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=ALDEN, WILLIAM L.= CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS (1440–1506). The First
American Citizen (By Adoption). By William L. Alden. New York:
Henry Holt & Co., 1881. 16mo, pp. 287. (Lives of American Worthies).
=COLUMBUS, CHRISTOPHER=, (1440–1506). The First American Citizen (By
Adoption). By William L. Alden. New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1881.
16mo, pp. 287. (Lives of American Worthies).
=HISTORY.= CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS (1440–1506). The First American
Citizen (By Adoption). By William L. Alden. New York: Henry Holt &
Co., 1881. 16mo, pp. 287. (Lives of American Worthies).
_LIVES OF AMERICAN WORTHIES._
Under the above title, Messrs. HENRY HOLT & CO. are contributing one
more biographical series to the number with which the reading world is
being so abundantly favored.
That there may be something in the method of this series not altogether
identical with that of its numerous predecessors, contemporaries
and promised successors, will perhaps be suspected from the list of
subjects and authors thus far selected:
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, (1440–1506),
By W. L. ALDEN, (_of the New York Times_),
_Author of “The Moral Pirates,” etc._
CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH, (1579–1631),
By CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER,
_Author of “My Summer in a Garden,” etc._
WILLIAM PENN, (1644–1715),
By ROBERT J. BURDETTE, _of the Burlington Hawkeye_.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, (1706–1790),
By
GEORGE WASHINGTON, (1732–1799),
By JOHN HABBERTON, _Author of “Helen’s Babies,” etc._
THOMAS JEFFERSON, (1743–1826),
By
ANDREW JACKSON, (1767–1845),
By GEORGE T. LANIGAN, _Author of “Fables out of the World._”
If the names of the authors awaken a suspicion that there may be
something humorous in the books, it should be known that despite
anything of that kind, the truth of history is adhered to with
most uncompromising rigidity--perhaps, in some cases, a little too
uncompromising, or compromising: that depends on the point of view.
Recent announcements make it proper to state that this series was begun
several years before the date of this prospectus, and that the first
volume published--Mr. Charles Dudley Warner’s Life of Captain John
Smith, was in type in the Spring of the current year.
_New York_, November, 1881.
_LIVES OF AMERICAN WORTHIES_
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS
(1440–1506)
_THE FIRST AMERICAN CITIZEN_
(_BY ADOPTION_)
BY
W. L. ALDEN
[Illustration]
NEW YORK
HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY
1881
COPYRIGHT, 1881,
BY
HENRY HOLT & CO.
Electrotyped and Printed by
S. W. GREEN’S SON,
74 and 76 Beekman Street,
NEW YORK.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.
Early Years.
CHAPTER II.
First Plans of Exploration.
CHAPTER III.
In Search of a Patron.
CHAPTER IV.
He Receives His Commission.
CHAPTER V.
He Is Commissioned, and Sets Sail.
CHAPTER VI.
The Voyage.
CHAPTER VII.
The Discovery.
CHAPTER VIII.
Adventures on Land.
CHAPTER IX.
The Homeward Voyage.
CHAPTER X.
His Reception, and Preparation For a Second Expedition.
CHAPTER XI.
Explorations in the West Indies.
CHAPTER XII.
Attempts at Colonization.
CHAPTER XIII.
Search For China.--subjugation of Hispaniola.
CHAPTER XIV.
Difficulties and Discouragements.
CHAPTER XV.
His Third Expedition.
CHAPTER XVI.
His Return in Disgrace.
CHAPTER XVII.
His Fourth Expedition.
CHAPTER XVIII.
His Last Years.
CHAPTER XIX.
His Character and Achievements.
CHAPTER I.
EARLY YEARS.
[Æt. 0; 1436]
Christopher Columbus was born at more places and to a greater extent
than any other eminent man known to history. He was born at frequent
intervals from 1436 to 1446, and at Cogoletto, Genoa, Finale, Oneglia,
Savona, Padrello, and Boggiasco. Learned historians have conclusively
shown that he was born at each one of the places, and each historian
has had him born at a different date from that fixed upon by a rival
historian. To doubt their demonstrations would be to treat history and
historians with gross irreverence, and would evince a singular lack
of business tact on the part of one proposing to add another to the
various histories of Columbus.
