Upwards of a century now elapsed without any new attempt to seek this

fairy island. Every now and then, it is true, the public mind was agitated

by fresh reports of its having been seen. Lemons and other fruits, and the

green branches of trees which floated to the shores of Gomera and Ferro,

were pronounced to be from the enchanted groves of St. Borondon. At

length, in 1721, the public infatuation again rose to such a height that a

fourth expedition was sent, commanded by Don Caspar Dominguez, a man of

probity and talent. As this was an expedition of solemn and mysterious

import, he had two holy friars as apostolical chaplains. They made sail

from the island of Teneriffe towards the end of October, leaving the

populace in an indescribable state of anxious curiosity mingled with

superstition. The ship, however, returned from its cruise as unsuccessful

as all its predecessors.

We have no account of any expedition being since undertaken, though the

island still continued to be a subject of speculation, and occasionally to

reveal its shadowy mountains to the eyes of favored individuals. In a

letter written from the island of Gomera, 1759, by a Franciscan monk, to

one of his friends, he relates having seen it from the village of Alaxero

at six in the morning of the third of May. It appeared to consist of two

lofty mountains, with a deep valley between; and on contemplating it with

a telescope, the valley or ravine appeared to be filled with trees. He

summoned the curate Antonio Joseph Manrique, and upwards of forty other

persons, all of whom beheld it plainly. [359]

Nor is this island delineated merely in ancient maps of the time of

Columbus. It is laid down as one of the Canary islands in a French map

published in 1704; and Mons. Gautier, in a geographical chart, annexed to

his Observations on Natural History, published in 1755, places it five

degrees to the west of the island of Ferro, in the 29th deg. of N.

latitude. [360]

Such are the principal facts existing relative to the island of St.

Brandan: Its reality was for a long time a matter of firm belief. It was

in vain that repeated voyages and investigations proved its nonexistence;

the public, after trying all kinds of sophistry, took refuge in the

supernatural, to defend their favorite chimera. They maintained that it

was rendered inaccessible to mortals by Divine Providence, or by

diabolical magic. Most inclined to the former. All kinds of extravagant

fancies were indulged concerning it; [361] some confounded it with the

fabled island of the Seven Cities situated somewhere in the bosom of the

ocean, where in old times seven bishops and their followers had taken

refuge from the Moors. Some of the Portuguese imagined it to be the abode

of their lost king Sebastian. The Spaniards pretended that Roderick, the

last of their Gothic kings, had fled thither from the Moors after the

disastrous battle of the Guadalete. Others suggested that it might be the

seat of the terrestrial paradise, the place where Enoch and Elijah

remained in a state of blessedness until the final day; and that it was

made at times apparent to the eyes, but invisible to the search of

mortals. Poetry, it is said, has owed to this popular belief one of its

beautiful fictions, and the garden of Armida, where Rinaldo was detained

enchanted, and which Tasso places in one of the Canary islands, has been

identified with the imaginary St. Borondon. [362]

The learned father Feyjoo [363] has given a philosophical solution to

this geographical problem. He attributes all these appearances, which

have been so numerous and so well authenticated as not to admit of doubt,

to certain atmospherical deceptions, like that of the Fata Morgana, seen

at times, in the straits of Messina, where the city of Reggio and its

surrounding country is reflected in the air above the neighboring sea: a

phenomenon which has likewise been witnessed in front of the city of

Marseilles. As to the tales of the mariners who had landed on these

forbidden shores, and been hurried thence in whirlwinds and tempests, he

considers them as mere fabrications.

As the populace, however, reluctantly give up any thing that partakes of

the marvelous and mysterious, and as the same atmospherical phenomena,

which first gave birth to the illusion, may still continue, it is not

improbable that a belief in the island of St. Brandan may still exist

among the ignorant and credulous of the Canaries, and that they at times

behold its fairy mountains rising above the distant horizon of the

Atlantic.

No. XXVI.

The Island of the Seven Cities.

One of the popular traditions concerning the ocean, which were current

during the time of Columbus, was that of the Island of the Seven Cities.

It was recorded in an ancient legend, that at the time of the conquest of

Spain and Portugal by the Moors, when the inhabitants fled in every

direction to escape from slavery, seven bishops, followed by a great

number of their people, took shipping and abandoned themselves to their

fate, on the high seas. After tossing about for some time, they landed on

an unknown island in the midst of the ocean. Here the bishops burnt the

ships, to prevent the desertion of their followers, and founded seven

cities. Various pilots of Portugal, it was said, had reached that island

at different times, but had never returned to give any information

concerning it, having been detained, according to subsequent accounts, by

the successors of the bishops to prevent pursuit. At length, according to

common report, at the time that prince Henry of Portugal was prosecuting

his discoveries, several seafaring men presented themselves one day before

him, and stated that they had just returned from a voyage, in the course

of which they had landed upon this island. The inhabitants, they said,

spoke their language, and carried them immediately to church, to ascertain

whether they were Catholics, and were rejoiced at finding them of the true

faith. They then made earnest inquiries, to know whether the Moors still

retained possession of Spain and Portugal. While part of the crew were at

church, the rest gathered sand on the shore for the use of the kitchen,

and found to their surprise that one-third of it was gold. The islanders

were anxious that the crew should remain with them a few days, until the

return of their governor, who was absent; but the mariners, afraid of

being detained, embarked and made sail. Such was the story they told to

prince Henry, hoping to receive reward for their intelligence. The prince

expressed displeasure at their hasty departure from the island, and

ordered them to return and procure further information; but the men,

apprehensive, no doubt, of having the falsehood of their tale discovered,

made their escape, and nothing more was heard of them. [364]

This story had much currency. The Island of the Seven Cities was

identified with the island mentioned by Aristotle as having been

discovered by the Carthaginians, and was put down in the early maps about

the time of Columbus, under the name of Antilla.

At the time of the discovery of New Spain, reports were brought to

Hispaniola of the civilization of the country; that the people wore

clothing; that their houses and temples were solid, spacious, and often

magnificent; and that crosses were occasionally found among them. Juan de

Grivalja, being dispatched to explore the coast of Yucatan, reported that

in sailing along it he beheld, with great wonder, stately and beautiful

edifices of lime and stone, and many high towers that shone at a distance.

[365] For a time the old tradition of the Seven Cities was revived, and

many thought that they were to be found in the same part of New Spain.

No. XXVII.

Discovery of the Island of Madeira.

The discovery of Madeira by Macham rests principally upon the authority of

Francisco Alcaforado, an esquire of prince Henry of Portugal, who composed

an account of it for that prince. It does not appear to have obtained much

faith among Portuguese historians. No mention is made of it in Barros; he

attributes the first discovery of the island to Juan Gonzalez and Tristram

Vaz, who he said descried it from Porto Santo, resembling a cloud on the

horizon. [366]

The abbé Provost, however, in his general history of voyages, vol. 6,

seems inclined to give credit to the account of Alcaforado. "It was

composed," he observes, "at a time when the attention of the public would

have exposed the least falsities; and no one was more capable than

Alcaforado of giving an exact detail of this event, since he was of the

number of those who assisted at the second discovery." The narrative, as

originally written, was overcharged with ornaments and digressions. It was

translated into French and published in Paris, in 1671. The French

translator had retrenched the ornaments, but scrupulously retained the

facts. The story, however, is cherished in the island of Madeira, where a

painting in illustration of it is still to be seen. The following is the

purport of the French translation: I have not been able to procure the

original of Alcaforado.

During the reign of Edward the Third of England, a young man of great

courage and talent, named Robert Macham, fell in love with a young lady of

rare beauty, of the name of Anne Dorset. She was his superior in birth,

and of a proud and aristocratic family; but the merit of Macham gained him

the preference over all his rivals. The family of the young lady, to

prevent her making an inferior alliance, obtained an order from the king

to have Macham arrested and confined, until by arbitrary means they

married his mistress to a man of quality. As soon as the nuptials were

celebrated, the nobleman conducted his beautiful and afflicted bride to

his seat near Bristol. Macham was now restored to liberty. Indignant at

the wrongs he had suffered, and certain of the affections of his mistress,

he prevailed upon several friends to assist him in a project for the

gratification of his love and his revenge. They followed hard on the

traces of the new-married couple to Bristol. One of the friends obtained

an introduction into the family of the nobleman in quality of a groom. He

found the young bride full of tender recollections of her lover, and of

dislike to the husband thus forced upon her. Through the means of this

friend, Macham had several communications with her, and concerted means

for their escape to France, where they might enjoy their mutual love

unmolested.

When all things were prepared, the young lady rode out one day accompanied

only by the fictitious groom, under pretence of taking the air. No sooner

were they out of sight of the house, than they galloped to an appointed

place on the shore of the channel, where a boat awaited them. They were

conveyed on board a vessel which lay with anchor a-trip, and sails

unfurled, ready to put to sea. Here the lovers were once more united.

Fearful of pursuit, the ship immediately weighed anchor; they made their

way rapidly along the coast of Cornwall, and Macham anticipated the

triumph of soon landing with his beautiful prize on the shores of gay and

gallant France. Unfortunately an adverse and stormy wind arose in the

night; at daybreak they found themselves out of sight of land. The

mariners were ignorant and inexperienced; they knew nothing of the

compass, and it was a time when men were unaccustomed to traverse the high

seas. For thirteen days the lovers were driven about on a tempestuous

ocean, at the mercy of wind and wave. The fugitive bride was filled with

terror and remorse, and looked upon this uproar of the elements as the

anger of heaven directed against her. All the efforts of her lover could

not remove from her mind a dismal presage of some approaching catastrophe.

At length the tempest subsided. On the fourteenth day, at dawn, the

mariners perceived what appeared to be a tuft of wood rising out of the

sea. They joyfully steered for it, supposing it to be an island. They were

not mistaken. As they drew near, the rising sun shone upon noble forests,

the trees of which were of a kind unknown to them. Flights of birds also

came hovering about the ship, and perched upon the yards and rigging

without any signs of fear. The boat was sent on shore to reconnoitre, and

soon returned with such accounts of the beauty of the country, that Macham

determined to take his drooping companion to the land, in hopes her health

and spirits might be restored by refreshment and repose. They were

accompanied on shore by the faithful friends who had assisted in their

flight. The mariners remained on board to guard, the ship.

The country was indeed delightful. The forests were stately and

magnificent; there were trees laden with excellent fruits, others with

aromatic flowers; the waters were cool and limpid, the sky was serene, and

there was a balmy sweetness in the air. The animals they met with showed

no signs of alarm or ferocity, from which they concluded that the island

was uninhabited. On penetrating a little distance they found a sheltered

meadow, the green bosom of which was bordered by laurels and refreshed by

a mountain brook which ran sparkling over pebbles. In the centre was a

majestic tree, the wide branches of which afforded shade from the rays of

the sun. Here Macham had bowers constructed and determined to pass a few

days, hoping that the sweetness of the country, and the serene

tranquillity of this delightful solitude, would recruit the drooping

health and spirits of his companion. Three days, however, had scarcely

passed, when a violent storm arose from the northeast, and raged all night

over the island. On the succeeding morning Macham repaired to the sea-side,

but nothing of his ship was to be seen, and he concluded that it had

foundered in the tempest.

Consternation fell upon the little band, thus left in an uninhabited

island in the midst of the ocean. The blow fell most severely on the timid

and repentant bride. She reproached herself with being the cause of all

their misfortunes, and, from the first, had been haunted by dismal

forebodings. She now considered them about to be accomplished, and her

horror was so great as to deprive her of speech; she expired in three days

without uttering a word.

