that part of the temperate zone in which 
 is the habitable earth is the province of those 
 who understand mathematics, but not so con- 
 cerning this (so we call that part which we 
 inhabit and of which we have knowledge. But 
 there may be two or more habitable lands in the 
 temperate zone and especially in the neighbor- 
 hood of the parallel which passes through Sina 
 and the Atlantic Ocean.)" 
 
 From this passage, which contains the specula- 
 tions of at least two of the great ' geographers 
 of antiquity, it is clear that the Greeks knew 
 something of the world, around them, and that 
 the notion of the sphericity of the earth is not 
 a modern one. 
 
 The Latin Poet Seneca. 
 
 As may be seen from the following verses of 
 
SCIENCE AND POETRY 
 
 Q=; 
 
 Seneca, the Romans, too, were dreaming on 
 things to come. This poet inspires the chorus 
 in Medea to extol the courage of those mariners 
 and travellers who had ventured on the bound- 
 less deep before the motions of the stars were 
 known and before the felon winds were named. 
 Since the expedition of the Argonauts, he tells 
 us, the sea is open to all. There is now no need 
 of a vessel shaped by the hand of Pallas. All 
 sorts of craft sail the soundless seas. The poet 
 then contrasts the earliest navigations with those 
 of his own time, when the East and the West 
 come close together. In our travelled world' 
 nothing remains as it was, for every boundary 
 has been removed and new cities have sprung 
 up in a new land. To-day the Indian drinks 
 of the icy Araxes,^ the Persians quaff the waters 
 of the Elbe and the Rhine. Then there shall 
 come a time when the ocean shall break its 
 bounds and a vast world shall appear, and 
 Tiphys- shall discover new lands and Thyle^ 
 shall no longer be the most distant part of the 
 earth. 
 
 ^The Aras, a river of Armenia. 
 
 ^Tiphys was the pilot of the ship of the Argonauts. 
 
 ^Iceland, an island situated between the north and 
 the west seas, the most distant point in that direction 
 which was known to the Romans. 
 
g6 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 Nunc iam cessit pontus et omnes 
 patitur leges : non Palladia 
 compacta manu regum referens 
 inclita remos quaeritur Argo — 
 quaelibet altum cumba pererrat; 
 terminus omnis motus et urbes 
 muros terra posuere nova * 
 
 nil qua fuerat sede reliquit 
 pervius orbis : 
 
 Indus gelidum potat Araxen, 
 Albin Persae Rhenumque bibunt. 
 venient annis saecula seris, 
 quibus Oceanus vincula rerum 
 laxet et ingens pateat tellus 
 Tethysque novos detegat orbes 
 nee sit terris ultima Thule.^ 
 
 Columbus Knew the Prophecy in Seneca. 
 
 Columbus was greatly impressed by this cele- 
 brated passage. In 1501 he began the prepara- 
 tion of his manuscript work, De Las Profecias. 
 In it these verses of Seneca are twice quoted 
 by the discoverer, and he adds to them a Spanish 
 translation. Without doubt Columbus, saw him- 
 self selected by the centuries as the instrument 
 in the fulfillment of this prophecy. This is no 
 
 ^Medea, Act II (chorus), lines 364-379. 
 
SCIENCE AND POETRY 
 
 fanciful opinion of the author of this essay. It 
 is a fact familiar to the students of the great 
 epoch of discovery that in the library of Ferdi- 
 nand Columbus at Seville there was found a 
 copy of Seneca, published in Venice during the 
 year 1510. In it, on the margin opposite the 
 lines quoted, may be read in the handwriting 
 of the discoverer's son: "Haec prophetia ex- 
 pleta e per patre meum, Christoforu Columbu 
 Almirate Anno 1492."^ 
 
 From his writings we know that Columbus 
 was familiar with all that the ancients, both 
 poets and philosophers, had written concerning 
 the probable sphericity of the earth and of its 
 having in the antipodes not only land but people. 
 As a student, if not a maker of maps he must 
 have seen charts showing the location of those 
 legendary islands in the Atlantic, vi::., the island 
 of the Seven Cities, Atlantis and the isle of St. 
 Brandon. Indeed, these fabled islands held their 
 ground not only in popular imagination but in 
 "the cards of navigation" until the eve of the 
 discovery of America, for we read in William 
 de Worcestre that as late as June 15, 1480 a 
 ship, equipped at the cost of John Jay. junior, 
 left Bristol, England in search of the imaginary 
 islands of Brazil, and of the Seven Cities. The 
 
 ^Thaoher, Columbus, I. 170. 
 
98 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 reader need not be told that commander Thomas 
 Llyde or Lloyd returned, after a considerable 
 voyage, without having made any discovery.^ 
 To him Hy-Brasail, "on the ocean's blue rim," 
 must have looked, as it did to the Connaught 
 boatman, "like an Eden, away, far away." To 
 Columbus, as to many of his contemporaries, the 
 names of these enchanted islands must have been 
 familiar. 
 
 Asiatic Islands Known to Europeans. 
 
 Europeans knew of other islands, somewhat 
 shadowy, it is true, but of undoubted existence. 
 Marco Polo without having visited Zipangu 
 (Japan), mentions it as*an island in the eastern 
 ocean, 1500 miles from the coast of Manji.- 
 He tells us that, in 1264 A. D., Kublai Khan 
 undertook its conquest. Mention is also made 
 of considerable commerce between that great 
 kingdom and Cathay. The Sea of Chin, in which 
 Zipangu is situated, was reported to contain no 
 fewer than 7,440 islands, mostly inhabited. If 
 this oriental' estimate included the Moluccas, it 
 does not appear so extravagant. En route to 
 
 iHarrisse. John Cahot (the Discoverer of North America) 
 and Sebastian His Son, p. 42. 
 
 2From Ning-po the distance to the nearest part of the 
 southern island is 1,500 li, or Chinese miles. This is 
 equivalent to about 500 Italian miles. 
 
SIR JOHN MANDEVILLE 99 
 
 Persia the Polos sailed through the Malay 
 archipelago. Again between 13 18 and 1326 
 Odoric of Pordenone touched at some of the 
 more important islands of this group. In a 
 word, Europeans knew of the existence of many 
 islands off the coast of Asia and from long 
 residence in China they learned much concerning 
 those that they had not seen. If Columbus did 
 not obtain his information from the narratives 
 of the friars, and he appears to have known 
 nothing of them, it was easy for him to get it 
 from the "Travels of Sir John Mandeville," a 
 work compiled from the accounts of the Fran- 
 ciscan missionaries and ^ from the writings of 
 others. In the mind of Columbus, then, there 
 were two groups of islands wide apart, the 
 imaginary ones off the coast of Europe, and 
 those beyond Cathay. We have no evidence, 
 however, that he applied for an expedition to 
 seek out the fabulous ones. This is the more 
 singular because he is usually represented as 
 a dreamer. 
 
 "Sir John Mandeville." 
 
 It is not the purpose of this essay to discuss 
 the mystery of ''Mandeville." It is, perhaps, 
 sufficient to state that it is now generally be- 
 lieved by experts that this alleged English knight 
 
lOO COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 was an educated physician of Liege, one Jehan 
 a la Barbe, otherwise John de Bourgogne, who 
 wrote one or two essays on aspects of his own 
 science, and who assisted in compihng those 
 imaginary travels so long ascribed to an English 
 name. In all probability his principal voyages 
 and journeys were prudently made in the books 
 of actual travellers and, to adapt the fine phrase 
 of John Locke, within sight of the smoke of 
 his own chimney. It is remarkable that Thacher, 
 one of the ablest and the most industrious of 
 American Columbian students, should not have 
 suspected the real nature of Mandeville's work.^ 
 We shall leave to historians of English literature 
 the task of finding some new candidate for the 
 distinction of being "the father of English 
 prose." "Sir John's" connection with either Eng- 
 lish literature or oriental travel appears to have 
 been exceedingly slender. For the purpose of 
 this study, however, it does not make the slightest 
 difference whether he had ever left Liege.- His 
 book, which had an extraordinary popularity, was 
 based upon the narratives of some of the greatest 
 travellers of all time. 
 
 ^Columhns, I, 170 (note). 
 
 2It is possible that be travelled to Egypt or Palestine. 
 He was never in Cathay. 
 
INFLUENCE OF POLO loi 
 
 Influence of Marco Polo. 
 
 We cannot say to what extent Columbus was 
 influenced by the antique legends of an enchanted 
 Brazil or a lost Atlantis. They find no place in 
 his petitions or his projects. We do not know 
 whether he was especially influenced by the 
 Travels of Sir John Mandeville, but we do know 
 that he was profoundly impressed by the nar- 
 rative of Marco Polo. Somewhere in the il- 
 Hmitable waste of waters that separates Spain 
 from Zipangu (Japan) were the imaginary is- 
 lands of fable ; there were also unnumbered real 
 islands in the Sea of Chin. This he already 
 knew ; grander things lie was destined to know. 
 Portuguese pilots who had sailed amongst the 
 western isles had seen signs that they under- 
 stood not ; but things dumb to them spoke to 
 Columbus. Up to that happy hour it was in 
 vain that wind and wave had telegraphed a mes- 
 sage from the \\'est. Other men than Columbus 
 had doubtless perceived dimly the possibility of 
 finding in the Sea of Darkness islands more 
 remote than any which had yet been found by 
 the Portuguese, for almost every expedition 
 widened somewhat the field of knowledge. The 
 merit of Columbus is not that he confidently 
 expected to find islands and mainland as he 
 sailed across the Atlantic, but that, ignoring the 
 splendid work of the Portuguese, his mind 
 
I02 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 grasped the grand design of reaching the East 
 by sailing westward. 
 
 The Toscanelli Correspondence. 
 
 According to -the narratives of Las Casas and 
 Ferdinand Columbus, the idea was first suggested 
 by letters of the Florentine physician and 
 astronomer, Paolo del Pozzo Toscanelli, which 
 they reproduce. On this interesting subject, the 
 late Professor E. G. Bourne says: 
 
 "From the first of these documents, written 
 in June, 1474, we learn that Toscanelli's friend, 
 Fernam Martins, living in Lisbon and interested 
 in the Portuguese efforts to reach the Indies 
 by way of Africa, had brought before King 
 Alfonso the opinion he had heard Toscanelli ex- 
 press that it would be a much shorter way to 
 the Indies to sail due west. The King then de- 
 sired to hear from Toscanelli the reasons for 
 such a view. The astronomer's reply contained 
 in the first letter could have afforded little as- 
 surance to Alfonso, for there is no reasoned 
 argument in it, but merely a series of assertions 
 unsupported by evidence, followed by an allur- 
 ing description of the wealth of the Orient de- 
 rived from Marco Polo. The text was ac- 
 companied by a chart divided into equal spaces 
 which depicted the Atlantic as bounded on the 
 west by the coast of Asia. This map is no 
 
TOSCANELLI CORRESPONDENCE 
 
 103 
 
 longer extant, and almost all reproductions of 
 it are merely reproductions of the Atlantic 
 Ocean side of Behaim's globe, 1492, reduced to 
 what is supposed to be the projection devised 
 by Toscanelli."^ 
 
 This letter, it is supposed, was brought to 
 the notice of Columbus some time after 1474 
 and suggested to him the grand project, which 
 afterward became a part of him. He then wrote 
 to Toscanelli of his desire to go to the East, 
 and, in reply, received a copy of the letter to 
 Canon Martins and a chart similar to the one 
 which accompanied his first letter. Later Tos- 
 canelli wrote again to Columbus, but without 
 giving any further information as to the course. 
 Within recent years the genuineness of this cor- 
 respondence has been challenged. Some main- 
 tain that the letters are the forgery of a later 
 time, and were "designed to give to Columbus's 
 v^oyage the character of a reasoned scientific ex- 
 periment and the dignity of the patronage of a 
 renowned scholar." Admitting that the Tos- 
 canelli letter is genuine, it gave Columbus no 
 information concerning the East or the route 
 thither that is not more fully given "in the 
 passages in Pierre d'Ailly and Marco Polo that 
 he annotated in the margin or copied." To 
 
 ^8pain in America, pp. 12-13. 
 
I04 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 Toscanelli may be given the credit of suggesting 
 the westward voyage, and that is all, even if the 
 letters ascribed to him were actually his composi- 
 tions. In the marked passages in his own books 
 Columbus had accumulated a larger and a far 
 more convincing body of facts than is to be found 
 in the Toscanelli letters. The great Florentine, 
 it is true, had won fame in other fields, but he 
 told neither Canon Martins nor Columbus any- 
 thing that was not easily accessible. If a forgery 
 were committed, and that there was a fabrication 
 is far from being satisfactorily proved, it must 
 have been devised by some admirer of Columbus. 
 His work proclaims the alleged fabricator .un 
 disputed master among blunderers. When he 
 was inventing the Toscanelli letters, why did 
 he not claim for Columbus the sole merit of sug- 
 gesting the idea of a westward voyage to the 
 realms of the Grand Khan? If one's admira- 
 tion for a kinsman or a favorite lead one to 
 lie for the enlargement of his fame, why should 
 one lie in moderation? There would have been 
 nothing amazing in ascribing to Columbus him- 
 self the sole credit of orignating the idea. In- 
 deed, after his great exploit it would not have 
 been questioned, and it is at a time subsequent 
 to the discovery that the alleged forgery is fixed. 
 Who was the fabricator ? Why was the so-called 
 
A PURPOSELESS EORGERY 105 
 
 forgery never put lo any sort of use? If a 
 fabrication, it was a strange and a purposeless 
 one. 
 
 A Portuguese Estimate of Columbus. 
 
 The archives of Portugal furnish no informa- 
 tion concerning either Columbus or Toscanelli. 
 For our knowledge of the attempt of Columbus 
 to obtain the support of King John we are in- 
 debted not to the public records but to the narra- 
 tive of the Portuguese historian, Barros, who 
 wrote about two generations later. Accoriling 
 to this authority "Christovao Colom, a Genoese 
 by birth, an experienced and eloquent man, a 
 good Latin scholar, but very boastful, had con- 
 vinced himself by his studies and by his read- 
 ing of Marco Polo that it would be practicable 
 to reach the island of Cipango and other un- 
 known lands by sailing west." Though the 
 King did not believe him, yet, on account of 
 his persistence, he referred the stranger to the 
 bishop of Ceuta, and two physicians, expert 
 cosmographers. We are further told that they 
 regarded the words of Columbus as empty talk, 
 because it all rested on fancy and description 
 of Marco Polo's Cipango. This is not the place 
 to discuss the expedition fitted out by King John 
 to test the correctness of the opinions of Colum- 
 bus. The royal captain discovered nothing. 
 
io6 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 Leaves Portugal. 
 
 The biographers of Columbus assert that in 
 the year 1484 he left Portugal in secrecy and 
 haste. It is known that as early as 1478 he was 
 living in Lisbon and was then engaged in com- 
 merce, and it has been surmised that debts con- 
 tracted at that time explain his sudden departure 
 from the country. Fancy can assign other 
 reasons for his haste. From our present know- 
 ledge we can speak with little certainty con- 
 cerning this event. Some day we may know 
 more about it. After 1484 official chroniclers 
 give us an occasional notice of his residence in 
 Spain. 
 
 In Spain he persistently advocated his project. 
 When at last he grew weary of waiting, he sent 
 his brother Bartholomew to England in order to 
 interest King Henry VII, its enterprising ruler. 
 Thus far there has been found in the British 
 archives no record of that visit. We have few 
 particulars of this journey. When Bartholomew 
 Columbus was returning to Spain, he was in- 
 formed in Paris that his brother had discovered 
 some great lands that were called the Indies. 
 Precisely what Columbus did during these seven 
 years (1485-1491) we do not know. In various 
 
DUKE OF MEDINA CELI 107 
 
 ways biographers and historians have filled up 
 the interval. It is almost certain that Columbus 
 reexamined his conclusions as well as the reasons 
 on which they were based, and that he extended 
 somewhat the wide geographical reading which 
 he had done in Portugal. Of course, he labored 
 to enlist in support of his enterprise as many 
 persons of influence as would grant him a hear- 
 ing. In a letter recounting his third voyage for 
 Ferdinand and Isabella he wrote: "I gave the 
 subject six or seven years of great anxiety. At 
 the same time I thought it desirable to bring 
 to bear on the subject the sayings and opinions 
 of those who have written on the geography of 
 the world. "^ 
 
 A Guest of the Duke of Medina Celi. 
 
 Thacher, an eminent student of this era, be- 
 lieves that Columbus left Portugal not in 1484 
 but in 1485, and that on going into Spain he 
 carried his little son Diego to the house of his 
 sister-in-law, the wife of one Miguel Muliar, of 
 Huelva. An interesting letter written by Luis 
 de la Cerda, Duke of Medina Celi, to the Grand 
 Cardinal of Spain accounts in a general way for 
 the whereabouts of Columbus from about 1485 
 
 ^Major, Select Letters of Columbus^ p. 109. 
 
lo8 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 to 1487. The Duke takes credit to himself for 
 having detained Columbus in his house during 
 a period of two years, when the Admiral was 
 considering a journey to France in order to se- 
 cure aid in his project. This nobleman also 
 states that he directed Columbus to the service 
 of her Highness, who gave him over to Alonso 
 de Quintanilla. This statement of the Duke is 
 corroborated by the historian Oviedo, who says 
 that Columbus "was better received by this 
 gentleman [Quintanilla] and found him more 
 interested than any man in Spain. "^ The Duke's 
 statement that Isabella turned over Columbus 
 to the care of Alonso de Quintanilla and the 
 opinion expressed by Oviedo are supported by 
 the scanty records of the period. On May 5, 
 1487 Christopher Columbus, a foreigner, re- 
 ceived 3,000 maravedis on account of some ser- 
 vices and by the warrant of Alonso de Quin- 
 tanilla, First Treasurer of the Catholic Sov- 
 ereigns. *'En dicho dia (5 de Mayo de 1487) 
 di a Cristobal Colomo, extrangero, tres mil 
 maravedis, que esta acqui faciendo algunas cosas 
 com.plideras al servicio de sus Altezas, por 
 cedula de Alonso de Quintanilla, con manda- 
 
 ^Historia General, lib. ii. cap. v. 
 
SERVING THE SOVEREIGNS 109 
 
 miento del Obispo (de Palencia)."^ From this 
 testimony it would seem that the two years pre- 
 ceding iMay, 1487 was the period during which 
 Columbus was the guest of the Duke of Medina 
 Celi. 
 
 Another friend of Columbus was Juan Ca- 
 brero. Las Casas tells of his goodness to 
 Columbus. In a memoir Martin Cabrero says 
 of his uncle Juan "That he was the principal 
 cause of the undertaking of the affair of the 
 Indies and of their acquisition, and if it were 
 not for him, the Indies would not have been 
 discovered, at least for the benefit of Castile."^ 
 It would be necessary to take this statement 
 with considerable allowance were it not that we 
 have independent testimony as to its correct- 
 ness. Columbus had still another powerful 
 friend. In a letter of December 21, 1504, the 
 Admiral wrote his son Diego : "We must strive 
 to learn whether the Queen, whom God has in 
 His keeping, said anything about me in her will 
 and we must hurry the Lord Bishop of Palencia, 
 who caused the possession of the Indies by their 
 Highnesses and my remaining in Castile, for I 
 was already on my way to leave it. And the 
 
 ^Xavarretf", Coleccion De Los Yiajes i' Desciibriniientus, 
 II. p. 8-9 
 
 ^Navarrete, III, 315. 
 
no COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 Lord Chamberlain of his Highness must also 
 be hurried." 
 
 Influential Friends of Columbus. 
 
