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Christopher Columbus and the discovery of America

Material Information

Title:
Christopher Columbus and the discovery of America compiled from authoritative sources
Series Title:
Altemus' young people's library
Cover title:
Columbus and the discovery of America
Spine title:
Christopher Columbus
Creator:
Henry Altemus Company ( Publisher )
Place of Publication:
Philadelphia
Publisher:
Henry Altemus Company
Publication Date:
Language:
English
Physical Description:
169, 10 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 18 cm.

Subjects

Subjects / Keywords:
Explorers -- Biography -- Juvenile literature -- America ( lcsh )
Discovery and exploration -- Spanish -- Juvenile literature -- America ( lcsh )
Biographies -- 1896 ( rbgenr )
Publishers' advertisements -- 1896 ( rbgenr )
Bldn -- 1896
Genre:
Biographies ( rbgenr )
Publishers' advertisements ( rbgenr )
individual biography ( marcgt )
Spatial Coverage:
United States -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia
Target Audience:
juvenile ( marctarget )

Notes

General Note:
Frontispiece printed in colors.
General Note:
Last ten pages consist of advertising material.
Statement of Responsibility:
with 80 illustrations.

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University of Florida
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41839886 ( OCLC )

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Full Text
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ALITEMUS’ YOUNG PEOPLE'S LIBRARY

CHRISTOPHER
COLUMBUS

AND THE

[ ISCOVERY OF AMERICA

COMPILED FROM AUTHORITATIVE SOURCES



WITH 80 ILLUSTRATIONS

PHILADELPHIA
HENRY ALTEMUS



IN UNIFORM STYLE
Copiously [llustrated

THE PILGRIM’S PROGRESS

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS & WHAT ALICE FOUND THERE
ROBINSON CRUSOE

THE CHILD'S STORY OF THE BIBLE

THE CHILD'S LIFE OF CHRIST >

LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES

THE SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON

THE FABLES OF ESOP

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
MOTHER GOOSE’S RHYMES, JINGLES AND FAIRY TALES
EXPLORATION AND ADVENTURE IN THE FROZEN SEAS
THE STORY OF DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION IN AFRICA
GULLIVER’S TRAVELS

ARABIAN NIGHTS’ ENTERTAINMENTS

WOOD'S NATURAL HISTORY

A CHILD’S HISTORY OF ENGLAND, by CHARLES DICKENS
BLACK BEAUTY, by ANNA SEWELL

ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES

GRIMM’S FAIRY TALES

GRANDFATHER'S CHAIR, by NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE
FLOWER FABLES, by LOUISA M. ALCOTT

Price 50 Cents Each

Henry ALTEMUS, PHILADELPHIA



Copyright 1896 by Henry Altemus

























































































































PREFACE.

HERE are few of the great personages in history who
al have been more talked about and written about than
Christopher Columbus, the discoverer of America.
We are apt to look upon Columbus as a person who knew
that there existed a great undiscovered continent, and who
made his way directly to the discovery of that continent.
Whereas, the dream of Columbus’s life was to make his way
by an unknown route to what was considered to be known.
The whole life of Columbus shows how rarely men of the
greatest insight and foresight, and also of the greatest perse-

5



6 PREFACE.

verance, attain the exact ends they aim at. He did not find
the regions of the Khan; but he brought into relations the
New World and the Old.

It is impossible to read without the deepest interest the
account from day to day of hisvoyage. The first point of
land that Columbus saw, and landed at, is as nearly as possible
the central point of what must once have been the United
Continent of North and South America. The least change
of circumstance might have made an immense difference in
the result. The going tosleep of the helmsman, the unship-
ping of the rudder of the Pixzon, the slightest mistake in
taking an observation, might have made, and probably did
make, considerable change in the event. During the first
voyage of Columbus, the gentlest breeze carried with it the
destinies of future empires.

Had some breeze carried Columbus northwards, it would
not have been left for the English, more than a century
afterwards, to found those Colonies which have proved to be
the seeds of the greatest nation that the world is likely to
behold.

It was, humanly speaking, singularly unfortunate for
Spanish dominion in America, that the earliest discoveries
were those of the West India Islands. A number of gov-
ernors introduced confusion, feebleness, and want of system,



PREFACE. q

into Colonial government. The numbers, comparatively few,
of the original inhabitants of each island, were rapidly
removed from the scene of action; and the Spaniards lacked,
at the beginning, that compressing force which would have
been found in the existence of a body of natives who could
not have been removed by the outrages of Spanish cruelty.

The Monarchs of Spain, too, would have been compelled
to treat their new discoveries and conquests more seriously.
To have held the country at all they must have held it well.
It would not have been Ojedas, Bobadillas and Ovandos who
could have been employed to govern, discover, conquer,
colonize, and ruin by their folly the Spanish possessions in.the
Indies. The work of discovery and conquest begun by
Columbus must then have been intrusted to men like Cortes,
the Pizarros, a Vasco de Nunez; and acolony or a kingdom
founded by any of these men might well have remained a
great colony, or a great kingdom to the present day.

The pictures found herein will throw light on the page in
more ways than one. They have been taken from ‘‘ De Bry’s
America’’ and ‘‘Herrara’s West Indies,’’ published in the
year 1730 by authority of the King of Spain.



COLUMBUS IN HIS’ CARAVEL.

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4





CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

CHAPTER I.
THE NEW WORLD.

JMERICA was discovered by Christopher
) Columbus on October 12, 1492. There
are traditions of much earlier discov-
eries. The Northmen, inhabitants of
Sweden and Norway, claim to have landed on
the Western Continent, about the year 1000.
These wandering Northmen had reached the
shores of America first in the vicinity of Nan-
tucket, and had given the name of Vinland to the
region extending from beyond Boston to the south
of New York. But the memory of these voyages
seems totally to have passed away, or the lands
were confounded with Greenland, to which the
Pope had sent a bishop in 1448, This discovery
cannot diminish the claims of Columbus.

These old Northmen made their home upon
the sea, and lived by plundering from their neigh-
bors. The early Britons suffered terribly from
their raids. ‘ Foes are they,” sang an old Eng-
lish poet, “fierce beyond all other foes; cunning

9





10 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

as they are fierce ; the sea is their school of war,
and the storm their friend; they are the sea-
wolves that live upon the pillage of the world.”























































































































































































A NORSE SHIP OF THE TENTH CENTURY.

The honor of discovering America, a few years
before the first voyage of Columbus, has been
claimed by the Spaniards for one of their country-

































































































































































































































































































































































































































































neal



THE NORTHMEN AND THEIR SHIPS.



12 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

men, by the Germans for one of theirs, by the
Venetians, the Portuguese, and the Poles; but
on grounds the most vague and unsatisfactory.

Even allowing these discoveries to have taken
place it does not detract from the glory of Colum-
bus as the man who first really united America
and Europe. He was unaware of any previous
voyages to this quarter of the globe, and his
wonderful adventure has led to the most import-
ant results; while the others, granting them to
have occurred, have been barren of results.

The discovery of America stirred Europe to its
deepest foundations. All classes of men were
affected. The people went wild at once with a
lust of gold, and a love of adventure.

Even the poor honor of giving his name to the
Continent he discovered was curiously filched
from him. Amerigo Vespucci, an Italian navi-
gator, had made the acquaintance of Columbus
on his return from one of his early voyages. He
went out with Ojeda, in his voyage in 1500, and
explored several hundred miles of the coast of
South America. He wrote an account of this
voyage, and of a subsequent one to Brazil, which
were read before some noble families in Italy. A
German geographer on the strength of these
letters, in 1507, called the new Continent America
Terra, and hence our name of America.



THE NEW WORLD. 13

The name of Columbus was written Columbo,
in Italian. He Latinized his name as was the cus-
tom in those days when Latin was the language
of learned correspondence. In Spanish history
he is known

as. Christoval
Colon.

Columbus
never knew
the nature of
his own dis-
covery. He
died in the be-
lief that it was
some part of
Asia; and Ves-
puccci held the
same idea. If
Columbus fail-
ed in his at-
tempts to
reach India by sailing to the west, Vasco de Gama
succeeded by sailing to the south.



AMERIGO VESPUCCI.



CHAPTER II.
FIFTEENTH CENTURY DISCOVERIES.

Modern familiarity with navigation renders it
difficult for us to properly appreciate the great-
ness of the enterprise which was undertaken by
the discoverers of the New World. Seen by the
light of science and of experience, the ocean, if
it had some real terrors, had no imaginary ones.
It was different in the fifteenth century. Geo-
graphical knowledge was but just awaking, after
ages of slumber; and throughout those ages the
wildest dreams had mingled fiction with fact.
The halfdecked vessels that crept along the
Mediterranean shores were but ill-fitted to bear
the brunt of the furious waves of the Atlantic.
The use of the compass had scarcely become
known to navigators; and who could tell, it was
objected, that a ship which might succeed in sail-
ing down the waste of waters would ever be able
to return, for would not the voyage home be a
steady journey up a mountain of sea?

But the same traditions that set forth the diff-
culties of reaching the unknown countries, prom-

14



FIFTEENTH CENTURY DISCOVERIES. 15

ised a splendid reward to the successful voyager.
Rivers rolling down golden sand, mountains shin-
ing with priceless gems, forests fragrant with rich
spices were among the solid advantages to be
expected as a result of the enterprise. ‘ Our



CARAVEL BEFORE THE WIND.

quest there,” says one of the old historians, ‘‘is
not for the vulgar products of Europe.’”’ And there
was another object besides gain, which was in the
minds of all the early explorers, namely, the
spread of the Christian religion.



16 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

The known world in the time of Prince Henry
of Portugal was a very small one indeed, With
the map before us we can see how small was our
infant world. First take away those two conti-
nents (each much larger than a Europe), to the
far west. Then cancel the big island on the ex-
treme south-east. Then turn to Africa. Instead
of the form which it now presents, make a scim-
iter shape of it by running a slightly curved line
from Jaba on the eastern side to Cape Nam on
the western. Declare all below that line unknown.
“ Where you know nothing, place terrors,’ was
the rule of the early geographers.

Now looking at the map, we can hardly help
thinking to ourselves with a smile, what a small
space the known history of the world has been
done in, up tothe last 4oo years. The idea of the
universal dominion of Rome shrinks a little.

Prince Henry was born in Portugal, in 1394.
He was with his father at the capture of Centa,
in the year 1415. This town, which lies opposite
to Gibraltar, was of great magnificence, and one
of the chief marts in that age for the products ot
the eastern world. It was here that Portugal
first planted a firm foot in Africa; and the date
to this town’s capture may be taken as the time
when Prince Henry began to plan further and far
greater conquests. He was very learned, for



FIFTEENTH CENTURY DISCOVERIES. 17

that age of the world, and learned from the Moors
of Morocco such knowledge as could be gather-

SSS

ANN
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S Ze
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ed of the re-
mote districts of
Africa.

The Prince
having got the
idea in his mind
that Africa did
not end at Cape
Nam, never rest-
ed until he had



made known that quarter of the world to his
own. He lived at Sagres, where for many a year



18 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

he could watch for the white sails bringing back
his captains to tell him of new countries and new
men.

For a long time Cape Bojador (meaning out-
stretcher), which is 200 miles south of Cape Nam,
was the extreme limit of discovery. Beyond this
Cape, the mariners reported, ‘“‘ were no people
whatever; the lands bare, no water, no trees, or
grass on it; the sea is shallow, and the currents
fierce ; and the ship which passes that cape will
never return.”

For twelve years the Prince kept sending out
ships and men; with little approval from his
people. The captains came back with no good
tidings ; still he would not give up. At last one
of his captains passed the dreaded Cape Bojador,
and brought back the news that the soil appeared
to him unworked and fruitful ; and like a prudent
man he brought home a barrel of the new-found
earth, and some plants, The Prince rejoiced to
see them and gave thanks to God.

Stormy times now came upon Portugal, and the
Prince had to give his attention to home matters
for awhile. In 1441 a voyage was planned which
went 150 miles below Bojador. The captain seized
some Moors, to take home, as he said “some of
the language of their country.” The Prince now
applied to the Pope to grant Portugal all the



FIFTEENTH CENTURY DISCOVERIES. 19

lands conquered from Bojador to the Indies.

‘ithe = ope
granted this
request; al-
though after-
wards as we
shall see, the
Spanish dis-
coveries of
Columbus
made it nec-
essary that
the terms of
thegranthad
should be
modified.

In 1444 a
company
was formed
for the pur-
promsices Olt
coasting
along Africa;
they to pay
to Portugal
a portion of
any gains
they might



Madeira
Conary IF AS

Arguvmd C.



20 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

make. Thus began the slave trade. Before this
time the slave had been the captive of war, who
lived with his conqueror, and toiled on his lands.
Now the slave became the object of war, He
was to be sought for, to be hunted out, to be
produced and this change gave rise to a new
branch of commerce. :

In 1454, a young Venetian named Mosto was
detained by bad winds at Cape St. Vincent.
Prince Henry told him of the things he had done,
showed him samples of the goods that came from
the newly discovered lands; and finally induced
him to take charge of a vessel. From him we
learn that Arguim was the headquarters of the
trade. There cameall kinds of goods to be ex-
changed for gold and slaves. Barbary horses
were taken to the negro country, and traded with
the chiefs for slaves, eighteen men being bartered
for one horse. Every year between 700 to 800
slaves are sent from here to Portugal.

Mosto sailed down to Jalofs, and describes the
negroes on the shores of the Senegal River. He
is said to have gone 800 miles farther, entering
the river Gambia, where he was attacked by the
natives. During his stay in this river he saw the
constellation of the Southern Cross, for the first
time. Finding the negroes would have nothing
to do with him, he returned to Portugal.



FIFTEENTH CENTURY DISCOVERIES.

21
On a second voyage two years later he dis-

covered the Cape Verde Islands. He again went
up the Gambia River, this time making friends

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PRINCE HENRY OF PORTUGAL.

with the negroes; but for want of a knowledge
of their language he could do no business with



22 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

them. Ina voyage taken some time between 1460
and 1464 Sierra Leone (roaring thunder) was dis-
covered. In 1469 the Gold Coast was explored ;
and a fort built there which Columbus afterwards
visited. Prince Henry died in 1463.

About this time came an officer froma territory
between the Gold Coast and the Congo, who
spoke about a greater power in Africa than his
master, to whom his master was but as a vassal.
This set the Portuguese King thinking about
Prester John, of whom legends spoke as a Christ-
ian King ruling over a Christian nation, some-
where in what was vaguely called the Indies.

The King sent out another expedition on further
discovery. They did not discover Prester John,
but after sailing more than 1000 miles they reached
acape, which from their experience, they called
Cape Stormy, but which their master renamed the
Cape of Good Hope. Bartholomew Columbus,
a brother of Christopher, was engaged in this
voyage.

The Prince of Jalof now came to Lisbon, to
seek the King’s protection. He was well received
and made much of; and was sent back to his own
country with a Portuguese fleet. of twenty cara-
vels, with orders to build a fort on the bank of
the river Senegal.

We have now seen Portuguese discovery



FIFTEENTH CENTURY DISCOVERIES. 23

making its way with quiet perseverance for 70
years from Cape Nami to the Cape of Good Hope,
a distance of 6000 niles. This long course of
discovery was thrown into the shade by the more
daring and brilliant discovery of America.

Prince Henry was hardly less a personage than
Columbus. They had different elements to con-
_ tend with, but the man with princely wealth and
position who had followed. his purposes for 4o
years, heedless of public clamor, is worthy to be
put in comparison with the other great discoverer
who worked out his enterprise through poverty,
neglect, sore travail and the changes of courts.

It must not be forgotten that Prince Henry was
the father of modern geographical discovery, and
that the result of his labors must have given much
impulse to Columbus, if it did not first move him
to his great discovery. His kinsman, too, deserves
merit for what he did, as do the many brave cap-
tains who distinguished themselves in those
enterprises.

It remained for Columbus, first to forma sound
theory of the various views of the cosmographers,
and to carryout that theory with the boldness and
resolution which have made his name one ‘of
those beacon-fires which carry on from period to
period the tidings of the world’s great history
through successive ages.



CHAPTER IIL
THE BOYHOOD OF COLUMBUS.

Of the early years of Columbus nothing certain
is known. A dozen different Italian cities claimed
the honor of giving him birth. It is only recently
that the will was found in which Columbus left
part of his property to the Bank of Genoa, and
settled the point in favor of that city. ‘ Thence
I came;” he says ‘‘and there was I born.”

As to the date of his birth there is no such
direct evidence ; and guesses founded on various
statements in his own writings, and in those
of people living at the same period, range over
the twenty years from 1436 to 1456. Washington
Irving adopts the earliest of these two dates upon
the report which speaks of the death of Columbus
in the year 1506, ‘at a good old age, being
seventy years old, a little more or less.” This
statement does not tally with some passages in
Columbus’s own letters. His son Fernando tells
us “his hair turned white before he was thirty.”
This would add to his apparent age, and most
likely deceived those around him at the time of

24



THE BOVHOOD OF COLUMBUS. 25

his death. The evidence of the ancient authori-
ties, who seem most to be relied upon, points to
the year 1448 as being the probable date of his
birth.

More than one noble family Jaid claim to him

after his name had become so illustrious. His
son, Fernando, who wrote his history, made a
journey solely to inquire into the truth of this
subject, and gave up all claims of the kind. In
making this admission, he wisely said, ‘‘The glory
of Christopher is quite enough, without there
being a necessity to borrow any from his an-
cestors.”
_ The father of Columbus was a wool-carder, but
in a city of traders like Genoa this fact does not
imply, as some have thought, that his family was
of particularly humble origin. Columbus was the
eldest of four children, having two brothers, Bar-
tholomew and Diego. Christopher's education
was but limited, but as extensive as the circum-
stances of his parents would permit. While
quite a child he was taught to read and write, and
wrote so good a hand, says Las Casas, that
with it he might have earned his bread. To
this, at a somewhat later period, was added
arithmetic, drawing and painting, and in these,
as Las Casas has observed, he acquired sufficient
skill to have gained a livelihood.



26 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

He was sent for a short time to Pavia, the
great school of learning in Lombardy. Here he
studied grammar, and became well acquainted
with the Latin tongue. His education, however,
was mainly directed to those sciences needed to
fit him for maritime life. He was taught geom-
etry, geography, astronomy, or, as it was at that
time termed, astrology, and navigation. He had,
at a very early age, shown a strong passion for
geographical science, and an ever-longing desire
for the sea; and he pursued with ardor every
study that would help him in the aim of life that he
seems to have thus early mapped out for himself.

It is no wonder that, exposed to such influences,
he should have favored a life of adventure on the
sea to the the drudgery of his father’s trade in
Genoa. After finishing his school studies, he
spent but a few months as a carder of wool, and
actually entered on his sailor career before he
was fifteen years old.

Considering how much more real the hero of a
story. appears if we can picture him accurately in
our mind’s eye, and see him “in his habit as he
lived,” it is singularly unfortunate that the person-
al appearance of Columbus has been so variously
described by the old writers of history that it is
impossible to speak with any certainty on the
subject. Strangely enough, too, no really true

ee





































































































































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wl











COLUMBUS IN HIS YOUTH.
mM



28 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

portrait of the great discoverer exists. Fernando
Columbus, who would be a good authority, fails
to give us, in telling of his father, any of those
little touches which make up a good literary
photograph. We learn, however, that he was a
man of fine presence, tall, well formed, strong,
active and full of energy. His face was long, but
neither full nor meagre ; his complexion fair and
freckled, his nose aquiline, his cheek bones rather
high, and his eyes light gray and full of expres-
sion. His hair was naturally light in color, but as
we have already stated, it turned nearly white
while he was yet a young man.

He was moderate and simple in his diet
and apparel, a good talker, humane, self-denying,
courteous, and had the happy faculty of readily
making friends with strangers.

He possessed an inquiring mind, and was
singularly resolute and enduring. He was rapt
in his designs, having a ringing for ever in his
ears of great projects, making him deaf to much,
perhaps, that prudence might have heeded ;—
one to be loved by those near to him, and likely
by his presence to inspire favor and respect.

Of his many voyages, which of them took place
before, and which after, his coming to Portugal,
we have no distinct record ; but we are sure that
he traveled over a large part of the known world,



THE BOVHOOD OF COLUMBUS. 29

that he visited England, and that he made his way
to Iceland, and Friesland (where he possibly heard
the vague tales of the discoveries by the North-
men in North America), that he had been on the
coast of Guinea, and that he had seen the Islands
of the Grecian Archipelago. ‘Ihave been seek-
ing out the secrets of nature for forty years,” he
says, ‘and wherever ship has sailed, there have I
voyaged.” But beyond a few vague hints of this
kind, we know scarcely anything of these early
voyages.

He particularly mentions in his letters to Fer-
dinand and Isabella, that he was employed by
King Réné, of Provence, to cut out a galley from
the port of Tunis. ‘This exploit showed his bold-
ness and his tact. During the voyage the news
was brought that there were three other vessels
with the galley. His crew did not wish to risk a
fight and insisted that Columbus should return
for more help. He made a show of doing so,
but craftily altered the point of the compass so
that it looked as though they were going back
while they were really steering right ahead, and
so arrived at Carthagena on the next morning,
thinking all the while they were in full sail for
Marseilles. It isa pity that no record exists of
how this bold enterprise turned out.

There is an interval of many years: during which



30 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

we have but one or two shadowy traces of Colum-
bus. He is supposed to have been engaged in
the Mediterranean and up the Levant, sometimes
on voyages of commerce, sometimes in warlike
contests between the Italian States, and some-
times in pious and plundering trips against the
Infidels.

At what precise period his great idea came into
his mind we have no means of learning. The
long series of Portuguese discoveries had excited
the mind of Europe, and must have greatly influ-
enced Columbus, living in the midst of them.
This may be said without in the least taking any-
thing away from his merits as a discoverer. In
real life people do not spring from something un-
real to something real, as they do in sick dreams.
A great invention or discovery is often like a
daring leap, but it is from land to land, not from
nothing to something ; and if we look at the sub-
ject with this view fully before us, we shall be
forced to admit that Columbus had as large a
share in the merit of his discovery as most inven-
tors or discoverers can lay claim to. If the idea
which has made him famous was not in his mind
at the outset of his career of investigation, at any
rate he had from the first a desire for discovery,
or, as he says himself, the wish to know the
secrets of this world.











SHIPS IN THE TIME OF MARCO POLO.

31



32 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

We know that he arrived at a fixed belief that
there was a way by the west of the Indies; that
he could discover this way, and so come to the
places he had met with in the gorgeous descrip-
tions of Marco Polo, and other ancient travelers.
Up to this time each new discovery was but a
step beyond that which had gone before it. Col-
umbus was the first to steer boldly from shore
into the wild and unknown waste of waters, an
originator, not a mere follower or improver of
what had been done before.

Fernando Columbus divides into three classes
the grounds on which his father’s theory was
based: first, reasons from nature; second, the
authority of learned writers; and third, the re-
ports of sailors. He believed the world to be a
sphere ; he under-estimated its size; and judged
that Asia was larger than it really was. The
farther Asia extended to the east the nearer it
came round towards Spain. Andthis had been the
view of all the old geographers; and the early
travelers in their accounts all had the same idea
of the vast extent of eastern Asia.

Of all the works of learned men that which had
the most weight with Columbus was the ‘“Cosmo-
graphia” by Cardinal Aliaco. This book was full
of absurd fables of lion-bodied men and dog-
faced women; and the accounts of the earth’s





COLUMBUS AND THE EGG.



34 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

surface were mixed up with the wildest stories of
monsters and salamanders, of giants and pigmies.
These quaint figures appear in the earliest pictures
of books of ocean travel. It is here we find the
original of the sea-serpent, described as being
‘“‘of huge size, so that he kills and devours large
stags, and is able to cross the ocean.” Other
wonders of the unknown world are given, and
these must have easily won the trusting faith of a
willing disciple like Columbus.

He was confirmed in his views of the exist-
ence of a western route to the Indies by Tosca-
nelli, to whom much credit is due for the kindly
aid he afforded to Columbus in his first great
enterprise.

That the notices of western lands were not
such as to have much weight with most other men
is proved by the trouble which Columbus had in
struggling with adverse geographers and men of
science, of whom, he says, he never was able to
convince anyone. After the new world had been
discovered many scattered hints were then found
to have foreshown it. When he promised a new
world people said it could not exist, and when he
had found it, that it had been known a long time.
It was to show how little these people knew that
he resorted to the well known expedient of making
an egg stand on end,



s¢



NTURE,

ARLY ADVE

AN E



36 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

Of the hints he received from sailors it is dif-
ficult to speak with any degree of accuracy.
Rumors of drift-wood, which appeared to be
carved with some savage implements; of great
reeds, like those which Ptolemy wrote about as
growing in India, even of two corpses, cast up on
one of the Azores, and presenting an appearance
quite unlike that of any race of Europe or Africa;
allseem to have come to the willing ears of Colum-
bus, and to have been looked upon by him as
strong proofs of the great theory. He felt that
as the winds had drifted these from the west, they
surely must have come from some unknown
land in that direction.