Perhaps the majority of people believe that Columbus was born
exclusively at Cogoletto; but no one retains that belief after having
once visited Cogoletto, and drank the painfully sour wine produced at
that wretched little village. It is true that Mr. Tennyson, who remarks
that he once
“Stay’d the wheels at Cogoletto,
And drank, and loyally drank, to him,”
still believes that it was the birthplace of the great Admiral. But
this fact simply shows that Mr. Tennyson drank out of his own flask.
Few people who visit Cogoletto take this wise precaution, and the
result is that, after drinking to the memory of Columbus, they go on
their way firmly convinced that wherever else he was born, he certainly
was not born at Cogoletto.
It was the opinion of the late Washington Irving that Genoa was the
real birthplace of Columbus. This opinion was what might have been
expected from a man of such unfailing good taste.
The production of infants is to this day one of the leading industries
of Genoa, and as it is a large and beautiful city, we cannot do better
than to adopt Mr. Irving’s opinion that it was Columbus’s favorite
birthplace. At the same time we might as well select the year 1436 as
the year of his birth, with the determination of adhering to it, for
it adds much to the symmetry of a biography if the subject thereof is
given a definite and fixed birthday.
At his birth Christopher Columbus was simply Cristoforo Colombo, and it
was not until he arrived at manhood that he was translated into Latin,
in which tongue he has been handed down to the present generation.
At a still later period he translated himself into Spanish, becoming
thereby Christoval Colon. We can not be too thankful that he was never
translated into German, for we could scarcely take pride in a country
discovered by one =Kolompo=.
[Æt. 1; 1442]
The father of Columbus was Domenico Colombo, a wool-comber by
occupation. Whose wool he combed, and why he combed it, and whether
wool-combing is preferable to wool-gathering as an intellectual
pursuit, are questions that have never been satisfactorily decided.
Of Mrs. Colombo we simply know that her Christian name was
Fontanarossa, or Red Fountain, a name more suitable to a Sioux Indian
than a Christian woman, though perhaps, poor creature! it was not her
fault.
Young Christopher was at an early age thoughtfully provided with
two younger brothers--who were afterwards very useful to him--and a
younger sister. The former were Giacomo, afterward known as Diego, and
Bartolommeo, who has been translated into English as Bartholomew. The
sister does not appear to have had any name, though her mother might
have spared three or four syllables of her own name without feeling the
loss of them. This anonymous sister married one Giacomo Bavarello, and
promptly vanished into an obscurity that history cannot penetrate.
[Æt. 6; 1443]
From his earliest years Christopher was an unusual and remarkable
boy. One day when he was about six years of age he was sent by his
mother, early in the morning, to the store to purchase a pound of
“blueing” for washing purposes. The morning grew to noon, and the
afternoon waned until evening--processes which are not peculiar to
the climate of Genoa--but the boy did not return, and his mother was
unable to wash the family clothes. The truant had forgotten all about
the “blueing,” and was spending the entire day in company with the
McGinnis boys, watching a base-ball match in the City Hall Park between
the Genoese Nine and the Red-legs of Turin. At dusk he returned, and
his broken-hearted mother handed him over to his stern father, who
invited him into the woodshed. As Christopher was removing his coat and
loosening his other garments so as to satisfy his father that he had no
shingles or school-atlases concealed about his person, he said:
“Father, I stayed to witness that base-ball match, not because of a
childish curiosity, nor yet because I had any money on the game, but
solely in order to study the flight of the ball, hoping thereby to
obtain some hints as to the law of projectiles that would enable me to
improve the science of gunnery, which is now by no means in an advanced
state. If, in view of these circumstances, you still think me worthy of
punishment, I will submit with all the fortitude I can summon.”
The father, deeply moved at this frank confession, wore out two
apple-tree switches in connection with his son, and informed him that
if he ever went with those McGinnis boys again he would “let him know.”
At another time, when Christopher was about eight years old, his
father sent him to a news company’s office to get the last number of
the _Wool-Combers’ Trade Review_; but, as before, the boy failed to
return, and after a prolonged search was given up as lost, and his
parents decided that he had been run over by the horse-cars. Late in
the evening Christopher was detected in the act of trying to sneak
into the house through the kitchen windows, and was warmly received by
his father, who stood him up in the middle of the kitchen, and without
releasing his ear, demanded to know what he had to say for himself.