 Las Casas had heard it boasted that Fra. Diego 
 de Deza and Cabrero were the two persons that 
 persuaded Ferdinand and Isabella to undertake 
 the expedition of discovery. Diego de Deza had 
 been Professor of Theology in the University of 
 Salamanca, tutor to Prince Juan, confessor to 
 the Queen, Bishop successively of Salamanca, 
 Jaen, and Palencia. He was afterward made 
 Archbishop of Seville. In the letter describing 
 his third voyage the Admiral alludes to the 
 ridicule that had been placed upon his project, 
 excepting two ''brothers" always firm. One of 
 these constant friends was Antonio de Marchena, 
 of whom we know little. He has been wrongly 
 identified with the good priest, Juan Perez of 
 La Rabida, another tried friend of Columbus. 
 It is clear that the future discoverer was not 
 so friendless as rhetoricians have described him 
 nor so destitute of character as some modern 
 historians would have us believe. Something 
 there was about him that won him the support 
 of many of the most eminent men of Spain. A 
 mere adventurer would hardly have fared so 
 well. Moreover, Columbus brought with him a 
 
FIRST IMPRESSIONS m 
 
 project that he had matured, and the grandest 
 that the world had seen. When it was too late, 
 the King of Portugal invited Columbus (March 
 20, 1488) to return to that kingdom. 
 
 With many readers the sacred legends and 
 the hallowed pictures of school books are 
 treasured through life. If they are not cherished 
 during all their days, these early impressions 
 yield but reluctantly to the assaults of science. 
 When, for example, the expert in colonial history 
 tells us that Pocahontas did not save the life 
 of Captain John Smith, in fancy we still see 
 the swarthy maiden of the forest and the poised 
 club of the warrior. Generations of readers have 
 seen another picture, which is founded on even 
 fewer historical facts. It is one that represents 
 Columbus standing before an official gathering 
 of learned men, for the most part priests. He 
 is expounding his project to hostile ears, him- 
 self the object of scorn and jest. The scene is 
 always laid' in Salamanca. "The imagination of 
 some historians," says Thacher, ''has peopled 
 this chamber with University Professors and 
 theological teachers who disputed every argu- 
 ment of Columbus with narrow and impossible 
 references to the fathers of the Church and the 
 writers on cosmography: and then when the 
 decision was adverse to the project the great 
 University of Salamanca is held up to ridicule 
 
1 12 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 as the seat of bigotry and ignorance."^ It is 
 true that the Spanish Sovereigns referred the 
 project of Columbus to certain learned men, and 
 that many of these men were ecclesiastics. Las 
 Casas says that Ferdinand and Isabella asked 
 the opinion of the Grand Cardinal, Pero Gon- 
 zales de Mendoza, Diego de Deza, Alonso de 
 Cardenas, the Prior of Prado, and Juan Cabrero. 
 According to his own statement, Dr. Rodrigo 
 Maldonado also was a member of this Council, 
 which is said to have been held at Salamanca 
 in the Dominican convent of St. Stephen. From 
 the facts now in our possession it is not at all 
 certain that any representative of the Faculty 
 of the University of Salamanca, except the 
 Dominican, Diego de Deza, was a member of 
 this famous Junta. That priest, who was Profes- 
 sor of Theolog}' in the University, is believed 
 by all eminent students of that era to have been 
 one of the most constant as well as the most 
 influential among the friends of 'Columbus. 
 From several sources we know that this consul- 
 tation developed strong opposition to the en- 
 terprise proposed by Columbus, but it is not 
 easy to perceive how that opposition reflects in 
 any way upon the learning of the University. 
 The Council of Salamanca is believed to have 
 
 ^Columbus, I, 419. 
 
THE SECOND COUNCIL 
 
 113 
 
 met in i486 or 1487. In the years that followed, 
 Columbus was oppressed by cares and doubts. 
 Even hope no longer cheered his troubled way. 
 The dreary years wore on. It was about Decem- 
 ber of 149 1 that the second Junta assembled. 
 One of its members, Alessandro Geraldini, gives 
 the place of meeting as Iliberis (Granada). 
 Perhaps it was in the fortified camp of Santa 
 Fe, which was occupied by the army of King 
 Ferdinand in April, 1491. For Columbus and 
 his project this Council did little more than the 
 first. Nevertheless the Most Rev. Cardinal of 
 Spain, Gonzales de Mendoza, had by this time 
 become much interested in the plans of Colum- 
 bus, to whom he had given several audiences. 
 This convert appears to have been made through 
 the kindness of Alonso de Quintanilla. The 
 interest of the Cardinal it was that persuaded 
 the King and Queen to listen to the proposals 
 of Columbus, but as the Council did not recom- 
 mend the prosecution of his enterprise, the Sov- 
 ereigns gave their petitioner no immediate hope. 
 
 At La Rabida. 
 
 Because of this second rejection of his pro- 
 posals Columbus took his departure from the 
 Court, and, with his little son Diego, made his 
 
114 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 way on foot to the monastery of La Rabida. 
 The December landscape must have been in 
 harmony with his f eehngs as he travelled toward 
 the ocean, which was to bear him, as he be- 
 lieved, to strange lands. His purpose was to 
 leave Diego with his wife's sister at Huelva, and 
 afterward to embark for France or some other 
 country likely to be more interested in his 
 project. Night found the tired travellers before 
 a convent among the Andalusian hills. A knock 
 at its hospitable doors brought the porter, of 
 whom Columbus asked food, and a bed for him- 
 self and his little boy. One of the most familiar 
 incidents in history tells how the Prior of the 
 monastery, Friar Juan Perez, observing that the 
 stranger was a foreigner, came forward and in- 
 quired who he was and whence he came. Not- 
 withstanding his weariness and his hopelessness, 
 Columbus again explained his cherished project. 
 This time his eloquence aroused the interest of 
 an intelligent and sympathetic mind. In the 
 neighboring town of Palos dwelt a young man 
 named Garcia Hernandez, who was reputed to 
 have some knowledge of astronomy. Him the 
 Prior summoned to the monastery. Together 
 they discussed the project of Columbus. So 
 convinced of the feasibility of it were these new 
 friends of the stranger that Father Perez, who 
 was the confessor of the Oueen, offered to write 
 
A NEW FRIEND 115 
 
 a letter to her Highness urging a reconsidera- 
 tion of the decision of the Court, and support of 
 the proposals of Columbus. The letter was 
 sent, and in two weeks came a friendly reply 
 commanding the priest to appear at Court. At 
 midnight this intrepid man mounted his mule 
 and set forth upon the long and dangerous 
 journey to Santa Fe. In the meantime Columbus 
 remained at the monastery buoyed up by new 
 hopes and, perhaps, daring to dream of ultimate 
 success. At the conference of the Queen and 
 the priest it was agreed that three vessels should 
 be equipped for the expedition. To a citizen of 
 Granada, Isabella gave 20,000 maravedis and 
 a letter to be delivered to Columbus. This com- 
 manded him to purchase a mule; also suitable 
 raiment and present himself before her Majesty. 
 Leaving his son Diego with Garcia Hernandez 
 and Father Sanchez, Columbus set out for 
 Santa Fe. Though the landscape must have 
 been unchanged, it is certain that the successful 
 suppliant saw in it, as he rode back to Santa Fe, 
 beauties that he had not observed before. 
 
 Assistance Promised Before the Surrender. 
 
 \\'ith more detail Dr. Garcia Hernandez on an 
 interesting occasion told the story. In 1829 
 it was published in full by Navarrete. The 
 
1 16 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 Spanish Sovereigns with their armies formally 
 entered and took possession of the city of 
 Granada on Friday, January 6, 1492. In the 
 introduction to his Journal, Columbus informs 
 us that he was an interested spectator of that 
 great event. In the opinion of Christendom this 
 triumph nearly offset the Mohammedan conquest 
 of Constantinople in 1453. If Columbus in 
 obedience to the commands of Queen Isabella 
 had completed his preparations and made the 
 journey to Santa Fe, it is certain that her 
 Majesty had concluded to equip the expedition 
 even before the conquest of Granada. The 
 triumph of Columbus was really greater than 
 is generally believed. His perseverance and his 
 intelligence had won success notwithstanding the 
 distractions and the uncertainties of existing war. 
 On the 17th and on the 30th of April, 1492 
 were executed the two documents known as the 
 Capitulation. In another connection a synopsis 
 of one of the papers will be given. For the 
 present it is sufficient to state that by this in- 
 strument it was provided that "Columbus should 
 be Admiral of such islands and mainlands as he 
 or his heirs should discover or acquire with such 
 prerogatives as belonged to the office of High 
 Admiral of Castile." He was also to be "Vice- 
 roy and Governor-General in all those islands 
 or mainlands he might discover or acquire, with 
 
AN ADMIRAL II7 
 
 power to name three persons for each office 
 under him, from which three persons the Sov- 
 ereigns must select one." The homeless and 
 friendless stranger who had knocked at the 
 portals of La Rabida on that dreary night in 
 December, 1491 had gone far in a season. He 
 was now a high official in one of the most 
 powerful monarchies of Europe. If Columbus 
 was, indeed, the sort of man described by some 
 modern historians, it is hard to understand his 
 advancement. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE EQUIPMENT AND THE DIS- 
 COVERY. 
 
 Legends Concerning the Equipment. 
 
 After years of endeavor and anxiety Colum- 
 bus and those whom he had won over to the 
 support of his grand enterprise finally succeeded 
 in gaining the assistance of Queen Isabella. The 
 next step was to obtain the ships and the men. 
 Around the subject of the equipment there have 
 grown up legends more or less picturesque. One 
 thing to be noted is that in them the ethnical, the 
 personal and the religious estimates have played 
 a considerable part. This is well ihustrated in 
 the case of B. L. de Argensola, who asserted that 
 he found in the archives of the Treasury of 
 Aragon documents which proved that it was that 
 kingdom which furnished the money for the 
 equipment. By the eyes of trained investigators 
 outside of that kingdom these records have never 
 been seen. They appear to have been visible 
 to only Aragonese historians. There is no evi- 
 dence that Aragon contributed so much as a 
 118 
 
LEGENDARY ACCOUNTS 
 
 119 
 
 single maravedi toward the enterprise. Not only 
 ethnical pride but family importance has con- 
 tributed to fashion stories that have entertained 
 generations of readers. 
 
 Columbus Advanced One Eighth. 
 
 Under the terms of the Capitulation, Columbus 
 was entitled to contribute one eighth part of the 
 expense of the expedition and to receive one 
 eighth of the profit. That he did contribute that 
 portion is established by the Majorat, executed 
 February 22, 1498. In this document he says : 
 
 '' . . . e yo hobiese el diezmo de todo lo 
 que en el dicho Almirantazgo se fallase e hobiese 
 o rentase, y asimismo la octava parte de las 
 tierras, y todas las otras cosas.^ 
 
 "... And that I should have the tenth of 
 everything that might be discovered and possessed 
 and produced in the said Almirantazgo, and also 
 the eighth part of the lands and of all other 
 things. ..." 
 
 On this point, and for a reason that will pres- 
 ently appear, Las Casas is a very interesting 
 witness. In examining this subject that historian 
 says : 
 
 "And as Christopher Columbus wished to con- 
 
 iNavarrete, Coleccion, etc., II, p. 252. The entire instru- 
 ment is well worth reading. 
 
120 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 tribute the eighth part of the expense of this 
 voyage in order to have his eighth of the profit 
 (since he could not complete his preparations 
 with the million maravedis loan, which Luis de 
 Santangel secured for the Sovereigns), and inas- 
 much as Christopher Columbus came from the 
 Court in very needy circumstances and consid- 
 ered the half million maravedis enough to con- 
 tribute for the said eighth part (which was all 
 that was necessary for the preparation of the 
 fleet as appeared by the accounts of the expenses 
 made before a notary public in the said town and 
 port of Palos) it is a fact quite probable and ap- 
 parently true according to what I have under- 
 stood, that the said Martin Alonso of himself or 
 for himself and brothers together, did lend Chris- 
 topher Columbus the half million." 
 
 From this it is clear that Santangel secured a 
 loan of 1,000,000 maravedis, but Las Casas does 
 not state from what source the money was ob- 
 tained. This loan will be noticed in a subsequent 
 paragraph. In the meantime the reader should 
 remember the important fact that the Sovereigns, 
 through Santangel, borrowed a sum of money for 
 the enterprise. This historian speaks with a little 
 less confidence as to the source from which Co- 
 lumbus obtained the 500,000 maravedis. He re- 
 garded it as not only quite probable but, accord- 
 ing to his information, as certain that it was the 
 
LEGENDARY ACCOUNTS 121 
 
 Pinzon family that loaned Columbus the half a 
 million maravedis which he subscribed. In dis- 
 cussing the Fiscal inquiry of 151 1 Las Casas says 
 that the claim of the Pinzons "is shown to be 
 false." Historians in general do not regard the 
 Admiral as the possessor at that time of so much 
 money, and Las Casas himself states that Co- 
 lumbus came from the Court '*in very needy 
 circumstances." 
 
 Claim of Pinzons. 
 
 From whatever source Las Casas may have 
 derived his information, it is certain that the 
 Pinzon family afterward claimed that they sup- 
 plied Columbus with the money which he con- 
 tributed toward the equipment. There are, how- 
 ever, some facts that militate against their claim. 
 Harrisse has pointed out that the strongest evi- 
 dence against their contribution is to be found in 
 the Act of Charles V, who granted that family 
 the right to bear arms. In it are recorded the 
 deeds of the family, and mention is made of the 
 fact that Martin Alonzo Pinzon and Vincente 
 Yanez Pinzon were captains of the second and 
 third vessels respectively in the discovery fleet. 
 No mention is made of so important a service as 
 the loan of half a million maravedis to the enter- 
 prise. That was the occasion for an enumeration 
 
122 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 of all the services and the exploits of the Pinzons. 
 This omission is significant. The family, as we 
 shall see, did render very great assistance both 
 to Columbus and their Sovereigns, but it did not 
 take the form of a loan. Moreover, on the voy- 
 age the Pinzons did not work in harmony with 
 the Admiral, as they assuredly would have done 
 had they been partners in the enterprise. There 
 is nothing in their conduct that would suggest the , 
 idea that their interest in the success of the ex- 
 pedition was a pecuniary one. 
 
 Source of Columbus' Share. 
 
 As to the amount contributed by the Admiral, 
 it seems almost certain that it was not so much as 
 500,000 maravedis. If that share was one eighth, 
 the entire cost of the equipment would have been 
 4,000,000 maravedis. As a matter of fact, it was 
 only a fraction of that amount. Many authorities 
 on the history of that epoch incline to the opinion 
 that the person who came to the assistance of the 
 Admiral was his proved friend, the Duke of 
 Medina Celi. They believe that it was this noble- 
 man who furnished a part if not the whole of 
 the eighth advanced by Columbus. Some day we 
 may learn from whom he obtained the money, 
 but with our present information it is idle to 
 speculate on the subject. During his sojourn in 
 
THE HOLY BROTHERHOOD 
 
 123 
 
 Spain, the Admiral had won the confidence of 
 many men of wealth and distinction, any one of 
 whom could have furnished him the money. 
 
 The fund necessary for the equipment may be 
 divided into two parts, viz., the one eighth con- 
 tributed by Columbus himself and the seven 
 eighths supplied by the Crown of Castile. As 
 stated above, it is not known from what source 
 Columbus received the one eighth that, it is uni- 
 versally admitted, was advanced in his behalf. 
 With the royal seven eighths it is very different. 
 This portion came from the treasury of the Santa 
 Hermandad (Holy Brotherhood).^ 
 
 Holy Brotherhood Advances Fund. 
 
 In the second edition (1859) of Navarrete, 
 Vol. II, p. 9, is found a brief paragraph that has 
 proved a stumbfmg-block to many a beginner in 
 this field of historical 'research. Perhaps it has 
 puzzled more mature students. It is as follows: 
 
 ^The Hermandad was a society empowered to deal with 
 ci'imes committed on the highways or, if committed in towns, 
 and the suspected persons were found on the highways, to 
 consider their cases. It had once been powerful enough to 
 embarrass the Crown, but had fallen out of favor. Because 
 of tlae disorder existing in Castile, Isabella revived the 
 organization upon her accession in 1476. Among other 
 powers it possessed the autliority to raise money on the 
 inhabitants, and at times bad great sums of money in its 
 treasury. 
 
124 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 "En otro libro de cuentas de Luis de Santangel 
 y Francisco Pinelo, Tesorero de la Hermandad 
 desde el ano 1491 hasta el de 1493, en el finiquito 
 de ellas, se lee la partida siguiente : 
 
 'Vos fueron recibidos e pagados en cuenta un 
 cuento e ciento e cuarenta mil maravedis que 
 distes por nuestro mandado al Obispo de Avila, 
 que agora es Arzobispo de Granada, para el 
 despacho del Almirante D. Cristobal Colon.' " 
 
 "In another book of accounts of Luis de 
 Santangel and Francisco Pinelo, Treasurer of 
 the Brotherhood from the year 1491 to 1493, i" 
 the discharge of them, is read the following 
 entry : 
 
 'You had received and paid on account one 
 million and one hundred and forty thousand 
 maravedis, which you gave by our order to the 
 Bishop of Avila, who is now Archbishop of 
 Granada, for the equipment of the Admiral, Don 
 Christopher Columbus.'" 
 
 The entry here reproduced is correctly quoted 
 by Navarrete, but in the paragraph introducing 
 it there is ah evident error. The expression 
 ''Tesorero de la Hermandad" (Treasurer of 
 Brotherhood) is a grammatical absurdity. Of 
 course, it is incorrect to speak of Santangel and 
 Pinelo as Treasurer.. The passage should read, 
 as it does in the first edition of Navarrete, 
 "Tesoreros de la Hermandad" {Treasurers of 
 
SPANISH RECORDS 
 
 125 
 
 the Brotherhood). Las Casas, as we have seen, 
 says that Santangel borrowed 1,000,000 mara- 
 vedis for the Sovereigns, but does not indicate 
 the source. In the item quoted the source is 
 given. But this is not the only record of the 
 transaction. Following the item reproduced from 
 the account books of Santangel and Pinelo, 
 Treasurers of the Brotherhood, Navarrete thus 
 introduces another entry : 
 
 ''En otro libro de cuentas de Garcia Martinez 
 y Pedro de Montemayor de las composiciones de 
 Bulas del Obispado de Palencia del ano de 1484 
 en adelante, hay la partida siguiente" : 
 
 "In another book of accounts of Garcia Mar- 
 tinez and Peter of Montemayor constituting 
 Bulls of the Bishopric of Palencia from the year 
 1484 and onward, there is the following entry." 
 The item reads : 
 
 "Dio y pago mas el dicho Alonso de las Cabezas 
 (Tesorero de la Cruzada, en el Obispado de 
 Badajoz) por otro libramiento del dicho Arzo- 
 bispo de Granada, fecho 5 de Mayo de 92 anos, 
 a Luis de Santangel, Escribano de racion del 
 Rey nuestro Senor, e por el a Alonso de Angulo, 
 por virtud de un poder que del dicho Escribano 
 de Racion mostro, en el cual estaba inserto dicho 
 libramiento, doscientos mil maravedis, en cuciita 
 de cuatrocientos mil que en el, en Vasco de 
 
126 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 Quiroga, le libro el dicho Arzobispo por el dicho 
 libramiento de dos cuentos seiscientos cuarenta 
 mil maravedis que hobo de haber en esta manera : 
 un cuento y quinientos mil maravedis para pagar 
 a D. Isag Abrahan por otro tanto que presto 
 a sus Altezas para los gastos de la guerra, e el un 
 cuento ciento cuarenta mil maravedis restantes 
 para pagar al dicho Escribano de Racion en 
 cuenta de otro tanto que presto para la paga de 
 las carabelas que sus Altezas mandaron ir de 
 armada a las Indias, e para pagar a Cristobal 
 Colon que va en la dicha armada." 
 
