NohWtjj of Fcrrjinand and Isahdla. 185 



ness of the direction of the wind ? Neither was that of the 

 greatest importance, as they had only sixteen days of voyage. 



Land was sighted on October 12, and there we again meet the 

 man Columljus. Land Avas seen by a sailor of the caravel Pinta, 

 called Rodrigo de Triana, at 2 o'clock in the night, but the ad- 

 miral awarded to himself the prize, consisting of an amount of 

 money and a pension for life, because he said he had seen a 

 light at 10 o'clock. According to his own log, Thursday, Octo- 

 ber 11, they were sailing at the rate of twelve miles an hour, or 

 nine knots of the actuifl measure, and how on a stormy night 

 was it possible that he could see a light thirty-six knots distant 

 on a low sandy inland that scarcely could be seen from the deck 

 at five or six knots on a clear day ? Rodrigo de Triana aban- 

 doned Spain in despair and made himself a Mohammedan, and 

 Columbus received the prize allowed to him who first saw land. 

 Let us again forget the man to admire always the hero of an 

 idea ; but if you would read the original letter of Columbus to 

 the nurse of the Infanta Dona Juana, which you can see also in 

 the exposition at La Rabida, you will see that Columbus him- 

 self, by his own handwriting, states that he had money enough, 

 although he had been five years without paying anybody ; and 

 after that study you will be able to appreciate how much value 

 there is in those ridiculous stories and paintings of chains and 

 jjoignards of authors and artists who otherwise could not sell 

 their works. I do not excuse Bobadilla, who Avas very tyran- 

 nical, even in those tim es, in all the nations of Europe ; but all that 

 exalts more and more the behavior of Ferdinand and Isabella, 

 Avho forgot the man to reestablish immediately the hero, the 

 great discoverer, in all his privileges as general governor and 

 admiral of the lands he discovered ; and even today in the more 

 cultured and more enlightened nation in the world, and under 

 very similar circumstances, although Ave knoAV AAdiat the Suez 

 canal is for navigation, and that in the time of Ferdinand and 

 Isabella nobody knew what Avas discovered, yet even noAV de 

 Lesseps has found one hundred Bobadillas. How, then, can 

 you Avonder that Columbus should find one? And Avhere are 

 the Ferdinands and Isabellas of the nineteeeth century to forget 

 the man and only remember the hero of another idea that 

 opened a thoroughfare for six hundred millions of men? After 

 that, tell me Avhere is a nation in the Avorld that should dare to 

 throw the first stone at Spain of the fifteenth century ? 



25— Nat. f4K0G. Mag., vol. V, 189,3. 



