Christopher Columbus and His Monument Columbia Part 35

[Footnote 30: Copyright 1892 and by permission of the author.]

[Footnote 31: Lope de Vega has been variously termed the "Center of Fame," the "Darling of Fortune," and the "Phoenix of the Ages," by his admiring compatriots. His was a most fertile brain; his a most fecund pen. A single day sufficed to compose a versified drama.]

[Footnote 32: By permission of Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Publishers.]

[Footnote 33: For the above particulars and inscription the compiler desires to acknowledge his obligation to the Hon. Thomas Adamson, U. S.

Consul General at Panama, and Mr. George W. Clamman, the able clerk of the U. S. Consulate in the city of Colon.]

[Footnote 34: Copernicus has also been so styled.]

[Footnote 35: Senor Emilio Castelar, the celebrated Spanish author and statesman, in his most able series of articles on Columbus in the _Century Magazine_, derides the fact of an actual mutiny as a convenient fable which authors and dramatists have clothed with much choice diction.]

[Footnote 36: Galileo, the great Italian natural philosopher, is here referred to by the author.]

[Footnote 37: By permission of Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Publishers.]

[Footnote 38: By permission of Messrs. Ginn & Co., Publishers.]

[Footnote 39: The Rock of Gibraltar is referred to.]

[Footnote 40: The location of the church at Old Isabella has been exactly determined, and a n.o.ble monument (fully described in these pages) has been erected there under the auspices of the _Sacred Heart Review_ of Boston.]

[Footnote 41: Since changed to a life-size statue of Columbus.]

[Footnote 42: A replica is erected in Boston.]

[Footnote 43: Copyright, 1892, by permission of the publishers.]

[Footnote 44: Copyright, 1892, by Harper & Brothers.]

[Footnote 45: Copyright, and by permission of Chas. Scribner's Sons, Publishers, New York.]

[Footnote 46: Copyright, 1892, by Harper & Brothers.]

[Footnote 47: Docuit quae maximus Atlas. Hic canit errantem Lernam, Solisque labores. _Virgil, aeneid_, I, 741.]

[Footnote 48: Navarrete thought that Turk Island was the island, the most southern of the Bahama group, because he erroneously a.s.sumed that Columbus always shaped a westerly course in sailing from island to island; and Turk Island, being farthest east, would give most room for such a course. This island has large lagoons, and is surrounded by a reef. So far it resembles Guanahani. But the second island, according to Navarrete, is Caicos, bearing W. N. W., while the second island of Columbus bore S. W. from the first. The third island of Columbus was in sight from the second. Inagua Chica (Little Inagua), Navarrete's third island, is not in sight from Caicos. The third island of Columbus was 60 miles long. Inagua Chica is only 12 miles long. The fourth island of Columbus bore east from the third. Inagua Grande (Great Inagua), Navarrete's fourth island, bears southwest from Inagua Chica.

Cat Island was the landfall advocated by Washington Irving and Humboldt, mainly on the ground that it was called San Salvador on the West India map in Blaeu's Dutch atlas of 1635. But this was done for no known reason but the caprice of the draughtsman. D'Anville copied from Blaeu in 1746, and so the name got into some later atlases. Cat Island does not meet a single one of the requirements of the case. Guanahani had a reef round it, and a large lagoon in the center. Cat Island has no reef and no lagoon. Guanahani was low; Cat Island is the loftiest of the Bahamas. The two islands could not be more different. Of course, in conducting Columbus from Cat Island to Cuba, Washington Irving is obliged to disregard all the bearings and distances given in the journal.]

[Footnote 49: The cross-staff had not then come into use, and it was never of much service in low lat.i.tudes.]

[Footnote 50: It was also resolved to establish in the city of Washington a Latin-American Memorial Library, wherein should be collected all the historical, geographical, and literary works, maps, and ma.n.u.scripts, and official doc.u.ments relating to the history and civilization of America, _such library to be solemnly dedicated on the day on which the United States celebrates the fourth centennial of the discovery of America_.]

[Footnote 51: Published by A. C. McClurg & Co., Chicago.]

[Footnote 52: Copyright, 1892, by Harper & Brothers.]

[Footnote 53: NOTE.--Those marked * were left behind, in the fort, at La Navidad, and perished there.]

[Footnote 54: NOTE.--The names of the crew are on the Madrid monument.]

[Footnote 55: Randolph Rogers, an American sculptor of eminence, was born in Waterloo, N. Y., in 1825; died at Rome, in the same State, aged sixty-seven, January 14, 1892.]

[Footnote 56: Mr. George Sumner, a painstaking investigator, states that after diligent search he is unable to find any other inscription to the memory of Columbus in the whole of Spain.