 ^'Furthermore, the said Alonso de las Cabezas 
 (treasurer of the Crusades in the Bishopric of 
 Badajoz) gave and paid by another warrant of 
 the said Archbishop of Granada, made on the 
 5th of May in the year 1492 to Luis de Sant- 
 angel, Escribano de Racion of the King, our 
 Lord, and through him to Alonso de Angulo, by 
 virtue of an authorisation which he exhibited 
 from the said Escribano de Racion, in which 
 was inserted the said warrant, 200,000 maravedis 
 on account of 400,000 paid to Vasco de Quiroga, 
 which the said Archbishop paid by the said war- 
 rant of 2,640,000 maravedis which he was to 
 receive in this manner: 1,500,000 maravedis to 
 pay to :D. Isag Abrahan for a like sum which 
 he loaned to their . Highnesses to carry on the 
 
SPANISH RECORDS 
 
 127 
 
 war, and the 1,140,000 maravedis remaining to 
 pay the said Escribano de Racioh on account of 
 a like sum which he loaned to pay for the cara- 
 vels which their Highnesses ordered to go as a 
 fleet to the Indies, and to pay to Christopher 
 Columbus, who goes [went] on the said fleet." 
 
 Thacher gives the following excerpt from the 
 Royal Cedula of the Sovereigns to Fernando 
 de Villadiego. It is dated from Segovia, August 
 19, 1494: 
 
 "El rey e la Reina. Fernando de V^illadiego, 
 tesorero e comisario en cierte parte de los 
 obispados de Oviedo e Astorga: el muy reve- 
 rendo in Cristo padre arzobispo de Granada 
 por nuestro mandado hobo librado en Rui Garcia 
 Suarez e Luis de Santangel, nuestro escribano 
 de racion e de nuestro consejo, doscientos e 
 noventa mil maravedis en cuenta de dos cuentos 
 e seiscientos e cuarenta mil maravedis que hobo 
 de haber, el un cuento e cuarenta mil maravedis 
 que nos presto para despachar a Cristobal Colon, 
 e el un cuento e quinientos mil maravedis que 
 pago por nuestro mandado a D. Isaque Abranel, 
 segun mas largamente en el dicho libramiento 
 se contiene.^ ..." 
 
 "The King and the Queen. Fernando de 
 Villadiego, Treasurer and Commissary in a cer- 
 
 ^Columhus, I, 458. 
 
128 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 tain part of the Bishoprics of Oviedo and As- 
 torga : Whereas the very reverend in Christ, 
 father archbishop of Granada, by our command 
 has paid to Rtii Garcia Suarez and Luis de 
 Santangel, our escribano de racion and a member 
 of our Council, 290,000 maravedis on account 
 of 2,640,000 maravedis which were due him, 
 the 1,040,000 maravedis which he loaned us to 
 equip Christopher Columbus, and the 1,500,000 
 maravedis which he paid by our order to D. 
 Isaque Abranel, as is contained more at length 
 in the said warrant. . . ." 
 
 The 1,040,000 maravedis mentioned in con- 
 nection with the equipment of Columbus is 
 clearly an error made in copying that item, be- 
 cause the books of the Treasurers, Santangel 
 and Pinelo, show that the amount was ''one 
 million and one hundred and forty thousand 
 maravedis." It is evident that this entry in- 
 cludes two transactions, namely certain expenses 
 of the war and the cost of the fleet. If both 
 amounted to 2,640,000 maravedis, and the item 
 on account of the war was 1,500,000 the sum 
 advanced for the expedition was 1,140,000 
 maravedis. 
 
 The account books of the Hermandad, whose 
 Treasurers w^ere Luis de Santangel, a converted 
 Jew, and Francisco Pinelo, believed to have been 
 
A MINISTERIAL ACT 
 
 129 
 
 a Genoese and a Christian, are still preserved 
 in the archives of Simancas. As we have seen, 
 these records show that during the years 1492 
 and 1493 there had been returned to them 
 1,140,000 maravedis for moneys furnished Her- 
 nando de Talavera, Archbishop of Granada, 
 formerly Bishop of Avila, for equipping the 
 tieet of Columbus. 
 
 Oftentimes the assertion is made that "it was 
 not jewels but Jews" that furnished the funds 
 for the equipment of Columbus. Ordinarily one 
 does not pause to analyze a witticism, and this 
 the writer would pass without observation were 
 it not that brief as the phrase is, it suggests 
 two errors. In the first place, Isabella did not 
 pledge her jewels to provide the expedition for 
 Columbus, though in Spain there is a legend that 
 as early as 1489 they were pledged to certain 
 money-lenders for the prosecution of the war 
 against the Moors. It is clear from the records 
 just quoted that Luis de Santangel, in Jiis ca- 
 pacity of treasurer of the Santa Hennandad, 
 loaned for the equipment of Columbus a sum that 
 was repaid, during the years 1492 and 1493, 
 with interest. The amount of this repayment 
 was 1,140,000 maravedis. This interpretation of 
 the records leaves out of account Francisco 
 
130 
 
 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 Pinelo, the fellow townsman of Columbus, and 
 subsequently in royal warrants styled "our Mag- 
 istrate and Faithful Executor of the City of 
 Seville." 
 
 Apparently Unknown to Fiske. 
 
 Even if it be assumed that Pinelo had no 
 part in obtaining the loan from the Hermandad, 
 the act of Santangel was merely ministerial. He 
 was acting for a society, which was his superior. 
 On the subject of the equipment the historian 
 Fiske says: "A considerable amount was as- 
 sessed upon the town of Palos in punishment of 
 certain misdeeds or delinquencies on the part of 
 its people or some of them. Castile assumed 
 the rest of the burden, though Santangel may 
 have advanced a million maravedis out of the 
 treasury of Aragon, or out of the funds of the 
 Hermandad, or perhaps more likely on his own 
 account. In any case it was a loan to the treasury 
 of Castile simply."^ It has been stated that the 
 kingdom of Aragon contributed nothing to the 
 cost of the expedition. Fiske has two guesses 
 besides, but inclines to the opinion that the money 
 was advanced by the Escribano de Racion on 
 his own account. It is evident that this historian 
 
 '^The Discovery of America, I, p. 418. 
 
A STATESMAN'S OPINION 131 
 
 did not know of the existence of the first entry 
 given above. From the records quoted it ap- 
 pears to be estabhshed beyond a doubt that San- 
 tangel simply loaned money of which he was 
 one of the custodians. 
 
 Mr. Kahn's Opinion. 
 
 In the course of an instructive address in 
 Congress, delivered December 13, 191 1, Hon, 
 Julius Kahn, a Representative from California, 
 referred to an historical painting in a gallery 
 of the National Capitol. In it the artist repre- 
 sents the recall of Columbus after the failure of 
 the Sovereigns to agree to the terms upon which 
 he insisted. Historians tell us that Lius de 
 Santangel pleaded with Isabella for a favorable 
 consideration of the proposals of Columbus. 
 They also mention a circumstance omitted by 
 Representative Kahn, namely, that Ouintanilla 
 and Beatriz de Bobadilla (Marchioness of Moya) 
 seconded the efforts of Santangel. Their joint 
 influence prevailed. A courier was promptly 
 dispatched and overtook Columbus on the bridge 
 that spanned the Pinos, about six miles from 
 Granada. Continuing the discussion of his theme 
 Mr. Kahn added: 
 
 "He [Santangel] and his kinsman, Gabriel 
 Sanchez, were zealous patrons of the great 
 
132 
 
 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 Genoese explorer, and they were largely instru- 
 mental in having him summoned back. There 
 is now but little doubt that Santangel supplied 
 the funds out of his own pocket for the expedi- 
 tion. In his original account books, extending 
 from 1491 to 1493, preserved in the Archive 
 de Indias in Seville, Santangel is credited with 
 an item of 1,140,000 maravedis, which were given 
 by him to the Bishop of Avila, who subsequently 
 became the Archbishop of Granada, for Colum- 
 bus's expedition. In another account book is 
 an entry to show that this sum was later on 
 repaid to Santangel for *money which he ad- 
 vanced to equip the caravels ordered by their 
 Majesties for the expedition to the Indies, and 
 to pay Christopher Columbus, the Admiral of 
 that fleet/ Columbus, in grateful remembrance 
 of the man who had furnished the funds for 
 the voyage, wrote a letter to Santangel from near 
 the Azores or Canaries on February 15, 1493, de- 
 tailing the result of this first expedition. And 
 this Luis de Santangel was a converted Jew." 
 
 The California statesman interprets historical 
 documents in a strange manner. He says: 'Tn 
 his [Santangel's] original account books, extend- 
 ing from 1491 to 1493, preserved in the Archivo 
 de Indias in Seville, Santangel is credited with 
 an item of 1,140,000 maravedis, which were given 
 
A STATESMAN'S OPINION 133 
 
 by him to the Bishop of Avila. . . ." The record 
 here referred to is that given above. It is not, 
 as Mr. Kahn states, in Santangel's "original ac- 
 count book" that this entry is found, but in 
 "another book of accounts of Lius de Santangel 
 and Francisco Pinelo, Treasurers of the Her- 
 mandad." Why is Pinelo overlooked, and why 
 is the official character of both Pinelo and San- 
 tangel passed without observation? One must 
 conclude that Representative Kahn is a beginner 
 in the field of historical research or that he 
 did not have by him when he was preparing his 
 address a reliable collection of the Spanish docu- 
 ments bearing on this interesting problem. Mr. 
 Khan, however, is not alone in holding the opinion 
 which he expressed in Congress. In a recent 
 issue of The Candlestick a writer makes the fol- 
 lowing assertions: "The discovery of America 
 by Columbus was made possible by a Jew, Lewis 
 de Santangel, treasurer of Aragon, who in- 
 formed Queen Isabella that the necessary money, 
 17,000 florins, was in the treasury, when the 
 treasury was in fact empty, and then advanced 
 the money from his own funds." 
 
 Some Jews Friendly to Columbus. 
 
 It has long been known that some members of 
 the Jewish race were friendly to the projects of 
 
134 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 Columbus, but it is only within recent years 
 that there has been made any serious attempt 
 to represent his grand achievement as a result 
 of Jewish philanthropy or Jewish foresight. At 
 this moment there are indications that such an 
 endeavor is encouraged. The friendship for 
 Columbus of Santangel and his kinsman San- 
 chez is, indeed, a fine circumstance, and one of 
 which Jewish people generally may well be 
 proud. The incident, however, is no more than 
 a fleeting scene in a drama of many acts. 
 
 The testimony thus far adduced shows that 
 there was — 
 
 Advanced the enterprise by 
 
 the Crown of Castile. . 1,140,000 maravedis. 
 Advanced the enterprise by 
 
 Columbus 500,000 maravedis. 
 
 Palos Punished. 
 
 In some way the port of Palos had made 
 itself liable to punishment, perhaps for a failure 
 to comply with the will of the Government, and 
 by the Royal Council was sentenced to keep 
 at its own expense two vessels in readiness to 
 serve the Sovereigns. The cost and maintenance 
 of those who went with them were chargeable 
 to the Crown. In a royal warrant, dated April 
 
THREE CARAVELS 135 
 
 30, 1492, the town of Palos is commanded to get 
 the tv;o vessels ready for Columbus. In a second 
 warrant of the same date there was made a 
 provision for suspending the sentences of crim- 
 inals who might go on the expedition. It is not 
 certainly known that any person of this class took 
 advantage of the indulgence offered by their 
 Majesties. 
 
 Ships Selected. 
 
 Three vessels were finally selected: the Santa 
 Maria, owned and commanded by Juan de la 
 Cosa, the Pinta, whose commander was Martin 
 Alonzo Pinzon, and the Niiia (baby) of which 
 Vincente Yafiez Pinzon was captain. Concern- 
 ing the number of those who went on the voyage, 
 Las Casas says there ''were in all ninety men," 
 "fueron por todos noventa homhres." Oviedo 
 says that there w^ere 120 men. Ferdinand Colum- 
 bus agrees with Las Casas, who had before him, 
 when he wrote, the original Journal of Columbus. 
 The Crown paid money for the use of the Safita 
 Maria, but not for the use of either the Pinta 
 or the Niiia. That, as has been stated, was the 
 offering of Palos to appease the royal wrath. 
 By an expert it is estimated that the Crown of 
 Castile furnished 1,000,000 maravedis for the 
 equipment. The additional 140,000 maravedis 
 
136 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 repaid to the Hermandad represented the interest 
 on the loan. The same authority estimates the 
 amount contributed by Columbus himself as 
 167,542 maravedis. The entire cost of the equip- 
 ment, then, may be regarded as 1,167,542 mara- 
 vedis, or about $7,203.73 in our money. This 
 was the actual outlay. It has been calculated 
 that about $80,000 would now be required simi- 
 larly to equip and maintain a fleet for the same 
 time. In other words, $7,203.73 had in the fif- 
 teenth century the purchasing power possessed 
 by about $80,000 in the twentieth century. These 
 are the conclusions of Thacher.^ 
 
 Services of Pinzon Family. 
 
 It has been said that while the Pinzon family 
 did not loan Columbus the money with which he 
 paid his share of the expense, its members 
 rendered very great assistance. When it was 
 known in Palos that the Sovereigns had com- 
 manded the authorities of that place to provide 
 and equip two vessels for the expedition of 
 Columbus, there was the greatest excitement in 
 the little port. In fact there was almost a riot. 
 As it was the general belief that the fleet must 
 inevitably be destroyed, it was impossible to 
 bring together sailors to man the ship. It was 
 
 ^Columbus, I, 490. 
 
A COSMOPOLITAN CREW 
 
 137 
 
 in this emergency that the Pinzon brothers, in- 
 fluential in the community and regarded as 
 oracles on questions of navigation, volunteered 
 to take part in the enterprise. Their example 
 banished for the moment the fears and super- 
 stitions of ordinary seamen, and afterward there 
 appears to have been no difficulty in engaging 
 sailors. Palos, Huelva, Seville, Moguer and other 
 Spanish towns furnished the crews, but there 
 were two seamen from places more remote. In 
 the list of those left as a garrison in Espanola, 
 when the Admiral was returning from the voyage 
 of discovery, we find the names of Tallarte 
 Lajes, of England, and Guillermo Ires, of Galway, 
 Ireland. The Englishman is generally regarded 
 as Arthur Laws, and the Irishman as William 
 Harris. With their forty-one companions both 
 were among the early victims of Indian treach- 
 ery. The story of the massacre of the little 
 band left behind by the discoverer on his re- 
 turn fromi the first voyage is too familiar to re- 
 quire repetition. In the endeavor of European 
 nations to colonize and civilize the New World 
 these were the first in a long line of martyrs. 
 
 Praying for Success. 
 
 Historians tell us that when the last obstacle 
 had been surmounted, and everything was in 
 
138 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 readiness, the Admiral and his brave companions 
 went, on the 2d of August, to the httle church 
 in Palos, where prayers were solemnly offered for 
 the success of the great undertaking. Their 
 devotions performed, in fancy we can see these 
 fifteenth century Argonauts bidding tearful 
 adieus to friends and kinsfolk. On Friday, 
 August 3, 1492, at 8 o'clock, says Columbus in 
 his Journal, "we started from the bar of Saltes."^ 
 Favored by a strong sea-breeze their native shores 
 soon sank below the horizon., and by midday 
 they were speeding southward through the Sea 
 of Darkness. By sunset they had sailed sixty 
 miles in that direction. Afterward they changed 
 their course to the south-west and to the south, 
 which was the way to the Canaries. In sub- 
 stance this is the Admiral's brief record of the 
 events of that great day. 
 
 This chapter has described the principal facts 
 connected with the equipment of the fleet. It 
 only remains to discuss the object of the expedi- 
 tion, and to notice the chief incidents of that 
 epoch-making voyage. School histories, and even 
 more pretentious works have contributed to 
 crystallize on this subject an idea that is not 
 strictly correct. The Asiatic trade, especially the 
 
 ^An island in front of Huelva. 
 
FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE 
 
 139 
 
 commerce with India, was extremely profitable. 
 In the beginning of the fifteenth century, and, 
 indeed, long before that time, the victories of 
 the Turks began greatly to injure this trafiic. 
 During the year 1453 those barbarous warriors 
 took the city of Constantinople. Before its 
 capture cultured citizens of that capital fled in 
 great numbers to places in western Europe. We 
 are told that they carried with them stores of 
 valuable manuscripts and that these fugitive 
 scholars and their books gave an impetus to the 
 Renaissance. This is a commonplace of literary 
 history. A consequence more nearly related to 
 our theme was the destruction of the commerce 
 of both Genoa and A^enice. These city states 
 were for Europe the principal carriers of East- 
 ern commodities. By reason of it they became 
 wealthy and cultured. The taking of Constanti- 
 nople put a period to Italian prosperity by de- 
 stroying the overland trade with the East. This 
 was one of the influences which sent into west- 
 ern Europe a multitude of Italian navigators. 
 In the commerce of their own country they had 
 acquired a skill which made them superior to the 
 sailors of other nations. When it no longer re- 
 quired their services, they offered themselves to 
 the rising maritime kingdoms of the West, and, 
 as is well known, brought to America the first 
 
140 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 expedition for Spain, for England and for France. 
 All Europe became interested in the discovery 
 of a safer route to India, and Columbus, we are 
 told, purposed to find one. The islands of the 
 Orient abounded in gems and precious metals 
 and in scarcely less precious spices. The Admiral 
 was going to discover these favored places. 
 
 Whatever moderns may know about the pro- 
 ject of Columbus, it must be assumed that he 
 himself knew something of his purposes and his 
 motives. In the introduction to his Journal he 
 says : 
 
 Columbus States His Purpose. 
 
 "On the 2d day of the month of January 
 (1492) I saw the Royal banners of your High- 
 nesses placed by force of arms on the towers 
 of the Alhambra, which is the fortress of the 
 said City (Granada) ; and I saw the Moorish 
 King come out to the gates of the City and kiss 
 the Royal hands of your Highnesses,^ and the 
 hands of the prince, my Lord: and then in the 
 present month, because of the information which 
 I had given your Highnesses about the lands 
 of India, and about a Prince who is called Great 
 
 ^Spanish historians, believing ttiat the age of chivalry had 
 not then passed away, assert that tliis act of humiliation 
 was not required by Ferdinand and Isabella. 
 
EXTENSION OF CHRISTIANITY 141 
 
 Khan, zvhich means in our Romance language 
 King of Kings,^ — how he and his predecessors 
 had many times sent to Rome to beg for men 
 learned in our Holy Faith that they might be 
 instructed therein, and that the Holy Father had 
 never furnished them, and so, many peoples be- 
 lieving in idolatries and receiving among them- 
 selves sects of perdition, were lost : — your High- 
 nesses, as Catholic Christians and Princes, lov- 
 ing the Holy Christian faith and the spreading 
 of it, and enemies of the sect of Mohamet and 
 of all idolatries and heresies, decided to send 
 me, Christopher Columbus, to the said regions 
 of India, to see the said Princes and the peoples 
 and lands, and learn of their disposition, and 
 of everything, and the measures which could 
 be taken for their conversion to our Holy 
 Faith : and you ordered that I should not go to 
 the east by land, by which it is customary to 
 go, but by way of the west, whence until to-day 
 we do not know certainly that any one has 
 gone. . . ." 
 
