Christopher Columbus and His Monument Columbia Part 26

MOST REVEREND SIR: I am not aware whether your Lordship knows that I had Cristoforo Colon under my roof for a long time when he came from Portugal, and wished to go to the King of France, in order that he might go in search of the Indies with his Majesty's aid and countenance. I myself wished to make the venture, and to dispatch him from my port [Santa Maria], where I had a good equipment of three or four caravels, _since he asked no more from me_; but as I recognized that this was an undertaking for the Queen, our sovereign, I wrote about the matter to her Highness from Rota, and she replied that I should send him to her.

Therefore I sent him, and asked her Highness that, since I did not desire to pursue the enterprise but had arranged it for her service, she should direct that compensation be made to me, and that I might have a share in it by having the loading and unloading of the commerce done in the port.

Her Highness received him [Colon], and referred him to Alonso de Quintanilla, who, in turn, _wrote me that he did not consider this affair to be very certain_; but that if it should go through, her Highness would give me a reward and part in it. After having well studied it, she agreed to send him in search of the Indies. Some eight months ago he set out, and now has arrived at Lisbon on his return voyage, and has found all which he sought and very completely; which, as soon as I knew, in order to advise her Highness of such good tidings, I am writing by Inares and sending him to beg that she grant me the privilege of sending out there each year some of my own caravels.

I entreat your Lordship that you may be pleased to a.s.sist me in this, and also ask it in my behalf; since on my account, and through my keeping him [Colon] _two years in my house_, and having placed him at her Majesty's service, so great a thing as this has come to pa.s.s; and because Inares will inform your Lordship more in detail, I beg you to hearken to him.

COLUMBUS STATUE, CITY OF MEXICO.

The Columbus monument, in the Paseo de la Reforma, in the City of Mexico, was erected at the charges of Don Antonio Escandon, to whose public spirit and enterprise the building of the Vera Cruz & Mexico Railway was due. The monument is the work of the French sculptor Cordier. The base is a large platform of basalt, surrounded by a bal.u.s.trade of iron, above which are five lanterns. From this base rises a square ma.s.s of red marble, ornamented with four _ba.s.so-relievos_; the arms of Columbus, surrounded with garlands of laurels; the rebuilding of the monastery of Santa Maria de la Rabida; the discovery of the Island of San Salvador; a fragment of a letter from Columbus to Raphael Sanchez, beneath which is the dedication of the monument by Senor Escandon. Above the _ba.s.so-relievos_, surrounding the pedestals, are four life-size figures in bronze; in front and to the right of the statue of Columbus (that stands upon a still higher plane), Padre Juan Perez de la Marchena, prior of the Monastery of Santa Maria de la Rabida, at Huelva, Spain; in front and to the left, Padre Fray Diego de Deza, friar of the Order of Saint Dominic, professor of theology at the Convent of St. Stephen, and afterward archbishop of Seville. He was also confessor of King Ferdinand, to the support of which two men Columbus owed the royal favor; in the rear, to the right, Fray Pedro de Gante; in the rear, to the left, Fray Bartolome de las Casas--the two missionaries who most earnestly gave their protection to the Indians, and the latter the historian of Columbus. Crowning the whole, upon a pedestal of red marble, is the figure of Columbus, in the act of drawing aside the veil that hides the New World. In conception and in treatment this work is admirable; charming in sentiment, and technically good. The monument stands in a little garden inclosed by iron chains hung upon posts of stone, around which extends a large _glorieta_.

THE TRIBUTE OF JOAQUIN MILLER.

JOAQUIN (CINCINNATUS HEINE) MILLER, "the Poet of the Sierras." Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, November 10, 1842. From a poem in the New York _Independent_.

Behind him lay the gray Azores, Behind the gates of Hercules; Before him not the ghost of sh.o.r.es, Before him only sh.o.r.eless seas.

The good mate said, "Now must we pray, For lo! the very stars are gone.

Brave Adm'ral, speak; what shall I say?"

"Why say, 'Sail on! sail on! and on!'"

"My men grow mutinous day by day; My men grow ghastly, wan and weak."

The stout mate thought of home; a spray Of salt wave washed his swarthy cheek.

"What shall I say, brave Adm'ral, say, If we sight naught but seas at dawn?"

"Why, you shall say, at break of day, 'Sail on! sail on! sail on! and on!'"

They sailed and sailed, as winds might blow, Until at last the blanched mate said, "Why, now not even G.o.d would know Should I and all my men fall dead.

These very winds forget their way, For G.o.d from these dread seas is gone.

Now speak, brave Adm'ral, speak and say--"

He said, "Sail on! sail on! and on!"

They sailed. They sailed. Then spoke the mate, "This mad sea shows its teeth to-night.

He curls his lip, he lies in wait, With lifted teeth as if to bite.

Brave Adm'ral, say but one good word; What shall we do when hope is gone?"

The words leapt as a leaping sword, "Sail on! sail on! sail on! and on!"

Then, pale and worn, he kept his deck, And peered through darkness. Ah, that night Of all dark nights! And then a speck-- A light! A light! A light! A light!

It grew, a starlit flag unfurled, It grew to be Time's burst of dawn.