Machnm was struck with despair at beholding the tragical end of this

tender and beautiful being. He upbraided himself, in the transports of his

grief, with tearing her from home, her country, and her friends, to perish

upon a savage coast. All the efforts of his companions to console him were

in vain. He died within five days, broken-hearted; begging, as a last

request, that his body might be interred beside that of his mistress, at

the foot of a rustic altar which they had erected under the great tree.

They set up a large wooden cross on the spot, on which was placed an

inscription written by Macham himself, relating in a few words his piteous

adventure, and praying any Christians who might arrive there, to build a

chapel in the place dedicated to Jesus the Saviour.

After the death of their commander, his followers consulted about means to

escape from the island. The ship's boat remained on the shore. They

repaired it and put it in a state to bear a voyage, and then made sail,

intending to return to England. Ignorant of their situation, and carried

about by the winds, they were cast upon the coast of Morocco, where, their

boat being shattered upon the rocks, they were captured by the Moors and

thrown into prison. Here they understood that their ship had shared the

same fate, having been driven from her anchorage in the tempest, and

carried to the same inhospitable coast, where all her crew were made

prisoners.

The prisons of Morocco were in those days filled with captives of all

nations, taken by their cruisers. Here the English prisoners met with an

experienced pilot, a Spaniard of Seville, named Juan de Morales. He

listened to their story with great interest; inquired into the situation

and description of the island they had discovered; and, subsequently, on

his redemption from prison, communicated the circumstances, it is said, to

prince Henry of Portugal.

There is a difficulty in the above narrative of Alcaforado in reconciling

dates. The voyage is said to have taken place during the reign of Edward

III, which commenced in 1327 and ended in 1378. Morales, to whom the

English communicated their voyage, is said to have been in the service of

the Portuguese, in the second discovery of Madeira, in 1418 and 1420. Even

if the voyage and imprisonment had taken place in the last year of king

Edward's reign, this leaves a space of forty years.

Hacluyt gives an account of the same voyage, taken from Antonio Galvano.

He varies in certain particulars. It happened, he says, in the year 1344,

in the time of Peter IV of Aragon. Macham cast anchor in a bay since

called, after him, Machio.

The lady being ill, he took her on shore, accompanied by some of his

friends, and the ships sailed without them. After the death of the lady,

Macham made a canoe out of a tree, and ventured to sea in it with his

companions. They were cast upon the coast of Africa, where the Moors,

considering it a kind of miracle, carried him to the king of their

country, who sent him to the king of Castile. In consequence of the

traditional accounts remaining of this voyage, Henry II of Castile sent

people, in 1395, to re-discover the island.

No. XXVIII.

Las Casas.

Bartholomew Las Casas, bishop of Chiapa, so often cited in all histories

of the New World, was born at Seville, in 1474, and was of French

extraction. The family name was Casaus. The first of the name who appeared

in Spain, served under the standard of Ferdinand III, surnamed the saint,

in his wars with the Moors of Andalusia. He was at the taking of Seville

from the Moors, when he was rewarded by the king, and received permission

to establish himself there. His descendants enjoyed the prerogatives of

nobility, and suppressed the letter u in their name, to accommodate it to

the Spanish tongue.

Antonio, the father of Bartholomew, went to Hispaniola with Columbus in

1493, and returned rich to Seville in 1498. [367] It has been stated by

one of the biographers of Bartholomew Las Casas, that he accompanied

Columbus in his third voyage in 1498, and returned with him in 1500. [368]

This, however, is incorrect. He was, during that time, completing his

education at Salamanca, where he was instructed in Latin, dialectics,

logic, metaphysics, ethics, and physics, after the supposed method and

system of Aristotle. While at the university, he had, as a servant, an

Indian slave, given him by his father, who had received him from Columbus.

When Isabella, in her transport of virtuous indignation, ordered the

Indian slaves to be sent back to their country, this one was taken from

Las Casas. The young man was aroused by the circumstance, and, on

considering the nature of the case, became inflamed with a zeal in favor

of the unhappy Indians, which never cooled throughout a long and active

life. It was excited to tenfold fervor, when, at about the age of

twenty-eight years, he accompanied the commander Ovando to Hispaniola in

1502, and was an eye-witness to many of the cruel scenes which took place

under his administration. The whole of his future life, a space exceeding

sixty years, was devoted to vindicating the cause, and endeavoring to

meliorate the sufferings of the natives. As a missionary, he traversed the

wilderness of the New World in various directions, seeking to convert and

civilize them; as a protector and champion, he made several voyages to

Spain, vindicated their wrongs before courts and monarchs, wrote volumes

in their behalf, and exhibited a zeal, and constancy, and intrepidity

worthy of an apostle. He died at the advanced age of ninety-two years, and

was buried at Madrid, in the church of the Dominican convent of Atocha, of

which fraternity he was a member.

Attempts have been made to decry the consistency and question the real

philanthropy of Las Casas, in consequence of one of the expedients to

which he resorted to relieve the Indians from the cruel bondage imposed

upon them. This occurred in 1517, when he arrived in Spain, on one of his

missions, to obtain measures in their favor from the government. On his

arrival in Spain, he found cardinal Ximenes, who had been left regent on

the death of King Ferdinand, too ill to attend to his affairs. He

repaired, therefore, to Valladolid, where he awaited the coming of the new

monarch Charles, archduke of Austria, afterwards the emperor Charles V. He

had strong opponents to encounter in various persons high in authority,

who, holding estates and repartimientos in the colonies, were interested

in the slavery of the Indians. Among these, and not the least animated,

was the bishop Fonseca, president of the council of the Indies.

At length the youthful sovereign arrived, accompanied by various Flemings

of his court, particularly his grand chancellor, doctor Juan de Selvagio,

a learned and upright man, whom he consulted on all affairs of

administration and justice. Las Casas soon became intimate with the

chancellor, and stood high in his esteem; but so much opposition arose on

every side that he found his various propositions for the relief of the

natives but little attended to. In his doubt and anxiety he had now

recourse to an expedient which he considered as justified by the

circumstances of the case. [369] The chancellor Selvagio and other

Flemings who had accompanied the youthful sovereign had obtained from him,

before quitting Flanders, licenses to import slaves from Africa to the

colonies; a measure which had recently in 1516 been prohibited by a decree

of cardinal Ximenes while acting as regent. The chancellor, who was a

humane man, reconciled it to his conscience by a popular opinion that one

negro could perform, without detriment to his health, the labor of several

Indians, and that therefore it was a great saving of human suffering. So

easy is it for interest to wrap itself up in plausible argument! He might,

moreover, have thought the welfare of the Africans but little affected by

the change. They were accustomed to slavery in their own country, and they

were said to thrive in the New World. "The Africans," observes Herrera,

"prospered so much in the island of Hispaniola, that it was the opinion

unless a negro should happen to be hanged, he would never die; for as yet

none had been known to perish from infirmity. Like oranges, they found

their proper soil in Hispaniola, and it seemed ever more natural to them

than their native Guinea." [370]

Las Casas, finding all other means ineffectual, endeavored to turn these

interested views of the grand chancellor to the benefit of the Indians. He

proposed that the Spaniards, resident in the colonies, might be permitted

to procure negroes for the labor of the farms and the mines, and other

severe toils, which were above the strength and destructive of the lives

of the natives. [371] He evidently considered the poor Africans as little

better than mere animals; and he acted like others, on an arithmetical

calculation of diminishing human misery, by substituting one strong man

for three or four of feebler nature. He, moreover, esteemed the Indians

as a nobler and more intellectual race of beings, and their preservation

and welfare of higher importance to the general interests of humanity.

It is this expedient of Las Casas which has drawn down severe censure upon

his memory. He has been charged with gross inconsistency, and even with

having originated this inhuman traffic in the New World. This last is a

grievous charge; but historical facts and dates remove the original sin

from his door, and prove that the practice existed in the colonies, and

was authorized by royal decree, long before he took a part in the

question.

Las Casas did not go to the New World until 1502. By a royal ordinance

passed in 1501, negro slaves were permitted to be taken there, provided

they had been born among Christians. [372] By a letter written by Ovando,

dated 1503, it appears that there were numbers in the island of

Hispaniola at that time, and he entreats that none more might be

permitted to be brought.

In 1506 the Spanish government forbade the introduction of negro slaves

from the Levant, or those brought up with the Moors; and stipulated that

none should be taken to the colonies but those from Seville, who had been

instructed in the Christian faith, that they might contribute to the

conversion of the Indians. [373] In 1510, king Ferdinand, being informed

of the physical weakness of the Indians, ordered fifty Africans to be

sent from Seville to labor in the mines. [374] In 1511, he ordered that

a great number should be procured from Guinea, and transported to

Hispaniola, understanding that one negro could perform the work of four

Indians. [375] In 1512 and '13 he signed further orders relative to the

same subject. In 1516, Charles V granted licenses to the Flemings to

import negroes to the colonies. It was not until the year 1517, that Las

Casas gave his sanction of the traffic. It already existed, and he

countenanced it solely with a view to having the hardy Africans

substituted for the feeble Indians. It was advocated at the same time,

and for the same reasons, by the Jeronimite friars, who were missionaries

in the colonies. The motives of Las Casas were purely benevolent, though

founded on erroneous notions of justice. He thought to permit evil that

good might spring out of it; to choose between two existing abuses, and

to eradicate the greater by resorting to the lesser. His reasoning,

however fallacious it may be, was considered satisfactory and humane by

some of the most learned and benevolent men of the age, among whom was

the cardinal Adrian, afterwards elevated to the papal chair, and

characterized by gentleness and humanity. The traffic was permitted;

inquiries were made as to the number of slaves required, which was

limited to four thousand, and the Flemings obtained a monopoly of the

trade, which they afterwards farmed out to the Genoese.

Dr. Eobertson, in noticing this affair, draws a contrast between the

conduct of the cardinal Ximenes and that of Las Casas, strongly to the

disadvantage of the latter. "The cardinal," he observes, "when solicited

to encourage this commerce, peremptorily rejected the proposition, because

he perceived the iniquity of reducing one race of men to slavery, when he

was consulting about the means of restoring liberty to another; but Las

Casas, from the inconsistency natural to men who hurry with headlong

impetuosity towards a favorite point, was incapable of making this

distinction. In the warmth of his zeal to save the Americans from the

yoke, he pronounced it to be lawful and expedient to impose one still

heavier on the Africans." [376] This distribution of praise and censure is

not perfectly correct. Las Casas had no idea that he was imposing a

heavier, nor so heavy, a yoke upon the Africans. The latter were

considered more capable of labor, and less impatient of slavery. While the

Indians sunk under their tasks, and perished by thousands in Hispaniola,

the negroes, on the contrary, thrived there. Herrera, to whom Dr.

Robertson refers as his authority, assigns a different motive, and one of

mere finance, for the measures of cardinal Ximenes. He says that he

ordered that no one should take negroes to the Indies, because, as the

natives were decreasing, and it was known that one negro did more work

than four of them, there would probably be a great demand for African

slaves, and a tribute might be imposed upon the trade, from which would

result profit to the royal treasury. [377] This measure was presently

after carried into effect, though subsequent to the death of the

cardinal, and licenses were granted by the sovereign for pecuniary

considerations. Flechier, in his life of Ximenes, assigns another but a

mere political motive for this prohibition. The cardinal, he says,

objected to the importation of negroes into the colonies, as he feared

they would corrupt the natives, and by confederacies with them render

them formidable to government. De Marsolier, another biographer of Ximenes,

gives equally politic reasons for this prohibition. He cites a letter

written by the cardinal on the subject, in which he observed that he knew

the nature of the negroes; they were a people capable, it was true, of

great fatigue, but extremely prolific and enterprising; and that if they

had time to multiply in America, they would infallibly revolt, and impose

on the Spaniards the same chains which they had compelled them to wear.

