Spain and Portugal—Importance of their commerce in ancient times,
and its decline during the Middle Ages—Trade with the coasts of
Africa—The maritime discoveries of the Portuguese—Expeditions
along the west coast of Africa by order of Prince Henry—Discovery
of Madeira, A.D. 1418—Capes Boyador and Blanco, A.D. 1441—Cape
Verde Islands, A.D. 1446, and Azores, A.D. 1449—Equator crossed,
A.D. 1471—John II. of Portugal—First attempt to reach India
by the Cape of Good Hope, A.D. 1487—Ancient dread of the
Atlantic—Christopher Columbus—His ideas of the form of the
earth, and love for maritime discovery—His visit to Lisbon, and
treatment by the Portuguese—His formal proposal in 1480 to the
crown of Portugal, which is referred to a learned junto who
ridicule his idea—He leaves Lisbon, A.D. 1484; and visits Spain,
A.D. 1485—His kind reception by the prior of the convent of La
Rabida—First interview with the sovereigns of Spain—Its result—The
ridicule he endured—Evidences of an inhabited country to the
West of Europe—Orders given by Ferdinand to provide Columbus
with the vessels and stores necessary for his voyage to the
West—Conditions signed 17th April, 1492—Vessels at last provided
for the expedition—Their size and character—Smallness of the
expedition—Its departure, 3rd August, 1492—Arrival at the Canary
Islands—Great fear and discontent among the crews—Matters become
serious—Contemplated mutiny—Land discovered 12th October, A.D.
1492—Columbus takes possession of the island of Guanahani in the
name of Spain—The first impressions of the natives on Columbus.
[Sidenote: Spain and Portugal.]
[Sidenote: Importance of their commerce in ancient times; and its
decline during the Middle Ages.]
[Sidenote: A.D. 711.]
[Sidenote: A.D. 1340.]
A brief outline has already been furnished of the maritime commerce
of Spain during the time of the Phœnicians and Carthaginians, and of
her trade with Britain, Western Africa, Asia Minor, and the shores of
the Mediterranean. Notice has also been taken of the course adopted by
the Romans to secure for themselves the commerce formerly in the hands
of the Carthaginians, and of the great value of the trade which Rome
ultimately carried on with Spain during the first four centuries of the
Christian era. We have also endeavoured to show that when the Vandals
wrested Spain from the Romans, the maritime trade of the Peninsula
was grievously neglected, and that it did not improve under the
semi-barbarous rule of the Visigoths. Three hundred years afterwards,
when the Saracens established themselves at Cordova, somewhat more
attention was paid to mercantile pursuits; but, throughout the whole
period of the Saracenic rule, the sea-borne commerce of Spain was
insignificant when compared with that of the leading Italian republics.
It is true that the invaders so long as they held Seville kept up some
commercial relations with the East; but the native population of the
country can hardly be said to have done anything worthy of note in
maritime matters, till the alliance by marriage of Ferdinand II. of
Aragon with Isabella of Castile brought nearly the whole Christian
dominion of Spain under one monarchy, and gave renewed life and energy
to its trade with other and distant nations.
[Sidenote: Trade with the coasts of Africa.]
From the commencement of the fourteenth century,[720] the trade
between the kingdom of Aragon and the coast of Africa had been slowly
but surely advancing, as, in spite of their religious differences,
the Christians of the West and the Muhammedans had throughout all
time mutually conceded to each other the same advantages in their
commercial conventions. Thus the Tunisians were allowed to trade as
freely at Barcelona as the Catalans did at Tunis, and the corsairs
of each country found safe refuge in the harbours of both nations.
International arrangements of an intimate character enabled the
ship-owners of Catalonia and Sardinia to enter into many profitable
joint adventures with those of Barbary and Marocco, especially in the
coral and other fisheries, and in the trade of corn, of which Spain
obtained, at a price fixed by treaty, large supplies from the coasts
of Africa.[721] By this time, too, Portugal had become alive to the
advantages to be derived from the discovery of other and distant lands.
[Sidenote: The maritime discoveries of the Portuguese.]
But though the travels of Marco Polo had more than a century before
shown to the nations of Europe the vast extent of the continent of
Asia, and had furnished the means of obtaining clearer ideas of its
unspeakable riches than had hitherto prevailed, the merchants of the
Mediterranean were too desirous of retaining in their own hands the
monopoly of the Indian trade to encourage expeditions which had for
their object merely the extension of geographical knowledge; the
merchants and seamen, who were the chief travellers, having been
induced to restrict their knowledge and experience to their own
classes. Indeed, such commerce as they advocated was essentially
practical, and adventurers who proposed novel channels of trade were
considered visionaries. It is, however, to an enlightened Portuguese
prince that the civilized world is indebted for first setting in motion
those expeditions of discovery, which, throughout the greater portion
of the fifteenth century, and especially towards its close, afforded so
much delight and astonishment to the nations of Europe.
[Sidenote: A.D. 1415.]
[Sidenote: Expeditions along the west coast of Africa, by order of
Prince Henry.]
Soon after the conquest of Ceuta by Dom John I., king of Portugal,
his fifth son Prince Henry, who had been appointed governor of the
conquered Moorish province, directed his attention to an exploration
of the western coast of Africa. Imbued with a spirit for maritime
discovery, this intelligent and accomplished prince was incessant in
his efforts to increase the geographical knowledge of the time. From
his boyhood he had made mathematics and navigation a continual study.
To facilitate his long-meditated voyages of discovery he had fixed his
abode in the kingdom of Algarve on the most elevated point of Cape St.
Vincent, a spot he considered more favourable than any other on the
coast of Spain for his astronomical observations, and where he founded
the town of Sagres.[722] The first expedition undertaken in 1417 with
two very indifferent vessels proved unsuccessful, having only proceeded
five degrees south from its point of departure, the currents at the
mouth of the Mediterranean being alleged as unsurmountable obstacles.
In the following year, however, João Gonçalvez Zarco, and Tristão
Vaz, two gentlemen of rank, annoyed at the difficulties which the
Portuguese mariners raised against any further progress southward, and
anxious to forward the views of their enlightened prince, volunteered
to double Cape Boyador, and to prosecute their voyage to the south. A
gale of wind drove them far away from the coast, and by this accident
they became acquainted with the position of the island of Madeira, of
which they took possession in the name of their sovereign. According
to a well-known tradition this island had, however, been previously
discovered by an Englishman named Machin, moreover had probably been
seen by Hanno or by some of the earlier Phœnician voyagers. Mr.
