sent a caravel ostensibly with provisions he determined to leave Portugal and ask for the Cape Verde Islands, but with secret instructions to the commander to pursue a course westward indicated by Columbus. The fears of the mariners caused them to

aid from elsewhere. With his son Diego, he left Lisbon for Spain secretly in 1484, while his brother Bartholomew prepared to go to England to ask aid for the projected

lumbus to enable him to appear decently at Court. He explained his project to the sovereigns. He had already, by the operations of a poetic temperament, regarded himself as a preordained gospel-bearer to the heathen of unknown lands. His name implied it-" Christ-bearer "—and hearing that the Sultan of Egypt intended to

and Medina-Celi. They declined, but the the monarchs at Santa Fé, when the latter recommended the project to Queen Queen sent a little more than $200 to CoIsabella, then with her Court at Cordova, who requested the navigator to be sent to her. In that city he became attached to Donna Beatrice Enriques, by whom he had a son, Ferdinand, born in 1487, who became the biographer of his father. It was an inauspicious moment for Columbus to lay his projects before the Spanish monarchs, for their courts were moving destroy the sepulchre of Jesus, he recorded from place to place, in troublous times, surrounded by the din and pageantry of war. But at Salamanca he was introduced to King Ferdinand by Mendoza, Archbishop of Toledo and Grand Cardinal of Spain.

a vow that he would devote the proceeds of his explorations to the rescue of that holy place from destruction. He urged his suit with eloquence, but the Queen's confessor opposed the demands of Columbus, and he left Granada-just conquered from the Moors-for France.

A council of astronomers and cosmographers was assembled at Salamanca to A more enlightened civil officer at Court consider the project. They decided that remonstrated, and the Queen sent for him the scheme was visionary, unscriptural, to return. Ferdinand said their wars had and irreligious, and the navigator was in danger of arraignment before the tribunal of the Inquisition. For seven years longer the patient navigator waited, while the Spanish monarchs were engaged with the Moors in Granada, during which time Columbus served in the army as a volunteer. Meanwhile the King of Portugal had invited him (1488) to return, and Henry VII. had also invited him by letter to come to the Court of England, giving him encouraging promises of aid. But Fer dinand and Isabella treated him kindly, and he remained in Spain until 1491, when he set out to lay his projects before Charles VIII. of France.

so exhausted the treasury that money could not be spared for the enterprise. The Queen declared that she would pledge her crown jewels, if necessary, to supply the money, and would undertake the enterprise for her own crown of Castile. An agreement was signed by their Majesties and Columbus at Santa Fé, April 17, 1492, by which he and his heirs should forever have the office of admiral over all lands he might discover, with honors equal to those of Grand Admiral of Castile; that he should be viceroy and governorgeneral over the same; that he should receive one-tenth of all mineral and other products that might be obtained; that he and his lieutenants should be the sole judges in all disputes that might arise between his jurisdiction and Spain, and that he might advance one-eighth in any venture, and receive a corresponding share of the profits. He was also authorized to enjoy the title of Don, or noble.

On his way, at the close of a beautiful October day, he stopped at the gate of the Franciscan monastery of Santa Maria de Rabida, near the port of Palos, in Andalusia, and asked for refreshment for his boy, Diego. The prior of the convent, Juan Perez de Marchena, became interested in the conversation of the stranger, and he invited him to remain as his guest. The monarchs fitted out two small vesTo him Columbus unfolded his plans. sels-caravels, or undecked ships-and Alonzo Pinzon and other eminent navi- one larger vessel. Leaving Diego as page gators at Palos, with scientific men, were to Prince Juan, the heir apparent, Coinvited to the convent to confer with Co- lumbus sailed from Palos in the decked lumbus, and Pinzon offered to furnish vessel Santa Maria, with Martin Alonzo and command a ship for explorations. Pinzon as commander of the Pinta, and Marchena, who had been Queen Isabella's his brother, Vincent Yañez Pinzon, as confessor, wrote to her, asking an inter- commander of the Nina, the two caraview with her for Columbus. It was vels. They left the port with a complegranted. Marchena rode to the camp of ment of officers and crews on Friday

about the "unscriptural" and “irreligious" character of his proposition, and finally, on May 30, 1498, Columbus sailed from San Lucar de Barrameda, with six ships, on his third voyage of discovery.

