triumphal march by chorus, band, and orchestra forms an accompaniment to
a procession and the final reception."
STRANGE AND COLOSSAL MAN.
From an introduction to "The Story of Columbus," in the New York
_Herald_, 1892.
What manner of man was this Columbus, this admiral of the seas and lord
of the Indies, who gave to Castille and Leon a new world?
Was he the ill-tempered and crack-brained adventurer of the skeptic
biographer, who weighed all men by the sum of ages and not by the age in
which they lived, or the religious hero who carried a flaming cross into
the darkness of the unknown West, as his reverential historians have
painted him?
There have been over six hundred biographers of this strange and
colossal man, advancing all degrees of criticism, from filial affection
to religious and fanatical hate, yet those who dwell in the lands he
discovered know him only by his achievements, caring nothing about the
trivial weaknesses of his private life.
One of his fairest critics has said he was the conspicuous developer of
a great world movement, the embodiment of the ripened aspirations of his
time.
His life is enveloped in an almost impenetrable veil of obscurity; in
fact, the date and the place of his birth are in dispute. There are no
authentic portraits of him, though hundreds have been printed.
There are in existence many documents written by Columbus about his
discoveries. When he set sail on his first voyage he endeavored to keep
a log similar to the commentaries of Caesar. It is from this log that
much of our present knowledge has been obtained, but it is a lamentable
fact that, while Columbus was an extraordinary executive officer, his
administrative ability was particularly poor, and in all matters of
detail he was so careless as to be untrustworthy. Therefore, there are
many statements in the log open to violent controversy.
TALES OF THE EAST.
It is probable that the letters of Toscanelli made a greater impression
on the mind of Columbus than any other information he possessed. The
aged Florentine entertained the brightest vision of the marvelous worth
of the Asiatic region. He spoke of two hundred towns whose bridges
spanned a single river, and whose commerce would excite the cupidity of
the world.
These were tales to stir circles of listeners wherever wandering mongers
of caravels came and went. All sorts of visionary discoveries were made
in those days. Islands were placed in the Atlantic that never existed,
and wonderful tales were told of the great Island of Antilla, or the
Seven Cities.
The sphericity of the earth was becoming a favorite belief, though it
must be borne in mind that education in those days was confined to the
cloister, and any departure from old founded tenets was regarded as
heresy. It was this peculiar doctrine that caused Columbus much
embarrassment in subsequent years. His greatest enemies were the narrow
minds that regarded religion as the _Ultima Thule_ of intellectual
endeavor. In spite of these facts, however, it was becoming more and
more the popular belief that the world was not flat. One of the
arguments used against Columbus was, that if the earth was not flat, and
was round, he might sail down to the Indies, but he could certainly not
sail up. Thus it was that fallacy after fallacy was thrown in
argumentative form in his way, and the character of the man grows more
wonderful as we see the obstacles over which he fought.
From utter obscurity, from poverty, derision, and treachery, this
unflinching spirit fought his way to a most courageous end, and in all
the vicissitudes of his wonderful life he never compromised one iota of
that dignity which he regarded as consonant with his lofty
aspirations.--_Ibid._
A PROTEST AGAINST IGNORANCE.
New York _Tribune_, 1892.
The voyage of Columbus was a protest against the ignorance of the
mediaeval age. The discovery of the New World was the first sign of the
real renaissance of the Old World. It created new heavens and a new
earth, broadened immeasurably the horizon of men and nations, and
transformed the whole order of European thought. Columbus was the
greatest educator who ever lived, for he emancipated mankind from the
narrowness of its own ignorance, and taught the great lesson that human
destiny, like divine mercy, arches over the whole world. If a
perspective of four centuries of progress could have floated like a
mirage before the eyes of the great discoverer as he was sighting San
Salvador, the American school-house would have loomed up as the greatest
institution of the New World's future. Behind him he had left mediaeval
ignorance, encumbered with superstition, and paralyzed by an
ecclesiastical pedantry which passed for learning. Before him lay a new
world with the promise of the potency of civil and religious liberty,
free education, and popular enlightenment. Because the school-house,
like his own voyage, has been a protest against popular ignorance, and
has done more than anything else to make our free America what it is, it
would have towered above everything else in the mirage-like vision of
the world's progress.
THE EARTH'S ROTUNDITY.
The Rev. Father NUGENT of Iowa. From an address printed in the
Denver _Republican_, 1892.
The theory of the rotundity of the earth was not born with Columbus. It
had been announced centuries before Christ, but the law of gravitation
had not been discovered and the world found it impossible to think of
another hemisphere in which trees would grow downward into the air and
men walk with their heads suspended from their feet. The theologians and
scholars who scoffed at Columbus' theory had better grounds for opposing
him, according to the received knowledge of the time, than he for
upholding his ideal. They were scientifically wrong and he was
unscientifically correct.
HANDS ACROSS THE SEA.
The President responds to a message from the Alcalde of Palos.
The following cable messages were exchanged this day:
LA RABIDA, August 3d. The President: To-day, 400 years ago, Columbus
sailed from Palos, discovering America. The United States flag is being
hoisted this moment in front of the Convent La Rabida, along with
banners of all the American States. Batteries and ships saluting,
accompanied by enthusiastic acclamations of the people, army, and navy.
God bless America.
PRIETO,
_Alcalde of Palos_.
DEPARTMENT OF STATE, WASHINGTON, D. C., August 3, 1892. Senor Prieto,
Alcalde de Palos, La Rabida, Spain: The President of the United States
directs me to cordially acknowledge your message of greeting. On this
memorable day, thus fittingly celebrated, the people of the new western
world, in grateful reverence to the name and fame of Columbus, join
hands with the sons of the brave sailors of Palos and Huelva who manned
the discoverer's caravels.
FOSTER,
_Secretary of State_.
THE PAN-AMERICAN TRIBUTE.
The nations of North, South, and Central America in conference
assembled, at Washington, D. C., from October 2, 1889, to April 19,
1890.
_Resolved_, That in homage to the memory of the immortal discoverer of
America, and in gratitude for the unparalleled service rendered by him
to civilization and humanity, the International Conference hereby offers
its hearty co-operation in the manifestations to be made in his honor
on the occasion of the fourth centennial anniversary of the discovery of
America.[50]
THE GIFT OF SPAIN.
THEODORE PARKER, a distinguished American clergyman and scholar.
Born at Lexington, Mass., August 24, 1810; died in Florence, Italy,
May 10, 1860. From "New Assault upon Freedom in America."
To Columbus, adventurous Italy's most venturous son, Spain gave,
grudgingly, three miserable ships, wherewith that daring genius sailed
through the classic and mediaeval darkness which covered the great
Atlantic deep, opening to mankind a new world, and new destination
therein. No queen ever wore a diadem so precious as those pearls which
Isabella dropped into the western sea, a bridal gift, whereby the Old
World, well endowed with art and science, and the hoarded wealth of
experience, wed America, rich only in her gifts from Nature and her
hopes in time. The most valuable contribution Spain has made to mankind
is three scant ships furnished to the Genoese navigator, whom the
world's instinct pushed westward in quest of continents.
COLUMBUS THE BOLDEST NAVIGATOR.
Capt. WILLIAM H. PARKER, an American naval officer of the
nineteenth century. From "Familiar Talks on Astronomy."[51]
Let us turn our attention to Christopher Columbus, the boldest navigator
of his day; indeed, according to my view, the boldest man of whom we
have any account in history. While all the other seamen of the known
world were creeping along the shore, he heroically sailed forth on the
broad ocean.
[Illustration: THE MAP OF COLUMBUS' PILOT, JUAN DE LA COSA.
From the original in the Marine Museum, Madrid. (See page 228)]
* * * * *
When I look back upon my own voyages and recall the many anxious moments
I have passed when looking for a port at night, and when I compare my
own situation, supplied with accurate charts, perfect instruments, good
sailing directions, everything, in short, that science can supply, and
then think of Columbus in his little bark, his only instruments an
imperfect compass and a rude astrolabe, _sailing forth upon an unknown
sea_, I must award to him the credit of being the boldest seaman that
ever "sailed the salt ocean."
* * * * *
Columbus, then, had made three discoveries before he discovered
land--the trade-winds, the Sargasso Sea, and the variation of the
compass.
COLUMBUS THE PATRON SAINT OF REAL-ESTATE DEALERS.
At a banquet in Chicago of the real-estate brokers, a waggish orator
remarked that Columbus, with his cry of "Land! Land!" was clearly the
patron saint of American real-estate dealers.
THE MUTINY.
HORATIO J. PERRY, an American author. From "Reminiscences."
When those Spanish mutineers leaped upon their Admiral's deck and
advanced upon him sword in hand, every man of them was aware that
according to all ordinary rules the safety of his own head depended on
their going clean through and finishing their work. No compromise that
should leave Columbus alive could possibly have suited them then.
Nevertheless, at the bottom of it all, the moving impulse of those men
was terror. They were banded for that work by a common fear and a
common superstition, and it was only when they looked in the clear face
of one wholly free from the influences which enslaved themselves, when
they felt in their marrow that supreme expression of Columbus at the
point of a miserable death--only then the revulsion of confidence in him
suddenly relieved their own terrors. It was instinctive. This man knows!
He does not deceive us! We fools are compromising the safety of all by
quenching this light. He alone can get us through this business--that
was the human instinct which responded to the look and bearing of
Columbus at the moment when he was wholly lost, and when his life's
work, his great voyage almost accomplished, was also to all appearance
lost. The instinct was sure, the response was certain, from the instinct
that its motive was also there sure and certain; but no other man in
that age could have provoked it, no other but Columbus could be sure of
what he was then doing.
The mutineers went back to their work, and the ships went on. For three
days previous, the Admiral, following some indications he had noted from
the flight of birds, had steered southwest. Through that night of the
10th and through the day of the 11th he still kept that course; but just
at evening of the 11th he ordered the helm again to be put due west. The
squadron had made eighty-two miles that day, and his practiced senses
now taught him that land was indeed near. Without any hesitation he
called together his chief officers, and announced to them that the end
of their voyage was at hand; and he ordered the ships to sail well
together, and to keep a sharp lookout through the night, as he expected
land before the morning. Also, they had strict orders to shorten sail at
midnight, and not to advance beyond half speed. Then he promised a
velvet doublet of his own as a present to the man who should first make
out the land. These details are well known, and they are authentic; and
it is true also that these dispositions of the Admiral spread life
throughout the squadron. Nobody slept that night. It was only
twenty-four hours since they were ready to throw him overboard; but they
now believed in him and bitterly accused one another.
THE TRACK OF COLUMBUS.
From a paper in _New England Magazine_, 1892, taken originally from
a volume of "Reminiscences" left by HORATIO J. PERRY, who made a
voyage from Spain to New Orleans in 1847.
A fortnight out at sea! We are upon the track of Christopher Columbus.
Only three centuries and a half ago the keels of his caravels plowed for
the first time these very waters, bearing the greatest heart and wisest
head of his time, and one of the grandest figures in all history.
To conceive Columbus at his true value requires some effort in our age,
when the earth has been girdled and measured, when the sun has been
weighed and the planets brought into the relation of neighbors over the
way, into whose windows we are constantly peeping in spite of the social
gulf which keeps us from visiting either Mars or Venus. It is not easy
to put ourselves back into the fifteenth century and limit ourselves as
those men were limited.
I found it an aid to my comprehension of Columbus, this chance which
sent me sailing over the very route of his great voyage. It is not, even
now, a frequented route. The bold Spanish and Portuguese navigators of
the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries are no longer found upon it. The
trade of the Indies has passed into other hands, and this is not the
road from England to the West Indies or to America.
Thus you may still sail for weeks in these seas without ever meeting a
ship. Leaving Madeira or the Canaries, you may even reach those western
lands he reached without having seen or felt any other sign or incident
except precisely such as were noted by him.
DEATH WAS COLUMBUS' FRIEND.
OSKAR FERDINAND PESCHEL, a noted German geographer. Born at
Dresden, March 17, 1826; died, August 31, 1875.
Death saved Columbus the infliction of a blow which he probably would
have felt more than Bobadilla's fetters. He was allowed to carry to the
grave the glorious illusion that Cuba was a province of the Chinese
Empire, that Hispaniola was the Island Zipangu, and that only a narrow
strip of land, instead of a hemisphere covered by water, intervened
between the Caribbean Sea and the Bay of Bengal.
The discoverer of America died without suspecting that he had found a
new continent. He regarded the distance between Spain and Jamaica as a
third part of the circumference of the globe, and announced, "The earth
is by no means as large as is popularly supposed."
