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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/4109.txt b/4109.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..05e3b2d --- /dev/null +++ b/4109.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2443 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Christopher Columbus, Volume 2, by Filson Young + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Christopher Columbus, Volume 2 + And The New World Of His Discovery, A Narrative + +Author: Filson Young + +Release Date: December 5, 2004 [EBook #4109] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, VOLUME 2 *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + + CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS + + AND THE NEW WORLD OF HIS DISCOVERY + + A NARRATIVE BY FILSON YOUNG + + + Volume 2 + + + +CHAPTER IX + +WANDERINGS WITH AN IDEA + +The man to whom Columbus proposed to address his request for means with +which to make a voyage of discovery was no less a person than the new +King of Portugal. Columbus was never a man of petty or small ideas; if +he were going to do a thing at all, he went about it in a large and +comprehensive way; and all his life he had a way of going to the +fountainhead, and of making flights and leaps where other men would only +climb or walk, that had much to do with his ultimate success. King John, +moreover, had shown himself thoroughly sympathetic to the spirit of +discovery; Columbus, as we have seen, had already been employed in a +trusted capacity in one of the royal expeditions; and he rightly thought +that, since he had to ask the help of some one in his enterprise, he +might as well try to enlist the Crown itself in the service of his great +Idea. He was not prepared, however, to go directly to the King and ask +for ships; his proposal would have to be put in a way that would appeal +to the royal ambition, and would also satisfy the King that there was +really a destination in view for the expedition. In other words Columbus +had to propose to go somewhere; it would not do to say that he was going +west into the Atlantic Ocean to look about him. He therefore devoted all +his energies to putting his proposal on what is called a business +footing, and expressing his vague, sublime Idea in common and practical +terms. + +The people who probably helped him most in this were his brother +Bartholomew and Martin Behaim, the great authority on scientific +navigation, who had been living in Lisbon for some time and with whom +Columbus was acquainted. Behaim, who was at this time about forty eight +years of age, was born at Nuremberg, and was a pupil of Regiomontanus, +the great German astronomer. A very interesting man, this, if we could +decipher his features and character; no mere star-gazing visionary, but a +man of the world, whose scientific lore was combined with a wide and +liberal experience of life. He was not only learned in cosmography and +astronomy, but he had a genius for mechanics and made beautiful +instruments; he was a merchant also, and combined a little business with +his scientific travels. He had been employed at Lisbon in adapting the +astrolabe of Regiomontanus for the use of sailors at sea; and in these +labours he was assisted by two people who were destined to have a weighty +influence on the career of Columbus--Doctors Rodrigo and Joseph, +physicians or advisers to the King, and men of great academic reputation. +There was nothing known about cosmography or astronomy that Behaim did +not know; and he had just come back from an expedition on which he had +been despatched, with Rodrigo and Joseph, to take the altitude of the sun +in Guinea. + +Columbus was not the man to neglect his opportunities, and there can be +no doubt that as soon as his purpose had established itself in his mind +he made use of every opportunity that presented itself for improving his +meagre scientific knowledge, in order that his proposal might be set +forth in a plausible form. In other words, he got up the subject. The +whole of his geographical reading with regard to the Indies up to this +time had been in the travels of Marco Polo; the others--whose works he +quoted from so freely in later years were then known to him only by name, +if at all. Behaim, however, could tell him a good deal about the +supposed circumference of the earth, the extent of the Asiatic continent, +and so on. Every new fact that Columbus heard he seized and pressed into +the service of his Idea; where there was a choice of facts, or a +difference of opinion between scientists, he chose the facts that were +most convenient, and the opinions that fitted best with his own beliefs. +The very word "Indies" was synonymous with unbounded wealth; there +certainly would be riches to tempt the King with; and Columbus, being a +religious man, hit also on the happy idea of setting forth the spiritual +glory of carrying the light of faith across the Sea of Darkness, and +making of the heathen a heritage for the Christian Church. So that, what +with one thing and another, he soon had his proposals formally arranged. + +Imagine him, then, actually at Court, and having an audience of the King, +who could scarcely believe his ears. Here was a man, of whom he knew +nothing but that his conduct of a caravel had been well spoken of in the +recent expedition to Guinea, actually proposing to sail out west into the +Atlantic and to cross the unknown part of the world. Certainly his +proposals seemed plausible, but still--. The earth was round, said +Columbus, and therefore there was a way from East to West and from West +to East. The prophet Esdras, a scientific authority that even His +Majesty would hardly venture to doubt, had laid it down that only +one-seventh of the earth was covered by waters. From this fact Columbus +deduced that the maritime space extending westward between the shores of +Europe and eastern coast of Asia could not be large; and by sailing +westward he proposed to reach certain lands of which he claimed to have +knowledge. The sailors' tales, the logs of driftwood, the dead bodies, +were all brought into the proposals; in short, if His Majesty would grant +some ships, and consent to making Columbus Admiral over all the islands +that he might discover, with full viceregal state, authority, and profit, +he would go and discover them. + +There are two different accounts of what the King said when this proposal +was made to him. According to some authorities, John was impressed by +Columbus's proposals, and inclined to provide him with the necessary +ships, but he could not assent to all the titles and rewards which +Columbus demanded as a price for his services. Barros, the Portuguese +historian, on the other hand, represents that the whole idea was too +fantastic to be seriously entertained by the King for a moment, and that +although he at once made up his mind to refuse the request he preferred +to delegate his refusal to a commission. Whatever may be the truth as to +King John's opinions, the commission was certainly appointed, and +consisted of three persons, to wit: Master Rodrigo, Master Joseph the +Jew, and the Right Reverend Cazadilla, Bishop of Ceuta. + + +Before these three learned men must Columbus now appear, a little less +happy in his mind, and wishing that he knew more Latin. Master Rodrigo, +Master Joseph the Jew, the Right Reverend Cazadilla: three pairs of cold +eyes turned rather haughtily on the Genoese adventurer; three brains much +steeped in learning, directed in judgment on the Idea of a man with no +learning at all. The Right Reverend Cazadilla, being the King's +confessor, and a bishop into the bargain, could speak on that matter of +converting the heathen; and he was of opinion that it could not be done. +Joseph the Jew, having made voyages, and worked with Behaim at the +astrolabe, was surely an authority on navigation; and he was of opinion +that it could not be done. Rodrigo, being also a very learned man, had +read many books which Columbus had not read; and he was of opinion that +it could not be done. Three learned opinions against one Idea; the Idea +is bound to go. They would no doubt question Columbus on the scientific +aspect of the matter, and would soon discover his grievous lack of +academic knowledge. They would quote fluently passages from writers that +he had not heard of; if he had not heard of them, they seemed to imply, +no wonder he made such foolish proposals. Poor Columbus stands there +puzzled, dissatisfied, tongue-tied. He cannot answer these wiseacres in +their own learned lingo; what they say, or what they quote, may be true +or it may not; but it has nothing to do with his Idea. If he opens his +mouth to justify himself, they refute him with arguments that he does not +understand; there is a wall between them. More than a wall; there is a +world between them! It is his 'credo' against their 'ignoro'; it is, his +'expecto' against their 'non video'. Yet in his 'credo' there lies a +power of which they do not dream; and it rings out in a trumpet note +across the centuries, saluting the life force that opposes its +irresistible "I will" to the feeble "Thou canst not" of the worldly-wise. +Thus, in about the year 1483, did three learned men sit in judgment upon +our ignorant Christopher. Three learned men: Doctors Rodrigo, Joseph the +Jew, and the Right Reverend Cazadilla, Bishop of Ceuta; three risen, +stuffed to the eyes and ears with learning; stuffed so full indeed that +eyes and ears are closed with it. And three men, it would appear, wholly +destitute of mother-wit. + + +After all his preparations this rebuff must have been a serious blow to +Columbus. It was not his only trouble, moreover. During the last year +he had been earning nothing; he was already in imagination the Admiral of +the Ocean Seas; and in the anticipation of the much higher duties to +which he hoped to be devoted it is not likely that he would continue at +his humble task of making maps and charts. The result was that he got +into debt, and it was absolutely necessary that something should be done. +But a darker trouble had also almost certainly come to him about this +time. Neither the day nor the year of Philippa's death is known; +but it is likely that it occurred soon after Columbus's failure at the +Portuguese Court, and immediately before his departure into Spain. That +anonymous life, fulfilling itself so obscurely in companionship and +motherhood, as softly as it floated upon the page of history, as softly +fades from it again. Those kind eyes, that encouraging voice, that +helping hand and friendly human soul are with him no longer; and after +the interval of peace and restful growth that they afforded Christopher +must strike his tent and go forth upon another stage of his pilgrimage +with a heavier and sterner heart. + +Two things are left to him: his son Diego, now an articulate little +creature with character and personality of his own, and with strange, +heart-breaking reminiscences of his mother in voice and countenance and +manner--that is one possession; the other is his Idea. Two things alive +and satisfactory, amid the ruin and loss of other possessions; two +reasons for living and prevailing. And these two possessions Columbus +took with him when he set out for Spain in the year 1485. + +His first care was to take little Diego to the town of Huelva, where +there lived a sister of Philippa's who had married a Spaniard named +Muliartes. This done, he was able to devote himself solely to the +furtherance of his Idea. For this purpose he went to Seville, where he +attached himself for a little while to a group of his countrymen who were +settled there, among them Antonio and Alessandro Geraldini, and made such +momentary living as was possible to him by his old trade. But the Idea +would not sleep. He talked of nothing else; and as men do who talk of an +idea that possesses them wholly, and springs from the inner light of +faith, he interested and impressed many of his hearers. Some of them +suggested one thing, some another; but every one was agreed that it would +be a good thing if he could enlist the services of the great Count +(afterwards Duke) of Medini Celi, who had a palace at Rota, near Cadiz. + +This nobleman was one of the most famous of the grandees of Spain, and +lived in mighty state upon his territory along the sea-shore, serving the +Crown in its wars and expeditions with the power and dignity of an ally +rather than of a subject. His domestic establishment was on a princely +scale, filled with chamberlains, gentlemen-at-arms, knights, retainers, +and all the panoply of social dignity; and there was also place in his +household for persons of merit and in need of protection. To this great +man came Columbus with his Idea. It attracted the Count, who was a judge +of men and perhaps of ideas also; and Columbus, finding some hope at last +in his attitude, accepted the hospitality offered to him, and remained at +Rota through the winter of 1485-86. He had not been very hopeful when he +arrived there, and had told the Count that he had thought of going to the +King of France and asking for help from him; but the Count, who found +something respectable and worthy of consideration in the Idea of a man +who thought nothing of a journey in its service from one country to +another and one sovereign to another, detained him, and played with the +Idea himself. Three or four caravels were nothing to the Count of Medina +Eeli; but on the other hand the man was a grandee and a diplomat, with a +nice sense of etiquette and of what was due to a reigning house. Either +there was nothing in this Idea, in which case his caravels would be +employed to no purpose, or there was so much in it that it was an +undertaking, not merely for the Count of Medina Celi, but for the Crown +of Castile. Lands across the ocean, and untold gold and riches of the +Indies, suggested complications with foreign Powers, and transactions +with the Pope himself, that would probably be a little too much even for +the good Count; therefore with a curious mixture of far-sighted +generosity and shrewd security he wrote to Queen Isabella, recommending +Columbus to her, and asking her to consider his Idea; asking her also, +in case anything should come of it, to remember him (the Count), and to +let him have a finger in the pie. Thus, with much literary circumstance +and elaboration of politeness, the Count of Medina Celi to Queen +Isabella. + +Follows an interval of suspense, the beginning of a long discipline of +suspense to which Columbus was to be subjected; and presently comes a +favourable reply from the Queen, commanding that Columbus should be sent +to her. Early in 1486 he set out for Cordova, where the Court was then +established, bearing another letter from the Count in which his own +private requests were repeated, and perhaps a little emphasised. +Columbus was lodged in the house of Alonso de Quintanilla, Treasurer to +the Crown of Castile, there to await an audience with Queen Isabella. + + +While he is waiting, and getting accustomed to his new surroundings, let +us consider these two monarchs in whose presence he is soon to appear, +and upon whose decision hangs some part of the world's destiny. Isabella +first; for in that strange duet of government it is her womanly soprano +that rings most clearly down the corridors of Time. We discern in her a +very busy woman, living a difficult life with much tact and judgment, and +exercising to some purpose that amiable taste for "doing good" that marks +the virtuous lady of station in every age. This, however, was a woman +who took risks with her eyes open, and steered herself cleverly in +perilous situations, and guided others with a firm hand also, and in +other ways made good her claim to be a ruler. The consent and the will +of her people were her great strength; by them she dethroned her niece +and ascended the throne of Castile. She had the misfortune to be at +variance with her husband in almost every matter of policy dear to his +heart; she opposed the expulsion of the Jews and the establishment of the +Inquisition; but when she failed to get her way, she was still able to +preserve her affectionate relations with her husband without disagreement +and with happiness. If she had a fault it was the common one of being +too much under the influence of her confessors; but it was a fault that +was rarely allowed to disturb the balance of her judgment. She liked +clever people also; surrounded herself with men of letters and of +science, fostered all learned institutions, and delighted in the details +of civil administration. A very dignified and graceful figure, that +could equally adorn a Court drawing-room or a field of battle; for she +actually went into the field, and wore armour as becomingly as silk and +ermine. Firm, constant, clever, alert, a little given to fussiness +perhaps, but sympathetic and charming, with some claims to genius and +some approach to grandeur of soul: so much we may say truly of her inner +self. Outwardly she was a woman well formed, of medium height, a very +dignified and graceful carriage, eyes of a clear summer blue, and the red +and gold of autumn in her hair--these last inherited from her English +grandmother. + +Ferdinand of Aragon appears not quite so favourably in our pages, for he +never thought well of Columbus or of his proposals; and when he finally +consented to the expedition he did so with only half a heart, and against +his judgment. He was an extremely enterprising, extremely subtle, +extremely courageous, and according to our modern notions, an extremely +dishonest man; that is to say, his standards of honour were not those +which we can accept nowadays. He thought nothing of going back on a +promise, provided he got a priestly dispensation to do so; he juggled +with his cabinets, and stopped at nothing in order to get his way; he had +a craving ambition, and was lacking in magnanimity; he loved dominion, +and cared very little for glory. A very capable man; so capable that in +spite of his defects he was regarded by his subjects as wise and prudent; +so capable that he used his weaknesses of character to strengthen and +further the purposes of his reign. A very cold man also, quick and sure +in his judgments, of wide understanding and grasp of affairs; simple and +austere in dress and diet, as austerity was counted in that period of +splendour; extremely industrious, and close in his observations and +judgments of men. To the bodily eye he appeared as a man of middle size, +sturdy and athletic, face burned a brick red with exposure to the sun and +open air; hair and eyebrows of a bright chestnut; a well-formed and not +unkindly mouth; a voice sharp and unmelodious, issuing in quick fluent +speech. This was the man that earned from the Pope, for himself and his +successors, the title of "Most Catholic Majesty." + + +The Queen was very busy indeed with military preparations; but in the +midst of her interviews with nobles and officers, contractors and state +officials, she snatched a moment to receive the person Christopher +Columbus. With that extreme mental agility which is characteristic of +busy sovereigns all the force of this clever woman's mind was turned for +a moment on Christopher, whose Idea had by this time invested him with a +dignity which no amount of regal state could abash. There was very +little time. The Queen heard what Columbus had to say, cutting him +short, it is likely, with kindly tact, and suppressing his tendency to +launch out into long-winded speeches. What she saw she liked; and, being +too busy to give to this proposal the attention that it obviously +merited, she told Columbus that the matter would be fully gone into and +that in the meantime he must regard himself as the guest of the Court. +And so, in the countenance of a smile and a promise, Columbus bows +himself out. For the present he must wait a little and his hot heart +must contain itself while other affairs, looming infinitely larger than +his Idea on the royal horizon, receive the attention of the Court. + +It was not the happiest moment, indeed, in which to talk of ships and +charts, and lonely sea-roads, and faraway undiscovered shores. Things at +home were very real and lively in those spring days at Cordova. The war +against the Moors had reached a critical stage; King Ferdinand was away +laying siege to the city of Loxa, and though the Queen was at Cordova she +was entirely occupied with the business of collecting and forwarding +troops and supplies to his aid. The streets were full of soldiers; +nobles and grandees from all over the country were arriving daily with +their retinues; glitter and splendour, and the pomp of warlike +preparation, filled the city. Early in June the Queen herself went to +the front and joined her husband in the siege of Moclin; and when this +was victoriously ended, and they had returned in triumph to Cordova, they +had to set out again for Gallicia to suppress a rebellion there. When +that was over they did not come back to Cordova at all, but repaired at +once to Salamanca to spend the winter there. + +At the house of Alonso de Quintanilla, however, Columbus was not +altogether wasting his time. He met there some of the great persons of +the Court, among them the celebrated Pedro Gonzalez de Mendoza, +Archbishop of Toledo and Grand Cardinal of Spain. This was far too great +a man to be at this time anything like a friend of Columbus; but Columbus +had been presented to him; the Cardinal would know his name, and what his +business was; and that is always a step towards consideration. Cabrero, +the royal Chamberlain, was also often a fellow-guest at the Treasurer's +table; and with him Columbus contracted something like a friendship. +Every one who met him liked him; his dignity, his simplicity of thought +and manner, his experience of the sea, and his calm certainty and +conviction about the stupendous thing which he proposed to do, could +not fail to attract the liking and admiration of those with whom he came +in contact. In the meantime a committee appointed by the Queen sat upon +his proposals. The committee met under the presidentship of Hernando de +Talavera, the prior of the monastery of Santa Maria del Prado, near +Valladolid, a pious ecclesiastic, who had the rare quality of honesty, +and who was therefore a favourite with Queen Isabella; she afterwards +created him Archbishop of Granada. He was not, however, poor honest +soul! quite the man to grasp and grapple with this wild scheme for a +voyage across the ocean. Once more Columbus, as in Portugal, set forth +his views with eloquence and conviction; and once more, at the tribunal +of learning, his unlearned proposals were examined and condemned. Not +only was Columbus's Idea regarded as scientifically impossible, but it +was also held to come perilously near to heresy, in its assumption of a +state of affairs that was clearly at variance with the writings of the +Fathers and the sacred Scriptures themselves. + +This new disappointment, bitter though it was, did not find Columbus in +such friendless and unhappy circumstances as those in which he left +Portugal. He had important friends now, who were willing and anxious to +help him, and among them was one to whom he turned, in his profound +depression, for religious and friendly consolation. This was Diego de +DEA, prior of the Dominican convent of San Estevan at Salamanca, who was +also professor of theology in the university there and tutor to the young +Prince Juan. Of all those who came in contact with Columbus at this time +this man seems to have understood him best, and to have realised where +his difficulty lay. Like many others who are consumed with a burning +idea Columbus was very probably at this time in danger of becoming +possessed with it like a monomaniac; and his new friends saw that if he +were to make any impression upon the conservative learning of the time to +which a decision in such matters was always referred he must have some +opportunity for friendly discussion with learned men who were not +inimical to him, and who were not in the position of judges examining a +man arraigned before them and pleading for benefits. + +When the Court went to Salamanca at the end of 1486, DEA arranged that +Columbus should go there too, and he lodged him in a country farm called +Valcuebo, which belonged to his convent and was equi-distant from it and +the city. Here the good Dominican fathers came and visited him, bringing +with them professors from the university, who discussed patiently with +Columbus his theories and ambitions, and, himself all conscious, +communicated new knowledge to him, and quietly put him right on many a +scientific point. There were professors of cosmography and astronomy in +the university, familiar with the works of Alfraganus and Regiomontanus. +It is likely that it was at this time that Columbus became possessed of +d'Ailly's 'Imago Mundi', which little volume contained a popular resume +of the scientific views of Strabo, Pliny, Ptolemy, and others, and was +from this time forth Columbus's constant companion. + +Here at Valcuebo and later, when winter came, in the great hall of the +Dominican convent at Salamanca, known as the "De Profundis" hall, where +the monks received guests and held discussions, the Idea of Columbus was +ventilated and examined. He heard what friendly sceptics had to say +about it; he saw the kind of argument that he would have to oppose to the +existing scientific and philosophical knowledge on cosmography. There is +no doubt that he learnt a good deal at this time; and more important even +than this, he got his project known and talked about; and he made +powerful friends, who were afterwards to be of great use to him. The +Marquesa de Moya, wife of his friend Cabrera, took a great liking to him; +and as she was one of the oldest and closest friends of the Queen, it is +likely that she spoke many a good word for Columbus in Isabella's ear. + +By the time the Court moved to Cordova early in 1487, Columbus was once +more hopeful of getting a favourable hearing. He followed the Court to +Cordova, where he received a gracious message from the Queen to the +effect that she had not forgotten him, and that as soon as her military +preoccupations permitted it, she would go once more, and more fully, into +his proposals. In the meantime he was attached to the Court, and +received a quarterly payment of 3000 maravedis. It seemed as though the +unfavourable decision of Talavera's committee had been forgotten. + +In the meantime he was to have a change of scene. Isabella followed +Ferdinand to the siege of Malaga, where the Court was established; and as +there were intervals in which other than military business might be +transacted, Columbus was ordered to follow them in case his affairs +should come up for consideration. They did not; but the man himself had +an experience that may have helped to keep his thoughts from brooding too +much on his unfulfilled ambition. Years afterwards, when far away on +lonely seas, amid the squalor of a little ship and the staggering buffets +of a gale, there would surely sometimes leap into his memory a brightly +coloured picture of this scene in the fertile valley of Malaga: the +silken pavilions of the Court, the great encampment of nobility with its +arms and banners extending in a semicircle to the seashore, all +glistening and moving in the bright sunshine. There was added excitement +at this time at an attempt to assassinate Ferdinand and Isabella, a +fanatic Moor having crept up to one of the pavilions and aimed a blow at +two people whom he mistook for the King and Queen. They turned out to be +Don Alvaro de Portugal, who was dangerously wounded, and Columbus's +friend, the Marquesa de Moya, who was unhurt; but it was felt that the +King and Queen had had a narrow escape. The siege was raised on the 18th +of August, and the sovereigns went to spend the winter at Zaragoza; and +Columbus, once more condemned to wait, went back to Cordova. + + +It was here that he contracted his second and, so far as we know, his +last romantic attachment. The long idle days of summer and autumn at +Cordova, empty of all serious occupation, gave nature an opportunity for +indulging her passion for life and continuity. Among Christopher's +friends at Cordova was the family of Arana, friendly hospitable souls, +by some accounts noble and by others not noble, and certainly in somewhat +poor circumstances, who had welcomed him to their house, listened to his +plans with enthusiasm, and formed a life-long friendship with him. Three +members of this family are known to us--two brothers, Diego and Pedro, +both of whom commanded ships in Columbus's expeditions, and a sister +Beatriz. Columbus was now a man of six-and-thirty, while she was little +more than a girl; he was handsome and winning, distinguished by the +daring and importance of his scheme, full of thrilling and romantic talk +of distant lands; a very interesting companion, we may be sure. No +wonder she fell in love with Christopher; no wonder that he, feeling +lonely and depressed by the many postponements of his suit at Court, and +in need of sympathy and encouragement, fell in these blank summer days +into an intimacy that flamed into a brief but happy passion. Why +Columbus never married Beatriz de Arana we cannot be sure, for it is +almost certain that his first wife had died some time before. Perhaps he +feared to involve himself in any new or embarrassing ties; perhaps he +loved unwillingly, and against his reason; perhaps--although the +suggestion is not a happy one--he by this time did not think poor Beatriz +good enough for the Admiral-elect of the Ocean Seas; perhaps (and more +probably) Beatriz was already married and deserted, for she bore the +surname of Enriquez; and in that case, there being no such thing as a +divorce in the Catholic Church, she must either sin or be celibate. But +however that may be, there was an uncanonical alliance between them which +evidently did not in the least scandalise her brothers and which resulted +in the birth of Ferdinand Columbus in the following year. Christopher, +so communicative and discursive upon some of his affairs, is as reticent +about Beatriz as he was about Philippa. Beatriz shares with his +legitimate wife the curious distinction of being spoken of by Columbus to +posterity only in his will, which was executed at Valladolid the day +before he died. In the dry ink and vellum of that ancient legal document +is his only record of these two passions. The reference to Beatriz is as +follows: + + "And I direct him [Diego] to make provision for Beatriz Enriquez, + mother of D. Fernando, my son, that she may be able to live + honestly, being a person to whom I am under very great obligation. + And this shall be done for the satisfaction of my conscience, + because this matter weighs heavily upon my soul. The reason for + which it is not fitting to write here." + +About the condition of Beatriz, temporal and spiritual, there has been +much controversy; but where the facts are all so buried and inaccessible +it is unseemly to agitate a veil which we cannot lift, and behind which +Columbus himself sheltered this incident of his life. "Acquainted with +poverty" is one fragment of fact concerning her that has come down to us; +acquainted also with love and with happiness, it would seem, as many poor +persons undoubtedly are. Enough for us to know that in the city of +Cordova there lived a woman, rich or poor, gentle or humble, married or +not married, who brought for a time love and friendly companionship into +the life of Columbus; that she gave what she had for giving, without +stint or reserve, and that she became the mother of a son who inherited +much of what was best in his father, and but for whom the world would be +in even greater darkness than it is on the subject of Christopher +himself. And so no more of Beatriz Enriquez de Arana, whom "God has in +his keeping"--and has had now these many centuries of Time. + + +Thus passed the summer and autumn of 1487; precious months, precious +years slipping by, and the great purpose as yet unfulfilled and seemingly +no nearer to fulfilment. It is likely that Columbus kept up his +applications to the Court, and received polite and delaying replies. +The next year came, and the Court migrated from Zaragoza to Murcia, from +Murcia to Valladolid, from Valladolid to Medina del Campo. Columbus +attended it in one or other of these places, but without result. In +August Beatriz gave birth to a son, who was christened Ferdinand, and who +lived to be a great comfort to his father, if not to her also. But the +miracle of paternity was not now so new and wonderful as it had been; the +battle of life, with its crosses and difficulties, was thick about him; +and perhaps he looked into this new-comer's small face with conflicting +thoughts, and memories of the long white beach and the crashing surf at +Porto Santo, and regret for things