About the year 1470 Columbus arrived at
Lisbon. According to the account given by his
son, he was on a cruise trying to capture some
Venetian merchant vessels on their way home
richly laden from Flanders. At break of day a
battle began off Cape St. Vincent, and lasted till
nightfall. The vessel commanded by Columbus
grappled with a huge Venetian galley, which,
after a hand-to-hand fight, caught fire, and the
flames spread to Colunibus’s vessel. Friends
and enemies alike sought safety by jumping
into the sea, and Columbus, supporting himself
on an oar, succeeded, when nearly exhausted, in
gaining the land, which was some six miles dis-



THE BOVHOOD OF COLUMBUS. 20)

tant. God saved him, says his son, for greater
things.

While at Lisbon, he used to attend religious
service at the chapel of the Convent of All Saints.
Here he met Donna Palestrello. She was the
daughter of an Italian cavalier, who had been one
of the most noted sea captains under Prince
Henry, and had colonized and governed the
island of Porto Santo. His marriage with this
lady fixed his residence there. Her father being
dead, the newly married couple made their home
with the mother. She seeing the great interest
that Columbus took in all matters relating to the
sea, told him all she knew of the voyages of her
husband, and brought him all his papers, and
charts and journals. To Columbus these were
treasures. He studied over all the routes of the
Portuguese, and their plans and ideas, and when
the chance offered he sailed in the trips to Guinea.
When on shore, he made maps and charts, which
he sold for the support of his family.

We know but little of this period of his life. We
find a few vague stories of his unsuccessful efforts
to induce the Senate of Genoa to take up his
project. From the Portuguese crown he could not
look for help, as they were engaged in costly
wars, and already had a field for discovery along
the African coast. King John the Second, to



38 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

whom he applied, listened with attention to his
scheme, which he gave a sort of half promise to
support, but he seems to have disagreed with
Columbus about the terms. He referred Colum-
bus to his Council for Geographical Affairs. The
plans were laid before them, but they reported
against the rashness of the scheme. The King
was not entirely satisfied and secretly fitted out
a vessel and sent it out with instructions founded
on the plans that Columbus had explained. The
vessel returned without having done anything;
the sailors not having had the heart to venture
far enough westward. It was not an enterprise
to be carried out with success by mere hirelings,
or by men who had only stolen the idea of it.



CHAPTER IV.
COLUMBUS IN SPAIN.

Columbus, disgusted at the treatment he had
received from the Portuguese Court, quitted Lis-
bon, for Spain, probably in the year 1485, with
his son Diego, the only child of his marriage
with Donna Felipa, now no longer living.

The first trace we have of him in Spain was
given a few years after his death, by Garcia Fer-
nandez, a doctor in the little seaport town of
Palos, in Andalusia. About a mile from that town
stood, and stands at the present day, an ancient
convent of Franciscan friars, dedicated to Santa
Maria de Rabida. According to the report.of
the doctor, a stranger, on foot, with a small boy,
stopped one day at the gate of the convent, and
asked of the porter a little bread and water for
the child. While receiving this humble refresh-
ment the prior of the convent, Friar Juan Perez,
passed by, and was struck by the appearance of
the stranger, and observing from his air and ac-
cent that he was a foreigner, entered into conver-
sation with him, and soon learned his story.

39



40 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

That stranger was Columbus, and his young son
Diego. That he was in poor circumstances is evi-
dent from the mode of his wayfaring.

Juan Perez was a man of large learning. He
possessed that hearty zeal in friendship which
carries good wishes into good deeds. He kept °
Columbus as his guest, and sent for his friend
Doctor Fernandez to come and talk with him.
Several meetings took place at the old convent,
and the theory of Columbus was treated with a
respect which it had in vain sought amid the bustle
and pretension of Court sages and philosophers.
Hints, too, were gathered from the veteran sailors
which seemed to support the theory. Perez was
on good terms with Talavera, who was confessor
to the Queen, a man high in royal favor, and
having great weight in public affairs. To him he
gave Columbus a letter, strongly recommending
himself and his enterprise to the good will of
Talavera, and begging his friendly aid with the
King and Queen. As the influence of the Church
was very great in the Court of Castile, and as
Talavera had direct access to the Queen, much was
expected from his good offices. In the meantime,
Perez took charge of the young son of Columbus,
and kept and educated him at his convent.

Columbus arrived at Cordova early in the year
1486. Talavera was not friendly to the cause















































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































AT THE CONVENT GATE.

41



42 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

of Columbus. He was taken up with military
concerns, and absent with the Court in its wars
against the Moors, as the clerical adviser of the
Queen in this, as it was termed, holy war.

Amid the clang of arms and the bustle of war,
it is not surprising that Colnmbus could get but
slight attention to a matter which seemed so remote
and uncertain.

During the summer and fall of 1486 Columbus
remained at Cordova, supporting himself by the
sale of maps and charts, and trusting to time and
exertion to make him converts and friends that
might prove useful. One of the best friends he
gained was Quintanilla, the Queen’s treasurer, a
man who like himself “took delight in great
things,” and who got him a hearing from the
Spanish monarchs. Ferdinand and Isabella lis-
tened kindly, and ended by referring the business
to Talavera, whom they instructed to calla meeting
of the most learned geographers and astronomers,
who were to confer with Columbus and inform
themselves of the grounds on which he founded
his theory; after which they were to consult to-
gether and make their report. This junta, as it
was called, met at Salamanca, the great seat of
learning in Spain, in the year 1487. This was the
first step gained.

The junta did not regard the scheme of Colum-



TALKING IT



OVER WITH PEREZ.

43



44 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

bus with much favor. They were nearly all con-
nected with the Church, and conibined to crush
Columbus with theological objections. Texts of
Scripture were brought forward to refute the
theory of the round shape’ of the earth, and the
weighty authority of the early fathers of the Church
was added to overthrow “the foolish idea of the
existence of the antipodes; of people who walk op-
posite to us, with their heels upwards and their heads
hanging down; where everything is topsy-turvy,
where the trees grow with their branches down-
wards, and where it rains, hails and snows up-
wards.” The book of Genesis in the Bible, the
psalms of David, the orations of the prophets, the
epistles of the apostles, and the gospels of the
Evangelists, were all put in evidence aguinst Col-
umbus. It was impossible that there should be
people on what was thus vainly asserted to be the’
other side of the earth, since none such were
mentioned in the Bible. In fine, the junta decided
that the project was ‘vain and impossible; and
that it did not belong to the royalty of such great
princes to determine anything upon such weak
grounds of information.”

Columbus could not reconcile his plan with the
cosmography of Ptolemy, to which all scholars of
that time yielded implicit faith. None of them
knew that the man Copernicus was ‘hen in ex-















































































MALAGA, IN SPAIN.

45



46 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

istence, whose solar system should reverse the
grand theory of Ptolemy, which placed the earth
in the centre of the universe.

The junta were interrupted by the departure of
the Court to Cordova, early in the spring of 1487,
called away by the concerns of the war, in the
memorable battle against Malaga. Talavera
went with the Queen as her confessor.

Ferdinand and Isabella seem not to have taken
the extremely unfavorable report of the junta, or
were disposed to dismiss Columbus gently, for
they said that “with the wars at present on their
hands, and especially that of Granada, they could
not undertake any new expenses, but when the
war was ended, they would examine his plan
more carefully.”

Thus ended a solicitation at the Court of Ferdi-
nand and Isabella, which is said to have lasted five
years ; for the facts here mentioned, though short
in the telling, occupied a long time in transaction.
During the whole of this period Columbus
appears to have followed the sovereigns in the
movements from place to place, which the war
made necessary, and to have been treated with
much consideration. Sums were from time to
time granted to him from the royal treasury for
his private expenses, and he was billeted as a
public officer in the various towns of Andalusia,



COLUMBUS IN SPAIN. 47

where the Court rested. But at the best, this
must have been an up-hill task. Las Casas com-



ALONZO PINZON



48 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

pares the suit of Columbus to a battle, “a ter-
rible, continuous, painful, prolix battle.’ The
tide of this long battle having turned against him,
Columbus went to Seville ‘with much sadness
and discomfiture.”

Columbus had given up all hope of aid from
the Spanish monarchs, and now tried to find some
rich man who would engage in the enterprise.
Among others that he saw were the Duke of
Medina Sidonia, and the Duke of Medina Celi,
whose large possessions along the Spanish coast
were likely to lead them to help his views. He
must have received some encouragement, for
when he succeeded, the Duke Celi wrote to the
Cardinal of Spain, showing that he had kept
Columbus two years at his house, and was ready
to assist him in his enterprise, but that he saw
that it was one for the Queen herself, and even
then he wished to have some part of it.

Probably any man with whom Columbus lived
for two years would have caught some portion of
his enthusiasm, and been ready to take up his pro-
ject, but none of the nobles of Spain would have
been likely to have undertaken the matter without
the sanction of the King and Queen. Celi ad-
vised Columbus to apply once more to the Queen
and offered to use his influence with her in his
behalf.



COLUMBUS IN SPAIN. 7

But some friends remained who shared his faith
and urged him onward. Juan Perez, now guar-
dian of the monastery at Rabida, had exchanged
the bustle of the Court for the learned leisure of
the cloister. The little town of Palos, with its sea-
faring population and maritime interests, was near
the monastery, and the principal men of the place
were glad to spend the long winter evenings in
the society of Perez, over questions of geography
and astronomy.

Among the visitors were Martin Alonzo Pin-
zon, the chief ship-owner of Palos, and Fernandez,
the village doctor. Fernandez, who was skilled
in the physical sciences, and therefore capable of
appreciating the arguments of Columbus, became
a warm believer in his project.

Columbus had given up his suit at Court in dis-
gust, and called at the monastery before quitting
Spain to fetch his son, Diego, whom he had left
with Juan Perez to be educated. All his griefs and
troubles he confided to Perez, who could not bear
to hear of his intention to leave the country for
France or England, and to make a foreign nation
greater by allowing it to adopt his project.

The affection of Perez, and the learning of
Fernandez, were not slow to follow in the track
which the enthusiasm of the great adventurer made
out before them, and they became as convinced



50 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

as Columbus himself of the feasibility of the un-
dertaking. But the difficulty was in persuading
those to believe who would have power to further
the enterprise. Their discussion of these points
ended in the conclusion that Perez, who was
known to the Queen, should write to her high-
ness. He did so, and owing to the honest zeal
with which he urged the cause of Columbus, the
result was favorable. The Queen sent for him,
and he journeyed on to Santa Fe by night; she
heard what he had to say, and in consequence,
sent money to Columbus to enable him to come
to Court, and renew his suit.

Columbus attended the Court again. He
arrived in time to witness the surrender of
Granada to the Spanish arms. He beheld the
last of the Moorish Kings sally forth from the
Alhambra, and yield up the keys of that great
seat of power. It was a great day for Spain.
After nearly 800 years of painful struggle the
Crescent was completely cast down, and the
Cross exalted in its place, and the flag of Spain
was seen floating on the highest tower of the
Alhambra. The moment had now arrived when
the Monarchs stood pledged to attend to his
proposals. ‘They kept their word. Full of the
grandeur of his enterprise, he would listen to
none but princely conditions. The resumed deal-



COLUMBUS IN SPAIN. 51

ings were again broken off, this time on the
ground that the largeness of his conditions could



THE LAST OF THE MOORISH KINGS.

not be granted. His enemies said his conditions
were too large if he succeeded, and if he should



52 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

not succeed the conditions should come to noth-
ing; they thought there was an air of trifling in
granting such conditions at all.

. And indeed they were very large; he was to be
made an admiral at once, to be appointed viceroy
of the countries he should discover, and to have
one-eighth of the profits of the expedition.

Columbus now resolved to go to France, when
Perez and Fernandez managed to get another
hearing for Columbus from Cardinal Mendoza,
who was pleased with him. The Cardinal was the
most important person about Court. The King
and Queen had him always at their side, in peace
and war. He followed with them in all their
wars, and they never took any measure of im-
portance without consulting him.

Columbus offered in order to meet the objection
to pay one-eighth part of the expenses of the
expedition. Still nothing was done, and now
finally Columbus determined to go to France, and
indeed actually set off one day in January 1492,
when Santangel, the receiver of the Church
revenues of the Crown of Aragon, a man much
devoted to the plans of Columbus, addressed the
Queen, with all the energy that a man throws into
his words when he is aware that it is his last time
for speaking in favor of a thing which he has much
at heart. He told her that he wondered that as





COLUMBUS BEFORE THE COURT.

53



54 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

she always hada lofty mind for great things, it
should be wanting on this occasion. He tried to
raise her jealousy by saying that the enterprise
might fall into the hands of other princes, hinting
at the eternal fame that Portugal had gained in
this way.

He ended by saying that Columbus wanted
but two vessels and about $1500..in money and
that so great an enterprise ought not to be given
up for the sake of sucha trifling sum. These
arguments falling in as they did, with those of
Quintanilla, the treasurer, who has great influence
with the Queen, prevailed. The Queen thanked
these lords for their counsel; and said she would
adopt it, but they must wait till the finances had
recovered a little from the drain upon them
caused by the conquest of Granada, or if it
were wiser to carry it out at once, she would
pledge her jewels to raise the needed money.

Santangel offered to advance the money
required. Upon this Quintanilla sent to bring
Columbus back to Court. He was overtaken six
miles from Granada, returned to Santa Fe, where
the Sovereigns were camped before Granada,
was well received by Queen Isabella, and finally
the agreement between him and their Catholic
highness was settled.

Not much of King Ferdinand is seen in all



COLUMBUS IN SPAIN. 55

these dealings. It was known that he had looked
coldly on the plans of Columbus. Henry the
Seventh, of England, refused to adopt the pro-
ject laid before him by Bartholomew Columbus,
who went to England, and it is said, was ‘“‘ mocked
and jeered at the English Court.”

King Ferdinand seems to have looked at the
whole affair as an instance of Isabella’s good-
natured sympathy with enthusiasts. His own cool
and wary nature made him distrust this ‘pauper
pilot, promising rich realms.”

The conditions of Columbus, that he had held
out so proudly for, were all “granted, by the King
and Queen, at Santa Fe, in the Vega of Granada,
April 17, 1492.”

Thus gratified in his dearest wishes after delays
that would have driven the ordinary man to des-
pair, Columbus, on May 12, 1492, left the Court
and set out joyfully for Palos. Eighteen years
had passed from the time Columbus first got the
idea before he was enabled to carry it into effect.
Most of that time was passed in hopeless solicita-
tion, amid poverty, neglect, and ridicule; the
prime of his life had wasted away in the struggle,
and he was 56 years old, when success came to
him. His example should encourage the enter-
prising never to despair.

Armed with his Commission, Columbus left the



56 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

Court of Palos. His friends at the etesiee
were delighted that the scheme upon which they
had pinned their faith was now to be launched.
There was no delay in furnishing the funds. The
town of Palos was ordered to pr rovide two vessels
within ten days. The difficulty now was to get
sailors to man the vessels. The men did not
want to risk their lives on what they looked upon
as a crazy voyage. Columbus was allowed to
press men into the service, but still they could not
get enough men of the right stamp.

Juan Perez did much to get men to embark.
The Pinzons, rich men, and ‘skillful seamen, join-
ed in the undertaking, and aided it with their
money, and by these united efforts three vessels
were manned with go sailors, and with provisions
for a year. The vessels were all of small size.

The Santa Maria, which Columbus commanded,
was the only one that was decked throughout.
The officers and crew were 16 in number. The
other two vessels were of that class called cara-
vels, and were decked fore and aft, but had no
deck in the middle; the stem and stern being
built so as to rise high out of the water. One
of them, the /z/a, was manned by a crew of
30 sailors, and was commanded by Martin Alonzo
Pinzon. The other, the Mzza, had Vincent
Pinzon as Captain, and a crew of 24 men, The











QUEEN ISABELLA IN CAMP, ze



58 ; CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

whole number of adventurers amounted to 120
persons—men of various countries, one of them,
Arthur Lake, coming from England, and another
entered on the list as William Rice, native of
Galway, Ireland.

A deep gloom was spread over the whole town
of Palos. Almost every one had some relative or
friend on board the squadron. The spirits of the
sailors, depressed by their own fears, were still more
cast down at the sorrow of those they left behind,
who took leave of them with tears, as of men
they were never to behold again.

By the beginning of August every difficulty had
been overcome, and the vessels were ready for
sea,



CHAPTER V.
THE FIRST VOYAGE.

It was Friday, August 3, 1492, at eight o’clock
in the morning, after they had all confessed and
received the sacrament, that Columbus set sail on
his first voyage of discovery. They sailed from
the Bar of Saltes, making for the Canary Islands,
from whence it was intended to sail west.

Columbus had now changed the long, weary,
dismal life of a suitor for the sharp, intense anxi-
ety of a struggle in which there was no choice to
success but deplorable, ridiculous, fatal failure.
Speaking afterwards of the time he had spent as
a suitor at Court, he says, “ Eight years I was torn
with disputes, and, in a word, my proposition was
a thing for mockery.” It was now to be seen
what mockery was in it. The following account
of the voyage is mainly taken from an abridgment
of Columbus’s own diary made by Las Casas, who
in some places gives the admiral’s own words.

The little squadron reached the Canary Islands
in a few days with no event worth recording,
except that the caravel /inta broke her rudder.

59



60 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

This was supposed to be no accident, but to have
been done by the owners of the vessel, who did not
like the voyage, and hoped she would be left be-
hind. The crew had been pressed into the service
greatly against their will, and the caravel had
been seized for the expedition by the royal orders.

Columbus was much disturbed by this occur-
rence. The wind was blowing strongly at the
time, so that he could not render any assistance
without running some risk to his own vessel.
Fortunately Martin Pinzon commanded the Fzxéa,
and being an adroit and able seaman, he suc-
ceeded in securing the rudder with cords, so as to
bring the vessel into management. They were
detained three weeks among these islands seeking
in vain to find another vessel. They were obliged
to make a new rudder for the /rzéa, and to repair
her as well as they were able for the voyage.

The sails were changed into square sails, that
she might work more steadily and securely, and
be able to keep up with the other vessels.

While sailing among these islands they passed
in sight of Teneriffe, whose lofty peak was send-
ing out volumes of flame and smoke. The
crew were terrified at the sight of this eruption.
Columbus told them all about the causes of these
volcanic fires, telling them of Mount Etna and
other well-known volcanoes.





THE DEPARTURE FROM PALOS.

61



62 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

While taking in wood, water and provisions,
they were told that three Portuguese caravels
were hovering off the island, with the intention
to capture Columbus. On September 6, Colum-
bus sailed boldly out to sea, without meeting with
any of his enemies.

On losing sight of the last trace of land, the
hearts of the crews failed them. They seemed
to have taken leave of the world. Behind them
was everything dear to them; country, family,
friends, life itself; before them was chaos, mystery
and peril. Many of the rugged seamen shed
tears and broke out into loud wailings. Columbus
tried in every way to soothe their distress, and to
inspire them with his own glorious fancies. He
promised them land and riches, and everything
that could arouse them. And he did not do this
to deceive them; he believed that he should
realize all his promises.

For many days the diary is little more than a
log-book, giving the rate of sailing—or rather
two rates, one for Columbus’ own private need,
and the other for the sailors. On September 13,
he noticed about nightfall that the needle, instead
of pointing to the north star, varied a trifle to the
north-west, andstill more on the following morning.
He watched this attentively for three days, and
found that the variation increased as he advanced.



THE FIRST VOVAGE. 63

He said nothing, but it also attracted the attention
of the pilots, and filled them with dread. They
thought that the compass was about to lose its
virtue, and without this guide, what was to be-
come of them in a vast and trackless ocean ?

It taxed all of Columbus’s science and ingen-
uity for reasons with which to allay their terror,
The high opinion that they had of him as an
astronomer led them to accept his theories. On
the 14th, the sailors of the Ma saw two tropical
birds, which they said never went beyond sixty
miles from shore. On the 15th, they saw a meteor
fall from heaven, which made them very sad.
These meteors, common in warm climates, and
especially under the tropics, are always seen in
the clear, azure sky of these latitudes, falling as
it were from the heavens, but never beneath a
cloud. On the 16th, they first came across large
plains of seaweed. On one of these patches was
a live crab, which Columbus carefully preserved.
Tunny fish also played about the ships.

The wind had to this time been favorable. They
had made great progress each day, though Colum-
bus, according to his secret plan, managed to
suppress several miles in the daily score left open
to the crew. On September 18th, they see many
birds, and a cloud in the distance; and that night
they expect to see land. On the igth, in the



64 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

morning, comes a pelican (a bird not usually seen
fifty miles from the coast); in the evening, another,
also a drizzling rain without wind, a certain sign
of closeness to land.

Columbus will not beat around for land, as he
rightly thinks these signs give token only of
islands, as it proved to be. He will see these on
his return; but now he must press on to the
Indies. This resolve shows his strength of mind,
and also the almost scientific basis on which his
great idea reposed.

Columbus would not allow himself to be moved
from his main design by any partial success,
though by this time he well knew the fears of his
men, some of whom had already agreed,“ that it
would be their best plan to throw him quietly into
the sea, and say he fellin, while he stood ab-
sorbed in looking at the stars.” Indeed, three
days after he had resolved to pass on to the
Indies, we findhim saying : “Very needful for me
was this contrary wind, for the crews were very
much tormented with the idea that there were no
winds on these seas that would carry them back
to Spain.”

On they go, having signs from time to time, in
the presence of birds and grass, and fish, that
land must be near; but land does not come.
Once they are all satisfied that they see land;







ON THE VAST AND TRACKLESS OCEAN.



66 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

and they sing the “Gloria tx Excelsis’’; and even
Columbus goes out of his course towards this
land, which turns out to be no land.

On October 1, they had sailed by the ship’s
record 1,740 miles, while the real reckoning kept
by Columbus showed 2,121 miles. On the next
day the weeds floated from east to west, and on
the third day no birds were to be seen. The

crew began to fear that they had passed between

islands, from one to the other of which the birds had
been flying; Columbus had some doubts of the
same kind, but refused to alterh's westward course.
The crews began to utter murmurs and threats,
but on the day following, they were visited by
such flights of birds, and the various signs of
land became so many that from a state of des-
pondency they passed into one of eager expecta-
tion.

A pension of thirty crowns had been promised
by Spain to him who should first discover land.
Eager to earn this reward, they were giving out
the cry of land on the least appearance of the
kind. To put a stop to these false alarms, Col-
umbus declared that should anyone give notice of
land, and it be not found for three days after-
wards, he should forfeit all claim to the reward.

On October 6 Martin Pinzon began to lose
confidence in their present course, and wanted



THE FIRST VOVAGE. 67

Columbus to steer more to the southward, but he
refused, and continued towards the west. On
the 7th land was thought to be seen in the west,
but no one ventured to proclaim it for fear of
losing the reward. The Mua being a good sailor,
pressed forward to ascertain the fact. Ina little
while a flag was hoisted at her masthead, anda
gun fired, being the arranged signals for land.
New joy was awakened, and every eye was
turned towards the west. As they sailed on,
their cloud-built hopes faded away; and before
evening the fancied land had again melted into
air.

The crews were again sadly dejected. Colum-
bus observed great flights of small field birds
going towards the southwest, and he made up his
mind that they must be secure of some near land,
where they would find food and a resting place.
He determined to alter his course and sail with
the birds, and go in that direction for at least two
days. This met the wishes of the Pinzons, and
inspired the crews generally.

For three days they sailed in this direction, and
the farther they went the more encouraging were
the signs of land; but when on the evening of the
third day, they beheld the sun go down upon a
shoreless horizon, they looked on all these signs
as so many delusions luring them on to destruc-



68 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

tion. They insisted upon turning homeward, and
giving up the voyage as hopeless. Columbus tried
to pacify them with gentle words and promises of
large rewards ; and when these seemed useless,
he took a decided tone, and saying they were sent
to seek the Indies, happen what might, he would
go on, till by the blessing of God he should accom
plish the enterprise.

Columbus was now in open war with his crews,
and his situation was truly desperate. Happily,
on the next day, the signs of land were such as
to admit of no doubt. Besides fresh weeds, such
as grow in rivers, they sawa green fish, of a kind
which keeps about rocks ; thena branch of thorn
with berries on it; then they picked up a weed,
a small board, and above all, a staff artificially
carved. All gloom now gave way; and all day
each one was eagerly on the watch, in hopes of
being the first to discover the long sought for land.

In the evening after the vesper hymn to the
Virgin, Columbus made an address to the crew.
He thought it likely they should land that night,
and ordered a sharp look out. Not an eye was
clesed that night. About ten o’clock Columbus
thought he saw a light glimmering at a great dis-
tance. He called the attention of two of his
officers to it. The light came and went, as though
in the hand of some person on shore. Columbus



THE FIRST VOYAGE. 69

looked on this as a certain sign of land, and
believed the land was inhabited.

They continued on their course till two o’clock
in the morning, when a gun from the Pixta gave
the joyful signal of land. The land was now
dimly seen about six miles off. They took in
sail, and waited impatiently for the dawn.

