APPLICATION OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS AT THE SPANISH COURT.
1492.
Early Discoveries of the Portuguese.--Of the Spaniards.--Columbus.--His
Application at the Castilian Court.--Rejected.--Negotiations Resumed.--
Favorable Disposition of the Queen.--Arrangement with Columbus.--He Sails
on his First Voyage.--Indifference to the Enterprise.--Acknowledgments due
to Isabella.
While Ferdinand and Isabella were at Santa Fe, the capitulation was
signed, that opened the way to an extent of empire, compared with which
their recent conquests, and indeed all their present dominions, were
insignificant. The extraordinary intellectual activity of the Europeans in
the fifteenth century, after the torpor of ages, carried them forward to
high advancement in almost every department of science, but especially
nautical, whose surprising results have acquired for the age, the glory of
being designated as peculiarly that of maritime discovery. This was
eminently favored by the political condition of modern Europe. Under the
Roman empire, the traffic with the east naturally centred in Rome, the
commercial capital of the west. After the dismemberment of the empire, it
continued to be conducted principally through the channel of the Italian
ports, whence it was diffused over the remoter regions of Christendom. But
these countries, which had now risen from the rank of subordinate
provinces to that of separate independent states, viewed with jealousy
this monopoly of the Italian cities, by means of which these latter were
rapidly advancing beyond them in power and opulence. This was especially
the case with Portugal and Castile, [1] which, placed on the remote
frontiers of the European continent, were far removed from the great
routes of Asiatic intercourse; while this disadvantage was not compensated
by such an extent of territory, as secured consideration to some other of
the European states, equally unfavorably situated for commercial purposes
with themselves. Thus circumstanced, the two nations of Castile and
Portugal were naturally led to turn their eyes on the great ocean which
washed their western borders, and to seek in its hitherto unexplored
recesses for new domains, and if possible strike out some undiscovered
track towards the opulent regions of the east.
The spirit of maritime enterprise was fomented, and greatly facilitated in
its operation, by the invention of the astrolabe, and the important
discovery of the polarity of the magnet, whose first application to the
purposes of navigation on an extended scale may be referred to the
fifteenth century. [2] The Portuguese were the first to enter on the
brilliant path of nautical discovery, which they pursued under the infant
Don Henry with such activity, that, before the middle of the fifteenth
century, they had penetrated as far as Cape de Verd, doubling many a
fearful headland, which had shut in the timid navigator of former days;
until at length, in 1486, they descried the lofty promontory which
terminates Africa on the south, and which, hailed by King John the Second,
under whom it was discovered, as the harbinger of the long-sought passage
to the east, received the cheering appellation of the Cape of Good Hope.
The Spaniards, in the mean while, did not languish in the career of
maritime enterprise. Certain adventurers from the northern provinces of
Biscay and Guipuscoa, in 1393, had made themselves masters of one of the
smallest of the group of islands, supposed to be the Fortunate Isles of
the ancients, since known as the Canaries. Other private adventurers from
Seville extended their conquests over these islands in the beginning of
the following century. These were completed in behalf of the crown under
Ferdinand and Isabella, who equipped several fleets for their reduction,
which at length terminated in 1495 with that of Teneriffe. [3] From the
commencement of their reign, Ferdinand and Isabella had shown an earnest
solicitude for the encouragement of commerce and nautical science, as is
evinced by a variety of regulations which, however imperfect, from the
misconception of the true principles of trade in that day, are
sufficiently indicative of the dispositions of the government. [4] Under
them, and indeed under their predecessors as far back as Henry the Third,
a considerable traffic had been carried on with the western coast of
Africa, from which gold dust and slaves were imported into the city of
Seville. The annalist of that city notices the repeated interference of
Isabella in behalf of these unfortunate beings, by ordinances tending to
secure them a more equal protection of the laws, or opening such social
indulgences as might mitigate the hardships of their condition. A
misunderstanding gradually arose between the subjects of Castile and
Portugal, in relation to their respective rights of discovery and commerce
on the African coast, which promised a fruitful source of collision
between the two crowns; but which was happily adjusted by an article in
the treaty of 1479, that terminated the war of the succession. By this it
was settled, that the right of traffic and of discovery on the western
coast of Africa should be exclusively reserved to the Portuguese, who in
their turn should resign all claims on the Canaries to the crown of
Castile. The Spaniards, thus excluded from further progress to the south,
seemed to have no other opening left for naval adventure than the hitherto
untravelled regions of the great western ocean. Fortunately, at this
juncture, an individual appeared among them, in the person of Christopher
Columbus, endowed with capacity for stimulating them to this heroic
enterprise, and conducting it to a glorious issue. [5]