The extension of the world by a new continent had no place in his
conceptions, and the greatness of his achievement would have been
lessened in his eyes if he had been permitted to discover a second vast
ocean beyond that which he had traversed, for he would have seen that he
had but half accomplished his object, the connection of Europe with the
East.
PETRARCH'S TRIBUTE.
FRANCESCO PETRARCH, Italian poet. Born at Arezzo, in Tuscany, July
20, 1304; died at Arqua, near Padua, July 19, 1374.
The daylight hastening with winged steps,
Perchance to gladden the expectant eyes
Of far-off nations in a world remote.
COLUMBUS A VOLUMINOUS WRITER.
BARNET PHILLIPS, in _Harper's Weekly_, June 25, 1892, on "The
Columbus Festival at Genoa."[52]
It can not be questioned but that Christopher Columbus was a voluminous
writer. Mr. Justin Winsor, who has made careful researches, says that
"ninety-seven distinct pieces of writing by the hand of Columbus either
exist or are known to have existed. Of such, whether memoirs, relations,
or letters, sixty-four are preserved in their entirety." Columbus seems
to have written all his letters in Spanish. Genoa is fortunate in
possessing a number of authentic letters, and these are preserved in a
marble custodia, surmounted by a head of Columbus. In the pillar which
forms the pedestal there is a bronze door, and the precious Columbus
documents have been placed there. (See p. 54, _ante_.)
HIS LIFE WAS A PATH OF THORNS.
ROBERT POLLOK, a Scottish poet of some note. Born at Muirhouse,
Renfrewshire, 1798; died near Southampton, September, 1827.
Oh, who can tell what days, what nights, he spent,
Of tideless, waveless, sailless, shoreless woe!
And who can tell how many glorious once,
To him, of brilliant promise full--wasted,
And pined, and vanished from the earth!
UNWEPT, UNHONORED, AND UNSUNG.
W. F. POOLE, LL. D., Librarian of the Newberry Library, Chicago.
From "Christopher Columbus," in _The Dial_ for April, 1892.
Published by _The Dial_ Company, Chicago.
It had been well for the reputation of Columbus if he had died in 1493,
when he returned from his first voyage. He had found a pathway to a land
beyond the western ocean; and although he had no conception of what he
had discovered, it was the most important event in the history of the
fifteenth century. There was nothing left for him to do to increase his
renown. A coat-of-arms had been assigned him, and he rode on horseback
through the streets of Barcelona, with the King on one side of him and
Prince Juan on the other. His enormous claims for honors and emoluments
had been granted. His first letter of February, 1493, printed in several
languages, had been read in the courts of Europe with wonder and
amazement. "What delicious food for an ingenious mind!" wrote Peter
Martyr. In England, it was termed "a thing more divine than human." No
other man ever rose to such a pinnacle of fame so suddenly; and no other
man from such a height ever dropped out of sight so quickly. His three
later voyages were miserable failures; a pitiful record of misfortunes,
blunders, cruelties, moral delinquencies, quarrels, and impotent
complainings. They added nothing to the fund of human knowledge, or to
his own. On the fourth voyage he was groping about to find the River
Ganges, the great Khan of China, and the earthly paradise. His two
subsequent years of disappointment and sickness and poverty were
wretchedness personified. Other and more competent men took up the work
of discovery, and in thirteen years after the finding of a western route
to India had been announced, the name and personality of Columbus had
almost passed from the memory of men. He died at Valladolid, May 20,
1506; and outside of a small circle of relatives, his body was committed
to the earth with as little notice and ceremony as that of an unknown
beggar on its way to the potter's field. Yet the Spanish court was in
the town at the time. Peter Martyr was there, writing long letters of
news and gossip; and in five that are still extant there is no mention
of the sickness and death of Columbus. Four weeks later an official
document had the brief mention that "the Admiral is dead." Two Italian
authors, making, one and two years later, some corrections pertaining
to his early voyages, had not heard of his death.
NEW STAMPS FOR WORLD'S FAIR YEAR.
From the New York _Commercial Advertiser_.
Third Assistant Postmaster-General Hazen is preparing the designs for a
set of "Jubilee" stamps, to be issued by the Postoffice Department in
honor of the quadri-centennial. That is, he is getting together material
which will suggest to him the most appropriate subjects to be
illustrated on these stamps. He has called on the Bureau of American
Republics for some of the Columbian pictures with which it is
overflowing, and he recently took a big portfolio of them down into the
country to examine at his leisure.
One of the scenes to be illustrated, undoubtedly, will be the landing of
Columbus. The Convent of La Rabida, where Columbus is supposed to have
been housed just before his departure from Spain on his voyage of
discovery, will probably be the chief figure of another. The head of
Columbus will decorate one of the stamps--probably the popular 2-cent
stamp. Gen. Hazen resents the suggestion that the 5-cent, or foreign,
stamp be made the most ornate in the collection. He thinks that the
American public is entitled to the exclusive enjoyment of the most
beautiful of the new stamps.
Besides, the stamps will be of chief value to the Exposition, as they
advertise it among the people of America. The Jubilee stamps will be one
of the best advertisements the World's Fair will have. It would not be
unfair if the Postoffice Department should demand that the managers of
the World's Fair pay the additional expense of getting out the new
issue. But the stamp collectors will save the department the necessity
of doing that.
It may be that the issue of the current stamps will not be suspended
when the Jubilee stamps come in; but it is altogether likely that the
issue will be suspended for a year, and that at the end of that time the
dies and plates for the Jubilee stamps will be destroyed and the old
dies and plates will be brought out and delivered to the contractor
again. These dies and plates are always subject to the order of the
Postmaster-general. He can call for them at any time, and the contractor
must deliver them into his charge.
While they are in use they are under the constant supervision of a
government agent, and the contractor is held responsible for any plate
that might be made from his dies and for any stamps that might be
printed surreptitiously from such plates.
An oddity in the new series will be the absence of the faces of
Washington and Franklin. The first stamps issued by the Postoffice
Department were the 5 and 10 cent stamps of 1847. One of these bore the
head of Washington and the other that of Franklin. From that day to this
these heads have appeared on some two of the stamps of the United
States. In the Jubilee issue they will be missing, unless Mr. Wanamaker
or Mr. Hazen changes the present plan. It is intended now that only one
portrait shall appear on any of the stamps, and that one will be of
Columbus.
It will take some time to prepare the designs for the new stamps, after
the selection of the subjects, but Gen. Hazen expects to have them on
sale the 1st of January next. The subjects will be sent to the American
Bank Note Company, which will prepare the designs and submit them for
approval. When they are approved, the dies will be prepared and proofs
sent to the department. Five engravings were made before an acceptable
portrait of Gen. Grant was obtained for use on the current 5-cent
stamp. Gen. Grant, by the way, was the only living American whose
portrait during his lifetime was under consideration in getting up stamp
designs.
THE CHARACTER OF COLUMBUS.
WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT, an eminent American historian. Born at
Salem, Mass., May 4, 1796; died January 28, 1859. From "Ferdinand
and Isabella."
There are some men in whom rare virtues have been closely allied, if not
to positive vice, to degrading weakness. Columbus' character presented
no such humiliating incongruity. Whether we contemplate it in its public
or private relations, in all its features it wears the same noble
aspect. It was in perfect harmony with the grandeur of his plans and
their results, more stupendous than those which heaven has permitted any
other mortal to achieve.
FROM PALOS TO BARCELONA--HIS TRIUMPH.
The bells sent forth a joyous peal in honor of his arrival; but the
Admiral was too desirous of presenting himself before the sovereigns to
protract his stay long at Palos. His progress through Seville was an
ovation. It was the middle of April before Columbus reached Barcelona.
The nobility and cavaliers in attendance on the court, together with the
authorities of the city, came to the gates to receive him, and escorted
him to the royal presence. Ferdinand and Isabella were seated with their
son, Prince John, under a superb canopy of state, awaiting his arrival.
On his approach they rose from their seats, and, extending their hands
to him to salute, caused him to be seated before them. These were
unprecedented marks of condescension to a person of Columbus' rank in
the haughty and ceremonious court of Castille. It was, indeed, the
proudest moment in the life of Columbus. He had fully established the
truth of his long-contested theory, in the face of argument, sophistry,
sneer, skepticism, and contempt. After a brief interval the sovereigns
requested from Columbus a recital of his adventures; and when he had
done so, the King and Queen, together with all present, prostrated
themselves on their knees in grateful thanksgivings, while the solemn
strains of the _Te Deum_ were poured forth by the choir of the royal
chapel, as in commemoration of some glorious victory.--_Ibid._
THE CLAIM OF THE NORSEMEN.
From an editorial in _Public Opinion_, Washington.
Modern historians are pretty generally agreed that America was actually
first made known to the Eastern world by the indefatigable Norsemen.
Yet, in spite of this fact, Columbus has been, and still continues to
be, revered as the one man to whose genius and courage the discovery of
the New World is due. Miss Brown, in her "Icelandic Discoverers," justly
says it should be altogether foreign to American institutions and ideas
of liberty and honor to countenance longer the worship of a false idol.
The author first proceeds to set forth the evidence upon which the
claims of the Norsemen rest. The author charges that the heads of the
Roman Catholic church were early cognizant of this discovery of the
Norsemen, but that they suppressed this information. The motives for
this concealment are charged to their well-known reluctance to allow any
credit to non-Catholic believers, under which head, at that time, the
Norsemen were included. They preferred that the New World should first
be made known to Southern Europe by adherents to the Roman Catholic
faith. Most damaging evidence against Columbus' having originated,
unaided, the idea of a western world or route to India is furnished by
the fact that he visited Iceland in person in the spring of 1477, when
he must have heard rumors of the early voyages. He is known to have
visited the harbor at Hvalfjord, on the south coast of Iceland, at a
time when that harbor was most frequented, and also at the same time
when Bishop Magnus is known to have been there. They must have met, and,
as they had means of communicating through the Latin language, would
naturally have spoken of these distant countries. We have no hint of the
object of this visit of Columbus, for he scrupulously avoids subsequent
mention of it; but the author pleases to consider it as a secret
mission, instigated by the Church for the purpose of obtaining all
available information concerning the Norse discoveries. Certain it is
that soon after his return to Spain we find him petitioning the King and
Queen for a grant of ships and men to further the enterprise; and he was
willing to wait for more than fourteen years before he obtained them.
His extravagant demands of the King and Queen concerning the rights,
titles, and percentage of all derived from the countries "he was about
to discover," can hardly be viewed in any other light than that of
positive knowledge concerning their existence.
PULCI'S PROPHECY.
LUIGI PULCI, an Italian poet. Born at Florence in 1431; died about
1487.
Men shall descry another hemisphere,
Since to one common center 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.
CHRISTOPHER, THE CHRIST-BEARER.
GEORGE PAYNE QUACKENBOS, an American teacher and educational
writer. Born in New York, 1826; died December 24, 1881.
Full of religious enthusiasm, he regarded this voyage to the western
seas as his peculiar mission, and himself--as his name, CHRISTOPHER,
imports--the appointed _Christ-bearer_, or _gospel-bearer_, to the
natives of the new lands he felt that he was destined to discover.
PLEADING WITH KINGS FOR A NEW WORLD.
The Rev. MYRON REED, a celebrated American clergyman of the present
day.
Here is Columbus. Somehow I think he is more of a man while he is
begging for ships and a crew, when he is in mid-ocean sailing to
discover America, than when he found it.
LAST DAYS OF THE VOYAGE.
The last days of the voyage of Columbus were lonesome days. He had to
depend on his own vision. I do not know what he had been--probably a
buccaneer. We know that he was to be a trader in slaves. But in spite of
what he had been and was to become, once he was great.--_Ibid._
ROLL OF THE CREWS OF THE THREE CARAVELS.