Major has quite recently shown[723] that there is good reason to
believe in the truth of the story of Machin. The merit, however, of
this important discovery is for all practical purposes due to the
Portuguese, who, thus encouraged, renewed their exertions and obtained
a grant from Martin V. of the dominion over all territories which
might thenceforward be discovered from Cape Boyador to the Indies;
but it was only in 1441 that Cape Blanco was reached. The discovery
of gold dust and the capture of some slaves still further stimulated
a spirit for adventure which had been originally roused by loftier
motives. Various Portuguese merchants of Lagos combined and equipped
six caravels, with which they sailed to the coast of Guinea. By them
the Cape Verde Islands were discovered in 1446; and another somewhat
similar expedition discovered the Azores in 1449. In 1471 the Equator
was first passed, and ten years afterwards the Portuguese founded a
fort and established a trading station on the coast of Guinea for the
purpose of maintaining a permanent commercial intercourse with the
natives.
[Sidenote: Discovery of Madeira, A.D. 1418.]
[Sidenote: Capes Boyador and Blanco, A.D. 1441.]
[Sidenote: Cape Verde Islands, A.D. 1446, and Azores, A.D. 1449.]
[Sidenote: Equator crossed, A.D. 1471.]
From this commercial alliance the Portuguese derived large profits,
while the crown received a considerable revenue from the ivory and gold
the natives offered in abundance in exchange for trinkets and baubles
of European manufacture. The greatest precautions were necessary to
preserve in their own hands the valuable trade they had discovered,
as other nations had indistinctly heard of the enormous profits the
Portuguese were deriving from their commercial intercourse with some
distant and hitherto unknown lands. They were, however, successful in
keeping this secret for a good many years.[724]
[Sidenote: John II. of Portugal.]
[Sidenote: First attempt to reach India by the Cape of Good Hope, A.D.
1487.]
The reign of Dom John II.[725] was likewise conspicuous for the still
wider extension of this spirit of maritime enterprise. Second only to
Prince Henry, this monarch displayed the greatest anxiety to foster
discoveries by sea. He had been taught to believe that, by coasting
along the African continent, a passage to the East Indies might be
discovered; and he not only equipped two small squadrons expressly
for this purpose, but despatched two of his subjects into India and
Abyssinia to find out the route to and between these vast regions, and
to ascertain what advantages the trade of his country might derive from
the knowledge thus acquired. These researches ultimately led to the
discovery of the Cape of Good Hope, in 1487, by Bartholomew Dias. The
rude winds and mountainous waves which assailed that now well-known
promontory led Dias to call it the Cape of Storms; but the king,
sanguine that beyond its rugged shores there would be found the rich
lands of India, gave it the name it now bears. Dias ventured only a
short distance beyond the promontory,[726] and ten years more elapsed
before it was doubled by Vasco de Gama, another still more celebrated
Portuguese navigator.
[Sidenote: Ancient dread of the Atlantic.]
While the Portuguese were striving to reach India by the eastern route,
another navigator, greater than any the world had hitherto produced,
was maturing his plans for endeavouring to reach that cherished land
by a voyage to the West. Hitherto the Atlantic Ocean had been regarded
with wonder and awe. It seemed to bound the then known world with an
impenetrable chaos, a chaos into which the most daring adventurers had
feared to penetrate. “No one,” says Edrisi, an Arabian writer, whose
countrymen for many ages had been the boldest of navigators, “has
been able to verify anything concerning it (the Atlantic Ocean), on
account of its difficult and perilous navigation, its great obscurity,
its profound depth, and frequent tempests; through fear of its mighty
fishes and its haughty winds; yet there are many islands in it, some
peopled, others uninhabited. There is no mariner who dares to enter
into its deep waters; or if any have done so, they have merely kept
along its coasts, fearful of departing from them. The waves of this
ocean, although they roll as high as mountains, yet maintain themselves
without breaking, for if they broke, it would be impossible for ship to
plough them.”[727]
[Sidenote: Christopher Columbus.]
One man was, however, at last found bold enough to brave the dangers
of the broad Atlantic and to force a passage across its troubled
waters. Only a few years before Vasco de Gama started on his voyage
of discovery in the East, a greater and better man had set sail to
the West, in the hopes of thus reaching the fabled land of “Cathay.”
Christopher Columbus, a Genoese, who had been trained from boyhood to
the sea, had long cherished the idea that if he could only penetrate
the mysterious waters of the Atlantic, he would find beyond them and
at less distance than was then supposed, the shores of India, whence
Europe had been so long supplied with its spices and numerous luxuries.
From the translations of the works of Ptolemy, Pliny, and Strabo,
then but recently made known, Columbus obtained all the knowledge the
ancients possessed of geography, a knowledge which, though happily
preserved, had lain buried amid the darkness and tumults of the Middle
Ages, and had been only brought again to light on the revival of
science and letters during the fifteenth century.
[Sidenote: His ideas of the form of the earth;]
Columbus had formed a crude idea of the extent of the waters which
covered the earth; and their presumed limited extent and the shortness
of the distance westward, as he supposed, between Spain and the Indies,
had, no doubt, exercised considerable influence over him in his
determination to fathom the mystery of the Atlantic Ocean.[728]
[Sidenote: and love for maritime discovery.]
[Sidenote: His visit to Lisbon, and treatment by the Portuguese.]
From his earliest youth he had evinced a strong inclination for the
study of geography as well as geometry and astronomy, of which he had
gained a superficial knowledge long before he resolved to push his
fortune from the ports of Spain. Trained to the sea at a period when
its followers were exposed to more than usual dangers by the piratical
habits then prevalent, he had become daring and adventurous, which,
combined with his love for geographical discoveries, rendered him
peculiarly well adapted for the exploration of unknown seas. Genoa, his
native city, was not then, however, in a position to aid his cherished
design, for this republic, once so powerful, had been languishing for
some time under the embarrassment of a foreign and a foolish war.
Falling slowly but surely from her once high estate, her spirit fell
with her fortunes, and she had not the inclination, even if she had had
the means, to enter upon extensive but doubtful adventures. Columbus
had, therefore, to seek aid in other lands. He repaired to Lisbon,
where many of his countrymen had settled; and there, in the full vigour
of his manhood, he took up his residence about the year 1470, and soon
afterwards married a daughter of Bartolomeo de Palestrello, who had
been one of the most distinguished navigators under Prince Henry of
Portugal and the colonizer and governor of Porto Santo.