This extraordinary man was a native of Genoa, of humble parentage, though
perhaps honorable descent. [6] He was instructed in his early youth at
Pavia, where he acquired a strong relish for the mathematical sciences, in
which he subsequently excelled. At the age of fourteen, he engaged in a
seafaring life, which he followed with little intermission till 1470;
when, probably little more than thirty years of age, [7] he landed in
Portugal, the country to which adventurous spirits from all parts of the
world then resorted, as the great theatre of maritime enterprise. After
his arrival, he continued to make voyages to the then known parts of the
world, and, when on shore, occupied himself with the construction and sale
of charts and maps; while his geographical researches were considerably
aided by the possession of papers belonging to an eminent Portuguese
navigator, a deceased relative of his wife. Thus stored with all that
nautical science in that day could supply, and fortified by large
practical experience, the reflecting mind of Columbus was naturally led to
speculate on the existence of some other land beyond the western waters;
and he conceived the possibility of reaching the eastern shores of Asia,
whose provinces of Zipango and Cathay were emblazoned in such gorgeous
colors in the narratives of Mandeville and the Poli, by a more direct and
commodious route than that which traversed the eastern continent. [8]
The existence of land beyond the Atlantic, which was not discredited by
some of the most enlightened ancients, [9] had become matter of common
speculation at the close of the fifteenth century; when maritime adventure
was daily disclosing the mysteries of the deep, and bringing to light new
regions, that had hitherto existed only in fancy. A proof of this popular
belief occurs in a curious passage of the "Morgante Maggiore" of the
Florentine poet Palci, a man of letters, but not distinguished for
scientific attainments beyond his day. [10] The passage is remarkable,
independently of the cosmographical knowledge it implies, for its allusion
to phenomena in physical science, not established till more than a century
later. The Devil, alluding to the vulgar superstition respecting the
pillars of Hercules, thus addresses his companion Rinaldo:
"Know that this theory is false; his bark
The daring mariner shall urge far o'er
The western wave, a smooth and level plain,
Albeit the earth is fashioned like a wheel.
Man was in ancient days of grosser mould,
And Hercules might blush to learn how far
Beyond the limits he had vainly set,
The dullest sea-boat soon shall wing her way.
Men shall descry another hemisphere,
Since to one common centre all things tend;
So earth, by curious mystery divine
Well balanced, hangs amid the starry spheres.
At our antipodes are cities, states,
And thronged empires, ne'er divined of yore.
But see, the Sun speeds on his western path
To glad the nations with expected light." [11]
Columbus's hypothesis rested on much higher ground than mere popular
belief. What indeed was credulity with the vulgar, and speculation with
the learned, amounted in his mind to a settled practical conviction, that
made him ready to peril life and fortune on the result of the experiment.
He was fortified still further in his conclusions by a correspondence with
the learned Italian Toscanelli, who furnished him with a map of his own
projection, in which the eastern coast of Asia was delineated opposite to
the western frontier of Europe. [12]
Filled with lofty anticipations of achieving a discovery, which would
settle a question of such moment, so long involved in obscurity, Columbus
submitted the theory on which he had founded his belief in the existence
of a western route to King John the Second, of Portugal. Here he was
doomed to encounter for the first time the embarrassments and
mortifications, which so often obstruct the conceptions of genius, too
sublime for the age in which they are formed. After a long and fruitless
negotiation, and a dishonorable attempt on the part of the Portuguese to
avail themselves clandestinely of his information, he quitted Lisbon in
disgust, determined to submit his proposals to the Spanish sovereigns,
relying on their reputed character for wisdom and enterprise. [13]
The period of his arrival in Spain, being the latter part of 1484, would
seem to have been the most unpropitious possible to his design. The nation
was then in the heat of the Moorish war, and the sovereigns were
unintermittingly engaged, as we have seen, in prosecuting their campaigns,
or in active preparation for them. The large expenditure, incident to
this, exhausted all their resources; and indeed the engrossing character
of this domestic conquest left them little leisure for indulging in dreams
of distant and doubtful discovery. Columbus, moreover, was unfortunate in
his first channel of communication with the court. He was furnished by
Fray Juan Perez de Marchena, guardian of the convent of La Rabida in
Andalusia, who had early taken a deep interest in his plans, with an
introduction to Fernando de Talavera, prior of Prado, and confessor of the
queen, a person high in the royal confidence, and gradually raised through
a succession of ecclesiastical dignities to the archiepiscopal see of
Granada. He was a man of irreproachable morals, and of comprehensive
benevolence for that day, as is shown in his subsequent treatment of the
unfortunate Moriscoes. [14] He was also learned; although his learning was
that of the cloister, deeply tinctured with pedantry and superstition, and
debased by such servile deference even to the errors of antiquity, as at
once led him to discountenance everything like innovation or enterprise.
