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Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
Text enclosed by equal signs is in bold face (=bold=).
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Spanish Explorations and Settlements in America
from the Fifteenth to the Seventeenth Century
[Illustration]
NARRATIVE AND CRITICAL HISTORY OF AMERICA
Edited by
JUSTIN WINSOR
Librarian of Harvard University
Corresponding Secretary Massachusetts Historical Society
VOL. II
Boston and New York
Houghton, Mifflin and Company
The Riverside Press, Cambridge
Copyright, 1886,
by Houghton, Mifflin and Company.
All rights reserved.
CONTENTS AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
[_The Spanish arms on the title are copied from the titlepage of
Herrera._]
INTRODUCTION. PAGE
DOCUMENTARY SOURCES OF EARLY SPANISH-AMERICAN HISTORY. _The
Editor_ i
CHAPTER I.
COLUMBUS AND HIS DISCOVERIES. _The Editor_ 1
ILLUSTRATIONS: Columbus’ Armor, 4; Parting of Columbus with
Ferdinand and Isabella, 6; Early Vessels, 7; Building a Ship,
8; Course of Columbus on his First Voyage, 9; Ship of Columbus’
Time, 10; Native House in Hispaniola, 11; Curing the Sick,
11; The Triumph of Columbus, 12; Columbus at Hispaniola, 13;
Handwriting of Columbus, 14; Arms of Columbus, 15; Fruit-trees
of Hispaniola, 16; Indian Club, 16; Indian Canoe, 17, 17;
Columbus at Isla Margarita, 18; Early Americans, 19; House in
which Columbus died, 23.
CRITICAL ESSAY 24
ILLUSTRATIONS: Ptolemy, 26, 27; Albertus Magnus, 29; Marco
Polo, 30; Columbus’ Annotations on the _Imago Mundi_, 31; on
Æneas Sylvius, 32; the Atlantic of the Ancients, 37; Prince
Henry the Navigator, 39; his Autograph, 39; Sketch-map of
Portuguese Discoveries in Africa, 40; Portuguese Map of the Old
World (1490), 41; Vasco da Gama and his Autograph, 42; Line of
Demarcation (Map of 1527), 43; Pope Alexander VI., 44.
NOTES 46
A, First Voyage, 46; B, Landfall, 52; C, Effect of the
Discovery in Europe, 56; D, Second Voyage, 57; E, Third Voyage,
58; F, Fourth Voyage, 59; G, Lives and Notices of Columbus,
62; H, Portraits of Columbus, 69; I, Burial and Remains of
Columbus, 78; J, Birth of Columbus, and Accounts of his Family,
83.
ILLUSTRATIONS: Fac-simile of first page of Columbus’ Letter,
No. III., 49; Cut on reverse of Title of Nos. V. and VI., 50;
Title of No. VI., 51; The Landing of Columbus, 52; Cut in
German Translation of the First Letter, 53; Text of the German
Translation, 54; the Bahama Group (map), 55; Sign-manuals
of Ferdinand and Isabella, 56; Sebastian Brant, 59; Map of
Columbus’ Four Voyages, 60, 61; Fac-simile of page in the
Glustiniani Psalter, 63; Ferdinand Columbus’ Register of Books,
65; Autograph of Humboldt, 68; Paulus Jovius, 70. Portraits
of Columbus,—after Giovio, 71; the Yanez Portrait, 72; after
Capriolo, 73; the Florence picture, 74; the De Bry Picture,
75; the Jomard Likeness, 76; the Havana Medallion, 77; Picture
at Madrid, 78; after Montanus, 79; Coffer and Bones found in
Santo Domingo, 80; Inscriptions on and in the Coffer, 81, 82;
Portrait and Sign-manual of Ferdinand of Spain, 85; Bartholomew
Columbus, 86.
POSTSCRIPT 88
THE EARLIEST MAPS OF THE SPANISH AND PORTUGUESE DISCOVERIES.
_The Editor_ 93
ILLUSTRATIONS: Early Compass, 94; Astrolabe of Regiomontanus,
96; Later Astrolabe, 97; Jackstaff, 99; Backstaff, 100;
Pirckeymerus, 102; Toscanelli’s Map, 103; Martin Behaim, 104;
Extract from Behaim’s Globe, 105; Part of La Cosa’s Map,
106; of the Cantino Map, 108; Peter Martyr Map (1511), 110;
Ptolemy Map (1513), 111; Admiral’s Map (1513), 112; Reisch’s
Map (1515), 114; Ruysch’s Map (1508), 115; Stobnicza’s Map
(1512), 116; Schöner, 117; Schöner’s Globe (1515), 118; (1520),
119; Tross Gores (1514-1519), 120; Münster’s Map (1532), 121;
Sylvanus’ Map (1511), 122; Lenox Globe, 123; Da Vinci Sketch of
Globe, 124, 125, 126; Carta Marina of Frisius (1525), 127;
Coppo’s Map (1528), 127.
CHAPTER II.
AMERIGO VESPUCCI. _Sydney Howard Gay_ 129
ILLUSTRATIONS: Fac-simile of a Letter of Vespucci, 130;
Autograph of Amerrigo Vespuche, 138; Portraits of Vespucci,
139, 140, 141.
NOTES ON VESPUCIUS AND THE NAMING OF AMERICA. _The Editor_ 153
ILLUSTRATIONS: Title of the Jehan Lambert edition of the
_Mundus Novus_, 157; first page of Vorsterman’s _Mundus Novus_,
158; Title of _De Ora Antarctica_, 159; title of _Von der neu
gefunden Region_, 160; Fac-simile of its first page, 161;
Ptolemy’s World, 165; Title of the _Cosmographiæ Introductio_,
167; Fac-simile of its reference to the name of America, 168;
the Lenox Globe (American parts), 170; Title of the 1509
edition of the _Cosmographiæ Introductio_, 171; title of the
_Globus Mundi_, 172; Map of Laurentius Frisius in the Ptolemy
of 1522, 175; American part of the Mercator Map of 1541, 177;
Portrait of Apianus, 179.
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF POMPONIUS MELA, SOLINUS, VADIANUS, AND APIANUS.
_The Editor_ 180
ILLUSTRATIONS: Pomponius Mela’s World, 180; Vadianus, 181; Part
of Apianus’ Map (1520), 183; Apianus, 185.
CHAPTER III.
THE COMPANIONS OF COLUMBUS. _Edward Channing_ 187
ILLUSTRATIONS: Map of Hispaniola, 188; Castilia del Oro, 190;
Cartagena, 192; Balbóa, 195; Havana, 202.
CRITICAL ESSAY 204
ILLUSTRATION: Juan de Grijalva, 216.
THE EARLY CARTOGRAPHY OF THE GULF OF MEXICO AND ADJACENT PARTS.
_The Editor_ 217
ILLUSTRATIONS: Map of the Pacific (1518), 217; of the Gulf of
Mexico (1520), 218; by Lorenz Friess (1522), 218; by Maiollo
(1527), 219; by Nuño Garcia de Toreno (1527), 220; by Ribero
(1529), 221; The so-called Lenox Woodcut (1534), 223; Early
French Map, 224; Gulf of Mexico (1536), 225; by Rotz (1542),
226; by Cabot (1544), 227; in Ramusio (1556), 228; by Homem
(1558), 229; by Martines (1578), 229; of Cuba, by Wytfliet
(1597), 230.
CHAPTER IV.
ANCIENT FLORIDA. _John G. Shea_ 231
ILLUSTRATIONS: Ponce de Leon, 235; Hernando de Soto, 252;
Autograph of De Soto, 253; of Mendoza, 254; Map of Florida
(1565), 264; Site of Fort Caroline, 265; View of St. Augustine,
266; Spanish Vessels, 267; Building of Fort Caroline, 268; Fort
Caroline completed, 269; Map of Florida (1591), 274; Wytfliet’s
Map (1597), 281.
CRITICAL ESSAY 283
ILLUSTRATIONS: Map of Ayllon’s Explorations, 285; Autograph of
Narvaez, 286; of Cabeza de Vaca, 287; of Charles V., 289; of
Biedma, 290; Map of the Mississippi (sixteenth century), 292;
Delisle’s Map, with the Route of De Soto, 294, 295.
CHAPTER V.
LAS CASAS, AND THE RELATIONS OF THE SPANIARDS TO THE INDIANS.
_George E. Ellis_ 299
CRITICAL ESSAY 331
ILLUSTRATIONS: Las Casas, 332; his Autograph, 333; Titlepages
of his Tracts, 334, 336, 338; Fac-simile of his Handwriting,
339.
EDITORIAL NOTE 343
ILLUSTRATIONS: Autograph of Motolinia, 343; Title of Oviedo’s
_Natural Hystoria_ (1526), 344; Arms of Oviedo, 345; his
Autograph, 346; Head of Benzoni, 347.
CHAPTER VI.
CORTÉS AND HIS COMPANIONS. _The Editor_ 349
ILLUSTRATIONS: Velasquez, 350; Cannon of Cortés’ time, 352;
Helps’s Map of Cortés’ Voyage, 353; Cortés and his Arms, 354;
Gabriel Lasso de la Vega, 355; Cortés, 357; Map of the March
of Cortés, 358; Cortés, 360; Montezuma, 361, 363; Map of
Mexico before the Conquest, 364; Pedro de Alvarado, 366; his
Autograph, 367; Helps’s Map of the Mexican Valley, 369; Tree of
Triste Noche, 370; Charles V., 371, 373; his Autograph, 372;
Wilson’s Map of the Mexican Valley, 374; Jourdanet’s Map of
the Valley, _colored_, 375; Mexico under the Conquerors, 377;
Mexico according to Ramusio, 379; Cortés in Jovius, 381; his
Autograph, 381; Map of Guatemala and Honduras, 384; Autograph
of Sandoval, 387; his Portrait, 388; Cortés after Herrera, 389;
his Armor, 390; Autograph of Fuenleal, 391; Map of Mexico after
Herrera, 392; Acapulco, 394; Full-length Portrait of Cortés,
395; Likeness on a Medal, 396.
CRITICAL ESSAY 397
ILLUSTRATION: Autograph of Icazbalceta, 397.
NOTES 402
ILLUSTRATIONS: Cortés before Charles V., 403; Cortés’ Map of
the Gulf of Mexico, 404; Title of the Latin edition of his
Letters (1524), 405; Reverse of its Title, 406; Portrait of
Clement VII., 407; Autograph of Gayangos, 408; Lorenzana’s
Map of Spain, 408; Title of _De insulis nuper inventis_, 409;
Title of Gomara’s _Historia_ (1553), 413; Autograph of Bernal
Diaz, 414; of Sahagun, 416; Portrait of Solis, 423; Portrait of
William H. Prescott, 426.
DISCOVERIES ON THE PACIFIC COAST OF NORTH AMERICA.
_The Editor_ 431
ILLUSTRATIONS: Map from the Sloane Manuscripts (1530), 432;
from Ruscelli (1544), 432; Nancy Globe, 433; from Ziegler’s
_Schondia_ (1532), 434; Carta Marina (1548), 435; Vopellio’s
Map (1556), 436; Titlepage of Girava’s _Cosmographia_, 437;
Furlani’s Map (1560), 438; Map of the Pacific (1513), 440;
Cortés’ Map of the California Peninsula, 442; Castillo’s Map of
the California Gulf (1541), 444; Map by Homem (1540), 446; by
Cabot (1544), 447; by Freire (1546), 448; in Ptolemy (1548),
449; by Martines (155-?), 450; by Zaltieri (1566), 451; by
Mercator (1569), 452; by Porcacchi (1572), 453; by Furlani
(1574), 454; from Molineaux’ Globe (1592), 455; a Spanish
Galleon, 456; Map of the Gulf of California by Wytfliet (1597),
458; of America by Wytfliet (1597), 459; of Terre de Iesso,
464; of the California Coast by Dudley (1646), 465; Diagram of
Mercator’s Projection, 470.
CHAPTER VII.
EARLY EXPLORATIONS OF NEW MEXICO. _Henry W. Haynes_ 473
ILLUSTRATIONS: Autograph of Coronado, 481; Map of his
Explorations, 485; Early Drawings of the Buffalo, 488, 489.
CRITICAL ESSAY 498
EDITORIAL NOTE 503
CHAPTER VIII.
PIZARRO, AND THE CONQUEST AND SETTLEMENT OF PERU AND CHILI.
_Clements R. Markham_ 505
ILLUSTRATIONS: Indian Rafts, 508; Sketch-maps of the Conquest
of Peru, 509, 519; picture of Embarkation, 512; Ruge’s Map
of Pizarro’s Discoveries, 513; Native Huts in Trees, 514;
Atahualpa, 515, 516; Almagro, 518; Plan of Ynca Fortress near
Cusco, 521; Building of a Town, 522; Gabriel de Rojas, 523;
Sketch-map of the Conquest of Chili, 524; Pedro de Valdivia,
529, 530; Pastene, 531; Pizarro, 532, 533; Vaca de Castro,
535; Pedro de la Gasca, 539, 540; Alonzo de Alvarado, 544;
Conception Bay, 548; Garcia Hurtado de Mendoza, 550; Peruvians
worshipping the Sun, 551; Cusco, 554; Temple of Cusco, 555;
Wytfliet’s Map of Peru, 558; of Chili, 559; Sotomayor, 562;
Title of the 1535 Xeres, 565.
CRITICAL ESSAY 563
ILLUSTRATION: Title of the 1535 Xeres, 565.
EDITORIAL NOTES 573
ILLUSTRATION: Prescott’s Library, 577.
THE AMAZON AND ELDORADO. _The Editor_ 579
ILLUSTRATIONS: Gonzalo Ximenes de Quesada, 580; Sketch-map,
581; Castellanos, 583; Map of the Mouths of the Orinoco, 586;
De Laet’s Map of Parime Lacus, 588.
CHAPTER IX.
MAGELLAN’S DISCOVERY. _Edward E. Hale_ 591
ILLUSTRATIONS: Autograph of Magellan, 592; Portraits of
Magellan, 593, 594, 595; Indian Beds, 597; South American
Cannibals, 598; Giant’s Skeleton at Porto Desire, 602;
Quoniambec, 603; Pigafetta’s Map of Magellan’s Straits, 605;
Chart of the Pacific, showing Magellan’s Track, 610; Pigafetta’s
Map of the Ladrones, 611.
CRITICAL ESSAY 613
INDEX 619
INTRODUCTION.
BY THE EDITOR.
DOCUMENTARY SOURCES OF EARLY SPANISH-AMERICAN HISTORY.
THE earliest of the historians to use, to any extent, documentary
proofs, was Herrera, in his _Historia general_, first published in
1601.[1] As the official historiographer of the Indies, he had the best
of opportunities for access to the great wealth of documents which the
Spanish archivists had preserved; but he never distinctly quotes them,
or says where they are to be found.[2] It is through him that we are
aware of some important manuscripts not now known to exist.[3]
The formation of the collections at Simancas, near Valladolid,
dates back to an order of Charles the Fifth, Feb. 19, 1543. New
accommodations were added from time to time, as documents were removed
thither from the bureaus of the Crown Secretaries, and from those
of the Councils of Seville and of the Indies. It was reorganized by
Philip II., in 1567, on a larger basis, as a depository for historical
research, when masses of manuscripts from other parts of Spain
were transported thither;[4] but the comparatively small extent of
the Simancas Collection does not indicate that the order was very
extensively observed; though it must be remembered that Napoleon made
havoc among these papers, and that in 1814 it was but a remnant which
was rearranged.[5]
Dr. Robertson was the earliest of the English writers to make even
scant use of the original manuscript sources of information; and such
documents as he got from Spain were obtained through the solicitation
and address of Lord Grantham, the English ambassador. Everything,
however, was grudgingly given, after being first directly refused. It
is well known that the Spanish Government considered even what he did
obtain and make use of as unfit to be brought to the attention of their
own public, and the authorities interposed to prevent the translation
of Robertson’s history into Spanish.
In his preface Dr. Robertson speaks of the peculiar solicitude with
which the Spanish archives were concealed from strangers in his time;
and he tells how, to Spanish subjects even, those of Simancas were
opened only upon a royal order. Papers notwithstanding such order,
he says, could be copied only by payment of fees too exorbitant to
favor research.[6] By order of Fernando VI., in the last century, a
collection of selected copies of the most important documents in the
various depositories of archives was made; and this was placed in the
Biblioteca Nacional at Madrid.