By this marriage he obtained access to his father-in-law’s journals
and charts, while living with his widowed mother-in-law at Porto
Santo,[729] and these were treasures to Columbus. From these and other
sources he soon made himself conversant with the various distant sea
routes then known to the Portuguese, and learnt also their plans and
conceptions for other voyages still more distant, having been allowed
to sail occasionally with them in their expeditions to the coast of
Guinea. On shore he maintained himself and family by the construction
of maps and charts, an occupation which brought him into communication
with many men of learning and influence, and notably with Pedro
Correa, his wife’s brother-in-law and a famous navigator, and also
with Paulo Toscanelli of Florence, the most learned cosmographer of
the period.[730] The times, too, were favourable to his views. The
discoveries of the Cape Verde Islands and of the Azores, with the
explorations along the coasts of Africa, as far as the Cape of Good
Hope, had inflamed the imaginations of men with visions of other lands
of greater wealth and beauty yet to be discovered, and had again
revived the speculation of the ancients, the imaginary Atlantis of
Plato, and the great oceanic island which the Carthaginians were said
to have found. Columbus, therefore, applied himself with redoubled zeal
to the study of every writer on geography ancient or modern, being
himself firmly convinced that the earth was a sphere or globe, which
might be travelled round from east to west, and that men stood foot to
foot when on its opposite points.
Strabo had already expressed his opinion (following the judgments of
Homer and of Poseidonius) that an ocean surrounded the earth;[731]
and Marco Polo,[732] and perhaps also Sir John Maundeville, had in
the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries visited parts of Asia far
beyond the regions laid down by Ptolemy: from the narratives of
these travellers, Columbus judged that it would not be difficult to
sail from Spain to India on the same parallel, and that a voyage to
the West of no long duration would bring him to that far-famed but
mysterious land. The most eastern part of Asia known to the ancients,
he thought, could not be separated from the Azores by more than a third
of the circumference of the globe, the intervening space being in all
probability filled up by the unknown residue of Asia.[733]
“It is singular,” remarks Washington Irving in his interesting history
of the Life and Correspondence of Columbus,[734] “how much the success
of this great undertaking depended upon two happy errors, the
imaginary extent of Asia to the East, and the supposed smallness of the
earth, both errors of the most learned and profound philosophers, but
without which Columbus would hardly have ventured upon his enterprise.
As to the idea of finding land by sailing directly to the West, it is
at present so familiar to our minds, as in some measure to diminish the
merits of the first conception, and the hardihood of the first attempt;
but in those days, as has been well observed, the circumference of the
earth was yet unknown; no one could tell whether the ocean was not
of immense extent, impossible to be traversed; nor were the laws of
specific gravity, and of central gravitation, ascertained, by which,
granting the rotundity of the earth, the possibility of making the tour
of it would be manifest.”
Several years, however, elapsed before Columbus could make any progress
towards carrying into effect his favourite project. He was himself too
poor to render any pecuniary assistance towards the fitting out of the
requisite expedition; and the government of Portugal was then too much
engrossed in a war with Spain to engage the services of a foreigner in
any peaceful enterprise of an expensive nature. The public mind, also,
though elated by the discoveries which had already been made, was not
then prepared for so doubtful and perilous an undertaking, while the
sailors, who had rarely ventured far out of sight of land, considered
the project of a voyage directly westward into a boundless waste of
ocean as dangerous as it was extravagant and visionary. But when John
II., who had imbibed the passion for discovery from his grand-uncle,
Prince Henry, ascended the throne, a fresh impetus was given to voyages
of discovery. These, as we have seen, were prosecuted with increased
vigour to the south of the Equator and along the shores of Africa, and
soon afterwards preparations were made for extending these voyages
round the Cape of Good Hope, till at last India was reached by Vasco
de Gama, whose celebrated expedition we shall hereafter attempt to
describe.
[Sidenote: His formal proposal in 1480 to the crown of Portugal
is referred to a learned junto, who ridicule his idea.]
It was not, however, till 1480, when the successful application of
the astrolabe[735] to the purposes of navigation removed from the
contemplated expedition of Columbus much of its hazardous character,
that he formally proposed his great voyage of discovery to the crown
of Portugal. He had always felt it to be an enterprise only to be
undertaken in the service of some sovereign state which could assume
dominion over whatever territories he might discover, and which, with
the means of conquest and colonisation at its disposal, would be also
able to spread the Christian religion, a desire which seems to have
been at all times present in his meditations. In this year Columbus
obtained an audience with the king, and, being graciously received,
revealed his plans fully to the monarch. Though the king was at the
time discouraged from entering upon any new scheme of discovery, by
the cost and trouble already incurred in the as yet unsuccessful
exploration of the route along the African coast, he nevertheless gave
a favourable consideration to the scheme of Columbus, and referred it
to a learned junto, who were charged with all questions of maritime
enterprise. This scientific body, however, treated the project as
extravagant, an opinion confirmed by a council composed of the prelates
and persons of the greatest learning in the kingdom. But the junto,
though unwilling to accept the proposal of Columbus, were not slow to
profit by the information he had given to them; and while pretending
to afford him their best attention, despatched a vessel on their own
account to test some of his views. The whole plan failed; the mariners
after sailing for some days to the west of the Cape Verde Islands came
back in terror at the rough weather they had experienced, and the
seemingly vast extent of ocean to be sailed over; and Columbus, justly
indignant at the contemptible treatment he had received, at once took
his departure from such a court and country, to seek elsewhere a patron
surrounded by more honest counsellors.[736]
[Sidenote: He leaves Lisbon, A.D. 1484, and visits Spain, A.D. 1485.]
Broken-hearted, friendless, and almost penniless, he left Lisbon with
his son Diego, then a little boy, towards the close of 1484, and is
supposed to have retraced his steps to Genoa, and thence carried his
proposal to Venice. Receiving no encouragement at either of these
places, he found his way to Spain, in the winter of 1485, and there had
the good fortune to make friends at the ancient convent of La Rabida,
situated not far from the small seaport of Palos in Andalusia.
[Sidenote: His kind reception by the prior of the convent of La Rabida.]
