Christopher ColumbusThe Great Admiral
With the name and deeds of Christopher Columbus you are already familiar. You will be interested in a brief sketch of the main facts of his life; some day, it is hoped, you will read the story as told at length by our great American author, Washington Irving.
Careful research has not been able to ascertain the exact year of Christopher Columbus’s birth. It was sometime about the middle of the fifteenth century, probably 1445 or 1446. His father was a wool-comberwho lived in a village near the great Italian city of Genoa. Genoa was a rich commercial city,—the rival of Venice, as you learned in the story of Marco Polo.
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS
Probably Columbus often visited Genoa in boyhood; he early showed his inclination for a seafaring life and became a sailor when he was about fifteen. Seafaring then was very different from what it is now. People knew little of the world beyond Europe, western Asia, and northern Africa. Sailors were beginning to use the mariner’s compass, but old habits were still strong, and they did not often venture far from land. This was not only because they feared that they would lose their way and be unable to return home. They thought that around the known land and sea circled the Sea of Darkness, full of raging monsters and dangerous whirlpools. For centuries some geographers had reasoned that the world was round, but they never went to see if this were true. The majority of people believed that the earth was flat like a floor. Probably that was what Columbus believed in his youth.
We have little record of his early years. “Wherever ship has sailed,†he wrote later, “there have I journeyed.â€
When he was about twenty-five years old, he married and settled in Lisbon. There he supported himself and his family by making the maps and charts, so necessary to sailors. He seems to have spent his leisure reading books of geography and travels, studying oldpapers and charts, and talking with seamen. One of his favorite books was the story of the old Venetian traveler, Polo; as Columbus read about the vast and wealthy country of Cathay and the island of Cipango with its houses roofed with gold, he longed to visit them.
As he pondered the matter, he became convinced that these eastern lands could be reached by sailing west. Old geographers described the earth as a sphere. Columbus was convinced that this was true. It never occurred to him that any land unknown to him lay between Europe and Asia. He thought that the earth was much smaller than it really is and that Asia was much larger. He believed that the sea which Marco Polo described as east of Asia extended eastward to the shores of western Europe. He thought it was about twenty-five hundred or three thousand miles from Spain to China. This was a great mistake. But Columbus was much nearer the truth than most men of the day—who thought the world flat with an edge over which there was danger of falling. And, unlike the old geographers, Columbus resolved to sail westward to prove the truth of his theory.
There was living in Florence at this time a learned old man, a scholar and student, named Toscanelli, who had said he believed that India could be reached by sailing west. Columbus wrote to this scholar in 1474, telling of his intention to attempt the voyage. Toscanellisent him a chart which unfortunately has been lost and wrote, “I praise your desire to navigate toward the west; the expedition you wish to undertake is not easy, but the route from the west coast of Europe to the Spice Indies is certain, if the tracks I have marked be followed.â€
Three years later Columbus made a voyage to Iceland. It has been suggested that he went there because he had heard sailors’ tales of the news carried to Rome by Gudrid of “Vinland the Goodâ€â€”the western land discovered by Leif the Lucky. It is said that in Iceland Columbus met a learned bishop with whom he conversed in Latin about Greenland and Vinland. But these northern lands were not the ones sought by Columbus. He wanted to reach the southern coast, to visit the Cathay and Cipango of Marco Polo.
Soon after his return from Iceland, it is said that Columbus applied to his native city, Genoa, to fit out an expedition for a voyage of discovery. Meeting refusal there and at Venice, he turned to Portugal. The king of Portugal was not averse to undertaking the expedition but was unwilling to give Columbus the rank and rewards he demanded in case of success. The king secretly sent out an expedition to follow the route indicated by Columbus. But the faint-hearted captain returned after a brief cruise, saying he had seen no signs of land.
