Christopher Columbus and His Monument Columbia Part 30

FROM PALOS TO BARCELONA--HIS TRIUMPH.

The bells sent forth a joyous peal in honor of his arrival; but the Admiral was too desirous of presenting himself before the sovereigns to protract his stay long at Palos. His progress through Seville was an ovation. It was the middle of April before Columbus reached Barcelona.

The n.o.bility and cavaliers in attendance on the court, together with the authorities of the city, came to the gates to receive him, and escorted him to the royal presence. Ferdinand and Isabella were seated with their son, Prince John, under a superb canopy of state, awaiting his arrival.

On his approach they rose from their seats, and, extending their hands to him to salute, caused him to be seated before them. These were unprecedented marks of condescension to a person of Columbus' rank in the haughty and ceremonious court of Castille. It was, indeed, the proudest moment in the life of Columbus. He had fully established the truth of his long-contested theory, in the face of argument, sophistry, sneer, skepticism, and contempt. After a brief interval the sovereigns requested from Columbus a recital of his adventures; and when he had done so, the King and Queen, together with all present, prostrated themselves on their knees in grateful thanksgivings, while the solemn strains of the _Te Deum_ were poured forth by the choir of the royal chapel, as in commemoration of some glorious victory.--_Ibid._

THE CLAIM OF THE NORs.e.m.e.n.

From an editorial in _Public Opinion_, Washington.

Modern historians are pretty generally agreed that America was actually first made known to the Eastern world by the indefatigable Nors.e.m.e.n.

Yet, in spite of this fact, Columbus has been, and still continues to be, revered as the one man to whose genius and courage the discovery of the New World is due. Miss Brown, in her "Icelandic Discoverers," justly says it should be altogether foreign to American inst.i.tutions and ideas of liberty and honor to countenance longer the worship of a false idol.

The author first proceeds to set forth the evidence upon which the claims of the Nors.e.m.e.n rest. The author charges that the heads of the Roman Catholic church were early cognizant of this discovery of the Nors.e.m.e.n, but that they suppressed this information. The motives for this concealment are charged to their well-known reluctance to allow any credit to non-Catholic believers, under which head, at that time, the Nors.e.m.e.n were included. They preferred that the New World should first be made known to Southern Europe by adherents to the Roman Catholic faith. Most damaging evidence against Columbus' having originated, unaided, the idea of a western world or route to India is furnished by the fact that he visited Iceland in person in the spring of 1477, when he must have heard rumors of the early voyages. He is known to have visited the harbor at Hvalfjord, on the south coast of Iceland, at a time when that harbor was most frequented, and also at the same time when Bishop Magnus is known to have been there. They must have met, and, as they had means of communicating through the Latin language, would naturally have spoken of these distant countries. We have no hint of the object of this visit of Columbus, for he scrupulously avoids subsequent mention of it; but the author pleases to consider it as a secret mission, instigated by the Church for the purpose of obtaining all available information concerning the Norse discoveries. Certain it is that soon after his return to Spain we find him pet.i.tioning the King and Queen for a grant of ships and men to further the enterprise; and he was willing to wait for more than fourteen years before he obtained them.

His extravagant demands of the King and Queen concerning the rights, t.i.tles, and percentage of all derived from the countries "he was about to discover," can hardly be viewed in any other light than that of positive knowledge concerning their existence.

PULCI'S PROPHECY.

LUIGI PULCI, an Italian poet. Born at Florence in 1431; died about 1487.

Men shall descry another hemisphere, Since to one common center all things tend; So earth, by curious mystery divine, Well balanced hangs amid the starry spheres.

At our antipodes are cities, states, And thronged empires ne'er divined of yore.

CHRISTOPHER, THE CHRIST-BEARER.

GEORGE PAYNE QUACKENBOS, an American teacher and educational writer. Born in New York, 1826; died December 24, 1881.

Full of religious enthusiasm, he regarded this voyage to the western seas as his peculiar mission, and himself--as his name, CHRISTOPHER, imports--the appointed _Christ-bearer_, or _gospel-bearer_, to the natives of the new lands he felt that he was destined to discover.

PLEADING WITH KINGS FOR A NEW WORLD.

The Rev. MYRON REED, a celebrated American clergyman of the present day.

Here is Columbus. Somehow I think he is more of a man while he is begging for ships and a crew, when he is in mid-ocean sailing to discover America, than when he found it.