[15]
With these timid and exclusive views, Talavera was so far from
comprehending the vast conceptions of Columbus, that he seems to have
regarded him as a mere visionary, and his hypothesis as involving
principles not altogether orthodox. Ferdinand and Isabella, desirous of
obtaining the opinion of the most competent judges on the merits of
Columbus's theory, referred him to a council selected by Talavera from the
most eminent scholars of the kingdom, chiefly ecclesiastics, whose
profession embodied most of the science of that day. Such was the apathy
exhibited by this learned conclave, and so numerous the impediments
suggested by dulness, prejudice, or skepticism, that years glided away
before it came to a decision. During this time, Columbus appears to have
remained in attendance on the court, bearing arms occasionally in the
campaigns, and experiencing from the sovereigns an unusual degree of
deference and personal attention; an evidence of which is afforded in the
disbursements repeatedly made by the royal order for his private expenses,
and in the instructions, issued to the municipalities of the different
towns in Andalusia, to supply him gratuitously with lodging and other
personal accommodations. [16]
At length, however, Columbus, wearied out by this painful procrastination,
pressed the court for a definite answer to his propositions; when he was
informed, that the council of Salamanca pronounced his scheme to be "vain,
impracticable, and resting on grounds too weak to merit the support of the
government." Many in the council, however, were too enlightened to
acquiesce in this sentence of the majority. Some of the most considerable
persons of the court, indeed, moved by the cogency of Columbus's
arguments, and affected by the elevation and grandeur of his views, not
only cordially embraced his scheme, but extended their personal intimacy
and friendship to him. Such, among others, were the grand cardinal
Mendoza, a man whose enlarged capacity and acquaintance with affairs
raised him above many of the narrow prejudices of his order, and Deza,
archbishop of Seville, a Dominican friar, whose commanding talents were
afterwards unhappily perverted in the service of the Holy Office, over
which he presided as successor to Torquemada. [17] The authority of these
individuals had undoubtedly great weight with the sovereigns, who softened
the verdict of the junto, by an assurance to Columbus, that, "although
they were too much occupied at present to embark in his undertaking, yet,
at the conclusion of the war, they should find both time and inclination
to treat with him." Such was the ineffectual result of Columbus's long and
painful solicitation; and, far from receiving the qualified assurance of
the sovereigns in mitigation of their refusal, he seems to have considered
it as peremptory and final. In great dejection of mind, therefore, but
without further delay, he quitted the court, and bent his way to the
south, with the apparently almost desperate intent of seeking out some
other patron to his undertaking. [18]
Columbus had already visited his native city of Genoa, for the purpose of
interesting it in his scheme of discovery; but the attempt proved
unsuccessful. He now made application, it would seem, to the dukes of
Medina Sidonia and Medina Celi, successively, from the latter of whom he
experienced much kindness and hospitality; but neither of these nobles,
whose large estates lying along the sea-shore had often invited them to
maritime adventure, was disposed to assume one which seemed too hazardous
for the resources of the crown. Without wasting time in further
solicitation, Columbus prepared with a heavy heart to bid adieu to Spain,
and carry his proposals to the king of France, from whom he had received a
letter of encouragement while detained in Andalusia. [19]
His progress, however, was arrested at the convent of La Rabida, which he
visited previous to his departure, by his friend the guardian, who
prevailed on him to postpone his journey till another effort had been made
to move the Spanish court in his favor. For this purpose the worthy
ecclesiastic undertook an expedition in person to the newly erected city
of Santa Fe, where the sovereigns lay encamped before Granada. Juan Perez
had formerly been confessor of Isabella, and was held in great
consideration by her for his excellent qualities. On arriving at the camp,
he was readily admitted to an audience, when he pressed the suit of
Columbus with all the earnestness and reasoning of which he was capable.
The friar's eloquence was supported by that of several eminent persons,
whom Columbus during his long residence in the country had interested in
his project, and who viewed with sincere regret the prospect of its
abandonment. Among these individuals are particularly mentioned Alonso de
Quintanilla, comptroller general of Castile, Louis de St. Angel, a fiscal
officer of the crown of Aragon, and the marchioness of Moya, the personal
friend of Isabella, all of whom exercised considerable influence over her
counsels. Their representations, combined with the opportune season of the
application, occurring at the moment when the approaching termination of
the Moorish war allowed room for interest in other objects, wrought so
favorable a change in the dispositions of the sovereigns, that they
consented to resume the negotiation with Columbus. An invitation was
accordingly sent to him to repair to Santa Fe, and a considerable sum
provided for his suitable equipment, and his expenses on the road. [20]
Columbus, who lost no time in availing himself of this welcome
intelligence, arrived at the camp in season to witness the surrender of
Granada, when every heart, swelling with exultation at the triumphant
termination of the war, was naturally disposed to enter with greater
confidence on a new career of adventure. At his interview with the king
and queen, he once more exhibited the arguments on which his hypothesis
was founded. He then endeavored to stimulate the cupidity of his audience,
by picturing the realms of Mangi and Cathay, which he confidently expected
to reach by this western route, in all the barbaric splendors which had
been shed over them by the lively fancy of Marco Polo and other travellers
of the Middle Ages; and he concluded with appealing to a higher principle,
by holding out the prospect of extending the empire of the Cross over
nations of benighted heathen, while he proposed to devote the profits of
his enterprise to the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre. This last
ebullition, which might well have passed for fanaticism in a later day,
and given a visionary tinge to his whole project, was not quite so
preposterous in an age, in which the spirit of the crusades might be said
still to linger, and the romance of religion had not yet been dispelled by
sober reason. The more temperate suggestion of the diffusion of the gospel
was well suited to affect Isabella, in whose heart the principle of
devotion was deeply seated, and who, in all her undertakings, seems to
have been far less sensible to the vulgar impulses of avarice or ambition,
than to any argument connected, however remotely, with the interests of
religion. [21]
Amidst all these propitious demonstrations towards Columbus, an obstacle
unexpectedly arose in the nature of his demands, which stipulated for
himself and heirs the title and authority of Admiral and Viceroy over all
lands discovered by him, with one-tenth of the profits. This was deemed
wholly inadmissible. Ferdinand, who had looked with cold distrust on the
expedition from the first, was supported by the remonstrances of Talavera,
the new archbishop of Granada; who declared, that "such demands savored of
the highest degree of arrogance, and would be unbecoming in their
Highnesses to grant to a needy foreign adventurer." Columbus, however,
steadily resisted every attempt to induce him to modify his propositions.