Land was first seen by Rodrigo de Triana.
We cannot but be sorry for this poor common
sailor, who got no reward, and of whom they tell
a story, that in sadness and despite, he passed
into Africa, after his return to Spain, and became
a Mohometan. The pension was judged to go to
Columbus, on the ground that he first. saw the
light; and was paid to him on the day of his
death.

The great mystery of the ocean was: now at
at last revealed. His theory, which had been the
scoff even of sages, was now-established. He
had secured to-himself a glory which must be as
durable as the world itself.



CHAPTER VI.
THE NEW WORLD FOUND.

The landing of Columbus in the New World
must ever be a conspicuous fact in the records of
mankind, and it was celebrated in a manner
worthy of the occasion. On Friday, October 12,
1492, Columbus, clad in a full suit of armor, and
carrying in his hand the royal banner of Spain,
descended upon the level shores of the small
island (San Salvador, one of the Bahamas), which
had first greeted him, and which he found to be
very fruitful, fresh and verdant, and “like a gar-
den full of roses.” Martin Pinzon and his brother
Vincent went with him, each of them bearing a
banner with a green cross upon it, and with the
letters F. and Y. surmounted by their respective
crowns, the initials of the Spanish monarchs Fer-
nando and Ysabel. These chief officers were
followed by a large portion of the crews. In lines
along the shore stood the simple natives, all per-
fectly naked, looking on with innocent amazement.

On touching land, Columbus and all the Span-
iards who were present fell upon their knees, and

70



THE NEW WORLD



FOUND.

q!



72 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

with tears poured forth their ‘‘immense thanks-
givingsto Almighty God.” Drawing his sword,
and displaying the royal standard, Columbus took
solemn possession in the name of the sovereigns,
giving the island the name of San Salvador.
After going through these forms and ceremonies,
he called on all present to take the oath of obedi-
ence to him, as admiral and viceroy.

When the natives saw the boats coming to the
shore with a number of strange beings, clad in
shining steel with clothes of various colors, they
fled off in fright to the woods. Finding that there
was no attempt made to pursue or molest them
they got over their terror and slowly came back.
They came up to the strangers, wondering at their
whiteness and at their beards. Columbus attracted
their attention, from his height, his air of
authority, his dress of scarlet, and the respect
paid to him by the others, all of which pointed
him out as the chief.

The natives were no less objects of curiosity
to the Spaniards, differing as they did from any
race of men they had ever seen. Their looks
did not give much promise of either riches or
learning, for they were entirely naked, and
painted with a variety of colors.

“T gave them,” says Columbus, ‘‘some colored
caps, and some strings of glass beads for their





































GES.

EXCHAN

FRIENDLY



74 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

necks and many other things of little value, with
which they were delighted. They came swimming
out to our boats, and brought us parrots, cotton
thread in balls, darts, and many other things, and
bartered them with us for bells and small glass
beads. In fine, they took and gave all of what-
ever they had with good will.’ These trifles
Columbus brought with him, because the Portu-
guese sailors found them useful in trading with
the negroes on the gold coast of Africa.

As Columbus supposed he had landed on an
island at the end of India, he gave to the natives
the name of /zdzans, and this name was adopted,
and has ever since been applied to the natives of
the New World.

Columbus tells us that these Indians were well
made, with very good faces, had hair like horse-
hair, and were yellow in color. They did not
carry any arms, and knew nothing of such things,
for when he showed them swords, they took hold
of them by the blades, and cut themselves. Some
of these Indians wore gold rings in their noses.
These they gladly exchanged for the hawks’ bells,
Columbus asked where this gold was to be got.
They answered by signs, pointing to the south;
and he understood them that in that quarter there
was a king of great wealth, insomuch that he was
served in great vessels of wrought gold.













































































THE









































GRAND KHAN

OF THE EAST.



(from Marco Polo's Travels.)

75



76 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

Columbus now felt satisfied that he had landed
among those islands described by Marco Polo,
as lying opposite Cathay, in the Chinese Sea,
and he thought everything accorded with the
account given of those rich regions of the great
Khan of the East.

On October 14, he set off at daybreak with
the boats of the ships to cruise along the islands.
They passed two or three villages, and the men
and women ran to the shores, and threw them-
selves upon the ground, lifting up their hands and
eyes, either giving thanks to Heaven, or worship-
ping the Spaniards. Their idea was that these
white men had come from the skies.

On October 16, Columbus went on shore, giving
the island the name of Santa Maria Concepcion.
Finding nothing here to induce delay, he returned
on board, and sailed to the west, landing at another
island which he called Fernandina, in honor of
the King. The natives here seemed more intel-
ligent. Some of the women wore scanty aprons
of cotton, others had cotton mantles, but for the
most part they were naked. For beds they had
nets of cotton, spread from two posts, which they
called hamacs, a name since used by seamen.
Here they found a noble harbor, large enough to
hold one hundred ships. Here the men landed
with the casks in search of water. Columbus says



THE NEW WORLD FOUND. 74

in his diary, ‘‘The country was as fresh and green
as the month of May in Andalusia; the trees,
fruits, flowers, herbs, the very stones, for the most
part, as different from those of Spain, as night
from day.” The natives looked on their visitors
with awe; took them to the coolest springs, filled
their casks, rolled them to the boats, and in every
way tried to gratify them.

Leaving Fernandina on the roth, they steered
to the south-west, where their guides told them
was a gold mine, with a king living in a large
city, with great riches, wearing clothes studded
with jewels and gold. They found the island,
but not the king, nor the mine. No animals had
been seen on these islands but lizards and a kind
of rabbit, called guanas, and a species of dog
that never barked.

To the constant inquiry of Columbus as to
where the natives got their gold, they always
pointed to the south. It was learned that an
island lay in that direction called Cuba, that was
rich in gold and jewels and spices, and did quite
a trade with ships that stopped there. Columbus
now made up his mind to leave the Bahamas and
go in quest of Cuba.

Owing to contrary winds and calms, followed
by heavy showers, it was October 28 before he
sighted the island of Cuba. He was struck with



78 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

the grandeur of its features; its high and airy
mountains reminding him of those of Sicily ; its
fertile valleys and wide plains, watered by noble
rivers. In the diary Columbus says, ‘‘ One could

“live here forever; it is the most beautiful island
that eyes ever beheld.” The houses were better
built than those he had yet seen, and they were
kept clean. But the natives fled to the mountains
or hid in the woods on his approach. In the
course of their searches, they met with the potato,
a humble root, little valued at the time, but more
precious to man than all the spices of the east.
They also beheld the natives going around with
firebrands in their hands, and certain dried herbs,
which they rolled up in a leaf, and lighting one
end, put the other end in their mouths, inhaling
and puffing out smoke. These rolls they called
tobacco. This discovery of tobacco proved of
*more value to the Spanish crown than all the gold
mines of the Indies.

On November 12, Columbus turned his course,
to follow back the direction of the coast. Had he
proceeded far within the old channel, between
Cuba and the Bahamas, he would have discovered
his mistake in thinking Cuba a part of Terra
Firma ; an errorin which he continued to the day
of his death. He might have stood for the coast
of Florida, or have been carried there by the Gulf









CONCEPTION BAY.

79



80 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

Stream ; or he might have struck over to the op-
posite coast of Yucatan, and realized his greatest
hopes, in being the discoverer of Mexico. It was
glory enough, however, for Columbus to have
found anew world. Its more golden regions were
reserved to give splendor to succeeding enter-
prises.

Martin Pinzon parted company with Columbus
while on the coast of Cuba. He grew tired of
taking orders from Columbus. His avarice was
suddenly awakened. His vessel being the best
sailor, he could easily ply to windward, while the
others could not. The Indian guides he had with
him offered to bring him to an island of great
riches. He might be the first, therefore, to discover
this golden region, and enrich himself with its first
fruits. Columbus was indignant at this deser-
tion; but his heavy ship made all attempts at pur-
suit hopeless.

On December 6, Columbus entered a harbor
at the western end of the island, which he called
St. Nicholas, by which it is called to this day.
From the number of canoes seen in various parts
there were evidently large villages near, but the
natives fled with terror at the sight of the ships.
The interpreter was sent afterthem. He quieted
their terrors by saying that the strangers had
come from the skies, and went about the world



THE NEW WORLD FOUND. 81

making beautiful presents. Thus assured, they
ventured back, about 2,000 of them. They were
a well formed race, fairer and handsomer than
the natives of the other islands. They brought
the Spaniards to their houses and set before them
casava bread, fish, roots, and fruits of many kinds.
They offered freely what they possessed. But
there were no signs of riches.

On December 14, Columbus visited an island
lying opposite to the harbor of Conception, to
which, from its abounding in turtle, he gave the
name of Tortugas. On the 16thhe steered again
for Hispaniola, called by the natives Hayti. ‘The
ships were visited by a Cacique of the neighbor-
hood. He was borne on a litter by four men,
and attended by 200 of his subjects. Columbus
- entertained him at dinner on board his vessel.
After the dinner the Cacique presented Columbus
with a belt curiously made, and two pieces of
gold. Columbus gave him a piece of cloth,
several amber beads, colored shoes, and a flask
of orange flower water. They found but little
gold in this place. The region of promise still
lay further on. One of the old counsellers of the
Cacique told Columbus that he would soon arrive
at islands rich in the precious ore.

On December 20th, Columbus anchored in a
fine bay, to which he gave the name of St. Thomas.



52 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

On the 22d, a large canoe, filled with natives,
came ona mission from a grand Cacique named
Guacanagari who owned all that part of the
island. He resided in a town on a river called
Punta Santa. It was the largest and best built
town they had yet seen.

On December 24th, Columbus set sail from Con-
ception, intending to anchor at the harbor of the
Cacique Guacanagari. The wind was very light,
and the ship made but little progress. It was the
night before Christmas, and Columbus, who had
kept watch, retired to take a little rest, not having
slept the night before. On account of the great
calm he felt secure, and there was no report of
rocks or shoals in their course.

No sooner had the vigilant admiral retired, than
the steersman gave the helm in charge to one of
the ship boys, and went to sleep. The rest
of the sailors who had the watch took advantage
of the absence of Columbus, and in a little while
the whole crew were buried in sleep. While this
fancied security reigned over the ship, the cur-
rents, which ran swiftly along this coast, carried
her quietly, but with force, upon a sand-bank.
The heedless boy had not noticed the breakers,
but when he felt the rudder strike, he cried for
aid. Columbus was the first to take the alarm,
and mount the deck. The master of the ship,

































































THE .FIRST SIGNS OF GOLD.

83



84 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

whose duty it was to have been on watch, next
made his appearance, followed by others of the
crew, half awake, and not aware of their peril.
Columbus ordered them to take the boat, and
carry out an anchor astern, that they might try to
tow the vessel off. They sprang into the boat ;
but were seized with a panic, and instead of obey-
ing their orders, sailed off to the other caravel.

‘When the boat arrived at the caravel, they were
refused admission, and reproached for their cow-
ardly desertion. The master and several of the
crew of the caravel got out their boat, and sailed
to the rescue; but were too late to save the ship,
which the strong current had set more and more
upon the bank; until her keel was firmly bedded
in the sand.

Columbus and his crew took refuge on board
the caravel. Messengers were sent on shore to
inform the Cacique of their disaster. He sent all
his people, with all the canoes that could be
gathered, and unloaded the vessel. On December
26, the Cacique came on board the Avxda, and
tried to cheer up Columbus. He gave him houses
to shelter the Spaniards, and to receive the effects
landed from the wreck.

The Cacique took Columbus to the beautiful
groves near his residence. They were attended
by over a thousand of the natives, all perfectly



THE NEW WORLD FOUND. 85

naked. He assured Columbus, by signs, that
there was a place not far off where gold abounded
in such a degree that it was held in little value.

Columbus showed the Cacique a Moorish bow
and a quiver of arrows, and got a man who was
skillful in the use of them to show how these
weapons were used. The Cacique told him of
the Caribs, who often made descents upon his ,
lands and carried off his subjects; and how they
also were armed with these bows and arrows.
Columbus promised to destroy these Caribs ;
knowing he had weapons against which there was
no defence. In proof of this, he ordered a heavy
cannon to be fired. At the sound of this gun the
Indians fell to the ground as though they had been
struck with a thunderbolt; and when they saw
the ball rending and shivering the trees like a
stroke of lightning, they were filled with dismay.
On being told that the Spaniards would defend
them with these weapons, their alarm changed
to joy, and they felt that they were under the
protection of the sons of heaven.

The Cacique presented Columbus with a mask
carved of wood, with the eyes, ears and other
parts of gold; he hung plates of the same metal
around his neck, and placed a kind of golden
coronet upon his head. He also made various
gifts to the crew.



86 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

The kindness of the Cacique, the gentleness of
the people, and the quantities of gold which were
daily brought to be exchanged for the commonest
trifles did much to console Columbus for the loss
he had suffered.

The shipwrecked crew lived on shore. When
they looked back upon their toilsome and painful
life in Spain, and thought of the cares and hard-
ships that must still be their lot if they returned
to Europe, it is no wonder that they looked with
a wistful eye on the easy and idle life of these
Indians. ‘Lhe men were simple, frank and cor-
dial; the women loving and willing to marry.
They saw gold around them to be had without
labor, and enjoyment to be got without cost.
Many of the seamen begged Columbus to allow
them to remain on the island.

Columbus resolved to found a colony in
Guacanagari’s land, ‘‘having found such good
will and such signs of gold.” With the timber of
the unfortunate Santa Maria he built a fort, and
called it La Natividad, because he entered the
port near there on Christmas day. The shipwreck
which Columbus looked upon as an act of divine
favor, to reveal to him the secrets of the land,
limited all his after discoveries. It linked his
fortunes for the rest of his life to this island,
which was doomed to be to him a scene of cares





THE FORT AT LA NATIVIDAD.



88 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

and troubles, to tie him up in a thousand doubts,
and to cloud his last years with humiliation and
disappointment.

He remained on very friendly terms with this
good Cacique, and might have done well in that
part of the country if “he could have been con-
tent to be asettler. But he had an anxious desire
to get back to Spain, and tell all he knew. At
times he feared that his grand secret might still
perish with him. So he resolved to return home.
He left the fort in trust to a small body of his
followers, whom he commended to the good will
of the Cacique. He advised the men to do no
violence to man or woman, but to act as if they
had really came from heaven. Then getting the
necessary provisions for his vessel from the
friendly Indians, he set sail for Spain on Janu-

ary 14, 1493.



CHAPTER VII.
HOMEWARD BOUND.

The wind being light, they had to tow the cara-
vel out of the harbor, and clear of the reefs all
around it. They then stood eastward, towards a
lofty promontory, to which Columbus gave the
name of Monte Christo, by which it is still known.
On January 6, 1493, the lookout at the masthead
cried out that he saw the Pizta at a distance. The
two vessels steered back to the bay. Pinzon
went on beard the Mixa and stated to Columbus
that owing to the.storms he had been driven out
of his course, and out of sight of his leader. The
admiral accepted this explanation, fearing that a
quarrel with Pinzon, whose townsmen and rela-
tions formed the most part of the crew, might
cause a mutiny, which would be fatal to the under-
taking ; but in his diary he noted his belief in Pin-
zon’s bad faith. Pinzon had not found the gold
he went in search of, but he had met with some
natives and got, by bartering, a large quantity of
gold-dust. Half of this he kept for himself, and
half he gave to his crew as a bribe to them to say
nothing about the matter.

89



go CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

A few days were spent in refitting the vessels
for their homeward voyage. The Mixa and the
Pinta again set sail, coasting St. Domingo in an
easterly direction as far as the Gulf of Samana.
It was here that the first fight took place. The
natives attacked an exploring party that had been
sent out by Columbus. This was smoothed over.
Pinzon had brought six Indians on board his ship,
intending to carry them to Spain, to be sold as
slaves. Columbus set them free, and sent them
back with presents.

On January 16, Columbus left Samana on his
homeward course, from which, however, he turned,
in the hope of finding the island peopled with
Amazons, described by Marco Polo, of which he
had heard something in St. Domingo.

Such a discovery would be a full proof of his
new country with Marco Polo’s Indies, and when
four natives offered to act as guides, he thought
it worth while to steer (in the direction of Mar-
tinique) in quest of the fabled Amazons. But the
breeze blew towards Spain; the crews grew
homesick ; they grumbled at the length of the
voyage among the currents and reefs of strange
seas ; and at last Columbus gave up all idea of
further discovery, and again took up his course
for Europe.

At first things went well ; but the adverse trade-







HARD TIMES AT SEA.



92 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

winds, and the bad sailing of the Prxta delayed
the progress of both vessels. On February 12,
a storm came on, which became more and more
furious, until on the r4th, it became a hurricane,
and Pinzon’s vessel could only drift helplessly,
while the ma was able to keep ahead. In the
evening both caravels were sailing under bare
poles, and when darkness fell the signal light of
the /ixta gleamed far off, until at last it could be
seen no more. Then the panic-stricken crew
gave up in despair, the winds howled louder and
louder, and the sea burst over the frail vessel—
then, indeed, without a single skilled sailor to ad-
vise or to aid him, Columbus felt himself alone
with the tempest and the night. But his brave
heart kept up. As the stores were consumed,
the Axa felt the want of ballast, which Columbus
had intended to take on board at the Amazon
Island. ‘Fill the empty casks with water,” said
he, ‘“‘and let them serve as ballast,”’ a plan which
has grown common enough now, but which then
was probably original.

Columbus did all that human skill could sug-
gest for the safety of his vessel; and he prayed
to Heaven for help. With his crew he drew lots
to choose of one of their number to perform a
pilgrimage to the shrine of Our Lady at Guada-
loupe. He, himself, was chosen, Twice more



HOMEWARD BOUND. 93

were lots drawn, and once again the lot fell to
~ Columbus. Then he and all the crew made a vow
to go in procession to the first church dedicated
to the Virgin which they should meet on reach-
ing land.

When he thought their chances of getting
through the storm were small indeed, Columbus,
fearing that the tidings of his discovery might
finish with him, wrote out an account of his voyage
on parchment, and this he tied up in wax and
placed in a flask, which he threw out on the waves.

On February 15th, the storm abated some, and
at last they came in sight of land, which Colum-
bus knew to be one of the Azores. As they
could not make head against the waves and the
sea, they lost sight of this island, but saw another,
lying more to the south, round which they sailed
on the night of the 17th, but lost an anchor in
trying to bring up near the land. Next day they
cast anchor, and learned from the people that
they had reached the island of St. Mary, belong-
ing to the Portuguese. The governor sent word
to Columbus that he would visit him. But, to
fulfil their vow, half the crew went, barefoot and
in their shirts, on the pilgrimage to the chapel of
St. Mary, which was not far from the harbor. The
governor captured the whole band of pilgrims.
Spain and Portugal were at this time at peace.



94 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

but the governor thought the capture would please
his king. Columbus could do nothing with the
governor, and as the weather would not allow
him to remain where he was, he put out to sea,
with only three able seamen. On February 21,
he came back, and showed his royal commission,
and the governor restored the crew. On the
24th, they again steered for Spain, but another
tempest came on, which lasted for more than a
week.

In this last storm which raged with destructive
violence along the west coast of the Continent of
Europe, and which drove the /zx¢a almost help-
lessly towards a lee-shore, the dangers of the
voyage ended. ‘I escaped,” says Columbus, “ by
the greatest miracle in the world.” On the after-
noon of March 4th, he came to anchor inthe Tagus.
To the King of Portugal, who happened to be
near, he sent word of his arrival, and the result
of his voyage, and in reply, he received a press-
ing call to visit the Court. With this he thought
proper to comply, “in order not to show mistrust,
although he disliked it,” and was received by the
King with great honors. The King put in a claim
to the newly found land, which Columbus in the
interest of his sovereign took care to repudiate as
decidedly as possible. The King offered to trans-
port Columbus by land, and to furnish a safe con-





PRAYING FOR THE SEA TO SUBSIDE

95



96 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

duct or band of troops. This Columbus refused.
On March 13th, in the teeth of a bad wind and a
heavy sea, he left Tagus for the Bar of Saltes,
and safely reached his starting point at Palos on
the 15th, again a Friday—having taken not quite
seven months and a-half to accomplish this great-
est of all maritime enterprises.



CHAPTER VII.
RECEPTION OF COLUMBUS AT PALOS,

The triumphant return of Columbus was a great
event in the history of the little port of Palos,
where everybody was more or less interested in
the fate of the expedition. The most important
and wealthy sea-captains of the place had engaged
in it, and scarcely a family but had some relative
or friend among the voyagers. The departure of
the ships on what was thought a crazy cruise had
spread gloom and dismay over the place; and
the storms which had raged made this feeling
worse. When they heard of the return, the whole
people burst forth into a transport of joy. The
bells were rung, and all the shops were closed;
and everywhere was bustle and excitement.
Every member of the crew was looked upon as a
hero.

The Court was at Barcelona. Columbus sent
a letter to the King and Queen, stating in general
terms the success of his project ; and made ready
to present himself in person to their highnesses.
Almost at the same time, the /%z¢a reached the

97



98 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

port of Bayonne, and Pinzon sent a letter telling
of “his” discoveries, and offering to come to
Court and give full intelligence of them. He
supposed that Columbus had been lost; and
when the King and Queen directed him not to
come to Court without the admiral, chagrin and
grief so overcame him that he took to his bed;
and if any man ever died of remorse anda broken
heart, that man was Martin Alonzo Pinzon.

The Court prepared a great reception for
Columbus at Barcelona, where the people turned
out in such numbers to see him that the streets
could not contain them. A procession like this
the world had never before seen. Here with
Columbus were beings of a New World. Ferdi-
nand and Isabella had their thrones placed in the
presence of the assembled Court. Columbus
approached the monarchs, and .then, “his face
beaming with modest satisfaction,” he knelt at the
King’s feet, and begged leave to kiss their high-
nesses’ hands. They gave their hands; then
bade him rise and be seated before them. He
told the events of his voyage, and concluded his
story by showing what new things and new crea-
tures he had brought with him.

Ferdinand and Isabella fell on their knees, and
gave thanks to God with many tears; and then
the singers of the royal chapel closed the grand



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ALITEMUS’ YOUNG PEOPLE'S LIBRARY

CHRISTOPHER
COLUMBUS

AND THE

[ ISCOVERY OF AMERICA

COMPILED FROM AUTHORITATIVE SOURCES



WITH 80 ILLUSTRATIONS

PHILADELPHIA
HENRY ALTEMUS
IN UNIFORM STYLE
Copiously [llustrated

THE PILGRIM’S PROGRESS

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS & WHAT ALICE FOUND THERE
ROBINSON CRUSOE

THE CHILD'S STORY OF THE BIBLE

THE CHILD'S LIFE OF CHRIST >

LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES

THE SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON

THE FABLES OF ESOP

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
MOTHER GOOSE’S RHYMES, JINGLES AND FAIRY TALES
EXPLORATION AND ADVENTURE IN THE FROZEN SEAS
THE STORY OF DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION IN AFRICA
GULLIVER’S TRAVELS

ARABIAN NIGHTS’ ENTERTAINMENTS

WOOD'S NATURAL HISTORY

A CHILD’S HISTORY OF ENGLAND, by CHARLES DICKENS
BLACK BEAUTY, by ANNA SEWELL

ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES

GRIMM’S FAIRY TALES

GRANDFATHER'S CHAIR, by NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE
FLOWER FABLES, by LOUISA M. ALCOTT

Price 50 Cents Each

Henry ALTEMUS, PHILADELPHIA



Copyright 1896 by Henry Altemus






















































































































PREFACE.

HERE are few of the great personages in history who
al have been more talked about and written about than
Christopher Columbus, the discoverer of America.
We are apt to look upon Columbus as a person who knew
that there existed a great undiscovered continent, and who
made his way directly to the discovery of that continent.
Whereas, the dream of Columbus’s life was to make his way
by an unknown route to what was considered to be known.
The whole life of Columbus shows how rarely men of the
greatest insight and foresight, and also of the greatest perse-

5
6 PREFACE.

verance, attain the exact ends they aim at. He did not find
the regions of the Khan; but he brought into relations the
New World and the Old.

It is impossible to read without the deepest interest the
account from day to day of hisvoyage. The first point of
land that Columbus saw, and landed at, is as nearly as possible
the central point of what must once have been the United
Continent of North and South America. The least change
of circumstance might have made an immense difference in
the result. The going tosleep of the helmsman, the unship-
ping of the rudder of the Pixzon, the slightest mistake in
taking an observation, might have made, and probably did
make, considerable change in the event. During the first
voyage of Columbus, the gentlest breeze carried with it the
destinies of future empires.

Had some breeze carried Columbus northwards, it would
not have been left for the English, more than a century
afterwards, to found those Colonies which have proved to be
the seeds of the greatest nation that the world is likely to
behold.

It was, humanly speaking, singularly unfortunate for
Spanish dominion in America, that the earliest discoveries
were those of the West India Islands. A number of gov-
ernors introduced confusion, feebleness, and want of system,
PREFACE. q

into Colonial government. The numbers, comparatively few,
of the original inhabitants of each island, were rapidly
removed from the scene of action; and the Spaniards lacked,
at the beginning, that compressing force which would have
been found in the existence of a body of natives who could
not have been removed by the outrages of Spanish cruelty.