LAST DAYS OF THE VOYAGE.

The last days of the voyage of Columbus were lonesome days. He had to depend on his own vision. I do not know what he had been--probably a buccaneer. We know that he was to be a trader in slaves. But in spite of what he had been and was to become, once he was great.--_Ibid._

ROLL OF THE CREWS OF THE THREE CARAVELS.

CREW OF THE SANTA MARIA.--_Admiral_, Cristoval Colon; _Master and owner_, Juan de la Cosa of Santona; _Pilot_, Sancho Ruiz; _Boatswain_, Maestre Diego; _Surgeon_, Maestre Alonzo of Moguer; _a.s.sistant Surgeon_, Maestre Juan; _Overseer_, Rodrigo Sanchez of Segovia; _Secretary_, *Rodrigo de Escobedo[53]; _Master at Arms_, *Diego de Arana of Cordova; _Volunteer_, *Pedro Gutierrez, (A gentleman of the King's bedchamber); _Volunteer_, *Bachiller Bernardo de Tapia of Ledesma; _Steward_, Pedro Terreros; _Admiral's Servant_, Diego de Salcedo; _Page_, Pedro de Acevedo; _Interpreter_, Luis de Torres, (A converted Jew); _Seamen_, Rodrigo de Jerez, Garcia Ruiz of Santona, Pedro de Villa of Santona, Rodrigo Escobar, Francisco of Huelva, Ruy Fernandez of Huelva, Pedro Bilbao of Larrabezua, *Alonzo Velez of Seville, *Alonzo Perez Osorio; _a.s.sayer and Silversmith_, *Castillo of Seville; _Seamen of the Santa Maria_, *Antonio of Jaen, *Alvaro Perez Osorio, *Cristoval de Alamo of Niebla, *Diego Garcia of Jerez, *Diego de Tordoya of Cabeza de Vaca, *Diego de Capilla of Almeden, *Diego of Mambles, *Diego de Mendoza, *Diego de Montalvan of Jaen, *Domingo de Bermeo, *Francisco de G.o.doy of Seville, *Francisco de Vergara of Seville, *Francisco of Aranda, *Francisco Henao of Avila, *Francisco Jimenes of Seville, *Gabriel Baraona of Belmonte, *Gonzalo Fernandez of Segovia, *Gonzalo Fernandez of Leon, *Guillermo Ires of Galway, *Jorge Gonzalez of Trigueros, *Juan de Cueva, *Juan Patino of La Serena, *Juan del Barco of Avila, *Pedro Carbacho of Caceres, *Pedro of Talavera, *Sebastian of Majorca, *Tallarte de Lajes (Ingles).

THE CREW OF THE PINTA.--_Captain of the Pinta_, Martin Alonzo Pinzon; _Master_, Francisco Martin Pinzon; _Pilot of the vessel_, Cristoval Garcia Sarmiento; _Boatswain_, Bartolome Garcia; _Surgeon_, Garci Hernandez; _Purser_, Juan de Jerez; _Caulker_, Juan Perez; _Seamen_, Rodrigo Bermudez de Triana of Alcala de la Guadaira, Juan Rodriguez Bermejo of Molinos, Juan de Sevilla, Garcia Alonzo, Gomez Rascon (owner), Cristoval Quintero (owner), Diego Bermudez, Juan Bermudez, Francisco Garcia Gallegos of Moguer, Francisco Garcia Vallejo, Pedro de Arcos.

CREW OF THE NInA.--_Captain of the Nina_, Vicente Yanez Pinzon; _Master and part owner of the vessel_, Juan Nino; _Pilots_, Pero Alonzo Nino, Bartolome Roldan; _Seamen_ _of the Nina_, Francisco Nino, Gutierrez Perez, Juan Ortiz, Alonso Gutierrez Querido, *Diego de Torpa[54], *Francisco Fernandez, *Hernando de Porcuna, *Juan de Urniga, *Juan Morcillo, *Juan del Villar, *Juan de Mendoza, *Martin de Logrosan, *Pedro de Foronda, *Tristan de San Jorge.

COLUMBUS A THEORETICAL CIRc.u.mNAVIGATOR.

JOHN CLARK RIDPATH, LL. D., an American author and educator. Born in Putnam County, Indiana, April 26, 1840. From "History of United States," 1874.

