The coloration of the _surface_ of animals is caused either by
_pigments_, or by a certain _structure_ of the surface by means of which
the light falling on it, or reflected through its superficial
transparent layers, undergoes diffraction or other optical change. Or it
may be the result of a combination of these two causes. It plays an
important part in the relationship of the animal to its environment, in
concealment, in mimicry, and so on; the presence of a pigment in the
integument may also serve a more direct physiological purpose, such as a
respiratory function. The coloration of birds' feathers, of the skin of
many fishes, of many insects, is partially at least due to structure and
the action of the peculiar pigmented cells known as "chromatophores"
(which W. Garstang defines as pigmented cells specialized for the
discharge of the chromatic function), and is much better marked when
these have for their background a "reflecting layer" such as is provided
by guanin, a substance closely related to uric acid. Such a mechanism is
seen to greatest advantage in fishes. Among these, guanin may be present
in a finely granular form, causing the light falling on it to be
scattered, thus producing a white effect; or it may be present in a
peculiar crystalline form, the crystals being known as "iridocytes"; or
in a layer of closely apposed needles forming a silvery sheet or mirror.
In the iris of some fishes the golden red colour is produced by the
light reflected from such a layer of guanin needles having to pass
through a thin layer of a reddish pigment, known as a "lipochrome."
Again, in some lepidopterous insects a white or a yellow appearance is
produced by the deposition of uric acid or a nearly allied substance on
the surface of the wings. In many animals, but especially among
invertebrates, colouring matters or pigments play an important role in
surface coloration; in some cases such coloration may be of benefit to
the animal, but in others the integument simply serves as an organ for
the excretion of waste pigmentary substances. Pigments (1) may be of
direct physiological importance; (2) they may be excretory; or (3) they
may be introduced into the body of the animal with the food.
Of the many pigments which have been described up to the present time,
very few have been subjected to elementary chemical analysis, owing to
the great difficulties attending their isolation. An extremely small
amount of pigment will give rise to a great amount of coloration, and
the pigments are generally accompanied by impurities of various kinds
which cling to them with great tenacity, so that when one has been
thoroughly cleansed very little of it remains for ultimate analysis.
Most of these substances have been detected by means of the
spectroscope, their absorption bands serving for their recognition, but
mere identity of spectrum does not necessarily mean chemical identity,
and a few chemical tests have also to be applied before a conclusion can
be drawn. The absorption bands are referred to certain definite parts of
the spectrum, such as the Fraunhofer lines, or they may be given in
wave-lengths. For this purpose the readings of the spectroscope are
reduced to wave-lengths by means of interpolation curves; or if Zeiss's
microspectroscope be used, the position of bands in wave-lengths
(denoted by the Greek letter [lambda]) may be read directly.
Haemoglobin, the red colouring matter of vertebrate blood,
C758H1203N195S3FeO218, and its derivatives haematin, C32H30N4FeO3, and
haematoporphyrin, C16H18N2O3, are colouring matters about which we
possess definite chemical knowledge, as they have been isolated,
purified and analysed. Most of the bile pigments of mammals have
likewise been isolated and studied chemically, and all of these are
fully described in the text-books of physiology and physiological
chemistry. Haemoglobin, though physiologically of great importance in
the respiratory process of vertebrate animals, is yet seldom used for
surface pigmentation, except in the face of white races of man or in
other parts in monkeys, &c. In some worms the transparent skin allows
the haemoglobin of the blood to be seen through the integument, and in
certain fishes also the haemoglobin is visible through the integument.
It is a curious and noteworthy fact that in some invertebrate animals in
which no haemoglobin occurs, we meet with its derivatives. Thus haematin
is found in the so-called bile of slugs, snails, the limpet and the
crayfish. In sea-anemones there is a pigment which yields some of the
decomposition-products of haemoglobin, and associated with this is a
green pigment apparently identical with biliverdin (C16H18N2O4), a green
bile pigment. Again, haematoporphyrin is found in the integuments of
star-fishes and slugs, and occurs in the "dorsal streak" of the
earth-worm _Lumbricus terrestris_, and perhaps in other species.
Haematoporphyrin and biliverdin also occur in the egg-shells of certain
birds, but in this case they are derived from haemoglobin. Haemoglobin
is said to be found as low down in the animal kingdom as the
Echinoderms, e.g. in _Ophiactis virens_ and _Thyonella gemmata_. It also
occurs in the blood of _Planorbis corneus_ and in the pharyngeal muscles
of other mollusca.
A great number of other pigments have been described; for example, in
the muscles and tissues of animals, both vertebrate and invertebrate,
are the histohaematins, of which a special muscle pigment, myohaematin,
is one. In vertebrates the latter is generally accompanied by
haemoglobin, but in invertebrates--with the exception of the pharyngeal
muscles of the mollusca--it occurs alone. Although closely related to
haemoglobin or its derivative haemochromogen, the histohaematins are yet
totally distinct, and they are found in animals where not a trace of
haemoglobin can be detected. Another interesting pigment is turacin,
which contains about 7% of nitrogen, found by Professor A. H. Church in
the feathers of the Cape lory and other plantain-eaters, from which it
can be extracted by water containing a trace of ammonia. It has been
isolated, purified and analysed by Professor Church. From it may be
obtained turacoporphyrin, which is identical with haematoporphyrin, and
gives the band in the ultra-violet which J. L. Soret and subsequently A.
Gamgee have found to be characteristic of haemoglobin and its compounds.
Turacin itself gives a peculiar two-banded spectrum, and contains about
7% of copper in its molecule. Another copper-containing pigment is
haemocyanin, which in the oxidized state gives a blue colour to the
blood of various Mollusca and Arthropoda. Like haemoglobin, it acts as
an oxygen-carrier in respiration, but it takes no part in surface
coloration.
A class of pigments widely distributed among plants and animals are the
lipochromes. As their name denotes, they are allied to fat and generally
accompany it, being soluble in fat solvents. They play an important part
in surface coloration, and may be greenish, yellow or red in colour.
They contain no nitrogen. As an example of a lipochrome which has been
isolated, crystallized and purified, we may mention carotin, which has
recently been found in green leaves. Chlorophyll, which is so often
associated with a lipochrome, has been found in some Infusoria, and in
_Hydra_ and _Spongilla_, &c. In some cases it is probably formed by the
animal; in other cases it may be due to symbiotic algae, while in the
gastric gland of many Mollusca, Crustacea and Echinodermata it is
derived from food-chlorophyll. Here it is known as entero-chlorophyll.
The black pigments which occur among both vertebrate and invertebrate
animals often have only one attribute in common, viz. blackness, for
among the discordant results of analysis one thing is certain, viz. that
the melanins from vertebrate animals are not identical with those from
invertebrate animals. The melanosis or blackening of insect blood, for
instance, is due to the oxidation of a chromogen, the pigment produced
being known as a uranidine. In some sponges a somewhat similar pigment
has been noticed. Other pigments have been described, such as
actiniochrome, echinochrome, pentacrinin, antedonin, polyperythrin
(which appears to be a haematoporphyrin), the floridines,
spongioporphyrin, &c., which need no mention here; all these pigments
can only be distinguished by means of the spectroscope.
Most of the pigments are preceded by colourless substances known as
"chromogens," which by the action of the oxygen of the air and by other
agencies become changed into the corresponding pigments. In some cases
the pigments are built up in the tissues of an animal, in others they
appear to be derived more or less directly from the food. Derivatives of
chlorophyll and lipochromes especially, seem to be taken up from the
intestine, probably by the agency of leucocytes, in which they may occur
in combination with, or dissolved by, fatty matters and excreted by the
integument. In worms especially, the skin seems to excrete many effete
substances, pigments included. No direct connexion has been traced
between the chlorophyll eaten with the food and the haemoglobin of blood
and muscle. Attention may, however, be drawn to the work of Dr E.
Schunck, who has shown that a substance closely resembling
haematoporphyrin can be prepared from chlorophyll; this is known as
phylloporphyrin. Not only does the _visible_ spectrum of this substance
resemble that of haematoporphyrin, but the _invisible_ ultra-violet
also, as shown by C. A. Schunck.
The reader may refer to E. A. Schafer's _Text-Book of Physiology_
(1898) for A. Gamgee's article "On Haemoglobin, and its Compounds"; to
the writer's papers in the _Phil. Trans._ and _Proc. Roy. Soc._ from
1881 onwards, and also _Quart. Journ. Micros. Science_ and _Journ. of
Physiol._; to C. F. W. Krukenberg's _Vergleichende physiologische
Studien_ from 1879 onwards, and to his _Vortrage_. Miss M. I. Newbigin
collected in _Colour in Nature_ (1898) most of the recent literature
of this subject. Dr E. Schunck's papers will be found under the
heading "Contribution to the Chemistry of Chlorophyll" in _Proc. Roy.
Soc._ from 1885 onwards; and Mr C. A. Schunck's paper in _Proc. Roy.
Soc._ vol. lxiii. (C. A. MacM.)
COLSTON, EDWARD (1636-1721), English philanthropist, the son of William
Colston, a Bristol merchant of good position, was born at Bristol on the
2nd of November 1636. He is generally understood to have spent some
years of his youth and manhood as a factor in Spain, with which country
his family was long connected commercially, and whence, by means of a
trade in wines and oil, great part of his own vast fortune was to come.
On his return he seems to have settled in London, and to have bent
himself resolutely to the task of making money. In 1681, the date of his
father's decease, he appears as a governor of Christ's hospital, to
which noble foundation he afterwards gave frequently and largely. In the
same year he probably began to take an active interest in the affairs of
Bristol, where he is found about this time embarked in a sugar refinery;
and during the remainder of his life he seems to have divided his
attention pretty equally between the city of his birth and that of his
adoption. In 1682 he appears in the records of the great western port as
advancing a sum of L1800 to its needy corporation; in 1683 as "a free
burgess and _meire_ (St Kitts) merchant" he was made a member of the
Merchant's Hall; and in 1684 he was appointed one of a committee for
managing the affairs of Clifton. In 1685 he again appears as the city's
creditor for about L2000, repayment of which he is found insisting on in
1686. In 1689 he was chosen auditor by the vestry at Mortlake, where he
was residing in an old house once the abode of Ireton and Cromwell. In
1691, on St Michael's Hill, Bristol, at a cost of L8000, he founded an
almshouse for the reception of 24 poor men and women, and endowed with
accommodation for "Six Saylors," at a cost of L600, the merchant's
almshouses in King Street. In 1696, at a cost of L8000, he endowed a
foundation for clothing and teaching 40 boys (the books employed were to
have in them "no tincture of Whiggism"); and six years afterwards he
expended a further sum of L1500 in rebuilding the school-house. In 1708;
at a cost of L41,200, he built and endowed his great foundation on Saint
Augustine's Back, for the instruction, clothing, maintaining and
apprenticing of 100 boys; and in time of scarcity, during this and next
year, he transmitted "by a private hand" some L20,000 to the London
committee. In 1710, after a poll of four days, he was sent to
parliament, to represent, on strictest Tory principles, his native city
of Bristol; and in 1713, after three years of silent political life, he
resigned this charge. He died at Mortlake in 1721, having nearly
completed his eighty-fifth year; and was buried in All Saints' church,
Bristol.