On this ground, the conferences were abruptly broken off, and he once more
turned his back upon the Spanish court, resolved rather to forego his
splendid anticipations of discovery, at the very moment when the career so
long sought was thrown open to him, than surrender one of the honorable
distinctions due to his services. This last act is perhaps the most
remarkable exhibition in his whole life, of that proud, unyielding spirit,
which sustained him through so many years of trial, and enabled him at
length to achieve his great enterprise, in the face of every obstacle
which man and nature had opposed to it. [22]
The misunderstanding was not suffered to be of long duration. Columbus's
friends, and especially Louis de St. Angel, remonstrated with the queen on
these proceedings in the most earnest manner. He frankly told her, that
Columbus's demands, if high, were at least contingent on success, when
they would be well deserved; that, if he failed, he required nothing. He
expatiated on his qualifications for the undertaking, so signal as to
insure in all probability the patronage of some other monarch, who would
reap the fruits of his discoveries; and he ventured to remind the queen,
that her present policy was not in accordance with the magnanimous spirit,
which had hitherto made her the ready patron of great and heroic
enterprise. Far from being displeased, Isabella was moved by his honest
eloquence. She contemplated the proposals of Columbus in their true light;
and, refusing to hearken any longer to the suggestions of cold and timid
counsellors, she gave way to the natural impulses of her own noble and
generous heart; "I will assume the undertaking," said she, "for my own
crown of Castile, and am ready to pawn my jewels to defray the expenses of
it, if the funds in the treasury shall be found inadequate." The treasury
had been reduced to the lowest ebb by the late war, but the receiver, St.
Angel, advanced the sums required, from the Aragonese revenues deposited
in his hands. Aragon however was not considered as adventuring in the
expedition, the charges and emoluments of which were reserved exclusively
for Castile. [23]
Columbus, who was overtaken by the royal messenger at a few leagues'
distance only from Granada, experienced the most courteous reception on
his return to Santa Fe, where a definitive arrangement was concluded with
the Spanish sovereigns, April 17th, 1492. By the terms of the
capitulation, Ferdinand and Isabella, as lords of the ocean-seas,
constituted Christopher Columbus their admiral, viceroy, and governor-
general of all such islands and continents as he should discover in the
western ocean, with the privilege of nominating three candidates, for the
selection of one by the crown, for the government of each of these
territories. He was to be vested with exclusive right of jurisdiction over
all commercial transactions within his admiralty. He was to be entitled to
one-tenth of all the products and profits within the limits of his
discoveries, and an additional eighth, provided he should contribute one-
eighth part of the expense. By a subsequent ordinance, the official
dignities above enumerated were settled on him and his heirs for ever,
with the privilege of prefixing the title of Don to their names, which had
not then degenerated into an appellation of mere courtesy. [24]
No sooner were the arrangements completed, than Isabella prepared with her
characteristic promptness to forward the expedition by the most efficient
measures. Orders were sent to Seville and the other ports of Andalusia, to
furnish stores and other articles requisite for the voyage, free of duty,
and at as low rates as possible. The fleet, consisting of three vessels,
was to sail from the little port of Palos in Andalusia, which had been
condemned for some delinquency to maintain two caravels for a twelvemonth
for the public service. The third vessel was furnished by the admiral,
aided, as it would seem, in defraying the charges, by his friend the
guardian of La Rabida, and the Pinzons, a family in Palos long
distinguished for its enterprise among the mariners of that active
community. With their assistance, Columbus was enabled to surmount the
disinclination, and indeed open opposition, manifested by the Andalusian
mariners to his perilous voyage; so that in less than three months his
little squadron was equipped for sea. A sufficient evidence of the extreme
unpopularity of the expedition is afforded by a royal ordinance of the
30th of April, promising protection to all persons, who should embark in
it, from criminal prosecution of whatever kind, until two months after
their return. The armament consisted of two caravels, or light vessels
without decks, and a third of larger burden. The total number of persons
who embarked amounted to one hundred and twenty; and the whole charges of
the crown for the expedition did not exceed seventeen thousand florins,
The fleet was instructed to keep clear of the African coast, and other
maritime possessions of Portugal. At length, all things being in
readiness, Columbus and his whole crew partook of the sacrament, and
confessed themselves, after the devout manner of the ancient Spanish
voyagers, when engaged in any important enterprise; and on the morning of
the 3d of August, 1492, the intrepid navigator, bidding adieu to the Old
World, launched forth on that unfathomed waste of waters where no sail had
been ever spread before. [25]
