"DISCOVERY OF THE WORLD AND OF MAN"
At the beginning of this book a reference was made to the great upheaval
in European history called the "Renascence" (Fr. _renaissance_) or
Revival of Learning. In 1453 the Turks took Constantinople, driving the
Greek scholars to take refuge in Italy, which at once became the most
civilized nation in Europe. Poetry, philosophy, and art thence found
their way to France, England, and Germany, being greatly assisted by the
invention of printing, which just then was beginning to make books
cheaper than they ever had been. At the same time feudalism was ruined,
because the invention of gunpowder had previously been changing the art
of war. For example, the King of France, Louis XI, as well as the King
of England, Henry VII, had entire disposal of the national artillery;
and therefore overawed the barons and armored knights. Neither moated
fortresses nor mail-clad warriors, nor archers with bows and arrows,
could prevail against powder and shot. The middle ages had come to an
end; modern Europe was being born. France had become concentrated by the
union of the south to the north on the conclusion of the "Hundred Years'
War," the final expulsion of the English, and the abolition of all the
great feudatories of the kingdom. England, at the same time, had
entirely swept away the rule of the barons by the recent "Wars of the
Roses," and Henry had strengthened his position by alliance with
France, Spain, and Scotland. Spain, by the expulsion of the Moors from
Granada in A. D. 1492, was for the first time concentrated into one
great state by the union of Isabella's Kingdom of Castile-Leon to
Ferdinand's Kingdom of Aragon-Sicily.
From the importance of the word _renaissance_ as indicating the
"movement of transition from the medieval to the modern world," Matthew
Arnold gave it the English form "renascence"--adopted by J. R. Green,
Coleridge, and others. In Germany, this great revival of letters and
learning was contemporaneous with the Reformation, which had long been
preparing (e. g., in England since John Wyclif) and was specially
assisted by the invention of printing, which we have just mentioned. The
minds of men everywhere were expanded: "whatever works of history,
science, morality, or entertainment seemed likely to instruct or amuse
were printed and distributed among the people at large by printers and
booksellers."
Thus it was that, though the Turks never had any pretension to learning
or culture, yet their action in the middle of the fifteenth century
indirectly caused a marvelous tide of civilization to overflow all the
western countries of Europe. Another result in the same age was the
increase of navigation and exploration--the discovery of the world as
well as of man. When the Turks became masters of the eastern shores of
the Mediterranean, the European merchants were prevented from going to
India and the East by the overland route, as had been done for
generations. Thus, since geography was at this very time improved by
the science of Copernicus and others, the natural inquiry was how to
reach India by sea instead of going overland. Columbus, therefore,
sailed due west to reach Asia, and stumbled upon a "New World" without
knowing what he did; then Cabot, sailing from Bristol, sailed northwest
to reach India, and stumbled upon the continent of America; and during
the same reign (Henry VII) the Atlantic coast of both North and South
America was visited by English, Portuguese, or Spanish navigators. The
third expedition to reach India by sea was under De Gama. He set out in
the same year as Cabot, sailing into the South Atlantic, and ultimately
did find the west coast of India at Calicut, after rounding the cape.
The mere enumeration of so many events, all of first-rate importance,
proves that that half century (say from A. D. 1460 to 1520) must be
called "an age of marvels," _saeclum mirabile_. The concurrence of so
many epoch-making results gave a great impulse, not only to the study of
literature, science, and art, but to the exploration of many unknown
countries in America, Africa, and Asia, and the universal expansion of
human knowledge generally.
I.--We shall now consider the first of these discoverers, who was also
the greatest.
COLUMBUS, the Latinized form of the Italian Colombo, Spanish, Colon.