 For the purpose of going to the regions of 
 
 ^The italicized passage is the very language of the Tos- 
 canelli letter, and the circumstance proves that when the 
 Admiral was writing the introduction to the Journal he 
 had in mind the correspondence with that celebrated as- 
 tronomer. If this be a true interpretation, the corres- 
 pondence with the Florentine scientist could not have been 
 a subsequent forgery. 
 
142 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 India, continues the Journal, his sovereigns had 
 granted him favors and ennobled him, so that 
 henceforth he might entitle himself "Don and 
 should be High Admiral of the Ocean-Sea and 
 Viceroy and perpetual Governor of all the islands 
 and continental lands'' which he might discover 
 and acquire. 
 
 To say nothing of other sources of informa- 
 tion Columbus could have learned from Marco 
 Polo that the uncle and the father of that trav- 
 eller had been sent to the Pope as envoys from 
 Kublai Khan. As we have seen, that great 
 ruler had asked for one hundred missionaries. 
 Columbus says that the ''Holy Father had never 
 furnished them." It seems clear, therefore, that 
 the Admiral did not regard the presence in 
 Cathay of Friar John of Monte Corvino and 
 his devoted missionaries as in any sense a com- 
 pliance with the request of Kublai Khan. The 
 sending of seven bishops by Pope Clement V, 
 however, is sufficient proof that the missions 
 of Cathay were regarded as of very great im- 
 portance. We have noticed the beginnings and 
 the development of this wonderful missionary 
 activity and have described the event by which 
 it was abruptly terminated. 
 
 In his introduction the Admiral says further: 
 I "took my way to the Canary Islands of your 
 
EXTENSION OF CHRISTIANITY 
 
 143 
 
 Highnesses, which are in the said Ocean-Sea, 
 in order to set out on my voyage from there 
 and sail until I arrived at the Indies, and make 
 known the messages of your Highnesses to those 
 Princes, and fulfill the commands which had 
 thus been given me : and for this purpose, I 
 decided to write everything I might do and see 
 and which might take place on this voyage, very 
 punctually from day to day, as will be seen 
 henceforth. Also, Lords and Princes, besides 
 describing each night what takes place during 
 the day, and during the day, the sailings of the 
 night, I proposed to make a new chart for naviga- 
 tion on which I will locate all the sea and the 
 lands of the Ocean-Sea, in their proper places, 
 under their winds; and further, compose a book 
 and show everything by means of drawing, by 
 the latitude from the equator and by longitude 
 from the west, and above all, it is fitting that I 
 forget sleep, and study the navigation diligently, 
 in order to thus fulfill these duties, w^hich will 
 be a great labor. " 
 
 Columbus an Explorer and Missionary. 
 
 Columbus is going to deliver to the Princes 
 of the East a message from his Sovereigns ; 
 en route he expects to discover lands, and "in 
 
144 
 
 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 a new chart of navigation" to indicate their loca- 
 tion. There is nothing in this introduction to 
 the Jounial that justifies the popular opinion 
 that Columbus was merely interested in a little 
 traffic with the Indies and in the discovery of 
 a safer route thither. His project looked ulti- 
 mately to nothing less than the conversion to 
 Christianity of the millions of pagans dwelling 
 in the countries of the East and to the discovery 
 of islands and mainlands lying in the Ocean- 
 Sea. In other words, he was a missionary and 
 explorer. However, he was by no means in- 
 different to the profits of trade, but these profits, 
 as we shall see, were to be applied to no sordid 
 purpose. When clouds were gathering fast 
 around him, he thought of wealth, but it was 
 only for the purpose of equipping a new crusade. 
 It must be remembered that the highwater mark 
 of Mohammedan power had not yet been reached. 
 Their disasters at Vienna and Lepanto were 
 yet in the future. What may be appropriately 
 termed the clove-and-nutmeg theory of the mis- 
 sion of Columbus finds no support in the records 
 of his day. Though he did not disdain the legiti- 
 mate gains of commerce, wealth thus acquired 
 appeared valuable to him only so far as it could 
 promote one of his more lofty projects. He 
 
THE VOYAGE 
 
 145 
 
 sought eagerly for gold and for spices, but in 
 his imagination they were bound up with Jeru- 
 salem delivered. 
 
 Injury to "Pinta." 
 
 On Saturday, August 4th, says the Journal, 
 "We went to the southwest, quarter south." 
 For the day following, August 5th, the Admiral 
 makes this entry : "We went on our way, more 
 than forty leagues between day and night." A 
 more important record is made on Monday, the 
 6th of August. The helm of the Pint a broke 
 or became disjointed ; this was suspected to have 
 been the work of Rascon and Quintero, the 
 owners of the caravel, wdio were displeased with 
 the voyage. The same trouble occurred during 
 the day succeeding, but after making repairs 
 they sailed in search of Lanzarote, one of the 
 Canaries. In a discussion of the course with his 
 pilots the Admiral seems to have made the best 
 guess. 
 
 Notwithstanding the condition of the Pinta the 
 little fleet arrived at Gomera on the 9th of 
 August. At Teneriffe they succeeded after much 
 trouble in satisfactorily repairing the disabled 
 vessel and in changing the design of her sails. 
 This work seems to have taken considerable 
 time, for the Journal notes that the Admiral re- 
 
146 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 turned to Gomera, Sunday night, September 2d 
 with the Pinta. 
 
 Western Lands. 
 
 Las Casas, abridging the log of Columbus, has 
 this interesting paragraph : "The Admiral says 
 that many honorable Spaniards, inhabitants of 
 the island of Hierro, swore that they were on 
 the island of Gomera . . . and that each year 
 they saw land to the west of the Canaries. . . . 
 The Admiral says here that he remembers being 
 in Portugal in the year 1484, a man came from 
 the island of Maderia to the King to beg him 
 for a caravel in order to go to this land which 
 he saw, which he swore he saw each year and 
 always in the same manner. . . . Having then 
 taken water and wood and meat, and the other 
 things which the men had, whom the Admiral 
 left on Gomera when he went to the island of 
 Canaria to repair the Caravel Pinta, he finally 
 set sail from the said island of Gomera with 
 his three caravels on Thursday, September 6." 
 
 It was at this stage of his voyage that he heard 
 of the arrival in the islands of three armed 
 caravels of Portugal, which he believed were 
 sent to capture him. For a considerable portion 
 of two days his ships were becalmed. On the 
 tenth of September the Admiral computed that 
 
THE VOYAGE 
 
 147 
 
 they had travelled forty-eight leagues whereas 
 they had actually sailed sixty. He feared to 
 frighten his companions if it should chance that 
 the voyage proved to be lengthy. Columbus was 
 dealing with men who were ignorant and un- 
 friendly. It was therefore deemed necessary 
 to underestimate the daily travel. Henceforth 
 Columbus frequently registered the distance 
 sailed as something less than it was. 
 
 Strange Phenomena. 
 
 On Thursday, September 13th, Columbus 
 noticed an interesting phenomenon. "On this 
 day," say the Journal, "at the beginning of the 
 night, the needless declined to the north-west, 
 and in the morning they declined a trifle." For 
 a few days the variation of the needle escaped 
 the notice of the pilots. Two days later Colum- 
 bus saw "A marvellous branch of fire fall from 
 the heavens into the sea, 4 or 5 leagues distant 
 from them." Again they went thirty-nine 
 leagues, but the Admiral computed only thirty 
 six. This brought them to the Saragossa Sea. 
 The weather grew pleasant, like April in An- 
 dalusia. They began to see many tufts of very 
 green grass, which appeared, to have been but 
 recently detached from the land. It was the 
 general belief that they were near some island, 
 
148 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 but not continental land, for, says the Admiral, 
 "I make the continental land further onward." 
 
 The next day ''the pilots took the position of 
 the North Star, marking it, and they found that 
 the needles declined to the northwest a good 
 quarter, and the sailors were afraid and were 
 troubled, and did not say for what reason." 
 More grass was seen, a land bird, as Columbus 
 believed, and a craw-fish were regarded as signs 
 of land. There was a general feeling of joyous- 
 ness and the ships raced, to have the honor of 
 first seeing it. Again their hopes were sustained 
 by flocks of birds and masses of clouds, certain 
 indications, it was thought, of their approach to 
 land. By September 19th they had sailed, ac- 
 cording to the Nina's pilot, 440 leagues from 
 the Canaries and by the reckoning of the Pinta's, 
 420. For reasons already explained the Admiral 
 was only 400 leagues from those islands. 
 
 Deceptive Signs. 
 
 Grass they saw constantly and also new signs, 
 namely, singing birds and pelicans. A whale 
 which they saw also, was unmistakable evidence 
 that land was not distant. As the winds had 
 blown constantly from Spain, the sailors feared 
 that there were no breezes to waft them home- 
 ward. On the 22d of September their spirits 
 
THE VOYAGE 149 
 
 were momentarily cheered by winds from the 
 opposite quarter. All the now familiar signs 
 of land reappeared, but they came to no land. 
 Soon afterward they were all deceived by cloud 
 formations before them, and Martin Alonso 
 Pinzon begged a reward from the Admiral for 
 having first seen the land. 
 
 Toward the end of September they had passed 
 almost through the Saragossa Sea. Pelicans 
 were still with them. The Admiral claimed that 
 he had -information about certain islands where 
 he then was, but his object was to reach the 
 Indies and it would not have been good judgment 
 to delay. Pelicans, petrels, and flying-fish were 
 seen daily. On October 6th, Martin Alonso 
 Pinzon said that it would be well to sail to the 
 south-west. The Admiral refused, because he 
 thought it would be better to find the continental 
 land first. Afterward they could go to the 
 islands. On October 7th a flight of birds led him 
 to change his course to the southwest. These 
 became much more numerous. To the last day 
 of the voyage the Admiral understated the dis- 
 tance sailed. During the day and night of 
 October loth they had made fifty-nine leagues, 
 but he told them forty-four. At this time they 
 began to murmur much, for even the most cer- 
 tain signs had failed. They desired the Admiral 
 
150 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 to return to Spain, but he persuaded them to 
 persevere. By historians of a theatrical turn 
 the existence of this discontent among the sailors 
 has been worked up into a mutiny. 
 
 Undoubted Evidences. 
 
 A green branch was seen on October nth; 
 also reeds, a stick, and a small board. Those 
 on another of the vessels saw a little branch 
 full of dog-roses. At lo o'clock at night Colum- 
 bus saw a light, which he believed was on land. 
 He then called Pero Gutierrez, Groom of the 
 Chamber of the King. He also saw it. The 
 light, which rose and fell, was like that of a 
 small wax candle. When all were assembled 
 to say "the Salve which all the sailors are in 
 the habit of saying and singing in their way", 
 the Admiral admonished them to guard well the 
 stern forecastle and search diligently for land. 
 To him who would first see land the Sovereigns 
 had promised an annuity of 10,000 maravedis. 
 The Admiral offered in addition to this reward 
 a silk doublet. Two hours after midnight the 
 land appeared. It seemed distant about two 
 leagues. 
 
 Outpost of the New World. 
 
 The vessels lowered sails, and lay to, until 
 
THE DISCOVERY 151 
 
 day. Then they found themselves at a small 
 island of the Lucayas, which in the language 
 of the natives was called Guanahani. Afterward 
 Columbus named it San Salvador. It seems 
 certain that his landfall was at what is now Wat- 
 ling Island. On it they saw naked people. The 
 Admiral, in the armed boat, landed with Martin 
 Alonso Pinzon and Vincente Yahez, his brother. 
 He took the royal banner and each of the cap- 
 tains had a banner of the true cross, which he 
 carried on all the ships as a sign. These dis- 
 played the letters F and Y. In the presence of 
 the two captains, a notary, and another repre- 
 sentative of the Sovereigns, Columbus took 
 formal possession for the King and for the 
 Queen. An account of this ceremony was re- 
 duced to writing by the notary. This was what 
 is sometimes called taking documentary posses- 
 sion. Meanwhile the natives were assembling. 
 Presents were liberally distributed among them, 
 and in a little while barter began. At this time 
 the dominant thought of the Admiral was their 
 conversion. 'Tf it please our Lord," says he, 
 "at the time of my departure, I will take six 
 of them from here to your Highnesses that they 
 may learn to speak." Then they were to be re- 
 turned to their own country. On the day follow- 
 ing the discovery there was more barter with 
 
152 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 the natives, who are described by the Admiral 
 as a handsome race. There was also made an 
 attempt to ascertain the resources of the isle as 
 well as of neighboring islands, of which the 
 Spaniards soon learned the existence. 
 
 Admiral Deceived. 
 
 Many days were spent in a careful explora- 
 tion of the adjacent islands. The sight of a 
 gold ring in the nose of a native, and of other 
 ornaments of that metal, started the quest for 
 gold. This was kept up for a long time. Spices 
 were then sent into the interior to see whether 
 the Indians had any knowledge of them. Cuba, 
 of which the Admiral had heard, was believed to 
 be Cipango (Japan). Thence it would be an 
 easy sail to Cathay, where he could deliver to 
 the Grand Khan the messages of Ferdinand and 
 Isabella. This delusion of Columbus is not easy 
 to explain, for he was gazing on naked Indians 
 whose homes he had visited and whose poverty 
 he had beheld with his own eyes. Notwith- 
 standing the evidence of his senses, he seemed 
 still to dream of the great port of Zaitum, with 
 its hundred yearly pepper ships, and of Kinsai, 
 with its oriental splendor — the Kinsai described 
 by Polo and by Marignolli. Indeed, the in- 
 incidents related by Marco Polo, the Admiral 
 
THE DISCOVERY 153 
 
 frequently read into the scenes through which 
 he was passing. 
 
 Wreck of the Santa Maria. 
 
 On November 2d, as we read in the Journal, 
 when the Admiral was exploring the northern 
 coast of Cuba, he sent his Jewish interpreter, 
 Luis de Torres, and one Rodrigo de Jerez to the 
 court of the Grand Khan. Though the ambas- 
 sadors reported only a village of naked Indians, 
 Columbus was not undeceived. Exploration and 
 the search for cinnamon continued. Without 
 completing his examination of Cuba the Admiral 
 went to Hayti. Because of its resemblance to 
 Spain he called it La Isla Espahola (The 
 Spanish Island.).^ It was while continuing its 
 exploration that the flagship of the Admiral, the 
 Santa Maria, ran aground and was wrecked. It 
 appears that after the fatigues of two days and 
 a night, he decided to snatch a little sleep. So 
 did the pilot, who intrusted the helm to a boy. 
 In saving the articles on board, the Indian chief 
 or king and his people rendered very great as- 
 sistance. 
 
 This disaster interfered with subsequent dis- 
 covery and suggested to Columbus the establish- 
 
 iFrom this is derived the English form Hispaniola. 
 
154 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 ment of a colony in Espanola. Forty-three men, 
 all volunteers, were left on the island. These 
 were expected to acquire a knowledge of the 
 Indian language and more carefully to ascertain 
 the resources of the country. The Admiral took 
 every precaution for their comfort. He left 
 with them bread and wine for a year ; also seeds, 
 tools, and arms. Among those who remained 
 were a physician, a gunner, a tailor and many 
 skilled artisans. When taking his departure in 
 the two remaining ships of the little fleet, Colum- 
 bus enjoined upon those first colonists in America 
 implicit obedience to their captain, the cultiva- 
 tion of friendly relations with the Indians, and, 
 above all, that they keep together. Such was 
 the beginning of the fort and settlement which 
 was called Villa de la Navidad (Town of the 
 Nativity).' 
 
 The Dominant Thought. 
 
 The piety or the optimism of Columbus per- 
 ceived in the wreck of the Santa Maria the hand 
 of Providence. If that disaster had not befallen 
 them, he would not have made a settlement on 
 the island. From this he expected much. When 
 
 ^The place was so named because they came there on 
 Christmas day. 
 
THE DISCOVERY 155 
 
 he returns from Castile, as he hopes to do, '1ie 
 will find a tun of gold for which those people 
 he is to leave will have traded, and that they 
 will have found the Mine of gold and the spices, 
 and all that in such a quantity that before three 
 years the Sovereigns will undertake and prepare 
 to go and conquer the Holy Sepulchre {casa 
 santa). 'Because [he says] / thus protested to 
 your Highnesses that all the profit of this, my 
 undertaking , should be spent in the conquest of 
 Jerusalem, and your Highnesses smiled and said 
 that it was pleading to them, and that even zvith- 
 out this, they had the inclination to do it. '''^ 
 
 In these words of the Admiral is revealed the 
 grand purpose of his life. It was for this that 
 he began and prosecuted his quest for gold. If 
 the stories of the Indians were to be credited, 
 there was in the island an abundance of the 
 precious metal. In the interval from December 
 25th, when the disaster occurred, till January 2, 
 1493 every effort was made to ascertain the loca- 
 tion of the gold and to win the confidence of the 
 King and his subjects. As a matter of prudence 
 a fort was built, though the relations with the 
 Indians were extremely cordial. Everything was 
 done to impress on them that the white men were 
 
 iThacher, Columbus, I, 628. 
 
156 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 their friends and that they would protect them 
 against the Caribs. 
 
 On January 3, 1493 the Admiral had completed 
 his preparations for the return voyage. He was 
 very anxious, however, concerning Martin Alonso 
 Pinzon, who had sometime before sailed away 
 and had not yet come back. This accident or 
 this defection on the part of his captain had 
 constantly embarrassed Columbus in his explora- 
 tion. With the remaining ship he feared to 
 incur any risks. 
 
 At sunrise on Friday, January 4th, the Admiral 
 weighed anchor and in a light wind set out on 
 his return. Owing to the lack of a breeze but 
 little progress was made. On the sixth of that 
 month the Journal notices the return of the 
 Pinta. Mention is likewise made of the existence 
 of another island that the Indians called Yamaye 
 (Jamaica). This and Espaiiola were distant 
 from the mainland, perhaps, sixty or seventy 
 leagues. On the return voyage two violent 
 storms were encountered, one near the Azores 
 and the other as they approached the shores of 
 Portugal. Fortunately both were safely weath- 
 ered, and on March 4, 1493 Columbus dropped 
 anchor in the Tagus. Though the celebrated 
 Bartholomew Diaz did not waste any courtesy 
 upon Columbus, when the King and the nobility 
 
THE RETURN VOYAGE 157 
 
 of Portugal learned precisely what had been ac- 
 complished by their involuntary visitor, they 
 showed him much honor. On March 13th the 
 Admiral sailed for Seville. Two days later he 
 had entered the bar of Saltes. Having heard 
 that his Sovereigns were at Barcelona, he pre- 
 pared to go thither. In concluding the Journal 
 of his first voyage he says, in discussing the 
 discovery, ''I hope in our Lord that it will be 
 the greatest honor for Christianity, although it 
 has been accomplished with such ease.'" 
 
 ^In Vol. I of Thacher's Columhus there Is a good transla- 
 tion of the Journal. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE STORY OF THE "NAMELESS 
 PILOT." 
 
 When Columbus had been in his grave for 
 nine and twenty years there was pubHshed at 
 Seville (1535) the General History of the Indies, 
 Historia General de las Indias, by Gonzalo 
 Fernandez de Oviedo. In this work is related 
 for the first time the strange story of a Pilot 
 who was driven by a storm to an island in 
 the Atlantic, far to the westward. He succeeded 
 in returning to the Madeiras and was received 
 by Christopher Columbus in his own house, in 
 the Portuguese island of Porto Santo. There 
 he died after giving Columbus his charts and 
 journals. The historian's opinion is concisely 
 expressed. "But this story goes throughout the 
 world among the common people in the manner 
 which is told," and he adds, "As for myself I 
 think it false." "Para mi yo lo tengo por falso." 
 
