Internaiional Literary Contest. 273 



{Translated by Mr. B. L. Lerch.) 



mTERNATIONAL LITERARY CONTEST 



To be held at Madrid, Spain, under the auspices of the Commission in 

 charge of the celebration of the Fourth Centennial Anniversary of 

 the Discovery of America. 



Pkogkam. 



The work for which a prize is offered is to be a prose essay, a 

 true historic picture giving a just estimate of the grandeur of 

 the occasion to be celebrated. 



So much has been Avritten on this subject since the opening of 

 the XVIth century that it would seem difficult to say anything 

 new and good. Perhaps the details, perhaps the circumstances 

 in the life and acts of Columbus are worthy of no little research ; 

 but already the Royal Academy of History is engaged in the 

 erudite and diligent task of bringing together and publishing 

 the un-edited or little known papers bearing on this question. 



The book required by this contest must be of a different nature : 

 it must be comprehensive and synoptic, and must be sufficiently 

 concise without being either obscure or dry. 



Although there is an abundance of histories of America, of 

 voyages and discoveries, of geographic science, and of the estab- 

 lishment of Europeans in remote regions of the earth, there is no 

 book that sets forth as it can be done the combined efforts of the 

 nations of the Iberian peninsula, who, since the commencement 

 of the XYth century, have, with a fixity of purpose and marvelous 

 tenacity, in almost a single century of silent efforts brought 

 about the exploration of vast continents and islands, traversed 

 seas never before cut by Christian prows, and in emulous strife 

 obtained almost a comjDlete knowledge of the planet on which 

 we live. 



There is a growing interest and manifest unity in all those more 

 important events ; not to mention the circumstantial evidence 

 borne by the charts of 13V5 and the semi-fabulous voyages, such 

 as that of Doria y Vivaldi and others less apocryphal though 

 isolated and barren of results, like that of Ferrer, begun in 1434, 

 w-hen Gil Eannes doubled Cape Bojador, discovered Guinea, and 