In 1778 Charles III. ordered that the documents of the Indies in the
Spanish offices and depositories should be brought together in one
place. The movement did not receive form till 1785, when a commission
was appointed; and not till 1788, did Simancas, and the other
collections drawn upon, give up their treasures to be transported to
Seville, where they were placed in the building provided for them.[7]
Muñoz, who was born in 1745, was commissioned in 1779 by the King
with authority[8] to search archives, public and family, and to write
and publish a _Historia del nuevo mundo_. Of this work only a single
volume,[9] bringing the story down to 1500, was completed, and it was
issued in 1793. Muñoz gave in its preface a critical review of the
sources of his subject. In the prosecution of his labor he formed
a collection of documents, which after his death was scattered;
but parts of it were, in 1827, in the possession of Don Antonio de
Uguina,[10] and later of Ternaux. The Spanish Government exerted
itself to reassemble the fragments of this collection, which is now,
in great part, in the Academy of History at Madrid,[11] where it has
been increased by other manuscripts from the archives at Seville.
Other portions are lodged, however, in ministerial offices, and the
most interesting are noted by Harrisse in his _Christophe Colomb_.[12]
A paper by Mr. J. Carson Brevoort on Muñoz and his manuscripts is in
the _American Bibliopolist_ (vol. viii. p. 21), February, 1876.[13] An
English translation of Muñoz’s single volume appeared in 1797, with
notes, mostly translated from the German version by Sprengel, published
in 1795. Rich had a manuscript copy made of all that Muñoz wrote of his
second volume (never printed), and this copy is noted in the _Brinley
Catalogue_, no. 47.[14]
[Illustration: AUTOGRAPH OF MUÑOZ.]
“In the days of Muñoz,” says Harrisse in his _Notes on Columbus_, p.
1, “the great repositories for original documents concerning Columbus
and the early history of Spanish America were the Escurial, Simancas,
the Convent of Monserrate, the colleges of St. Bartholomew and Cuenca
at Salamanca, and St. Gregory at Valladolid, the Cathedral of Valencia,
the Church of Sacro-Monte in Granada, the convents of St. Francis
at Tolosa, St. Dominick at Malaga, St. Acacio, St. Joseph, and St.
Isidro del Campo at Seville. There may be many valuable records still
concealed in those churches and convents.”
The originals of the letters-patent, and other evidences of privileges
granted by the Spanish monarchs to Columbus, were preserved by him,
and now constitute a part of the collection of the Duke of Veraguas,
in Madrid. In 1502 Columbus caused several attested copies of them
and of a few other documents to be made, raising the number of papers
from thirty-six to forty-four. His care in causing these copies to be
distributed among different custodians evinces the high importance
which he held them to have, as testimonials to his fame and his
prominence in the world’s history. One wishes he could have had a like
solicitude for the exactness of his own statements. Before setting out
on his fourth voyage, he intrusted one of these copies to Francesco
di Rivarolo, for delivery to Nicoló Odérigo, the ambassador of Genoa,
in Madrid. From Cadiz shortly afterwards he sent a second copy to the
same Odérigo. In 1670 both of these copies were given, by a descendant
of Odérigo, to the Republic of Genoa. They subsequently disappeared
from the archives of the State, and Harrisse[15] has recently found
one of them in the archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at
Paris. The other was bought in 1816 by the Sardinian Government, at a
sale of the effects of Count Michael-Angelo Cambiasi. After a copy had
been made and deposited in the archives at Turin, this second copy was
deposited in a marble custodia, surmounted by a bust of Columbus, and
placed in the palace of the Doges in Genoa.[16] These documents, with
two of the letters addressed (March 21, 1502, and Dec. 27, 1504)[17]
to Odérigo, were published in Genoa in 1823 in the _Codice diplomatico
Colombo-Americano_, edited with a biographical introduction by Giovanni
Battista Spotorno.[18] A third letter (April 2, 1502), addressed to the
governors of the Bank of St. George, was not printed by Spotorno, but
was given in English in 1851 in the _Memorials of Columbus_ by Robert
Dodge, published by the Maryland Historical Society.[19]
The State Archives of Genoa were transferred from the Ducal Palace, in
1817, to the Palazzetto, where they now are; and Harrisse’s account[20]
of them tells us what they do not contain respecting Columbus, rather
than what they do. We also learn from him something of the “Archives
du Notariat Génois,” and of the collections formed by the Senator
Federico Federici (d. 1647), by Gian Battista Richeri (_circa_ 1724),
and by others; but they seem to have afforded Harrisse little more than
stray notices of early members of the Colombo family.
Washington Irving refers to the “self-sustained zeal of one of the last
veterans of Spanish literature, who is almost alone, yet indefatigable,
in his labors in a country where at present literary exertion meets
with but little excitement or reward.” Such is his introduction of
Martin Fernandez de Navarrete,[21] who was born in 1765, and as a
young man gave some active and meritorious service in the Spanish
navy. In 1789 he was forced by ill-health to abandon the sea. He then
accepted a commission from Charles IV. to examine all the depositories
of documents in the kingdom, and arrange the material to be found in
illustration of the history of the Spanish navy.[22] This work he
continued, with interruptions, till 1825, when he began at Madrid the
publication of his _Coleccion de los viages y descubrimientos que
hicieron por mar los Españoles desde fines del siglo XV._,[23] which
reached an extent of five volumes, and was completed in 1837. It put
in convenient printed form more than five hundred documents of great
value, between the dates of 1393 and 1540. A sixth and seventh volume
were left unfinished at his death, which occurred in 1844, at the age
of seventy-eight.[24] His son afterward gathered some of his minor
writings, including biographies of early navigators,[25] and printed
(1848) them as a _Coleccion de opúsculos_; and in 1851 another of his
works, _Biblioteca maritima Española_, was printed at Madrid in two
volumes.[26]
The first two volumes of his collection (of which volumes there was
a second edition in 1858) bore the distinctive title, _Relaciones,
cartas y otros documentos, concernientes á los cuatro viages que
hizo el Almirante D. Cristóbal Colon para el descubrimiento de las
Indias occidentales, and Documentos diplomáticos_. Three years later
(1828) a French version of these two volumes appeared at Paris, which
Navarrete himself revised, and which is further enriched with notes by
Humboldt, Jomard, Walckenaer, and others.[27] This French edition is
entitled: _Relation des quatres voyages entrepris par Ch. Colomb pour
la découverte du Nouveau Monde de 1492 à 1504, traduite par Chalumeau
de Vernéuil? et de la Roquette_. It is in three volumes, and is worth
about twenty francs. An Italian version, _Narrazione dei quattro
viaggi_, etc., was made by F. Giuntini, and appeared in two volumes at
Prato in 1840-1841.[28]
Navarrete’s literary labors did not prevent much conspicuous service
on his part, both at sea and on land; and in 1823, not long before
he published his great Collection, he became the head of the Spanish
hydrographic bureau.[29] After his death the Spanish Academy printed
(1846) his historical treatise on the Art of Navigation and kindred
subjects (_Disertacion sobre la historia de la náutica_[30]), which was
an enlargement of an earlier essay published in 1802.
While Navarrete’s great work was in progress at Madrid, Mr. Alexander
H. Everett, the American Minister at that Court, urged upon Washington
Irving, then at Bordeaux, the translation into English of the new
material which Navarrete was preparing, together with his Commentary.
Upon this incentive Irving went to Madrid and inspected the work, which
was soon published. His sense of the popular demand easily convinced
him that a continuous narrative, based upon Navarrete’s material,—but
leaving himself free to use all other helps,—would afford him better
opportunities to display his own graceful literary skill, and more
readily to engage the favor of the general reader. Irving’s judgment
was well founded; and Navarrete never quite forgave him for making a
name more popularly associated with that of the great discoverer than
his own.[31] Navarrete afforded Irving at this time much personal help
and encouragement. Obadiah Rich, the American Consul at Valencia, under
whose roof Irving lived, furnished him, however, his chief resource in
a curious and extensive library. To the Royal Library, and to that of
the Jesuit College of San Isidro, Irving also occasionally resorted.
The Duke of Veraguas took pleasure in laying before him his own family
archives.[32] The result was the _Life and Voyages of Christopher
Columbus_; and in the Preface, dated at Madrid in 1827,[33] Irving made
full acknowledgment of the services which had been rendered to him.
This work was followed, not long after, by the _Voyages and Discoveries
of the Companions of Columbus_; and ever since, in English and other
languages, the two books have kept constant company.[34]
Irving proved an amiable hero-worshipper, and Columbus was pictured
with few questionable traits. The writer’s literary canons did not
call for the scrutiny which destroys a world’s exemplar. “One of the
most salutary purposes of history,” he says, “is to furnish examples
of what human genius and laudable enterprise may accomplish,”—and such
brilliant examples must be rescued from the “pernicious erudition” of
the investigator. Irving’s method at least had the effect to conciliate
the upholders of the saintly character of the discoverer; and the
modern school of the De Lorgues, who have been urging the canonization
of Columbus, find Irving’s ideas of him higher and juster than those of
Navarrete.
* * * * *
Henri Ternaux-Compans printed his _Voyages, relations, et mémoires
originaux pour servir à l’histoire de la dècouverte de l’Amérique_,
between 1837 and 1841.[35] This collection included rare books and
about seventy-five original documents, which it is suspected may
have been obtained during the French occupation of Spain. Ternaux
published his _Archives des voyages_, in two volumes, at Paris in
1840;[36] a minor part of it pertains to American affairs. Another
volume, published at the same time, is often found with it,—_Recueil
de documents et mémoires originaux sur l’histoire des possessions
Espagnoles dans l’Amérique_, whose contents, it is said, were derived
from the Muñoz Collection.
The Academy of History at Madrid began in 1842 a series of documentary
illustrations which, though devoted to the history of Spain in general
(_Coleccion de documentos inéditos para la historia de España_),
contains much matter of the first importance in respect to the history
of her colonies.[37] Navarrete was one of the original editors, but
lived only to see five volumes published. Salvá, Baranda, and others
have continued the publication since, which now amounts to eighty
volumes, of which vols. 62, 63, and 64 are the famous history of Las
Casas, then for the first time put in print.
In 1864 a new series was begun at Madrid,—_Coleccion de documentos
inéditos relativos al descubrimiento, conquista y colonizacion de
las posesiones Españolas en América y Oceania, sacados, en su mayor
parte, del Real Archivo de Indias_. Nearly forty volumes have thus far
been published, under the editing of Joaquin F. Pacheco, Francisco de
Cárdenas, and Luis Torres de Mendoza at the start, but with changes
later in the editorial staff.[38]
Mr. E. G. Squier edited at New York in 1860 a work called _Collection
of Rare and Original Documents and Relations concerning the Discovery
and Conquest of America, chiefly from the Spanish Archives, in the
original, with Translations, Notes, Maps, and Sketches_. There was
a small edition only,—one hundred copies on small paper, and ten on
large paper.[39] This was but one of a large collection of manuscripts
relative to Central America and Mexico which Mr. Squier had collected,
partly during his term as _chargé d’affaires_ in 1849. Out of these
he intended a series of publications, which never went beyond this
first number. The collection “consists,” says Bancroft,[40] “of
extracts and copies of letters and reports of _audiencias_, governors,
bishops, and various governmental officials, taken from the Spanish
archives at Madrid and from the library of the Spanish Royal Academy of
History, mostly under the direction of the indefatigable collector, Mr.
Buckingham Smith.”
Early Spanish manuscripts on America in the British Museum are noted in
its _Index to Manuscripts_, 1854-1875, p. 31; and Gayangos’ _Catalogue
of Spanish Manuscripts in the British Museum_, vol. ii., has a section
on America.[41]
Regarding the chances of further developments in depositories of
manuscripts, Harrisse, in his _Notes on Columbus_,[42] says: “For the
present the historian will find enough to gather from the Archivo
General de Indias in the Lonja at Seville, which contains as many as
forty-seven thousand huge packages, brought, within the last fifty
years, from all parts of Spain. But the richest mine as yet unexplored
we suppose to be the archives of the monastic orders in Italy; as
all the expeditions to the New World were accompanied by Franciscan,
Dominican, Benedictine, and other monks, who maintained an active
correspondence with the heads of their respective congregations. The
private archives of the Dukes of Veraguas, Medina-Sidonia, and Del
Infantado, at Madrid, are very rich. There is scarce anything relating
to that early period left in Simancas; but the original documents in
the Torre do Tombo at Lisbon are all intact”[43]
Among the latest contributions to the documentary history of the
Spanish colonization is a large folio, _Cartas de Indias, publicalas
por primera vez el ministerio de fomento_, issued in Madrid in 1877
under the auspices of the Spanish Government. It contains one hundred
and eight letters,[44] covering the period 1496 to 1586, the earliest
date being a supposed one for a letter of Columbus which is without
date. The late Mr. George Dexter,[45] who has printed[46] a translation
of this letter (together with one of another letter, Feb. 6, 1502,
and one of Vespucius, Dec. 9, 1508), gives his reasons for thinking the
date should be between March 15 and Sept. 25, 1493.[47]
At Madrid and Paris was published, in 1883, a single octavo
volume,—_Costa-Rica, Nicaragua y Panamá en el siglo XVI., su historia
y sus limítes segun los documentos del Archivo de Indias de Sevilla,
del de Simancas, etc., recogidos y publicados con notas y aclaraciones
históricas y geográficas, por D. Manuel M. de Peralta_.
The more special and restricted documentary sources are examined in the
successive chapters of the present volume.
NARRATIVE AND CRITICAL
HISTORY OF AMERICA.
CHAPTER I.
COLUMBUS AND HIS DISCOVERIES.
BY JUSTIN WINSOR,
_The Editor._
BEYOND his birth, of poor and respectable parents, we know nothing
positively about the earliest years of Columbus. His father was
probably a wool-comber. The boy had the ordinary schooling of his time,
and a touch of university life during a few months passed at Pavia;
then at fourteen he chose to become a sailor. A seaman’s career in
those days implied adventures more or less of a piratical kind. There
are intimations, however, that in the intervals of this exciting life
he followed the more humanizing occupation of selling books in Genoa,
and perhaps got some employment in the making of charts, for he had a
deft hand at design. We know his brother Bartholomew was earning his
living in this way when Columbus joined him in Lisbon in 1470. Previous
to this there seems to be some degree of certainty in connecting him
with voyages made by a celebrated admiral of his time bearing the
same family name, Colombo; he is also said to have joined the naval
expedition of John of Anjou against Naples in 1459.[48] Again, he may
have been the companion of another notorious corsair, a nephew of the
one already mentioned, as is sometimes maintained; but this sea-rover’s
proper name seems to have been more likely Caseneuve, though he was
sometimes called Coulon or Colon.[49]
Columbus spent the years 1470-1484 in Portugal. It was a time when the
air was filled with tales of discovery. The captains of Prince Henry
of Portugal had been gradually pushing their ships down the African
coast and in some of these voyages Columbus was a participant. To one
of his navigators Prince Henry had given the governorship of the Island
of Porto Santo, of the Madeira group. To the daughter of this man,
Perestrello,[50] Columbus was married; and with his widow Columbus
lived, and derived what advantage he could from the papers and charts
of the old navigator. There was a tie between his own and his wife’s
family in the fact that Perestrello was an Italian, and seems to have
been of good family, but to have left little or no inheritance for his
daughter beyond some property in Porto Santo, which Columbus went to
enjoy. On this island Columbus’ son Diego was born in 1474.
It was in this same year (1474) that he had some correspondence with
the Italian _savant_, Toscanelli, regarding the discovery of land
westward. A belief in such discovery was a natural corollary of the
object which Prince Henry had had in view,—by circumnavigating Africa
to find a way to the countries of which Marco Polo had given golden
accounts. It was to substitute for the tedious indirection of the
African route a direct western passage,—a belief in the practicability
of which was drawn from a confidence in the sphericity of the earth.
Meanwhile, gathering what hope he could by reading the ancients, by
conferring with wise men, and by questioning mariners returned from
voyages which had borne them more or less westerly on the great ocean,
Columbus suffered the thought to germinate as it would in his mind for
several years. Even on the voyages which he made hither and thither for
gain,—once far north, to Iceland even, or perhaps only to the Faröe
Islands, as is inferred,—and in active participation in various warlike
and marauding expeditions, like the attack on the Venetian galleys
near Cape St. Vincent in 1485,[51] he constantly came in contact with
those who could give him hints affecting his theory. Through all these
years, however, we know not certainly what were the vicissitudes which
fell to his lot.[52]
It seems possible, if not probable, that Columbus went to Genoa and
Venice, and in the first instance presented his scheme of western
exploration to the authorities of those cities.[53] He may, on the
other hand; have tried earlier to get the approval of the King of
Portugal. In this case the visit to Italy may have occurred in the year
following his departure from Portugal, which is nearly a blank in the
record of his life. De Lorgues believes in the anterior Italian visit,
when both Genoa and Venice rejected his plans; and then makes him live
with his father at Savone, gaining a living by constructing charts, and
by selling maps and books in Genoa.