 If one consider the date of publication, the 
 next writer to mention this story was Francisco 
 158 
 
THE NAMELESS PILOT 159 
 
 Lopez Gomara, whose Historia General de las 
 Indias was printed in Saragossa in 1553. This 
 work repeats the legend with some additions. 
 
 The Story as Told by Gomara. 
 
 "A caravel sailing on our Ocean-sea en- 
 countered such a powerful and continuous east 
 wind that it was driven to take refuge in a 
 land not known or placed on the map or navi- 
 gators' chart. In returning from that land, it 
 took a much longer time than was consumed 
 in going. And when it arrived here it brought 
 no more than the pilot and three or four other 
 mariners, who as they had become sick from 
 hunger and from toil, died within a short time 
 in the Port. And this is how the Indies were 
 discovered through the misfortune of those who 
 first saw them, since their lives were ended 
 without enjoying the benefits of the discovery 
 and without leaving, at least without possessing, 
 a memorial as to what they were called, or 
 where they were, or in what year they were 
 found. However, it was not through their fault 
 but through the malice of others, or the envy 
 of what is called Fortune. And I do not marvel 
 at the ancient writers who recount very great 
 deeds from little ones, or from obscure begin- 
 nings, since we do not know who, so short a 
 time ago, found the Indies, which is such a new 
 
l6o COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 and remarkable thing. The name of this pilot 
 does not even remain to us since all who were 
 with him died. Some consider this pilot to have 
 been an Andalusian, who was trafificking in the 
 Canaries and in the Madeiras when that long 
 and fatal voyage befell him. Others think he 
 was a Biscayan who traded in England and 
 France ; and others a Portuguese, who was go- 
 ing to or coming from the Mine or India ; which 
 agrees very well with the name which those 
 new lands took and now bear. There are also 
 some who say that the caravel took shelter in 
 Portugal and others say that it was in the 
 Madeiras or some other island of the Azores. 
 Nevertheless no one affirms anything. All agree 
 only in the fact that that pilot died in the house 
 of Christopher Columbus, in whose possession 
 remained the papers belonging to the caravel 
 and the relation of all that long voyage, with 
 the description and the altitude of the lands 
 newly seen and discovered." 
 
 It is evident that Gomara pretended at least 
 to regard the story as true. By an Italian 
 contemporary, Girolamo Benzoni, the Spanish 
 historian is charged with having mixed much 
 falsehood with some truth. Apparently the 
 ethnical element does not enter into this criti- 
 cism or Benzoni would have altogether rejected 
 
ALONSO SANCHEZ i6l 
 
 the attractive legend. Gomara will be referred 
 to again. 
 
 Garcilasso Names the Pilot. 
 
 Between 1601 and 161 5 Antonio Herrera y 
 Tordesillas published at Madrid his celebrated 
 Historia General de los Hechos de los Castil- 
 lanos. "All subsequent historians," says Thacher, 
 "have accorded him the highest praise for care, 
 accuracy and judgment."^ While the volumes 
 of Herrera were in press there was published 
 in Lisbon (1609) a work composed by Gar- 
 cilasso de la Vega, a Peruvian Inca. This his- 
 tory gave not only a more ornate version of 
 the Pilot story than any which had yet appeared, 
 but it actually gave its hero a local habitation 
 and a name. It was Alonso Sanchez of Huelva, 
 who, while sailing from the Canaries to the 
 Madeiras in 1484, became the sport of an aroused 
 hurricane and found himself and seventeen com- 
 panions transported in twenty-nine days to the 
 island that was afterward named Espahola. 
 Then he returned with five survivors to the island 
 of Terceira in the Azores, where he was received 
 by Christopher Columbus in his own house. 
 With this singular story before him Herrera is 
 strangely silent. 
 
 ^Columbus, T, p. 328. 
 
l62 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 This Version Contains Errors. 
 
 According to his own statement Columbus was 
 in Portugal in 1484 and 1485. We known also 
 that he never lived in Terceira ; but one is not 
 seriously expected to examine the generous ad- 
 ditions made by Garcilasso to the legend boldly 
 sketched by Oviedo. Of the five survivors who 
 arrived at Terceira, this historian says: 
 
 "They went to stay in the house of the famous 
 Christopher Columbus, a Genoese, because they 
 knew that he was a great pilot and cosmographer 
 and that he made sailing charts. Columbus re- 
 ceived them very kindly and entertained them 
 all, in order to learn the things which had hap- 
 pened on such a long and strange shipwreck as 
 the one they said they had suffered. And as 
 they arrived in such a shattered condition, not- 
 withstanding all that Columbus did for their 
 entertainment, they could not be restored to 
 health, and all died in his house, leaving him to 
 inherit the fruit of the labors which caused their 
 deaths. Columbus accepted this inheritance with 
 great strength and courage, and having suffered 
 other hardships as great and even greater (since 
 they lasted longer), he set out with the under- 
 taking of giving the New World and its riches 
 to Spalp, according as it was blazoned on his 
 arms, saying : 
 
VERSION OF GARCILASSO 163 
 
 *To Castile and to Leon, Columbus gave a New 
 World; " 
 
 The expression ''the famous Christopher 
 Columbus, a Genoese" is merely a shallow arti- 
 fice designed to give to the story an appearance 
 of reality. If this was not the purpose of the 
 author, his statement is an absurdity, because he 
 knew Columbus as the alleged discoverer of 
 America not as "the famous Christopher Colum- 
 bus, a Genoese." Of course, Columbus was not' 
 then famous. Nor was he known as a ''great 
 pilot and cosmographer." The kindness of 
 Columbus, it appears, was of the interested 
 'sort, for he wanted "to learn the things which 
 had happened on such a long and strange ship- 
 wreck as the one they said they had suffered." 
 "And they all died in his house, leaving him 
 to inherit the fruit of the labors which caused 
 their deaths." At this point Garcilasso missed 
 a splendid opportunity. Why did it not occur 
 to him that, perhaps, Columbus hurried these 
 nameless castaways on to immortality? "Colum- 
 bus," he tells us, "accepted this inheritance with 
 great strength and courage." So weighty and 
 oppressive a secret might well have required 
 great strength. "He set out with the undertak- 
 ing of giving the New ^^^orld and its riches to 
 Spain." It should be remembered, however, that 
 
l64 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 he attempted to force the favor on Portugal 
 before he thought of Spain, and that in a cer- 
 tain contingency even England had occurred to 
 him. The Columbus arms could have borne 
 no such legend. The Admiral was not aware 
 that he had given a new world ,to Castile and 
 Leon, at any rate not before his expiring hours. 
 
 Version of Las Casas. 
 
 The most ample treatment of this subject, 
 however, will be found in the Historia of Las 
 Casas. Among other things that celebrated man 
 says: *Tt was very common to all of us who 
 then lived on this island of Espahola, not 
 only those who came on the first voyage with 
 the Admiral himself, and v/ith Don Christopher 
 Columbus to settle on the island, — among the 
 latter of whom there were some who helped 
 him to make the discovery, — but also to those 
 who a short time after came to the island, to 
 talk over and say that the cause which moved 
 the said Admiral to desire to come and discover 
 these Indies originated in this wise :" 
 
 Las Casas then repeats the story already re- 
 lated. In his narrative he says : "Therefore, 
 the people on this caravel having in this way 
 discovered these countries, if it was so^ in re- 
 turning to Spain stopped in a shattered condi- 
 tion. Counting out those who, on account Oi 
 
OPINION OF LAS CASAS 165 
 
 the great labours, hunger and infirmities died 
 on the way, those who remained, who were very 
 few and sick, it is said came to the island of 
 Madeira, where they all died also." The first 
 sentence of this passage shows clearly that Las 
 Casas did not believe the story which he re- 
 lates and discusses so fully. On this point the 
 clause "if it zvas so/' seems conclusive. This 
 version informs the reader that the Pilot did 
 not die at once but for some time lingered on, 
 and became an inmate in the house of Columbus, 
 ''where it is said that he finally died." 
 
 Legend Current After the Discovery. 
 
 The testimony of Las Casas, one of the 
 grandest characters of that stirring epoch, leaves 
 no doubt that after the discovery of America 
 this curious legend was current. If Las Casas 
 had believed it, he was a man of the courage 
 to declare his opinion. Though he gives it re- 
 spectable consideration, he does not endorse it. 
 On one point the discrepant narratives are very 
 exactly agreed, vi:;., that the Pilot died in the 
 house of Christopher Columbus. The version 
 of Garcilasso de la Vega furnishes some details. 
 These are easily shown to be false. The reader 
 should remember that not only are these details 
 false but that they were collected and arranged 
 one hundred and twenty-five years after the 
 
l66 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 event which they purport to describe. This 
 historian is easily shown to be absurd, because 
 he has something definite to say. Those who 
 speak vaguely are not so easily answered. How- 
 ever, when they venture to be precise, their as- 
 sertions are no more worthy of consideration. 
 When, for example, the nameless Pilot of the 
 historian Gomara was swept from his course, it 
 is said that possibly he "was going to or coming 
 from the Mine or India." Portuguese voyages 
 to the Guinea coast were indeed even then of 
 frequent occurrence, but we have no record that 
 the Portuguese ever sent to India such a caravel 
 as that described. Though they had long been 
 endeavoring to reach India, in 1483-1485 they 
 had not even reached the Orange River. At 
 this point Gomara seems merely to be groping 
 for a plausible explanation. After relating some 
 familiar facts in the career of Columbus and 
 his descendants the consideration of this attrac- 
 tive legend will be resumed. 
 
 Restless Colonists. 
 
 When Columbus, in March, 1496, sailed from 
 Hispaniola for Spain, he left his brother, Don 
 Bartholomew, as Adelantado of the island. The 
 utmost vigilance, ability and generosity, how- 
 ever, could not win for him the gratitude or 
 
COLONIAL DISCONTENT 167 
 
 even the confidence of the Spanish colonists. In 
 every conceivable manner they embarrassed him ; 
 his actions were constantly misrepresented. 
 Finally under the leadership of one Roldan, an 
 official indebted to the discoverer for his ad- 
 vancement, the discontented defied the authority 
 of the Adelantado and roamed over the island, 
 unsettling- the relations established with the 
 natives and committing all sorts of excesses. 
 After an absence of two and one-half years, 
 prolonged by official hostility, the Admiral at 
 last arrived at Isabella. He then saw that in- 
 dolence and war had converted regions of 
 great natural fertility into mere wastes. The 
 habitations of men were, indeed, still to be seen 
 there, but the multitude of human beings who 
 had long dwelt in them were fugitives in forests 
 and caves. The merit, the rank, the magnanim- 
 ity of the Admiral could not impose silence on 
 the tongue of slander. In even the most law- 
 less and licentious course the conspirator Roldan 
 found himself supported by a great majority 
 of the Spanish colonists. Indeed, the baseless 
 accusations of this profligate official received in 
 court circles as much consideration as the repre- 
 sentations of the Admiral himself. Roldan pre- 
 tended that he was the champion of oppressed 
 Spaniards against an obscure family of arrogant 
 foreigners. Columbus found himself powerless 
 
l68 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 in the face of flagrant treason, for neither he 
 nor his brothers knew many Spaniards in whom 
 they could confide. They could only temporize; 
 meanwhile laziness grew into a habit and 
 licentiousness continued unchecked. 
 
 Insurgents Stop Discovery. 
 
 Thus was a lovely and fertile island converted 
 by wicked men into a scene of suffering and 
 poverty. The ruffians responsible for this con- 
 dition circulated the atrocious calumny that the 
 Admiral and his brothers kept the colonists on 
 the island in order to exploit them. This was 
 one of the few instances in all history when 
 accusations were not worthy to be considered 
 even as a ground for inquiry, m.uch less a cause 
 of royal condemnation. Further discoveries con- 
 templated by Columbus were prevented because 
 the military ability of Don Bartholomew might 
 he needed if the rebels pushed matters to ex- 
 tremities. Both the Admiral and the Adelantado 
 had shown extraordinary forbearance in deal- 
 ing with Roldan. 
 
 Columbus Makes an Enemy. 
 
 His self-respect had on one occasion leH 
 Columbus to chastise the insolence of Ximeno 
 Breviesca a minion of Fonseca. He had like- 
 wise opposed the predatory sojourn in a remote 
 
COLONIAL DISCONTENT 169 
 
 part of the island of Alonso de Ojeda, another 
 friend of this powerful Bishop. These sins 
 were venial. The great offense of Columbus 
 remains to be told. He had presumed to criti- 
 cise the tardiness of this prelate in equipping 
 one of the fleets. This trivial circumstance 
 doubtless explains the Bishop's subsequent 
 hostility toward Columbus and his descendants. 
 This is the explanation of Irving. There is no 
 documentary evidence that Fonseca was hostile. 
 Indeed, there exists a document showing that 
 Columbus regarded the Bishop as his friend. 
 This theme is matter for a volume rather than a 
 paragraph, and cannot be examined in this essay. 
 No service that Columbus or his brothers had 
 rendered Spain could disarm the resentment of 
 the common people. In some quarters no wit- 
 ness against the Admiral was so degraded that 
 he was not encouraged. It may well be doubted 
 whether a greater number of complaints were 
 ever made against a public official. Of course, 
 the confident and truthful statements of Colum- 
 bus himself, of the Adelantado and of a few 
 loyal Spanish gentlemen were also forwarded 
 to the Sovereigns, and while they may have 
 tended temporarily to turn the current of opinion 
 in the Admiral's favor, the voice of truth was 
 hushed in the clamors of the rabble. 
 
lyo COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 Brutality of Bobadilla. 
 
 When at length tranquillity seemed to be re- 
 estabhshed in Hispaniola, the consequences of 
 misrepresentation became apparent. It is not 
 necessary in this place to rehearse the story of 
 Bobadilla's arrival and his interpretation of his 
 credentials. His infamous conduct will go 
 down the ages with the glory of Columbus. 
 Bobadilla acquired such fame as did the fool 
 who fired the Ephesian dome. Presently his 
 official acts will be briefly noticed. In this con- 
 nection but one further observation appears to 
 be required, namely, that that the hostility of the 
 Admiral's enemies pursued his son and succes- 
 sor, Diego, who before the deposition of his 
 father had been associated with him in the 
 government. 
 
 Ferdinand Regretted His Agreement. 
 
 From the history of that crowded age it is 
 not difficult to collect proof of the eagerness 
 of Ferdinand to resume those rights and privi- 
 leges which had been solemnly granted to Colum- 
 bus and his heirs. That, however, was not so 
 easily accomplished, if the King expected to 
 find a decent pretence, for even in the most 
 difficult circumstances both the Admiral and his 
 brother, Don Bartholomew, had acted with the 
 greatest prudence. Though there was no for- 
 
A STRANGE COMMISSION 171 
 
 feiture of any rights or privileges, never-resting 
 calumny supplied at least a pretext for relieving 
 Columbus of his office of viceroy and still later 
 of suspending other rights guaranteed by The 
 Capitulation. 
 
 It is true that Columbus had asked the Sov- 
 ereigns to send out a person learned in the law 
 to act as chief judge, and that he had also 
 requested the appointment of an impartial um- 
 pire to inquire into the controversy between him 
 and Roldan. Ferdinand commissioned Don 
 Francisco de Bobadilla to decide in matters re- 
 lating to the functions of the Admiral and his 
 brothers. If he found them guilty, he was em- 
 powered to supersede them! It is not necessary 
 to inquire into the qualifications of Bobadilla. 
 It is sufficient to state that it was possible for 
 him to derive wealth and power from the con- 
 viction of Columbus. 
 
 Condemned Before Investigation. 
 
 It is not a matter of surprise, then, that on 
 the interested rumors which reached Bobadilla 
 before he entered the harbor of San Domingo, 
 he had already decided the case against Colum- 
 bus. AMiile his caravel was standing off the 
 port waiting for a favoring breeze, those who 
 went out in canoes were given information con- 
 
172 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 cerning the nature of the commissioner's powers 
 and a hint as to his purpose. Within a few 
 days Bobadilla had become the idol of the mob. 
 By seizing the government before he had in- 
 vestigated the conduct of Columbus the com- 
 missioner reversed the order of his written in- 
 structions. He took up his residence in the 
 house of the Admiral, who was absent in another 
 part of the island, seized upon his arms, jewels, 
 plate, gold and horses; also upon his letters 
 and manuscripts, public as well private. In 
 a word, Bobadilla acted as if the case trumped 
 up against the discoverer had been prejudged 
 by some one high in authority in Spain, He 
 not only spoke of Columbus with disrespect but 
 he boasted that he was empowered to send him 
 home in chains. 
 
 Downfall of Columbus Foretold. 
 
 The reader should remember that the downfall 
 of the Admiral had been foretold by Ojeda, a 
 friend of Fonseca. When at last the Admiral 
 heard of the conduct of Bobadilla, he believed that 
 it was merely a case of lawless usurpation. He 
 could not believe that this was the royal apprecia- 
 tion of his services. When contrasted with his 
 next act, all former proceedings of the commis- 
 sioner were marked by the utmost decorum. He 
 
A PRISONER 
 
 173 
 
 sent letters of civility and promises of favor to 
 Roldan and other enemies of Columbus, the very 
 men whose alleged offences he had been sent out 
 to investigate. At that time there must have been 
 in Spain a very accurate knowledge of conditions 
 in Hispaniola, for Bobadilla knew well what was 
 expected by his masters. Since his arrival he 
 had been almost solely employed in inflaming the 
 minds of the colonists against Columbus, and in 
 this ignoble work he met with almost perfect 
 success. 
 
 In his absence Columbus had been stripped of 
 all the emblems of authority. He had endeavored 
 to open a correspondence with the usurper, but 
 his letters were ignored. At length he concluded 
 to meet Bobadilla and he came into the umpire's 
 presence almost unattended. As had happened 
 in the case of his brother, Diego, the Admiral 
 was promptly put in irons. Later Don Bartholo- 
 mew submitted quietly to the same indignity. 
 The brothers were confined separately on board 
 one of the caravels. Bobadilla neither visited 
 them nor allowed them to be visited. They were 
 kept in ignorance of the charges against them, 
 though every miscreant in the island was per- 
 mitted to prepare accusations. In fact, it soon 
 became known that an accusation against Colum- 
 bus was one of the readiest ways to the confidence 
 
174 
 
 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 of Bobadilla. Any evidence of opposition to the 
 Admiral or to his brothers was regarded at once 
 as a proof of spirit and of merit. When, in his 
 judgment, Bobadilla had brought together enough 
 testimony to justify his proceedings, Columbus 
 and his brothers, all ironed, were sent home to 
 Spain. "The caravels," says Irving, "set sail 
 early in October, bearing off Columbus shackled 
 like the vilest of culprits, amidst the scoffs and 
 shouts of a miscreant rabble, who took a brutal 
 joy in heaping insults on his venerable head, and 
 sent curses after him from the shores of the 
 island he had so recently added to the civilized 
 world."! 
 
 Humane Officials. 
 
 Alonzo de Villejo was appointed to take charge 
 of the prisoners and instructed to deliver them 
 into the hands of Fonseca or his uncle. This 
 fact has given rise to much speculation. Villejo, 
 it appears, was not the sort of person that 
 Bobadilla believed, for he treated his illustrious 
 prisoner with great humanity. Andreas Martin, 
 the master of the caravel, also showed much sym- 
 pathy with the Admiral in his misfortunes. If 
 Columbus had permitted them to do so, these 
 
 '^Christopher Columhus, Knickerbocker edition, III, 214- 
 215. 
 
A PRISONER 
 
 175 
 
 officials would have promptly relieved him of his 
 irons. However, he refused this kindness on the 
 ground that he had been commanded by letter to 
 submit to whatever Bobadilla should order. 
 