The Monarchs of Spain, too, would have been compelled
to treat their new discoveries and conquests more seriously.
To have held the country at all they must have held it well.
It would not have been Ojedas, Bobadillas and Ovandos who
could have been employed to govern, discover, conquer,
colonize, and ruin by their folly the Spanish possessions in.the
Indies. The work of discovery and conquest begun by
Columbus must then have been intrusted to men like Cortes,
the Pizarros, a Vasco de Nunez; and acolony or a kingdom
founded by any of these men might well have remained a
great colony, or a great kingdom to the present day.

The pictures found herein will throw light on the page in
more ways than one. They have been taken from ‘‘ De Bry’s
America’’ and ‘‘Herrara’s West Indies,’’ published in the
year 1730 by authority of the King of Spain.
COLUMBUS IN HIS’ CARAVEL.

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4


CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

CHAPTER I.
THE NEW WORLD.

JMERICA was discovered by Christopher
) Columbus on October 12, 1492. There
are traditions of much earlier discov-
eries. The Northmen, inhabitants of
Sweden and Norway, claim to have landed on
the Western Continent, about the year 1000.
These wandering Northmen had reached the
shores of America first in the vicinity of Nan-
tucket, and had given the name of Vinland to the
region extending from beyond Boston to the south
of New York. But the memory of these voyages
seems totally to have passed away, or the lands
were confounded with Greenland, to which the
Pope had sent a bishop in 1448, This discovery
cannot diminish the claims of Columbus.

These old Northmen made their home upon
the sea, and lived by plundering from their neigh-
bors. The early Britons suffered terribly from
their raids. ‘ Foes are they,” sang an old Eng-
lish poet, “fierce beyond all other foes; cunning

9


10 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

as they are fierce ; the sea is their school of war,
and the storm their friend; they are the sea-
wolves that live upon the pillage of the world.”























































































































































































A NORSE SHIP OF THE TENTH CENTURY.

The honor of discovering America, a few years
before the first voyage of Columbus, has been
claimed by the Spaniards for one of their country-






























































































































































































































































































































































































































































neal



THE NORTHMEN AND THEIR SHIPS.
12 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

men, by the Germans for one of theirs, by the
Venetians, the Portuguese, and the Poles; but
on grounds the most vague and unsatisfactory.

Even allowing these discoveries to have taken
place it does not detract from the glory of Colum-
bus as the man who first really united America
and Europe. He was unaware of any previous
voyages to this quarter of the globe, and his
wonderful adventure has led to the most import-
ant results; while the others, granting them to
have occurred, have been barren of results.

The discovery of America stirred Europe to its
deepest foundations. All classes of men were
affected. The people went wild at once with a
lust of gold, and a love of adventure.

Even the poor honor of giving his name to the
Continent he discovered was curiously filched
from him. Amerigo Vespucci, an Italian navi-
gator, had made the acquaintance of Columbus
on his return from one of his early voyages. He
went out with Ojeda, in his voyage in 1500, and
explored several hundred miles of the coast of
South America. He wrote an account of this
voyage, and of a subsequent one to Brazil, which
were read before some noble families in Italy. A
German geographer on the strength of these
letters, in 1507, called the new Continent America
Terra, and hence our name of America.
THE NEW WORLD. 13

The name of Columbus was written Columbo,
in Italian. He Latinized his name as was the cus-
tom in those days when Latin was the language
of learned correspondence. In Spanish history
he is known

as. Christoval
Colon.

Columbus
never knew
the nature of
his own dis-
covery. He
died in the be-
lief that it was
some part of
Asia; and Ves-
puccci held the
same idea. If
Columbus fail-
ed in his at-
tempts to
reach India by sailing to the west, Vasco de Gama
succeeded by sailing to the south.



AMERIGO VESPUCCI.
CHAPTER II.
FIFTEENTH CENTURY DISCOVERIES.

Modern familiarity with navigation renders it
difficult for us to properly appreciate the great-
ness of the enterprise which was undertaken by
the discoverers of the New World. Seen by the
light of science and of experience, the ocean, if
it had some real terrors, had no imaginary ones.
It was different in the fifteenth century. Geo-
graphical knowledge was but just awaking, after
ages of slumber; and throughout those ages the
wildest dreams had mingled fiction with fact.
The halfdecked vessels that crept along the
Mediterranean shores were but ill-fitted to bear
the brunt of the furious waves of the Atlantic.
The use of the compass had scarcely become
known to navigators; and who could tell, it was
objected, that a ship which might succeed in sail-
ing down the waste of waters would ever be able
to return, for would not the voyage home be a
steady journey up a mountain of sea?

But the same traditions that set forth the diff-
culties of reaching the unknown countries, prom-

14
FIFTEENTH CENTURY DISCOVERIES. 15

ised a splendid reward to the successful voyager.
Rivers rolling down golden sand, mountains shin-
ing with priceless gems, forests fragrant with rich
spices were among the solid advantages to be
expected as a result of the enterprise. ‘ Our



CARAVEL BEFORE THE WIND.

quest there,” says one of the old historians, ‘‘is
not for the vulgar products of Europe.’”’ And there
was another object besides gain, which was in the
minds of all the early explorers, namely, the
spread of the Christian religion.
16 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

The known world in the time of Prince Henry
of Portugal was a very small one indeed, With
the map before us we can see how small was our
infant world. First take away those two conti-
nents (each much larger than a Europe), to the
far west. Then cancel the big island on the ex-
treme south-east. Then turn to Africa. Instead
of the form which it now presents, make a scim-
iter shape of it by running a slightly curved line
from Jaba on the eastern side to Cape Nam on
the western. Declare all below that line unknown.
“ Where you know nothing, place terrors,’ was
the rule of the early geographers.

Now looking at the map, we can hardly help
thinking to ourselves with a smile, what a small
space the known history of the world has been
done in, up tothe last 4oo years. The idea of the
universal dominion of Rome shrinks a little.

Prince Henry was born in Portugal, in 1394.
He was with his father at the capture of Centa,
in the year 1415. This town, which lies opposite
to Gibraltar, was of great magnificence, and one
of the chief marts in that age for the products ot
the eastern world. It was here that Portugal
first planted a firm foot in Africa; and the date
to this town’s capture may be taken as the time
when Prince Henry began to plan further and far
greater conquests. He was very learned, for
FIFTEENTH CENTURY DISCOVERIES. 17

that age of the world, and learned from the Moors
of Morocco such knowledge as could be gather-

SSS

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ed of the re-
mote districts of
Africa.

The Prince
having got the
idea in his mind
that Africa did
not end at Cape
Nam, never rest-
ed until he had



made known that quarter of the world to his
own. He lived at Sagres, where for many a year
18 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

he could watch for the white sails bringing back
his captains to tell him of new countries and new
men.

For a long time Cape Bojador (meaning out-
stretcher), which is 200 miles south of Cape Nam,
was the extreme limit of discovery. Beyond this
Cape, the mariners reported, ‘“‘ were no people
whatever; the lands bare, no water, no trees, or
grass on it; the sea is shallow, and the currents
fierce ; and the ship which passes that cape will
never return.”

For twelve years the Prince kept sending out
ships and men; with little approval from his
people. The captains came back with no good
tidings ; still he would not give up. At last one
of his captains passed the dreaded Cape Bojador,
and brought back the news that the soil appeared
to him unworked and fruitful ; and like a prudent
man he brought home a barrel of the new-found
earth, and some plants, The Prince rejoiced to
see them and gave thanks to God.

Stormy times now came upon Portugal, and the
Prince had to give his attention to home matters
for awhile. In 1441 a voyage was planned which
went 150 miles below Bojador. The captain seized
some Moors, to take home, as he said “some of
the language of their country.” The Prince now
applied to the Pope to grant Portugal all the
FIFTEENTH CENTURY DISCOVERIES. 19

lands conquered from Bojador to the Indies.

‘ithe = ope
granted this
request; al-
though after-
wards as we
shall see, the
Spanish dis-
coveries of
Columbus
made it nec-
essary that
the terms of
thegranthad
should be
modified.

In 1444 a
company
was formed
for the pur-
promsices Olt
coasting
along Africa;
they to pay
to Portugal
a portion of
any gains
they might



Madeira
Conary IF AS

Arguvmd C.
20 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

make. Thus began the slave trade. Before this
time the slave had been the captive of war, who
lived with his conqueror, and toiled on his lands.
Now the slave became the object of war, He
was to be sought for, to be hunted out, to be
produced and this change gave rise to a new
branch of commerce. :

In 1454, a young Venetian named Mosto was
detained by bad winds at Cape St. Vincent.
Prince Henry told him of the things he had done,
showed him samples of the goods that came from
the newly discovered lands; and finally induced
him to take charge of a vessel. From him we
learn that Arguim was the headquarters of the
trade. There cameall kinds of goods to be ex-
changed for gold and slaves. Barbary horses
were taken to the negro country, and traded with
the chiefs for slaves, eighteen men being bartered
for one horse. Every year between 700 to 800
slaves are sent from here to Portugal.

Mosto sailed down to Jalofs, and describes the
negroes on the shores of the Senegal River. He
is said to have gone 800 miles farther, entering
the river Gambia, where he was attacked by the
natives. During his stay in this river he saw the
constellation of the Southern Cross, for the first
time. Finding the negroes would have nothing
to do with him, he returned to Portugal.
FIFTEENTH CENTURY DISCOVERIES.

21
On a second voyage two years later he dis-

covered the Cape Verde Islands. He again went
up the Gambia River, this time making friends

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PRINCE HENRY OF PORTUGAL.

with the negroes; but for want of a knowledge
of their language he could do no business with
22 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

them. Ina voyage taken some time between 1460
and 1464 Sierra Leone (roaring thunder) was dis-
covered. In 1469 the Gold Coast was explored ;
and a fort built there which Columbus afterwards
visited. Prince Henry died in 1463.

About this time came an officer froma territory
between the Gold Coast and the Congo, who
spoke about a greater power in Africa than his
master, to whom his master was but as a vassal.
This set the Portuguese King thinking about
Prester John, of whom legends spoke as a Christ-
ian King ruling over a Christian nation, some-
where in what was vaguely called the Indies.

The King sent out another expedition on further
discovery. They did not discover Prester John,
but after sailing more than 1000 miles they reached
acape, which from their experience, they called
Cape Stormy, but which their master renamed the
Cape of Good Hope. Bartholomew Columbus,
a brother of Christopher, was engaged in this
voyage.

The Prince of Jalof now came to Lisbon, to
seek the King’s protection. He was well received
and made much of; and was sent back to his own
country with a Portuguese fleet. of twenty cara-
vels, with orders to build a fort on the bank of
the river Senegal.

We have now seen Portuguese discovery
FIFTEENTH CENTURY DISCOVERIES. 23

making its way with quiet perseverance for 70
years from Cape Nami to the Cape of Good Hope,
a distance of 6000 niles. This long course of
discovery was thrown into the shade by the more
daring and brilliant discovery of America.

Prince Henry was hardly less a personage than
Columbus. They had different elements to con-
_ tend with, but the man with princely wealth and
position who had followed. his purposes for 4o
years, heedless of public clamor, is worthy to be
put in comparison with the other great discoverer
who worked out his enterprise through poverty,
neglect, sore travail and the changes of courts.

It must not be forgotten that Prince Henry was
the father of modern geographical discovery, and
that the result of his labors must have given much
impulse to Columbus, if it did not first move him
to his great discovery. His kinsman, too, deserves
merit for what he did, as do the many brave cap-
tains who distinguished themselves in those
enterprises.

It remained for Columbus, first to forma sound
theory of the various views of the cosmographers,
and to carryout that theory with the boldness and
resolution which have made his name one ‘of
those beacon-fires which carry on from period to
period the tidings of the world’s great history
through successive ages.
CHAPTER IIL
THE BOYHOOD OF COLUMBUS.

Of the early years of Columbus nothing certain
is known. A dozen different Italian cities claimed
the honor of giving him birth. It is only recently
that the will was found in which Columbus left
part of his property to the Bank of Genoa, and
settled the point in favor of that city. ‘ Thence
I came;” he says ‘‘and there was I born.”

As to the date of his birth there is no such
direct evidence ; and guesses founded on various
statements in his own writings, and in those
of people living at the same period, range over
the twenty years from 1436 to 1456. Washington
Irving adopts the earliest of these two dates upon
the report which speaks of the death of Columbus
in the year 1506, ‘at a good old age, being
seventy years old, a little more or less.” This
statement does not tally with some passages in
Columbus’s own letters. His son Fernando tells
us “his hair turned white before he was thirty.”
This would add to his apparent age, and most
likely deceived those around him at the time of

24
THE BOVHOOD OF COLUMBUS. 25

his death. The evidence of the ancient authori-
ties, who seem most to be relied upon, points to
the year 1448 as being the probable date of his
birth.

More than one noble family Jaid claim to him

after his name had become so illustrious. His
son, Fernando, who wrote his history, made a
journey solely to inquire into the truth of this
subject, and gave up all claims of the kind. In
making this admission, he wisely said, ‘‘The glory
of Christopher is quite enough, without there
being a necessity to borrow any from his an-
cestors.”
_ The father of Columbus was a wool-carder, but
in a city of traders like Genoa this fact does not
imply, as some have thought, that his family was
of particularly humble origin. Columbus was the
eldest of four children, having two brothers, Bar-
tholomew and Diego. Christopher's education
was but limited, but as extensive as the circum-
stances of his parents would permit. While
quite a child he was taught to read and write, and
wrote so good a hand, says Las Casas, that
with it he might have earned his bread. To
this, at a somewhat later period, was added
arithmetic, drawing and painting, and in these,
as Las Casas has observed, he acquired sufficient
skill to have gained a livelihood.
26 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

He was sent for a short time to Pavia, the
great school of learning in Lombardy. Here he
studied grammar, and became well acquainted
with the Latin tongue. His education, however,
was mainly directed to those sciences needed to
fit him for maritime life. He was taught geom-
etry, geography, astronomy, or, as it was at that
time termed, astrology, and navigation. He had,
at a very early age, shown a strong passion for
geographical science, and an ever-longing desire
for the sea; and he pursued with ardor every
study that would help him in the aim of life that he
seems to have thus early mapped out for himself.

It is no wonder that, exposed to such influences,
he should have favored a life of adventure on the
sea to the the drudgery of his father’s trade in
Genoa. After finishing his school studies, he
spent but a few months as a carder of wool, and
actually entered on his sailor career before he
was fifteen years old.

Considering how much more real the hero of a
story. appears if we can picture him accurately in
our mind’s eye, and see him “in his habit as he
lived,” it is singularly unfortunate that the person-
al appearance of Columbus has been so variously
described by the old writers of history that it is
impossible to speak with any certainty on the
subject. Strangely enough, too, no really true

ee


































































































































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COLUMBUS IN HIS YOUTH.
mM
28 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

portrait of the great discoverer exists. Fernando
Columbus, who would be a good authority, fails
to give us, in telling of his father, any of those
little touches which make up a good literary
photograph. We learn, however, that he was a
man of fine presence, tall, well formed, strong,
active and full of energy. His face was long, but
neither full nor meagre ; his complexion fair and
freckled, his nose aquiline, his cheek bones rather
high, and his eyes light gray and full of expres-
sion. His hair was naturally light in color, but as
we have already stated, it turned nearly white
while he was yet a young man.

He was moderate and simple in his diet
and apparel, a good talker, humane, self-denying,
courteous, and had the happy faculty of readily
making friends with strangers.

He possessed an inquiring mind, and was
singularly resolute and enduring. He was rapt
in his designs, having a ringing for ever in his
ears of great projects, making him deaf to much,
perhaps, that prudence might have heeded ;—
one to be loved by those near to him, and likely
by his presence to inspire favor and respect.

Of his many voyages, which of them took place
before, and which after, his coming to Portugal,
we have no distinct record ; but we are sure that
he traveled over a large part of the known world,
THE BOVHOOD OF COLUMBUS. 29

that he visited England, and that he made his way
to Iceland, and Friesland (where he possibly heard
the vague tales of the discoveries by the North-
men in North America), that he had been on the
coast of Guinea, and that he had seen the Islands
of the Grecian Archipelago. ‘Ihave been seek-
ing out the secrets of nature for forty years,” he
says, ‘and wherever ship has sailed, there have I
voyaged.” But beyond a few vague hints of this
kind, we know scarcely anything of these early
voyages.

He particularly mentions in his letters to Fer-
dinand and Isabella, that he was employed by
King Réné, of Provence, to cut out a galley from
the port of Tunis. ‘This exploit showed his bold-
ness and his tact. During the voyage the news
was brought that there were three other vessels
with the galley. His crew did not wish to risk a
fight and insisted that Columbus should return
for more help. He made a show of doing so,
but craftily altered the point of the compass so
that it looked as though they were going back
while they were really steering right ahead, and
so arrived at Carthagena on the next morning,
thinking all the while they were in full sail for
Marseilles. It isa pity that no record exists of
how this bold enterprise turned out.

There is an interval of many years: during which
30 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

we have but one or two shadowy traces of Colum-
bus. He is supposed to have been engaged in
the Mediterranean and up the Levant, sometimes
on voyages of commerce, sometimes in warlike
contests between the Italian States, and some-
times in pious and plundering trips against the
Infidels.

At what precise period his great idea came into
his mind we have no means of learning. The
long series of Portuguese discoveries had excited
the mind of Europe, and must have greatly influ-
enced Columbus, living in the midst of them.
This may be said without in the least taking any-
thing away from his merits as a discoverer. In
real life people do not spring from something un-
real to something real, as they do in sick dreams.
A great invention or discovery is often like a
daring leap, but it is from land to land, not from
nothing to something ; and if we look at the sub-
ject with this view fully before us, we shall be
forced to admit that Columbus had as large a
share in the merit of his discovery as most inven-
tors or discoverers can lay claim to. If the idea
which has made him famous was not in his mind
at the outset of his career of investigation, at any
rate he had from the first a desire for discovery,
or, as he says himself, the wish to know the
secrets of this world.








SHIPS IN THE TIME OF MARCO POLO.

31
32 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

We know that he arrived at a fixed belief that
there was a way by the west of the Indies; that
he could discover this way, and so come to the
places he had met with in the gorgeous descrip-
tions of Marco Polo, and other ancient travelers.
Up to this time each new discovery was but a
step beyond that which had gone before it. Col-
umbus was the first to steer boldly from shore
into the wild and unknown waste of waters, an
originator, not a mere follower or improver of
what had been done before.

Fernando Columbus divides into three classes
the grounds on which his father’s theory was
based: first, reasons from nature; second, the
authority of learned writers; and third, the re-
ports of sailors. He believed the world to be a
sphere ; he under-estimated its size; and judged
that Asia was larger than it really was. The
farther Asia extended to the east the nearer it
came round towards Spain. Andthis had been the
view of all the old geographers; and the early
travelers in their accounts all had the same idea
of the vast extent of eastern Asia.

Of all the works of learned men that which had
the most weight with Columbus was the ‘“Cosmo-
graphia” by Cardinal Aliaco. This book was full
of absurd fables of lion-bodied men and dog-
faced women; and the accounts of the earth’s


COLUMBUS AND THE EGG.
34 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

surface were mixed up with the wildest stories of
monsters and salamanders, of giants and pigmies.
These quaint figures appear in the earliest pictures
of books of ocean travel. It is here we find the
original of the sea-serpent, described as being
‘“‘of huge size, so that he kills and devours large
stags, and is able to cross the ocean.” Other
wonders of the unknown world are given, and
these must have easily won the trusting faith of a
willing disciple like Columbus.

He was confirmed in his views of the exist-
ence of a western route to the Indies by Tosca-
nelli, to whom much credit is due for the kindly
aid he afforded to Columbus in his first great
enterprise.

That the notices of western lands were not
such as to have much weight with most other men
is proved by the trouble which Columbus had in
struggling with adverse geographers and men of
science, of whom, he says, he never was able to
convince anyone. After the new world had been
discovered many scattered hints were then found
to have foreshown it. When he promised a new
world people said it could not exist, and when he
had found it, that it had been known a long time.
It was to show how little these people knew that
he resorted to the well known expedient of making
an egg stand on end,
s¢



NTURE,

ARLY ADVE

AN E
36 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

Of the hints he received from sailors it is dif-
ficult to speak with any degree of accuracy.
Rumors of drift-wood, which appeared to be
carved with some savage implements; of great
reeds, like those which Ptolemy wrote about as
growing in India, even of two corpses, cast up on
one of the Azores, and presenting an appearance
quite unlike that of any race of Europe or Africa;
allseem to have come to the willing ears of Colum-
bus, and to have been looked upon by him as
strong proofs of the great theory. He felt that
as the winds had drifted these from the west, they
surely must have come from some unknown
land in that direction.

About the year 1470 Columbus arrived at
Lisbon. According to the account given by his
son, he was on a cruise trying to capture some
Venetian merchant vessels on their way home
richly laden from Flanders. At break of day a
battle began off Cape St. Vincent, and lasted till
nightfall. The vessel commanded by Columbus
grappled with a huge Venetian galley, which,
after a hand-to-hand fight, caught fire, and the
flames spread to Colunibus’s vessel. Friends
and enemies alike sought safety by jumping
into the sea, and Columbus, supporting himself
on an oar, succeeded, when nearly exhausted, in
gaining the land, which was some six miles dis-
THE BOVHOOD OF COLUMBUS. 20)

tant. God saved him, says his son, for greater
things.

While at Lisbon, he used to attend religious
service at the chapel of the Convent of All Saints.
Here he met Donna Palestrello. She was the
daughter of an Italian cavalier, who had been one
of the most noted sea captains under Prince
Henry, and had colonized and governed the
island of Porto Santo. His marriage with this
lady fixed his residence there. Her father being
dead, the newly married couple made their home
with the mother. She seeing the great interest
that Columbus took in all matters relating to the
sea, told him all she knew of the voyages of her
husband, and brought him all his papers, and
charts and journals. To Columbus these were
treasures. He studied over all the routes of the
Portuguese, and their plans and ideas, and when
the chance offered he sailed in the trips to Guinea.
When on shore, he made maps and charts, which
he sold for the support of his family.

We know but little of this period of his life. We
find a few vague stories of his unsuccessful efforts
to induce the Senate of Genoa to take up his
project. From the Portuguese crown he could not
look for help, as they were engaged in costly
wars, and already had a field for discovery along
the African coast. King John the Second, to
38 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

whom he applied, listened with attention to his
scheme, which he gave a sort of half promise to
support, but he seems to have disagreed with
Columbus about the terms. He referred Colum-
bus to his Council for Geographical Affairs. The
plans were laid before them, but they reported
against the rashness of the scheme. The King
was not entirely satisfied and secretly fitted out
a vessel and sent it out with instructions founded
on the plans that Columbus had explained. The
vessel returned without having done anything;
the sailors not having had the heart to venture
far enough westward. It was not an enterprise
to be carried out with success by mere hirelings,
or by men who had only stolen the idea of it.
CHAPTER IV.
COLUMBUS IN SPAIN.

Columbus, disgusted at the treatment he had
received from the Portuguese Court, quitted Lis-
bon, for Spain, probably in the year 1485, with
his son Diego, the only child of his marriage
with Donna Felipa, now no longer living.

The first trace we have of him in Spain was
given a few years after his death, by Garcia Fer-
nandez, a doctor in the little seaport town of
Palos, in Andalusia. About a mile from that town
stood, and stands at the present day, an ancient
convent of Franciscan friars, dedicated to Santa
Maria de Rabida. According to the report.of
the doctor, a stranger, on foot, with a small boy,
stopped one day at the gate of the convent, and
asked of the porter a little bread and water for
the child. While receiving this humble refresh-
ment the prior of the convent, Friar Juan Perez,
passed by, and was struck by the appearance of
the stranger, and observing from his air and ac-
cent that he was a foreigner, entered into conver-
sation with him, and soon learned his story.

39
40 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

That stranger was Columbus, and his young son
Diego. That he was in poor circumstances is evi-
dent from the mode of his wayfaring.

Juan Perez was a man of large learning. He
possessed that hearty zeal in friendship which
carries good wishes into good deeds. He kept °
Columbus as his guest, and sent for his friend
Doctor Fernandez to come and talk with him.
Several meetings took place at the old convent,
and the theory of Columbus was treated with a
respect which it had in vain sought amid the bustle
and pretension of Court sages and philosophers.
Hints, too, were gathered from the veteran sailors
which seemed to support the theory. Perez was
on good terms with Talavera, who was confessor
to the Queen, a man high in royal favor, and
having great weight in public affairs. To him he
gave Columbus a letter, strongly recommending
himself and his enterprise to the good will of
Talavera, and begging his friendly aid with the
King and Queen. As the influence of the Church
was very great in the Court of Castile, and as
Talavera had direct access to the Queen, much was
expected from his good offices. In the meantime,
Perez took charge of the young son of Columbus,
and kept and educated him at his convent.