It would appear that in 1484 Columbus had urged his views upon the
Portuguese King, but with no further success than to induce the
sovereign to despatch, on other pretences, a vessel to undertake the
passage westerly in secrecy. Its return without accomplishing any
discovery opened the eyes of Columbus to the deceit which that monarch
would have put upon him, and he departed from the Portuguese dominions
in not a little disgust.[54]
The death of his wife had severed another tie with Portugal; and taking
with him his boy Diego, Columbus left, to go we scarcely know whither,
so obscure is the record of his life for the next year. Muñoz claims
for this period that he went to Italy. Sharon Turner has conjectured
that he went to England; but there seems no ground to believe that he
had any relations with the English Court except by deputy, for his
brother Bartholomew was despatched to lay his schemes before Henry
VII.[55] Whatever may have been the result of this application, no
answer seems to have reached Columbus until he was committed to the
service of Spain.
It was in 1485 or 1486—for authorities differ[56]—that a proposal was
laid by Columbus before Ferdinand and Isabella; but the steps were
slow by which he made even this progress. We know how, in the popular
story, he presented himself at the Franciscan Convent of Santa María
de la Rábida, asking for bread for himself and his boy. This convent
stood on a steep promontory about half a league from Palos, and was
then in charge of the Father Superior Juan Perez de Marchena.[57] The
appearance of the stranger first, and his talk next, interested the
Prior; and it was under his advice and support after a while—when
Martin Alonzo Pinzon, of the neighboring town of Palos, had espoused
the new theory—that Columbus was passed on to Cordova, with such claims
to recognition as the Prior of Rabidá could bestow upon him.
It was perhaps while success did not seem likely here, in the midst
of the preparations for a campaign against the Moorish kings, that
his brother Bartholomew made his trip to England.[58] It was also in
November, 1486, it would seem, that Columbus formed his connection with
Beatrix Enriquez, while he was waiting in Cordova for the attention of
the monarch to be disengaged from this Moorish campaign.
[Illustration: COLUMBUS’ ARMOR.
This follows a cut in Ruge’s _Geschichte des Zeitalters der
Entdeckungen_, p. 245. The armor is in the Collection in the Royal
Palace at Madrid.]
Among those at this time attached to the Court of Ferdinand and
Isabella was Alexander Geraldinus, then about thirty years old. He
was a traveller, a man of letters, and a mathematician; and it was
afterward the boast of his kinsman, who edited his _Itinerarium ad
regiones sub æquinoctiali plaga constitutas_[59] (Rome, 1631), that
Geraldinus, in one way and another, aided Columbus in pressing his
views upon their Majesties. It was through Geraldinus’ influence, or
through that of others who had become impressed with his views, that
Columbus finally got the ear of Pedro Gonzales de Mendoza, Archbishop
of Toledo. The way was now surer. The King heeded the Archbishop’s
advice, and a council of learned men was convened, by royal orders, at
Salamanca, to judge Columbus and his theories. Here he was met by all
that prejudice, content, and ignorance (as now understood, but wisdom
then) could bring to bear, in the shape of Scriptural contradictions of
his views, and the pseudo-scientific distrust of what were thought mere
visionary aims. He met all to his own satisfaction, but not quite so
successfully to the comprehension of his judges. He told them that he
should find Asia that way; and that if he did not, there must be other
lands westerly quite as desirable to discover. No conclusion had been
reached when, in the spring of 1487, the Court departed from Cordova,
and Columbus found himself left behind without encouragement, save in
the support of a few whom he had convinced,—notably Diego de Deza, a
friar destined to some ecclesiastical distinction as Archbishop of
Seville.
During the next five years Columbus experienced every vexation
attendant upon delay, varied by participancy in the wars which the
Court urged against the Moors, and in which he sought to propitiate
the royal powers by doing them good service in the field. At last,
in 1491, wearied with excuses of pre-occupation and the ridicule of
the King’s advisers, Columbus turned his back on the Court and left
Seville,[60] to try his fortune with some of the Grandees. He still
urged in vain, and sought again the Convent of Rabida. Here he made a
renewed impression upon Marchena; so that finally, through the Prior’s
interposition with Isabella, Columbus was summoned to Court. He arrived
in time to witness the surrender of Granada, and to find the monarchs
more at liberty to listen to his words. There seemed now a likelihood
of reaching an end of his tribulations; when his demand of recognition
as viceroy, and his claim to share one tenth of all income from the
territories to be discovered, frightened as well as disgusted those
appointed to negotiate with him, and all came once more to an end.
Columbus mounted his mule and started for France. Two finance ministers
of the Crown, Santangel for Arragon and Quintanilla for Castile, had
been sufficiently impressed by the new theory to look with regret on
what they thought might be a lost opportunity. Isabella was won; and a
messenger was despatched to overtake Columbus.
The fugitive returned; and on April 17, 1492, at Santa Fé, an agreement
was signed by Ferdinand and Isabella which gave Columbus the office
of high-admiral and viceroy in parts to be discovered, and an income
of one eighth of the profits, in consideration of his assuming one
eighth of the costs. Castile bore the rest of the expense; but Arragon
advanced the money,[61] and the Pinzons subscribed the eighth part for
Columbus.
The happy man now solemnly vowed to use what profits should accrue
in accomplishing the rescue of the Holy Sepulchre from the Moslems.
Palos, owing some duty to the Crown, was ordered to furnish two armed
caravels, and Columbus was empowered to fit out a third. On the 30th
of April the letters-patent confirming his dignities were issued. His
son Diego was made a page of the royal household. On May 12 he left the
Court and hastened towards Palos. Here, upon showing his orders for
the vessels, he found the town rebellious, with all the passion of a
people who felt that some of their number were being simply doomed to
destruction beyond that Sea of Darkness whose bounds they knew not.
Affairs were in this unsatisfactory condition when the brothers Pinzon
threw themselves and their own vessels into the cause; while a third
vessel, the “Pinta,” was impressed,—much to the alarm of its owners and
crew.
[Illustration: PARTING OF COLUMBUS WITH FERDINAND AND ISABELLA.
Fac-simile of the engraving in Herrera. It originally appeared in De
Bry, part iv.]
[Illustration: EARLY VESSELS.
This representation of the vessels of the early Spanish navigators is
a fac-simile of a cut in Medina’s _Arte de navegar_, Valladolid, 1545,
which was re-engraved in the Venice edition of 1555. Cf. _Carter-Brown
Catalogue_, vol. i. nos. 137, 204; Ruge, _Geschichte des Zeitalters
der Entdeckungen_, pp. 240, 241; Jurien de la Gravière’s _Les marins
du XV^e et du XVI^e siècle_, vol. i. pp. 38, 151. In the variety of
changes in methods of measurement it is not easy to find the equivalent
in tonnage of the present day for the ships of Columbus’s time. Those
constituting his little fleet seem to have been light and swift vessels
of the class called caravels. One had a deck amidships, with high
forecastle and poop, and two were without this deck, though high, and
covered at the ends. Captain G. V. Fox has given what he supposes
were the dimensions of the larger one,—a heavier craft and duller
sailer than the others. He calculates for a hundred tons,—makes her
sixty-three feet over all, fifty-one feet keel, twenty feet beam, and
ten and a half feet draft of water. She carried the kind of gun termed
lombards, and a crew of fifty men. _U. S. Coast Survey Report_, 1880,
app. 18; _Becher’s Landfall of Columbus_; A. Jal’s _Archéologie navale_
(Paris, 1840); Irving’s _Columbus_, app. xv.; H. H. Bancroft, _Central
America_, i. 187; _Das Ausland_, 1867, p. 1. There are other views of
the ships of Columbus’ time in the cuts in some of the early editions
of his Letters on the discovery. See notes following this chapter.]
And so, out of the harbor of Palos,[62] on the 3d of August, 1492,
Columbus sailed with his three little vessels. The “Santa Maria,” which
carried his flag, was the only one of the three which had a deck, while
the other two, the “Niña” and the “Pinta,” were open caravels. The two
Pinzons commanded these smaller ships,—Martin Alonzo the “Pinta”, and
Vicente the “Niña.”
[Illustration: BUILDING A SHIP.
This follows a fac-simile, given in Ruge, _Geschichte des Zeitalters
der Entdeckungen_ p. 240, of a cut in Bernhardus de Breydenbach’s
_Peregrinationes_, Mainz, 1486.]
The voyage was uneventful, except that the expectancy of all quickened
the eye, which sometimes saw over-much, and poised the mind, which
was alert with hope and fear. It has been pointed out how a westerly
course from Palos would have discouraged Columbus with head and
variable winds. Running down to the Canaries (for Toscanelli put those
islands in the latitude of Cipango), a westerly course thence would
bring him within the continuous easterly trade-winds, whose favoring
influence would inspirit his men,—as, indeed, was the case. Columbus,
however, was very glad on the 22d of September to experience a west
wind, just to convince his crew it was possible to have, now and then,
the direction of it favorable to their return. He had proceeded, as he
thought, some two hundred miles farther than the longitude in which he
had conjectured Cipango to be, when the urging of Martin Alonzo Pinzon,
and the flight of birds indicating land to be nearer in the southwest,
induced him to change his course in that direction.[63]
[Illustration: COURSE OF COLUMBUS ON FIRST VOYAGE.
This follows a map given in _Das Ausland_, 1867, p. 4, in a paper on
Columbus’ Journal, “Das Schiffsbuch des Entdeckers von Amerika.” The
routes of Columbus’ four voyages are marked on the map accompanying the
_Studi biografici e bibliografici_ published by the Società Geografica
Italiana in 1882. Cf. also the map in Charton’s _Voyageurs_, iii. 155,
reproduced on a later page.]
About midnight between the 11th and 12th of October, Columbus on the
lookout thought he saw a light moving in the darkness. He called a
companion, and the two in counsel agreed that it was so.[64] At about
two o’clock, the moon then shining, a mariner on the “Pinta” discerned
unmistakably a low sandy shore. In the morning a landing was made, and,
with prayer[65] and ceremony, possession was taken of the new-found
island in the name of the Spanish sovereigns.
[Illustration: SHIP OF COLUMBUS’S TIME.
This follows a fac-simile, given in Ruge, _Geschichte des Zeitalters
der Entdeckungen_, p. 241, of a cut in Bernhardus de Breydenbach’s
_Peregrinationes_, Mainz, 1486.]
On the third day (October 14) Columbus lifted anchor, and for ten days
sailed among the minor islands of the archipelago; but struck the
Cuban coast on the 28th.[66] Here the “Pinta,” without orders from
the Admiral, went off to seek some gold-field, of which Martin Alonzo
Pinzon, its commander, fancied he had got some intimation from the
natives. Pinzon returned bootless; but Columbus was painfully conscious
of the mutinous spirit of his lieutenant.[67] The little fleet next
found Hayti (Hispaniæ insula,[68] as he called it), and on its northern
side the Admiral’s ship was wrecked. Out of her timbers Columbus built
a fort on the shore, called it “La Navidad,” and put into it a garrison
under Diego de Arana.[69]
[Illustration: NATIVE HOUSE IN HISPANIOLA.
Fac-simile of a cut in Oviedo, edition of 1547, fol. lix. There is
another engraving in Charton’s _Voyageurs_, iii. 124. Cf. also Ramusio,
_Nav. et Viaggi_, iii.]
With the rest of his company and in his two smaller vessels, on the
4th of January, 1493, Columbus started on his return to Spain. He ran
northerly to the latitude of his destination, and then steered due
east. He experienced severe weather, but reached the Azores safely;
and then, passing on, entered the Tagus and had an interview with the
Portuguese King. Leaving Lisbon on the 13th, he reached Palos on the
15th of March, after an absence of over seven months.
[Illustration: CURING THE SICK.
This is Benzoni’s sketch of the way in which the natives cure and tend
their sick at Hispaniola. Edition of 1572, p. 56.]
He was received by the people of the little seaport with acclamations
and wonder; and, despatching a messenger to the Spanish Court at
Barcelona, he proceeded to Seville to await the commands of the
monarchs. He was soon bidden to hasten to them; and with the triumph of
more than a conqueror, and preceded by the bedizened Indians whom he
had brought with him, he entered the city and stood in the presence
of the sovereigns. He was commanded to sit before them, and to tell
the story of his discovery. This he did with conscious pride; and not
forgetting the past, he publicly renewed his previous vow to wrest the
Holy Sepulchre from the Infidel.
[Illustration: THE TRIUMPH OF COLUMBUS.
This is a reduction of a fac-simile by Pilinski, given in Margry’s
_Les Navigations Françaises_, p. 360,—an earlier reproduction having
been given by M. Jal in _La France maritime_. It is also figured in
Charton’s _Voyageurs_, iii. 139. The original sketch, by Columbus
himself, was sent by him from Seville in 1502, and is preserved in
the city hall at Genoa. M. Jal gives a description of it in his _De
Paris à Naples_, 1836, i. 257. The figure sitting beside Columbus is
Providence; Envy and Ignorance are hinted at as monsters following in
his wake; while Constancy, Tolerance, the Christian Religion, Victory,
and Hope attend him. Above all is the floating figure of Fame blowing
two trumpets, one marked “Genoa,” the other “Fama Columbi.” Harrisse
(_Notes on Columbus_, p. 165) says that good judges assign this picture
to Columbus’s own hand, though none of the drawings ascribed to him
are authentic beyond doubt; while it is very true that he had the
reputation of being a good draughtsman. Feuillet de Conches (_Revue
contemporaine_, xxiv. 509) disbelieves in its authenticity. The usual
signature of Columbus is in the lower left-hand corner of the above
sketch, the initial letters in which have never been satisfactorily
interpreted; but perhaps as reasonable a guess as any would make
them stand for “SERVUS SUPPLEX ALTISSIMI SALVATORIS—CHRISTUS, MARIA,
YOSEPH—_Christo ferens_.” Others read, “SERVIDOR SUS ALTEZAS SACRAS,
CHRISTO, MARIA, YSABEL [_or_ YOSEPH].” The “Christo ferens” is
sometimes replaced by “_El Almirante_.” The essay on the autograph
in the _Cartas de Indias_ is translated in the _Magazine of American
History_, Jan., 1883, p. 55. Cf. Irving, app. xxxv. Ruge, _Geschichte
des Zeitalters der Entdeckungen_, p. 317; _Massachusetts Historical
Society Proceedings_, xvi. 322, etc.]
The expectation which had sustained Columbus in his voyage, and which
he thought his discoveries had confirmed, was that he had reached the
western parts of India or Asia; and the new islands were accordingly
everywhere spoken of as the West Indies, or the New World.
[Illustration: COLUMBUS AT HISPANIOLA.
Fac-simile of engraving in Herrera, who follows DeBry.]
[Illustration: HANDWRITING OF COLUMBUS.
Last page of an autograph letter preserved in the Colombina Library at
Seville, following a photograph in Harrisse’s _Notes on Columbus_, p.
218.]
The ruling Pope, Alexander VI., was a native Valencian; and to him
an appeal was now made for a Bull, confirming to Spain and Portugal
respective fields for discovery. This was issued May 4, 1493, fixing
a line, on the thither side of which Spain was to be master; and on
the hither side, Portugal. This was traced at a meridian one hundred
leagues west of the Azores and Cape de Verde Islands, which were
assumed to be in the same longitude practically. The thought of future
complications from the running of this line to the antipodes does
not seem to have alarmed either Pope or sovereigns; but troubles on
the Atlantic side were soon to arise, to be promptly compounded by a
convention at Tordesillas, which agreed (June 4, ratified June 7, 1494)
to move the meridian line to a point three hundred and seventy leagues
west of the Cape de Verde Islands,—still without dream of the destined
disputes respecting divisions on the other side of the globe.[70]
[Illustration: ARMS OF COLUMBUS.
As given in Oviedo’s _Coronica_, 1547, fol. x., from the Harvard
College copy. There is no wholly satisfactory statement regarding the
origin of these arms, or the Admiral’s right to bear them. It is the
quartering of the royal lion and castle, for Arragon and Castile, with
gold islands in azure waves. Five anchors and the motto,
“A [_or_ POR] CASTILLA Y A [_or_ POR] LEON NUEVO MUNDO DIO [_or_
HALLO] COLON,”
were later given or assumed. The crest varies in the Oviedo (i. cap.
vii.) of 1535.]
Thus everything favored Columbus in the preparations for a second
voyage, which was to conduct a colony to the newly discovered lands.
Twelve hundred souls were embarked on seventeen vessels, and among them
persons of consideration and name in subsequent history,—Diego, the
Admiral’s brother, Bernal Diaz del Castillo, Ojeda, and La Cosa, with
the Pope’s own vicar, a Benedictine named Buil, or Boil.
[Illustration: FRUIT-TREES OF HISPANIOLA.