[378] These facts, while they take from the measure of the cardinal that

credit for exclusive philanthropy which has been bestowed upon it,

manifest the clear foresight of that able politician; whose predictions

with respect to negro revolt have been so strikingly fulfilled in the

island of Hispaniola.

Cardinal Ximenes, in fact, though a wise and upright statesman, was not

troubled with scruples of conscience on these questions of natural right;

nor did he possess more toleration than his contemporaries towards savage

and infidel nations. He was grand inquisitor of Spain, and was very

efficient during the latter years of Ferdinand in making slaves of the

refractory Moors of Granada. He authorized, by express instructions,

expeditions to seize and enslave the Indians of the Caribbee islands, whom

he termed only suited to labor, enemies of the Christians, and cannibals.

Nor will it be considered a proof of gentle or tolerant policy, that he

introduced the tribunal of the inquisition into the New World. These

circumstances are cited not to cast reproach upon the character of

cardinal Ximenes, but to show how incorrectly he has been extolled at the

expense of Las Casas. Both of them must be judged in connection with the

customs and opinions of the age in which they lived.

Las Casas was the author of many works, but few of which have been

printed. The most important is a general history of the Indies, from the

discovery to the year 1520, in three volumes. It exists only in

manuscript, but is the fountain from which Herrera, and most of the other

historians of the New World, have drawn large supplies. The work, though

prolix, is valuable, as the author was an eye-witness of many of the

facts, had others from persons who were concerned in the transactions

recorded, and possessed copious documents. It displays great erudition,

though somewhat crudely and diffusely introduced. His history was

commenced in 1527, at fifty-three years of age, and was finished in 1559,

when eighty-five. As many things are set down from memory, there is

occasional inaccuracy, but the whole bears the stamp of sincerity and

truth. The author of the present work, having had access to this valuable

manuscript, has made great use of it, drawing forth many curious facts

hitherto neglected; but he has endeavored to consult it with caution and

discrimination, collating it with other authorities, and omitting whatever

appeared to be dictated by prejudice or over-heated zeal.

Las Casas has been accused of high coloring and extravagant declamation in

those passages which relate to the barbarities practised on the natives;

nor is the charge entirely without foundation. The same zeal in the cause

of the Indians is expressed in his writings that shone forth in his

actions, always pure, often vehement, and occasionally unseasonable.

Still, however, where he errs it is on a generous and righteous side. If

one-tenth part of what he says he "witnessed with his own eyes" be true,

and his veracity is above all doubt, he would have been wanting in the

natural feelings of humanity had he not expressed himself in terms of

indignation and abhorrence.

In the course of his work, when Las Casas mentions the original papers

lying before him, from which he drew many of his facts, it makes one

lament that they should be lost to the world. Besides the journals and

letters of Columbus, he says he had numbers of the letters of the

Adelantado, Don Bartholomew, who wrote better than his brother, and whose

writings must have been full of energy. Above all, he had the map formed

from study and conjecture, by which Columbus sailed on his first voyage.

What a precious document would this be for the world! These writings may

still exist, neglected and forgotten among the rubbish of some convent in

Spain. Little hope can be entertained of discovering them in the present

state of degeneracy of the cloister. The monks of Atocha, in a recent

conversation with one of the royal princes, betrayed an ignorance that

this illustrious man was buried in their convent, nor can any of the

fraternity point out his place of sepulture to the stranger. [379]

The publication of this work of Las Casas has not been permitted in Spain,

where every book must have the sanction of a censor before it is committed

to the press. The horrible picture it exhibits of the cruelties inflicted

on the Indians, would, it was imagined, excite an odium against their

conquerors. Las Casas himself seems to have doubted the expediency of

publishing it; for in 1560 he made a note with his own hand, which is

preserved in the two first volumes of the original, mentioning that he

left them in confidence to the college of the order of Predicators of St.

Gregorio, in Valladolid, begging of its prelates that no secular person,

nor even the collegians, should be permitted to read his history for the

space of forty years; and that after that term it might be printed if

consistent with the good of the Indies and of Spain. [380]

For the foregoing reason the work has been cautiously used by Spanish

historians, passing over in silence, or with brief notice, many passages

of disgraceful import. This feeling is natural, if not commendable; for

the world is not prompt to discriminate between individuals and the nation

of whom they are but a part. The laws and regulations for the government

of the newly-discovered countries, and the decisions of the council of the

Indies on all contested points, though tinctured in some degree with the

bigotry of the age, were distinguished for wisdom, justice, and humanity,

and do honor to the Spanish nation. It was only in the abuse of them by

individuals to whom the execution of the laws was intrusted, that these

atrocities were committed. It should be remembered, also, that the same

nation which gave birth to the sanguinary and rapacious adventurers who

perpetrated these cruelties, gave birth likewise to the early

missionaries, like Las Casas, who followed the sanguinary course of

discovery, binding up the wounds inflicted by their countrymen; men who in

a truly evangelical spirit braved all kinds of perils and hardships, and

even death itself, not through a prospect of temporal gain or glory, but

through a desire to meliorate the condition and save the souls of

barbarous and suffering nations. The dauntless enterprises and fearful

peregrinations of many of these virtuous men, if properly appreciated,

would be found to vie in romantic daring with the heroic achievements of

chivalry, with motives of a purer and far more exalted nature.

No. XXIX.

Peter Martyr.

Peter Martir, or Martyr, of whose writings much use has been made in this

history, was born at Anghierra, in the territory of Milan, in Italy, on

the second of February, 1455. He is commonly termed Peter Martyr of

_Angleria_, from the Latin name of his native place. He is one of the

earliest historians that treat of Columbus, and was his contemporary and

intimate acquaintance. Being at Rome in 1487, and having acquired a

distinguished reputation for learning, he was invited by the Spanish

ambassador, the count de Tendilla, to accompany him to Spain. He willingly

accepted the invitation, and was presented to the sovereigns at Saragossa.

Isabella, amidst the cares of the war with Granada, was anxious for the

intellectual advancement of her kingdom, and wished to employ Martyr to

instruct the young nobility of the royal household. With her peculiar

delicacy, however, she first made her confessor, Hernando de Talavera,

inquire of Martyr in what capacity he desired to serve her. Contrary to

her expectation, Martyr replied, "in the profession of arms." The queen

complied, and he followed her in her campaigns, as one of her household

and military suite, but without distinguishing himself, and perhaps

without having any particular employ in a capacity so foreign to his

talents. After the surrender of Granada, when the war was ended, the

queen, through the medium of the grand cardinal of Spain, prevailed upon

him to undertake the instruction of the young nobles of her court.

Martyr was acquainted with Columbus while making his application to the

sovereigns, and was present at his triumphant reception by Ferdinand and

Isabella in Barcelona, on his return from his first voyage. He was

continually in the royal camp during the war with the Moors, of which his

letters contain many interesting particulars. He was sent ambassador

extraordinary by Ferdinand and Isabella, in 1501, to Venice, and thence to

the grand soldan of Egypt. The soldan, in 1490 or 1491, had sent an

embassy to the Spanish sovereigns, threatening that, unless they desisted

from the war against Granada, he would put all the Christians in Egypt and

Syria to death, overturn all their temples, and destroy the holy sepulchre

at Jerusalem. Ferdinand and Isabella pressed the war with tenfold energy,

and brought it to a triumphant conclusion in the next campaign, while the

soldan was still carrying on a similar negotiation with the pope. They

afterwards sent Peter Martyr ambassador to the soldan to explain and

justify their measure. Martyr discharged the duties of his embassy with

great ability; obtained permission from the soldan to repair the holy

places at Jerusalem, and an abolition of various extortions to which

Christian pilgrims had been subjected. While on this embassy, he wrote his

work Do Legatione Babylonica, which includes a history of Egypt in those

times.

On his return to Spain, he was rewarded with places and pensions, and in

1524 was appointed a minister of the council of the Indies. His principal

work is an account of the discoveries of the New World, in eight decades,

each containing ten chapters. They are styled Decades of the New World, or

Decades of the Ocean, and, like all his other works, were originally

written in Latin, though since translated into various languages. He had

familiar access to letters, papers, journals, and narratives of the early

discoverers, and was personally acquainted with many of them, gathering

particulars from their conversation. In writiug his Decades, he took great

pains to obtain information from Columbus himself, and from others, his

companions.

In one of his epistles, (No. 153, January, 1494, to Pomponius Lætus,) he

mentions having just received a letter from Columbus, by which it appears

he was in correspondence with him. Las Casas says that great credit is to

be given to him in regard to those voyages of Columbus, although his

Decades contain some inaccuracies relative to subsequent events in the

Indies. Muñoz allows him great credit, as an author contemporary with his

subject, grave, well cultivated, instructed in the facts of which he

treats, and of entire probity. He observes, however, that his writings

being composed on the spur or excitement of the moment, often related

circumstances which subsequently proved to be erroneous; that they were

written without method or care, often confusing dates and events, so that

they must be read with some caution.

Martyr was in the daily habit of writing letters to distinguished persons,

relating the passing occurrences of the busy court and age in which he

lived. In several of these Columbus is mentioned, and also some of the

chief events of his voyages, as promulgated at the very moment of his

return. These letters not being generally known or circulated, or

frequently cited, it may be satisfactory to the reader to have a few of

the main passages which relate to Columbus. They have a striking effect in

carrying us back to the very time of the discoveries.

In one of his epistles, dated Barcelona, Mny 1st, 1493, and addressed to

C. Borromeo, he says: "Within these few days a certain Christopher

Columbus has arrived from the western antipodes; a man of Liguria, whom my

sovereigns reluctantly intrusted with three ships, to seek that region,

for they thought that what he said was fabulous. He has returned and

brought specimens of many precious things, but particularly gold, which

those countries naturally produce." [381]

In another letter, dated likewise from Barcelona, in September following,

he gives a more particular account. It is addressed to count Tendilla,

governor of Granada, and also to Hernando Talavera, archbishop of that

diocese, and the same to whom the propositions of Columbus had been

referred by the Spanish sovereigns. "Arouse your attention, ancient

sages," says Peter Martyr in his epistle; "listen to a new discovery. You

remember Columbus the Ligurian, appointed in the camp by our sovereigns to

search for a new hemisphere of land at the western antipodes. You ought to

recollect, for you had some agency in the transaction; nor would the

enterprise, as I think, have been undertaken, without your counsel. He has

returned in safety, and relates the wonders he has discovered. He exhibits

gold as proofs of the mines in those regions; Gossampine cotton, also, and

aromatics, and pepper more pnngent than that from Caucasus. All these

things, together with scarlet dye-woods, the earth produces spontaneously.

