Authentic Lett];rs of Columbus. 107 



There is a paragraph in this letter which contradicts the general 

 impression that Columbus was envious and jealous of other voyagers, 

 and wanted to keep the Indies to himself, for he says: "As far as 

 the business of discovering other lands is concerned, it is my opinion 

 that permission to do so should be given to every one who desires to 

 embtirk in it, and that some liberality should be shown in reducing 

 the fifth to be paid as tribute, so as to encourage as many as possible 

 to enter into such undertakings."* 



In another letter, written subsequently, on the same subject, he 

 makes a queer suggestion that the colonists be furnished with "salted 

 flour, the salt to be mixed with the flour at the time it is milled." 



The letters also give us a glimpse of his theology and philoso- 

 phy. In a communication to the sovereigns of Spain, written from 

 Granada, in 1502, he says: 



"Sailors and other people who are conversant with the sea have 

 always a better knowledge than all others of the parts of the world 

 which they visit more frequently, or with which they do business 

 oftener. Every one knows best what he sees every day, and what 

 has happened lately is better known than what took place years ago. 

 Hence it is that we hail with delight whatever is saicl to us by those 

 who were eye witnesses of the facts, and no teaching proves to us 

 more thorough and complete than that which comes to us through 

 our own experience and observation. 



"Whether we admit that the shape of the world is spherical, as 

 many writers affirm it to be, or bow to the decision of science if its 

 conclusion is different, the fact of the diversity of climate within the 

 same zone must remain undisturbed. That diversity will be 

 observed on land as well as on the sea. 



"The sun exercises its influence on the earth, and the earth 

 receives it in a greater or lesser degree, according to the character 

 of its surface, whether mountainous or depressed. The ancients 

 were well acquainted with this fact and wrote a good deal about it. 

 Pliny went so far as to say that at the region of the North Pole, ex- 

 actly at the same zone, the temperature is so mild that the people who 

 inhabit the spot never die, unless they themselves, getting tired of 

 living, put an end to their existence." 



The little glimpses of human nature that we have now and then 

 in his letters is quite amusing. For example, he writes to Diego, 

 after the death of Isabella: "You must investigate whether 

 the Queen, whom God hath in His glory, said something in her will 

 about me." 



Again, in a letter to Diego, referring to the indifference with which 

 he was treated by the sovereigns, he says : ' ' There is a proverb 

 which saith that the eye of the owner maketh the horse fat. Here 

 and there and everywhere, however, I shall serve Their Highnesses 

 with pleasure as long as my soul remains united with my body." 



* All persons who discovered or visited new lands %vere compelled to surrender as tribute to 

 the Sovereigns of Spain one-fifth of all articles of value they brought home 