Indignant at this bad faith, Columbus took his littleson Diego and set out in 1484 to present his project to the Spanish sovereigns. His brother Bartolomeo had gone to plead his cause with the king of England. Columbus reached Spain at an unfavorable time. King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella were engaged in a war against the Moors, which occupied their time and emptied their treasury. However, the matter was laid before a council of scholars who decided that the plan was vain and impracticable.
Seven years Columbus attended the Spanish court, hoping against hope that a decision would be made in his favor. Weary and disappointed, he at last turned away, in 1491, to lay his project before Charles VIII., King of France.
Footsore and dejected, he stopped one evening with his son Diego at the convent of La Rabida to beg a night’s lodging. There he told the prior about the plan on which his heart was set,—his longing to add the rich domains which he was certain lay to the west, to the kingdom of Spain, his desire to win the great Khan and his subjects to the Christian faith and extend the power of the Church. This ambition appealed to the devout prior. At midnight he mounted his mule and rode to the camp to see the queen and persuade her to give Columbus an interview. He was successful and Columbus returned to plead his own cause with the king and queen. The king regarded the project coldlyand reminded the queen that war had emptied the royal treasury.
“I undertake the enterprise for my own crown of Castile,†exclaimed Isabella, “and will pledge my jewels to raise the necessary funds.â€
Columbus was granted the rank and title of admiral over all lands he might discover and was promised one-tenth of all gold, gems, spices, and other merchandise from these lands. Leaving his son Diego as page to the young Prince John, Columbus set to work to fit out the expedition. It was difficult to secure seamen to venture on the unknown ocean. At last the required number was secured; some were forced into service, some taken from jails, some won by bounties in advance and promises of rewards later.
On Friday, August 3, 1492, Columbus set sail from the port of Palos, Spain, with three little vessels. The Santa Maria was a decked ship, ninety feet long, carrying sixty-six men; the Nina and the Pinta, smaller than the Santa Maria, were boat-like vessels, carrying each about twenty-five men. Columbus had a letter from the King of Spain to the great Khan whose realm, Cathay, he expected to reach.
You have read the story of that wonderful voyage to seek an Old World which ended in the finding of a New. You can in fancy follow the course of Columbus day after day—his struggles with his timorous, ignorant,greedy, turbulent, mutinous crew,—his iron will, and determination to “sail on and on.†Day after day he set his will and courage against their stubborn fears. Like children, the sailors rejoiced at every good sign—birds, reeds, and boughs floating on the waters; and were depressed by every evil omen—calms and contrary winds.
At last one night there was seen the flickering light of a torch, and the next morning revealed the fair shore of a wooded island. As we shut our eyes, we can almost see the Spaniards landing on that October morning. Columbus, richly dressed in scarlet, went ashore, fell upon his knees, kissed the earth, and gave thanks to God. Then, drawing his sword and unfurling the royal banner, he took possession of the land in the name of the king and queen of Spain.
Eyeing the strangers were the natives,—naked, with straight, black hair, and swarthy skins daubed with paint. Columbus, who thought he had reached India, called these people Indians, the name they retain to this day. The island, which he called San Salvador, was one of the Bahamas. In search of gold, Columbus cruised about, touching one island after another, Cuba, Haiti, and others of the West Indies. These he thought were the “thousands of islands rich in spices†which Marco Polo said dotted the sea around Cipango. Cuba, Columbus at first thought was Cipango itself, but afterwards he concluded that it was the mainland of India.Out of the timbers of the Santa Maria, which was wrecked, a fort was built on Haiti, and here thirty-nine sailors were left.
From Haiti, Columbus set sail for Spain, and he reached the port of Palos on the fifteenth of March, 1493. Now indeed, his good fortune was at its height. He was received with almost royal honors. He was bidden to sit in the presence of the king and queen—an unheard-of honor in that formal court—while he described his voyage and displayed the plants and birds and natives he had brought back. Nothing, so thought he and his sovereigns, remained but to take possession of the spices, gems, and gold described by Marco Polo.