CREW OF THE SANTA MARIA.--_Admiral_, Cristoval Colon; _Master and
owner_, Juan de la Cosa of Santona; _Pilot_, Sancho Ruiz; _Boatswain_,
Maestre Diego; _Surgeon_, Maestre Alonzo of Moguer; _Assistant Surgeon_,
Maestre Juan; _Overseer_, Rodrigo Sanchez of Segovia; _Secretary_,
*Rodrigo de Escobedo[53]; _Master at Arms_, *Diego de Arana of Cordova;
_Volunteer_, *Pedro Gutierrez, (A gentleman of the King's bedchamber);
_Volunteer_, *Bachiller Bernardo de Tapia of Ledesma; _Steward_, Pedro
Terreros; _Admiral's Servant_, Diego de Salcedo; _Page_, Pedro de
Acevedo; _Interpreter_, Luis de Torres, (A converted Jew); _Seamen_,
Rodrigo de Jerez, Garcia Ruiz of Santona, Pedro de Villa of Santona,
Rodrigo Escobar, Francisco of Huelva, Ruy Fernandez of Huelva, Pedro
Bilbao of Larrabezua, *Alonzo Velez of Seville, *Alonzo Perez Osorio;
_Assayer and Silversmith_, *Castillo of Seville; _Seamen of the Santa
Maria_, *Antonio of Jaen, *Alvaro Perez Osorio, *Cristoval de Alamo of
Niebla, *Diego Garcia of Jerez, *Diego de Tordoya of Cabeza de Vaca,
*Diego de Capilla of Almeden, *Diego of Mambles, *Diego de Mendoza,
*Diego de Montalvan of Jaen, *Domingo de Bermeo, *Francisco de Godoy of
Seville, *Francisco de Vergara of Seville, *Francisco of Aranda,
*Francisco Henao of Avila, *Francisco Jimenes of Seville, *Gabriel
Baraona of Belmonte, *Gonzalo Fernandez of Segovia, *Gonzalo Fernandez
of Leon, *Guillermo Ires of Galway, *Jorge Gonzalez of Trigueros, *Juan
de Cueva, *Juan Patino of La Serena, *Juan del Barco of Avila, *Pedro
Carbacho of Caceres, *Pedro of Talavera, *Sebastian of Majorca,
*Tallarte de Lajes (Ingles).
THE CREW OF THE PINTA.--_Captain of the Pinta_, Martin Alonzo Pinzon;
_Master_, Francisco Martin Pinzon; _Pilot of the vessel_, Cristoval
Garcia Sarmiento; _Boatswain_, Bartolome Garcia; _Surgeon_, Garci
Hernandez; _Purser_, Juan de Jerez; _Caulker_, Juan Perez; _Seamen_,
Rodrigo Bermudez de Triana of Alcala de la Guadaira, Juan Rodriguez
Bermejo of Molinos, Juan de Sevilla, Garcia Alonzo, Gomez Rascon
(owner), Cristoval Quintero (owner), Diego Bermudez, Juan Bermudez,
Francisco Garcia Gallegos of Moguer, Francisco Garcia Vallejo, Pedro de
Arcos.
CREW OF THE NINA.--_Captain of the Nina_, Vicente Yanez Pinzon; _Master
and part owner of the vessel_, Juan Nino; _Pilots_, Pero Alonzo Nino,
Bartolome Roldan; _Seamen_ _of the Nina_, Francisco Nino, Gutierrez
Perez, Juan Ortiz, Alonso Gutierrez Querido, *Diego de Torpa[54],
*Francisco Fernandez, *Hernando de Porcuna, *Juan de Urniga, *Juan
Morcillo, *Juan del Villar, *Juan de Mendoza, *Martin de Logrosan,
*Pedro de Foronda, *Tristan de San Jorge.
COLUMBUS A THEORETICAL CIRCUMNAVIGATOR.
JOHN CLARK RIDPATH, LL. D., an American author and educator. Born
in Putnam County, Indiana, April 26, 1840. From "History of United
States," 1874.
Sir John Mandeville had declared in the very first English book that
ever was written (A. D. 1356) that the world is a sphere, and that it
was both possible and practicable for a man to sail around the world and
return to the place of starting; but neither Sir John himself nor any
other seaman of his times was bold enough to undertake so hazardous an
enterprise. Columbus was, no doubt, the first _practical_ believer in
the theory of circumnavigation, and although he never sailed around the
world himself, he demonstrated the possibility of doing so.
The great mistake with Columbus and others who shared his opinions was
not concerning the figure of the earth, but in regard to its size. He
believed the world to be no more than 10,000 or 12,000 miles in
circumference. He therefore confidently expected that after sailing
about 3,000 miles to the westward he should arrive at the East Indies,
and to do that was the one great purpose of his life.
AN IMPORTANT FIND OF MSS.
JUAN F. RIANO. "Review of Continental Literature," July, 1891, to
July, 1892. From "_The Athenaeum_" (England), July 2, 1892.
The excitement about Columbus has rather been heightened by the
accidental discovery of three large holograph volumes, in quarto, of Fr.
Bartolome de Las Casas, the Bishop of Chiapa, who, as is well known,
accompanied the navigator in his fourth voyage to the West Indies. The
volumes were deposited by Las Casas in San Gregorio de Valladolid, where
he passed the last years of his life in retirement. There they remained
until 1836, when, owing to the suppression of the monastic orders, the
books of the convent were dispersed, and the volumes of the Apostle of
the Indies, as he is still called, fell into the hands of a collector of
the name of Acosta, from whom a grandson named Arcos inherited them.
Though written in the bishop's own hand, they are not of great value, as
they only contain his well-known "Historia Apologetica de las Indias,"
of which no fewer than three different copies, dating from the sixteenth
century, are to be found here at Madrid, and the whole was published
some years ago in the "Documentos Ineditos para la Historia de Espana."
The enthusiasm for Columbus and his companions has not in the least
damped the ardor of my countrymen for every sort of information
respecting their former colonies, in America or their possessions in the
Indian Archipelago and on the northern coast of Africa. Respecting the
former I may mention the second volume of the "Historia del Nuevo
Mundo," by Cobo, 1645; the third and fourth volume of the "Origen de los
Indios del Peru, Mexico, Santa Fey Chile," by Diego Andres Rocha; "De
las Gentes del Peru," forming part of the "Historia Apologetica," by
Bartolome de las Casas, though not found in his three holograph volumes
recently discovered.
CHILDREN OF THE SUN.
WILLIAM ROBERTSON (usually styled Principal ROBERTSON), a
celebrated Scottish historian. Born at Bosthwick, Mid-Lothian,
September 19, 1721; died June, 1793.
Columbus was the first European who set foot in the New World which he
had discovered. He landed in a rich dress, and with a naked sword in his
hand. His men followed, and, kneeling down, they all kissed the ground
which they had long desired to see. They next erected a crucifix, and
prostrating themselves before it returned thanks to God for conducting
their voyage to such a happy issue.
The Spaniards while thus employed were surrounded by many of the
natives, who gazed in silent admiration upon actions which they could
not comprehend, and of which they could not foresee the consequences.
The dress of the Spaniards, the whiteness of their skins, their beards,
their arms, appeared strange and surprising. The vast machines in which
the Spaniards had traversed the ocean, that seemed to move upon the
water with wings, and uttered a dreadful sound, resembling thunder,
accompanied with lightning and smoke, struck the natives with such
terror that they began to respect their new guests as a superior order
of beings, and concluded that they were children of the sun, who had
descended to visit the earth.
* * * * *
To all the kingdoms of Europe, Christopher Columbus, by an effort of
genius and of intrepidity the boldest and most successful that is
recorded in the annals of mankind, added a new world.--_Ibid._
THE BRONZE DOOR AT WASHINGTON.
This is the main central door of the Capitol at Washington, D. C., and
on it is a pictured history of events connected with the life of
Columbus and the discovery of America.
[Illustration: THE COLUMBUS MONUMENT, Paseo de la Reforma, City of
Mexico. Sculptor, M, Cordier.]
The door weighs 20,000 pounds; is seventeen feet high and nine feet
wide; it is folding or double, and stands sunk back inside of a bronze
casing, which projects about a foot forward from the leaves or valves.
On this casing are four figures at the top and bottom, representing
Asia, Africa, Europe, and America. A border, emblematic of conquest and
navigation, runs along the casing between them.
The door has eight panels besides the semicircular one at the top. In
each panel is a picture in _alto-relievo_.
It was designed by Randolph Rogers, an American, and modeled by him in
Rome, in 1858; and was cast by F. Von Muller, at Munich, 1861.
The story the door tells is the history of Columbus and the discovery of
America.
The panel containing the earliest event in the life of the discoverer is
the lowest one on the south side, and represents "Columbus undergoing an
examination before the Council of Salamanca."
The panel above it contains "Columbus' departure from the Convent of
Santa Maria de la Rabida," near Palos. He is just setting out to visit
the Spanish court.
The one above it is his "audience at the court of Ferdinand and
Isabella."
The next panel is the top one of this half of the door, and represents
the "starting of Columbus from Palos on his first voyage."
The transom panel occupies the semicircular sweep over the whole door.
The extended picture here is the "first landing of the Spaniards at San
Salvador."
The top panel on the other leaf of the door represents the "first
encounter of the discoverers with the natives." In it one of the sailors
is seen bringing an Indian girl on his shoulders a prisoner. The
transaction aroused the stern indignation of Columbus.
The panel next below this one has in it "the triumphal entry of Columbus
into Barcelona."
The panel below this represents a very different scene, and is "Columbus
in chains."
In the next and last panel is the "death scene." Columbus lies in bed;
the last rites of the Catholic church have been administered; friends
and attendants are around him; and a priest holds up a crucifix for him
to kiss, and upon it bids him fix his dying eyes.
On the door, on the sides and between the panels, are sixteen small
statues, set in niches, of eminent contemporaries of Columbus. Their
names are marked on the door, and beginning at the bottom, on the side
from which we started in numbering the panels, we find the figure in the
lowest niche is Juan Perez de la Marchena, prior of La Rabida; then
above him is Hernando Cortez; and again, standing over him, is Alonzo de
Ojeda.
Amerigo Vespucci occupies the next niche on the door.
Then, opposite in line, across the door, standing in two niches, side by
side, are Cardinal Mendoza and Pope Alexander VI.
Then below them stand Ferdinand and Isabella, King and Queen of Spain;
beneath them stands the Lady Beatrice Enriquez de Bobadilla; beside her
is Charles VIII., King of France.
The first figure of the lowest pair on the door is Henry VII. of
England; beside him stands John II., King of Portugal.
Then, in the same line with them, across the panel, is Alonzo Pinzon.
In the niche above Alonzo Pinzon stands Bartolomeo Columbus, the brother
of the great navigator.
Then comes Vasco Nunez de Balboa, and in the niche above, again at the
top of the door, stands the figure of Francisco Pizarro, the conqueror
of Peru.
Between the panels and at top and bottom of the valves of the door are
ten projecting heads. Those between the panels are historians who have
written Columbus' voyages from his own time down to the present day,
ending with Washington Irving and William Hickling Prescott.
The two heads at the tops of the valves are female heads, while the two
next the floor possess Indian characteristics.
Above, over the transom arch, looks down, over all, the serene grand
head of Columbus. Beneath it, the American eagle spreads out his widely
extended wings.
Mr. Rogers[55] received $8,000 for his models, and Mr. Von Muller was
paid $17,000 in gold for casting the door. To a large portion of this
latter sum must be added the high premium on exchange which ruled during
the war, the cost of storage and transportation, and the expense of the
erection of the door in the Capitol after its arrival. These items
would, added together, far exceed $30,000 in the then national currency.
SANTA MARIA RABIDA, THE CONVENT--RABIDA.
SAMUEL ROGERS, the English banker-poet. Born near London, July 30,
1763; died December, 1855. Translated from a Castilian MS., and
printed as an introduction to his poem, "The Voyage of Columbus."
It is stated that he spent $50,000 in the illustrations of this
volume of his poems.
In Rabida's monastic fane
I can not ask, and ask in vain;
The language of Castille I speak,
'Mid many an Arab, many a Greek,
Old in the days of Charlemagne,
When minstrel-music wandered round,
And science, waking, blessed the sound.
No earthly thought has here a place,
The cowl let down on every face;
Yet here, in consecrated dust,
Here would I sleep, if sleep I must.
From Genoa, when Columbus came
(At once her glory and her shame),
'T was here he caught the holy flame;
'T was here the generous vow he made;
His banners on the altar laid.
Here, tempest-worn and desolate,
A pilot journeying through the wild
Stopped to solicit at the gate
A pittance for his child.
'T was here, unknowing and unknown,
He stood upon the threshold stone.
But hope was his, a faith sublime,
That triumphs over place and time;
And here, his mighty labor done,
And here, his course of glory run,
Awhile as more than man he stood,
So large the debt of gratitude.
* * * * *
Who the great secret of the deep possessed,
And, issuing through the portals of the West,
Fearless, resolved, with every sail unfurled,
Planted his standard on the unknown world.
--_Ibid._
GENOA.
Thy brave mariners,
They had fought so often by thy side,
Staining the mountain billows.
--_Ibid._
LAUNCHED OUT INTO THE DEEP.
WILLIAM RUSSELL, American author and educationist. Born in
Scotland, 1798; died, 1873. From his "Modern History."