Pursuing the western sun from Gades five thousand miles, of each a

thousand paces, as he relates, he fell in with sundry islands, and took

possession of one of them, of greater circuit, he asserts, than the whole

of Spain. Here he found a race of men living contented, in a state of

nature, subsisting on fruits and vegetables, and bread formed from

roots.... These people have kings, some greater than others, and they war

occasionally among themselves, with bows and arrows, or lances sharpened

and hardened in the fire. The desire of command prevails among them,

though they are naked. They have wives also. What they worship except the

divinity of heaven, is not ascertained." [382]

In another letter, dated likewise in September, 1403, and addressed to the

cardinal and vice-chancellor Ascanius Sforza, he says:

"So great is my desire to give you satisfaction, illustrious prince, that

I consider it a gratifying occurrence in the great fluctuations of events,

when any thing takes place among us, in which you may take an interest.

The wonders of this terrestrial globe, round which the sun makes a circuit

in the space of four and twenty hours, have, until our time, as you are

well aware, been known only in regard to one hemisphere, merely from the

Golden Chersonesus to our Spanish Gades. The rest has been given up as

unknown by cosmographers, and if any mention of it has been made, it has

been slight and dubious. But now, O blessed enterprise! under the auspices

of our sovereigns, what has hitherto lain hidden since the first origin of

things, has at length begun to be developed. The thing has thus

occurred--attend, illustrious prince! A certain Christopher Columbus, a

Ligurian, dispatched to those regions with three vessels by my sovereigns,

pursuing the western sun above five thousand miles from Gades, achieved

his way to the antipodes. Three and thirty successive days they navigated

with naught but sky and water. At length from the mast-head of the largest

vessel, in which Columbus himself sailed, those on the look-out proclaimed

the sight of land. He coasted along six islands, one of them, as all his

followers declare, beguiled perchance by the novelty of the scene, is

larger than Spain."

Martyr proceeds to give the usual account of the productions of the

islands, and the manners and customs of the natives, particularly the wars

which occurred among them; "as if _meum_ and _tuum_ had been

introduced among them as among us, and expensive luxuries, and the desire

of accumulating wealth; for what, you will think, can be the wants of

naked men?" "What farther may succeed," he adds, "I will hereafter

signify. Farewell." [383]

In another letter, dated Valladolid, February 1, 1494, to Hernando de

Talavera, archbishop of Granada, he observes, "The king and queen, on the

return of Columbus to Barcelona, from his honorable enterprise, appointed

him admiral of the ocean sea, and caused him, on account of his

illustrious deeds, to be seated in their presence, an honor and a favor,

as you know, the highest with our sovereigns. They have dispatched him

again to those regions, furnished with a fleet of eighteen ships. There is

prospect of great discoveries at the western antarctic antipodes."

[384]

In a subsequent letter to Pomponius Lætus, dated from Alcala de Henares,

December 9th, 1494, he gives the first news of the success of this

expedition.

"Spain," says he, "is spreading her wings, augmenting her empire, and

extending her name and glory to the antipodes.... Of eighteen vessels

dispatched by my sovereigns with the admiral Columbus, in his second

voyage to the western hemisphere, twelve have returned and have brought

Gossampine cotton, huge trees of dye-wood, and many other articles held

with us as precious, the natural productions of that hitherto hidden

world; and besides all other things, no small quantity of gold. O

wonderful, Pomponius! Upon the surface of that earth are found rude masses

of native gold, of a weight that one is afraid to mention. Some weigh two

hundred and fifty ounces, and they hope to discover others of a much

larger size, from what the naked natives intimate, when they extol their

gold to our people. Nor are the Lestrigonians nor Polyphemi, who feed on

human flesh, any longer doubtful. Attend--but beware! lest they rise in

horror before thee! When he proceeded from the Fortunate islands, now

termed the Canaries, to Hispaniola, the island on which he first set foot,

turning his prow a little toward the south, he arrived at innumerable

islands of savage men, whom they call cannibals, or Caribbees; and these,

though naked, are courageous warriors. They fight skillfully with bows and

clubs, and have boats hollowed from a single tree, yet very capacious, in

which they make fierce descents on neighboring islands, inhabited by

milder people. They attack their villages, from which they carry off the

men and devour them," &c. [385]

Another letter to Pomponius Lætus, on the same subject, has been cited at

large in the body of this work. It is true these extracts give nothing

that has not been stated more at large in the Decades of the same author,

but they are curious, as the very first announcements of the discoveries

of Columbus, and as showing the first stamp of these extraordinary events

upon the mind of one of the most learned and liberal men of the age.

A collection of the letters of Peter Martyr was published in 1530, under

the title of Opus Epistolarum, Petri Martyris Anglerii; it is divided into

thirty-eight books, each containing the letters of one year. The same

objections have been made to his letters as to his Decades, but they bear

the same stamp of candor, probity, and great information. They possess

peculiar value from being written at the moment, before the facts they

record were distorted or discolored by prejudice or misrepresentation. His

works abound in interesting particulars not to be found in any

contemporary historian. They are rich in thought, but still richer in

fact, and are full of urbanity, and of the liberal feeling of a scholar

who has mingled with the world. He is a fountain from which others draw,

and from which, with a little precaution, they may draw securely. He died

in Valladolid, in 1526.

No. XXX.

Oviedo.

Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo y Valdes, commonly known as Oviedo, was born

in Madrid in 1478, and died in Valladolid in 1557, aged seventy-nine

years. He was of a noble Austrian family, and in his boyhood (in 1490) was

appointed one of the pages to prince Juan, heir-apparent of Spain, the

only son of Ferdinand and Isabella. He was in this situation at the time

of the seige and surrender of Granada, was consequently at court at the

time that Columbus made his agreement with the Catholic sovereigns, and

was in the same capacity at Barcelona, and witnessed the triumphant

entrance of the discoverer, attended by a number of the natives of the

newly-found countries.

In 1513, he was sent out to the New World by Ferdinand, to superintend the

gold foundries. For many years he served there in various offices of trust

and dignity, both under Ferdinand and his grandson and successor, Charles

V. In 1535, he was made alcayde of the fortress of St. Domingo in

Hispaniola, and afterwards was appointed histomgrapher of the Indies. At

the time of his death, he had served the crown upwards of forty years,

thirty-four of which were passed in the colonies, and he had crossed the

ocean eight times, as he mentions in various parts of his writings. He

wrote several works; the most important is a chronicle of the Indies in

fifty books, divided into three parts. The first part, containing nineteen

books, was printed at Seville in 1535, and reprinted in 1547 at Salamanca,

augmented by a twentieth book containing shipwrecks. The remainder of the

work exists in manuscript. The printing of it was commenced at Valladolid

in 1557, but was discontinued in consequence of his death. It is one of

the unpublished treasures of Spanish colonial history.

He was an indefatigable writer, laborious in collecting and recording

facts, and composed a multitude of volumes which are scattered through the

Spanish libraries. His writings are full of events which happened under

his own eye, or were communicated to him by eyewitnesses; but he was

deficient in judgment and discrimination. He took his facts without

caution, and often from sources unworthy of credit. In his account of the

first voyage of Columbus, he falls into several egregious errors, in

consequence of taking the verbal information of a pilot named Hernan Perez

Matteo, who was in the interest of the Pinzons, and adverse to the

admiral. His work is not much to be depended upon in matters relative to

Columbus. When he treats of a more advanced period of the New World, from

his own actual observation, he is much more satisfactory, though he is

accused of listening too readily to popular fables and misrepresentations.

His account of the natural productions of the New World, and of the

customs of its inhabitants, is full of curious particulars; and the best

narratives of some of the minor voyages which succeeded those of Columbus

are to be found in the unpublished part of his work.

No. XXXI.

Cura de Los Palacios.

Andres Bernaldes, or Bernal, generally known by the title of the curate of

_Los Palacios_, from having been curate of the town of Los Palacios

from about 1488 to 1513, was born in the town of Fuentes, and was for some

time chaplain to Diego Dora, archbishop of Seville, one of the greatest

friends to the application of Columbus Bernaldes was well acquainted with

the admiral, who was occasionally his guest, and in 1496, left many of his

manuscripts and journals with him, which the curate made use of in a

history of the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, in which he introduced an

account of the voyages of Columbus. In his narrative of the admiral's

coasting along the southern side of Cuba, the curate is more minute and

accurate than any other historian. His work exists only in manuscript, but

is well known to historians, who have made frequent use of it. Nothing can

be more simple and artless than the account which the honest curate gives

of his being first moved to undertake his chronicle. "I who wrote these

chapters of memoirs," he says, "being for twelve years in the habit of

reading a register of my deceased grandfather, who was notary public of

the town of Fuentes, where I was born, I found therein several chapters

recording certain events and achievements which had taken place in his

time; and my grandmother his widow, who was very old, hearing me read

them, said to me, 'And thou, my son, since thou art not slothful in

writing, why dost thou not write, in this manner, the good things which

are happening at present in thy own day, that those who come hereafter may

know them, and marvelling at what they read, may render thanks to God?'

"From that time," continues he, "I proposed to do so, and as I considered

the matter, I said often to myself,' if God gives me life and health, I

will continue to write until I behold the kingdom of Granada gained by the

Christians;' and I always entertained a hope of seeing it, and did see it:

great thanks and praises be given to our Saviour Jesus Christ! And because

it was impossible to write a complete and connected account of all things

that happened in Spain, during the matrimonial union of the king Don

Ferdinand, and the queen Doña Isabella, I wrote only about certain of the

most striking and remarkable events, of which I had correct information,

and of those which I saw or which were public and notorious to all men."

[386]

The work of the worthy curate, as may be inferred from the foregoing

statement, is deficient in regularity of plan; the style is artless and

often inelegant, but it abounds in facts not to be met with elsewhere,

often given in a very graphical manner, and strongly characteristic of the

times. As he was contemporary with the events and familiar with many of

the persons of his history, and as he was a man of probity and void of all

pretension, his manuscript is a document of high authenticity. He was much

respected in the limited sphere in which he moved, "yet," says one of his

admirers, who wrote a short preface to his chronicle, "he had no other

reward than that of the curacy of Los Palacios, and the place of chaplain

to the archbishop Don Diego Deza."

In the possession of O. Rich, Esq., of Madrid, is a very curious

manuscript chronicle of the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, already

quoted in this work, made up from this history of the curate of Los

Palacios, and from various other historians of the times, by some

contemporary writer. In his account of the voyage of Columbus, he differs

in some trivial particulars from the regular copy of the manuscript of the

curate. These variations have been carefully examined by the author of

this work, and wherever they appear to be for the better, have been

adopted.

No. XXXII.

"Navigatione del Re de Castiglia delle Isole e Paese Nuovamente

Ritrovate."

"Naviagatio Chrisophori Colombi."

The above are the titles, in Italian and in Latin, of the earliest

narratives of the first and second voyages of Columbus that appeared in

print. It was anonymous; and there are some curious particulars in regard

to it. It was originally written in Italian by Montalbodo Fracanzo, or

Fracanzano, or by Francapano de Montabaldo, (for writers differ in regard

to the name,) and was published in Vicenza, in 1507, in a collection of

voyages, entitled "Mondo Novo, e Paese Nuovamente Ritrovate." The

collection was republished at Milan, in 1508, both in Italian, and in a

Latin translation made by Archangelo Madrignano, under the title of

"Itinerarium Portugallensium;" this title being given, because the work

related chiefly to the voyages of Luigi Cadamosto, a Venetian in the

service of Portugal.

The collection was afterwards augmented by Simon Grinæns with other

travels, and printed in Latin at Basle, in 1533, [387] by Hervagio,

entitled "Novus Orbis Regionum," &c. The edition of Basle, 1555, and the

Italian edition of Milan, in 1508, have been consulted in the course of

this work.