Columbus arrived at Cordova early in the year
1486. Talavera was not friendly to the cause












































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































AT THE CONVENT GATE.

41
42 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

of Columbus. He was taken up with military
concerns, and absent with the Court in its wars
against the Moors, as the clerical adviser of the
Queen in this, as it was termed, holy war.

Amid the clang of arms and the bustle of war,
it is not surprising that Colnmbus could get but
slight attention to a matter which seemed so remote
and uncertain.

During the summer and fall of 1486 Columbus
remained at Cordova, supporting himself by the
sale of maps and charts, and trusting to time and
exertion to make him converts and friends that
might prove useful. One of the best friends he
gained was Quintanilla, the Queen’s treasurer, a
man who like himself “took delight in great
things,” and who got him a hearing from the
Spanish monarchs. Ferdinand and Isabella lis-
tened kindly, and ended by referring the business
to Talavera, whom they instructed to calla meeting
of the most learned geographers and astronomers,
who were to confer with Columbus and inform
themselves of the grounds on which he founded
his theory; after which they were to consult to-
gether and make their report. This junta, as it
was called, met at Salamanca, the great seat of
learning in Spain, in the year 1487. This was the
first step gained.

The junta did not regard the scheme of Colum-
TALKING IT



OVER WITH PEREZ.

43
44 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

bus with much favor. They were nearly all con-
nected with the Church, and conibined to crush
Columbus with theological objections. Texts of
Scripture were brought forward to refute the
theory of the round shape’ of the earth, and the
weighty authority of the early fathers of the Church
was added to overthrow “the foolish idea of the
existence of the antipodes; of people who walk op-
posite to us, with their heels upwards and their heads
hanging down; where everything is topsy-turvy,
where the trees grow with their branches down-
wards, and where it rains, hails and snows up-
wards.” The book of Genesis in the Bible, the
psalms of David, the orations of the prophets, the
epistles of the apostles, and the gospels of the
Evangelists, were all put in evidence aguinst Col-
umbus. It was impossible that there should be
people on what was thus vainly asserted to be the’
other side of the earth, since none such were
mentioned in the Bible. In fine, the junta decided
that the project was ‘vain and impossible; and
that it did not belong to the royalty of such great
princes to determine anything upon such weak
grounds of information.”

Columbus could not reconcile his plan with the
cosmography of Ptolemy, to which all scholars of
that time yielded implicit faith. None of them
knew that the man Copernicus was ‘hen in ex-












































































MALAGA, IN SPAIN.

45
46 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

istence, whose solar system should reverse the
grand theory of Ptolemy, which placed the earth
in the centre of the universe.

The junta were interrupted by the departure of
the Court to Cordova, early in the spring of 1487,
called away by the concerns of the war, in the
memorable battle against Malaga. Talavera
went with the Queen as her confessor.

Ferdinand and Isabella seem not to have taken
the extremely unfavorable report of the junta, or
were disposed to dismiss Columbus gently, for
they said that “with the wars at present on their
hands, and especially that of Granada, they could
not undertake any new expenses, but when the
war was ended, they would examine his plan
more carefully.”

Thus ended a solicitation at the Court of Ferdi-
nand and Isabella, which is said to have lasted five
years ; for the facts here mentioned, though short
in the telling, occupied a long time in transaction.
During the whole of this period Columbus
appears to have followed the sovereigns in the
movements from place to place, which the war
made necessary, and to have been treated with
much consideration. Sums were from time to
time granted to him from the royal treasury for
his private expenses, and he was billeted as a
public officer in the various towns of Andalusia,
COLUMBUS IN SPAIN. 47

where the Court rested. But at the best, this
must have been an up-hill task. Las Casas com-



ALONZO PINZON
48 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

pares the suit of Columbus to a battle, “a ter-
rible, continuous, painful, prolix battle.’ The
tide of this long battle having turned against him,
Columbus went to Seville ‘with much sadness
and discomfiture.”

Columbus had given up all hope of aid from
the Spanish monarchs, and now tried to find some
rich man who would engage in the enterprise.
Among others that he saw were the Duke of
Medina Sidonia, and the Duke of Medina Celi,
whose large possessions along the Spanish coast
were likely to lead them to help his views. He
must have received some encouragement, for
when he succeeded, the Duke Celi wrote to the
Cardinal of Spain, showing that he had kept
Columbus two years at his house, and was ready
to assist him in his enterprise, but that he saw
that it was one for the Queen herself, and even
then he wished to have some part of it.

Probably any man with whom Columbus lived
for two years would have caught some portion of
his enthusiasm, and been ready to take up his pro-
ject, but none of the nobles of Spain would have
been likely to have undertaken the matter without
the sanction of the King and Queen. Celi ad-
vised Columbus to apply once more to the Queen
and offered to use his influence with her in his
behalf.
COLUMBUS IN SPAIN. 7

But some friends remained who shared his faith
and urged him onward. Juan Perez, now guar-
dian of the monastery at Rabida, had exchanged
the bustle of the Court for the learned leisure of
the cloister. The little town of Palos, with its sea-
faring population and maritime interests, was near
the monastery, and the principal men of the place
were glad to spend the long winter evenings in
the society of Perez, over questions of geography
and astronomy.

Among the visitors were Martin Alonzo Pin-
zon, the chief ship-owner of Palos, and Fernandez,
the village doctor. Fernandez, who was skilled
in the physical sciences, and therefore capable of
appreciating the arguments of Columbus, became
a warm believer in his project.

Columbus had given up his suit at Court in dis-
gust, and called at the monastery before quitting
Spain to fetch his son, Diego, whom he had left
with Juan Perez to be educated. All his griefs and
troubles he confided to Perez, who could not bear
to hear of his intention to leave the country for
France or England, and to make a foreign nation
greater by allowing it to adopt his project.

The affection of Perez, and the learning of
Fernandez, were not slow to follow in the track
which the enthusiasm of the great adventurer made
out before them, and they became as convinced
50 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

as Columbus himself of the feasibility of the un-
dertaking. But the difficulty was in persuading
those to believe who would have power to further
the enterprise. Their discussion of these points
ended in the conclusion that Perez, who was
known to the Queen, should write to her high-
ness. He did so, and owing to the honest zeal
with which he urged the cause of Columbus, the
result was favorable. The Queen sent for him,
and he journeyed on to Santa Fe by night; she
heard what he had to say, and in consequence,
sent money to Columbus to enable him to come
to Court, and renew his suit.

Columbus attended the Court again. He
arrived in time to witness the surrender of
Granada to the Spanish arms. He beheld the
last of the Moorish Kings sally forth from the
Alhambra, and yield up the keys of that great
seat of power. It was a great day for Spain.
After nearly 800 years of painful struggle the
Crescent was completely cast down, and the
Cross exalted in its place, and the flag of Spain
was seen floating on the highest tower of the
Alhambra. The moment had now arrived when
the Monarchs stood pledged to attend to his
proposals. ‘They kept their word. Full of the
grandeur of his enterprise, he would listen to
none but princely conditions. The resumed deal-
COLUMBUS IN SPAIN. 51

ings were again broken off, this time on the
ground that the largeness of his conditions could



THE LAST OF THE MOORISH KINGS.

not be granted. His enemies said his conditions
were too large if he succeeded, and if he should
52 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

not succeed the conditions should come to noth-
ing; they thought there was an air of trifling in
granting such conditions at all.

. And indeed they were very large; he was to be
made an admiral at once, to be appointed viceroy
of the countries he should discover, and to have
one-eighth of the profits of the expedition.

Columbus now resolved to go to France, when
Perez and Fernandez managed to get another
hearing for Columbus from Cardinal Mendoza,
who was pleased with him. The Cardinal was the
most important person about Court. The King
and Queen had him always at their side, in peace
and war. He followed with them in all their
wars, and they never took any measure of im-
portance without consulting him.

Columbus offered in order to meet the objection
to pay one-eighth part of the expenses of the
expedition. Still nothing was done, and now
finally Columbus determined to go to France, and
indeed actually set off one day in January 1492,
when Santangel, the receiver of the Church
revenues of the Crown of Aragon, a man much
devoted to the plans of Columbus, addressed the
Queen, with all the energy that a man throws into
his words when he is aware that it is his last time
for speaking in favor of a thing which he has much
at heart. He told her that he wondered that as


COLUMBUS BEFORE THE COURT.

53
54 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

she always hada lofty mind for great things, it
should be wanting on this occasion. He tried to
raise her jealousy by saying that the enterprise
might fall into the hands of other princes, hinting
at the eternal fame that Portugal had gained in
this way.

He ended by saying that Columbus wanted
but two vessels and about $1500..in money and
that so great an enterprise ought not to be given
up for the sake of sucha trifling sum. These
arguments falling in as they did, with those of
Quintanilla, the treasurer, who has great influence
with the Queen, prevailed. The Queen thanked
these lords for their counsel; and said she would
adopt it, but they must wait till the finances had
recovered a little from the drain upon them
caused by the conquest of Granada, or if it
were wiser to carry it out at once, she would
pledge her jewels to raise the needed money.

Santangel offered to advance the money
required. Upon this Quintanilla sent to bring
Columbus back to Court. He was overtaken six
miles from Granada, returned to Santa Fe, where
the Sovereigns were camped before Granada,
was well received by Queen Isabella, and finally
the agreement between him and their Catholic
highness was settled.

Not much of King Ferdinand is seen in all
COLUMBUS IN SPAIN. 55

these dealings. It was known that he had looked
coldly on the plans of Columbus. Henry the
Seventh, of England, refused to adopt the pro-
ject laid before him by Bartholomew Columbus,
who went to England, and it is said, was ‘“‘ mocked
and jeered at the English Court.”

King Ferdinand seems to have looked at the
whole affair as an instance of Isabella’s good-
natured sympathy with enthusiasts. His own cool
and wary nature made him distrust this ‘pauper
pilot, promising rich realms.”

The conditions of Columbus, that he had held
out so proudly for, were all “granted, by the King
and Queen, at Santa Fe, in the Vega of Granada,
April 17, 1492.”

Thus gratified in his dearest wishes after delays
that would have driven the ordinary man to des-
pair, Columbus, on May 12, 1492, left the Court
and set out joyfully for Palos. Eighteen years
had passed from the time Columbus first got the
idea before he was enabled to carry it into effect.
Most of that time was passed in hopeless solicita-
tion, amid poverty, neglect, and ridicule; the
prime of his life had wasted away in the struggle,
and he was 56 years old, when success came to
him. His example should encourage the enter-
prising never to despair.

Armed with his Commission, Columbus left the
56 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

Court of Palos. His friends at the etesiee
were delighted that the scheme upon which they
had pinned their faith was now to be launched.
There was no delay in furnishing the funds. The
town of Palos was ordered to pr rovide two vessels
within ten days. The difficulty now was to get
sailors to man the vessels. The men did not
want to risk their lives on what they looked upon
as a crazy voyage. Columbus was allowed to
press men into the service, but still they could not
get enough men of the right stamp.

Juan Perez did much to get men to embark.
The Pinzons, rich men, and ‘skillful seamen, join-
ed in the undertaking, and aided it with their
money, and by these united efforts three vessels
were manned with go sailors, and with provisions
for a year. The vessels were all of small size.

The Santa Maria, which Columbus commanded,
was the only one that was decked throughout.
The officers and crew were 16 in number. The
other two vessels were of that class called cara-
vels, and were decked fore and aft, but had no
deck in the middle; the stem and stern being
built so as to rise high out of the water. One
of them, the /z/a, was manned by a crew of
30 sailors, and was commanded by Martin Alonzo
Pinzon. The other, the Mzza, had Vincent
Pinzon as Captain, and a crew of 24 men, The








QUEEN ISABELLA IN CAMP, ze
58 ; CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

whole number of adventurers amounted to 120
persons—men of various countries, one of them,
Arthur Lake, coming from England, and another
entered on the list as William Rice, native of
Galway, Ireland.

A deep gloom was spread over the whole town
of Palos. Almost every one had some relative or
friend on board the squadron. The spirits of the
sailors, depressed by their own fears, were still more
cast down at the sorrow of those they left behind,
who took leave of them with tears, as of men
they were never to behold again.

By the beginning of August every difficulty had
been overcome, and the vessels were ready for
sea,
CHAPTER V.
THE FIRST VOYAGE.

It was Friday, August 3, 1492, at eight o’clock
in the morning, after they had all confessed and
received the sacrament, that Columbus set sail on
his first voyage of discovery. They sailed from
the Bar of Saltes, making for the Canary Islands,
from whence it was intended to sail west.

Columbus had now changed the long, weary,
dismal life of a suitor for the sharp, intense anxi-
ety of a struggle in which there was no choice to
success but deplorable, ridiculous, fatal failure.
Speaking afterwards of the time he had spent as
a suitor at Court, he says, “ Eight years I was torn
with disputes, and, in a word, my proposition was
a thing for mockery.” It was now to be seen
what mockery was in it. The following account
of the voyage is mainly taken from an abridgment
of Columbus’s own diary made by Las Casas, who
in some places gives the admiral’s own words.

The little squadron reached the Canary Islands
in a few days with no event worth recording,
except that the caravel /inta broke her rudder.

59
60 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

This was supposed to be no accident, but to have
been done by the owners of the vessel, who did not
like the voyage, and hoped she would be left be-
hind. The crew had been pressed into the service
greatly against their will, and the caravel had
been seized for the expedition by the royal orders.

Columbus was much disturbed by this occur-
rence. The wind was blowing strongly at the
time, so that he could not render any assistance
without running some risk to his own vessel.
Fortunately Martin Pinzon commanded the Fzxéa,
and being an adroit and able seaman, he suc-
ceeded in securing the rudder with cords, so as to
bring the vessel into management. They were
detained three weeks among these islands seeking
in vain to find another vessel. They were obliged
to make a new rudder for the /rzéa, and to repair
her as well as they were able for the voyage.

The sails were changed into square sails, that
she might work more steadily and securely, and
be able to keep up with the other vessels.

While sailing among these islands they passed
in sight of Teneriffe, whose lofty peak was send-
ing out volumes of flame and smoke. The
crew were terrified at the sight of this eruption.
Columbus told them all about the causes of these
volcanic fires, telling them of Mount Etna and
other well-known volcanoes.


THE DEPARTURE FROM PALOS.

61
62 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

While taking in wood, water and provisions,
they were told that three Portuguese caravels
were hovering off the island, with the intention
to capture Columbus. On September 6, Colum-
bus sailed boldly out to sea, without meeting with
any of his enemies.

On losing sight of the last trace of land, the
hearts of the crews failed them. They seemed
to have taken leave of the world. Behind them
was everything dear to them; country, family,
friends, life itself; before them was chaos, mystery
and peril. Many of the rugged seamen shed
tears and broke out into loud wailings. Columbus
tried in every way to soothe their distress, and to
inspire them with his own glorious fancies. He
promised them land and riches, and everything
that could arouse them. And he did not do this
to deceive them; he believed that he should
realize all his promises.

For many days the diary is little more than a
log-book, giving the rate of sailing—or rather
two rates, one for Columbus’ own private need,
and the other for the sailors. On September 13,
he noticed about nightfall that the needle, instead
of pointing to the north star, varied a trifle to the
north-west, andstill more on the following morning.
He watched this attentively for three days, and
found that the variation increased as he advanced.
THE FIRST VOVAGE. 63

He said nothing, but it also attracted the attention
of the pilots, and filled them with dread. They
thought that the compass was about to lose its
virtue, and without this guide, what was to be-
come of them in a vast and trackless ocean ?

It taxed all of Columbus’s science and ingen-
uity for reasons with which to allay their terror,
The high opinion that they had of him as an
astronomer led them to accept his theories. On
the 14th, the sailors of the Ma saw two tropical
birds, which they said never went beyond sixty
miles from shore. On the 15th, they saw a meteor
fall from heaven, which made them very sad.
These meteors, common in warm climates, and
especially under the tropics, are always seen in
the clear, azure sky of these latitudes, falling as
it were from the heavens, but never beneath a
cloud. On the 16th, they first came across large
plains of seaweed. On one of these patches was
a live crab, which Columbus carefully preserved.
Tunny fish also played about the ships.

The wind had to this time been favorable. They
had made great progress each day, though Colum-
bus, according to his secret plan, managed to
suppress several miles in the daily score left open
to the crew. On September 18th, they see many
birds, and a cloud in the distance; and that night
they expect to see land. On the igth, in the
64 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

morning, comes a pelican (a bird not usually seen
fifty miles from the coast); in the evening, another,
also a drizzling rain without wind, a certain sign
of closeness to land.

Columbus will not beat around for land, as he
rightly thinks these signs give token only of
islands, as it proved to be. He will see these on
his return; but now he must press on to the
Indies. This resolve shows his strength of mind,
and also the almost scientific basis on which his
great idea reposed.

Columbus would not allow himself to be moved
from his main design by any partial success,
though by this time he well knew the fears of his
men, some of whom had already agreed,“ that it
would be their best plan to throw him quietly into
the sea, and say he fellin, while he stood ab-
sorbed in looking at the stars.” Indeed, three
days after he had resolved to pass on to the
Indies, we findhim saying : “Very needful for me
was this contrary wind, for the crews were very
much tormented with the idea that there were no
winds on these seas that would carry them back
to Spain.”

On they go, having signs from time to time, in
the presence of birds and grass, and fish, that
land must be near; but land does not come.
Once they are all satisfied that they see land;




ON THE VAST AND TRACKLESS OCEAN.
66 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

and they sing the “Gloria tx Excelsis’’; and even
Columbus goes out of his course towards this
land, which turns out to be no land.

On October 1, they had sailed by the ship’s
record 1,740 miles, while the real reckoning kept
by Columbus showed 2,121 miles. On the next
day the weeds floated from east to west, and on
the third day no birds were to be seen. The

crew began to fear that they had passed between

islands, from one to the other of which the birds had
been flying; Columbus had some doubts of the
same kind, but refused to alterh's westward course.
The crews began to utter murmurs and threats,
but on the day following, they were visited by
such flights of birds, and the various signs of
land became so many that from a state of des-
pondency they passed into one of eager expecta-
tion.

A pension of thirty crowns had been promised
by Spain to him who should first discover land.
Eager to earn this reward, they were giving out
the cry of land on the least appearance of the
kind. To put a stop to these false alarms, Col-
umbus declared that should anyone give notice of
land, and it be not found for three days after-
wards, he should forfeit all claim to the reward.

On October 6 Martin Pinzon began to lose
confidence in their present course, and wanted
THE FIRST VOVAGE. 67

Columbus to steer more to the southward, but he
refused, and continued towards the west. On
the 7th land was thought to be seen in the west,
but no one ventured to proclaim it for fear of
losing the reward. The Mua being a good sailor,
pressed forward to ascertain the fact. Ina little
while a flag was hoisted at her masthead, anda
gun fired, being the arranged signals for land.
New joy was awakened, and every eye was
turned towards the west. As they sailed on,
their cloud-built hopes faded away; and before
evening the fancied land had again melted into
air.

The crews were again sadly dejected. Colum-
bus observed great flights of small field birds
going towards the southwest, and he made up his
mind that they must be secure of some near land,
where they would find food and a resting place.
He determined to alter his course and sail with
the birds, and go in that direction for at least two
days. This met the wishes of the Pinzons, and
inspired the crews generally.

For three days they sailed in this direction, and
the farther they went the more encouraging were
the signs of land; but when on the evening of the
third day, they beheld the sun go down upon a
shoreless horizon, they looked on all these signs
as so many delusions luring them on to destruc-
68 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

tion. They insisted upon turning homeward, and
giving up the voyage as hopeless. Columbus tried
to pacify them with gentle words and promises of
large rewards ; and when these seemed useless,
he took a decided tone, and saying they were sent
to seek the Indies, happen what might, he would
go on, till by the blessing of God he should accom
plish the enterprise.

Columbus was now in open war with his crews,
and his situation was truly desperate. Happily,
on the next day, the signs of land were such as
to admit of no doubt. Besides fresh weeds, such
as grow in rivers, they sawa green fish, of a kind
which keeps about rocks ; thena branch of thorn
with berries on it; then they picked up a weed,
a small board, and above all, a staff artificially
carved. All gloom now gave way; and all day
each one was eagerly on the watch, in hopes of
being the first to discover the long sought for land.

In the evening after the vesper hymn to the
Virgin, Columbus made an address to the crew.
He thought it likely they should land that night,
and ordered a sharp look out. Not an eye was
clesed that night. About ten o’clock Columbus
thought he saw a light glimmering at a great dis-
tance. He called the attention of two of his
officers to it. The light came and went, as though
in the hand of some person on shore. Columbus
THE FIRST VOYAGE. 69

looked on this as a certain sign of land, and
believed the land was inhabited.

They continued on their course till two o’clock
in the morning, when a gun from the Pixta gave
the joyful signal of land. The land was now
dimly seen about six miles off. They took in
sail, and waited impatiently for the dawn.

Land was first seen by Rodrigo de Triana.
We cannot but be sorry for this poor common
sailor, who got no reward, and of whom they tell
a story, that in sadness and despite, he passed
into Africa, after his return to Spain, and became
a Mohometan. The pension was judged to go to
Columbus, on the ground that he first. saw the
light; and was paid to him on the day of his
death.

The great mystery of the ocean was: now at
at last revealed. His theory, which had been the
scoff even of sages, was now-established. He
had secured to-himself a glory which must be as
durable as the world itself.
CHAPTER VI.
THE NEW WORLD FOUND.

The landing of Columbus in the New World
must ever be a conspicuous fact in the records of
mankind, and it was celebrated in a manner
worthy of the occasion. On Friday, October 12,
1492, Columbus, clad in a full suit of armor, and
carrying in his hand the royal banner of Spain,
descended upon the level shores of the small
island (San Salvador, one of the Bahamas), which
had first greeted him, and which he found to be
very fruitful, fresh and verdant, and “like a gar-
den full of roses.” Martin Pinzon and his brother
Vincent went with him, each of them bearing a
banner with a green cross upon it, and with the
letters F. and Y. surmounted by their respective
crowns, the initials of the Spanish monarchs Fer-
nando and Ysabel. These chief officers were
followed by a large portion of the crews. In lines
along the shore stood the simple natives, all per-
fectly naked, looking on with innocent amazement.

On touching land, Columbus and all the Span-
iards who were present fell upon their knees, and

70
THE NEW WORLD



FOUND.

q!
72 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

with tears poured forth their ‘‘immense thanks-
givingsto Almighty God.” Drawing his sword,
and displaying the royal standard, Columbus took
solemn possession in the name of the sovereigns,
giving the island the name of San Salvador.
After going through these forms and ceremonies,
he called on all present to take the oath of obedi-
ence to him, as admiral and viceroy.

When the natives saw the boats coming to the
shore with a number of strange beings, clad in
shining steel with clothes of various colors, they
fled off in fright to the woods. Finding that there
was no attempt made to pursue or molest them
they got over their terror and slowly came back.
They came up to the strangers, wondering at their
whiteness and at their beards. Columbus attracted
their attention, from his height, his air of
authority, his dress of scarlet, and the respect
paid to him by the others, all of which pointed
him out as the chief.

The natives were no less objects of curiosity
to the Spaniards, differing as they did from any
race of men they had ever seen. Their looks
did not give much promise of either riches or
learning, for they were entirely naked, and
painted with a variety of colors.

“T gave them,” says Columbus, ‘‘some colored
caps, and some strings of glass beads for their


































GES.

EXCHAN

FRIENDLY
74 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

necks and many other things of little value, with
which they were delighted. They came swimming
out to our boats, and brought us parrots, cotton
thread in balls, darts, and many other things, and
bartered them with us for bells and small glass
beads. In fine, they took and gave all of what-
ever they had with good will.’ These trifles
Columbus brought with him, because the Portu-
guese sailors found them useful in trading with
the negroes on the gold coast of Africa.

As Columbus supposed he had landed on an
island at the end of India, he gave to the natives
the name of /zdzans, and this name was adopted,
and has ever since been applied to the natives of
the New World.

Columbus tells us that these Indians were well
made, with very good faces, had hair like horse-
hair, and were yellow in color. They did not
carry any arms, and knew nothing of such things,
for when he showed them swords, they took hold
of them by the blades, and cut themselves. Some
of these Indians wore gold rings in their noses.
These they gladly exchanged for the hawks’ bells,
Columbus asked where this gold was to be got.
They answered by signs, pointing to the south;
and he understood them that in that quarter there
was a king of great wealth, insomuch that he was
served in great vessels of wrought gold.










































































THE









































GRAND KHAN

OF THE EAST.



(from Marco Polo's Travels.)

75
76 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

Columbus now felt satisfied that he had landed
among those islands described by Marco Polo,
as lying opposite Cathay, in the Chinese Sea,
and he thought everything accorded with the
account given of those rich regions of the great
Khan of the East.

On October 14, he set off at daybreak with
the boats of the ships to cruise along the islands.
They passed two or three villages, and the men
and women ran to the shores, and threw them-
selves upon the ground, lifting up their hands and
eyes, either giving thanks to Heaven, or worship-
ping the Spaniards. Their idea was that these
white men had come from the skies.