 Astonishment was not greater or more general 
 when Columbus, returning from his first voyage, 
 brought with him the strange inhabitants of a 
 new world than when he was brought back a 
 prisoner and in chains. In Cadiz and in the rich 
 and powerful city of Seville there was an out- 
 burst of indignation that resounded through 
 Spain. The persecution of Columbus had been 
 carried to a reckless length. By their very vio- 
 lence his enemies had defeated their cherished 
 object. Even those who a short time before had 
 been denouncing him were as prompt to repro- 
 bate his treatment. 
 
 Admiral's Reputation in Espanola. 
 
 Before Bobadilla's account had reached the 
 Sovereigns, the story was known through the 
 ay a (governess) of Prince Juan, a lady highly 
 esteemed by Isabella. To her Columbus had 
 written an account of his wrongs. Among other 
 energetic statements he observed to this distin- 
 guished person, "Such is the evil'name which I 
 have acquired, that if I were to build hospitals and 
 churches, they would be called dens of robbers." 
 
176 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 When Isabella learned of the wrongs suffered 
 by Columbus, her generous heart was filled with 
 sympathy and indignation. The selfish Ferdinand 
 did not attempt to resist the current of public 
 opinion. The Sovereigns ordered that two thou- 
 sand ducats should be advanced to meet the 
 Admiral's expenses ; they wrote him a letter in 
 terms of gratitude and affection inviting him to 
 court. They had previously directed that the 
 three prisoners be set at liberty. In a word, they 
 endeavored to convince the world that the im- 
 prisonment of Columbus was not only without 
 their authority but contrary to their wishes. 
 
 The Admiral was cheered once more by the 
 professions of his Sovereigns. He anticipated 
 the speedy restoration of his rights and dignities, 
 but in this he was doomed to be disappointed. 
 The reader must turn to the biographies of 
 Columbus for an account of his appearance at 
 court in the month of December, 1500. 
 
 Injured by Baseless Charges. 
 
 No public notice was ever taken of the charges 
 sent home by Bobadilla. The Sovereigns con- 
 tinued to show honor to the ruined Admiral, but 
 calumny had done its work. He was destined 
 never to return in triumph to San Domingo. In 
 the mind of Ferdinand the grotesque accusations 
 
ROYAL AGREEMENT lyy 
 
 against the discoverer were not without influence. 
 He never had the honesty to give Columbus an 
 opportunity of meeting his accusers face to face. 
 He could have covered them with confusion, 
 and the King knew it. Moreover, after a vindi- 
 cation Ferdinand would no longer have even the 
 appearance of a pretence for withholding those 
 ofifices and privileges enumerated in The Capitu- 
 lation. 
 
 The Capitulation. 
 
 On the death of the discoverer, in the year 
 1506, his son Diego succeeded to his rights as 
 viceroy and governor of the New World. These 
 were enumerated in the first part of the written 
 agreement between Columbus and his Sovereigns. 
 This portion of what is familiarly known as 
 The Capitulation, La Capitulacion, executed 
 April 17, 1492, provided as follows : 
 
 Article one, that he should be Admiral of such 
 islands and mainland as he or his heirs should 
 discover or acquire with such prerogatives as 
 belonged to the office of High Admiral of Castile : 
 
 Article tzvo, that he should be Viceroy and 
 Governor-General in all those islands or main- 
 lands he might discover or acquire, w4th power to 
 name three persons for each oflice under him, 
 from which three persons the Sovereign must 
 select one-' 
 
1^8 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 Article three, that he should have a tenth of 
 the profits arising from buying, bartering, dis- 
 covering, acquiring, or obtaining merchandise 
 of whatsoever kind : 
 
 Article four, that he should in his quality of 
 Admiral have in himself or by deputy sole 
 cognizance or judicial jurisdiction of any suit 
 growing out of trade or traffic in the lands and 
 islands to be discovered. 
 
 Article five, that whenever and as often as 
 ships should be equipped for traffic, he should 
 have the right to furnish one eighth of all that 
 should be expended in the equipment and have 
 and enjoy one eighth of the profits which should 
 result from such equipment.^ 
 
 Rights of Admiral's Son Withheld. 
 
 If the frank and generous nature of Don 
 Diego marked him as an easy victim for crafty 
 men, his integrity and ability carried him through 
 many a situation that would have overwhelmed a 
 person more artful but less upright. In the suc- 
 cession of difficulties which accompanied him 
 ever after, he was sustained by the irresistible 
 power of truth. After the death of his father, 
 Don Diego, as lineal successor, urged upon the 
 King the restitution of family offices and privi- 
 
 iThacher, Columbus, I, 438. 
 
SUSPENDED RIGHTS 179 
 
 leges, which had been suspended during the last 
 years of the Admiral's life. If Ferdinand could 
 forget the obligations of gratitude and justice to 
 Columbus, he could not be seriously expected to 
 listen to the solicitations of his son. For two 
 years Don Diego pressed his suit with energy 
 but not with success. At last he asked boldly 
 "why his Majesty would not grant him as a 
 favor that which was his right, and why he hesi- 
 tated to confide in one who had been reared in 
 his own house." Ferdinand rephed that in him 
 he could confide, but he could not repose so 
 great a trust in his children and successors. To 
 this Don Diego rejoined, that it was contrary to 
 all reason and justice to make him sufifer for 
 the sins of his children, who might never be 
 born.^ 
 
 Strange Assertion of Ferdinand. 
 
 Though reason and justice were not sufficient 
 to move Ferdinand, he finally consented at the 
 solicitation of Don Diego to allow him to pursue 
 his claims in the ordinary course of law. For 
 several years this matter was pending before the 
 Council of the Indies. We are now concerned 
 with the details of its progress only so far as to 
 notice one of the objections urged by Ferdinand 
 
 iHerrera, Hist. Ind., decad. ii, lib. VII, Cap. 4". 
 
l8o COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 to justify his opposition to the claims ; namely, 
 that Columbus "was not the original discoverer 
 of Terra Firma, but only subsequently of certain 
 portions of it." This assertion was disproved 
 by overwhelming testimony. Finally the Council 
 of the Indies unanimously decided in favor of the 
 claims of Diego. Ferdinand, however, was not 
 yet defeated, for he discovered various pretexts 
 for delaying the cession of those rights awarded 
 by the Council. This position, which appeared 
 impregnable, was unexpectedly turned by an 
 interesting event in the career of Diego. He had 
 won the hand of Dona Maria de Toledo, niece of 
 the powerful Duke of Alva. The rights which 
 had been withheld from the son of Columbus 
 were cheerfully promised to the son-in-law of 
 Don Fabrique de Toledo. Nevertheless, Ferdi- 
 nand had not made a complete surrender; he 
 merely posted himself on new ground. 
 
 Honored in His Punishment. 
 
 Don Diego was appointed to succeed Nicholas 
 de Ovando, who was recalled from the Indies. 
 By Isabella that official had been singled out for 
 merited punishment. Ferdinand, on the other 
 hand, regarded his efficiency with favor, for 
 when Ovando returned to Spain, it was as com- 
 mander of the fleet that had taken out his suc- 
 cessor. In the nature of things Ovando as w^ell 
 
THE ADMIRALS SON i8[ 
 
 as his friends both in the old and the New 
 World were certain to form a nucleus of opposi- 
 tion to Don Diego. Ferdinand, who shared their 
 sentiments, could not be expected to discourage 
 their activity. We shall see presently to what 
 it led. 
 
 Don Diego a Colonial Ruler. 
 
 On June 9, 1509, the new Admiral with his 
 aristocratic wife, his brother, Don Fernando, 
 and his two uncles, Don Bartholomew and Don 
 Diego, sailed for the New World. Notwithstand- 
 ing the numerous retinue of cavaliers, which 
 accompanied him, and the splendors in which 
 his reign began, it was soon apparent that Fer- 
 dinand had no intention of making him a viceroy 
 in reality. Without consulting Don Diego, Fer- 
 dinand divided the coast of Darien into two 
 portions and appointed a governor for each. 
 Alonzo de Ojeda was assigned to the eastern, 
 Diego de Nicuesa to the western province. The 
 titular viceroy justly regarded this as an in- 
 fringement of the capitulations granted and con- 
 firmed to his father and his heirs. Justice would 
 have chosen for this appointment Bartholomew 
 Columbus who, with his more famous brother, 
 had made the discovery of the Darien coast, and 
 had suffered much in the enterprise. Even the 
 ability of Don Bartholomew pointed to him as 
 
i82 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 the proper officer, but his bold and lofty spirit 
 made him unsuitable for the projects which this 
 monarch had on hand. When it was too late, 
 Ferdinand showed a more enlightened apprecia- 
 tion of Bartholomew, who had long been holding 
 the office of Adelantado of the Indies. 
 
 Enemies. 
 
 In a few paragraphs it is scarcely possible 
 even to suggest the nature of the questions that 
 confronted the new Admiral. The King's treas- 
 urer, one Miguel Pasamonte, headed a powerful 
 faction in opposition. A few of the followers of 
 Roldan, too, placed themselves in the ranks of 
 his enemies. It was charged that Diego designed 
 to make himself monarch of the island. The 
 Bishop Fonseca, who was said to have been hos- 
 tile to the discoverer, was now the most trusted 
 officer of Ferdinand and naturally would regard 
 seriously the calumnies circulated against his son. 
 Because of his humanity Don Diego arrayed 
 against him a more numerous and, perhaps, even 
 a more influential class, namely, those who were 
 interested in exploiting the natives. He was op- 
 posed to the repartimiento (distribution) of 
 Indians among planters and others. Though 
 he ameliorated the condition of the natives, he 
 was unable to abolish this system, which con- 
 tinued long to be the source of every species of 
 
THE ADMIRAL'S SON 183 
 
 inhumanity. By removing the more cruel of 
 the superintendents he offended not only the dis- 
 placed officials but all their friends. Slanders 
 travelled to Spain even with the joyful tidings 
 of the bloodless conquest of Cuba. Though 
 Don Diego had succeeded in every enterprise 
 that he undertook, he found it necessary to ask 
 permission to visit the court of Ferdinand in 
 order to refute the calumnies that had been sent 
 home as well as to vindicate his official conduct. 
 Leaving the Vice-Queen, Dona Maria, and his 
 worthy uncle, the Adelantado, in charge of af- 
 fairs, he took his departure on the ninth of April, 
 
 15 1 5. Not long afterward his distinguished 
 uncle, Don Bartholomew, died at an age that 
 must have been somewhat advanced. On re- 
 ceiving tidings of this event Ferdinand is said to 
 have expressed great concern. 
 
 Good Intentions of Charles V. 
 
 While Don Diego was assiduously seeking an 
 audience to vindicate himself at court, King 
 Ferdinand himself died on the 23d of January, 
 
 1 5 16. Cardinal Ximenes, acting in the absence 
 of the new King, declined to decide on the repre- 
 sentations and claims of the Admiral. Finally, 
 in 1520, he obtained from the Emperor Charles 
 V a recognition of his innocence of all the 
 charges against him. The nev/ ruler endeavored 
 
l84 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 to establish harmony among the officers of his 
 government, but Pasamonte and his band were 
 implacable. Libels still flowed from their vindic- 
 tive pens. In 1523, only three years after his 
 return to Hispaniola, the Admiral returned once 
 more to Spain in order to disperse a new cloud 
 of calumnies raised by the indefatigable Pasa- 
 monte. Worn out in defending himself against 
 the baseless charges of hereditary enemies and 
 in fruitless efforts to get a full acknowledgment 
 of his claims, Don Diego expired on February 
 23, 1526. 
 
 Don Luis becomes Admiral. 
 
 Left alone in the New World, and in the midst 
 of enemies, the Vice-Queen returned to Spain, 
 where her energy gained for her son, Don Luis, 
 the title of Admiral of the Indies. Charles V 
 could not be prevailed on, however, to confer 
 on Don Luis the title of viceroy, although the 
 dignity had been decreed to his father. Being 
 aware of the fate of his father and being less 
 determined in support of his rights, he abandoned 
 his claim to the viceroyalty for the title of Duke 
 of Veragua and Marquis of Jamaica. The one 
 tenth of the produce of the Indies he commuted 
 for a pension of 1,000 doubloons of gold. Leav- 
 ing no legitimate son, he was succeeded by his 
 nephew Diego. This event provoked some litiga- 
 
A GREAT LAWSUIT 185 
 
 tion, but that was ended by the marriage of two 
 among the more influential of the rival claimants. 
 In 1578, Diego died without issue. With him 
 the legitimate line of Columbus became extinct. 
 
 A Great Lawsuit. 
 
 Compared with the controversy that ensued 
 after the event mentioned, all previous litigation 
 was like the skirmishing of outposts before 
 armies engage. With the extinction of the legiti- 
 mate line of Columbus there arose over the 
 estates and dignities descended from him one of 
 the most important lawsuits that the world has 
 witnessed. One sister of Don Diego and the 
 children of another advanced their claims. To 
 these parties was added Bernard Colombo of 
 Cogoleto, who claimed as a descendant of Bar- 
 tholomew Columbus, a brother of the discoverer. 
 This claim was rejected because the Adelantado 
 left no acknowledged descendants. Another in- 
 teresting claimant was Baldassare Colombo, of 
 the house of Cuccaro. He maintained that 
 Domenico Colombo, Lord of Cuccaro, was the 
 father of Christopher Columbus, the Admiral. 
 The ancestor of Baldassare Colombo, from his 
 own statement, died in 1456, whereas it was 
 shown that the father of the discoverer, also 
 named Domenico Colombo, was still living more 
 than thirty years later. This essay is not further 
 
i86 COLUMBUS- AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 concerned with either the fate of the applicants 
 or the disposition of their claims. On December 
 2, 1608, the Council of the Indies finally de- 
 cided this celebrated case. The male line was 
 declared to be extinct. Don Nuno Gelves de 
 Portugallo was put in possession, and became 
 Duke of Veragua. 
 
 Credulity of the Colonists. 
 
 Perhaps enough has been said to prove that 
 the enemies of Christopher Columbus and of his 
 descendants would have seized with eagerness 
 upon the legend of the nameless pilot, if they 
 did not fear to be laughed to scorn. We have 
 already noticed their brutal treatment of the 
 Admiral. Their activity discovered on the part 
 of his son, Diego, every trifling omission and 
 magnified it into a dangerous delinquency; their 
 antipathy exaggerated every imprudent action 
 into the appearance of a crime ; indeed, it placed 
 the most unfavorable construction upon a pro- 
 posed policy of which time will never dbubt the 
 humanity. To many early officials in Hispaniola 
 doors became drawbridges, windows grew to look 
 like loopholes, and peaceful walls took on the 
 frown of bastions.^ 
 
 lAmong the absurd misrepresentations of the conduct 
 of Don Diego was one which suspected that a large, many- 
 windowed house that he was building, was intended for a 
 fortress. 
 
AN UNUSED ARGUMENT 187 
 
 The time, the place, the circumstances de- 
 manded a dead pilot. A ghost that could re- 
 hearse a friendly tale were worth whole archi- 
 pelagos. Though often gravelled for matter 
 against Columbus and his descendants, the royal 
 magicians never dared to raise this spectre. In- 
 deed, to Ferdinand as to his more famous grand- 
 son Charles the shade of Alonso Sanchez proved 
 -of small worth. \Mien the chief export from His- 
 paniola was calumny, why was this fundamental 
 objection overlooked? We fail to find it even 
 named among the multitude of arguments that 
 for generations perplexed and oppressed the 
 Council of the Indies. 
 
 Pilot Story Favored by Vignaud. 
 
 The writer is aware that with some Columbian 
 students the story of the nameless pilot has found 
 higher favor. In discussing the development of 
 the great idea of Columbus, M. Vignaud has 
 assigned to it a place of prominence.^ Doubt- 
 less he would consider himself guilty of a dis- 
 location had he discussed it in any other con- 
 nection ; but even though he could plead in justi- 
 fication the example of the whole line of his- 
 torians back to the days of Oviedo, it would 
 
 Wignaud, Histoire Critique dc la Gra-nde Enterprise de 
 Vhristophe Colomb, II, 2X1-233. 
 
l88 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 only prove that in the realm of history servility 
 is more common than science. It is not, how- 
 ever, a slavish following of antique chronicles 
 that has brought M. Vignaud to his present 
 opinion. He does not worship at the shrine fre- 
 quented by the multitude. Indeed, of all the 
 biographers of Columbus he is the boldest, the 
 greatest iconoclast and certainly one of the best 
 scholars among contemporary Columbians. 
 
 Toscanelli Correspondence Challenged. 
 
 And precisely what is claimed by those who 
 believe the alleged adventures of Alonso San- 
 chez? Merely that at Terceira, or somewhere 
 else, the grateful pilot, whilst death was sealing 
 up his eyes, bequeathed to Columbus the journals 
 of his fatal voyage and a chart on which he had 
 plotted his vagrant course. This secret it was 
 that sustained Columbus even in the gaze of 
 queens and kings. When M. Vignaud is re- 
 minded that even before the earliest date assigned 
 to the pilot's alleged discovery (1483) Columbus 
 had been discussing with Toscanelli the feasi- 
 bility of a westward voyage to Cathay, the his- 
 torian pronounces the correspondence between 
 these men a fabrication. It matters little that 
 M. Vignaud names no fabricator, for we may 
 
CANON MARTINS 189 
 
 have an undoubted demonstration of the exist- 
 ence of forgery and yet be unable to discover its 
 author. The original correspondent of Tos- 
 canelli is said to have been one Fernam Martins, 
 a Canon of Lisbon. Him M. Vignaud has ban- 
 ished from the field of discussion, on the ground 
 that no such person ever existed. In other 
 words, the Florentine astronomer never wrote to 
 Columbus concerning a westward voyage to the 
 East, and there was no Fernam Martins to whom 
 he could have written. Nevertheless, some able 
 investigators believe that there was a Lisbon 
 canon whose acts and whose movements describe 
 Fernam Martins. At any rate, the point is a 
 controverted one. To put the matter concisely, 
 it is necessary to prove the Toscanelli corres- 
 pondence a fabrication in order to sustain the 
 pilot story. This subject has already been dis- 
 cussed in chapter VII. 
 
 Legends to be Treated Separately. 
 
 In the opinion of the writer it would be more 
 scientific to discuss in one place the facts in the 
 development of the idea of a westward voyage 
 to the orient and to consider separately, and 
 separately to label all European legends of trans- 
 Atlantic discovery. If it be contended that it is 
 absurd to consider in one view an aspect in the 
 
IQO COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 development of the idea of Columbus and his 
 experience as a colonial ruler, the reply of the 
 writer is that the time and place of its origin 
 subjects the pilot story to suspicion. The legend 
 sprang up in an era fruitful in calumny. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 ENGLAND'S CLAIM TO NORTH 
 AMERICA. 
 
 Though Cabot was not a predecessor of Co- 
 lumbus and, therefore, a discussion of his ex- 
 ploits may seem out of place in this essay, it is 
 believed that the following pages will be of assist- 
 ance to the general reader. It is scarcely neces- 
 sary to call attention to the relation between 
 this section and the concluding paragraph of 
 chapter III. Notwithstanding the fact that our 
 school histories are sufficiently clear as to the 
 importance of Cabot's voyages, the ideas of many 
 persons, otherwise intelligent, on this matter ap- 
 pear a little obscure. 
 
 Cabot's Voyage Suggested by Success of 
 Columbus. 
 