He gained a world; he gave that world Its grandest lesson--"On! and on!"

ADMIRAL OF MOSQUITO LAND.

D. H. MONTGOMERY, author of "The Leading Facts of American History."

Loud was the outcry against Columbus. The rabble nicknamed him the "Admiral of Mosquito Land." They pointed at him as the man who had promised everything, and ended by discovering nothing but "a wilderness peopled with naked savages."

COLUMBUS AND THE INDIANS.

Gen. THOMAS J. MORGAN, Commissioner of Indian Affairs. In an article, "Columbus and the Indians," in the New York _Independent_, June 2, 1892.

Columbus, when he landed, was confronted with an Indian problem, which he handed down to others, and they to us. Four hundred years have rolled by, and it is still unsolved. Who were the strange people who met him at the end of his long and perilous voyage? He guessed at it and missed it by the diameter of the globe. He called them Indians--people of India--and thus registered the fifteenth century attainments in geography and anthropology. How many were there of them? Alas! there was no census bureau here then, and no record has come down to us of any count or enumeration. Would they have lived any longer if they had been counted? Would a census have strengthened them to resist the threatened tide of invaders that the coming of Columbus heralded? If instead of corn they had presented census rolls to their strange visitors, and exhibited maps to show that the continent was already occupied, would that have changed the whole course of history and left us without any Mayflower or Plymouth Rock, Bunker Hill or Appomattox?

INTENSE UNCERTAINTY.

CHARLES MORRIS, an American writer of the present day. In "Half Hours with American History."

The land was clearly seen about two leagues distant, whereupon they took in sail and waited impatiently for the dawn. The thoughts and feelings of Columbus in this little s.p.a.ce of time must have been tumultuous and intense. At length, in spite of every difficulty and danger, he had accomplished his object. The great mystery of the ocean was revealed; his theory, which had been the scoff of sages, was triumphantly established; he secured to himself a glory durable as the world itself.

It is difficult to conceive the feelings of such a man at such a moment, or the conjectures which must have thronged upon his mind as to the land before him, covered with darkness. A thousand speculations must have swarmed upon him, as with his anxious crews he waited for the night to pa.s.s away, wondering whether the morning light would reveal a savage wilderness, or dawn upon spicy groves and glittering fanes and gilded cities, and all the splendor of oriental civilization.

THE FIRST TO GREET COLUMBUS.

EMMA HUNTINGTON NASON. A poem in _St. Nicholas_, July, 1892, founded upon the incident of Columbus' finding a red thorn bush floating in the water a few days before sighting Watling's Island.

When the feast is spread in our country's name, When the nations are gathered from far and near, When East and West send up the same Glad shout, and call to the lands, "Good cheer!"

When North and South shall give their bloom, The fairest and best of the century born.

Oh, then for the king of the feast make room!

Make room, we pray, for the scarlet thorn!

Not the golden-rod from the hillsides blest, Not the pale arbutus from pastures rare, Nor the waving wheat from the mighty West, Nor the proud magnolia, tall and fair, Shall Columbia unto the banquet bring.

They, willing of heart, shall stand and wait, For the thorn, with his scarlet crown, is king.

Make room for him at the splendid fete!

Do we not remember the olden tale?

And that terrible day of dark despair, When Columbus, under the lowering sail, Sent out to the hidden lands his prayer?

And was it not he of the scarlet bough Who first went forth from the sh.o.r.e to greet That lone grand soul at the vessel's prow, Defying fate with his tiny fleet?

Grim treachery threatened, above, below, And death stood close at the captain's side, When he saw--Oh, joy!--in the sunset glow, The thorn-tree's branch o'er the waters glide.

"Land! Land ahead!" was the joyful shout; The vesper hymn o'er the ocean swept; The mutinous sailors faced about; Together they fell on their knees and wept.

At dawn they landed with pennons white; They kissed the sod of San Salvador; But dearer than gems on his doublet bright Were the scarlet berries their leader bore; Th.o.r.n.y and sharp, like his future crown, Blood-red, like the wounds in his great heart made, Yet an emblem true of his proud renown Whose glorious colors shall never fade.

COLUMBA CHRISTUM-FERENS--WHAT'S IN A NAME?

New Orleans _Morning Star and Catholic Messenger_, August 13, 1892.

The poet says that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but there is no doubt that certain names are invested with a peculiar significance. It would appear also that this significance is not always a mere chance coincidence, but is intended, sometimes, to carry the evidence of an overruling prevision. Christopher Columbus was not so named _after_ his achievements, like Scipio Africa.n.u.s. The name was his from infancy, though human ingenuity could not have conceived one more wonderfully suggestive of his after career.

Columba means a dove. Was there anything dove-like about Columbus?

Perhaps not, originally, but his many years of disappointment and humiliation, of poverty and contempt, of failure and hopelessness, were the best school in which to learn patience and sweetness under the guiding hand of such teachers as faith and piety. Was anything wanting to perfect him in the unresisting gentleness of the dove? If so, his guardian angel saw to it when he sent him back in chains from the scenes of his triumph. He then and there, by his meekness, established his indefeasible right to the name _Columbus_--the right of conquest.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE WEST INDIES]