At the gate of this convent the discoverer of a new world stopped to
ask a little bread and water for his famishing boy, and the prior, Juan
Perez de Marchena, happening to pass at the time, was struck with the
dignified, careworn, and poverty-stricken appearance of the stranger,
and, entering into conversation with him, soon ascertained the leading
incidents of his life, and the object of his visit to Spain. The prior
himself, a man of extensive information, who had already paid some
attention to geographical and nautical science, detained Columbus as
his guest, at the same time sending for a scientific friend, Garcia
Fernandez (to whom we are indebted for this account), to converse
with him; and, in the end, the prior’s first impressions were in some
measure confirmed by the ancient mariners of Palos, for they, too, had
heard of strange and rich lands beyond the setting sun. The earnest
manner of Columbus, and his extensive knowledge made, day by day, an
increasing impression on the prior and his friends, till at length in
the spring of 1485, when the Spanish court had reached the ancient city
of Cordova with the view of prosecuting the war against the Moorish
kingdom of Granada, Columbus, furnished with letters of introduction
from the worthy prior, determined to lay his grand scheme before
Ferdinand and Isabella.
[Sidenote: First interview with the sovereigns of Spain.]
[Sidenote: Its result.]
Nearly a year elapsed, however, before Columbus was enabled to obtain
an audience with the sovereigns, and even then his troubles were not
overcome. The king referred his project for consideration to a body
of “learned men,” who met in the Dominican convent of St. Stephen
in Salamanca; and although at this convent Columbus was hospitably
entertained during the course of the inquiry, his theory was received
with incredulity. Nor, indeed, was this surprising. An obscure mariner
and a member of no learned institution could hardly hope to convert at
once to his theory an erudite assembly, most of whom entertained the
impression that he was at the best a mere visionary. “Was it likely,”
exclaimed one of his learned examiners, in a burst of indignant
unbelief, “that there was a part of the world where the feet of the
people who inhabited it were opposite to ours; where they walk with
their heels upward, and their heads hanging down; where the trees grow
with their branches downward; where it rains, hails, and snows upward,
and where all things are topsy-turvy?” “Even ‘admitting’ the earth to
be spherical, it was only,” they said, “inhabitable in the northern
hemisphere, and in that section only was canopied by the heavens, the
opposite half being, in their opinion, a chaos, a gulph, or a mere
waste of water.” One of their objections was indeed amusing: “Should
a ship succeed in reaching,” they argued, “the extremity of India,
she could never get back again, for the rotundity of the globe would
present a kind of mountain, up which it would be impossible for her to
sail with the most favourable wind.”[737]
[Sidenote: The ridicule he endured.]
The sound reasoning, however, of Columbus made a deep impression on
the minds of some of the members of the conference (as especially on
Diego De Deza, afterwards Archbishop of Seville), and the seed thus
sown grew and in time prospered. In the meanwhile, however, he had
much to endure. The affairs of war hurried the court from place to
place, so that any question of less importance than the campaign was
disregarded. His plans, too, when known, were generally scoffed at and
ridiculed as the dreams of one of the wildest of schemers. The very
children of the towns were taught to regard him as a visionary madman,
and pointed to their foreheads as he passed them; though, amid the
sufferings hope long deferred creates, he was, on the whole, generously
treated by the court and his expenses paid while attending on it.
[Sidenote: Evidences of an inhabited country to the West of Europe.]
But while the learned scoffers at his theory had no valid answer to
give to arguments based on facts they could neither refute nor deny,
men of more enlightened views were open to conviction, and saw with
Columbus that as the gales from the West brought to Madeira trees
and canes of an unknown species, there must be some land, and that
too not very far distant, where these trees and canes had grown; and
further, that as other productions were found, evidently the work
of man, the unknown land must be the abode of human beings. Years,
however, elapsed before the sovereigns of Spain could be induced to
adopt means for solving the great problem of a new world in the West;
till, at length, Columbus, wearied with these continued delays, sent
his brother Bartholomew to England to endeavour to persuade Henry VII.
to afford him the means of carrying out his expedition of discovery.
Misfortunes befell Bartholomew on the way. The vessel in which he had
taken his passage having been boarded by pirates, who stripped him of
everything he possessed, he was compelled to live for a considerable
time after he arrived in London in poverty and obscurity, earning a
scanty existence by the construction and sale of sailing charts.[738]
When his circumstances were somewhat improved he obtained an audience
with Henry VII., and presented to his majesty a map of the world,
which bears the date of London, February 13, 1488.[739] He was well
received, and the English monarch appears to have expressed an interest
in the proposals of his brother Christopher, whom he invited to London.
But Columbus could not be induced to leave Spain, perhaps from the
still-cherished hope that he would at last succeed with Queen Isabella,
or from an attachment he had formed with a lady, with whom he had
become acquainted at Cordova.
In February, 1489, Ferdinand and Isabella received an embassy from
Henry VII., with whom they had formed an alliance. It does not,
however, appear that at that time Columbus was in possession of any
reply to the application he had made through his brother Bartholomew to
the English court. When the Spanish sovereigns returned to Cordova, in
May of that year, the proposals of Columbus received their attention,
and steps were at once taken to have the long-adjourned investigation
resumed.[740] But war and other matters again intervened, so that
it was not till the winter of 1491 that Columbus was enabled to
obtain another hearing of his case. This time he was successful.
Notwithstanding the unfavourable report of the learned junto of
Salamanca, an opinion favourable to his enterprise had gradually sprung
up at court, and the sovereigns of Spain were unwilling to close the
door upon a project which might prove highly advantageous to the
nation under their rule. Yet even then no definite orders were given
to provide the necessary means for the expedition, and Columbus had to
submit to another year’s delay.
[Sidenote: Orders given by Ferdinand to provide Columbus with the
vessels and stores necessary for his voyage to the West.]
At length, after ten years’ waste of time in Portugal, and seven
weary years of solicitations at the court of Spain, the conditions on
which the voyage of discovery was to be undertaken were drawn out and
executed. In virtue of these Columbus was nominated admiral, viceroy,
governor and judge of all islands and mainlands he might discover.
He was also constituted admiral of the ocean, with many of the
prerogatives enjoyed by the admiral of Castile; and these honours were
to pass to his heirs and successors for ever. He was further entitled
to reserve for himself one-tenth of all pearls, precious stones, gold,
silver, spices, and of every other article of merchandise, in whatever
manner found, bought, bartered, or gained within his admiralty, less
the cost of production. While he was allowed to contribute one-eighth
part of the expenses in fitting out these vessels, and of all vessels
which might hereafter engage in trade with any country he might
discover, he was also permitted to receive in return an eighth of their
profits.[741]
[Sidenote: Conditions signed April 17, 1492]
These conditions, liberal in themselves, but nothing more than the
Portuguese had granted to their discoverers, were signed by Ferdinand
and Isabella at the city of Santa Fé, in the plain of Granada, on
the 17th of April, 1492, and proclaimed throughout Spain, with the
announcement that Columbus and his heirs were authorized to prefix Don
to their names. Palos was fixed on as the place where the ships were
to be equipped and commissioned, the inhabitants of that place having,
for some reason, been condemned by the royal council to serve the
crown, for one year, with a certain number of armed caravels.