At Valladolid, where he died, and where his body lay for some years, there is none, so far as he could discover; neither is there any trace of any at the Cartuja, near Seville, to which his body was afterward transferred, and in which his brother was buried. It is (he writes in 1871) a striking confirmation of the reproach of negligence, in regard to the memory of this great man, that, in this solitary inscription in old Spain, the date of his death should be inaccurately given.--Major's "Letters of Columbus," 1871.

(The Madrid and Barcelona statues were erected in 1885 and 1888 respectively.)--S. C. W.]

[Footnote 57: Since writing this the Lotto portrait has been selected.]

[Footnote 58: For an English metrical translation, see _post_, WIFFEN.]

[Footnote 59: Died at Aldworth October 6, 1892.]

NEW YORK CELEBRATED THE TERCENTENARY.

The managers of the World's Columbian Exposition have prided themselves upon being the first to celebrate any anniversary of the Columbian discovery, but this credit really belongs to the Tammany Society of New York, and the second place of honor belongs to the Ma.s.sachusetts Historical Society of Boston. The Tammany Society met in the great wigwam on the 12th day of October, 1792 (old style), and exhibited a monumental obelisk, and an animated oration was delivered by J. B.

Johnson, Esq.

The Ma.s.sachusetts Historical Society met at the house of the Rev. Dr.

Peter Thacher, in Boston, the 23d day of October, 1792, and, forming in procession, proceeded to the meeting-house in Brattle Street, where a discourse was delivered by the Rev. Jeremy Belknap upon the subject of the "Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus." He gave a concise and comprehensive narrative of the most material circ.u.mstances which led to, attended, or were consequent on the discovery of America. The celebration commenced with an anthem. Mr. Thacher made an excellent prayer. Part of a psalm was then sung, and then Mr. Belknap delivered his discourse, which was succeeded by a prayer from Mr. Eliot. Mr.

Thacher then read an ode composed for the occasion by Mr. Belknap, which was sung by the choir. This finished the ceremony.

The facts were brought to light by World's Fair Commissioner John Boyd Thacher, New York. The account is taken from "a journal of a gentleman visiting Boston in 1792." The writer is said to have been Nathaniel Cutting, a native of Brookline, Ma.s.s., and who, in the following year, was appointed by Washington, upon the recommendation of Thomas Jefferson, on a mission to the Dey of Algiers.

It is interesting to note that the Ma.s.sachusetts Historical Society, in a.s.suming to correct the old style date, October 12th, was guilty of the error of dropping two unnecessary days. It dropped eleven days from the calendar instead of nine, and at a subsequent meeting it determined to correct the date to October 21st, "and that thereafter all celebrations of the Columbian discovery should fall on the 21st day of October."

The proclamation of the President establishing October 21st as the day of general observance of the anniversary of the Columbian discovery, and the pa.s.sage of Senator Hill's bill fixing the date for the dedication of the buildings at Chicago, it is believed will forevermore fix October 21st as the Columbian day.

COLUMBUS' SUPREME SUSPENSE.

MAURICE THOMPSON, an American poet and novelist. Born at Fairfield, Ind., September 9, 1844. From his "Byways and Bird-notes."

What a thrill is dashed through a moment of expectancy, a point of supreme suspense, when by some time of preparation the source of sensation is ready for a consummation --a catastrophe! At such a time one's soul is isolated so perfectly that it feels not the remotest influence from any other of all the universe. The moment preceding the old patriarch's first glimpse of the promised land; that point of time between certainty and uncertainty, between pursuit and capture, whereinto are crowded all the hopes of a lifetime, as when the brave old sailor from Genoa first heard the man up in the rigging utter the shout of discovery; the moment of awful hope, like that when Napoleon watched the charge of the Old Guard at Waterloo, is not to be described. There is but one such crisis for any man. It is the yes or no of destiny. It comes, he lives a lifetime in its span; it goes, and he never can pa.s.s that point again.

GREAT WEST.

HENRY DAVID Th.o.r.eAU, an American author and naturalist. Born in Concord, Ma.s.s., in 1817; died, 1862. From his "Excursions,"

published by Houghton, Mifflin & Co.

Every sunset which I witness inspires me with the desire to go to a west as distant and as far as that into which the sun goes down. He appears to migrate westward daily, and tempt us to follow him. He is the Great Western Pioneer whom the nations follow. We dream all night of those mountain ridges in the horizon, though they may be of vapor only, which were last gilded by his rays. The Island of Atlantis, and the islands and gardens of the Hesperides, a sort of terrestrial paradise, appear to have been the Great West of the ancients, enveloped in mystery and poetry. Who has not seen in imagination, when looking into the sunset sky, the gardens of the Hesperides, and the foundation of all those fables?