Another expedition was planned. Instead of having to seek adventures and criminals to fit out a crew, he had but to choose among the gentlemen and nobles who contended for the privilege of accompanying him. A fleet of seventeen ships and fifteen hundred men was fitted out. With this Columbus sailed away from Cadiz, September 25, 1493. The good fortune for which he had had to wait so many weary years did not long abide with him, and ere this voyage was over it had taken its flight. The colony established on Haiti had by cruelty provoked the Indians and had been destroyed. On this second voyage new islands were discovered,—Jamaica, Porto Rico, and others,—a second colony was established, and one exploring expedition after another was sent out in search of gold, of whichsmall quantities were found. The turbulent, disappointed adventurers quarreled with Columbus, and his enemies at home were active against him. He landed at Cadiz, June 11, 1496, and laid his case before his sovereigns.
He was restored to royal favor, but it was two years before he could get another expedition fitted out, and then, May 30, 1498, only six vessels set sail. This time Columbus followed a southernly course and reached the mainland of South America, which was visited about this time by Amerigo Vespucci, a Florentine, who wrote an account of his voyage. Later, a German geographer spoke of it as “Americi terra,†land discovered by Americus, and so the land came to be called America.
Columbus at first thought that he had reached another island; afterwards he decided that this was the coast of Asia and that the Orinoco was a river in the Garden of Eden. Making his way to the Indies, Columbus found the colony at Santo Domingo in disorder but unwilling to submit to his authority. Each side appealed to Spain, and Bobadilla was sent out to investigate and settle the matter. He listened to but one side—that against Columbus. With harshness uncalled-for, had he been guilty of the charges brought against him, Columbus was sent to Spain, a prisoner, and in chains. The officers of the ship would have removed his fetters, but he proudly forbade, saying thatthey had been put upon him by the agent of the king and queen and so by their authority.
“I will wear them until my sovereigns order them to be taken off, and I will preserve them afterwards as relics and memorials of the reward of my services,†he said.
This he did. His son Fernando “saw them always hanging in his cabinet, and he requested that when he died they might be buried with him.†The sight, the thought, of the great admiral brought in chains from the lands he had discovered turned all hearts to him with indignant pity. The queen, it is said, was moved to tears. Rewards and satisfaction were promised Columbus, and Bobadilla was deposed.
Another voyage Columbus was to make,—his fourth and last,—in search of a strait or passage by which he might reach Portuguese Asia. On May 9, 1502, he set sail with four ships and one hundred and fifty men. It was a voyage of “horror, peril, sickness, and starvation.†Columbus sailed along the Gulf of Mexico, coming pitifully near lands as rich in gold as the eastern ones which he sought. He missed them and found only savage tribes with a few rings and chains of gold. The story of these months is a sad one of famine, hardship, disease, tempest, mutiny, and quarrels with the natives. It was told in after years by Columbus’s brave young son Fernando, who accompanied him on this voyage.At last the admiral turned homeward and reached Seville in the autumn of 1504. While he lay ill, soon after his return, he received the sad news of the death of his good friend, Queen Isabella.
In vain during the months and years which followed did the admiral strive to win justice from the king. Old and worn out, he had, as he said, “no place to repair to except an inn, and often with nothing to pay for sustenance.†He died, May 20, 1506, thinking to the last that the land which he had discovered was a part of the Old World. The voyages of the great admiral did not end with his life. His body was moved from one tomb to another in Spain, then was carried to the Cathedral in Santo Domingo and, in 1796, to the Cathedral of Havana.
Seven years after his death, king Ferdinand erected in his honor a marble tomb, bearing this inscription, “To Castile and Leon Colon gave a new world.†But the New World slipped from the grasp of the Spaniards, unable to hold the rich prize. Other nations of Europe claimed and sought to share it, but the brave and hardy English overcame one after another of their rivals and established here the colonies which grew into our mighty commonwealth. The land which Columbus discovered is a nation richer and greater than the Cathay of which he dreamed.