Falling Fortunes: Conclusion
CHAPTER I. Early Discoveries in the Fifteenth Century.
LEGENDS OF THE SEA.
Modern familiarity with navigation renders it difficult for us to
appreciate adequately the greatness of the enterprise which was undertaken
by the discoverers of the New World. Seen by the light of science and of
experience, the ocean, if it has some real terrors, has no imaginary ones.
But it was quite otherwise in the fifteenth century. Geographical
knowledge was but just awakening, after ages of slumber; and throughout
those ages the wildest dreams had mingled fiction with fact. Legends
telling of monsters of the deep, jealous of invasion of their territory;
of rocks of lodestone, powerful enough to extract every particle of iron
from a passing ship; of stagnant seas and fiery skies; of wandering saints
and flying islands; all combined to invest the unknown with the terrors of
the supernatural, and to deter the explorer of the great ocean. The
half-decked vessels that crept along the Mediterranean shores were but
ill-fitted to bear the brunt of the furious waves of the Atlantic. The now
indispensable sextant was but clumsily anticipated by the newly invented
astrolabe. The use of the compass had scarcely become familiar to
navigators, who indeed but imperfectly understood its properties. And who
could tell, it was objected, that a ship which might succeed in sailing
down the waste of waters would ever be able to return, for would not the
voyage home be a perpetual journey up a mountain of sea?
INCITEMENTS TO DISCOVERY.
But the same tradition which set forth the difficulties of reaching the
undiscovered countries promised a splendid reward to the successful
voyager. Rivers rolling down golden sand, mountains shining with priceless
gems, forests fragrant with rich spices were among the substantial
advantages to be expected as the result of the enterprise. "Our quest
there," said Peter Martyr, "is not for the vulgar products of Europe." The
proverb "Omne ignotum pro magnifico" [Transcribers's note: Everything
unknown is taken for magnificent.] was abundantly illustrated. And there
was another object, besides gain, which was predominant in the minds of
almost all the early explorers, namely, the spread of the Christian
religion. This desire of theirs, too, seems to have been thoroughly
genuine and deep-seated; and it may be doubted whether the discoveries
would have been made at that period but for the impulse given to them by
the most religious minds longing to promote, by all means in their power,
the spread of what, to them, was the only true and saving faith. "I do
not," says a candid historian [Faria y Sousa] of that age, "imagine that
I shall persuade the world that our intent was only to be preachers; but
on the other hand the world must not fancy that our intent was merely to
be traders," There is much to blame in the conduct of the first
discoverers in Africa and America; it is, however, but just to acknowledge
that the love of gold was by no means the only motive which urged them to
such endeavours as theirs. To appreciate justly the intensity of their
anxiety for the conversion of the heathen, we must keep in our minds the
views then universally entertained of the merits and efficacy of mere
formal communion with the Church, and the fatal consequences of not being
within that communion.
EARLY ADVENTURERS.
This will go a long way towards explaining the wonderful inconsistency, as
it seems to us, of the most cruel and wicked men believing themselves to
be good Christians and eminent promoters of the faith, if only they
baptized, before they slew, their fellow-creatures. And the maintenance of
such church principles will altogether account for the strange oversights
which pure and high minds have made in the means of carrying out those
principles, fascinated as they were by the brilliancy and magnitude of the
main object they had in view.
But while piety, sometimes debased into religious fanaticism, had a large
part in these undertakings, doubtless the love of adventure and the
craving for novelty had their influence also. And what adventure it was!
New trees, new men, new animals, new stars; nothing bounded, nothing
trite, nothing which had the bloom taken off it by much previous
description! The early voyagers moreover, were like children coming out to
take their first gaze into the world, with ready credulity and unlimited
fancy, willing to believe in fairies and demons, Amazons and mystic
islands, "forms of a lower hemisphere," and fountains of perpetual youth.
MEDIAEVAL MAP OF THE WORLD; THE ROMAN DOMINION.
The known world, in the time of Prince Henry of Portugal (at whose
discoveries it will be convenient to take a preliminary glance), was a
very small one indeed. The first thing for us to do is to study our maps
and charts. Without frequent reference to these, a narrative like the
present forms in our mind only a mirage of names and dates and facts, is
wrongly apprehended even while we are regarding it, and soon vanishes
away. The map of the world being before us, let us reduce it to the
proportions it filled in Prince Henry's time; let us look at our infant
world. First take away those two continents, for so we may almost call
them, each much larger than a Europe, to the far west. Then cancel that
square massive looking piece to the extreme south-east; its days of penal
settlements and of golden fortunes are yet to come. Then turn to Africa;
instead of that form of inverted cone which it presents, and which we now
know there are physical reasons for its presenting, make a scimetar shape
of it, by running a slightly curved line from Juba on the eastern side to
Cape Nam on the western. Declare all below that line unknown. Hitherto, we
have only been doing the work of destruction; but now scatter emblems of
hippogriffs and anthropophagi on the outskirts of what is left on the map,
obeying a maxim, not confined to the ancient geographers only: "Where you
know nothing, place terrors." Looking at the map thus completed, we can
hardly help thinking to ourselves, with a smile, what a small space,
comparatively speaking, the known history of the world has been transacted
in, up to the last four hundred years. The idea of the universality of the
Roman dominion shrinks a little; and we begin to think that Ovid might
have escaped his tyrant.[3] The ascertained confines of the world were
now, however, to be more than doubled in the course of one century; and to
Prince Henry of Portugal, as the first promoter of these vast discoveries,
our attention must be directed.
[Footnote 3: But the empire of the Romans filled the world; and when that
empire fell into the hands of a single person, the world became a safe
and dreary prison for his enemies. The slave of imperial despotism,
whether he was condemned to drag the gilded chain in Rome and his
senate, or to wear out a life of exile on the barren rocks of Seriphus,
or the frozen banks of the Danube, expected his fate in silent despair.
To resist was fatal, and it was impossible to fly. On every side he was
encompassed with a vast extent of sea and land, which he could never
hope to traverse without being discovered, seized, and restored to his
irritated master. GIBBON'S Decline and Fall, vol. i. p. 97, Oxford
Edition.]
[Illustration: Contemporary map of the world.]
[Illustration: 1490 map of the world includes only Europe, Asia and the
northern 1/4 of Africa. Excludes the Americas, Greenland, and
Australia.]
PRINCE HENRY OF PORTUGAL; HIS MOTIVES FOR DISCOVERY.
This prince was born in 1394. He was the third son of John the First of
Portugal and Philippa, the daughter of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster.
That good Plantagenet blood on the mother's side was, doubtless, not
without avail to a man whose life was to be spent in continuous and
insatiate efforts to work out a great idea. Prince Henry was with his
father at the memorable capture of Ceuta, the ancient Seplem, in the year
1415. This town, which lies opposite to Gibraltar, was of great
magnificence, and one of the principal marts in that age for the
productions of the eastern world. It was here that the Portuguese
first planted a firm foot in Africa; and the date of this town's capture
may, perhaps, be taken as that from which Prince Henry began to meditate
further and far greater conquests. His aims, however, were directed to a
point long beyond the range of the mere conquering soldier. He was
especially learned, for that age of the world, being skilled in
mathematical and geographical knowledge. He eagerly acquired from Moors of
Fez and Morocco, such scanty information as could be gathered concerning
the remote districts of Africa. The shrewd conjectures of learned men, the
confused records of Arabic geographers, the fables of chivalry, were not
without their influence upon an enthusiastic mind. The especial reason
which impelled the prince to take the burden of discovery on himself was
that neither mariner nor merchant would be likely to adopt an enterprise
in which there was no clear hope of profit. It belonged, therefore, to
great men and princes; and amongst such, he knew of no one but himself who
was inclined to it. This is not an uncommon motive. A man sees something
that ought to be done, knows of no one that will do it but himself, and so
is driven to the enterprise even should it be repugnant to him.
[Illustration: MAP OF WESTERN AFRICAN COAST.]
IMPORTANT EXPEDITION
Prince Henry, then, having once the well-grounded idea in his mind that
Africa did not end, according to the common belief, at Cape Nam
[Portuguese for "not"], but that there was a region beyond that forbidding
negative, seems never to have rested until he had made known that quarter
of the world to his own. He fixed his abode upon the promontory of Sagres,
at the southern part of Portugal, whence, for many a year, he could watch
for the rising specks of white sail bringing back his captains to tell him
of new countries and new men.
One night, in the year 1418, he is thought to have had a dream of promise,
for on the ensuing morning he suddenly ordered two vessels to be got ready
forthwith, and placed them under the command of two gentlemen of his
household, Zarco and Vaz, whom he directed to proceed down the Barbary
coast on a voyage of discovery. A contemporary chronicler, Azurara, tells
the story more simply, and merely states that these captains were young
men, who, after the ending of the Ceuta campaign, were as eager for
employment as the prince for discovery; and that they were ordered on a
voyage having for its object the general molestation of the Moors as well
as the prosecution of discoveries beyond Cape Nam.
DISCOVERY OF PORTO SANTO.
The Portuguese mariners had a proverb about the Cape, "He who would pass
Cape Not either will return or not," [Quem passar o Cabo de Nam, ou
tornara ou nam], intimating that if he did not turn before passing the
Cape he would never return at all. On this occasion it was not destined to
be passed, for the two captains were driven out of their course by storms,
and accidentally discovered a little island, where they took refuge, and
which, from that circumstance, they called Porto Santo. On their return
their master was delighted with the news they brought him, more on account
of its promise than its substance. In the same year he sent them out again
with a third captain, Bartholomew Perestrelo, to convey a supply of seeds
and animals for the newly-found island. Unfortunately, however, among the
animals were some rabbits, which multiplied so rapidly that they
overspread the whole island, and, by devouring every plant and blade of
grass which grew there, soon changed a fruitful land into a bare
wilderness.
MADEIRA DISCOVERED.