This Genoese navigator must throughout all history be called the
discoverer of America, notwithstanding all the work of smaller men. From
his study of geographical books in several languages, Columbus had
convinced himself that our planet is spherical or ball-shaped, not a
flat, plane surface. Till then India had always been reached by
traveling overland toward the rising sun. Why not sail westward from
Europe over the ocean, and thus come to the eastern parts of Asia by
traveling toward the setting sun? By doing so, since our world is
ball-shaped, said Columbus, we must inevitably reach Zipango (i. e.,
"Japan") and Cathay (i. e., "China"), which are the most eastern parts
of Asia. India then will be a mere detail. Judging from the accounts of
Asia and its eastern islands given by Marco Polo, a Venetian, as well as
from the maps sketched by Ptolemy, the Egyptian geographer, Columbus
believed that the east coast of Asia was not so very far from the west
coast of Europe. Columbus was confirmed in this opinion by a learned
geographer of Florence, named Paul, and henceforward impatiently waited
for an opportunity of testing the truth of his theory.
He convinced himself, but could not convince any one else, that a
westerly route to India was quite feasible. First he laid his plans
before the authorities at Genoa, who had for generations traded with
Asia by the overland journey, and ought therefore to have been glad to
learn of this new alternative route, since the Turks were now playing
havoc with the other; but no, they told Columbus that his idea was
chimerical! Next he applied to the court of France. "Ridiculous!" was
the reply, accompanied with a polite sneer. Next Columbus sent his
scheme to Henry VII of England, a prince full of projects, but miserly.
"Too expensive!" was the Tudor's reply, though presently, after the
Spanish success, he became eager to despatch expeditions from Bristol
under the Cabots. Then Columbus, by the advice of his brother, who had
settled in Lisbon as a map-maker, approached King John, seeking
patronage and assistance, pleading the foremost position of Portugal
among the maritime states. The Portuguese neglected the golden
opportunity, ocean navigation not being in their way as yet; their
skippers preferred "to hug the African shore."
At last Columbus gained the ear of Isabella, Queen of Castile; she
believed in him and tried to get the assistance of her husband,
Ferdinand, King of Aragon, in providing an outfit for the great
expedition. Owing to Ferdinand's war in expelling the Moors from
Granada, Columbus had still to wait several years.
In a previous year, 1477, Columbus had sailed to the North Atlantic,
perhaps in one of those Basque whalers already referred to, going "a
hundred leagues beyond Thule." If that means Iceland, as is generally
supposed, it seems most probable that, when conversing with the sailors
there he must have heard how Leif, with his Norsemen, had discovered the
American coasts of Newfoundland and Vinland some five centuries earlier,
and how they had settled a colony on the new continent. Other writers
have pointed out that Columbus could very well have heard of Vinland and
the Northmen before leaving Genoa, since one of the Popes had sanctioned
the appointment of a bishop over the new diocese. If so, the visit of
Columbus to Iceland probably gave him confirmation as to the Norse
discovery of the American continent.
When at last King Ferdinand had taken Granada from the Moors, Columbus
was put in command of three ships, with 120 men. He set sail from the
port of Palos, in Andalusia, on a Friday, August 3, 1492, first steering
to the Canary Islands, and then standing due west. In September, to the
amazement of all on board, the compass was seen to "vary": an important
scientific discovery--viz., that the magnetic needle does not always
point to the pole-star. Some writers have imagined that the compass was
for the first time utilized for a long journey by Columbus, but the
occult power of the magnetic needle or "lodestone" had been known for
ages before the fifteenth century. The ancient Persians and other "wise
men of the East" used the lodestone as a talisman. Both the Mongolian
and Caucasian races used it as an infallible guide in traveling across
the mighty plains of Asia. The Cynosure in the Great Bear was the
"guiding star," whether by sea or land; but when the heavens were
wrapped in clouds, the magic stone or needle served to point exactly the
position of the unseen star. What Columbus and his terrified crews
discovered was the "variation of the compass," due to the fact that the
magnetic needle points, not to the North Star, but to the "magnetic
pole," a point in Canada to the west of Baffin's Bay and north of Hudson
Bay.