On October 16, Columbus went on shore, giving
the island the name of Santa Maria Concepcion.
Finding nothing here to induce delay, he returned
on board, and sailed to the west, landing at another
island which he called Fernandina, in honor of
the King. The natives here seemed more intel-
ligent. Some of the women wore scanty aprons
of cotton, others had cotton mantles, but for the
most part they were naked. For beds they had
nets of cotton, spread from two posts, which they
called hamacs, a name since used by seamen.
Here they found a noble harbor, large enough to
hold one hundred ships. Here the men landed
with the casks in search of water. Columbus says
THE NEW WORLD FOUND. 74

in his diary, ‘‘The country was as fresh and green
as the month of May in Andalusia; the trees,
fruits, flowers, herbs, the very stones, for the most
part, as different from those of Spain, as night
from day.” The natives looked on their visitors
with awe; took them to the coolest springs, filled
their casks, rolled them to the boats, and in every
way tried to gratify them.

Leaving Fernandina on the roth, they steered
to the south-west, where their guides told them
was a gold mine, with a king living in a large
city, with great riches, wearing clothes studded
with jewels and gold. They found the island,
but not the king, nor the mine. No animals had
been seen on these islands but lizards and a kind
of rabbit, called guanas, and a species of dog
that never barked.

To the constant inquiry of Columbus as to
where the natives got their gold, they always
pointed to the south. It was learned that an
island lay in that direction called Cuba, that was
rich in gold and jewels and spices, and did quite
a trade with ships that stopped there. Columbus
now made up his mind to leave the Bahamas and
go in quest of Cuba.

Owing to contrary winds and calms, followed
by heavy showers, it was October 28 before he
sighted the island of Cuba. He was struck with
78 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

the grandeur of its features; its high and airy
mountains reminding him of those of Sicily ; its
fertile valleys and wide plains, watered by noble
rivers. In the diary Columbus says, ‘‘ One could

“live here forever; it is the most beautiful island
that eyes ever beheld.” The houses were better
built than those he had yet seen, and they were
kept clean. But the natives fled to the mountains
or hid in the woods on his approach. In the
course of their searches, they met with the potato,
a humble root, little valued at the time, but more
precious to man than all the spices of the east.
They also beheld the natives going around with
firebrands in their hands, and certain dried herbs,
which they rolled up in a leaf, and lighting one
end, put the other end in their mouths, inhaling
and puffing out smoke. These rolls they called
tobacco. This discovery of tobacco proved of
*more value to the Spanish crown than all the gold
mines of the Indies.

On November 12, Columbus turned his course,
to follow back the direction of the coast. Had he
proceeded far within the old channel, between
Cuba and the Bahamas, he would have discovered
his mistake in thinking Cuba a part of Terra
Firma ; an errorin which he continued to the day
of his death. He might have stood for the coast
of Florida, or have been carried there by the Gulf






CONCEPTION BAY.

79
80 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

Stream ; or he might have struck over to the op-
posite coast of Yucatan, and realized his greatest
hopes, in being the discoverer of Mexico. It was
glory enough, however, for Columbus to have
found anew world. Its more golden regions were
reserved to give splendor to succeeding enter-
prises.

Martin Pinzon parted company with Columbus
while on the coast of Cuba. He grew tired of
taking orders from Columbus. His avarice was
suddenly awakened. His vessel being the best
sailor, he could easily ply to windward, while the
others could not. The Indian guides he had with
him offered to bring him to an island of great
riches. He might be the first, therefore, to discover
this golden region, and enrich himself with its first
fruits. Columbus was indignant at this deser-
tion; but his heavy ship made all attempts at pur-
suit hopeless.

On December 6, Columbus entered a harbor
at the western end of the island, which he called
St. Nicholas, by which it is called to this day.
From the number of canoes seen in various parts
there were evidently large villages near, but the
natives fled with terror at the sight of the ships.
The interpreter was sent afterthem. He quieted
their terrors by saying that the strangers had
come from the skies, and went about the world
THE NEW WORLD FOUND. 81

making beautiful presents. Thus assured, they
ventured back, about 2,000 of them. They were
a well formed race, fairer and handsomer than
the natives of the other islands. They brought
the Spaniards to their houses and set before them
casava bread, fish, roots, and fruits of many kinds.
They offered freely what they possessed. But
there were no signs of riches.

On December 14, Columbus visited an island
lying opposite to the harbor of Conception, to
which, from its abounding in turtle, he gave the
name of Tortugas. On the 16thhe steered again
for Hispaniola, called by the natives Hayti. ‘The
ships were visited by a Cacique of the neighbor-
hood. He was borne on a litter by four men,
and attended by 200 of his subjects. Columbus
- entertained him at dinner on board his vessel.
After the dinner the Cacique presented Columbus
with a belt curiously made, and two pieces of
gold. Columbus gave him a piece of cloth,
several amber beads, colored shoes, and a flask
of orange flower water. They found but little
gold in this place. The region of promise still
lay further on. One of the old counsellers of the
Cacique told Columbus that he would soon arrive
at islands rich in the precious ore.

On December 20th, Columbus anchored in a
fine bay, to which he gave the name of St. Thomas.
52 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

On the 22d, a large canoe, filled with natives,
came ona mission from a grand Cacique named
Guacanagari who owned all that part of the
island. He resided in a town on a river called
Punta Santa. It was the largest and best built
town they had yet seen.

On December 24th, Columbus set sail from Con-
ception, intending to anchor at the harbor of the
Cacique Guacanagari. The wind was very light,
and the ship made but little progress. It was the
night before Christmas, and Columbus, who had
kept watch, retired to take a little rest, not having
slept the night before. On account of the great
calm he felt secure, and there was no report of
rocks or shoals in their course.

No sooner had the vigilant admiral retired, than
the steersman gave the helm in charge to one of
the ship boys, and went to sleep. The rest
of the sailors who had the watch took advantage
of the absence of Columbus, and in a little while
the whole crew were buried in sleep. While this
fancied security reigned over the ship, the cur-
rents, which ran swiftly along this coast, carried
her quietly, but with force, upon a sand-bank.
The heedless boy had not noticed the breakers,
but when he felt the rudder strike, he cried for
aid. Columbus was the first to take the alarm,
and mount the deck. The master of the ship,






























































THE .FIRST SIGNS OF GOLD.

83
84 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

whose duty it was to have been on watch, next
made his appearance, followed by others of the
crew, half awake, and not aware of their peril.
Columbus ordered them to take the boat, and
carry out an anchor astern, that they might try to
tow the vessel off. They sprang into the boat ;
but were seized with a panic, and instead of obey-
ing their orders, sailed off to the other caravel.

‘When the boat arrived at the caravel, they were
refused admission, and reproached for their cow-
ardly desertion. The master and several of the
crew of the caravel got out their boat, and sailed
to the rescue; but were too late to save the ship,
which the strong current had set more and more
upon the bank; until her keel was firmly bedded
in the sand.

Columbus and his crew took refuge on board
the caravel. Messengers were sent on shore to
inform the Cacique of their disaster. He sent all
his people, with all the canoes that could be
gathered, and unloaded the vessel. On December
26, the Cacique came on board the Avxda, and
tried to cheer up Columbus. He gave him houses
to shelter the Spaniards, and to receive the effects
landed from the wreck.

The Cacique took Columbus to the beautiful
groves near his residence. They were attended
by over a thousand of the natives, all perfectly
THE NEW WORLD FOUND. 85

naked. He assured Columbus, by signs, that
there was a place not far off where gold abounded
in such a degree that it was held in little value.

Columbus showed the Cacique a Moorish bow
and a quiver of arrows, and got a man who was
skillful in the use of them to show how these
weapons were used. The Cacique told him of
the Caribs, who often made descents upon his ,
lands and carried off his subjects; and how they
also were armed with these bows and arrows.
Columbus promised to destroy these Caribs ;
knowing he had weapons against which there was
no defence. In proof of this, he ordered a heavy
cannon to be fired. At the sound of this gun the
Indians fell to the ground as though they had been
struck with a thunderbolt; and when they saw
the ball rending and shivering the trees like a
stroke of lightning, they were filled with dismay.
On being told that the Spaniards would defend
them with these weapons, their alarm changed
to joy, and they felt that they were under the
protection of the sons of heaven.

The Cacique presented Columbus with a mask
carved of wood, with the eyes, ears and other
parts of gold; he hung plates of the same metal
around his neck, and placed a kind of golden
coronet upon his head. He also made various
gifts to the crew.
86 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

The kindness of the Cacique, the gentleness of
the people, and the quantities of gold which were
daily brought to be exchanged for the commonest
trifles did much to console Columbus for the loss
he had suffered.

The shipwrecked crew lived on shore. When
they looked back upon their toilsome and painful
life in Spain, and thought of the cares and hard-
ships that must still be their lot if they returned
to Europe, it is no wonder that they looked with
a wistful eye on the easy and idle life of these
Indians. ‘Lhe men were simple, frank and cor-
dial; the women loving and willing to marry.
They saw gold around them to be had without
labor, and enjoyment to be got without cost.
Many of the seamen begged Columbus to allow
them to remain on the island.

Columbus resolved to found a colony in
Guacanagari’s land, ‘‘having found such good
will and such signs of gold.” With the timber of
the unfortunate Santa Maria he built a fort, and
called it La Natividad, because he entered the
port near there on Christmas day. The shipwreck
which Columbus looked upon as an act of divine
favor, to reveal to him the secrets of the land,
limited all his after discoveries. It linked his
fortunes for the rest of his life to this island,
which was doomed to be to him a scene of cares


THE FORT AT LA NATIVIDAD.
88 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

and troubles, to tie him up in a thousand doubts,
and to cloud his last years with humiliation and
disappointment.

He remained on very friendly terms with this
good Cacique, and might have done well in that
part of the country if “he could have been con-
tent to be asettler. But he had an anxious desire
to get back to Spain, and tell all he knew. At
times he feared that his grand secret might still
perish with him. So he resolved to return home.
He left the fort in trust to a small body of his
followers, whom he commended to the good will
of the Cacique. He advised the men to do no
violence to man or woman, but to act as if they
had really came from heaven. Then getting the
necessary provisions for his vessel from the
friendly Indians, he set sail for Spain on Janu-

ary 14, 1493.
CHAPTER VII.
HOMEWARD BOUND.

The wind being light, they had to tow the cara-
vel out of the harbor, and clear of the reefs all
around it. They then stood eastward, towards a
lofty promontory, to which Columbus gave the
name of Monte Christo, by which it is still known.
On January 6, 1493, the lookout at the masthead
cried out that he saw the Pizta at a distance. The
two vessels steered back to the bay. Pinzon
went on beard the Mixa and stated to Columbus
that owing to the.storms he had been driven out
of his course, and out of sight of his leader. The
admiral accepted this explanation, fearing that a
quarrel with Pinzon, whose townsmen and rela-
tions formed the most part of the crew, might
cause a mutiny, which would be fatal to the under-
taking ; but in his diary he noted his belief in Pin-
zon’s bad faith. Pinzon had not found the gold
he went in search of, but he had met with some
natives and got, by bartering, a large quantity of
gold-dust. Half of this he kept for himself, and
half he gave to his crew as a bribe to them to say
nothing about the matter.

89
go CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

A few days were spent in refitting the vessels
for their homeward voyage. The Mixa and the
Pinta again set sail, coasting St. Domingo in an
easterly direction as far as the Gulf of Samana.
It was here that the first fight took place. The
natives attacked an exploring party that had been
sent out by Columbus. This was smoothed over.
Pinzon had brought six Indians on board his ship,
intending to carry them to Spain, to be sold as
slaves. Columbus set them free, and sent them
back with presents.

On January 16, Columbus left Samana on his
homeward course, from which, however, he turned,
in the hope of finding the island peopled with
Amazons, described by Marco Polo, of which he
had heard something in St. Domingo.

Such a discovery would be a full proof of his
new country with Marco Polo’s Indies, and when
four natives offered to act as guides, he thought
it worth while to steer (in the direction of Mar-
tinique) in quest of the fabled Amazons. But the
breeze blew towards Spain; the crews grew
homesick ; they grumbled at the length of the
voyage among the currents and reefs of strange
seas ; and at last Columbus gave up all idea of
further discovery, and again took up his course
for Europe.

At first things went well ; but the adverse trade-




HARD TIMES AT SEA.
92 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

winds, and the bad sailing of the Prxta delayed
the progress of both vessels. On February 12,
a storm came on, which became more and more
furious, until on the r4th, it became a hurricane,
and Pinzon’s vessel could only drift helplessly,
while the ma was able to keep ahead. In the
evening both caravels were sailing under bare
poles, and when darkness fell the signal light of
the /ixta gleamed far off, until at last it could be
seen no more. Then the panic-stricken crew
gave up in despair, the winds howled louder and
louder, and the sea burst over the frail vessel—
then, indeed, without a single skilled sailor to ad-
vise or to aid him, Columbus felt himself alone
with the tempest and the night. But his brave
heart kept up. As the stores were consumed,
the Axa felt the want of ballast, which Columbus
had intended to take on board at the Amazon
Island. ‘Fill the empty casks with water,” said
he, ‘“‘and let them serve as ballast,”’ a plan which
has grown common enough now, but which then
was probably original.

Columbus did all that human skill could sug-
gest for the safety of his vessel; and he prayed
to Heaven for help. With his crew he drew lots
to choose of one of their number to perform a
pilgrimage to the shrine of Our Lady at Guada-
loupe. He, himself, was chosen, Twice more
HOMEWARD BOUND. 93

were lots drawn, and once again the lot fell to
~ Columbus. Then he and all the crew made a vow
to go in procession to the first church dedicated
to the Virgin which they should meet on reach-
ing land.

When he thought their chances of getting
through the storm were small indeed, Columbus,
fearing that the tidings of his discovery might
finish with him, wrote out an account of his voyage
on parchment, and this he tied up in wax and
placed in a flask, which he threw out on the waves.

On February 15th, the storm abated some, and
at last they came in sight of land, which Colum-
bus knew to be one of the Azores. As they
could not make head against the waves and the
sea, they lost sight of this island, but saw another,
lying more to the south, round which they sailed
on the night of the 17th, but lost an anchor in
trying to bring up near the land. Next day they
cast anchor, and learned from the people that
they had reached the island of St. Mary, belong-
ing to the Portuguese. The governor sent word
to Columbus that he would visit him. But, to
fulfil their vow, half the crew went, barefoot and
in their shirts, on the pilgrimage to the chapel of
St. Mary, which was not far from the harbor. The
governor captured the whole band of pilgrims.
Spain and Portugal were at this time at peace.
94 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

but the governor thought the capture would please
his king. Columbus could do nothing with the
governor, and as the weather would not allow
him to remain where he was, he put out to sea,
with only three able seamen. On February 21,
he came back, and showed his royal commission,
and the governor restored the crew. On the
24th, they again steered for Spain, but another
tempest came on, which lasted for more than a
week.

In this last storm which raged with destructive
violence along the west coast of the Continent of
Europe, and which drove the /zx¢a almost help-
lessly towards a lee-shore, the dangers of the
voyage ended. ‘I escaped,” says Columbus, “ by
the greatest miracle in the world.” On the after-
noon of March 4th, he came to anchor inthe Tagus.
To the King of Portugal, who happened to be
near, he sent word of his arrival, and the result
of his voyage, and in reply, he received a press-
ing call to visit the Court. With this he thought
proper to comply, “in order not to show mistrust,
although he disliked it,” and was received by the
King with great honors. The King put in a claim
to the newly found land, which Columbus in the
interest of his sovereign took care to repudiate as
decidedly as possible. The King offered to trans-
port Columbus by land, and to furnish a safe con-


PRAYING FOR THE SEA TO SUBSIDE

95
96 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

duct or band of troops. This Columbus refused.
On March 13th, in the teeth of a bad wind and a
heavy sea, he left Tagus for the Bar of Saltes,
and safely reached his starting point at Palos on
the 15th, again a Friday—having taken not quite
seven months and a-half to accomplish this great-
est of all maritime enterprises.
CHAPTER VII.
RECEPTION OF COLUMBUS AT PALOS,

The triumphant return of Columbus was a great
event in the history of the little port of Palos,
where everybody was more or less interested in
the fate of the expedition. The most important
and wealthy sea-captains of the place had engaged
in it, and scarcely a family but had some relative
or friend among the voyagers. The departure of
the ships on what was thought a crazy cruise had
spread gloom and dismay over the place; and
the storms which had raged made this feeling
worse. When they heard of the return, the whole
people burst forth into a transport of joy. The
bells were rung, and all the shops were closed;
and everywhere was bustle and excitement.
Every member of the crew was looked upon as a
hero.

The Court was at Barcelona. Columbus sent
a letter to the King and Queen, stating in general
terms the success of his project ; and made ready
to present himself in person to their highnesses.
Almost at the same time, the /%z¢a reached the

97
98 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

port of Bayonne, and Pinzon sent a letter telling
of “his” discoveries, and offering to come to
Court and give full intelligence of them. He
supposed that Columbus had been lost; and
when the King and Queen directed him not to
come to Court without the admiral, chagrin and
grief so overcame him that he took to his bed;
and if any man ever died of remorse anda broken
heart, that man was Martin Alonzo Pinzon.

The Court prepared a great reception for
Columbus at Barcelona, where the people turned
out in such numbers to see him that the streets
could not contain them. A procession like this
the world had never before seen. Here with
Columbus were beings of a New World. Ferdi-
nand and Isabella had their thrones placed in the
presence of the assembled Court. Columbus
approached the monarchs, and .then, “his face
beaming with modest satisfaction,” he knelt at the
King’s feet, and begged leave to kiss their high-
nesses’ hands. They gave their hands; then
bade him rise and be seated before them. He
told the events of his voyage, and concluded his
story by showing what new things and new crea-
tures he had brought with him.

Ferdinand and Isabella fell on their knees, and
gave thanks to God with many tears; and then
the singers of the royal chapel closed the grand


THE RECEPTION OF COLUMBUS.

99
100 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

ceremony by singing the “Te Deum.” After-
wards men walked home grave and yet happy,.
having seen the symbol of a great work, some-
thing to be thought over for many a generation.

A coat of arms, then a thing of much signifi-
cance, was granted to him. In the shield are the
Royal Arms of Castile and Leon. Nothing can
better show the great favor which Columbus had
obtained at Court by his discovery than such a
grant. The title of Don was given to him and
his descendants, and also to his brothers. “All
Hail!” was said to him on state occasions.

The Sovereigns now applied to the Pope, to
confer on the crowns of Castile and Leon the
lands discovered and to be discovered in the
Indies. To this application they received a favor-
able answer. The Pope gave them “high and
royal jurisdiction, and imperial dignity and lord-
ship over all that hemisphere.” To preserve the
peace between Spain and Portugal, the Pope
divided the Spanish and Portuguese sovereignties
by an imaginary line drawn from pole to pole,
three hundred miles west of the Azores and the
Cape Verde Islands.

Preparations were now made for a second voy-
age to be undertaken by Columbus. A special
department for the control of colonial affairs was
placed under the charge of Juan Fonseca, an


THE RETURN TO SPAIN,

Ior
102 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

archdeacon of Seville, who afterwards rose to be
-a bishop, and finally was made patriarch of the
Indies. Unfortunately for the poor savages whose
fate he was now to influence so largely, Fonseca
was a man who had but little of the mildness and
forbearing spirit of Christianity. He was a shrewd
business man, a hard taskmaster, and a sore
enemy. In his dealings with the Indians he was
a tyrant, and made them suffer more miseries than
had ever before been brought upon a subject race.

Jealous of the rivalry of Portugal, the Sover-
eigns took every means to hasten the preparations
for the second voyage. Twelve caravels and five
smaller vessels were made ready, and were laden.
with horses and other animals, and with plants,
seeds and machines for the cultivation of the new
countries. Men of various trades were engaged,
and a quantity of goods and gaudy trifles, fit for
trading with the natives, were taken on board.
There was no need to press men into the service
now; volunteers were too plenty. Columbus
felt satisfied that he had been on the outskirts of
Cathay, and that the land of gold was not far off.
Not one of the 1500 persons who took ship in
this squadron but believed that he would reap a
fortune as the reward of the voyage. Twelve mis-
sionaries went along to convert and teach the
faith to the Indians.














































































































































INDIAN WAY OF LURING GAME,

103
104 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

The instructions to Columbus, dated May 29,
1493, “bid him to labor in all possible ways to
bring the dwellers of the Indies to a knowledge
of the Holy Catholic Faith.”

Among the noted men engaged in the second
voyage was a young cavalier, named Don Alonzo
Ojeda, known for his daring spirit; and who
made himself famous for many perilous expedi-
tions and singular exploits among the early dis-
coverers. He was of good family, and had served
in the wars against the Moors. He was of small
size, but well made, handsome, and of great
strength and agility, and expert with all kinds of
weapons ; a fine horseman, bold of heart, free of
spirit, open of hand, fierce in fight, quick in brawl
but ready to forgive and forget an injury. Las
Casas makes him the hero of many wonderful
tales. —

After receiving every mark of public honor and
private regard, Columbus took leave of the Soy-
ereigns on May 28, 1493. The whole Court fol-
lowed him from the palace to his dwelling and
attended also to pay him farewell honors on his
departure from Barcelona to Seville.

Difficulties between Spain and Portugal took
some time in settlement, and it was not till Sep-
tember 25 that Columbus started off on_ his
second voyage of discovery.
































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































CHAPTER IX.
SECOND VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY.

The departure of Colum-
bus on his second voyage
presented a brilliant con-
trast to the gloomy set out
at Palos. On September 25,
1493, at the dawn of day, the bay of Cadiz was
whitened by his fleet. The squadron left Cadiz
for the Canary Islands, and, after taking in pro-
visions there, sailed from Ferro, on October 13.
The voyage was a good one. There was but one



105
106 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

storm, and that lasted onlya few hours, and good
breezes wafted them over calm seas so quickly
that the ships sighted land on November 3, hav-
ing made the voyage ‘“‘by the goodness of God,
and the wise skill of the admiral in as straight a
track as if they had sailed by a well known and
much gone over route.” It was Sunday, and the
name of Dominica was given to the first island to
which they came.

From Dominica, where no natives where found,
Columbus sailed northward, calling one small
island Maria Galante, after his own flagship, and
calling a second and much larger one Guadaloupe,
after a noted monastery in Spain. ‘This island
was peopled by a race of cannibals, and in their
houses, human flesh was found roasting at the
fire. A party was sent into the interior, but so
thickly was it wooded, that they lost their way in
the jungle, and only got back to the ships after
four days’ wanderings, and when they had been
given up by their companions, who feared they
had become food for the savages. The men
seemed to have been absent on a warlike raid, as
the white men met only women and children, and
several of these they brought along with them.

Anxious to revisit the colony at Natividad
(Nativity) Columbus sailed along as quickly as
he could, and after passing and naming Montser-












































































































ms —S
a ——

BUILDING SHIPS AND HOUSES.

107
108 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

rat, Antigua, and Santa Cruz, reached a fertile
island which he called St. John, but which is now
known as Porto Rico. Here he found houses
and roads; and proofs that the natives were
cannibals were everywhere to be seen. On Nov-
ember 22, they reached Natividad. The little
colony had been entirely destroyed, The fort
was razed to the ground; and not one was alive
to tell the tale. It appeared they had taken to
evil courses, fought among themselves, and finally
were set upon when weak and few by an Indian
chief named Caonabo, who burned the fort, and
killed the garrison. It was in Caonabo’s country
that the gold mines were said to exist, and it is
likely that the Spaniards had tried to reach and
get at them. Guacanagari, the friendly Cacique,
had done what he could to help them. He
appeared to be not so friendly as he had been at
first. He was willing to help build another fort,
but Columbus thought it better to seek a new
locality. The settlers had so offended the Indians
that instead of thinking they came from heaven,
as they did at first, they looked on them as bad
men, against whom they had to defend their honor
and their lives.

Sailing along the coast of Hayti, Columbus
fixed on a site for a new settlement about 4o miles
to the east of the present Cape Haytien. This he














CARIB GIRLS SWIMMING FROM THE SHIPS.



10g
IIo CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

called Isabella. Here the ships discharged their
stores and the men built the first town in the
New World. Diseases broke out. There were
more men here than means to keep them. Food
and medicines gave out. And, worst of all, none
of the golden dreams were realized, under the
influence of which they had left Spain. Anxiety,
care, and labor began to tell on Columbus, and
for some time he was stretched upon a bed of
sickness.

The women who were on board the ships
cleared off one night by dropping over the side of
the vessels. Though the ships were anchored
three miles from shore, these Indian women swam
away as though the waves were their natural ele-
ment. They were chased in boats, but managed
to get to the beach. Four were taken and
brought back. Others got away. In the morn-
ing Guacanagari was not to be found. He had
moved into the woods during the night.

It was necessary to send most of the ships back
to Spain. Columbus explained that they were
not able to send any gold. The destruction of
the garrison defeated all his hopes. His people
had been ill; they had to keep guard, etc.

