BOOK I

DE ORBE NOVO

The Eight Decades of Peter Martyr D'Anghera

Translated from the Latin with Notes and Introduction

By Francis Augustus MacNutt

In Two Volumes

Volume One

1912

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

BIBLIOGRAPHY

THE FIRST DECADE

THE SECOND DECADE

THE THIRD DECADE

ILLUSTRATIONS

CARDINAL ASCANIO SFORZA From the Medallion by Luini, in the Museum at

Milan. Photo by Anderson, Rome.

LEO X. From an Old Copper Print. (No longer in the book.)

DE ORBE NOVO

INTRODUCTION

I

Distant a few miles from the southern extremity of Lago Maggiore, the

castle-crowned heights of Anghera and Arona face one another from

opposite sides of the lake, separated by a narrow stretch of blue

water. Though bearing the name of the former burgh, it was in

Arona[1], where his family also possessed a property, that Pietro

Martire d'Anghera first saw the light, in the year 1457[2]. He was not

averse to reminding his friends of the nobility of his family, whose

origin he confidently traced to the Counts of Anghera, a somewhat

fabulous dynasty, the glories of whose mythical domination in Northern

Italy are preserved in local legends and have not remained entirely

unnoticed by sober history. What name his family bore is unknown; the

statement that it was a branch of the Sereni, originally made by Celso

Rosini and repeated by later writers, being devoid of foundation. Ties

of relationship, which seem to have united his immediate forebears

with the illustrious family of Trivulzio and possibly also with that

of Borromeo, furnished him with sounder justification for some pride

of ancestry than did the remoter gestes of the apocryphal Counts of

Anghera.[3]

[Note 1: Ranke, in his _Zur Kritik neuerer Geschichtsschreiber_,

and Rawdon Brown, in his _Calendar of State Papers relating to

England, preserved in the Archives of Venice_, mention Anghera, or

Anghiera, as the name is also written, as his birthplace. Earlier

Italian writers such as Piccinelli (_Ateneo de' Letterati Milanesi_)

and Giammatteo Toscano (_Peplus Ital_) are perhaps responsible

for this error, which passages in the _Opus Epistolarum_, that

inexplicably escaped their notice, expose. In a letter addressed to

Fajardo occurs the following explicit statement: "..._cum me utero

mater gestaret sic volente patre, Aronam, ubi plæraque illis erant

prædia domusque ... ibi me mater dederat orbi_." Letters 388, 630, and

794 contain equally positive assertions.]

[Note 2: Mazzuchelli (_Gli Scrittori d'Italia_, p. 773) states

that Peter Martyr was born in 1455, and he has been followed by the

Florentine Tiraboschi (_Storia della Letteratura Italiana_, vol. vii.)

and later historians, including even Hermann Schumacher in his

masterly work, _Petrus Martyr der Geschichtsschreiber des Weltmeeres_.

Nicolai Antonio (_Bibliotheca Hispana nova_, app. to vol. ii) is alone

in giving the date as 1559. Ciampi, amongst modern Italian authorities

(_Le Fonti Storiche del Rinascimento_) and Heidenheimer (_Petrus

Martyr Anglerius und sein Opus Epistolarum_) after carefully

investigating the conflicting data, show from Peter Martyr's own

writings that he was born on February 2, 1457. Three different

passages are in agreement on this point. In Ep. 627 written in 1518

and referring to his embassy to the Sultan of Egypt upon which he

set out in the autumn of 1501, occurs the following: ..._quatuor et

quadraginta tunc annos agebam, octo decem superadditi vires illas

hebetarunt_. Again in Ep. 1497: _Ego extra annum ad habitis tuis

litteris quadragesimum_; and finally in the dedication of the Eighth

Decade to Clement VII.: _Septuagesimus quippe annus ætatis, cui nonæ

quartæ Februarii anni millesimi quingentesimi vigesimi sexti proxime

ruentis dabunt initium, sua mihi spongea memoriam ita confrigando

delevit, ut vix e calamo sit lapsa periodus, quando quid egerimsi quis

interrogaverit, nescire me profitebor. De Orbe Novo_., p. 567. Ed.

Paris, 1587. Despite the elucidation of this point, it is noteworthy

that Prof. Paul Gaffarel both in his admirable French translation of

the _Opus Epistolarum_ (1897) and in his _Lettres de Pierre Martyr

d'Anghiera_ (1885) should still cite the chronology of Mazzuchelli and

Tiraboschi.]

[Note 3: The Visconti, and after them the Sforza, bore the title

of Conte d'Anghera, or Anghiera, as the name is also spelled.

Lodovico il Moro restored to the place the rank of city, which it

had lost, and of which it was again deprived when Lodovico went into

captivity.]

The cult of the Dominican of Verona, murdered by the Waldensians in

1252 and later canonised under the title of St. Peter Martyr, was

fervent and widespread in Lombardy in the fifteenth century. Milan

possessed his bones, entombed in a chapel of Sant' Eustorgio decorated

by Michelozzi. Under the patronage and name of Peter Martyr, the child

of the Anghera was baptised and, since his family name fell into

oblivion, _Martyr_ has replaced it. Mention of his kinsmen is

infrequent in his voluminous writings, though there is evidence that

he furthered the careers of two younger brothers when the opportunity

offered. For Giorgio he solicited and obtained from Lodovico Sforza,

in 1487, the important post of governor of Monza. For Giambattista he

procured from the Spanish sovereigns a recommendation which enabled

him to enter the service of the Venetian Republic, under whose

standard he campaigned with Nicola Orsini, Count of Pitigliano.

Giambattista died in Brescia in 1516, leaving a wife and four

daughters. A nephew, Gian Antonio, whose name occurs in several of his

uncle's letters is described by the latter as _licet ex transverso

natus_; he served under Gian Giacomo Trivulzio, and finally, despite

his bar sinister, married a daughter of Francesco, of the illustrious

Milanese family of Pepoli.[4]

[Note 4: Peter Martyr's will gave to his only surviving brother,

Giorgio, his share of the family estate, but on condition that he

should receive Giambattista's daughter, Laura, in his family and

provide for her: _emponiendola en todas las buenas costumbres y

crianza que hija de tal padre merece_ (_Coll. de Documentos ineditos

para la Hist, de España_, tom. xxxix., pp. 397). Another of

Giambattista's daughters, Lucrezia, who was a nun, received one

hundred ducats by her uncle's will.]

Concerning his earlier years and his education Peter Martyr is silent,

nor does he anywhere mention under whose direction he began his

studies. In the education deemed necessary for young men of his

quality, the exercises of chivalry and the recreations of the

troubadour found equal place, and such was doubtless the training he

received. He spent some years at the ducal court of Milan, but there

is no indication that he frequented the schools of such famous

Hellenists as Francesco Filelfo who, in 1471, was there lecturing

on the Politics of Aristotle, and of Constantine Lascaris whom the

reigning duke, Galeazzo Maria Sforza, commissioned to compile a Greek

grammar for the use of his daughter. In later years, when he found

his chief delight and highest distinction in intercourse with men of

letters, Peter Martyr would hardly have neglected to mention such

precious early associations had they existed.

The fortunes of the family of Anghera were the reverse of opulent at

that period of its history, and the sons obtained careers under the

patronage of Count Giovanni Borromeo. The times were troublous in

Lombardy. The assassination, in 1476, of Gian Galeazzo was followed

by commotions and unrest little conducive to the cultivation of the

humanities, and which provoked an exodus of humanists and their

disciples. Many sought refuge from the turbulence prevailing in the

north, in the more pacific atmosphere of Rome, where a numerous colony

of Lombards was consequently formed. The following year Peter Martyr,

being then twenty years of age, joined his compatriots in their

congenial exile. His rank and personal qualities, as well as the

protection accorded him by Giovanni Arcimboldo, Archbishop of Milan,

and Ascanio Sforza, brother of the Duke, Lodovico il Moro, assured him

a cordial welcome. For a youth devoid of pretensions to humanistic

culture, he penetrated with singular ease and rapidity into the

innermost academic circle, over which reigned the most amiable of

modern pagans, Pomponius Lætus.

It was the age of the Academies. During the Ecumenical Council of

Florence, Giovanni de' Medici, fired with enthusiasm for the study

of Platonic philosophy, brilliantly expounded by the learned Greek,

Gemisto, conceived the plan of promoting the revival of classical

learning by the formation of an academy, in imitation of that founded

by the immortal Plato. Under such lofty patronage, this genial

conception, so entirely in consonance with the intellectual tendencies

of the age, attracted to its support every Florentine who aspired to

a reputation for culture, at a time when culture was fashionable. The

Greek Cardinal, Bessarion, whom Eugene IV. had raised to the purple at

the close of the Council, carried the Medicean novelty to Rome, where

he formed a notable circle, in which the flower of Hellenic and Latin

culture was represented. Besides this group, characterised by a

theological tincture alien to the neo-pagan spirit in flimsily

disguised revolt against Christian dogma and morality, Pomponius Lætus

and Platina founded the Roman Academy--an institution destined to

world-wide celebrity. Pomponius Lætus, an unrecognised bastard of the

noble house of Sanseverini, was professor of eloquence in Rome. Great

amongst the humanists, in him the very spirit of ancient Hellas seemed

revived. What to many was but the fad or fashionable craze of the

hour, was to him the all-important and absorbing purpose of living. He

dwelt aloof in poverty; shunning the ante-chambers and tables of the

great, he and kindred souls communed with their disciples in the

shades of his grove of classic laurels. He was indifferent alike to

princely and to popular favour, passionately consecrating his efforts

to the revival and preservation of such classics as had survived the

destructive era known as the Dark Ages. Denied a name of his own,

he adopted a Latin one to his liking, thus from necessity setting a

fashion his imitators followed from affectation. When approached in

the days of his fame by the Sanseverini with proposals to recognise

him as a kinsman, he answered with a proud and laconic refusal.[5] The

Academy, formed of super-men infected with pagan ideals, contemptuous

of scholastic learning and impatient of the restraints of Christian

morality, did not long escape the suspicions of the orthodox;

suspicions only too well warranted and inevitably productive of

antagonism ending in condemnation.[6]

[Note 5: His refusal was in the following curt form: _Pomponius

Lætus cognatis et propinquis suis, salutem. Quod petitis fieri non

potest.--Valete_. Consult Tiraboschi, _Storia della Letteratura

Italiana_, vol. vii., cap. v.; Gregorovius, _Geschichte der Stadt Rom

in Mittelalter_; Burkhardt, _Die Kultur der Renaissance in Italien_,

and Voigt in his _Wiederlebung des Klassischen Alterthums_.]

[Note 6: Sabellicus, in a letter to Antonio Morosini (_Liber

Epistolarum_, xi., p. 459) wrote thus of Pomponius Lætus: ..._fuit

ab initio contemptor religionis, sed ingravesciente ætate coepit res

ipsa, ut mibi dicitur curæ esse. In Crispo et Livio reposint quædam;

et si nemo religiosius timidiusques tractavit veterum scripta ...

Græca ... vix attingit_. While to a restricted number, humanism stood

for intellectual emancipation, to the many it meant the rejection of

the moral restraints on conduct imposed by the law of the Church,

and a revival of the vices that flourished in the decadent epochs of

Greece and Rome.]

From trifles, as they may seem to us at this distance of time, hostile

ingenuity wove the web destined to enmesh the incautious Academicians.

The adoption of fanciful Latin appellations--in itself a sufficiently

innocent conceit--was construed into a demonstration of revolt against

established Christian usage, almost savouring of contempt for the

canonised saints of the Church.

Pomponius Lætus was nameless, and hence free to adopt whatever name he

chose; his associates and admiring disciples paid him the homage of

imitation, proud to associate themselves, by means of this pedantic

fancy, with him they called master. The Florentine, Buonacorsi, took

the name of Callimachus Experiens; the Roman, Marco, masqueraded as

Asclepiades; two Venetian brothers gladly exchanged honest, vulgar

Piscina for the signature of Marsus, while another, Marino, adopted

that of Glaucus.

If the neo-pagans were harmless and playful merely, their opponents

were dangerously in earnest. In 1468 a grave charge of conspiracy

against the Pope's life and of organising a schism led to the arrest

of Pomponius and Platina, some of the more wary members of the

compromised fraternity saving themselves by timely flight.

Imprisonment in Castel Sant' Angelo and even the use of torture--mild,

doubtless--failing to extract incriminating admissions from the

accused, both prisoners were unconditionally released. If the Pope

felt serious alarm, his fears seem to have been easily allayed, for

Pomponius was permitted to resume his public lectures undisturbed, but

the Roman Academy had received a check, from which it did not recover

during the remainder of the pontificate of Paul II. With the accession

of Sixtus IV., the cloud of disfavour that still hung obscuringly

over its glories was lifted. Encouraged by the Pope and frequented by

distinguished members of the Curia, its era of greatness dawned in

splendour.

The assault upon the Church by the humanists, which resulted in the

partial capture of Latin Christianity, was ably directed. Although

the renascence of learning did not take its rise in Rome, where the

intellectual movement and enthusiasm imported from Florence flourished

but fitfully, according to the various humours of the successive

pontiffs, the papal capital drew within its walls eminent scholars

from all the states of the Italian peninsula. Rome was the world-city,

a centre from which radiated honours, distinctions, and fortune. Gifts

of oratory, facility in debate, ability in the conduct of diplomatic

negotiations, a masterly style in Latin composition, and even

perfection in penmanship, were all marketable accomplishments, for

which Rome was the highest bidder. If classical learning and the

graces of literature received but intermittent encouragement from the

sovereign pontiffs, both the secular interests of their government and

the vindication of the Church's dogmatic teaching afforded the most

profitable exercise for talents which sceptical humanists sold, as

readily as did the condottieri their swords--to the best paymaster,

regardless of their personal convictions. There consequently came into

existence in Rome a new _ceto_ or class, equally removed from the

nobles of feudal traditions and the ecclesiastics of the Curia, yet

mingling with both. Literary style and the art of Latin composition,

sedulously cultivated by these brilliant intellectual nomads, shed an

undoubted lustre on the Roman chancery, giving it a stamp it has

never entirely lost. They fought battles and scored victories for an

orthodoxy they derided. They defended the Church's temporalities from

the encroachments of covetous princes. Their influence on morals was

frankly pagan. Expatriated and emancipated from all laws save those

dictated by their own tastes and inclinations, these men were genially

rebellious against the restraints and discipline imposed by the

evangelical law. From the Franciscan virtues of chastity, poverty, and

obedience, preached by the _Poverello_ of Assisi, they turned with

aversion to laud the antipodal trinity of lust, license, and luxury.