In the following year, Zarco and Vaz, seeing from Porto Santo something
that seemed like a cloud, but yet different (the origin of so much
discovery, noting the difference in the likeness), built two boats, and,
making for this cloud, soon found themselves alongside a beautiful island
abounding in many things, but most of all in trees, on which account they
gave it the name of Madeira (wood). The two discoverers landed upon the
island in different places. The prince, their master, afterwards rewarded
them with the captaincies of the districts adjacent to those places. To
Perestrelo he gave the island of Porto Santo, to colonize it. Perestrelo,
however, did not make much of his captaincy; and spent his life in
endeavouring to make head against the rabbits, which were as destructive
as a plague of locusts, and which by their fecundity resisted all his
efforts to exterminate them. This captain has a place in history, as being
the father-in-law of Columbus, who, indeed, lived at Porto Santo for some
time, and here, on new found land, studied the cosmographical works which
Perestrelo had been at pains to accumulate; meditating far bolder
discoveries.
AFRICAN COAST EXPLORED.
Zarco and Vaz began the cultivation of their island of Madeira, but met
with an untoward event at first. In clearing the wood, they kindled a fire
amongst it, which burned for seven years, we are told; and, in the end,
that which had given its name to the island, and which, in the words of
the historian, overshadowed the whole land, became the most deficient
commodity. The captains founded churches in the island, and the King of
Portugal, Don Duart, gave the temporalities to Prince Henry, and all the
spiritualities to the Knights of Christ.
From this time forth, Prince Henry prosecuted his explorations with a
fixity of purpose which could not but ensure success. Through every
discouragement he persevered still. Many a Swiss peak has gone through
three phases. It has been pronounced, first, "inaccessible," then, "a very
dangerous ascent," and finally, "a pleasant excursion." So it was with
each fresh headland which seemed to bar the way down the African coast.
And the travellers who came last, in each case, found it next to
impossible to imagine what were the difficulties and dangers that had
seemed so formidable to their predecessors.
BARRIER OF ROCKS.
For a long time Cape Bojador, which is situate seventy leagues to the
south of Cape Nam, was the extreme limit of discovery. This cape was
formidable in itself, being terminated by a ridge of rocks, with fierce
currents running round them; but was much more formidable from the fancies
which the mariners had formed of the sea and land beyond it. "It is
clear," they were wont to say, "that beyond this cape there are no people
whatever; the land is as bare as Libya--no water, no trees, no grass in
it; the sea so shallow, that at a league from the land it is only a fathom
deep; the currents so fierce, that the ship which passes that cape will
never return;" and thus their theories were brought in to justify their
fears.
This outstretcher (for such is the meaning of the word Bojador) was
therefore as a bar drawn across that advance in maritime discovery, which
had for so long a time been the first object of Prince Henry's life.
POPULAR OBJECTIONS.
For twelve years the prince had been sending forth ships and men, with
little approbation from the public--the discovery of Madeira and Porto
Santo serving to whet his appetite for further enterprise, but not winning
the common voice in favour of his projects. The people at home, improving
upon the reports of the sailors, said that "the land which the prince
sought after was merely some sandy place like the deserts of Libya; that
princes had possessed the empire of the world, and yet had not undertaken
such designs as his, nor shown such anxiety to find new kingdoms; that the
men who arrived in those foreign parts (if they did arrive) turned from
white into black men; that the king, Don John, the prince's father, had
endowed foreigners with land in his kingdom, to break it up and cultivate
it, a thing very different from taking the people out of Portugal, which
had need of them, to bring them amongst savages to be eaten and to place
them upon lands of which the mother country had no need; that the Author
of the world had provided these islands solely for the habitation of wild
beasts, of which an additional proof was that those rabbits which the
discoverers themselves had introduced were now dispossessing them of the
island."
There is much here of the usual captiousness [Transcriber's note: Finding
trivial faults.] to be found in the criticism of bystanders upon action,
mixed with a great deal of false assertion and assumed knowledge of
the ways of Providence. Still, it were to be wished that most criticism
upon action was as wise; for that part of the common talk which spoke of
keeping their own population to bring out their own resources, had a
wisdom in it which the men of future centuries were yet to discover
throughout the Peninsula.
MISGIVINGS OF PRINCE HENRY; GIL EANNES.
Prince Henry, as may be seen by his perseverance up to this time, was not
a man to have his purposes diverted by such criticism, much of which must
have been, in his eyes, worthless and inconsequent in the extreme.
Nevertheless, he had his own misgivings. His captains came back one after
another, with no good tidings of discovery, but with petty plunder gained
as they returned from incursions on the Moorish coast. The prince
concealed from them his chagrin at the fruitless nature of their attempts,
but probably did not feel it less on that account. He began to think, was
it for him to hope to discover that land which had been hidden from so
many princes? Still he felt within himself the incitement of "a virtuous
obstinacy," which would not let him rest. Would it not, he thought, be
ingratitude to God, who thus moved his mind to these attempts, if he were
to desist from his work, or be negligent in it? He resolved, therefore, to
send out again Gil Eannes, one of his household, who had been sent the
year before, but had returned, like the rest, having discovered nothing.
He had been driven to the Canary Islands, and had seized upon some of the
natives there, whom he brought back. With this transaction the prince had
shown himself dissatisfied; and Gil Eannes, now entrusted again with
command, resolved to meet all dangers, rather than to disappoint the
wishes of his master. Before his departure, the prince called him aside
and said, "You cannot meet with such peril that the hope of your reward
shall not be much greater; and, in truth, I wonder what imagination this
is that you have all taken up--in a matter, too, of so little certainty;
for if these things which are reported have any authority, however little,
I would not blame you so much. But you quote to me the opinions of four
mariners, who, as they were driven out of their way to Frandes or to some
other ports to which they commonly navigated, had not, and could not have
used, the needle and the chart: but do you go, however, and make your
voyage without regard to their opinion, and, by the grace of God, you
will not bring out of it anything but honour and profit."
GIL EANNES' SUCCESSFUL VOYAGE.
We may well imagine that these stirring words of the prince must have
confirmed Gil Eannes in his resolve to efface the stain of his former
misadventure. And he succeeded in doing so; for he passed the dreaded Cape
Bojador--a great event in the history of African discovery, and one that
in that day was considered equal to a labour of Hercules. Gil Eannes
returned to a grateful and most delighted master. He informed the prince
that he had landed, and that the soil appeared to him unworked and
fruitful; and, like a prudent man, he could not only tell of foreign
plants, but had brought some of them home with him in a barrel of the
new-found earth, plants much like those which bear, in Portugal, the roses
of Santa Maria. The prince rejoiced to see them, and gave thanks to God,
"as if they had been the fruit and sign of the promised land; and besought
our Lady, whose name the plants bore, that she would guide and set forth
the doings in this discovery to the praise and glory of God, and to the
increase of His holy faith."
ANTONIO GONCALVEZ AND HIS CAPTURE OF MOORS
The old world had now obtained a glimpse beyond Cape Bojador. The fearful
"outstretcher" had no longer much interest for them, being a thing that
was overcome, and which was to descend from an impossibility to a
landmark, from which, by degrees, they would almost silently steal down
the coast, counting their miles by thousands, until Vasco de Gama should
boldly carry them round to India. But now came stormy times for the
Portuguese kingdom, and the troubles of the regency occupied the prince's
attention to the exclusion of cosmography.
In 1441, however, there was a voyage which led to very important
consequences. In that year Antonio Goncalvez, master of the robes to
Prince Henry, was sent out with a vessel to load it with skins of
"sea-wolves," a number of them having been seen, during a former voyage,
at the mouth of a river about a hundred and fifty miles beyond Cape
Bojador. Goncalvez resolved to signalize his voyage by a feat that should
gratify his master more than the capture of sea-wolves; and he accordingly
planned and executed successfully an expedition for seizing some Azeneghi
Moors, in order, as he told his companions, to take home "some of the
language of that country." Tristam, another of Prince Henry's captains,
afterwards falling in with Goncalvez, a further capture of Moors was made,
and Goncalvez returned to Portugal with the spoil. This voyage seems to
have prompted the application which Prince Henry made, in the same year,
to Pope Martin the Fifth, praying that his holiness would grant to the
Portuguese crown all that should be conquered, from Cape Bojador to the
Indies, together with plenary indulgence for those who should die while
engaged in such conquests. The pope granted these requests; though
afterwards, as we shall see, the Spanish discoveries of Columbus and his
successors rendered it necessary that the terms of the grant should be
modified. "And now," says a Portuguese historian, "with this apostolic
grace, with the breath of royal favour, and already with the applause of
the people, the prince pursued his purpose with more courage, and with
greater outlay."
COMMENCEMENT OF THE SLAVE TRADE.
One proof of this popular approval was furnished by the formation of a
company at Lagos, in 1444, who received permission from the prince to
undertake discovery along the coast of Africa, paying him a certain
portion of any gains which they might make. Whether the company was
expressly founded for slave traffic may be doubtful; but it is certain
that this branch of their business was soon found to be the most lucrative
one, and that from this time Europe may be said to have made a distinct
beginning in the slave trade, henceforth to spread on all sides, like the
waves on troubled water, and not, like them, to become fainter and fainter
as the circles widen. For slavery was now assuming an entirely new phase.
Hitherto, the slave had been merely the captive in war, "the fruit of the
spear," as he has figuratively been called, who lived in the house of his
conquer, and laboured at his lands. Now, however, the slave was no longer
an accident of war. He had become the object of war. He was no longer a
mere accidental subject of barter. He was to be sought for, to be hunted
out, to be produced; and this change accordingly gave rise to a new branch
of commerce.
Some time before 1454 a Portuguese factory was established at one of the
Arguim islands, and this factory soon systematized the slave-trade.
Thither came all kinds of merchandize from Portugal, and gold and slaves
were taken back in return; the number of the latter sent home annually, at
the time of Ca da Mosto's visit in 1454, being between seven and eight
hundred.
The narrative of the Portuguese voyages along the African coast is, for
the most part, rather uninviting. It abounds with names, and dates, and
facts; but the names are often hard to pronounce, the dates have sometimes
an air of uncertainty about them, and the facts stand out in hard relief,
dry and unattractive. Could we recall, however, the voyagers themselves,
and listen to their story, we should find it animating enough. Each
enterprise, as we have it now, with its bare statistics, seems a meagre
affair; but it was far otherwise to the men who were concerned in it. Of
the motives[4] impelling men to engage in such expeditions, something has
already been said.