Colston, who was in the habit of bestowing large sums yearly for the
release of poor debtors and the relief of indigent age and sickness, and
who gave (1711) no less than L6000 to increase Queen Anne's Bounty Fund
for the augmentation of small livings, was always keenly interested in
the organization and management of his foundations; the rules and
regulations were all drawn up by his hand, and the minutest details of
their constitution and economy were dictated by him. A high churchman
and Tory, with a genuine intolerance of dissent and dissenters, his name
and example have served as excuses for the formation of two political
benevolent societies--the "Anchor" (founded 1769) and the "Dolphin"
(founded 1749),--and also the "Grateful" (founded 1758), whose rivalry
has been perhaps as instrumental in keeping their patron's memory green
as have the splendid charities with which he enriched his native city
(see BRISTOL).
See Garrard, _Edward Colston, the Philanthropist_ (4to, Bristol,
1852); Pryce, _A Popular History of Bristol_ (1861); Manchee, _Bristol
Charities_.
COLT, SAMUEL (1814-1862), American inventor, was born on the 19th of
July 1814 at Hartford, Connecticut, where his father had a manufactory
of silks and woollens. At the age of ten he left school for the factory,
and at fourteen, then being in a boarding school at Amherst,
Massachusetts, he made a runaway voyage to India, during which (in 1829)
he constructed a wooden model, still existing, of what was afterwards to
be the revolver (see PISTOL). On his return he learned chemistry from
his father's bleaching and dyeing manager, and under the assumed name
"Dr Coult" travelled over the United States and Canada lecturing on that
science. The profits of two years of this work enabled him to continue
his researches and experiments. In 1835, having perfected a
six-barrelled rotating breech, he visited Europe, and patented his
inventions in London and Paris, securing the American right on his
return; and the same year he founded at Paterson, New Jersey, the Patent
Arms Company, for the manufacture of his revolvers only. As early as
1837 revolvers were successfully used by United States troops, under
Lieut.-Colonel William S. Harney, in fighting against the Seminole
Indians in Florida. Colt's scheme, however, did not succeed; the arms
were not generally appreciated; and in 1842 the company became
insolvent. No revolvers were made for five years, and none were to be
had when General Zachary Taylor wrote for a supply from the seat of war
in Mexico. In 1847 the United States government ordered 1000 from the
inventor; but before these could be produced he had to construct a new
model, for a pistol of the company's make could nowhere be found. This
commission was the beginning of an immense business. The little armoury
at Whitneyville (New Haven, Connecticut), where the order for Mexico was
executed, was soon exchanged for larger workshops at Hartford. These in
their turn gave place (1852) to the enormous factory of the Colt's
Patent Fire-Arms Manufacturing Company, doubled in 1861, on the banks of
the Connecticut river, within the city limits of Hartford, where so many
millions of revolvers with all their appendages have been manufactured.
Thence was sent, for the Russian and English governments, to Tula and
Enfield, the whole of the elaborate machinery devised by Colt for the
manufacture of his pistols. Colt introduced and patented a number of
improvements in his revolver, and also invented a submarine battery for
harbour defence. He died at Hartford on the 10th of January 1862.
COLT'S-FOOT, the popular name of a small herb, _Tussilago Farfara_, a
member of the natural order Compositae, which is common in Britain in
damp, heavy soils. It has a stout branching underground stem, which
sends up in March and April scapes about 6 in. high, each bearing a head
of bright yellow flowers, the male in the centre surrounded by a much
larger number of female. The flowers are succeeded by the fruits, which
bear a soft snow-white woolly pappus. The leaves, which appear later,
are broadly cordate with an angular or lobed outline, and are covered on
the under-face with a dense white felt. The botanical name, _Tussilago_,
recalls its use as a medicine for cough (_tussis_). The leaves are
smoked in cases of asthma.
COLUGO, or COBEGO, either of two species of the zoological genus
_Galeopithecus_. These animals live in the forests of the Malay
Peninsula, Sumatra, Borneo and the Philippine Islands, where they feed
chiefly on leaves, and probably also on insects. In size they may be
compared with cats; the long slender limbs are connected by a broad fold
of skin extending outwards from the sides of the neck and body, the
fingers and toes are webbed, and the hind-limbs joined by an outer
membrane as in bats. Their habits are nocturnal, and during the daytime
they cling to the trunks or limbs of trees head downwards in a state of
repose. With the approach of night their season of activity commences,
when they may be occasionally seen gliding from tree to tree supported
on their cutaneous parachute, and they have been noticed as capable of
traversing in this way a space of 70 yds. with a descent of only about
one in five. Europeans in the East know these animals as "flying
lemurs." (See GALEOPITHECUS.)
COLUMBA, SAINT (Irish, _Colum_), Irish saint, was born on the 7th of
December 521, in all probability at Gartan in Co. Donegal. His father
Feidlimid was a member of the reigning family in Ireland and was closely
allied to that of Dalriada (Argyll). His mother Eithne was of Leinster
extraction and was descended from an illustrious provincial king. To
these powerful connexions as much as to his piety and ability, he owed
the immense influence he possessed. Later lives state that the saint was
also called Crimthann (fox), and Reeves suggests that he may have had
two names, the one baptismal, the other secular. He was afterwards known
as Columkille, or Columba of the Church, to distinguish him from others
of the same name. During his early years the Irish Church was reformed
by Gildas and Finian of Clonard, and numerous monasteries were founded
which made Ireland renowned as a centre of learning. Columba himself
studied under two of the most distinguished Irishmen of his day, Finian
of Moville (at the head of Strangford Lough) and Finian of Clonard.
Almost as a matter of course, under such circumstances, he embraced the
monastic life. He was ordained deacon while at Moville, and afterwards,
when about thirty years of age, was raised to the priesthood. During his
residence in Ireland he founded, in addition to a number of churches,
two famous monasteries, one named Daire Calgaich (Derry) on the banks of
Lough Foyle, the other Dair-magh (Durrow) in King's county.
In 563 he left his native land, accompanied by twelve disciples, and
went on a mission to northern Britain, perhaps on the invitation of his
kinsman Conall, king of Dalriada. Irish accounts represent Columba as
undertaking this mission in consequence of the censure expressed against
him by the clergy after the battle of Cooldrevny; but this is probably a
fabrication. The saint's labours in Scotland must be regarded as a
manifestation of the same spirit of missionary enterprise with which so
many of his countrymen were imbued. Columba established himself on the
island of Hy or Iona, where he erected a church and a monastery. About
the year 565 he applied himself to the task of converting the heathen
kingdom of the northern Picts. Crossing over to the mainland he
proceeded to the residence, on the banks of the Ness, of Brude, king of
the Picts. By his preaching, his holy life, and, as his earliest
biographers assert, by the performance of miracles, he converted the
king and many of his subjects. The precise details, except in a few
cases, are unknown, or obscured by exaggeration and fiction; but it is
certain that the whole of northern Scotland was converted by the labours
of Columba, and his disciples and the religious instruction of the
people provided for by the erection of numerous monasteries. The
monastery of Iona was reverenced as the mother house of all these
foundations, and its abbots were obeyed as the chief ecclesiastical
rulers of the whole nation of the northern Picts. There were then
neither dioceses nor parishes in Ireland and Celtic Scotland; and by the
Columbite rule the bishops themselves, although they ordained the
clergy, were subject to the jurisdiction of the abbots of Iona, who,
like the founder of the order, were only presbyters. In matters of
ritual they agreed with the Western Church on the continent, save in a
few particulars such as the precise time of keeping Easter and manner of
tonsure.
Columba was honoured by his countrymen, the Scots of Britain and
Ireland, as much as by his Pictish converts, and in his character of
chief ecclesiastical ruler he gave formal benediction and inauguration
to Aidan, the successor of Conall, as king of the Scots. He accompanied
that prince to Ireland in 575, and took a leading part in a council held
at Drumceat in Ulster, which determined once and for all the position of
the ruler of Dalriada with regard to the king of Ireland. The last years
of Columba's life appear to have been mainly spent at Iona. There he was
already revered as a saint, and whatever credit may be given to some
portions of the narratives of his biographers, there can be no doubt as
to the wonderful influence which he exercised, as to the holiness of his
life, and as to the love which he uniformly manifested to God and to his
neighbour.
In the summer of 597 he knew that his end was approaching. On Saturday
the 8th of June he was able, with the help of one of his monks, to
ascend a little hill above the monastery and to give it his farewell
blessing. Returning to his cell he continued a labour in which he had
been engaged, the transcription of the Psalter. Having finished the
verse of the 34th Psalm where it is written, "They who seek the Lord
shall want no manner of thing that is good," he said, "Here I must
stop:--what follows let Baithen write"; indicating, as was believed, his
wish that his cousin Baithen should succeed him as abbot. He was present
at evening in the church, and when the midnight bell sounded for the
nocturnal office early on Sunday morning he again went thither
unsupported, but sank down before the altar and passed away as in a
gentle sleep.
Several Irish poems are ascribed to Columba, but they are manifestly
compositions of a later age. Three Latin hymns may, however, be
attributed to the saint with some degree of certainty.
The original materials for a life of St Columba are unusually full.
The earliest biography was written by one of his successors, Cuminius,
who became abbot of Iona in 657. Much more important is the
enlargement of that work by Adamnan, who became abbot of Iona in 679.
These narratives are supplemented by the brief but most valuable
notices given by the Venerable Bede. See W. Reeves, _Life of St
Columba, written by Adamnan_ (Dublin, 1857); W. F. Skene, _Celtic
Scotland_, vol. ii. "Church and Culture" (Edinburgh, 1877).
(E. C. Q.)
COLUMBAN (543-615), Irish saint and writer, was born in Leinster in 543,
and was educated in the monastery of Bangor, Co. Down. About the year
585 he left Ireland together with twelve other monks, and established
himself in the Vosges, among the ruins of an ancient fortification
called Anagrates, the present Anegray in the department of Haute-Saone.
