had a very handsome mansion, named Gaillart-Bois, in the neighbourhood
of Notre Dame d’Escouys, in Normandy, at which Louis XI made a stay of
two or three days in the month of June 1475, and returned thither also
in the following month and stayed there some time. Spotorno suggests
that his name of Coulon may have been derived from a place so called in
the province of Berri; so that, in addition to the evidence that he was
not of the same name or family with Christopher Columbus, there arises
strong reason to believe that he was in reality a Frenchman:[11] in
which case it becomes probable that an event which has been generally
attributed to him, or to his still more renowned relative François
Caseneuve, would be with greater correctness ascribed to the Genoese
navigator, Christopher Columbus. It appears that, in a letter dated Terra
d’Otranto, 2nd October, 1476 (preserved, according to Bossi, in the royal
archives at Milan), addressed to the Duke of Milan by two illustrious
gentlemen of that city,—the one Guid’Antonio Arcimboldo, and the other
Giovanni Giacomo Trivulzio—the following story is related. It says that
the captain of the Venetian fleet, when stationed off Cyprus to defend
the island, had twice encountered a _Genoese_ ship, called the “Nave
Palavisina,” which he had taken to be a Turkish caracca; and in these
two engagements one hundred and twenty of the Turks and Genoese had been
killed, and in the Venetian squadron thirty had been killed, and two
hundred wounded. The captain appears to have had doubts whether he might
not have done wrong, and caused offence to the duke of Milan, who might
perhaps be an ally of the Genoese: he therefore goes on to say that his
only desire had been to meet with his enemies (the Turks) and plunder
them; and adds, in confirmation of that assertion, that “a year before
he had met with three times as many galleys, who spoke no evil of his
good name, and that he found Columbus with ships and galleys, and had
cheerfully let him pass by, upon which the cry was raised of ‘Viva San
Georgio,’ and nothing further passed between them.” The Columbus here
mentioned is shewn, by the cry of “Viva San Georgio,” and by the general
tenour of the Venetian captain’s letter, to have been a Genoese, and
with a Genoese crew; and as it appears probable that the Caseneuves were
Frenchmen, and would in all probability sail with French crews, it leaves
strong reason to presume that the Genoese captain here mentioned was
Christopher Columbus, who is allowed by all his early historians to have
been engaged in the Mediterranean about the period referred to.
His son, Ferdinand Columbus, distinctly states that, “it was in Portugal
that the admiral began to surmise, that, if the Portuguese sailed so far
south, one might also sail westward, and find lands in that direction.”
The period of Christopher Columbus’s sojourn in Portugal was from 1470 to
the close of 1484, during which time he made several voyages to the coast
of Guinea in the Portuguese service. While at Lisbon he married Felipa
Moñiz de Perestrello, daughter of that Bartollomeu Perestrello to whom
Prince Henry had granted the commandership of the island of Porto Santo.
For some time Columbus and his wife lived at Porto Santo with the widow
of Perestrello, who, observing the interest he took in nautical matters,
spoke much to him of her husband’s expedition, and handed over to him the
papers, journals, maps, and nautical instruments, which Perestrello had
left behind him.[12]
“It was not only,” says Ferdinand Columbus (see _Vida_, cap. 8), “this
opinion of certain philosophers, that the greatest part of our globe
is dry land, that stimulated the admiral; he learned, also, from many
pilots, experienced in the western voyages to the Azores and the Island
of Madeira, facts and signs which convinced him that there was an unknown
land towards the west.” Martin Vicente, pilot of the King of Portugal,
told him that at a distance of four hundred and fifty leagues from Cape
St. Vincent, he had taken from the water a piece of wood sculptured
very artistically, but not with an iron instrument. This wood had been
driven across by the west wind, which made the sailors believe, that
certainly there were on that side some islands not yet discovered. Pedro
Correa, the brother-in-law of Columbus, told him, that near the island
of Madeira he had found a similar piece of sculptured wood, and coming
from the same western direction. He also said that the King of Portugal
had received information of large canes having been taken up from the
water in these parts, which between one knot and another would hold nine
bottles of wine; and Herrera (Dec. 1, lib. 1, cap. 2) declares that the
king had preserved these canes, and caused them to be shown to Columbus.