[Footnote 4: "They err who regard the conquistadores as led only by a
thirst for gold, or even exclusively by religious fanaticism. Dangers
always exalt the poetry of life, and moreover, the powerful age which we
here seek to depict in regard to its influence on the development of
cosmical ideas, gave to all enterprises, as well as to the impressions
of nature offered by distant voyages, the charm of novelty and surprise,
which begins to be wanting to our present more learned age in the many
regions of the earth which are now open to us."--Humboldt's Kosmos.
Sabines translation, 1848, vol. ii. p. 272]
AIM OF THE ADVENTURERS.
But besides the hopes and fears of each individual of the crew, the
conjoint enterprise had in it a life to be lived, and a career to be
worked out. It started to do something; fulfilled its purpose, or at least
some purpose; and then came back, radiant with success--from that time
forward to be a great fact in history. Or, on the other hand, there was
some small failure or mischance, perhaps early in the voyage; the sailors
then began to reckon up ill omens, and to say that little good would come
of this business. Further on, some serious misadventure happened which
made them turn, or from the mere lapse of time they were obliged to
bethink themselves of getting back. Safety, not renown or profit, now
became their object; and then hope was at last out the negative of some
fear. Thereupon, no doubt, ensued a good deal of recrimination amongst
themselves, for very few people are magnanimous enough to share
ill-success kindly together. Then, in the long dull evenings of their
voyage homewards, as they sat looking on the waters, they thought what
excuses and explanations they would make to their friends at home, and how
shame and vexation would mingle with their joy at returning.
CA DA MOSTO.
This transaction, teeming, as it did, with anxious life, makes but a poor
show in some chronicle;--they sailed, and did something, or failed in
doing, and then came back, and this was in such a year:--brief records,
like the entry in an almanack, or the few emphatic words on a tombstone.
At the period, however, we are now entering upon, the annals of maritime
discovery are fortunately enriched by the account of a voyager who could
tell more of the details of what he saw than we have hitherto heard from
other voyagers, and who was himself his own chronicler.
In 1454, Ca da Mosto, a young Venetian, who had already gained some
experience in voyaging, happened to be on board a Venetian galley that was
detained by contrary winds at Cape St. Vincent. Prince Henry was then
living close to the Cape. He sent his secretary and the Venetian consul on
board the galley. They told of the great things the prince had done,
showed samples of the commodities that came from the lands discovered by
him (Madeira sugars, dragon's blood, and other articles), and spoke of the
gains made by Portuguese voyagers being as great as 700 or 1000 per cent.
Ca da Mosto expressed his wish to be employed, was informed of the terms
that would be granted, and heard that a Venetian would be well received by
the prince, "because he was of opinion, that spices and other rich
merchandise might be found in those parts, and know that the Venetians
understood these commodities better than any other nation."
In fine, Ca da Mosto saw the prince, and was evidently much impressed by
his noble bearing. He obtained his wishes, and being furnished with a
caravel, he embarked his merchandise in it, and set off on a voyage of
discovery. There was now, for the first time, an intelligent man on board
one of these vessels, giving us his own account of the voyage.
TRADE WITH THE ARABS.
From Ca da Mosto the reader at once learns the state of things with regard
to the slave-trade. The Portuguese factory at Argnim was the headquarters
of the trade. Thither came all kinds of merchandise; and gold and slaves
were taken back in return. The "Arabs" of that district (Moors, the
Portuguese would have called them) were the middle men in this affair.
They took their Barbary horses to the negro country, and "there bartered
with the great men for slaves," getting from ten to eighteen slaves for
each horse. They also brought silks of Granada and Tunis, and silver, in
exchange for which they received slaves and gold. These Arabs, or Moors,
had a place of trade of their own, called Hoden, behind Cape Blanco. There
the slaves were brought, "from whence," Ca da Mosto says, "they are sent
to the mountains of Barka, and from thence to Sicily; part of them are
also brought to Tunis and along the coast of Barbary, and the rest to
Argin, and sold to the licensed Portuguese. Every year between seven and
eight hundred slaves are sent from Argin to Portugal."
"Before this trade was settled," says Ca da Mosto, "the Portuguese used to
seize upon the Moors themselves (as appears occasionally from the evidence
that has before been referred to), and also the Azenegues, who live
further towards the south; but now peace is restored to all, and the
Infante suffers no further damage to be done to these people. He is in
hopes, that by conversing with Christians, they may easily be brought over
to the Romish faith, as they are not, as yet, well established in that of
Mohammed, of which they know nothing but by hear-say."
THE SENEGAL RIVER.
No doubt the prince's good intentions were greatly furthered by the
convenience of this mode of trading. In short, gain made for itself its
usual convenient channels to work in, and saved itself as much as it could
the trouble of discovery, or of marauding. Ca da Mosto being, as was said
before, the first modern European visiting Africa who himself gives an
account of it, and being, moreover, an honest and intelligent man,
possessing the rare combination of keen observation and clear narrative
power, all that he writes is most valuable. He notices the differences,
both as regards the people and the country, to be found on the opposite
sides of the Senegal River. On the northern side he finds the men small,
spare and tawny, the country arid and barren; on the southern side, the
men "exceeding black, tail, corpulent and well made; the country green,
and full of green trees." This latter is the country of Jalof, the same
that Prince Henry first heard of in his intercourse with the Moors. Both
men and women, Ca da Mosto says, wash themselves four or five times a day,
being very cleanly as to their persons, but not so in eating, in which
they observe no rule. They are full of words, and never have done talking;
and are, for the most part, liars and cheats. Yet, on the other hand, they
are very charitable; for they give a dinner or a night's lodging and a
supper, to all strangers who come to their houses, without expecting any
return.
KING BUDOMEL.
Leaving the country of the Jalofs, Ca da Mosto proceeded eight hundred
miles further, as he says, (but he must, I think, have over-estimated his
reckoning,) to the country of a negro potentate, called King Budomel. Here
it appears that the religion, of the court at least, was Mohammedan, and
Ca da Mosto records a conversation which he had with Budomel upon the
subject. "The king asked him to give his opinion of their manner of
worship, and also some account of his own religion. Hereupon Ca da Mosto
told him, in presence of his doctors, that the religion of Mohammed was
false, and the Romish the true one. This made the Arabs mad, and Budomel
laugh; who, on this occasion, said that he looked upon the religion of the
Europeans to be good, for that none but God could have given them so much
riches and understanding. He added, however, that the Mohammedan law must
be also good; and that he believed the negroes were more sure of salvation
than the Christians; because God was a just Lord, and therefore, as He had
given the latter Paradise in this world, it ought to be possessed in the
world to come by the negroes, who had scarcely anything here, in
comparison with the others."
THE RIVER GAMBRA
From Budomel's country the voyagers, sailing southwards, came to the river
Gambra (now called Gambia), which they entered, but could not succeed in
conciliating the natives, who attacked them with signal valour, and
maintained the contest with almost unparalleled bravery, considering that
the arms used by the Europeans were totally unknown to their opponents.
FURTHER DISCOVERIES.
During their stay in this river Ca da Mosto and his companions saw the
constellation of the southern cross for the first time. Finding that the
natives would have nothing to do with them,
for they believed that the Christians were very bad people, and bought
negroes to eat them, Ca da Mosto and the other commanders wished to
proceed a hundred miles further up the river; but the common sailors would
not hear of it, and the expedition forthwith returned to Portugal.
Two years later, in 1456, Ca da Mosto made another voyage, in the course
of which he discovered the Cape de Verde Islands. Leaving them, he went
again to the Gambia River, which he ascended much further than he had done
during his previous expedition, and he also succeeded on this occasion in
conciliating the natives. Then he went down the coast, passed Cape Roxo,
and afterwards sailed up the Rio Grande, but, from want of any knowledge
of the language of the people, was unable to prosecute his explorations
among them.
Some time between 1460 and 1464, an expedition went out under Pedro de
Cintra, one of the King of Portugal's gentlemen, to make further
discoveries along the African coast. These voyagers, whose story is
briefly told by Ca da Mosto, discovered Sierra Leone (so called on account
of the roaring thunder heard there), and went a little beyond Cape
Mesurado. The precise date of this voyage is uncertain, but we may fairly
consider Sierra Leone as being the point attained at, or about, the death
of Prince Henry in 1463, of whose character, before parting with him,
something deserves to be said.
DEATH OF PRINCE HENRY.
This great leader of maritime discovery resembled Columbus strongly in one
thing, namely, his unity of purpose. He resembled him, too, in his
patience and in his unvarying confidence of success, even under
disappointment. "He was bold and valorous in war, versed in arts and
letters; a skilful fencer; in the mathematics superior to all men of his
time; generous in the extreme; most zealous for the increase of the faith.
No bad habit was known in him. His memory was equal to the authority he
bore, and his prudence equal to his memory." [Faria y Sousa.] And to
this character the chronicler, Azurara, who evidently knew the prince
well, and speaks with perfect honesty about him, adds two or three of
those little niceties of description which give life and reality to the
picture. He says that the prince was a man of great counsel and authority,
wise and of good memory, but in some things slow, whether it was through
the prevalence of the phlegmatic temperament in his constitution, or from
intentional deliberation, being moved to some end which men did not
perceive.
HIS CHARACTER.
It was this temperament, probably, that made the prince incapable of
"ill-will against any person, however great the injury he had received
from him," so that this placidity of disposition seemed an actual fault in
him. He was accordingly thought "deficient in distributive justice." There
are instances in his conduct which bear out this, and one especially, in
which he is stated to have overlooked the desertion of his banner, on an
occasion of great peril to himself, and afterwards to have unjustly
favoured the persons who had thus been found wanting in courage. This, no
doubt, was an error on his part, but at least it was an heroic one, such
as belonged to the first Caesar; and in the estimation of the prince's
followers, it probably added to their liking for the man what little it
may have taken away from their confidence in the precision of his justice
as a commander.
PRINCE HENRY'S CHARACTER.
We learn, from the same authority, that his house was the resort of all
the good men of the kingdom, and of foreigners, and that he was a man of
intense labour and study. "Often the sun found him in the same place where
it had left him the day before, he having watched throughout the whole arc
of the night without any rest."