Transcendent genius and superlative courage experience almost equal
difficulty in carrying their designs into execution when they depend on
the assistance of others. Columbus possessed both--he exerted both; and
the concurrence of other heads and other hearts was necessary to give
success to either; he had indolence and cowardice to encounter, as well
as ignorance and prejudice. He had formerly been ridiculed as a
visionary, he was now pitied as a desperado. The Portuguese navigators,
in accomplishing their first discoveries, had always some reference to
the coast; cape had pointed them to cape; but Columbus, with no landmark
but the heavens, nor any guide but the compass, boldly launched into the
ocean, without knowing what shore should receive him or where he could
find rest for the sole of his foot.
STATUARY AT SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA.
One of the principal features in the State capitol at Sacramento is a
beautiful and artistic group of statuary, cut from a solid block of
purest white marble. It represents Columbus pleading the cause of his
project before Queen Isabella of Spain. The Spanish sovereign is seated;
at her left hand kneels the First Admiral, while an attendant page on
the right watches with wonder the nobly generous action of the Queen.
Columbus, with a globe in his hand, contends that the world is round,
and pleads for assistance to fit out an expedition to discover the New
World. The royal reply is, "I will assume the undertaking for my own
crown of Castille, and am ready to pledge my jewels to defray its
expense, if the funds in the treasury shall be found inadequate," The
group, which is said to be a masterpiece of work, the only piece of its
kind in the United States, was executed in Florence, Italy, by Larkin G.
Mead of Vermont, an American artist of known reputation. Costing
$60,000, it was presented to the State of California, in 1883, by Mr. D.
O. Mills.
A MONUMENT NEAR SALAMANCA.
At Valcuebo, a country farm once belonging to the Dominicans of
Salamanca, Columbus was entertained by Diego de Deza--prior of the great
Dominican convent of San Esteban and professor of theology at
Salamanca--while the Junta [committee] of Spanish ecclesiastics
considered his prospects. His residence there was a peaceful oasis in
the stormy life of the great discoverer. The little grange still stands
at a distance of about three miles west of Salamanca, and the country
people have a tradition that on the crest of a small hill near the
house, now called "Teso de Colon" (i. e., Columbus' Peak), the future
discoverer used to pass long hours conferring with his visitors or
reading in solitude. The present owner, Don Martin de Solis, has erected
a monument on this hill, consisting of a stone pyramid surmounted by a
globe; it commemorates the spot where the storm-tossed hero enjoyed a
brief interval of peace and rest.
HONOR TO WHOM HONOR IS DUE.
MANOEL FRANCISCO DE BARROS Y SOUZA, VISCOUNT SANTAREM, a noted
Portuguese diplomatist and writer. Born at Lisbon, 1790; died,
1856.
If Columbus was not the first to discover America, he was, at least, the
man who _re_discovered it, and in a positive and definite shape
communicated the knowledge of it. For, if he verified what the Egyptian
priest indicated to Solon, the Athenian, as is related by Plato in the
Timoeus respecting the Island of Atlantis; if he realized the
hypothesis of Actian; if he accomplished the prophecy of Seneca in the
Medea; if he demonstrated that the story of the mysterious Carthaginian
vessel, related by Aristotle and Theophrastus, was not a dream; if he
established by deeds that there was nothing visionary in what St.
Gregory pointed at in one of his letters to St. Clement; if, in a word,
Columbus proved by his discovery the existence of the land which Madoc
had visited before him, as Hakluyt and Powell pretended; and ascertained
for a certainty that which for the ancients had always been so
uncertain, problematical, and mysterious--his glory becomes only the
more splendid, and more an object to command admiration.
THE SANTIAGO BUST.
At Santiago, Chili, a marble bust of Columbus is to be found, with a
face modeled after the De Bry portrait, an illustration of which latter
appears in these pages. The bust has a Dutch cap and garments.
THE ST. LOUIS STATUE.
In the city of St. Louis, Mo., a statue of Columbus has been erected as
the gift of Mr. Henry D. Shaw. It consists of a heroic-sized figure of
Columbus in gilt bronze, upon a granite pedestal, which has four bronze
_basso relievos_ of the principal events in his career. The face of the
statue follows the Genoa model, and the statue was cast at Munich.
SOUTHERN AMERICA'S TRIBUTE.
At Lima, Peru, a fine group of statuary was erected in 1850,
representing Columbus in the act of raising an Indian girl from the
ground. Upon the front of the marble pedestal is the simple dedication:
"A Cristoval Colon" (To Christopher Columbus), and upon the other three
faces are appropriate nautical designs.
THE STATUE IN BOSTON.
In addition to the Iasigi statue, Boston boasts of one of the most
artistic statues to Columbus, and will shortly possess a third. "The
First Inspiration of the Boy Columbus" is a beautiful example of the
work of Signor G. Monteverde, a celebrated Italian sculptor. It was made
in Rome, in 1871, and, winning the first prize of a gold medal at Parma,
in that year, was presented to the city of Boston by Mr. A. P.
Chamberlain of Concord, Mass. It represents Columbus as a youth, seated
upon the capstan of a vessel, with an open book in his hand, his foot
carelessly swinging in an iron ring. In addition to this statue, a
_replica_ of the Old Isabella statue (described on page 171, _ante_),
is, it is understood, to be presented to the city.
STATUE AT GENOA.
In the Red Palace, Genoa, a statue of Columbus has been erected
representing him standing on the deck of the Santa Maria, behind a padre
with a cross. The pedestal of the statue is ornamented with prows of
caravels, and on each side a mythological figure represents Discovery
and Industry.
THE STATUE AT PALOS.
Now in course of erection to commemorate the discovery, and under the
auspices of the Spanish government, is a noble statue at Palos, Spain.
It consists of a fluted column of the Corinthian order of architecture,
capped by a crown, supporting an orb, surmounted by a cross. The orb
bears two bands, one about its equator and the other representing the
zodiac. On the column are the names of the Pinzon brothers, Martin and
Vicente Yanez; and under the prows of the caravels, "Colon," with a list
of the persons who accompanied him. The column rests upon a prismatic
support, from which protrude four prows, and the pedestal of the whole
is in the shape of a tomb, with an Egyptian-like appearance.
THE STATUE IN PHILADELPHIA.
In Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, Pa., there is placed a statue of
Columbus, which, originally exhibited at the Centennial Exposition, at
Philadelphia, in 1876, was presented to the Centennial Commission by the
combined Italian societies of Philadelphia.
THE STEBBINS STATUE.
In Central Park, New York City, is located an artistic statue, the gift
of Mrs. Marshall O. Roberts, and the work of Miss Emma Stebbins. The
figure of Columbus is seven feet high, and represents him as a sailor
with a mantle thrown over his shoulder. The face is copied from accepted
portraits of the Giovian type.
SANTO DOMINGOAN CANNON.
When Columbus was made a prisoner in Santo Domingo, the governor, who
arrested him, feared there might be an attempt at rescue, so he trained
a big gun on the entrance of the citadel, or castle, in which Columbus
was confined. That cannon laid in the same place until Mr. Ober, a
World's Fair representative, recovered it, and, with the permission of
the Governor of Santo Domingo, brought it to the United States. It is on
exhibition at the World's Fair.
THE SANTA MARIA CARAVEL.
A very novel feature of the historical exhibit at the Chicago World's
Columbian Exposition will be a fac-simile reproduction of the little
ship Santa Maria, in which Columbus sailed. Lieut. McCarty Little of the
United States navy was detailed to go to Spain to superintend the
construction of the ship by the Spanish government at the Carraca yard
at Cadiz. The keel was laid on March 1, 1892. The caravel's dimensions
are: Length at keel, 62 feet 4 inches; length between perpendiculars, 75
feet 5 inches; beam, 22 feet; draught, 14 feet 8 inches. Great care is
being taken with details. It is manned by Spanish sailors in the costume
of the time of Columbus, and is rigged as Columbus rigged his ship.
There are on board copies of the charts that Columbus used, and
fac-similes of his nautical instruments. The crew are of the same
number, and included in it are an Englishman and an Irishman, for it is
a well-founded historical fact that William Harris, an Englishman, and
Arthur Lake, an Irishman, were both members of Columbus' crew. In fact,
the reproduction is as exact as possible in every detail. The little
ship, in company with her sisters, the Pinta and the Nina, which were
reproduced by American capital, will make its first appearance at the
naval review in New York, where the trio will be saluted by the great
cruisers and war-ships of modern invention from all of the navies of the
world. They will then be presented by the government of Spain to the
President of the United States, and towed through the lakes to Chicago,
being moored at the Exposition. It is proposed that the vessels be taken
to Washington after the Exposition, and there anchored in the park of
the White House.
The Spanish committee having the matter in charge have made careful
examinations of all obtainable data to insure that the vessels shall be,
in every detail which can be definitely determined, exact copies of the
original Columbus vessels. In connection with this subject, _La
Ilustracion National_ of Madrid, to whom we are indebted for our
first-page illustration, says:
"A great deal of data of very varied character has been obtained, but
nothing that would give the exact details sought, because, doubtless,
the vessels of that time varied greatly, not only in the form of their
hulls, but also in their rigging, as will be seen by an examination of
the engravings and paintings of the fifteenth century; and as there was
no ship that could bear the generic name of 'caravel,' great confusion
was caused when the attempt was made to state, with a scientific
certainty, what the caravels were. The word 'caravel' comes from the
Italian _cara bella_, and with this etymology it is safe to suppose that
the name was applied to those vessels on account of the grace and beauty
of their form, and finally was applied to the light vessels which went
ahead of the ships as dispatch boats. Nevertheless, we think we have
very authentic data, perhaps all that is reliable, in the letter of Juan
de la Cosa, Christopher Columbus' pilot. Juan de la Cosa used many
illustrations, and with his important hydrographic letter, which is in
the Naval Museum, we can appreciate his ability in drawing both
landscapes and figures. As he was both draughtsman and mariner, we feel
safe in affirming that the caravels drawn in said letter of the
illustrious mariner form the most authentic document in regard to the
vessels of his time that is in existence. From these drawings and the
descriptions of the days' runs in the part marked 'incidents' of
Columbus' log, it is ascertained that these vessels had two sets of
sails, lateens for sailing with bowlines hauled, and with lines for
sailing before the wind.
"The same lateens serve for this double object, unbending the sails half
way and hoisting them like yards by means of top ropes. Instead of
having the points now used for reefing, these sails had bands of canvas
called bowlines, which were unfastened when it was unnecessary to
diminish the sails."
AT PALOS.
From the _Saturday Review_, August 6, 1892.
It was a happy notion, and creditable to the ingenuity of the Spaniards,
to celebrate the auspicious event, which made Palos famous four hundred
years ago, by a little dramatic representation. The caravel Maria,
manned by appropriately dressed sailors, must be a sight better than
many eloquent speeches. She has, we are told, been built in careful
imitation of the flagship of Columbus' little squadron. If the fidelity
of the builders has been thorough, if she has not been coppered, has no
inner skin, and has to trust mainly to her caulking to keep out the
water, we hope that she will have unbroken good weather on her way to
New York. The voyage to Havana across the "Ladies' Sea" is a simple
business; but the coast of the United States in early autumn will be
trying to a vessel which will be buoyant enough as long as she is
water-tight, but is not to be trusted to remain so under a severe
strain. She will not escape the strain wholly by being towed. We are not
told whether the Maria is to make the landfall of Columbus as well as
take his departure. The disputes of the learned as to the exact spot
might make it difficult to decide for which of the Bahamas the captain
ought to steer. On the other hand, if it were left to luck, to the wind,
and the currents, the result might throw some light on a vexed question.
It might be interesting to see whether the Maria touched at Turk Island,
Watling's Island, or Mariguana, or at none of the three.
The event which the Spaniards are celebrating with natural pride is
peculiarly fitted to give an excuse for a centenary feast. The
complaints justly made as to the artificial character of the excuses
often chosen for these gatherings and their eloquence do not apply here.
Beyond all doubt, when Columbus sailed from Palos on August 3, 1492, he
did something by which the history of the world was profoundly
influenced. Every schoolboy of course knows that if Columbus had never
lived America would have been discovered all the same, when Pedro
Alvarez Cabral, the Portuguese admiral, was carried by the trade-winds
over to the coast of Brazil in 1500. But in that case it would not have
been discovered by Spain, and the whole course of the inevitable
European settlement on the continent must have been modified.