The colonists of the Azores related, that when the wind blew from the
west, the sea threw up, especially in the islands of Graciosa and Fayal,
pines of a foreign species. Others related, that in the island of Flores
they found one day on the shore two corpses of men, whose physiognomy and
features differed entirely from those of our coasts. Herrera, perhaps
from the MSS. of Las Casas, says, that the corpses had broad faces,
different from those of Christians. The transport of these objects was
attributed to the action of the west winds. The true cause, however, was
the great current of the Gulf or Florida stream. The west and north-west
winds only increase the ordinary rapidity of the ocean current, prolong
its action towards the east, as far as the Bay of Biscay, and mix the
waters of the Gulf stream with those of the currents of Davis’ Straits
and of North Africa. The same eastward oceanic movement, which in the
fifteenth century carried bamboos and pines upon the shores of the Azores
and Porto Santo, deposits annually on Ireland, the Hebrides, and Norway,
the seeds of tropical plants, and the remains of cargoes of ships which
had been wrecked in the West Indies.[13]
While availing himself of these sources of information, Columbus studied
with deep and careful attention the works of such geographical authors
as supplied suggestions of the feasibility of a short western passage
to India. Amongst these, the _Imago Mundi_ of Cardinal Pierre d’Ailly
(Petrus de Aliaco) was his favourite, and it is probable that from it
he culled all he knew of the opinions of Aristotle, Strabo, and Seneca,
respecting the facility of reaching India by a western route. Columbus’s
own copy of this work is now in the cathedral of Seville, and forms one
of the most precious items in the valuable library, originally collected
by his son Ferdinand, and bequeathed to the cathedral on condition of
its being constantly preserved for public use. It contains many marginal
notes in his own handwriting, but of comparatively little importance.
The fondness of Columbus for the works of Pierre d’Ailly, a Frenchman,
has caused a recent French writer, M. Margry, to put forth the empty
pretension that the discovery of America was due to the influence of
French teaching, whereas, not only was the _Imago Mundi_ itself a
compilation from ancient authors, but the first edition was not printed
till many years after Columbus had devoted himself to the purpose
which ended in his great discovery, for his famous correspondence
with Toscanelli, of which I shall presently speak, occurred in 1474.
M. Margry, indeed, _asserts_, but without giving his authority,
that in the Columbian Library at Seville are D’Ailly’s treatises
_printed at Nuremberg in 1472_. This is in contravention of all the
bibliographers—Panzer, Ebert, Hain, Serna Santander, Lambinet, and Jean
de Launoy.
The earliest date assigned to the first edition of the _Imago Mundi_,
is _about_ 1480 by Serna Santander, 1483 (?) by Lambinet, while Jean
de Launoy, in his _Regii Navarræ Gymnasii Parisiensis Historia_,
Parisiis, 1677, tom. ii, page 478, distinctly gives it the date of
1490. Humboldt, who had Columbus’s copy in his hands, and who, as the
subject was especially his own, cannot be suspected of sleeping over
such an important point, adopts De Launoy’s date of 1490, while Lambinet
gives the queried date of 1483 from actual collation with another work
printed in that year, at Louvain, in the very identical type, by John of
Westphalia. In the recently published second volume of the _Ensayo de
una bibliotheca de libros españoles raros_, por Don Bartolomé Gallardo,
is a list of the books in the Columbian Library, but D’Ailly’s _Imago
Mundi_ is not therein mentioned, although his _Quæstiones_, printed much
later by Jean Petit at Paris, a far less important book, is inserted. The
omission is to be regretted, as we might have hoped for some illustrative
comments from the author.
But perhaps it may be suggested that Columbus may have possessed, or
seen, a _manuscript_ copy of Pierre d’Ailly at a yet earlier period.
We will willingly suppose it for the sake of the argument; but even
then the reasoning will fail, for I find that the very portion of the
_Imago Mundi_, written in 1410, which is assumed to have supplied the
inspiration for the discovery of America, and which Columbus quoted in
his letter to Ferdinand and Isabella from Haiti in 1498, is _taken by
Pierre d’Ailly, without acknowledgment, almost word for word, from the
“Opus Majus,” of Roger Bacon_, written in 1267, a hundred and forty-three
years before, as will be seen at page 183 of that work, printed Londini,
1733, fol. See Humboldt, _Examen Critique_, tom. i, pp. 64-70.