When the royal decree was issued, requiring the Andalusian shipowners
to provide three vessels ready for sea within ten days from the 30th
of April, and to sail in whatever direction Columbus might command,
they refused to furnish them for what they conceived to be a desperate
service; while the boldest of the Andalusian seamen shrunk from a wild
and chimerical cruise into the mysterious regions of an unknown and
stormy ocean; hence many weeks elapsed ere the royal commands could
be carried into effect, nor could the influence of the prior of La
Rabida induce the ship-owners and seamen of Palos to comply with the
decree of their sovereigns. It was only when absolute and threatening
mandates were issued on the 20th of June, ordering the magistrates of
the coast of Andalusia to press into the service any Spanish ships or
seamen they pleased, backed by the offer of Martin Alonzo Pinzon, a
rich and enterprising navigator, to take a large personal share in the
expedition, that the requisite vessels and crews were obtained. His
example, and that of his brother, likewise a navigator of great courage
and ability, and their combined determination to sail with Columbus,
induced many of their relations and friends to embark, so that the
equipment was completed within a month after they had resolved to risk
their lives and fortunes in the expedition.
[Sidenote: Vessels at last provided for the expedition.]
Three vessels were apparently all that Columbus had requested. Two
of them were light barques, called caravels, described, or rather,
from the drawings of the period, delineated as open and without deck
in the centre, rising to a considerable height at the bow and stern,
with forecastles and cabins for the accommodation of the crew. The
third vessel, according to the testimony of Peter Martyr, the learned
contemporary of Columbus, was decked throughout. The only reason
alleged for employing vessels without decks, or open in the waist, on
so hazardous a voyage, was, that from their smallness, Columbus might
be enabled to run close to the shore, and to enter shallow waters and
harbours, advantages which, he thought, overweighed the danger of an
ocean navigation, about which he was comparatively careless. More
likely they were really chosen because larger vessels could not readily
be obtained at Palos.
[Sidenote: Their size and character.]
But though the size and construction of her vessels were thus
accommodated to the short and easy voyages along the coast which they
were accustomed to perform, Spain possessed many larger. One hundred
and fifty years before the time of Columbus, mention is made in an
edict issued by Pedro IV. (1354) of Catalonian merchant ships of two
and three decks, and from 8,000 to 12,000 quintals burden.[742] Again,
in 1419, Alphonso of Aragon hired several merchant ships to transport
artillery and horses, &c., from Barcelona to Italy, two of which
carried one hundred and twenty horses each. Mention is also made of
a Venetian vessel of 700 tons arriving, in 1463, at Barcelona, from
England, laden with wheat, and of a Castilian ship which, in 1497,
conveyed to that port a cargo of 12,000 quintals burden. In fact, then
as now, all the great maritime nations possessed vessels of large
dimensions, although the smaller were comparatively far more numerous
than in modern times, being better adapted to the nature of the voyages
undertaken and the limited extent of maritime commerce.
If therefore Columbus set sail on his expedition with ships the largest
of which, as some writers have imagined, was only from 150 to 200 tons
burden, this must have been from choice, or for the reason just named;
it could not have arisen from ignorance on his part of the kind of
vessels best adapted for his purpose, or of the roughness of the sea
about to be explored, for he had made various voyages on the Atlantic,
had studied with care the logs of the Portuguese navigators in their
discoveries, and had himself visited Iceland,[743] and made a voyage to
the 73rd degree of north latitude, then a region of the ocean all but
unknown. But unfortunately history furnishes no definite account of the
vessels placed under his charge, and no authentic delineation of their
form. In the abridged edition[744] of Washington Irving’s interesting
work, there is, indeed, the representation of a Spanish galley from
the tomb of Fernando Columbus in the cathedral of Seville. But there
is no reason to suppose that this galley is an actual drawing of any
one of the three vessels in which Columbus made his ever memorable
voyage, though it probably represents the ordinary coasting vessel of
the period, or one of those occasionally employed in the trade between
Spain and the smaller Mediterranean ports.
In a small volume consisting only of ten leaves,[745] preserved in the
Grenville library, there are two drawings of vessels said to be copies
of the caravels of Columbus, but unfortunately no description whatever
is given of them; of these, one is given in the edition of Washington
Irving’s work just referred to,[746] with the statement that it is
“the sketch of a galley coasting the island of Hispaniola, from an
illustration contained in a letter written by Columbus to Don Gabriel
Sanchez, treasurer of the king of Spain;” and that “the original sketch
is supposed to have been made with a pen by Columbus.” But the sketch
does not represent the kind of vessel which an experienced navigator,
like Columbus, would have chosen for an Atlantic voyage, when he must
have had more suitable vessels at his disposal.
Though the word “caravel” was generally used to designate vessels of
a small size, in the Mediterranean it was occasionally given to the
largest class of ships of war among the Mussulmans. Thus, in a naval
classification made by King Alphonzo, in the middle of the thirteenth
century, large ships propelled only by sails are described as
Naos;[747] the second class, or smaller vessel, were known as Caraccas,
Fustas, Ballenares, Pinazas, and Carabelas; while boats of the smallest
size, with sails and oars, were called Galleys, Galliots, Tardantes,
and Sactias. To the latter class the vessel said to have been sketched
with a pen by Columbus, and inclosed in his letter[748] to Don Gabriel
Sanchez, evidently belongs. The following delineation from a picture
of the fifteenth century, in S. Giovanni e Paolo at Venice, fairly
represents the ordinary merchant vessel which might, at the time, have
been lying in the harbour of Palos; and her form, not unlike that of a
modern Dutch galliot, is well adapted to encounter in safety the large
rolling waves of the Atlantic.
[Illustration]
[Sidenote: Smallness of the expedition.]
It is surprising how inconsiderable was the equipment for so important
an expedition, but Columbus had evidently reduced his requisitions
to the narrowest limits, lest the expense should create further
impediments in the way of a voyage which had already caused him so
much anxious solicitude. Even until the last moment of his departure
he had numerous difficulties to overcome. The owners of one of the
smaller vessels impressed into the service showed throughout the
greatest repugnance to the voyage, and took an active part in creating
quarrels and contentions among the people employed in her equipment.