This is Benzoni’s sketch, edition of 1572, p. 60.]
Columbus and the destined colonists sailed from Cadiz on the 25th of
September. The ships sighted an island on the 3d of November, and
continuing their course among the Caribbee Islands, they finally
reached La Navidad, and found it a waste. It was necessary, however,
to make a beginning somewhere; and a little to the east of the ruined
fort they landed their supplies and began the laying out of a city,
which they called Isabella.[71] Expeditions were sent inland to find
gold. The explorers reported success. Twelve of the ships were sent
home with Indians who had been seized; and these ships were further
laden with products of the soil which had been gathered. Columbus
himself went with four hundred men to begin work at the interior mines;
but the natives, upon whom he had counted for labor, had begun to
fear enslavement for this purpose, and kept aloof. So mining did not
flourish. Disease, too, was working evil. Columbus himself had been
prostrated; but he was able to conduct three caravels westward, when he
discovered Jamaica. On this expedition he made up his mind that Cuba
was a part of the Asiatic main, and somewhat unadvisedly forced his men
to sign a paper declaring their own belief to the same purport.[72]
[Illustration: INDIAN CLUB.
As given in Oviedo, edition of 1547, fol. lxi.]
Returning to his colony, the Admiral found that all was not going well.
He had not himself inspired confidence as a governor, and his fame as
an explorer was fast being eclipsed by his misfortunes as a ruler.
Some of his colonists, accompanied by the papal vicar, had seized
ships and set sail for home. The natives, emboldened by the cruelties
practised upon them, were laying siege to his fortified posts. As an
offset, however, his brother Bartholomew had arrived from Spain with
three store-ships; and later came Antonio de Torres with four other
ships, which in due time were sent back to carry some samples of gold
and a cargo of natives to be sold as slaves. The vessels had brought
tidings of the charges preferred at Court against the Admiral, and his
brother Diego was sent back with the ships to answer these charges
in the Admiral’s behalf. Unfortunately Diego was not a man of strong
character, and his advocacy was not of the best.
[Illustration: INDIAN CANOE.
As depicted in Oviedo, edition of 1547, fol. lxi. There is another
engraving in Charton’s _Voyageurs_, iii. 106, called “Pirogue
Indienne.”]
[Illustration: INDIAN CANOE.
Benzoni gives this drawing of the canoes of the coast of the Gulf of
Paria and thereabout. Edition of 1572, p. 5.]
In March (1495) Columbus conducted an expedition into the interior to
subdue and hold tributary the native population. It was cruelly done,
as the world looks upon such transactions to-day.
Meanwhile in Spain reiteration of charges was beginning to shake the
confidence of his sovereigns; and Juan Aguado, a friend of Columbus,
was sent to investigate. He reached Isabella in October,—Diego, the
Admiral’s brother, accompanying him. Aguado did not find affairs
reassuring; and when he returned to Spain with his report in March
(1496), Columbus thought it best to go too, and to make his excuses or
explanations in person. They reached Cadiz in June, just as Niño was
sailing with three caravels to the new colony.
[Illustration: COLUMBUS AT ISLA MARGARITA.
Fac-simile of engraving in Herrera.]
Ferdinand and Isabella received him kindly, gave him new honors,
and promised him other outfits. Enthusiasm, however, had died out,
and delays took place. The reports of the returning ships did not
correspond with the pictures of Marco Polo, and the new-found world was
thought to be a very poor India after all. Most people were of this
mind; though Columbus was not disheartened, and the public treasury was
readily opened for a third voyage.
[Illustration: AMERICANS.
This is the earliest representation which we have of the natives of the
New World, showing such as were found by the Portuguese on the north
coast of South America. It has been supposed that it was issued in
Augsburg somewhere between 1497 and 1504, for it is not dated. The only
copy ever known to bibliographers is not now to be traced. Stevens,
_Recoll. of James Lenox_, p. 174. It measures 13½ × 8½ inches,
with a German title and inscription, to be translated as follows:—
“This figure represents to us the people and island which have been
discovered by the Christian King of Portugal, or his subjects. The
people are thus naked, handsome, brown, well-shaped in body; their
heads, necks, arms, private parts, feet of men and women, are a little
covered with feathers. The men also have many precious stones on
their faces and breasts. No one else has anything, but all things are
in common. And the men have as wives those who please them, be they
mothers, sisters, or friends; therein make they no distinction. They
also fight with each other; they also eat each other, even those who
are slain, and hang the flesh of them in the smoke. They become a
hundred and fifty years of age, and have no government.”
The present engraving follows the fac-simile given in Stevens’s
_American Bibliographer_, pp. 7, 8. Cf. Sabin, vol. i. no. 1,031; vol.
v. no. 20,257; Harrisse, _Bibl. Amer. Vet._, no. 20.]
Coronel sailed early in 1498 with two ships, and Columbus followed
with six, embarking at San Lucar on the 30th of May. He now discovered
Trinidad (July 31), which he named either from its three peaks, or
from the Holy Trinity; struck the northern coast of South America,[73]
and skirted what was later known as the Pearl coast, going as far
as the Island of Margarita. He wondered at the roaring fresh waters
which the Orinoco pours into the Gulf of Pearls, as he called it, and
he half believed that its exuberant tide came from the terrestrial
paradise.[74] He touched the southern coast of Hayti on the 30th of
August. Here already his colonists had established a fortified post,
and founded the town of Santo Domingo. His brother Bartholomew had
ruled energetically during the Admiral’s absence, but he had not
prevented a revolt, which was headed by Roldan. Columbus on his arrival
found the insurgents still defiant, but was able after a while to
reconcile them, and he even succeeded in attaching Roldan warmly to his
interests.
Columbus’ absence from Spain, however, left his good name without
sponsors; and to satisfy detractors, a new commissioner was sent
over with enlarged powers, even with authority to supersede Columbus
in general command, if necessary. This emissary was Francisco de
Bobadilla, who arrived at Santo Domingo with two caravels on the 23d
of August, 1500, finding Diego in command, his brother the Admiral
being absent. An issue was at once made. Diego refused to accede to
the commissioner’s orders till Columbus returned to judge the case
himself; so Bobadilla assumed charge of the Crown property violently,
took possession of the Admiral’s house, and when Columbus returned, he
with his brother was arrested and put in irons. In this condition the
prisoners were placed on shipboard, and sailed for Spain. The captain
of the ship offered to remove the manacles; but Columbus would not
permit it, being determined to land in Spain bound as he was; and so
he did. The effect of his degradation was to his advantage; sovereigns
and people were shocked at the sight; and Ferdinand and Isabella
hastened to make amends by receiving him with renewed favor. It was
soon apparent that everything reasonable would be granted him by the
monarchs, and that he could have all he might wish, short of receiving
a new lease of power in the islands, which the sovereigns were
determined to see pacified at least before Columbus should again assume
government of them. The Admiral had not forgotten his vow to wrest the
Holy Sepulchre from the Infidel; but the monarchs did not accede to his
wish to undertake it. Disappointed in this, he proposed a new voyage;
and getting the royal countenance for this scheme, he was supplied with
four vessels of from fifty to seventy tons each,—the “Capitana,” the
“Santiago de Palos,” the “Gallego,” and the “Vizcaino.” He sailed from
Cadiz May 9, 1502, accompanied by his brother Bartholomew and his son
Fernando. The vessels reached San Domingo June 29.
Bobadilla, whose rule of a year and a half had been an unhappy one, had
given place to Nicholás de Ovando; and the fleet which brought the new
governor,—with Maldonado, Las Casas, and others,—now lay in the harbor
waiting to receive Bobadilla for the return voyage. Columbus had been
instructed to avoid Hispaniola; but now that one of his vessels leaked,
and he needed to make repairs, he sent a boat ashore, asking permission
to enter the harbor. He was refused, though a storm was impending. He
sheltered his vessels as best he could, and rode out the gale. The
fleet which had on board Bobadilla and Roldan, with their ill-gotten
gains, was wrecked, and these enemies of Columbus were drowned. The
Admiral found a small harbor where he could make his repairs; and then,
July 14, sailed westward to find, as he supposed, the richer portions
of India in exchange for the barbarous outlying districts which others
had appropriated to themselves. He went on through calm and storm,
giving names to islands,—which later explorers re-named, and spread
thereby confusion on the early maps. He began to find more intelligence
in the natives of these islands than those of Cuba had betrayed, and
got intimations of lands still farther west, where copper and gold were
in abundance. An old Indian made them a rough map of the main shore.
Columbus took him on board, and proceeding onward a landing was made on
the coast of Honduras August 14. Three days later the explorers landed
again fifteen leagues farther east, and took possession of the country
for Spain. Still east they went; and, in gratitude for safety after
a long storm, they named a cape which they rounded Gracias á Dios,—a
name still preserved at the point where the coast of Honduras begins to
trend southward. Columbus was now lying ill on his bed, placed on deck,
and was half the time in revery. Still the vessels coasted south. They
lost a boat’s crew in getting water at one place; and tarrying near
the mouth of the Rio San Juan, they thought they got from the signs
of the natives intelligence of a rich and populous country over the
mountains inland, where the men wore clothes and bore weapons of steel,
and the women were decked with corals and pearls. These stories were
reassuring; but the exorcising incantations of the natives were quite
otherwise for the superstitious among the Spaniards.
They were now on the shores of Costa Rica, where the coast trends
southeast; and both the rich foliage and the gold plate on the necks of
the savages enchanted the explorers. They went on towards the source
of this wealth, as they fancied. The natives began to show some signs
of repulsion; but a few hawk’s-bells beguiled them, and gold plates
were received in exchange for the trinkets. The vessels were now within
the southernmost loop of the shore, and a bit of stone wall seemed
to the Spaniards a token of civilization. The natives called a town
hereabouts Veragua,—whence, years after, the descendants of Columbus
borrowed the ducal title of his line. In this region Columbus dallied,
not suspecting how thin the strip of country was which separated him
from the great ocean whose farther waves washed his desired India.
Then, still pursuing the coast, which now turned to the northeast, he
reached Porto Bello, as we call it, where he found houses and orchards.
Tracking the Gulf side of the Panama isthmus, he encountered storms
that forced him into harbors, which continued to disclose the richness
of the country.[75]
It became now apparent that they had reached the farthest spot of
Bastidas’ exploring, who had, in 1501, sailed westward along the
northern coast of South America. Amid something like mutinous cries
from the sailors, Columbus was fain to turn back to the neighborhood of
Veragua, where the gold was; but on arriving there, the seas, lately
so fair, were tumultuous, and the Spaniards were obliged to repeat the
gospel of Saint John to keep a water-spout, which they saw, from coming
their way,—so Fernando says in his Life of the Admiral. They finally
made a harbor at the mouth of the River Belen, and began to traffic
with the natives, who proved very cautious and evasive when inquiries
were made respecting gold-mines. Bartholomew explored the neighboring
Veragua River in armed boats, and met the chief of the region, with
retainers, in a fleet of canoes. Gold and trinkets were exchanged, as
usual, both here and later on the Admiral’s deck. Again Bartholomew led
another expedition, and getting the direction—a purposely false one,
as it proved—from the chief in his own village, he went to a mountain,
near the abode of an enemy of the chief, and found gold,—scant,
however, in quantity compared with that of the crafty chief’s own
fields. The inducements were sufficient, however, as Columbus thought,
to found a colony; but before he got ready to leave it, he suspected
the neighboring chief was planning offensive operations. An expedition
was accordingly sent to seize the chief, and he was captured in his own
village; and so suddenly that his own people could not protect him.
The craft of the savage, however, stood him in good stead; and while
one of the Spaniards was conveying him down the river in a boat, he
jumped overboard and disappeared, only to reappear, a few days later,
in leading an attack on the Spanish camp. In this the Indians were
repulsed; but it was the beginning of a kind of lurking warfare that
disheartened the Spaniards. Meanwhile Columbus, with the ship, was
outside the harbor’s bar buffeting the gales. The rest of the prisoners
who had been taken with the chief were confined in his forecastle.
By concerted action some of them got out and jumped overboard, while
those not so fortunate killed themselves. As soon as the storm was
over, Columbus withdrew the colonists and sailed away. He abandoned one
worm-eaten caravel at Porto Bello, and, reaching Jamaica, beached two
others.
A year of disappointment, grief, and want followed. Columbus clung to
his wrecked vessels. His crew alternately mutinied at his side, and
roved about the island. Ovando, at Hispaniola, heard of his straits,
but only tardily and scantily relieved him. The discontented were
finally humbled; and some ships, despatched by the Admiral’s agent in
Santo Domingo, at last reached him, and brought him and his companions
to that place, where Ovando received him with ostentatious kindness,
lodging him in his house till Columbus departed for Spain, Sept. 12,
1504.
On the 7th of November the Admiral reached the harbor of San Lucar.
Weakness and disease later kept him in bed in Seville, and to his
letters of appeal the King paid little attention. He finally recovered
sufficiently to go to the Court at Segovia, in May, 1505; but
Ferdinand—Isabella had died Nov. 26, 1504—gave him scant courtesy. With
a fatalistic iteration, which had been his error in life, Columbus
insisted still on the rights which a better skill in governing
might have saved for him; and Ferdinand, with a dread of continued
maladministration, as constantly evaded the issue. While still hope
was deferred, the infirmities of age and a life of hardships brought
Columbus to his end; and on Ascension Day, the 20th of May, 1506, he
died, with his son Diego and a few devoted friends by his bedside.
[Illustration: HOUSE IN WHICH COLUMBUS DIED.
This follows an engraving in Ruge, _Geschichte des Zeitalters der
Entdeckungen_, p. 313, taken from a photograph. The house is in
Valladolid.]
The character of Columbus is not difficult to discern. If his mental
and moral equipoise had been as true, and his judgment as clear, as his
spirit was lofty and impressive, he could have controlled the actions
of men as readily as he subjected their imaginations to his will, and
more than one brilliant opportunity for a record befitting a ruler
of men would not have been lost. The world always admires constancy
and zeal; but when it is fed, not by well-rounded performance, but
by self-satisfaction and self-interest, and tarnished by deceit, we
lament where we would approve. Columbus’ imagination was eager, and
unfortunately ungovernable. It led him to a great discovery, which he
was not seeking for; and he was far enough right to make his error more
emphatic. He is certainly not alone among the great men of the world’s
regard who have some of the attributes of the small and mean.
CRITICAL ESSAY ON THE SOURCES OF INFORMATION.
It would appear, from documents printed by Navarrete, that in 1470
Columbus was brooding on the idea of land to the west. It is not at all
probable that he would himself have been able to trace from germ to
flower the conception which finally possessed his mind.[76] The age was
ripened for it; and the finding of Brazil in 1500 by Cabral showed how
by an accident the theory might have become a practical result at any
time after the sailors of Europe had dared to take long ocean voyages.
Columbus grew to imagine that he had been independent of the influences
of his time; and in a manuscript in his own hand, preserved in the
Colombina Library at Seville, he shows the weak, almost irresponsible,
side of his mind, and flouts at the grounds of reasonable progress
which many others besides himself had been making to a belief in the
feasibility of a western passage. In this unfortunate writing he
declares that under inspiration he simply accomplished the prophecy
of Isaiah.[77] This assertion has not prevented saner and later
writers[78] from surveying the evidences of the growth of the belief
in the mind, not of Columbus only, but of others whom he may have
impressed, and by whom he may have been influenced. The new intuition
was but the result of intellectual reciprocity. It needed a daring
exponent, and found one.
The geographical ideas which bear on this question depend, of course,
upon the sphericity of the earth.[79] This was entertained by the
leading cosmographical thinkers of that age,—who were far however from
being in accord in respect to the size of the globe. Going back to
antiquity, Aristotle and Strabo had both taught in their respective
times the spherical theory; but they too were widely divergent upon
the question of size,—Aristotle’s ball being but mean in comparison
with that of Strabo, who was not far wrong when he contended that
the world then known was something more than one third of the actual
circumference of the whole, or one hundred and twenty-nine degrees,
as he put it; while Marinus, the Tyrian, of the opposing school, and
the most eminent geographer before Ptolemy, held that the extent of
the then known world spanned as much as two hundred and twenty-five
degrees, or about one hundred degrees too much.[80] Columbus’
calculations were all on the side of this insufficient size.[81] He
wrote to Queen Isabella in 1503 that “the earth is smaller than people
suppose.” He thought but one seventh of it was water. In sailing a
direct western course his expectation was to reach Cipango after having
gone about three thousand miles. This would actually have brought him
within a hundred miles or so of Cape Henlopen, or the neighboring
coast; while if no land had intervened he would have gone nine
thousand eight hundred miles to reach Japan, the modern Cipango.[82]
Thus Columbus’ earth was something like two thirds of the actual
magnitude.[83] It can readily be understood how the lesser distance was
helpful in inducing a crew to accompany Columbus, and in strengthening
his own determination.