If Columbus had continued steering due west he would have landed on the
continent of America in Florida; but before sighting that coast the
course was changed to southwest, because some birds were seen flying in
that direction. The first land reached was an island of the Bahama
group, which he named _San Salvador_. As the Spanish boats rowed to
shore they were welcomed by crowds of astonished natives, mostly naked,
unless for a girdle of wrought cotton or plaited feathers. Hence the
lines of Milton:
Such of late
Columbus found the American, so girt
With feathered cincture, naked else and wild,
Among the trees on isles and woody shores.
The spot of landing was formerly identified by Washington Irving and
Baron Humboldt with "Cat Island"; but from the latest investigation it
is now believed to have been Watling's Island. Here he landed on a
Friday, October 12, 1492.
So little was then known of the geography of the Atlantic or of true
longitude, that Columbus attributed these islands to the _east coast of
Asia_. He therefore named them "Indian Islands," as if close to
Hindustan, a blunder that has now been perpetuated for four hundred and
ten years. The natives were called "Indians" for the same reasons. As
the knowledge of geography advanced it became necessary to say "West
Indies" or "East Indies" respectively, to distinguish American from
Asiatic--"Indian corn" means American, but "Indian ink" means Asiatic,
etc. Even after his fourth and last voyage Columbus believed that the
continent, as well as the islands, was a portion of eastern Asia, and he
died in that belief, without any suspicion of having discovered a New
World.
A curious confirmation of the opinion of Columbus has just been
discovered (1894) in the Florence Library, by Dr. Wieser, of Innsbruck.
It is the actual copy of a map by the Great Admiral, drawn roughly in a
letter written from Jamaica, July, 1503. It shows that his belief as to
the part of the world reached in his voyages was that it was the east
coast of Asia.
The chief discovery made by Columbus in his first voyage was the great
island of Cuba, which he imagined to be part of a continent. Some of the
Spaniards went inland for sixty miles and reported that they had reached
a village of more than a thousand inhabitants, and that the corn used
for food was called _maize_--probably the first instance of Europeans
using a term which was afterward to become as familiar as "wheat" or
"barley." The natives told Columbus that their gold ornaments came from
_Cubakan_, meaning the interior of Cuba; but he, on hearing the syllable
_kan_, immediately thought of the "Khan" mentioned by Marco Polo, and
therefore imagined that "Cathay" (the China of that famous traveler) was
close at hand. The simple-minded Cubans were amazed that the Spaniards
had such a love for gold, and pointed eastward to another island, which
they called _Hayti_, saying it was more plentiful there than in Cuba.
Thus Columbus discovered the second in size of all the West Indian
islands, Cuba being the first; he, after landing on it, called it
"Hispaniola," or Little Spain. Hayti in a few years became the
headquarters of the Spanish establishments in the New World, after its
capital, San Domingo, had been built by Bartholomew Columbus. It was in
this island that the Spaniards saw the first of the "caziques," or
native princes, afterward so familiar during the conquest of Mexico; he
was carried on the shoulders of four men, and courteously presented
Columbus with some plates of gold. In a letter to the monarchs of Spain
the admiral thus refers to the natives of Hayti:
The people are so affectionate, so tractable, and so peaceable that
I swear to your Highnesses there is not a better race of men, nor a
better country in the world; ... their conversation is the sweetest
and mildest in the world, and always accompanied with a smile. The
king is served with great state, and his behavior is so decent that
it is pleasant to see him.
The admiral had previously described the Indians of Cuba as equally
simple and friendly, telling how they had "honored the strangers as
sacred beings allied to heaven." The pity of it, and the shame, is that
those frank, unsuspicious, islanders had no notion or foresight of the
cruel desolation which their gallant guests were presently to bring upon
the native races--death, and torture, and extermination!
A harbor in Cuba is thus described by Columbus in a letter to Ferdinand
and Isabella:
I discovered a river which a galley might easily enter.... I found
from five to eight fathoms of water. Having proceeded a
considerable way up the river, everything invited me to settle
there. The beauty of the river, the clearness of the water, the
multitude of palm-trees and an infinite number of other large and
flourishing trees, the birds and the verdure of the plains, ... I
am so much amazed at the sight of such beauty, that I know not how
to describe it.