It is impossible to peruse the story of Columbus without assigning to him
almost exclusively the glory of his great discovery; for, from the first
moment of its conception to that of its final execution, he was
encountered by every species of mortification and embarrassment, with
scarcely a heart to cheer, or a hand to help him. [26] Those more
enlightened persons whom, during his long residence in Spain, he succeeded
in interesting in his expedition, looked to it probably as the means of
solving a dubious problem, with the same sort of vague and skeptical
curiosity as to its successful result, with which we contemplate, in our
day, an attempt to arrive at the Northwest passage. How feeble was the
interest excited, even among those who from their science and situation
would seem to have their attention most naturally drawn towards it, may be
inferred from the infrequency of allusion to it in the correspondence and
other writings of that time, previous to the actual discovery. Peter
Martyr, one of the most accomplished scholars of the period, whose
residence at the Castilian court must have fully instructed him in the
designs of Columbus, and whose inquisitive mind led him subsequently to
take the deepest interest in the results of his discoveries, does not, so
far as I am aware, allude to him in any part of his voluminous
correspondence with the learned men of his time, previous to the first
expedition. The common people regarded, not merely with apathy, but with
terror, the prospect of a voyage, that was to take the mariner from the
safe and pleasant seas which he was accustomed to navigate, and send him
roving on the boundless wilderness of waters, which tradition and
superstitious fancy had peopled with innumerable forms of horror.
It is true that Columbus experienced a most honorable reception at the
Castilian court; such as naturally flowed from the benevolent spirit of
Isabella, and her just appreciation of his pure and elevated character.
But the queen was too little of a proficient in science to be able to
estimate the merits of his hypothesis; and, as many of those, on whose
judgment she leaned, deemed it chimerical, it is probable that she never
entertained a deep conviction of its truth; at least not enough to warrant
the liberal expenditure, which she never refused to schemes of real
importance. This is certainly inferred by the paltry amount actually
expended on the armament, far inferior to that appropriated to the
equipment of two several fleets in the course of the late war for a
foreign expedition, as well as to that, with which in the ensuing year she
followed up Columbus's discoveries.
But while, on a review of the circumstances, we are led more and more to
admire the constancy and unconquerable spirit, which carried Columbus
victorious through all the difficulties of his undertaking, we must
remember, in justice to Isabella, that, although tardily, she did in fact
furnish the resources essential to its execution; that she undertook the
enterprise when it had been explicitly declined by other powers, and when
probably none other of that age would have been found to countenance it;
and that, after once plighting her faith to Columbus, she became his
steady friend, shielding him against the calumnies of his enemies,
reposing in him the most generous confidence, and serving him in the most
acceptable manner, by supplying ample resources for the prosecution of his
glorious discoveries. [27]
* * * * *
It is now more than thirty years since the Spanish government intrusted
Don Martin Fernandez de Navarrete, one of the most eminent scholars of the
country, with the care of exploring the public archives, for the purpose
of collecting information relative to the voyages and discoveries of the
early Spanish navigators. In 1825, Señor Navarrete gave to the world the
first fruits of his indefatigable researches, in two volumes, the
commencement of a series, comprehending letters, private journals, royal
ordinances, and other original documents, illustrative of the discovery of
America. These two volumes are devoted exclusively to the adventures and
personal history of Columbus, and must be regarded as the only authentic
basis, on which any notice of the great navigator can hereafter rest.
Fortunately, Mr. Irving's visit to Spain, at this period, enabled the
world to derive the full benefit of Señor Navarrete's researches, by
presenting their results in connection with whatever had been before known
of Columbus, in the lucid and attractive form, which engages the interest
of every reader. It would seem highly proper, that the fortunes of the
discoverer of America should engage the pen of an inhabitant of her most
favored and enlightened region; and it is unnecessary to add, that the
task has been executed in a manner which must secure to the historian a
share in the imperishable renown of his subject. The adventures of
Columbus, which form so splendid an episode to the reign of Ferdinand and
Isabella, cannot properly come within the scope of its historian, except
so far as relates to his personal intercourse with the government, or
their results on the fortunes of the Spanish monarchy.
FOOTNOTES
[1] Aragon, or rather Catalonia, maintained an extensive commerce with the
Levant, and the remote regions of the east, during the Middle Ages,
through the flourishing port of Barcelona. See Capmany y Montpalau,
Memorias Históricas sobre la Marina, Comercio y Artes de Barcelona,
(Madrid, 1779-92,) passim.