His enemies accused him before a synod of French bishops (602) for
keeping Easter according to the old British and now unorthodox way, and
a more powerful conspiracy was organized against him at the court of
Burgundy for boldly rebuking the crimes of King Theuderich II. and the
queen-mother Brunhilda. He was banished and forcibly removed from his
monastery, and with St Gall and others of the monks he withdrew into
Switzerland, where he preached with no great success to the Suebi and
Alamanni. Being again compelled to flee, he retired to Italy, and
founded the monastery of Bobbio in the Apennines, where he remained till
his death, which took place on the 21st of November 615. His writings,
which include some Latin poems, prove him a man of learning, and he
appears to have been acquainted not only with the Latin classics, but
also with Greek, and even Hebrew.
The collected edition of St Columban's writings was published by
Patrick Fleming in his _Collectanea sacra Hiberni_ (Louvain, 1667),
and reproduced by Migne, p. 4, vol. lxxxvi. (Paris, 1844). See
further, Wright's _Biographia Literaria_. Columban's _Regula
Coenobitalis cum Poenitenliali_ is to be found in the _Codex
Regularum_ (Paris, 1638). A complete bibliography is given in U.
Chevallier, _Repertoire des sources hist_. (Bio. Bibliogr.), vol. i.
990 (Paris, 1905).
COLUMBANI, PLACIDO, Italian architectural designer, who worked chiefly
in England in the latter part of the 18th century. He belonged to the
school of the Adams and Pergolesi, and like them frequently designed the
enrichments of furniture. He was a prolific producer of chimney-pieces,
which are often mistaken for Adam work, of moulded friezes, and painted
plaques for cabinets and the like. There can be no question that the
English furniture designers of the end of the 18th century, and
especially the Adams, Hepplewhite and Sheraton, owed much to his
graceful, flowing and classical conceptions, although they are often
inferior to those of Pergolesi. His books are still a valuable
store-house of sketches for internal architectural decoration. His
principal works are:--_Vases and Tripods_ (1770); _A New Book of
Ornaments, containing a variety of elegant designs for Modern Panels,
commonly executed in Stucco, Wood or Painting, and used in decorating
Principal Rooms_ (1775); _A variety of Capitals, Friezes and Corniches,
and how to increase and decrease them, still retaining their
proportions_ (1776). He also assisted John Crunden in the production of
_The Chimneypiece Makers' Daily Assistant_ (1776).
COLUMBARIUM (Lat. _columba_, a dove), a pigeon-house. The term is
applied in architecture to those sepulchral chambers in and near Rome,
the walls of which were sunk with small niches (_columbaria_) to receive
the cinerary urns. Vitruvius (iv. 2) employs the term to signify the
holes made in a wall to receive the ends of the timbers of a floor or
roof.
COLUMBIA, a city and the county-seat of Boone county, Missouri, U.S.A.,
situated in the central part of the state, about 145 m. (by rail) W.N.W.
of St Louis. Pop. (1890) 4000; (1900) 5651 (1916 negroes); (1910) 9662.
Columbia is served by the Wabash and the Missouri, Kansas & Texas
railways. It is primarily an educational centre, is a market for grain
and farm products, and has grain elevators, a packing house, a shoe
factory and brick works. Columbia is the seat of the University of
Missouri, a coeducational state institution, established in 1839 and
opened in 1841; it received no direct financial support from the state
until 1867, and its founding was due to the self-sacrifice of the people
of the county. It is now liberally supported by the state; in 1908 its
annual income was about $650,000. In 1908 the university had (at
Columbia) 200 instructors and 2419 students, including 680 women;
included in its library is the collection of the State Historical
Society. The School of Mines of the university is at Rolla, Mo.; all
other departments are at Columbia. A normal department was established
in 1867 and opened in 1868; and women were admitted to it in 1869. The
College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts became a department of the
university in 1870. The law department was opened in 1872, the medical
in 1873, and the engineering in 1877. The graduate department was
established in 1896, and in 1908 a department of journalism was
organized. On the university campus in the quadrangle is the monument of
grey granite erected over the grave of Thomas Jefferson, designed after
his own plans, and bearing the famous inscription written by him. It was
given to the university by descendants of Jefferson when Congress
appropriated money for the monument now standing over his grave. Near
the city is the farm of the agricultural college and the experiment
station. At Columbia, also, are the Parker Memorial hospital, the
Teachers College high school, the University Military Academy, the
Columbia Business College, Christian College (Disciples) for women,
established in 1851, its charter being the first granted by Missouri for
the collegiate education of Protestant women; the Bible College of the
Disciples of Christ in Missouri; and Stephens College (under Baptist
control) for women, established in 1856. The municipality owns the
water-works and the electric lighting plant. Columbia was first settled
about 1821.
COLUMBIA, a borough of Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., on the W.
bank of the Susquehanna river (here crossed by a long steel bridge),
opposite Wrightsville and about 81 m. W. by N. of Philadelphia. Pop.
(1890) 10,599; (1900) 12,316, of whom 772 were foreign-born; (1910)
11,454. It is served by the Pennsylvania, the Philadelphia, Baltimore &
Washington, the Philadelphia & Reading, and the Northern Central
railways, and by interurban electric railways. The river here is about a
mile wide, and a considerable portion of the borough is built on the
slope of a hill which rises gently from the river-bank and overlooks
beautiful scenery. The Pennsylvania railway has repair shops here, and
among Columbia's manufactures are silk goods, embroidery and laces, iron
and steel pipe, engines, laundry machinery, brushes, stoves, iron toys,
umbrellas, flour, lumber and wagons; the city is also a busy shipping
and trading centre. Columbia was first settled, by Quakers, in 1726; it
was laid out as a town in 1787; and in 1814 it was incorporated. In 1790
it was one of several places considered in Congress for a permanent site
of the national capital.
COLUMBIA, the capital city of South Carolina, U.S.A., and the
county-seat of Richland county, on the E. bank of the Congaree river, a
short distance below the confluence of the Saluda and the Broad rivers,
about 130 m. N.W. of Charleston. Pop. (1890) 15,353; (19O0) 21,108, of
whom 9858 were negroes; and (1910) 26,319. It is served by the Atlantic
Coast Line, the Southern, the Seaboard Air Line, and the Columbia,
Newberry & Laurens railways. Columbia is picturesquely situated on the
level top of a bluff overlooking the Congaree, which falls about 36 ft.
in passing by, but is navigable for the remainder of its course. The
surrounding country is devoted chiefly to cotton culture. The state
house, United States government building and city hall are fine
structures. Some of the new business houses are ten or more storeys in
height. The state penitentiary and the state insane asylum are located
here, and Columbia is an important educational centre, being the seat of
the university of South Carolina, the Columbia College for women
(Methodist Episcopal South, 1854), the College for women (Presbyterian,
1890), and the Presbyterian Theological Seminary (1828); and the Allen
University (African Methodist Episcopal; coeducational, 1880), and the
Benedict College (Baptist) for negroes. The University of South
Carolina, organized in 1801 and opened in 1805, was known as South
Carolina College in 1805-1863, 1878-1887 and 1891-1906, and as the
university of South Carolina in 1866-1877, 1888-1891 and after 1906; in
1907-1908 it had departments of arts, science, pedagogy and law, an
enrolment of 285 students, and a faculty of 25 instructors. By means of
a canal abundant water power is furnished by the Congaree, and the city
has some of the largest cotton mills in the world; it has, besides,
foundries and machine shops and manufactories of fertilizers and
hosiery. The manufactures under the factory system were valued at
$3,133,903 in 1900 and at $4,676,944 in 1905--a gain, greater than that
of any other city in the state, of 49.2% in five years. In the
neighbourhood are several valuable granite quarries. The municipality
owns and operates its water-works.
While much of the site was still a forest the legislature, in 1786,
chose it for the new capital. It was laid out in the same year, and in
1790 the legislature first met here. Until 1805, when it was
incorporated as a village, Columbia was under the direct government of
the legislature; in 1854 it was chartered as a city. On the morning of
the 17th of February 1865 General W. T. Sherman, on his march through
the Carolinas, entered Columbia, and on the ensuing night a fire broke
out which was not extinguished until most of the city was destroyed. The
responsibility for this fire was charged by the Confederates upon the
Federals and by the Federals upon the Confederates.
COLUMBIA, a city and the county-seat of Maury county, Tennessee, U.S.A.,
situated on the Duck river, in the central part of the state, 46 m. S.
of Nashville. Pop. (1890) 5370; (1900) 6052 (2716 negroes); (1910) 5754.
Columbia is served by the Louisville & Nashville, and the Nashville,
Chattanooga & St Louis railways. It is the seat of the Columbia
Institute for girls (under Protestant Episcopal control), founded in
1836, and of the Columbia Military Academy. Columbia is in a fine
farming region; is engaged extensively in the mining and shipping of
phosphates; has an important trade in live-stock, especially mules;
manufactures cotton, lumber, flour, bricks, pumps and woollen goods; and
has marble and stone works. Columbia was settled about 1807 and was
incorporated in 1822. During the Civil War it was the base from which
General N. B. Forrest operated in 1862-1863, and was alternately
occupied by Confederate and Federal forces during General Hood's
Nashville campaign (November-December 1864).
COLUMBIA RIVER, a stream of the north-west United States and south-west
Canada, about 939 m. in length, draining a basin of about 250,000 sq.
m., of which 38,395 are in British Columbia; some 105,000 sq. m. belong
to the valley of the Snake and 11,700 to that of the Willamette. The
source of the river is partly in the Yellowstone country, partly near
the Titon peaks, and partly in the pine-clad mountains of British
Columbia. Some American geographers regard the head as that of the Clark
Fork, but it is most generally taken to be in British Columbia about 80
m. north of the United States line. From this point it runs some 150 m.
to the north-west to the "Big Bend," and then in a great curve
southward, enclosing the superb ranges of the Selkirks, crossing the
international line near the boundary of Washington and Idaho, where it
is joined by the Pend Oreille river, or Clark Fork, already referred to.
This latter river rises in the Rocky Mountains west of Helena, Montana,
falls with a heavy slope (1323 ft. in 167 m.) to its confluence with the
Flathead, flows through Lake Pend Oreille (27 m.) in northern Idaho, and
runs in deep canyons (falling 900 ft. in 200 m.) to its junction with
the Columbia, which from this point continues almost due south for more
than 106 m. Here the Columbia is joined by the Spokane, a large river
with heavy fall, and enters the "Great Plain of the Columbia," an area
of some 22,000 sq. m., resembling the "parks" of Colorado, shut in on
all sides by mountains: the Moses range to the north, the Bitter Root
and Coeur d'Alene on the east, the Blue on the south, and the Cascades
on the west. The soil is rich, yielding great harvests of grain, and the
mountains rich in minerals as yet only slightly prospected. After
breaking into this basin the river turns sharply to the west and skirts
the northern mountain barrier for about 105 m. Where it strikes the
confines of the Cascades, it is joined by the Okanogan, turns due south
in the second Big Bend, and flows about 200 m. to its junction with the
Snake near Wallula.