The mysticism of medieval Christianity was repugnant to their

materialism, and the symbolism of its art, expressed under rigid,

graceless forms, offended eyes that craved beauty of line and beauty

of colour. They ignored or condemned any ulterior purpose of art as a

teaching medium for spiritual truths. To such men, a satire of Juvenal

was more precious than an epistle of St. Paul; dogma, they demolished

with epigrams, the philosophy of the schoolmen was a standing joke,

and a passage from Plato or Horace outweighed the definitions of an

Ecumenical Council.

The toleration extended to these heterodox scholars seems to have

been unlimited,--perhaps it was not in some instances unmixed with

contempt, for, though they lampooned the clergy of all grades, not

sparing even the Pope himself, their writings, even when not free from

positive scurrility, were allowed the freest circulation. In all

that pertained to personal conduct and morality, they directed their

exclusive efforts to assimilating classical standards of the

decadent periods, ignoring the austere virtues of civic probity,

self-restraint, and frugality, that characterised the best society of

Greek and Rome in their florescence. These same men lived on terms

of close intimacy with princes of the Church, on whose bounty they

throve, and by degrees numbers of them even entered the ranks of the

clergy, some with minor and others with holy orders. To their labours,

the world owes the recovery of the classic literature of Greece and

Rome from oblivion, while the invention and rapid adoption of the

printing-press rendered these precious texts forever indestructible

and accessible.

Into this brilliant, dissolute world of intellectual activity, Peter

Martyr entered, and through it he passed unscathed, emerging with his

Christian faith intact and his orthodoxy untainted. He gathered the

gold of classical learning, rejecting its dross; his morals were

above reproach and calumny never touched his reputation. Respected,

appreciated, and, most of all, beloved by his contemporaries, his

writings enriched the intellectual heritage of posterity with

inexhaustible treasures of original information concerning the great

events of the memorable epoch it was his privilege to illustrate.

General culture being widely diffused, the pedantic imitations of

antiquity applauded by the preceding generation ceased to confer

distinction. Latin still held its supremacy but the Italian language,

no longer reputed vulgar, was coming more and more into favour as a

vehicle for the expression of original thought. Had he remained in

Italy Martyr might well have used it, but his removal to Spain imposed

Latin as the language of his voluminous compositions.

Four years after his arrival in Rome, a Milanese noble, Bartolomeo

Scandiano, who later went as nuncio to Spain, invited Peter Martyr

to pass the summer months in his villa at Rieti, in company with the

Bishop of Viterbo. In the fifteenth letter of the _Opus Epistolarum_

he recalls the impressions and recollections of that memorable visit,

in the following terms: "Do you remember, Scandiano, with what

enthusiasm we dedicated our days to poetical composition? Then did I

first appreciate the importance of association with the learned and to

what degree the mind of youth is elevated in the amiable society of

serious men: then, for the first time, I ventured to think myself a

man and to hope that I might become somebody." The summer of 1481 may,

therefore, be held to mark his intellectual awakening and the birth of

his definite ambitions. Endowed by nature with the qualities necessary

to success, intimate association with men of eminent culture inspired

him with the determination to emulate them, and from this ideal he

never deflected. The remaining six years of his life in Rome were

devoted to the pursuit of knowledge, and in the art of deciphering

inscriptions and the geography of the ancients he acquired singular

proficiency.

During the pontificate of Innocent VIII., Francesco Negro, a Milanese

by birth, was governor of Rome and him Peter Martyr served as

secretary; a service which, for some reason, necessitated several

months' residence in Perugia. His relations with Ascanio Sforza,

created cardinal in 1484, continued to be close, and at one period he

may have held some position in the cardinal's household or in that

of Cardinal Giovanni Arcimboldo, Archbishop of Milan, though it is

nowhere made clear precisely what, while some authorities incline to

number him merely among the assiduous courtiers of these dignitaries

from his native Lombardy.

The fame of his scholarship had meanwhile raised him from the position

of disciple to a place amongst the masters of learning, and in his

turn he saw gathering about him a group of admirers and adulators.

Besides Pomponius Lætus, his intimates of this period were Theodore of

Pavia and Peter Marsus, the less celebrated of the Venetian brothers.

He stood in the relation of preceptor or mentor to Alonso Carillo,

Bishop of Pamplona, and to Jorge da Costa, Archbishop of Braga, two

personages of rank, who did but follow the prevailing fashion that

decreed the presence of a humanist scholar to be an indispensable

appendage in the households of the great. He read and commented the

classics to his exalted patrons, was the arbiter of taste, their

friend, the companion of their cultured leisure, and their confidant.

Replying to the praises of his disciples, couched in extravagant

language, he administered a mild rebuke, recalling them to moderation

in the expression of their sentiments: "These are not the lessons you

received from me when I explained to you the satire of the divine

Juvenal; on the contrary, you have learned that nothing more shames a

free man than adulation."[7]

[Note 7: Epist. x. _Non hæc a me profecto, quam ambobus Juvenalis

aliguando divinam illam, quæ proxima est a secunda, satiram aperirem,

sed adulatione nihil esse ingenuo foedius dedicistis_.]

The year 1486 was signalised in Rome by the arrival of an embassy from

Ferdinand and Isabella to make the usual oath of obedience on behalf

of the Catholic sovereigns of Castille and Leon to their spiritual

over-lord, the Pope. Iñigo Lopez de Mendoza, Count of Tendilla, a son

of the noble house of Mendoza, whose cardinal was termed throughout

Europe _tertius rex_, was the ambassador charged with this mission.[8]

Tendilla shone in a family in which intellectual brilliancy was a

heritage, the accomplishments of its members adding distinction to a

house of origin and descent exceptionally illustrious. Whether in the

house of his compatriot, the Bishop of Pamplona, or elsewhere, the

ambassador made the acquaintance of Peter Martyr and evidently fell

under the charm of his noble character and uncommon talents. The

duties of his embassy, and possibly his own good pleasure, detained

Tendilla in Rome from September 13, 1486, until August 29th of the

following year, and, as his stay drew to its close, he pressingly

invited the Italian scholar to return with him to Spain, an invitation

which neither the remonstrances nor supplications of his friends

in Rome availed to persuade him to refuse. No one could more

advantageously introduce a foreigner at the Court of Spain than

Tendilla. What prospects he held out or what arguments he used to

induce Martyr to quit Rome and Italy, we do not know; apparently

little persuasion was required. A true child of his times, Peter

Martyr was prepared to accept his intellectual heritage wherever he

found it. From the obscure parental village of Arona, his steps first

led him to the ducal court of Milan, which served as a stepping-stone

from which he advanced into the wider world of Rome. The papal capital

knew him first as a disciple, then as a master, but the doubt whether

he was satisfied to wait upon laggard pontifical favours is certainly

permissible. He had made warm friendships, had enjoyed the intimacy of

the great, and the congenial companionship of kindred spirits, but his

talents had secured no permanent or lucrative recognition from the

Sovereign Pontiff. The announcement of his resolution to accompany

the ambassador to Spain caused consternation amongst his friends

who opposed, by every argument they could muster, a decision they

considered displayed both ingratitude and indifferent judgment.

Nothing availed to change the decision he had taken and, since to each

one he answered as he deemed expedient, and as each answer differed

from the other, it is not easy to fix upon the particular reason which

prompted him to seek his fortune in Spain.

[Note 8: From Burchard's _Diarium_, 1483-1506, and from the

_Chronicle_ of Pulgar we learn that Antonio Geraldini and Juan de

Medina, the latter afterwards Bishop of Astorga, accompanied the

embassy.]

To Ascanio Sforza, who spared neither entreaties nor reproaches to

detain him, assuring him that during his lifetime his merits should

not lack recognition, Martyr replied that the disturbed state of

Italy, which he apprehended would grow worse, discouraged him; adding

that he was urged on by an ardent desire to see the world and to make

acquaintance with other lands. To Peter Marsus, he declared he felt

impelled to join in the crusade against the Moors. Spain was the seat

of this holy war, and the Catholic sovereigns, who had accomplished

the unity of the Christian states of the Iberian peninsula, were

liberal in their offers of honours and recompense to foreigners of

distinction whom they sought to draw to their court and camp. Spain

may well have seemed a virgin and promising field, in which his

talents might find a more generous recognition than Rome had awarded

them. Upon his arrival there, he showed himself no mean courtier when

he declared to the Queen that his sole reason for coming was to behold

the most celebrated woman in the world--herself. Perhaps the sincerest

expression of his feelings is that contained in a letter to Carillo.

(Ep. 86. 1490): _Formosum est cuique, quod maxime placet: id si cum

patria minime quis se sperat habiturum, tanta est hujusce rei vis, ut

extra patriam quæritet patria ipsius oblitus. Ego quam vos deservistis

adivi quia quod mihi pulchrum suaveque videbatur in ea invenire

speravi_. The divine restlessness, the _Wanderlust_ had seized him,

and to its fascination he yielded. The opportunity offered by Tendilla

was too tempting to be resisted. Summing up the remonstrances and

reproaches of his various friends, he declared that he held himself to

deserve rather their envy than their commiseration, since amidst

the many learned men in Italy he felt himself obscure and useless,

counting himself indeed as _passerunculus inter accipitres, pygmeolus

inter gigantes_.

Failing to turn his friend from his purpose, Cardinal Ascanio

Sforza exacted from him a promise to send him regular and frequent

information of all that happened at the Spanish Court. It is to this

pact between the two friends that posterity is indebted for the

Decades and the _Opus Epistolarum_, in which the events of those

singularly stirring years are chronicled in a style that portrays

with absolute fidelity the temper of an age prolific in men of

extraordinary genius and unsurpassed daring, incomparably rich in

achievements that changed the face of the world and gave a new

direction to the trend of human development.

On the twenty-ninth of August the Spanish ambassador, after taking

leave of Innocent VIII.,[9] set out from Rome on his return journey to

Spain, and with him went Peter Martyr d'Anghera.

[Note 9: _Dixi ante sacros pedes prostratus lacrymosum vale quarto

calendi Septembris 1487_. (Ep. i.)]

II

Spain in the year 1487 presented a striking contrast to Italy where,

from the days of Dante to those of Machiavelli, the land had echoed to

the vain cry: _Pax, pax et non erat pax_. Peter Martyr was impressed

by the unaccustomed spectacle of a united country within whose

boundaries peace reigned. This happy condition had followed upon the

relentless suppression of feudal chiefs whose acts of brigandage,

pillage, and general lawlessness had terrorised the people and

enfeebled the State during the preceding reign.

The same nobles who had fought under Isabella's standard against Henry

IV. did not scruple to turn their arms upon their young sovereign,

once she was seated upon the throne. Lucio Marineo Siculo has drawn a

sombre picture of life in Spain prior to the establishment of order

under Ferdinand and Isabella. To accomplish the needed reform, it was

necessary to break the power and humble the pretensions of the feudal

nobles. The Duke of Villahermosa, in command of an army maintained

by contributions from the towns, waged a merciless campaign, burning

castles and administering red-handed but salutary justice to rebels

against the royal authority, and to all disturbers of public order

throughout the realm.

This drastic work of internal pacification was completed before the

arrival of our Lombard scholar at the Spanish Court. Castile and

Aragon united, internal strife overcome, the remaining undertaking

worthiest to engage the attention of the monarchs was the conquest of

the unredeemed southern provinces. Ten years of intermittent warfare

had brought the Christian troops to the very walls of Granada, but

Granada still held out. Almeria and Guadiz were in possession of the

enemy and over the towers of Baza the infidel flag proudly floated.

The reception accorded Tendilla's protégé by the King and Queen in

Saragossa was benign and encouraging. Isabella already caressed the

idea of encouraging the cultivation of the arts and literature amongst

the Spaniards, and her first thought was to confide to the newcomer

the education of the young nobles and pages about the Court--youths

destined to places of influence in Church and State. She was not a

little surprised when the reputed savant modestly deprecated his

qualifications for such a responsible undertaking, and declared his

wish was to join in the crusade against the infidels in Andalusia.

Some mirth was even provoked by the idea of the foreign scholar

masquerading as a soldier.

In 1489, King Ferdinand, who had assembled a powerful force at Jaen,

marched to the assault of Baza, a strong place, ably defended at

that time by Abdullah, known under the proud title of El Zagal--the

Victorious--because of his many victories over the Christian armies he

had encountered. During the memorable siege that ended in the fall of

Baza, Peter Martyr played his dual rôle of soldier and historian. The

Moors defended the city with characteristic bravery, for they were

fighting for their property, their liberty, and their lives. From

Jaen, where Isabella had established herself to be near the seat

of war, messages of encouragement daily reached the King and his

commanders, inciting them to victory, for which the Queen and her

ladies daily offered prayers. Impregnable Baza fell on the fourth of

December, and, with its fall, the Moorish power in Spain was forever

broken. Smaller cities and numerous strongholds in the surrounding

country hastened to offer their submission and, after the humiliating

surrender of El Zagal in the Spanish camp at Tabernas, Almeria opened

its gates to the triumphant Christians who sang _Te Deum_ within its

walls on Christmas day. Peter Martyr's description of this victorious

campaign has proved a rich source from which later writers have

generously drawn, not always with adequate acknowledgment. From Jaen

the Court withdrew to Seville, where the marriage of the princess

royal to the crown prince of Portugal was celebrated.

Boabdilla still held Granada, oblivious of his engagement to surrender

that city when his rival, El Zagal, should be conquered.[1] We need

not here digress to rehearse the oft-told story of the siege of

Granada, during which Moslem rivalled Christian in deeds of chivalry.

Peter Martyr's letters in the _Opus Epistolarum_ recount these events.

He shared to the full the exultation of the victors, but was not

oblivious of the grief and humiliation of the vanquished whom

he describes as weeping and lamenting upon the graves of their

forefathers, with a choice between captivity and exile before their

despairing eyes. He portrays his impressions upon entering with the

victorious Christian host into the stately city. _Alhambrum, proh dii

immortales! Qualem regiam, romane purpurate, unicam in orbe terrarum,

crede_, he exclaims in his letter to Cardinal Arcimboldo of Milan.