[2] A council of mathematicians in the court of John II., of Portugal,
first devised the application of the ancient astrolabe to navigation, thus
affording to the mariner the essential advantages appertaining to the
modern quadrant. The discovery of the polarity of the needle, which vulgar
tradition assigned to the Amalfite Flavio Gioja, and which Robertson has
sanctioned without scruple, is clearly proved to have occurred more than a
century earlier. Tiraboschi, who investigates the matter with his usual
erudition, passing by the doubtful reference of Guiot de Provins, whose
age and personal identity even are contested, traces the familiar use of
the magnetic needle as far back as the first half of the thirteenth
century, by a pertinent passage from Cardinal Vitri, who died 1244; and
sustains this by several similar references to other authors of the same
century. Capmany finds no notice of its use by the Castilian navigators
earlier than 1403. It was not until considerably later in the fifteenth
century, that the Portuguese voyagers, trusting to its guidance, ventured
to quit the Mediterranean and African coasts, and extend their navigation
to Madeira and the Azores. See Navarrete, Coleccion de los Viages y
Descubrimientos que hicieron por Mar los Españoles, (Madrid, 1825-29,)
tom. i. Int. sec. 33.--Tiraboschi, Letteratura Italiana, tom. iv. pp. 173,
174.--Capmany, Mem. de Barcelona, tom. iii. part. 1, cap. 4.--Koch,
Tableau des Révolutions de l'Europe, (Paris, 1814,) tom. i. pp. 358-360.
[3] Four of the islands were conquered on behalf of private adventurers,
chiefly from Andalusia, before the accession of Ferdinand and Isabella,
and under their reign were held as the property of a noble Castilian
family, named Peraza. The sovereigns sent a considerable armament from
Seville in 1480, which subdued the great island of Canary on behalf of the
crown, and another in 1493, which effected the reduction of Palma and
Teneriffe after a sturdy resistance from the natives. Bernaldez postpones
the last conquest to 1495. Salazar de Mendoza, Monarquía, tom. i. pp. 347-
349.--Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, pp. 136, 203.--Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos,
MS., cap. 64, 65, 66, 133.--Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. i.
Introd., sec. 28.
[4] Among the provisions of the sovereigns enacted previous to the present
date, may be noted those for regulating the coin and weights; for opening
a free trade between Castile and Aragon; for security to Genoese and
Venetian trading vessels; for safe conduct to mariners and fishermen; for
privileges to the seamen of Palos; for prohibiting the plunder of vessels
wrecked on the coast; and an ordinance of the very last year, requiring
foreigners to take their return cargoes in the products of the country.
See these laws as extracted from the Ordenanças Reales and the various
public archives, in Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Ilust. 11.
[5] Zuñiga, Annales de Sevilla, pp. 373, 374, 398.--Zurita, Anales, tom.
iv. lib. 20, cap. 30, 34.--Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages.
[6] Spotorno, Memorials of Columbus, (London, 1823,) p. 14.--Senarega,
apud Muratori, Rerum Ital. Script., tom. xxiv. p. 535.--Antonio Gallo, De
Navigatione Columbi, apud Muratori, Rerum Ital. Script., tom. xxiii. p.
202.
It is very generally agreed that the father of Columbus exercised the
craft of a wool-carder, or weaver. The admiral's son Ferdinand, after some
speculation on the genealogy of his illustrious parent, concludes with
remarking, that, after all, a noble descent would confer less lustre on
him than to have sprung from such a father; a philosophical sentiment,
indicating pretty strongly that he had no great ancestry to boast of.
Ferdinand finds something extremely mysterious and typical in his father's
name of _Columbus_, signifying a _dove_, in token of his being ordained to
"carry the olive-branch and oil of baptism over the ocean, like Noah's
dove, to denote the peace and union of the heathen people with the church,
after they had been shut up in the ark of darkness and confusion."
Fernando Colon, Historia del Almirante, cap. 1, 2, apud Barcia,
Historiadores Primitivos de las Indian Occidentals, (Madrid, 1749,) tom.
i., tom. i. Introd., sec. 21, 24.--Ferreras, Hist. d'Espagne, tom. vii. p.
548.
[7] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 131.--Muñoz, Historia del Nuevo-
Mundo, (Madrid, 1793,) lib. 2, sec. 13.
There are no sufficient data for determining the period of Columbus's
birth. The learned Muñoz places it in 1446. (Hist. del Nuevo-Mundo, lib.
2, sec. 12.) Navarrete, who has weighed the various authorities with
caution, seems inclined to remove it back eight or ten years further,
resting chiefly on a remark of Bernaldez, that he died in 1506, "in a good
old age, at the age of seventy, a little more or less." (Cap. 131.) The
expression is somewhat vague. In order to reconcile the facts with this
hypothesis, Navarrete is compelled to reject, as a chirographical blunder,
a passage in a letter of the admiral, placing his birth in 1456, and to
distort another passage in his book of "Prophecies," which, if literally
taken, would seem to establish his birth near the time assigned by Muñoz.
Incidental allusions in some other authorities, speaking of Columbus's old
age at or near the time of his death, strongly corroborate Navarrete's
inference. (See Coleccion de Viages, tom. i. Introd., sec. 54.)--Mr.
Irving seems willing to rely exclusively on the authority of Bernaldez.
[8] Antonio de Herrera, Historia General de las Indias Occidentales,
(Amberes, 1728,) tom. i. dec. 1, lib. 1, cap. 7.--Gomara, Historia de las
Indias, cap. 14, apud Barcia, Hist. Primitivos, tom. ii.--Bernaldez, Reyes
Católicos, MS., cap. 118.--Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. i.