Whatever the size of the earth, there was far less palpable reason
to determine it than to settle the question of its sphericity. The
phenomena which convince the ordinary mind to-day, weighed with
Columbus as they had weighed in earlier ages. These were the hulling
down of ships at sea, and the curved shadow of the earth on the moon in
an eclipse. The law of gravity was not yet proclaimed, indeed; but it
had been observed that the men on two ships, however far apart, stood
perpendicular to their decks at rest.
Columbus was also certainly aware of some of the views and allusions
to be found in the ancient writers, indicating a belief in lands lying
beyond the Pillars of Hercules.[84] He enumerates some of them in the
letter which he wrote about his third voyage, and which is printed in
Navarrete. The Colombina Library contains two interesting memorials of
his connection with this belief. One is a treatise in his own hand,
giving his correspondence with Father Gorricio, who gathered the
ancient views and prophecies;[85] and the other is a copy of Gaietanus’
edition of Seneca’s tragedies, published indeed after Columbus’ death,
in which the passage of the _Medea_, known to have been much in
Columbus’ mind, is scored with the marginal comment of Ferdinand, his
son, “Hæc prophetia expleta ē per patrē meus cristoforū colō almirātē
anno 1492.”[86] Columbus, further, could not have been unaware of
the opposing theories of Ptolemy and Pomponius Mela as to the course
in which the further extension of the known world should be pursued.
Ptolemy held to the east and west theory, and Mela to the northern and
southern view.
[Illustration: PTOLEMY.
Fac-simile of a cut in _Icones sive imagines vivæ literis cl. virorum
... cum elogiis variis per Nicolaum Reusnerum. Basiliæ, CIƆ IƆ XIC_,
Sig. A. 4.]
The Angelo Latin translation of Ptolemy’s Greek _Geographia_ had served
to disseminate the Alexandrian geographer’s views through almost the
whole of the fifteenth century, for that version had been first made
in 1409. In 1475 it had been printed, and it had helped strengthen the
arguments of those who favored a belief in the position of India as
lying over against Spain. Several other editions were yet to be printed
in the new typographical centres of Europe, all exerting more or less
influence in support of the new views advocated by Columbus.[87] Five
of these editions of Ptolemy appeared during the interval from 1475 to
1492. Of Pomponius Mela, advocating the views of which the Portuguese
were at this time proving the truth, the earliest printed edition had
appeared in 1471. Mela’s treatise, _De situ orbis_, had been produced
in the first century, while Ptolemy had made his views known in the
second; and the age of Vasco da Gama, Columbus, and Magellan were to
prove the complemental relations of their respective theories.
[Illustration: PTOLEMY.
Fac-simile of cut in _Icones sive imagines virorum literis illustrium
... ex secunda recognitione Nicolai Reusneri. Argentorati, CIƆ IƆ XC_,
p. 1. The first edition appeared in 1587. Brunet, vol. iv., col. 1255,
calls the editions of 1590 and Frankfort, 1620, inferior.]
[Illustration: ALBERTUS MAGNUS.
Fac-simile of cut in Reusner’s _Icones_, Strasburg, 1590, p. 4. There
is another cut in Paulus Jovius’s _Elogia virorum litteris illustrium_,
Basle, 1575, p. 7 (copy in Harvard College Library).]
[Illustration: MARCO POLO.
This follows an engraving in Ruge’s _Geschichte des Zeitalters der
Entdeckungen_, p. 53. The original is at Rome. There is a copy of an
old print in Jules Verne’s _Découverte de la Terre_.]
It has been said that Macrobius, a Roman of the fifth century, in a
commentary on the _Dream of Scipio_, had maintained a division of the
globe into four continents, of which two were then unknown. In the
twelfth century this idea had been revived by Guillaume de Conches
(who died about 1150) in his _Philosophia Minor_, lib. iv. cap. 3.
It was again later further promulgated in the writings of Bede and
Honoré d’Autun, and in the _Microcosmos_ of Geoffroy de Saint-Victor,—a
manuscript of the thirteenth century still preserved.[88] It is not
known that this theory was familiar to Columbus. The chief directors
of his thoughts among anterior writers appear to have been, directly
or indirectly, Albertus Magnus, Roger Bacon, and Vincenzius of
Beauvais;[89] and first among them, for importance, we must place the
_Opus Majus_ Of Roger Bacon, completed in 1267. It was from Bacon that
Petrus de Aliaco, Or Pierre d’Ailly (b. 1340; d. 1416 or 1425), in his
_Ymago mundi_, borrowed the passage which, in this French imitator’s
language, so impressed Columbus.[90]
[Illustration: ANNOTATIONS BY COLUMBUS.
On a copy of Pierre d’Ailly’s _Imago mundi_, preserved in the Colombina
Library at Seville, following a photograph in Harrisse’s _Notes on
Columbus_, p. 84.]
An important element in the problem was the statements of Marco
Polo regarding a large island, which he called Cipango, and which
he represented as lying in the ocean off the eastern coast of Asia.
This carried the eastern verge of the Asiatic world farther than the
ancients had known; and, on the spherical theory, brought land nearer
westward from Europe than could earlier have been supposed. It is
a question, however, if Columbus had any knowledge of the Latin or
Italian manuscripts of Marco Polo,—the only form in which anybody could
have studied his narrative before the printing of it at Nuremberg in
1477, in German, a language which Columbus is not likely to have known.
Humboldt has pointed out that neither Columbus nor his son Ferdinand
mentions Marco Polo; still we know that he had read his book. Columbus
further knew, it would seem, what Æneas Sylvius had written on Asia.
Toscanelli had also imparted to him what he knew. A second German
edition of Marco Polo appeared at Augsburg in 1481. In 1485, with the
_Itinerarius_ of Mandeville,[91] published at Zwolle, the account—“De
regionibus orientalibus”—of Marco Polo first appeared in Latin,
translated from the original French, in which it had been dictated. It
was probably in this form that Columbus first saw it.[92] There was a
separate Latin edition in 1490.[93]
The most definite confirmation and encouragement which Columbus
received in his views would seem to have come from Toscanelli, in
1474. This eminent Italian astronomer, who was now about seventy-eight
years old, and was to die, in 1482, before Columbus and Da Gama had
consummated their discoveries, had reached a conclusion in his own
mind that only about fifty-two degrees of longitude separated Europe
westerly from Asia, making the earth much smaller even than Columbus’
inadequate views had fashioned it; for Columbus had satisfied himself
that one hundred and twenty degrees of the entire three hundred and
sixty was only as yet unknown.[94] With such views of the inferiority
of the earth, Toscanelli had addressed a letter to Martinez, a
prebendary of Lisbon, accompanied by a map professedly based on
information derived from the book of Marco Polo.[95] When Toscanelli
received a letter of inquiry from Columbus, he replied by sending a
copy of this letter and the map. As the testimony to a western passage
from a man of Toscanelli’s eminence, it was of marked importance in the
conversion of others to similar views.[96]
It has always been a question how far the practical evidence of chance
phenomena, and the absolute knowledge, derived from other explorers,
bearing upon the views advocated by Columbus, may have instigated or
confirmed him in his belief. There is just enough plausibility in some
of the stories which are cited to make them fall easily into the pleas
of detraction to which Columbus has been subjected.
[Illustration: ANNOTATIONS BY COLUMBUS.
On a copy of the _Historia rerum ubique gestarum_ of Æneas Sylvius,
preserved in the Colombina Library at Seville, following a photograph
in Harrisse’s _Notes on Columbus_, appendix.]
A story was repeated by Oviedo in 1535 as an idle rumor, adopted by
Gomara in 1552 without comment, and given considerable currency in 1609
by Garcilasso de la Vega, of a Spanish pilot,—Sanches, as the name
is sometimes given,—who had sailed from Madeira, and had been driven
west and had seen land (Hispaniola, it is inferred), and who being
shipwrecked had been harbored by Columbus in his house. Under this roof
the pilot is said to have died in 1484, leaving his host the possessor
of his secret. La Vega claimed to have received the tale from his
father, who had been at the Court of Spain in the time of Ferdinand and
Isabella. Oviedo repeated it, but incredulously;[97] and it was later
told by Gomara, Acosta, Eden, and others. Robertson,[98] Irving,[99]
and most later writers find enough in the indecision and variety of
its shapes to discard it altogether. Peter Martyr, Bernaldez, and
Herrera make no mention of it. It is singular, however, that Ferdinand
de Galardi, in dedicating his _Traité politique des abassadeurs_,
published at Cologne in 1666, to a descendant of Columbus, the Duke of
Veraguas, mentions the story as an indisputable fact;[100] and it has
not escaped the notice of querulous writers even of our day.[101]
Others have thought that Columbus, in his voyage to Thule or
Iceland,[102] in February, 1477, could have derived knowledge of the
Sagas of the westerly voyages of Eric the Red and his countrymen.[103]
It seems to be true that commercial relations were maintained between
Iceland and Greenland for some years later than 1400; but if Columbus
knew of them, he probably shared the belief of the geographers of his
time that Greenland was a peninsula of Scandinavia.[104]
The extremely probable and almost necessary pre-Columbian knowledge
of the northeastern parts of America follows from the venturesome
spirit of the mariners to those seas for fish and traffic, and from
the easy transitions from coast to coast by which they would have
been lured to meet the more southerly climes. The chances from such
natural causes are quite as strong an argument in favor of the early
Northmen venturings as the somewhat questionable representations
of the Sagas.[105] There is the same ground for representing, and
similar lack of evidence in believing, the alleged voyage of Joāo Vas
Costa Cortereal to the Newfoundland banks in 1463-1464. Barrow finds
authority for it in Cordeyro, who gives, however, no date in his
_Historia Insulana das Ilhas a Portugal_, Lisbon, 1717; but Biddle, in
his _Cabot_, fails to be satisfied with Barrow’s uncertain references,
as enforced in his _Chronological History of Voyages into the Arctic
Regions_, London, 1818.[106]
Another of these alleged northern voyagers was a Polish navigator, John
Szkolny,—a name which we get in various Latinized or other forms, as
Scolve, Skolnus, Scolvus, Sciolvus, Kolno, etc.,—who is said to have
been on the Labrador coast in 1476, while in the service of Denmark.
It is so stated by Wytfliet,[107] Pontanus,[108] and Horn.[109] De
Costa cites what is known as the Rouen globe, preserved in Paris,
and supposed to belong to about 1540, as showing a legend of Skolnus
reaching the northwest coast of Greenland in 1476.[110] Hakluyt quotes
Gemma Frisius and Girava. Gomara, in 1553, and Herrera, in 1601, barely
refer to it.[111]
There is also a claim for a Dieppe navigator, Cousin, who, bound for
Africa, is said to have been driven west, and reached South America
in 1488-1489. The story is told by Desmarquets in his _Mémoires
chronologiques pour servir à l’histoire de Dieppe_, i. 92, published at
Paris, 1785. Major, giving the story an examination, fully discredits
it.[112]
There remains the claim for Martin Behaim, the Nuremberg cosmographer
and navigator, which rests upon a passage in the Latin text of the
so-called _Nuremberg Chronicle_[113] which states that Cam and Behaim,
having passed south of the equator, turned west and (by implication)
found land. The passage is not in the German edition of the same year,
and on reference to the manuscript of the book (still preserved in
Nuremberg) the passage is found to be an interpolation written in a
different hand.[114] It seems likely to have been a perversion or
misinterpretation of the voyage of Diego Cam down the African coast in
1489, in which he was accompanied by Behaim. That Behaim himself did
not put the claim forward, at least in 1492, seems to be clear from the
globe, which he made in that year, and which shows no indication of the
alleged voyage. The allegation has had, however, some advocates; but
the weight of authority is decidedly averse, and the claim can hardly
be said to have significant support to-day.[115]
It is unquestionable that the success of the Portuguese in discovering
the Atlantic islands and in pushing down the African coast, sustained
Columbus in his hope of western discovery, if it had not instigated
it.[116] The chance wafting of huge canes, unusual trunks of trees, and
even sculptured wood and bodies of strange men, upon the shores of the
outlying islands of the Azores and Madeira, were magnified as evidences
in his mind.[117] When at a later day he found a tinned iron vessel in
the hands of the natives of Guadeloupe, he felt that there had been
European vessels driven along the equatorial current to the western
world, which had never returned to report on their voyages.
Of the adventurous voyages of which record was known there were enough
to inspire him; and of all the mysteries of the Sea of Darkness,[118]
which stretched away illimitably to the west, there were stories more
than enough. Sight of strange islands had been often reported; and the
maps still existing had shown a belief in those of San Brandan[119] and
Antillia,[120] and of the Seven Cities founded in the ocean waste by
as many Spanish bishops, who had been driven to sea by the Moors.[121]
The Fortunate Islands[122] (Canaries) of the ancients—discovered, it is
claimed, by the Carthaginians[123]—had been practically lost to Europe
for thirteen hundred years, when, in the beginning of the fifteenth
century (1402), Juan de Béthencourt led his colony to settle them.[124]
They had not indeed been altogether forgotten, for Marino Sanuto
in 1306 had delineated them on a map given by Camden, though this
cartographer omitted them on later charts. Traders and pirates had also
visited them since 1341, but such acquaintance had hardly caused them
to be generally known.[125]
[Illustration: THE ATLANTIC OF THE ANCIENTS AS MAPPED BY LELEWEL.
This is part of a map of the ancient world given in Lelewel’s _Die
Entdeckung der Carthager und Griechen auf dem Atlantischen Ocean_,
Berlin, 1831.]
The Canaries, however, as well as the Azores, appear in the well-known
portolano of 1351,[126] which is preserved in the Biblioteca
Mediceo-Laurenziana in Florence. A chart of the Brothers Pizigani,
dated in 1367, gives islands which are also identified with the
Canaries, Azores, and Madeira;[127] and the Canaries also appear on
the well-known Catalan mappemonde of 1375.[128] These Atlantic islands
are again shown in a portolano of a period not much later than 1400,
which is among the Egerton manuscripts in the British Museum, and is
ascribed to Juan da Napoli;[129] and in 1436 they are conspicuous on
the detailed sea-chart of Andrea Bianco. This portolano has also two
islands on the extreme western verge of the sheet,—“Antillia” and “De
la man Satanaxio,” which some have claimed as indicating a knowledge
of the two Americas.[130] It was a map brought in 1428 from Venice by
Dom Pedro,—which, like the 1351 map, showed the Azores,—that induced
Prince Henry in 1431 to despatch the expedition which rediscovered
those islands; and they appear on the Catalan map, which Santarem (pl.
54) describes as “Carte de Gabriell de Valsequa, faite à Mallorcha en
1439.” It was in 1466 that the group was colonized, as Behaim’s globe
shows.[131]
The Madeira group was first discovered by an Englishman,—Machin, or
Macham,—in the reign of Edward III. (1327-1378). The narrative, put
into shape for Prince Henry of Portugal by Francisco Alcaforado, one of
his esquires, was known to Irving in a French translation published in
1671, which Irving epitomizes.[132] The story, somewhat changed, is
given by Galvano, and was copied by Hakluyt;[133] but, on account of
some strangeness and incongruities, it has not been always accepted,
though Major says the main recital is confirmed by a document quoted
from a German collection of voyages, 1507, by Dr. Schmeller, in the
Memoirs of the Academy of Science at Munich, 1847, and which, secured
for Major by Kunstmann, is examined by him in his _Prince Henry_.[134]
The group was rediscovered by the Portuguese in 1418-1420.[135] Prince
Henry had given the command of Porto Santo to Perestrello; and this
captain, in 1419, observing from his island a cloud in the horizon,
found, as he sailed to it, the island now called Madeira. It will be
remembered that it was the daughter of Perestrello whom Columbus at a
later day married.[136]
It was not till 1460[137] that the Cape De Verde Islands were found,
lying as they do well outside of the route of Prince Henry’s vessels,
which were now following down the African coast, and had been pursuing
explorations in this direction since 1415.
There have been claims advanced by Margry in his _Les navigations
Françaises et la révolution maritime du XIV^e au XVI^e siècle, d’après
les documents inédits tirés de France, d’Angleterre, d’Espagne, et
d’Italie_, pp. 13-70, Paris, 1867, and embraced in his first section
on “Les marins de Normandie aux côtes de Guinée avant les Portugais,”
in which he cites an old document, said to be in London, setting forth
the voyage of a vessel from Dieppe to the coast of Africa in 1364.
Estancelin had already, in 1832, in his _Navigateurs Normands en
Afrique_, declared there were French establishments on the coast of
Guinea in the fourteenth century,—a view D’Avezac says he would gladly
accept if he could. Major, however, failed to find, by any direction
which Margry could give him, the alleged London document, and has
thrown—to say the least—discredit on the story of that document as
presented by Margry.[138]
[Illustration: PRINCE HENRY.