[Note 1: The Moorish power was at this time weakened by an

internal dissension. El Zagal had succeeded his brother, Muley Abdul

Hassan, who, at the time of his death ruled over Baza, Guadiz,

Almeria, and other strongholds in the south-east, while his son

Boabdil was proclaimed in Granada, thus dividing the kingdom against

itself, at a moment when union was most essential to its preservation.

Boabdil had accepted the protection of King Ferdinand and had even

stipulated the surrender of Granada as the reward for his uncle's

defeat. Consult Prescott's _Ferdinand and Isabella_.]

Divers are the appreciations of the precise part played by Peter

Martyr in the course of this war. He spent quite as much time with

the Queen's court as he did at the front, and he himself advances but

modest claims to war's laurels, writing rather as one who had missed

his vocation amongst men whose profession was fighting. The career he

sought did not lie in that direction. In later years writing to his

friend Marliano, he observed: _De bello autem si consilium amici

vis, bella gerant bellatores. Philosophis inhæreat lectionis et

contemplationis studium_.

Glorious as the date of Granada's capture might have been in Spanish

history, it acquired world-wide significance from the decision given

in favour of the project of Christopher Columbus which followed as a

consequence of the Christian victory. Though he nowhere states the

fact, Martyr must at this time[2] have known the Genoese suppliant for

royal patronage. Talavera, confessor to the Queen, was the friend and

protector of both Italians.

[Note 2: Navarrete states that the two Italians had known one

another intimately prior to the siege of Granada. _Coleccion de

documentos ineditos_, tom. i., p. 68.]

Fascinated by the novelties and charms of Granada, Martyr remained in

the conquered city when the Court withdrew. His friend Tendilla was

appointed first governor of the province and Talavera became its first

archbishop. Comparing the city with others, famous and beautiful in

Italy, he declared Granada to be the loveliest of them all; for Venice

was devoid of landscape and surrounded only by sea; Milan lay in a

flat stretch of monotonous plain; Florence might boast her hills,

but they made her winter climate frigid, while Rome was afflicted by

unwholesome winds from Africa and such poisonous exhalations from the

surrounding marshes that few of her citizens lived to old age. Such,

to eyes sensitive to Nature's charms and to a mind conscious of

historical significance, was the prize that had fallen to the Catholic

sovereigns.[3]

[Note 3: In the month of June, 1492.]

What influences worked to prepare the change which took place in Peter

Martyr's life within the next few months are not known. After the

briefest preparation, he took minor orders and occupied a canon's

stall in the cathedral of Granada. Of a religious vocation, understood

in the theological sense, there appears to have been no pretence,

but ten years later we find him a priest, with the rank of apostolic

protonotary. Writing on March 28, 1492, to Muro, the dean of

Compostello he observed: _Ad Saturnum, cessante Marte, sub hujus

sancti viri archiepiscopi umbra tento transfugere; a thorace jam ad

togam me transtuli_. In the coherent organisation of society as it

was then ordered, men were classified in distinct and recognisable

categories, each of which opened avenues to the ambitious for

attaining its special prizes. Spain was still scarcely touched by

the culture of the Renaissance. Outside the Church there was little

learning or desire for knowledge, nor did any other means for

recompensing scholars exist than by the bestowal of ecclesiastical

benefices. A prebend, a canonry, a professorship in the schools or

university were the sole sources of income for a man of letters. Peter

Martyr was such, nor did any other road to the distinction he frankly

desired, open before him. Perhaps Archbishop Talavera made this point

clear to him. Disillusionised, if indeed he had ever entertained

serious hope of success as a soldier, it cost him no effort to change

from the military to the more congenial sacerdotal caste.

Granada, for all its charms, quickly palled, and his first enthusiasm

subsiding, gave place to a sense of confinement, isolation, and

unrest. Not the companionship of his two attached friends could make

life in a provincial town, remote from the Court, tolerable to one who

had spent ten years of his life in the cultured world of Rome. The

monotonous routine of a canon's duties meant stagnation to his keen,

curious temperament, athirst for movement and novelty. His place was

amongst men, in the midst of events where he might observe, study,

and philosophically comment. Writing to Cardinal Mendoza, he frankly

confessed his unrest, declaring that the delights and beauties of

Nature, praised by the classical writers, ended by disgusting him and

that he could never know contentment save in the society of great men.

His nature craved life on the mountain tops of distinction rather than

existence in the valley of content. He did not yearn for Tusculum.

To manage a graceful re-entry to the Court was not easy. To Archbishop

Talavera, genial and humane, had succeeded the austere Ximenes

as confessor to Isabella. The post was an important one, for the

ascendancy of its occupant over the Queen was incontestable, but,

while Peter Martyr's perspicacity was quick to grasp the desirability

of conciliating the new confessor, it equally divined the barriers

forbidding access to the remote, detached Franciscan. In one of

his letters he compared the penetration of Ximenes to that of St.

Augustine, his austerity to that of St. Jerome, and his zeal for

the faith to that of St. Ambrose. Cardinal Ximenes had admirers and

detractors, but he had no friends.

In this dilemma Martyr felt himself alone, abandoned, and he was not

a little troubled as to his future prospects, for he was without an

advocate near the Queen. He wrote to several personages, even to the

young Prince, Don Juan, and evidently without result, for he observed

with a tinge of bitterness: "I see that King's favours, the chief

object of men's efforts, are more shifting and empty than the wind."

Fortune was kinder to him than she often shows herself to others

who no less assiduously cultivate her favour, nor was his patience

over-taxed by long waiting. With the return of peace, Queen Isabella's

interest in her plan for encouraging a revival of learning amongst

her courtiers re-awakened. It was her desire that the Spanish nobles

should cultivate the arts and literature, after the fashion prevailing

in Italy. Lucio Marineo Siculo, also a disciple of Pomponius Lætus,

had preceded Martyr in Spain by nearly two years, and was professor of

poetry and grammar at Salamanca. He was the first of the Italians who

came as torch-bearers of the Renaissance into Spain, to be followed

by Peter Martyr, Columbus, the Cabots, Gattinara, the Geraldini and

Marliano. Cardinal Mendoza availed himself of the propitious moment,

to propose Martyr's name for the office of preceptor to direct the

studies of the young noblemen. In response to a welcome summons, the

impatient canon left Granada and repaired to Valladolid where the

Court then resided.[4] The ungrateful character and dubious results

of the task before him were obvious, the chief difficulties to be

apprehended threatening to come from his noble pupils, whose minds

and manners he was expected to form. Restive under any save military

discipline, averse by temperament and custom to studies of any sort,

it was hardly to be hoped that they would easily exchange their gay,

idle habits for schoolroom tasks under a foreign pedagogue. Yet this

miracle did Peter Martyr work. The charm of his personality counted

for much, the enthusiasm of the Queen and the presence in the school

of the Infante Don Juan, whose example the youthful courtiers dared

not disdain, for still more, and the house of the Italian preceptor

became the fashionable rendezvous of young gallants who, a few months

earlier, would have scoffed at the idea of conning lessons in grammar

and poetry, and listening to lectures on morals and conduct from a

foreigner. Of his quarters in Saragossa in the first year of his

classes he wrote: _Domum habeo tota die ebullientibus Procerum

juvenibus repletam_.

[Note 4: In the month of June, 1492.]

During the next nine years of his life, Peter Martyr devoted himself

to his task and with results that gratified the Queen and reflected

credit upon her choice. In October of 1492 he had been appointed by

the Queen, _Contino de su casa_,[5] with a revenue of thirty thousand

maravedis. Shortly after, he was given a chaplaincy in the royal

household, an appointment which increased both his dignity and his

income. His position was now assured, his popularity and influence

daily expanded.

[Note 5: An office in the Queen's household, the duties and

privileges of which are not quite clear. Mariéjol suggests that the

_contini_ corresponded to the _gentilshommes de la chambre_ at

the French Court. Lucio Marineo Siculo mentioned these palatine

dignitaries immediately after the two captains and the two hundred

gentlemen composing the royal body-guard. Consult Mariéjol, _Pierre

Martyr d'Anghera, sa vie et ses oeuvres_, Paris, 1887.]

It would be interesting to know something of his system of teaching in

what proved to be a peripatetic academy, since he and his aristocratic

pupils always followed the Court in its progress from city to city;

but nowhere in his correspondence, teeming with facts and commentaries

on the most varied subjects, is anything definite to be gleaned. Latin

poetry and prose, the discourses of Cicero, rhetoric, and church

history were important subjects in his curriculum. Though he

frequently mentions Aristotle in terms of high admiration, it may be

doubted whether he ever taught Greek. There is no evidence that he

even knew that tongue. Besides the Infante Don Juan, the Duke of

Braganza, Don Juan of Portugal, Villahermosa, cousin to the King, Don

Iñigo de Mendoza, and the Marquis of Priego were numbered among his

pupils. Nor did his personal influence cease when they left his

classes. The renascence of learning did not move with the spontaneous,

almost revolutionary, vigour that characterised the revival in Italy,

nor was Peter Martyr of the paganised scholars in whom the cult

for antiquity had undermined Christian faith--else had he not been

acceptable to Queen Isabella.

Some authors, including Ranke, have described him as occupying the

post of Secretary of Latin Letters. Officially he never did. His

knowledge of Latin, in a land where few were masters of the language

of diplomatic and literary intercourse, was brought into frequent

service, and it was no uncommon thing for him to turn the Spanish

draft of a state paper or despatch into Latin.[6] He refused a chair

in the University of Salamanca, but consented on one occasion to

deliver a lecture before its galaxy of distinguished professors and

four thousand students. He chose for his subject the second satire of

Juvenal, and for more than an hour held his listeners spellbound under

the charm of his eloquence. He thus described his triumph: _Domum

tanquam ex Olympo victorem primarii me comitantur_.[7]

[Note 6: _Talvolta era incaricato di voltare in latino le

correspondenze diplomatiche pin importanti. I ministri o i lor

segretari ne faceano la minuta in ispagnuolo, ed egli le recava nella

lingua che era allora adoperata come lingua internazionale_. Ciampi,

_Nuova Antologia_, tom, iii., p. 69.]

[Note 7: _Opus Epistolarum_. Ep. lvii.]

During these prosperous years in Spain, the promise made to Cardinal

Ascanio Sforza was faithfully kept, though the latter's early fall

from his high estate in Rome diverted Martyr's letters to other

personages. With fervent and unflagging interest he followed the swift

march of disastrous events in his native Italy. The cowardly murder

of Gian Galeazzo by his perfidious and ambitious nephew, Lodovico il

Moro; the death of the magnificent Lorenzo in Florence; the accession

to power of the unscrupulous Borgia family, with Alexander VI. upon

the papal throne; the French invasion of Naples--all these and other

similar calamities bringing in their train the destruction of Italy,

occupied his attention and filled his correspondence with lamentations

and sombre presages for the future.

He was the first to herald the discovery of the new world, and to

publish the glory of his unknown compatriot to their countrymen. To

Count Giovanni Borromeo he wrote concerning the return of Columbus

from his first voyage: ..._rediit ab Antipodibus occiduis

Christophorus quidam Colonus, vir ligur, qui a meis regibus ad hanc

provinciam tria vix impetraverat navigia, quia fabulosa, que dicebat,

arbitrabantur; rediit preciosum multarum rerum sed auri precipue,

qua suapte natura regiones generant tulit_. Significant is the

introduction of the great navigator: _Christophorus quidam Colonus,

vir ligur_. There was nothing more to know or say about the sailor

of lowly origin and obscure beginnings, whose great achievement shed

glory on his unconscious fatherland and changed the face of the world.

III

In the year 1497 Peter Martyr was designated for a diplomatic mission

that gratified his ambition and promised him an opportunity to revisit

Rome and Milan.

Ladislas II., King of Bohemia, sought to repudiate his wife Beatrice,

daughter of King Ferdinand of Naples, and widow of Matthias Corvinus,

King of Hungary. Being a princess of Aragon, the outraged lady's

appeal in her distress to her powerful kinsman in Spain found

Ferdinand of Aragon disposed to intervene in her behalf. It was to

champion her cause that Peter Martyr was chosen to go as ambassador

from the Catholic sovereigns to Bohemia, stopping on his way at Rome

to lay the case before the Pope. In the midst of his preparations for

the journey the unwelcome and disconcerting intelligence that Pope

Alexander VI. leaned rather to the side of King Ladislas reached

Spain. This gave the case a new and unexpected complexion. The Spanish

sovereigns first wavered and then reversed their decision. The

embassy was cancelled and the disappointed ambassador cheated of the

distinction and pleasure he already tasted in anticipation.

Four years later circumstances rendered an embassy to the Sultan of

Egypt imperative. Ever since the fall of Granada, which was followed

by the expulsion of Moors and Jews from Spain or their forcible

conversion to Christianity if they remained in the country, the

Mussulman world throughout Northern Africa had been kept in a ferment

by the lamentations and complaints of the arriving exiles. Islam

throbbed with sympathy for the vanquished, and thirsted for vengeance

on the oppressors. The Mameluke Sultan of Egypt, aroused to action by

the reports of the persecution of his brethren in blood and faith,

threatened reprisals, which he was in a position to carry out on

the persons and property of the numerous Christian merchants in the

Levant, as well as on the pilgrims who annually visited the Holy Land.

The Franciscan friars, guardians of the holy places in Palestine, were

especially at his mercy. Representations had been made in Rome and

referred by the Pope to Spain. King Ferdinand temporised, denying the

truth of the reports of persecution and alleging that no oppressive

measures had been adopted against the Moors, describing whatever

hardships they may have suffered as unavoidably incidental to the

reorganisation of the recently acquired provinces. His tranquillising

assurances were not accepted with unreserved credence by the Sultan.

By the year 1501, the situation had become so strained, owing to the

knowledge spread through the Mussulman world that an edict of general

expulsion was in preparation, that it was decided to despatch an

embassy to soothe the Sultan's angry alarm and to protect, if

possible, the Christians within his dominions from the threatened

vengeance. For this delicate and novel negotiation, Peter Martyr was

chosen. The avowed object of his mission has been suspected of masking

some undeclared purpose, though what this may have been is purely a

matter of conjecture. He was also entrusted with a secret message to

the Doge and Senate of Venice, where French influences were felt to be

at work against the interests of Spain. Travelling by way of Narbonne

and Avignon, the ambassador reached Venice a few days after the death

of the Doge, Barbarigo, and before a successor had been elected.