Having lost his flag-ship, Columbus returned to Spain with the two small
caravels that remained from his petty fleet of three, arriving in the
port of Palos March 15, 1493. The reception of the successful explorer
was a national event. He entered Barcelona to be presented at court with
every circumstance of honor and triumph. Sitting in presence of the king
and queen he related his wondrous tale, while his attendants showed the
gold, the cotton, the parrots and other unknown birds, the curious arms
and plants, and above all the nine "Indians" with their outlandish
trappings--brought to be made Christians by baptism. Ferdinand and
Isabella heaped honors upon the successful navigator; and in return he
promised them the untold riches of Zipango and Cathay. A new fleet,
larger and better equipped, was soon found for a second voyage.
With his new ships, in 1498, Columbus again stood due west from the
Canaries; and at last discovering an island with three mountain summits
he named it Trinidad (i. e., "Trinity") without knowing that he was then
coasting the great continent of South America. A few days later he and
the crew were amazed by a tumult of waves caused by the fresh water of a
great river meeting the sea. It was the "Oronooko," afterward called
Orinoco; and from its volume Columbus and his shipmates concluded that
it must drain part of a continent or a very large island.
Where Orinoco in his pride,
Rolls to the main no tribute tide,
But 'gainst broad ocean urges far
A rival sea of roaring war;
While in ten thousand eddies driven
The billows fling their foam to heaven,
And the pale pilot seeks in vain,
Where rolls the river, where the main.
That was the first glimpse which they had of America proper, still
imagining it was only a part of eastern Asia. In the following voyage,
his last, Columbus coasted part of the Isthmus of Darien. It was not,
however, explored till the visit of Balboa.
[Illustration:
Cipher autograph of Columbus.
The interpretation of the cipher is probably:
SERVATF Christus Maria Yosephus (Christoferens).]
It was during his third voyage that the "Great Admiral" suffered the
indignity at San Domingo of being thrown into chains and sent back to
Spain. This was done by Bobadilla, an officer of the royal household,
who had been sent out with full power to put down misrule. The monarchs
of Spain set Columbus free; and soon afterward he was provided with four
ships for his fourth voyage. Stormy weather wrecked this final
expedition, and at last he was glad to arrive in Spain, November 7,
1504. He now felt that his work on earth was done, and died at
Valladolid, May 20, 1506. After temporary interment there his body was
transferred to the cathedral of San Domingo--whence, 1796, some remains
were removed with imposing ceremonies to Havana. From later
investigations it appears that the ashes of the Genoese discoverer are
still in the tomb of San Domingo.
It was in the cathedral of Seville, over his first tomb, that King
Ferdinand is said to have honored the memory of the Great Admiral with a
marble monument bearing the well-known epitaph:
A CASTILLA Y ARAGON
NUEVO MUNDO DIO COLON.
or, "_To the united Kingdom of Castile-Aragon Columbus gave a New
World_."
After the death of Columbus, it seemed as if fate intended his family to
enjoy the honors and rewards of which he had been so unjustly deprived.
His son, Diego, wasted two years trying to obtain from King Ferdinand
the offices of viceroy and admiral, which he had a right to claim in
accordance with the arrangement formerly made with his father. At last
Diego began a suit against Ferdinand before the council which managed
Indian affairs. That court decided in favor of Diego's claim; and as he
soon greatly improved his social position by marrying the niece of the
Duke of Alva, a high nobleman, Diego received the appointment of
governor (not viceroy), and went to Hayti, attended by his brother and
uncles, as well as his wife and a large retinue. There Diego Columbus
and his family lived, "with a splendor hitherto unknown in the New
World."