Altogether, whether we consider this prince's motives, his objects, his
deeds, or his mode of life, we must acknowledge him to be one of the most
notable men, not merely of his own country and period, but of modern times
and of all nations, and one upon whose shoulders might worthily rest the
arduous beginnings of continuous maritime discovery. Would that such men
remained to govern the lands they have the courageous foresight to
discover! Then, indeed, they might take to themselves the motto talant de
bien jaire, which this prince, their great leader, caused to be inscribed
by his captains in many a land, that as yet, at least, has not found much
good from its introduction, under his auspices, to the civilization of an
older world.
PRESTER JOHN
Hurrying over this preliminary sketch, we may briefly note that about six
years after Prince Henry's death, the Gold Coast was explored by Fernando
Gomez, and the Portuguese fort was built there which Columbus afterwards
visited; that Fernando Po discovered an island which was then called
Formosa, but which is now known by the name of its discoverer; and that
Diego Cam, accompanied, it is said, by Martin Behaim (Martin of Bohemia),
the most celebrated geographer of those times--to whom, by the way, some
of the credit exclusively due to Columbus has been rather unfairly
given--discovered the kingdom of Congo. About this time an ambassador sent
to the King of Portugal by the sovereign of Benin, a territory between the
Gold Coast and Congo, happened to speak about a greater power in Africa
than his master, to whom indeed his master was but the vassal. This
instantly set the Portuguese king thinking about Prester John, of whom
legends spoke as a Christian king ruling over a Christian nation somewhere
in what was vaguely called the Indies; and the search after whom is, in
maritime discovery, what the alchemist's pursuit after the philosopher's
stone was in chemistry. The king concluded that this "greater power" must
be Prester John; and accordingly Bartholomew Diaz and two other captains
were sent out on further discovery. They did not find Prester John, but
made their way southwards along a thousand and fifty miles of new coast,
as far as a cape which, from experience, they called Cape Stormy, but
which their master, seeing in its discovery an omen of better things,
renamed as the Cape of Good Hope.
BARTHOLOMEW COLUMBUS.
It is a fact of great historical interest, and a singular link between
African and American discovery, that Bartholomew Columbus, brother of
Christopher, was engaged in this voyage. The authority for this important
statement is Las Casas, who says that he found, in a book belonging to
Christopher Columbus, being one of the works of Cardinal Aliaco, a note
"in Bartholomew Colon's handwriting," (which he knew well, having several
of the letters and papers concerning the expedition in his own
possession), which note gives a short account, in bad Latin, of the
voyage, mentions the degree of latitude of the Cape, and concludes with
the words "in quibus omnibus interfui."
PASSAGE IN THE "LUSIADAS"
In fiction, too, this voyage of Bartholomew Diaz was very notable, as
it presented an occasion for the writing of one of the most celebrated
passages in modern poetry, a passage not easily to be surpassed for its
majesty and tenderness, and for a beauty which even those tiresome
allusions to the classics, that give a faded air to so much of the poetry
of the sixteenth century, cannot seriously disfigure nor obscure.
It is to be found in the Lusiadas of Camoens, and indicates the
culminating point of Portuguese discovery in Africa, as celebrated by the
national poet.
Just as the mariners approach the Cape, a cloud rises, darkens the air,
and then discloses a monstrous giant, with deep-set, caverned eyes, of
rugged countenance, and pallid earthy colour, vast as that statue of
Apollo, the colossal wonder of the world. In solemn language, this awful
shape pours forth disastrous prophecies, and threatens his highest
vengeance on those who have discovered him--maledictions which, alas! may
be securely uttered against those who accomplish aught that is bolder than
has hitherto been attempted by their fellow men.
When vexed by the question "Who art thou?" the "stupendous body" harshly
and mournfully replies, that he is that great stormy Cape, hitherto hidden
from mankind, whom their boldness in discovering much offends.
He then relates the touching story of his love: how he was Adamastor, of
the race of Titans, and how he loved Thetis, the fairest being of the sea;
and how, deceived by the (magic) arts of her "who was the life of his
body," he found himself caressing a rough and horrid crag instead of her
sweet, soft countenance; and how, crazed by grief and by dishonour, he
wandered forth to seek another world, where no one should behold him and
mock his misery; how still the vengeance of the gods pursued him; and how
he felt his flesh gradually turning into rock, and his members extending
themselves among the long waves; and how, for ever to increase his agony,
the beautiful Thetis still encircled him.
Having told his grief, he made himself into a dark cloud (Desfez-se a
nuvem negra), and the sea roared far off with a sonorous sound. And then
the Portuguese mariner lifted up his hands in prayer to the sacred chorus
of angels, who had guided the vessel so long on its way, and prayed
God to remove the fulfilment of the evil things which Adamastor had
prophesied against his nation.
The Genius of the Stormy Cape might have taken up a direr song of prophecy
against the inhabitants of the unfortunate land of which he formed so
conspicuous and mournful a prominence.
COVILHAM AND PAIVA.
Maritime discovery had now, by slow and painful degrees, proceeded down
the coast of Africa, nearly to the southernmost point, and from thence
will soon be curving round in due course to India. But expeditions by sea
were not the only modes of discovery undertaken by the Portuguese in the
reign of John the Second of Portugal. Pedro de Covilham and Alfonso de
Paiva went on an enterprise of discovery mainly by land. The latter died
at Cairo, the former made his way to Cananor, Calecut, and Goa, and thence
back to Cairo, where he found that his companion had died. He then set out
again, and eventually came into the kingdom of Shoa, [5]to the court of
"the King of Habbesh," who fulfilled sufficiently in Covilham's eyes, the
idea of Prester John, and was accordingly called so. It is a curious
coincidence, that an ambassador from the King of Habbesh, called Lucas
Marcos, a priest of that country, came about this time to Rome and
afterwards to Lisbon, which circumstance gave a new impetus to all the
King of Portugal's "hopes, wishes, and endeavours."
[Footnote 5: A country in the south of Abyssinia. Tegulet, the ancient
capital of Shoa, is in 38 degrees 40' E. long., and 9 degrees 45' N.
lat.]
BEMOIN, PRINCE OF JALOF.
A more remarkable person even than an ambassador from Prester John arrived
nearly at the same time at Lisbon. This was Bemoin, Prince of Jalof.
Bemoin came to seek the protection of the King of Portugal, and the reason
of his coming was as follows. He was the brother, on the mother's side, of
Brian, King of Jalof. This king was inert and vicious. He had, however,
the wisdom to make Bemoin prime minister, and to throw all the cares and
troubles of governing upon him. Nothing was heard in the kingdom but of
Bemoin. But he, seeing, perhaps, the insecurity of his position,
diligently made friends with the Portuguese, keeping aloof, however, from
becoming a convert, though he listened respectfully to those who expounded
the Christian faith to him. Cibitab, a brother of the inert Brian, by
the father's side, became jealous of Bemoin, revolted, killed Brian, and
vanquished Bemoin, who thereupon threw himself upon the protection of his
Portuguese friends, and came to Lisbon.
BEMOIN'S RECEPTION AT LISBON,
Bemoin was received magnificently by King John of Portugal. The negro
prince had formerly alleged that one of his reasons for not becoming a
Christian was the fear of disgusting his followers; but, being in
Portugal, that reason no longer held good, and he became a convert, being
baptized as Don John Bemoin, having King John for a godfather. Twenty-four
of Bemoin's gentlemen received baptism after him. This is the account of
his reception. "Bemoin, because he was a man of large size and fine
presence, about forty years old, with a long and well-arranged beard,
appeared indeed not like a barbarous pagan, but as one of our own princes,
to whom all honour and reverence were due. With equal majesty and gravity
of demeanour he commenced and finished his oration, using such inducements
to make men bewail his sad fortune in exile, that only seeing these
natural signs of sorrow, people comprehended what the interpreter
afterwards said. Having finished the statement of his case as a good
orator would, in declaring that his only remedy and only hope was in the
greatness and generosity of the king, with whom he spoke aside for a short
time, he was answered by the king in few words, so much to his
satisfaction that immediately it made a change in his whole look, spirits,
and bearing, rendering him most joyous. Taking leave of the king, he went
to kiss the queen's hand, and then that of the prince, to whom he said a
few words, at the end of which he prayed the prince that he would
intercede in his favour with the king. And thence he was conducted to his
lodgings by all the nobility that had accompanied him."
After this, Bemoin had many conversations with the king, and always
acquitted himself well. Amongst other things, he gave information
respecting various African nations, and especially of the king of a Jewish
people, who in many things resembled Christians. Here again the Portuguese
monarch was delighted at finding himself upon the traces of Prester John.
BEMOIN'S FATE
It must not be forgotten to mention, that the king made great rejoicings
in honor of Bemoin's conversion, on which occasion the negro prince's
attendants performed singular feats on horseback.
Bemoin maintained his favour at the Portuguese court, and succeeded in his
object of obtaining military assistance. He was sent back to his own
country with a Portuguese squadron of twenty caravels, which had for its
instructions, besides his restitution, to found a fort on the banks of the
river Senegal.
The Portuguese arrived at the river, and began building the fort, but are
said to have chosen an unhealthy spot to build on. Whether they could have
chosen a healthy one is doubtful. The commander, however, Pedro Vaz,
thought that there was treachery on Bemoin's part, and killed him with the
blow of a dagger on board his vessel. The building was discontinued, and
Pedro Vaz returned to Portugal, where he found the king excessively vexed
and displeased at the fate of Bemoin.
PRINCE HENRY'S PERSEVERANCE.
The historian may now stop in his task of tracing Portuguese discovery
along the coast of Africa. We have seen it making its way with quiet
perseverance, for seventy years, from Cape Nam to the Cape of Good Hope, a
distance of some six thousand miles. This long course of discovery has
been almost entirely thrown into shade by the more daring and brilliant
discovery of America, which we have now to enter upon. Yet these
proceedings on the African coast had in them all the energy, perseverance,
and courage which distinguished American discovery. Prince Henry himself
was hardly a less personage than Columbus. They had different elements to
contend in. But the man whom princely wealth and position, and the
temptation to intrigue which there must have been in the then state of the
Portuguese court, never induced to swerve from the one purpose which he
maintained for forty years, unshaken by popular clamour, however sorely
vexed he might be with inward doubts and misgivings; who passed laborious
days and watchful nights in devotion to this one purpose, enduring the
occasional short-comings of his agents with that forbearance which springs
from a care for the enterprise in hand, so deep as to control private
vexation (the very same motive which made Columbus bear so mildly with
insult and contumely from his followers),--such a man is worthy to be put
in comparison with the other great discoverer who worked out his
enterprise through poverty, neglect, sore travail, and the vicissitudes of
courts. Moreover, it must not be forgotten that Prince Henry was
undoubtedly the father of modern geographical discovery, and that the
result of his exertions must have given much impulse to Columbus, if it
did not first move him to his great undertaking. After the above eulogium
on Prince Henry, which is not the least more than he merited, his kinsmen,
the contemporary Portuguese monarchs, should come in for their share of
honourable mention, as they seem to have done their part in African
discovery with much vigour, without jealousy of Prince Henry, and with
high and noble aims. It would also be but just to include, in some part of
this praise, the many brave captains who distinguished themselves in these
enterprises.