When that can be said of any particular event there can be no question
as to its importance. There is a kind of historical critic, rather
conspicuous in these latter days, who finds a peculiar satisfaction in
pointing out that Columbus discovered America without knowing it--which
is true. That he believed, and died in the belief, that he had reached
Asia is certain. It is not less sure that Amerigo Vespucci, from whom
the continent was named, by a series of flukes, misprints, and
misunderstandings, went to his grave in the same faith. He thought that
he had found an island of uncertain size to the south of the equator,
and that what Columbus had found to the north was the eastern extremity
of Asia. But the world which knows that Columbus did, as a matter of
fact, do it the service of finding America, and is aware that without
him the voyage from Palos would never have been undertaken, has refused
to belittle him because he did not know beforehand what was only found
out through his exertions.
The learned who have written very largely about Columbus have their
serious doubts as to the truth of the stories told of his connection
with Palos. Not that there is any question as to whether he sailed from
there. The dispute is as to the number and circumstances of his visits
to the Convent of Santa Maria Rabida, and the exact nature of his
relations to the Prior Juan Perez de Marchena. There has, in fact, been
a considerable accumulation of what that very rude man, Mr. Carlyle,
called the marine stores of history about the life of Columbus, as about
most great transactions. He certainly had been at La Rabida, and the
prior was his friend. But, with or without Juan Perez, Columbus as a
seafaring man would naturally have been in Palos. It lies right in the
middle of the coast, which has always been open to attack from Africa
and has been the starting point for attack on Africa. It is in the way
of trade for the same reason that it is in the way of war. What are now
fishing villages were brisk little trading towns in the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries. Palos did not only send out Columbus. It received
Cortez when he came back from the conquest of Mexico. Palos does very
well to remember its glories. And Spain does equally well to remember
that she sent out Columbus. In spite of the platitudes talked by
painfully thoughtful persons as to the ruinous consequences of the
discovery to herself, it was, take it altogether, the greatest thing she
has done in the world. She owes to it her unparalleled position in the
sixteenth century, and the opportunity to become "a mother of nations."
The rest of the world has to thank her for the few magnificent and
picturesque passages which enliven the commonly rather colorless, not to
say Philistine, history of America.
A REMINISCENCE OF COLUMBUS.
RANDALL N. SAUNDERS, Claverack, N. Y., in the _School Journal_.
* * * What boy has not felt a thrill of pride, for the sex, at the
dogged persistence with which Columbus clung to his purpose and to
Isabella after Ferdinand had flung to him but stony replies.
* * * * *
Methinks I am starting from Palos. I see the pale, earnest face set in
its steadfast resolution from prophetic knowledge. I see the stern lines
of care, deeper from the contrast of the hair, a silver mantle refined
by the worry; the "midnight oil" that burned in the fiery furnace of his
ambition. I see the flush of pleasure at setting out to battle with the
perilous sea toward the consummation of life's grand desire. I feel the
waverings between hope and despair as the journey lengthens, with but
faint promise of reward, and with those around who would push us into
the overwhelming waves of defeat and remorse. Amid all discouragements,
amid the darkest gloom, I am inspired by his words, "Sail on, sail on";
and sailing on with the grand old Genoese, I yet hope to know and feel
his glorious success, and with him to return thanks on the golden strand
of the San Salvador of life's success.
THE DENSE IGNORANCE OF THOSE DAYS.
The Reverend MINOT JUDSON SAVAGE, an American clergyman. Born at
Norridgewock, Maine, June 10, 1841. Pastor of Unity Church, Boston.
From his lecture, "The Religious Growth of Three Hundred Years."
Stand beside Columbus a moment, and consider how much and how little
there was known. It was commonly believed that the earth was flat and
was flowed round by the ocean stream. Jerusalem was the center. With the
exception of a little of Europe, a part of Asia, and a strip of North
Africa, the earth was unknown country. In these unknown parts dwelt
monsters of every conceivable description. Columbus indeed cherished the
daring dream that he might reach the eastern coast of Asia by sailing
west; but most of those who knew his dreams regarded him as crazy. And
it is now known that even he was largely impelled by his confident
expectation that he would be able to discover the Garden of Eden. The
motive of his voyage was chiefly a religious one. And, as a hint of the
kind of world in which people then lived, the famous Ponce de Leon
searched Florida in the hope of discovering the Fountain of Perpetual
Youth. At this time Copernicus and his system were unheard of. The
universe was a little three-story affair. Heaven, with God on his throne
and his celestial court about him, was only a little way overhead--just
beyond the blue dome. Hell was underneath the surface of the earth.
Volcanoes and mysterious caverns were vent-holes or gate-ways of the
pit; and devils came and went at will. Even after it was conceded that
the earth revolved, there were found writers who accounted for the
diurnal revolution by attributing it to the movements of damned souls
confined within, like restless squirrels in a revolving cage. On the
earth's surface, between heaven and hell, was man, the common
battleground of celestial and infernal hosts. At this time, of
course, there was none of our modern knowledge of the heavens, nor of
the age or structure of the earth.
[Illustration: From Harper's Weekly.
Copyright, 1892, by Harper & Brothers.
THE COLUMBUS MONUMENT, NEW YORK CITY.
Presented by the Italian Citizens.
(See page 243.)]
SENECA'S PROPHECY.
LUCIUS ANNAEUS SENECA, an eminent Roman stoic, philosopher, and
moralist. Born at Corduba, Spain, about 5 B. C.; committed suicide
65 A. D.
_Venient annis
Saecula seris, quibus Oceanus
Vincula rerum laxet, et ingens
Pateat teilus, Tethysque novos
Detegat orbes, nec sit terris
Ultima Thule._
THE TOMB IN SEVILLE.
The following inscription is placed on the tomb of Hernando Columbus in
the pavement of the Cathedral of Seville, Spain:
Aqui yaze el. M. Magnifico S. D. Hernando Colon, el qual aplico y gasto
toda su vida y hazienda en aumento de las letras, y juntar y perpetuar
en esta ciudad todas sus libros de todas las ciencias, que en su tiempo
hallo y en reducirlo a quatro libros.
Fallecio en esta ciudad a 12 de Julio de 1539 de edad de 50 anos 9 meses
y 14 dias, fue hijo del valeroso y memorable S. D. Christ. Colon primero
Almirante que descubrio las Yndias y nuevo mundo en vida de los Cat. R.
D. Fernando, y. D. Ysabel de gloriosa memoria a. 11 de Oct. de 1492, con
tres galeras y 90 personas, y partio del puerto de Palos a descubrirlas
a 3 de Agosto antes, y Bolvio a Castilla con victoria a 7 de Maio del
Ano Siguente y torno despues otras dos veces a poblar lo que descubrio.
Fallecio en Valladolid a 20 de Agosto de 1506 anos--[56]
Rogad a Dios por ellos.
(_In English._) Here rests the most magnificent Senor Don Hernando
Colon, who applied and spent all his life and estate in adding to the
letters, and collecting and perpetuating in this city all his books, of
all the sciences which he found in his time, and in reducing them to
four books. He died in this city on the 12th of July, 1539, at the age
of 50 years, 9 months, and 14 days. He was son of the valiant and
memorable Senor Don Christopher Colon, the First Admiral, who discovered
the Indies and the New World, in the lifetime of their Catholic
Majesties Don Fernando and Dona Isabel of glorious memory, on the 11th
of October, 1492, with three galleys and ninety people, having sailed
from the port of Palos on his discovery on the 3d of August previous,
and returned to Castille, with victory, on the 7th of May of the
following year. He returned afterward twice to people that which he had
discovered. He died in Valladolid on the 20th of August, 1506, aged
----.
Entreat the Lord for them.
Beneath this is described, in a circle, a globe, presenting the western
and part of the eastern hemispheres, surmounted by a pair of compasses.
Within the border of the circle is inscribed:
_A Castillo, y a Leon
Mundo nuevo dio Colon._
(To Castille and Leon, Columbus gave a new world.)
ONWARD! PRESS ON!
JOHANN CHRISTOPH FRIEDRICH SCHILLER, one of Germany's greatest
poets. Born at Marbach (about eight miles from Stuttgart), November
11, 1759; died, May 9, 1805, at Weimar.
COLUMBUS.
(1795.)
Steure, muthiger Segler! Es mag der Witz dich verhoehen
Und der Schiffer am Steur senken die laessige Hand.
Immer, immer nach West! Dort muss die Kueste sich zeigen,
Liegt sie doch deutlich und liegt schimmernd vor deinen Verstand.
Traue dem leitenden Gott und folge dem schweigenden Weltmeer!
War sie noch nicht, sie stieg' jetzt aus dem Fluten empor.
Mit dem Genius steht die Natur in ewigem Bunde
Was der Eine verspricht leistet die Andre gewiss.
Metrically translated (1843) by SIR EDWARD GEORGE EARLE LYTTON,
BULWER-LYTTON, Baronet (afterward first Lord Lytton. Born at Heydon
Hall, Norfolk, May 25, 1803; died, January 18, 1873), in the
following noble lines:
COLUMBUS.
STEER on, bold sailor! Wit may mock thy soul that sees the land,
And hopeless at the helm may droop the weak and weary hand,
YET EVER, EVER TO THE WEST, for there the coast must lie,
And dim it dawns, and glimmering dawns before thy reason's eye;
Yea, trust the guiding God--and go along the floating grave,
Though hid till now--yet now, behold the New World o'er the wave.
With Genius Nature ever stands in solemn union still,
And ever what the one foretells the other shall fulfill.
Senor EMILIO CASTELAR, the talented Spanish orator and statesman,
in the fourth of a series of most erudite and interesting articles
upon Christopher Columbus, in the _Century Magazine_ for August,
1892, thus masterly refers to the above passages:
He who pens these words, on reading the lines of the great poet Schiller
upon Columbus, found therein a philosophical thought, as original as
profound, calling upon the discoverer to press ever onward, for a new
world will surely arise for him, inasmuch as whatever is promised by
Genius is always fulfilled by Nature. To cross the seas of Life, naught
suffices save the bark of Faith. In that bark the undoubting Columbus
set sail, and at his journey's end found a new world. Had that world not
then existed, God would have created it in the solitude of the Atlantic,
if to no other end than to reward the faith and constancy of that great
man. America was discovered because Columbus possessed a living faith in
his ideal, in himself, and in his God.
THE NORSEMAN'S CLAIM TO PRIORITY.
Mrs. JOHN B. SHIPLEY'S "Leif Erikson."
Father Bodfish, of the cathedral in Boston, in his paper, read a year
ago before the Bostonian Society, on the discovery of America by the
Northmen, is reported to have quoted, "as corroborative authority, the
account given in standard history of the Catholic Church of the
establishment of a bishopric in Greenland in 1112 A. D., and he added
the interesting suggestion that as it is the duty of a bishop so placed
at a distance to report from time to time to the Pope, not only on
ecclesiastical matters, but of the geography of the country and
character of the people, it is probable that Columbus had the benefit of
the knowledge possessed. It is [he said] stated in different biographies
of Columbus that when the voyage was first proposed by him he found
difficulty in getting Spanish sailors to go with him in so doubtful an
undertaking. After Columbus returned from a visit to Rome with
information there obtained, these sailors, or enough of them, appear to
have had their doubts or fears removed, and no difficulty in enlistment
was experienced."
COLUMBUS BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY OF SALAMANCA.
LYDIA HUNTLEY SIGOURNEY, an American poet and miscellaneous writer.
Born at Norwich, Conn., September 1, 1791; died, June 10, 1865.
St. Stephen's cloistered hall was proud
In learning's pomp that day,
For there a robed and stately crowd
Pressed on in long array.
A mariner with simple chart
Confronts that conclave high,
While strong ambition stirs his heart,
And burning thoughts of wonder part
From lip and sparkling eye.
What hath he said? With frowning face,
In whispered tones they speak;
And lines upon their tablet's trace
Which flush each ashen cheek.
The Inquisition's mystic doom
Sits on their brows severe,
And bursting forth in visioned gloom,
Sad heresy from burning tomb
Groans on the startled ear.
Courage, thou Genoese! Old Time
Thy splendid dream shall crown.
Yon western hemisphere sublime,
Where unshorn forests frown;
The awful Andes' cloud-rapt brow,
The Indian hunter's bow.
Bold streams untamed by helm or prow,
And rocks of gold and diamonds thou
To thankless Spain shalt show.
Courage, world-finder, thou hast need.
In Fate's unfolding scroll,
Dark woes and ingrate wrongs I read,
That rack the noble soul.
On, on! Creation's secrets probe.
Then drink thy cup of scorn,
And wrapped in fallen Caesar's robe,
Sleep like that master of the globe,
All glorious, yet forlorn.