lost--so strangely mingled and +inconsistent are the threads of human thought. At last he decided to +turn his face elsewhere. In September 1488 he went to Lisbon, for what +purpose it is not certain; possibly in connection with the affairs of his +dead wife; and probably also in the expectation of seeing his brother +Bartholomew, to whom we may now turn our attention for a moment. + + +After the failure of Columbus's proposals to the King of Portugal in +1486, and the break-up of his home there, Bartholomew had also left +Lisbon. Bartholomew Diaz, a famous Portuguese navigator, was leaving for +the African coast in August, and Bartholomew Columbus is said to have +joined his small expedition of three caravels. As they neared the +latitude of the Cape which he was trying to make, he ran into a gale +which drove him a long way out of his course, west and south. + +The wind veered round from north-east to north-west, and he did not +strike the land again until May 1487. When he did so his crew insisted +upon his returning, as they declined to go any further south. He +therefore turned to the west, and then made the startling discovery that +in the course of the tempest he had been blown round the Cape, and that +the land he had made was to the eastward of it; and he therefore rounded +it on his way home. He arrived back in Lisbon in December 1488, when +Columbus met his brother again, and was present at the reception of Diaz +by the King of Portugal. They had a great deal to tell each other, these +two brothers; in the two years and a half that had gone since they had +parted a great deal had happened to them; and they both knew a good deal +more about the great question in which they, were interested than they +had known when last they talked. + +It is to this period that I attribute the inception, if not the +execution, of the forgery of the Toscanelli correspondence, if, as I +believe, it was a forgery. Christopher's unpleasant experiences before +learned committees and commissions had convinced him that unless he were +armed with some authoritative and documentary support for his theories +they had little chance of acceptance by the learned. The, Idea was +right; he knew that; but before he could convince the academic mind, he +felt that it must have the imprimatur of a mind whose learning could not +be impugned. Therefore it is not an unfair guess--and it can be nothing +more than a guess--that Christopher and Bartholomew at this point laid +their heads together, and decided that the next time Christopher had to +appear before a commission he would, so to speak, have something "up his +sleeve." It was a risky thing to do, and must in any case be used only +as a very last resource; which would account for the fact that the +Toscanelli correspondence was never used at all, and is not mentioned in +any document known to men written until long after Columbus's death. + +But these summers and winters of suspense are at last drawing to a close, +and we must follow Christopher rapidly through them until the hour of his +triumph. He was back in Spain in the spring of 1489, his travelling +expenses being defrayed out of the royal purse; and a little later he was +once more amid scenes of war at the siege of Baza, and, if report is +true, taking a hand himself, not without distinction. It was there that +he saw the two friars from the convent of the Holy Sepulchre at +Jerusalem, who brought a message from the Grand Soldan of Egypt, +threatening the destruction of the Sepulchre if the Spanish sovereigns +did not desist from the war against Granada; and it was there that in his +simple and pious mind he formed the resolve that if ever his efforts +should be crowned with success, and he himself become rich and powerful, +he would send a crusade for the rescue of the Holy Sepulchre. And it was +there that, on the 22nd of December, he saw Boabdil, the elder of the two +rival Kings of Granada, surrender all his rights and claims to Spain. +Surely now there will be a chance for him? No; there is another +interruption, this time occasioned by the royal preparations for the +marriage of the Princess Isabella to the heir of Portugal. Poor +Columbus, sickened and disappointed by these continual delays, irritated +by a sense of the waste of his precious time, follows the Court about +from one place to another, raising a smile here and a scoff there, and +pointed at by children in the street. There, is nothing so ludicrous as +an Idea to those who do not share it. + +Another summer, another winter, lost out of a life made up of a limited +number of summers and winters; a few more winters and summers, thinks +Christopher, and I shall be in a world where Ideas are not needed, and +where there is nothing left to discover! Something had to be done. In +the beginning of 1491 there was only one thing spoken of at Court--the +preparations for the siege of Granada, which did not interest Columbus at +all. The camp of King Ferdinand was situated at Santa Fe, a few miles to +the westward of Granada, and Columbus came here late in the year, +determined to get a final answer one way or the other to his question. +He made his application, and the busy monarchs once more adopted their +usual polite tactics. They appointed a junta, which was presided over by +no less a person than the Cardinal of Spain, Gonzales de Mendoza: Once +more the weary business was gone through, but Columbus must have had some +hopes of success, since he did not produce his forged Toscanelli +correspondence. It was no scruple of conscience that held him back, we +may be sure; the crafty Genoese knew nothing about such scruples in the +attainment of a great object; he would not have hesitated to adopt any +means to secure an end which he felt to be so desirable. So it is +probable that either he was not quite sure of his ground and his courage +failed him, or that he had hopes, owing to his friendship with so many of +the members of the junta, that a favourable decision would at last be +arrived at. In this he was mistaken. The Spanish prelates again quoted +the Fathers of the Church, and disposed of his proposals simply on the +ground that they were heretical. Much talk, and much wagging of learned +heads; and still no mother-wit or gleam of light on this obscurity of +learning. The junta decided against the proposals, and reported its +decision to the King and Queen. The monarchs, true to their somewhat +hedging methods when there was anything to be gained by hedging, informed +Columbus that at present they were too much occupied with the war to +grant his requests; but that, when the preoccupations and expenses of the +campaign were a thing of the past, they might again turn their attention +to his very interesting suggestion. + +It was at this point that the patience of Columbus broke down. Too many +promises had been made to him, and hope had been held out to him too +often for him to believe any more in it. Spain, he decided, was useless; +he would try France; at least he would be no worse off there. But he had +first of all to settle his affairs as well as possible. Diego, now a +growing boy nearly eleven years old, had been staying with Beatriz at +Cordova, and going to school there; Christopher would take him back to +his aunt's at Huelva before he went away. He set out with a heavy heart, +but with purpose and determination unimpaired. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +OUR LADY OF LA RABIDA + +It is a long road from Santa Fe to Huelva, a long journey to make on +foot, and the company of a sad heart and a little talking boy, prone to +sudden weariness and the asking of innumerable difficult questions, would +not make it very much shorter. Every step that Christopher took carried +him farther away from the glittering scene where his hopes had once been +so bright, and were now fallen to the dust; and every step brought him +nearer that unknown destiny as to which he was in great darkness of mind, +and certain only that there was some small next thing constantly to be +done: the putting down of one foot after another, the request for food +and lodging at the end of each short day's march, the setting out again +in the morning. That walk from Santa Fe, so real and painful and +wearisome and long a thing to Christopher and Diego, is utterly blank and +obliterated for us. What he thought and felt and suffered are things +quite dead; what he did-namely, to go and do the immediate thing that it +seemed possible and right for him to do--is a living fact to-day, for it +brought him, as all brave and honest doing will, a little nearer to his +destiny, a little nearer to the truthful realisation of what was in him. + +At about a day's journey from Huelva, where the general slope of the land +begins to fall towards the sea, two small rivers, the Odiel and the +Tinto, which have hitherto been making music each for itself through the +pleasant valleys and vineyards of Andalusia, join forces, and run with a +deeper stream towards the sea at Palos. The town of Palos lay on the +banks of the river; a little to the south of it, and on the brow of a +rocky promontory dark with pine trees, there stood the convent of Our +Lady of La Rabida. Stood, on this November evening in the year 1491; +had stood in some form or other, and used for varying purposes, for many +years and centuries before that, even to the time of the Romans; and +still stands, a silent and neglected place, yet to be visited and seen by +such as are curious. To the door of this place comes Christopher as +darkness falls, urged thereto by the plight of Diego, who is tired and +hungry. Christopher rings the bell, and asks the porter for a little +bread and water for the child, and a lodging for them both. There is +some talk at the door; the Franciscan lay brother being given, at all +times in the history of his order, to the pleasant indulgence of +gossiping conversation, when that is lawful; and the presence of a +stranger, who speaks with a foreign accent, being at all times a incident +of interest and even of excitement in the quiet life of a monastery. The +moment is one big with import to the human race; it marks a period in the +history of our man; the scene is worth calling up. Dark night, with sea +breezes moaning in the pine trees, outside; raying light from within +falling on the lay brother leaning in the doorway and on the two figures +standing without: on Christopher, grave, subdued, weary, yet now as +always of pleasant and impressive address, and on the small boy who +stands beside him round-eyed and expectant, his fatigue for the moment +forgotten in curiosity and anticipation. + +While they are talking comes no less a person than the Prior of the +monastery, Friar Juan Perez, bustling round, good-natured busybody that +he is, to see what is all this talk at the door. The Prior, as is the +habit of monks, begins by asking questions. What is the stranger's name? +Where does he come from? Where is he going to? What is his business? +Is the little boy his son? He has actually come from Santa Fe? The +Prior, loving talk after the manner of his kind, sees in this grave and +smooth-spoken stranger rich possibilities of talk; possibilities that +cannot possibly be exhausted to-night, it being now hard on the hour of +Compline; the stranger must come in and rest for tonight at least, and +possibly for several nights. There is much bustle and preparation; the +travellers are welcomed with monkish hospitality; Christopher, we may be +sure, goes and hears the convent singing Compline, and offers up devout +prayers for a quiet night and for safe conduct through this vale of +tears; and goes thankfully to bed with the plainsong echoing in his ears, +and some stoic sense that all days, however hard, have an evening, and +all journeys an end. + +Next morning the talk begins in earnest, and Christopher, never a very +reserved man, finds in the friendly curiosity of the monks abundant +encouragement to talk; and before very long he is in full swing with his +oft-told story. The Prior is delighted with it; he has not heard +anything so interesting for a long time. Moreover, he has not always +been in a convent; he was not so long ago confessor to Queen Isabella +herself, and has much to communicate and ask concerning that lady. +Columbus's proposal does not strike him as being unreasonable at all; +but he has a friend in Palos, a very learned man indeed, Doctor Garcia +Hernandez, who often comes and has a talk with him; he knows all about +astronomy and cosmography; the Prior will send for him. And meanwhile +there must be no word of Columbus's departure for a few days at any rate. + +Presently Doctor Garcia Hernandez arrives, and the whole story is gone +over again. They go at it hammer and tongs, arguments and +counter-arguments, reasons for and against, encouragements, and +objections. The result is that Doctor Garcia Hernandez, whose learning +seems not yet quite to have blinded or deafened him, thinks well of the +scheme; thinks so well of it that he protests it will be a thousand +pities if the chance of carrying it out is lost to Spain. The worthy +Prior, who has been somewhat out of it while the talk about degrees and +latitudes has been going on, here strikes in again; he will use his +influence. Perhaps the good man, living up here among the pine trees +and the sea winds, and involved in the monotonous round of Prime, Lauds, +Nones, Vespers, has a regretful thought or two of the time when he moved +in the splendid intricacy of Court life; at any rate he is not sorry to +have an opportunity of recalling himself to the attention of Her +Majesty, for the spiritual safety of whose soul he was once responsible; +perhaps, being (in spite of his Nones and Vespers) a human soul, he is +glad of an opportunity of opposing the counsels of his successor, +Talavera. In a word, he will use his Influence. Then follow much +drafting of letters, and laying of heads together, and clatter of +monkish tongues; the upshot of which is that a letter is written in +which Perez urges his daughter in the Lord in the strongest possible +terms not to let slip so glorious an opportunity, not only of fame and +increment to her kingdom, but of service to the Church and the kingdom +of Heaven itself. He assures her that Columbus is indeed about to +depart from the country, but that he (Perez) will detain him at La +Rabida until he has an answer from the Queen. + +A messenger to carry the letter was found in the person of Sebastian +Rodriguez, a pilot of the port, who immediately set off to Santa Fe. +It is not likely that Columbus, after so many rebuffs, was very hopeful; +but in the meantime, here he was amid the pious surroundings in which the +religious part of him delighted, and in a haven of rest after all his +turmoils and trials. He could look out to sea over the flecked waters of +that Atlantic whose secrets he longed to discover; or he could look down +into the busy little port of Palos, and watch the ships sailing in and +out across the bar of Saltes. He could let his soul, much battered and +torn of late by trials and disappointments, rest for a time on the rock +of religion; he could snuff the incense in the chapel to his heart's +content, and mingle his rough top-gallant voice with the harsh croak of +the monks in the daily cycle of prayer and praise. He could walk with +Diego through the sandy roads beneath the pine trees, or through the +fields and vineyards below; and above all he could talk to the company +that good Perez invited to meet him--among them merchants and sailors +from Palos, of whom the chief was Martin Alonso Pinzon, a wealthy +landowner and navigator, whose family lived then at Palos, owning the +vineyards round about, and whose descendants live there to this day. +Pinzon was a listener after Columbus's own heart; he not only believed in +his project, but offered to assist it with money, and even to accompany +the expedition himself. Altogether a happy and peaceful time, in which +hopes revived, and the inner light that, although it had now and then +flickered, had never gone out, burned up again in a bright and steady +flame. + +At the end of a fortnight, and much sooner than had been expected, the +worthy pilot returned with a letter from the Queen. Eager hands seized +it and opened it; delight beamed from the eyes of the good Prior. The +Queen was most cordial to him, thanked him for his intervention, was +ready to listen to him and even to be convinced by him; and in the +meantime commanded his immediate appearance at the Court, asking that +Columbus would be so good as to wait at La Rabida until he should hear +further from her. Then followed such a fussing and fuming, such a +running hither and thither, and giving and taking of instructions and +clatter of tongues as even the convent of La Rabida had probably never +known. Nothing will serve the good old busybody, although it is now near +midnight, but that he must depart at once. He will not wait for +daylight; he will not, the good honest soul! wait at all. He must be off +at once; he must have this, he must have that; he will take this, he +will leave that behind; or no, he will take that, and leave this behind. +He must have a mule, for his old feet will not bear him fast enough; +ex-confessors of Her Majesty, moreover, do not travel on foot; and after +more fussing and running hither and thither a mule is borrowed from one +Juan Rodriguez Cabezudo of Moguer; and with a God-speed from the group +standing round the lighted doorway, the old monk sets forth into the +night. + +It is a strange thing to consider what unimportant flotsam sometimes +floats visibly upon the stream of history, while the gravest events are +sunk deep beneath its flood. We would give a king's ransom to know +events that must have taken place in any one of twenty years in the life +of Columbus, but there is no sign of them on the surface of the stream, +nor will any fishing bring them to light. Yet here, bobbing up like a +cork, comes the name of Juan Rodriguez Cabezudo of Moguer, doubtless a +good worthy soul, but, since he has been dead these four centuries and +more, of no interest or importance to any human being; yet of whose life +one trivial act, surviving the flood of time which has engulfed all else +that he thought important, falls here to be recorded: that he did, +towards midnight of a day late in December 1491 lend a mule to Friar Juan +Perez. + + +Of that heroic mule journey we have no record; but it brought results +enough to compensate the good Prior for all his aching bones and +rheumatic joints. He was welcomed by the Queen, who had never quite lost +her belief in Columbus, but who had hitherto deferred to the apathy of +Ferdinand and the disapproval--of her learned advisers. Now, however, +the matter was reopened. She, who sometimes listened to priests with +results other than good, heard this worthy priest to good purpose. The +feminine friends of Columbus who remembered him at Court also spoke up +for him, among them the Marquesa de Moya, with whom he had always been a +favourite; and it was decided that his request should be granted and +three vessels equipped for the expedition, "that he might go and make +discoveries and prove true the words he had spoken."--Moreover, the +machinery that had been so hard to move before, turned swiftly now. +Diego Prieto, one of the magistrates of Palos, was sent to Columbus at La +Rabida, bearing 20,000 maravedis with which he was to buy a mule and +decent clothing for himself, and repair immediately to the Court at Santa +Fe. Old Perez was in high feather, and busy with his pen. He wrote to +Doctor Garcia Hernandez, and also to Columbus, in whose letter the +following pleasant passage occurs: + + "Our Lord has listened to the prayers of His servant. The wise and + virtuous Isabella, touched by the grace of Heaven, gave a favourable + hearing to the words of this poor monk. All has turned out well. + Far from despising your project, she has adopted it from this time, + and she has summoned you to Court to propose the means which seem + best to you for the execution of the designs of Providence. My + heart swims in a sea of comfort, and my spirit leaps with joy in the + Lord. Start at once, for the Queen waits for you, and I much more + than she. Commend me to the prayers of my brethren, and of your + little Diego. The grace of God be with you, and may Our Lady of La + Rabida accompany you." + +The news of that day must have come upon Columbus like a burst of +sunshine after rain. I like to think how bright must have seemed to him +the broad view of land and sea, how deeply the solemn words of the last +office which he attended must have sunk into his soul, how great and glad +a thing life must have been to him, and how lightly the miles must have +passed beneath the feet of his mule as he jogged out on the long road to +Santa Fe. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE CONSENT OF SPAIN + +Once more; in the last days of the year 1491, Columbus rode into the +brilliant camp which he had quitted a few weeks before with so heavy a +heart. Things were changed now. Instead of being a suitor, making a +nuisance of himself, and forcing his affairs on the attention of +unwilling officials, he was now an invited and honoured guest; much more +than that, he was in the position of one who believed that he had a great +service to render to the Crown, and who was at last to be permitted to +render it. + +Even now, at the eleventh hour, there was one more brief interruption. +On the 1st of January 1492 the last of the Moorish kings sent in his +surrender to King Ferdinand, whom he invited to come and take possession +of the city of Granada; and on the next day the Spanish army marched into +that city, where, in front of the Alhambra, King Ferdinand received the +keys of the castle and the homage of the Moorish king. The wars of eight +centuries were at an end, and the Christian banner of Spain floated at +last over the whole land. Victory and success were in the air, and the +humble Genoese adventurer was to have his share in them. Negotiations of +a practical nature were now begun; old friends--Talavera, Luis de +Santangel, and the Grand Cardinal himself--were all brought into +consultation with the result that matters soon got to the documentary +stage. Here, however, there was a slight hitch. It was not simply a +matter of granting two, or three ships. The Genoese was making a +bargain, and asking an impossible price. Even the great grandees and +Court officials, accustomed to the glitter and dignity of titles, rubbed +their eyes with astonishment, when they saw what Columbus was demanding. +He who had been suing for privileges was now making conditions. And what +conditions! He must be created Admiral of all the Ocean Seas and of the +new lands, with equal privileges and prerogatives as those appertaining +to the High Admiral of Castile, the supreme naval officer of Spain. +Not content with sea dignities, he was also to be Viceroy and +Governor-General in all islands or mainlands that he might acquire; he +wanted a tenth part of the profits resulting from his discoveries, in +perpetuity; and he must have the permanent right of contributing an +eighth part of the cost of the equipment and have an additional eighth +part of the profits; and all his heirs and descendants for ever were to +have the same privileges. These conditions were on such a scale as no +sovereign could readily approve. Columbus's lack of pedigree, and the +fact also that he was a foreigner, made them seem the more preposterous; +for although he might receive kindness and even friendship from some of +the grand Spaniards with whom he associated, that friendship and +kindness were given condescendingly and with a smile. He was delightful +when he was merely proposing as a mariner to confer additional grandeur +and glory on the Crown; but when it came to demanding titles and +privileges which would make him rank with the highest grandees in, the +land, the matter took on quite a different colour. It was nonsense; it +could not be allowed; and many were the friendly hints that Columbus +doubtless received at this time to relinquish his wild demands and not +to overreach himself. + +But to the surprise and dismay of his friends, who really wished him to +have a chance of distinguishing himself, and were shocked at the +impediments he was now putting in his own way, the man from Genoa stood +firm. What he proposed to do, he said, was worthy of the rewards that he +asked; they were due to the importance and grandeur of his scheme, and so +on. Nor did he fail to point out that the bestowal of them was a matter +altogether contingent on results; if there were no results, there would +be no rewards; if there were results, they would be worthy of the +rewards. This action of Columbus's deserves close study. He had come to +a turning-point in his life. He had been asking, asking, asking, for six +years; he had been put off and refused over and over again; people were +beginning to laugh at him for a madman; and now, when a combination of +lucky chances had brought him to the very door of success, he stood +outside the threshold bargaining for a preposterous price before he would +come in. It seemed like the densest stupidity. What is the explanation +of it? + +The only explanation of it is to be found in the character of Columbus. +We must try to see him as he is in this forty-second year of his life, +bargaining with notaries, bishops, and treasurers; we must try to see +where these forty years have brought him, and what they have made of him. +Remember the little boy that played in the Vico Dritto di Ponticello, +acquainted with poverty, but with a soul in him that could rise beyond it +and acquire something of the dignity of that Genoa, arrogant, splendid +and devout, which surrounded him during his early years. Remember his +long life of obscurity at sea, and the slow kindling of the light of +faith in something beyond the familiar horizons; remember the social +inequality of his marriage, his long struggle with poverty, his long +familiarity with the position of one who asked and did not receive; the +many rebuffs and indignities which his Ligurian pride must have received +at the hands of all those Spanish dignitaries and grandees--remember all +this, and then you will perhaps not wonder so much that Columbus, who was +beginning to believe himself appointed by Heaven to this task of +discovery, felt that he had much to pay himself back for. One must +recognise him frankly for what he was, and for no conventional hero of +romance; a man who would reconcile his conscience with anything, and +would stop at nothing in the furtherance of what he deemed a good object; +and a man at the same time who had a conscience to reconcile, and would, +whenever it was necessary, laboriously and elaborately perform the act of +reconciliation. When he made these huge demands in Granada he was +gambling with his chances; but he was a calculating gambler, just about +as cunning and crafty in the weighing of one chance against another as a +gambler with a conscience can be; and he evidently realised that his own +valuation of the services he proposed to render would not be without its +influence on his sovereign's estimate of them. At any rate he was +justified by the results, for on the 17th of April 1492, after a deal of +talk and bargaining, but apparently without any yielding on Columbus's +part, articles of capitulation were drawn up in which the following +provisions were made:-- + +First, that Columbus and his heirs for ever should have the title and +office of Admiral in all the islands and continents of the ocean that he +or they might discover, with similar honours and prerogatives to those +enjoyed by the High Admiral of Castile. + +Second, that he and his heirs should be Viceroys and Governors-General +over all the said lands and continents, with the right of nominating +three candidates for the governing of each island or province, one of +whom should be appointed by the Crown. + +Third, that he end his heirs should be entitled to one-tenth of all +precious stones, metals, spices, and other merchandises, however +acquired, within his Admiralty, the cost of acquisition being first +deducted. + +Fourth, that he or his lieutenants in their districts, and the High +Admiral of Castile in his district, should be the sole judge in all +disputes arising out of traffic between Spain and the new countries. + +Fifth, that he now, and he and his heirs at all times, should have the +right to contribute the eighth part of the expense of fitting out +expeditions, and receive the eighth part of the profits. + +In addition to these articles there was another document drawn up on the +30th of April, which after an infinite preamble about the nature of the +Holy Trinity, of the Apostle Saint James, and of the Saints of God +generally in their relations to Princes, and with a splendid trailing of +gorgeous Spanish names and titles across the page, confers upon our +hitherto humble Christopher the right to call himself "Don," and finally +raises him, in his own estimation at any rate, to a social level with his +proud Spanish friends. It is probably from this time that he adopted the +Spanish form of his name, Christoval Colon; but in this narrative I shall +retain the more universal form in which it has become familiar to the +English-speaking world. + +He was now upon a Pisgah height, from which in imagination he could look +forth and see his Land of Promise. We also may climb up with him, and +stand beside him as he looks westward. We shall not see so clearly as he +sees, for we have not his inner light; and it is probable that even he +does not see the road at all, but only the goal, a single point of light +shining across a gulf of darkness. But from Pisgah there is a view +backward as well as forward, and, we may look back for a moment on this +last period of Christopher's life in Spain, inwardly to him so full of +trouble and difficulty and disappointment, outwardly so brave and +glittering, musical with high-sounding names and the clash of arms; gay +with sun and shine and colour. The brilliant Court moving from camp to +camp with its gorgeous retinues and silken pavilions and uniforms and +dresses and armours; the excitement of war, the intrigues of the +antechamber--these are the bright fabric of the latter years; and against +it, as against a background, stand out the beautiful names of the Spanish +associates of Columbus at this time--Medina Celi, Alonso de Quintanilla, +Cabrero, Arana, DEA, Hernando de Talavera, Gonzales de Mendoza, Alonso de +Cardenas, Perez, Hernandez, Luis de Santangel, and Rodriguez de +Maldonado--names that now, in his hour of triumph, are like banners +streaming in the wind against a summer sky. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE PREPARATIONS AT PALOS + +The Palos that witnessed the fitting out of the ships of Columbus exists +no longer. The soul is gone from it; the trade that in those days made +it great and busy has floated away from it into other channels; and it +has dwindled and shrunk, until to-day it consists of nothing but a double +street of poor white houses, such almost as you may see in any sea-coast +village in Ireland. The slow salt tides of the Atlantic come flooding in +over the Manto bank, across the bar of Saltes, and, dividing at the +tongue of land that separates the two rivers, creep up the mud banks of +the Tinto and the Odiel until they lie deep beside the wharves of Huelva +and Palos; but although Huelva still has a trade the tides bring nothing +to Palos, and take nothing away with them again. From La Rabida now you +can no longer see, as Columbus saw, fleets of caravels lying-to and +standing off and on outside the bar waiting for the flood tide; only a +few poor boats fishing for tunny in the empty sunny waters, or the smoke +of a steamer standing on her course for the Guadalquiver or Cadiz. + +But in those spring days of 1492 there was a great stir and bustle of +preparation in Palos. As soon as the legal documents had been signed +Columbus returned there and, taking up his quarters at La Rabida, set +about fitting out his expedition. The reason Palos was chosen was an +economical one. The port, for some misdemeanour, had lately been +condemned to provide two caravels for the service of the Crown for a +period of twelve months; and in the impoverished state of the royal +exchequer this free service came in very usefully in fitting out the +expedition of discovery. Columbus was quite satisfied, since he had such +good friends at Palos; and he immediately set about choosing the ships. + +This, however, did not prove to be quite such a straightforward business +as might have been expected. The truth is that, whatever a few monks and +physicians may have thought of it, the proposed expedition terrified the +ordinary seafaring population of Palos. It was thought to be the wildest +and maddest scheme that any one had ever heard of. All that was known +about the Atlantic west of the Azores was that it was a sea of darkness, +inhabited by monsters and furrowed by enormous waves, and that it fell +down the slope of the world so steeply that no ship having once gone down +could ever climb up it again. And not only was there reluctance on the +part of mariners to engage themselves for the expedition, but also a +great shyness on the part of ship-owners to provide ships. This +reluctance proved so formidable an impediment that Columbus had to +communicate with the King and Queen; with the result that on the 23rd of +May the population was summoned to the church of Saint George, where the +Notary Public read aloud to them the letter from the sovereigns +commanding the port to furnish ships and men, and an additional order +summoning the town to obey it immediately. An inducement was provided in +the offer of a free pardon to all criminals and persons under sentence +who chose to enlist. + +Still the thing hung fire; and on June 20 a new and peremptory order was +issued by the Crown authorising Columbus to impress the vessels and crew +if necessary. Time was slipping away; and in his difficulty Columbus +turned to Martin Alonso Pinzon, upon whose influence and power in the +town he could count. There were three brothers then in this +family--Martin Alonso, Vincenti Yanez, and Francisco Martin, all pilots +themselves and owners of ships. These three brothers saw some hope of +profit out of the enterprise, and they exerted themselves on +Christopher's behalf so thoroughly that, not only did they afford him +help in the obtaining of ships, men, and supplies, but they all three +decided to go with him. + +There was one more financial question to be settled--a question that +remains for us in considerable obscurity, but was in all probability +partly settled by the aid of these brothers. The total cost of the +expedition, consisting of three ships, wages of the crew, stores and +provisions, was 1,167,542 maravedis, about L950(in 1900). After all +these years of pleading at Court, all the disappointments and deferred +hopes and sacrifices made by Columbus, the smallness of this sum cannot +but strike us with amazement. Many a nobleman that Columbus must have +rubbed shoulders with in his years at Court could have furnished the +whole sum out of his pocket and never missed it; yet Columbus had to wait +years and years before he could get it from the Crown. Still more +amazing, this sum was not all provided by the Crown; 167,000 maravedis +were found by Columbus, and the Crown only contributed one million +maravedis. One can only assume that Columbus's pertinacity in +petitioning the King and Queen to undertake the expedition, when he +could with comparative ease have got the money from some of his noble +acquaintance, was due to three things--his faith and belief in his Idea, +his personal ambition, and his personal greed. He believed in his Idea +so thoroughly that he knew he was going to find something across the +Atlantic. Continents and islands cannot for long remain in the +possession of private persons; they are the currency of crowns; and he +did not want to be left in the lurch if the land he hoped to discover +should be seized or captured by Spain or Portugal. The result of his +discoveries, he was convinced, was going to be far too large a thing to +be retained and controlled by any machinery less powerful than that of a +kingdom; therefore he was unwilling to accept either preliminary +assistance or subsequent rewards from any but the same powerful hand. +Admiralties, moreover, and Governor-Generalships and Viceroyships cannot +be conferred by counts and dukes, however powerful; the very title Don +could only be conferred by one power in Spain; and all the other titles +and dignities that Columbus craved with all his Genoese soul were to be +had from the hands of kings, and not from plutocrats. It was +characteristic of him all his life never to deal with subordinates, but +always to go direct to the head man; and when the whole purpose and +ambition of his life was to be put to the test it was only consistent in +him, since he could not be independent, to go forth under the protection +of the united Crown of Aragon and Castile. Where or how he raised his +share of the cost is not known; it is possible that his old friend the +Duke of Medina Celi came to his help, or that the Pinzon family, who +believed enough in the expedition to risk their lives in it, lent some of +the necessary money. + + +Ever since ships were in danger of going to sea short-handed methods of +recruiting and manning them have been very much the same; and there must +have been some hot work about the harbour of Palos in the summer of 1492. +The place was in a panic. It is highly probable that many of the +volunteers were a ruffianly riff-raff from the prisons, to whom personal +freedom meant nothing but a chance of plunder; and the recruiting office +in Palos must have seen many a picturesque scoundrel coming and taking +the oath and making his mark. The presence of these adventurers, many of +them entirely ignorant of the sea, would not be exactly an encouragement +to the ordinary seaman. It is here very likely that the influence of the +Pinzon family was usefully applied. I call it influence, since that is a +polite term which covers the application of force in varying degrees; +and it was an awkward thing for a Palos sailor to offend the Pinzons, +who owned and controlled so much of the shipping in the port. Little by +little the preparations went on. In the purchasing of provisions and +stores the Pinzons were most helpful to Columbus and, it is not +improbable, to themselves also. They also procured the ships; +altogether, in the whole history of the fitting out of expeditions, +I know nothing since the voyage of the Ark which was so well kept within +one family. Moreover it is interesting to notice, since we know the +names and places of residence of all the members of the expedition, +that the Pinzons, who personally commanded two of the caravels, had them +almost exclusively manned by sailors from Palos, while the Admiral's ship +was manned by a miscellaneous crew from other places. To be sure they +gave the Admiral the biggest ship, but (in his own words) it proved "a +dull sailer and unfit for discovery"; while they commanded the two +caravels, small and open, but much faster and handier. Clearly these +Pinzons will take no harm from a little watching. They may be honest +souls enough, but their conduct is just a little suspicious, and we +cannot be too careful. + + +Three vessels were at last secured. The first, named the Santa Maria, +was the largest, and was chosen to be the flagship of Columbus. She was +of about one hundred tons burden, and would be about ninety feet in +length by twenty feet beam. She was decked over, and had a high poop +astern and a high forecastle in the bows. She had three masts, two of +them square-rigged, with a latine sail on the mizzen mast; and she +carried a crew of fifty-two persons. Where and how they all stowed +themselves away is a matter upon which we can only make wondering +guesses; for this ship was about the size of an ordinary small coasting +schooner, such as is worked about the coasts of these islands with a crew +of six or eight men. The next largest ship was the Pinta, which was +commanded by Martin Alonso Pinzon, who took his brother Francisco with +him as sailing-master. The Pinta was of fifty tons burden, decked only +at the bow and stern, and the fastest of the three ships; she also had +three masts. The third ship was a caravel of forty tons and called the +Nina; she belonged to Juan Nino of Palos. She was commanded by Vincenti +Pinzon, and had a complement of eighteen men. Among the crew of the +flagship, whose names and places of residence are to be found in the +Appendix, were an Englishman and an Irishman. The Englishman is entered +as Tallarte de Lajes (Ingles), who has been ingeniously identified with a +possible Allard or AEthelwald of Winchelsea, there having been several +generations of Allards who were sailors of Winchelsea in the fifteenth +century. Sir Clements Markham thinks that this Allard may have been +trading to Coruna and have married and settled down at Lajes. There is +also Guillermo Ires, an Irishman from Galway. + +Allard and William, shuffling into the recruiting office in Palos, +doubtless think that this is a strange place for them to meet, and rather +a wild business that they are embarked upon, among all these bloody +Spaniards. Some how I feel more confidence in Allard than in William, +knowing, as I do so well, this William of Galway, whether on his native +heath or in the strange and distant parts of the world to which his +sanguine temperament leads him. Alas, William, you are but the first of +a mighty stream that will leave the Old Country for the New World; the +world destined to be good for the fortunes of many from the Old Country, +but for the Old Country itself not good. Little does he know, drunken +William, willing to be on hand where there is adventure brewing, and to +be after going with the boys and getting his health on the salt water, +what a path of hope for those who go, and of heaviness for those who stay +behind, he is opening up . . . . Farewell, William; I hope you were +not one of those whom they let out of gaol. + +June slid into July, and still the preparations were not complete. Down +on the mud banks of the Tinto, where at low water the vessels were left +high and dry, and where the caulking and refitting were in hand, there +was trouble with the workmen. Gomaz Rascon and Christoval Quintero, the +owners of the Pinta, who had resented her being pressed into the service, +were at the bottom of a good deal of it. Things could not be found; gear +mysteriously gave way after it had been set up; the caulking was found to +have been carelessly and imperfectly done; and when the caulkers were +commanded to do it over again they decamped. Even the few volunteers, +the picked hands upon whom Columbus was relying, gave trouble. In those +days of waiting there was too much opportunity for talk in the shore-side +wine-shops; some of the volunteers repented and tried to cry off their +bargains; others were dissuaded by their relatives, and deserted and hid +themselves. No mild measures were of any use; a reign of terror had to +be established; and nothing short of the influence of the Pinzons was +severe enough to hold the company together. To these vigorous measures, +however, all opposition gradually yielded. By the end of July the +provisions and stores were on board, the whole complement of eighty-seven +persons collected and enlisted, and only the finishing touches left for +Columbus. It is a sign of the distrust and fear evinced with regard to +this expedition, that no priest accompanied it--something of a sorrow to +pious Christopher, who would have liked his chaplain. There were two +surgeons, or barbers, and a physician; there were an overseer, a +secretary, a master-at-arms; there was an interpreter to speak to the +natives of the new lands in Hebrew, Greek, German, Chaldean or Arabic; +and there was an assayer and silversmith to test the quality of the +precious metals that they were sure to find. Up at La Rabida, with the +busy and affectionate assistance of the old Prior, Columbus made his +final preparations. Ferdinand was to stay at Cordova with Beatriz, and +to go to school there; while Diego was already embarked upon his life's +voyage, having been appointed a page to the Queen's son, Prince Juan, and +handed over to the care of some of the Court ladies. The course to be +sailed was talked over and over again; the bearings and notes of the +pilot at Porto Santo consulted and discussed; and a chart was made by +Columbus himself, and copied with his own hands for use on the three +ships. + +On the 2nd of August everything was ready; the ships moored out in the +stream, the last stragglers of the crew on board, the last sack of flour +and barrel of beef stowed away. Columbus confessed himself to the Prior +of La Rabida--a solemn moment for him in the little chapel up on the +pine-clad hill. His last evening ashore would certainly be spent at the +monastery, and his last counsels taken with Perez and Doctor Hernandez. +We can hardly realise the feelings of Christopher on the eve of his +departure from the land where all his roots were, to a land of mere faith +and conjecture. Even today, when the ocean is furrowed by crowded +highways, and the earth is girdled with speaking wires, and distances are +so divided and reduced that the traveller need never be very long out of +touch with his home, few people can set out on a long voyage without some +emotional disturbance, however slight it may be; and to Columbus on this +night the little town upon which he looked down from the monastery, which +had been the scene of so many delays and difficulties and vexations, must +have seemed suddenly dear and familiar to him as he realised that after +to-morrow its busy and well-known scenes might be for ever a thing of the +past to him. Behind him, living or dead, lay all he humanly loved and +cared for; before him lay a voyage full of certain difficulties and +dangers; dangers from the ships, dangers from the crews, dangers from +the weather, dangers from the unknown path itself; and beyond them, a +twinkling star on the horizon of his hopes, lay the land of his belief. +That he meant to arrive there and to get back again was beyond all doubt +his firm intention; and in the simple grandeur of that determination the +weaknesses of character that were grouped about it seem unimportant. In +this starlit hour among the pine woods his life came to its meridian; +everything that was him was at its best and greatest there. Beneath him, +on the talking tide of the river, lay the ships and equipment that +represented years of steady effort and persistence; before him lay the +pathless ocean which he meant to cross by the inner light of his faith. +What he had suffered, he had suffered by himself; what he had won, he had +won by himself; what he was to finish, he would finish by himself. + +But the time for meditations grows short. Lights are moving about in the +town beneath; there is an unwonted midnight stir and bustle; the whole +population is up and about, running hither and thither with lamps and +torches through the starlit night. The tide is flowing; it will be high +water before dawn; and with the first of the ebb the little fleet is to +set sail. The stream of hurrying sailors and townspeople sets towards +the church of Saint George, where mass is to be said and the Sacrament +administered to the voyagers. The calls and shouts die away; the bell +stops ringing; and the low muttering voice of the priest is heard +beginning the Office. The light of the candles shines upon the gaudy +roof, and over the altar upon the wooden image of Saint George +vanquishing the dragon, upon which the eyes of Christopher rested during +some part of the service, and where to-day your eyes may rest also if you +make that pilgrimage. The moment approaches; the bread and the wine are +consecrated; there is a shuffling of knees and feet; and then a pause. +The clear notes of the bell ring out upon the warm dusky silence--once, +twice, thrice; the living God and the cold presence of dawn enter the +church together. Every head is bowed; and for once at least every heart +of that company beats in unison with the rest. And then the Office goes +on, and the dark-skinned congregation streams up to the sanctuary and +receives the Communion, while the blue light of dawn increases and the +candles pale before the coming day. And then out again to the boats with +shoutings and farewells, for the tide has now turned; hoisting of sails +and tripping of anchors and breaking out of gorgeous ensigns; and the +ships are moving! The Maria leads, with the sign of the Redemption +painted on her mainsail and the standard of Castile flying at her mizzen; +and there is cheering from ships and from shore, and a faint sound of +bells from the town of Huelva. + +Thus, the sea being--calm, and a fresh breeze blowing off the land, did +Christopher Columbus set sail from Palos at sunrise on Friday the 3rd of +August 1492. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +EVENTS OF THE FIRST VOYAGE + + "In nomine D.N. Jesu Christi--Friday, August 3, 1492, at eight + o'clock we started from the bar of Saltes. We went with a strong + sea breeze sixty miles,--[Columbus reckoned in Italian miles, of + which four = one league.]--which are fifteen leagues, towards the + south, until sunset: afterwards to the south-west and to the south, + quarter south-west, which was the way to the Canaries." + +With these rousing words the Journal + + [The account of Columbus's first voyage is taken from a Journal + written by himself, but which in its original form does not exist. + Las Casas had it in his possession, but as he regarded it (no doubt + with justice) as too voluminous and discursive to be interesting, he + made an abridged edition, in which the exact words of Columbus were + sometimes quoted, but which for the most part is condensed into a + narrative in the third person. This abridged Journal, consisting of + seventy-six closely written folios, was first published by + Navarrette in 1825. When Las Casas wrote his 'Historie,' however, + he appears here and there to have restored sections of the original + Journal into the abridged one; and many of these restorations are of + importance. If the whole account of his voyage written by Columbus + himself were available in its exact form I would print it here; but + as it is not, I think it better to continue my narrative, simply + using the Journal of Las Casas as a document.] + +of Columbus's voyage begins; and they sound a salt and mighty chord which +contains the true diapason of the symphony of his voyages. There could +not have been a more fortunate beginning, with clear weather and a calm +sea, and the wind in exactly the right quarter. On Saturday and Sunday +the same conditions held, so there was time and opportunity for the three +very miscellaneous ships' companies to shake down into something like +order, and for all the elaborate discipline of sea life to be arranged +and established; and we may employ the interval by noting what aids to +navigation Columbus had at his disposal. + + +The chief instrument was the astrolabe, which was an improvement on the +primitive quadrant then in use for taking the altitude of the sun. The +astrolabe, it will be remembered, had been greatly improved, by Martin +Behaim and the Portuguese Commission in 1840--[1440 D.W.]; and it was +this instrument, a simplification of the astrolabe used in astronomy +ashore, that Columbus chiefly used in getting his solar altitudes. As +will be seen from the illustration, its broad principle was that of a +metal circle with a graduated circumference and two arms pivoted in the +centre. It was made as heavy as possible; and in using it the observer +sat on deck with his back against the mainmast and with his left hand +held up the instrument by the ring at the top. The long arm was moved +round until the two sights fixed upon it were on with the sun. The point +where the other arm then cut the circle gave the altitude. In +conjunction with this instrument were used the tables of solar +declination compiled by Regiomontanus, and covering the sun's declination +between the years 1475 and 1566. + +The compass in Columbus's day existed, so far as all essentials are +concerned, as it exists to-day. Although it lacked the refinements +introduced by Lord Kelvin it was swung in double-cradles, and had the +thirty-two points painted upon a card. The discovery of the compass, and +even of the lodestone, are things wrapt in obscurity; but the lodestone +had been known since at least the eleventh century, and the compass +certainly since the thirteenth. With the compass were used the sea +charts, which were simply maps on a rather larger and more exact scale +than the land maps of the period. There were no soundings or currents +marked on the old charts, which were drawn on a plane projection; and +they can have been of little--practical use to navigators except in the +case of coasts which were elaborately charted on a large scale. The +chart of Columbus, in so far as it was concerned with the ocean westward +of the Azores, can of course have contained nothing except the +conjectured islands or lands which he hoped to find; possibly the land +seen by the shipwrecked pilot may have been marked on it, and his failure +to find that land may have been the reason why, as we shall see, he +changed his course to the southward on the 7th of October. It must be +remembered that Columbus's conception of the world was that of the +Portuguese Mappemonde of 1490, a sketch of which is here reproduced. +This conception of the world excluded the Pacific Ocean and the continent +of North and South America, and made it reasonable to suppose that any +one who sailed westward long enough from Spain would ultimately reach +Cathay and the Indies. Behaim's globe, which was completed in the year +1492, represented the farthest point that geographical knowledge had +reached previous to the discoveries of Columbus, and on it is shown the +island of Cipango or Japan. + +By far the most important element in the navigation of Columbus, in so +far as estimating his position was concerned, was what is known as +"dead-reckoning" that is to say, the computation of the distance +travelled by the ship through the water. At present this distance is +measured by a patent log, which in its commonest form is a +propeller-shaped instrument trailed through the water at the end of a +long wire or cord the inboard end of which is attached to a registering +clock. On being dragged through the water the propeller spins round and +the twisting action is communicated by the cord to the clock-work +machinery which counts the miles. In the case of powerful steamers and +in ordinary weather dead-reckoning is very accurately calculated by the +number of revolutions of the propellers recorded in the engine-room; and +a device not unlike this was known to the Romans in the time of the +Republic. They attached small wheels about four feet in diameter to the +sides of their ships; the passage of the water turned the wheels, and a +very simple gearing was arranged which threw a pebble into a tallypot at +each revolution. This device, however, seems to have been abandoned or +forgotten in Columbus's day, when there was no more exact method of +estimating dead-reckoning than the primitive one of spitting over the +side in calm weather, or at other times throwing some object into the +water and estimating the rate of progress by its speed in passing the +ship's side. The hour-glass, which was used to get the multiple for +long distances, was of course the only portable time measurer available +for Columbus. These, with a rough knowledge of astronomy, and the +taking of the altitude of the polar star, were the only known means for +ascertaining the position of his ship at sea. + + +The first mishap occurred on Monday, August 6th, when the Pinta carried +away her rudder. The Pinta, it will be remembered, was commanded by +Martin Alonso Pinzon, and was owned by Gomaz Rascon and Christoval +Quintero, who had been at the bottom of some of the troubles ashore; and +it was thought highly probable that these two rascals had something to do +with the mishap, which they had engineered in the hope that their vessel +would be left behind at the Canaries. Martin Alonso, however, proved a +man of resource, and rigged up a sort of steering gear with ropes. There +was a choppy sea, and Columbus could not bring his own vessel near enough +to render any assistance, though he doubtless bawled his directions to +Pinzon, and looked with a troubled eye on the commotion going on on board +the Pinta. On the next day the jury-rigged rudder carried away again, +and was again repaired, but it was decided to try and make the island of +Lanzarote in the Canaries, and to get another caravel to replace the +Pinta. All through the next day the Santa Maria and the Nina had to +shorten sail in order not to leave the damaged Pinta behind; the three +captains had a discussion and difference of opinion as to where they +were; but Columbus, who was a genius at dead-reckoning, proved to be +right in his surmise, and they came in sight of the Canaries on Thursday +morning, August 9th. + +Columbus left Pinzon on the Grand Canary with orders to try to obtain a +caravel there, while he sailed on to Gomera, which he reached on Sunday +night, with a similar purpose. As he was unsuccessful he sent a message +by a boat that was going back to tell Pinzon to beach the Pinta and +repair her rudder; and having spent more days in fruitless search for a +vessel, he started back to join Pinzon on August 23rd. During the night +he passed the Peak of Teneriffe, which was then in eruption. The repairs +to the Pinta, doubtless in no way expedited by Messrs. Rascon and +Quintera, took longer than had been expected; it was found necessary to +make an entirely new rudder for her; and advantage was taken of the delay +to make some alterations in the rig of the Nina, which was changed from a +latine rig to a square rig, so that she might be better able to keep up +with the others. September had come before these two jobs were +completed; and on the 2nd of September the three ships sailed for Gomera, +the most westerly of the islands, where they anchored in the north-east +bay. The Admiral was in a great hurry to get away from the islands and +from the track of merchant ships, for he had none too much confidence in +the integrity of his crews, which were already murmuring and finding +every mishap a warning sign from God. He therefore only stayed long +enough at Gomera to take in wood and water and provisions, and set sail +from that island on the 6th of September. + +The wind fell lighter and lighter, and on Friday the little fleet lay +becalmed within sight of Ferro. But on Saturday evening north-east airs +sprang up again, and they were able to make nine leagues of westing. On +Sunday they had lost sight of land; and at thus finding their ships three +lonely specks in the waste of ocean the crew lost heart and began to +lament. There was something like a panic, many of the sailors bursting +into tears and imploring Columbus to take them home again. To us it may +seem a rather childish exhibition; but it must be remembered that these +sailors were unwillingly embarked upon a voyage which they believed would +only lead to death and disaster. The bravest of us to-day, if he found +himself press-ganged on board a balloon and embarked upon a journey, the +object of which was to land upon Mars or the moon, might find it +difficult to preserve his composure on losing sight of the earth; and the +parallel is not too extreme to indicate the light in which their present +enterprise must have appeared to many of the Admiral's crew. + +Columbus gave orders to the captains of the other two ships that, in case +of separation, they were to sail westward for 700 leagues-that being the +distance at which he evidently expected to find land--and there to lie-to +from midnight until morning. On this day also, seeing the temper of the +sailors, he began one of the crafty stratagems upon which he prided +himself, and which were often undoubtedly of great use to him; he kept +two reckonings, one a true one, which he entered in his log, and one a +false one, by means of which the distance run was made out to be less +than what it actually was, so that in case he could not make land as soon +as he hoped the crew would not be unduly discouraged. In other words, he +wished to have a margin at the other end, for he did not want a mutiny +when he was perhaps within a few leagues of his destination. On this day +he notes that the raw and inexperienced seamen were giving trouble in +other ways, and steering very badly, continually letting the ship's +head fall off to the north; and many must have been the angry remonstrances +from the captain to the man at the wheel. Altogether rather a trying day +for Christopher, who surely has about as much on his hands as ever mortal +had; but he knows how to handle ships and how to handle sailors, and so +long as this ten-knot breeze lasts, he can walk the high poop of the +Santa Maria with serenity, and snap his fingers at the dirty rabble +below. + + +On Monday they made sixty leagues, the Admiral duly announcing +forty-eight; on Tuesday twenty leagues, published as sixteen; and on +this day they saw a large piece of a mast which had evidently belonged +to a ship of at least 120 tons burden. This was not an altogether +cheerful sight for the eighteen souls on board the little Nina, who +wondered ruefully what was going to happen to them of forty tons when +ships three times their size had evidently been unable to live in this +abominable sea! + +On Thursday, September 13th, when Columbus took his observations, he made +a great scientific discovery, although he did not know it at the time. +He noticed that the needle of the compass was declining to the west of +north instead of having a slight declination to the east of north, as all +mariners knew it to have. In other words, he had passed the line of true +north and of no variation, and must therefore have been in latitude +28 deg. N. and longitude 29 deg. 37' W. of Greenwich. With his usual +secrecy he said nothing about it; perhaps he was waiting to see if the +pilots on the other ships had noticed it, but apparently they were not so +exact in their observations as he was. On the next day, Friday, the wind +falling a little lighter, they, made only twenty leagues. "Here the +persons on the caravel Nina said they had seen a jay and a ringtail, and +these birds never come more than twenty-five leagues from land at most." +--Unhappy "persons on the Nina"! Nineteen souls, including the captain, +afloat in a very small boat, and arguing God knows what from the fact +that a jay and a ringtail never went more than twenty-five leagues from +land!