SPIRIT OF ENTERPRISE
How far the great discoverer, on whose career we are about to enter, was
himself actually concerned in these African expeditions we have no means
of deciding. But there can be little doubt that this raising the curtain
of the unknown, this glimpse of new countries, gave a keen stimulus to the
researches of geographers, and, in fact, set the fashion of discovery.
Men's minds were drawn into this special channel; and it remained for
Christopher Columbus first to form a sound theory out of the conflicting
views of the cosmographers, and finally to carry out that theory with the
boldness and resolution which have made his name one of those beacon-fires
which carry on from period to period the tidings of the world's great
history through successive ages.
CHAPTER II. Early Years of Columbus.
BIRTH OF COLUMBUS
The question of Columbus's birthplace has been almost as hotly contested
as that of Homer's. A succession of pamphleteers had discussed the
pretensions of half a dozen different Italian villages to be the
birthplace of the great navigator; but still archaeologists were divided
on the subject, when, at a comparatively recent period, the discovery of
the will in which Columbus bequeathed part of his property to the Bank of
Genoa, conclusively settled the point in favour of that city. "Thence I
came," he says, "and there was I born." As to the date of his birth there
is no such direct evidence; and conjectures and inferences, founded on
various statements in his own writings, and in those of his
contemporaries, range over the twenty years from 1436 to 1456, in
attempting to assign the precise time of his appearance in the world. Mr.
Irving adopts the earlier of these two dates, upon the authority of a
remark by Bernaldez, the curate of Los Palacios, which speaks of the death
of Columbus in the year 1506, "at a good old age, being seventy years old,
a little more or less." But this statement has an air of vagueness, and
is, moreover, inconsistent with several passages in Columbus's own
letters.[6] And the evidence of the ancient authorities who seem
most to be relied on, points rather to the year 1447 or 1448 as the
probable date.
[Footnote 6: "His hair," says his son Fernando, "turned white before
he was thirty." This would add to his apparent age, and might have
deceived Bernaldez.]
HIS EDUCATION.
His father was a wool-carder; but this fact does not necessarily imply, in
a city of traders like Genoa, that his family was of particularly humble
origin. At any rate, like most others, when the light of a great man's
birth is thrown upon its records, real and possible, it presents some
other names not altogether unworthy to be inscribed among the great man's
ancestors. Christopher was not, he says in a letter to a lady of the
Spanish court, the first admiral of his family--referring, evidently, to
two naval commanders bearing his name, who had attained some distinction
in the maritime service of Genoa and France, and the younger of whom,
Colombo el Mozo, was in command of a French squadron in the expedition
undertaken by John of Anjou against Naples for the recovery of the
Neapolitan crown. But his relationship with these Colombos, if traceable
at all, was probably only a very distant one, and his son, in admitting
this, wisely says that the glory of Christopher is quite enough, without,
there being a necessity to borrow any from his ancestors.
At a very early age he became a student at the University of Pavia, where
he laid the foundations of that knowledge of mathematics and natural
science, which stood him in good stead throughout his life. At Genoa he
would naturally regard the sea as the great field of enterprise which
produced harvests of rich wares and spoils of glorious victories; and he
may have heard, now and then, news of the latest conclusions of the
Arabic geographers at Senaar, and rumours of explorations down the African
coast, which would be sure to excite interest among the maritime
population of his birthplace. It is not wonderful that, exposed to such
influences, he preferred a life of adventure on the sea to the drudgery of
his father's trade in Genoa. Accordingly, after finishing his academical
course at Pavia, he spent but a few irksome months as a carder of wool
(tector panni) and actually entered on his nautical career before he was
fifteen years old.
EARLY VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS.
Of his many voyages, which of them took place before, and which after, his
coming to Portugal, we have no distinct record; but are sure that he
traversed a large part of the known world, that he visited England, that
he made his way to Iceland and Friesland[7] (where he may possibly have
heard vague tales of the discoveries by the Northmen in North America),
that he had been at El Mina, on the coast of Guinea, and that he had seen
the Islands of the Grecian Archipelago. "I have been seeking out the
secrets of nature for forty years," he says, "and wherever ship has
sailed, there have I voyaged." But beyond a few vague allusions of this
kind, we know scarcely anything of these early voyages. However, he
mentions particularly his having been employed by King Rene of Provence to
intercept a Venetian galliot. And this exploit furnishes illustrations
both of his boldness and his tact. During the voyage the news was brought
that the galliot was convoyed by three other vessels. Thereupon the crew
were unwilling to hazard an engagement, and insisted that Columbus should
return to Marseilles for re-inforcement. Columbus made a feint of
acquiescence, but craftily arranged the compass so that it appeared that
they were returning, while they were really steering their original
course, and so arrived at Carthagena on the next morning, thinking all the
while that they were in full sail for Marseilles.
[Footnote 7: The account of this voyage to the north of Europe, as
commonly quoted, furnishes a singular instance of the inaccuracy of
translators in the matter of figures. Columbus is there made to say,
that at the Ultima Thule, which be reached, "the tides were so great as
to rise and fall twenty-six fathoms," i.e. 156 feet. Of course this an
absurdity; for no tides in Europe rise much above 50 feet. We have no
record of the exact words used by Columbus, but in the extant Italian
translation he is made to speak of the rise being venti sei bracchia,
i.e. twenty-six ells (not fathoms), or about fifty-two feet. But even
this reduced estimate must be excessive. Except in the Bristol Channel
there is no rise of tide in the seas of Northern Europe which at all
approaches this limit. At Reikiavik (Iceland) the rise is seventeen and
a half feet. In Greenland it varies from a minimum of seven feet at
Julianshaab to a maximum of twelve and a half feet at Frederikshaab.]
CHARACTERISTICS OF COLUMBUS
Considering how much more real the hero of a biography appears if we can
picture him accurately in our mind's eye, and see him "in his habit as he
lived," it is singularly unfortunate that the personal appearance of
Columbus has been so variously described by the old historians that it is
impossible to speak with certainty on the subject. Strangely enough, too,
no well-authenticated portrait of the great discoverer exists. Ferdinand
Columbus, who would be a good authority, fails to give us, in describing
his father, any of those little touches which make up a good literary
photograph. We learn, however, that he had a commanding presence, that he
was above the middle height, with a long countenance, rather full cheeks,
an aquiline nose, and light grey eyes full of expression. His hair was
naturally light in colour, but, as has been already stated, it turned
nearly white while he was still a young man.
The peculiar characteristics of his mind are such as we might naturally
expect to find in the originator of such a work as the discovery of
America,--who was, indeed, one of the great spirits of the earth; but
still of the same order of soul to which great inventors and discoverers
have mostly belonged. Lower down, too, in mankind, there is much of the
same nature leading to various kinds of worthy deeds, though there are no
more continents for it to discover.
But to return to the renowned personage of whom we are speaking. There was
great simplicity about him, and much loyalty and veneration. The truly
great are apt to believe in the greatness of others, and so to be loyal in
their relations here; while, for what is beyond here, a large measure of
veneration belongs to them, as having a finer and more habitually present
consciousness than most men of something infinitely above what even their
imaginations can compass. He was as magnanimous as it was possible,
perhaps, for so sensitive and impassioned a person to be. He was humane,
self-denying, courteous. He had an intellect of that largely inquiring
kind which may remind us of our great English philosopher, Bacon. He was
singularly resolute and enduring. The Spaniards have a word, longanimidad,
which has been well applied in describing him, as it signifies greatness
and constancy of mind in adversity. He was rapt in his designs, having a
ringing for ever in his ears of great projects, making him deaf to much,
perhaps, that prudence might have heeded:--one to be loved by those near
him, and likely by his presence to inspire favour and respect.
COLUMBUS'S DESIRE FOR DISCOVERY.
At what precise period his great idea came into his mind we have no means
of ascertaining. The continuous current of Portuguese discoveries had, as
we have seen, excited the mind of Europe, and must have greatly influenced
Columbus, living in the midst of them. This may be said without in the
least detracting from his merits as a discoverer. In real life people do
not spring from something baseless to something substantial, as people in
sick dreams. A great invention or discovery is often like a daring leap,
but it is from land to land, not from nothing to something; and if we look
at the subject with this consideration fully before us, we shall probably
admit that Columbus had as large a share in the merit of his discovery as
most inventors or discoverers can lay claim to. If the idea which has
rendered him famous was not in his mind at the outset of his career of
investigation, at any rate he had from the first a desire for discovery,
or, as he says himself, the wish to know the secrets of this world. It may
be a question whether this impulse soon brought him to his utmost height
of survey, and that he then only applied to learning to confirm his first
views; or whether the impulse merely carried him along with growing
perception of the great truth he was to prove, into deep thinking upon
cosmographical studies, Portuguese discoveries, the dreams of learned men,
the labours of former geographers, the dim prophetic notices of great
unknown lands, and vague reports amongst mariners of driftwood seen on the
seas. But at any rate we know that he arrived at a fixed conclusion that
there was a way by the west to the Indies; that he could discover this
way, and so come to Cipango, Cathay, the Grand Khan, and all he had met
with in the gorgeous descriptions of Marco Polo and other ancient
authorities. We may not pretend to lay down the exact chronological order
of the formation of the idea in his mind, in fact, to know more about it
than he would probably have been able to tell us himself. And it must not
be forgotten that his enterprise, as compared with that of the Portuguese
along the coast of Africa, was as an invention compared to an improvement.