Introd., sec. 30.
Ferdinand Columbus enumerates three grounds on which his father's
conviction of land in the west was founded. First, natural reason,--or
conclusions drawn from science; secondly, authority of writers,--amounting
to little more than vague speculations of the ancients; thirdly, testimony
of sailors, comprehending, in addition to popular rumors of land described
in western voyages, such relics as appeared to have floated to the
European shores from the other side of the Atlantic. Hist. del Almirante,
cap. 6-8.
[9] None of the intimations are so precise as that contained in the well-
known lines of Seneca's Medea,
"Venient annuis saecula," etc.,
although, when regarded as a mere poetical vagary, it has not the weight
which belongs to more serious suggestions, of similar import, in the
writings of Aristotle and Strabo. The various allusions in the ancient
classic writers to an undiscovered world form the subject of an elaborate
essay in the Memorias da Acad. Real das Sciencias de Lisboa, (tom. v. pp.
101-112,) and are embodied, in much greater detail, in the first section
of Hnmboldt's "Histoire de la Géographie du Nouveau Continent;" a work in
which the author, with his usual acuteness, has successfully applied the
vast stores of his erudition and experience to the illustration of many
interesting points connected with the discovery of the New World, and the
personal history of Columbus.
[10] It is probably the knowledge of this which has led some writers to
impute part of his work to the learned Marsilio Ficino, and others, with
still less charity and probability, to refer the authorship of the whole
to Politian. Comp. Tasso, Opere, (Venezia, 1735-42,) tom. x. p. 129.--and
Crescimbeni, Istoria della Volgar Poesia, (Venezia, 1731,) tom. iii. pp.
273, 274.
[11] Pulci, Morgante Maggiore, canto 25, st. 229, 230.--I have used blank
verse, as affording facility for a more literal version than the
corresponding _ottava rima_ of the original. This passage of Pulci,
which has not fallen under the notice of Humboldt, or any other writer on
the same subject whom I have consulted, affords, probably, the most
circumstantial prediction that is to be found of the existence of a
western world. Dante, two centuries before, had intimated more vaguely his
belief in an undiscovered quarter of the globe.
"De' vostri sensi, ch' è del rimanente,
Non vogliate negar l'esperienza,
Diretro al sol, del mondo senza gente."
Inferno, cant. 26, v. 115.
[12] Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. ii., Col. Dipl., no. 1.--Muñoz,
Hist. del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 2, sec. 17.--It is singular that Columbus, in
his visit to Iceland, in 1477, (see Fernando Colon, Hist. del Almirante,
cap. 4,) should have learned nothing of the Scandinavian voyages to the
northern shores of America in the tenth and following centuries; yet if he
was acquainted with them, it appears equally surprising that he should not
have adduced the fact in support of his own hypothesis of the existence of
land in the west; and that he should have taken a route so different from
that of his predecessors in the path of discovery. It may be, however, as
M. de Humboldt has well remarked, that the information he obtained in
Iceland was too vague to suggest the idea, that the lands thus discovered
by the Northmen had any connection with the Indies, of which he was in
pursuit. In Columbus's day, indeed, so little was understood of the true
position of these countries, that Greenland is laid down on the maps in
the European seas, and as a peninsular prolongation of Scandinavia. See
Humboldt, Géographie du Nouveau Continent, tom. ii. pp. 118, 125.
[13] Herrera, Indias Occidentals, tom. i. dec. 1, lib. 1, cap. 7.--Muñoz,
Hist. del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 2, sec. 19.--Gomara, Hist. de las Indias, cap.
15.--Benzoni, Novi Orbis Historia, lib. 1, cap. 6.--Fernando Colon, Hist.
del Almirante, cap. 10.--Faria y Sousa, Europa Portuguesa, tom. ii. part.
3, cap. 4.
[14] Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., dial. de Talavera.
[15] Salazar de Mendoza, Crón. del Gran Cardenal, p. 214.--Herrera, Indias
Occidentales, tom. i. dec. 1, lib. 1, cap. 8.--Fernando Colon, Hist. del
Almirante, cap. 11.
[16] Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 1, lib. 1, cap. 8.--Zuñiga,
Annales de Sevilla, p. 104.--Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. i. sec.
60, 61, tom. ii., Col. Dipl., nos. 2, 4.
[17] This prelate, Diego de Deza, was born of poor but respectable
parents, at Toro. He early entered the Dominican order, where his learning
and exemplary life recommended him to the notice of the sovereigns, who
called him to court to take charge of Prince John's education. He was
afterwards raised, through the usual course of episcopal preferment, to
the metropolitan see of Seville. His situation, as confessor of Ferdinand,
gave him great influence over that monarch, with whom he appears to have
maintained an intimate correspondence, to the day of his death. Oviedo,
Quincuagenas, MS., dial. de Deza.