COLUMBUS A MARTYR.
SAMUEL SMILES, the celebrated British biographer. Born at
Haddington, Scotland, about 1815. From his volume, "Duty."
Even Columbus may be regarded in the light of a martyr. He sacrificed
his life to the discovery of a new world. The poor wool-carder's son of
Genoa had long to struggle unsuccessfully with the petty conditions
necessary for the realization of his idea. He dared to believe, on
grounds sufficing to his reason, that which the world disbelieved, and
scoffed and scorned at. He believed that the earth was round, while the
world believed that it was flat as a plate. He believed that the whole
circle of the earth, outside the known world, could not be wholly
occupied by sea; but that the probability was that continents of land
might be contained within it. It was certainly a Probability; But the
Noblest Qualities of the Soul Are Often Brought Forth by the Strength of
Probabilities That Appear Slight To Less Daring Spirits. In the Eyes of
His Countrymen, Few Things Were More Improbable Than That Columbus
Should Survive the Dangers of Unknown Seas, and Land On The Shores of a
New Hemisphere.
DIFFICULTIES BY THE WAY.
ROYALL BASCOM SMITHEY, in an article. "The Voyage of Columbus," in
_St. Nicholas_, July, 1892.
So the voyage progressed without further incident worthy of remark till
the 13th of September, when the magnetic needle, which was then believed
always to point to the pole-star, stood some five degrees to the
northwest. At this the pilots lost courage. "How," they thought, "was
navigation possible in seas where the compass, that unerring guide, had
lost its virtue?" When they carried the matter to Columbus, he at once
gave them an explanation which, though not the correct one, was yet very
ingenious, and shows the philosophic turn of his mind. The needle, he
said, pointed not to the north star, but to a fixed place in the
heavens. The north star had a motion around the pole, and in following
its course had moved from the point to which the needle was always
directed.
Hardly had the alarm caused by the variation of the needle passed away,
when two days later, after nightfall, the darkness that hung over the
water was lighted up by a great meteor, which shot down from the sky
into the sea. Signs in the heavens have always been a source of terror
to the uneducated; and this "flame of fire," as Columbus called it,
rendered his men uneasy and apprehensive. Their vague fears were much
increased when, on the 16th of September, they reached the Sargasso Sea,
in which floating weeds were so densely matted that they impeded the
progress of the ships. Whispered tales now passed from one sailor to
another of legends they had heard of seas full of shoals and treacherous
quicksands upon which ships had been found stranded with their sails
flapping idly in the wind, and manned by skeleton crews. Columbus, ever
cheerful and even-tempered, answered these idle tales by sounding the
ocean and showing that no bottom could be reached.
DESIGN FOR THE SOUVENIR COINS.[57]
A decision has been reached by the World's Fair management in relation
to the designs for the souvenir coins authorized by Congress at its last
session, and a radical change has been determined upon regarding these
coins. Several days ago Secretary Leach of the United States Mint sent
to the Fair officials a copy of the medal struck recently at Madrid,
Spain, in commemoration of Columbus' discovery of America. This medal
was illustrated in a Spanish-American paper of July, 1892, and showed a
remarkably fine profile head of the great explorer. It was deemed
superior to the Lotto portrait previously submitted for the obverse of
the coin, and the Fair directors have concluded that the Madrid medal
furnishes the best head obtainable, and have accordingly adopted it. For
the reverse of the coin a change has also been decided upon by the
substitution of a representation of the western continent instead of a
fac-simile of the Government building at Jackson Park, as originally
intended. It was suggested by experts, artists, and designers at the
Philadelphia mint that the representation of a building would not make a
very good showing on a coin, and in consequence of these expressions of
opinion it was decided to make the change proposed. Now that the
Director of the Mint knows what the Fair management wishes for a
souvenir coin, he will inaugurate the preparations of the dies and
plates as promptly as possible. Just as soon as the designs are
finished, work will be begun on the coins, which can be struck at the
rate of 60,000 daily, and it is quite likely that the deliveries of the
souvenir coins will be completed early in the spring.
[Illustration: From Harper's Weekly.
Copyright, 1892, by Harper & Brothers.
BAS-RELIEF--THE SIGHTING OF THE NEW WORLD. From the Columbus Monument in
New York City. (See page 244.)]
The announcement that the Director of the Mint has decided upon the
Madrid portrait of Columbus for the obverse side of the souvenir coin,
with this hemisphere on the reverse, was a surprise to many interested
in the designs. When the design was first presented, C. F. Gunther's
portrait, by Moro, and James W. Ellsworth's, by Lotto, were also
presented. Then a controversy opened between the owners of the two
last-named portraits, and, rather than extend this, Mr. Ellsworth
withdrew his portrait, with the suggestion that whatever design was
decided upon should first be submitted to the artists at the World's
Fair grounds. This was done, and they severely criticised the Madrid
picture. Notwithstanding this, the design was approved and sent to
Washington to be engraved. While Mr. Ellsworth, who is a director of the
Fair, will not push his portrait to the front in this matter, he regrets
that the Madrid portrait was selected. He said, "I think that the
opinion of the World's Fair artists should have had some weight in this
matter and that a portrait of authenticity should have been selected."
THE DARKNESS BEFORE DISCOVERY.
CHARLES SUMNER, an American lawyer and senator. Born in Boston,
Mass., January 6, 1811; died, March 11, 1874. From his "Prophetic
Voices Concerning America." By permission of Messrs. Lee & Shepard,
Publishers, Boston.
Before the voyage of Columbus in 1492, nothing of America was really
known. Scanty scraps from antiquity, vague rumors from the resounding
ocean, and the hesitating speculations of science were all that the
inspired navigator found to guide him.
GREATEST EVENT.
The discovery of America by Christopher Columbus is the greatest event
of secular history. Besides the potato, the turkey, and maize, which it
introduced at once for the nourishment and comfort of the Old World, and
also tobacco--which only blind passion for the weed could place in the
beneficent group--this discovery opened the door to influences infinite
in extent and beneficence. Measure them, describe them, picture them,
you can not. While yet unknown, imagination invested this continent with
proverbial magnificence. It was the Orient, and the land of Cathay.
When, afterward, it took a place in geography, imagination found another
field in trying to portray its future history. If the golden age is
before, and not behind, as is now happily the prevailing faith, then
indeed must America share, at least, if it does not monopolize, the
promised good.--_Ibid._
THE DOUBTS OF COLUMBUS.
Prof. DAVID SWING, a celebrated American preacher. Born in
Cincinnati in 1830; graduated at Miami University in 1852; was for
twelve years Professor of Languages at this university. In 1866 he
became pastor of a Presbyterian church in Chicago. He was tried for
heresy in 1874, was acquitted, and then withdrew from the
Presbyterian church, being now independent of denominational
relations.
Columbus was not a little troubled all through his early life lest there
might be over the sea some land greater than Spain, a land unused; a
garden where flowers came and went unseen for ages, and where gold
sparkled in the sand.
THE ERROR OF COLUMBUS.
From a sermon by Prof. SWING, printed in Chicago _Inter
Ocean_,1892.
The present rejoices in the remembrance that Columbus was a student, a
thinker; that he loved maps and charts; that he was a dreamer about new
continents; but after enumerating all these attractive forms of mental
activity, it comes with pain upon the thought that he was also a kind of
modified pirate. His thoughts and feelings went away from his charts and
compasses and touched upon vice and crime. Immorality ruins man's
thought. Let the name be Columbus, or Aaron Burr, or Byron, a touch of
immorality is the death of thought. "Whatsoever things are true,
whatsoever things are beautiful, whatsoever things are of good report,"
these seek, say, and do, but when the man who would discover a continent
robs a merchant ship or steals a cargo of slaves, or when a poet teaches
gross vulgarity, then the thinker is hemmed and degraded by criminality.
It is the glory of our age that it is washing white much of old thought.
What is the emancipation of woman but the filtration of old thought? Did
not Columbus study and read and think, and then go out and load his ship
with slaves? Did not the entire man--man the thinker, the philosopher,
the theologian--cover himself with intellectual glory and then load his
ship with enslaved womanhood? Was not the scholar Columbus part pirate?
What was in that atmosphere of the fifteenth century which could have
given peculiar thoughts to Columbus alone? Was he alone in his piracy?
It is much more certain that the chains that held the negro held also
all womanhood. All old thought thus awaited the electric process that
should weed ideas from crime. Our later years are active in
disentangling thought from injustice and vulgarity.
THE TRIBUTE OF TASSO.
TORQUATO TASSO, a celebrated Italian epic poet. Born at Sorrento
March 11, 1544; died in Rome, April, 1595.
Tu spiegherai, Colombo, a un novo polo
Lontane si le fortunate antenne,
Ch'a pena seguira con gli occhi il volo
La Fama ch' ha mille occhi e mille penne
Canti ella Alcide, e Bacco, e di te solo
Basti a i posteri tuoi ch' alquanto accenne;
Che quel poco dara, lunga memoria
Di poema degnissima e d'istoria.[58]
--Gerusalemme Liberata, canto XV
KNOWLEDGE OF ICELANDIC VOYAGES.
BAYARD TAYLOR, a distinguished American traveler, writer, and poet.
Born in Chester County, Pa., in 1825; died at Berlin, December 19,
1878. From a description of Iceland.
It is impossible that the knowledge of these voyages should not have
been current in Iceland in 1477, when Columbus, sailing in a ship from
Bristol, England, visited the island. As he was able to converse with
the priests and learned men in Latin, he undoubtedly learned of the
existence of another continent to the west and south; and this
knowledge, not the mere fanaticism of a vague belief, supported him
during many years of disappointment.
GLORY TO GOD.
The Rev. GEORGE L. TAYLOR, an American clergyman of the present
century. From "The Atlantic Telegraph."
Glory to God above,
The Lord of life and love!
Who makes His curtains clouds and waters dark;
Who spreads His chambers on the deep,
While all its armies silence keep;
Whose hand of old, world-rescuing, steered the ark;
Who led Troy's bands exiled,
And Genoa's god-like child,
And Mayflower, grandly wild,
And _now_ has guided safe a grander bark;
Who, from her iron loins,
Has spun the thread that joins
Two yearning worlds made one with lightning spark.
TENNYSON'S TRIBUTE.
ALFRED TENNYSON, Baron Tennyson D'Eyncourt of Aldworth, the poet
laureate of England. Born, 1809, at Somerby, Lincolnshire; raised
to the peerage in 1883.[59] From his poem, "Columbus."
There was a glimmering of God's hand. And God
Hath more than glimmer'd on me. O my lord,
I swear to you I heard his voice between
The thunders in the black Veragua nights,
"O soul of little faith, slow to believe,
Have I not been about thee from thy birth?
Given thee the keys of the great ocean-sea?
Set thee in light till time shall be no more?
Is it I who have deceived thee or the world?
Endure! Thou hast done so well for men, that men
Cry out against thee; was it otherwise
With mine own son?"
And more than once in days
Of doubt and cloud and storm, when drowning hope
Sank all but out of sight, I heard his voice,
"Be not cast down. I lead thee by the hand,
Fear not." And I shall hear his voice again--
I know that he has led me all my life,
I am not yet too old to work His will--
His voice again.
Sir, in that flight of ages which are God's
Own voice to justify the dead--perchance
Spain, once the most chivalric race on earth,
Spain, then the mightiest, wealthiest realm on earth,
So made by me, may seek to unbury me,
To lay me in some shrine of this old Spain,
Or in that vaster Spain I leave to Spain.
Then some one standing by my grave will say,
"Behold the bones of Christopher Colon,
"Ay, but the chains, what do _they_ mean--the chains?"
I sorrow for that kindly child of Spain
Who then will have to answer, "These same chains
Bound these same bones back thro' the Atlantic sea,
Which he unchain'd for all the world to come."
The golden guess is morning star to the full round of truth.--_Ibid._
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 30: Copyright 1892 and by permission of the author.]
[Footnote 31: Lope de Vega has been variously termed the "Center of
Fame," the "Darling of Fortune," and the "Phoenix of the Ages," by his
admiring compatriots. His was a most fertile brain; his a most fecund
pen. A single day sufficed to compose a versified drama.]
[Footnote 32: By permission of Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Publishers.]
[Footnote 33: For the above particulars and inscription the compiler
desires to acknowledge his obligation to the Hon. Thomas Adamson, U. S.
Consul General at Panama, and Mr. George W. Clamman, the able clerk of
the U. S. Consulate in the city of Colon.]
[Footnote 34: Copernicus has also been so styled.]