Each new discovery then was but a step beyond that which had preceded it;
Columbus was the first to steer boldly from shore into the waste of
waters, an originator, not a mere improver.
COLUMBUS'S THEORY.
Fernando Columbus divides into three classes the grounds on which his
father's theory was based; namely, reasons from nature, the authority of
writers, and the testimony of sailors. He believed the world to be a
sphere; he under-estimated its size; he over-estimated the size of the
Asiatic continent. The farther that continent extended to the eastward the
nearer it came round towards Spain. And this, in a greater or less degree,
had been the opinion of the ancient geographers. Both Aristotle and Seneca
thought that a ship might sail "in a few days" from Cadiz to India.
Strabo, too, believed that it might be possible to navigate on the same
parallel of latitude, due west from the coast of Africa or Spain to that
of India. The accounts given by Marco Polo and Sir John Maundeville of
their explorations towards China confirmed the exaggerated idea of the
extent of Eastern Asia.
CARDINAL ALIACO'S "COSMOGRAPHIA."
But of all the works of learned men, that which, according to Ferdinand
Columbus, had most weight with his father, was the "Cosmographia" of
Cardinal Aliaco. And this book affords a good illustration of the then
state of scientific knowledge. Learned arguments are interspersed with the
most absurd fables of lion-bodied men and dog-faced women; grave, and
sometimes tolerably sound, disquisitions on the earth's surface are mixed
up with the wildest stories of monsters and salamanders, of giants and
pigmies. It is here that we find the original of our modern acquaintance,
the sea-serpent, described as being "of huge size, so that he kills and
devours large stags, and is able to cross the ocean;" and the wonders of
the unknown world are enunciated with a circumstantial minuteness which
must have easily won the credence of a willing disciple like Columbus. He
was also confirmed in his views of the existence of a western passage to
the Indies by Paulo Toscanelli, the Florentine philosopher, to whom much
credit is due for the encouragement he afforded to the enterprise. That
the notices, however, of western lands were not such as to have much
weight with other men is sufficiently proved by the difficulty which
Columbus had in contending with adverse geographers and men of science in
general, of whom, he says, he never was able to convince any one. After a
new world had been discovered, many scattered indications were then found
to have foreshown it. "When he promised a new hemisphere," writes
Voltaire, "people maintained that it could not exist, and when he had
discovered it, that it had been known a long time." It was to confute such
detractors that he resorted to the well known expedient for making an egg
stand on end; an illustration of the meaning of originality which, by the
way, was not itself original, as Brunelleschi had already employed it when
his merit in devising a plan for raising the cupola of Florence cathedral
was questioned.
EVIDENCES OF A WESTERN WORLD.
Of the amount of evidence furnished by the testimony of sailors, it is
difficult to speak with any degree of accuracy. Rumours of drift-wood,
apparently carved with some savage implements; of mammoth reeds,
corresponding with Ptolemy's account of those indigenous to India; even of
two corpses, cast up on one of the Azores, and presenting an appearance
quite unlike that of any race of Europe or Africa; all seem to have come
to the willing ears of Columbus, and to have been regarded by him as
"confirmations, strong as proofs of holy writ," of the great theory.
About the year 1470 Columbus arrived at Lisbon. According to the account
given by his son, and adopted by the historian Bossi, he had sailed with
Colombo el Mozo (the nephew of that "first Admiral of the family" of whom
we have already heard) on a cruise to intercept some Venetian merchantmen
on their way home from Flanders. At break of day the battle began, off
Cape St. Vincent, and lasted till nightfall. The privateer commanded by
Columbus grappled a huge Venetian galley, which, after a hand-to-hand
struggle, caught fire, and the flames spread to the privateer. Friends and
enemies alike sought safety in the sea, and Columbus, supporting himself
on an oar, succeeded, when nearly exhausted, in gaining the land, which
was at some six miles distance. God preserved him, says his son, for
greater things.
COLUMBUS AT PORTO SANTO.
It was probably not long after this that he married Donna Felipa Munnis
Perestrelo, who was residing at the convent of All Saints, in Lisbon,
where he was a regular attendant at the services of the church. She was a
daughter of that captain of Prince Henry's who has been already mentioned
as the first governor of Porto Santo. On that island, after a short
residence in the Portuguese capital, Columbus took up his abode, busying
himself with the papers of his deceased father-in-law, and earning a
livelihood by making maps and charts for sale. It is a curious fact that
the great chief of American discoverers should thus have inhabited a spot
which was the first advanced outpost in African discovery. He was here on
the high road to Guinea, and being in constant communication with the
explorers of the new regions, it was likely that he would become imbued
with some of their enthusiasm for adventure.
THE BISHOP OF CEUTA; RETURN OF THE CARAVEL.
Shrouded in obscurity as this period of his life remains, we are only able
to find vague traditions of the unsuccessful effort which Columbus
made to induce the Senate of Genoa to take up his project. From the
Portuguese crown he could scarcely look for help, embroiled as it was in
costly wars, and having already a field for discovery along the African
coast, which it would scarcely be wise to forsake for an undertaking
similar in kind, but more hazardous and less definite. However, King John
the Second, to whom Columbus applied, seems to have listened with
attention to the exposition of his scheme, and indeed, according to the
account of Fernando, to have given a sort of qualified promise of his
support, but to have disagreed with Columbus as to terms. The king
referred the matter to a Committee of Council for Geographical Affairs,
before whom Columbus laid his plans; but it is possible that even in the
fifteenth century Boards had come to regard projectors as their natural
enemies, and the report of the Committee was entirely adverse to the
scheme for Atlantic discovery. But it seems that the king, was not
satisfied yet, whereupon the Bishop of Ceuta (who had headed the
opposition to Columbus in the Council) suggested that a caravel should be
secretly equipped and sent out, with instructions founded on the plan laid
before the committee. And this piece of episcopal bad faith was actually
perpetrated. The caravel, however, returned without having accomplished
anything, the sailors not having had heart to adventure far enough
westward. It was not an enterprise to be carried out successfully by men
who had only stolen the idea of it.
CHAPTER III. Columbus in Spain.
Columbus, disgusted at the treatment he had received from the Portuguese
Court, quitted Lisbon for Spain, probably in the year 1485, with his son
Diego, the only issue of his marriage with Donna Felipa, now no longer
living. Here he addressed himself to the Duke of Medina Sidonia, and to
the Duke of Medina Celi, whose extensive possessions along the coasts of
Spain were likely to incline them in favour of a maritime expedition.
There is some uncertainty as to the degree of encouragement which he
received from them; but long afterwards, when Columbus had succeeded, the
Duke of Medina Celi wrote to the Cardinal of Spain showing that he (the
duke) had maintained Columbus two years in his house, and was ready to
have undertaken the enterprise, but that he saw it was one for the queen
herself, and even then he wished to have had a part in it. Probably, any
man in whose house Columbus resided for two years would have caught some
portion of his enthusiasm, and have been ready to take up his project. It
may be conjectured, however, that none of the nobles of the Spanish court
would have been likely to undertake the matter without some sanction from
the king or queen.
LETTER TO QUEEN ISABELLA.
To the queen, accordingly, the Duke of Medina Celi addressed a letter, of
which Columbus was himself the bearer, commending his enterprise to the
royal favour. But the juncture was singularly inopportune for the
consideration of any peaceful project. The war with the Moors was raging
more and more furiously, as they were driven back, contesting every inch
of ground, farther and farther from the heart of the kingdom. The court
was now at Cordova, actively preparing for the campaign which was to
result in that subjugation of the crescent to the cross, throughout the
Peninsula, which was completed by the conquest of Granada some six years
later. Amid the clang of arms and the bustle of warlike preparation,
Columbus was not likely to obtain more than a slight and superficial
attention to a matter which must have seemed remote and uncertain. Indeed,
when it is considered that the most pressing internal affairs of kingdoms
are neglected by the wisest rulers in times of war, it is wonderful that
he succeeded in obtaining any audience at all.
COLUMBUS AT COURT; JUNTA OF COSMOGRAPHERS; DECISION OF THE JUNTA.
However, he was fortunate enough to find at once a friend in the Treasurer
of the Household, Alonso de Quintanilla, a man who, like himself, "took
delight in great things," and who obtained a hearing for him from the
Spanish monarchs. Ferdinand and Isabella did not dismiss him abruptly. On
the contrary, it is said, they listened kindly; and the conference ended
by their referring the business to the Queen's Confessor, Fra Hernando de
Talavera, who was afterwards Archbishop of Granada. This important
functionary summoned a junta of cosmographers (not a promising
assemblage!) to consult about the affair, and this junta was convened at
Salamanca, in the summer of the year 1487. Here was a step gained; the
cosmographers were to consider his scheme, and not merely to consider
whether it was worth taking into consideration. But it was impossible for
the jury to be unprejudiced. All inventors, to a certain extent, insult
their contemporaries by accusing them of stupidity and of ignorance. And
the cosmographical pedants, accustomed to beaten tracks, resented the
insult by which this adventurer was attempting to overthrow the belief of
centuries. They thought that so many persons wise in nautical matters as
had preceded the Genoese mariner never could have overlooked such an idea
as this which had presented itself to his mind. Moreover, as the learning
of the middle ages resided for the most part in the cloister, the member's
of the junta were principally clerical, and combined to crush Columbus
with theological objections. Texts of Scripture were adduced to refute his
theory of the spherical shape of the earth, and the weighty authority of
the Fathers of the Church was added to overthrow the "foolish idea of the
existence of antipodes; of people who walk, opposite to us, with their
heels upwards and their heads hanging down; where everything is topsy
turvy, where the trees grow with their branches downwards, and where it
rains, hails, and snows upwards." King David, St. Paul, St. Augustine,
Lactantius, and a host of other theological authorities were all put in
evidence against the Genoese mariner: he was confronted by the
"conservatism of lawyers united to the bigotry of priests." Las Casas
displays his usual acuteness when he says that the great difficulty of
Columbus was, not that of teaching, but that of unteaching: not of
promulgating his own theory, but of eradicating the erroneous convictions
of the judges before whom he had to plead his cause. In fine, the junta
decided that the project was "vain and impossible, and that it did not
belong to the majesty of such great princes to determine anything upon
such weak grounds of information."