This follows a portrait in a contemporary manuscript chronicle, now
in the National Library at Paris, which Major, who gives a colored
fac-simile of it, calls the only authentic likeness, probably taken
in 1449-1450, and representing him in mourning for the death of his
brother Dom Pedro, who died in 1449. There is another engraving of
it in Jules Verne’s _La Découverte de la Terre_, p. 112. Major calls
the portrait in Gustave de Veer’s Life of Prince Henry, published at
Dantzig, in 1864, a fancy one. The annexed autograph of the Prince is
the equivalent of IFFANTE DOM ANRIQUE.
Illustration
Prince Henry, who was born March 4, 1394, died Nov 15, 1463. He was
the third son of John I. of Portugal; his mother was a daughter of John
of Gaunt, of England.]
The African explorations of the Portuguese are less visionary, and, as
D’Avezac says, the Portuguese were the first to persevere and open the
African route to India.[139]
The peninsular character of Africa—upon which success in this
exploration depended—was contrary to the views of Aristotle,
Hipparchus, and Ptolemy, which held to an enclosed Indian Ocean, formed
by the meeting of Africa and Asia at the south.[140] The stories
respecting the circumnavigation of Africa by the ancients are lacking
in substantial proof; and it seems probable that Cape Non or Cape
Bojador was the limit of their southern expeditions.[141] Still, this
peninsular character was a deduction from imagined necessity rather
than a conviction from fact. It found place on the earliest maps of the
revival of geographical study in the Middle Ages. It is so represented
in the map of Marino Sanuto in 1306, and in the Lorentian portolano of
1351. Major[142] doubts if the Catalan map of 1375 shows anything more
than conjectural knowledge for the coasts beyond Bojador.
Of Prince Henry—the moving spirit in the African enterprise of the
fifteenth century—we have the most satisfactory account in the _Life of
Prince Henry of Portugal, surnamed the Navigator, and its Results ...
from Authentic Contemporary Documents_, by Richard Henry Major, London,
1868,[143]—a work which, after the elimination of the controversial
arguments, and after otherwise fitting it for the general reader, was
reissued in 1877 as _The Discoveries of Prince Henry the Navigator_.
These works are the guide for the brief sketch of these African
discoveries now to be made, and which can be readily followed on the
accompanying sketch-map.[144]
[Illustration: SKETCH-MAP OF THE PORTUGUESE DISCOVERIES IN AFRICA.
Cf. Heinrich Wuttke’s “Zur Geschichte der Erdkunde in der letzten
hälfte des Mittelalters: Die Karten der Seefahrenden Völker süd
Europas bis zum ersten Druck der Erdbeschreibung des Ptolemäus,” in
the _Jahrbuch des Vereins für Erdkunde in Dresden_, 1870; J. Codine’s
“Découverte de la côte d’Afrique par les Portugais pendant les années,
1484-1488,” in the _Bulletin de la Société de Géographie de Paris_,
1876; Vivien de Saint-Martin’s _Histoire de la géographie et des
découvertes géographiques, depuis les temps les plus reculés jusqu’à
nos jours_, p. 298, Paris, 1873; Ruge’s _Geschichte des Zeitalters
der Entdeckungen_, p. 81; Clarke’s _Progress of Maritime Discovery_,
p. 140; and G. T. Raynal’s _Histoire philosophique et politique des
établissemens et du commerce des Européens dans les deux Indes_,
Geneva, 1780; Paris, 1820. Paulitschke’s _Afrika-literatur in der Zeit
von 1500 bis_ 1750, Vienna, 1882, notes the earliest accounts.]
Prince Henry had been with his father at the capture of Ceuta, opposite
Gibraltar, in 1415, when the Portuguese got their first foothold in
Africa. In 1418 he established a school of nautical observation at
Sagres,[145] the southwestern promontory of his father’s kingdom, and
placed the geographer, Jayme,[146] of Majorca, in charge of it. The
Prince at once sent out his first expedition down the Barbary coast;
but his vessel, being driven out of its course, discovered the Island
of Porto Santo. Expedition after expedition reached, in successive
years, the vicinity of Cape Bojador; but an inexpressible dread of the
uncertainty beyond deferred the passage of it till 1434. Cape Blanco
was reached in 1445; Cape Verde shortly after; and the River Gambia in
1447.
Cadamosto and his Venetians pushed still farther, and saw the Southern
Cross for the first time.[147] Between 1460 and 1464 they went beyond
Cape Mesurado. Prince Henry dying in 1463, King Alfonso, in 1469,
farmed out the African commerce, and required five hundred miles to be
added yearly to the limit of discovery southward. Not long after, Diego
Cam reached the Congo coast, Behaim accompanying him. In 1487, after
seventy years of gradual progress down six thousand miles of coast,
southward from Cape Non, the Portuguese under Diaz reached the Stormy
Cape,—later to be called the Cape of Good Hope. He but just rounded it
in May, and in December he was in Portugal with the news. Bartholomew,
the brother of Columbus, had made the voyage with him.[148] The
rounding of the Cape was hardly a surprise; for the belief in it was
firmly established long before. In 1457-1459, in the map of Fra Mauro,
which had been constructed at Venice for Alonzo V., and in which Bianco
assisted, the terminal cape had been fitly drawn.[149]
[Illustration: PORTUGUESE MAP, 1490.
This map follows a copy in the Kohl Collection (no. 23), after the
original, attached to a manuscript theological treatise in the British
Museum. An inscription at the break in the African coast says that to
this point the Portuguese had pushed their discoveries in 1489; and as
it shows no indication of the voyages of Columbus and Da Gama, Kohl
places it about 1490. It may be considered as representing the views
current before these events, Asia following the Ptolemean drafts. The
language of the map being partly Italian and partly Portuguese, Kohl
conjectures that it was made by an Italian living in Lisbon; and he
points out the close correspondence of the names on the western coast
of Africa to the latest Portuguese discoveries, and that its contour is
better than anything preceding.]
[Illustration: HO COMDE ALMIRANTE (_Da Gama’s Autograph_).]
[Illustration: VASCO DA GAMA.
This follows the engravings in Ruge’s _Geschichte des Zeitalters der
Entdeckungen_, p. 111, and in Stanley’s _Da Gama_, published by the
Hakluyt Society. The original belongs to the Count de Lavradio. Another
portrait, with a view of Calicut, is given in Lafitau’s _Découvertes
des Portugais_, Paris, 1734, iii. 66.]
Such had been the progress of the Portuguese marine, in exemplification
of the southerly quest called for by the theory of Pomponius Mela, when
Columbus made his westerly voyage in 1492 and reached, as he supposed,
the same coast which the Portuguese were seeking to touch by the
opposite direction.[150] In this erroneous geographical belief Columbus
remained as long as he lived,—a view in which Vespucius and the earlier
navigators equally shared;[151] though some, like Peter Martyr,[152]
accepted the belief cautiously. We shall show in another place how
slowly the error was eradicated from the cartography of even the latter
part of the sixteenth century.
During the interval when Columbus was in Spain, between his second
and third voyages, Vasco da Gama sailed from Lisbon, July 8, 1497,
to complete the project which had so long animated the endeavors of
the rival kingdom. He doubled the Cape of Good Hope in Nov. 1497, and
anchored at Calicut, May 20, 1498,—a few days before Columbus left San
Lucar on his third voyage. In the following August, Da Gama started on
his return; and after a year’s voyage he reached Lisbon in August, 1498.
[Illustration: THE LINE OF DEMARCATION (_Spanish claim_, 1527).
This is the outline of the anonymous map of 1527, sometimes ascribed
to Ferdinand Columbus, but held by Harrisse to be the work of Nuña
Garcia de Toreno. It was an official map of the Spanish Hydrographical
Office, and gives the Spanish view of the meridian on which the line
of demarcation ran. It follows a copy in the Kohl Collection, no. 38.
The line is similarly drawn on the Ribero map of 1529. The Portuguese
view is shown in the Cantino map of 1502, and in what is known as the
Portuguese chart of 1514-1520.]
The Portuguese had now accomplished their end. The _éclat_ with which
it would have been received had not Columbus opened, as was supposed,
a shorter route, was wanting; and Da Gama, following in the path marked
for him, would have failed of much of his fame but for the auspicious
applause which Camoens created for him in the _Lusiad_.[153]
[Illustration: ALEXANDER VI.
This follows the cut in the _Gazette des Beaux-Arts_, xxvii. 500,
representing a bust in the Berlin Museum.]
Da Gama at Calicut and Columbus at Cuba gave the line of demarcation
of Alexander VI. a significance that was not felt to be impending,
five years earlier, on the 3d and 4th of May, 1493, when the Papal
Bull was issued.[154] This had fixed the field of Spanish and
Portuguese exploration respectively west and east of a line one hundred
leagues[155] west of the Azores, following a meridian at a point where
Columbus had supposed the magnetic needle[156] pointed to the north
star.[157] The Portuguese thought that political grounds were of more
consideration than physical, and were not satisfied with the magnet
governing the limitation of their search. They desired a little more
sea-room on the Atlantic side, and were not displeased to think that a
meridian considerably farther west might give them a share of the new
Indies south and north of the Spanish discoveries; so they entered
their protest against the partition of the Bull, and the two Powers
held a convention at Tordesillas, which resulted, in June, 1494, in
the line being moved two hundred and seventy leagues westerly.[158]
No one but vaguely suspected the complication yet to arise about this
same meridian, now selected, when the voyage of Magellan should bring
Spaniard and Portuguese face to face at the Antipodes. This aspect
of the controversy will claim attention elsewhere.[159] From this
date the absolute position of the line as theoretically determined,
was a constant source of dispute, and the occasion of repeated
negotiations.[160]
[Illustration: Justin Winsor]
NOTES.
A. FIRST VOYAGE.—As regards the first voyage of Columbus there has
come down to us a number of accounts, resolvable into two distinct
narratives, as originally proceeding from the hand of Columbus
himself,—his Journal, which is in part descriptive and in part log,
according to the modern understanding of this last term; and his
Letters announcing the success and results of his search. The fortunes
and bibliographical history of both these sources need to be told:
JOURNAL.—Columbus himself refers to this in his letter to Pope
Alexander VI. (1503) as being kept in the style of Cæsar’s
_Commentaries_; and Irving speaks of it as being penned “from day
to day with guileless simplicity.” In its original form it has not
been found; but we know that Las Casas used it in his _Historia_, and
that Ferdinand Columbus must have had it before him while writing
what passes for his Life of his father. An abridgment of the Journal
in the hand of Las Casas, was discovered by Navarrete, who printed
it in the first volume of his _Coleccion_ in 1825; it is given in a
French version in the Paris edition of the same (vol. ii.), and in
Italian in Torre’s _Scritti di Colombo_, 1864. Las Casas says of his
abstract, that he follows the very words of the Admiral for a while
after recording the landfall; and these parts are translated by Mr.
Thomas, of the State Department at Washington, in G. A. Fox’s paper
on “The Landfall” in the _Report of the Coast Survey_ for 1880. The
whole of the Las Casas text, however, was translated into English, at
the instigation of George Ticknor, by Samuel Kettell, and published
in Boston as _A Personal Narrative of the First Voyage_ in 1827;[161]
and it has been given in part, in English, in Becher’s _Landfall of
Columbus_. The original is thought to have served Herrera in his
_Historia General_.[162]
LETTERS.—We know that on the 12th of February, 1493, about a week
before reaching the Azores on his return voyage, and while his ship
was laboring in a gale, Columbus prepared an account of his discovery,
and incasing the parchment in wax, put it in a barrel, which he threw
overboard. That is the last heard of it. He prepared another account,
perhaps duplicate, and protecting it in a similar way, placed it on his
poop, to be washed off in case his vessel foundered. We know nothing
further of this account, unless it be the same, substantially, with
the letters which he wrote just before making a harbor at the Azores.
One of these letters, at least, is dated off the Canaries; and it is
possible that it was written earlier on the voyage, and post-dated, in
expectation of his making the Canaries; and when he found himself by
stress of weather at the Azores, he neglected to change the place. The
original of neither of these letters is known.
One of them was dated Feb. 15, 1493, with a postscript dated March 4
(or 14, copies vary, and the original is of course not to be reached;
4 would seem to be correct), and is written in Spanish, and addressed
to the “Escribano de Racion,” Luis de Santangel, who, as Treasurer
of Aragon, had advanced money for the voyage. Columbus calls this a
second letter; by which he may mean that the one cast overboard was the
first, or that another, addressed to Sanchez (later to be mentioned),
preceded it. There was at Simancas, in 1818, an early manuscript copy
of this letter, which Navarrete printed in his _Coleccion_, and Kettell
translated into English in his book (p. 253) already referred to.[163]
In 1852 the Baron Pietro Custodi left his collection of books to the
Biblioteca Ambrosiana at Milan; and among them was found a printed
edition of this Santangel letter, never before known, and still
remaining unique. It is of small quarto, four leaves, in semi-gothic
type, bearing the date of 1493,[164] and was, as Harrisse and Lenox
think, printed in Spain,—Major suggests Barcelona, but Gayangos thinks
Lisbon. It was first reprinted at Milan in 1863, with a fac-simile,
and edited by Cesare Correnti, in a volume, containing other letters
of Columbus, entitled, _Lettere autografe edite ed inedite di
Cristoforo Colombo_.[165] From this reprint Harrisse copied it, and
gave an English translation in his _Notes on Columbus_, p. 89, drawing
attention to the error of Correnti in making it appear on his titlepage
that the letter was addressed to “Saxis,”[166] and testifying that, by
collation, he had found but slight variation from the Navarrete text.
Mr. R. H. Major also prints the Ambrosian text in his _Select Letters
of Columbus_, with an English version appended, and judges the Cosco
version could not have been made from it. Other English translations
may be found in Becher’s _Landfall of Columbus_, p. 291, and in
French’s _Historical Collections of Louisiana and Florida_, 2d series,
ii. 145.
In 1866 a fac-simile edition (150 copies) of the Ambrosian copy
was issued at Milan, edited by Gerolamo d’Adda, under the title of
_Lettera in lingua Spagnuola diretta da Cristoforo Colombo a Luis de
Santangel_.[167] Mr. James Lenox, of New York, had already described
it, with a fac-simile of the beginning and end, in the _Historical
Magazine_ (vol. viii. p. 289, September, 1864, April, 1865); and this
paper was issued separately (100 copies) as a supplement to the Lenox
edition of Scyllacius. Harrisse[168] indicates that there was once a
version of this Santangel letter in the Catalan tongue, preserved in
the Colombina Library at Seville.
A few years ago Bergenroth found at Simancas a letter of Columbus,
dated at the Canaries, Feb. 15, 1493, with a postscript at Lisbon,
March 14, addressed to a friend, giving still another early text, but
adding nothing material to our previous knowledge. A full abstract is
given in the _Calendar of State Papers relating to England and Spain_,
p. 43.
A third Spanish text of a manuscript of the sixteenth century, said
to have been found in the Colegio Mayor de Cuenca, was made known
by Varnhagen, the Minister of Brazil to Portugal, who printed it at
Valencia in 1858 as _Primera epistola del Almirante Don Christóbal
Colon_, including an account “de una nueva copia de original
manuscrito.” The editor assumed the name of Volafan, and printed one
hundred copies, of which sixty were destroyed in Brazil.[169] This
letter is addressed to Gabriel Sanchez, and dated “sobre la isla de Sa.
Maria, 18 de Febrero;” and is without the postscript of the letters
of Feb. 15. It is almost a verbatim repetition of the Simancas text.
A reprint of the Cosco text makes a part of the volume; and it is the
opinion of Varnhagen and Harrisse that the Volafan text is the original
from which Cosco translated, as mentioned later.
Perhaps still another Spanish text is preserved and incorporated, as
Muñoz believed, by the Cura de los Palacios, Andrés Bernaldez, in his
_Historia de los reyes católicos_ (chap. cxviii). This book covers the
period 1488-1513; has thirteen chapters on Columbus, who had been the
guest of Bernaldez after his return from his second voyage, in 1496,
and by whom Columbus is called “mercador de libros de estampa.” The
manuscript of Bernaldez’s book long remained unprinted in the Royal
Library at Madrid. Irving used a manuscript copy which belonged to
Obadiah Rich.[170] Prescott’s copy of the manuscript is in Harvard
College Library.[171] Humboldt[172] used it in manuscript. It was at
last printed at Granada in 1856, in two volumes, under the editing of
Miguel Lafuente y Alcántara.[173] It remains, of course, possible that
Bernaldez may have incorporated a printed Spanish text, instead of the
original or any early manuscript, though Columbus is known to have
placed papers in his hands.