--The next day also was not without its incident; for on Saturday +evening they saw a meteor, or "marvellous branch of fire" falling from +the serene violet of the sky into the sea. + +They were now well within the influence of the trade-wind, which in these +months blows steadily from the east, and maintains an exquisite and balmy +climate. Even the Admiral, never very communicative about his +sensations, deigns to mention them here, and is reported to have said +that "it was a great pleasure to enjoy the morning; that nothing was +lacking except to hear the nightingales, and that the weather was like +April in Andalusia." On this day they saw some green grasses, which the +Admiral considered must have floated off from some island; "not the +continent," says the Admiral, whose theories are not to be disturbed by a +piece of grass, "because I make the continental land farther onward." +The crew, ready to take the most depressing and pessimistic view of +everything, considered that the lumps of grass belonged to rocks or +submerged lands, and murmured disparaging things about the Admiral. +As a matter of fact these grasses were masses of seaweed detached from +the Sargasso Sea, which they were soon to enter. + +On Monday, September 17th, four days after Columbus had noted it, the +other pilots noted the declination of the needle, which they had found on +taking the position of the North star. They did not like it; and +Columbus, whose knowledge of astronomy came to his aid, ordered them to +take the position of the North star at dawn again, which they did, and +found that the needles were true. He evidently thought it useless to +communicate to them his scientific speculations, so he explained to them +that it was the North star which was moving in its circle, and not the +compass. One is compelled to admit that in these little matters of +deceit the Admiral always shone. To-day, among the seaweed on the ship's +side, he picked up a little crayfish, which he kept for several days, +presumably in a bottle in his cabin; and perhaps afterwards ate. + +So for several days this calm and serene progress westward was +maintained. The trade-wind blew steady and true, balmy and warm also; +the sky was cloudless, except at morning and evening dusk; and there were +for scenery those dazzling expanses of sea and sky, and those gorgeous +hues of dawn and sunset, which are only to be found in the happy +latitudes. The things that happened to them, the bits of seaweed and +fishes that they saw in the water, the birds that flew around them, were +observed with a wondering attention and wistful yearning after their +meaning such as is known only to children and to sailors adventuring on +uncharted seas. The breezes were milder even than those of the Canaries, +and the waters always less salt; and the men, forgetting their fears of +the monsters of the Sea of Darkness, would bathe alongside in the limpid +blue. The little crayfish was a "sure indication of land"; a tunny fish, +killed by the company on the Nina, was taken to be an indication from the +west, "where I hope in that exalted God, in whose hands are all +victories, that land will very soon appear"; they saw another ringtail, +"which is not accustomed to sleep on the sea"; two pelicans came to the +ship, "which was an indication that land was near"; a large dark cloud +appeared to the north, "which is a sign that land is near"; they saw one +day a great deal of grass, "although the previous day they had not seen +any"; they took a bird with their hands which was like a jay; "it was a +river bird and not a sea bird"; they saw a whale, "which is an indication +that they are near land, because they always remain near it"; afterwards +a pelican came from the west-north-west and went to the south-east, +"which was an indication that it left land to the west-north-west, +because these birds sleep on land and in the morning they come to the sea +in search of food, and do not go twenty leagues from land." And "at dawn +two or three small land birds came singing to the ships; and afterwards +disappeared before sunrise." + +Such beautiful signs, interpreted by the light of their wishes, were the +events of this part of the voyage. In the meantime, they have their +little differences. Martin Alonso Pinzon, on Tuesday, September 18th, +speaks from the Pinta to the Santa Maria, and says that he will not wait +for the others, but will go and make the land, since it is so near; but +apparently he does not get very far out of the way, the wind which wafts +him wafting also the Santa Maria and the Nina. + + +On September the 19th there was a comparison of dead-reckonings. The +Nina's pilot made it 440 leagues from the Canaries, the Pinta's 420 +leagues, and the Admiral's pilot, doubtless instructed by the Admiral, +made it 400. On Sunday the 23rd they were getting into the seaweed and +finding crayfish again; and there being no reasonable cause for complaint +a scare was got up among the crew on an exceedingly ingenious point. The +wind having blown steadily from the east for a matter of three weeks, +they said that it would never blow in any other direction, and that they +would never be able to get back to Spain; but later in the afternoon the +sea got up from the westward, as though in answer to their fears, and as +if to prove that somewhere or other ahead of them there was a west wind +blowing; and the Admiral remarks that "the high sea was very necessary to +me, as it came to pass once before in the time when the Jews went out of +Egypt with Moses, who took them from captivity." And indeed there was +something of Moses in this man, who thus led his little rabble from a +Spanish seaport out across the salt wilderness of the ocean, and +interpreted the signs for them, and stood between them and the powers of +vengeance and terror that were set about their uncharted path. + +But it appears that the good Admiral had gone just a little too far in +interpreting everything they saw as a sign that they were approaching +land; for his miserable crew, instead of being comforted by this fact, +now took the opportunity to be angry because the signs were not +fulfilled. The more the signs pointed to their nearness to land, the +more they began to murmur and complain because they did not see it. They +began to form together in little groups--always an ominous sign at sea +--and even at night those who were not on deck got together in murmuring +companies. Some, of the things that they said, indeed, were not very far +from the truth; among others, that it was "a great madness on their part +to venture their lives in following out the madness of a foreigner who to +make himself a great lord had risked his life, and now saw himself and +all of them in great exigency and was deceiving so many people." They +remembered that his proposition, or "dream" as they not inaptly call it, +had been contradicted by many great and lettered men; and then followed +some very ominous words indeed. They held + + [The substance of these murmurings is not in the abridged Journal, + but is given by Las Casas under the date of September 24.] + +that "it was enough to excuse them from whatever might be done in the +matter that they had arrived where man had never dared to navigate, and +that they were not obliged to go to the end of the world, especially as, +if they delayed more, they would not be able to have provisions to +return." In short, the best thing would be to throw him into the sea +some night, and make a story that he had fallen, into the water while +taking the position of a star with his astrolabe; and no one would ask +any questions, as he was a foreigner. They carried this talk to the +Pinzons, who listened to them; after all, we have not had to wait long +for trouble with the Pinzons! "Of these Pinzons Christopher Columbus +complains greatly, and of the trouble they had given him." + +There is only one method of keeping down mutiny at sea, and of preserving +discipline. It is hard enough where the mutineers are all on one ship +and the commander's officers are loyal to him; but when they are +distributed over three ships, the captains of two of which are willing to +listen to them, the problem becomes grave indeed. We have no details of +how Columbus quieted them; but it is probable that his strong personality +awed them, while his clever and plausible words persuaded them. He was +the best sailor of them all and they knew it; and in a matter of this +kind the best and strongest man always wins, and can only in a pass of +this kind maintain his authority by proving his absolute right to it. +So he talked and persuaded and bullied and encouraged and cheered them; +"laughing with them," as Las Casas says, "while he was weeping at heart." + + +Probably as a result of this unpleasantness there was on the following +day, Tuesday, September 25th, a consultation between: Martin Alonso +Pinzon and the Admiral. The Santa Maria closed up with the Pinta, and a +chart was passed over on a cord. There were islands marked on the chart +in this region, possibly the islands reported by the shipwrecked pilot, +possibly the island of Antilla; and Pinzon said he thought that they were +somewhere in the region of them, and the Admiral said that he thought so +too. There was a deal of talk and pricking of positions on charts; and +then, just as the sun was setting, Martin Alonso, standing on the stern +of the Pinta, raised a shout and said that he saw land; asking +(business-like Martin) at the same time for the reward which had been +promised to the first one who should see land: They all saw it, a low +cloud to the southwest, apparently about twenty-five leagues distant; +and honest Christopher, in the emotion of the moment, fell on his knees +in gratitude to God. The crimson sunset of that evening saw the rigging +of the three ships black with eager figures, and on the quiet air were +borne the sounds of the Gloria in Excelsis, which was repeated by each +ship's company. + +The course was altered to the south-west, and they sailed in that +direction seventeen leagues during the night; but in the morning there +was no land to be seen. The sunset clouds that had so often deceived the +dwellers in the Canaries and the Azores, and that in some form or other +hover at times upon all eagerly scanned horizons, had also deceived +Columbus and every one of his people; but they created a diversion which +was of help to the Admiral in getting things quiet again, for which in +his devout soul he thanked the merciful providence of God. + +And so they sailed on again on a westward course. They were still in the +Sargasso Sea, and could watch the beautiful golden floating mass of the +gulf-weed, covered with berries and showing, a little way under the clear +water, bright green leaves. The sea was as smooth as the river in +Seville; there were frigate pelicans flying about, and John Dorys in the +water; several gulls were seen; and a youth on board the Nina killed a +pelican with a stone. On Monday, October 1st, there was a heavy shower +of rain; and Juan de la Cosa, Columbus's pilot, came up to him with the +doleful information that they had run 578 leagues from the island of +Ferro. According to Christopher's doctored reckoning the distance +published was 584 leagues; but his true reckoning, about which he said +nothing to a soul, showed that they had gone 707 leagues. The breeze +still kept steady and the sea calm; and day after day, with the temper of +the crews getting uglier and uglier, the three little vessels forged +westward through the blue, weed-strewn waters, their tracks lying +undisturbed far behind them. On Saturday, October 6th, the Admiral was +signalled by Alonso Pinzon, who wanted to change the course to the +south-west. It appears that, having failed to find the, islands of the +shipwrecked pilot, they were now making for the island of Cipango, and +that this request of Pinzon had something to do with some theory of his +that they had better turn to the south to reach that island; while +Columbus's idea now evidently was--to push straight on to the mainland of +Cathay. Columbus had his way; but the grumbling and murmuring in creased +among the crew. + +On the next day, Sunday, and perhaps just in time to avert another +outbreak, there was heard the sound of a gun, and the watchers on the +Santa Maria and the Pinta saw a puff of smoke coming from the Nina, which +was sailing ahead, and hoisting a flag on her masthead. This was the +signal agreed upon for the discovery of land, and it seemed as though +their search was at last at an end. But it was a mistake. In the +afternoon the land that the people of the Nina thought they had seen had +disappeared, and the horizon was empty except for a great flight of birds +that was seen passing from the north to the south-west. The Admiral, +remembering how often birds had guided the Portuguese in the islands in +their possessions, argued that the birds were either going to sleep on +land or were perhaps flying from winter, which he assumed to be +approaching in the land from whence they came. He therefore altered. +his course from west to west-south-west. This course was entered upon an +hour before sunset and continued throughout the night and the next day. +"The sea was like the river of Seville," says the Admiral; "the breezes +as soft as at Seville in April, and very fragrant." More birds were to +be seen, and there were many signs of land; but the crew, so often +disappointed in their hopeful interpretations of the phenomena +surrounding them, kept on murmuring and complaining. On Tuesday, October +9th, the wind chopped round a little and the course was altered, first to +south-west and then at evening to a point north of west; and the journal +records that "all night they heard birds passing." The next day Columbus +resumed the west-southwesterly course and made a run of fifty-nine +leagues; but the mariners broke out afresh in their discontent, and +declined to go any farther. They complained of the long voyage, and +expressed their views strongly to the commander. But they had to deal +with a man who was determined to begin with, and who saw in the many +signs of land that they had met with only an additional inducement to go +on. He told them firmly that with or without their consent he intended +to go on until he had found the land he had come to seek. + + +The next day, Thursday, October 11th, was destined to be for ever +memorable in the history of the world. It began ordinarily enough, with +a west-south-west wind blowing fresh, and on a sea rather rougher than +they had had lately. The people on the Santa Maria saw some petrels and +a green branch in the water; the Pinta saw a reed and two small sticks +carved with iron, and one or two other pieces of reeds and grasses that +had been grown on shore, as well as a small board. Most wonderful of +all, the people of the Nina saw "a little branch full of dog roses"; and +it would be hard to estimate the sweet significance of this fragment of a +wild plant from land to the senses of men who had been so long upon a sea +from which they had thought never to land alive. The day drew to its +close; and after nightfall, according to their custom, the crew of the +ships repeated the Salve Regina. Afterwards the Admiral addressed the +people and sailors of his ship, "very merry and pleasant," reminding them +of the favours God had shown them with regard to the weather, and begging +them, as they hoped to see land very soon, within an hour or so, to keep +an extra good look-out that night from the forward forecastle; and adding +to the reward of an annuity of 10,000 maravedis, offered by the Queen to +whoever should sight land first, a gift on his own account of a silk +doublet. + +The moon was in its third quarter, and did not rise until eleven o'clock. +The first part of the night was dark, and there was only a faint +starlight into which the anxious eyes of the look-out men peered from the +forecastles of the three ships. At ten o'clock Columbus was walking on +the poop of his vessel, when he suddenly saw a light right ahead. The +light seemed to rise and fall as though it were a candle or a lantern +held in some one's hand and waved up and down. The Admiral called Pedro +Gutierrez to him and asked him whether he saw anything; and he also saw +the light. Then he sent for Rodrigo Sanchez and asked him if he saw the +light; but he did not, perhaps because from where he was standing it was +occulted. But the others were left in no doubt, for the light was seen +once or twice more, and to the eyes of the anxious little group standing +on the high stern deck of the Santa Maria it appeared unmistakably. The +Nina was not close at hand, and the Pinta had gone on in front hoping to +make good her mistake; but there was no doubt on board the Santa Maria +that the light which they had seen was a light like a candle or a torch +waved slowly up and down. They lost the light again; and as the hours in +that night stole away and the moon rose slowly in the sky the seamen on +the Santa Maria must have almost held their breath. + +At about two o'clock in the morning the sound of a gun was heard from the +Pinta, who could be seen hoisting her flags; Rodrigo de Triana, the +look-out on board of her, having reported land in sight; and there sure +enough in the dim light lay the low shores of an island a few miles ahead +of them. + +Immediately all sails were lowered, except a small trysail which enabled +the ships to lie-to and stand slowly off and on, waiting for the +daylight. I suppose there was never a longer night than that; but dawn +came at last, flooding the sky with lemon and saffron and scarlet and +orange, until at last the pure gold of the sun glittered on the water. +And when it rose it showed the sea-weary mariners an island lying in the +blue sea ahead of them: the island of Guanahani; San Salvador, as it was +christened by Columbus; or, to give it its modern name, Watling's Island. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +LANDFALL + +During the night the ships had drifted a little with the current, and +before the north-east wind. When the look-out man on the Pinta first +reported land in sight it was probably the north-east corner of the +island, where the land rises to a height of 120 feet, that he saw. The +actual anchorage of Columbus was most likely to the westward of the +island; for there was a strong north-easterly breeze, and as the whole of +the eastern coast is fringed by a barrier reef, he would not risk his +ships on a lee shore. Finding himself off the north end of the island at +sunrise, the most natural thing for him to do, on making sail again, +would be to stand southward along the west side of the island looking for +an anchorage. The first few miles of the shore have rocky exposed +points, and the bank where there is shoal water only extends half a mile +from the shore. Immediately beyond that the bottom shelves rapidly down +to a depth of 2000 fathoms, so that if Columbus was sounding as he came +south he would find no bottom there. Below what are called the Ridings +Rocks, however, the land sweeps to the south and east in a long sheltered +bay, and to the south of these rocks there is good anchorage and firm +holding-ground in about eight fathoms of water. + +We may picture them, therefore, approaching this land in the bright +sunshine of the early morning, their ears, that had so long heard nothing +but the slat of canvas and the rush and bubble of water under the prows, +filled at last with the great resounding roar of the breakers on the +coral reef; their eyes, that had so long looked upon blue emptiness and +the star-spangled violet arch of night, feasting upon the living green of +the foliage ashore; and the easterly breeze carrying to their eager +nostrils the perfumes of land. Amid an excitement and joyful +anticipation that it is exhilarating even to think about the cables were +got up and served and coiled on deck, and the anchors, which some of them +had thought would never grip the bottom again, unstopped and cleared. +The leadsman of the Santa Maria, who has been finding no bottom with his +forty-fathom line, suddenly gets a sounding; the water shoals rapidly +until the nine-fathom mark is unwetted, and the lead comes up with its +bottom covered with brown ooze. Sail is shortened; one after another the +great ungainly sheets of canvas are clewed up or lowered down on deck; +one after another the three helms are starboarded, and the three ships +brought up to the wind. Then with three mighty splashes that send the +sea birds whirling and screaming above the rocks the anchors go down; and +the Admiral stands on his high poop-deck, and looks long and searchingly +at the fragment of earth, rock-rimmed, surf-fringed, and tree-crowned, of +which he is Viceroy and Governor-General. + + +Watling's Island, as it is now called, or San Salvador, as Columbus named +it, or Guanahani, as it was known to the aborigines, is situated in +latitude 24 deg. 6' N., and longitude 74 deg 26' W., and is an +irregularly shaped white sandstone islet in about the middle of the great +Bahama Bank. The space occupied by the whole group is shaped like an +irregular triangle extending from the Navidad Bank in the Caribbean Sea +at the south-east corner, to Bahama Island in Florida Strait on the +north, about 200 miles. The south side trends west by north for 600 +miles, and the north side north-west by north 720 miles. Most of the +islands and small rocks in this group, called Keys or Cays, are very low, +and rise only a few feet above the sea; the highest is about 400 feet +high. They are generally situated on the edge of coral and sand banks, +some of which are of a very dangerous character. They are thinly wooded, +except in the case of one or two of the larger islands which contain +timber of moderate dimensions. The climate of the Bahamas is mild and +temperate, with refreshing sea breezes in the hottest months; and there +is a mean temperature of 75 deg. from November to April. Watling's +Island is about twelve miles in length by six in breadth, with rocky +shores slightly indented. The greater part of its area is occupied by +salt-water lagoons, separated from one another by small wooded hills from +too to 140 feet high. There is plenty of grass; indeed the island is now +considered to be the most fertile in the Bahamas, and raises an excellent +breed of cattle and sheep. In common with the other islands of the group +it was originally settled by the Spaniards, and afterwards by the British, +who were driven from the Bahamas again by the Spanish in the year 1641. +After a great deal of changing hands they were ceded to Great Britain in +1783, and have remained in her possession ever since. In 1897 the +population of the whole group was estimated at 52,000 the whites being in +the proportion of one to six of the coloured population. Watling's +Island contains about 600 inhabitants scattered over the surface, with a +small settlement called Cockburn Town on the west side, nearly opposite +the landfall of Columbus. The seat of the local government is in the +island of New Providence, and the inhabitants of Watling's Island and of +Rum Cay unite in sending one representative to the House of Assembly. It +is high water, full and change, at Watling's Island at 7 h. 40 m., as it +was in the days of Columbus; and these facts form about the sum of the +world's knowledge of and interest in Watling's Island to-day. + + +But it was a different matter on Friday morning, October 12, 1492, + + [This date is reckoned in the old style. The true astronomical date + would be October 21st, which is the modern anniversary of the + discovery] + +when, all having been made snug on board the Santa Maria, the Admiral of +the Ocean Seas put on his armour and his scarlet cloak over it and +prepared to go ashore. The boat was lowered and manned by a crew well +armed, and Columbus took with him Rodrigo de Escovedo, the secretary to +the expedition, and Rodrigo Sanchez his overseer; they also took on board +Martin Alonso Pinzon and Vincenti Yanez Pinzon, the captains of the other +two ships. As they rowed towards the shore they saw a few naked +inhabitants, who hid themselves at their approach. Columbus carried with +him the royal standard, and the two captains each had a banner of the +expedition, which was a square flag with an "F" and a "Y" upon either +side, each letter being surmounted by the crown of the sovereigns and a +green cross covering the whole. Columbus assembled his little band +around him and called upon them to bear witness that in the presence of +them all he was taking possession of the island for the King and Queen of +Spain; duly making depositions in writing on the spot, and having them +signed and witnessed. Then he gave the name of San Salvador to the +island and said a prayer; and while this solemn little ceremony was in +progress, the astonished natives crept out of their hiding and surrounded +the strange white men. They gesticulated and grovelled and pointed +upwards, as though this gang of armed and bearded Spaniards, with the +tall white-bearded Italian in the midst of them, had fallen from the +skies. + +The first interest of the voyagers was in the inhabitants of this +delightful land. They found them well built, athletic-looking men, most +of them young, with handsome bodies and intelligent faces. Columbus, +eager to begin his missionary work, gave them some red caps and some +glass beads, with which he found them so delighted that he had good hopes +of making converts, and from which he argued that "they were a people who +would better be freed and converted to our Holy Faith by love than by +force," which sentence of his contains within itself the whole missionary +spirit of the time. These natives, who were the freest people in the +world, were to be "freed"; freed or saved from the darkness of their +happy innocence and brought to the light of a religion that had just +evolved the Inquisition; freed by love if possible, and by red caps and +glass beads; if not possible, then freed by force and with guns; but +freed they were to be at all costs. It is a tragic thought that, at the +very first impact of the Old World upon this Eden of the West, this +dismal error was set on foot and the first links in the chain of slavery +forged. But for the moment nothing of it was perceptible; nothing but +red caps and glass beads, and trinkets and toys, and freeing by love. +The sword that Columbus held out to them, in order to find out if they +knew the use of weapons, they innocently grasped by the blade and so cut +their fingers; and that sword, extended with knowledge and grasped with +fearless ignorance, is surely an emblem of the spread of civilisation and +of its doubtful blessings in the early stages. Let us hear Columbus +himself, as he recorded his first impression of Guanahani: + + "Further, it appeared to me that they were a very poor people, in + everything. They all go naked as their mothers gave them birth, and + the women also, although I only saw one of the latter who was very + young, and all those whom I saw were young men, none more than + thirty years of age. They were very well built with very handsome + bodies, and very good faces. Their hair was almost as coarse as + horses' tails, and short, and they wear it over the eyebrows, except + a small quantity behind, which they wear long and never cut. Some + paint themselves blackish, and they are of the colour of the + inhabitants of the Canaries, neither black nor white, and some paint + themselves white, some red, some whatever colour they find: and some + paint their faces, some all the body, some only the eyes, and some + only the nose. They do not carry arms nor know what they are, + because I showed them swords and they took them by the edge and + ignorantly cut themselves. They have no iron: their spears are + sticks without iron, and some of them have a fish's tooth at the end + and others have other things. They are all generally of good + height, of pleasing appearance and well built: I saw some who had + indications of wounds on their bodies, and I asked them by signs if + it was that, and they showed me that other people came there from + other islands near by and wished to capture them and they defended + themselves: and I believed and believe, that they come here from the + continental land to take them captive. They must be good servants + and intelligent, as I see that they very quickly say all that is + said to them, and I believe that they would easily become + Christians, as it appeared to me that they had no sect. If it + please our Lord, at the time of my departure, I will take six of + them from here to your Highnesses that they may learn to speak. + I saw no beast of any kind except parrots on this island." + +They very quickly say all that is said to them, and they will very easily +become good slaves; good Christians also it appears, since the Admiral's +research does not reveal the trace of any religious sect. And finally +"I will take six of them"; ostensibly that they may learn to speak the +language, but really that they may form the vanguard of cargo after cargo +of slaves ravished from their happy islands of dreams and sunshine and +plenty to learn the blessings of Christianity under the whip and the +sword. It is all, alas, inevitable; was inevitable from the moment that +the keel of Columbus's boat grated upon the shingle of Guanahani. The +greater must prey upon the less, the stronger must absorb and dominate +the weaker; and the happy gardens of the Golden Cyclades must be spoiled +and wasted for the pleasure and enrichment of a corrupting civilisation. +But while we recognise the inevitable, and enter into the joy and pride +of Columbus and his followers on this first happy morning of their +landing, we may give a moment's remembrance to the other side of the +picture, and admit that for this generation of innocents the discovery +that was to be all gain for the Old World was to be all loss to them. +In the meantime, decrees the Admiral, they are to be freed and converted; +and "I will take six of them that they may learn to speak." + + +There are no paths or footprints left in the sea, and the water furrowed +on that morning more than four hundred years ago by the keels of +Columbus's little fleet is as smooth and trackless as it was before they +clove it. Yet if you approach Guanahani from the east during the hours +of darkness you also will see a light that waxes and wanes on the +horizon. What the light was that Columbus saw is not certain; it was +probably the light from a torch held by some native woman from the door +of her hut; but the light that you will see is from the lighthouse on +Dixon Hill, where a tower of coral holds a lamp one hundred and sixty +feet above the sea at the north-east point of the island. It was erected +in no sentimental spirit, but for very practical purposes, and at a date +when Watling's Island had not been identified with the Guanahani of +Columbus's landfall; and yet of all the monuments that have been raised +to him I can think of nothing more appropriate than this lonely tower +that stands by day amid the bright sunshine in the track of the trade +wind, and by night throws its powerful double flash every half-minute +across the dark lonely sea. For it was by a light, although not of man's +kindling, that Columbus was guided upon his lonely voyage and through his +many difficulties; amid all his trials and disappointments, dimly as it +must have burned sometimes, it never quite went out. Darkness was the +name of the sea across which he took his way; darkness, from his +religious point of view, was the state of the lands to which he +journeyed; and, whatever its subsequent worth may have been, it was a +burning fragment from the living torch of the Christian religion that he +carried across the world with him, and by which he sought to kindle the +fire of faith in the lands of his discovery. So that there is a profound +symbolism in those raying beams that now, night after night, month by +month, and year after year, shine out across the sea from Watling's +Island in the direction of the Old World. + + +In the preparations for this voyage, and in the conduct and +accomplishment of it, the personality of the man Columbus stands clearly +revealed. He was seen at his best, as all men are who have a chance of +doing the thing for which they are best fitted. The singleness of aim +that can accomplish so much is made manifest in his dogged search for +means with which to make his voyage; and his Italian quality of +unscrupulousness in the means employed to attain a good end was exercised +to the full. The, practical seaman in him carried him through the +easiest part of his task, which was the actual sailing of his ships from +Palos to Guanahani; Martin Alonso Pinzon could have done as much as that. +But no Martin Alonso Pinzon or any other man of that time known to +history had the necessary combination of defective and effective +qualities that made Columbus, once he had conceived his glorious hazy +idea, spend the best years of his life, first in acquiring the position +that would make him listened to by people powerful enough to help him, +and then in besieging them in the face of every rebuff and +discouragement. Another man, proposing to venture across the unknown +ocean to unknown lands, would have required a fleet for his conveyance, +and an army for his protection; but Columbus asked for what he thought he +had some chance of getting, and for the barest equipment that would carry +him across the water. Another man would at least have had a bodyguard; +but Columbus relied upon himself, and alone held his motley crew in the +bonds of discipline. A Pinzon could have navigated the fleet from Palos +to Guanahani; but only a Columbus, only a man burning with belief is +himself and in his quest, could have kept that superstitious crowd of +loafers and malefactors and gaol-birds to their duties, and bent them to +his will. He was destined in after years for situations which were +beyond his power to deal with, and for problems that were beyond his +grasp; but here at least he was supreme, master of himself and of his +material, and a ruler over circumstances. The supreme thing that he had +professed to be able to do and which he had guaranteed to do was, in the +sublime simplicity of his own phrase, "to discover new lands," and luck +or no luck, help or hindrance, he did it at the very first attempt and in +the space of thirty-five days. And although it was from the Pinta that +the gun was fired, and the first loom of the actual land seen in the +early morning, I am glad to think that, of all the number of eager +watching men, it was Columbus who first saw the dim tossing light that +told him his journey was at an end. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Christopher Columbus, Volume 2, by Filson Young + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, VOLUME 2 *** + +***** This file should be named 4109.txt or 4109.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/4/1/0/4109/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation" + the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were + legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent + periodic) tax return. Please contact us beforehand to + let us know your plans and to work out the details. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of +public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed +in machine readable form. + +The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time, +public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses. +Money should be paid to the: +"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or +software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at: +hart@pobox.com + +[Portions of this header are copyright (C) 2001 by Michael S. Hart +and may be reprinted only when these Etexts are free of all fees.] +[Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be used in any sales +of Project Gutenberg Etexts or other materials be they hardware or +software or any other related product without express permission.] + +*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.10/04/01*END* + + + + + +This etext was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net> + + + + + +[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the +file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an +entire meal of them. D.W.] + + + + + + CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS + AND THE NEW WORLD OF HIS DISCOVERY + + A NARRATIVE BY FILSON YOUNG + + + +BOOK 2. + + +CHAPTER IX + +WANDERINGS WITH AN IDEA + +The man to whom Columbus proposed to address his request for means with +which to make a voyage of discovery was no less a person than the new +King of Portugal. Columbus was never a man of petty or small ideas; if +he were going to do a thing at all, he went about it in a large and +comprehensive way; and all his life he had a way of going to the +fountainhead, and of making flights and leaps where other men would only +climb or walk, that had much to do with his ultimate success. King John, +moreover, had shown himself thoroughly sympathetic to the spirit of +discovery; Columbus, as we have seen, had already been employed in a +trusted capacity in one of the royal expeditions; and he rightly thought +that, since he had to ask the help of some one in his enterprise, he +might as well try to enlist the Crown itself in the service of his great +Idea. He was not prepared, however, to go directly to the King and ask +for ships; his proposal would have to be put in a way that would appeal +to the royal ambition, and would also satisfy the King that there was +really a destination in view for the expedition. In other words Columbus +had to propose to go somewhere; it would not do to say that he was going +west into the Atlantic Ocean to look about him. He therefore devoted all +his energies to putting his proposal on what is called a business +footing, and expressing his vague, sublime Idea in common and practical +terms. + +The people who probably helped him most in this were his brother +Bartholomew and Martin Behaim, the great authority on scientific +navigation, who had been living in Lisbon for some time and with whom +Columbus was acquainted. Behaim, who was at this time about forty eight +years of age, was born at Nuremberg, and was a pupil of Regiomontanus, +the great German astronomer. A very interesting man, this, if we could +decipher his features and character; no mere star-gazing visionary, but a +man of the world, whose scientific lore was combined with a wide and +liberal experience of life. He was not only learned in cosmography and +astronomy, but he had a genius for mechanics and made beautiful +instruments; he was a merchant also, and combined a little business with +his scientific travels. He had been employed at Lisbon in adapting the +astrolabe of Regiomontanus for the use of sailors at sea; and in these +labours he was assisted by two people who were destined to have a weighty +influence on the career of Columbus--Doctors Rodrigo and Joseph, +physicians or advisers to the King, and men of great academic reputation. +There was nothing known about cosmography or astronomy that Behaim did +not know; and he had just come back from an expedition on which he had +been despatched, with Rodrigo and Joseph, to take the altitude of the sun +in Guinea. + +Columbus was not the man to neglect his opportunities, and there can be +no doubt that as soon as his purpose had established itself in his mind +he made use of every opportunity that presented itself for improving his +meagre scientific knowledge, in order that his proposal might be set +forth in a plausible form. In other words, he got up the subject. The +whole of his geographical reading with regard to the Indies up to this +time had been in the travels of Marco Polo; the others--whose works he +quoted from so freely in later years were then known to him only by name, +if at all. Behaim, however, could tell him a good deal about the +supposed circumference of the earth, the extent of the Asiatic continent, +and so on. Every new fact that Columbus heard he seized and pressed into +the service of his Idea; where there was a choice of facts, or a +difference of opinion between scientists, he chose the facts that were +most convenient, and the opinions that fitted best with his own beliefs. +The very word "Indies" was synonymous with unbounded wealth; there +certainly would be riches to tempt the King with; and Columbus, being a +religious man, hit also on the happy idea of setting forth the spiritual +glory of carrying the light of faith across the Sea of Darkness, and +making of the heathen a heritage for the Christian Church. So that, what +with one thing and another, he soon had his proposals formally arranged. + +Imagine him, then, actually at Court, and having an audience of the King, +who could scarcely believe his ears. Here was a man, of whom he knew +nothing but that his conduct of a caravel had been well spoken of in the +recent expedition to Guinea, actually proposing to sail out west into the +Atlantic and to cross the unknown part of the world. Certainly his +proposals seemed plausible, but still--. The earth was round, said +Columbus, and therefore there was a way from East to West and from West +to East. The prophet Esdras, a scientific authority that even His +Majesty would hardly venture to doubt, had laid it down that only one- +seventh of the earth was covered by waters. From this fact Columbus +deduced that the maritime space extending westward between the shores of +Europe and eastern coast of Asia could not be large; and by sailing +westward he proposed to reach certain lands of which he claimed to have +knowledge. The sailors' tales, the logs of driftwood, the dead bodies, +were all brought into the proposals; in short, if His Majesty would grant +some ships, and consent to making Columbus Admiral over all the islands +that he might discover, with full viceregal state, authority, and profit, +he would go and discover them. + +There are two different accounts of what the King said when this proposal +was made to him. According to some authorities, John was impressed by +Columbus's proposals, and inclined to provide him with the necessary +ships, but he could not assent to all the titles and rewards which +Columbus demanded as a price for his services. Barros, the Portuguese +historian, on the other hand, represents that the whole idea was too +fantastic to be seriously entertained by the King for a moment, and that +although he at once made up his mind to refuse the request he preferred +to delegate his refusal to a commission. Whatever may be the truth as to +King John's opinions, the commission was certainly appointed, and +consisted of three persons, to wit: Master Rodrigo, Master Joseph the +Jew, and the Right Reverend Cazadilla, Bishop of Ceuta. + + +Before these three learned men must Columbus now appear, a little less +happy in his mind, and wishing that he knew more Latin. Master Rodrigo, +Master Joseph the Jew, the Right Reverend Cazadilla: three pairs of cold +eyes turned rather haughtily on the Genoese adventurer; three brains much +steeped in learning, directed in judgment on the Idea of a man with no +learning at all. The Right Reverend Cazadilla, being the King's +confessor, and a bishop into the bargain, could speak on that matter of +converting the heathen; and he was of opinion that it could not be done. +Joseph the Jew, having made voyages, and worked with Behaim at the +astrolabe, was surely an authority on navigation; and he was of opinion +that it could not be done. Rodrigo, being also a very learned man, had +read many books which Columbus had not read; and he was of opinion that +it could not be done. Three learned opinions against one Idea; the Idea +is bound to go. They would no doubt question Columbus on the scientific +aspect of the matter, and would soon discover his grievous lack of +academic knowledge. They would quote fluently passages from writers that +he had not heard of; if he had not heard of them, they seemed to imply, +no wonder he made such foolish proposals. Poor Columbus stands there +puzzled, dissatisfied, tongue-tied. He cannot answer these wiseacres in +their own learned lingo; what they say, or what they quote, may be true +or it may not; but it has nothing to do with his Idea. If he opens his +mouth to justify himself, they refute him with arguments that he does not +understand; there is a wall between them. More than a wall; there is a +world between them! It is his 'credo' against their 'ignoro'; it is, his +'expecto' against their 'non video'. Yet in his 'credo' there lies a +power of which they do not dream; and it rings out in a trumpet note +across the centuries, saluting the life force that opposes its +irresistible "I will" to the feeble "Thou canst not" of the worldly-wise. +Thus, in about the year 1483, did three learned men sit in judgment upon +our ignorant Christopher. Three learned men: Doctors Rodrigo, Joseph the +Jew, and the Right Reverend Cazadilla, Bishop of Ceuta; three risen, +stuffed to the eyes and ears with learning; stuffed so full indeed that +eyes and ears are closed with it. And three men, it would appear, wholly +destitute of mother-wit. + + +After all his preparations this rebuff must have been a serious blow to +Columbus. It was not his only trouble, moreover. During the last year +he had been earning nothing; he was already in imagination the Admiral of +the Ocean Seas; and in the anticipation of the much higher duties to +which he hoped to be devoted it is not likely that he would continue at +his humble task of making maps and charts. The result was that he got +into debt, and it was absolutely necessary that something should be done. +But a darker trouble had also almost certainly come to him about this +time. Neither the day nor the year of Philippa's death is known; +but it is likely that it occurred soon after Columbus's failure at the +Portuguese Court, and immediately before his departure into Spain. That +anonymous life, fulfilling itself so obscurely in companionship and +motherhood, as softly as it floated upon the page of history, as softly +fades from it again. Those kind eyes, that encouraging voice, that +helping hand and friendly human soul are with him no longer; and after +the interval of peace and restful growth that they afforded Christopher +must strike his tent and go forth upon another stage of his pilgrimage +with a heavier and sterner heart. + +Two things are left to him: his son Diego, now an articulate little +creature with character and personality of his own, and with strange, +heart-breaking reminiscences of his mother in voice and countenance and +manner--that is one possession; the other is his Idea. Two things alive +and satisfactory, amid the ruin and loss of other possessions; two +reasons for living and prevailing. And these two possessions Columbus +took with him when he set out for Spain in the year 1485. + +His first care was to take little Diego to the town of Huelva, where +there lived a sister of Philippa's who had married a Spaniard named +Muliartes. This done, he was able to devote himself solely to the +furtherance of his Idea. For this purpose he went to Seville, where he +attached himself for a little while to a group of his countrymen who were +settled there, among them Antonio and Alessandro Geraldini, and made such +momentary living as was possible to him by his old trade. But the Idea +would not sleep. He talked of nothing else; and as men do who talk of an +idea that possesses them wholly, and springs from the inner light of +faith, he interested and impressed many of his hearers. Some of them +suggested one thing, some another; but every one was agreed that it would +be a good thing if he could enlist the services of the great Count +(afterwards Duke) of Medini Celi, who had a palace at Rota, near Cadiz. + +This nobleman was one of the most famous of the grandees of Spain, and +lived in mighty state upon his territory along the sea-shore, serving the +Crown in its wars and expeditions with the power and dignity of an ally +rather than of a subject. His domestic establishment was on a princely +scale, filled with chamberlains, gentlemen-at-arms, knights, retainers, +and all the panoply of social dignity; and there was also place in his +household for persons of merit and in need of protection. To this great +man came Columbus with his Idea. It attracted the Count, who was a judge +of men and perhaps of ideas also; and Columbus, finding some hope at last +in his attitude, accepted the hospitality offered to him, and remained at +Rota through the winter of 1485-86. He had not been very hopeful when he +arrived there, and had told the Count that he had thought of going to the +King of France and asking for help from him; but the Count, who found +something respectable and worthy of consideration in the Idea of a man +who thought nothing of a journey in its service from one country to +another and one sovereign to another, detained him, and played with the +Idea himself. Three or four caravels were nothing to the Count of Medina +Eeli; but on the other hand the man was a grandee and a diplomat, with a +nice sense of etiquette and of what was due to a reigning house. Either +there was nothing in this Idea, in which case his caravels would be +employed to no purpose, or there was so much in it that it was an +undertaking, not merely for the Count of Medina Celi, but for the Crown +of Castile. Lands across the ocean, and untold gold and riches of the +Indies, suggested complications with foreign Powers, and transactions +with the Pope himself, that would probably be a little too much even for +the good Count; therefore with a curious mixture of far-sighted +generosity and shrewd security he wrote to Queen Isabella, recommending +Columbus to her, and asking her to consider his Idea; asking her also, +in case anything should come of it, to remember him (the Count), and to +let him have a finger in the pie. Thus, with much literary circumstance +and elaboration of politeness, the Count of Medina Celi to Queen +Isabella. + +Follows an interval of suspense, the beginning of a long discipline of +suspense to which Columbus was to be subjected; and presently comes a +favourable reply from the Queen, commanding that Columbus should be sent +to her. Early in 1486 he set out for Cordova, where the Court was then +established, bearing another letter from the Count in which his own +private requests were repeated, and perhaps a little emphasised. +Columbus was lodged in the house of Alonso de Quintanilla, Treasurer to +the Crown of Castile, there to await an audience with Queen Isabella. + + +While he is waiting, and getting accustomed to his new surroundings, let +us consider these two monarchs in whose presence he is soon to appear, +and upon whose decision hangs some part of the world's destiny. Isabella +first; for in that strange duet of government it is her womanly soprano +that rings most clearly down the corridors of Time. We discern in her a +very busy woman, living a difficult life with much tact and judgment, and +exercising to some purpose that amiable taste for "doing good" that marks +the virtuous lady of station in every age. This, however, was a woman +who took risks with her eyes open, and steered herself cleverly in +perilous situations, and guided others with a firm hand also, and in +other ways made good her claim to be a ruler. The consent and the will +of her people were her great strength; by them she dethroned her niece +and ascended the throne of Castile. She had the misfortune to be at +variance with her husband in almost every matter of policy dear to his +heart; she opposed the expulsion of the Jews and the establishment of the +Inquisition; but when she failed to get her way, she was still able to +preserve her affectionate relations with her husband without disagreement +and with happiness. If she had a fault it was the common one of being +too much under the influence of her confessors; but it was a fault that +was rarely allowed to disturb the balance of her judgment. She liked +clever people also; surrounded herself with men of letters and of +science, fostered all learned institutions, and delighted in the details +of civil administration. A very dignified and graceful figure, that +could equally adorn a Court drawing-room or a field of battle; for she +actually went into the field, and wore armour as becomingly as silk and +ermine. Firm, constant, clever, alert, a little given to fussiness +perhaps, but sympathetic and charming, with some claims to genius and +some approach to grandeur of soul: so much we may say truly of her inner +self. Outwardly she was a woman well formed, of medium height, a very +dignified and graceful carriage, eyes of a clear summer blue, and the red +and gold of autumn in her hair--these last inherited from her English +grandmother. + +Ferdinand of Aragon appears not quite so favourably in our pages, for he +never thought well of Columbus or of his proposals; and when he finally +consented to the expedition he did so with only half a heart, and against +his judgment. He was an extremely enterprising, extremely subtle, +extremely courageous, and according to our modern notions, an extremely +dishonest man; that is to say, his standards of honour were not those +which we can accept nowadays. He thought nothing of going back on a +promise, provided he got a priestly dispensation to do so; he juggled +with his cabinets, and stopped at nothing in order to get his way; he had +a craving ambition, and was lacking in magnanimity; he loved dominion, +and cared very little for glory. A very capable man; so capable that in +spite of his defects he was regarded by his subjects as wise and prudent; +so capable that he used his weaknesses of character to strengthen and +further the purposes of his reign. A very cold man also, quick and sure +in his judgments, of wide understanding and grasp of affairs; simple and +austere in dress and diet, as austerity was counted in that period of +splendour; extremely industrious, and close in his observations and +judgments of men. To the bodily eye he appeared as a man of middle size, +sturdy and athletic, face burned a brick red with exposure to the sun and +open air; hair and eyebrows of a bright chestnut; a well-formed and not +unkindly mouth; a voice sharp and unmelodious, issuing in quick fluent +speech. This was the man that earned from the Pope, for himself and his +successors, the title of "Most Catholic Majesty." + + +The Queen was very busy indeed with military preparations; but in the +midst of her interviews with nobles and officers, contractors and state +officials, she snatched a moment to receive the person Christopher +Columbus. With that extreme mental agility which is characteristic of +busy sovereigns all the force of this clever woman's mind was turned for +a moment on Christopher, whose Idea had by this time invested him with a +dignity which no amount of regal state could abash. There was very +little time. The Queen heard what Columbus had to say, cutting him +short, it is likely, with kindly tact, and suppressing his tendency to +launch out into long-winded speeches. What she saw she liked; and, being +too busy to give to this proposal the attention that it obviously +merited, she told Columbus that the matter would be fully gone into and +that in the meantime he must regard himself as the guest of the Court. +And so, in the countenance of a smile and a promise, Columbus bows +himself out. For the present he must wait a little and his hot heart +must contain itself while other affairs, looming infinitely larger than +his Idea on the royal horizon, receive the attention of the Court. + +It was not the happiest moment, indeed, in which to talk of ships and +charts, and lonely sea-roads, and faraway undiscovered shores. Things at +home were very real and lively in those spring days at Cordova. The war +against the Moors had reached a critical stage; King Ferdinand was away +laying siege to the city of Loxa, and though the Queen was at Cordova she +was entirely occupied with the business of collecting and forwarding +troops and supplies to his aid. The streets were full of soldiers; +nobles and grandees from all over the country were arriving daily with +their retinues; glitter and splendour, and the pomp of warlike +preparation, filled the city. Early in June the Queen herself went to +the front and joined her husband in the siege of Moclin; and when this +was victoriously ended, and they had returned in triumph to Cordova, they +had to set out again for Gallicia to suppress a rebellion there. When +that was over they did not come back to Cordova at all, but repaired at +once to Salamanca to spend the winter there. + +At the house of Alonso de Quintanilla, however, Columbus was not +altogether wasting his time. He met there some of the great persons of +the Court, among them the celebrated Pedro Gonzalez de Mendoza, +Archbishop of Toledo and Grand Cardinal of Spain. This was far too great +a man to be at this time anything like a friend of Columbus; but Columbus +had been presented to him; the Cardinal would know his name, and what his +business was; and that is always a step towards consideration. Cabrero, +the royal Chamberlain, was also often a fellow-guest at the Treasurer's +table; and with him Columbus contracted something like a friendship. +Every one who met him liked him; his dignity, his simplicity of thought +and manner, his experience of the sea, and his calm certainty and +conviction about the stupendous thing which. he proposed to do, could +not fail to attract the liking and admiration of those with whom he came +in contact. In the meantime a committee appointed by the Queen sat upon +his proposals. The committee met under the presidentship of Hernando de +Talavera, the prior of the monastery of Santa Maria del Prado, near +Valladolid, a pious ecclesiastic, who had the rare quality of honesty, +and who was therefore a favourite with Queen Isabella; she afterwards +created him Archbishop of Granada. He was not, however, poor honest +soul! quite the man to grasp and grapple with this wild scheme for a +voyage across the ocean. Once more Columbus, as in Portugal, set forth +his views with eloquence and conviction; and once more, at the tribunal +of learning, his unlearned proposals were examined and condemned. Not +only was Columbus's Idea regarded as scientifically impossible, but it +was also held to come perilously near to heresy, in its assumption of a +state of affairs that was clearly at variance with the writings of the +Fathers and the sacred Scriptures themselves. + +This new disappointment, bitter though it was, did not find Columbus in +such friendless and unhappy circumstances as those in which he left +Portugal. He had important friends now, who were willing and anxious to +help him, and among them was one to whom he turned, in his profound +depression, for religious and friendly consolation. This was Diego de +DEA, prior of the Dominican convent of San Estevan at Salamanca, who was +also professor of theology in the university there and tutor to the young +Prince Juan. Of all those who came in contact with Columbus at this time +this man seems to have understood him best, and to have realised where +his difficulty lay. Like many others who are consumed with a burning +idea Columbus was very probably at this time in danger of becoming +possessed with it like a monomaniac; and his new friends saw that if he +were to make any impression upon the conservative learning of the time to +which a decision in such matters was always referred he must have some +opportunity for friendly discussion with learned men who were not +inimical to him, and who were not in the position of judges examining a +man arraigned before them and pleading for benefits. + +When the Court went to Salamanca at the end of 1486, DEA arranged that +Columbus should go there too, and he lodged him in a country farm called +Valcuebo, which belonged to his convent and was equi-distant from it and +the city. Here the good Dominican fathers came and visited him, bringing +with them professors from the university, who discussed patiently with +Columbus his theories and ambitions, and, himself all conscious, +communicated new knowledge to him, and quietly put him right on many a +scientific point. There were professors of cosmography and astronomy in +the university, familiar with the works of Alfraganus and Regiomontanus. +It is likely that it was at this time that Columbus became possessed of +d'Ailly's 'Imago Mundi', which little volume contained a popular resume +of the scientific views of Strabo, Pliny, Ptolemy, and others, and was +from this time forth Columbus's constant companion. + +Here at Valcuebo and later, when winter came, in the great hall of the +Dominican convent at Salamanca, known as the "De Profundis" hall, where +the monks received guests and held discussions, the Idea of Columbus was +ventilated and examined. He heard what friendly sceptics had to say +about it; he saw the kind of argument that he would have to oppose to the +existing scientific and philosophical knowledge on cosmography. There is +no doubt that he learnt a good deal at this time; and more important even +than this, he got his project known and talked about; and he made +powerful friends, who were afterwards to be of great use to him. The +Marquesa de Moya, wife of his friend Cabrera, took a great liking to him; +and as she was one of the oldest and closest friends of the Queen, it is +likely that she spoke many a good word for Columbus in Isabella's ear. + +By the time the Court moved to Cordova early in 1487, Columbus was once +more hopeful of getting a favourable hearing. He followed the Court to +Cordova, where he received a gracious message from the Queen to the +effect that she had not forgotten him, and that as soon as her military +preoccupations permitted it, she would go once more, and more fully, into +his proposals. In the meantime he was attached to the Court, and +received a quarterly payment of 3000 maravedis. It seemed as though the +unfavourable decision of Talavera's committee had been forgotten. + +In the meantime he was to have a change of scene. Isabella followed +Ferdinand to the siege of Malaga, where the Court was established; and as +there were intervals in which other than military business might be +transacted, Columbus was ordered to follow them in case his affairs +should come up for consideration. They did not; but the man himself had +an experience that may have helped to keep his thoughts from brooding too +much on his unfulfilled ambition. Years afterwards, when far away on +lonely seas, amid the squalor of a little ship and the staggering buffets +of a gale, there would surely sometimes leap into his memory a brightly +coloured picture of this scene in the fertile valley of Malaga: the +silken pavilions of the Court, the great encampment of nobility with its +arms and banners extending in a semicircle to the seashore, all +glistening and moving in the bright sunshine. There was added excitement +at this time at an attempt to assassinate Ferdinand and Isabella, a +fanatic Moor having crept up to one of the pavilions and aimed a blow at +two people whom he mistook for the King and Queen. They turned out to be +Don Alvaro de Portugal, who was dangerously wounded, and Columbus's +friend, the Marquesa de Moya, who was unhurt; but it was felt that the +King and Queen had had a narrow escape. The siege was raised on the 18th +of August, and the sovereigns went to spend the winter at Zaragoza; and +Columbus, once more condemned to wait, went back to Cordova. + + +It was here that he contracted his second and, so far as we know, his +last romantic attachment. The long idle days of summer and autumn at +Cordova, empty of all serious occupation, gave nature an opportunity for +indulging her passion for life and continuity. Among Christopher's +friends at Cordova was the family of Arana, friendly hospitable souls, +by some accounts noble and by others not noble, and certainly in somewhat +poor circumstances, who had welcomed him to their house, listened to his +plans with enthusiasm, and formed a life-long friendship with him. Three +members of this family are known to us--two brothers, Diego and Pedro, +both of whom commanded ships in Columbus's expeditions, and a sister +Beatriz. Columbus was now a man of six-and-thirty, while she was little +more than a girl; he was handsome and winning, distinguished by the +daring and importance of his scheme, full of thrilling and romantic talk +of distant lands; a very interesting companion, we may be sure. No +wonder she fell in love with Christopher; no wonder that he, feeling +lonely and depressed by the many postponements of his suit at Court, and +in need of sympathy and encouragement, fell in these blank summer days +into an intimacy that flamed into a brief but happy passion. Why +Columbus never married Beatriz de Arana we cannot be sure, for it is +almost certain that his first wife had died some time before. Perhaps he +feared to involve himself in any new or embarrassing ties; perhaps he +loved unwillingly, and against his reason; perhaps--although the +suggestion is not a happy one--he by this time did not think poor Beatriz +good enough for the Admiral-elect of the Ocean Seas; perhaps (and more +probably) Beatriz was already married and deserted, for she bore the +surname of Enriquez; and in that case, there being no such thing as a +divorce in the Catholic Church, she must either sin or be celibate. But +however that may be, there was an uncanonical alliance between them which +evidently did not in the least scandalise her brothers and which resulted +in the birth of Ferdinand Columbus in the following year. Christopher, +so communicative and discursive upon some of his affairs, is as reticent +about Beatriz as he was about Philippa. Beatriz shares with his +legitimate wife the curious distinction of being spoken of by Columbus to +posterity only in his will, which was executed at Valladolid the day +before he died. In the dry ink and vellum of that ancient legal document +is his only record of these two passions. The reference to Beatriz is as +follows: + + "And I direct him [Diego] to make provision for Beatriz Enriquez, + mother of D. Fernando, my son, that she may be able to live + honestly, being a person to whom I am under very great obligation. + And this shall be done for the satisfaction of my conscience, + because this matter weighs heavily upon my soul. The reason for + which it is not fitting to write here." + +About the condition of Beatriz, temporal and spiritual, there has been +much controversy; but where the facts are all so buried and inaccessible +it is unseemly to agitate a veil which we cannot lift, and behind which +Columbus himself sheltered this incident of his life. "Acquainted with +poverty" is one fragment of fact concerning her that has come down to us; +acquainted also with love and with happiness, it would seem, as many poor +persons undoubtedly are. Enough for us to know that in the city of +Cordova there lived a woman, rich or poor, gentle or humble, married or +not married, who brought for a time love and friendly companionship into +the life of Columbus; that she gave what she had for giving, without +stint or reserve, and that she became the mother of a son who inherited +much of what was best in his father, and but for whom the world would be +in even greater darkness than it is on the subject of Christopher +himself. And so no more of Beatriz Enriquez de Arana, whom "God has in +his keeping"--and has had now these many centuries of Time. + + +Thus passed the summer and autumn of 1487; precious months, precious +years slipping by, and the great purpose as yet unfulfilled and seemingly +no nearer to fulfilment. It is likely that Columbus kept up his +applications to the Court, and received polite and delaying replies. +The next year came, and the Court migrated from Zaragoza to Murcia, from +Murcia to Valladolid, from Valladolid to Medina del Campo. Columbus +attended it in one or other of these places, but without result. In +August Beatriz gave birth to a son, who was christened Ferdinand, and who +lived to be a great comfort to his father, if not to her also. But the +miracle of paternity was not now so new and wonderful as it had been; the +battle of life, with its crosses and difficulties, was thick about him; +and perhaps he looked into this new-comer's small face with conflicting +thoughts, and memories of the long white beach and the