370 



COLUMBUS 



COLUMBUS 



man to Tunis, to cut out a captured galley. It 

 is not a little remarkable that on this occasion his 

 men, like so many of his later crews, refused to 

 obey his orders ; and he was obliged, as more than 

 once in later years, to deceive them as to his real 

 course. The accounts of his early voyages are 

 obscure and of doubtful accuracy. About 1470 

 he was wrecked in a sea-fight off Cape St Vincent, 

 and reached the shores of Portugal on a plank. In 

 Lisbon he married Filippa Momz, a lady Avho ha'd 

 been connected with the convent of All Souls there; 

 she was related to one Perestrello, an Italian navi- 

 gator, who had governed Porto Santo, off Madeira, 

 for the Portuguese king. 



As early as 1474 he had conceived the design of 

 reaching India by sailing westward ; and in this 

 intention he was encouraged by Toscanelli, a 

 Florentine astronomer. In 1477, he tells us, he 

 ' sailed 100 leagues beyond Thule,' probably to or 

 beyond Iceland (where he may have got some hint 

 of the old Norse adventures in Vinland, q.v.) ; he 

 seems also to have visited the Cape Verd Islands 

 and Sierra Leone. Columbus soon after this began 

 to seek a patron for his intended expedition. He 

 applied once or more to King John II. of Portugal ; 

 later by letters to Henry VII. of England ; then 

 to the rich and powerful dukes of Medina Sidonia 

 and Medina Celi, in Spain, of whom the last 

 named at length referred him to Isabella the 

 Catholic, queen of Castile. His application to the 

 queen was submitted to a body of jurors, most of 

 them ecclesiastics, who reported adversely to the 

 project of the Genoese mariner. Finally, through 

 the intervention of Juan Perez de Marchena, a 

 monk who had been the queen's confessor, he was 

 brought in contact with their Catholic majesties, 

 Ferdinand and Isabella. His plans and demands 

 were once more rejected, but afterwards recon- 

 sidered ; and finally, after seven years of alternate 

 encouragement and repulse, his proposals were 

 accepted by the monarchs, in the camp of Santa 

 Fe, April 17, 1492. On Friday, August 3, 1492, 

 Columous, now an admiral, set sail from the bar 

 of Saltes, an island near Palos, in command of the 

 small ship Santa Maria, with 50 men, and attended 

 by two little caravels, the Pinta and the Nina, the 

 whole squadron comprising only 120 adventurers. 

 He first made the Canary Islands, whence, on the 

 6th of September, he set sail westward. On the 13th 

 a variation of the magnetic needle was observed, a 

 circumstance which struck terror into the hearts of 

 his followers. From this and various other causes 

 he found it hard to keep up the courage and 

 patience of his crews. On Friday, October 12, land 

 was descried. There is no doubt that this first 

 landfall, named San Salvador by Columbus, was 

 one of the Bahama Islands ; and the more general 

 recent opinion would appear to be that it was what 

 is now called Watling's Island ; but this is not by 

 any means certain. He then visited Cuba and 

 Hayti, which he named Hispaniola or Little Spain, 

 and where he planted a small colony of Spaniards. 

 He set sail on his return with his two caravels 

 ( for his flagship had been wrecked ), and after an 

 exceedingly tempestuous voyage, the Nina alone 

 cast anchor in the Tagus. He re-entered the port 

 of Palos, March 15, 1493. On the very same day 

 the Pinta also, which had parted company from 

 him more than a month before, entered the same 

 port, having been driven out of her course to 

 Bayonne. The voyagers brought back with them 

 some gold, various plants, birds, and land animals, 

 and six natives of the West Indies. Columbus 

 was received with the highest honours by the court, 

 then at Barcelona, and was hailed as admiral of 

 the sea and a grandee of Spain. 