Christopher, with a saddened expression of face, replied:
“Father, I find it a matter of extreme difficulty to depart from the
truth, even at this trying moment. Candor compels me to admit that I
have spent the day in company with Michael and Patrick McGinnis, in
studying the meteorological laws which affect the flight of kites. With
the aid of the last number of the _Wool-Combers’ Trade Review_ and a
few sticks, I made a beautiful kite, and I can confidently say that--”
Here the old gentleman, exclaiming, “That will do! Your explanation
is worse than your other crime,” applied a rattan cane to the future
explorer, and afterwards sent him to bed supperless.
[Æt. 8; 1449]
There is not a word of truth in these two anecdotes, but they are
introduced in order to afford the reader a slight glimpse of the
boyhood of Columbus. They probably compare favorably, in point of
veracity, with the average anecdotes of the boyhood of great men, and
they show us that even while Columbus was only six and eight years old
he was interested in scientific pursuits, and already gave promise of
great tediousness. Still, it would be unwise for any one to believe
them, and we will pass on to the more prosaic but truthful facts of
Columbus’s life.
Young Christopher early conceived a prejudice against wool-combing,
although it was his father’s earnest desire that he should adopt that
profession. Fernando Columbus, the son of the admiral, evidently felt
ashamed of his noble father’s early wool-combing exploits, and says
that Domenico Colombo, so far from desiring his son to comb wool,
sent him at the age of thirteen to the University of Pavia to study
navigation, with a view of ultimately sending him to sea. Now, although
the United States Government does undertake to teach seamanship with
the aid of textbooks to young men at the Annapolis Naval Academy,
the idea that a young man could become a sailor without going to sea
had never occurred to the Genoese, and old Domenico never could have
been stupid enough to send his son to the Pavia University with the
expectation that he would graduate with the marine degree of “A. B.”
Undoubtedly Christopher went to Pavia, but it is conceded that he
remained there a very short time. If we suppose that, instead of
studying his Livy, his Anabasis, and his Loomis’s Algebra, he spent his
time in reading Marryat’s sea stories, and dime novels illustrative of
piracy, we can understand why his university course came to a sudden
end, and why Domenico remarked to his friends that Christopher studied
navigation while at Pavia.
[Æt. 14; 1459]
We are told that from his earliest years Christopher desired to be a
sailor. We also know that at that period the Mediterranean swarmed
with pirates. From these two facts any modern boy with sufficient
reasoning powers to be able to put a dog, a string, and a tin can
together, will deduce the conclusion that Christopher Columbus must
have wanted to be a pirate. As to this there can be but little doubt.
When he left Pavia and returned home to comb the paternal wool, he was
doubtless fully determined to run away at the earliest opportunity, and
become a Red Revenger of the seas.
With this clue, we can readily find in the conduct of the astute
Domenico a wise determination to effect a compromise with his
adventurous son. He did not want to be the father of a Red Revenger,
but he knew that he could not compel his son to comb wool. He therefore
induced him to consent to go to sea as a scourge and enemy of pirates;
and accordingly in his fourteenth year young Christopher went to sea
on board a vessel commanded by a distant relative, who was at one
time an admiral in the Genoese service. In what capacity he shipped,
whether as a first-class or a second-class boy, or as an acting third
assistant cook, or an ordinary cabin-boy, we do not know. Fernando
Columbus preserves a discreet silence as to this matter, and as to the
first voyage of his father generally. Of course this silence means
something, and perhaps Christopher had good reasons for never speaking
of the voyage even to his son. Probably he was deathly sea-sick, and in
that condition was severely kicked for not being able to lay his hand
at a moment’s warning upon the starboard main-top-gallant-studding-sail
tripping-line, or other abstruse rope. At all events, he always
abstained from telling stories beginning, “I reck’lect on my first
v’yge;” and we may be sure that he would never have put such an
unseamanlike constraint upon his tongue unless he knew that the less he
said about that voyage the better.
[Æt. 23; 1459–70]
He had been a sailor for some years when he joined a vessel forming
part of an expedition fitted out in Genoa in 1459 by a certain Duke of
Calabria named John of Anjou, who wanted to steal the kingdom of Naples
in order to give it to his father, René, Count of Provence. So pious
a son naturally commanded universal respect, and Genoa provided him
with ships and lent him money. The expedition was very large, and the
old Admiral Colombo, with whom Christopher sailed, probably commanded
the Genoese contingent. The fleet cruised along the Neapolitan coast,
and sailed in and out the Bay of Naples any number of times, but
owing to a fear of the extortions of the Neapolitan hack-drivers and
_valets-de-place_, there seems to have been no attempt made to land at
Naples. For four years John of Anjou persevered in trying to conquer
Naples, but in vain; and at the end of that time he must have had a
tremendous bill to pay for his Genoese ships.