II.--Henry VII of England, after repenting that he had not secured the
services of Columbus, commissioned John Cabot to sail from Bristol
across the Atlantic in a northwesterly direction, with the hope of
finding some passage there-abouts to India. In June, 1497, a new coast
was sighted (probably Labrador or Newfoundland), and named _Prima
Vista_. They coasted the continent southward, "ever with intent to find
the passage to India," till they reached the peninsula now called
Florida. On this important voyage was based the claim which the English
kings afterward made for the possession of all the Atlantic coast of
North America. King Henry wished colonists to settle in the new land,
_tam viri quam feminae_, but since, in his usual miserly character, he
refused to give a single "testoon," or "groat" toward the enterprise, no
colonies were formed till the days of Walter Raleigh, more than a
century later.
Sebastian Cabot, born in Bristol, 1477, was more renowned as a navigator
than his father, John, and almost ranks with Columbus. After discovering
Labrador or Newfoundland with his father, he sailed a second time with
300 men to form colonies, passing apparently into Hudson Bay. He wished
to discover a channel leading to Hindustan, but the difficulties of
icebergs and cold weather so frightened his crews that he was compelled
to retrace his course. In another attempt at the northwest passage to
Asia, he reached latitude 67-1/2 deg. north, and "gave English names to
sundry places in Hudson Bay." In 1526, when commanding a Spanish
expedition from Seville, he sailed to Brazil, which had already been
annexed to Portugal by Cabrera, explored the River La Plata and ascended
part of the Paraguay, returning to Spain in 1531. After his return to
England, King Edward VI had some interviews with Cabot, one topic being
the "variation of the compass." He received a royal pension of 250
marks, and did special work in relation to trade and navigation. The
great honor of Cabot is that he saw the American continent before
Columbus or Amerigo Vespucci.
III.--Of the great navigators of that unexampled age of discovery, as
Spain was honored by Columbus and England by Cabot, so Portugal was
honored by De Gama. Vasco de Gama, the greatest of Portuguese
navigators, left Lisbon in 1497 to explore the unknown world lying east
of the Cape of Good Hope, arriving at Calicut, May, 1498. Before that,
Diaz had actually rounded the cape, but seems to have done so merely
before a high gale. He named it "the stormy Cape." Cabrera, or Cabral,
was another great explorer sent from Portugal to follow in the route of
De Gama; but being forced into a southwesterly route by currents in the
south Atlantic, he landed on the continent of America, and annexed the
new country to Portugal under the name of Brazil. Cabrera afterward drew
up the first commercial treaty between Portugal and India.
IV.--Magellan, scarcely inferior to Columbus, brought honor as a
navigator both to Portugal and Spain. For the latter country, when in
the service of Charles V, he revived the idea of Columbus that we may
sail to Asia or the Spice Islands by sailing _west_. With a squadron of
five ships, 236 men, he sailed, in 1519, to Brazil and convinced
himself that the great estuary was not a strait. Sailing south along the
American coast, he discovered the strait that bears his name, and
through it entered the Pacific, then first sailed upon by Europeans,
though already seen by Balboa and his men "upon a peak in Darien"--as
Keats puts it in his famous sonnet.[7] From the continuous fine weather
enjoyed for some months, Magellan naturally named the new sea "the
Pacific." After touching at the Ladrones and the Philippines, Magellan
was killed in a fight with the inhabitants of Matan, a small island.
Sebastian, his Basque lieutenant (mentioned in Chapter I) then
successfully completed the circumnavigation of the world, sailing first
to the Moluccas and thence to Spain.
[Footnote 7: The poet, however, makes the clerical blunder of writing
Cortez for Balboa.]
V.--Of all the world-famous navigators contemporary with Colon, the
Genoese, there remains only one deserving of our notice, and that
because his name is for all time perpetuated in that of the New World.
Amerigo (Latin _Americus_) Vespucci, born at Florence, 1451, had
commercial occupation in Cadiz, and was employed by the Spanish
Government. He has been charged with a fraudulent attempt to usurp the
honor due to Columbus, but Humboldt and others have defended him, after
a minute examination of the evidence. In a book published in 1507 by a
German, _Waldseemueller_, the author happens to say:
And the fourth part of the world having been discovered by
Americus, it may be called Amerige, that is the land of Americus,
or _America_.