Brief as was his stay in the city of lagoons, every hour of it was

profitably employed. He visited churches, palaces, and convents,

inspecting their libraries and art treasures; he was enraptured by the

beauty and splendour of all he beheld. Nothing escaped his searching

inquiries concerning the form of government, the system of elections,

the ship-building actively carried on in the great arsenal, and the

extent and variety of commercial intercourse with foreign nations.

Mention of his visit is made in the famous diary of the younger Marino

Sanuto.[1]

[Note 1: _A di 30 Septembris giunse qui uno orator dei reali di

Spagna; va al Soldano al Cairo; qual montó su le Gallie nostre di

Alessandria; si dice per prepare il Soliano relaxi i frati di Monte

Syon e li tratti bene, e che 30 mila. Mori di Granata si sono

baptizati di sua volontá, e non coacti_.]

Delightful and absorbing as he undoubtedly found it to linger amidst

the glories of Venice, the ambassador was not forgetful that the

important purpose of his mission lay elsewhere. Delivering his message

to the Senate, he crossed to Pola (Pula), where eight Venetian ships lay,

ready to sail to various ports in the Levant. The voyage to Egypt

proved a tempestuous one, and it was the twenty-third of December when

the storm-beaten vessel safely entered the port of Alexandria, after

a narrow escape from being wrecked on the rocky foundations of the

famous Pharos of antiquity. Christian merchants trading in the Levant

were at that period divided into two groups, one of which was under

the protection of Venice, the other, in which were comprised all

Spanish subjects, being under that of France. The French consul,

Felipe de Paredes, a Catalonian by birth, offered the hospitality of

his house pending the arrival of the indispensable safe-conduct and

escort from the Sultan. In the _Legatio Babylonica_, Peter Martyr

describes, with lamentations, the squalor of the once splendid city of

Alexandria, famous for its beautiful gardens, superb palaces, and rich

libraries. The ancient capital of the Ptolemies was reduced to a mere

remnant of its former size, and of its former glories not a vestige

was perceptible.[2] Cansu Alguri[3] reigned in Cairo. A man personally

inclined to toleration, his liberty of action was fettered by the

fanaticism of his courtiers and the Mussulman clergy. The moment was

not a propitious one for an embassy soliciting favours for Christians.

The Portuguese had but recently sunk an Egyptian vessel off Calicut,

commercial rivalries were bitter, and the harsh treatment of the

conquered Moors in Spain had aroused religious antagonism to fever

pitch and bred feelings of universal exasperation against the foes of

Islam.

[Note 2: Writing to Pedro Fajardo he thus expressed himself:

_Alexandriam sepe perambulavi: lacrymosum est ejus ruinas intueri;

centum millium atque eo amplius domorum uti per ejus vestigere licet

colligere meo judicio quondam fuit Alexandria; nunc quatuor vix

millibus contenta est focis; turturibus nunc et columbis pro

habitationibus nidos prestat, etc_.]

[Note 3: Also spelled Quansou Ghoury and Cansa Gouri; Peter Martyr

writes _Campsoo Gauro_.]

From Rosetta Peter Martyr started on January 26th on his journey to

the Egyptian Babylon,[4] as he was pleased to style Cairo, travelling

by boat on the Nile and landing at Boulaq in the night. The next

morning a Christian renegade, Tangriberdy by name, who held the

important office of Grand Dragoman to the Sultan, presented himself to

arrange the ceremonial to be observed at the audience with his master.

This singular man, a Spanish sailor from Valencia, had been years

before wrecked on the Egyptian coast and taken captive. By forsaking

his faith he saved his life, and had gradually risen from a state

of servitude to his post of confidence near the Sultan's person.

Tangriberdy availed himself of the opportunity afforded by his duties,

to relate to the ambassador the story of his life and his forcible

conversion, declaring that, in his heart, he clung to the Christian

faith and longed to return to his native Spain. Whether his sentiments

were sincere or feigned, his presence in an influential capacity

at the Sultan's court was a fortuitous circumstance of which the

ambassador gladly took advantage. The audience was fixed for the

following morning at daybreak, and that night Tangriberdy lodged the

embassy in his own palace.

[Note 4: Cairo was thus called in the Middle Ages, the name

belonging especially to one of the city's suburbs. See _Quatremère

Mémoires geographiques te historiques sur l'Egypt_. Paris, 1811.]

Traversing the streets of Cairo, thronged with a hostile crowd curious

to view the _giaour_, Peter Martyr, accompanied by the Grand Dragoman

and his Mameluke escort, mounted to the citadel, where stood the

stately palace built by Salah-Eddin. After crossing two courts he

found himself in a third, where sat the Sultan upon a marble dais

richly draped and cushioned. The prostrations exacted by Eastern

etiquette were dispensed with, the envoy being even invited to sit in

the august presence. Thrice the Sultan assured him of his friendly

disposition; no business was transacted, and after these formalities

the ambassador withdrew as he had come, a second audience being fixed

for the following Sunday.

Meanwhile, the envoys from the Barbary States, who were present for

the purpose of defeating the negotiations, excited the populace by

appeals to their fanaticism, reminding them of the cruelties endured

by their brethern of the true faith at the hands of Spaniards. They

even declared that if Cansu Alguri consented to treat with the

infidels, he was no true son of Islam. A council of military chiefs

was summoned which quickly decided to demand the immediate dismissal

of the Christian ambassador. Tangriberdy, who sought to alter this

determination, was even threatened with death if he persisted in his

opposition. Remembering that he owed his throne to the Mamelukes, who

had exalted and destroyed no less than four Sultans within as many

years, Cansu Alguri quailed before the outburst of popular fury. He

ordered Tangriberdy to conduct the obnoxious visitor from the capital

without further delay. Peter Martyr, however, received this intimation

with unruffled calm and, to the stupefaction of Tangriberdy, refused

to leave until he had accomplished his mission. Such audacity in a

mild-mannered ecclesiastic was as impressive as it was unexpected. The

Grand Dragoman had no choice but to report the refusal to the Sultan.

By what arguments he prevailed upon Cansu Alguri to rescind his

command, we know not, but a secret audience was arranged in which

Martyr describes himself as speaking with daring and persuasive

frankness to the Sultan. He availed himself in the most ample manner

of diplomatic license in dealing with facts, and succeeded in

convincing his listener that no Moors had been forced to change their

religion, that the conquest of Granada was but the re-establishment of

Spanish sovereignty over what had been taken by conquest, and

finally that nobody had been expelled from the country, save lawless

marauders, who refused to abide by the terms of the fair treaty of

peace concluded between Boabdil and the Catholic sovereigns. He closed

his plea by adroitly introducing a scapegoat in the person of the

universally execrated Jew, against whom it was the easiest part of his

mission to awaken the dormant hatred and contempt of the Sultan. Into

willing Mussulman ears he poured a tirade of abuse, typical of the

epoch and the nation he represented: ..._proh si scires quam morbosum,

quam pestiferum; quamque contagiosum pecus istud de quo loqueris sit,

tactu omnia fedant, visu corrumpunt sermone destruunt, divina et

humana preturbant, inficiunt, prostrant miseros vicinos circumveniunt,

radicitus expellant, funestant; ubicumque pecunias esse presentiunt,

tamquam odori canes insequunt; detegunt, effundiunt, per mendacia,

perjuria, dolos insidias per litas, si catera non seppelunt,

extorquere illas laborant: aliena miseria, dolore, gemitu, mestitia

gaudent_. With every word of this diatribe, the representative of the

Prophet was in perfect agreement. United in the bonds of a common

hatred, than which no union is closer, a treaty between the two powers

was easily concluded. The military chiefs were converted to the

advantages of friendly relations with Spain, and means were devised to

calm the popular excitement.

Assisted by some monks of the Mount Sion community, the successful

ambassador drafted the concessions he solicited, all of which were

graciously accorded by the mollified Egyptians. Christians were

henceforth to be permitted to rebuild and repair the ruined

sanctuaries throughout the Holy Land; the tribute levied on pilgrims

was lightened and guaranties for their personal safety were given. It

is noteworthy that only religious interests received attention, no

mention being made of commercial privileges. More noteworthy still, is

the absence of anything tangible given by the adroit envoy in exchange

for what he got. The Sultan was reassured as to the status of such

Moors as might remain under Spanish rule, and was encouraged to

count upon unspecified future advantages from the friendship of King

Ferdinand. A truly singular result of negotiations begun under such

unfavourable auspices, though the value of concessions, to

the observance of which nothing constrained the Sultan, seems

problematical, and was certainly less than the ambassador, in his

naive vanity, hastened to assume and proclaim.

While the text of the treaty was being prepared, Peter Martyr occupied

himself in collecting information concerning the mysterious land where

he found himself. Egypt was all but unknown to his contemporaries,

whose most recent information concerning the country was derived from

the writings of the ancients. The _Legatio Babylonica_, consisting of

three reports to the Spanish sovereigns, to which addenda were later

made, contains a mass of historical and geographical facts, of which

Europeans were ignorant; nothing escaped the ambassador's omnivorous

curiosity and discerning scrutiny, during what proved to be a

veritable voyage of discovery. He treats of the flora and fauna of

the country; he studied and noted the characteristics of the great

life-giver of Egypt--the Nile. The Mamelukes engaged his particular

attention, though much of the information furnished him about them was

erroneous. He plunged into antiquity, visited, measured, and described

the Sphinx and the Pyramids--also with many errors. Christian

tradition and pious legends have their place in his narrative,

especially that of Matarieh--_ubi Christus latuerat_ when carried

by his parents into Egypt to escape the Herodian massacre of the

Innocents.

On the twenty-first of February, Peter Martyr, escorted by a guard of

honour composed of high court officials and respectfully saluted by

a vast concourse of people, repaired to the palace for his farewell

audience. In taking an affectionate leave of him, the Sultan presented

him with a gorgeous robe, heavy with cunningly-wrought embroideries.

Christian and Mussulman were friends. Six days later he left the

capital for Alexandria, where he embarked on April 22d for Venice.

IV

Leonardo Loredano had meantime been elected Doge in succession to

the deceased Agostino Barbarigo. Spanish interests in the kingdom of

Naples were seriously compromised, and the diligence of the French

envoys threatened to win Venice from the neutral policy the Republic

had adopted and convert it into an ally of Louis XII.

On June 30th, Peter Martyr landed in Venice and immediately sought

audience of the new Doge, to whom he repeated the message he had

delivered a few months before to the Senate. Perceiving the headway

made by French influence, he wrote to Spain, explaining the situation

and urging the sovereigns immediately to despatch an embassy to

counteract the mischievous activity of the French. He offered, as

an alternative, to himself assume the negotiations if the requisite

instructions were sent to him. King Ferdinand ignored the proffer of

service, but, acting upon the information sent him, entrusted the

business to Lorenzo Suarez de Figueroa, who had been his ambassador

in Venice in 1495. Zealous for his adopted country and, possibly,

overconfident in consequence of his easy success in Egypt, Peter

Martyr did not wait for the credentials he had solicited but made the

mistake of treating affairs for which he had received no mandate. The

French envoys were quick to detect his opposition, and as prompt to

take advantage of the false position in which the diplomatic

novice had unwarily placed himself. His unaccredited presence and

officiousness in the capital of the Doges were made to appear both

offensive and ridiculous. The adherents of the French party denounced

him as an intriguer, and spread the report that he was a spy in the

pay of Spain. His position speedily became intolerable, unsafe even,

and he was forced to escape secretly from the city; nor did he stop

until he reached his native Lombardy, where he might rely upon the

protection of his kinsmen, the Marshal Trivulzio and the Borromeos, to

shield him from the consequences of his indiscretion.

He writes with emotion of the visit he paid to his native town of

Arona and the scenes of his childhood, where he renewed acquaintance

with the charms of one of the loveliest landscapes in Italy. He

yielded to early memories, and the gentle dream of one day returning

to the shores of Maggiore, there to pass his declining years, took

shape in his fancy. When peace between France and Spain was later

restored, after King Ferdinand's marriage to the Princess Germaine

de Foix, he obtained the King's intercession to procure for him the

abbacy of St. Gratian at Arona. He himself solicited the protection

of the Cardinal d'Amboise to obtain him this favour, declaring the

revenues from the abbacy were indifferent to him, as he would only use

them to restore to its pristine splendour the falling church in which

reposed the holy relics of SS. Gratian, Fidelius, and Carpophorus.

The peace between the two countries was too ephemeral to permit the

realisation of his pious hope.

The Marshal Trivulzio accompanied his kinsman to Asti and from

thence to Carmagnola where they obtained an audience of the Cardinal

d'Amboise, Legate for France. Despite his undisguised hostility to

Spaniards, the Legate furnished the ambassador with a safe-conduct

over the frontier into Spain.

If the Catholic monarchs felt any vexation at the excess of zeal their

envoy had displayed in Venice, they betrayed none. Peter Martyr's

reception was not wanting in cordiality, the Queen, especially,

expressing her gratitude for the important service he had rendered

the Christian religion, and he received another appointment[1] which

augmented his income by thirty thousand maravedis yearly. Having taken

holy orders about this time and the dignity of prior of the cathedral

chapter of Granada falling vacant, this benefice was also given to

him, _regis et reginæ beneficentia_.

[Note 1: _Maestro de los cabelleros de su corte en las artes

liberates_. He had long exercised the functions of this office, as

has been described: the formal appointment was doubtless but a means

invented for granting him an increase of revenue.]

On November 26th in the year 1504, the death of Isabella of Castile

plunged the Court and people into mourning and produced a crisis in

the government that threatened the arduously accomplished union of

the peninsula with disruption. None mourned the Queen's death more

sincerely than did her Italian chaplain. He accompanied the funeral

cortège on its long journey to Granada, where the body was laid in the

cathedral of the city her victorious arms had restored to the bosom

of Christendom. During several months, Martyr lingered in Granada,

hesitating before returning uninvited to King Ferdinand's Court. To a

letter from the Secretary of State, Perez Almazen, summoning him to

rejoin the King without delay, he somewhat coyly answered, deprecating

his ability to be of further service to His Majesty, adding, however,

that he asked nothing better than to obey the summons. Elsewhere,

in one of his Epistles, he states that he returned to the court at

Segovia, as representative of his chapter, to secure the continuation

of certain revenues paid from the royal treasury to the clergy of

Granada.