While engaged in this expedition, Christopher was sent in command of
a vessel to Tunis, where he was expected to capture a hostile galley.
Carefully reading up his “Midshipman Easy” and his “Blunt’s Coast
Pilot,” he set sail; but on reaching the island of San Pedro, which can
easily be found on any map where it is mentioned by name, he learned
that there were also in the harbor of Tunis two ships and a carrick;
whereupon his crew remarked that they did not propose to attack an
unlimited quantity of vessels, but that if Columbus would put into
Marseilles and lay in a few more ships to accompany them, they would
gladly cut out all the vessels at Tunis. Columbus was determined not to
go to Marseilles,--though he does not definitely say that he owed money
to the keeper of a sailor boarding-house there,--but he was unable
to shake the resolution of his crew. He therefore pretended to yield
to their wishes and set sail again, ostensibly for Marseilles. The
next morning, when the crew came on deck, they found themselves near
the Cape of Carthagena, and perceived that their wily commander had
deceived them.
[Æt. 23–34; 1459–70]
This story is told by Columbus himself, and it awakens in the mind of
the intelligent reader some little doubt of the narrator’s veracity.
In the first place, he admits that he deceived his sailors, and hence
we have no certainty that he was not trying to deceive the public when
telling the story of the alleged deception. In the second place, it is
scarcely probable that all the crew promptly “turned in” at sunset,
leaving Columbus himself at the wheel; but unless this was done, the
compass or the stars must have told them that the ship was not laying
the proper course for Marseilles. Finally, Columbus, in his exultation
at having deceived his crew, does not so much as mention Tunis, or the
hostile vessels which it was his duty to attack, nor does he tell us
what business he had at the Cape of Carthagena. We are thus justified
in assuming that the story is not entirely credible. Years afterward,
on his first transatlantic voyage, Columbus deceived his men concerning
the number of leagues they had sailed, and this exploit was so warmly
commended by his admirers that he may have been tempted to remark
that he always made a point of deceiving sailors, and may thereupon
have invented this earlier instance as a case in point. Still, let us
not lightly impugn his veracity. Perhaps he really did tell the truth
and deceive his sailors; but whether he did or not, we should still
remember that many of us are merely human, and that had we been in the
place of Columbus we might have said and done a variety of different
things.
What became of Columbus during several subsequent years, we have no
trustworthy account. In all probability he continued to follow the
sea, and perhaps caught up with it now and then. We know, however,
that at one time he commanded a galley belonging to a squadron under
the command of Colombo the Younger, a son of the Colombo with whom
Christopher sailed in the Neapolitan expedition. This squadron,
falling in with a Venetian fleet somewhere off the Portuguese coast,
immediately attacked it, Venice and Genoa being at that time at war.
In the course of the battle the galley of Columbus was set on fire, and
as he had no available small-boats--a fact which must forever reflect
disgrace upon the Genoese Navy Department--he was compelled to jump
overboard with all his crew. He seems to have lost all interest in the
battle after the loss of his galley, and he therefore decided to go
ashore. He was six miles from land, but with the help of an oar which
he put under his breast he swam ashore without difficulty, and when we
consider that he was dressed in a complete suit of armor, it is evident
that he must have been a very fine swimmer.
It should be mentioned that, although this story is told by Fernando
Columbus, certain carping critics have refused to believe it, on the
paltry pretext that, inasmuch as the naval fight in question took place
several years after Columbus is known to have taken up his residence in
Portugal, he could not have landed in that country for the first time
immediately after the battle. This is mere trifling. If Columbus could
swim six miles in a suit of heavy armor, and, in all probability, with
his sword in one hand and his speaking-trumpet in the other, he could
easily have performed the simpler feat of residing in Portugal several
years before he reached that country. The truth is, that historians
are perpetually casting doubt upon all legends of any real merit or
interest. They have totally exploded the story of Washington and the
cherry-tree, and they could not be expected to concede that Fernando
Columbus knew more about his father than persons living and writing
four hundred years later could know. As to Columbus’s great swimming
feat, they have agreed to disbelieve the whole story, and of course the
public agrees with them.