 With serious students and serious readers of 
 history unsupported assertions have little weight. 
 At every step they require proof. It seems 
 necessary, therefore, to give reasons for one's 
 belief in the important statement that John 
 
 191 
 
192 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 Cabot's first expedition was suggested by the 
 example of Columbus. These are best collected 
 from English records, from the despatches of 
 Spanish and of Italian ambassadors then in Eng- 
 land, and from the correspondence of intelligent 
 foreign merchants living in London. In that age 
 Portugal, Spain and the Italian states surpassed 
 England in the extent of their commerce. The 
 Italian was the cosmopolitan of that era. 
 
 On January 21, 1496, Dr. Puebla, the Spanish 
 ambassador in England, informed Ferdinand and 
 Isabella that a person ''like Columbus" had just 
 submitted to Henry VII a project for trans- 
 Atlantic discoveries. These were to be under- 
 taken ''without prejudice to Spain and Portugal." 
 On the 5th of April, 1496, the King granted 
 letters patent to John Cabot and his three sons, 
 Lewis, Sebastian and Sanctus. By this instru- 
 ment they were empowered "to seeke out, dis- 
 cover, and find whatsoever isles, countreys, re- 
 gions or provinces of the heathen and infidels, 
 whatsoever they be, and in what part of the 
 world soever they be, zvhich before this time have 
 been unknown to all Christians/'^ 
 
 Apart from the communication of Puebla, the 
 very application of Cabot shows a familiarity 
 
 iHakluyt VII, 143. 
 
SEBASTIAN CABOT 
 
 193 
 
 with the grants made to Columbus by the Spanish 
 Sovereigns. He asked for authority to make 
 discoveries in the eastern, western and northern 
 seas and for "dominion over any islands so 
 discovered."^ The omission of ''southern seas" 
 from the patent shows the purpose of Henry VH 
 not to enter those fields of exploration in which 
 the rulers of Spain and Portugal were then 
 engaged. 
 
 In May, 1497, the expedition sailed. It con- 
 sisted of "one small ship and eighteen men, 
 nearly all Englishmen from Bristol : — "uno 
 piccolo naviglo e XVIII persone, quasi tutti 
 inglesi, e da Bristol."^ 
 
 Testimony of Sebastian Cabot. 
 
 This paper is in no way interested in the 
 details of either the equipment of, or the dis- 
 covery made by the great fellow-townsman of 
 Columbus, but rather with the motives which in- 
 spired his bold undertaking. His son, Sebastian, 
 in most matters not a very credible witness, is, 
 under the circumstances, a very satisfactory one. 
 During a part of a long lifetime he constantly en- 
 deavored to efface all traces of his father's ex- 
 
 iBourne, Spain in America, 55 ; Hakluyt VII, 143. 
 ^Second despatch of Soncino, the Milanese ambassador to 
 London. 
 
194 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 ploits and he took to himself entire credit for the 
 success of the first expedition. He does not, how- 
 ever, as we might expect from his character, claim 
 the sole merit of having conceived that project 
 but, on the contrary, admits that he conceived the 
 notion while in England, tip on hearing the dis- 
 covery made by Columbus discussed at the court 
 of Henry VII . Hakluyt, VII, 147-148, prints 
 this discourse of Sebastian Cabot: "When my 
 father departed from Venice many yeeres since 
 to dwell in England, to follow the trade of 
 marchandises, he tooke me with him to the citie 
 of London, while I was very young, yet having 
 neverthelesse some knowledge of letters of hu- 
 manitie, and of the Sphere. And when my father 
 died in that time when newes were brought that 
 Don Christopher Columbus Genuese had dis- 
 covered the coasts of India, whereof was great 
 talke in all the Court of king Henry the 7, who 
 then raigned in so much that all men with great 
 admiration affirmed it to be a thing more divine 
 then humane, to saile by the West into the East 
 where spices growe, by a way that was never 
 knowen before, by this fame and report there 
 increased in my heart a great flame of desire to 
 attempt some notable thing. ..." 
 
 When Sebastian Cabot made this admission, 
 the relation between the first voyage of John 
 Cabot and the first voyage of Columbus must 
 
SEBASTIAN CABOT I95 
 
 have been a matter of common knowledge. 
 The reader may put what construction he chooses 
 upon Sebastian's assertion that his father died 
 about 1493. Raimondo di Soncino, the Duke of 
 Milan's ambassador in London, states that John 
 Cabot, having heard how Spain and Portugal 
 were acquiring new lands, thought of conferring 
 a similar favor upon the King of England.^ In- 
 deed, it is from the pen of this diplomat that we 
 derive all our knowledge of the genesis of Cabot's 
 project. He tells us further that the navigator 
 had a map of the world and a globe, and that 
 earlier in life he had been in Mecca, where he 
 learned that spices came from the remoter East. 
 He believed that all the spices in the world grew 
 in Cipango (Japan), which he expected to reach. 
 H his efforts were successful, "he hoped to make 
 London a greater market for spices than Alex- 
 andria."- The world knows now what this 
 Italian sailor did for England. An entry in the 
 privy-purse accounts shows that on August loth 
 the frugal Henry Vll gave "To hym that found 
 the New Isle, iio."^ Later in the same year, 
 however, he was given in addition a pension of 
 £20 a year, to be paid out of the customs' re- 
 ceipts of Bristol. 
 
 iRamusio, Vol. I, fo. 374. 
 ^Bourne, Spain in America, 57. 
 ^Weai'c^ Cabot's Discovery, 124. 
 
196 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 Little Known of John Cabot. 
 
 Whether Sebastian Cabot was on either the 
 voyage of 1497 or that of 1498 is a controverted 
 point. Some authorities go so far as to state 
 that he was never on ,the 'coast of North 
 America, and that his only connection with the 
 New World was his command, in 1526, of an un- 
 successful expedition to the region of the river 
 La Plata, in South America. Of Sebastian 
 Cabot we know much. His father still remains, 
 after vast research, little more than the shadow 
 of a name. He was not, like his great com- 
 patriot, Columbus, a fluent writer, but left his 
 fame as a rich legacy to his son Sebastian. His 
 attitude toward his father has been told, and to 
 the writer it seems to rest on much more than 
 the gossip of Ramusio. England, to whom John 
 Cabot gave a continent, has preserved few 
 memorials concerning him. Columbus was much 
 more fortunate. Spanish records of his achieve- 
 ments are abundant. Moreover, unlike Sebastian 
 Cabot, Ferdinand Columbus bestowed the most 
 pious care in illustrating the exploits of his 
 father. For a time, it is true, the English failed 
 to follow up the discoveries of Cabot, but when 
 they were prepared to do so, men of affairs and 
 writers, such as Hakluyt, promptly claimed 
 North America by reason of priority of dis- 
 
ENGLAND'S TITLE 197 
 
 covery. Hakluyt, \'ol. VIII, p. 35, says that 
 the Cabots "were the first finders out of all that 
 great tract of land stretching from the cape of 
 Florida unto those islands which we now call 
 Newfoundland; all which they brought and an- 
 nexed unto the crowne of England." After- 
 ward that claim was never forgotten. In his 
 two voyages John Cabot may have traced the 
 outline of much of North America. From the 
 second, that of 1498, he is believed never to 
 have returned— at any rate, no man knows his 
 resting place. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 CONSEQUENCES OF THE DISCOVERY. 
 
 As we have seen in a preceding chapter, the 
 little caravel of Columbus encountered a second 
 tempest as it approached the coast of Portugal. 
 This it was that compelled the daring mariners to 
 seek a haven in the mouth of the river Tagus. 
 The tidings told by them were soon known in 
 every part of the kingdom. Indeed, before the 
 Admiral resumed his voyage the news had 
 travelled far. His reception in Spain and the sub- 
 sequent incidents of his career are among the 
 most familiar topics in history. It is not the 
 object of this section to tell over this eventful 
 story, but briefly to enumerate some of the larger 
 consequences of the discovery. 
 
 Returns to Palos. 
 
 Chapter VIII brought the progress of Colum- 
 bus back to the bar of Saltes. During the after- 
 noon of March 15, 1493, the Admiral cast anchor 
 in the harbor of Palos. One can hardly imagine 
 
 198 
 
SPREADING THE NEWS 
 
 199 
 
 the rejoicings in that Httle port. The entire 
 population turned out to welcome Columbus with 
 a procession, and, in the words of his son Ferdi- 
 nand, to give 'Hhanks to our Lord for so great 
 favor and victory."^ Some among the list of 
 immortals who had volunteered to accompany 
 the Admiral into strange seas were not with 
 those who witnessed his triumph, but concern- 
 ing the fate of those left in the Indies there were 
 no misgivings. 
 
 When near the Azores, and shipwreck seemed 
 imminent, the Admiral wrote to Luis de Sant- 
 angel and Gabriel Sanchez, both high officers of 
 the government, an account of the expedition. 
 One letter is merely a duplicate of the other. 
 The contents of these communications soon be- 
 came known in Spain, as the news of the dis- 
 covery was already known in Portugal. Peter 
 Martyr had a share in spreading the intelligence 
 through Italy. 
 
 Among foreign potentates Pope Alexander VI, 
 himself a Spaniard, was the first to be informed 
 of the discovery. While in making this announce- 
 ment the Sovereigns mention the existence in the 
 new islands of gold and spices, they declare that 
 discovery and the extension of Christianity were 
 the motives that influenced them to equip the 
 
 ^Ferdinand Columbus, Historie, 124. 
 
2CO COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 expedition. Of a shorter route to the Indies 
 they say nothing. 
 
 Treaty of Tordesillas. 
 
 In his interview with Columbus the King of 
 Portugal barely suggested that the recent dis- 
 coveries might be within his jurisdiction as Lord 
 of Guinea. The possibility of a conflict of inter- 
 ests led the Pope, when afterward invited to act 
 as umpire, to delimit two spheres of influence. 
 His Holiness did not, as is often said, divide the 
 world between Spain and Portugal. The ar- 
 rangement then made was not perfectly satisfac- 
 tory to Spain. Nor was King John of Portugal 
 entirely satisfied with the location of the line of 
 demarcation. Therefore, on June 7, 1494, by 
 the treaty of Tordesillas, it was agreed between 
 Spain and Portugal that the line should be drawn 
 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands. 
 Subsequently this change gave Portugal a titlq 
 to Brazil. The full consideration of this sub- 
 ject belongs to early American diplomatic history. 
 
 Sunny Hours. 
 
 ''Blest and thrice blest the Roman 
 Who sees Rome's brightest day. 
 
 Who sees that long victorious pomp 
 Wind down the Sacred Way." 
 
SECOND EXPEDITION 201 
 
 Spain had never beheld such a triumph as, 
 in April, 1493, stretched from Seville toward 
 Barcelona. As the cavalcade wound its way 
 along the highways, people from every town and 
 hamlet crowded in to catch a glimpse of the 
 Discoverer, of the Indians, and of the productions 
 of their country. Arrived near Barcelona he was 
 met and escorted by dignitaries to the place 
 where their Majesties awaited him. When he 
 went to kiss their hands, they rose, as to a person 
 of great distinction, and caused him to sit beside 
 them. The scanty records of the time represent 
 the Discoverer as enjoying the appreciation of 
 his Sovereigns. If this was not Spain's brightest 
 day, there is no doubt that it was the happiest 
 that Columbus had yet known, perhaps that he 
 was destined to know. 
 
 The admiration of the crowd did not turn the 
 head of Columbus. In this sunny hour he em- 
 ployed himself in superintending the preparations 
 for a new expedition, for it w^as promptly de- 
 cided to establish a colony in "The Indies," as 
 the new islands were henceforth called. This 
 was intended as a centre for further exploration. 
 The work went on apace. This time there was 
 no difficulty in getting men or money. Soldiers, 
 sailors and adventurers were now eager to enroll 
 themselves. As early as September 25, 1493, 
 
202 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 there were assembled seventeen ships and about 
 fifteen hundred men, including both soldiers 
 and colonists. The Indians, who had been con- 
 verted, were returning to their homes ; there 
 were also artisans, soldiers, knights, courtiers, 
 and missionaries. They brought with them both 
 tools and implements of husbandry, plants and 
 seeds; also horses and cattle. This was the first 
 step in the transfer of European civilization to 
 the New World. On Sunday, November 3d, the 
 expedition arrived at one of the Antilles. By 
 night of the 27th it came to the vicinity of Fort 
 Navidad. A salute from the fleet was followed 
 by an ominous silence. Toward midnight there 
 came from the shore Indians shouting *'A1- 
 mirante ! Almirante !" When they came on 
 board, they told Columbus that many Christians 
 had died and others had gone into the country 
 with their wives, some with many wives.. Morn- 
 ing confirmed the fears of the Admiral. Not a 
 Spaniard survived. To this day mystery sur- 
 rounds the fate of the garrison. Perhaps they 
 perished during an invasion of the Caribs. An 
 imprudent act may have aroused the resentment 
 of their neighbors. In any case it would seem 
 that they did not attend carefully to the injunc- 
 tions of Columbus. 
 
 The ill-fated Navidad was abandoned and a 
 more suitable site for a town selected on Decem- 
 
FOUNDING OF ISABELLA 203 
 
 ber 17, 1493. On the northern coast of Hayti 
 the Spaniards began to construct the first city 
 in *The Indies." The place was appropriately 
 named Isabella. Of its history this essay need 
 only state that in the care taken for its wel- 
 fare there is no evidence that Columbus was a 
 visionary. As a colonial administrator he was 
 preeminently successful. li mistakes were made, 
 it is not easy to place the responsibility on him. 
 Chapter IX has described the situation in the 
 island, at least so far as it affected the future 
 of Columbus. Unfortunately for him and for 
 the colonists he was taken sick. During that ill- 
 ness began the trouble which undermined author- 
 ity and discipline. The real offense of Columbus 
 appears to have been that of proclaiming that 
 all must work. Sickness and death had dimin- 
 ished the number of laborers, and when gentle- 
 men were threatened with punishment in case 
 of their refusal to work, they never forgave the 
 Admiral. 
 
 Exploration. 
 
 Leaving the colony to be ruled by a commis- 
 sion, the Admiral undertook a more careful 
 exploration of Cuba. In May, 1494, when sail- 
 ing along the southern shore, he discovered 
 Jamaica, of which he had heard on his first 
 voyage. Lack of provisions prevented him from 
 
204 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 circumnavigating the island, thus giving him 
 and his companions the impression that it was 
 continental land. This illusion seems to have 
 suggested to him the idea of sailing round the 
 world. On his return toward Isabella there was 
 a further exploration of Jamaica and Hayti. An 
 illness of five months followed this activity of 
 the Admiral. 
 
 Discontent. 
 
 In his absence certain officials had assisted in 
 promoting discontent, and a considerable number 
 seized the ships of Bartholomew Columbus, who 
 had come out as Adelantado (military governor) 
 of the island. On their return to Spain they 
 gave an account of the Indies not in harmony 
 with that of Columbus. To them the rule of the 
 Adelantado seemed to have been marked by 
 extreme rigor. Perhaps it was Don Bartholo- 
 mew's energetic administration that gained for 
 the Admiral the reputation of being cruel. 
 
 The situation of the colony was critical in the 
 extreme. Leaving his brother Bartholomew in 
 charge of affairs the Admiral returned to Spain 
 in 1496. After much effort a little fleet was fitted 
 out in 1498. A part of it went directly to Isa- 
 bella, while the remaining ships sailed southward 
 with the Admiral. On July 31, the island of 
 Trinidad was sighted. During the following day 
 
DISCOVERY OF MAINLAND 205 
 
 the mainland was seen. This land he declared to 
 the Sovereigns to be an "otro mundo" (another 
 world). It was designated for immediate ex- 
 ploration by the Adelantado, but when the Ad- 
 miral met his brother Bartholomew in Espafiola, 
 he was confronted by another sort of* problem. 
 The natives had refused to pay tribute, the 
 Spaniards were at war among themselves. In 
 describing the colonists, Columbus is unsparing 
 in his use of epithets. Unfortunately there is 
 ground for believing that his characterization 
 of the first settlers is scarcely exaggerated. On 
 their part, the colonists do not spare him. It 
 was in this situation that Bobadilla arrived in 
 Espaiiola. His attitude toward the Admiral has 
 already been described. To a lady who had been 
 nurse of Prince Juan, the Admiral from his 
 prison-ship, enumerated his grievances. It was 
 in this letter that, among other statements, he 
 said : " ... by the Divine will I have sub- 
 dued another world to the dominion of the king 
 and queen." It has been mentioned that the 
 charges against him were dismissed by the Sov- 
 ereigns and that in a friendly letter he w^as re- 
 quested to appear at Court. 
 
 Fourth Voyage. 
 
 To exploration and colonization Columbus had 
 given an immense impetus. Between 1498, when 
 
2o6 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 he discovered the mainland of South America, 
 and 1502, when he set out on his fourth and last 
 voyage, deeds of noble note had been performed 
 by the Portuguese. That nation had not only 
 found the real Indies, but one of its great cap- 
 tains, Pedralvarez Cabral, had made, in 1500, an 
 independent discovery of South America. Not- 
 withstanding the fact that Prince Henry had 
 stated the problem for the navigators of his 
 nation, and that their achievements were great, 
 the success of Columbus gave a new stimulus to 
 Portuguese discovery. In none of his extant writ- 
 ings does Columbus state the effect produced on 
 his mind by the voyages of Vasco da Gama to 
 India and back. One thing, however, seems 
 clear. Columbus was eager to demonstrate that 
 the real Indies could be reached by going west. 
 It was in making this attempt that he concluded 
 his career as navigator. 
 
 Setting out, May 9, 1502, from the Canaries 
 his four ships arrived at Martinique in the short 
 space of three weeks. His Sovereigns had prac- 
 tically forbidden him to touch at Espahola on 
 his outward voyage, though he might call on his 
 return. When the accidents of the sea compelled 
 him to go there for another ship, he was not 
 allowed to land in his recent dominions. This 
 was the assistance received by Columbus from 
 the colony that he had established in order to 
 
ASHORE IN JAMAICA 207 
 
 promote discovery. Driven from the ungrateful 
 island, he entered upon the the most arduous 
 voyage of his life. "For eighty-eight days he was 
 buffeted by continuous storms. During that time 
 he saw neither sun nor stars." At last land was 
 descried. This he called Gracias a Dios (Thanks 
 be to God). On the Honduras coast he met a 
 large canoe covered with an awning. It was 
 filled with men, women, children and merchan- 
 dise. These people were partly clothed, and their 
 fabrics showed fine workmanship. It was clear 
 that in those regions there was something more 
 than naked natives. If he had had an inter- 
 preter, he could, no doubt, have learned some- 
 thing to his advantage. As it was, he followed 
 the coast-line to Panama. It was on this voyage 
 that he heard of the Pacific Ocean. Later he 
 was compelled to beach his ships at Jamaica. 
 Thence in a canoe he sent rowers to Espafiola 
 for assistance. This achievement is one of the 
 romances of the sea. After a weary wait of al- 
 most a year he was rescued by caravels from that 
 island. 
 
 In November, 1504, broken in health and spirit, 
 Columbus arrived at Seville. A careful student 
 of his career has the following concise sum- 
 mary : ''Each successive voyage since his first 
 had left him at a lower point. On his return 
 
2o8 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 from his second he was on the defensive; after 
 his third he was deprived of his viceroyalty; on 
 the fourth he was shipwrecked, in addition to 
 his previous misfortunes. The last blow, the 
 death of Isabella, soon followed."^ 
 
 Obscure Death. 
 