The political situation created by the Queen's death was both

perplexing and menacing.[2] Doña Juana, wife of the Archduke Philip,

inherited the crown of Castile from her mother in default of male

heirs, but her mental state excluded the possibility of her assuming

the functions of government. Already during her mother's lifetime, the

health of this unhappy princess, who has passed into history under the

title of Juana the Mad, gave rise to serious anxiety. Deserted by the

handsome and frivolous Philip at a time when she most required his

presence, she sank into a state of profound melancholy. She waited, in

vain, for the return of the husband whom her unreasoning jealousy and

amorous importunities had driven from her.

[Note 2: The Infante Don Juan died in October, 1497, shortly after

his early marriage with the Archduchess Margaret of Austria, and

without issue. Isabella, Queen of Portugal, died after giving birth to

a son, in whom the three crowns of Portugal, Castile, and Aragon would

have been united had the prince not expired in 1500, while still a

child. Doña Juana, second daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella and next

heir, had married, in 1496, the Archduke Philip of Austria, Duke of

Burgundy, and became the mother of Charles I. of Spain, commonly known

by his imperial title of Charles V.]

In conformity with the late Queen's wishes, Ferdinand hastened to

proclaim his daughter and Philip sovereigns of Castile, reserving to

himself the powers of regent. He was willing to gratify the archduke's

vanity by conceding him the royal title, while keeping the government

in his own hands, and had there been no one but his absent son-in-law

with whom to reckon, his policy would have stood a fair chance of

success. It was thwarted by the intrigues of a powerful faction

amongst the aristocracy, who deemed the opportunity a promising one

for recovering some of the privileges of which they had been shorn.

Ferdinand of Aragon had gained little hold on the affections of the

people of his wife's dominions, hence his position became one of

extreme difficulty. His opponents urged the archduke to hasten his

arrival in Spain and to assume the regency in the name of his invalid

wife. Rumours that Louis XII. had accorded his son-in-law permission

to traverse France at the head of a small army rendered the regency

insecure, and to forestall the complication of a possible alliance

between Philip and King Louis, Ferdinand, despite his advanced age and

the recent death of his wife, asked the hand of a French princess,

Germaine de Foix, in marriage, offering to settle the crown of Naples

upon her descendants. To conciliate Philip, he proposed to share with

him the regency. Upon the arrival of the latter at Coruña in the month

of May, Martyr was chosen by the King to repair thither and obtain

the archduke's adhesion to this proposal. That the latter had

distinguished the Italian savant by admitting him to his intimacy

during his former stay in Spain, did not save the mission from

failure, and where Peter Martyr failed, Cardinal Ximenes was later

equally unsuccessful. Ferdinand ended by yielding and, after a final

interview with his son-in-law in Remesal, at which Peter Martyr was

present, he left Spain on his way to Naples, the latter remaining with

the mad queen to observe and report the course of events.

The sudden death of King Philip augmented the unrest throughout the

country, for the disappearance of this ineffective sovereign left the

state without even a nominal head. Ferdinand, who had reached Porto

Fino when the news was brought to him, made no move to return,

confident that the Castilians would soon be forced to invite him to

resume the government; on the contrary, he tranquilly continued his

journey to Naples. Rivals, he had none, for his grandson, Charles,

was still a child, while the unfortunate Juana passed her time in

celebrating funeral rites for her dead husband, whose coffin she

carried about with her, opening it to contemplate the body, of which

she continued to be so jealous that all women were kept rigorously at

a distance. A provisional government, formed to act for her, consisted

of Cardinal Ximenes, the Constable of Castile and the Duke of Najera,

but inspired little confidence. Peter Martyr perceived that, besides

Ferdinand, there was no one capable of restoring order and governing

the state. He wrote repeatedly to the secretary, Perez Almazen, and to

the King himself, urging the latter's speedy return as the country's

only salvation from anarchy. Events proved the soundness of his

judgment, for the mere news of the King's landing at Valencia sufficed

to restore confidence; he resumed the regency unopposed and continued

to govern Castile, in his daughter's name, until his own death.

Doña Juana ceased her lugubrious peregrinations and took up her

residence in the monastery of Santa Clara at Tordesillas, where she

consented to the burial of her husband's body in a spot visible from

her windows. Peter Martyr was one of the few persons who saw the

unhappy lady and even gained some influence over her feeble mind.

Mazzuchelli states that, at one period, there were but two bishops and

Peter Martyr to whom the Queen consented even to listen. Now and

again the figure of the insane queen appears like a pallid spectre in

Martyr's pages. Her caprices and vagaries are noted from time to time

in the _Opus Epistolarum_; indeed the story of her sufferings is all

there. The insanity of Doña Juana was not seriously doubted by her

contemporaries--certainly not by Martyr, whose portrait of her

character is perhaps the most accurate contemporary one we possess.

He traces her malady from its incipiency, through the successive

disquieting manifestations of hysteria, melancholia, and fury,

broken by periods of partial and even complete mental lucidity. Such

intervals became rarer and briefer as time went on.[3]

[Note 3: The efforts of the historian Bergenroth to establish

Doña Juana's sanity and to depict her as the victim of religious

persecution because of her suspected orthodoxy have been conclusively

refuted by Maurenbrecher, Gachard, and other writers, who have

demolished his arguments and censured his methods of research

and interpretation. The last mention of Doña Juana in the _Opus

Epistolarum_ occurs in Epistle DCCCII. Peter Martyr describes the

visit paid her by her daughter Isabella, who was about to be married

to the Infante of Portugal. The insanity of the Queen was used as a

political pawn by both her husband and her father, each affirming or

denying as it suited his purpose for the moment. The husband, however,

was stronger than the father, for the unhappy Juana would have signed

away her crown at his bidding in exchange for a caress. Consult

Hoefler, _Doña Juana_; Gachard, _Jeanne la Folle_; Maurenbrecher,

_Studien und Skizzen zur Geschichte der Reformationszeit_; Pedro de

Alcocer, _Relacion de algunas Cosas_; and Bergenroth's _Calendar of

Letters, Despatches, and State Papers_, etc. (1869).]

Upon the death of King Ferdinand in 1516, the regency devolved upon

Cardinal Ximenes, pending the arrival of the young King, Charles, from

the Netherlands. The character of Cardinal Ximenes and his methods of

government have been extolled by his admirers and condemned by his

adversaries. The judgment of Peter Martyr is perhaps the least biassed

of any expressed by that statesman's contemporaries. His personal

dislike of the Cardinal did not blind him to his qualities, nor

dull his appreciation of the obstacles with which the latter had to

contend. In the _Opus Epistolarum_ he seeks, not always with entire

success, to do justice to the great regent. Through his laborious

efforts to be fair to the statesman, there pierces his personal

dislike of the man. Trivial jibes and small criticisms at the

Cardinal's expense are not wanting. The writer shared the feeling of

the Spanish Grandees, that it was "odious to be governed by a friar."

He also derided the Cardinal's military spirit. One of the regent's

earliest measures suppressed all pensions, but though he excepted

Martyr by name, pending the King's decision, no answer came from the

Netherlands; the Italian fared as did other pensioners, and he

never forgave the Cardinal. Many of his letters of this period were

addressed to his compatriot, Marliano, who was the young King's

doctor, and were evidently intended for the monarch's eye. In

these epistles, adverse judgments and censures of Cardinal Ximenes

frequently recur, and the writer used the greatest frankness in

describing men and events in Spain, and even in offering suggestions

as to the King's policy upon his arrival.

Yielding to the repeated instances of the regent, Charles finally set

out to take possession of his unknown kingdom. He landed, after a

tempestuous voyage, near Gijon, bringing with him a numerous train

of Flemish courtiers and officials, whose primary interest lay in

preventing a meeting between himself and the regent, and whose

presence was destined to cause a serious estrangement between the

monarch and his Castilian subjects. Their first purpose was easily

accomplished. While the Cardinal awaited him near Roa, the King

avoided him by proceeding directly to Tordesillas to visit his mother.

This ungracious and unmerited snub was applauded by Martyr, who

dismissed the incident with almost flippant mention; nor did he

afterwards touch upon the aged Cardinal's death which occurred

simultaneously with the reception of the unfeeling message sent by

Charles to the greatest, the most faithful and the most disinterested

of his servants.[4]

[Note 4: Consult Héfélé, _Vie de Ximenez; Cartas de los

Secretarios del Cardinal_; Ferrer del Rio, _Comunidades de Castilla_;

Ranke, _Spanien unter Karl V_.]

During the opening years of his reign, the boy-king proved a docile

pupil under the control of his ministers.[5] Peter Martyr wrote of

him: "He directs nothing but is himself directed. He has a happy

disposition, is magnanimous, liberal, generous--but what of it, since

these qualities contribute to his country's ruin?" So reserved was the

royal youth in his manner, so slow of speech, that his mental capacity

began to be suspected. People remembered his mother. The story of the

troubled beginnings of what proved to be one of the most remarkable

reigns in modern history, is related in the _Opus Epistolarum_. The

writer watched from vantage-ground the conflict of interests, the

strife of parties; zealous for the welfare of his adopted country,

he was still a foreigner, identified with no party. Gifted with

rare perspicacity, moderation, and keen judgment, he maintained his

attitude of impartial observation. By temperament and habit he was an

aristrocrat--_placet Hispana nobilitas_--he confessed, admitting also

that _de populo nil mihi curæ_, yet he sided with the _comuneros_

against the Crown. While deploring their excesses, he sympathised with

the cause they defended, and he lashed the insolence and the rapacity

of the Flemish favourites with all the resources of invective and

sarcasm of which he was master. In one of his letters (Ep. 709), he

describes the disorders everywhere prevalent throughout the country.

"The safest roads are no longer secure from brigands and you enrich

bandits and criminals, and oppress honest folks. The ruling power is

now in the hands of assassins." Despite his undisguised hostility to

the Flemings and his outspoken criticisms on the abuses they fomented,

Charles V. bestowed new honours and emoluments upon the favoured

counsellor of his grandparents. In September, 1518, the Royal Council

proposed his name to the King as ambassador to Constantinople, there

to treat with the victorious Sultan, whose sanguinary triumphs in

Persia and Egypt were feared to foreshadow an Ottoman invasion of

Europe. Alleging his advanced age and infirmities, the cautious

nominee declined the honour, preferring doubtless to abide by his

facile diplomatic laurels won in Cairo. There was reason to anticipate

that the formidable Selim would be found less pliant than Cansu

Alguri. The event proved his wisdom, as Garcia Loaysa who went in his

stead, learned to his cost.

[Note 5: Guillaume de Croÿ, Sieur de Chièvres, who had been the

young prince's governor during his minority, became all powerful in

Spain, where he and his Flemish associates pillaged the treasury,

trafficked in benefices and offices, and provoked the universal hatred

of the Spaniards. Peter Martyr shared the indignation of his adopted

countrymen against the King's Flemish parasites. His sympathies for

the _Comuneros_ were frankly avowed in numerous of his letters.

Consult Hoefler, _Der Aufstand der Castillianischen Städte_;

Robertson, _Charles V_.]

In 1520, Peter Martyr was appointed historiographer, an office

yielding a revenue of eighty thousand maravedis. The conscientious

discharge of the duties of this congenial post, for which he was

conspicuously fitted, won the approval of Mercurino Gattinara, the

Italian chancellor of Charles V. Lucio Marineo Siculo speaks of Martyr

as far back as December, 1510, as _Consiliarius regius_, though

this title could, at that time, be given him only in his quality of

chronicler of the India Council, his effective membership really

dating from the year 1518. He was later appointed secretary to that

important body, which had control over all questions relating to

colonial expansion in the new world. In 1521 he renewed his efforts to

obtain the abbacy of St. Gratian in Arona, which had been refused him

ten years earlier. To his friend, Giovanni di Forli, Archbishop of

Cosenza, he wrote, protesting his disinterestedness, adding: "Don't be

astonished that I covet this abbey: you know I am drawn to it by love

of my native soil." It was not to be, and his failure to obtain this

benefice was one of the severest disappointments of his life. The

ambitions of Peter Martyr were never excessive, for he was in all

things a man of moderation; the honours he obtained, though many, were

sufficiently modest to protect him from the competition and jealousy

of aspiring rivals, yet he would certainly not have refused a

bishopric. After seeing four royal confessors raised to episcopal

rank, he slyly remarked that, "amongst so many confessors, it would

have been well to have one Martyr."[6]

[Note 6: "Tra tanti confessori, sarebbe stato ancora bene un

Martire," _Chevroeana_, p. 39. Ed. 1697.]

Arriving in Spain a foreign scholar of modest repute, and dependent on

the protection of his patron, the Count of Tendilla, Peter Martyr had

risen in royal favour, until he came to occupy honourable positions in

the State and numerous benefices in the Church. His services to his

protectors were valued and valuable. His house, whereever he happened

for the time to be, was the hospitable meeting-place where statesmen,

noblemen, foreign envoys, great ecclesiastics, and papal legates came

together with navigators and conquerors, cosmographers, colonial

officials, and returning explorers from antipodal regions--Spain's

empire builders. It was in such society he collected the mass of

first-hand information he sifted and chronicled in the Decades and the

_Opus Epistolarum_, which have proven such an inexhaustible mine for

students of Spanish and Spanish-American history. Truly of him may it

be said that nothing human was alien to his spirit. Intercourse with

him was prized as a privilege by the great men of his time, while he

converted his association with them to his own and posterity's profit.