After the confluence of the Snake with the Columbia the greater river
turns west toward the Pacific. Throughout its course to this point it
may be said that the Columbia has no flood plain; everywhere it is
cutting its bed; almost everywhere it is characterized by canyons,
although above the Spokane the valley is much broken down and there is
considerable timbered and fertile bench land. Below the Spokane the
canyon becomes more steep and rugged. From the mouth of the Okanogan to
Priests Rapids extends a superb canyon, with precipitous walls of black
columnar basalt 1000 to 3000 ft. in height. The finest portion is below
the Rock Island Rapids. In this part of its course, along the Cascade
range in the Great Plain and at its passage of the range westward,
rapids and cascades particularly obstruct the imperfectly opened bed. In
the lower Columbia, navigation is first interrupted 160 m. from the
mouth at the Cascades, a narrow gorge across the Cascade range 4.5 m.
long, where the river falls 24 ft. in 2500; the rapids are evaded by a
canal constructed (1878-1896) by the Federal government, and by a
portage railway (1890-1891). Fifty-three miles above this are the
Dalles, a series of falls, rapids and rock obstructions extending some
12 m. and ending at Celilo, 115m. below Wallula, with a fall of 20 ft.
There are also impediments just below the mouth of the Snake; others in
the lower course of this river below Riparia; and almost continuous
obstructions in the Columbia above Priests Rapids. The commerce of the
Columbia is very important, especially that from Portland, Vancouver,
Astoria, and other outlets of the Willamette valley and the lower
Columbia. The grain region of the Great Plain, the bottom-land orchards
and grain field on the plateaus of the Snake, have not since 1880 been
dependent upon the water navigation for freighting, but in their
interest costly attempts have been made to open the river below the
Snake uninterruptedly to commerce.
The Columbia is one of the greatest salmon streams of the world (see
OREGON). The tonnage of deep-sea vessels in and out over the bar at the
river's mouth from 1890-1899 was 9,423,637 tons. From 1872-1899 the
United States government expended for improvement of the Snake and
Columbia $6,925,649. The mouth of the latter is the only deep-water
harbour between San Francisco and Cape Flattery (700 m.), and the only
fresh water harbour of the Pacific coast. To facilitate its entrance,
which, owing to bars, tides, winds, and the great discharge of the
river, has always been difficult, a great jetty has been constructed
(1885-1895, later enlarged) to scour the bars. It was about 4.5 miles
long, and in 1903 work was begun to make it 2.5 miles longer. The tides
are perceptible 150 m. above the mouth (mean tide at Astoria _c._ 6.2
ft.), the average tidal flow at the mouth being about 1,000,000 cub. ft.
per second; while the fresh water outflow is from 90,000 to 300,000 cub.
ft. according to the stage of water, and as high as 1,000,000 cub. ft.
in time of flood. Improvements were undertaken by the Federal government
and a state commission in 1902 in order to secure a 25-ft. channel from
Portland to the sea.
In 1792, and possibly also in 1788, the river mouth was entered by
Captain Robert Gray (1755-1806) of Boston, Mass., who named the river
after his own vessel, "Columbia," which name has wholly supplanted the
earlier name, "Oregon." In 1804-1805 the river was explored by
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. Upon these discoveries the United
States primarily based its claim to the territory now embraced in the
states of Oregon and Washington.
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, one of the oldest and most important of the higher
institutions of learning in the United States, located for the most part
on Morningside Heights, New York city. It embraces Columbia College,
founded as King's College in 1754; a school of medicine (the College of
Physicians and Surgeons) founded in 1767, in West 59th Street; a school
of law, founded in 1858; schools of applied science, including a school
of mines and schools of chemistry and engineering, separately organized
in 1896; a school of architecture, organized in 1881; graduate schools
of political science, organized in 1880, philosophy, organized in 1890,
and pure science, organized in 1892; and a school of journalism; closely
affiliated with it are the College of Pharmacy, founded in 1829, in West
68th Street; Teachers' College, founded in 1886, as the New York College
for the Training of Teachers, and essentially a part of the university
since 1899; and Barnard College (for women) founded in 1889, and
essentially a part of the university since 1900. Reciprocal relations
also exist between the university and both the General Theological
Seminary of the Protestant Episcopal Church and the Union Theological
Seminary, thus practically adding to the university a theological
department. Columbia also nominates the American professors who lecture
at German universities by the reciprocal arrangement made in 1905, the
German professors lecturing in America being nominated by the Prussian
ministry of education. Women are now admitted to all the university
courses except those in law, medicine, technology and architecture.
Since 1900 a summer session has been held for six weeks and attended
largely by teachers. Teachers and others, under the direction of the
Teachers' College, are afforded an opportunity to pursue courses _in
absentia_ and so meet some of the requirements for an academic degree or
a teacher's diploma. All students of good ability are enabled to
complete the requirements for the bachelor's degree together with any
one of the professional degrees by six years of study at the university.
Several courses of lectures designed especially for the public--notably
the Hewitt Lectures, in co-operation with Cooper Union--are delivered at
different places in the city and at the university.
In 1908 there were in Columbia University in all departments 609
instructors and 4096 students; of these 420 were in Barnard College, 850
were in the Teachers' College, and 229 were in the College of Pharmacy.
The numerous University publications include works embodying the
results of original research published by the University Press;
"Studies" published in the form of a series by each of several
departments, various periodicals edited by some members of the faculty,
such as the _Columbia University Quarterly_, the _Political Science
Quarterly_, and the _School of Mines Quarterly_; and several papers or
periodicals published by the students, among which are the _Columbia
Spectator_, a daily paper, the _Columbia Law Review_, the _Columbia
Monthly_ and the _Columbia Jester_.
With two or three unimportant exceptions the buildings of the university
on Morningside Heights have been erected since 1896. They include,
besides the several department buildings, a library building, a
university hall (with gymnasium), Earl Hall (for social purposes), St
Paul's chapel (dedicated in 1907), two residence halls for men, and one
for women. The library contains about 450,000 volumes exclusive of
duplicates and unbound pamphlets. The highest authority in the
government of the institution is vested in a board of twenty-four
trustees, vacancies in which are filled by co-optation; but the
immediate educational interests are directed largely by the members of
the university council, which is composed of the president of the
university, the dean and one other representative from the faculty of
each school. The institution is maintained by the proceeds from an
endowment fund exceeding $15,000,000, by tuition fees ranging, according
to the school, from $150 to $250 for each student, and by occasional
gifts for particular objects.
The charter (1754) providing for the establishment of King's College was
so free from narrow sectarianism as to name ministers of five different
denominations for ex-officio governors, and the purpose of the
institution as set forth by its first president, Dr Samuel Johnson
(1696-1772) was about as broad as that now realised. In 1756 the
erection of the first building was begun at the lower end of Manhattan
Island, near the Hudson, and the institution prospered from the
beginning. From 1776 to 1784, during the War of Independence, the
exercises of the college were suspended and the library and apparatus
were stored in the New York city hall. In 1784 the name was changed to
Columbia College, and an act of the legislature was passed for creating
a state university, of which Columbia was to be the basis. But the plan
was not a success, and three years later, in 1787, the act was repealed
and the administration of Columbia was entrusted to a board of trustees
of which the present board is a successor. In 1857 there was an
extensive re-organization by which the scope of the institution was much
enlarged, and at the same time it was removed to a new site on Madison
Avenue between 49th and 50th Streets. From 1890 to 1895 much
centralization in its administration was effected, in 1896 the name of
Columbia University was adopted, and in the autumn of 1897 the old site
and buildings were again abandoned for new, this time on Morningside
Heights.
See _A History of Columbia University_, by members of the faculty (New
York, 1904); and J. B. Pine, "King's College, now Columbia
University," in _Historic New York_ (New York, 1897).
COLUMBINE (Ital. _columbina_, from _columba_, a dove), in pantomime
(q.v.) the fairy-like dancer who is courted by Harlequin. In the
medieval Italian popular comedy she was Harlequin's daughter.
COLUMBINE, an erect perennial herbaceous plant known botanically as
_Aquilegia vulgaris_ (natural order Ranunculaceae). In Med. Latin it was
known as _Columbina sc. herba_, the dove's plant. The slender stem bears
delicate, long-stalked, deeply divided leaves with blunt segments, and a
loose panicle of handsome drooping blue or white flowers, which are
characterized by having all the five petals spurred. The plant occurs
wild in woods and thickets in England and Ireland, and flowers in early
summer. It is well known in cultivation as a favourite spring flower, in
many varieties, some of which have red flowers.
COLUMBITE, a rare mineral consisting of iron niobate, FeNb2O6, in
which the iron and niobium are replaced by varying amounts of manganese
and tantalum respectively, the general formula being (Fe, Mn) (Nb,
Ta)2O6. It was in this mineral that Charles Hatchett discovered,
in 1801, the element niobium, which he himself called columbium after
the country (Columbia or America) whence came the specimen in the
British Museum collection which he examined. The species has also been
called niobite. It crystallizes in the orthorhombic system, and the
black, opaque crystals are often very brilliant with a sub-metallic
lustre. Twinned crystals are not uncommon, and there is a distinct
cleavage parallel to the face marked _b_ in the figure. Hardness 6;
specific gravity 5.3. With increasing amount of tantalum the specific
gravity increases up to 7.3, and members at this end of the series are
known as tantalite (FeTa2O6). Specimens in which the iron is
largely replaced by manganese are known as manganocolumbite or
manganotantalite, according as they contain more niobium or more
tantalum. Columbite occurs as crystals and compact masses in granite and
pegmatite at Rabenstein in Lower Bavaria, the Ilmen Mountains in the
Urals, Haddam in Connecticut, and several other localities in the United
States; also in the cryolite of Greenland. Tantalite is from Finland,
and it has recently been found in some abundance in the deposits of
cassiterite in the tin-field of Greenbushes in the Blackwood district,
Western Australia.
[Illustration: Crystal of Columbite.]
Dimorphous with columbite and tantalite are the tetragonal minerals
tapiolite (= skogbolite) and mossite, so that the four form an
isodimorphous group with the general formula (Fe, Mn) (Nb, Ta)2O6.
Mossite is from a pegmatite vein near Moss in Norway, and tapiolite is
from Finland. All these minerals contain tin in small amount.
(L. J. S.)
COLUMBIUM, or NIOBIUM (symbol Cb or Nb, atomic weight 94), one of the
metallic elements of the nitrogen group, first detected in 1801 by C.
Hatchett in a specimen of columbite (niobite) from Massachusetts (_Phil.