Sir John Mandeville had declared in the very first English book that ever was written (A. D. 1356) that the world is a sphere, and that it was both possible and practicable for a man to sail around the world and return to the place of starting; but neither Sir John himself nor any other seaman of his times was bold enough to undertake so hazardous an enterprise. Columbus was, no doubt, the first _practical_ believer in the theory of circ.u.mnavigation, and although he never sailed around the world himself, he demonstrated the possibility of doing so.

The great mistake with Columbus and others who shared his opinions was not concerning the figure of the earth, but in regard to its size. He believed the world to be no more than 10,000 or 12,000 miles in circ.u.mference. He therefore confidently expected that after sailing about 3,000 miles to the westward he should arrive at the East Indies, and to do that was the one great purpose of his life.

AN IMPORTANT FIND OF MSS.

JUAN F. RIAnO. "Review of Continental Literature," July, 1891, to July, 1892. From "_The Athenaeum_" (England), July 2, 1892.

The excitement about Columbus has rather been heightened by the accidental discovery of three large holograph volumes, in quarto, of Fr.

Bartolome de Las Casas, the Bishop of Chiapa, who, as is well known, accompanied the navigator in his fourth voyage to the West Indies. The volumes were deposited by Las Casas in San Gregorio de Valladolid, where he pa.s.sed the last years of his life in retirement. There they remained until 1836, when, owing to the suppression of the monastic orders, the books of the convent were dispersed, and the volumes of the Apostle of the Indies, as he is still called, fell into the hands of a collector of the name of Acosta, from whom a grandson named Arcos inherited them.

Though written in the bishop's own hand, they are not of great value, as they only contain his well-known "Historia Apologetica de las Indias,"

of which no fewer than three different copies, dating from the sixteenth century, are to be found here at Madrid, and the whole was published some years ago in the "Doc.u.mentos Ineditos para la Historia de Espana."

The enthusiasm for Columbus and his companions has not in the least damped the ardor of my countrymen for every sort of information respecting their former colonies, in America or their possessions in the Indian Archipelago and on the northern coast of Africa. Respecting the former I may mention the second volume of the "Historia del Nuevo Mundo," by Cobo, 1645; the third and fourth volume of the "Origen de los Indios del Peru, Mexico, Santa Fey Chile," by Diego Andres Rocha; "De las Gentes del Peru," forming part of the "Historia Apologetica," by Bartolome de las Casas, though not found in his three holograph volumes recently discovered.

CHILDREN OF THE SUN.

WILLIAM ROBERTSON (usually styled Princ.i.p.al ROBERTSON), a celebrated Scottish historian. Born at Bosthwick, Mid-Lothian, September 19, 1721; died June, 1793.

Columbus was the first European who set foot in the New World which he had discovered. He landed in a rich dress, and with a naked sword in his hand. His men followed, and, kneeling down, they all kissed the ground which they had long desired to see. They next erected a crucifix, and prostrating themselves before it returned thanks to G.o.d for conducting their voyage to such a happy issue.

The Spaniards while thus employed were surrounded by many of the natives, who gazed in silent admiration upon actions which they could not comprehend, and of which they could not foresee the consequences.

The dress of the Spaniards, the whiteness of their skins, their beards, their arms, appeared strange and surprising. The vast machines in which the Spaniards had traversed the ocean, that seemed to move upon the water with wings, and uttered a dreadful sound, resembling thunder, accompanied with lightning and smoke, struck the natives with such terror that they began to respect their new guests as a superior order of beings, and concluded that they were children of the sun, who had descended to visit the earth.

To all the kingdoms of Europe, Christopher Columbus, by an effort of genius and of intrepidity the boldest and most successful that is recorded in the annals of mankind, added a new world.--_Ibid._

THE BRONZE DOOR AT WASHINGTON.

This is the main central door of the Capitol at Washington, D. C., and on it is a pictured history of events connected with the life of Columbus and the discovery of America.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE COLUMBUS MONUMENT, Paseo de la Reforma, City of Mexico. Sculptor, M, Cordier.]

The door weighs 20,000 pounds; is seventeen feet high and nine feet wide; it is folding or double, and stands sunk back inside of a bronze casing, which projects about a foot forward from the leaves or valves.

On this casing are four figures at the top and bottom, representing Asia, Africa, Europe, and America. A border, emblematic of conquest and navigation, runs along the casing between them.

The door has eight panels besides the semicircular one at the top. In each panel is a picture in _alto-relievo_.