Amongst the Flemish counsellors of Charles V., Adrian of Utrecht,

preceptor of the young prince prior to his accession, had arrived in

Spain in the year 1515 as representative of his interests at King

Ferdinand's court. Upon that monarch's death, Adrian, who had meantime

been made Bishop of Tortosa and created Cardinal, shared the regency

with Cardinal Ximenes. A man of gentle manners and scholastic

training, his participation in the regency was hardly more than

nominal. Ignorant alike of the Spanish tongue and the intricacies of

political life, he willingly effaced himself in the shadow of his

imperious and masterful colleague. Peter Martyr placed his services

entirely at the disposition of Adrian, piloting him amongst the

shoals and reefs that rendered perilous the mysterious sea of Spanish

politics. When Adrian was elected Pope in 1522, his former mentor

wrote felicitating him upon his elevation and reminding him of the

services he had formerly rendered him: _Fuistis a me de rebus quæ

gerebantur moniti; nec parum commodi ad emergentia tunc negotia

significationes meas Cæsaris rebus attulisse vestra Beatitudo

fatetur_. Although the newly elected Pontiff expressed an amiable wish

to see his old friend in Rome, he offered him no definite position in

Curia. The correspondence that ensued between them was inconclusive;

Martyr, always declaring that he sought no favour, still persisted in

soliciting a meeting which the Pope discouraged. Adrian accepted his

protests of disinterestedness literally, and their last meeting at

Logroño was unproductive of aught from the Pope, save expressions

of personal esteem and regard. Peter Martyr excused himself from

following His Holiness to Rome, on the plea of his advanced years and

failing health. If disappointed at receiving no definite appointment,

he concealed his chagrin, and, though evidently not desiring his

services in Curia, one of Adrian's first acts upon arriving in Rome

was to invest him with the archpriest's benefice of Ocaña in Spain.

The ever generous King was less niggardly, and, in 1523, conferred

upon Martyr the German title of Pfalzgraf, with the privilege of

naming imperial notaries and legitimising natural children.

On August 15, 1524, the King presented his name to Clement VII. for

confirmation as mitred abbot of Santiago in the island of Jamaica, a

benefice rendered vacant by the translation of Don Luis Figueroa to

the bishopric of San Domingo and La Concepcion.[7] A greater title

would have doubtless pleased him less, since this one linked his name

with the Church in the New World, of which he was the first historian.

He surrendered his priory of Granada to accept the Jamaican dignity,

the revenues from which he devoted to the construction of the first

stone church built at Sevilla del 'Oro in that island. Above its

portal an inscription bore witness to his generosity: _Petrus Martyr

ab Angleria, italus civis mediolanensis, protonotarius apostolicus

hujus insulæ, abbas, senatus indici consiliarius, ligneam priusædem

hanc bis igne consumptam, latericio et quadrato lapide primus a

fundamentis extruxit_.[8]

[Note 7: The King instructed his ambassador in Rome to propose

Luis Figueroa to succeed Alessandro Geraldino as bishop of Santo

Domingo and Concepcion, and for the vacant abbacy of Jamaica

_presentareis de nuestra parte al protonotario Pedro Mártir de nuestro

Consejo. Dejando tambien Mártir el priorado de Granada que posée_,

etc. Coleccion de Indias. vii., 449.]

[Note 8: Cantu, _Storia Universale_, tom, i., p. 900.]

In the month of June, 1526, the Court took up its residence in Granada

with Peter Martyr, as usual, in attendance. Before the walls of

Moorish Granada he had begun his career in Spain; within the walls of

Christian Granada he was destined to close it and be laid to his final

rest. A sufferer during many years from a disease of the liver, he was

aware of his approaching end, and made his will on September 23,[9]

bequeathing the greater part of the property he had amassed to his

nephews and nieces in Lombardy, though none of his friends and

servants in Spain was forgotten. He devoted careful attention to the

preparations for his funeral; eminently a friend of order and decorum,

he left nothing to chance, but provided for the precise number of

masses to be said, the exact amount of wax to be consumed, and the

kind of mourning liveries to be worn by his servants. He asked that

his body should be borne to its grave by the dean and the canons of

the cathedral, an honour to which his dignity of prior of that chapter

entitled him; but in order to ensure the chapter's participation, as

he quaintly expressed it, "with more goodwill," he set aside a legacy

of three thousand maravedis as compensation. Not only were his wishes

in this and all respects carried out, but the cathedral chapter

erected a tablet to his memory, upon which an epitaph he would not

have disdained was inscribed: _Rerum Ætate Nostra Gestarum--Et

Novi Orbis Ignoti Hactenus--Illustratori Petro Martyri

Mediolanensi--Cæsareo Senatori--Qui, Patria Relicta--Bella Granatensi

Miles Interfuit--Mox Urbe Capta, Primum Canonico--Deinde Priori

Hujus Ecclesiæ--Decanus Et Capitulum--Carissimo Collegae Posuere

Sepulchrum--Anno MDXXVI_.[10]

[Note 9: His last will was published in the _Documentos Ineditos_,

tom, xxxix., pp. 400-414.]

[Note 10: Harrisse, in his _Christoph Colomb_, fixes upon the 23d

or 24th of September as the date of Martyr's death, believing that his

last will was executed on his deathbed. There is, however, nothing

that absolutely proves that such was the fact. The epitaph gives but

the year. In the _Documentos Ineditos_ the month of September is given

in one place, that of October in another.]

V

Peter Martyr was perhaps the first man in Spain to realise the

importance of the discovery made by Columbus. Where others beheld but

a novel and exciting incident in the history of navigation, he,

with all but prophetic forecast, divined an event of unique and

far-reaching importance. He promptly assumed the functions of

historian of the new epoch whose dawn he presaged, and in the month

of October, 1494, he began the series of letters to be known as the

_Ocean Decades_, continuing his labours, with interruptions, until

1526, the year of his death. The value of his manuscripts obtained

immediate recognition; they were the only source of authentic

information concerning the New World, accessible to men of letters and

politicians outside Spain.

His material was new and original; every arriving caravel brought

him fresh news; ship-captains, cosmographers, conquerors of fabulous

realms in the mysterious west, all reported to him; even the common

sailors and camp-followers poured their tales into his discriminating

ears. Las Casas averred that Peter Martyr was more worthy of credence

than any other Latin writer.[1]

[Note 1: Las Casas, _Histo. de las Indias_., tom, ii, p. 272: _A

Pedro Martyr se le debe was credito que à otro ninguno de los que

escribieran en latin, porque se hallo entonces en Castilla par

aquellos tiempos y hablaba con todos, y todos holgaban de le dar

cuenta de lo que vian y hallaban, como à hombre de autioridad y el que

tenia cuidado de preguntarlo_.]

No sooner had Columbus returned from his first voyage than Martyr

hastened to announce his success to his friends, Count Tendilla and

Archbishop Talavera. _Meministis Colonum Ligurem institisse in Castris

apud reges de percurrendo per occiduos antipodes novo terrarum

hæmisphærio; meminisse opportet_. He was present in Barcelona and

witnessed the reception accorded the successful discoverer by the

Catholic sovereigns. He, who had gone forth an obscure adventurer upon

whose purposes, and even sanity, doubts had been cast, returned, a

Grandee of Spain, Admiral of the Ocean, and Viceroy of the Indies. In

the presence of the court, standing, he, alone, by invitation of the

sovereigns, sat. The ambassadors from his native Republic of Genoa,

Marchisio and Grimaldi, witnessed the exaltation of their fellow

countryman with eyes that hardly trusted their own vision.

An alien amidst the most exclusive and jealous of occidental peoples,

Martyr's abilities and fidelity won a recognition from the successive

monarchs he served, that was only equalled by the voluntary tributes

of respect and affection paid him by the generation of Spanish nobles

whose characters he was so influential in forming. Of all the Italians

who invaded Spain in search of fortune and glory, he was the most

beloved because he was the most trusted. Government functionaries

sought his protection, Franciscan and Dominican missionaries gave him

their confidence and, after he was appointed to a seat in the India

Council, he had official cognisance of all correspondence relating to

American affairs. Prior to the appearance in Spain of the celebrated

Letters of Cortes, Peter Martyr's narrative stood alone. Heidenheimer

rightly describes him: _Als echter Kind seiner Zeit, war Peter

Martyr Lehrer und Gelehrter, Soldat und Priester, Schriftsteller und

Diplomat_. It was characteristic of the epoch of the Renaissance

that a man of culture should embrace all branches of learning, thus

Martyr's observation extended over the broadest field of human

knowledge. Diligent, discriminating, and conscientious, he was keen,

clever, and tactful, not without touches of dry humour, but rarely

brilliant. Scientific questions, the variations of the magnetic pole,

calculations of latitude and longitude, the newly discovered Gulf

Stream and the _mare sargassum_, and the whereabouts of a possible

strait uniting the Atlantic with the Pacific Ocean, occupied his

speculations. Likewise are the flora and the fauna of the New World

described to his readers, as they were described to him by the

home-coming explorers. Pages of his writings are devoted to the

inhabitants of the islands and of the mainland, their customs and

superstitions, their religions and forms of government. He has tales

of giants, harpies, mermaids, and sea-serpents. Wild men living in

trees, Amazons dwelling on lonely islands, cannibals scouring seas and

forests in search of human prey, figure in his narrative. Erroneous

facts, mistaken judgments due to a credulity that may seem to us

ingenuous, are frequent, but it must be borne in mind that he worked

without a pre-established plan, his chronicle developing as fresh

material reached him; also that he wrote at a time when the world

seemed each day to expand before the astonished eyes of men, revealing

magic isles floating on unknown seas, vaster horizons in whose heavens

novel constellations gleamed; mysterious ocean currents, flowing

whence no man knew, to break upon the shores of immense continents

inhabited by strange races, living amidst conditions of fabulous

wealth and incredible barbarism. The limits of the possible receded,

discrimination between truth and fiction became purely speculative,

since new data, uninterruptedly supplied, contradicted former

experience and invalidated accepted theories. The Decades were

compiled from verbal and written reports from sources the writer was

warranted in trusting.

Since geographical surprises are now exhausted, and the division of

land and water on the earth's surface has passed from the sphere of

navigation into that of politics, no writer will ever again have such

material at his disposition. The arrival of his letters in Italy

was eagerly awaited and constituted a literary event of the first

magnitude. Popes sent him messages urging him to continue, the King of

Naples borrowed copies from Cardinal Sforza, and the contents of these

romantic chronicles furnished the most welcome staple of conversation

in palaces and universities. Leo X. had them read aloud during supper,

in the presence of his sister and a chosen group of cardinals. It must

be noted that the form of the Decades did not escape criticism at the

pontifical court, nor did the censures, passed on the liberties he

took with the tongue of Cicero, fail to reach and sting his ears. In

several passages, he defends his use of words taken from the Italian

and Spanish languages. He handled Latin as a living, not as a dead

language, and his style is vigorous, terse, vitalised. He cultivated

brevity and was chary of lengthy excursions into the classics in

search of comparisons and sanctions. His letters frequently show signs

of the haste in which they were composed: sometimes the messenger who

was to carry them to Rome, was waiting, booted and spurred, in the

ante-chamber. Juan Vergara, secretary to Cardinal Ximenes, declared

his opinion that no more exact and lucid record of contemporary events

existed than the letters of Peter Martyr, adding that he had himself

often been present and witnessed with what haste they were written, no

care being taken to correct and polish their style.

The cultivated ears of Ciceronian Latinists--such as Cardinal Bembo

who refused to read the Vulgate for fear of spoiling his style--were

naturally offended by the phraseology of the Decades. Measured by

standards so precious, the Latin of Peter Martyr is faulty and crude,

resembling rather a modern dialect than the classical tongue of

ancient Rome.[2]

[Note 2: Ciampi's comment is accurate and just: _Non si, puo dire

che sia un latino bellisimo. E quale lo parlavano e scriveano gli

uomini d'affari. A noi é, pero, men discaro che non sia ai forestieri,

in quanta che noi troviamo dentro il movimento, il frassegiare proprio

della nostra lingua, e sotto la frase incolta latina, indoviniamo

il pensiero nato in italiano che, spogliato da noi della veste

imbarazzanta ci ritorna ignudo si, ma schietto ed efficace_.]

It is their substance, not their form, that gives Martyr's writings

their value, though his facile style is not devoid of elegance, if

measured by other than severely classical standards. Not as a man of

letters, but as an historian does he enjoy the perennial honour to

which in life he aspired. Observation is the foundation of history,

and Martyr was pre-eminently a keen and discriminating observer, a

diligent and conscientious chronicler of the events he observed, hence

are the laurels of the historian equitably his. Similar to the hasty

entries in a journal, daily written, his letters possess an unstudied

freshness, a convincing actuality, that would undoubtedly have been

marred by the retouching required to perfect their literary style. The

reproach of carelessness in neglecting to systematise his manuscripts

applies more to the collection in the _Opus Epistolarum_ than to the

letters composing the Decades which we are especially considering, and

likewise in the former work are found those qualities of lightness

and frivolity, justifying Sir Arthur Helps's description of him as

a gossipy man of letters, reminding English readers occasionally of

Horace Walpole and Mr. Pepys. Hakluyt praised his descriptions of

natural phenomena as excelling those penned by Aristotle, Pliny,

Theophrastus, and Columella.[3]

[Note 3: Lebrija praised Martyr's verses, declaring him to be

the best poet amongst the Italians in Spain. One of his poems, Pluto

Furens, was dedicated to Alexander VI., whom he cordially detested and

whose election to the papal chair he deplored. Unfortunately none of

his poems has been preserved.]

After a period of partial oblivion, Alexander von Humboldt, in the

early years of the nineteenth century, rediscovered the neglected

merits of our author and, by his enlightened criticism and

commentaries, restored to his writings the consideration they had

originally enjoyed. Ratified by Prescott, Humboldt's judgment has been

confirmed by all subsequent historians.

No further claim is made for this present translation of the Decades

than fidelity and lucidity. Its purpose is to render more easily

accessible to English readers, unfamiliar with the original Latin, the

earliest historical work on the New World.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

EDITIONS OF PETER MARTYR'S WORKS

_P. Martyris Angli_ [sic] _mediolanensis opera. Legatio Babylonica,

Oceani Decas, Poemata, Epigrammata_. Cum privilegio. Impressum Hispali

cum summa diligentia per Jacobum Corumberger Alemanum, anno millesimo

quingentessimo XI, mense vero Aprili, in fol.

This Gothic edition contains only the First Decade.