Trans._ 1802, 49). It is usually found associated with tantalum, the
chief minerals containing these two elements being tantalite, columbite,
fergusonite and yttrotantalite; it is also a constituent of pyrochlor,
euxenite and samarskite. Columbium compounds are usually prepared by
fusing columbite with an excess of acid potassium sulphate, boiling out
the fused mass with much water, and removing tin and tungsten from the
residue by digestion with ammonium sulphide, any iron present being
simultaneously converted into ferrous sulphide. The residue is washed,
extracted by dilute hydrochloric acid, and again well washed with
boiling water. It is then dissolved in hydrofluoric acid and heated in
order to expel silicon fluoride; finally the columbium, tantalum and
titanium fluorides are separated by the different solubilities of their
double fluorides (C. Marignac, _Ann. chim. et phys._ 1866 [4], 8, p. 63;
1868, 13, p. 28; see also W. Gibbs, _Jahresb._ 1864, p. 685; R. D. Hall
and E. F. Smith, _Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc._ 1905, 44, p. 177).
The metal was first obtained by C. W. Blomstrand (_Journ. prak. Chem._
1866, 97, p. 37) by reducing the chloride with hydrogen; it has more
recently been prepared by H. Moissan by reducing the oxide with carbon
in the electric furnace (the product obtained always contains from 2-3%
of combined carbon), and by H. Goldschmidt and C. Vautin (_Journ. Soc.
Chem. Industry_, 1898, 19, p. 543) by reducing the oxide with aluminium
powder. As obtained by the reduction of the chloride, it is a steel grey
powder of specific gravity 7.06. It burns on heating in air; and is
scarcely attacked by hydrochloric or nitric acids, or by _aqua regia_;
it is soluble in warm concentrated sulphuric acid.
_Columbium hydride_, CbH, is obtained as a greyish metallic powder,
when the double fluoride, CbF5, 2KF, is reduced with sodium. It
burns when heated in air, and is soluble in warm concentrated
sulphuric acid. Three oxides of columbium are certainly known, namely
the _dioxide_, Cb2O2, the _tetroxide_, Cb2O4, and the
_pentoxide_, Cb2O5, whilst a fourth oxide, _columbium trioxide_,
Cb2O3, has been described by E. F. Smith and P. Maas (_Zeit. f.
anorg. Chem._ 1894, 7, p. 97). _Columbium dioxide_, Cb2O2, is
formed when dry potassium columbium oxyfluoride is reduced by sodium
(H. Rose, _Pogg. Ann._ 1858, 104, p. 312). It burns readily in air,
and is converted into the pentoxide when fused with acid potassium
sulphate. _Columbium_ _tetroxide_, Cb2O4 is obtained as a black
powder when the pentoxide is heated to a high temperature in a current
of hydrogen. It is unattacked by acids. _Columbium pentoxide_
(columbic acid), Cb2O5, is obtained from columbite, after the
removal of tantalum (see above). The mother liquors are concentrated,
and the double salt of composition 2KF.CbOF3.H2O, which
separates, is decomposed by sulphuric acid, or by continued boiling
with water (C. Marignac; see also G. Kruss and L. F. Nilson, _Ber._
1887, 20, p. 1676). It is a white amorphous infusible powder, which
when strongly heated in sulphuretted hydrogen, yields an oxysulphide.
Several hydrated forms are known, yielding salts known as
_columbates_. A _percolumbic acid_, HCbO4.nH2O, has been
prepared by P. Melikoff and L. Pissarjewsky (_Zeit. f. anorg. Chem._
1899, 20, p. 341), as a yellow amorphous powder by the action of
dilute sulphuric acid on the potassium salt, which is formed when
columbic acid is fused in a silver crucible with eight times its
weight of caustic potash (_loc. cit._). Salts of the acid H3CbO8
have been described by C. W. Balke and E. F. Smith (_Jour. Amer. Chem.
Soc._ 1908, 30, p. 1637).
_Columbium trichloride_, CbCl3, is obtained in needles or crystalline
crusts, when the vapour of the pentachloride is slowly passed through
a red-hot tube. When heated in a current of carbon dioxide it forms
the oxychloride CbOCl3, and carbon monoxide. _Columbium
pentachloride_, CbCl5, is obtained in yellow needles when a mixture of
the pentoxide and sugar charcoal is heated in a current of air-free
chlorine. It melts at 194 deg. C. (H. Deville) and boils at 240.5 deg.
C. It is decomposed by water, and dissolves in hydrochloric acid.
_Columbium oxychloride_, CbOCl3, is formed when carbon tetrachloride,
and columbic acid are heated together at 440 deg. C.: 3CCl4 + Cb2O5 =
2CbOCl3 + 3COCl2, and also by distilling the pentachloride, in a
current of carbon dioxide, over ignited columbic acid. It forms a
white silky mass which volatilizes at about 400 deg. C. It deliquesces
in moist air, and is decomposed violently by water. _Columbium
pentafluoride_, CbF5, is obtained when the pentoxide is dissolved in
hydrofluoric acid. It is only known in solution; evaporation of the
solution yields the pentoxide. The _oxyfluoride_, CbOF3, results when
a mixture of the pentoxide and fluorspar is heated in a current of
hydrochloric acid. It forms many double salts with other metallic
fluorides.
_Columbium oxysulphide_, CbOS3, is obtained as a dark bronze coloured
powder when the pentoxide is heated to a white heat in a current of
carbon bisulphide vapour; or by gently heating the oxychloride in a
current of sulphuretted hydrogen. It burns when heated in air, forming
the pentoxide and sulphur dioxide.
_Columbium nitride_, Cb3N5 (?), is formed when dry ammonia gas is
passed into an ethereal solution of the chloride. A heavy white
precipitate, consisting of ammonium chloride and columbium nitride, is
thrown down, and the ammonium chloride is removed by washing it out
with hot water, when the columbium nitride remains as an amorphous
residue (Hall and Smith, _loc. cit._).
_Potassium fluoxy percolumbate_, K2CbO2F5.H2O, is prepared by
dissolving potassium columbium oxyfluoride in a 3% solution of
hydrogen peroxide. The solution turns yellow in colour, and, when
saturated, deposits a pasty mass of crystals. The salt separates from
solutions containing hydrofluoric acid in large plates, which are
greenish yellow in colour.
The atomic weight was determined by C. Marignac (_Ann. chim. et phys._
1866 (4), 8, p. 16) to be 94 from the analysis of potassium columbium
oxyfluoride, and the same value has been obtained by T. W. Richards
(_Journ. Amer. Chem. Soc._ 1898, 20, p. 543).
COLUMBUS, CHRISTOPHER [in Spanish CRISTOBAL COLON] (c. 1446, or perhaps
rather 1451,-1506) was the eldest son of Domenico Colombo and Suzanna
Fontanarossa, and was born at Genoa either about 1446 or in 1451, the
exact date being uncertain. His father was a wool-comber, of some small
means, who lived till 1498. According to the life of Columbus by his son
Ferdinand (a statement supported by Las Casas), young Christopher was
sent to the university of Pavia, where he devoted himself to astronomy,
geometry and cosmography. Yet, according to the admiral's own statement,
he became a sailor at fourteen. Evidently this statement, however,
cannot mean the abandonment of all other employment, for in 1470, 1472,
and 1473 we find him engaged in trade at Genoa, following the family
business of weaving, and (in 1473) residing at the neighbouring Savona.
In 1474-1475 he appears to have visited Chios, where he may have resided
some time, returning to Genoa perhaps early in 1476. Thence he seems to
have again set out on a voyage in the summer of 1476, perhaps bound for
England; on the 13th of August 1476, the four Genoese vessels he
accompanied were attacked off Cape St Vincent by a privateer, one
Guillaume de Casenove, surnamed Coullon or Colombo ("Columbus"); two of
the four ships escaped, with Christopher, to Lisbon. In December 1476,
the latter resumed their voyage to England, probably carrying with them
Columbus, who, after a short stay in England, claims to have made a
voyage in the northern seas, and even to have visited Iceland about
February 1477. This last pretension is gravely disputed, but it is
perhaps not to be rejected, and we may also trace the Genoese about this
time at Bristol, at Galway, and probably among the islands west and
north of Scotland. Soon after this he returned to Portugal, where
(probably in 1478) he married a lady of some rank, Felipa Moniz de
Perestrello, daughter of Bartholomew Perestrello, a captain in the
service of Prince Henry the Navigator, and one of the early colonists
and first governor of Porto Santo. Felipa was also a cousin of the
archbishop of Lisbon at this time (1478).
Idea of western passage to Asia.
About 1479 Columbus visited Porto Santo, here as in Portugal probably
employing his time in making maps and charts for a livelihood, while he
pored over the logs and papers of his deceased father-in-law, and talked
with old seamen of their voyages, and of the mystery of the western
seas. About this time, too, if not earlier, he seems to have arrived at
the conclusion that much of the world remained undiscovered, and step by
step conceived that design of reaching Asia by sailing west which was to
result in the discovery of America. In 1474 he is said to have
corresponded with Paolo Toscanelli, the Florentine physician and
cosmographer, and to have received from him valuable suggestions, both
by map and letter, for such a Western enterprise. (The whole of this
incident has been disputed by some recent critics.) He had perhaps
already begun his studies in a number of works, especially the _Book_ of
Marco Polo and the _Imago Mundi_ of Pierre d'Ailly, by which his
cosmographical and geographical conceptions were largely moulded. His
views, as finally developed and presented to the courts of Portugal and
Spain, were supported by three principal lines of argument, derived from
natural reasons, from the theories of geographers, and from the reports
and traditions of mariners. He believed the world to be a sphere; he
underestimated its size; he overestimated the size of the Asiatic
continent. And the farther that continent extended towards the east, the
nearer it came towards Spain. Nor were these theories the only supports
of his idea. Martin Vicente, a Portuguese pilot, was said to have found,
400 leagues to the westward of Cape St Vincent, and after a westerly
gale of many days' duration, a piece of strange wood, wrought, but not
with iron; Pedro Correa, Columbus's own brother-in-law, was said to have
seen another such waif at Porto Santo, with great canes capable of
holding four quarts of wine between joint and joint, and to have heard
of two men being washed up at Flores "very broad-faced, and differing in
aspect from Christians." West of Europe, now and then, men fancied there
hove in sight the mysterious islands of St Brandan, of Brazil, of
Antillia or of the Seven Cities. In his northern journey, too, some
vague and formless traditions may have reached the explorer's ear of the
voyages of Leif Ericson and Thorfinn Karlsefne, and of the coasts of
Markland and Vinland. All were hints and rumours to bid the bold mariner
sail towards the setting sun, and this he at length determined to do.
Quest of a patron.