Unfortunately Roger Bacon was not a Frenchman, but there remains for
M. Margry the consolatory fact that no Englishman is likely to avail
himself of the circumstance which I have just enunciated, to claim
for his countrymen the honour of having inspired Columbus with the
idea which led to the discovery of America, although, by M. Margry’s
process of reasoning, he might do so if he would. True, Roger Bacon
had been a student in the University of Paris; but this fact did not
communicate the character of French inspiration to the ancient authors
whose statements he quotes. True also (but this is a circumstance either
unknown to or unnoticed by M. Margry), Ferdinand Columbus tells us that
his father was principally influenced in his belief of the smallness of
the space between Spain and Asia, by the opinion of the Arab astronomer,
Al Fergani, or Alfragan, to that effect; and it is further true that
Alfragan is further treated of by Pierre d’Ailly, in his _Mappa Mundi_.
This is a separate work from the _Imago Mundi_, although it happens
to have been printed with it, at a period which we have shown to be
posterior to Columbus’s correspondence with Toscanelli, in 1474.
It follows, therefore, that either: 1st, the great explorer obtained
his knowledge of Alfragan’s opinion through one of the Arabo-Latin
translations, to which he seems to have had recourse during his
cosmographical studies in Portugal and Spain (see Humboldt, _Examen
Critique_, tom. i, p. 83), in which case French influence is eliminated;
or 2ndly, he derived it from a manuscript of Pierre d’Ailly before
1474, which there is no evidence to show; or 3rdly, he derived it
from the printed copy of Pierre d’Ailly, in which case the influence
of Alfragan on his mind could not have been primarily suggestive, but
only corroborative of conclusions to which he had come several years
before that book was printed. And in either of the two latter cases, the
information supplied by Alfragan would not become French because adduced
by a Frenchman, unless we introduce into serious history a principle
analogous to the old conventional English blunder of giving to the toys
manufactured in Nuremberg the name of “Dutch toys,” because imported
through Holland.
The suggestions derived from these works were corroborated by the
narratives of Marco Polo and Sir John Mandeville, whose reports of the
vast extent of Asia eastward led to the reasonable inference, that the
western passage to the eastern confines of that continent could not
demand any considerable length of time. The natural tendency of his
thoughts to nautical enterprise being thus fostered by the works that he
studied, and by the animating accounts of recent adventurers, as well as
by the glorious prospects which the broad expanse of the unknown world
opened up to his view, we find that in the year 1474 his ideas had formed
for themselves a determined channel, and his grand project of discovery
was established in his mind as a thing to be done, and done by himself.
The combined enthusiasm and tenacity of purpose which distinguished
his character, caused him to regard his theory, when once formed, as
a matter of such undeniable certainty, that no doubts, opposition, or
disappointment, could divert him from the pursuit of it. It so happened
that while Columbus was at Lisbon a correspondence was being carried on
between Fernam Martins, a prebendary of that place, and the learned Paolo
Toscanelli, of Florence, respecting the commerce of the Portuguese to
the coast of Guinea, and the navigation of the ocean to the Westward.
This came to the knowledge of Columbus, who forthwith despatched by an
Italian, then at his house, a letter to Toscanelli, informing him of his
project. He received an answer in Latin, in which, to demonstrate his
approbation of the design of Columbus, Toscanelli sent him a copy of a
letter which he had written to Martins a few days before, accompanied by
a chart, the most important features of which were laid down from the
descriptions of Marco Polo. The coasts of Asia were drawn at a moderate
distance from the opposite coasts of Europe and Africa, and the islands
of Cipango, Antilla, etc., of whose riches such astonishing accounts had
been given by this traveller, were placed at convenient spaces between
the two continents.
While all these exciting accounts must have conspired to fan the flame
of his ambition, one of the noblest points in the character of Columbus
had to be put to the test by the difficulty of carrying his project into
effect. The political position of Portugal, engrossed as it was with its
wars with Spain, rendered the thoughts of an application for an expensive
fleet of discovery worse than useless, and several years elapsed before a
convenient opportunity presented itself for making the proposition.
Meanwhile Columbus was not idle. In the year 1477, he tells us, in a
letter quoted by his son, Don Ferdinand, that “_he sailed a hundred
leagues beyond the island of Thule, the southern part of which is distant
from the equinoctial line seventy-three degrees, and not sixty-three,
as some assert; neither does it lie within the line which includes the
west of Ptolemy, but is much more westerly. To this island, which is as
large as England, the English, especially those from Bristol, go with
their merchandize. At the time that I was there the sea was not frozen,
but the tides were so great as to rise and fall twenty-six fathoms. It
is true that the Thule of which Ptolemy makes mention lies where he says
it does, and by the moderns it is called Frislanda._” Whether the Færoe
islands [see ante, page xxiii], or Iceland, was alluded to is uncertain,
for nothing more is known of the voyage than is contained in this letter.