 After a considerable interval his health per- 
 mitted him to attend court, but the arduous labors 
 of the past twelve years, 1492-1506, had perma- 
 nently impaired his strength and he gradually 
 grew weaker. The chronicle of Jose de Vargas 
 Ponce has this entry : "El Almirante Colon, que 
 descubrio las Indias y otras muchas tierras, 
 Morio en esta Villa [Valladolid] Miercoles 
 vispera de la Ascension, 20 de Mayo de 506." 
 "The Admiral Columbus, who discovered the 
 Indies and many other lands, died in this city 
 [Valladolid] Wednesday the eve of the Ascen- 
 sion, 20th of May, 1506." 
 
 Ten years elapsed before the fact of the ob- 
 scure death of Columbus was noticed in print. 
 During that interval the Spanish nation was too 
 busy exploring and colonizing the New World 
 of which they had become possessed to give 
 much thought to him who had acquired it. It 
 is true that there were in Spain many who had 
 
 ^Bourne, Spain in America, 81. 
 
SPANISH ACHIEVEMENT 209 
 
 become bankrupt in fortune and in health while 
 participating in the project of Columbus. It is 
 no less a fact that if these had acted upon his 
 advice, their condition would have been very 
 different. If, however, some private persons 
 felt that they had been injured by his projects, 
 the nation as a whole had not been. 
 
 Long before the era of Columbus, Spanish 
 chivalry had performed memorable deeds. It 
 broke the military spirit of the Caliphs and saved 
 Gaul not only from a second invasion but from 
 possible Mohammedan domination ; it nearly bal- 
 anced the fall of Constantinople by the conquest 
 of Granada, and in an earlier age had left the 
 other nations of western Europe free to invade 
 the land of the Saracen and of the Turk. These 
 facts and all that they suggest belong to the 
 history of Europe. It is with Spanish achieve- 
 ment in America that this section is concerned. 
 
 Spain discovered a new world, she opened up 
 to the commerce of Europe the trade of the 
 Pacific, she circumnavigated the globe. Her 
 dauntless mariners traced the winding shores 
 of the Atlantic from Nova Scotia to Cape Horn, 
 and the coast-line of the Pacific from Magellan's 
 Strait almost to the Columbia. She founded an 
 empire stretching from the prairies of the Mis- 
 souri to the plains of Patagonia. These achieve- 
 ments are among the commonplaces of history. 
 
210 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 In the field of early exploration, from 1492 to 
 1576, the triumphs of England or of France 
 seem insignificant if compared with those of 
 Spain. In conquest and in colonization they were 
 as far behind her. Nor was it in her New World 
 seminaries of learning, though they were numer- 
 ous, and, for the time, admirable, that Spain 
 stood, as undoubtedly she did, without a peer. 
 Her superiority was chiefly in her grand endeavor 
 to lift millions of Indians to the plane of Euro- 
 pean religion and civilization, one of the grand 
 achievements of recorded time. Oftentimes it 
 is flippantly asserted that in America the Span- 
 iards destroyed two civilizations each of which 
 was superior to their own. The difference be- 
 tween the civilization of the Spaniards and that 
 of the most cultured native races was as great 
 as that between the Christian churches, founded 
 by the Spaniards, and those hideous Aztec 
 temples that forever smoked with human sacri- 
 fice and dripped with human blood. 
 
 Spain broke down in the endeavor to achieve 
 what no nation, ancient or modern, has ever 
 attempted. When she was leading the powers 
 of Europe, her population, diminished by cen- 
 turies of warfare, could not have been above 
 6,500,000. It was this handful of people that 
 won for Spain a splendid immortality, and for 
 Christianity vast realms where Chaos still held 
 
SPANISH ACHIEVEMENT 211 
 
 sway, regions that from the first had been con- 
 secrated to the powers of Night and Darkness. 
 For the loss of her colonial dependencies she 
 consoled herself with the reflection that before 
 their surrender she had implanted in them the 
 elements of civilization. It needs no prophetic 
 eye to behold the future of Latin America and 
 to see in that part of the globe the development 
 of colossal states. 
 
 Amidst the wildernesses of mighty continents, 
 on unnumbered islands in the watery waste, in 
 remote and unknown archipelagos the Spaniards 
 endeavored to civilize a multitude of races of 
 which even the most advanced had scarcely at- 
 tained to the upper stages of barbarism. In 
 that grand undertaking they fell short of per- 
 fect success. If, to-day, there are to be found 
 in what was formerly the colonial empire of 
 Spain millions of dusky people with a tincture 
 of civilization, let them, and let their rulers thank 
 the patient, toilsome friar. In apostolic fields 
 this spiritual hero has achieved triumphs as 
 unique as they were grand. It was of such vic- 
 tories that Columbus had dreamed. His genius 
 it was that made them possible. If he had been 
 assisted by kindred spirits to do another deed 
 above a mortal pitch, it is by no means certain 
 that there would not have been a sixteenth cen- 
 tury crusade. Now the friar is almost every- 
 
212 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 where superseded in his sublime office. To him 
 the methods of the new missionaries speak feebly. 
 He worked his way, they work theirs. The 
 problem has changed. It is not now, as once it 
 was, a question of converting cannibals, naked 
 savages, and barbarians. 
 
 New Light. 
 
 In this brief study the reader has met re- 
 nowned travellers and intrepid seamen. He has 
 been told that Columbus was not the only navi- 
 gator of his era that voyaged through strange 
 seas ; but he has also seen that, except in the case 
 of Bartholomew Diaz, all these nautical heroes 
 performed their exploits after the memorable 
 expedition of Columbus, when his courage and 
 seamanship had raised the interdict from the 
 mysterious Sea of Darkness. New light had 
 dawned from his discovery. Columbus was dis- 
 tinctly a product of his own time, the greatest 
 among a giant race of navigators. As it was 
 Italy that had trained both the Portuguese and 
 the Spaniards in the art of navigation, it . was 
 peculiarly fitting that an Italian should guide, 
 the nations of the world in working out the last 
 stages of the ancient problem. \Mien the trident 
 passed into the strong hand, of Castile, epoch- 
 making events traced their clear signatures upon 
 the scroll of history, but it was the genius of Co- 
 
REVEALS HIMSELF 211; 
 
 lumbus that gave to Spanish heroism for its em- 
 ployment both a held and a tendency. 
 
 Columbus Reveals Himself. 
 
 It has been said that John Cabot, the fellow- 
 townsman of Columbus, is little more than the 
 shadow of a name. He tells us nothing of him- 
 self. Vasco da Gama and Magellan, the other 
 great contemporaries of Columbus, were silent 
 men. Of the workings of their minds we know 
 little more than we do about the identity of the 
 man in the iron mask. With the great discoverer 
 it is far otherwise. From his writings we know 
 him as a husband and aiover. On these relations 
 his own pen has pronounced the sharpest censure. 
 We know his solicitude for his kinsmen and 
 kinswomen; we know his family pride. Again 
 we see him dreaming on mighty things to come, 
 and living to see many of them realized. Never' 
 perhaps, has a man of action revealed himself 
 so fully. The tenacity with which he clung to 
 his old illusions is not more remarkable than his 
 devotion to the ideals of the past. His firmness 
 of purpose and his boldness of execution are 
 qualities so striking that they are universally 
 acknowledged. We have every proof of his fine 
 powers of observation. He tells us of his love 
 of money, but also of its destined use. Few are 
 those who deny his practical ability as a navi- 
 
214 COLUMBUS AND HIS PREDECESSORS 
 
 gator. Columbus was a human being with human 
 Hmitations, and it adds naught to his fame to 
 attempt, in our encomiums, to canonize him. He 
 was a great man, great not according to the 
 standard of the tented field, but because of an 
 original greatness. He was great by reason of 
 his conception of a grand design and because of 
 its accomplishment. His fame is secure and 
 will flame forever in the firmament of time. In 
 concluding judicious and sympathetic observa- 
 tions in the introduction to his great work, 
 Thacher says of Columbus : "The world did not 
 observe his final exit from the stage. Yet was 
 he a great character, one of the greatest ever 
 passing before the eyes of men."^ 
 
 ^Columbus, I, 186. 
 
A BRIEF BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 Fischer, Joseph, S. J. : The Discoveries of the 
 Norsemen in America. St. Louis, 1903. 
 
 Reeves, Arthur Middleton, : The Finding of 
 Wineland The Good. London, 1890. 
 
 Beazley, C. Raymond, : Prince Henry The Navi- 
 gator. New York, 1895. 
 
 Bourne, E. G. : Spain in America. New York 
 and London, 1906. 
 
 Major, R. H. : Life of Prince Henry Siirnamed 
 The Navigator. London, 1868. 
 
 Cheyney, E. P.: The European Background of 
 American History. Xew York, 1905. 
 
 Yule, Sir Henry, : Cathay and the Way Thither. 
 London, 1866. 
 
 Polo, Marco,: The Travels of Marco Polo The 
 Venetian. Edited by John Masefield. Lon- 
 don, 1908. 
 
 Dicuil: De Mensura Orbis Terrae. Edited by 
 G. Parthey. Berlin, 1870. 
 
 Fiske, John,: The Discovery of America. 2 
 Vols. Boston, 1902. 
 
 Hakluyt, Richard, : The Principal Navigations 
 Voyages Traffiques and Discoveries of the 
 English Nation. 12 Vols. Glasgow, 1903- 
 1905. 
 
2l6 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 Irving, \\'ashington, : Life and Voyages of Co- 
 lumbus. 3 \'ols. New York, 1902. 
 
 Xavarrete, D. Martin Fernandez, : Coleccion 
 de los Viajes y Descvuhrimientos. 5 Vols 
 Madrid, 1858. Second edition. 
 
 Thacher, John Boyd,: Christopher Columbus — 
 His Life, His Work, His Repmins. 3 Vols. 
 New York, 1903. 
 
 \'ignaud, Henry, : Etudes Critique sur la vie de 
 Colomb Avant Scs Decouvertec^, i Vol. Paris, 
 
 ^905; 
 
 Histoire Critique de la Grande Entreprise 
 
 de Christophe Colomb. 2 Vols. Paris, 191 1. 
 
 Harrisse, Henry,: John Cabot the Discoverer 
 
 of North America and Sebastian His Son. 
 
 London, 1896. 
 
 Encyclopaedia Britannica (nth edition): 
 Articles — Polo, Sir John Mandeville, Odoric 
 of Pordenone, William of Rubrouck, John 
 of. Piano Carpini, John of Monte Corvino. 
 
 ' The Catholic Encyclopedia: Articles — 
 Mandeville, Geography and the Church. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Africa. 6r, 75. 76. 78. 
 
 Alexander, 4. 
 
 Alexander. \'I. Pope, 199. 
 
 Alvarez, 79. 
 
 America, North. 27. 191. 
 
 America. South. 206. 
 
 Arabs, the. 7, 54. 
 
 Aragon, 118. 
 
 Arculf, II. 
 
 Azores, re-discovery of, 67, 199. 
 
 Aztecs, the, 210. 
 
 Baldaya, 67. 
 
 Barcelona, 201. 
 
 Bernard the Wise. 12. 
 
 Bethencourt. 54. 
 
 Bobadilla. Beatriz de. 131. 
 
 Bobadilla. 170. 174. 176. 
 
 Bojador. Cape. 67. 
 
 Brazil, 200. 
 
 Brian. Danes defeated by. 17. 
 
 Cabot, John, 191, 192. 196. 
 Cabot, Sebastian. 193. 
 Cabots. the. 2/. 
 Cabrero. Juan. no. 
 Cadamosto, Luigi. 7S- 
 
2i8 INDEX 
 
 Cam, Diego, 77. 
 
 Cambulac, 48. 
 
 Cansay, 42. 
 
 Capitulation, The, 177. 
 
 Carthaginians, 2. 
 
 Castile, 130, 212. 
 
 Cathay, 30. 
 
 Ceuta, conquest of, 61 ; 68. 
 
 Charles V, 183. 
 
 China, 30, 31, 43, 47-50. 
 
 Christianity, 70, 71. 
 
 Columbus, Bartholomew, 181, 204. 
 
 Columbus, Christopher, 83, 86, 87, 88, 91, 96, 106, 116. 
 
 118. 136-138. 143. 151, 152. 155, 185, 205, 208, 213, 
 
 214. 
 Columbus, Diego, 107, 177, 178, 181. 
 Columbus, Ferdinand, 8q, 196. 
 Columbus, Don Luis, 184. 
 Correa, Pedro, 90. 
 Cosa, Juan de la, 135. 
 Cosmas Indicopleustes, 7. 
 Covilham, 78. 
 Cuba, 203. 
 
 Da Gama, Vasco, 79. 213. 
 
 D'Ailly, Cardinal, 86. 
 
 Daniel of Kiev, 15. 
 
 Deza, Diego de, 109. 
 
 Diaz, Bartholomew, 77, 156. 
 
 Diaz, Diniz, 71. 
 
 Dicuil, 14. 
 
 Doria, Tedisio, 91. 
 
INDEX 219 
 
 Eannes, Captain Gil. 67. 
 Edgar Atheling, 18. 
 England, claim of. 27. 191. 
 Equipment, the, 123. 
 Eratosthenes, 5, 93. 
 Espafiola. 153, 166, 186. 
 Estribygd, 21. 
 Etheria, 10. 
 Eudoxus, 5. 
 
 Ferdinand. King, 170, 176, I79- 
 Ferrer, Jayme, 53. 
 Fidelis. 12. 
 Florida. 197. 
 Franciscans, the. 29. 
 
 Garcilasso, 161. 
 
 Genoa, 85. 
 
 Gobi, the, 34. 
 
 Gomara, 159. 
 
 Gomera, 146. 
 
 Gomez, Diego, 74. 
 
 Gonsalvez. Antam. 68. 
 
 Greeks, the, 3, 93. 
 
 Greenland, discovery of, 20, 21, 26. 
 
 Guinea, trade with, 68. 
 
 Gutierrez, 150. 
 
 Hanno. 2. 
 
 Harrisse. Henry. 121. 
 
 Helluland, 24. 
 
220 INDEX 
 
 Henry the Navigator. 58, 59, 60, 63, 64, 68, 69, 73, 80. 
 
 Hermandad, The Santa, 123. 
 
 HernandeZ; Dr. Garcia, 115. 
 
 Herodotus, i. 
 
 Herrera, x\ntonio, 161. 
 
 Hetoum, 46. 
 
 Himilco, 2. 
 
 Hispaniola (See Espanola). 
 
 Honduras, 207. 
 
 Iceland, Irish in, 13. 
 
 India, i. 
 
 Indies, Council of the, 180. 
 
 Indies, The. 201. 
 
 Irish, the. 13. 
 
 Irving. Washington. 169. 
 
 Isabella, city of, 167. 
 
 Isabella, Queen, log, 118, 176, 208. 
 
 Islam. 50. 
 
 Italians, the, 51, 56, 212. 
 
 Jamaica. 156. 203. 
 Jay. John Jr.. 97. 
 Jenghiz Kan. dominions of. 16. 38. 
 Jews, attitude of the, 133. 
 John of Monte Corvino, 47. 
 John of Piano Carpini, 36-39- 
 John, King, 105. 
 Justinian, 7. 
 
 Karlsefni, 23. 
 
 Kublai Khan, 30, 31. 33, 44, 98. IJ2. 
 
INDEX 221 
 
 Lagos (See Sagres). 
 
 Langarote, 70. 
 
 Las Casas, Bartholomew, 88, 119, i35, 164. 
 
 Leif (Son of Eric), 18, 22. 
 
 Locke. John, 100. 
 
 Machin, Robert. 53. 
 
 Magellan. Ferdinand. 213. 
 
 Malocello. 51, 52. 
 
 Mandeville, Sir John. 43, 99- 
 
 Marchena, Antonio, iio- 
 
 Marignolli, 42. 
 
 Markland, 24. 
 
 Martins, Fernam. 102, 189. 
 
 Massilia. 3- 
 
 Masudi. 8. 
 
 Mauro. Fra. 76. 
 
 Medina-Celi. Duke of. 107. 122. 
 
 Megasthenes, 5. 
 
 Mendoza, Cardinal, 112. 
 
 Mina, St. George da, 76. 
 
 Moors, the, 62, '/2. 
 
 Navidad, 202. 
 Nearchus, 4. 
 Necho (Pharaoh), 2. 
 Neckam, Alexander. 55. 
 Negroes, the, 67, 68. 
 Nina, the. I35- 
 Norsemen, the. 17. 24, 28. 
 Nova Zembla, 79- 
 
 Odoric of Pordenone, 40, 41. 99- 
 
222 INDEX 
 
 Ojeda, 172. 
 
 Ovando, Nicholas de, 180. 
 
 Oviedo, 158. 
 
 Pacific, the, 207, 
 
 Palos, 92, 134, 198. 
 
 Panama, 207. 
 
 Pasamonte, Miguel, 182, 184. 
 
 Passanha, Emmanuel, 52. 
 
 Pausanias, 7. 
 
 Pedro. Don, 66. 
 
 Perestrello, Bartholomew. 66. 
 
 Perestrello, Felipa. Moniz, 88. 
 
 Perez, Juan, no. 
 
 Phoenicians, the, i, 93. 
 
 Pilgrims, the Christian. 9. 
 
 Pilot, The Nameless, 158, 161. 
 
 Pinelo, Francisco, 124. 
 
 Pinta, the 135, 145. 
 
 Pinzon Brothers, 121, 135. 
 
 Pizzigani, the, 56. 
 
 Po, Fernando, 76. 
 
 Polo, Marco, 29. 30, 32-34, 98, loi. 
 
 Polos, the, 15, 16, 29, 31. 
 
 Porto Santo, 65, 66, 88, 158. 
 
 Portugal, 58, 72. 
 
 Portuguese, the, 69, 79. 
 
 Ptolemy (Euergetes). 5. 
 
 Pytheas. 3. 
 
 Quintanilla. Alonso de. 108. 
 
INDEX 223 
 
 Romans, the, 5. 
 
 Rubruquis (See Friar William). 
 
 Sagas, the, 20. 
 
 Sagres. 64, 65. 74. 
 
 San Salvador, 151. 
 
 Sanchez, Alonso (See Pilot). 
 
 Sanchez, Gabriel. 131, igg. 
 
 Santa Maria, the. 135, 153. 
 
 Santangel, Luis de, 120, 124, 199. 
 
 Saracens, the. 11. 
 
 Saragossa. the. 147-148. 
 
 Scandinavians, the. 18-27. 
 
 Scots, Danes defeated by, 18. 
 
 Seneca, 94-96. 
 
 Sepulchre, the H0I3', 155. 
 
 Severus, 7. 
 
 Seville, 97. 
 
 Skrellings, the, 24. 
 
 Slave trade, the, 69. 
 
 Snorri. 23. 
 
 Soto de Cassa, 7S- 
 
 Spain, 106, 209. 210, 211. 
 
 Strabo, 4. 
 
 Sulaiman, 8. 
 
 Tartars, the. 37. 
 
 Thule. 3. 14. 
 
 Tordesillas, treaty of. 200. 
 
 Toscanelli. correspondence of, 102, 103. \\ 
 
 Trinidad, 204. 
 
 Tristam, Nuno, 69. 
 
224 INDEX 
 
 Tryggvason, King Olaf, 22. 
 Tyre, i. 
 
 Vaz, Tristam. 65. 
 Verde, Cape. 71, 72. 
 Vergil, II. 
 Vestribygd, 21. 
 Vicente, Martin, 89. 
 Vignaud, Henry. 187. 
 Vivaldi, Ugolino, 91. 
 
 William, Friar, 44, 45. 
 Willibald, II. 
 
 Wineland The Good, 19, 24. 
 Wonderstrands, 24. 
 
 Ximenes, Cardinal, i^?. 
 
 Zarco, Captain. 53, 65, 66. 
 Zipango, 98, 195. 
 
 1 04 W 
 
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