[18] Fernando Colon, Hist. del Almirante, cap. 11.--Salazar de Mendoza,
Crón. del Gran Cardenal, p. 215.--Muñoz, Hist. del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 2,
sec. 25, 29.--Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. i., Introd., sec. 60.
[19] Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 1, lib. 1, cap. 8.--Muñoz, Hist.
del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 2, sec. 27.--Spotorno, Memorials of Columbus, pp.
31-33.--The last dates the application to Genoa prior to that to Portugal.
A letter from the duke of Medina Celi to the cardinal of Spain, dated 19th
March, 1493, refers to his entertaining Columbus as his guest for two
years. It is very difficult to determine the date of these two years. If
Herrera is correct in the statement, that, after a five years' residence
at court, whose commencement he had previously referred to 1484, he
carried his proposals to the duke of Medina Celi, (see cap. 7, 8.) the two
years may have intervened between 1489-1491. Navarrete places them between
the departure from Portugal and the first application to the court of
Castile, in 1486. Some other writers, and among them Muñoz and Irving,
referring his application to Genoa to 1485, and his first appearance in
Spain to a subsequent period, make no provision for the residence with the
duke of Medina Celi. Mr. Irving indeed is betrayed into a chronological
inaccuracy, in speaking of a seven years' residence at the court in 1491,
which he had previously noticed as having before begun in 1486. (Life of
Columbus, (London, 1828,) comp. vol. i. pp. 109, 141.) In fact, the
discrepancies among the earliest authorities are such as to render
hopeless any attempt to settle with precision the chronology of Columbus's
movements previous to his first voyage.
[20] Ferreras, Hist. d'Espagne, tom. viii. pp. 129, 130.--Muñoz, Hist. del
Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 2, sec. 31.--Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 1, lib.
1, cap. 8.--Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. i., Introd., sec. 60.
[21] Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 1, lib. 1, cap. 8.--Primer Viage
de Colon, apud Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. i. pp. 2, 117.--
Fernando Colon, Hist. del Almirante, cap. 13.
[22] Muñoz, Hist. del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 2, sec. 28, 29.--Fernando Colon,
Hist. del Almirante, ubi supra.
[23] Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 1, lib. 1, cap. 8.--Muñoz, Hist.
del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 2, sec. 32, 33.--Fernando Colon, Hist. del
Almirante, cap. 14.--Gomara, Hist. de las Indias, cap. 15.
[24] Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. ii., Col. Diplomat., nos. 5, 6.
--Zuñiga, Annales de Sevilla, p. 412.--Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii.
p. 605.
[25] Peter Martyr, De Rebus Oceanicis et Novo Orbe, (Coloniae, 1574,) dec.
1, lib. 1.--Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. ii., Col. Diplomat., nos.
7, 8, 9, 10, 12.--Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 1, lib. 1, cap. 9.--
Fernando Colon, Hist. del Almirante, cap. 14.--Muñoz, Hist. del Nuevo-
Mundo, lib. 2, sec. 33.--Benzoni, Novi Orbis Hist., lib. 1, cap. 6.--
Gomara, Hist. de las Indias, cap. 15.
The expression in the text will not seem too strong, even admitting the
previous discoveries of the Northmen, which were made in so much higher
latitudes. Humboldt has well shown the probability, _a priori_, of
such discoveries, made in a narrow part of the Atlantic, where the
Orcades, the Feroe Islands, Iceland, and Greenland afforded the voyager so
many intermediate stations, at moderate distances from each other.
(Géographie du Nouveau Continent, tom. ii. pp. 183 et seq.) The
publication of the original Scandinavian MSS., (of which imperfect notices
and selections, only, have hitherto found their way into the world,) by
the Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries, at Copenhagen, is a matter of
the deepest interest; and it is fortunate that it is to be conducted under
auspices, which must insure its execution in the most faithful and able
manner. It may be doubted, however, whether the declaration of the
Prospectus, that "it was the knowledge of the Scandinavian voyages, in all
probability, which prompted the expedition of Columbus," can ever be
established. His personal history furnishes strong internal evidence to
the contrary.
[26] How strikingly are the forlorn condition and indomitable energy of
Columbus depicted in the following noble verses of Chiabrera;
"Certo da cor, ch' alto destin non scelse,
Son l' imprese magnanime neglette;
Ma le bell' alme alle bell' opre elette
Sanno gioir nelle fatiche eccelse;
Nè biasnio popolar, frale catena,
Spirto d'onore, il suo cammin reffrena.
Così lunga stagion per modi indegni
Europa disprezzò l'inclita speme,
Schernendo il vulgo, e seco i Regi insieme,
_Nudo nocchier, promettitor di Regni._"
Rime, parte 1, canzone 12.
[27] Columbus, in a letter written on his third voyage, pays an honest,
heartfelt tribute to the effectual patronage which he experienced from the
queen. "In the midst of the general incredulity," says he, "the Almighty
infused into the queen, my lady, the spirit of intelligence and energy;
and, whilst every one else, in his ignorance, was expatiating only on the
inconvenience and cost, her Highness approved it, on the contrary, and
gave it all the support in her power." See Carta al Ama del Principe D.
Juan, apud Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. i. p. 266.