The concurrence of some state or sovereign, however, was necessary for
the success of this design. Columbus, on the accession of John II. of
Portugal, seems to have entered the service of this country, to have
accompanied Diego d'Azambuja to the Gold Coast, and to have taken part
in the construction of the famous fort of St George at El Mina
(1481-1482). On his return from this expedition, he submitted to King
John the scheme he had now matured for reaching Asia by a western route
across the ocean. The king was deeply interested in the rival scheme (of
an eastern or south-eastern route round Africa to India) which had so
long held the field, which had been initiated by the Genoese in 1291,
and which had been revived, for Portugal, by Prince Henry the Navigator;
but he listened to the Genoese, and referred him to a committee of
council for geographical affairs. The council's report was adverse; but
the king, who was yet inclined to favour the theory of Columbus,
assented to the suggestion of the bishop of Ceuta that the plan should
be carried out in secret and without its author's knowledge. A caravel
was despatched; but it returned after a brief absence, the sailors
having lost heart, and refused to venture farther. Upon discovering
this treachery, Columbus left Lisbon for Spain (1484), taking with him
his son Diego, the only issue of his marriage with Felipa Moniz, who was
by this time dead. He departed secretly;--according to some writers, to
give the slip to King John; according to others, to escape his
creditors.
Columbus next betook himself to the south of Spain, and while meditating
an appeal to the king of France, opened his plans to the count (from
1491, duke) of Medina Celi. The latter gave him great encouragement,
entertained him for two years, and even determined to furnish him with
three or four caravels, to carry out his great design. Finally, however,
being deterred by the consideration that the enterprise was too vast for
a subject, he turned his guest from the determination he had come to of
making application at the court of France, by writing on his behalf to
Queen Isabella; and Columbus repaired to the court at Cordova at her
bidding (1486).
It was an ill moment for the navigator's fortune. Castile and Leon were
in the thick of that struggle which resulted in the final conquest of
the Granada Moors; and neither Ferdinand nor Isabella had time as yet to
give due consideration to Columbus' proposals. The adventurer was indeed
kindly received; he was handed over to the care of Alonso de
Quintanilla, whom he speedily converted into an enthusiastic supporter
of his theory. He made many other friends, and among them Beatriz
Enriquez, the mother of his second son Fernando. But the committee,
presided over by the queen's confessor, Fray Hernando de Talavera, which
had been appointed to consider the new project, reported that it was
vain and impracticable.
From Cordova Columbus followed the court to Salamanca, having already
been introduced by Quintanilla to the notice of the grand cardinal,
Pedro Gonzalez de Mendoza, "the third king of Spain"; the latter had
befriended and supported the Genoese, and apparently arranged the first
interview between him and Queen Isabella. At Salamanca prolonged
discussions took place upon the questions now raised; the Dominicans of
San Esteban entertained Columbus during the conferences (1486-1487). In
1487 Columbus, who had been following the court from place to place
(billeted in towns as an officer of the sovereigns, and gratified from
time to time with sums of money towards his expenses), was present at
the siege of Malaga. In 1488 he was invited by the king of Portugal, his
"especial friend," to return to that country, and was assured of
protection against arrest or proceedings of any kind (March 20): he had
probably made fresh overtures to King John shortly before; and in the
autumn of 1488 we find him in Lisbon, conferring with his brother
Bartholomew and laying plans for the future. We have no record of the
final negotiations of Columbus with the Portuguese government, but they
clearly did not issue in anything definite, for Christopher now returned
to Spain (though not till he had witnessed the return of Bartholomew
Diaz from the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope and his reception by
King John), while Bartholomew proceeded to England with a mission to
interest King Henry VII. in the Columbian schemes. If the London
enterprise was unsuccessful (as indeed it proved), it was settled that
Bartholomew should carry the same invitation to the French court. He did
so; and here he remained till summoned to Spain in 1493. Meantime
Christopher, unable throughout 1490 to get a hearing at the Spanish
court, was in 1491 again referred to a _junta_, presided over by
Cardinal Mendoza; but this _junta_, to Columbus' dismay, once more
rejected his proposals; the Spanish sovereigns merely promised him that
when the Granada war was over, they would reconsider what he had laid
before them.
Columbus was now in despair. He at once betook himself to Huelva, a
little maritime town in Andalusia, north-west of Cadiz, with the
intention of taking ship for France. He halted, however, at the
monastery of La Rabida, near Huelva, and still nearer Palos, where he
seems to have made lasting friendships on his first arrival in Spain in
January 1485, where he especially enlisted the support of Juan Perez,
the guardian, who invited him to take up his quarters in the monastery,
and introduced him to Garcia Fernandez, a physician and student of
geography. Juan Perez had been the queen's confessor; he now wrote to
her in urgent terms, and was summoned to her presence; and money was
sent to Columbus to bring him once more to court. He reached Granada in
time to witness the surrender of the city (January 2, 1492), and
negotiations were resumed. Columbus believed in his mission, and stood
out for high terms; he asked for the rank of admiral at once ("Admiral
of the Ocean" in all those islands, seas, and continents that he might
discover), the vice-royalty of all he should discover, and a tenth of
the precious metals discovered within his admiralty. These conditions
were rejected, and the negotiations were again interrupted. An interview
with Mendoza appears to have followed; but nothing came of it, and
before the close of January 1492, Columbus actually set out for France.
At length, however, on the entreaty of the Queen's confidante, the
Marquesa de Moya, of Luis de Santangel, receiver of the ecclesiastical
revenues of the crown of Aragon, and of other courtiers, Isabella was
induced to determine on the expedition. A messenger was sent after
Columbus, and overtook him near a bridge called "Pinos," 6 m. from
Granada. He returned to the camp at Santa Fe; and on the 17th of April
1492, the agreement between him and their Catholic majesties was signed
and sealed.
As his aims included not only the discovery of Cipangu or Japan, but
also the opening up of intercourse with the grand khan of Cathay, he
received a royal letter of introduction to the latter. The town of Palos
was ordered to find him two ships, and these were soon placed at his
disposal. But no crews could be got together, in spite of the indemnity
offered to criminals and "broken men" who would serve on the expedition;
and had not Juan Perez succeeded in interesting in the cause the Palos
"magnates" Martin Alonso Pinzon and Vicente Yanez Pinzon, Columbus'
departure had been long delayed. At last, however, men, ships and stores
were ready. The expedition consisted of the "Santa Maria," a decked ship
of 100 tons with a crew of 52 men, commanded by the admiral in person;
and of two caravels; the "Pinta" of 50 tons, with 18 men, under Martin
Pinzon; and the "Nina," of 40 tons, with 18 men, under his brother
Vicente Yanez, afterwards (1499) the first to cross the line in the
American Atlantic.
First voyage.
America discovered.
The adventurers numbered 88-souls; and on Friday, the 3rd of August
1492, at eight in the morning, the little fleet weighed anchor, and
stood for the Canary Islands. An abstract of the admiral's diary made by
Las Casas is yet extant; and from it many particulars may be gleaned
concerning this first voyage. Three days after the ships had set sail
the "Pinta" lost her rudder; the admiral was in some alarm, but
comforted himself with the reflection that Martin Pinzon was energetic
and ready-witted; they had, however, to put in at Teneriffe, to refit
the caravel. On the 6th of September they weighed anchor once more with
all haste, Columbus having been informed that three Portuguese caravels
were on the look-out to intercept him. On the 13th of September the
westerly variations of the magnetic needle were for the first time
observed; on the 15th a meteor fell into the sea at four or five leagues
distance; soon after they arrived at those vast plains of seaweed called
the Sargasso Sea; while all the time, writes the admiral, they had most
temperate breezes, the sweetness of the mornings being especially
delightful, the weather like an Andalusian April, and only the song of
the nightingale wanting. On the 17th the men began to murmur; they were
frightened by the strange phenomena of the variation of the compass, but
the explanation Columbus gave restored their tranquillity. On the 18th
they saw many birds, and a great ridge of low-lying cloud; and they
expected to see land. On the 20th they saw boobies and other birds, and
were sure the land must be near. In this, however, they were
disappointed; and thenceforth Columbus, who was keeping all the while a
double reckoning, one for the crew and one for himself, had great
difficulty in restraining the evil-disposed from the excesses they
meditated. On the 25th Martin Alonso Pinzon raised the cry of land, but
it proved false, as did the rumour to the same effect on the 7th of
October, from the "Nina." But on the 11th the "Pinta" fished up a cane,
a pole, a stick which appeared to have been wrought with iron, and a
board, while the "Nina" sighted a branch covered with berries; "and with
these signs all of them breathed and were glad." At ten o'clock on that
night Columbus himself perceived and pointed out a light ahead, and at
two in the morning of Friday, the 12th of October 1492, Rodrigo de
Triana, a sailor aboard the "Nina," announced the appearance of what
proved to be the New World. The land sighted was an island, called by
the Indians Guanahani, and named by Columbus San Salvador. It is
generally identified with Watling Island.
The same morning Columbus landed, richly clad, and bearing the royal
banner of Spain. He was accompanied by the brothers Pinzon, bearing
banners of the Green Cross (a device of the admiral's), and by great
part of the crew. When they all had "given thanks to God, kneeling upon
the shore, and kissed the ground with tears of joy, for the great mercy
received," the admiral named the island, and took solemn possession of
it for their Catholic majesties of Castile and Leon. At the same time
such of the crews as had shown themselves doubtful and mutinous sought
his pardon weeping, and prostrated themselves at his feet.
Into the remaining detail of this voyage, of highest interest as it is,
it is impossible to go further. It will be enough to say that it
resulted in the discovery of the islands of Santa Maria de la Concepcion
(Rum Cay), Fernandina (Long Island), Isabella (Crooked Island), Cuba or
_Juana_ (named by Columbus in honour of the young prince of Spain), and
Hispaniola, Haiti, or San Domingo. Off the last of these the "Santa
Maria" went aground, owing to the carelessness of the steersman. No
lives were lost, but the ship had to be unloaded and abandoned; and
Columbus, who was anxious to return to Europe with the news of his
achievement, resolved to plant a colony on the island, to build a fort
out of the material of the stranded hulk, and to leave the crew. The
fort was called La Navidad; 44 Europeans were placed in charge. On the
4th of January 1493 Columbus, who had lost sight of Martin Pinzon, set
sail alone in the "Nina" for the east; and two days afterwards the
"Pinta" joined her sister-ship. A storm, however, separated the vessels,
and it was not until the 18th of February that Columbus reached the
island of Santa Maria in the Azores. Here he was threatened with capture
by the Portuguese governor, who could not for some time be brought to
recognize his commission. On the 24th of February, however, he was
allowed to proceed, and on the 4th of March the "Nina" dropped anchor
off Lisbon. The king of Portugal received the admiral with the highest
honours. On the 13th of March the "Nina" put out from the Tagus, and two
days afterwards, Friday, the 15th of March, she reached Palos.