Ojeda now suggested that as Caonabo’s land
was only a four days’ journey thata force of well-
armed young men be sent there to see if these
SECOND VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY. 111

gold mines actually existed. Columbus assented.
Ojeda brought back word that there were signs of
large natural wealth. Columbus reported this
good news to Spain.

Twelve ships were sent back; in them he sent
home as slaves the men, women and children
taken in the Carribee Islands. Columbus boldly
suggested that, for the good of the souls of these
cannibal Indians, the more of them that could be
taken the better; and that, considering what quan-
tities of live stock and other things would be
required for the colony, a certain number of cara-
vels should be sent each year with these neces-
sary things, and the cargoes be paid for in slaves
taken from among the cannibals, and that prepar-
ations for capturing them could be carried on with
more confidence, if the scheme seemed good to
their highnesses. The Catholic Sovereigns would
have been very glad to have received some money
from the Indies; money was always welcome to
the King, and the purchase of wine, seeds and
cattle was costly; still this advice to establish
slavery was wisely set aside. Scant fare and hard
work were having their effect, sickness spread
over the whole camp, and men of all ranks and
stations, from the laborers to the priests and
people of the Court, were forced to labor. The
rage of the men, many of whom came out with the
112 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

notion of finding gold ready for them on the sea-
shore, may be imagined; and complaints of the
harsh way of dealing with them now took their
rise, and pursued Columbus ever after to his
ruin.

A mutiny headed by Diaz was formed, with the
intention of seizing the ships. Diaz was sent for
trial to Spain.

The Spaniards gained very little from these gold
mines which they began to work before they had
brought around themselves the means of living.
The Spanish monarchs made things worse by or-
dering Columbus to go on and make further dis-
coveries. ‘They were jealous of the Portuguese.
The more rapidly each nation could advance and
plant its flags, the more of much-coveted India it
would be able to claim. Columbus left his bro-
ther Diego in charge of the new colony and put
out to sea again on April 24, 1494.

In the course of this voyage Columbus made
many important discoveries, among them Jamaica
and the cluster of little islands called the ‘Garden
of the Queen.” Sailing through these islands
was so difficult that Columbus is said to have been
32 days without sleep. The cares and privations
he had undergone for many months seized upon
him and deprived him for a time of his senses.
The sailors turned the fleet homewards to Isa-






































































































































































































GOLD MINING.

113
114 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

bella, where they arrived September 29, 1494,
having with them their helpless commander.

On Columbus’s arrival at Isabella, where he
remained ill for five months, he found his brother
Bartholomew. This gladdened him very much.
Next came food, and all things needful for the
colony. But the colony was ina badstate. The
Indians were up in arms, and some of the prin-
cipal persons went back to Spain in the ship
which had brought out Bartholomew Columbus.
Columbus had given orders to treat the Indians
kindly, to buy their food if possible, and to cap-
ture Caonabo and his brothers either by force
or artifice. The men, however, went straggling
over the country. Waste, rapine, injury and
insult followed in their steps, and now there was
but little hope of the two races living peacefully
together. The Indians had ‘passed from terror
to despair,” and were swarming around the
Spaniards with hostile intent, and but for the
timely arrival of Columbus the settlement might
again have been swept entirely away.

Caonabo and another Cacique were marching on
Isabella. Columbus started out and routed them
atterly. He tooka large part of them for slaves.
On February 24, 1495, he sent back four ships
chiefly laden with these slaves. It is said Caonabo
brought over 100,000 men to an attack. Colum-
SECOND VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY. 115

bus and his brother Bartholomew led two bands,
attacking the Indians from two quarters. This
great host was at once and utterly put to flight.
In speaking of such a defeat the reader must
bear in mind what it is to expose naked bodies |
to fire-arms, to a charge of steel-clad men on
horseback, and to the clinging ferocity of blood-
hounds. A “horrible carnage” ensued upon the
flight of the Indians. Those taken alive were
made slaves.

Caonabo escaped. Columbus sent Ojeda to
cajole him into a friendly meeting, and so capture
him. Ojeda brought with him some manacles
made of brass or steel, finely wrought, and finely
polished. The metals of Spain were as highly
prized by the Indians as was their gold by the
Spaniards.

Ojeda brought these ornaments to Caonabo,
and told him they were a present from the ad-
miral ; that he would show him how to put them on;
that then he would set him on his horse, and show
him to his subjects, as the Kings of Spain showed
themselves to theirs. The poor Indian fell into
the trap. The manacles were placed on his hands,
he was set on the horse, and Ojeda, jumping up
behind him, darted off for Isabella, and brought
him bound into the presence of Columbus. The
Cacique was sent to Spain to be judged, and his
116 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

forces put to flight by a troop of Spaniards.
Many were killed; some taken prisoners ; and
many fled to the woods and mountains,

Columbus now laid a tribute on all the natives.

FEvery Indian above 14 years old was to pay
every three months a little bellful of gold; and
all other persons were to pay a quantity of cotton
for each person. Copper tokens were made, and
were given to the Indians when they paid the
tribute ; and these tokens were to be worn around
the neck to show that the tribute had been paid.
The Indians did not know how to collect the gold
and the tribute had to be changed; and service
was takeninstead. Indolent in character and in-
capable of hard work, the Indian regarded this
labor as slavery.

Columbus was not a cruel man; we know he
was avery pious one; but early in life he had made
voyages along the coast of Africa, and he was
accustomed to a slave trade. Besides he wanted
to reduce the expenses of these Indian posses-
sions and make good his promises that advantage
would flow to Spain from the Indies.

Complaints of the harsh dealings of Columbus
had reached the King and Queen, and they sent
over a man to inquire into the troubles. He
found lots of complaint both from the settlers and
the Indians. Columbus now concluded that he




AGAIN IN SPAIN, 117
118 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

would go to Spain and fight his own battles be-
fore the Court. His voyage over was a bad one.
They had stormy winds until the food began to
run short, and rations were doled out in small
lots, which grew smaller and smaller until Colum-
bus had all he could do to keep the Spaniards from
killing and eating the Caribs who were on board.
At last when famine was on them, after a voyage
of three months, they landed on June 11, 1496,
at Cadiz.

After a month’s delay, Columbus got orders to
come to Court, which was then at Burgos. In
his journey he tried to dazzle the eyes of the peo-
ple by the display of gold, and by showing his
captives as he did on “his return from his first
voyage ; but so many colonists had come back
sick at Heare and ruined in health, that this pro-
cession was very unlike the first one in the
welcome he received.

He was well received by the sovereigns, who
_listened with sympathy to the story of his diffi-
culties, and heard with much satisfaction his story
of the discovery of the mines from which much
was hoped for.
CHAPTER X.
CRIMINALS SENT TO THE INDIES.

During the two years that followed from the
time Columbus left Hayti in 1496 till his return
there in 1498 many things happened on both
sides of the Atlantic which require telling. In
1496 Bartholomew Columbus sent 300 slaves to
Spain. He told the sovereigns that some Ca-
ciques were killing the Spaniards, and their high-
ness had sent reply, that all of those who should
be found guilty should be sent to Spain. If this
meant the common Indians as well as the Ca-
ciques, the question of selling them with a safe
conscience was already settled.

In 1497, on the advice of Columbus to the sov-
ereigns, all criminals were to be sent to the Indies.
He was greatly ashamed of this advice later, for
three years afterwards he says, “I swear that
numbers of men have gone to the Indies who did
not deserve water from God or man.”

There was one part of Hayti into which the
Spaniards had not yet entered. It was called
Xaragua, and was ruled by a Cacique, whose

119g
120 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

sister was the wife of Caonabo. Bartholomew
marched here with 100 men; and found an im-
mense army of Indians drawn up to oppose his
progress. Bartholomew made signs to them that
his errand was one of peace, and the good-natured
Indians brought him to their city, and feasted him
and his troop. He then demanded tribute. The
Cacique pleaded that there was no gold in his
land ; so it was settled that they should pay trib-
ute in cotton, and cazabi-bread.

On Bartholomew’s return he found that nearly
300 men had died of disease; and there was
great lack of food. He placed the sick in the
fortresses and in the Indian villages, and set out
to St. Domingo, collecting tribute by the way.
In all these proceedings, and still more from
causes over which he had no control, the Span-
iards suffered much. They grumbled loudly at
the labors that were forced upon them; and the
Indians still more justly of the tribute placed on
them. The Indians got together and rose as one
man to get rid of the Spaniards, but, of course,
they could do but little. The chief movers in
this revolt were put to death.

Roldan, a man who was under great obligations
to Columbus for having raised him from poverty
and obscurity, and whom he made justice of the
peace before his departure, caused great trouble








CARIBS.
122 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

during the absence of the admiral. The brothers
of Columbus were very unpopular, and Roldan
tried to ruin them both, and work his way to the
command of the colony. Finding the people full
of murmurs about hard treatment, severe toil, and
the long absence of Columbus, he made believe
to be moved by their distresses. He formed a
plan with some others to. get rid of Diego and
Bartholomew, promising his followers a life of
ease and pleasure; sharing equally all they might
gain by barter in the island, employing the In-
dians to work as slaves for them, and enjoying
themselves with the Indian women.

Diego got word of what was going on but did
not dare risk an open fight. He sent Roldan to
the Vega with forty men. Roldan’s idea was to
surprise the fort at Conception, and by getting
hold of that post and the rich country around it,
to defy Diego and his brother.

The fortress was small; but was in charge of
a staunch and brave old soldier, and Roldan was
unable to take it. The natives were flocking round
Roldan’s banner. Bartholomew marched to put
down these rebels; but knowing that his men
had listened to the wily offers of Roldan, he was
not sure of their loyalty. Such was the state of
affairs when Coronal with three ships bringing
supplies and troops landed at St. Domingo.
Wie

SSH
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Baw

lian Vie
MY oil













~“2R1B COOKING.
124 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

Coronal tried to win back this bold bad man,
but Roldan was afraid of Bartholomew Columbus
and would not venture ona return. He set out
for Xaragua. He had meetings with the Caciques
and it was decided to attack and kill all the sol-
diers, who were spread in small parties around the
village. The night of the full moon was fixed
upon for the attack

One of the Caciques, who knew nothing of the
heavenly bodies, took up arms before the agreed
upon time and was beaten by the soldiers. The
alarm was thus given, and the Spaniards were on
the alert. The villages were burned, and the
Indians scattered. Some fled to the mountains,
where they were soon brought to terms.

Roldan got away; and now the poor natives
were sorely harassed between the rebels and the
loyal Spaniards.
CHAPTER XI.

THIRD VOYAGE OF COLUMBUS.

Columbus set sail from the port of San Lucar
on May 30, 1498, with 6 vessels and 200 men,
besides the sailors. France and Spain were now
at war, and Columbus in this voyage was obliged
to avoid the French ships that were sailing in
those seas. From the Canary Islands he sent three
of the ships direct to Hayti, saying in his letters
that he was going to the Cape Verde Islands,
and thence, “in the name of the Sacred Trinity,”
would sail southwards, until he should come
under the equinoctial line, in the hope of being
‘cuided by God to discover something which
may be to His service ; for I believe,” he adds,
“that no one ever has traversed this way, and that
this sea is nearly unknown.”

With one ship and two caravels, he reached the
Cape Verde Islands on June 27, and quitted them
on July 4, having been in the midst of such a
dense fog, that, as he says, “it might have been
cut with a knife.’ Then he sailed south-west.
When he had gone about 360 miles he found

125
126 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

fields of floating sea-weed. The wind now stop-
ped, and the heat was awful; so great, that nobody
dared go below. This heat lasted eight days. The
first day was clear, and if the others had been.
like it, Columbus says, not a man could have been
left alive; they would all have been burned up.

At last a breeze sprang up and they sailed off
in a westerly course. On July 22, flocks of birds
were seen going from the south-west to the north-
east, a sign that land was not far off. Still they
saw no land; and were much in need of fresh
water. On July 31, Alonzo Perez went aloft on
the maintop-sail of the ship and saw land, about
50 miles off. This land was described as in the
form of three lofty hills, which Columbus named
Trinidad.

The sailors sang the ‘“‘ Salve Regina,” and other
pious hymns with joy. As he neared these shores
Columbus noticed that the trees grew well on the
margin of the seas. There were houses and
people; and the lands were cultivated. This was
August 1, 1498. From the point where he now
was the lands of the Orinoco must have been
visible, and he must have beheld the continent of
America for the first time. (The northern part of
this continent had been discovered by Sebastian
Cabot on June 24, 1497.)

Before entering the gulf Columbus sought to








PEARL FISHERS.

127
128 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

make friends with some Indians who came out in
a large canoe, by ordering the men to come on
deck, and dance to the sound of a tambourine ;
but this, naturally enough, was thought to be a
warlike move, and it was answered bya flight of
arrows from the Indians. At last he arrived at a
place called by the natives Paria. They told him
the country to the west was full of people. He
took four of these natives, and went on till he came
to a point, which he named Needle Point, where,
he says, he found “the most beautiful lands, and a
great number of canoes came off to the ships.”

Going on, Columbus came to a place where
the women had pearl bracelets. Asking where
these came from they pointed to Paria. Here he
sent some of his men on shore, and they were
very well received. But he was anxious to get
to Hayti, to see after his colonists there, and
bring them the stores which he had in charge.

The discovery of the continent of America by
Columbus on this third voyage was the result of
his intention to discover some new land, and
cannot be attributed to chance. His theory was
that the earth was not a perfect sphere, but pear-
shaped; and he thought that, as he sailed west-
ward in this voyage, the sea went gradually rising,
and his ships rising too, until they came nearer
to the heavens.
THIRD VOYAGE OF COLUMBUS. 129

It is very likely that this theory had been long
in his mind, and that he held it before he reached
the coast of Paria. He found the temperature
much more moderate than might have been ex-
pected so near the equinoctial line, far more mod-
erate than it was on the opposite coast of Africa.
In the evenings it was necessary for him to wear
an outer garment of fur. Then the natives were
lighter in color, more astute and braver than
those of the islands. Their hair, too, was different.

Then he thought of the great volume of fresh
waters that came down into the Gulf of Paria.
The conclusion that his pious mind came to was
that he had reached the base of the earthly para-
dise. He thought that the continent which he had
found was the same continent of the east that he
had always been in search of; and that the
waters which we now know to be a branch of the
river Orinoco, formed one of the four great rivers
which came from the garden of Paradise.

Very different were the views of the pilots.
Some said they were in the Sea of Spain; others,
the Sea of Scotland; and being in despair about
their whereabouts, they concluded that they had
been under the guidance of the devil. Columbus
stuck to it that he had discovered the site of the
earthly paradise. He told his men that they were
in the richest country in the world.
130 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

Columbus did not forget to claim, with all due
form, the possession of his approach to paradise,
for his employers, the Catholic Sovereigns. When
he landed at Paria he took possession of the coast
in their names, putting up a great cross upon the
shore. In telling this to the monarchs he reminds
them how they bade him to go on with the enter-
prise, if he should discover only stones and rocks,
and had told him they counted the cost for nothing,
so long as the faith would be increased and their
dominions widened.

It was, however, no poor finding of ‘“ rocks and
stones”’ which Columbus had now made. He
says, ‘‘I found some lands, the most beautiful in
the world, and very populous,’’ Of the people he
said, ‘“Theyare all of good stature, well made,
and of very graceful bearing, with much and
smooth hair.”

It is curious that Columbus does not mention
his discovery of pearls to the monarchs, and he
afterwards made a poor excuse for this. The
real reason is supposed to have been a wish to
keep this knowledge to himself, that the fruits of
this journey might not be snatched from him.
The gains to be made on the pearl coast were,
probably, the most tempting bait for future cap-
tains to follow in the track of Columbus and com-
plete the discovery of the earthly paradise.
THIRD VOYAGE OF COLUMBUS. 131

Of the delights of this paradise Columbus him-
self was to have but a slight and mocking foretaste.
He was sick during the whole voyage, suffering
from gout and from sore eyes which made him
almost blind. His new colony in Hayti claimed
his attention and was the cause of anxious thought
to him; and the grave but glowing advocate
made his way to St. Domingo, and afterwards
returned to Spain, to be vexed henceforth by
those mean miseries and small disputes which
followed him to the end of his days—miseries the
more galling as they were so small compared
with the greatness of the man, and with the aims
and hopes which they effectually hindered.
CHAPTER XII.
COLUMBUS IN CHAINS.

On August 30, 1498, Columbus reached Hayti,
where he found everything in confusion. He
thought at first that the bad will of Roldan and
his party was chiefly directed against his brother,
and he hoped to patch up a peace, and be able
to send this word back to Spain. But it was not so
to be. The five vessels left St. Domingo, bearing
no good news of peace and amity, but laden with
many hundreds of Indian slaves, which had been
taken in the following manner: Some Cacique
failed to perform the personal services put upon
him and his people, and fled to the forests. They
were pursued, and the captured put as slaves in -
these ships. Columbus in his letters to the sover-
eigns speaks of the money to be made out of
these slave dealings, and from the sale of log-
wood. 600 slaves were sent in these five ships,
of which 200 were to go to the masters of the
vessels as payment of freight.

In these lettess Columbus spoke after the fash-

132
133



































AN INDIAN VILLAGE.
134 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

ion of the regular slave dealer. ‘The masters
of the vessels were to receive slaves from the
colonists, were to carry them to Spain and pay
for feeding them during the voyage ; they were
then to allow the colonists so much money, pay-
able at Seville. This money was to be spent as
the colonists directed, who would thus be able to
obtain such goods as they needed.” He always
urged. upon the sovereigns that the colonists
should be allowed to make use of the services of
the Indians for a year or two, until the colony
should be in a settled state. He did not wait for
the royal authority, and this led to a new form of
farming out the natives.

After great trouble the disputes between Rol-
dan’s rebels and Columbus were after two years’
bargaining brought to an end. Roldan kept his
place as justice; and his friends received lands
and slaves; and Columbus ordered that the
Cacique and his people should till these lands.
Fifteen of Roldan’s party chose to return to
Spain ; they received two or three slaves each,
and they were sent home, in October, 1499.

On their arrival in Spain the Queen was greatly
angered, and said Columbus had no right to give
her vassals to anyone. She ordered that all
persons in Seville, Granada, and other places who
had Indians given to them should, under pain of


135
136 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

death, send them back to Hayti. Only the Indians
taken in war could be made slaves.

Everybody would be sorry to take away any
honor from Isabella; but it would have been
better if she had forbid the sending of the Indians
as slaves, on any pretext whatever.

Columbus had now settled the Roldan revolt,
and other smaller ones; he had reduced the
Indians to subjection, the mines were prospering,
the Indians were brought together in the villages,
so that they might better be taught the Christian
faith, and serve as vassals to the Crown, and the
royal revenues would, he thought, in three years,
amount to $7,500,000.

He had hardly enjoyed a month of rest, when
that evil came down upon him which “poured the
juice of aloes into the rest of his life.”

The Sovereigns up to this time had behaved
well to Columbus. He had bitter enemies at
Court; and they were for ever saying he was
doing wrong. When the five vessels from St.
Domingo reached Spain with the news of Roldan’s
revolt, and the other troubles, they resolved to
end this clamor and to suspend Columbus.

In July, 1500, they sent over Bobadilla with
orders that the government and all arms and
fortresses should be turned over to him. He
reached Hayti on August 23, 1500. It was a
COLUMBUS IN CHAINS. 137

great pity anda sad mistake of judgment that
this man was fixed upon asagent. Hewasaman
of very narrow mind. The first thing he did was to
take possession of the admiral’s house, and then
summon him before him, sending him the royal
letter. Neither Columbus nor his brothers made
any resistance, and Bobadilla, with stupid bru-
tality, put them in chains and sent them home
to Spain.

Charges came thickly against Columbus; “the
stones rose up against him and his brothers.”
The people told how he had made them work,
even sick men, at his fortresses, at his house, at
the mills and other buildings, how he had starved
them, condemned them to be whipped for slight
causes. Then they went on to other grounds,
such as his not having baptized Indians “because
he desired slaves rather than Christians,” that he
had unjustly made war on the Indians so that he
could make slaves to send to Spain.

Poor Columbus! His chains lay very heavily
upon him. He would not have them taken off
except by royal command, and would ever keep
them by him (“I always saw them in his room,”
‘says his son Ferdinand), ordering that they should
be buried with him.

We have now come to the end of Columbus’s
tale in the Indies. Whatever we may think of his
£38 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

general policy, we cannot but regret his removal
at this time, when there seemed to be some chance
of making a solid government, though we must
honestly admit that the Sovereigns, with such

=e EAVES
ae



oft of

JEERED AT IN THE STREETS.

evidence as they had before them, were far from
wrong in recalling him, had it been done in a
manner worthy of his and their greatness.
CHAPTER XIII.
COLUMBUS PLEADS HIS CASE AT COURT.

The career of Columbus had already been
marked by strong contrasts. First, a “ pauper
pilot,” then the ruler of a New World, now hoping
and fearing, low-spirited, and full of joy, he had
passed through strange changes of good and
evil fortune. But no two events of his life stand
out so strong as his return to Spain after his
first voyage and his return now. He was then a
conqueror, he was now a prisoner. To the com-
mon people, the broad fact was this: Columbus
had given Spain a New World; Spain loaded him
with fetters in return. Public opinion began to
change in his favor. The nation became con-
scious of ingratitude to its benefactor. The nobil-
ity were shocked at the insult to one of their order.

When the Sovereigns learned from Columbus
of his arrival, and of his disgrace, they ordered
that he be liberated at once, summoned him to
their Court at Granada, sending him money to
enable him to proceed there in a style fitting his
rank. They received him with all possible favor,
denied Bobadilla’s acts, and promised him pay-
ment and satisfaction. They refused to inquire

139
140 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

into the charges against him, and dismissed them
as not worthy of investigation.

But though the Sovereigns acted thus promptly
n Columbus’s behalf, they were secretly glad
chat he had been removed. On each fresh dis-
covery King Ferdinand repented more and more
on having promised him one-eighth of the profits
of the newly found lands. He thought that
Columbus when once master of the great wealth
that he supposed to be really within his grasp,
would become more powerful than his master, and
might throw off his allegiance altogether. Here
was the chance to get rid of his bargain, by re-
fusing on grounds of State policy, to put him
back as ruler. Isabella, who had always been his
firm friend, would not have thrown him over, but
while the colonists were excited against him, it
would be prudent that some one else should rule
in his place.

The Queen granted Columbus a private hear-
ing. He told his story with such simple eloquence,
so pathetically, that his warm-hearted mistress
was moved to tears by the recital. He told her
of the difficulties he had met, and the dealings of
the enemies who had always been thwarting him.
He pleaded that he had to create a line of con-
duct for himself, having to deal with new circum-
stances without any previous rule to guide him.












































PLEADING HIS CASE.

TAI
142 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

He begged the Queen to believe that the charges
poured in against him were prompted by jealousy,
and had no solid foundation in fact.

Isabella replied in a very sensible speech, telling
him that she fully valued his services, and knew
the rancor of his enemies, but she was afraid he
had given some cause of complaint. ‘Common
report,’ she said, ‘“‘accuses you of acting witha
degree of severity quite unsuited to an infant
colony, and likely to excite rebellion there. But
the matter on which I find it hardest to give you
my pardon, is your conduct in making slaves of
so many Indians who had done nothing to deserve
such a fate. This was against my express orders.
Just then, when I heard of this breach of my in
structions, everybody was complaining of you, and
no one spoke a word in your favor. I felt obliged
to send an officer to look into these charges. I
find I made a bad choice in my agent, and I will
take care to make an example of Bobadilla, which
shall serve as a warning to others not to exceed
their powers. I cannot promise to re-instate you
at once. As to your rank of admiral, I never
intended to deprive you of it. But you must
bide your time and trust in me.”

It was fixed that the new governor should be
appointed for two years only, and at the end of
that time that Columbus might be trusted with






































































































































































THE NATIVES.

x
.

BLOODHOUNDS ATTACKIN¢
144 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

the rule again. Ferdinand thought something
might happen in that time to prevent Columbus
ever being re-appointed. The words of Ovando’s
appointment were “that he is to be the governor
as long as it is their Highnesses’ will and pleasure.”

Bobadilla was to be at once dismissed. His
first object was to find the gold, and to secure
this, he assigned all the natives as slaves to the
colonists. A large number of the latter were
the scourings of the Spanish prisons; they treated
their wretched helots with savage brutality. Four
times the amount of gold was got under Bobadilla’s
rule than under that of Columbus.