[Footnote 35: Senor Emilio Castelar, the celebrated Spanish author and
statesman, in his most able series of articles on Columbus in the
_Century Magazine_, derides the fact of an actual mutiny as a convenient
fable which authors and dramatists have clothed with much choice
diction.]
[Footnote 36: Galileo, the great Italian natural philosopher, is here
referred to by the author.]
[Footnote 37: By permission of Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Publishers.]
[Footnote 38: By permission of Messrs. Ginn & Co., Publishers.]
[Footnote 39: The Rock of Gibraltar is referred to.]
[Footnote 40: The location of the church at Old Isabella has been
exactly determined, and a noble monument (fully described in these
pages) has been erected there under the auspices of the _Sacred Heart
Review_ of Boston.]
[Footnote 41: Since changed to a life-size statue of Columbus.]
[Footnote 42: A replica is erected in Boston.]
[Footnote 43: Copyright, 1892, by permission of the publishers.]
[Footnote 44: Copyright, 1892, by Harper & Brothers.]
[Footnote 45: Copyright, and by permission of Chas. Scribner's Sons,
Publishers, New York.]
[Footnote 46: Copyright, 1892, by Harper & Brothers.]
[Footnote 47: Docuit quae maximus Atlas. Hic canit errantem Lernam,
Solisque labores. _Virgil, AEneid_, I, 741.]
[Footnote 48: Navarrete thought that Turk Island was the island, the
most southern of the Bahama group, because he erroneously assumed that
Columbus always shaped a westerly course in sailing from island to
island; and Turk Island, being farthest east, would give most room for
such a course. This island has large lagoons, and is surrounded by a
reef. So far it resembles Guanahani. But the second island, according to
Navarrete, is Caicos, bearing W. N. W., while the second island of
Columbus bore S. W. from the first. The third island of Columbus was in
sight from the second. Inagua Chica (Little Inagua), Navarrete's third
island, is not in sight from Caicos. The third island of Columbus was 60
miles long. Inagua Chica is only 12 miles long. The fourth island of
Columbus bore east from the third. Inagua Grande (Great Inagua),
Navarrete's fourth island, bears southwest from Inagua Chica.
Cat Island was the landfall advocated by Washington Irving and Humboldt,
mainly on the ground that it was called San Salvador on the West India
map in Blaeu's Dutch atlas of 1635. But this was done for no known
reason but the caprice of the draughtsman. D'Anville copied from Blaeu
in 1746, and so the name got into some later atlases. Cat Island does
not meet a single one of the requirements of the case. Guanahani had a
reef round it, and a large lagoon in the center. Cat Island has no reef
and no lagoon. Guanahani was low; Cat Island is the loftiest of the
Bahamas. The two islands could not be more different. Of course, in
conducting Columbus from Cat Island to Cuba, Washington Irving is
obliged to disregard all the bearings and distances given in the
journal.]
[Footnote 49: The cross-staff had not then come into use, and it was
never of much service in low latitudes.]
[Footnote 50: It was also resolved to establish in the city of
Washington a Latin-American Memorial Library, wherein should be
collected all the historical, geographical, and literary works, maps,
and manuscripts, and official documents relating to the history and
civilization of America, _such library to be solemnly dedicated on the
day on which the United States celebrates the fourth centennial of the
discovery of America_.]
[Footnote 51: Published by A. C. McClurg & Co., Chicago.]
[Footnote 52: Copyright, 1892, by Harper & Brothers.]
[Footnote 53: NOTE.--Those marked * were left behind, in the fort, at La
Navidad, and perished there.]
[Footnote 54: NOTE.--The names of the crew are on the Madrid monument.]
[Footnote 55: Randolph Rogers, an American sculptor of eminence, was
born in Waterloo, N. Y., in 1825; died at Rome, in the same State, aged
sixty-seven, January 14, 1892.]
[Footnote 56: Mr. George Sumner, a painstaking investigator, states that
after diligent search he is unable to find any other inscription to the
memory of Columbus in the whole of Spain.
At Valladolid, where he died, and where his body lay for some years,
there is none, so far as he could discover; neither is there any trace
of any at the Cartuja, near Seville, to which his body was afterward
transferred, and in which his brother was buried. It is (he writes in
1871) a striking confirmation of the reproach of negligence, in regard
to the memory of this great man, that, in this solitary inscription in
old Spain, the date of his death should be inaccurately given.--Major's
"Letters of Columbus," 1871.
(The Madrid and Barcelona statues were erected in 1885 and 1888
respectively.)--S. C. W.]
[Footnote 57: Since writing this the Lotto portrait has been selected.]
[Footnote 58: For an English metrical translation, see _post_, WIFFEN.]
[Footnote 59: Died at Aldworth October 6, 1892.]
NEW YORK CELEBRATED THE TERCENTENARY.
The managers of the World's Columbian Exposition have prided themselves
upon being the first to celebrate any anniversary of the Columbian
discovery, but this credit really belongs to the Tammany Society of New
York, and the second place of honor belongs to the Massachusetts
Historical Society of Boston. The Tammany Society met in the great
wigwam on the 12th day of October, 1792 (old style), and exhibited a
monumental obelisk, and an animated oration was delivered by J. B.
Johnson, Esq.
The Massachusetts Historical Society met at the house of the Rev. Dr.
Peter Thacher, in Boston, the 23d day of October, 1792, and, forming in
procession, proceeded to the meeting-house in Brattle Street, where a
discourse was delivered by the Rev. Jeremy Belknap upon the subject of
the "Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus." He gave a concise
and comprehensive narrative of the most material circumstances which led
to, attended, or were consequent on the discovery of America. The
celebration commenced with an anthem. Mr. Thacher made an excellent
prayer. Part of a psalm was then sung, and then Mr. Belknap delivered
his discourse, which was succeeded by a prayer from Mr. Eliot. Mr.
Thacher then read an ode composed for the occasion by Mr. Belknap, which
was sung by the choir. This finished the ceremony.
The facts were brought to light by World's Fair Commissioner John Boyd
Thacher, New York. The account is taken from "a journal of a gentleman
visiting Boston in 1792." The writer is said to have been Nathaniel
Cutting, a native of Brookline, Mass., and who, in the following year,
was appointed by Washington, upon the recommendation of Thomas
Jefferson, on a mission to the Dey of Algiers.
It is interesting to note that the Massachusetts Historical Society, in
assuming to correct the old style date, October 12th, was guilty of the
error of dropping two unnecessary days. It dropped eleven days from the
calendar instead of nine, and at a subsequent meeting it determined to
correct the date to October 21st, "and that thereafter all celebrations
of the Columbian discovery should fall on the 21st day of October."
The proclamation of the President establishing October 21st as the day
of general observance of the anniversary of the Columbian discovery, and
the passage of Senator Hill's bill fixing the date for the dedication of
the buildings at Chicago, it is believed will forevermore fix October
21st as the Columbian day.
COLUMBUS' SUPREME SUSPENSE.
MAURICE THOMPSON, an American poet and novelist. Born at Fairfield,
Ind., September 9, 1844. From his "Byways and Bird-notes."
What a thrill is dashed through a moment of expectancy, a point of
supreme suspense, when by some time of preparation the source of
sensation is ready for a consummation --a catastrophe! At such a time
one's soul is isolated so perfectly that it feels not the remotest
influence from any other of all the universe. The moment preceding the
old patriarch's first glimpse of the promised land; that point of time
between certainty and uncertainty, between pursuit and capture,
whereinto are crowded all the hopes of a lifetime, as when the brave old
sailor from Genoa first heard the man up in the rigging utter the shout
of discovery; the moment of awful hope, like that when Napoleon watched
the charge of the Old Guard at Waterloo, is not to be described. There
is but one such crisis for any man. It is the yes or no of destiny. It
comes, he lives a lifetime in its span; it goes, and he never can pass
that point again.
GREAT WEST.
HENRY DAVID THOREAU, an American author and naturalist. Born in
Concord, Mass., in 1817; died, 1862. From his "Excursions,"
published by Houghton, Mifflin & Co.
Every sunset which I witness inspires me with the desire to go to a west
as distant and as far as that into which the sun goes down. He appears
to migrate westward daily, and tempt us to follow him. He is the Great
Western Pioneer whom the nations follow. We dream all night of those
mountain ridges in the horizon, though they may be of vapor only, which
were last gilded by his rays. The Island of Atlantis, and the islands
and gardens of the Hesperides, a sort of terrestrial paradise, appear
to have been the Great West of the ancients, enveloped in mystery and
poetry. Who has not seen in imagination, when looking into the sunset
sky, the gardens of the Hesperides, and the foundation of all those
fables?
[Illustration: Harper's Weekly.
Copyright, 1892, by Harper & Brothers.
THE LANDING OF COLUMBUS. Bas-relief on the New York Monument. (See page
244.)]
Columbus felt the westward tendency more strongly than any before. He
obeyed it, and found a new world for Castille and Leon. The herd of men
in those days scented fresh pastures from afar.
And now the sun had stretched out all the hills,
And now was dropped into the western bay;
At last _he_ rose, and twitched his mantle blue;
To-morrow to fresh woods and pastures new.
THE ROUTE TO THE SPICE INDIES.
PAOLO DEL POZZO TOSCANELLI, a celebrated Italian astronomer. Born
at Florence, 1397; died, 1482. From a letter to Columbus in 1474.
I praise your desire to navigate toward the west; the expedition you
wish to undertake is not easy, but the route from the west coasts of
Europe to the spice Indies is certain if the tracks I have marked be
followed.
A VISIT TO PALOS.
GEORGE ALFRED TOWNSEND. In a letter to the Philadelphia _Times_.
From one of the hillocks behind the hotel at Huelva you can see in the
distance East Rabida, Palos, Moguer, San Juan del Porto, and the sea,
where the three birds of good omen went skimming past in the vague
morning light 400 years ago, lest they might be seen by the Portuguese.
Columbus means dove, and the arms of Columbus contained three doves.
From Huelva I sailed to Rabida first. Rabida is on the last point of the
promontory, nearest the sea, and Palos is inland from it three miles
north, and is near half a mile from the Tinto. Passing down the oozy
Odiel, we soon saw a watering place on the beach outside just where
Columbus put to sea. We could also see the scaffolding around the
Columbus monument they were building by Rabida.
After inspecting the convent at Rabida, I bade my skipper wait for flood
tide to sail round to Palos, while I proceeded by land.
They brought me at Palos an old man who was extremely polite, but not
one word could we understand of each other, until finally I took him by
the arm and walked him in the direction of the church, whereupon
suppressed exclamations of delight broke forth; the American savage had
guessed the old man out. In point of fact, this old man was waiting all
the time to take me to the church, and was the father of the boy behind
whom I had ridden. Between the church and the beach rose a high hillock
covered with grass, and as high as the church tower. In old times this
was a mosque of military work, and it had not very long been Christian
when Columbus came here; possibly it had been Christian in his day 150
years. It stands quite alone, is of rude construction, and has at the
back of it some few graves--perhaps of priests. In the back part is a
very good Moorish arch, which they still show with admiration. The front
proper has a big door, barred strongly, as if the church might have been
in piratical times a place of refuge for the population up in the hills.
To the right of the entrance is the tower, which is buttressed, and its
spire is made of blue and colored tiles, which have thoroughly kept
their colors. A bell in this tower may have rung the inhabitants to
church when Columbus announced that he meant to impress the Palos people
to assist him in his voyage. I entered the church, which was all
whitewashed, and felt, as I did at Rabida, that it was a better
monument than I had reason to expect.
Its walls were one yard thick, its floors of tiles laid in an L form. As
I measured the floor it seemed to me to be sixty-six feet wide and
sixty-six feet long, but to the length must be added the altar chapel,
bringing it up to ninety feet, and to the width must be added the side
chapels, making the total width about eighty feet. The nave has a
sharper arched top than the two aisles, which have round arches. The
height of the roof is about thirty-five feet. The big door by which I
entered the church is fifteen feet high by eight feet wide. Some very
odd settees which I coveted were in the nave. The chief feature,
however, is the pulpit, which stands at the cross of the church, so that
persons gathered in the transepts, nave, or aisles can hear the
preacher. It has an iron pulpit of a round form springing from one stem
and railed in, and steps lead up to it which are inclosed. It looks old,
and worn by human hands, and is supposed to be the identical pulpit from
which the notary announced that, as a punishment of their offenses, the
Queen's subjects must start with this unknown man upon his unknown
venture. Those were high times in Palos, and it took Columbus a long
while to get his expedition ready, and special threats as of high
treason had to be made against the heads of families and women. But when
Columbus returned, and the same day Pinzon came back after their
separation of weeks, Palos church was full of triumph and hosannas. The
wild man had been successful, and Spain found another world than the
apostle knew of.