The court was at Barcelona; and thither, after despatching a letter
announcing his arrival, Columbus proceeded in person. He entered the
city in a sort of triumphal procession, was received by their majesties
in full court, and, seated in their presence, related the story of his
wanderings, exhibiting the "rich and strange" spoils of the new-found
lands,--the gold, the cotton, the parrots, the curious arms, the
mysterious plants, the unknown birds and beasts, and the Indians he had
brought with him for baptism. All his honours and privileges were
confirmed to him; the title of Don was conferred on himself and his
brothers; he rode at the king's bridle; he was served and saluted as a
grandee of Spain. A new and magnificent scutcheon was also blazoned for
him (4th May 1493), whereon the royal castle and lion of Castile and
Leon were combined with the five anchors of his own coat of arms. Nor
were their Catholic highnesses less busy on their own account than on
that of their servant. On the 3rd and 4th of May Alexander VI. granted
bulls confirming to the crowns of Castile and Leon all the lands
discovered, or to be discovered, west of a line of demarcation drawn 100
leagues west of the Azores, on the same terms as those on which the
Portuguese held their colonies along the African coast. A new expedition
was got in readiness with all possible despatch, to secure and extend
the discoveries already made.
Second voyage.
After several delays the fleet weighed anchor on the 24th of September
1493 and steered westwards. It consisted of three great carracks
(galleons) and fourteen caravels (light frigates), having on board over
1500 men, besides the animals and materials necessary for colonization.
Twelve missionaries accompanied the expedition, under the orders of
Bernardo Buil or Boil, a Benedictine; Columbus had been already directed
(29th May 1493) to endeavour by all means in his power to Christianize
the inhabitants of the islands, to make them presents, and to "honour
them much", while all under him were commanded to treat them "well and
lovingly," under pain of severe punishment. On the 13th of October the
ships, which had put in at the Canaries, left Ferro; and on Sunday, the
3rd of November, after a single storm, "by the goodness of God and the
wise management of the admiral" an island was sighted to the west, which
was named Dominica. Northwards from this the isles of Marigalante and
Guadalupe were next discovered and named; while on the north-western
course to La Navidad those of Montserrat, Antigua, San Martin, Santa
Cruz and the Virgin Islands were sighted, and the island now called
Porto Rico was touched at, hurriedly explored, and named San Juan
Bautista. On the 22nd of November Columbus came in sight of Hispaniola,
and sailing westward to La Navidad, found the fort burned and the colony
dispersed. He decided on building a second fort, and coasting on 30 m.
east of Monte Cristi, he pitched on a spot where he founded the city of
Isabella.
The climate proved unhealthy; the colonists were greedy of gold,
impatient of control, proud, ignorant and mutinous; and Columbus, whose
inclination drew him westward, was doubtless glad to escape the worry
and anxiety of his post, and to avail himself of the instructions of his
sovereigns as to further discoveries. On the 2nd of February 1494 he
sent home, by Antonio de Torres, that despatch to their Catholic
highnesses by which he may be said to have founded the West Indian slave
trade. He established the mining camp of San Tomaso in the gold country
of Central Hispaniola; and on the 24th of April 1494, having nominated a
council of regency under his brother Diego, and appointed Pedro Margarit
his captain-general, he again put to sea. After following the southern
shore of Cuba for some days, he steered southwards, and discovered (May
14th) the island of Jamaica, which he named Santiago. He then resumed
his exploration of the Cuban coast, threaded his way through a labyrinth
of islets which he named the Garden of the Queen (Jardin de la Reyna),
and, after coasting westwards for many days, became convinced that he
had discovered continental land. He therefore caused Perez de Luna, the
notary, to draw up a document to this effect (12th of June 1494), which
was afterwards taken round and signed (the admiral's steward witnessing)
by the officers, men and boys of his three caravels, the "Nina," the
"Cordera," and the "San Juan." He then stood to the south-east, and
sighted the island of Evangelista (now Isla de los Pinos), revisited
Jamaica, coasted the south of Hispaniola, and on the 24th of September
touched at and named the island of La Mona, in the channel between
Hispaniola and Porto Rico. Thence he had intended to sail eastwards and
complete the survey of the Caribbean Archipelago; but he was exhausted
by the terrible tear and wear of mind and body he had undergone (he says
himself that on this expedition he was three-and-thirty days almost
without sleep), and on the day following his departure from La Mona he
fell into a lethargy, that deprived him of sense and memory, and had
well-nigh proved fatal to life. At last, on the 29th of September, the
little fleet dropped anchor off Isabella, and in his new city the
admiral lay sick for five months.
The colony was in a sad plight. Every one was discontented, and many
were sick, for the climate was unhealthy and there was nothing to eat.
Margarit and Boil had deserted the settlement and fled to Spain, but ere
his departure the former, in his capacity of captain-general, had done
much to outrage and alienate the Indians. The strongest measures were
necessary to undo this mischief, and, backed by his brother Bartholomew,
Columbus proceeded to reduce the natives under Spanish sway. Alonso de
Ojeda succeeded by a brilliant _coup de main_ in capturing the cacique
Caonabo, and the rest submitted. Five ship-loads of Indians were sent
off to Seville (24th June 1495) to be sold as slaves; and a tribute was
imposed upon their fellows, which must be looked upon as the origin of
that system of _repartimientos_ or _encomiendas_ which was afterwards to
work such mischief among the conquered. In October 1495 Juan Aguado
arrived at Isabella, with a royal commission to report on the state of
the colony; here he took up the position of a judge of Columbus's
government; and much recrimination followed. Columbus decided to return
home; he appointed his brother Bartholomew _adelantado_ of the island;
and on the 10th of March 1496 he quitted Hispaniola in the "Nina." The
vessel, after a protracted and perilous voyage, reached Cadiz on the
11th of June 1496, where the admiral landed, wearing the habit of a
Franciscan. He was cordially received by his sovereigns, and a new fleet
of eight vessels was put at his disposal. By royal patent, moreover, a
tract of land in Hispaniola, of 50 leagues by 20, was offered to him,
with the title of duke or marquis (which he declined); for three years
he was to receive an eighth of the gross and a tenth of the net profits
on each voyage; the right of creating a _mayorazgo_ or perpetual entail
of titles and estates was granted him; and his two sons were received
into Isabella's service as pages.
Third voyage.
Meanwhile, however, the preparing of the fleet proceeded slowly, and it
was not till the 30th of May 1498 that he set sail with his main fleet
of six ships--two caravels had already been sent on ahead. From San
Lucar he steered for Porto Santo, Madeira, and Gomera, despatching three
vessels direct from the Canaries to Hispaniola. He next proceeded to the
Cape Verde Islands, which he quitted on the 5th of July. On the 31st of
the same month, being greatly in need of water, and fearing that no land
lay westwards as he had hoped, Columbus had turned his ship's head
north, when Alonzo Perez of Huelva saw land about 15 leagues to the
south-west. It was crowned with three hill-tops, from which
circumstance, and in fulfilment of a vow made at starting (to name the
first land discovered on this voyage in honour of the Trinity), the
admiral named it Trinidad, which name it yet bears. On Wednesday, the
1st of August, he beheld for the first time the mainland of South
America, the continent he had sought so long. It seemed to him but an
insignificant island, and he called it Isla Santa. Sailing westwards,
next day he saw the Gulf of Paria (named by him the Golfo de la
Ballena), into which he was borne at immense risk on the ridge of waters
formed by the meeting of the sea and the Orinoco estuaries. For several
days he coasted the continent, esteeming as islands the various
projections he saw, and naming them accordingly, nor was it until he had
realized the volume poured out by the Orinoco that he began to perceive
the truly continental character of his last discovery. He was now
anxious to revisit the colony in Hispaniola; and after sighting Tobago,
Grenada, and Margarita, made for San Domingo, the new capital of the
settlement, where he arrived on the 31st of August. He found that
affairs had not prospered well in his absence. By the vigour and
activity of the _adelantado_, the whole island had been reduced under
Spanish sway; but under the leadership of Francisco Roldan the
malcontent settlers had risen in revolt, and Columbus had to compromise
matters in order to restore peace. Roldan retained his office of chief
justice; and such of his followers as chose to remain in the island were
gratified with _repartimientos_ of land and labour.
At home, however, court favour had turned against Columbus. For one
thing, the ex-colonists were often bitterly hostile to the admiral and
his brothers. They were wont to parade their grievances in the very
court-yards of the Alhambra, to surround the king when he came forth
with complaints and reclamations, to insult the discoverer's young sons
with shouts and jeers. Again, the queen began to criticize severely the
shipment of Indians from the new-found lands to Spain. And once more,
there was no doubt that the colony itself, whatever the cause, had not
prospered so well as might have been desired. Ferdinand's support of
Columbus had never been very hearty, and his inclination to supersede
the Genoese now prevailed over the queen's friendliness. Accordingly, on
the 21st of May 1499, Francisco Bobadilla was appointed governor and
judge of Hispaniola during royal pleasure, with authority to examine
into all complaints. Columbus was ordered to deliver up his charge to
Bobadilla, and to accept whatever the latter should deliver him from the
sovereigns. Bobadilla left Spain in June 1500, and landed in Hispaniola
on the 23rd of August.
Columbus, meanwhile, had restored such tranquillity as was possible in
his government. With Roldan's help he had beaten off an attempt on the
island of the adventurer Ojeda, his old lieutenant; the Indians were
being collected into villages and Christianized. Gold-mining was
profitably pursued; in three years, he calculated, the royal revenues
might be raised to an average of 60,000,000 reals. The arrival of
Bobadilla, however, speedily changed this state of affairs. On landing,
he took possession of the admiral's house and summoned him and his
brothers before him. Accusations of severity, of injustice, of venality
even, were poured down on their heads, and Columbus anticipated nothing
less than a shameful death. Bobadilla put all three in irons, and
shipped them off to Spain.
Alonso Vallejo, captain of the caravel in which the illustrious
prisoners sailed, still retained a proper sense of the honour and
respect due to Columbus, and would have removed the fetters; but to this
Columbus would not consent. He would wear them, he said, until their
highnesses, by whose order they had been affixed, should order their
removal; and he would keep them afterwards "as relics and as memorials
of the reward of his service." He did so. His son Fernando "saw them
always hanging in his cabinet, and he requested that when he died they
might be buried with him." Whether this last wish was complied with is
not known.