morning, Aug. 3, 1492, and after a voyage There he was received with great hon. marked by tempests-the crew in mortal ors; all his dignities were reaffirmed, and fear most of the time, and at last muti- on Sept. 25, 1493, he sailed from Cadiz nous-some indications of land were dis- with a fleet of seventeen ships and 1,500 covered late in the night of Oct. 11. men. Most of these were merely adventMany times they had been deceived by urers, and by quarrels and mutinies gave presages of land, and what they thought the admiral a great deal of trouble. After were actual discoveries of it. The crown discovering the Windward Islands, Jahad offered a little more than $100 maica and Porto Rico, founding a colony to the man who should first discover on Hispaniola, and leaving his brother land, and to this Columbus added the Bartholomew lieutenant-governor of the prize of a silken doublet. All eyes were island, he returned to Spain, reaching continually on the alert. At ten o'clock Cadiz, July 11, 1494. Jealousy had proon the night of the 11th, Columbus was mulgated many slanders concerning him; on his deck, eagerly watching for signs these were all swept away in his presence. of land, when he discovered a light on the The nobles were jealous of him, and used verge of the horizon. every means in their power to thwart his Early the next morning, Rodrigo Tri- grand purposes and to bring him into cena, a sailor of the Pinta, first saw land; disrepute. He calmly met their opposibut the award was given to Colum- tion by reason, and often confused them bus, who saw the light on the land. At by simple illustrations. He had already, dawn a wooded shore lay before them; by his success, silenced the clamor of the and, after a perilous voyage of seventy- ignorant and superstitious priesthood one days, the commander, with the banner of the expedition in his hand, leading his followers, landed, as they supposed, on the shores of Farther India. Columbus, clad in scarlet and gold, first touched the beach. A group of naked natives, with skins of a copper hue, watched their movements with awe, and regarded the strangers as gods. Believing he was in India, Columbus called the inhabitants 66 "Indians." Columbus took possession of the land in the name of the crown of Castile. He soon discovered it to be an island-one of the Bahamas-which he named San Salvador. Sailing southward, he discovered Cuba, Haiti, and other isands, and these were denominated the West Indies. He called Haiti Hispaniola, or Little Spain. On its northern shores the Santa Maria was wrecked. With her timbers he built a fort, and leaving thirtynine men there to defend it and the interests of Castile, he sailed in the Nina for Spain in January, 1493, taking with him several natives of both sexes. On the voyage he encountered a fearful tempest, but he arrived safely in the Tagus early in March, where the King of Portugal kindly received him. On the 15th he reached Palos, and hastened to the Court at Barcelona, with his natives, specimens of precious metals, beautiful birds, and other products of the newly found regions.

He took a more southerly course, and discovered the continent of South America on Aug. 1, at the mouth of the river Orinoco, which he supposed to be one of the rivers flowing out of Eden. Having discovered several islands and the coast of Pará, he finally went to Hispaniola to recruit his enfeebled health. The colony was in great disorder, and his efforts to restore order caused him to be made the victim of jealousy and malice. He was misrepresented at the Spanish Court, and Francisco de Bobadilla was sent from Spain to inquire into the matter. He was ambitious and unscrupulous, and he sent Columbus and his brother to Spain in chains, usurping the government of the island. The commander of the ship that conveyed him across the sea offered to liberate him while on board. "No," he proudly replied, "the chains have been put on by command of their Majesties, and I will wear them until they shall order them to be taken off. I will preserve them afterwards as relics and memorials of the reward of my services."

The monarchs and the people of Spain were indignant at this treatment of the

great discoverer. He was released and place to repair to except an inn, and am Bobadilla was recalled, but, through the often with nothing to pay for my susteinfluence of the jealous Spanish nobles, nance." For seven years his remains lay Nicolas Ovando was appointed by the King unnoticed in a convent at Valladolid, governor of Hispaniola, instead of Colum- when the ashamed Ferdinand had them bus. The great Admiral was neglected removed to a monastery in Seville, and for a while, when the earnest Queen Isa- erected a monument to his memory on bella caused an expedition to be fitted out which were inscribed the words, "A Casfor him, and on May 9, 1502, he sailed tilla y a Leon Nuevo Mundo Dio Colon "from Cadiz, with a small fleet, mostly "To Castile and Leon Columbus gave a caravels. He was not allowed to refit at New World." He died in the belief that his own colony of Hispaniola or Santo the continent he had discovered was Asia. Domingo, and he sailed to the western His remains were conveyed, in 1536, to verge of the Gulf of Mexico in search of Santo Domingo, where they were dea passage through what he always believed to be Zipango (Japan) to Cathay, or China. After great sufferings, he returned to Spain in November, 1504, old and infirm, to find the good Queen dead, and to experience the bitterness of neglect from Ferdinand, her husband. His claims were rejected by the ungrateful monarch, and he lived in poverty and obscurity in Valladolid until May 20, 1506, when he died. In a touching letter to a friend just before his death he wrote, "I have no