It is moreover supposed by his son, as has been already stated, that he
passed a considerable portion of his time at sea, with one or both of the
famous pirates of the same name, who were so many years engaged in the
Levant; but upon the whole of this portion of his history there rests an
impenetrable cloud of obscurity.
About the year 1480, by the joint labours of the celebrated Martin
Behaim and the prince’s two physicians, Roderigo and Josef, who were the
most able geographers and astronomers in the kingdom, the astrolabe was
rendered serviceable for the purposes of navigation, as by its use the
seaman was enabled to ascertain his distance from the equator by the
altitude of the sun.
Shortly after this invaluable invention Columbus submitted to the king
of Portugal his proposition of a voyage of discovery, and succeeded in
obtaining an audience to advocate his cause. He explained his views with
respect to the facility of the undertaking, from the form of the earth,
and the comparatively small space that intervened between Europe and
the eastern shores of Asia, and proposed, if the king would supply him
with ships and men, to take the direct western route to India across
the Atlantic. His application was received at first discouragingly,
but the king was at length induced, by the excellent arguments of
Columbus, to make a conditional concession, and the result was that the
proposition was referred to a council of men supposed to be learned
in maritime affairs. This council, consisting of the above-mentioned
geographers, Roderigo and Josef, and Cazadilla, bishop of Ceuta, the
king’s confessor, treated the question as an extravagant absurdity. The
king, not satisfied with their judgment, then convoked a second council,
consisting of a considerable number of the most learned men in the
kingdom; but the result of their deliberations was only confirmative of
the verdict of the first junta, and a general sentence of condemnation
was passed upon the proposition. As the king still manifested an
inclination to make a trial of the scheme of Columbus, and expressed a
proportionate dissatisfaction with the decisions of these two juntas,
some of his councillors, who were inimical to Columbus, and at the same
time unwilling to offend the king, suggested a process which coincided
with their own views, but which was at once short-sighted, impolitic, and
ungenerous. Their plan was to procure from Columbus a detailed account
of his design under the pretence of subjecting it to the examination of
the council, and then to dispatch a caravel on the voyage of discovery
under the false pretext of conveying provision to the Cape Verde Islands.
King John, contrary to his general character for prudence and generosity,
yielded to their insidious advice, and their plan was acted upon, but the
caravel which was sent out, after keeping on its westward course for some
days, encountered a storm, and the crew, possessing none of the lofty
motives of Columbus to support their resolution, returned to Lisbon,
ridiculing the scheme in excuse of their own cowardice. So indignant was
Columbus at this unworthy manœuvre, that he resolved to leave Portugal
and offer his services to some other country, and towards the end of 1484
he left Lisbon secretly with his son Diego. The learned and careful Muñoz
states his opinion that he went immediately to Genoa, and made a personal
proposition to that government, but met with a contemptuous refusal; at
any rate, we are positively informed by Fernando Columbus that his father
went to Spain at the close of 1484. A curious surmise is expressed in a
note to Sharon Turner’s _History of England in the Middle Ages_, in which
the supposition is propounded of the possible identity of Christopher
Columbus with a person named Christofre Colyns, who is recorded in
some grants in the Harleian MSS. to have been military commandant of
Queenborough castle, in the isle of Sheppy, in 1484 and 1485. This man
is distinctly stated in the same grants to have held that post in April
1485, and it may be reasonably conjectured that the cessation of his
office would not take place till the accession of Henry VII, in August
in that year, which leaves but little time for his making his way to
Genoa, and subsequently reaching Spain, so as to make his application
to that court. Moreover, the impoverished condition in which Columbus
presented himself at the convent de la Rabida was very incompatible with
the probable pecuniary position of a person, who is described by the
grants in question not only to have held the prominent station already
mentioned, but to have had a ship given him, with an annuity of £100,
and an especial grant of money to enable him to supply himself with
habiliments of war. These considerations, combined with the statement of
Fernando Columbus just referred to, show that the supposition proposed by
Mr. Turner cannot be regarded as tenable.
The interesting story of Columbus’s visit to the Franciscan convent of
Santa Maria de Rabida forms the first incident that we find recorded of
him after his arrival in Spain. It is well known that the lively interest
which the worthy prior of that convent, Fray Juan Perez de Marchena, took
in his guest, was the means, through the anticipated influence of his
friend Fernando de Talavera, of first leading Columbus to the Spanish
court, under the hope of obtaining the patronage of the king and queen.