The text longest known to modern students is the poor Latin rendering
of Cosco, already referred to. While but one edition of the original
Spanish text appeared presumably in Spain (and none of Vespucius and
Magellan), this Latin text, or translations of it, appeared in various
editions and forms in Italy, France, and Germany, which Harrisse
remarks[174] as indicating the greater popular impression which the
discovery of America made beyond Spain than within the kingdom; and the
monthly delivery of letters from Germany to Portugal and the Atlantic
islands, at this time, placed these parts of Europe in prompter
connection than we are apt to imagine.[175] News of the discovery was,
it would seem, borne to Italy by the two Genoese ambassadors, Marchesi
and Grimaldi, who are known to have left Spain a few days after the
return of Columbus.[176] The Spanish text of this letter, addressed
by Columbus to Gabriel or Raphael Sanchez, or Sanxis, as the name of
the Crown treasurer is variously given, would seem to have fallen
into the hands of one Aliander de Cosco, who turned it into Latin,
completing his work on the 29th of April. Harrisse points out the error
of Navarrete and Varnhagen in placing this completion on the 25th,
and supposes the version was made in Spain. Tidings of the discovery
must have reached Rome before this version could have got there; for
the first Papal Bull concerning the event is dated May 3. Whatever the
case, the first publication, in print, of the news was made in Rome
in this Cosco version, and four editions of it were printed in that
city in 1493. There is much disagreement among bibliographers as to
the order of issue of the early editions. Their peculiarities, and the
preference of several bibliographers as to such order, is indicated in
the following enumeration, the student being referred for full titles
to the authorities which are cited:—
I. _Epistola Christofori Colom_ [1493]. Small quarto, four leaves
(one blank), gothic, 33 lines to a page. Addressed to Sanchis. Cosco
is called Leander. Ferdinand and Isabella both named in the title.
The printer is thought to be Plannck, from similarity of type to work
known to be his.
Major calls this the _editio princeps_, and gives elaborate reasons
for his opinion (_Select Letters of Columbus_, p. cxvi). J. R.
Bartlett, in the _Carter-Brown Catalogue_, vol. i. no. 5, also puts
it first; so does Ternaux. Varnhagen calls it the second edition. It
is put the third in order by Brunet (vol. ii. col. 164) and Lenox
(_Scyllacius_, p. xliv), and fourth by Harrisse (_Notes on Columbus_,
p. 121; _Bibl. Amer. Vet._, no. 4).
There are copies in the Lenox, Carter-Brown, and Huth (_Catalogue_, i.
336) libraries; in the Grenville (_Bibl. Gren._, p. 158) and King’s
Collections in the British Museum; in the Royal Library at Munich;
in the Collection of the Duc d’Aumale at Twickenham; and in the
Commercial Library at Hamburg.[177] The copy cited by Harrisse was
sold in the Court Collection (no. 72) at Paris in 1884.
II. _Epistola Christofori Colom, impressit Rome, Eucharius Argenteus_
[Silber], _anno dñi MCCCCXCIII_. Small quarto, three printed leaves,
gothic type, 40 lines to the page. Addressed to Sanches. Cosco is
called Leander. Ferdinand and Isabella both named.
Major, who makes this the second edition, says that its deviations
from No. I. are all on the side of ignorance. Varnhagen calls it the
_editio princeps_. Bartlett (_Carter-Brown Catalogue_, no. 6) puts it
second. Lenox (_Scyllacius_, p. xlv) calls it the fourth edition. It
is no. 3 of Harrisse (_Bibl. Amer. Vet._, no. 3; _Notes on Columbus_,
p. 121). Graesse errs in saying the words “Indie supra Gangem” are
omitted in the title.
There are copies in the Lenox, Carter-Brown, Huth (_Catalogue_, i.
336), and Grenville (_Bibl. Gren._, p. 158) Libraries. It has been
recently priced at 5,000 francs. Cf. _Murphy Catalogue_, 629.
III. _Epistola Christofori Colom._ Small quarto, four leaves, 34
lines, gothic type. Addressed to Sanxis. Cosco is called Aliander.
Ferdinand only named.
This is Major’s third edition. It is the _editio princeps_ of
Harrisse, who presumes it to be printed by Stephanus Plannck at Rome
(_Notes on Columbus_, p. 117; _Bibl. Amer. Vet._, vol. i.); and he
enters upon a close examination to establish its priority. It is
Lenox’s second edition (_Scyllacius_, p. xliii). Bartlett places it
third.
There are copies in the Barlow (formerly the Aspinwall copy) Library
in New York; in the General Collection and Grenville Library of the
British Museum; and in the Royal Library at Munich. In 1875 Mr. S.
L. M. Barlow printed (50 copies) a fac-simile of his copy, with a
Preface, in which he joins in considering this the first edition with
Harrisse, who (_Notes on Columbus_, p. 101) gives a careful reprint of
it.
IV. _De insulis inventis_, etc. Small octavo, ten leaves, 26 and 27
lines, gothic type. The leaf before the title has the Spanish arms on
the recto. There are eight woodcuts, one of which is a repetition.
Addressed to Sanxis. Cosco is called Aliender. Ferdinand only named.
The words “Indie supra Gangem” are omitted in the title.
This is Major’s fourth edition. Lenox makes it the _editio princeps_
(as does Brunet), and gives fac-similes of the woodcuts in his
_Scyllacius_, p. xxxvi. Bossi supposed the cuts to have been a part of
the original manuscript, and designed by Columbus.[178] Harrisse calls
it the second in order, and thinks Johannes Besicken may have been
the printer (_Bibl. Amer. Vet._, 2), though it is usually ascribed to
Plannck, of Rome. It bears the arms of Granada; but there was no press
at that time in that city, so far as known, though Brunet seems to
imply it was printed there.
The only perfect copy known is one formerly the Libri copy, now in
the Lenox Library, which has ten leaves. The Grenville copy (_Bibl.
Gren._, p. 158), and the one which Bossi saw in the Brera at Milan,
now lost, had only nine leaves.
Hain (_Repertorium_, no. 5,491) describes a copy which seems to
lack the first and tenth leaves; and it was probably this copy
(Royal Library, Munich) which was followed by Pilinski in his Paris
fac-simile (20 copies in 1858), which does not reproduce these leaves,
though it is stated by some that the defective British Museum copy was
his guide. Bartlett seems in error in calling this fac-simile a copy
of the Libri-Lenox copy.[179]
[Illustration: COLUMBUS’ LETTER NO. III.]
=V.= _Epistola de insulis de novo repertis_, etc. Small quarto, four
leaves, gothic, 39 lines; woodcut on verso of first leaf. Printed
by Guy Marchand in Paris, about 1494. Addressed to Sanxis. Cosco is
called Aliander. Ferdinand only named.
This is Lenox’s (_Scyllacius_, p. xlv.), Major’s, and Harrisse’s fifth
(_Notes on Columbus_, p. 122; _Bibl. Amer. Vet._, p. 5) edition.
The Ternaux copy, now in the Carter-Brown Library, was for some
time supposed to be the only copy known; but Harrisse says the text
reprinted by Rosny in Paris, in 1865, as from a copy in the National
Library at Paris, corresponds to this. This reprint (125 copies) is
entitled, _Lettre de Christophe Colomb sur la découverte du nouveau
monde. Publiée d’après la rarissime version Latine conservée à la
Bibliothèque Impériale. Traduite en Français, commentée_ [etc.]
_par Lucien de Rosny_. Paris: J. Gay, 1865, 44 pages octavo. This
edition was published under the auspices of the “Comité d’Archéologie
Américaine.”[180]
[Illustration: REVERSE OF TITLE OF NOS. V. AND VI.]
=VI.= _Epistola de insulis noviter repertis_, etc. Small quarto,
four leaves, gothic, 39 lines; woodcut on verso of first leaf. Guiot
Marchant, of Paris, printer. Addressed to Sanxis. Cosco is called
Aliander. Ferdinand only named.
This is Major’s sixth edition; Harrisse (_Notes on Columbus_, p.
122; _Bibl. Amer. Vet._, no. 6) and Lenox (_Scyllacius_, p. xlvii)
also place it sixth. There are fac-similes of the engraved title in
Harrisse, Lenox, and Stevens’s _American Bibliographer_, p. 66.
There are copies in the Carter-Brown, Bodleian (Douce), and University
of Göttingen libraries; one is also shown in the _Murphy Catalogue_,
no. 630.
John Harris, Sen., made a fac-simile edition of five copies, one of
which is in the British Museum.
=VII.= _Epistola Cristophori Colom_, etc. Small quarto, four leaves,
gothic, 38 lines. Addressed to Sanxis. Th. Martens is thought to be
the printer.
This edition has only recently been made known. Cf. Brunet,
_Supplément_, col. 276. The only copy known is in the Bibliothèque
Royale at Brussels.
The text of all these editions scarcely varies, except in the use of
contracted letters. Lenox’s collation was reprinted, without the cuts,
in the _Historical Magazine_, February, 1861. Other bibliographical
accounts will be found in Graesse, _Trésor_; _Bibliotheca
Grenvilliana_, i. 158; Sabin, _Dictionary_, iv. 274; and by J. H.
Hessels in the _Bibliophile Belge_, vol. vi. The cuts are also in part
reproduced in some editions of Irving’s _Life of Columbus_, and in the
_Vita_, by Bossi.[181]
In 1494 this Cosco-Sanchez text was appended to a drama on the
capture of Granada, which was printed at Basle, beginning _In laudem
Serenissimi Ferdinandi_, and ascribed to Carolus Veradus. The “De
insulis nuper inventis” is found at the thirtieth leaf (_Bibl.
Amer. Vet._, no. 15; Lenox’s _Scyllacius_, p. xlviii; Major, no.
7; _Carter-Brown Catalogue_, no. 13). There are copies in the
Carter-Brown, Harvard College, and Lenox libraries.[182]
By October, in the year of the first appearance (1493) of the
Cosco-Sanchez text, it had been turned into _ottava rima_ by Guiliano
Dati, a popular poet, to be sung about the streets, as is supposed; and
two editions of this verse are now known. The earliest is in quarto,
black letter, two columns, and was printed in Florence, and called
_Questa e la Hystoria ... extracte duna Epistola Christofano Colombo_.
It was in four leaves, of coarse type and paper; but the second and
third leaves are lacking in the unique copy, now in the British Museum,
which was procured in 1858 from the Costabile sale in Paris.[183]
[Illustration: COLUMBUS’ LETTER NO. VI.]
The other edition, dated one day later (Oct. 26, 1493), printed also at
Florence, and called _La Lettera dell’isole_, etc., is in Roman type,
quarto, four leaves, two columns, with a woodcut title representing
Ferdinand on the European, and Columbus on the New World shore of the
ocean.[184] The copy in the British Museum was bought for 1,700 francs
at the Libri sale in Paris; and the only other copy known is in the
Trivulgio Library at Milan.
In 1497 a German translation, or adaptation, from Cosco’s Latin was
printed by Bartlomesz Küsker at Strasburg, with the title _Eyn schön
kübsch lesen von etlichen inszlen die do in kurtzen zyten funden synd
durch dē künig von hispania, und sagt vō groszen wunderlichen dingen
die in dē selbē inszlen synd_. It is a black-letter quarto of seven
leaves, with one blank, the woodcut of the title being repeated on
the verso of the seventh leaf.[185] There are copies in the Lenox
(Libri copy) and Carter-Brown libraries; in the Grenville and Huth
collections; and in the library at Munich.
The text of the Cosco-Sanchez letter, usually quoted by the early
writers, is contained in the _Bellum Christianorum Principum_ of
Robertus Monarchus, printed at Basle in 1533.[186]
[Illustration: THE LANDING OF COLUMBUS.]
B. LANDFALL.—It is a matter of controversy what was Guanahani, the
first land seen by Columbus. The main, or rather the only, source
for the decision of this question is the Journal of Columbus; and it
is to be regretted that Las Casas did not leave unabridged the parts
preceding the landfall, as he did those immediately following, down
to October 29. Not a word outside of this Journal is helpful. The
testimony of the early maps is rather misleading than reassuring, so
conjectural was their geography.
[Illustration: CUT IN THE GERMAN TRANSLATION OF THE FIRST LETTER OF
COLUMBUS (TITLE).]
It will be remembered that land was first seen two hours after
midnight; and computations made for Fox show that the moon was near
the third quarter, partly behind the observer, and would clearly
illuminate the white sand of the shore, two leagues distant. From
Columbus’s course there were in his way, as constituting the Bahama
group,—taking the enumeration of to-day, and remembering that the sea
may have made some changes,—36 islands, 687 cays, and 2,414 rocks. By
the log, as included in the Journal, and reducing his distance sailed
by dead reckoning—which then depended on observation by the eye alone,
and there were also currents to misguide Columbus, running from nine
to thirty miles a day, according to the force of the wind—to a course
west, 2° 49′ south, Fox has shown that the discoverer had come 3,458
nautical miles. Applying this to the several islands claimed as the
landfall, and knowing modern computed distances, we get the following
table:—
┌────────────────┬────────────────┬────────┬────────┐
│ │ │ │ An │
│ Islands. │ Course. │ Miles. │ Excess │
│ │ │ │ of │
├────────────────┼────────────────┼────────┼────────┤
│ To Grand Turk │ W. 8° 1′ S. │ 2834 │ 624 │
│ Mariguana │ W. 6° 37′ S. │ 3032 │ 426 │
│ Watling │ W. 4° 38′ S. │ 3105 │ 353 │
│ Cat │ W. 4° 20′ S. │ 3141 │ 317 │
│ Samana │ W. 5° 37′ S. │ 3072 │ 387 │
└────────────────┴────────────────┴────────┴────────┘
Columbus speaks of the island as being “small,” and again as “pretty
large” (_bien grande_). He calls it very level, with abundance of
water, and a very large lagune in the middle; and it was in the last
month of the rainy season, when the low parts of the islands are
usually flooded.
Some of the features of the several islands already named will now be
mentioned, together with a statement of the authorities in favor of
each as the landfall.
SAN SALVADOR, OR CAT.—This island is forty-three miles long by about
three broad, with an area of about one hundred and sixty square miles,
rising to a height of four hundred feet, the loftiest land in the
group, and with no interior water. It is usual in the maps of the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to identify this island with the
Guanahani of Columbus. It is so considered by Catesby in his _Natural
History of Carolina_ (1731); by Knox in his _Collection of Voyages_
(1767); by De la Roquette in the French version of Navarrete, vol.
ii. (1828); and by Baron de Montlezun in the _Nouvelles annales des
voyages_, vols. x. and xii. (1828-1829). Alexander Slidell Mackenzie,
of the United States Navy, worked out the problem for Irving; and this
island is fixed upon in the latter’s _Life of Columbus_, app. xvi.,
editions of 1828 and 1848. Becher claims that the modern charts used by
Irving were imperfect; and he calls “not worthy to be called a chart”
the La Cosa map, which so much influenced Humboldt in following Irving,
in his _Examen critique_ (1837), iii. 181, 186-222.
[Illustration: GERMAN TRANSLATION OF THE FIRST LETTER OF COLUMBUS
(TEXT).]
WATLING’S.—This is thirteen miles long by about six broad, containing
sixty square miles, with a height of one hundred and forty feet,
and having about one third its area of interior water. It was first
suggested by Muñoz in 1793. Captain Becher, of the Royal Navy,
elaborated the arguments in favor of this island in the _Journal of
the Royal Geographical Society_, xxvi. 189, and _Proceedings_, i. 94,
and in his _Landfall of Columbus on his First Voyage to America_,
London, 1856. Peschel took the same ground in his _Geschichte des
Zeitalters der Entdeckungen_ (1858). R. H. Major’s later opinion is in
support of the same views, as shown by him in the _Journal of the Royal
Geographical Society_ (1871), xvi. 193, and _Proceedings_, xv. 210. Cf.
_New Quarterly Review_, October, 1856.
Lieut. J. B. Murdock, U. S. N., in a paper on “The Cruise of Columbus
in the Bahamas, 1492,” published in the _Proceedings_ (April, 1884,
p. 449) of the United States Naval Institute vol. x, furnishes a
new translation of the passages in Columbus’ Journal bearing on the
subject, and made by Professor Montaldo of the Naval Academy, and
repeats the map of the modern survey of the Bahamas as given by Fox.
Lieutenant Murdock follows and criticises the various theories afresh,
and traces Columbus’ track backward from Cuba, till he makes the
landfall to have been at Watling’s Island. He points out also various
indications of the Journal which cannot be made to agree with any
supposable landfall.
[Illustration: THE BAHAMA GROUP.
