E.EP()iiT OF BoAKi) OF General Managers. 61 



your highnesses, are more extensive and richer than all Christendom put 

 together." In 1500 he wrote to Donna Juana Delia Torre, "through the 

 Divine will I have placed already under the dominion of our lords the 

 King afid th ) Queen another world, whereby Spain, that was poor, is now 

 made exceeding rich." His contemporaries often use similar language, 

 speaking explicitly of the " New World," as Harrisse's Columbian Bibli- 

 ography abundantly demonstrates. A man of such calibre is no mere 

 adventurer, nor a buccaneer. The result of the studies of a lifetime can- 

 not be accounted a simple streak of good luck, or a " sublime blunder." 



And now let us consider our hero as exemplifying his name. In the 

 cathedrals of Spain, as you enter the vast portals, you generally find painted 

 on the wall a colossal picture of St. Christopher, at times some thirty feet 

 high, as, for instance, in the cathedral of Seville. For some unexplained 

 reason the old Spaniards were very fond of this subject. Columbus must 

 often have gazed on such representations. At all events, the project of 

 bearing Christ over the waters sank deep into his heart. Time and again 

 he alludes to it as the main object of his researches and the aim of his 

 labors. Other motives of action undoubtedly he had, but they were means 

 to an end. His diary opens with the avowal of his grand purpose. The 

 record of the great discovery is accompanied with a similar declaration, 

 and in various other passages of his journal the same project appears, like 

 a dominant note in music, always present in the composer's mind, even 

 though not always heard. In the account of his third voyage we read: 

 " May our Lord grant your highnesses long life and health and tranquillity 

 in order that they may pursue so noble an enterprise, in which it seems to 

 me that God receives great service, Spain increases its grandeur and all 

 Christians receive much consolation and pleasure, because the name of our 

 Lord shall be spread throughout this country." This statement is cor- 

 roborated, as is well known, by the declaration contained in the last will 

 of Queen Isabella. Again, can the historian assign any other motive so 

 powerful as this for the deep interest of the prior of La Rabida, of the 

 various Franciscan and Dominican friars, as well as of the great cardinal of 

 Spain, who so earnestly pleaded Columbus' cause before the Spanish sov- 

 ereigns ? Moreover, may we not reasonably assume that the great navi- 

 gator after all was a willing instrument in the hands of God ? Consider 

 the times. The old order was changing. Three great inventions, already 

 beginning to exert a most potent influence, were destined in time to revo- 

 lutionize the world; the printing press, which led to revival of learning; 

 the use of gunpowder, which changed the methods of warfare; the mari- 

 ner's compass, which permitted the sailor to tempt boldly even unknown 

 seas. These three great factors of civilization, each in its own way, so 