Peter Martyr (Decad. 2, Cap. 7,) alludes to this publication, under the

first Latin title of the book, "Itinerarium Portugallensium," and accuses

the author, whom by mistake he terms Cadamosto, of having stolen the

materials of his book from the three first chapters of his first Decade of

the Ocean, of which, he says, he granted copies in manuscript to several

persons, and in particular to certain Venetian ambassadors. Martyr's

Decades were not published until 1516, excepting the first three, which

were published in 1511, at Seville.

This narrative of the voyages of Columbus is referred to by Gio. Batista

Spotorno, in his historical memoir of Columbus, as having been written by

a companion of Columbus.

It is manifest, from a perusal of the narrative, that though the author

may have helped himself freely from the manuscript of Martyr, he must have

had other sources of information. His description of the person of

Columbus as a man tall of stature and large of frame, of a ruddy

complexion and oblong visage, is not copied from Martyr, nor from any

other writer. No historian had, indeed, preceded him, except Sabellicus,

in 1504; and the portrait agrees with that subsequently given of Columbus

in the biography written by his son.

It is probable that this narrative, which appeared only a year after the

death of Columbus, was a piece of literary job-work, written, for the

collection of voyages published at Vicenza; and that the materials were

taken from oral communication, from the account given by Sabellicus, and

particularly from the manuscript copy of Martyr's first decade.

No. XXXIII.

Antonio de Herrera.

Antonio Herrera de Tordesillas, one of the authors most frequently cited

in this work, was born in 1565, of Roderick Tordesillas, and Agnes de

Herrera, his wife. He received an excellent education, and entered into

the employ of Vespasian Gonzago, brother to the duke of Mantua, who was

viceroy of Naples for Philip the Second of Spain. He was for some time

secretary to this statesman, and intrusted with all his secrets. He was

afterwards grand historiographer of the Indies to Philip II, who added to

that title a large pension. He wrote various books, but the most

celebrated is a General History of the Indies, or American Colonies, in

four volumes, containing eight decades. When he undertook this work, all

the public archives were thrown open to him, and he had access to

documents of all kinds. He has been charged with great precipitation in

the production of his two first volumes, and with negligence in not making

sufficient use of the indisputable sources of information thus placed

within his reach. The fact was, that he met with historical tracts lying

in manuscript, which embraced a great part of the first discoveries, and

he contented himself with stating events as he found them therein

recorded. It is certain that a great part of his work is little more than

a transcript of the manuscript history of the Indies by Las Casas,

sometimes reducing and improving the language when tumid; omitting the

impassioned sallies of the zealous father, when the wrongs of the Indians

were in question; and suppressing various circumstances degrading to the

character of the Spanish discoverers. The author of the present work has,

therefore, frequently put aside the history of Herrera, and consulted the

source of his information, the manuscript history of Las Casas.

Munoz observes, that "in general Herrera did little more than join

together morsels and extracts, taken from various parts, in the way that a

writer arranges chronologically the materials from which he intends to

compose a history;" he adds, that "had not Herrera been a learned and

judicious man, the precipitation with which he put together these

materials would have led to innumerable errors." The remark is just; yet

it is to be considered, that to select and arrange such materials

judiciously, and treat them learnedly, was no trifling merit in the

historian.

Herrera has been accused also of flattering his nation; exalting the deeds

of his countrymen, and softening and concealing their excesses. There is

nothing very serious in this accusation. To illustrate the glory of his

nation is one of the noblest offices of the historian; and it is difficult

to speak too highly of the extraordinary enterprises and splendid actions

of the Spaniards in those days. In softening their excesses he fell into

an amiable and pardonable error, if it were indeed an error for a Spanish

writer to endeavor to sink them in oblivion.

Vossius passes a high eulogium on Herrera. "No one," he says, "has

described with greater industry and fidelity the magnitude and boundaries

of provinces, the tracts of sea, positions of capes and islands, of ports

and harbors, the windings of rivers and dimensions of lakes; the situation

and peculiarities of regions, with the appearance of the heavens, and the

designation of places suitable for the establishment of cities." He has

been called among the Spaniards the prince of the historians of America,

and it is added that none have risen since his time capable of disputing

with him that title. Much of this praise will appear exaggerated by such

as examine the manuscript histories from which he transferred chapters

and entire books, with very little alteration, to his volumes; and a great

part of the eulogiums passed on him for his work on the Indies, will be

found really due to Las Casas, who has too long been eclipsed by his

copyist. Still Herrera has left voluminous proofs of industrious research,

extensive information, and great literary talent. His works bear the mark

of candor, integrity, and a sincere desire to record the truth.

He died in 1625, at sixty years of age, after having obtained from Philip

IV the promise of the first charge of secretary of state that should

become vacant.

No. XXXIV.

Bishop Fonseca.

The singular malevolence displayed by bishop Juan Rodriguez de Fonseca

towards Columbus and his family, and which was one of the secret and

principal causes of their misfortunes, has been frequently noticed in the

course of this work. It originated, as has been shown, in some dispute

between the admiral and Fonseca at Seville in 1493, on account of the

delay in fitting out the armament for the second voyage, and in regard to

the number of domestics to form the household of the admiral. Fonseca

received a letter from the sovereigns, tacitly reproving him, and ordering

him to show all possible attention to the wishes of Columbus, and to see

that he was treated with honor and deference. Fonseca never forgot this

affront, and, what with him was the same thing, never forgave it. His

spirit appears to have been of that unhealthy kind which has none of the

balm of forgiveness; and in which a wound, once made, for ever rankles.

The hostility thus produced continued with increasing virulence throughout

the life of Columbus, and at his death was transferred to his son and

successor. This persevering animosity has been illustrated in the course

of this work by facts and observations, cited from authors, some of them

contemporary with Fonseca, but who were apparently restrained by motives

of prudence from giving full vent to the indignation which they evidently

felt. Even at the present day, a Spanish historian would be cautious of

expressing his feelings freely on the subject, lest they should prejudice

his work in the eyes of the ecclesiastical censors of the press. In this

way, bishop Fonseca has in a great measure escaped the general odium his

conduct merited.

This prelate had the chief superintendence of Spanish colonial affairs,

both under Ferdinand and Isabella and the emperor Charles V. He was an

active and intrepid, but selfish, overbearing, and perfidious man. His

administration bears no marks of enlarged and liberal policy; but is full

of traits of arrogance and meanness. He opposed the benevolent attempts of

Las Casas to ameliorate the condition of the Indians, and to obtain the

abolition of repartimientos; treating him with personal haughtiness and

asperity. [388] The reason assigned is that Fonseca was enriching himself

by those very abuses, retaining large numbers of the miserable Indians in

slavery, to work on his possessions in the colonies.

To show that his character has not been judged with undue severity, it is

expedient to point out his invidious and persecuting conduct towards

Hernando Cortez. The bishop, while ready to foster rambling adventurers

who came forward under his patronage, had never the head or the heart to

appreciate the merits of illustrious commanders like Columbus and Cortez.

At a time when disputes arose between Cortez and Diego Velazquez, governor

of Cuba, and the latter sought to arrest the conqueror of Mexico in the

midst of his brilliant career, Fonseca, with entire disregard of the

merits of the case, took a decided part in favor of Velazquez. Personal

interest was at the bottom of this favor; for a marriage was negotiating

between Velazquez and a sister of the bishop. [389] Complaints and

misrepresentations had been sent to Spain by Velazquez of the conduct of

Cortez, who was represented as a lawless and unprincipled adventurer,

attempting to usurp absolute authority in New Spain. The true services of

Cortez had already excited admiration at court, but such was the influence

of Fonseca, that, as in the case of Columbus, he succeeded in prejudicing

the mind of the sovereign against one of the most meritorious of his

subjects. One Christoval de Tapia, a man destitute of talent or character,

but whose greatest recommendation was his having been in the employ of

the bishop, [390] was invested with powers similar to those once given to

Bobadilla to the prejudice of Columbus. He was to inquire into the conduct

of Cortez, and in case he thought fit, to seize him, sequestrate his

property, and supersede him in command. Not content with the regular

official letters furnished to Tapia, the bishop, shortly after his

departure, sent out Juan Bono de Quexo with blank letters signed by his

own hand, and with others directed to various persons, charging them to

admit Tapia for governor, and assuring them that the king considered the

conduct of Cortez as disloyal. Nothing but the sagacity and firmness of

Cortez prevented this measure from completely interrupting, if not

defeating, his enterprises; and he afterwards declared, that he had

experienced more trouble and difficulty from the menaces and affronts of

the ministers of the king than it cost him to conquer Mexico. [391]

When the dispute between Cortez and Velazquez came to be decided upon in

Spain, in 1522, the father of Cortez, and those who had come from New

Spain as his procurators, obtained permission from cardinal Adrian, at

that time governor of the realm, to prosecute a public accusation of the

bishop. A regular investigation took place before the council of the

Indies of their allegations against its president. They charged him with

having publicly declared Cortez a traitor and a rebel: with having

intercepted and suppressed his letters addressed to the king, keeping his

majesty in ignorance of their contents and of the important services he

had performed, while he diligently forwarded all letters calculated to

promote the interest of Velazquez: with having prevented the

representations of Cortez from being heard in the council of the Indies,

declaring that they should never be heard there while he lived: with

having interdicted the forwarding of arms, merchandise, and reinforcements

to New Spain: and with having issued orders to the office of the India

House at Seville to arrest the procurators of Cortez and all persons

arriving from him, and to seize and detain all gold that they should

bring. These and various other charges of similar nature were

dispassionately investigated. Enough were substantiated to convict Fonseca

of the most partial, oppressive, and perfidious conduct, and the cardinal

consequently forbade him to interfere in the cause between Cortez and

Velazquez, and revoked all the orders which the bishop had issued, in the

matter, to the India House of Seville. Indeed, Salazar, a Spanish

historian, says that Fonseca was totally divested of his authority as

president of the council, and of all control of the affiairs of New Spain,

and adds that he was so mortified at the blow, that it brought on a fit of

illness, which well nigh cost him his life. [392]

The suit between Cortez and Velazquez was referred to a special tribunal,

composed of the grand chancellor and other persons of note, and was

decided in 1522. The influence and intrigues of Fonseca being no longer of

avail, a triumphant verdict was given in favor of Cortez, which was

afterwards confirmed by the emperor Charles V, and additional honors

awarded him. This was another blow to the malignant Fonseca, who retained

his enmity against Cortez until his last moment, rendered still more

rancorous by mortification and disappointment.

A charge against Fonseca, of a still darker nature than any of the

preceding, may be found lurking in the pages of Herrera, though so obscure

as to have escaped the notice of succeeding historians. He points to the

bishop as the instigator of a desperate and perfidious man, who conspired

against the life of Hernando Cortez. This was one Antonio de Villafana,

who fomented a conspiracy to assassinate Cortez, and elect Francisco

Verdujo, brother-in-law of Velazquez, in his place. While the conspirators

were waiting for an opportunity to poniard Cortez, one of them relenting,

apprised him of his danger. Villafana was arrested. He attempted to

swallow a paper containing a list of the conspirators, but being seized by

the throat, a part of it was forced from his mouth containing fourteen

names of persons of importance, Villafafia confessed his guilt, but

tortures could not make him inculpate the persons whose names were on the

list, who he declared were ignorant of the plot. He was hanged by order of

Cortez. [393]

In the investigation of the disputes between Cortez and Velazquez, this

execution of Villafana was magnified into a cruel and wanton act of power;

and in their eagerness to criminate Cortez the witnesses on the part of

Alvarez declared that Villafana had been instigated to what he had done by

letters from bishop Fonseca! (Que se movió a lo que hizo con cartas del

obispo de Burgos. [394]) It is not probable that Fonseca had recommended

assassination, but it shows the character of his agents, and what must

have been the malignant nature of his instructions, when these men thought

that such an act would accomplish his wishes.