Caulkers performed their work in a careless and imperfect manner; the
stores were delayed, and when they arrived were either of the wrong
description, or improperly packed; the sails did not fit; the masts
were not properly rigged; and, in fact, everything had to be effected
by the most harsh and arbitrary measures, and in defiance of bitter
popular prejudice.
[Sidenote: Its departure, 3rd Aug., 1492.]
At length when seamen were found to supply the place of those who,
having enlisted willingly, had been persuaded by their friends to
desert, this ever memorable expedition took its departure on Friday,
the 3rd of August, 1492, Columbus hoisting his flag in the Santa Maria,
the largest vessel of the three; while the second, called the Pinta,
was commanded by Martin Alonzo Pinzon, accompanied by his brother,
Francisco Martin, as pilot; and the third, the Nina, by the third of
the brothers, Vicente Yañez Pinzon. There was besides an officer of
the crown, a notary, usually sent on government expeditions to keep an
official record of all transactions. A physician, Garcia Fernandez,
also accompanied the expedition, together with various private
adventurers, several servants, and ninety mariners, making in all one
hundred and twenty persons.
No pomp and display marked their departure. On the contrary, when
Columbus set sail, he and his crew were so impressed with the solemnity
of the occasion, that they confessed before their priests, as if they
had been doomed men, partook of the communion, and committed themselves
to the especial guidance and protection of heaven, while a deep gloom
spread over the whole community of Palos.
[Sidenote: Arrival at the Canary Islands.]
Columbus is supposed to have taken with him for his guidance a
conjectural chart prepared by Toscanelli of what he presumed to be the
position of the continent of which he was in search. On this map the
coasts of Europe and Africa, from the south of Ireland to the end of
Guinea; and opposite to them, on the other side of the Atlantic, the
supposed extremity of Asia, or, as it was termed, India, are believed
to have been delineated. Marco Polo had, as we have stated, placed
the island of Japan (Zipango) fifteen hundred miles distant from the
Asiatic coast; and Columbus had somehow advanced this island a thousand
leagues further to the East, supposing it to lie in nearly the same
position as Florida.[749] With this view he shaped his course from the
Canary Islands, where he had called for fresh supplies and remained for
three weeks, refitting the Pinta, which had lost her rudder and was
otherwise disabled.
From the Canaries, Columbus set sail early on the morning of the 6th
of September, bidding farewell to these frontier islands of the Old
World, and striking out into unknown seas to discover a New World which
seems destined to eclipse every other nation of ancient or of modern
times. For three days he lay becalmed, and it was not until Tuesday,
the 9th of September, that he lost sight of land. Then the hearts of
the sailors failed them; behind them lay everything dear to them on
earth; before them all was mystery, chaos, and peril.
[Sidenote: Great fear and discontent amongst the crews.]
The cheering hopes held out by Columbus, with the certainty of great
rewards when they reached the land of Cathay, where gold and precious
stones were said to be found in vast abundance, had no effect on these
disconsolate men, many of whom shed tears, while others broke into
loud lamentations, refusing to be comforted. Two days after, they had
lost sight of the Canaries, and when, about one hundred and fifty
leagues to the westward of Ferro, they fell in with the part of a mast,
covered with shells and seaweed, the fears of the trembling crew were
increased; till at length, when, on the 13th of September, Columbus,
for the first time, noticed that the variation of the needle increased
as he advanced to the westward, the great navigator himself became
really alarmed, though he did not make known his doubts and fears.
But the variation of the compass soon attracted the attention of the
pilots and filled them with consternation. The very laws of nature they
thought were changing as they proceeded westward. That instrument they
felt was about to lose its mysterious virtues, and without it they
would, on such a vast and trackless ocean, be lost for ever. Though
Columbus was able to give a plausible if not the correct reason for
the variation, it sufficed to satisfy the pilots and masters, who had
great confidence in his skill and genius, but the ordinary seamen
were not so easily pacified, and it was only when they reached the
favourable trade winds that their fears were somewhat allayed.
Day by day they became more resigned, and as the fine weather and fair
winds continued until they reached the course of the Gulf stream, their
spirits rose almost exultingly, under the impression that the numerous
weeds floating about betokened a near approach to the rich lands of
Cathay. Pilot and seamen alike vied with each other as to who should
catch the first sight of land; and though Columbus felt that they must
still be a great distance from the Florida of which he was in search,
he kept his own counsel. Frequently deceived by the dark clouds which
just before the rising or setting sun in these latitudes often exhibit
the appearance of distant land, the spirits of the seamen began again
to droop. They had advanced farther West than ever man had done before;
still they continued leaving home far away, and pressing onwards into
an apparently boundless abyss of ocean, through which they felt they
should never be able to retrace their course, till at last the fair
wind became in itself a source of the greatest alarm, from a notion
that it always blew from east to west, and that if they attempted to
return, they would never be able to reach the coast of Spain. At last
the seaweed, from being a source of joy and hope, became an object
of alarm. They considered these weeds as proof that the sea was
growing shallower, and then they talked of unseen rocks and shoals or
quicksands, on to which they might be drifted, and be for ever lost far
from any habitable land and beyond the reach of human aid. Then when
Columbus took soundings to appease their fears, and found no bottom
with a deep sea lead, the fact of no depth being found in water where
the surface was covered with weeds, which they supposed grew only on
shore or near land, increased their vague terrors and superstitious
fancies; everything differed, they said, in these strange regions from
the world to which they had been accustomed, and nothing but a return
to their fatherland would abate their terror and discontent.
[Sidenote: Matters become serious.]
[Sidenote: Contemplated mutiny.]
Matters now became very serious. In proportion as they approached
the regions where land should have been found, their impatience and
their fears increased. An open mutiny was feared, and plans were even
arranged that if Columbus should not meet their demands to return
to Spain, they should throw him overboard, and on their arrival at
home spread the report that he had fallen into the sea while engaged
in surveying the stars and signs of heaven with his astronomical
instruments. Though Columbus was not ignorant of these mutinous
intentions, he kept perfectly composed, but consulted seriously with
his pilots as to their position. In the midst of these consultations
they were aroused by a cheering shout from the Pinta of land to the
south-west. Every eye was stretched in that direction, and every voice
confirmed the sight of land. So impressed was Columbus with the fact,
that he threw himself on his knees, and devoutly thanked God for
guiding him in safety to the long-hoped-for shores. But alas, the
morning sun soon put an end to all their hopes. The Cathay of their
dreams was but another evening cloud.