Two Italian books compiled from the writings of Peter Martyr antedate

the above edition of 1511. Angelo Trevisan, secretary to the Venetian

ambassador in Spain, forwarded to Domenico Malipiero certain material

which he admitted having obtained from a personal friend of Columbus,

who went as envoy to the Sultan of Egypt. The reference to Peter

Martyr is sufficiently clear. The work of Trevisan appeared in 1504

under the title, _Libretto di tutta la navigazione del re di Spagna

de le isole et terreni novamente trovati_. Published by Albertino

Vercellese da Lisbona. Three years later, in 1507, a compilation

containing parts of this same work was printed at Vicenza by

Fracanzio, at Milan by Arcangelo Madrignano in 1508, and at Basle

and Paris by Simon Gryneo. The volume was entitled _Paesi novamente

ritrovati et Novo Mondo_, etc. Peter Martyr attributed the piracy to

Aloisio da Cadamosto, whom he consequently scathingly denounces in the

seventh book of the Second Decade.

In the year 1516 the first edition of the Decades, _De rebus oceanis

et Orbe Novo Decades tres_, etc., was printed at Alcalá de Henares

under the supervision of Peter Martyr's friend, the eminent Latinist,

Antonio de Nebrija, who even took care to polish the author's Latin

where the composition fell short of his own exacting standard. _Cura

et diligentia Antonii Nebrissensis fuerent hæ tres protonotari Petri

Martyris decades impressas in contubernio Arnaldi Guillelmi in

illustri oppido Carpetanæ provinciæ, compluto quod vulgariter dicitur

Alcalà_. Factum est nonis Novembris, anno 1516 in fol. The appearance

of this edition had the character of a veritable literary event and

the success of the work was immediate and widespread. The narrative

covered a period of somewhat more than twenty years, beginning with

the first expedition of Columbus.

Four years later a Fourth Decade was published by its author, this

being the last work he gave to the press during his lifetime. The

earliest known copy was printed in Basle in 1521, the title being _De

insulis nuper repertis simultaque incolarum moribus_. An Italian and

a German edition of the same in 1520 are noted by Harrisse. (Consult

_Bibliotheca Americana Vetustissima_, p. 77, Additions, p. 80.)

_De Insulis nuper inventis Ferdinandi Cortesii ad Carolum V. Rom.

Imperatorem Narrationes, cum alio quodam Petri Martyris ad Clementem

VII. Pontificem Maximum consimilis argumenti libello_. Coloniæ

ex officina Melchioris Novesiani, anno MDXXXII. Decimo Kalendar

Septembris.

The Fourth Decade under the title, _De Insulis nuper inventis_, etc.,

was republished in Basle in 1533 and again in Antwerp in 1536.

_De Legatione Babylonica_, Parisiis, 1532, contains also the first

three Decades. Mazzuchelli mentions an edition of the eight Decades

published in Paris in 1536.

_De Orbe Novo Petri Martyris ab Angleria, mediolanensis protonotarii

Cæsaris senatoris Decades_. Cum privilegio imperiali. Compluti apud

Michælem d'Eguia, anno MDXXX, in fol.

_De rebus Oceanicis et Novo Orbe Decades tres Petri Martyres ab

Angheria Mediolanensis, item ejusdem de Babylonica Legationis libri

ires. Et item, De Rebus Æthiopicis_, etc. Coloniæ, apud Gervinum

Caleniumet hæredes Quentelios. MDLXXIIII.

_De Orbe Novo Petri Martyris Anglerii mediolanensis, protonotarii et

Caroli quinti Senatoris, decades octo, diligente temporum observatione

et utilissimis annotationibus illustratæ, suoque nitore restitæ labore

et industria Richardi Hakluyti Oxoniensis, Arngli_. Parisiis apud

Guillelmum Auvray, 1587.

This edition is dedicated to Sir Walter Raleigh: "_illustri et

magannimo viro Gualtero Ralegho_."

An exceedingly rare and precious book published in Venice in 1534

contains extracts from the writings of Peter Martyr. It bears the

title: _Libro primo della historia dell' Indie Occidentali. Summario

de la generate historia dell' Indie Occidentali cavato da libri

scritti dal Signer Don Pietro Martyre_, etc., Venezia, 1534. Under the

same title this summario is published in the third volume of Ramusio,

_Delle Navigationi et Viaggi_.

An Italian translation of _De Legatione Babylonica_ entitled _Pietro

Martyre Milanese, delle cose notabile dell' Egitto, tradotto dalla

Lingue Latina in Lingua Italiana da Carlo Passi_. In Venezia 1564.

_Novus Orbis, idest navigationes primæ in Americam. Roterodami per

Jo. Leonardum Berevout_, 1616. A French translation of this work was

printed in Paris by Simon de Colimar, _Extrait ou Recueil des Iles

nouvellement trouvées en la grande Mer Océane au temps du Roy

d'Espagne Ferdinand et Elizabeth_, etc.

_The history of Travayle in the West and East Indies, and other

countries lying eyther way towardes the fruitfull and rich Moluccæs.

With a discourse on the Northwest passage_. Done into English by

Richarde Eden. Newly set in order, augmented and finished by Richarde

Willes. London, 1577. Richarde Jugge.

Republished in Edward Arber's work, _The First Three English Books on

America_, Birmingham, 1885.

_De Orbe Novo or the Historie of the West Indies, etc., comprised

in eight decades. Whereof three have beene formerly translated into

English by R. Eden, whereunto the other five are newly added by the

industries and painfull Travails of M. Lok_. London. Printed for

Thomas Adams, 1612.

_The Historie of the West Indies, containing the Actes and Adventures

of the Spaniards which have conquered and settled those countries_,

etc. Published in Latin by Mr. Hakluyt and translated into English by

Mr. Lok, London. Printed for Andrew Hebb. The book bears no date, but

was printed in 1625.

_Opus Epistolarum Petri Martyris Anglerii Mediolanensia_. Amstelodami

Typis Elzivirianis, Veneunt Parisiis apud Fredericum Leonard. 1670.

_De Orbe Novo Petri Martyris Anglerii, regio rerum indicarum senatu,

Decades octo, quas scripsit ab anno 1493 ad 1526_. Edition published

at Madrid by Don Joaquin Torres Asensio, domestic prelate and canon of

the cathedral, in 1892. Two vols. octavo.

_De Orbe Novo de Pierre Martyr Anghiera. Les huit Décades traduites

du latin avec notes et commentaires_, par Paul Gaffarel, Paris.

MDCCCCVII.

WORKS RELATING TO PETER MARTYR AND HIS WRITINGS

PHILIPPI ARGELATI: Bononiensis, _Bibliotheca Scriptorum

Mediolanensium_. Mediolani, MDCCXLV.

PICCINELLI: _Ateneo di Letterati Milanesi_. Milano, 1670.

GIAMMATTEO TOSCANO: _Peplus Italiæ_.

GIROLAMO TIRABOSCHI: _Storia della Letteratura Italiana_. Modena,

1772.

R.P. NICERON: _Mémoires pour servir a l'histoire des hommes illustres

dans la République des Lettres_, Paris, 1745.

GIOVANNI MAZZUCHELLI: _Gli Scrittori d'Italia_. Brescia, 1753-1763.

NICOLAI ANTONII: _Bibliotheca Hispana nova sive Hispanorum

Scriptorum_. Madrid, 1783.

FABRICII: _Bibliotheca Latina mediæ et infimæ latinitatis_. Padua,

1754. _Coleccion de Documentos ineditos para la historia de España_,

tom, xxxix.

JUAN B. MUÑOZ: _Historia, de nuevo mundo_. 1793.

L. VON RANKE: _Zur Kritik neuerer Geschichtsschreiber_. 1824.

A. DE HUMBOLDT: _Examen critique de l'histoire de la géographie du

nouveau continent_. 1837.

WASHINGTON IRVING: _Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus_.

H. HALLAM: _Introduction to the Literature of Europe_. 1839.

WM. PRESCOTT: _Conquest of Mexico; History of Ferdinand and Isabella_.

SIR A. HELPS: _The Spanish Conquest in America_. 1867.

M. PASCAL D'AVEZAC: _Les Décades de Pierre Martyr_, etc. (Bulletin de

la Société de Géographie, tom. xiv. Paris 1857-)

OSCAR PESCHEL: _Geschichte des Zeitalters der Entdeckung_. 1858.

MARTIN FERNANDEZ DE NAVARRETE: _Coleccion de los viajes y

descubrimientos que hicieron par mar los españoles_, etc. Madrid,

1858-59. _Coleccion de Documentos ineditos ... sacados en su mayor

parte del R. Archivo de Indias_. Madrid, 1864.

IGNAZIO CIAMPI: _Pietro Martire d'Anghiera_, in volume xxx of the

_Nuova Antologia_, 1875.

HERMANN SCHUMACHER: _Petrus Martyrus der Geschichtsschreiber des

Weltmeeres_. 1879.

H. HEIDENHEIMER: _Petrus Martyrus Anglerius und sein Opus

Epistolarum_.

J. GERIGK: _Das Opus Epistolarum des Petrus Martyrus_. 1881.

P. GAFFAREL ET L'ABBÉ SOUROT: _Lettres de Pierre Martyr Anghiera_.

1885.

J.H. MARIÉJOL: _Un lettré italien a la cour d'Espagne_. (1488-1526.)

_Pierre Martyr d'Anghera, sa vie et ses oeuvres_, 1887.

H. HARRISSE: _Bibliotheca Americana Vetustissima_. New York, 1866.

_Additions_. Paris, 1872.

J. BERNAYS: _Petrus Martyrus und sein Opus Epistolarum_. 1891.

GIUSEPPE PENNESI: _Pietro Martire d'Anghiera e le sue Relazione sulle

scoperte oceaniche_. 1894.

The First Decade

[Illustration: Cardinal Ascanio Sforza. From the Medallion by Luini,

in the Museum at Milan. Photo by Anderson, Rome.]

BOOK I

PETER MARTYR, APOSTOLIC PROTONOTARY AND ROYAL COUNSELLOR TO THE

VISCOUNT ASCANIO SFORZA, CARDINAL VICE-CHANCELLOR

It was a gentle custom of the ancients to number amongst the gods

those heroes by whose genius and greatness of soul unknown lands were

discovered. Since we, however, only render homage to one God in Three

Persons, and consequently may not adore the discoverers of new lands,

it remains for us to offer them our admiration. Likewise should

we admire the sovereigns under whose inspiration and auspices the

intentions of the discoverers were realised; let us praise the one and

the other, and exalt them according to their merits.

Attend now to what is told concerning the recently discovered islands

in the Western ocean. Since you have expressed in your letters a

desire for information I will, to avoid doing injustice to any one,

recount the events from their beginnings.

A certain Christopher Columbus, a Genoese, proposed to the Catholic

King and Queen, Ferdinand and Isabella, to discover the islands which

touch the Indies, by sailing from the western extremity of this

country. He asked for ships and whatever was necessary to navigation,

promising not only to propagate the Christian religion, but also

certainly to bring back pearls, spices and gold beyond anything ever

imagined. He succeeded in persuading them and, in response to his

demands, they provided him at the expense of the royal treasury with

three ships[1]; the first having a covered deck, the other two being

merchantmen without decks, of the kind called by the Spaniards

_caravels_. When everything was ready Columbus sailed from the coast

of Spain, about the calends of September in the year 1492, taking with

him about 220 Spaniards.[2]

[Note 1: This statement is not absolutely exact, as the funds came

from various sources. Columbus, assisted by the Pinzon brothers of

Palos, furnished one eighth of the amount, or the cost of one vessel.

Two vessels were supplied by the town of Palos, in response to a royal

order; the town owing such service to the crown. The ready money

required was advanced by Santangel, receiver of the ecclesiastical

revenues of Aragon.]

[Note 2: From Palos on August 3d, 1492. The inscription on the

floor of Seville Cathedral reads: _con tres galeras y 90 personas_. It

follows that Peter Martyr's figures are exaggerated, for only Oviedo

amongst early authorities exceeds the number ninety, and he numbers

the united crews at 120 men.]

The Fortunate Isles, or, as the Spaniards call them, the Canaries,

were long since discovered in the middle of the ocean. They are

distant from Cadiz about three hundred leagues; for, according to the

masters of the art of navigation, each marine league is equal to

four thousand paces.[3] In ancient times these islands were called

Fortunate, because of the mild temperature they enjoyed. The islanders

suffered neither from the heat of summer nor the rigours of winter:

some authors consider that the real Fortunate Isles correspond to the

archipelago which the Portuguese have named Cape Verde. If they are at

present called the Canaries, it is because they are inhabited by men

who are naked and have no religion. They lie to the south and are

outside European climates. Columbus stopped there to replenish his

supply of provisions and water, and to rest his crew before starting

on the difficult part of his enterprise.

[Note 3: According to the computations of Columbus, four miles

were equal to one marine league; the Italian mile, assumed to have

been used by him, was equal to 1842 English feet. Fifty-six and

two-thirds miles were equal to a degree.]

Since we are speaking of the Canaries, it may not be thought

uninteresting to recall how they were discovered and civilised. During

many centuries they were unknown or rather forgotten. It was about

the year 1405 that a Frenchman called Bethencourt[4] rediscovered

the seven Canaries. They were conceded to him in gift by the Queen

Katherine, who was Regent during the minority of her son John.

Bethencourt lived several years in the archipelago, where he took

possession of the two islands of Lancerote and Fuerteventura, and

civilised their inhabitants. Upon his death, his heir sold these two

islands to the Spaniards. Afterwards Ferdinando Pedraria and his wife

landed upon two other of the Canaries, Ferro and Gomera. Within our

own times the Grand Canary was conquered by Pedro de Vera, a Spanish

nobleman from Xeres; Palma and Teneriffe were conquered by Alonzo de

Lugo, but at the cost of the royal treasury. The islands of Gomera and

Ferro were conquered by the same Lugo, but not without difficulty; for

the natives, although they lived naked in the woods and had no other

arms than sticks and stones, surprised his soldiers one day and killed

about four hundred of them. He finally succeeded in subduing them, and

to-day the whole archipelago recognises the Spanish authority.

[Note 4: Maciot de Bethencourt. Consult Bergeron, _Histoire de la

première dêcouverte et conquéte des îles Canaries_; Pascal d'Avezac,

_Notice des dêcouvertes ... dans l'ocêan Atlantique_, etc., Paris,

1845; Viera y Clavigo, _Historia gênêral de las islas de Canaria_,

1773; also the works of Major, Barker-Webb, Sabin Berthelot, and Bory

de St. Vincent.]