A heart-broken and indignant letter from Columbus to Dona Juana de
Torres, formerly nurse of the infante Don Juan, arrived at court before
the despatch of Bobadilla. It was read to the queen, and its tidings
were confirmed by communications from Alonso Vallejo and the alcaide of
Cadiz. There was a great movement of indignation; the tide of popular
and royal feeling turned once more in the admiral's favour. He received
a large sum to defray his expenses; and when he appeared at court, on
the 17th of December 1500, he was no longer in irons and disgrace, but
richly apparelled and surrounded with friends. He was received with all
honour and distinction. The queen is said to have been moved to tears by
the narration of his story. Their majesties not only repudiated
Bobadilla's proceedings, but declined to inquire into the charges that
he at the same time brought against his prisoners, and promised Columbus
compensation for his losses and satisfaction for his wrongs. A new
governor, Nicolas de Ovando, was appointed, and left San Lucar on the
13th of February 1502, with a fleet of thirty ships, to supersede
Bobadilla. The latter was to be impeached and sent home; the admiral's
property was to be restored; and a fresh start was to be made in the
conduct of colonial affairs. Thus ended Columbus's history as viceroy
and governor of the new Indies which he had presented to the country of
his adoption.
Fourth voyage.
His hour of rest, however, was not yet come. Ever anxious to serve their
Catholic highnesses, "and particularly the queen," he had determined to
find a strait through which he might penetrate westwards into Portuguese
Asia. After the usual inevitable delays his prayers were granted, and on
the 9th of May 1502, with four caravels and 150 men, he weighed anchor
from Cadiz, and sailed on his fourth and last great voyage. He first
betook himself to the relief of the Portuguese fort of Arzilla, which
had been besieged by the Moors, but the siege had been raised before he
arrived. He put to sea westwards once more, and on the 15th of June
discovered the island of Martinino (probably St Lucia). He had received
positive instructions from his sovereigns on no account to touch at
Hispaniola; but his largest caravel was greatly in need of repairs, and
he had no choice but to abandon her or disobey orders. He preferred the
latter alternative, and sent a boat ashore to Ovando, asking for a new
ship and for permission to enter the harbour to weather a hurricane
which he saw was coming on. But his requests were refused, and he
coasted the island, casting anchor under lee of the land. Here he
weathered the storm, which drove the other caravels out to sea, and
annihilated the homeward-bound fleet, the richest that had till then
been sent from Hispaniola. Roldan and Bobadilla perished with others of
the admiral's enemies; and Fernando Columbus, who accompanied his father
on this voyage, wrote long afterwards, "I am satisfied it was the hand
of God, for had they arrived in Spain they had never been punished as
their crimes deserved, but rather been favoured and preferred."
After recruiting his flotilla at Azua, Columbus put in at Jaquimo and
refitted his four vessels; and on the 14th of July 1502 he steered for
Jamaica. For several days the ships wandered painfully among the keys
and shoals he had named the Garden of the Queen, and only an opportune
easterly wind prevented the crews from open mutiny. The first land
sighted (July 30th) was the islet of Guanaja, about 40 m. east of the
coast of Honduras. Here he got news from an old Indian of a rich and
vast country lying to the eastward, which he at once concluded must be
the long-sought-for empire of the grand khan. Steering along the coast
of Honduras, great hardships were endured, but nothing approaching his
ideal was discovered. On the 12th of September Cape Gracias-a-Dios was
rounded. The men had become clamorous and insubordinate; not until the
5th of December, however, would he tack about and retrace his course. It
now became his intention to plant a colony on the river Veragua, which
was afterwards to give his descendants a title of nobility; but he had
hardly put about when he was caught in a storm, which lasted eight days,
wrenched and strained his crazy, worm-eaten ships severely, and finally,
on Epiphany Sunday 1503, blew him into an embouchure which he named
Belem or Bethlehem. Gold was very plentiful in this place, and here he
determined to found his settlement. By the end of March 1503 a number of
huts had been run up, and in these the _adelantado_ (Bartholomew
Columbus), with 80 men, was to remain, while Christopher returned to
Spain for men and supplies. Quarrels, however, arose with the natives;
the cacique was made prisoner, but escaped again; and before Columbus
could leave the coast he had to abandon a caravel, to take the settlers
on board, and to relinquish the enterprise of colonization. Steering
eastwards, he left a second caravel at Puerto Bello; he thence bore
northwards for Cuba, where he obtained supplies from the natives. From
Cuba he bore up for Jamaica, and there, in the harbour of San Gloria,
now St Ann's Bay, he ran his ships aground in a small inlet still called
Don Christopher's Cove (June 23rd, 1503).
The expedition was received with great kindness by the natives, and here
Columbus remained upwards of a year, awaiting the return of his
lieutenant Diego Mendez, whom he had despatched to Ovando for
assistance. During his critical sojourn here, the admiral suffered much
from disease and from the lawlessness of his followers, whose misconduct
had alienated the natives, and provoked them to withhold their
accustomed supplies, until he dexterously worked upon their
superstitions by prognosticating an eclipse. Two vessels having at last
arrived for his relief, Columbus left Jamaica on the 28th of June 1504,
and, after calling at Hispaniola, set sail for Spain on the 12th of
September. After a tempestuous voyage he landed once more at San Lucar
on the 7th of November 1504.
As he was too ill to go to court, his son Diego was sent thither in his
place, to look after his interests and transact his business. Letter
after letter followed the young man from Seville--one by the hands of
Amerigo Vespucci. A licence to ride on muleback was granted him on the
23rd of February 1505; and in the following May he was removed to the
court at Segovia, and thence again to Valladolid. On the landing of
Philip and Juana at Coruna (25th of April 1506), although "much
oppressed with the gout and troubled to see himself put by his rights,"
he is known to have sent off the _adelantado_ to pay them his duty and
to assure them that he was yet able to do them extraordinary service.
The last documentary note of him is contained in a final codicil to the
will of 1498, made at Valladolid on the 19th of May 1506. By this the
old will is confirmed; the _mayorazgo_ is bequeathed to his son Diego
and his heirs male, failing these to Fernando, his second son, and
failing these to the heirs male of Bartholomew; only in case of the
extinction of the male line, direct or collateral, is it to descend to
the females of the family; and those into whose hands it may fall are
never to diminish it, but always to increase and ennoble it by all means
possible. The head of the house is to sign himself "The Admiral." A
tenth of the annual income is to be set aside yearly for distribution
among the poor relations of the house. A chapel is founded and endowed
for the saying of masses. Beatriz Enriquez is left to the care of the
young admiral. Among other legacies is one of "half a mark of silver to
a Jew who used to live at the gate of the Jewry, in Lisbon." The codicil
was written and signed with the admiral's own hand. Next day (20th of
May 1506) he died.
After the funeral ceremonies at Valladolid, Columbus's remains were
transferred to the Carthusian monastery of Santa Maria de las Cuevas,
Seville, where the bones of his son Diego, the second admiral, were also
laid. Exhumed in 1542, the bodies of both father and son were taken over
sea to Hispaniola and interred in the cathedral of San Domingo. In
1795-1796, on the cession of that island to the French, the relics were
re-exhumed and transferred to the cathedral of Havana, whence, after the
Spanish-American War of 1898 and the loss of Cuba, they were finally
removed to Seville cathedral, where they remain. The present heir and
representative of Columbus belongs to the Larreategui family,
descendants of the discoverer through the female line, and retains the
titles of admiral and duke of Veragua.
[Illustration: Columbus Cipher.
The interpretation of the seven-lettered cipher, accepting the smaller
letters of the second line as the final ones of the words, seems to be
_Salve Christus, Maria, Yosephus_. The name _Christopher_
(_Christoferens_) appears in the last line.]
In person Columbus was tall and shapely. The only authentic portrait of
him is that which once belonged to Paulus Jovius, and is still in the
possession of the de Orchi family (related to Jovius by female descent)
at Como. It shows us a venerable man with clean-shaven face, thin grey
hair, high forehead, sad thoughtful eyes. It bears the inscription
_Columbus Lygur. novi orbis repertor_.
AUTHORITIES.--Fernando Columbus, _Historie del Signor Don Fernando
Colombo ... e vera relatione della vita ... dell' Ammiraglio D.
Christoforo Colombo_ (the Spanish original of this, written before
1539, is lost; only the Italian version remains, first published at
Venice in 1571; a good edition appeared in London in 1867); Bartolome
de las Casas, _Historia de las Indias_, written 1527-1561, but first
printed at Madrid in 1875, after remaining in manuscript more than
three centuries; Andres Bernandez, _Historia de los Reyes Catolicos_
(contemporary with Fernando Columbus's _Historie_, but first printed
at Granada in 1856; best edition, Seville, 1870); Gonzalo Fernandez
Oviedo y Valdes, _Historia general de las Indias_ (Seville, 1535; best
edition, Madrid, 1851-1855); Peter Martyr d'Anghiera, _Opus
Epistolarum_, first published in 1530, and _De Orbe Novo_ (_Decades_),
printed in 1511 and 1530; Francisco Lopez de Gomara, _Historia general
de las Indias_ (Saragossa, 1552-1553, and Antwerp, 1554); Antonio de
Herrera, _Historia general de las Indias occidentales_ (publication
first completed in 1615, but best edition perhaps that of 1730,
Madrid); Juan Bautista Munoz, _Historia del Nuevo Mundo_ (Madrid,
1793); Martin Fernandez Navarrete, _Coleccion de los Viages y
descubrimientos que hicieron por mar los Espanoles_ (Madrid,
1825-1837); Washington Irving, _History of the Life and Voyages of
Christopher Columbus_ (London, 1827-1828); Alex. von Humboldt, _Examen
critique_ (Paris, 1836-1839); R. H. Major, _Select Letters of_
_Columbus_ (London, Hakluyt Society, 1847); Fernandez Duro, _Colon y
Pinzon_ (Madrid, 1883); Henry Harrisse, _Christophe Colomb_ (Paris,
1884), and _Christophe Colomb devant l'histoire_ (Paris, 1892); Justin
Winsor, _Christopher Columbus_ (Cambridge, Mass., 1891); Jose Maria
Asensio, _Cristoval Colon_ (Barcelona, 1892); Clements R. Markham,
_Life of Christopher Columbus_ (London, 1892); John Fiske, _Discovery
of America_ (Boston and New York, 1892); E. J. Payne, _History of the
New World called America_, vol. i. (Oxford, 1892); Paul Gaffarel,
_Histoire de la decouverte de l'Amerique_ (Paris, 1892); Charles I.
Elton, _Career of Columbus_ (London, 1892); _Raccolta Colombiana_
(1892, &c.); Sophus Ruge, _Columbus_ (Berlin, 1902); John Boyd
Thatcher, _Christopher Columbus_ (New York, 1903-1904); Henry Vignaud,
_La Lettre et la carte de Toscanelli_ (Paris, 1901), and _Etudes
critiques sur la vie de Colomb avant ses decouvertes_ (Paris, 1905);
Filson Young, _Christopher Columbus and the New World of his
discovery_ (London, 1906). (C. R. B.)