The grown boy, as he showed the building, went into an old lumber room,
or dark closet, at one corner of the church, and when I was about to
enter he motioned me back with his palm, as if I might not enter there
with my heretic feet. He then brought out an image of wood from four to
five feet high, or, I might say, the full size of a young woman. It was
plain that she had once been the Virgin worshiped here, but age and
moisture had taken most of the color from her, and washed the gilt from
her crown, and now we could only see that in her arm she bore a child,
and this child held in its hand a dove or pigeon. The back of the female
was hollow, and in there were driven hooks by which she had once been
suspended at some height. This was the image, I clearly understood,
which Columbus' men had knelt to when they were about to go forth upon
the high seas.
Strangely enough, the church is named St. George, and St. George was the
patron saint of Genoa, where Columbus was born; and the Genoese who took
the Crusaders to Jaffa had the satisfaction of seeing England annex
their patron saint.
BIBLE.
The Rev. LUTHER TRACY TOWNSEND, D. D., an American divine. Born at
Orono, Maine, September 27, 1838. From "The Bible and the
Nineteenth Century."
When Luther in the sixteenth century brought the truths of the Bible
from the convent of Erfurth, and gave them to the people, he roused to
mental and moral life not only the slumbering German nationality, but
gave inspiration to every other country in Europe. "Gutenburg with his
printing press, Columbus with his compass, Galileo with his telescope,
Shakspere with his dramas, and almost every other man of note figuring
during those times, are grouped, not around some distinguished man of
science, or man of letters, or man of mechanical genius, or man famous
in war; but around that monk of Wittenberg, who stood with an unchained
Bible in his hand."
TESTIMONY OF A CONTEMPORARY AS TO THE TREATMENT OF COLUMBUS.
From a letter of ANGELO TRIVIGIANO, of Granada, Spain, dated August
1, 1501.
I have seen so much of Columbus that we are now on a footing of great
friendship. He is experiencing at present a streak of bad luck, being
deprived of the King's favor, and with but little money.
THE VALPARAISO STATUE.
At Valparaiso, Chili, a bronze statue of Columbus has been erected on a
marble pedestal. The figure, which is of heroic size, stands in an
advancing attitude, holding a cross in the right hand.
COLUMBUS AND THE EGG.
Dr. P. H. VAN DER WEYDE. In an article in the _Scientific
American_, June, 1892.
The stupid anecdote of the egg was a mere trifling invention, in fact a
trick, and it is surprising that intelligent men have for so many years
thoughtlessly been believing and repeating such nonsense. For my part, I
can not believe that Columbus did ever lower himself so far as to
compare the grand discovery to a trick. Surely it was no trick by which
he discovered a new world, but it was the result of his earnest
philosophical convictions that our earth is a globe, floating in space,
and it could be circumnavigated by sailing westward, which most likely
would lead to the discovery of new lands in the utterly unknown
hemisphere beyond the western expanse of the great and boisterous
Atlantic Ocean; while thus far no navigator ever had the courage to sail
toward its then utterly unknown, apparently limitless, western expanse.
THE MAN OF THE CHURCH.
Padre GIOCCHINO VENTURA, an eloquent Italian preacher and
theologian. Born at Palermo, 1792; died at Versailles, August,
1861.
Columbus is the man of the Church.
ATTENDANT FAME SHALL BLESS.
The Venerable GEORGE WADDINGTON, Dean of Durham, an English divine
and writer. Died, July 20, 1869. From a poem read in Cambridge in
1813.
And when in happier days one chain shall bind,
One pliant fetter shall unite mankind;
When war, when slav'ry's iron days are o'er,
When discords cease and av'rice is no more,
And with one voice remotest lands conspire,
To hail our pure religion's seraph fire;
Then fame attendant on the march of time,
Fed by the incense of each favored clime,
Shall bless the man whose heav'n-directed soul
Form'd the vast chain which binds the mighty whole.
* * * * *
Columbus continued till death eager to extend his discoveries, and by so
doing to promote the glory of his persecutors.
VANDERLYN'S PICTURE AT WASHINGTON.
The first of the eight pictures in the rotunda of the Capitol at
Washington, D. C., and the first in point of event, is the "Landing of
Columbus at San Salvador in 1492," by John Vanderlyn; its cost was
$12,000. This picture represents the scene Washington Irving so
admirably describes in his "Voyages of Columbus," occurring the morning
the boats brought the little Spanish band from the ships to the shore of
Guanahani. "Columbus first threw himself upon his knees; then, rising,
drew his sword, displayed the royal standard, and, assembling around him
the two captains, with Rodrigo de Escobedo, notary of the armament;
Rodrigo Sanchez (the royal inspector), and the rest who had landed, he
took solemn possession of the island in the name of the Castilian
sovereigns." The picture contains the picture of Columbus, the two
Pinzons, Escobedo, all bearing standards; Sanchez, inspector; Diego de
Arana, with an old-fashioned arquebus on his shoulder; a cabin-boy
kneeling, a mutineer in a suppliant attitude, a sailor in an attitude of
veneration for Columbus, a soldier whose attention is diverted by the
appearance of the natives, and a friar bearing a crucifix.
COLUMBUS STATUE AT WASHINGTON, D. C.
The Columbus statue stands at the east-central portico of the Capitol,
at Washington, D. C., above the south end of the steps, on an elevated
block. It consists of a marble group, by Signor Persico, called "The
Discovery," on which he worked five years, and is composed of two
figures: Columbus holding the globe in his hand, triumphant, while
beside him, wondering, almost terror-stricken, is a female figure,
symbolizing the Indian race. The suit of armor worn by Columbus is said
to be a faithful copy of one he actually wore. The group cost $24,000.
THE WATLING'S ISLAND MONUMENT RAISED BY THE CHICAGO "HERALD."
With true Chicago enterprise, the wideawake Chicago _Herald_ dispatched
an expedition to the West Indies in 1891 to search out the landing place
of Columbus. The members of the party, after careful search and inquiry,
erected a monument fifteen feet high on Watling's Island bearing the
following inscription:
ON THIS SPOT
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS
FIRST SET FOOT ON THE SOIL OF THE NEW WORLD.
* * *
Erected by
The Chicago _Herald_,
June 15, 1891.
* * *
COLUMBUS.
FOR THE FESTIVAL AT HUELVA.
_A Castillo, y a Leon
Nuevo Mundo dio Colon._
THEODORE WATTS, in the _Athenaeum_ (England).
To Christ he cried to quell Death's deafening measure,
Sung by the storm to Death's own chartless sea;
To Christ he cried for glimpse of grass or tree
When, hovering o'er the calm, Death watch'd at leisure;
And when he showed the men, now dazed with pleasure,
Faith's new world glittering star-like on the lee,
"I trust that by the help of Christ," said he,
"I presently shall light on golden treasure."
What treasure found he? Chains and pains and sorrow.
Yea, all the wealth those noble seekers find
Whose footfalls mark the music of mankind.
'Twas his to lend a life; 'twas man's to borrow;
'Twas his to make, but not to share, the morrow,
Who in love's memory lives this morn enshrined.
WEST INDIAN STATUES.
CARDENAS, CUBA.--At Cardenas, Cuba, a statue by Piguer of Madrid has
been erected by a Cuban lady, an authoress, and wife of a former
governor.
[Illustration: STATUE OF COLUMBUS In the Courtyard of the
Captain-General's Palace, Havana, Cuba (See page 313.)]
CATHEDRAL OF HAVANA, CUBA.--In the Cathedral of Havana there is a
plain marble bas-relief, about four feet high, representing in a
medallion a very apocryphal portrait of Columbus, with an inscription as
follows:
_O restos e Ymajen del grande Colon!
Mil siglos durad guardados en la urna
Y en la remembranza de nuestra Nacion._
(O remains and image of the great Columbus!
For a thousand ages endure guarded within this urn
And in the remembrance of our nation.)
PROPOSED TOMB--HAVANA CATHEDRAL.--In February, 1891, by royal decree,
all Spanish artists were invited to compete for a design for a sepulcher
in which to preserve the Havana remains of Columbus; several were
submitted to a jury, who awarded the first prize to Arthur Melida, with
a premium of $5,000.
The sepulcher is now being erected in the cathedral. The design
represents a bier covered with a heavily embroidered pall, borne upon
the shoulders of four heralds, in garments richly carved to resemble
lace and embroidered work. The two front figures bear scepters
surmounted by images of the Madonna and St. James, the patron saint of
Spain. On the front of their garments are the arms of Castille and Leon.
The two bearers represent Aragon and Navarre, the former being indicated
by four red staffs on a gold field, and the fourth has gold-linked
chains on a red field. The group is supported on a pedestal ornamented
about its edge with a Greek fret.
HAVANA, CUBA.--In the court-yard of the Captain-General's palace, in
Havana, is a full-length figure of Columbus, the face modeled after
accepted portraits at Madrid.
HAVANA, CUBA.--In the inclosure of the "Templete," the little chapel on
the site of which the first mass was celebrated in Cuba, there is a
bust of Columbus which has the solitary merit of being totally unlike
all others.
NASSAU.--At Nassau, in the Bahamas, a statue of Christopher Columbus
stands in front of Government House. The statue, which is nine feet
high, is placed upon a pedestal six feet in altitude, on the north or
seaward face of which is inscribed:
COLUMBUS, 1492.
It was presented to the colony by Sir James Carmichael Smyth, Governor
of the Bahamas, 1829-1833, was modeled in London in 1831, is made of
metal and painted white, and was erected May, 1832.
SANTO DOMINGO CATHEDRAL.--Above the _boveda_, or vault, in the Cathedral
of Santo Domingo, from which the remains of Columbus were taken in 1877,
is a marble slab with the following:
_Reposaron en este sitio los restos de Don Cristobal Colon el celebre
descrubridor del Nuevo Mundo, desde el ano de 1536, en que fueron
trasladados de Espana, hasta el 10 de Setiembre 1877, en que se
desenterraron para constatar su autenticidad. Y a posteridad la dedica
el Presbitero Billini._
(There reposed in this place the remains of Christopher Columbus, the
celebrated discoverer of the New World, from the year 1536, in which
they were transferred from Spain, until the 10th September, 1877, in
which year they were disinterred for the purpose of identification.
Dedicated to posterity by Padre Billini) (curate in charge when the
vault was opened.)
In the cathedral there is also preserved a large cross of mahogany,
rough and uneven, as though hewn with an adze out of a log, and then
left in the rough. This, it is claimed, is the cross made by Columbus
and erected on the opposite bank of the Ozama River, where the first
settlement in the West Indies was made. In a little room by itself they
keep a leaden casket, which Santo Domingoans claim contains the bones of
Christopher Columbus, and, in another, those of his brother.
PLAZA OF SANTO DOMINGO.--Humboldt once wrote that America could boast of
no worthy monument to its discoverer, but since his time many memorials
have been erected, not only in the New World, but the Old. In the plaza
in front of the cathedral, in the city of Santo Domingo, stands a
statue, heroic, in bronze, representing Columbus pointing to the
westward. Crouched at his feet is the figure of a female Indian,
supposed to be the unfortunate Anacaona, the caciquess of Xaragua,
tracing an inscription:
_Yllustre y Esclarecido Varon Don Cristoval Colon._
The statue was cast in France, a few years ago, and stands in the center
of the plaza, in front of the cathedral.
COLUMBUS LORD NORTH'S "BETE NOIR."
EDWIN PERCY WHIPPLE, a distinguished American critic and essayist.
Born at Gloucester, Mass., 1819; died, June 16, 1886.
Lord North more than once humorously execrated the memory of Columbus
for discovering a continent which gave him and his ministry so much
trouble.
HARDY MARINERS HAVE BECOME GREAT HEROES.
DANIEL APPLETON WHITE, a distinguished American jurist and scholar.
Born at Lawrence, Mass., June 7, 1776; died, March 30, 1861.
Hardy seamen, too, who have spent their days in conflict with the storms
of the ocean, have found means to make themselves distinguished in
science and literature, as well as by achievements in their profession.
The life of Columbus gloriously attests this fact.
TASSO'S TRIBUTE IN ENGLISH SPENSERIAN STANZA.
JEREMIAH HOLMES WIFFEN, an English writer and translator. Born at
Woburn, 1792. Many years librarian and private secretary to the Duke of
Bedford. Died, 1836. From his translation of Tasso's "Jerusalem
Delivered" (1830). (See _ante_, TASSO.)