Upon leaving these islands and heading straight to the west, with

a slight deviation to the south-west, Columbus sailed thirty-three

successive days without seeing anything but sea and sky. His

companions began to murmur in secret, for at first they concealed

their discontent, but soon, openly, desiring to get rid of their

leader, whom they even planned to throw into the sea. They considered

that they had been deceived by this Genoese, who was leading them to

some place from whence they could never return. After the thirtieth

day they angrily demanded that he should turn back and go no farther;

Columbus, by using gentle words, holding out promises and flattering

their hopes, sought to gain time, and he succeeded in calming their

fears; finally also reminding them that if they refused him their

obedience or attempted violence against him, they would be accused of

treason by their sovereigns. To their great joy, the much-desired land

was finally discovered.[5] During this first voyage Columbus visited

six islands, two of which were of extraordinary magnitude; one of

these he named Hispaniola, and the other Juana,[6] though he was not

positive that the latter was an island. While sailing along the coasts

of these islands, in the month of November, the Spaniards heard

nightingales singing in the dense forests, and they discovered great

rivers of fresh water, and natural harbours sufficient for the largest

fleets. Columbus reconnoitred the coast of Juana in a straight line

towards the north-west for no less than eight hundred thousand paces

or eighty leagues, which led him to believe that it was a continent,

since as far as the eye could reach, no signs of any limits to the

island were perceptible. He decided to return,[7] also because of

the tumultuous sea, for the coast of Juana towards the north is very

broken, and at that winter season, the north winds were dangerous to

his ships. Laying his course eastwards, he held towards an island

which he believed to be the island of Ophir; examination of the maps,

however, shows that it was the Antilles and neighbouring islands. He

named this island Hispaniola. Having decided to land, Columbus put in

towards shore, when the largest of his ships struck a concealed rock

and was wrecked. Fortunately the reef stood high in the water, which

saved the crew from drowning; the other two boats quickly approached,

and all the sailors were taken safely on board.

[Note 5: Land was discovered on the morning of October 12th,

Julian calendar. Efforts to identify the island on which Columbus

first landed have been numerous. The natives called it Guanahani and

Columbus named it San Salvador. Muñoz believed it to be the present

Watling's Island; Humboldt and Washington Irving thought Cat Island

more likely, while Navarrete identified it as Grand Turk. Captain G.V.

Fox, U.S.N., published in Appendix 18 to the Report for 1880, the

conclusions he had reached after exhaustive examinations conducted in

the Bahamas, with which islands and their seas long service had made

him familiar. He selected Samana or Atwood Cay as the first land

discovered.]

[Note 6: In honour of the Infante Don Juan, heir to the Castilian

crown. It has, however, always borne its native name of Cuba.]

[Note 7: But for this infelicitous change in his course, Columbus

must have discovered the coast of Mexico.]

It was at this place that the Spaniards, on landing, first beheld the

islanders. Upon seeing strangers approaching, the natives collected

and fled into the depths of the forests like timid hares pursued by

hounds. The Spaniards followed them, but only succeeded in capturing

one woman, whom they took on board their ships, where they gave her

plenty of food and wine and clothes (for both sexes lived absolutely

naked and in a state of nature); afterwards this woman, who knew where

the fugitives were concealed, returned to her people, to whom she

showed her ornaments, praising the liberality of the Spaniards; upon

which they all returned to the coast, convinced that the newcomers

were descended from heaven. They swam out to the ships, bringing gold,

of which they had a small quantity, which they exchanged gladly for

trifles of glass or pottery. For a needle, a bell, a fragment of

mirror, or any such thing, they gladly gave in exchange whatever gold

was asked of them, or all that they had about them. As soon as

more intimate relations were established and the Spaniards came

to understand the local customs, they gathered by signs and by

conjectures that the islanders were governed by kings. When they

landed from their ships they were received with great honour by these

kings and by all the natives, making every demonstration of homage

of which they were capable. At sunset, the hour of the Angelus, the

Spaniards knelt according to Christian custom, and their example was

immediately followed by the natives. The latter likewise adored the

Cross as they saw the Christians doing.[8]

[Note 8: The first report Columbus made to the Catholic sovereigns

was most flattering to the American aborigines. _Certifico a vuestras

altezas que en el mundo creo que no hay mejor gente ni mejor tierra:

ellos aman a sus projimos como a si mismo_. Like most generalisations,

these were found, upon closer acquaintance with native character and

customs, to be too comprehensive as well as inaccurate.]

These people also brought off the men from the wrecked ship, as well

as all it contained, transporting everything in barques which they

called canoes. They did this with as much alacrity and joy as though

they were saving their own relatives; and certainly amongst ourselves

greater charity could not have been displayed.

Their canoes are constructed out of single tree-trunks, which they dig

out with tools of sharpened stone. They are very long and narrow, and

are made of a single piece of wood. It is alleged that some have been

seen capable of carrying eighty rowers. It has been nowhere discovered

that iron is used by the natives of Hispaniola. Their houses are most

ingeniously constructed, and all the objects they manufacture for

their own use excited the admiration of the Spaniards. It is positive

that they make their tools out of very hard stones found in the

streams, and which they polish.

The Spaniards learned that there were other islands not far distant,

inhabited by fierce peoples who live on human flesh; this explained

why the natives of Hispaniola fled so promptly on their arrival. They

told the Spaniards later that they had taken them for the cannibals,

which is the name they give to these barbarians. They also call them

_Caraibes_. The islands inhabited by these monsters lie towards the

south, and about half-way to the other islands. The inhabitants of

Hispaniola, who are a mild people, complained that they were exposed

to frequent attacks from the cannibals who landed amongst them and

pursued them through the forests like hunters chasing wild beasts.

The cannibals captured children, whom they castrated, just as we do

chickens and pigs we wish to fatten for the table, and when they were

grown and become fat they ate them.[9] Older persons, who fell into

their power, were killed and cut into pieces for food; they also ate

the intestines and the extremities, which they salted, just as we do

hams. They did not eat women, as this would be considered a crime and

an infamy. If they captured any women, they kept them and cared for

them, in order that they might produce children; just as we do with

hens, sheep, mares, and other animals. Old women, when captured, were

made slaves. The inhabitants of these islands (which, from now on we

may consider ours), women and men, have no other means of escaping

capture by the cannibals, than by flight. Although they use wooden

arrows with sharpened points, they are aware that these arms are of

little use against the fury and violence of their enemies, and they

all admit that ten cannibals could easily overcome a hundred of their

own men in a pitched battle.

[Note 9: See Henry Harrisse, _Christophe Colombe_, ii., p. 72.

Letter of Simone Verde to Nicoli.]

Although these people adore the heavens and the stars, their religion

is not yet sufficiently understood; as for their other customs, the

brief time the Spaniards stopped there and the want of interpreters

did not allow full information to be obtained. They eat roots which in

size and form resemble our turnips, but which in taste are similar to

our tender chesnuts. These they call _ages_. Another root which they

eat they call _yucca_; and of this they make bread. They eat the ages

either roasted or boiled, or made into bread. They cut the yucca,

which is very juicy, into pieces, mashing and kneading it and then

baking it in the form of cakes. It is a singular thing that they

consider the juice of the yucca to be more poisonous than that of the

aconite, and upon drinking it, death immediately follows. On the other

hand, bread made from this paste is very appetising and wholesome: all

the Spaniards have tried it. The islanders also easily make bread with

a kind of millet, similar to that which exists plenteously amongst the

Milanese and Andalusians. This millet is a little more than a palm in

length, ending in a point, and is about the thickness of the upper

part of a man's arm. The grains are about the form and size of peas.

While they are growing, they are white, but become black when ripe.

When ground they are whiter than snow. This kind of grain is called

_maiz_.

The islanders set some value on gold and wear it in the form of fine

leaves, fixed in the lobes of their ears and their nostrils. As soon

as our compatriots were certain that they had no commercial relations

with other peoples and no other coasts than those of their own

islands, they asked them by signs whence they procured the gold. As

nearly as could be conjectured, the natives obtain gold from the sands

of the rivers which flow down from the high mountains. This process

was not a difficult one. Before beating it into leaves, they form it

into ingots; but none was found in that part of the island where the

Spaniards had landed. It was shortly afterwards discovered, for when

the Spaniards left that locality and landed at another point to obtain

fresh water and to fish, they discovered a river of which the stones

contained flakes of gold.

With the exception of three kinds of rabbits, no quadruped is found in

these islands. There are serpents, but they are not dangerous. Wild

geese, turtle-doves, ducks of a larger size than ours, with plumage as

white as that of a swan, and red heads, exist. The Spaniards brought

back with them some forty parrots, some green, others yellow, and some

having vermilion collars like the parrakeets of India, as described by

Pliny; and all of them have the most brilliant plumage. Their wings

are green or yellow, but mixed with bluish or purple feathers,

presenting a variety which enchants the eye. I have wished, most

illustrious Prince, to give you these details about the parrots; and

although the opinion of Columbus[10] seems to be contradictory to the

theories of the ancients concerning the size of the globe and its

circumnavigation, the birds and many other objects brought thence seem

to indicate that these islands do belong, be it by proximity or

by their products, to India; particularly when one recalls what

Aristotle, at the end of his treatise _De Cælo et Mundo_, and Seneca,

and other learned cosmographers have always affirmed, that India was

only separated from the west coast of Spain by a very small expanse of

sea.

[Note 10: Columbus died in the belief that the countries he

had discovered formed part of the Indies. They were thus described

officially by the Spanish sovereigns.]

Mastic, aloes, cotton, and similar products flourish in abundance.

Silky kinds of cotton grow upon trees as in China; also rough-coated

berries of different colours more pungent to the taste than Caucasian

pepper; and twigs cut from the trees, which in their form resemble

cinnamon, but in taste, odour, and the outer bark, resemble ginger.

Happy at having discovered this unknown land, and to have found

indications of a hitherto unknown continent, Columbus resolved to take

advantage of favouring winds and the approach of spring to return

to Europe; but he left thirty-eight of his companions under the

protection of the king of whom I have spoken, in order that they

might, during his absence, acquaint themselves with the country and

its condition. After signing a treaty of friendship with this king

who was called by his enemies Guaccanarillo,[11] Columbus took all

precautions for ensuring the health, the life, and the safety of

the men whom he left behind. The king, touched with pity for these

voluntary exiles, shed abundant tears, and promised to render them

every assistance in his power. After mutual embraces, Columbus gave

the order to depart for Spain. He took with him six islanders,[12]

thanks to whom all the words of their language have been written down

with Latin characters. Thus they call the heavens _tueri_, a house

_boa_, gold _cauni_, a virtuous man _taino_, nothing _nagani_. They

pronounce all these names just as distinctly as we do Latin.

[Note 11: Otherwise Guacanagari.]

[Note 12: One of these Indians died at sea on the voyage, and

three others landed very ill at Palos; the remaining six were

presented to Ferdinand and Isabella at Barcelona, and were afterwards

baptised.]

You are now acquainted with such details concerning this first voyage

as it has seemed expedient to me to record. The King and Queen,

who, above everything and even in their sleep, thought about the

propagation of the Christian faith, hoping that these numerous and

gentle peoples might be easily converted to our religion, experienced

the liveliest emotions upon hearing these news. Columbus was received

upon his return with the great honour he merited for what he had

accomplished.[13] They bade him sit in their presence, which for the

Spanish sovereigns is regarded as a proof of the greatest friendship

and the highest mark of gratitude. They commanded that henceforward

Columbus should be called "_Præfectus Marinus_," or, in the Spanish

tongue, _Amiral_. His brother Bartholomew, likewise very proficient in

the art of navigation, was honoured by them with the title of Prefect

of the Island of Hispaniola, which is in the vulgar tongue called

_Adelantado_.[14] To make my meaning clear I shall henceforth employ

these usual words of Admiral and Adelantado as well as the terms

which are now commonly used in navigation. But let us return to our

narrative.

[Note 13: The historian Oviedo, who was present, describes the

reception of Columbus at Barcelona. _Hist. Nat. de las Indias_, tom.

ii., p. 7.]

[Note 14: This statement is premature; Bartholomew's appointment

was made considerably later.]

It was thought, as Columbus had moreover declared in the beginning,

that in these islands would be found riches such as all struggle to

obtain. There were two motives which determined the royal pair to plan

a second expedition, for which they ordered seventeen ships to be

equipped; three of these were vessels with covered decks, twelve were

of the kind called caravels by the Spaniards, which had none, and

two were larger caravels, of which the height of the masts made it

possible to adapt decks. The equipment of this fleet was confided

to Juan de Fonseca, Dean of Seville, a man of illustrious birth, of

genius and initiative.[15] In obedience to his orders more than twelve

hundred foot-soldiers, amongst whom were all sorts of labourers and

numerous artisans, were commanded to embark. Some noblemen were found

amongst the company. The Admiral took on board mares, sheep, cows and

the corresponding males for the propagation of their species; nor did

he forget vegetables, grain, barley, and similar seeds, not only for

provisions but also for sowing; vines and young plants such as were

wanting in that country were carefully taken. In fact the Spaniards

have not found any tree in that island which was known to them except

pines and palms; and even the palms were extraordinarily high, very

hard, slender, and straight, owing, no doubt, to the fertility of the

soil. Even the fruits they produce in abundance were unknown.

[Note 15: The evil that has been attributed to Juan Fonseca, Bishop

of Burgos, may exceed his dues, but the praise here and elsewhere

given him by Peter Martyr is excessive and all but unique. That he

cordially hated Columbus and after him Cortes, Las Casas and most of

the men of action in the New World, is undeniable.]

The Spaniards declare that there is not in the whole universe a more

fertile region. The Admiral ordered his work people to take with them

the tools of their trades, and in general everything necessary to

build a new city. Won by the accounts of the Admiral and attracted by

the love of novelty, some of the more intimate courtiers also decided

to take part in this second voyage. They sailed from Cadiz with a

favourable wind, the seventh day of the calends of October in the year

of grace 1493.[16] On the calends they touched the Canaries. The last

of the Canaries is called Ferro by the Spaniards. There is no potable

water on it, save a kind of dew produced by one sole tree standing

upon the most lofty point of the whole island; and from which it falls

drop by drop into an artificial trough. From this island, Columbus put

to sea the third day of the ides of October. We have learned this news

a few days after his departure. You shall hear the rest later. Fare

you well.

[Note 16: The sailing date was Sept. 25, 1493.]

From the Court of Spain, the ides of November, 1493.