Talavera, who was prior of the monastery of Prado, and confessor to the
queen, possessed great political interest. Juan Perez took advantage
of this influential position of his friend, and addressed him a letter
by the hands of Columbus, strongly recommending the project of the
latter to his favourable consideration, and requesting his advocacy of
it before the sovereigns. It was in the spring of 1486 that Columbus
first ventured to the Spanish court in the hope of gaining a favourable
audience. On reaching Cordova, however, he had the mortification to
find that Talavera, upon whose influence he mainly relied, regarded
his design as unreasonable and preposterous. The court also was at
that time so engrossed with the war at Granada, as to place any hope
of gaining attention to his novel and expensive proposition out of
the question. At length, at the close of 1486, the theory of Columbus,
backed as it was by his forcible arguments and earnest manner, gained
weight with the most important personage at court next to the sovereigns
themselves. This was Mendoza, archbishop of Toledo, and grand cardinal
of Spain; who, pleased with the grandeur of the scheme and the fervent
but clear-headed reasoning of Columbus, adopted his cause, and became
his staunch protector and friend. Through his means an audience was
procured with the sovereigns, and the result of the interview was the
expression of a favourable opinion, qualified by the necessity of an
appeal to the judgment of the literati of the country. But here again
Columbus found himself in a painful predicament, which it required all
his knowledge and prudence to escape from with safety. He was examined
at Salamanca by a council of ecclesiastics, and had to propound opinions
which appeared to be at variance with the descriptions contained in
the sacred Scriptures, and that at a period when the expression of any
sentiment approaching to heresy exposed its owner to the persecution of
the newly established Inquisition. The ignorance of cosmography, and the
blind conclusions drawn from various misinterpreted texts of Scripture,
formed mighty impediments to the pleadings of Columbus, and he began
to find himself in danger of being convicted not only of error, but of
heresy. One learned man of the number, however, Diego de Deza, tutor
to prince John, and afterwards archbishop of Seville, appreciated the
eloquent and lucid reasonings of the adventurer, and aiding him with his
own powers of language and erudition, not only gained for him a hearing,
but won upon the judgments of some of the most learned of the council.
Nevertheless, so important a question could not be hastily decided;
and the result of the united pedantry and sluggish superstition of the
learned body, was to expose the question to protracted argumentation or
neglect, while Talavera, who was at its head, and from whom Columbus had
hoped to receive the greatest assistance, was too busied with political
matters to bring it to a conclusion. At length, in the early part of
1487, the deliberations of the council were brought to a stand-still by
the departure of the court to Cordova, and were not resumed till the
winter of 1491. During this wearisome period the bustle and excitement
of the memorable campaign against the Moors, with its alternations of
triumphant festivity, together with the marriage of the princess Isabella
to the prince Alonzo, heir apparent of Portugal, were far too engrossing
to admit of much attention being given to the schemes of Columbus.[14]
At the close, however, of the year 1491, the learned conclave appears to
have recommenced its consultations; but upon being called upon by the
sovereigns for a decision, a report was returned to Talavera that the
scheme was considered by the general vote of the junta too groundless to
be recommended. Accordingly Talavera was commanded to inform Columbus
that the cares and expenses of the war precluded the possibility of
their highnesses engaging in any new enterprises, but that when it was
concluded, there would be both the will and the opportunity to give the
subject further consideration. Regarding this as nothing better than a
courteous evasion of his application, he retired wearied and disappointed
from the court, and, but for an attachment which he had formed at Cordova
which made him reluctant to leave Spain, he would in all probability have
repaired to France, under the encouragement of a favourable letter which
he had received from that quarter.
The ensuing period till 1492 was spent in a succession of vexatious
appeals to the Spanish court, during which he had to contend with every
obstacle that ignorance, envy, or a pusillanimous economy could suggest.
At length having overcome all difficulties, he set sail with a fleet of
three ships on the 3rd of August 1492, on his unprecedented and perilous
voyage. The ordinary difficulties which might be expected to occur in
so novel and precarious an adventure were seriously aggravated by the
alarming discovery of the variation of the needle, as well as by the
mutinous behaviour of his crew; and his life was upon the point of being
sacrificed to their impatience, when the fortunate appearance of land,
on the morning of the 12th of October, converted their indignation into
compunction, and their despondency into unbounded joy.