crashing surf at +Porto Santo, and regret for things lost--so strangely mingled and +inconsistent are the threads of human thought. At last he decided to +turn his face elsewhere. In September 1488 he went to Lisbon, for what +purpose it is not certain; possibly in connection with the affairs of his +dead wife; and probably also in the expectation of seeing his brother +Bartholomew, to whom we may now turn our attention for a moment. + + +After the failure of Columbus's proposals to the King of Portugal in +1486, and the break-up of his home there, Bartholomew had also left +Lisbon. Bartholomew Diaz, a famous Portuguese navigator, was leaving for +the African coast in August, and Bartholomew Columbus is said to have +joined his small expedition of three caravels. As they neared the +latitude of the Cape which he was trying to make, he ran into a gale +which drove him a long way out of his course, west and south. + +The wind veered round from north-east to north-west, and he did not +strike the land again until May 1487. When he did so his crew insisted +upon his returning, as they declined to go any further south. He +therefore turned to the west, and then made the startling discovery that +in the course of the tempest he had been blown round the Cape, and that +the land he had made was to the eastward of it; and he therefore rounded +it on his way home. He arrived back in Lisbon in December 1488, when +Columbus met his brother again, and was present at the reception of Diaz +by the King of Portugal. They had a great deal to tell each other, these +two brothers; in the two years and a half that had gone since they had +parted a great deal had happened to them; and they both knew a good deal +more about the great question in which they, were interested than they +had known when last they talked. + +It is to this period that I attribute the inception, if not the +execution, of the forgery of the Toscanelli correspondence, if, as I +believe, it was a forgery. Christopher's unpleasant experiences before +learned committees and commissions had convinced him that unless he were +armed with some authoritative and documentary support for his theories +they had little chance of acceptance by the learned. The, Idea was +right; he knew that; but before he could convince the academic mind, he +felt that it must have the imprimatur of a mind whose learning could not +be impugned. Therefore it is not an unfair guess--and it can be nothing +more than a guess--that Christopher and Bartholomew at this point laid +their heads together, and decided that the next time Christopher had to +appear before a commission he would, so to speak, have something "up his +sleeve." It was a risky thing to do, and must in any case be used only +as a very last resource; which would account for the fact that the +Toscanelli correspondence was never used at all, and is not mentioned in +any document known to men written until long after Columbus's death. + +But these summers and winters of suspense are at last drawing to a close, +and we must follow Christopher rapidly through them until the hour of his +triumph. He was back in Spain in the spring of 1489, his travelling +expenses being defrayed out of the royal purse; and a little later he was +once more amid scenes of war at the siege of Baza, and, if report is +true, taking a hand himself, not without distinction. It was there that +he saw the two friars from the convent of the Holy Sepulchre at +Jerusalem, who brought a message from the Grand Soldan of Egypt, +threatening the destruction of the Sepulchre if the Spanish sovereigns +did not desist from the war against Granada; and it was there that in his +simple and pious mind he formed the resolve that if ever his efforts +should be crowned with success, and he himself become rich and powerful, +he would send a crusade for the rescue of the Holy Sepulchre. And it was +there that, on the 22nd of December, he saw Boabdil, the elder of the two +rival Kings of Granada, surrender all his rights and claims to Spain. +Surely now there will be a chance for him? No; there is another +interruption, this time occasioned by the royal preparations for the +marriage of the Princess Isabella to the heir of Portugal. Poor +Columbus, sickened and disappointed by these continual delays, irritated +by a sense of the waste of his precious time, follows the Court about +from one place to another, raising a smile here and a scoff there, and +pointed at by children in the street. There, is nothing so ludicrous as +an Idea to those who do not share it. + +Another summer, another winter, lost out of a life made up of a limited +number of summers and winters; a few more winters and summers, thinks +Christopher, and I shall be in a world where Ideas are not needed, and +where there is nothing left to discover! Something had to be done. In +the beginning of 1491 there was only one thing spoken of at Court--the +preparations for the siege of Granada, which did not interest Columbus at +all. The camp of King Ferdinand was situated at Santa Fe, a few miles to +the westward of Granada, and Columbus came here late in the year, +determined to get a final answer one way or the other to his question. +He made his application, and the busy monarchs once more adopted their +usual polite tactics. They appointed a junta, which was presided over by +no less a person than the Cardinal of Spain, Gonzales de Mendoza: Once +more the weary business was gone through, but Columbus must have had some +hopes of success, since he did not produce his forged Toscanelli +correspondence. It was no scruple of conscience that held him back, we +may be sure; the crafty Genoese knew nothing about such scruples in the +attainment of a great object; he would not have hesitated to adopt any +means to secure an end which he felt to be so desirable. So it is +probable that either he was not quite sure of his ground and his courage +failed him, or that he had hopes, owing to his friendship with so many of +the members of the junta, that a favourable decision would at last be +arrived at. In this he was mistaken. The Spanish prelates again quoted +the Fathers of the Church, and disposed of his proposals simply on the +ground that they were heretical. Much talk, and much wagging of learned +heads; and still no mother-wit or gleam of light on this obscurity of +learning. The junta decided against the proposals, and reported its +decision to the King and Queen. The monarchs, true to their somewhat +hedging methods when there was anything to be gained by hedging, informed +Columbus that at present they were too much occupied with the war to +grant his requests; but that, when the preoccupations and expenses of the +campaign were a thing of the past, they might again turn their attention +to his very interesting suggestion. + +It was at this point that the patience of Columbus broke down. Too many +promises had been made to him, and hope had been held out to him too +often for him to believe any more in it. Spain, he decided, was useless; +he would try France; at least he would be no worse off there. But he had +first of all to settle his affairs as well as possible. Diego, now a +growing boy nearly eleven years old, had been staying with Beatriz at +Cordova, and going to school there; Christopher would take him back to +his aunt's at Huelva before he went away. He set out with a heavy heart, +but with purpose and determination unimpaired. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +OUR LADY OF LA RABIDA + +It is a long road from Santa Fe to Huelva, a long journey to make on +foot, and the company of a sad heart and a little talking boy, prone to +sudden weariness and the asking of innumerable difficult questions, would +not make it very much shorter. Every step that Christopher took carried +him farther away from the glittering scene where his hopes had once been +so bright, and were now fallen to the dust; and every step brought him +nearer that unknown destiny as to which he was in great darkness of mind, +and certain only that there was some small next thing constantly to be +done: the putting down of one foot after another, the request for food +and lodging at the end of each short day's march, the setting out again +in the morning. That walk from Santa Fe, so real and painful and +wearisome and long a thing to Christopher and Diego, is utterly blank and +obliterated for us. What he thought and felt and suffered are things +quite dead; what he did-namely, to go and do the immediate thing that it +seemed possible and right for him to do--is a living fact to-day, for it +brought him, as all brave and honest doing will, a little nearer to his +destiny, a little nearer to the truthful realisation of what was in him. + +At about a day's journey from Huelva, where the general slope of the land +begins to fall towards the sea, two small rivers, the Odiel and the +Tinto, which have hitherto been making music each for itself through the +pleasant valleys and vineyards of Andalusia, join forces, and run with a +deeper stream towards the sea at Palos. The town of Palos lay on the +banks of the river; a little to the south of it, and on the brow of a +rocky promontory dark with pine trees, there stood the convent of Our +Lady of La Rabida. Stood, on this November evening in the year 1491; +had stood in some form or other, and used for varying purposes, for many +years and centuries before that, even to the time of the Romans; and +still stands, a silent and neglected place, yet to be visited and seen by +such as are curious. To the door of this place comes Christopher as +darkness falls, urged thereto by the plight of Diego, who is tired and +hungry. Christopher rings the bell, and asks the porter for a little +bread and water for the child, and a lodging for them both. There is +some talk at the door; the Franciscan lay brother being given, at all +times in the history of his order, to the pleasant indulgence of +gossiping conversation, when that is lawful; and the presence of a +stranger, who speaks with a foreign accent, being at all times a incident +of interest and even of excitement in the quiet life of a monastery. The +moment is one big with import to the human race; it marks a period in the +history of our man; the scene is worth calling up. Dark night, with sea +breezes moaning in the pine trees, outside; raying light from within +falling on the lay brother leaning in the doorway and on the two figures +standing without: on Christopher, grave, subdued, weary, yet now as +always of pleasant and impressive address, and on the small boy who +stands beside him round-eyed and expectant, his fatigue for the moment +forgotten in curiosity and anticipation. + +While they are talking comes no less a person than the Prior of the +monastery, Friar Juan Perez, bustling round, good-natured busybody that +he is, to see what is all this talk at the door. The Prior, as is the +habit of monks, begins by asking questions. What is the stranger's name? +Where does he come from? Where is he going to? What is his business? +Is the little boy his son? He has actually come from Santa Fe? The +Prior, loving talk after the manner of his kind, sees in this grave and +smooth-spoken stranger rich possibilities of talk; possibilities that +cannot possibly be exhausted to-night, it being now hard on the hour of +Compline; the stranger must come in and rest for tonight at least, and +possibly for several nights. There is much bustle and preparation; the +travellers are welcomed with monkish hospitality; Christopher, we may be +sure, goes and hears the convent singing Compline, and offers up devout +prayers for a quiet night and for safe conduct through this vale of +tears; and goes thankfully to bed with the plainsong echoing in his ears, +and some stoic sense that all days, however hard, have an evening, and +all journeys an end. + +Next morning the talk begins in earnest, and Christopher, never a very +reserved man, finds in the friendly curiosity of the monks abundant +encouragement to talk; and before very long he is in full swing with his +oft-told story. The Prior is delighted with it; he has not heard +anything so interesting for a long time. Moreover, he has not always +been in a convent; he was not so long ago confessor to Queen Isabella +herself, and has much to communicate and ask concerning that lady. +Columbus's proposal does not strike him as being unreasonable at all; +but he has a friend in Palos, a very learned man indeed, Doctor Garcia +Hernandez, who often comes and has a talk with him; he knows all about +astronomy and cosmography; the Prior will send for him. And meanwhile +there must be no word of Columbus's departure for a few days at any rate. + +Presently Doctor Garcia Hernandez arrives, and the whole story is gone +over again. They go at it hammer and tongs, arguments and counter- +arguments, reasons for and against, encouragements, and objections. The +result is that Doctor Garcia Hernandez, whose learning seems not yet +quite to have blinded or deafened him, thinks well of the scheme; thinks +so well of it that he protests it will be a thousand pities if the chance +of carrying it out is lost to Spain. The worthy Prior, who has been +somewhat out of it while the talk about degrees and latitudes has been +going on, here strikes in again; he will use his influence. Perhaps the +good man, living up here among the pine trees and the sea winds, and +involved in the monotonous round of Prime, Lauds, Nones, Vespers, has a +regretful thought or two of the time when he moved in the splendid +intricacy of Court life; at any rate he is not sorry to have an +opportunity of recalling himself to the attention of Her Majesty, for the +spiritual safety of whose soul he was once responsible; perhaps, being +(in spite of his Nones and Vespers) a human soul, he is glad of an +opportunity of opposing the counsels of his successor, Talavera. In a +word, he will use his Influence. Then follow much drafting of letters, +and laying of heads together, and clatter of monkish tongues; the upshot +of which is that a letter is written in which Perez urges his daughter in +the Lord in the strongest possible terms not to let slip so glorious an +opportunity, not only of fame and increment to her kingdom, but of +service to the Church and the kingdom of Heaven itself. He assures her +that Columbus is indeed about to depart from the country, but that he +(Perez) will detain him at La Rabida until he has an answer from the +Queen. + +A messenger to carry the letter was found in the person of Sebastian +Rodriguez, a pilot of the port, who immediately set off to Santa Fe. +It is not likely that Columbus, after so many rebuffs, was very hopeful; +but in the meantime, here he was amid the pious surroundings in which the +religious part of him delighted, and in a haven of rest after all his +turmoils and trials. He could look out to sea over the flecked waters of +that Atlantic whose secrets he longed to discover; or he could look down +into the busy little port of Palos, and watch the ships sailing in and +out across the bar of Saltes. He could let his soul, much battered and +torn of late by trials and disappointments, rest for a time on the rock +of religion; he could snuff the incense in the chapel to his heart's +content, and mingle his rough top-gallant voice with the harsh croak of +the monks in the daily cycle of prayer and praise. He could walk with +Diego through the sandy roads beneath the pine trees, or through the +fields and vineyards below; and above all he could talk to the company +that good Perez invited to meet him--among them merchants and sailors +from Palos, of whom the chief was Martin Alonso Pinzon, a wealthy +landowner and navigator, whose family lived then at Palos, owning the +vineyards round about, and whose descendants live there to this day. +Pinzon was a listener after Columbus's own heart; he not only believed in +his project, but offered to assist it with money, and even to accompany +the expedition himself. Altogether a happy and peaceful time, in which +hopes revived, and the inner light that, although it had now and then +flickered, had never gone out, burned up again in a bright and steady +flame. + +At the end of a fortnight, and much sooner than had been expected, the +worthy pilot returned with a letter from the Queen. Eager hands seized +it and opened it; delight beamed from the eyes of the good Prior. The +Queen was most cordial to him, thanked him for his intervention, was +ready to listen to him and even to be convinced by him; and in the +meantime commanded his immediate appearance at the Court, asking that +Columbus would be so good as to wait at La Rabida until he should hear +further from her. Then followed such a fussing and fuming, such a +running hither and thither, and giving and taking of instructions and +clatter of tongues as even the convent of La Rabida had probably never +known. Nothing will serve the good old busybody, although it is now near +midnight, but that he must depart at once. He will not wait for +daylight; he will not, the good honest soul! wait at all. He must be off +at once; he must have this, he must have that; he will take this, he +will leave that behind; or no, he will take that, and leave this behind. +He must have a mule, for his old feet will not bear him fast enough; ex- +confessors of Her Majesty, moreover, do not travel on foot; and after +more fussing and running hither and thither a mule is borrowed from one +Juan Rodriguez Cabezudo of Moguer; and with a God-speed from the group +standing round the lighted doorway, the old monk sets forth into the +night. + +It is a strange thing to consider what unimportant flotsam sometimes +floats visibly upon the stream of history, while the gravest events are +sunk deep beneath its flood. We would give a king's ransom to know +events that must have taken place in any one of twenty years in the life +of Columbus, but there is no sign of them on the surface of the stream, +nor will any fishing bring them to light. Yet here, bobbing up like a +cork, comes the name of Juan Rodriguez Cabezudo of Moguer, doubtless a +good worthy soul, but, since he has been dead these four centuries and +more, of no interest or importance to any human being; yet of whose life +one trivial act, surviving the flood of time which has engulfed all else +that he thought important, falls here to be recorded: that he did, +towards midnight of a day late in December 1491 lend a mule to Friar Juan +Perez. + + +Of that heroic mule journey we have no record; but it brought results +enough to compensate the good Prior for all his aching bones and +rheumatic joints. He was welcomed by the Queen, who had never quite lost +her belief in Columbus, but who had hitherto deferred to the apathy of +Ferdinand and the disapproval--of her learned advisers. Now, however, +the matter was reopened. She, who sometimes listened to priests with +results other than good, heard this worthy priest to good purpose. The +feminine friends of Columbus who remembered him at Court also spoke up +for him, among them the Marquesa de Moya, with whom he had always been a +favourite; and it was decided that his request should be granted and +three vessels equipped for the expedition, "that he might go and make +discoveries and prove true the words he had spoken."--Moreover, the +machinery that had been so hard to move before, turned swiftly now. +Diego Prieto, one of the magistrates of Palos, was sent to Columbus at La +Rabida, bearing 20,000 maravedis with which he was to buy a mule and +decent clothing for himself, and repair immediately to the Court at Santa +Fe. Old Perez was in high feather, and busy with his pen. He wrote to +Doctor Garcia Hernandez, and also to Columbus, in whose letter the +following pleasant passage occurs: + + "Our Lord has listened to the prayers of His servant. The wise and + virtuous Isabella, touched by the grace of Heaven, gave a favourable + hearing to the words of this poor monk. All has turned out well. + Far from despising your project, she has adopted it from this time, + and she has summoned you to Court to propose the means which seem + best to you for the execution of the designs of Providence. My + heart swims in a sea of comfort, and my spirit leaps with joy in the + Lord. Start at once, for the Queen waits for you, and I much more + than she. Commend me to the prayers of my brethren, and of your + little Diego. The grace of God be with you, and may Our Lady of La + Rabida accompany you." + +The news of that day must have come upon Columbus like a burst of +sunshine after rain. I like to think how bright must have seemed to him +the broad view of land and sea, how deeply the solemn words of the last +office which he attended must have sunk into his soul, how great and glad +a thing life must have been to him, and how lightly the miles must have +passed beneath the feet of his mule as he jogged out on the long road to +Santa Fe. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE CONSENT OF SPAIN + +Once more; in the last days of the year 1491, Columbus rode into the +brilliant camp which he had quitted a few weeks before with so heavy a +heart. Things were changed now. Instead of being a suitor, making a +nuisance of himself, and forcing his affairs on the attention of +unwilling officials, he was now an invited and honoured guest; much more +than that, he was in the position of one who believed that he had a great +service to render to the Crown, and who was at last to be permitted to +render it. + +Even now, at the eleventh hour, there was one more brief interruption. +On the 1st of January 1492 the last of the Moorish kings sent in his +surrender to King Ferdinand, whom he invited to come and take possession +of the city of Granada; and on the next day the Spanish army marched into +that city, where, in front of the Alhambra, King Ferdinand received the +keys of the castle and the homage of the Moorish king. The wars of eight +centuries were at an end, and the Christian banner of Spain floated at +last over the whole land. Victory and success were in the air, and the +humble Genoese adventurer was to have his share in them. Negotiations of +a practical nature were now begun; old friends--Talavera, Luis de +Santangel, and the Grand Cardinal himself--were all brought into +consultation with the result that matters soon got to the documentary +stage. Here, however, there was a slight hitch. It was not simply a +matter of granting two, or three ships. The Genoese was making a +bargain, and asking an impossible price. Even the great grandees and +Court officials, accustomed to the glitter and dignity of titles, rubbed +their eyes with astonishment, when they saw what Columbus was demanding. +He who had been suing for privileges was now making conditions. And what +conditions! He must be created Admiral of all the Ocean Seas and of the +new lands, with equal privileges and prerogatives as those appertaining +to the High Admiral of Castile, the supreme naval officer of Spain. Not +content with sea dignities, he was also to be Viceroy and Governor- +General in all islands or mainlands that he might acquire; he wanted a +tenth part of the profits resulting from his discoveries, in perpetuity; +and he must have the permanent right of contributing an eighth part of +the cost of the equipment and have an additional eighth part of the +profits; and all his heirs and descendants for ever were to have the same +privileges. These conditions were on such a scale as no sovereign could +readily approve. Columbus's lack of pedigree, and the fact also that he +was a foreigner, made them seem the more preposterous; for although he +might receive kindness and even friendship from some of the grand +Spaniards with whom he associated, that friendship and kindness were +given condescendingly and with a smile. He was delightful when he was +merely proposing as a mariner to confer additional grandeur and glory on +the Crown; but when it came to demanding titles and privileges which +would make him rank with the highest grandees in, the land, the matter +took on quite a different colour. It was nonsense; it could not be +allowed; and many were the friendly hints that Columbus doubtless +received at this time to relinquish his wild demands and not to overreach +himself. + +But to the surprise and dismay of his friends, who really wished him to +have a chance of distinguishing himself, and were shocked at the +impediments he was now putting in his own way, the man from Genoa stood +firm. What he proposed to do, he said, was worthy of the rewards that he +asked; they were due to the importance and grandeur of his scheme, and so +on. Nor did he fail to point out that the bestowal of them was a matter +altogether contingent on results; if there were no results, there would +be no rewards; if there were results, they would be worthy of the +rewards. This action of Columbus's deserves close study. He had come to +a turning-point in his life. He had been asking, asking, asking, for six +years; he had been put off and refused over and over again; people were +beginning to laugh at him for a madman; and now, when a combination of +lucky chances had brought him to the very door of success, he stood +outside the threshold bargaining for a preposterous price before he would +come in. It seemed like the densest stupidity. What is the explanation +of it? + +The only explanation of it is to be found in the character of Columbus. +We must try to see him as he is in this forty-second year of his life, +bargaining with notaries, bishops, and treasurers; we must try to see +where these forty years have brought him, and what they have made of him. +Remember the little boy that played in the Vico Dritto di Ponticello, +acquainted with poverty, but with a soul in him that could rise beyond it +and acquire something of the dignity of that Genoa, arrogant, splendid +and devout, which surrounded him during his early years. Remember his +long life of obscurity at sea, and the slow kindling of the light of +faith in something beyond the familiar horizons; remember the social +inequality of his marriage, his long struggle with poverty, his long +familiarity with the position of one who asked and did not receive; the +many rebuffs and indignities which his Ligurian pride must have received +at the hands of all those Spanish dignitaries and grandees--remember all +this, and then you will perhaps not wonder so much that Columbus, who was +beginning to believe himself appointed by Heaven to this task of +discovery, felt that he had much to pay himself back for. One must +recognise him frankly for what he was, and for no conventional hero of +romance; a man who would reconcile his conscience with anything, and +would stop at nothing in the furtherance of what he deemed a good object; +and a man at the same time who had a conscience to reconcile, and would, +whenever it was necessary, laboriously and elaborately perform the act of +reconciliation. When he made these huge demands in Granada he was +gambling with his chances; but he was a calculating gambler, just about +as cunning and crafty in the weighing of one chance against another as a +gambler with a conscience can be; and he evidently realised that his own +valuation of the services he proposed to render would not be without its +influence on his sovereign's estimate of them. At any rate he was +justified by the results, for on the 17th of April 1492, after a deal of +talk and bargaining, but apparently without any yielding on Columbus's +part, articles of capitulation were drawn up in which the following +provisions were made:-- + +First, that Columbus and his heirs for ever should have the title and +office of Admiral in all the islands and continents of the ocean that he +or they might discover, with similar honours and prerogatives to those +enjoyed by the High Admiral of Castile. + +Second, that he and his heirs should be Viceroys and Governors-General +over all the said lands and continents, with the right of nominating +three candidates for the governing of each island or province, one of +whom should be appointed by the Crown. + +Third, that he end his heirs should be entitled to one-tenth of all +precious stones, metals, spices, and other merchandises, however +acquired, within his Admiralty, the cost of acquisition being first +deducted. + +Fourth, that he or his lieutenants in their districts, and the High +Admiral of Castile in his district, should be the sole judge in all +disputes arising out of traffic between Spain and the new countries. + +Fifth, that he now, and he and his heirs at all times, should have the +right to contribute the eighth part of the expense of fitting out +expeditions, and receive the eighth part of the profits. + +In addition to these articles there was another document drawn up on the +30th of April, which after an infinite preamble about the nature of the +Holy Trinity, of the Apostle Saint James, and of the Saints of God +generally in their relations to Princes, and with a splendid trailing of +gorgeous Spanish names and titles across the page, confers upon our +hitherto humble Christopher the right to call himself "Don," and finally +raises him, in his own estimation at any rate, to a social level with his +proud Spanish friends. It is probably from this time that he adopted the +Spanish form of his name, Christoval Colon; but in this narrative I shall +retain the more universal form in which it has become familiar to the +English-speaking world. + +He was now upon a Pisgah height, from which in imagination he could look +forth and see his Land of Promise. We also may climb up with him, and +stand beside him as he looks westward. We shall not see so clearly as he +sees, for we have not his inner light; and it is probable that even he +does not see the road at all, but only the goal, a single point of light +shining across a gulf of darkness. But from Pisgah there is a view +backward as well as forward, and, we may look back for a moment on this +last period of Christopher's life in Spain, inwardly to him so full of +trouble and difficulty and disappointment, outwardly so brave and +glittering, musical with high-sounding names and the clash of arms; gay +with sun and shine and colour. The brilliant Court moving from camp to +camp with its gorgeous retinues and silken pavilions and uniforms and +dresses and armours; the excitement of war, the intrigues of the +antechamber--these are the bright fabric of the latter years; and against +it, as against a background, stand out the beautiful names of the Spanish +associates of Columbus at this time--Medina Celi, Alonso de Quintanilla, +Cabrero, Arana, DEA, Hernando de Talavera, Gonzales de Mendoza, Alonso de +Cardenas, Perez, Hernandez, Luis de Santangel, and Rodriguez de +Maldonado--names that now, in his hour of triumph, are like banners +streaming in the wind against a summer sky. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE PREPARATIONS AT PALOS + +The Palos that witnessed the fitting out of the ships of Columbus exists +no longer. The soul is gone from it; the trade that in those days made +it great and busy has floated away from it into other channels; and it +has dwindled and shrunk, until to-day it consists of nothing but a double +street of poor white houses, such almost as you may see in any sea-coast +village in Ireland. The slow salt tides of the Atlantic come flooding in +over the Manto bank, across the bar of Saltes, and, dividing at the +tongue of land that separates the two rivers, creep up the mud banks of +the Tinto and the Odiel until they lie deep beside the wharves of Huelva +and Palos; but although Huelva still has a trade the tides bring nothing +to Palos, and take nothing away with them again. From La Rabida now you +can no longer see, as Columbus saw, fleets of caravels lying-to and +standing off and on outside the bar waiting for the flood tide; only a +few poor boats fishing for tunny in the empty sunny waters, or the smoke +of a steamer standing on her course for the Guadalquiver or Cadiz. + +But in those spring days of 1492 there was a great stir and bustle of +preparation in Palos. As soon as the legal documents had been signed +Columbus returned there and, taking up his quarters at La Rabida, set +about fitting out his expedition. The reason Palos was chosen was an +economical one. The port, for some misdemeanour, had lately been +condemned to provide two caravels for the service of the Crown for a +period of twelve months; and in the impoverished state of the royal +exchequer this free service came in very usefully in fitting out the +expedition of discovery. Columbus was quite satisfied, since he had such +good friends at Palos; and he immediately set about choosing the ships. + +This, however, did not prove to be quite such a straightforward business +as might have been expected. The truth is that, whatever a few monks and +physicians may have thought of it, the proposed expedition terrified the +ordinary seafaring population of Palos. It was thought to be the wildest +and maddest scheme that any one had ever heard of. All that was known +about the Atlantic west of the Azores was that it was a sea of darkness, +inhabited by monsters and furrowed by enormous waves, and that it fell +down the slope of the world so steeply that no ship having once gone down +could ever climb up it again. And not only was there reluctance on the +part of mariners to engage themselves for the expedition, but also a +great shyness on the part of ship-owners to provide ships. This +reluctance proved so formidable an impediment that Columbus had to +communicate with the King and Queen; with the result that on the 23rd of +May the population was summoned to the church of Saint George, where the +Notary Public read aloud to them the letter from the sovereigns +commanding the port to furnish ships and men, and an additional order +summoning the town to obey it immediately. An inducement was provided in +the offer of a free pardon to all criminals and persons under sentence +who chose to enlist. + +Still the thing hung fire; and on June 20 a new and peremptory order was +issued by the Crown authorising Columbus to impress the vessels and crew +if necessary. Time was slipping away; and in his difficulty Columbus +turned to Martin Alonso Pinzon, upon whose influence and power in the +town he could count. There were three brothers then in this family- +Martin Alonso, Vincenti Yanez, and Francisco Martin, all pilots +themselves and owners of ships. These three brothers saw some hope of +profit out of the enterprise, and they exerted themselves on +Christopher's behalf so thoroughly that, not only did they afford him +help in the obtaining of ships, men, and supplies, but they all three +decided to go with him. + +There was one more financial question to be settled--a question that +remains for us in considerable obscurity, but was in all probability +partly settled by the aid of these brothers. The total cost of the +expedition, consisting of three ships, wages of the crew, stores and +provisions, was 1,167,542 maravedis, about L950(in 1900). After all +these years of pleading at Court, all the disappointments and deferred +hopes and sacrifices made by Columbus, the smallness of this sum cannot +but strike us with amazement. Many a nobleman that Columbus must have +rubbed shoulders with in his years at Court could have furnished the +whole sum out of his pocket and never missed it; yet Columbus had to wait +years and years before he could get it from the Crown. Still more +amazing, this sum was not all provided by the Crown; 167,000 maravedis +were found by Columbus, and the Crown only contributed one million +maravedis. One can only assume that Columbus's pertinacity in +petitioning the King and Queen to undertake the expedition, when he +could with comparative ease have got the money from some of his noble +acquaintance, was due to three things--his faith and belief in his Idea, +his personal ambition, and his personal greed. He believed in his Idea +so thoroughly that he knew he was going to find something across the +Atlantic. Continents and islands cannot for long remain in the +possession of private persons; they are the currency of crowns; and he +did not want to be left in the lurch if the land he hoped to discover +should be seized or captured by Spain or Portugal. The result of his +discoveries, he was convinced, was going to be far too large a thing to +be retained and controlled by any machinery less powerful than that of a +kingdom; therefore he was unwilling to accept either preliminary +assistance or subsequent rewards from any but the same powerful hand. +Admiralties, moreover, and Governor-Generalships and Viceroyships cannot +be conferred by counts and dukes, however powerful; the very title Don +could only be conferred by one power in Spain; and all the other titles +and dignities that Columbus craved with all his Genoese soul were to be +had from the hands of kings, and not from plutocrats. It was +characteristic of him all his life never to deal with subordinates, but +always to go direct to the head man; and when the whole purpose and +ambition of his life was to be put to the test it was only consistent in +him, since he could not be independent, to go forth under the protection +of the united Crown of Aragon and Castile. Where or how he raised his +share of the cost is not known; it is possible that his old friend the +Duke of Medina Celi came to his help, or that the Pinzon family, who +believed enough in the expedition to risk their lives in it, lent some of +the necessary money. + + +Ever since ships were in danger of going to sea short-handed methods of +recruiting and manning them have been very much the same; and there must +have been some hot work about the harbour of Palos in the summer of 1492. +The place was in a panic. It is highly probable that many of the +volunteers were a ruffianly riff-raff from the prisons, to whom personal +freedom meant nothing but a chance of plunder; and the recruiting office +in Palos must have seen many a picturesque scoundrel coming and taking +the oath and making his mark. The presence of these adventurers, many of +them entirely ignorant of the sea, would not be exactly an encouragement +to the ordinary seaman. It is here very likely that the influence of the +Pinzon family was usefully applied. I call it influence, since that is a +polite term which covers the application of force in varying degrees; +and it was an awkward thing for a Palos sailor to offend the Pinzons, +who owned and controlled so much of the shipping in the port. Little by +little the preparations went on. In the purchasing of provisions and +stores the Pinzons were most helpful to Columbus and, it is not +improbable, to themselves also. They also procured the ships; +altogether, in the whole history of the fitting out of expeditions, +I know nothing since the voyage of the Ark which was so well kept within +one family. Moreover it is interesting to notice, since we know the +names and places of residence of all the members of the expedition, +that the Pinzons, who personally commanded two of the caravels, had them +almost exclusively manned by sailors from Palos, while the Admiral's ship +was manned by a miscellaneous crew from other places. To be sure they +gave the Admiral the biggest ship, but (in his own words) it proved "a +dull sailer and unfit for discovery"; while they commanded the two +caravels, small and open, but much faster and handier. Clearly these +Pinzons will take no harm from a little watching. They may be honest +souls enough, but their conduct is just a little suspicious, and we +cannot be too careful. + + +Three vessels were at last secured. The first, named the Santa Maria, +was the largest, and was chosen to be the flagship of Columbus. She was +of about one hundred tons burden, and would be about ninety feet in +length by twenty feet beam. She was decked over, and had a high poop +astern and a high forecastle in the bows. She had three masts, two of +them square-rigged, with a latine sail on the mizzen mast; and she +carried a crew of fifty-two persons. Where and how they all stowed +themselves away is a matter upon which we can only make wondering +guesses; for this ship was about the size of an ordinary small coasting +schooner, such as is worked about the coasts of these islands with a crew +of six or eight men. The next largest ship was the Pinta, which was +commanded by Martin Alonso Pinzon, who took his brother Francisco with +him as sailing-master. The Pinta was of fifty tons burden, decked only +at the bow and stern, and the fastest of the three ships; she also had +three masts. The third ship was a caravel of forty tons and called the +Nina; she belonged to Juan Nino of Palos. She was commanded by Vincenti +Pinzon, and had a complement of eighteen men. Among the crew of the +flagship, whose names and places of residence are to be found in the +Appendix, were an Englishman and an Irishman. The Englishman is entered +as Tallarte de Lajes (Ingles), who has been ingeniously identified with a +possible Allard or AEthelwald of Winchelsea, there having been several +generations of Allards who were sailors of Winchelsea in the fifteenth +century. Sir Clements Markham thinks that this Allard may have been +trading to Coruna and have married and settled down at Lajes. There is +also Guillermo Ires, an Irishman from Galway. + +Allard and William, shuffling into the recruiting office in Palos, +doubtless think that this is a strange place for them to meet, and rather +a wild business that they are embarked upon, among all these bloody +Spaniards. Some how I feel more confidence in Allard than in William, +knowing, as I do so well, this William of Galway, whether on his native +heath or in the strange and distant parts of the world to which his +sanguine temperament leads him. Alas, William, you are but the first of +a mighty stream that will leave the Old Country for the New World; the +world destined to be good for the fortunes of many from the Old Country, +but for the Old Country itself not good. Little does he know, drunken +William, willing to be on hand where there is adventure brewing, and to +be after going with the boys and getting his health on the salt water, +what a path of hope for those who go, and of heaviness for those who stay +behind, he is opening up . . . . Farewell, William; I hope you were +not one of those whom they let out of gaol. + +June slid into July, and still the preparations were not complete. Down +on the mud banks of the Tinto, where at low water the vessels were left +high and dry, and where the caulking and refitting were in hand, there +was trouble with the workmen. Gomaz Rascon and Christoval Quintero, the +owners of the Pinta, who had resented her being pressed into the service, +were at the bottom of a good deal of it. Things could not be found; gear +mysteriously gave way after it had been set up; the caulking was found to +have been carelessly and imperfectly done; and when the caulkers were +commanded to do it over again they decamped. Even the few volunteers, +the picked hands upon whom Columbus was relying, gave trouble. In those +days of waiting there was too much opportunity for talk in the shore-side +wine-shops; some of the volunteers repented and tried to cry off their +bargains; others were dissuaded by their relatives, and deserted and hid +themselves. No mild measures were of any use; a reign of terror had to +be established; and nothing short of the influence of the Pinzons was +severe enough to hold the company together. To these vigorous measures, +however, all opposition gradually yielded. By the end of July the +provisions and stores were on board, the whole complement of eighty-seven +persons collected and enlisted, and only the finishing touches left for +Columbus. It is a sign of the distrust and fear evinced with regard to +this expedition, that no priest accompanied it--something of a sorrow to +pious Christopher, who would have liked his chaplain. There were two +surgeons, or barbers, and a physician; there were an overseer, a +secretary, a master-at-arms; there was an interpreter to speak to the +natives of the new lands in Hebrew, Greek, German, Chaldean or Arabic; +and there was an assayer and silversmith to test the quality of the +precious metals that they were sure to find. Up at La Rabida, with the +busy and affectionate assistance of the old Prior, Columbus made his +final preparations. Ferdinand was to stay at Cordova with Beatriz, and +to go to school there; while Diego was already embarked upon his life's +voyage, having been appointed a page to the Queen's son, Prince Juan, and +handed over to the care of some of the Court ladies. The course to be +sailed was talked over and over again; the bearings and notes of the +pilot at Porto Santo consulted and discussed; and a chart was made by +Columbus himself, and copied with his own hands for use on the three +ships. + +On the 2nd of August everything was ready; the ships moored out in the +stream, the last stragglers of the crew on board, the last sack of flour +and barrel of beef stowed away. Columbus confessed himself to the Prior +of La Rabida--a solemn moment for him in the little chapel up on the +pine-clad hill. His last evening ashore would certainly be spent at the +monastery, and his last counsels taken with Perez and Doctor Hernandez. +We can hardly realise the feelings of Christopher on the eve of his +departure from the land where all his roots were, to a land of mere faith +and conjecture. Even today, when the ocean is furrowed by crowded +highways, and the earth is girdled with speaking wires, and distances are +so divided and reduced that the traveller need never be very long out of +touch with his home, few people can set out on a long voyage without some +emotional disturbance, however slight it may be; and to Columbus on this +night the little town upon which he looked down from the monastery, which +had been the scene of so many delays and difficulties and vexations, must +have seemed suddenly dear and familiar to him as he realised that after +to-morrow its busy and well-known scenes might be for ever a thing of the +past to him. Behind him, living or dead, lay all he humanly loved and +cared for; before him lay a voyage full of certain difficulties and +dangers; dangers from the ships, dangers from the crews, dangers from +the weather, dangers from the unknown path itself; and beyond them, a +twinkling star on the horizon of his hopes, lay the land of his belief. +That he meant to arrive there and to get back again was beyond all doubt +his firm intention; and in the simple grandeur of that determination the +weaknesses of character that were grouped about it seem unimportant. In +this starlit hour among the pine woods his life came to its meridian; +everything that was him was at its best and greatest there. Beneath him, +on the talking tide of the river, lay the ships and equipment that +represented years of steady effort and persistence; before him lay the +pathless ocean which he meant to cross by the inner light of his faith. +What he had suffered, he had suffered by himself; what he had won, he had +won by himself; what he was to finish, he would finish by himself. + +But the time for meditations grows short. Lights are moving about in the +town beneath; there is an unwonted midnight stir and bustle; the whole +population is up and about, running hither and thither with lamps and +torches through the starlit night. The tide is flowing; it will be high +water before dawn; and with the first of the ebb the little fleet is to +set sail. The stream of hurrying sailors and townspeople sets towards +the church of Saint George, where mass is to be said and the Sacrament +administered to the voyagers. The calls and shouts die away; the bell +stops ringing; and the low muttering voice of the priest is heard +beginning the Office. The light of the candles shines upon the gaudy +roof, and over the altar upon the wooden image of Saint George +vanquishing the dragon, upon which the eyes of Christopher rested during +some part of the service, and where to-day your eyes may rest also if you +make that pilgrimage. The moment approaches; the bread and the wine are +consecrated; there is a shuffling of knees and feet; and then a pause. +The clear notes of the bell ring out upon the warm dusky silence--once, +twice, thrice; the living God and the cold presence of dawn enter the +church together. Every head is bowed; and for once at least every heart +of that company beats in unison with the rest. And then the Office goes +on, and the dark-skinned congregation streams up to the sanctuary and +receives the Communion, while the blue light of dawn increases and the +candles pale before the coming day. And then out again to the boats with +shoutings and farewells, for the tide has now turned; hoisting of sails +and tripping of anchors and breaking out of gorgeous ensigns; and the +ships are moving! The Maria leads, with the sign of the Redemption +painted on her mainsail and the standard of Castile flying at her mizzen; +and there is cheering from ships and from shore, and a faint sound of +bells from the town of Huelva. + +Thus, the sea being--calm, and a fresh breeze blowing off the land, did +Christopher Columbus set sail from Palos at sunrise on Friday the 3rd of +August 1492. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +EVENTS OF THE FIRST VOYAGE + + "In nomine D.N. Jesu Christi--Friday, August 3, 1492, at eight + o'clock we started from the bar of Saltes. We went with a strong + sea breeze sixty miles,--[Columbus reckoned in Italian miles, of + which four = one league.]--which are fifteen leagues, towards the + south, until sunset: afterwards to the south-west and to the south, + quarter south-west, which was the way to the Canaries." + +With these rousing words the Journal + + [The account of Columbus's first voyage is taken from a Journal + written by himself, but which in its original form does not exist. + Las Casas had it in his possession, but as he regarded it (no doubt + with justice) as too voluminous and discursive to be interesting, he + made an abridged edition, in which the exact words of Columbus were + sometimes quoted, but which for the most part is condensed into a + narrative in the third person. This abridged Journal, consisting of + seventy-six closely written folios, was first published by + Navarrette in 1825. When Las Casas wrote his 'Historie,' however, + he appears here and there to have restored sections of the original + Journal into the abridged one; and many of these restorations are of + importance. If the whole account of his voyage written by Columbus + himself were available in its exact form I would print it here; but + as it is not, I think it better to continue my narrative, simply + using the Journal of Las Casas as a document.] + +of Columbus's voyage begins; and they sound a salt and mighty chord which +contains the true diapason of the symphony of his voyages. There could +not have been a more fortunate beginning, with clear weather and a calm +sea, and the wind in exactly the right quarter. On Saturday and Sunday +the same conditions held, so there was time and opportunity for the three +very miscellaneous ships' companies to shake down into something like +order, and for all the elaborate discipline of sea life to be arranged +and established; and we may employ the interval by noting what aids to +navigation Columbus had at his disposal. + + +The chief instrument was the astrolabe, which was an improvement on the +primitive quadrant then in use for taking the altitude of the sun. The +astrolabe, it will be remembered, had been greatly improved, by Martin +Behaim and the Portuguese Commission in 1840--[1440 D.W.]; and it was +this instrument, a simplification of the astrolabe used in astronomy +ashore, that Columbus chiefly used in getting his solar altitudes. As +will be seen from the illustration, its broad principle was that of a +metal circle with a graduated circumference and two arms pivoted in the +centre. It was made as heavy as possible; and in using it the observer +sat on deck with his back against the mainmast and with his left hand +held up the instrument by the ring at the top. The long arm was moved +round until the two sights fixed upon it were on with the sun. The point +where the other arm then cut the circle gave the altitude. In +conjunction with this instrument were used the tables of solar +declination compiled by Regiomontanus, and covering the sun's declination +between the years 1475 and 1566. + +The compass in Columbus's day existed, so far as all essentials are +concerned, as it exists to-day. Although it lacked the refinements +introduced by Lord Kelvin it was swung in double-cradles, and had the +thirty-two points painted upon a card. The discovery of the compass, and +even of the lodestone, are things wrapt in obscurity; but the lodestone +had been known since at least the eleventh century, and the compass +certainly since the thirteenth. With the compass were used the sea +charts, which were simply maps on a rather larger and more exact scale +than the land maps of the period. There were no soundings or currents +marked on the old charts, which were drawn on a plane projection; and +they can have been of little--practical use to navigators except in the +case of coasts which were elaborately charted on a large scale. The +chart of Columbus, in so far as it was concerned with the ocean westward +of the Azores, can of course have contained nothing except the +conjectured islands or lands which he hoped to find; possibly the land +seen by the shipwrecked pilot may have been marked on it, and his failure +to find that land may have been the reason why, as we shall see, he +changed his course to the southward on the 7th of October. It must be +remembered that Columbus's conception of the world was that of the +Portuguese Mappemonde of 1490, a sketch of which is here reproduced. +This conception of the world excluded the Pacific Ocean and the continent +of North and South America, and made it reasonable to suppose that any +one who sailed westward long enough from Spain would ultimately reach +Cathay and the Indies. Behaim's globe, which was completed in the year +1492, represented the farthest point that geographical knowledge had +reached previous to the discoveries of Columbus, and on it is shown the +island of Cipango or Japan. + +By far the most important element in the navigation of Columbus, in so +far as estimating his position was concerned, was what is known as "dead- +reckoning" that is to say, the computation of the distance travelled by +the ship through the water. At present this distance is measured by a +patent log, which in its commonest form is a propeller-shaped instrument +trailed through the water at the end of a long wire or cord the inboard +end of which is attached to a registering clock. On being dragged +through the water the propeller spins round and the twisting action is +communicated by the cord to the clock-work machinery which counts the +miles. In the case of powerful steamers and in ordinary weather dead- +reckoning is very accurately calculated by the number of revolutions of +the propellers recorded in the engine-room; and a device not unlike this +was known to the Romans in the time of the Republic. They attached small +wheels about four feet in diameter to the sides of their ships; the +passage of the water turned the wheels, and a very simple gearing was +arranged which threw a pebble into a tallypot at each revolution. This +device, however, seems to have been abandoned or forgotten in Columbus's +day, when there was no more exact method of estimating dead-reckoning +than the primitive one of spitting over the side in calm weather, or at +other times throwing some object into the water and estimating the rate +of progress by its speed in passing the ship's side. The hour-glass, +which was used to get the multiple for long distances, was of course the +only portable time measurer available for Columbus. These, with a rough +knowledge of astronomy, and the taking of the altitude of the polar star, +were the only known means for ascertaining the position of his ship at +sea. + + +The first mishap occurred on Monday, August 6th, when the Pinta carried +away her rudder. The Pinta, it will be remembered, was commanded by +Martin Alonso Pinzon, and was owned by Gomaz Rascon and Christoval +Quintero, who had been at the bottom of some of the troubles ashore; and +it was thought highly probable that these two rascals had something to do +with the mishap, which they had engineered in the hope that their vessel +would be left behind at the Canaries. Martin Alonso, however, proved a +man of resource, and rigged up a sort of steering gear with ropes. There +was a choppy sea, and Columbus could not bring his own vessel near enough +to render any assistance, though he doubtless bawled his directions to +Pinzon, and looked with a troubled eye on the commotion going on on board +the Pinta. On the next day the jury-rigged rudder carried away again, +and was again repaired, but it was decided to try and make the island of +Lanzarote in the Canaries, and to get another caravel to replace the +Pinta. All through the next day the Santa Maria and the Nina had to +shorten sail in order not to leave the damaged Pinta behind; the three +captains had a discussion and difference of opinion as to where they +were; but Columbus, who was a genius at dead-reckoning, proved to be +right in his surmise, and they came in sight of the Canaries on Thursday +morning, August 9th. + +Columbus left Pinzon on the Grand Canary with orders to try to obtain a +caravel there, while he sailed on to Gomera, which he reached on Sunday +night, with a similar purpose. As he was unsuccessful he sent a message +by a boat that was going back to tell Pinzon to beach the Pinta and +repair her rudder; and having spent more days in fruitless search for a +vessel, he started back to join Pinzon on August 23rd. During the night +he passed the Peak of Teneriffe, which was then in eruption. The repairs +to the Pinta, doubtless in no way expedited by Messrs. Rascon and +Quintera, took longer than had been expected; it was found necessary to +make an entirely new rudder for her; and advantage was taken of the delay +to make some alterations in the rig of the Nina, which was changed from a +latine rig to a square rig, so that she might be better able to keep up +with the others. September had come before these two jobs were +completed; and on the 2nd of September the three ships sailed for Gomera, +the most westerly of the islands, where they anchored in the north-east +bay. The Admiral was in a great hurry to get away from the islands and +from the track of merchant ships, for he had none too much confidence in +the integrity of his crews, which were already murmuring and finding +every mishap a warning sign from God. He therefore only stayed long +enough at Gomera to take in wood and water and provisions, and set sail +from that island on the 6th of September. + +The wind fell lighter and lighter, and on Friday the little fleet lay +becalmed within sight of Ferro. But on Saturday evening north-east airs +sprang up again, and they were able to make nine leagues of westing. On +Sunday they had lost sight of land; and at thus finding their ships three +lonely specks in the waste of ocean the crew lost heart and began to +lament. There was something like a panic, many of the sailors bursting +into tears and imploring Columbus to take them home again. To us it may +seem a rather childish exhibition; but it must be remembered that these +sailors were unwillingly embarked upon a voyage which they believed would +only lead to death and disaster. The bravest of us to-day, if he found +himself press-ganged on board a balloon and embarked upon a journey, the +object of which was to land upon Mars or the moon, might find it +difficult to preserve his composure on losing sight of the earth; and the +parallel is not too extreme to indicate the light in which their present +enterprise must have appeared to many of the Admiral's crew. + +Columbus gave orders to the captains of the other two ships that, in case +of separation, they were to sail westward for 700 leagues-that being the +distance at which he evidently expected to find land--and there to lie-to +from midnight until morning. On this day also, seeing the temper of the +sailors, he began one of the crafty stratagems upon which he prided +himself, and which were often undoubtedly of great use to him; he kept +two reckonings, one a true one, which he entered in his log, and one a +false one, by means of which the distance run was made out to be less +than what it actually was, so that in case he could not make land as soon +as he hoped the crew would not be unduly discouraged. In other words, he +wished to have a margin at the other end, for he did not want a mutiny +when he was perhaps within a few leagues of his destination. On this day +he notes that the raw and inexperienced seamen were giving trouble in +other ways, and steering very badly, continually letting the ship's head- +fall off to the north; and many must have been the angry remonstrances +from the captain to the man at the wheel. Altogether rather a trying day +for Christopher, who surely has about as much on his hands as ever mortal +had; but he knows how to handle ships and how to handle sailors, and so +long as this ten-knot breeze lasts, he can walk the high poop of the +Santa Maria with serenity, and snap his fingers at the dirty rabble +below. + + +On Monday they made sixty leagues, the Admiral duly announcing forty- +eight; on Tuesday twenty leagues, published as sixteen; and on this day +they saw a large piece of a mast which had evidently belonged to a ship +of at least 120 tons burden. This was not an altogether cheerful sight +for the eighteen souls on board the little Nina, who wondered ruefully +what was going to happen to them of forty tons when ships three times +their size had evidently been unable to live in this abominable sea! + +On Thursday, September 13th, when Columbus took his observations, he made +a great scientific discovery, although he did not know it at the time. +He noticed that the needle of the compass was declining to the west of +north instead of having a slight declination to the east of north, as all +mariners knew it to have. In other words, he had passed the line of true +north and of no variation, and must therefore have been in latitude +28 deg. N. and longitude 29 deg. 37' W. of Greenwich. With his usual +secrecy he said nothing about it; perhaps he was waiting to see if the +pilots on the other ships had noticed it, but apparently they were not so +exact in their observations as he was. On the next day, Friday, the wind +falling a little lighter, they, made only twenty leagues. "Here the +persons on the caravel Nina said they had seen a jay and a ringtail, and +these birds never come more than twenty-five leagues from land at most." +--Unhappy "persons on the Nina"! Nineteen souls, including the captain, +afloat in a very small boat, and arguing God knows what from the fact +that a jay and a ringtail never went more than twenty-five leagues from +land!