Fonseca died at Burgos, on the 4th of November, 1524, and was interred at

Coca.

No. XXXV.

Of the Situation of the Terrestrial Paradise.

The speculations of Columbus on the situation of the terrestrial

paradise, extravagant as they may appear, were such as have occupied many

grave and learned men. A slight notice of their opinions on this curious

subject may be acceptable to the general reader, and may take from the

apparent wildness of the ideas expressed by Columbus.

The abode of our first parents was anciently the subject of anxious

inquiry; and indeed mankind have always been prone to picture some place

of perfect felicity, where the imagination, disappointed in the coarse

realities of life, might revel in an Elysium of its own creation. It is an

idea not confined to our religion, but is found in the rude creeds of the

most savage nations, and it prevailed generally among the ancients. The

speculations concerning the situation of the garden of Eden resemble those

of the Greeks concerning the garden of the Hesperides; that region of

delight, which they for ever placed at the most remote verge of the known

world; which their poets embellished with all the charms of fiction; after

which they were continually longing, and which they could never find. At

one time it was in the Grand Oasis of Arabia. The exhausted travelers,

after traversing the parched and sultry desert, hailed this verdant spot

with rapture; they refreshed themselves under its shady bowers, and beside

its cooling streams, as the crew of a tempest-tost vessel repose on the

shores of some green island in the deep; and from its being thus isolated

in the midst of an ocean of sand, they gave it the name of the Island of

the Blessed. As geographical knowledge increased, the situation of the

Hesperian gardens was continually removed to a greater distance. It was

transferred to the borders of the great Syrtis, in the neighborhood of

Mount Atlas. Here, after traversing the frightful deserts of Barca, the

traveler found himself in a fair and fertile country, watered by rivulets

and gushing fountains. The oranges and citrons transported hence to

Greece, where they were as yet unknown, delighted the Athenians by their

golden beauty and delicious flavor, and they thought that none but the

garden of the Hesperides could produce such glorious fruits. In this way

the happy region of the ancients was transported from place to place,

still in the remote and obscure extremity of the world, until it was

fabled to exist in the Canaries, thence called the Fortunate or the

Hesperian islands. Here it remained, because discovery advanced no

farther, and because these islands were so distant, and so little known,

as to allow full latitude to the fictions of the poet. [395]

In like manner the situation of the terrestrial paradise, or garden of

Eden, was long a subject of earnest inquiry and curious disputation, and

occupied the laborious attention of the most learned theologians. Some

placed it in Palestine or the Holy Land; others in Mesopotamia, in that

rich and beautiful tract of country embraced by the wanderings of the

Tigris and the Euphrates; others in Armenia, in a valley surrounded by

precipitous and inaccessible mountains, and imagined that Enoch and Elijah

were transported thither, out of the sight of mortals, to live in a state

of terrestrial bliss until the second coming of our Saviour. There were

others who gave it situations widely remote, such as in the Trapoban of

the ancients, at present known as the island of Ceylon; or in the island

of Sumatra; or in the Fortunate or Canary islands; or in one of the

islands of Sunda; or in some favored spot under the equinoctial line.

Great difficulty was encountered by these speculators to reconcile the

allotted place with the description given in Genesis of the garden of

Eden; particularly of the great fountain which watered it, and which

afterwards divided itself into four rivers, the Pison or Phison, the

Gihon, the Euphrates, and the Hiddekel. Those who were in favor of the

Holy Land supposed that the Jordan was the great river which afterwards

divided itself into the Phison, Gihon, Tigris, and Euphrates, but that the

sands have choked up the ancient beds by which these streams were

supplied; that originally the Phison traversed Arabia Deserta and Arabia

Felix, whence it pursued its course to the gulf of Persia; that the Gihon

bathed northern or stony Arabia and fell into the Arabian Gulf or the Red

Sea; that the Euphrates and the Tigris passed by Eden to Assyria and

Chaldea, whence they discharged themselves into the Persian Gulf.

By most of the early commentators the river Gihon is supposed to be the

Nile. The source of this river was unknown, but was evidently far distant

from the spots whence the Tigris and the Euphrates arose. This difficulty,

however, was ingeniously overcome by giving it a subterranean course of

some hundreds of leagues from the common fountain, until it issued forth

to daylight in Abyssinia. [396] In like manner, subterranean courses were

given to the Tigris and the Euphrates, passing under the Bed Sea, until

they sprang forth in Armenia, as if just issuing from one common source.

So also those who placed the terrestrial paradise in islands, supposed

that the rivers which issued from it, and formed those heretofore named,

either traversed the surface of the sea, as fresh water, by its greater

lightness, may float above the salt; or that they flowed through deep

veins and channels of the earth, as the fountain of Arethusa was said to

sink into the ground in Greece, and rise in the island of Sicily, while

the river Alpheus pursuing it, but with less perseverance, rose somewhat

short of it in the sea.

Some contended that the deluge had destroyed the garden of Eden, and

altered the whole face of the earth; so that the rivers had changed their

beds, and had taken different directions from those mentioned in Genesis;

others, however, amongst whom was St. Augustine, in his commentary upon

the book of Genesis, maintained that the terrestrial paradise still

existed, with its original beauty and delights, but that it was

inaccessible to mortals, being on the summit of a mountain of stupendous

height, reaching into the third region of the air, and approaching the

moon; being thus protected by its elevation from the ravages of the

deluge.

By some this mountain was placed under the equinoctial line; or under that

band of the heavens metaphorically called by the ancients "the table of

the sun," [397] comprising the space between the tropics of Cancer and

Capricorn, beyond which the sun never passed in his annual course. Here

would reign a uniformity of nights and days and seasons, and the elevation

of the mountain would raise it above the heats and storms of the lower

regions. Others transported the garden beyond the equinoctial line and

placed it in the southern hemisphere; supposing that the torrid zone might

be the flaming sword appointed to defend its entrance against mortals.

They had a fanciful train of argument to support their theory. They

observed that the terrestrial paradise must be in the noblest and happiest

part of the globe; that part must be under the noblest part of the

heavens; as the merits of a place do not so much depend upon the virtues

of the earth, as upon the happy influences of the stars and the favorable

and benign aspect of the heavens. Now, according to philosophers, the

world was divided into two hemispheres. The southern they considered the

head, and the northern the feet, or under part; the right hand the east,

whence commenced the movement of the primum mobile, and the left the west,

towards which it moved. This supposed, they observed that as it was

manifest that the head of all things, natural and artificial, is always

the best and noblest part, governing the other parts of the body, so the

south, being the head of the earth, ought to be superior and nobler than

either east, or west, or north; and in accordance with this, they cited

the opinion of various philosophers among the ancients, and more

especially that of Ptolemy, that the stars of the southern hemisphere were

larger, more resplendent, more perfect, and of course of greater virtue

and efficacy, than those of the northern: an error universally prevalent

until disproved by modern discovery. Hence they concluded that in this

southern hemisphere, in this head of the earth, under this purer and

brighter sky, and these more potent and benignant stars, was placed the

terrestrial paradise.

Various ideas were entertained as to the magnitude of this blissful

region. As Adam and all his progeny were to have lived there, had he not

sinned, and as there would have been no such thing as death to thin the

number of mankind, it was inferred that the terrestrial paradise must be

of great extent to contain them. Some gave it a size equal to Europe or

Africa; others gave it the whole southern hemisphere. St. Augustine

supposed that as mankind multiplied, numbers would be translated without

death to heaven; the parents, perhaps, when their children had arrived at

mature age; or portions of the human race at the end of certain periods,

and when the population of the terrestrial paradise had attained a certain

amount. [398] Others supposed that mankind, remaining in a state of

primitive innocence, would not have required so much space as at present.

Having no need of rearing animals for subsistence, no land would have

been required for pasturage; and the earth not being cursed with

sterility, there would have been no need of extensive tracts of country

to permit of fallow land and the alternation of crops required in

husbandry. The spontaneous and never-failing fruits of the garden would

have been abundant for the simple wants of man. Still, that the human

race might not be crowded, but might have ample space for recreation and

enjoyment, and the charms of variety and change, some allowed at least a

hundred leagues of circumference to the garden.

St. Basilius, in his eloquent discourse on paradise, [399] expatiates with

rapture on the joys of this sacred abode, elevated to the third region of

the air, and under the happiest skies. There a pure and never-failing

pleasure is furnished to every sense. The eye delights in the admirable

clearness of the atmosphere, in the verdure and beauty of the trees, and

the never-withering bloom of the flowers. The ear is regaled with the

singing of the birds, the smell with the aromatic odors of the land. In

like manner the other senses have each their peculiar enjoyments. There

the vicissitudes of the seasons are unknown and the climate unites the

fruitfulness of summer, the joyful abundance of autumn, and the sweet

freshness and quietude of spring. There the earth is always green, the

flowers are ever blooming, the waters limpid and delicate, not rushing in

rude and turbid torrents, but swelling up in crystal fountains, and

winding in peaceful and silver streams. There no harsh and boisterous

winds are permitted to shake and disturb the air, and ravage the beauty of

the groves; there prevails no melancholy, nor darksome weather, no

drowning rain, nor pelting hail; no forked lightning, nor rending and

resounding thunder; no wintry pinching cold, nor withering and panting

summer heat; nor any thing else that can give pain or sorrow or annoyance;

but all is bland and gentle and serene; a perpetual youth and joy reigns

throughout all nature, and nothing decays and dies.

The same idea is given by St. Ambrosius, in his book on Paradise, [400] an

author likewise consulted and cited by Columbus. He wrote in the fourth

century, and his touching eloquence, and graceful yet vigorous style,

insured great popularity to his writings. Many of these opinions are cited

by Glanville, usually called Bartholomeus Anglicus, in his work De

Proprietatibus Rerum; a work with which Columbus was evidently acquainted.

It was a species of encyclopedia of the general knowledge current at the

time, and was likely to recommend itself to a curious and inquiring

voyager. This author cites an assertion as made by St. Basilius and St.

Ambrosius, that the water of the fountain which proceeds from the garden

of Eden falls into a great lake with such a tremendous noise that the

inhabitants of the neighborhood are born deaf; and that from this lake

proceed the four chief rivers mentioned in Genesis. [401]

This passage, however, is not to be found in the Hexameron of either

Basilius or Ambrositis, from which it is quoted; neither is it in the

oration on Paradise by the former, nor in the letter on the same subject

written by Ambrosius to Ainbrosins Sabinus. It must be a misquotation by

Glanville. Columbus, however, appears to have been struck with it, and Las

Casas is of opinion that he derived thence his idea that the vast body of

fresh water which filled the gulf of La Ballena or Paria, flowed from the

fountain of Paradise, though from a remote distance; and that in this

gulf, which he supposed in the extreme part of Asia, originated the Nile,

the Tigris, the Euphrates, and the Ganges, which might be conducted under

the land and sea by subterranean channels, to the places where they spring

forth on the earth and assume their proper names.