Ferdinand and Isabella seem not to have taken the extremely unfavourable
view of the matter entertained by the junta of cosmographers, or at least
to have been willing to dismiss Columbus gently, for they merely said
that, with the wars at present on their hands, and especially that of
Granada, they could not undertake any new expenses, but when that war was
ended, they would examine his plan more carefully.
TEDIOUNESS OF COLUMBUS'S SUIT
Thus terminated a solicitation at the court of Ferdinand and Isabella
which, according to some authorities, lasted five years; for the facts
above mentioned, though short in narration, occupied no little time in
transaction. During the whole of this period, Columbus appears to have
followed the sovereigns in the movements which the war necessitated, and
to have been treated by them with much consideration. Sums were from time
to time granted from the royal treasury for his private expenses, and he
was billeted as a public functionary in the various towns of Andalusia,
where the court rested. But his must have been a very up-hill task. Las
Casas, who, from an experience larger even than that which fell to the lot
of Columbus, knew what it was to endure the cold and indolent neglect of
superficial men in small authority, and all the vast delay, which cannot
be comprehended except by those who have suffered under it, that belongs
to the transaction of any affair in which many persons have to cooperate,
compares the suit of Columbus to a battle, "a terrible, continuous,
painful, prolix battle." The tide of this long war (for war it was, rather
than a battle) having turned against him, Columbus left the court, and
went to Seville "with much sadness and discomfiture." During this dreary
period of a suitor's life--which, however, has been endured by some of the
greatest men the world has seen, which was well known by close
observation, or bitter experience, to Spenser, Camoens, Cervantes,
Shakespeare, Bacon--one joy at least was not untasted by Columbus,
namely, that of love. His beloved Beatrice, whom he first met at Cordova,
must have believed in him, even if no one else had done so; but love was
not sufficient to retain at her side a man goaded by a great idea, or
perhaps that love did but impel him to still greater efforts for her sake,
as is the way with lovers of the nobler sort.
ENCOURAGEMENT OF FRIENDS; GARCIA HERNANDEZ.
Other friends, too, shared his enthusiasm, and urged him onward. Juan
Perez de la Marchena, guardian of the monastery of La Rabida, in
Andalusia, had been the confessor of Queen Isabella, but had exchanged the
bustle of the court for the learned leisure of the cloister. The little
town of Palos, with its seafaring population and maritime interests, was
near the monastery, and the principal men of the place were glad to pass
the long winter evenings in the society of Juan Perez, discussing
questions of cosmography and astronomy. Among these visitors were Martin
Alonzo Pinzon, the chief shipowner of Palos, and Garcia Hernandez, the
village doctor; and one can fancy how the schemes of Columbus must have
appeared to the little conclave as a ray of sunlight in the dulness of
their simple life. Hernandez, especially, who seems to have been somewhat
skilled in physical science, and therefore capable of appreciating the
arguments of Columbus, became a warm believer in his project. It is worthy
of notice that a person who appears only once, as it were, in a sentence
in history, should have exercised so much influence upon it as Garcia
Hernandez, who was probably a man of far superior attainments to those
around him, and was in the habit of deploring, as such men do, his hard
lot in being placed where he could be so little understood. Now, however,
he was to do more at one stroke than many a man who has been all his days
before the world. Columbus had abandoned his suit at court in disgust, and
had arrived at the monastery before quitting Spain to fetch his son Diego,
whom he had left with Juan Perez to be educated. All his griefs and
struggles he confided to Perez, who could not bear to hear of his
intention to leave the country for France or England, and to make a
foreign nation greater by allowing it to adopt his project. The three
friends--the monk, the learned physician, and the skilled
cosmographer--discussed together the propositions so unhappily familiar to
the last named member of their little council. The affection of Juan Perez
and the learning of Hernandez were not slow to follow in the track which
the enthusiasm of the great adventurer made out before them; and they
became, no doubt, as convinced as Columbus himself of the feasibility of
his undertaking. The difficulty, however, was not in becoming believers
themselves, but in persuading those to believe who would have power to
further the enterprise.
PEREZ WRITES TO THE QUEEN.
Their discussions upon this point ended in the conclusion that Juan Perez,
who was known to the queen, having acted as her confessor, should write to
her highness. He did so; and the result was favourable. The queen sent for
him, heard what he had to say, and in consequence remitted money to
Columbus to enable him to come to Court and renew his suit.
COLUMBUS'S CONDITIONS.
He attended the court again; his negotiations were resumed, but were again
broken off on the ground of the largeness of the conditions which he asked
for. His opponents said that these conditions were too large if he
succeeded, and if he should not succeed and the conditions should come to
nothing, they thought that there was an air of trifling in granting such
conditions at all. And, indeed, they wore very large; namely, that he was
to be made an admiral at once, to be appointed viceroy of the countries he
should discover, and to have an eighth of the profits of the expedition.
The only probable way of accounting for the extent of these demands and
his perseverance in making them, even to the risk of total failure, is
that the discovering of the Indies was but a step in his mind to greater
undertakings, as they seemed to him, which he had in view, of going to
Jerusalem with an army and making another crusade. For Columbus carried
the chivalrous ideas of the twelfth century into the somewhat self-seeking
fifteenth. The negotiation, however, failed a second time, and Columbus
resolved again to go to France, when Alonzo de Quintanilla and Juan Perez
contrived to obtain a hearing for the great adventurer from Cardinal
Mendoza, who was pleased with him. Columbus then offered, in order to meet
the objections of his opponents, to pay an eighth part of the expense of
the expedition. Still nothing was done.
SANTANGLE'S ADDRESS.
And now, finally, Columbus determined to go to France, and indeed had
actually set off one day in January of the year 1492, when Luis de
Santangel, receiver of the ecclesiastical revenues of the crown of Aragon,
a person much devoted to the plans of Columbus, addressed the queen with
all the energy that a man throws into his words when he is aware that it
is his last time for speaking in favour of a thing which he has much at
heart. He told her that he wondered that, as she always had a lofty mind
for great things, it should be wanting to her on this occasion. He
endeavoured to pique her jealousy as a monarch, by suggesting that the
enterprise might fall into the hands of other princes. Then he said
something in behalf of Columbus himself, and the queen was not unlikely to
know well the bearing of a great man. He intimated to her highness that
what was an impossibility to the cosmographers, might not be so in nature.
Nor, continued he, should any endeavour in so great a matter be attributed
to lightness, even though the endeavour should fail; for it is the part of
great and generous princes to ascertain the secrets of the world. Other
princes (he did not mention those of neighbouring Portugal) had gained
eternal fame this way. He concluded by saying that all the aid Columbus
wanted to set the expedition afloat, was but a million of maravedis
(equivalent to about 308 Pounds, English money of the period); and that so
great an enterprise ought not to be abandoned for the sake of such a
trifling sum.
SUCCESS OF THE ADDRESS.
These well addressed arguments, falling in, as they did, with those of
Quintanilla, the treasurer, who had great influence with the queen,
prevailed. She thanked these lords for their counsel, and said she would
adopt it, but they must wait until the finances had recovered a little
from the drain upon them occasioned by the conquest of Granada, or if they
thought that the plan must be forthwith carried out, she would pledge her
jewels to raise the necessary funds. Santangel and Quintanilla kissed her
hands, highly delighted at succeeding; and Santangel offered to advance
the money required. Upon this the queen sent an alguazil to overtake
Columbus and bring him back to the court. He was overtaken at the bridge
of Pinos, two leagues from Granada; returned to Santa Fe, where the
sovereigns were encamped before Granada; was well received by Isabella;
and finally the agreement between him and their catholic highnesses was
settled with the secretary, Colama.
THE AGREEMENT SETTLED.
Not much is seen of King Ferdinand in all these proceedings; and it is
generally understood that he looked rather coldly upon the propositions of
Columbus. We cannot say that he was at all unwise in so doing. His great
compeer, Henry the Seventh, did not hasten to adopt the same project
submitted to him by Bartholomew Columbus, sent into England[8] for that
purpose by his brother Christopher; and it has not been thought to
derogate from the English king's sagacity.
[Footnote 8: It is difficult to determine how the project brought before
Henry the Seventh's notice by Bartholomew Columbus was received. Some
say it was made a mockery of at the English court; others speak of it as
actually accepted. Lord Bacon states that Bartholomew was taken by
pirates on his voyage to England, which delayed him so much that "before
he had obtained a capitulation with the king for his brother, the
enterprise by him was achieved." It is probable that Henry listened with
interest to Bartholomew Columbus, who was a man of much intelligence and
great maritime knowledge. But it seems unlikely that the negotiation
went very far, considering the rigid manner in which Columbus insisted
upon his exact conditions being accepted by the Spanish court. No such
bargain, at a distance, with a reserved and parsimonious monarch, was
likely, therefore, to have been concluded. It appears, however, from a
despatch from the Spanish ambassador to his sovereigns, dated the 25th
July, 1498, that the English were not behind other nations in a thirst
for discovery, "Merchants of Bristol," he says, "have for the last seven
years sent out annually some ships in search of the island of Brazil and
the Seven Cities." If this assertion is accurate, England must have
anticipated Spain in the search for, though not in the discovery of, the
western world.]
FATE OF PROJECTORS' PLANS.
Those who govern are in all ages surrounded by projectors, and have to
clear the way about them as well as they can, and to take care that they
get time and room for managing their own immediate affairs. It is not to
be wondered at, therefore, if good plans should sometimes share the fate
which ought to attend, and must attend, the great mass of all projects
submitted to men in power. Here, however the ultimate event would justify
the monarch's caution; for it would be hard to prove that Spain has
derived aught but a golden weakness from her splendid discoveries and
possessions in the new world.
FERDINAND'S COLDNESS.
Moreover, the characters of the two men being essentially opposed, it is
probable that Ferdinand felt something like contempt for the uncontrolled
enthusiasm of Columbus; and, upon the whole, it is rather to be wondered
that the king consented to give the powers he did, than that he did not do
more. Had it been a matter which concerned his own kingdom of Aragon, he
might not have gone so far; but the expenses were to be eventually charged
on Castille, and perhaps he looked upon the whole affair as another
instance of Isabella's good natured sympathy with enthusiasts. His own
cool and wary nature must have distrusted this "pauper pilot, promising
rich realms." [9]
[Footnote 9: "Nudo nocchier, promettitor di regni:"--Chiabrea.]