The weather continued delightful; dolphins were now seen in great
numbers, and flying fish in every quarter; these for a time diverted
the attention, and amused the crew, but only for a time; loud murmurs
and menaces were again too frequently heard, until at last Columbus
and his crew were at open defiance and his situation became really
desperate. Matters could not remain much longer as they were; but
fortunately, ere a mutiny actually broke out, the vicinity to land
became so manifest as no longer to admit of doubt. Quantities of fresh
weeds, such as grow in rivers, made their appearance; a few green fish,
found only in the neighbourhood of rocks, were caught; then a branch of
thorn, with berries on it, floated past the ship; and at last a staff,
artificially carved, was picked up, which more than anything else
suggested their vicinity to some inhabited country.[750] The spirits of
the crew revived. Columbus felt certain that land must now be close at
hand. Appearances now authorized the precaution that they should not
sail after midnight. At sunset of the day on which he had issued this
precautionary order, the ships were running rapidly before a strong
easterly wind. When night approached, Columbus took his station on the
highest portion of the castle or poop of his own vessel; hardly an
eye in either vessel closed that night. About ten o’clock he thought
he saw a light glimmering in the distance, but it soon disappeared.
Again it appeared in a sudden and passing gleam. Others saw it as well
as himself; it looked like the torch of some fishing boat, rising and
falling with the roll of the ocean. Steadily they proceeded on their
course till midnight. Soon afterwards the loom of land could be faintly
traced. With feelings of the most intense anxiety they waited for the
dawn. As the first rays of the morning light broke slowly through the
clouds and haze which hung. about the horizon, the land became clearly
visible. The life-inspiring cry of “Land” now rang from ship to ship,
till at last there was no deception: the land lay not more than two
leagues distant. On the morning of Friday, 12th of October, 1492,
the great navigator first beheld one of the many islands which lie
contiguous to a new and now mighty world.
[Sidenote: Land discovered, 12th Oct. 1492.]
The land thus discovered proved to be Guanahani, one of the
south-eastern of the great cluster of the Lucayos or Bahama
Islands,[751] which stretch south-east and north-west from the coast of
Florida to Hispaniola, covering the northern coast of Cuba. There are
few islands more naturally rich or beautiful. The verdure everywhere
is green and luxuriant, and the whole island from the sea looks like
a highly cultivated garden. Well might every one on board of the
expedition feel grateful to Columbus. After all their trials and
dangers, they had at last reached, they thought, the fabled land of
Cathay. We well know how pleasing are our sensations when we again
see green fields and luxuriant trees after a long sea voyage, and
therefore we can conceive the exquisite sense of enjoyment and delight
of Columbus and his crew, when they cast anchor in the roadstead and
surveyed the island they had, at length, reached. It was thickly
inhabited. The natives knew not what to make of the strangers who
had come among them, richly attired, while they were in a state of
perfect nudity. From their attitudes and gestures, as they timidly
issued from the woods, and approached the shore, they were apparently
lost in wonder. The ships they had intently watched from the earliest
dawn of day were supposed to be huge monsters of the sea and their
crews supernatural beings. When the boats landed, they fled in great
trepidation; but by means of friendly signs, and other tokens of
goodwill, a few of the boldest of them were induced to draw near
Columbus and his captains when he unfurled the standard of Spain, and
took formal and solemn possession of the island in the name of the
Castilian sovereigns.
[Sidenote: Columbus takes possession of the island of Guanahani, in the
name of Spain.]
Columbus, from his commanding height, authoritative manner, and
splendid dress, attracted more especially the admiration of the
natives, who frequently prostrated themselves on the earth before
him with signs of adoration. Nor were his men who, only a few days
before, had concocted schemes for massacring him, less subservient.
They thronged around him before he left the ship in their overflowing
zeal, some embracing him, others kissing his hands. Abject spirits,
who had outraged him by their insolence, now crouched at his feet;
and those who had been the most mutinous during the voyage were now
as humble and as ready to lick the dust from his feet as the most
terrified of the natives. The natives soon recovered from their terror,
as no attempt was made to pursue or molest them. Extremely artless and
simple in themselves, the slightest acts of kindness were received with
gratitude, and the toys and trinkets presented for their acceptance
were accepted as gifts from heaven. Beyond cotton yarn, which they
possessed in abundance, and parrots, which were domesticated in great
numbers among them, they had little or nothing to give in return. Their
boats consisted entirely of canoes, formed and hollowed, like those of
the earliest on record, from a single tree, and capable of carrying
from one to fifty persons. Columbus mentions that he saw one which
could have contained one hundred and fifty persons, yet made from the
trunk of a single tree.[752]
[Sidenote: The first impressions of the natives on Columbus.]
The state in which Columbus found the natives is nowhere so well
described as in his own language. Writing to the treasurer of
Ferdinand and Isabella an account of his first voyage[753]—“As soon,”
says he, “as they saw our near approach, they would flee with such
precipitation, that a father would not even stop to protect his son;
and this not because any harm had been done to any of them, for, from
the first, wherever I went and got speech with them, I gave them of
all that I had, such as cloth, and many other things, without receiving
anything in return; but they are, as I have described, incurably timid.
It is true that when they are reassured, and have thrown off this
fear, they are guileless, and so liberal of all they have, that no one
would believe it who had not seen it. They never refuse anything that
they possess when it is asked of them; on the contrary, they offer it
themselves, and they exhibit so much loving-kindness that they would
even give their hearts; and, whether it be something of value or of
little worth that is offered to them, they are satisfied.
“I forbade that worthless things, such as pieces of broken glass, and
ends of straps, should be given to them; although, when they succeeded
in obtaining them, they thought they possessed the finest jewel in the
world.... They took even bits of the broken hoops of the wine barrels,
and gave, like fools, all that they possessed in exchange, insomuch
that I thought it was wrong, and forbade it. I gave away a thousand
good and pretty articles which I had brought with me, in order to win
their affections, and that they might be led to become Christians and
be well inclined to love and serve their Highnesses and the whole
Spanish nation, and that they might aid us by giving us things of which
we stand in need, and which they possess in abundance.
“They are not acquainted with any form of worship, and are not
idolaters, but believe that all power and, indeed, all good things,
are in heaven; and they are firmly convinced that I, with my vessels
and crews, came from heaven, and with this belief received me at every
place at which I touched, after they had overcome their apprehension.