I forbear to enter into various other of the voluminous speculations which

have been formed relative to the terrestrial paradise, and perhaps it may

be thought that I have already said too much on so fanciful a subject; but

to illustrate clearly the character of Columbus, it is necessary to

elucidate those veins of thought passing through his mind while

considering the singular phenomena of the unknown regions he was

exploring, and which are often but slightly and vaguely developed in his

journals and letters. These speculations, likewise, like those concerning

fancied islands in the ocean, carry us back to the time, and make us feel

the mystery and conjectural charm which reigned over the greatest part of

the world, and have since been completely dispelled by modern discovery.

Enough has been cited to show, that, in his observations concerning the

terrestrial paradise, Columbus was not indulging in any fanciful and

presumptuous chimeras, the offspring of a heated and disordered brain.

However visionary his conjectures may seem, they were all grounded on

written opinions held little less than oracular in his day; and they will

be found on examination to be far exceeded by the speculations and

theories of sages held illustrious for their wisdom and erudition in the

school and cloister.

No. XXXVI.

Will of Columbus.

In the name of the Most Holy Trinity, who inspired me with the idea, and

afterwards made it perfectly clear to me, that I could navigate and go to

the Indies from Spain, by traversing the ocean westwardly; which I

communicated to the king, Don Ferdinand, and to the queen Doña Isabella,

our sovereigns; and they were pleased to furnish me the necessary

equipment of men and ships, and to make me their admiral over the said

ocean, in all parts lying to the west of an imaginary line, drawn from

pole to pole, a hundred leagues west of the Cape de Verd and Azore

islands; also appointing me their viceroy and governor over all continents

and islands that I might discover beyond the said line westwardly; with

the right of being succeeded in the said offices by my eldest son and his

heirs for ever; and a grant of the tenth part of all things found in the

said jurisdiction; and of all rents and revenues arising from it; and the

eighth of all the lands and every thing else, together with the salary

corresponding to my rank of admiral, viceroy, and governor, and all other

emoluments accruing thereto, as is more fully expressed in the title and

agreement sanctioned by their highnesses.

And it pleased the Lord Almighty, that in the year one thousand four

hundred and ninety-two, I should discover the continent of the Indies and

many islands, among them Hispaniola, which the Indians called Ayte, and

the Monicongos, Cipango. I then returned to Castile to their highnesses,

who approved of my undertaking a second enterprise for farther discoveries

and settlements; and the Lord gave me victory over the island of

Hispaniola, which extends six hundred leagues, and I conquered it and made

it tributary; and I discovered many islands inhabited by cannibals, and

seven hundred to the west of Hispaniola, among which is Jamaica, which we

call Santiago; and three hundred and thirty-three leagues of continent

from south to west, besides a hundred and seven to the north, which I

discovered in my first voyage, together with many islands, as may more

clearly be seen by my letters, memorials, and maritime charts. And as we

hope in God that before long a good and great revenue will be derived from

the above islands and continent, of which, for the reasons aforesaid,

belong to me the tenth and the eighth, with the salaries and emoluments

specified above; and considering that we are mortal, and that it is proper

for every one to settle his affairs, and to leave declared to his heirs

and successors the property he possesses or may have a right to: Wherefore

I have concluded to create an entailed estate (mayorazgo) out of the said

eighth of the lands, places, and revenues, in the manner which I now

proceed to state.

In the first place, I am to be succeeded by Don Diego, my son, who in case

of death without children is to be succeeded by my other son Ferdinand;

and should God dispose of him also without leaving children, and without

my having any other son, then my brother Don Bartholomew is to succeed;

and after him his eldest son; and if God should dispose of him without

heirs, he shall be succeeded by his sons from one to another for ever; or,

in the failure of a son, to be succeeded by Don Ferdinand, after the same

manner, from son to son successively; or in their place by my brothers

Bartholomew and Diego. And should it please the Lord that the estate,

after having continued for some time in the line of any of the above

successors, should stand in need of an immediate and lawful male heir, the

succession shall then devolve to the nearest relation, being a man of

legitimate birth, and bearing the name of Columbus derived from his father

and his ancestors. This entailed estate shall in nowise be inherited by a

woman, except in case that no male is to be found, either in this or any

other quarter of the world, of my real lineage, whose name, as well as

that of his ancestors, shall have always been Columbus. In such an event

(which may God forefend), then the female of legitimate birth, most nearly

related to the preceding possessor of the estate, shall succeed to it; and

this is to be under the conditions herein stipulated at foot, which must

be understood to extend as well to Don Diego, my son, as to the aforesaid

and their heirs, every one of them, to be fulfilled by them; and failing

to do so, they are to be deprived of the succession, for not having

complied with what shall herein be expressed; and the estate to pass to

the person most nearly related to the one who held the right: and the

person thus succeeding shall in like manner forfeit the estate, should he

also fail to comply with said conditions; and another person, the nearest

of my lineage, shall succeed, provided he abide by them, so that they may

be observed for ever in the form prescribed. This forfeiture is not to be

incurred for trifling matters, originating in lawsuits, but in important

cases, when the glory of God, or my own, or that of my family, may be

concerned, which supposes a perfect fulfillment of all the things hereby

ordained; all which I recommend to the courts of justice. And I supplicate

his Holiness, who now is, and those that may succeed in the holy church,

that if it should happen that this my will and testament has need of his

holy order and command for its fulfillment, that such order be issued in

virtue of obedience, and under penalty of excommunication, and that it

shall not be in any wise disfigured. And I also pray the king and queen,

our sovereigns, and their eldest-born, Prince Don Juan, our lord, and

their successors, for the sake of the services I have done them, and

because it is just, that it may please them not to permit this my will and

constitution of my entailed estate to be any way altered, but to leave it

in the form and manner which I have ordained, for ever, for the greater

glory of the Almighty, and that it may be the root and basis of my

lineage, and a memento of the services I have rendered their highnesses;

that, being born in Genoa, I came over to serve them in Castile, and

discovered to the west of Terra Firma, the Indies and islands before

mentioned. I accordingly pray their highnesses to order that this my

privilege and testament be held valid, avid be executed summarily and

without any opposition or demur, according to the letter. I also pray the

grandees of the realm and the lords of the council, and all others having

administration of justice, to be pleased not to suffer this my will and

testament to be of no avail, but to cause it to be fulfilled as by me

ordained; it being just that a noble, who has served the king and queen,

and the kingdom, should be respected in the disposition of his estate by

will, testament, institution of entail, or inheritance, and that the same

be not infringed either in whole or in part.

In the first place, my son Don Diego, and all my successors and

descendants, as well as ihy brothers Bartholomew and Diego, shall bear my

arms, such as I shall leave them after my days, without inserting any

thing else in them; and they shall be their seal to seal withal. Don Diego

my son, or any other who may inherit this estate, on coming into

possession of the inheritance, shall sign with the signature which I now

make vise of, which is an X with an S over it, and an M with a Roman A

over it, and over that an S, and then a Greek Y, with an S over it, with

its lines and points as is my custom, as may be seen by my signatures, of

which there are many, and it will be seen by the present one.

He shall only write "the Admiral," whatever other titles the king may have

conferred on him. This is to be understood as respects his signature, but

not the enumeration of his titles, which he can make at full length if

agreeable, only the signature is to be "the Admiral."

The said Don Diego, or any other inheritor of this estate, shall possess

my offices of admiral of the ocean, which is to the west of an imaginary

line, which his highness ordered to be drawn, running from pole to pole a

hundred leagues beyond the Azores, and as many more beyond the Cape de

Verd islands, over all which I was made, by their order, their admiral of

the sea, with all the preeminences held by Don Henrique in the admiralty

of Castile, and they made me their governor and viceroy perpetually and

for ever, over all the islands and main-land discovered, or to be

discovered, for myself and heirs, as is more fully shown by my treaty and

privilege as above mentioned.

Item: The said Don Diego, or any other inheritor of this estate, shall

distribute the revenue which it may please our Lord to grant him, in the

following manner, under the above penalty:

First--Of the whole income of this estate, now and at all times, and of

whatever may be had or collected from it, he shall give the fourth part

annually to my brother Don Bartholomew Columbus, Adelantado of the Indies;

and this is to continue till he shall have acquired an income of a million

of maravadises, for his support, and for the services he has rendered and

will continue to render to this entailed estate; which million he is to

receive, as stated, every year, if the said fourth amount to so much, and

that he have nothing elae; but if he possess a part or the whole of that

amount in rents, that thenceforth he shall not enjoy the said million, nor

any part of it, except that he shall have in the said fourth part unto the

said quantity of a million, if it should amount to so much; and as much as

he shall have of revenue beside this fourth part, whatever sum of

maravadises of known rent from property, or perpetual offices, the said

quantity of rent or revenue from property or offices shall be discounted;

and from the said million shall be reserved whatever marriage portion he

may receive with any female he may espouse; so that whatever he may

receive in marriage with his wife, no deduction shall be made on that

account from said million, but only for whatever he may acquire, or may

have, over and above his wife's dowry, and when it shall please God that

he or his heirs and descendants shall derive from their property and

offices a revenue of a million arising from rents, neither he nor his

heirs shall enjoy any longer any thing from the said fourth part of the

entailed estate, which shall remain with Don Diego, or whoever may inherit

it. Item: From the revenues of the said estate, or from any other fourth

part of it, (should its amount be adequate to it,) shall be paid every

year to my son Ferdinand two millions, till such time as his revenue shall

amount to two millions, in the same form and manner as in the case of

Bartholomew, who, as well as his heirs, are to have the million or the

part that may be wanting.

Item: The said Don Diego or Don Bartholomew shall make, out of the said

estate, for my brother Diego, such provision as may enable him to live

decently, as he is my brother, to whom I assign no particular sum, as he

has attached himself to the church, and that will be given him which is

right: and this to be given him in a mass, and before any thing shall

have' been received by Ferdinand my son, or Bartholomew my brother, or

their heirs, and also according to the amount of the income of the estate.

And in case of discord, the case is to be referred to two of our

relations, or other men of honor; and should they disagree among

themselves, they will choose a third person as arbitrator, being virtuous

and not distrusted by either party.

Item: All this revenue which I bequeath to Bartholomew, to Ferdinand, and

to Diego, shall be delivered to and received by them as prescribed under

the obligation of being faithful and loyal to Diego my son, or his heirs,

they as well as their children: and should it appear that they, or any of

them, had proceeded against him in any thing touching his honor, or the

prosperity of the family, or of the estate, either in word or deed,

whereby might come a scandal and debasement to my family, and a detriment

to my estate; in that ease, nothing farther shall be given to them or him,

from that time forward, inasmuch as they are always to be faithful to

Diego and to his successors.