He sailed on his second voyage on the 25th of 

 September, with three carracks and seventeen small 



caravels, and on the 3d of November sighted the 

 island of Dominica in the West Indies. His. 

 remaining career presents one long series of fail- 

 ures, vexations, and miseries. After a succession of 

 wretched quarrels with his associates, and a long 

 and desperate illness in Hispaniola, he returned to 

 Spain much dejected in 1496. His third voyage, 

 begun in 1498, resulted in the discovery of the 

 South American mainland. In 1499 Columbus and 

 his brother were sent home in irons by a newly- 

 appointed royal governor ; but the king and queea 

 repudiated this action, and restored Columbus to- 

 favour. His last great voyage (1502-4), along the 

 south side of the Gulf of Mexico, was accomplished 

 in the midst of great hardships and in many dis- 

 tresses of body and mind. Spanish jealousy of 

 the foreigner and of his well-earned honours worked 

 against him on sea no less than at court. Colum- 

 bus died at Valladolid, in Spain, May 20, 1506. 

 He was buried at Valladolid ; but in 1513 his. 

 remains were translated to Seville, whence in 1536, 

 with those of his son Diego, they were removed to- 

 Santo Domingo, in Hispaniola. In 1796 they 

 were, it is stated, transferred to the cathedral at 

 Havana ; but there is some reason to believe that 

 by mistake it was the bones of Diego Colon, and 

 not those of his father, which were so transferred. 

 Anyhow, from Havana the outgoing Spaniards re- 

 moved the ' remains ' to Granada in 1899. 



A man of ardent impulses and strongly poetical 

 imagination, Columbus was hardly the stuff 

 that leaders are made of; consequently he 

 failed to control the turbulent and adventurous 

 spirits among his followers. Although an honestly 

 and earnestly religious and truly conscientious 

 man, he was not seldom guilty of acts which sub- 

 sequently brought him many compunctions of con- 

 science. Irritable and impetuous, he was, never- 

 theless, magnanimous and benevolent. His conduct 

 in the capture and sale of slaves, though justified 

 by the jurists and divines of the time, was. 

 indignantly condemned by the queen, and can 

 only be explained by the desire of Columbus and 

 the crown to obtain some revenue from his new 

 discoveries, and by the expectation that while- 

 detained in slavery the natives might become 

 christianised. 



His brother BARTHOLOMEW, who died in Cuba 

 in 1514, was a man of high character and excellent 

 abilities, and assisted Columbus effectively in his- 

 labours. Another brother, GlACOMO (called in 

 Spain DlEGO), who also assisted him in his West 

 Indian government, was a man of gentle and pacific 

 disposition, but was no match for the turbulent 

 adventurers he attempted to control. Christo- 

 pher's eldest son, Diego (about 1480-1526), was the 

 heir to his honours, merits, and misfortunes. The 



freat discoverer left also a natural son, Don 

 ernando ( 1488-1539 ), who wrote an important Life 

 of his father, preserved only in an Italian trans- 

 lation ( published at Venice, 1571 ; Milan, 1614; and 

 London, 1867 ). In 1578 the last legitimate descen- 

 dant of Columbus in the male line died. 



It is doubtful if any of the portraits of Columbus 

 are authentic. Las Casas says : ' He had a figure 

 that was above medium height, a countenance long- 

 and imposing, an aquiline nose, clear blue eyes, a 

 light complexion tinged with red, beard and hair 

 blonde in youth, but early turned to white.' 



Among the biographies of Columbus the best in English 

 are those of Irving (1831), St John (1850), Crompton 

 (1859), Helps (1868), Winsor, (1890), Elton (1892), Sir 

 Clements Markham ( 1892 ). See also The Narrative and 

 Critical History of America, edited by "Winsor, vol. ii. ; 

 Harrisse, Colomb (Paris, 1884); Varaldo, Christoforo 

 Colombo ( 1887 ; The Select Letters of Columlus, edited 

 by Major (2d ed. London, 1870) ; the Journal of his first 

 voyage ed. by Markham (Hakluyt Soc. 1893); Stevens's 

 Columbia's Book of Privileges (1894); and the monu- 