And this does not spring from ignorance, for they are very intelligent,
and navigate all these seas, and relate everything to us, so that it is
astonishing what a good account they are able to give of everything;
but they have never seen men with clothes on, nor vessels like ours.”
Such was the character of the natives whom Columbus found in the
islands of the numerous Archipelago off the south coast of Cuba, and
in those of St. Catharine and Hispaniola, all of which he visited in
his first great voyage of discovery, and claimed as the property of
his sovereigns. In these formal proclamations and in the erection of
the fort, which was afterwards raised on the island of Hispaniola, the
innocent natives took an active part, rendering every assistance in
their power, little dreaming that these acts were the forerunners of
bondage, and of that horrible system of slavery which so long prevailed
in those islands, and still contaminates the soil of the largest of
them all, the only one that now remains in the possession of the crown
of Spain.
FOOTNOTES:
[720] Barcelona, in 1068, led the way by the creation of an
_al-fondech_ (Latin, fundicus), or exchange (Capmany v. i. 26). This
was greatly aided by the privileges given to it by James, king of
Aragon, in 1265, by Pedro III. in 1283, by Peter IV. in 1343, and by
many protections from English sovereigns, such as Edward III. in 1353
(Rymer, “Fœd.” V. v. p. 762).
[721] The original archives of Barcelona give many details of its large
ships about the year 1331 (Capmany V. i. p. 46). In one instance,
thirteen citizens built a “cog” of three decks, called the San
Clemento, which captured several Genoese and Pisan vessels.
[722] See full details of these subjects very carefully worked out in
an admirable “Life of Prince Henry the Navigator,” by R. H. Major,
F.S.A., M.R.S.L., and Keeper of the Department of Maps, British Museum.
Lond. 1868.
[723] Life of Prince Henry, p. 72.
[724] The famous motto of Prince Henry, which his life illustrated so
fully, was “Talent de bien faire.” It is carved on his tomb at Batalha,
of which Mr. Major gives a good engraving, p. 305.
[725] Major, pp. 322-391.
[726] Dias reached a river beyond Algoa Bay, now known as the great
Fish River (Major, p. 345). He discovered the Cape on his return voyage.
[727] Condé, “Historia de la dominación de los Arabes en España, 8vo.
Paris, 1840.”
[728] “Select Letters of Columbus,” edited, with a careful
Introduction, by E. H. Major, Esq., F.S.A., for the Hakluyt Society,
2nd ed. 1870 and “Life of Columbus,” by Washington Irving. Lond. 12mo.
1830.
[729] Columbus also resided some time at Funchal in Madeira, where his
house was still shown (in 1846).
[730] His correspondence with Toscanelli was in 1474 (Major, p. 350).
[731] Strabo, i. c. 3-5; ii. c. 5.
[732] The celebrated travels of Marco Polo have been recently edited
by Colonel Yule, C.B., an accomplished Oriental scholar, who has
shown much ability in arranging the mass of new material for their
illustration which has been discovered during the fifty years since
Marsden’s edition. Colonel Yule completely confirms the general
truthfulness of Polo’s narrative, and shows that the occasional
credulity of the traveller (like that of Herodotus) is mainly due to
the period in which he journeyed. The date of Marco Polo’s absence
from Venice is from 1271 to 1295 (Yule, Book of Ser Marco Polo, the
Venetian, 2 vols. 8vo. 1871).
[733] It seems probable that Columbus was more influenced by what he
heard from Toscanelli of the discoveries of Marco Polo than by anything
else. Martin Behaim, in 1492, constructed a map in which Zipango
(supposed to be Japan) is placed according to Polo’s description, and
it is believed that Columbus had a similar map with him on his first
voyage. A copy of this map, which was nearly, if not quite, the same as
Toscanelli’s, is given in W. Irving, p. 16 (Murray).
[734] W. Irving, p. 60.
[735] This instrument was certainly used by Vasco de Gama in 1497
(Major, p. 393). It was invented by Behaim about the year 1480, with
the aid of two physicians, Roderigo and Josef (Major, “Select Letters
of Columbus,” Introd. p. lvi.).
[736] W. Irving, p. 24.
[737] W. Irving, vol. i. p. 125, where it appears that these learned
men relied chiefly on the authority of the Fathers, Lactantius and St.
Augustine, holding that the views of Columbus were in opposition to
Holy Scripture.
[738] D. G. Spotomo, “Memoir of Columbus,” p. 243.
[739] Ibid. p. 44.
[740] Historia del Almirante, i. cap. 12. Washington Irving, vol. i. p.
137.
[741] Memoir of Columbus, p. 49. W. Irving, vol. i. p. 170.
[742] Capmany, vol. v. p. 58.
[743] It is now certain that Columbus heard in Iceland traditions of
the voyages of Icelanders to “Vinland” (Virginia and Carolina) between
the 10th and the 13th centuries.—Rafn. Antiq. American. Copenhagen,
fol. 1837.
[744] Murray: London, 1830. See frontispiece.
[745] Mr. Major (“Select Letters of Columbus”) has mentioned all the
known copies of this very rare tract.—Introd. p. cviii.
[746] W. Irving (Murray). Ibid. p. lxxxvii.
[747] Columbus calls his own ship the Christopher Nao; and M. Jal,
who has at great length discussed the size of Columbus’s ships on
his voyage, states that Nao was the usual title of an admiral’s
vessel.—Arch. Nav. ii. p. 249.
[748] The letter is entitled “De Insulis inventis. Epistola Cristoferi
Colom ... ad Magnificum dñm Raphaelem Sanxis ... 3 Kal. Maii, 1493,”
(Grenville Collect. No. 6663).
[749] Irving, p. 60.
[750] Many of the documents published by Navarette, are preserved in
the great collection at Simancas, from which Mr. Froude has drawn so
large a portion of the documents for his history.—Journal of Columbus,
Navarette Collection, book i. p. 19.
[751] Mr. Major, in an able article in the Journ. of the Roy. Geograph.
Soc. for 1871, entitled “The Landfall of Columbus,” has examined the
whole question as to the island on which he first landed on October
12, 1492, and has shown that Humboldt, Washington Irving, and himself
(in his edition for the Hakluyt Society of the “Select Letters of
Columbus”) have been in error, and that the island called by the
Indians Guanahani is unquestionably that now called “Watling Island.”
[752] Journal of Columbus, Navarrete Coll.
[753] Major, “Select Letters of Columbus,” p. 7.