COLUMBUS'S AGREEMENT WITH THE COURT OF SPAIN.
The agreement between Columbus and their Catholic highnesses is to the
following effect:--
The favours which Christopher Columbus has asked from the King and Queen
of Spain in recompense of the discoveries which he has made in the ocean
seas, and as recompense for the voyage which he is about to undertake, are
the following:--
1. He wishes to be made admiral of the seas and countries which he is
about to discover. He desires to hold this dignity during his life, and
that it should descend to his heirs.
This request is granted by the king and queen.
2. Christopher Columbus wishes to be made viceroy of all the continents
and islands.
Granted by the king and queen.
3. He wishes to have a share, amounting to a tenth part, of the profits of
all merchandise, be it pearls, jewels, or any other things, that may be
found, gained, bought, or exported from the countries which he is to
discover.
Granted by the king and queen.
4. He wishes, in his quality of admiral, to be made sole judge of all
mercantile matters that may be the occasion of dispute in the countries
which he is to discover.
Granted by the king and queen, on the condition, however, that this
jurisdiction should belong to the office of admiral, as held by Don
Enriquez and other admirals.
5. Christopher Columbus wishes to have the right to contribute the eighth
part of the expenses of all ships which traffic with the new countries,
and in return to earn the eighth part of the profits.
Granted by the king and queen.
Santa Fe, in the Vega of Granada,
April 17, 1492.
This agreement is signed by the Secretary Coloma and written by Almazan.
Then there is a sort of passport or commendatory letter intended for
presentation to the Grand Khan, Prester John, or any other oriental
potentate at whose territories Columbus might arrive:--
FERDINAND AND ISABELLA TO KING--
The sovereigns have heard that he and his subjects entertain great
love for them and for Spain. They are moreover informed that he and
his subjects very much[10] wish to hear news from Spain; and send,
therefore, their admiral, Ch. Columbus, who will tell them that they
are in good health and perfect prosperity.
Granada, April 30, 1492.
[Footnote 10: This crediting the unknown ruler with an anxiety for the
welfare of the Spanish sovereigns is really a delicious piece of
diplomatic affectation.]
COLUMBUS GOES TO PALOS.
Armed with these royal commissions, Columbus left the court for Palos; and
we may be sure that the knot of friends at the monastery were sufficiently
demonstrative in their delight at the scheme on which they had pinned
their faith being fairly launched. There was no delay in furnishing the
funds for the expedition. From an entry in an account-book belonging to
the Bishopric of Palencia, it appears that one million one hundred and
forty thousand maravedis were advanced by Santangel in May, 1492, "being
the sum he lent for paying the caravels which their highnesses ordered to
go as the armada to the Indies, and for paying Christopher Columbus, who
goes in the said armada." The town of Palos was ordered to provide two
vessels.[11]
[Footnote 11: The requisition to the municipality of Palos runs thus:
"In consequence of the offence which we received at your hands, you were
condemned by our council to render us the service of two caravels,
armed, at your own expense, for the space of twelve months, whenever and
wherever it should be our pleasure to demand the same:" (30th April,
1492.) A proclamation of immunity from civil and criminal process to
persons taking service in the expedition was issued at the same time.
The ship of Columbus was, therefore, a refuge for criminals and runaway
debtors, a cave of Adullam for the discontented and the desperate. To
have to deal with such a community was not of the least of Columbus's
difficulties.]
ORDER TO PRESS MEN.
But there was still a weighty difficulty to be surmounted. It was no easy
matter to obtain crews for such an expedition. The sovereigns issued an
order authorizing Columbus to press men into the service, but still the
numbers were incomplete, for the mariners of Palos held aloof, unwilling
to risk their lives in what seemed to them the crazy project of a
monomaniac. But Juan Perez was active in persuading men to embark. The
Pinzons, rich men and skilful mariners of Palos, joined in the undertaking
personally, and aided it with their money, and, by these united exertions,
three vessels were manned with ninety mariners, and provisioned for a
year.
CHARACTER OF VESSELS AND CREWS.
The vessels were all of small size, probably of not more than one hundred
tons' burden each, and, therefore, not larger than the American yachts,
whose ocean race from New York to Cowes was regarded as an example of
immense hardihood, even in the year 1867. But Columbus considered them
very suitable for the undertaking. The Santa Maria, which Columbus himself
commanded, was the only one of the three that was decked throughout. The
official persons and the crew on board her were sixteen in number. The two
other vessels were of the class called caravels, and were decked fore and
aft, but not amidships, the stem and the stern being built so as to rise
high out of the water. One of them, the "Pinta," was manned by a crew of
thirty, commanded by Martin Alonzo Pinzon. The other, the "Nina," had
Vincent Yanez Pinzon for captain, and a crew of twenty-four men. The
whole number of adventurers amounted to a hundred and twenty persons, men
of various nationalities, including, by the way, among them, two natives
of the British Isles.
CHAPTER III. First Voyage.
At length all the preparations were complete, and on a Friday (not
inauspicious in this case), the 3rd of August, 1492, after they had all
confessed and received the sacrament, they set sail from the Bar of
Saltes, making for the Canary Islands. One can fancy how the men and the
women of Palos watched the specks of white sails vanishing in the west,
and how, as each frail bark in turn disappeared in the great ocean,
mothers and sisters turned weepingly away as if from a last farewell at
the grave of their sailor kinsmen.
Columbus was now fairly afloat, and we may say with Milton, that--
The world was all before him, where to choose.
And Providence his guide.
His choice was made, however; and his Guide did not fail him.
CANARY ISLANDS REACHED.
He was about to change the long-continued, weary, dismal life of a suitor,
for the sharp intense anxiety of a struggle in which there was no
alternative to success but deplorable, ridiculous, fatal failure. Speaking
afterwards of the time he spent as a suitor at court, he says, "Eight
years I was torn with disputes, and in a word, my proposition was a thing
for mockery." It was now to be seen what mockery was in it. The following
account of the voyage is mainly taken from an abridgment of Columbus's own
diary made by Las Casas, who in some places gives the admiral's own words.
The little squadron reached the Canary Islands in a few days, with no
event worth recording, except that the caravel "Pinta," commanded Martin
Alonzo Pinzon, unshipped her rudder. This was supposed to be no accident,
but to have been contrived by the owners of the vessel, who did not like
the voyage. The admiral (from henceforth Columbus is called "the admiral")
was obliged to stay some time at the Canary Islands, to refit the
"Pinta," and to make some change in the cut of her sails. While this was
being done, news was brought that three Portuguese government vessels were
cruising in the offing with the intention of preventing the expedition.
However, on the 6th of September, Columbus set sail from Gomera, and
struck boldly out to sea, without meeting with any of his supposed
enemies.
RUMORS OF LAND SEEN.
In the abridgment of the diary, under the date of the 19th of August, the
admiral remarks that many Spaniards of these islands, "respectable men,"
swear that each year they see land; and he remembers how, in the year
1484, some one came from the island of Madeira to the King of Portugal to
beg a caravel in order to go and discover that land which he declared he
could see each year, and in the same manner. Had not the admiral been
conscious of the substantial originality of his proceedings, he would
hardly have been careful to collect these scattered notices which might
afterwards be used, as many like them were used, to depreciate that
originality. There is no further entry in the diary until the 6th of
September, when they set out from Gomera (one of the Canary Islands), on
their unknown way. For many days, what we have of the diary is little more
than a log-book, giving the rate of sailing, or rather two rates, one for
Columbus's own private heed, and the other for the sailors. On the 13th of
September it is noted that the needle declined in the evening to the
north-west, and on the ensuing morning, to the north-east, the first time
that such a variation had been observed, or, at least recorded by
Europeans. On the 14th, the sailors of the caravel "Nina" saw two tropical
birds, which they said were never wont to be seen at more than fifteen or
twenty leagues from shore. On the 15th they all saw a meteor fall from
heaven, which made them very sad.
PLAINS OF SEAWEED.
On the 16th, they first came upon those immense plains of seaweed (the
fucus natans), which constitute the Mar de Sargasso, and which occupy a
space in the Atlantic almost equal to seven times the extent of France.
The aspect of these plains greatly terrified the sailors, who thought they
might be coming upon submerged lands and rocks; but finding that the
vessels cut their way well through this seaweed, the sailors thereupon
took heart. On the 17th, they see more of these plains of seaweed, and
thinking themselves to be near land, they are almost in good spirits, when
finding that the needle declines to the west a whole point of the
compass and more, their hopes suddenly sink again: they begin "to murmur
between their teeth," and to wonder whether they are not in another world.
Columbus, however, orders an observation to be taken at day-break, when
the needle is found to point to the north again; moreover he is ready with
a theory sufficiently ingenious for that time, to account for the
phenomenon of variation which had so disturbed the sailors, namely, that
it was caused by the north star moving round the pole. The sailors are,
therefore, quieted upon this head.
SIGNS OF LAND.
In the morning of the same day they catch a crab, from which Columbus
infers that they cannot be more than eighty leagues distant from land. The
18th, they see many birds, and a cloud in the distance; and that night
they expect to see land. On the 19th, in the morning, comes a pelican (a
bird not usually seen twenty leagues from the coast); in the evening,
another; also drizzling rain without wind, a certain sign, as the diary
says, of proximity to land.
The admiral, however, will not beat about for land, as he concludes that
the land which these various natural phenomena give token of, can only be
islands, as indeed it proved to be. He will see them on his return; but
now he must press on to the Indies. This determination shows his strength
of mind, and indicates the almost scientific basis on which his great
resolve reposed.
CONSPIRACY AMONG THE MEN.
Accordingly, he was not to be diverted from the main design by any partial
success, though by this time he knew well the fears of his men, some of
whom had already come to the conclusion, "that it would be their best plan
to throw him quietly into the sea, and say he unfortunately fell in, while
he stood absorbed in looking at the stars." Indeed, three days after he
had resolved to pass on to the Indies, we find him saying, for Las Casas
gives his words, "Very needful for me was this contrary wind, for the
people were very much tormented with the idea that there were no winds on
these seas that could take them back to Spain."
HIS DETERMINATION TO PROCEED.