II.-R

posited in the cathedral, and there they yet remain, despite a comparatively recent declaration by the Spanish government that his remains had been transferred to the cathedral in Havana. A noble monument to his memory has been erected in the city of Genoa, Italy. See AMERICA, DISCOVERY OF.

Columbus in Cuba.-The following is the narrative of the explorer's visit to Cuba during his first voyage (1492) from his Journal. The Journal was forwarded 257

to the King and Queen, but is now lost. where the sea is rough. He says that the In his Life of Columbus, Ferdinand Co- island is full of very beautiful mounlumbus drew largely from the Journal (see tains, although they are not very extenAMERICA, DISCOVERY OF), and in the sub- sive as regards length, but high; and all joined abstract we have parts of the the country is high like Sicily. It is Journal word for word, with many quota- abundantly supplied with water, as they tions by another chronicler concerning gathered from the Indians they had taken what Columbus did and said: with them from the island of Guanahani. These said by signs that there are ten Sunday, Oct. 28-"I went thence in great rivers, and that they cannot go search of the island of Cuba on a south- round the island in twenty days. When southwest coast, making for the nearest they came near land with the ships, two point of it, and entered a very beautiful canoes came out; and, when they saw the river without danger of sunken rocks or sailors get into a boat and row about to other impediments. All the coast was clear find the depth of the river where they of dangers up to the shore. The mouth of could anchor, the canoes fled. The Indians the river was 12 brazos across, and it is say that in this island there are goldwide enough for a vessel to beat in. I mines and pearls, and the Admiral saw a anchored about a lombard-shot inside." likely place for them and mussel-shells, The Admiral says that "he never beheld which are signs of them. He understood such a beautiful place, with trees border- that large ships of the Gran Can came ing the river, handsome, green, and differ- here, and that from here to the mainland ent from ours, having fruits and flowers was a voyage of ten days. The Admiral each one according to its nature. There called this river and harbor San Salvador. are many birds, which sing very sweetly. Monday, Oct. 29.-The Admiral weighThere are a great number of palm-trees of ed anchor from this port and sailed a different kind from those in Guinea to the westward, to go to the city, where, and from ours, of a middling height, as it seemed, the Indians said that there the trunks without that covering, and was a king. They doubled a point 6 the leaves very large, with which they leagues to the northwest, and then another thatch their houses. The country is very point, then east 10 leagues. After anlevel." The Admiral jumped into his other league he saw a river with no very boat and went on shore. He came to two large entrance, to which he gave the name houses, which he believed to belong to of Rio de la Luna. He went on until the fishermen who had fled from fear. In one hour of vespers. He saw another river of them he found a kind of dog that much larger than the others, as the Indnever barks, and in both there were nets ians told him by signs, and near he saw of palm-fibre and cordage, as well as horn goodly villages of houses. He called the fish-hooks, bone harpoons, and other ap- river Rio de Mares. He sent two boats paratus "for fishing, and several hearths. on shore to a village to communicate, and He believed that many people lived to- one of the Indians he had brought with gether in one house. He gave orders that him, for now they understood a little, and nothing in the houses should be touched, show themselves content with Christians. and so it was done." The herbage was as All the men, women, and children ficd, thick as in Andalusia during April and abandoning their houses with all they conMay. He found much purslane and wild tained. The Admiral gave orders that amaranth. He returned to the boat and nothing should be touched. The houses went up the river for some distance, and were better than those he had seen before, he says it was great pleasure to see the and he believed that the houses would bright verdure, and the birds, which he improve as he approached the mainland. could not leave to go back. He says that They were made like booths, very large, this island is the most beautiful that eyes and looking like tents in a camp without have seen, full of good harbors and deep regular streets, but one here and another rivers, and the sea appeared as if it never there. Within they were clean and well rose; for the herbage on the beach nearly swept, with the furniture well made. All reached the waves, which does not happen are of palm branches beautifully con