--The next day also was not without its incident; for on Saturday +evening they saw a meteor, or "marvellous branch of fire" falling from +the serene violet of the sky into the sea. + +They were now well within the influence of the trade-wind, which in these +months blows steadily from the east, and maintains an exquisite and balmy +climate. Even the Admiral, never very communicative about his +sensations, deigns to mention them here, and is reported to have said +that "it was a great pleasure to enjoy the morning; that nothing was +lacking except to hear the nightingales, and that the weather was like +April in Andalusia." On this day they saw some green grasses, which the +Admiral considered must have floated off from some island; "not the +continent," says the Admiral, whose theories are not to be disturbed by a +piece of grass, "because I make the continental land farther onward." +The crew, ready to take the most depressing and pessimistic view of +everything, considered that the lumps of grass belonged to rocks or +submerged lands, and murmured disparaging things about the Admiral. +As a matter of fact these grasses were masses of seaweed detached from +the Sargasso Sea, which they were soon to enter. + +On Monday, September 17th, four days after Columbus had noted it, the +other pilots noted the declination of the needle, which they had found on +taking the position of the North star. They did not like it; and +Columbus, whose knowledge of astronomy came to his aid, ordered them to +take the position of the North star at dawn again, which they did, and +found that the needles were true. He evidently thought it useless to +communicate to them his scientific speculations, so he explained to them +that it was the North star which was moving in its circle, and not the +compass. One is compelled to admit that in these little matters of +deceit the Admiral always shone. To-day, among the seaweed on the ship's +side, he picked up a little crayfish, which he kept for several days, +presumably in a bottle in his cabin; and perhaps afterwards ate. + +So for several days this calm and serene progress westward was +maintained. The trade-wind blew steady and true, balmy and warm also; +the sky was cloudless, except at morning and evening dusk; and there were +for scenery those dazzling expanses of sea and sky, and those gorgeous +hues of dawn and sunset, which are only to be found in the happy +latitudes. The things that happened to them, the bits of seaweed and +fishes that they saw in the water, the birds that flew around them, were +observed with a wondering attention and wistful yearning after their +meaning such as is known only to children and to sailors adventuring on +uncharted seas. The breezes were milder even than those of the Canaries, +and the waters always less salt; and the men, forgetting their fears of +the monsters of the Sea of Darkness, would bathe alongside in the limpid +blue. The little crayfish was a "sure indication of land"; a tunny fish, +killed by the company on the Nina, was taken to be an indication from the +west, "where I hope in that exalted God, in whose hands are all +victories, that land will very soon appear"; they saw another ringtail, +"which is not accustomed to sleep on the sea"; two pelicans came to the +ship, "which was an indication that land was near"; a large dark cloud +appeared to the north, "which is a sign that land is near"; they saw one +day a great deal of grass, "although the previous day they had not seen +any"; they took a bird with their hands which was like a jay; "it was a +river bird and not a sea bird"; they saw a whale, "which is an indication +that they are near land, because they always remain near it"; afterwards +a pelican came from the west-north-west and went to the south-east, +"which was an indication that it left land to the west-north-west, +because these birds sleep on land and in the morning they come to the sea +in search of food, and do not go twenty leagues from land." And "at dawn +two or three small land birds came singing to the ships; and afterwards +disappeared before sunrise." + +Such beautiful signs, interpreted by the light of their wishes, were the +events of this part of the voyage. In the meantime, they have their +little differences. Martin Alonso Pinzon, on Tuesday, September 18th, +speaks from the Pinta to the Santa Maria, and says that he will not wait +for the others, but will go and make the land, since it is so near; but +apparently he does not get very far out of the way, the wind which wafts +him wafting also the Santa Maria and the Nina. + + +On September the 19th there was a comparison of dead-reckonings. The +Nina's pilot made it 440 leagues from the Canaries, the Pinta's 420 +leagues, and the Admiral's pilot, doubtless instructed by the Admiral, +made it 400. On Sunday the 23rd they were getting into the seaweed and +finding crayfish again; and there being no reasonable cause for complaint +a scare was got up among the crew on an exceedingly ingenious point. The +wind having blown steadily from the east for a matter of three weeks, +they said that it would never blow in any other direction, and that they +would never be able to get back to Spain; but later in the afternoon the +sea got up from the westward, as though in answer to their fears, and as +if to prove that somewhere or other ahead of them there was a west wind +blowing; and the Admiral remarks that "the high sea was very necessary to +me, as it came to pass once before in the time when the Jews went out of +Egypt with Moses, who took them from captivity." And indeed there was +something of Moses in this man, who thus led his little rabble from a +Spanish seaport out across the salt wilderness of the ocean, and +interpreted the signs for them, and stood between them and the powers of +vengeance and terror that were set about their uncharted path. + +But it appears that the good Admiral had gone just a little too far in +interpreting everything they saw as a sign that they were approaching +land; for his miserable crew, instead of being comforted by this fact, +now took the opportunity to be angry because the signs were not +fulfilled. The more the signs pointed to their nearness to land, the +more they began to murmur and complain because they did not see it. They +began to form together in little groups--always an ominous sign at sea-- +and even at night those who were not on deck got together in murmuring +companies. Some, of the things that they said, indeed, were not very far +from the truth; among others, that it was "a great madness on their part +to venture their lives in following out the madness of a foreigner who to +make himself a great lord had risked his life, and now saw himself and +all of them in great exigency and was deceiving so many people." They +remembered that his proposition, or "dream" as they not inaptly call it, +had been contradicted by many great and lettered men; and then followed +some very ominous words indeed. They held + + [The substance of these murmurings is not in the abridged Journal, + but is given by Las Casas under the date of September 24.] + +that "it was enough to excuse them from whatever might be done in the +matter that they had arrived where man had never dared to navigate, and +that they were not obliged to go to the end of the world, especially as, +if they delayed more, they would not be able to have provisions to +return." In short, the best thing would be to throw him into the sea +some night, and make a story that he had fallen, into the water while +taking the position of a star with his astrolabe; and no one would ask +any questions, as he was a foreigner. They carried this talk to the +Pinzons, who listened to them; after all, we have not had to wait long +for trouble with the Pinzons! "Of these Pinzons Christopher Columbus +complains greatly, and of the trouble they had given him." + +There is only one method of keeping down mutiny at sea, and of preserving +discipline. It is hard enough where the mutineers are all on one ship +and the commander's officers are loyal to him; but when they are +distributed over three ships, the captains of two of which are willing to +listen to them, the problem becomes grave indeed. We have no details of +how Columbus quieted them; but it is probable that his strong personality +awed them, while his clever and plausible words persuaded them. He was +the best sailor of them all and they knew it; and in a matter of this +kind the best and strongest man always wins, and can only in a pass of +this kind maintain his authority by proving his absolute right to it. +So he talked and persuaded and bullied and encouraged and cheered them; +"laughing with them," as Las Casas says, "while he was weeping at heart." + + +Probably as a result of this unpleasantness there was on the following +day, Tuesday, September 25th, a consultation between: Martin Alonso +Pinzon and the Admiral. The Santa Maria closed up with the Pinta, and a +chart was passed over on a cord. There were islands marked on the chart +in this region, possibly the islands reported by the shipwrecked pilot, +possibly the island of Antilla; and Pinzon said he thought that they were +somewhere in the region of them, and the Admiral said that he thought so +too. There was a deal of talk and pricking of positions on charts; and +then, just as the sun was setting, Martin Alonso, standing on the stern +of the Pinta, raised a shout and said that he saw land; asking (business- +like Martin) at the same time for the reward which had been promised to +the first one who should see land: They all saw it, a low cloud to the +southwest, apparently about twenty-five leagues distant; and honest +Christopher, in the emotion of the moment, fell on his knees in gratitude +to God. The crimson sunset of that evening saw the rigging of the three +ships black with eager figures, and on the quiet air were borne the +sounds of the Gloria in Excelsis, which was repeated by each ship's +company. + +The course was altered to the south-west, and they sailed in that +direction seventeen leagues during the night; but in the morning there +was no land to be seen. The sunset clouds that had so often deceived the +dwellers in the Canaries and the Azores, and that in some form or other +hover at times upon all eagerly scanned horizons, had also deceived +Columbus and every one of his people; but they created a diversion which +was of help to the Admiral in getting things quiet again, for which in +his devout soul he thanked the merciful providence of God. + +And so they sailed on again on a westward course. They were still in the +Sargasso Sea, and could watch the beautiful golden floating mass of the +gulf-weed, covered with berries and showing, a little way under the clear +water, bright green leaves. The sea was as smooth as the river in +Seville; there were frigate pelicans flying about, and John Dorys in the +water; several gulls were seen; and a youth on board the Nina killed a +pelican with a stone. On Monday, October 1st, there was a heavy shower +of rain; and Juan de la Cosa, Columbus's pilot, came up to him with the +doleful information that they had run 578 leagues from the island of +Ferro. According to Christopher's doctored reckoning the distance +published was 584 leagues; but his true reckoning, about which he said +nothing to a soul, showed that they had gone 707 leagues. The breeze +still kept steady and the sea calm; and day after day, with the temper of +the crews getting uglier and uglier, the three little vessels forged +westward through the blue, weed-strewn waters, their tracks lying +undisturbed far behind them. On Saturday, October 6th, the Admiral was +signalled by Alonso Pinzon, who wanted to change the course to the south- +west. It appears that, having failed to find the, islands of the +shipwrecked pilot, they were now making for the island of Cipango, and +that this request of Pinzon had something to do with some theory of his +that they had better turn to the south to reach that island; while +Columbus's idea now evidently was--to push straight on to the mainland of +Cathay. Columbus had his way; but the grumbling and murmuring in creased +among the crew. + +On the next day, Sunday, and perhaps just in time to avert another +outbreak, there was heard the sound of a gun, and the watchers on the +Santa Maria and the Pinta saw a puff of smoke coming from the Nina, which +was sailing ahead, and hoisting a flag on her masthead. This was the +signal agreed upon for the discovery of land, and it seemed as though +their search was at last at an end. But it was a mistake. In the +afternoon the land that the people of the Nina thought they had seen had +disappeared, and the horizon was empty except for a great flight of birds +that was seen passing from the north to the south-west. The Admiral, +remembering how often birds had guided the Portuguese in the islands in +their possessions, argued that the birds were either going to sleep on +land or were perhaps flying from winter, which he assumed to be +approaching in the land from whence they came. He therefore altered. +his course from west to west-south-west. This course was entered upon an +hour before sunset and continued throughout the night and the next day. +"The sea was like the river of Seville," says the Admiral; "the breezes +as soft as at Seville in April, and very fragrant." More birds were to +be seen, and there were many signs of land; but the crew, so often +disappointed in their hopeful interpretations of the phenomena +surrounding them, kept on murmuring and complaining. On Tuesday, October +9th, the wind chopped round a little and the course was altered, first to +south-west and then at evening to a point north of west; and the journal +records that "all night they heard birds passing." The next day Columbus +resumed the west-southwesterly course and made a run of fifty-nine +leagues; but the mariners broke out afresh in their discontent, and +declined to go any farther. They complained of the long voyage, and +expressed their views strongly to the commander. But they had to deal +with a man who was determined to begin with, and who saw in the many +signs of land that they had met with only an additional inducement to go +on. He told them firmly that with or without their consent he intended +to go on until he had found the land he had come to seek. + + +The next day, Thursday, October 11th, was destined to be for ever +memorable in the history of the world. It began ordinarily enough, with +a west-south-west wind blowing fresh, and on a sea rather rougher than +they had had lately. The people on the Santa Maria saw some petrels and +a green branch in the water; the Pinta saw a reed and two small sticks +carved with iron, and one or two other pieces of reeds and grasses that +had been grown on shore, as well as a small board. Most wonderful of +all, the people of the Nina saw "a little branch full of dog roses"; and +it would be hard to estimate the sweet significance of this fragment of a +wild plant from land to the senses of men who had been so long upon a sea +from which they had thought never to land alive. The day drew to its +close; and after nightfall, according to their custom, the crew of the +ships repeated the Salve Regina. Afterwards the Admiral addressed the +people and sailors of his ship, "very merry and pleasant," reminding them +of the favours God had shown them with regard to the weather, and begging +them, as they hoped to see land very soon, within an hour or so, to keep +an extra good look-out that night from the forward forecastle; and adding +to the reward of an annuity of 10,000 maravedis, offered by the Queen to +whoever should sight land first, a gift on his own account of a silk +doublet. + +The moon was in its third quarter, and did not rise until eleven o'clock. +The first part of the night was dark, and there was only a faint +starlight into which the anxious eyes of the look-out men peered from the +forecastles of the three ships. At ten o'clock Columbus was walking on +the poop of his vessel, when he suddenly saw a light right ahead. The +light seemed to rise and fall as though it were a candle or a lantern +held in some one's hand and waved up and down. The Admiral called Pedro +Gutierrez to him and asked him whether he saw anything; and he also saw +the light. Then he sent for Rodrigo Sanchez and asked him if he saw the +light; but he did not, perhaps because from where he was standing it was +occulted. But the others were left in no doubt, for the light was seen +once or twice more, and to the eyes of the anxious little group standing +on the high stern deck of the Santa Maria it appeared unmistakably. The +Nina was not close at hand, and the Pinta had gone on in front hoping to +make good her mistake; but there was no doubt on board the Santa Maria +that the light which they had seen was a light like a candle or a torch +waved slowly up and down. They lost the light again; and as the hours in +that night stole away and the moon rose slowly in the sky the seamen on +the Santa Maria must have almost held their breath. + +At about two o'clock in the morning the sound of a gun was heard from the +Pinta, who could be seen hoisting her flags; Rodrigo de Triana, the look- +out on board of her, having reported land in sight; and there sure enough +in the dim light lay the low shores of an island a few miles ahead of +them. + +Immediately all sails were lowered, except a small trysail which enabled +the ships to lie-to and stand slowly off and on, waiting for the +daylight. I suppose there was never a longer night than that; but dawn +came at last, flooding the sky with lemon and saffron and scarlet and +orange, until at last the pure gold of the sun glittered on the water. +And when it rose it showed the sea-weary mariners an island lying in the +blue sea ahead of them: the island of Guanahani; San Salvador, as it was +christened by Columbus; or, to give it its modern name, Watling's Island. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +LANDFALL + +During the night the ships had drifted a little with the current, and +before the north-east wind. When the look-out man on the Pinta first +reported land in sight it was probably the north-east corner of the +island, where the land rises to a height of 120 feet, that he saw. The +actual anchorage of Columbus was most likely to the westward of the +island; for there was a strong north-easterly breeze, and as the whole of +the eastern coast is fringed by a barrier reef, he would not risk his +ships on a lee shore. Finding himself off the north end of the island at +sunrise, the most natural thing for him to do, on making sail again, +would be to stand southward along the west side of the island looking for +an anchorage. The first few miles of the shore have rocky exposed +points, and the bank where there is shoal water only extends half a mile +from the shore. Immediately beyond that the bottom shelves rapidly down +to a depth of 2000 fathoms, so that if Columbus was sounding as he came +south he would find no bottom there. Below what are called the Ridings +Rocks, however, the land sweeps to the south and east in a long sheltered +bay, and to the south of these rocks there is good anchorage and firm +holding-ground in about eight fathoms of water. + +We may picture them, therefore, approaching this land in the bright +sunshine of the early morning, their ears, that had so long heard nothing +but the slat of canvas and the rush and bubble of water under the prows, +filled at last with the great resounding roar of the breakers on the +coral reef; their eyes, that had so long looked upon blue emptiness and +the star-spangled violet arch of night, feasting upon the living green of +the foliage ashore; and the easterly breeze carrying to their eager +nostrils the perfumes of land. Amid an excitement and joyful +anticipation that it is exhilarating even to think about the cables were +got up and served and coiled on deck, and the anchors, which some of them +had thought would never grip the bottom again, unstopped and cleared. +The leadsman of the Santa Maria, who has been finding no bottom with his +forty-fathom line, suddenly gets a sounding; the water shoals rapidly +until the nine-fathom mark is unwetted, and the lead comes up with its +bottom covered with brown ooze. Sail is shortened; one after another the +great ungainly sheets of canvas are clewed up or lowered down on deck; +one after another the three helms are starboarded, and the three ships +brought up to the wind. Then with three mighty splashes that send the +sea birds whirling and screaming above the rocks the anchors go down; and +the Admiral stands on his high poop-deck, and looks long and searchingly +at the fragment of earth, rock-rimmed, surf-fringed, and tree-crowned, of +which he is Viceroy and Governor-General. + + +Watling's Island, as it is now called, or San Salvador, as Columbus named +it, or Guanahani, as it was known to the aborigines, is situated in +latitude 24 deg. 6' N., and longitude 74 deg 26' W., and is an +irregularly shaped white sandstone islet in about the middle of the great +Bahama Bank. The space occupied by the whole group is shaped like an +irregular triangle extending from the Navidad Bank in the Caribbean Sea +at the south-east corner, to Bahama Island in Florida Strait on the +north, about 200 miles. The south side trends west by north for 600 +miles, and the north side north-west by north 720 miles. Most of the +islands and small rocks in this group, called Keys or Cays, are very low, +and rise only a few feet above the sea; the highest is about 400 feet +high. They are generally situated on the edge of coral and sand banks, +some of which are of a very dangerous character. They are thinly wooded, +except in the case of one or two of the larger islands which contain +timber of moderate dimensions. The climate of the Bahamas is mild and +temperate, with refreshing sea breezes in the hottest months; and there +is a mean temperature of 75 deg. from November to April. Watling's +Island is about twelve miles in length by six in breadth, with rocky +shores slightly indented. The greater part of its area is occupied by +salt-water lagoons, separated from one another by small wooded hills from +too to 140 feet high. There is plenty of grass; indeed the island is now +considered to be the most fertile in the Bahamas, and raises an excellent +breed of cattle and sheep. In common with the other islands of the group +it was orginally settled by the Spaniards, and afterwards by the British, +who were driven from the Bahamas again by the Spanish in the year 1641. +After a great deal of changing hands they were ceded to Great Britain in +1783, and have remained in her possession ever since. In 1897 the +population of the whole group was estimated at 52,000 the whites being in +the proportion of one to six of the coloured population. Watling's +Island contains about 600 inhabitants scattered over the surface, with a +small settlement called Cockburn Town on the west side, nearly opposite +the landfall of Columbus. The seat of the local government is in the +island of New Providence, and the inhabitants of Watling's Island and of +Rum Cay unite in sending one representative to the House of Assembly. It +is high water, full and change, at Watling's Island at 7 h. 40 m., as it +was in the days of Columbus; and these facts form about the sum of the +world's knowledge of and interest in Watling's Island to-day. + + +But it was a different matter on Friday morning, October 12, 1492, + + [This date is reckoned in the old style. The true astronomical date + would be October 21st, which is the modern anniversary of the + discovery] + +when, all having been made snug on board the Santa Maria, the Admiral of +the Ocean Seas put on his armour and his scarlet cloak over it and +prepared to go ashore. The boat was lowered and manned by a crew well +armed, and Columbus took with him Rodrigo de Escovedo, the secretary to +the expedition, and Rodrigo Sanchez his overseer; they also took on board +Martin Alonso Pinzon and Vincenti Yanez Pinzon, the captains of the other +two ships. As they rowed towards the shore they saw a few naked +inhabitants, who hid themselves at their approach. Columbus carried with +him the royal standard, and the two captains each had a banner of the +expedition, which was a square flag with an "F" and a "Y" upon either +side, each letter being surmounted by the crown of the sovereigns and a +green cross covering the whole. Columbus assembled his little band +around him and called upon them to bear witness that in the presence of +them all he was taking possession of the island for the King and Queen of +Spain; duly making depositions in writing on the spot, and having them +signed and witnessed. Then he gave the name of San Salvador to the +island and said a prayer; and while this solemn little ceremony was in +progress, the astonished natives crept out of their hiding and surrounded +the strange white men. They gesticulated and grovelled and pointed +upwards, as though this gang of armed and bearded Spaniards, with the +tall white-bearded Italian in the midst of them, had fallen from the +skies. + +The first interest of the voyagers was in the inhabitants of this +delightful land. They found them well built, athletic-looking men, most +of them young, with handsome bodies and intelligent faces. Columbus, +eager to begin his missionary work, gave them some red caps and some +glass beads, with which he found them so delighted that he had good hopes +of making converts, and from which he argued that "they were a people who +would better be freed and converted to our Holy Faith by love than by +force," which sentence of his contains within itself the whole missionary +spirit of the time. These natives, who were the freest people in the +world, were to be "freed"; freed or saved from the darkness of their +happy innocence and brought to the light of a religion that had just +evolved the Inquisition; freed by love if possible, and by red caps and +glass beads; if not possible, then freed by force and with guns; but +freed they were to be at all costs. It is a tragic thought that, at the +very first impact of the Old World upon this Eden of the West, this +dismal error was set on foot and the first links in the chain of slavery +forged. But for the moment nothing of it was perceptible; nothing but +red caps and glass beads, and trinkets and toys, and freeing by love. +The sword that Columbus held out to them, in order to find out if they +knew the use of weapons, they innocently grasped by the blade and so cut +their fingers; and that sword, extended with knowledge and grasped with +fearless ignorance, is surely an emblem of the spread of civilisation and +of its doubtful blessings in the early stages. Let us hear Columbus +himself, as he recorded his first impression of Guanahani: + + "Further, it appeared to me that they were a very poor people, in + everything. They all go naked as their mothers gave them birth, and + the women also, although I only saw one of the latter who was very + young, and all those whom I saw were young men, none more than + thirty years of age. They were very well built with very handsome + bodies, and very good faces. Their hair was almost as coarse as + horses' tails, and short, and they wear it over the eyebrows, except + a small quantity behind, which they wear long and never cut. Some + paint themselves blackish, and they are of the colour of the + inhabitants of the Canaries, neither black nor white, and some paint + themselves white, some red, some whatever colour they find: and some + paint their faces, some all the body, some only the eyes, and some + only the nose. They do not carry arms nor know what they are, + because I showed them swords and they took them by the edge and + ignorantly cut themselves. They have no iron: their spears are + sticks without iron, and some of them have a fish's tooth at the end + and others have other things. They are all generally of good + height, of pleasing appearance and well built: I saw some who had + indications of wounds on their bodies, and I asked them by signs if + it was that, and they showed me that other people came there from + other islands near by and wished to capture them and they defended + themselves: and I believed and believe, that they come here from the + continental land to take them captive. They must be good servants + and intelligent, as I see that they very quickly say all that is + said to them, and I believe that they would easily become + Christians, as it appeared to me that they had no sect. If it + please our Lord, at the time of my departure, I will take six of + them from here to your Highnesses that they may learn to speak. + I saw no beast of any kind except parrots on this island." + +They very quickly say all that is said to them, and they will very easily +become good slaves; good Christians also it appears, since the Admiral's +research does not reveal the trace of any religious sect. And finally +"I will take six of them"; ostensibly that they may learn to speak the +language, but really that they may form the vanguard of cargo after cargo +of slaves ravished from their happy islands of dreams and sunshine and +plenty to learn the blessings of Christianity under the whip and the +sword. It is all, alas, inevitable; was inevitable from the moment that +the keel of Columbus's boat grated upon the shingle of Guanahani. The +greater must prey upon the less, the stronger must absorb and dominate +the weaker; and the happy gardens of the Golden Cyclades must be spoiled +and wasted for the pleasure and enrichment of a corrupting civilisation. +But while we recognise the inevitable, and enter into the joy and pride +of Columbus and his followers on this first happy morning of their +landing, we may give a moment's remembrance to the other side of the +picture, and admit that for this generation of innocents the discovery +that was to be all gain for the Old World was to be all loss to them. +In the meantime, decrees the Admiral, they are to be freed and converted; +and "I will take six of them that they may learn to speak." + + +There are no paths or footprints left in the sea, and the water furrowed +on that morning more than four hundred years ago by the keels of +Columbus's little fleet is as smooth and trackless as it was before they +clove it. Yet if you approach Guanahani from the east during the hours +of darkness you also will see a light that waxes and wanes on the +horizon. What the light was that Columbus saw is not certain; it was +probably the light from a torch held by some native woman from the door +of her hut; but the light that you will see is from the lighthouse on +Dixon Hill, where a tower of coral holds a lamp one hundred and sixty +feet above the sea at the north-east point of the island. It was erected +in no sentimental spirit, but for very practical purposes, and at a date +when Watling's Island had not been identified with the Guanahani of +Columbus's landfall; and yet of all the monuments that have been raised +to him I can think of nothing more appropriate than this lonely tower +that stands by day amid the bright sunshine in the track of the trade +wind, and by night throws its powerful double flash every half-minute +across the dark lonely sea. For it was by a light, although not of man's +kindling, that Columbus was guided upon his lonely voyage and through his +many difficulties; amid all his trials and disappointments, dimly as it +must have burned sometimes, it never quite went out. Darkness was the +name of the sea across which he took his way; darkness, from his +religious point of view, was the state of the lands to which he +journeyed; and, whatever its subsequent worth may have been, it was a +burning fragment from the living torch of the Christian religion that he +carried across the world with him, and by which he sought to kindle the +fire of faith in the lands of his discovery. So that there is a profound +symbolism in those raying beams that now, night after night, month by +month, and year after year, shine out across the sea from Watling's +Island in the direction of the Old World. + + +In the preparations for this voyage, and in the conduct and +accomplishment of it, the personality of the man Columbus stands clearly +revealed. He was seen at his best, as all men are who have a chance of +doing the thing for which they are best fitted. The singleness of aim +that can accomplish so much is made manifest in his dogged search for +means with which to make his voyage; and his Italian quality of +unscrupulousness in the means employed to attain a good end was exercised +to the full. The, practical seaman in him carried him through the +easiest part of his task, which was the actual sailing of his ships from +Palos to Guanahani; Martin Alonso Pinzon could have done as much as that. +But no Martin Alonso Pinzon or any other man of that time known to +history had the necessary combination of defective and effective +qualities that made Columbus, once he had conceived his glorious hazy +idea, spend the best years of his life, first in acquiring the position +that would make him listened to by people powerful enough to help him, +and then in besieging them in the face of every rebuff and +discouragement. Another man, proposing to venture across the unknown +ocean to unknown lands, would have required a fleet for his conveyance, +and an army for his protection; but Columbus asked for what he thought he +had some chance of getting, and for the barest equipment that would carry +him across the water. Another man would at least have had a bodyguard; +but Columbus relied upon himself, and alone held his motley crew in the +bonds of discipline. A Pinzon could have navigated the fleet from Palos +to Guanahani; but only a Columbus, only a man burning with belief is +himself and in his quest, could have kept that superstitious crowd of +loafers and malefactors and gaol-birds to their duties, and bent them to +his will. He was destined in after years for situations which were +beyond his power to deal with, and for problems that were beyond his +grasp; but here at least he was supreme, master of himself and of his +material, and a ruler over circumstances. The supreme thing that he had +professed to be able to do and which he had guaranteed to do was, in the +sublime simplicity of his own phrase, "to discover new lands," and luck +or no luck, help or hindrance, he did it at the very first attempt and in +the space of thirty-five days. And although it was from the Pinta that +the gun was fired, and the first loom of the actual land seen in the +early morning, I am glad to think that, of all the number of eager +watching men, it was Columbus who first saw the dim tossing light that +told him his journey was at an end. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +All days, however hard, have an evening, and all journeys an end +Freed by force and with guns +If there were no results, there would be no rewards +Learn the blessings of Christianity under the whip +Never to deal with subordinates +Nothing so ludicrous as an Idea to those who do not share it +She must either sin or be celibate +Stuffed so full indeed that eyes and ears are closed + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of Christopher Columbus, v2 +by Filson Young + diff --git a/old/cc02v10.zip b/old/cc02v10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1375717 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/cc02v10.zip diff --git a/old/cc02v10h.zip b/old/cc02v10h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c3249c1 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/cc02v10h.zip |