This map is sketched from the chart, made from the most recent surveys,
in the United States Coast-Survey and given in Fox’s monograph,
with the several routes marked down on it. Other cartographical
illustrations of the subject will be found in Moreno’s maps, made
for Navarrete’s _Coleccion_ in 1825 (also in the French version); in
Becher’s paper in the _Journal of the Royal Geographical Society_,
xxvi. 189, and in his _Landfall of Columbus_; in Varnhagen’s _Das
wahre Guanahani_; in Major’s paper in the _Journal of the Royal
Geographical Society_, 1871, and in his second edition of the _Select
Letters_, where he gives a modern map, with Herrera’s map (1601) and a
section of La Cosa’s; in G. B. Torre’s _Scritti di Colombo_, p. 214;
and in the section, “Wo liegt Guanahani?” of Ruge’s _Geschichte des
Zeitalters der Entdeckungen_, p. 248, giving all routes, except that
offered by Fox. See further on the subject R. Pietschmann’s “Beiträge
zur Guanahani-Frage,” in the _Zeitschrift für wissenschaftliche
Geographie_ (1880), i. 7, 65, with map; and A. Breusing’s “Geschichte
der Kartographie,” in Ibid., ii. 193.]
GRAND TURK.—Its size is five and one half by one and a quarter miles,
with an area of seven square miles; its highest part seventy feet; and
one third of its surface is interior water. Navarrete first advanced
arguments in its favor in 1825, and Kettell adopted his views in the
Boston edition of the _Personal Narrative of Columbus_. George Gibbs
argued for it in the _New York Historical Society’s Proceedings_
(1846), p. 137, and in the _Historical Magazine_ (June, 1858), ii. 161.
Major adopted such views in the first edition (1847) of his _Select
Letters of Columbus_.
MARIGUANA.—It measures twenty-three and one half miles long by an
average of four wide; contains ninety-six square miles; rises one
hundred and one feet, and has no interior water. F. A. de Varnhagen
published at St. Jago de Chile, in 1864, a treatise advocating this
island as _La verdadera Guanahani_, which was reissued at Vienna, in
1869, as _Das wahre Guanahani des Columbus_.[187]
SAMANA, OR ATTWOOD’S CAY.—This is nine miles long by one and a half
wide, covering eight and a half square miles, with the highest ridge
of one hundred feet. It is now uninhabited; but arrow-heads and other
signs of aboriginal occupation are found there. The Samana of the early
maps was the group now known as Crooked Island. The present Samana has
been recently selected for the landfall by Gustavus V. Fox, in the
_United States Coast Survey Report_, 1880, app. xviii.,—“An attempt to
solve the problem of the first landing-place of Columbus in the New
World.” He epitomized this paper in the _Magazine of American History_
(April, 1883), p. 240.
[Illustration: SIGN-MANUALS OF FERDINAND AND ISABELLA.]
=C.= EFFECT OF THE DISCOVERY IN EUROPE.—During the interval between the
return of Columbus from his first voyage and his again treading the
soil of Spain on his return from the second, 1494, we naturally look
for the effect of this astounding revelation upon the intelligence of
Europe. To the Portuguese, who had rejected his pleas, there may have
been some chagrin. Faria y Sousa, in his _Europa Portuguesa_, intimates
that Columbus’ purpose in putting in at the Tagus was to deepen the
regret of the Portuguese at their rejection of his views; and other
of their writers affirm his overbearing manner and conscious pride of
success. The interview which he had with John II. is described in
the _Lyuro das obras de Garcia de Resende_.[188] Of his reception by
the Spanish monarchs at Barcelona,[189] we perhaps, in the stories
of the historians, discern more embellishments than Oviedo, who was
present, would have thought the ceremony called for. George Sumner (in
1844) naturally thought so signal an event would find some record in
the “Anals consulars” of that city, which were formed to make note of
the commonest daily events; but he could find in them no indication
of the advent of the discoverer of new lands.[190] It is of far more
importance for us that provision was soon made for future records in
the establishment of what became finally the “Casa de la Contratacion
de las Indias,” at this time put in charge of Juan de Fonseca, who
controlled its affairs throughout the reign of Ferdinand.[191] We
have seen how apparently an eager public curiosity prompted more
frequent impressions of Columbus’ letter in other lands than in Spain
itself; but there was a bustling reporter at the Spanish Court fond
of letter-writing, having correspondents in distant parts, and to him
we owe it, probably, that the news spread to some notable people.
This was Peter Martyr d’Anghiera. He dated at Barcelona, on the
ides of May, a letter mentioning the event, which he sent to Joseph
Borromeo; and he repeated the story in later epistles, written in
September, to Ascanio Sforza, Tendilla, and Talavera.[192] There is
every reason to suppose that Martyr derived his information directly
from Columbus himself. He was now probably about thirty-seven years
old, and he had some years before acquired such a reputation for
learning and eloquence that he had been invited from Italy (he was a
native of the Duchy of Milan) to the Spanish Court. His letters, as
they have come down to us, begin about five years before this,[193]
and it is said that just at this time (1493) he began the composition
of his Decades. Las Casas has borne testimony to the value of the
Decades for a knowledge of Columbus, calling them the most worthy
of credit of all the early writings, since Martyr got, as he says,
his accounts directly from the Admiral, with whom he often talked.
Similar testimony is given to their credibleness by Carbajal, Gomez,
Vergara, and other contemporaries.[194] Beginning with Muñoz, there
has been a tendency of late years to discredit Martyr, arising from
the confusion and even negligence sometimes discernible in what he
says. Navarrete was inclined to this derogatory estimate. Hallam[195]
goes so far as to think him open to grave suspicion of negligent and
palpable imposture, antedating his letters to appear prophetic. On the
other hand, Prescott[196] contends for his veracity, and trusts his
intimate familiarity with the scenes he describes. Helps interprets the
disorder of his writings as a merit, because it is a reflection of his
unconnected thoughts and feelings on the very day on which he recorded
any transactions.[197]
What is thought to be the earliest mention in print of the new
discoveries occurs in a book published at Seville in 1493.—_Los
tratados del Doctor Alonso Ortiz_. The reference is brief, and is
on the reverse of the 43d folio.[198] Not far from the same time
the Bishop of Carthagena, Bernardin de Carvajal, then the Spanish
ambassador to the Pope, delivered an oration in Rome, June 19, 1493, in
which he made reference to the late discovery of unknown lands towards
the Indies.[199] These references are all scant; and, so far as we
know from the records preserved to us, the great event of the age made
as yet no impression on the public mind demanding any considerable
recognition.
=D.= SECOND VOYAGE (_Sept._ 25, 1493, _to June_ 11, 1496).—First among
the authorities is the narrative of Dr. Chanca, the physician of the
Expedition. The oldest record of it is a manuscript of the middle of
the sixteenth century, in the Real Academia de la Historia at Madrid.
From this Navarrete printed it for the first time,[200] under the title
of “Segundo Viage de Cristobal Colon,” in his _Coleccion_, i. 198.
Not so directly cognizant of events, but getting his information at
second hand from Guglielmo Coma,—a noble personage in Spain,—was
Nicolas Scyllacius, of Pavia, who translated Coma’s letters into
Latin, and published his narrative, _De insulis meridiani atque indici
maris nuper inventis_, dedicating it to Ludovico Sforza, at Pavia
(Brunet thinks Pisa), in 1594 or 1595. Of this little quarto there
are three copies known. One is in the Lenox Library; and from this
copy Mr. Lenox, in 1859, reprinted it sumptuously (one hundred and two
copies[201]), with a translation by the Rev. John Mulligan. In Mr.
Lenox’s Introduction it is said that his copy had originally belonged
to M. Olivieri, of Parma, and then to the Marquis Rocca Saporiti,
before it came into Mr. Lenox’s hands, and that the only other copy
known was an inferior one in the library of the Marquis Trivulzio at
Milan. This last copy is probably one of the two copies which Harrisse
reports as being in the palace library at Madrid and in the Thottiana
(Royal Library) at Copenhagen, respectively.[202] Scyllacius adds a few
details, current at that time, which were not in Coma’s letters, and
seems to have interpreted the account of his correspondent as implying
that Columbus had reached the Indies by the Portuguese route round the
Cape of Good Hope. Ronchini has conjectured that this blunder may have
caused the cancelling of a large part of the edition, which renders the
little book so scarce; but Lenox neatly replies that “almost all the
contemporaneous accounts are equally rare.”
Another second-hand account—derived, however, most probably from the
Admiral himself—is that given by Peter Martyr in his first Decade,
published in 1511, and more at length in 1516.[203]
Accompanying Columbus on this voyage was Bernardus Buell, or Boil, a
monk of St. Benoit, in Austria, who was sent by Pope Alexander VI as
vicar-general of the new lands, to take charge of the measures for
educating and converting the Indians.[204] It will be remembered he
afterward became a caballer against the Admiral. What he did there,
and a little of what Columbus did, one Franciscus Honorius Philoponus
sought to tell in a very curious book, _Nova typis transacta navigatio
novi orbis Indiæ occidentalis_,[205] which was not printed till 1621.
It is dedicated to Casparus Plautius, and it is suspected that he is
really the author of the book, while he assumed another name, more
easily to laud himself. Harrisse describes the book as having “few
details of an early date, mixed with much second-hand information of a
perfectly worthless character.”
So far as we know, the only contemporary references in a printed book
to the new discoveries during the progress of the second voyage, or in
the interval previous to the undertaking of the third voyage, in the
spring of 1498, are these: The _Das Narrenschiff_ (Ship of Fools) of
Sebastian Brant, a satire on the follies of society, published at Basle
in 1494,[206] and reprinted in Latin in 1497, 1498, and in French in
1497, 1498, and 1499,[207] has a brief mention of the land previously
unknown, until Ferdinand discovered innumerable people in the great
Spanish ocean. Zacharias Lilio, in his _De origine et laudibus
scientiarum_, Florence, 1496,[208] has two allusions. In 1497 Fedia
Inghirami, keeper of the Vatican Archives, delivered a funeral oration
on Prince John, son of Ferdinand and Isabella, and made a reference
to the New World. The little book was probably printed in Rome. There
is also a reference in the _Cosmographia_ of Antonius Nebrissensis,
printed in 1498.[209]
[Illustration: SEBASTIAN BRANT.
Fac-simile of cut in Reusner’s _Icones_, Strasburg, 1590.]
=E.= THIRD VOYAGE (_May_ 30, 1498, _to Nov._ 20, 1500).—Our knowledge
of this voyage is derived at first hand from two letters of Columbus
himself, both of which are printed by Navarrete, and by Major, with a
translation. The first is addressed to the sovereigns, and follows a
copy in Las Casas’s hand, in the Archives of the Duque del Infantado.
The other is addressed to the nurse of Prince John, and follows a copy
in the Muñoz Collection in the Real Academia at Madrid, collated with a
copy in the Columbus Collection at Genoa, printed by Spotorno.[210]
[Illustration: MAP OF COLUMBUS’ FOUR VOYAGES (WESTERN PART).
A reproduction of the map in Charton’s _Voyageurs_, iii. 179.]
[Illustration: MAP OF COLUMBUS’ FOUR VOYAGES (EASTERN PART.)
A reproduction of the map in Charton’s _Voyageurs_, iii. 178.]
=F.= FOURTH VOYAGE (_May_ 9, 1502, _to Nov._ 7, 1504).—While at
Jamaica Columbus wrote to Ferdinand and Isabella a wild, despondent
letter,[211] suggestive of alienation of mind. It brings the story of
the voyage down only to July 7, 1503, leaving four months unrecorded.
Pinelo says it was printed in the Spanish, as he wrote it; but no such
print is known.[212] Navarrete found in the King’s private library,
at Madrid, a manuscript transcript of it, written, apparently, about
the middle of the sixteenth century; and this he printed in his
_Coleccion_.[213] It was translated into Italian by Costanzo Bayuera,
of Brescia, and published at Venice, in 1505, as _Copia de la lettera
per Colombo mandata_.[214] Cavaliere Morelli, the librarian of St.
Mark’s, reprinted it, with comments, at Bassano, in 1810, as _Lettera
rarissima di Cristoforo Colombo_.[215] Navarrete prints two other
accounts of this voyage,—one by Diego Porras;[216] the other by Diego
Mendez, given in his last will, preserved in the Archives of the Duke
of Veraguas.[217]
While Columbus was absent on this voyage, as already mentioned,
Bergomas had recorded the Admiral’s first discoveries.[218]
=G.= LIVES AND NOTICES OF COLUMBUS.—Ferdinand Columbus—if we accept
as his the Italian publication of 1571—tells us that the fatiguing
career of his father, and his infirmities, prevented the Admiral
from writing his own life. For ten years after his death there were
various references to the new discoveries, but not a single attempt
to commemorate, by even a brief sketch, the life of the discoverer.
Such were the mentions in the _Commentariorum urbanorum libri_ of
Maffei,[219] published in 1506, and again in 1511; in Walter Ludd’s
_Speculi orbis_, etc.;[220] in F. Petrarca’s _Chronica_;[221] and
in the _Oratio_[222] of Marco Dandolo (Naples),—all in 1507. In the
same year the narrative in the _Paesi novamente retrovati_ (1507)
established an account which was repeated in later editions, and
was followed in the _Novus orbis_ of 1532. The next year (1508) we
find a reference in the _Oratio_[223] of Fernando Tellez at Rome;
in the _Supplementi de le chroniche vulgare, novamente dal frate
Jacobo Phillipo al anno 1503 vulgarizz. per Francesco C. Fiorentino_
(Venice);[224] in Johannes Stamler’s _Dyalogus_;[225] in the Ptolemy
published at Rome with Ruysch’s map; and in the _Collectanea_[226] of
Baptista Fulgosus, published at Milan.
In 1509 there is reference to the discoveries in the _Opera nova_ of
the General of the Carmelites, Battista Mantuanus.[227] Somewhere, from
1510 to 1519, the _New Interlude_[228] presented Vespucius to the
English public, rather than Columbus, as the discoverer of America, as
had already been done by Waldseemüller at St. Dié.
[Illustration: THE GIUSTINIANI PSALTER.
Fac-simile of a portion of the page of Giustiniani Psalter, which shows
the beginning of the marginal note on Columbus.]
In 1511 Peter Martyr, in his first Decade, and Sylvanus, in his
annotations of Ptolemy, drew attention to the New World; as did also
Johannes Sobrarius in his _Panegyricum carmen de gestis heroicis divi
Ferdinandi_ _Catholici_.[229] The Stobnicza (Cracow) Appendix to
Ptolemy presented a new map of the Indies in 1512; and the _Chronicon_
of Eusebius, of the same date, recorded the appearance of some of the
wild men of the West in Rouen, brought over by a Dieppe vessel. Some
copies, at least, of Antonio de Lebrija’s edition of _Prudentii opera_,
printed at Lucca, 1512, afford another instance of an early mention
of the New World.[230] Again, in 1513, a new edition of Ptolemy gave
the world what is thought to have been a map by Columbus himself; and
in the same year there was a _Supplementum supplementi_ of Jacobo
Philippo, of Bergomas.[231] In 1514 the _De natura locorum_ (Vienna),
of Albertus Magnus, points again to Vespucius instead of Columbus;[232]
but Cataneo, in a poem on Genoa,[233] does not forget her son, Columbus.
These, as books have preserved them for us, are about all the
contemporary references to the life of the great discoverer for the
first ten years after his death.[234] In 1516, where we might least
expect it, we find the earliest small gathering of the facts of his
life. In the year of Columbus’ death, Agostino Giustiniani had begun
the compilation of a polyglot psalter, which was in this year (1516)
ready for publication, and, with a dedication to Leo X., appeared in
Genoa. The editor annotated the text, and, in a marginal note to verse
four of the nineteenth Psalm, we find the earliest sketch of Columbus’
life. Stevens[235] says of the note: “There are in it several points
which we do not find elsewhere recorded, especially respecting the
second voyage, and the survey of the south side of Cuba, as far as
Evangelista, in May, 1494. Almost all other accounts of the second
voyage, except that of Bernaldez, end before this Cuba excursion began.”
Giustiniani, who was born in 1470, died in 1536, and his _Annali di
Genoa_[236] was shortly afterward published (1537), in which, on folio
ccxlix, he gave another account of Columbus, which, being published
by his executors with his revision, repeated some errors or opinions
of the earlier Psalter account. These were not pleasing to Ferdinand
Columbus,[237] the son of the Admiral,—particularly the statement that
Columbus was born of low parentage,—“vilibus ortus parentibus.” Stevens
points out how Ferdinand accuses Giustiniani of telling fourteen lies
about the discoverer; “but on hunting them out, they all appear to be
of trifling consequence, amounting to little more than that Columbus
sprang from humble parents, and that he and his father were poor,
earning a livelihood by honest toil.”[238]