Vespucci never called himself the discoverer of the new continent; as a
mere subordinate he could not think of such a thing. As a matter of
fact, he and Columbus were always on friendly terms, attached, and
trusted. Humboldt explains the blunder of Waldseemueller and others by
the general ignorance of the history of how America was discovered,
since for some years it was jealously guarded as a "state secret."
Humboldt curiously adds that the "musical sound of the name caught the
public ear," and thus the blunder has been universally perpetuated:
_statque stabitque
in omne volubilis aevum_.
Another reason for the universal renown of Amerigo was that his book was
the first that told of the new "Western World"; and was therefore
eagerly read in all parts of Europe.
Cuba, though the largest of the West Indian islands, and second to be
discovered, was not colonized till after the death of Columbus. Thus for
more than three centuries and a half, as "Queen of the Antilles" and
"Pearl of the Antilles," Cuba has been noted as a chief colonial
possession of Spain, till recent events brought it under the power of
the United States. The conquest of the island was undertaken by
Velasquez, who, after accompanying the great admiral in his second
voyage, had settled in Hispaniola (or Hayti) and acquired a large
fortune there. He had little difficulty in the annexation of Cuba,
because the natives, like those of Hispaniola, were of a peaceful
character, easily imposed upon by the invaders. The only difficulty
Velasquez had was in the eastern part of the island, where Hatuey, a
cazique or native chief, who had fled there from Hispaniola, made
preparations to resist the Spaniards. When defeated, he was cruelly
condemned by Velasquez to be burned to death, as a "slave who had taken
arms against his master." The scene at Hatuey's execution is well known:
When fastened to the stake, a Franciscan friar promised him
immediate admittance into the joys of heaven, if he would embrace
the Christian faith. "Are there any Spaniards," says he, after some
pause, "in that region of bliss which you describe?" "Yes," replied
the monk, "but only such as are worthy and good." "The best of them
have neither worth nor goodness: I will not go to a place where I
may meet with one of that accursed race."
Being thus annexed in 1511, by the middle of the century all the native
Indians of Cuba had become extinct. In the following century this large
and fertile island suffered severely by the buccaneers, but during the
eighteenth century it prospered. During the nineteenth century, the
United States Government had often been urged to obtain possession of
it; for example, the sum of one hundred million dollars was offered in
1848 by President Polk. Slavery was at last abolished absolutely in
1886. In recent years Spain, by ceding Cuba and the Philippines to the
United States and the Carolines to Germany, has brought her colonial
history to a close.
Two other important events occurred when Velasquez was Governor of Cuba:
first, the escape of Balboa from Hispaniola, to become afterward
Governor of Darien; and, second, the expedition under Cordova to
explore that part of the continent of America which lies nearest to
Cuba. This expedition of 110 men, in three small ships, led to the
discovery of that large peninsula now known as Yucatan. Cordova imagined
it to be an island. The natives were not naked, like those of the West
Indian islands, but wore cotton clothes, and some had ornaments of gold.
In the towns, which contained large stone houses, and country generally,
there were many proofs of a somewhat advanced civilization. The natives,
however, were much more warlike than the simple islanders of Cuba and
Hispaniola; and Cordova, in fact, was glad to return from Yucatan.
Velasquez, on hearing the report of Cordova, at once fitted out four
vessels to explore the newly discovered country, and despatched them
under command of his nephew, Grijalva. Everywhere were found proofs of
civilization, especially in architecture. The whole district, in fact,
abounds in prehistoric remains. From a friendly chief Grijalva received
a sort of coat of mail covered with gold plates; and on meeting the
ruler of the province he exchanged some toys and trinkets, such as glass
beads, pins, scissors, for a rich treasure of jewels, gold ornaments and
vessels.
Grijalva was therefore the first European to step on the Aztec soil and
open an intercourse with the natives. Velasquez, the Governor, at once
prepared a larger expedition, choosing as leader or commander an officer
who was destined henceforth to fill a much larger place in history than
himself, one who presently appeared capable of becoming a general in the
foremost rank, Hernando Cortes, greatest of all Spanish explorers.