Item: As it was my intention, when I first instituted this entailed

estate, to dispose, or that my son Diego should dispose for me, of the

tenth part of the income in favor of necessitous persona, as a tithe, and

in commemoration of the Almighty and Eternal God; and persisting still in

this opinion, and hoping that his High Majesty will assist me and those

who may inherit it, in this or the New World, I have resolved that the

said tithe shall be paid in the manner following:

First--It is to be understood that the fourth part of the revenue of the

estate which I have ordained and directed to be given to Don Bartholomew,

till he have an income of one million, includes the tenth of the whole

revenue of the estate; and that as in proportion as the income of my

brother Don Bartholomew shall increase, as it has to be discounted from

the revenue of the fourth part of the entailed estate, that the said

revenue shall be calculated, to know how much the tenth part amounts to;

and the part which exceeds what is necessary to make up the million for

Don Bartholomew shall be received by such of my family as may most stand

in need of it, discounting it from said tenth, if their income do not

amount to fifty thousand maravadises; and should any of these come to have

an income to this amount, such a part shall be awarded them as two

persons, chosen for the purpose, may determine along with Don Diego, or

his heirs. Thus, it is to be understood that the million which I leave to

Don Bartholomew comprehends the tenth of the whole revenue of the estate;

which revenue is to be distributed among my nearest and most needy

relations in the manner I have directed; and when Don Bartholomew have an

income of one million, and that nothing more shall be due to him on

account of said fourth part, then Don Diego my sou, or the person who may

be in possession of the estate, along with the two other persons which I

shall herein point out, shall inspect the accounts, and so direct, that

the tenth of the revenue shall still continue to be paid to the most

necessitous members of my family that may be found in this or any other

quarter of the world, who shall be diligently sought out; and they are to

be paid out of the fourth part from which Don Bartholomew is to derive his

million; which sums are to be taken into account, and deducted from the

said tenth, which, should it amount to more, the overplus, as it arises

from the fourth part, shall be given to the most necessitous persons as

aforesaid; and should it not be sufficient, that Don Bartholomew shall

have it until his own estate goes on increasing, leaving the said million

in part or in the whole.

Item: The said Don Diego my son, or whoever may be the inheritor, shall

appoint two persons of conscience and authority, and most nearly related

to the family, who are to examine the revenue and its amount carefully,

and to cause the said tenth to be paid out of the fourth from which Don

Bartholomew is to receive his million, to the most necessitated members of

my family that may be found here or elsewhere, whom they shall look for

diligently upon their consciences; and as it might happen that said Don

Diego, or others after him, for reasons which may concern their own

welfare, or the credit and support of the estate, may be unwilling to make

known the full amount of the income; nevertheless, I charge him, on his

conscience, to pay the sum aforesaid; and I charge them, on their souls

and consciences, not to denounce or make it known, except with the consent

of Don Diego, or the person that may succeed him; but let the above tithe

be paid in the manner I have directed.

Item: In order to avoid all disputes in the choice of the two nearest

relations who are to act with Don Diego or his heirs, I hereby elect Don

Bartholomew my brother for one, and Don Fernando my son for the other; and

when these two shall enter upon the business, they shall choose two other

persons among the most trusty, and most nearly related, and these again

shall elect two others when it shall be question of commencing the

examination; and thus it shall be managed with diligence from one to the

other, as well in this as in the other of government, for the service and

glory of God, and the benefit of the said entailed estate.

Item: I also enjoin Diego, or any one that may inherit the estate, to have

and maintain in the city of Genoa one person of our lineage, to reside

there with his wife, and appoint him a sufficient revenue to enable him to

live decently, as a person closely connected with the family, of which he

is to be the root and basis in that city; from winch great good may accrue

to him, inasmuch as i was born there, and came from thence.

Item: The said Don Diego, or whoever shall inherit the estate, must remit

in bills, or in any other way, all such sums as he may be able to save out

of the revenue of the estate, and direct purchases to be made in his name,

or that of his heirs, in a stock in the Bank of St. George, which gives an

interest of six per cent, and in secure money; and this shall be devoted

to the purpose I am about to explain.

Item: As it becomes every man of property to serve God, either personally

or by means of his wealth, and as all moneys deposited with St. George are

quite safe, and Genoa is a noble cily, and powerful by sea, and as at the

time that I undertook to set out upon the discovery of the Indies, it was

with the intention of supplicating the king and queen, our lords, that

whatever moneys should be derived from the said Indies, should be invested

in the conquest of Jerusalem; and as I did so supplicate them; if they do

this, it will be well; if not, at all events, the said Diego, or such

person as may succeed him in this trust, to collect together all the money

he can, and accompany the king our lord, should he go to the conquest of

Jerusalem, or else go there himself with all the force he can command; and

in pursuing this intention, it will please the Lord to assist towards the

accomplishment of the plan; and should he not be able to effect the

conquest of the whole, no doubt he will achieve it in part. Let him

therefore collect and make a fund of all his wealth in St. George of

Genoa, and let it multiply there till such time as it may appear to him

that something of consequence may be effected as respects the project on

Jerusalem; for I believe that when their highnesses shall see that this is

contemplated, they will wish to realize it themselves, or will afford him,

as their servant and vassal, the means of doing it for them.

Item: I charge my son Diego and my descendants, especially whoever may

inherit this estate, which consists, as aforesaid, of the tenth of

whatsoever may be had or found in the Indies, and the eighth part of the

lands and rents, all which, together with my rights and emoluments as

admiral, viceroy, and governor, amount to more than twenty-five per cent.;

I say, that I require of him to employ all this revenue, as well as his

person and all the means in his power, in well and faithfully serving and

supporting their highnesses, or their successors, even to the loss of life

and property; since it was their highnesses, next to God, who first gave

me the means of getting and achieving this property, although, it is true,

I came over to these realms to invite them to the enterprise, and that a

long time elapsed before any provision was made for carrying it into

execution; which, however, is not surprising, as this was an undertaking

of which all the world was ignorant, and no one had any faith in it;

wherefore I am by so much the more indebted to them, as well as because

they have since also much favored and promoted me.

Item: I also require of Diego, or whomsoever may be in possession of the

estate, that in the case of any schism taking place in the church of God,

or that any person of whatever class or condition should attempt to

despoil it of its property and honors, they hasten to offer at the feet of

his holiness, that is, if they are not heretics (which God forbid!), their

persons, power, and wealth, for the purpose of suppressing such schism,

and preventing any spoliation of the honor and property of the church.

Item: I command the said Diego, or whoever may possess the said estate, to

labor and strive for the honor, welfare, and aggrandizement of the city of

Genoa, and to make use of all his power and means in defending and

enhancing the good and credit of that republic, in all things not contrary

to the service of the church of God, or the high dignity of our king and

queen, our lords, and their successors.

Item: The said Diego, or whoever may possess or succeed to the estate, out

of the fourth part of the whole revenue, from which, as aforesaid, is to

be taken the tenth, when Don Bartholomew or his heirs shall have saved the

two millions, or part of them, and when the time shall come of making a

distribution among our relations, shall apply and invest the said tenth in

providing marriages for such daughters of our lineage as may require it,

and in doing all the good in their power.

Item: When a suitable time shall arrive, he shall order a church to be

built in the island of Hispaniola, and in the most convenient spot, to be

called Santa Maria de la Concepcion; to which is to be annexed an

hospital, upon the best possible plan, like those of Italy and Castile,

and a chapel erected to say mass in for the good of my soul, and those of

my ancestors and successors, with great devotion, since no doubt it will

please the Lord to give us a sufficient revenue for this and the

aforementioned purposes.

Item: I also order Diego my son, or whomsoever may inherit after him, to

spare no pains in having and maintaining in the island of Hispaniola, four

good professors of theology, to the end and aim of their studying and

laboring to convert to our holy faith the inhabitants of the Indies; and

in proportion as, by God's will, the revenue of the estate shall increase,

in the same degree shall the number of teachers and devout increase, who

are to strive to make Christians of the natives; in attaining which no

expense should be thought too great. And in commemoration of all that I

hereby ordain, and of the foregoing, a monument of marble shall be erected

in the said church of la Concepcion, in the most conspicuous place, to

serve as a record of what I here enjoin on the said Diego, as well as to

other persons who may look upon it; which marble shall contain an

inscription to the same effect.

Item: I also require of Diego my son, and whomsover may succeed him in the

estate, that every time, and as often as he confesses, he first show this

obligation, or a copy of it, to the confessor, praying him to read it

through, that he may be enabled to inquire respecting its fulfillment;

from which will redound great good and happiness to his soul.

S.

S. A. S.

X. M. Y.

EL ALMIRANTE.

No. XXXVII.

Signature of Columbus.

As every thing respecting Columbus is full of interest, his signature has

been a matter of some discussion. It partook of the pedantic and bigoted

character of the age, and perhaps of the peculiar character of the man,

who, considering himself mysteriously elected and set apart from among men

for certain great purposes, adopted a correspondent formality and

solemnity in all his concerns. His signature was as follows:

S.

S. A. S.

X. M. Y.

EL ALMIRANTE.

The first half of the signature, XPO, (for CHRISTO,) is in Greek letters;

the second, FERENS, is in Latin. Such was the usage of those days; and

even at present both Greek and Roman letters are used in signatures and

inscriptions in Spain.

The ciphers or initials above the signature are supposed to represent a

pious ejaculation. To read them one must begin with the lower letters, and

connect them with those above. Signor Gio. Batista Spotorno conjectures

them to mean either Xristus (Christus) Sancta Maria Yosephus, or, Salve

me, Xristus, Maria, Yosephus. The Korth American Review, for April, 1827,

suggests the substitution of Jesus for Josephus, but the suggestion of

Spotorno is most probably correct, as a common Spanish ejaculation is

"Jesus Maria y José."

It was an ancient usage in Spain, and it has not entirely gone by, to

accompany the signature with some words of religious purport. One object

of this practice was to show the writer to be a Christian. This was of

some importance in a country in which Jews and Mahometans were proscribed

and persecuted.

Don Fernando, son to Columbus, says that his father, when he took his pen

in hand, usually commenced by writing "Jesus cum Maria sit nobis in via;"

and the book which the admiral prepared and sent to the sovereigns,

containing the prophecies which he considered as referring to his

discoveries, and to the rescue of the holy sepulchre, begins with the same

words. This practice is akin to that of placing the initials of pious

words above his signature, and gives great probability to the mode in

which they have been deciphered.

No. XXXVIII.

A Visit to Palos.

[The following narrative was actually commenced, by the author of this

work, as a letter to a friend, but unexpectedly swelled to its present

size. He has been induced to insert it here from the idea, that many will

feel the same curiosity to know something of the present state of Falos

and its inhabitants that led him to make the journey.]

Seville, 1828.

Since I last wrote to you, I have made what I may term an American

pilgrimage, to visit the little port of Palos in Andalusia, where Columbus

fitted out his ships, and whence he sailed for the discovery of the New

World. Need I tell you how deeply interesting and gratifying it has been

to me? I had long meditated this excursion, as a kind of pious, and, if I

may so say, filial duty of an American, and my intention was quickened

when I learnt that many of the edifices, mentioned in the History of

Columbus, still remained in nearly the same state in which they existed at

the time of his sojourn at Palos, and that the descendants of the intrepid

Pinzons, who aided him with ships and money, and sailed with him in the

great voyage of discovery, still flourished in the neighborhood.

The very evening before my departure from Seville on the excursion, I

heard that there was a young gentleman of the Pinzon family studying law

in the city. I got introduced to him, and found him of most prepossessing

appearance and manners. He gave me a letter of introduction to his father,

Don Juan Fernandez Pinzon, resident of Moguer, and the present head of the

family.

As it was in the middle of August, and the weather intensely hot, I hired

a calesa for the journey. This is a two-wheeled carriage, resembling a

cabriolet, but of the most primitive and rude construction; the harness is

profusely ornamented with brass, and the horse's hend decorated with tufts

and tassels and dangling bobs of scarlet and yellow worsted. I had for

calasero, a tall, long-legged Andalusian, in short jacket, little

round-crowned hat, breeches decorated with buttons from the hip to the

knees, and a pair of russet leather bottinas or spatterdashes. He was an

active fellow, though uncommonly taciturn for an Andalusian, and strode

along beside his horse, rousing him occasionally to greater speed by a

loud malediction or a hearty thwack of his cudgel.