But when the Sovereigns heard of the cruelties
which that system involved they urged forward
the departure of Ovando, whom they had selected
to be governor, and who, to judge from his pre-
vious career, was a man well fitted to rule with
justice and mercy; and was known to hold all
avarice and covetousness in much aversion.
Among his orders from Isabella was one “that
all the Indians in Hayti should be free from ser-
vitude, and be unmolested by any one, and that
they should live as free vassals, ruled and pro-
tected by justice, as were the vassals of Castile.”
Like the vassals in Spain, the Indians were to pay
tribute; they were also to assist in getting gold,
but for this they were to be paid daily wages,
Sv



























































CARIB SLAVES MAKING SUGAR.
146 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

It was fixed that all those who received pay from
the government in the Indies, as well those
who went out with Bobadilla as those who had
come out originally with Columbus, should return
to Spain, and a new set to replace them should go
out with Ovando. This was done because most
of the soldiers and sailors had been mixed up in
the troubles, and it would be a good plan to start
fresh. No Jews, Moors, or new converts were to
go to the Indies, or be permitted to stay there ;
but negro slaves ‘‘born in the power of the
Christians were allowed to pass to the Indies, and
the officers of the royal revenue were to receive
the money to be paid for their permits.” This
is the first notice with respect to negroes. These
orders were given in the year 1501.

Ovando was directed to, first of all, look to
what concerns the reverence of God and his wor-
ship ; to put only good men in office ; the people
were not to be overtaxed ; that free audience was
to be given toall; that he should encourage those
who worked, and discourage the idle, as the uni-
versal Father does.

With these orders, Ovando left San Lucas, on
February 13, 1503, with 2500 persons, a large part
being hidalgos, that is, noblemen of the lowest
class. He meta terrible storm on his way, and
lost one of his largest vessels; and had some
COLUMBUS PLEADS HIS CASE. 147

difficulty in reaching St. Domingo at all, arriving
on April 15, 1501, and began reforms at once.

He announced that Bobadilla was put under
limits, and he had Roldan arrested. He tried to
found settlements along the coast, and to carry
out the just directions he had received with
regard to the Indians. Like Bobadilla he was a
knight oi a religious order, and had a narrow way
of looking at things; he had no special culture
that we know of, and but little originality of char-
acter. Columbus had always treated the Indians
with consideration and humanity; Ovando soon
began to rule them with a rod of iron.

The Queen of Xaragua, whom Bartholomew
Columbus tells us was a wise woman, of good
manners, and pleasing address, received Ovando
in great state. “She brought our men into the
common hall, and had games, and feasts, and
mock fights.”

At this time (1503) some of Roldan’s former
followers had settled in Xaragua, and were a great
trouble to the colony; and as might be expected
there were constant rows between these Span-
iards and the nearby Indians; and the Spaniards
told the governor that these Indians intended to
rebel. Perhaps they did so intend. Ovando set
out for Xaragua, which was 200 miles from St.
Domingo, with 70 horsemen and 300 soldiers. The
148 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

Queen met him and they spent some days in
singing and dancing. But Ovando believed that
an insurrection was intended, and with these
thoughts in his mind, he got up a tournament,
keeping the soldiers ready for action. The Queen
fell into the snare. She invited all the Caciques
‘to see the sports. Meanwhile the horsemen
and soldiers surrounded the building. When
Ovando made a sign they were to rush in and
bind the Caciques and the Queen. They were
all secured. The Queen alone was led out, the
quarters were set fire to, and all the chiefs burned
alive. The Queen was afterwards hanged, and
the province was desolated. The followers of
Roldan were then collected and formed a town,
which was named the “City of true peace.”

Columbus all this time was chafing at the idle
life which was forced upon him. He formed a
theory that some strait existed through which a
passage might be made from St. Domingo to
those regions in Asia, from which the Portuguese
were just beginning to reap a large profit, and
which must be very near that home of the gold
which had always filled his thoughts. He pressed
the Sovereigns for ships to find this strait. After
some delays, and the usual bickerings he got the
word: ‘We beg you to set out as soon as
possible.”
6r1



TREATED THE INDIANS.

OVANDO

THE WAY


CHAPTER XIV.

NEW ENTERPRISES,

On May g, 1502, Columbus started out from
Cadiz, with his brother, Bartholomew, and his
second son, Fernando. On June 13, he reached
Martinique. His orders were that he should not
visit St. Domingo; but finding his largest ship
needed repairs, he paid no heed to the prohibition,
and sent a boat to ask Ovando to let him have
a vessel in exchange for his damaged one, and
to allow his ships to take refuge in the harbor
during a hurricane which he foresaw was soon to
come up.

Ovando refused both requests. He hada fleet
ready to depart for Spain. This fleet was the
richest in cargo that had ever left the islands. It
had all the gold that Bobadilla had wrung out of

150

























































152 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

the natives by his harsh measures. One nugget
was the largest piece of virgin gold ever discover-
ed. It was valued at $2000. Ferdinand and
Isabella would get enough to nearly repay them
for all their expenses on the new colony—if this
fleet reached Spain in safety.

A terrible tornado came on; and of all the
ships, only one,—and that the frailest of the fleet,
reached Spain. Some of the vessels put back in
distress to the island; but the greater number
were lost at sea. The ‘ship that carried Ovando’s
property reached Spain safely. Bobadilla, Rol-
and, and their associates in cruelty and plunder,
all were lost with their ill-gotten gains.

Columbus sailed along the coast, passing Ja-
maica. For nine weeks he made so little progress
that his crews began to clamor to give up the
expedition. The ships were worm-eaten and leaky,
and food was running low. He argued that it
was better to go on than to remain beating about
the isles waiting to return home. On the coast
of Honduras there appeared a canoe, more like
the ships of the Old World than any they had yet
seen, manned by twenty-five Indians, who had
come from the Continent on a trading voyage
among the islands. They had cotton fabrics, iron-
wood swords, flint knives, copper axe-heads, and
a fruit called cacoa, which made a good beverage.












153
154 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

Columbus treated these people kindly, and won
their good will by giving them some of the glitter-
ing toys which never failed to dazzle the savage eye.

Columbus picked out an old Indian to go with
him asa pilot. This Indian made signs that there
was a land not far distant where there were ships,
and arms, and goods similar to the Spaniards’ ;
and said he could lead him there.

Had Columbus followed his first intention, and
steered to the west, a few hours would have
brought him to Yucatan ; and the riches of Mex-
ico would have rewarded his discovery. But this
savage crossed his path at the critical moment,
and turned him from the road to fortune.

Steering along the coast of Honduras, on
September 12, he reached Cape Gracias. In
October, he entered several of the bays on the
Isthmus of Panama. Here he got food, and
fixed up his vessels ; but no signs of the kingdom
of the great Khan, or the strait, which he fancied
‘might lead him there. Upon his mooring his
vessels close to the shore, the Indians attacked
him, and were only repulsed by the guns, the thun-
der and lightning of which in their eyes possessed
sacred character. He hada meeting with one of
the tribes, who showed great alarm when the no-
tary made notes of the talk. They had never seen
writing, and it had a magic effect on them.


INDIANS BURNING THE
156 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

It was not until December 5, that Columbus
could resolve to give up his easterly course. He
had scarcely turned back, intending to settle on
the river Veragua, when he ran into a furious
storm. Thunder and lightning were incessant ;
the waterspouts (the first they had seen) threat-
ened to engulf them; huge crests of waves burst
in floods over them; and. their escape was little
less than a miracle. After eight days tossing to
and fro, he gained the mouth of a river.

Here was a powerful Cacique, named Quibia,
in whose lands was much gold, and with him the
Spaniards were eager to treat. But he outwitted
them. Offering to supply them with guides to
his mines, he really sent them to the mines of a
rival Cacique. Here, they succeeded by barter,
in getting large quantities of gold, which seemed
so abundant, that Columbus made sure that he
had come to that place where Solomon obtained
the gold for the Temple at Jerusalem. He saw
more signs of gold here in two days than he had

, seen in St. Domingo in four years.

He started to form a settlement to provide a
depot for the gold which might be collected. A
village of huts was built where 80 of the crew were
to remain while Columbus returned to Spain
for supplies.

News came to them that the village was to be












































































157
158 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

-attacked, so Columbus took means to capture
Quibia in his own palace. The Indians, dismayed
at the capture of the Cacique, offered large lots
of gold for his ransom; but he was kept as a
hostage for peace. As he was being brought
down the river, in one of the boats, he managed,
though bound hand and foot, and in charge of a
powerful Spaniard, to spring overboard, and to
make his escape, swimming under water to the
shore. There was now war to the knife, between
the natives and the settlers. An attempt was
made to burn down the village by means of
blazing arrows. A boat’s crew of eleven Span-
jards were attached by savages in canoes, and
only one man escaped to tell of the massacre.
Columbus with three of the caravels was wait-
ing fora good wind for his departure. The dry
weather made the river so shallow that the cara-
vel left with the settlers could not cross the bar.
They were in despair ; for if they were left, they
knew they were left to perish. Columbus became
uneasy at not hearing from them; not knowing
that their only good boat had been destroyed by
the Indians. Some of Quibia’s family who had
been taken on board the fleet as prisoners, made
their escape by swimming to the shore, three
miles. off.. This feat encouraged one of the pilots
to undertake a similar exploit. There never was
NEW ENTERPRISES. 159

aman more welcomed. News of the desperate
state of affairs was got to Columbus and ina few
days all the settlers were taken on board the
fleet.

Making his way to Porto Bello, where he left
one of the ships as no longer seaworthy, May 31,
1503, Columbus quitted the coast and steered fo1
Cuba. Two of his ships collided, making them
more unfit to cope with the squalls and breakers.
At last in the middle of June, with his crews in
despair, his vessels worm-eaten, so as to be ‘as
full of holes as a honeycomb,” he reached Cuba,
when he got food from the friendly natives.

Failing to make head against the wind so.as to
reach Hayti, Columbus shaped his course for
Jamaica, and there his voyage ended. As his
ships could not float any longer, he ran them ‘on
shore, side by side, and built huts upon the decks
for housing the crews. These houses also made
good positions in case of attack by a hostile tribe.
No Spaniard was to go ashore without leave.
Diego Mendez, one of the boldest of the officers,
marched into the interior of the island to arrange
for food supplies, from some remote tribes. The
natives brought fish, game, and cazava-bread in
trade for toys and ornaments.

The Spaniards were thus secu.ed from starva-
tion, for the present, but their position was a hard
160. CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

one. Between Columbus and Hayti was a strait
120 miles in breadth, full of tumbling breakers
and rushing currents, which separated the two
islands. Attempts to cross had to be made, and
Mendez agreed to try it, though ‘the thought it
not merely difficult, but impossible to cross in so
small a vessel as acanoe.’ He had a letter to
Ovando, asking him to send a vessel to release
the castaways, and a dispatch to the Sovereigns,
giving a glowing description of the riches of
Veragua.

Mendez anda comrade set out along the coast in
a canoe mannedby six Indians. They weremet bya
tribe of savages, who carried them off as captives.
The beads and toys which Mendez had taken with
him to barter with the natives, took the whole
attention of his conquerors, and while they were
settling the shares of the spoil, Mendez managed
to escape to his canoe, and return in safety to his
companions. A second canoe was got ready, and
Mendez this time took a big enough force to
protect him from the hostile tribes.

On July 7, 1503, the armed escort started off,
and reached Hayti three days later. They suffer-
ed for want of fresh water. One more day’s labor
at the oar brought them to Cape Tiburon where
Mendez left his companions, and went on alone
to St. Domingo. He was told that Ovando had






















































































































































INDIAN



WORSHIP.



101
162 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

gone to Xaragua, and there he made his way
alone through fifty miles of wild forest to show
Ovando the need of sending relief at once to
Columbus.

Ovando dreaded the return of Columbus. He
took no active steps in the matter himself, and it
was only with reluctance that he allowed Mendez
to proceed to St. Domingo, and buy a ship on
behalf of Columbus, and bring him off.

Meanwhile, month after month went by, the
castaways getting no news from Hayti. At last,
in January, 1504, the murmurs against the inaction
of Columbus broke out into open mutiny. The
captain of one of the ships told Columbus that he
thought he was afraid to return to Spain, but they
had determined to wait no longer but to go at
once. Onthis there were shouts of, ‘“ To Castile !
We follow!”

Taking possession of the canoes, the mutineers
set out for Hayti, leaving Columbus and _ his
brother with scarcely any but those whose sickness
prevented them from going along. They seized
on all the food they could get, telling the owners
that Columbus would pay for it. The attempts to
cross over failed on account of the rough weather.
So the rebels gave up the idea of reaching Hayti
and roamed over the island, quartering themselves
on the Indians, and committing every possible
















163
164 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

excess. This conduct strained the relations be-
tween Columbus and the natives. The good will
they first showed to the white men gave way to
contempt and hatred, and they refused to supply
their wants any longer; famine was now before
them.

Just at this last extremity Columbus, ever fertile
in devices, thought of.a way of regaining his in-
fluence over the Indians. He knew thatan eclipse
of the moon would soon take place. He invited
all the Caciques to visit him. Then he said, ‘‘ The
God who protects me will punish you. You know
what has happened to my people who have re-
belled against me. My followers crossed to Hayti
without trouble; while the others suffered no end
of dangers. Soon, too, shall the divine wrath
fall on you ; this very night the moon shall change
her color, and lose her light, as a mark of what
will fall upon you from the skies.”

The night was fine; the moon shone down in
ffull splendor. But the change took place as Col-
umbus had foretold, and the wild howls of the
savages showed their terror. They promised he
should want for nothing if he would only avert
this judgment; and they. hastily collected a quan-
tity of food, and laiditat his feet. He consented
to pray for them; and soon the terrible shadow
passed away from the face of the moon; and the


THE SPANISH MUTINY.
166 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

savages were happy. The supply of food was.
now regular.

Eight months passed away without any tidings
from Mendez, when one evening a caravel showed
in the harbor. A boat put off from the caravel
with a message from Ovando, saying he hoped
before long to senda ship large enough to take
them all off. Ovando simply wanted to learn
what was the real condition of Columbus.

Columbus told his followers that he had refused
to depart alone. He would share their lot and
wait for the speedy help that was promised. The
rebels now planned to capture the ships, and
seize the admiral. Columbus prepared for the
assault. A fierce fight ensued, the rebels were
whipped, and their leaders carried as prisoners to
the ships.

The Indians who saw this fight were much
puzzled. They came and looked at the dead,
thrusting their fingers into their wounds. The
rebels now surrendered to Columbus, who granted
a pardon to them, but kept them on the shore.
And so the two bands of castaways—one on ship,
and one on shore—waited for the promised help.
CHAPTER XV.
FALLING FORTUNES.—CONCLUSION.

It was not till June 28, 1504, that their sight
was gladdened by the view of the two caravels
which had been sent—one by Mendez, the other by
Ovando—to their relief. They boarded the ships
at once, but bad winds made the voyage to Hayti
a long one, and the two vessels did not reach St.
Domingo till August 13, 1504.

Much to the surprise of Columbus he found
himself treated with great respect by Ovando.
Trouble arose as to matters of law, and as to who
was the person in full power. But Columbus was
anxious to return to Spain, and a month after his
arrival here he started homeward in the caravel
which had brought him from Jamaica.

Even his last voyage was a sad one. Care and
sorrow followed him by land and sea. Twice his
vessel nearly sank. His health was giving out,
he was nearly ruined in means, and felt hopeless
as to being further employed by the Sovereigns.
Feeling thus, on November 7, 1504 he landed at
Seville, in as miserable a plight as his worst enemy
could have wished.

167
168 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

He could scarcely expect to be received with
much favor at Court. He had failed in his enter-
prise, had lost his ships ; he brought home wonder-
ful stories of golden lands, but no gold.

Poor, old, infirm, he was now to receive news
which was to deepen all his evils. He was too
unwell to make a journey himself, so he sent his
son Diego to Court to manage his affairs for him.
On November 26, 1504 the great Queen (Isabella)
died, Her death was a fatal blow to.the fortunes
of Columbus. While she lived he had something
to hope for from her high sense of justice and her
gratitude for his services. When she was gone,
he was left to the justice and generosity of Fer-
dinand.

Columbus did not live long after his only friend.
He spent his time now trying to induce Kin
Ferdinand to make his son the ruler of the Indies,
as it had been agreed. Ferdinand did not refuse
outright. This breach of faith would have been
too flagrant. But he turned the matter over to a
Council, who, knowing the King’s wishes, let the
matter drag.

Shortly after the arrival of Philip and his Queen
in Spain, Columbus wrote that “despite his gout
he could'yet do them service the like of which had
- notbeen seen.” Whether he meant in the way of
advice as to Indian affairs; or thought of voyages
FALLING FORTUNES.—CONCLUSION 169

of further discovery, can never be known. He
was, alas, to make but one more journey,—the
final one to his home of rest.

We will not linger over his death-bed. Having
received all the sacraments of the Church, Colum-
bus died, at Valladolid, on Ascension Day, May
20, 1506. His remains were carried to Seville,
and buried in the monastery of San Cuevas. His
son Diego was also buried here.

We are told that Ferdinand, after the death of
Columbus, showed a sense of his merits by order-
ing a monument to be erected to his memory,
bearing the motto, which had been formally grant-
ed to him by the Sovereigns :

TO CASTILE AND LEON COLUMBUS
GAVE A NEW WORLD.

His remains were afterwards removed, in 1536,
to St. Domingo, that they might rest in the New
World he had discovered. They did not rest in
quiet evenhere. After 200 years they were taken
to the Cathedral at Havana, where they now rest.

THE END.
ALTEMUS’ YOUNG PEOPLE’S LIBRARY.

ROBINSON CRUSOE: His Life and Strange, Sur-
prising Adventures, With 70 beautiful illustrations

by WALTER PaGET.
‘‘Was there ever anything written that the reader wished longer ox
cept RoBINSON CRUSOE and PILGRIM’s PROGRESS? ’’—Samuel Johnson.
“There exists no work, either of instruction or entertainment, which
as been more generally read, and universally admired.” — Walter Scott,

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND.
With 42 illustrations by Joun TENNIEL.
“Lewis Carroll’s immortal story.’’—Athenceum.

“The most delightful of children’s stories. Elegant and delicious
Donsense.”—Saturday Review.

THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS AND WHAT
ALICE FOUND THERE. (A companion to Auicz
In WONDERLAND.) With 50 illustrations by JoHN

TENNIEL.

“Will fairly rank with the tale of her previous experience.’’—Daily
Telegraph. . . . “Many of Tenniel’s designs are masterpieces of wise
absurdity.”—Atheneum.. . . “‘ Not a whit inferior to its predecessor
in grand extravagance of imagination, an delicious allegorical non-
sense.” —Quarterly Review.

BUNYAN’S PILGRIM’S PROGRESS, With 50 full-

page and text illustrations.

Pinerim’s Procress is the most popular story book in the world.
With the exception of the Bible it has been translated into more lan-
guages than any other book ever printed.

A CHILD’S STORY OF THE BIBLE, With 72 full-

page illustrations. ,

Tells in simple language afid in a form fitted for the hands of the
ounger members of the Christian flock, the tale of God’s dealings with
is Chosen People under the Old Dispensation, with its foreshadowin,

of the coming of that Messiah who was to make all mankind one fold
under one Shepherd.

A CHILD’S LIFE OF CHRIST. With 49 illustrations.

God has implanted in the infant heart a desire to hear of Jesus, and
children are early attracted and sweetly riveted by the wonderful Story
of the Master from the Manger to the Throne.

In this little book we have brought together from Scripture every in-
cident, expression and description, within the verge of their comprehene
sion in the effort to weave them into a memorial garland of their Saviour.


CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS AND THE DISCOV-
ERY OF AMERICA. With 70 illustrations.

it is the duty of every American lad to know the story of Christopher
Columbus. In this book is depicted the story of his life acd struggles;
of his persistent solicitations at the Courts of Europe, and his contempti:~
ous receptions by the learned Geographical Councils, until his final em-

loyment by Queen Isabella, Records the day-by-day journeyings while

e was pursuing his aim and perilous way over the shoreless Ocean, until
he ‘‘gave to Spain a New World.” Shows his progress through Spain on
the oceasion of his first return, when he was received with rapturous
demonstrations and more than regal homage. His displacement by the
Odjeas, Ovandos and Bobadilas; his last return in chains, and the story
of his death in poverty and neglect. :

One distinguishing feature of this edition is, that many of the illus-~
trations arecopies from DeBry’s and Herrara’s histories, which were com-
piled by authority of the King of Spain, showing the Indians, in their

ife and customs, as they appeared to the early discoverers.

LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED
STATES. Compiled from authoritative sources. With
portraits of the Presidents; and also of the unsuccessful
candidates for the office; as well as the ablest of the
Cabinet officers.

This book should be in every home andschool library. It tells, in an
impartial way, the story of the political history of the United States, from
the first Constitutional convention till the last Presidential nominations.

it is just the book for intelligent boys, and it will help to make them
{ntelligent and patriotic citizens,

GULLIVER’S TRAVELS INTO SOME REMOTE
REGIONS OF THE WORLD. With 50 iltustra-

tions. c

In description, even of the most common-place things, his power is
often perfectly marvellous. Macaulay says of Swirt: “ Under a plain
garb and ungainly deportment were concealed some of the choicest gifts
that ever have been bestowed on any of the children of men,—rare
powers of observation, brilliant art, grotesque invention, humor of the
most austere flavor, yet exquisitely delicious, eloquence singularly pure,
manly, and perspicuous.’’

MOTHER GOOSE’S RHYMES, JINGLES, AND
FAIRY TALES. With 300 illustrations.

‘Tn this edition an excellent choice has been made from the standard
fiction of the little ones. The abundant pictures are well drawn and
graceful, the effect frequently striking and always decorative.”’—Critic.
. . - “Only to see the book is te wish to give it to every child one
knows.”’— Queen.

THE FABLES OF JESOP, Compiled from the best
accepted sources. With 62 illustrations.

The fables of Afsor are among the very earliest compesitions of this

kind, and probably have never been surpassed for point and brevity, aa
well as for we practical good sense they display. In their grotesque
grace, in their quaint humor, in their trust in the simpler virtues,
in their insight into the cruder vices, in their innocence of the fact
of sex, Asop’s FABLES are as little children—and for that reason
they will ever find a home in the heaven of little children’s souls.

THE STORY OF ADVENTURE IN THE FROZEN
SEAS. With 70 illustrations. Compiled from authors

ized sources. re

We have here brought together the records of the attempts to reac.
the North Pole. Our object pete to recall the stories of the early voy-
agers, and to narrate the recent efforts of gallant adventurers of various
nationalities to cross the ‘‘ unknown and inaccessible’”’ threshold ; and
. to show how much can be accomplished by indomitable pluck and steady
perseverance. Portraits and numerous illustrations help the narration.

The North Polar region is the largest, as it is the most important field
of discovery that remains for this generation to work out. As Frobisher
declared nearly three hundred and fifty years ago, it is ‘‘the only great
thing left undone in the world.’’? Every year diminishes the extent of
the unknown ; and thereisabare likelihy d that Dr. Nansen has already
explored the hitherto unexplorable.

THE STORY OF EXPLORATION AND DIS-
COVERY IN AFRICA. With 80 illustrations,

aecords the experiences of adventures, privations, sufferings, trials,
dangers, and discoveries in developing the “ Dark Continent,’’ from the
early days of Bruce and Mungo Park down to Livingstone 2"d Stanley
and the heroes of our own times.

The reader becomes carried away by conflicting emotions of wonder
and sympathy, and feels compelled to pursue the story, whica he cannot
lay down. No present can be more acgeptable than such a volume as this,
where courage, intrepidity, resource and devotion are so pleasantly
mingled. It is very fully illustrated with pictures worthy of the book.

THE SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON, or the Adven-
tures of a Shipwrecked Family on an Uninhab-

ited Island. With 50 illustrations.

A remarkable tale of adventure that will interest the boys and girls,
The father of the family tells the tale and the vicissitudes through
which he and his wife and children pass, the wonderful discoveries they
make, and the dangers they encounter. It is a standard work of adven-
turs that has the favor of all who have read it.

THE ARABIAN NIGHTS ENTERTAINMENTS.
With 50 illustrations. Contains the most favorably

known of the stories. i

The text is somewhat abridgea and edited for the young. It formsun

excellent introduction to those immortal tales which have helped so
long to keep the weary world young,
ILLUSTRATED NATURAL HISTORY. By the Rev
J.G. Woop. With 80 illustrations.

‘Woon’s NaTurAL History needs nocommenéation. Its author has
done morethan any other writer to popularize the study. His work is
known and admired over all the civilized world. The sales of his works
ic England and America have been enormous. The illustrations in this
edition are entirel= new, striking, and life-like.

A CHILD’S HISTORY OF ENGLAND. By Cuarues
Dickens. With 50 illustrations.

Dickens grew tired of listening to his children memorizing the old-
fashioned twaddle that went under the name of English history. He
thereupon wrote a book, in his own peculiarly happy style, primarily
for the educational advantage of his own children, but was prevailed upon
to publish the work, and make its use general. Its success was instante
neous and abiding.

BLACK BEAUTY: The Autobiography of a
Horse. By Anna SEWELL. With 50 illustrations.

This NEW ILLUSTRATED EDITION is sure to command attention. Wher-
ever children are, whether boys or girls, there this Autobiography should.
be, Itinculcates habits of kindness to all members of the animal crea-
tion. The literary merit of the book is excellent.

Other volumes in preparation.



HENRY ALTEMUS, Publisher, Philadelphia,